big bang

I LIT-relly can not stop watching this show right now.

P.S. I just found out that Jim Parsons is gay IRL. is it weird that I had a teensy crush on him? sad day.

chocolate cupcakes with berry buttercream frosting

everytime I make cupcakes, I swear I will never do it again, and then I get a hankering to bake something and BAM I’m standing in the kitchen for 4.5 hours with those little buggers. I can def see why most people prefer to make their baked goods from a box.  I made these for a Christmas party and think they turned out pretty danged delicious. Got the recipe hizzle!

cupcakes (different recipe than the ones I made back here, although, truf time, i think those ones were better)

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1 3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water

1.       Sift all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla and beat with a fork (or mixer) till smooth.  Add the boiling water and stir/mix until it’s homogenous. If you don’t know when that is, go back to freshman biology. 

2.       Line your cupcake pan with those little paper things and ladle the mixture until the cups are 2/3 full. Bake on 350 for 20-25 minutes. When a toothpick comes out of the center clean, take out of oven and let sit for 2 minutes.  Take the cupcakes out of the pan and let them cool on a cooling rack.

frosting

1/3 cup butter, room temp

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsb of jam (I’m lucky enough that my gma makes it homemade, but any jam/jelly will work)

1.       Put the butter in a bowl and beat with a mixer until smooth. Slowly add the sugar. Tip: no matter how slowly you do this, it’s gonna be obnoxiously messy. I would just do it in two parts and beat for a couple seconds to mix.

2.       Add milk, vanilla, and jam. Beat until smooth.

3.       Gently smooth onto cupcakes with a rubber spatuala.

4.       Voila!

all the single ladies

Stole this from a post on Alligator Sunglasses.  1938 Guide for single women.

Don't chew gum, sit awkwardly, or be affectionate. It's looking like many years of cats and Lifetime movies for me. ahaha.

run-around

sorry for the quality. cell phone picture.

I am a professional runner now.

Not really, but I did run my first ever officialized-type race (5k) this weekend.

We (chiss &I) hadn’t trained much due to house fires (on her part) and laziness (on mine).  I waited in line for an hour on Friday to pick up our packets where I got peppered by well meaning and terrifying questions from a sweet middle-aged man about my target time and the length of my training regime.

After realizing how inadequately prepared I was for running this, I got up at a ridiculously early hour, moseyed on down to the Y, and learned  professional runners lesson#1.

Only noobs wear their race t-shirt on the actual day of the race. Oh dear! Apparently this is the equivalent of calling someone right after a date or writing on your own facebook wall. 

We had to wait for almost 2 hours, since everything had been delayed.  In the meantime, I learned lesson #2, Don’t ever expect to use the bathroom that morning. There were 2000 people registered for the 5k alone and probably 2000 more for the half-marathon, so waiting for a 2 stall women’s bathroom took forevvvvvvvvver.  

FINALLY, we get running and, thank you Lord, my ipod decided to bypass all my sad, sleepy indie music and go straight to the most awesomest running songs it had at its disposal. During mile 3, “Don’t Stop Believing” came on and I spent the rest of the race envisioning all of us singing it together, Glee style, while we ran.

This brings me to lesson #3, adrenaline makes up (a little!) for lack of training. I hadn’t run more than 2 miles since August, but I ran the whole race and had energy to spare. All the excitement in the air (and all those girls looking fit in their spandex tights) really inspires you to keep going.  I kept imagining that the people on the sidelines were cheering for me.

Anyway, after crossing the finish line, I unearthed #4. Running races is addicting. By nightfall I was already looking for a 10k to run with my awesomely hardcore friend, JP. 

Another benefit: I felt ridiculously productive running 3 miles, eating breakfast, showering, and being on the road to visit my cuz by noon.  Yikes!

yo

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guy on a buffalo

This is what we did at staff meeting today. I'm warning you, this song will be stuck in your head forEVER. This is part 4 of the series, but all you really need to know is that the guy rides a buffalo.

"Hey dead guy, I done told you not to mess with a guy riding a buffalo."

coconut shrimp with tangydeliciousness sauce

Found this at a cozy kitchen and tweaked it to incorporate more ingredients that already reside in my pantry. The smell of the coconut kind of gave me flashbacks to my unsatisfactory experiences with coconut oil (read that thrilling drama here and here),  but I quickly recovered.

Whatchoo need....

18 ish shrimps, cleaned.peeled.deveined

.75 cups of flour

2 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp chili or cayenne pepper powder
1 beaten egg
.75 cup of shredded coconut (i used sweetened, cause that's what they had at the dollar store and, well, it was a dollar)
2 tbs of Panko breadcrumbs (i happened to have Panko breadcrumbs, but i'm pretty sure regular bcs would work too)
s+p to taste


if you wanna make the sauce...
2 tbs honey
splash oj
splash soy sauce

1. preheat oven to 450. line baking sheet with parchment paper. i used wax paper and cooking spray, because i'm not a chef and don't carry parchment paper in my pantry, but the little shrimps STILL STUCK.   so, i would recommend getting parment paper OR maybe using crisco.
2. mix flour, garlic powder, and chili powder in shallow bowl. also mix breadcrumbs and coconut in another shallow bowl.
3. sprinkle a little s+p on your shrimps. then dredge them in the flour mix, coat them with egg, and roll them in the coconut mix. then line them up on your pan. see figure 2.
4. bake for 15-20 minutos.  while baking, mix all the ingredients for the sauce together in a ramekin.
5. enjoy with rice/beans/wine.