Experimental Endeavors

Anyone watch 2 Broke Girls on CBS?

Well, in the episode pictured above, Max tells Caroline that she needs cake mixes to make her cupcakes and her "secret ingredient" is mixing a spoon full of Pillsbury cake mix into Duncan Hines Cake Mix!

That got me thinking a little harder about my hobby of cupcake decorating. The majority of the time, I had been getting cake mixes from my mom from a surplus of them at her work. I had been using them and then creating all my elaborate creations on top of them. But this episode really started the wheels turning - that I need to find a "scratch" recipe to call my own to try, make, tweak and be totally mine. I had made a few attempts at making my own, but I wasn't too focused on that part (very shameful, I know).

Today I made another attempt at creating my own yellow cake cupcake, and I do have to say, I am almost 100% a fan. Let's face it, if it were 100% the first try, it wouldn't be called baking - it would be called perfection, or something...

I thought I might try another kind tomorrow, but this batch made a TON more than what I thought it would make - I need to work on dialing that back somewhat, and getting it to my idea of perfection. 

I told Derick about my cupcake tasting party idea and he suggested we have it in conjunction with our Superbowl Party this year...

Basically, I would take a crack at baking/making about 5-6 different cupcake flavors, giving each person who comes to the party who wants to participate a plate with one of each kind of cupcake flavor on it with toothpicks with numbers on them. I would have them take a bite of each one and write what they think on a piece of paper next to that number. I would then ask them to choose an overall favorite, and an overall similar type favorite. For example, if there were three white cake recipes and two chocolate cake recipes that I tried, I would have them choose a top white cake and a top chocolate cake from the choices in order to better narrow down which recipe my "test group" likes the best. 

Anyone interested in eating a lot of cupcakes in about a month? Anyone? Bueller?

-LD

Bus Happenings: A List

I tweeted the other day about making a list of things that I am anticipating will happen at some point during the duration of time I spend on public transportation. Here is the list:

1. Get asked what time it is
2. Get thrown-up on
3. Get sneezed on
4. Get sat on
5. Get used as a pillow by a sleeping seat-mate
6. Get asked to borrow my phone
7. Be asked to change/move seats
8. Be a witness to a bus/car accident
9. Be on a bus that hits another vehicle or building
10. Miss my stop
11. Fall asleep on the bus

Of that list, the following crossed out items have already happened to me:

1. Get asked what time it is
2. Get thrown-up on
3. Get sneezed on
4. Get sat on
5. Get used as a pillow by a sleeping seat-mate
6. Get asked to borrow my phone
7. Be asked to change/move seats
8. Be a witness to a bus/car accident
9. Be on a bus that hits another vehicle or building
10. Miss my stop
11. Fall asleep on the bus

It really is only a matter of time before they all probably end up happening to me. Two of those things actually happened to me today on the way home from work - the same person too. One guy who was traveling with his 2-year old son asked me what time it was. I told him. He made some comments about how he was going to be late, and he wished his little boy hadn't left his cell phone at home. He then asked me a little while later if he could borrow my phone to call his ride that was supposed to pick him up from the bus stop. I thought about it a minute, and I felt a little uneasy about it, but I asked him what the number was, dialed it in, and handed him my phone. It was my really good Samaritan deed for the day. I figured the chances with him running off with my phone were pretty slim since he had a little kid - who was sleeping on him. He gave it back to me after the person he was calling did not pick up. I put my phone back in my pocket. A couple of minutes later it was ringing in my pocket. I took it out, looked at it, asked the man if the last four numbers were the ones he had dialed. He said yes, I handed him the phone, he talked for a few minutes and then handed the phone back to me. 

My other good deed, was arranging my co-worker's birthday lunch and making her cupcakes last night to bring in today - on the bus. It actually went a lot better than I thought it would. They were going to be kitty cat cupcakes, but they turned out looking like pretty bad kitties, so with a thought from Derick and something I had been considering, I whipped together a new plan. They came out looking like Cream puffs! I might just have to call them Cream Puff Cupcakes! They WERE vanilla cream-filled in the middle after all!

Sweet Dreams!

-LD

Book Report: Sarah's Key

Yesterday on the bus ride home, I finished my latest book. I received the book at Christmas from my parents and was really excited to get started reading it. 


The book is Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.

The brief summary of the book is 
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life. 


The book really made me want to keep turning the pages. 'just one more page, just one more chapter,' I kept egging myself on to find out what happened next. The author does a really decent job of weaving in the old story and the new story, although I felt she left the little girl's story somewhat unfinished. It would have been a little more complete, in my eyes, if she would have given Sarah's story one more chapter before finishing off the book in the present day perspective. 


The author has written two more books: A Secret Kept and The House I Loved (not out until Feb 14, 2012). I want to get my hands on A Secret Kept to see if that one is just as good as this one. I need to be careful though, that I don't get sucked into reading the same type of story line book after book just because I think I like the author. I made that mistake with Nicholas Sparks. I  understand the theory about "writing what you know," but when EVERY SINGLE book he writes is in the SAME place, has just about the SAME characters, it gets old. Nevertheless, I have just about all of his books...if anyone's interested. 


Now the choice of what to read next. I have two big options, a Marilyn Monroe book Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by Randy Taraborrelli or the Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. That will be a tough decision! All I know is, that I need to choose one of these and get it read by mid February, when a couple of books I have been waiting for come out in stores! 


Happy Reading,
LD