I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

Nicole

The Facts of Life

You take the good, you take the bad,
you take them both and there you have
The Facts of Life, the Facts of Life.

That theme song perfectly described my day yesterday…

Good- wake up early to do homework.

Bad- I suddenly realize that I left my chicken soup out of the counter at work. The story behind this is that it was still completely frozen at lunch on Tuesday even though I put it in the fridge on Monday to defrost. Planning on taking it out for a few hours would help it thaw so I could have lunch on Wednesday. However I realized I never put it away.

Bad- I wanted to toast bagels for Price and myself. Our toaster oven has a mind of its own so it can either take a long time 1 day or go quickly the next. The smoke detector going off before 8am is a sign that 1) it toasted quickly yesterday 2) I burned the bagels. But I ate it anyway, yep I did. Burned bagels are awful.

Bad- Get to work. Fears confirmed that my soup is ruined. Throw out a big container- like 3 lunches- of soup.

Good- I’m getting faster at doing Photoshop. I really struggle with it so things seem to be looking up. I love learning new things and pressure but I was hating on Photoshop yesterday.

Bad- Right before leaving for class I hear people discussing the meeting tomorrow, the meeting all this struggling in Photoshop is for. Although the client accepted the invite for 4pm they can’t do it then. I have to leave for class before finding out the new time.

Good- although I had to ‘listen’ to my crazy teacher for an hour and a half I enjoyed class because 1) I got to read magazines in class. 2) Today for some reason he mentioned space shuttles and the technological faults behind them (Challenger and Columbia), except he was wrong and someone told him that. That does not seem like a big deal but no one speaks in class, well we just mumble to ourselves when he says things like “WWII demolished Japan” and “You know what I’m trying to say…” 200 times a class.

Good/Bad- My boss emails me that the meeting is now at 10am. FML. Sooo glad to know so I can get in early but damn that’s a big loss of prep time!

Good- Get home- vent to Pricer about my day and go through the mail…. Christmas/birthday presents I ordered arrive, check from my dad, and Liz Kartchner’s new book!

Aretha Franklin performs at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in New York December 2, 2009.

Good- While doing homework I watched the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center and then Glee. (Aretha Franklin needs a new stylist)

Bad- Go to bed way too early at 11.30 but I decided that I needed to survive the day getting up at 5 and not having a meltdown because of Photoshop and Revit. Now need to stay up even later on Thursday and just about everyday until the final review.

I think that is crap, stress, and mood swings lead to my dream of being held hostage by Kirk Cameron. Yep, Growing Pains’ Kirk Cameron.  So here goes…. for some reason I am being held hostage. He is the guard for this operation. He tells me that he really does not want to see anything bad happen to me, since he is a Christian. Things even get to the point that he tells me he is willing to let me go if I agree in Creationism. I really want to go but I can’t agree. So I beat him with his crocoduck poster (seen above) and escape.

 Let’s see what today brings.

Pass- Scrapbooking Page

I have slowly been catching up on scrapbooking. Like photos that are 2-3 years old. They have been hanging out in a folder just waiting for some love and attention. The problem is lack of time and that I keep adding more pictures to this folder so things keep getting shuffled around. Well, I have been taking some time to get organized- but then it all went to hell- and do some quick scrapbooking. Like 15 minute pages.

This page is from January 2007! I took this picture of Price to commemorate his passing grade on his Segment 1 portfolio. ( Our school requires 2 portfolios of work to date to be submitted before being able to move on. Portfolio, like everything else at out school, sucks the life out of you. Plus, it is subjective and list of people who fail on their first attempt is quiet impressive. ah hem, we both failed the first submission. Mine stung even more because I took a portfolio class right before submitting. Super….) Well we went to school on the night of studio registration to find out if he passed or not, and then register for classes. After receiving the good news we went out to a bar to celebrate.

Solid paper, adhesive, chipboard, ink, and corner rounder punch are from Stampin’ Up!, patterned letters are from Martha Stewart, date stamp is from 7 gyspies, and patterned papers are unknown.

This is the current state of chaos out office is in. ALL MY FAULT! ALL MY CRAP! Thankfully Price is the most amazing boyfriend in the world and lets it get this bad without killing me. I promise it will be clean by Christmas!

The weather outside is….

As I was out shopping today I kept thinking about the song “Let it Snow”. As I ran around from the Christmas Tree Shop, Costco, and Micheal’s I was excited and horrified about the weather. I know the average is 47 for 11.29 but today seemed sooo hot in the mid 50’s. Yes, we have had snow, but it just does not seem like Christmas yet. It might be my mindset since I am all wrapped up in school since I’m done on the 17th (news flash my teacher moved the final review up!) but it does not seem like the year is winding down.

So with our Christmas tree in our apartment and our door open to cool the place off we got to work on decorating. No, I was not wasting energy with the door open. We had turned the heat way down and it was still 72 in the apartment- 12″ of concrete does insulate well. So we propped open the door to cool off. 

Price and I quickly got to work on the tree getting the lights on and then the ornaments. Most of I love to see them all and see the ones we have gotten together over the years- like the personalized ones my mom got us in 2007 and the poker cards she got price last year. I have my favorites like the ballerina frog, rabbit ornament, moose  from maine, and the sugar-plum fairy @ my mom’s house. I never noticed until this year when Pricer asked where the tree topper was that we don’t have one… I’ll have to get to work on that.

Last year the rabbits were much more interested in the tree. We had to keep an eye out for them at all times since we did not want them to eat the lights or the ornaments. You never really know with them since Jack likes to chew on the metal bookcase. I had to plop Jack down at the tree and even then there was lots of begging to stay there while I took a picture.

 Bunny, as usual was worse, I had to get out the bag of raisins to get her to participate in a picture. Even then it was a failed attempt and she ran off quickly. No, that is not poo in the picture, the is the raisins I spilled as I tired to sit down with her, the raisins, and camera.

She quickly ran behind the tree to hide. And just as quickly she ran away…

 

Moosh and Moosha

So I have a thing with nicknames.

I go by Nicole or Nic, and it has to be spelled that way. I won’t respond if people call me Nicki. There once was a time that someone introduced me to a group of people as Nicki and it made my heart stop since I now had a bunch of people calling me Nicki and with every time I heard it I would shudder. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t care if anyone else goes by Nicki. It’s just not me, it does not fit me.

Anyway, Price and I have a bunch of nicknames for each other.  Things range from Goose, Squishy* or Squish, to Moosh(a). 

*So I have never seen Finding Nemo in its entirety but I think this clip is funny and that is why Squish is a nickname I call Price.

“I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy. Come on, Squishy Come on, little Squishy.”

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This being fall and being in the mist of the Great Pumpkin Shortage of 2009, I had to grab as much canned pumpkin as I could to be prepared of anything to come my way. What’s a person to do with like 8 cans of pumpkin, and quite a few of squash bought in a fit of hysteria? Make Pumpkin Cake, of course! All of this worked out perfectly for the monthly cakes I make for our staff meetings to celebrate the birthdays. Unfortunately, I had to combine Oct and Nov since I was too busy with hw the night before the Oct staff meeting.

I found a recipe online but it called for an insane amount of eggs and oil so I figured I could find something a bit less artery clogging and keep searching. I went for my Fearless Baking cookbook by Elinor Klivans and found a recipe called Pumpkin Cake with Brown Sugar Icing. This recipe seemed normal with 2 eggs so I decided to move on from there. I would have made the recipe as is except I did not have whipping cream for the icing since I had anticipated a cream cheese frosting from the start. I think I’ll give this another go and make it with the brown sugar icing since the cake came out so well with a light texture, perfect flavor, and a nice hint of ginger.

Yes, this is true. I don’t really eat the cakes I make. I’m a savory person who would rather eat chips/pretzels/tortilla chips than cake/cookie/ice cream/fudge/etc. I can’t buy goldfish crackers or cheez its… cheese and salt, damn you being my two favorite things! Honest I tried a piece of the cake that I trimmed off to sqaure them off that square inch was enough for me.

I made 3 batches of this cake that I divided among 2 pans. I had two 9×11 pans but 1 was ‘borrowed’, so I used the 9×11 and a 11×13 that I have. I just had to keep an eye on the baking times. Instead of using 1 cup canned pumpkin I just used the whole can. This might have prevented the cake from rising as much but it resulted in a very flavorful and moist cake.

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

9-in square baking pan or 11×17 inch baking pan, both with 2 inch sides
 
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 can pumpkin
 1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup canola or corn oil
2 large eggs
3/4 cup pecan halves (optional) 
 
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line pan bottoms with parchment paper, and butter or oil the sides and bottom.

Sift together the dry ingredients (except sugar), set aside.

Combine the canned pumpkin, sugar and oil in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer/stand mixer until smooth, about 1 minute.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated.

Once the mixture looks smooth and shiny begin to add the dry ingredients in batches.

Pour batter into pan, layer pecan halves into batter. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick is inserted in the center is clean when removed. Let cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to continue cooling.

The frosting is made by creaming the butter and cream cheese together with an electric/stand mixture. Sift the powdered sugar and slowly combine into the butter mixture. Lastly add the vanilla and beat until smooth.

Apply the frosting once the cake has completely cooled. When transporting layer cakes place dowels or toothpicks into the cake to prevent the layers from sliding apart.

dad visits-scrapbook page

When my dad was visting last weekend, I took a picture with of my dad using my Fuji Instax Camera. Of course we made fun of that monster but all kidding aside we loved getting to see that picture right then.

I used Stampin’ Up! Patterned and Solid Papers, embelishments, and foam dots. The title was created with the Street Sign Cricut Cartridge. Stamped ‘DAD’ was from 7gypsies.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Frosting

I had never had a whoopie pie before (I don’t count that gross package one I tired-yuk) until I made them this weekend with Pricer. I really did not see the appeal in them since they are like a cake sandwich. Can’t you just make a cupcake? Well, I’m still not sure what the big difference is between whoopie pies and cake and cupcakes so I’ll just go with it. You can read about Whoopie Pies here.

I was attracted to making whoopie pies because it was something new to me and I knew I could do pumpkin ones so they would go with the season.  I found a good recipe on Martha Stewart that was from Baked Bakery in NYC. I love the pumpkin cream cheese muffins they have at Starbucks so I was excited to see the recipe has a cream cheese frosting.

Price helped me make them (see below!) so it made the process even more fun. It was a simple recipe with a good result. Our whoopie pies are not smooth like the ones pictured so I’ll have to figure that out next time. I would think it would have to how much it was whisked but Price did that really well for a while so it might be the overall density, or the humidity, or our convection oven. They could have been more pumpkin-y for me- maybe I could try some pumpkin pie spice to replace the spices in here, or add more ginger (I love ginger). The recipe said that we would have 12 whoopie pies but our ice cream scoop was much smaller than the one suggested so we ended up with about 25. At least I don’t feel so guilty having one since they are like 3 bites. I made them on Saturday night so they were still really fresh when my dad came up on Sunday and I was able to give him some. 🙂

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Frosting

FOR THE PUMPKIN WHOOPIE COOKIES
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cloves
2 cups firmly packed dark-brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups pumpkin puree, chilled
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
FOR THE CREAM-CHEESE FILLING
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
 

Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and oil until well combined. Add pumpkin puree and whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.

Using a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism, drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cookie comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on pan.

Make the filling: Sift confectioner’ sugar into a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth. Add cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla, beat just until smooth. (Filling can be made up to a day in advance. Cover and refrigerate; let stand at room temperature to soften before using.)

Assemble the whoopie pies: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Transfer filling to a disposable pastry bag and snip the end. When cookies have cooled completely, pipe a large dollop of filling on the flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, pressing down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edge of the cookies. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate cookies at least 30 minutes before serving and up to 3 days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday Winter Cooking Extravaganza

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yes the shelf is bowing a bit…

So I went back in time and became a 50’s house wife this weekend. I planned on cooking a lot this weekend but it got a bit crazy. Our freezer and fridge are packed. What started off as some meal planning became a double batch of chicken soup, marinara and meatballs, orange chicken, beef stew, pumpkin whoopie pies, and then making chinese food with my dad. Oh yeah, I snuck in cooking plantains in there.

Saturday was about sleeping in, get some Vietnamese food with Pricer, getting supplies for our models, food shopping and then “SuperFantasticSaturdayWinterCookingExtravaganza !!!” (per Emily). Our poor stove top, slow cooker, oven, and dishwasher got quite the workout this weekend.

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All of this deliciousness is packed into our freezer and fridge. (confession…. we already have a turkey in our freezer but they had huge ones on some crazy sale for 47 cents a pound and I wasthisclose to getting one but did not know how I could justify (to price) 2 turkeys and no room) Price helped me along the way but it was still so sweet that he said ‘thanks for making dinner for the next month.’ ha! I really like when we cook together. 

Now I just hope we don’t lose power/fridge magically breaks or I am bringing all this into work and/or invading Emily’s fridge and freezer (you’ve been warned)

 Recipes to follow

A rabbit’s dream come true

While I was out getting veggies at the local asian market for our rabbits last night I saw this GIANT carrot. I almost got it figuring it would last for several days but honestly it was quite scary. It had to weigh well over a pound!

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Not sure it was engineered to be that big or it is a natural carrot variety but I did not want to risk giving my rabbits some nuclear carrot. I thought I would ask about it but when I first asked them for fresh or bottled yuzu and really confused them I figured that I would not have luck with this either. (Note: yuzu is a citrus native to China and Japan that I read about on White on Rice Couple).

So while I often struggle to communicate with the people who work there I get some good deals on veggies. I’ll keep looking into this carrot and hopefully I’ll find some yuzu.

New Holiday Cards

hippobirdie card

Last night I went to a class for card making hosted by a Brookline Scrapbooking Meetup Group member. We had a great time making the cards and eating on the bread that she had from her classes. (Keep up the good work Danielle!) So between chowing down on breads and sipping cider we made 5 cards using A Muse stamps and products.

girl with sled

I learned so much from this class. I learned about Quickie Glue Pen that I just have to get! Plus it was great to meet other scarpbookers/card makers to discuss products and ideas. For example, we discussed how we love the Crop-a-dile but do not like the Big Bite Crop-a-dile since it is hard to handle.

leaf card

truck card

Lizzie was a great teacher since she worked with everyone’s pace and clearly explained all the different steps to each card. All this has inspired to me to make some holiday cards. I have already gone through my stamps and decided I will use an old Stampin’ Up! set that I love. It is of these really cute hedgehogs  that are wearing scarves, ice skating, and  holding candycanes. Hopefully I can get them done (doubtful) so I can send them out so spread some holiday cheer.

wreath card

Vanilla Extract

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I made my first batch of vanilla extract this spring and I’m hooked. I can taste the difference between homemade compared to store-bought. It tastes so much fresher and I love how I can add vanilla seeds to my recipes once I give the extract a good mix. I really love seeing specs of vanilla in whipped cream.

I decided to make more vanilla extract to give as Christmas gifts. Vanilla extract takes about 2 months before it is ready to use to if you want to give it out as gifts start asap. I started my extract on 10/17 so I will have plenty of time to get it all ready for Christmas. If I did not do it then I would have forgotten about it and then I would be out of luck to give the extract as gifts.

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When I made my first batch this past spring I used rum since I had it on hand at that point. I think that the extract was good but the rum was quite strong for an extract. I used vodka this time since vodka has no scent, which I like because it won’t compete with the scent of the vanilla.

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I suggest that when you purchase your vanilla beans you use Madagascar vanilla beans because they have a smooth flavor which translates well for extract. They are also known as Bourbon vanilla beans because the French first planted the orchid vines on Isle de Bourbon.  Mexican vanilla beans might have the flavor but some manufactures add coumarin, which is banned by the FDA because it can cause liver and kidney damage.  If you decide to use Mexican vanilla beans or products please use a reputable manufacture. While Tahitian vanilla beans can be used for extract they are not as flavorful compared to other varieties. They are more aromatic, so they are better for scent applications as opposed to baking.

I have purchased my beans from Vanilla Products, a store on ebay. I like how they are a high rated seller and offer different types and quantities of vanilla.

Don’t forget to get a good vodka/rum! You cant have a good vanilla and a crap vodka and  expect great results.

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Vanilla extract- about 3 weeks

Vanilla Extract

8oz of vodka or light rum
3 vanilla beans
 

Pour 8oz of liquor into a glass container.  Split and open the vanilla beans. You can scrape the beans to loosen the seeds. Place vanilla beans into the liquor. Store in a cool dark place for 2 months.

*I purchased these glass containers from the Container Store.