Birthday Baking Fortnight

For the next two weeks someone I know has a birthday. Every. Day. Plus throw Easter and Passover in there and I got A LOT of baking to do.

My schedule is as follows:

Friday: Make cake batter truffles for my roomies bday part, refrigerate till party on Saturday.

Saturday: Make chocolate chip cookies and olive tapenade for party. Be sure not to mix up the two.

Sunday: Bake Guinness cupcakes for friend Danny's birthday to deliver Monday.

Tuesday: Bake TBD cupcakes for friend Anthony's birthday (thinking carrot cake...)

Wednesday: Bake chocolate caramel cupcakes for office bday party celebrating all April birthdays.

Thursday: Bake flourless chocolate cookies for Passover.

Saturday: Bake candy corn cookies with Easter colored candy corn.

Following week: Bake thank you still-to-be-requested treats for my landlord, try lemon egg cake thing, help mom with Baklava and Easter Bread for Greek Easter, search for chocolate dipped macaroon recipes per request... possibly bake said macaroons, probably not till the following week though.


Phew. Here we go!

The World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

First off, thank you everybody for all the wonderful emails I've been receiving regarding my blog. Good to know you're all reading and enjoying my adventures. Thank you thank you! :)

I see a lot of recipes out there titled "Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever". Oh really now? How are all these different cookies and recipes all the best? I guess I'll just have to take one for the team and start researching. I bring you The-Worlds-Best-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie Research project.

Cookie #1:  This recipe included a story about how these cookies were so awesome that they would induce a marriage proposal, so naturally I was intrigued to start here.

Nothing smells better than brown sugar

I just lied to you. Nothing smells better than brown sugar in melting butter...

Basically these cookies were pretty fantastic and despite burning the first batch I was able to get the perfect timing on the last one (11 min = cookie perfection).

Summary: While there is still no diamond ring on my left hand, it's hard to imagine a more perfect chocolate chip cookie. They're good both hot and cold, excellent texture (not too soft, not to crispy) and just all around yummy. I think my test subjects around the office agree and my roommate has dubbed them the best thing I've ever baked. But, there are others out there claiming they are better so we'll have to do our due diligence and keep trucking.

To be continued...

Ladies Who Lunch

Known fact: Housewives lunch. At fabulous places while looking fabulous. So naturally, I do the same.

This morning, after carefully selecting my outfit, I met up with one of my most fashionable foodie friends at Charlie's Pantry in Studio City.

The place is delish and between the freshly baked breakfast treats, insane line up of salads and cases of dessert, it's nearly impossible to decide what you're going to eat. And I'm not talking this salad or that salad. I'm talking breakfast or lunch, hot or cold. No matter what mindset you go in with you're bound to falter and doubt your instinct. I went in for breakfast and after having multiple people go in front of me to order cause I hadn't decided yet, finally went with a breakfast crepe (suuuuuper good call), but not before seriously considering soups, salads, sandwiches and muffins.

Could you decide with a spread like this?

ricotta and cinnamon apple crepe

I LOVE things with apples. Apple pie and galettes are my fave and apple crepes are right up there as well.

Grilled Cheese

Of course my friends soup and sandwich looked pretty amazing too when they arrived. What intrigued me most was the apple and balsamic in her grilled cheese (as mentioned above, I LOVE APPLES)! Must try that sometime.

In fact, all this talk of apples as me thinking up some recipes to try this week that I've found on pinterest...

  




Decisions decisions!

Anyway, to wrap things up this place is adorable, from their signage, to decor, to every last detail and of course the food. Definitely a place to put on your "to lunch" list (add it to your breakfast and brunch list while you're at it).

Until next time, Happy Housewifing!

Holidays

I. Love. Holidays. Obsessed even. I also love baking. So despite not having a reason to, I had to bake for St. Pattys day. With holiday season* coming to an end I couldn't just take it for granted.

Because my number one cupcake consumer is a vanilla lover and a chocolate hater, I haven't dabbled much in chocolate cupcakes. But since I've gotten the perfect vanilla recipe down, I thought it's about time I take a stab at mastering the coco.

Now I know most cooking blogs share their recipes but if there is one thing I've learned from my mom in cooking, it's not to share your recipes or no one will come visit you anymore. So I'll just be chronicling my adventures, what I learned and maybe some useful tips... sorry?

The best part about being a "baker" now is opening up my baking cabinet (yes my new apartment is big enough where I have an entire cabinet dedicated to baking materials, pans, molds, cupcake liners and sprinkles!!) is having everything I need to whip up a batch of cupcakes without running to the market for anything, so prepared!

baking from scratch = baking with love

Tip of the trade, use an adorable ice cream scoop to fill your liners. This batter was a little runnier than most and caused for drips, but two scoops make the perfect cupcake size. (If you want cupcakes that raise above the liner you'll need to add a little more)

Chocolate cupcakes are dangerous when cooling because they smell soooooo good and you're tempted to eat them all before you can frost them.

Now for the real adventure. I decided I was going to make whipped cream for my fresh whipped cream frosting (and filling!) Let me tell you, making fresh whipped cream is as hard as it sounds... well maybe not hard, all you do is whip cream but it takes foooooooorrrrreeeeeeeeeeevvvvvveeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrr. I was ready to give up on the liquid-y cream when POOF! it turned itself into ready to frost and fill cupcakes whipped cream. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty stoked and pleased with myself.

I used my cupcake corer (duh, of course I have one of those) to take out the center and fill them with cream Ding Dong style and added some green sprinkles to make these holiday appropriate.

Homemade whipped cream filled chocolate cupcakes mission complete. Bam!

^Look at those cream whipping muscles^

Anyway, since everyone in our office but four of us are off on various business trips I have a feeling my fridge will look like this for a while...

For the record, the cupcakes were very yummy and loved by chocolate lovers. I, however, while I love chocolate have never been a chocolate cupcake fan (I prefer my chocolate in brownie form) and continue not to be, but these were pretty close to changing my tune. The whipped cream was soooo delish though. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

*Holiday season starts with Labor Day (which makes this holiday one of my faves! All white chic + summer food + THE START TO HOLIDAY SEASON! YESSSSSSS) and ends with Easter (at least we get cute pastel bunnies to send us off into the dreary holiday-less months, and the Fourth of July is a fantastic pick me up in the middle of it all)

It Begins...

I have loved Martha Stewart since... I can't even remember, always? My mom would get her Living magazine and I'd love to flip through the glossy pages looking at all the fun decoration ideas (the October, December and February issues were, and still are, my favorite). Flash forward a few years and in high school, my best friend was also equally as obsessed with the great Martha Stewart. Neither of us actually did anything Martha did, but we continued to look forward to each issue of the mag, episode of the TV show and the delivery of our "Free Martha" t-shirts. Come college, when people take pride in becoming adults, living on their own, partying without supervision, etc, the milestone for me was getting my very own subscription to Martha Stewart Living. That's right, I got Living magazine delivered to my 3 person dorm room with tile floors and cottage cheese walls, flagging all the crafts, projects and recipes I would surely one day do. Well all these years of build up and I finally started doing things (I mean having a mother who makes Martha look like an amateur doesn't really encourage personal domestic growth...) and this here blog chronicles that journey.

Now I don't want you to think I'm some polo collar popping, pearl wearing, yuppy (although I went through that phase in high school). Rather I'm an action sport enthusiast (who also works in that industry) with a specific passion for dirt bikes and snowboarding. I enjoy tattoos and rock music and would rather watch Jersey Shore than CNN. I like high fashion and wear black more than any other color and really love skulls. Lots of black, lots of skulls, not your typical New England color palette. In addition to Martha, I also look up to the likes of Kat Von D and Rachel Zoe, so my tastes and interests cover a fairly wide spectrum.

But back to the blog. I'm just here to make my apartment cuter, my food yummier and bring back the art of homemaking that The Real Housewives of *Enter Affluent City Here* has sullied. Keep in mind my "house" is a two bedroom back house style apartment that I share with my roommate who is also in her twenties and I'm far from anyone's "wife" and I work a more than 9 - 5 job in the sports industry.

I leave you with a photo of one of my gingerbread cupcakes from Christmas. Let the adventures begin!

To hold you over till my first real post, you can follow me on Pinterest.