girl meets cupcake

It’s also a delicious mess. An ugly mess of scrambled eggs, bell peppers, scallions, breakfast sausage, cheese, salsa and onions. This is the breakfast pizza at the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney, we were there for Noe’s birthday. We have sort of turned this into a tradition and have been there for our past three birthdays. This is really a special place for us because this is where Noe and I had our first date. He brought me here with the little bit of money he was making at a daycare center he was working at with his sister. I practically spent all his money on smoothies, but in my defense, they are absolutely delicious!

This weeks Find it Friday word is Food. So here it is, delicious, breakfasty food.

XO,
Michelle

Xo,
Michelle

Find it Friday on Wednesday. Yeah, you read right. I’m posting my find it friday from last, last week. Yes, I am regaining my title of horrible blogger again, but thanks to Megan and Noe, I am determined to lose that title. Last, last Friday’s word was Old.

I digress.

When you think of tradition you automatically think of something that’s old and well, it’s sort of true.

The definition of tradition is: the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation.

I am an American that also happens to be blessed as a Mexican. I am proud of who I am, where I came from and am blessed to be an American. Like I said, I’m Mexican and since I was able to walk I have been fascinated with my mother and her kick ass cooking skillz. I acquired a mental cookbook that would help me woo over a cute Infantryman that is now my husband of 8 and a half years. Salsa is a staple in Mexican diet and really pushes a dish over the top, it makes your eyes roll in the back of your head just before you close your eyes and then you say “mmmm”. My mom taught me to make salsa like this. She also taught me to make salsa that will burn your taste buds when your special honey needs to be reminded that while a man is the head of the house, the woman is the neck. (Name that movie!)

To make a delicious and flavorful salsa you must roast your chiles. This brings out the flavor of a chile and really gives your salsa, or any dish that calls for chiles, an extra punch of flavor. And depending on the chile, it can be a simple poke of the finger to the arm or a punch that will knock your lights out, again all depends on the message you are wanting to convey.

Last year on our journey to find my husband a law enforcement job, we traveled to Colorado to do some testing and see if we are made for the Mile High City. In our adventures we came across a swap meet that we decided would be a good idea to walk around in 30 degree weather. We quickly realized it was one of the stupidest idea to stick two California kids out in the cold for more than a few minutes. Don’t worry we learned our lesson, no more job hunting in Colorado. As soon as we started our rounds through the aisles, I could smell it. The roasting of chiles. It made my mouth water to the point that I had to spit my saliva out. I know, very lady like.

Then. We found him.

This man has been roasting and selling chiles by the bag for his whole life. His great grandfather showed his grandfather, his grandfather showed his dad, his dad showed him and then he built this. It’s kick ass because you can do about a million chiles at once. Not really, but kinda really. This is a tradition for him and also for me. It’s an old technique for making kick ass food.

Xo,
Michelle

This past week Noe was on spring break, I wasn’t. I had just started a term with two different colleges that have the workload of an accountant during tax time. Ugh. With Noe being on spring break we decided to let the house fall apart while we go out and have fun together. We didn’t travel anywhere exotic or European, we traveled to Disneyland. Actually, Disneyland is a distant land from our home and is pretty exotic and European seeing that it’s chalk full of… well… Europeans and exotic people. So… technically I did travel to a distant, exotic and European land.

Man do I love the way I brain works.

Love you Brain -Pinky.

So after 7 days of letting the clothes pile grow, hair/make up products strewn about the bathroom counter, new groceries sitting on the counter, shoes piling next to the door, mail everywhere, homework all over the living room and random stuff where it shouldn’t be, I’m scared. I don’t know where I should start. I hope and pray that when I wake up tomorrow the carpet gnomes take pity on me and clean up the whole place. That would be pretty sweet, I do after all provide them with an endless supply of brown bobbie pins.

I had also hoped and prayed that these cupcakes would be delicious, seeing that the recipe calls for the best fruit combination ever. But they lacked in just about every aspect of a cupcake. The cake was not as moist as I thought, it had more of a corn bread taste to it. Why, I don’t really know. There wasn’t any corn meal in it at all. It didn’t have as strong of a strawberry flavor as I hoped either, the flavor was there but I actually had to point out it was strawberry to Noe. The frosting was just there. Not a great taste and it didn’t seem to hold it’s consistency at all. I need to attempt this again to catch my mistake or just tweak the recipe to give it a better taste.

Strawberry Cupcakes, Recipe by: bakebakebake
Makes 12 cupcakes:

*The yogurt isn’t pictured. Boo.

2 1/2 Cups Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick of butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup strawberry yogurt (I used plain greek yogurt mixed with strawberry puree.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend butter and sugar together then stir in each egg one at a time. Then add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and vanilla extract. Mix well. Then add yogurt. Mix thoroughly.

Sigh… be still my beating heart…

Place 1/4 cup portions into cupcake pan (inside paper or greased) and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until spongy to the touch.

Kiwi Buttercream Frosting:

3 cups confectionery sugar
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup of kiwi puree or just plain old mashed up kiwis (that’s what I used)
some vanilla extract to flavor

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the kiwi, mix well. add vanilla at your own disgression.

Don’t they look like furry ba… wait, never mind. You get it.

XO,

Michelle

It’s Friday. Thank you sweet baby Jesus.

This week I’m participating in my sister-from-another-mister, Megan’s new weekly photo challenge. Megan will give us a word and you take a picture of what ever that word means to you. Then post it and link back to her. Easy Peasy.

Week 1 word: New

This week I started a new term through HPU and Fullerton College and am taking Art History, Marketing and Drug Abuse and Victims. Things have started out good with my classes, but the workload is a little daunting. There is a large amount of work per class, but fortunately, the work doesn’t require a large amount of time to complete. These are the “new” used books I need to complete my classes, thankfully these classes didn’t require multiple books. For the next 10 weeks, this is my new life in it’s entirety.

Yay.

XO,
Michelle

My poor, poor little blog. I’ve neglected you so much in the past year, I almost can’t believe it. But I can because I’ve done it before. I know, bad blog mom.

Noe gave me an ultimatum about this blog that I’ve always wanted. If I don’t post to it, I can’t renew it again. I promised to post this blog and he promised to give me time to post to it. He is not going to roll his eyes when I need to to buy buttermilk, flour, vanilla, fabric, thread or glue sticks. We’ll see how long he lasts on that one.

I digress.

Things have been pretty busy around here for me. I just started with a term of classes that seems to be more demanding than Rate My Professor indicated they would be. It’s not like I had a choice in taking these classes, it’s just nice to know what you’re getting into. I actually won’t be worrying about classes this week because Noe is on spring break! So I actually get to see him more than 2 days a week. His academy days are in the evening when I’m off of work so we’ve on opposite schedules since August of last year. We’re just picking up where we left off last year. I’m just a few pounds heavier. Boo.

I made these cookies because I bought a bag of Reese’s pieces, ate half the bag and knew if I didn’t bake with them I’d eat the whole bag. Which would lead me to buy another bag. Which would lead the bargain hunter in me to buy a 48 ounce bag at Sam’s Club. So this was the least expensive option, but not the funnest.

I followed the recipe to a T, but I did put in a little less Reese’s pieces because I kept eating them when I was baking.

Don’t judge me.

Reese’s Pieces Cookies
Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup room temperature butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla (I used Vanilla Bean Paste)
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups Reese’s Pieces

Instructions

Cream together butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl a few times.
Add the vanilla and egg.
Add the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
Mix until the dough comes together.
Add the Reese’s Pieces and blend until they are incorporated. Do not mix too much, or the Reese’s will break.
Drop onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 8 to 12 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. The edges will be set, and the centers will still be soft.

P.S.

This is heaven in a bottle. Promise.