Buttercream Bliss

This past weekend I took a Continuing Education class called Buttercream Basics at my local University. While there I learned how to make a perfect buttercream and at the end of the day walked away with a beautifully self decorated cake that I couldn't even eat. Oh the joy's of being gluten intolerant.

Thankfully buttercream is delightfully gluten-free so while all the dignified, mature people around me cleaned up their work stations, I sneakily piped the extra buttercream in my pastry bag onto my palette knife and ate it off on the sly. I wasn't sure whether licking spoons and eating extra buttercream was permissible but I couldn't help myself.
Turns out if was perfectly permissible (I got caught, whoops) and I guess maybe everyone around me was either just boring or dieting. Honestly, who could resist even a little taste?

The head Chef and instructor of the class walked us through all the steps of making the buttercream, applying it to the cake and then using it to decorate and embellish. In particular, she showed us how to make roses using a special rose 'nail.'
"Would anyone like to try?" She asked once she'd completed her perfect looking buttercream rose. No one said anything and we all looked at each other.
"Anyone?" She asked again.
"How about you, Rebekah?" someone said. For some reason a few of the other students had come to the conclusion that I was really good at this cake decorating stuff.
Hating the spot light and having everyone looking at me, I began to shake my head no.
"Why don't you try," Chef said, holding the nail and piping bag out to me. Put on the spot and hating to disappoint, I obediently took the offered tools and awkwardly held them while the rest of the class looked on.
Somehow I managed to pull it off, creating my first ever, half decent, buttercream rose. Rather proud of myself, I placed it atop my cake and admired for a moment.
"Would you like to color the leftover buttercream and make colored roses?" Chef asked me as I began to clean up. Pausing, I looked around. Everyone else was leaving already but the idea of having colored buttercream roses was tempting.
"Sure!" I answered. And that's how I found myself as the only student left in the kitchen coloring buttercream on my own and chatting with the Chef and her assistant. It was crazy cool!

   

From my perfectionist point of view, the roses I'd created were quite crude. But my logical self was quick to jump in.
"You're a beginner," logical me told perfectionist me. "And besides, at least they look like roses!" Amazingly for once, perfectionist me didn't have a comeback.

Overall, the class was amazing, but I think the best part was being the only student to go home with colored buttercream roses on her cake... even if I couldn't eat it. Guess I could always just eat all the buttercream right off of it...

Watermelon Cupcakes

I love food. In particular, good tasting food. There's food, and then there's good food. Take for instance these watermelon cupcakes:

They look delicious don't they? Yeah, they taste amazing. They're supposed to look like little watermelon's but that's not the best part. Not only do they look the part,  they taste the part as well. The icing actually tastes like watermelon. No joke.

The next best thing to eating good food is having someone else make it for you (someone who also does the dishes). If you're not so lucky, the next best thing to that is to make it yourself. If you're highly independent like I am, the idea of that doesn't bother you so much (I also really like baking and cooking so it's all good). After all, you have complete control of the finished product.

I guess perhaps what I'm trying to say here in a roundabout way is that I made these cupcakes... and I'm more than a little proud of that fact, apparently. But honestly, they're so darn good that I just cannot help myself. And I'm not biased. My friends would agree with me because I somehow talked myself into sharing them (okay, lets just say if I ate them all I'd have felt guilty so to avoid that I decided to share. Purely selfish intent).

Anyway, I'm done bragging. Here's the recipe if anyone wants to try them for themselves just to make sure I'm not telling outrageous fibs here (hint: I'm not).



Watermelon Cupcakes

You will need:

Mini paper baking cups
1 (18.25-oz) package vanilla cake mix (I used a gluten free mix)
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box
1/2 tsp. green food coloring paste
1 cup butter, softened
1 (32-oz) bag powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. watermelon-flavored gelatin (from 3-oz box)
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. red food coloring paste
Large disposable decorating/pastry bag
1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips


To make cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper baking cups in mini muffin tin (you can also use regular size if you feel like having bigger cupcakes).

2. Prepare cake mix according to package directions for cupcakes, using water, oil, and eggs and adding green food coloring. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or according to package directions.
Cool in pans on wire racks for ten minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

3. In large bowl, beat butter and half of powdered sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in gelatin (dry) until blended. Gradually add remaining powdered sugar alternatively with milk, beating until frosting is smooth and spreadable. Beat in red food coloring.

4. Insert a large star tip into decorating bag; fill with frosting. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes. Decorate with mini chocolate chips to look like watermelon seeds.

Voila! Enjoy.

First Time For: Shrimp!

Growing up, my family and I never really ate seafood, so when I get an opportunity to try it now (or anything new and different for that matter), I'm totally game to try!
Sometimes though, being a complete novice at this whole 'seafood' thing, I get a little surprised:

Once, a friend invited me over for dinner and said she'd be serving fish.
"No problem," I thought. "I've had fish."
...but not the way she served it. I walked up to the pan to grab a helping and found... a fish. A legit, whole fish. My only experience with eating fish prior to that was a de-scaled, de-boned, de-everything fish.
However, not one to let on that I was surprised, I calmly proceeded to dish up a helping for myself. Things were proceeding well until my friend noticed I was delicately removing the skin (scaly part) from my piece of fish.
"You don't eat that?" She quizzed.
"Oh, ummm... can you?" I asked.
"Oh yes!" She replied enthusiastically. "And if you don't want yours, I'll eat it."
I glanced down at my plate and the fish and it's skin...
"I'll try some." I said. After all, it couldn't be that bad, right? Actually, right. To my surprise it was quite good! Who knew fish skin would taste so... good?

Since I never grew up eating seafood, there's a lot of things I haven't tried from that food group. I've never had shrimp before in my life: until today. First. Time. Ever.
 

And the verdict is...?
"WHY HAVE I NEVER HAD THIS BEFORE?!"

I really, really liked it. Granted, it didn't taste anything like what I'd imagine it to taste like, but I was hardly disappointed. More, I think, pleasantly surprised by it's unique taste.

Such a sad thing when you come to the end of a good thing...

I have a feeling that in the future, I'll be seeing a lot more of shrimp... we're bff's now.

If you've never had shrimp, go and try it. Now. You won't regret it. Just make sure you don't eat the tail thingy at the end. Unless of course, chewing forever on a crunchy tail is your type of thing. If so, chew on my friend!

Poetry Piece: Caged Spirit

When you write a daily poem every day, sometimes it's hard to come up with new and interesting subjects that you have not yet already written about. Of course there's nothing wrong with re-exploring a subject you've already explored, but from time to time, you just need something DIFFERENT.
When I run out of poetry inspiration, I turn to my friends for help.

"Hey (so and so, insert name), can you help me out? I'm trying to write a poem and I need a one word prompt. What's the first word that comes to mind? Anything!"

From there, I write a poem about whatever word they give me. Sometimes the subjects are... interesting. But I write a poem with it anyway. It's a great challenge!

This poem, Caged Spirit, is from a word prompt I got from a friend on Facebook. Her one word prompt? Spirit. As soon as I read it, I was completely inspired and excited by the possibilities for the poem. It's amazing what a single word can invoke in the mind of a writer!

5 Reasons Why Getting Up Early Isn't All Bad

Let's face it. A lot of us hate getting up early. I for one, don't particularly like the part when the alarm goes off and I have to turn on the light, sit up and then face the inevitable fact that the next step is to GET up. Blah. The funny thing is though, once I've finally gotten my sorry butt out of bed and I'm "awake" I kinda start to enjoy myself... a little.


5 Reasons Why Getting Up Early Isn't All Bad


1. It's so quiet. Early in the morning when the rest of the household is most likely still sleeping, it's like there is a cloak of peaceful silence surrounding the house. I love that silence. It's good for thinking without interruptions, or anything else you want to do... without interruptions.


2. The Sunrise. If you get up early enough, you might get lucky and catch the first ray's of sunlight as they begin to peek over the horizon, spreading slowly across the sky in warm and vibrant colors that illuminate the landscape.
I recently started a new job that requires me to wake up at 5:30 in the morning and while some mornings it's tough (since my internal clock hasn't reset yet), the good news is: I never miss the sunrise. Neither does my camera...

3. Privacy to do what you want without being judged. Provided of course, no one is getting up early with you, which generally isn't the case anyway. You can dance in the kitchen, eat all the food you want (in large quantities since no one is there to give you the "you're a pig" look), read "banned" books if you're into that sort of thing (like Fifty Shades of Grey), or just do nothing. In case you opt for dancing in the kitchen, just remember to keep it down lest you wake the sleepy heads still sweetly sleeping.


4. The Sunrise. Again. Need I repeat? The sunrise is a treat many of us miss out on regularly. And don't try and tell me that the sunset is practically the same thing, just on the opposite side. It's not.

5. Alone time. Granted, you probably spent the last 6, 7, 8 hours alone sleeping (unless of course you're unfortunate enough to have to share the bed with someone) but in the morning when you're awake or nearly there, it's totally different. You're awake for one thing. To me it feels almost like a type of freedom to a certain degree. Limited time only though, so take advantage of it before it expires.


As you can see, getting up early isn't all bad, like these point prove. However, when the weekend finally rolls around, there's NO WAY I'm getting up early. Not even the sunrise is going to convince me to get up sooner than I have to. I'm going to pull those delightfully warm covers up to my chin and keep right on sleeping until the sunrise has long faded away. *Sigh of content*


Please note: If you happen to live on your own, just ignore all these reasons except for 2 and 4. Oh, and pat yourself on the back, shake your own hand and congratulate yourself on being able to experience the privacy, alone time and quiet 24/7 without having to rise at some unholy hour in the morning to accomplish it. Hope you appreciate it.

Reading Group: Uberchill

A few years ago some of my siblings and I started a reading group. After much debate, discussing and arguing, we finally decided to call it Uberchill. Basically, it's two words combined:
Uber: Uber is a prefix that means 'super' in German.
Chill: Modern slang for hang out; relax.
At first I really wasn't sure how successful it would be, but I needn't have worried.

Meet the Uberchillers (or at least most of them): 

This picture looks pretty tame, but trust me... some evenings, we are anything BUT tame. This is more like it.

We meet once a week and start off by reading, then finish up by playing games or just hanging out. Sometimes though, if everyone is in an especially rowdy mood we ditch the reading altogether and skip right to playing games and hanging out.

This week was my last Uberchill since I'm moving and so of course, group photo! That however, was easier said than done. Everyone was too busy goofing off! To be honest, it was a bit annoying at the time but now I'm so glad we got those shots!

Emily and Bailey:

There was so much movement going on, it was hard to capture everyone at a standstill. The highlight of this photo though, is totally the face Brett (far right) is pulling. Hilarious!

After we successfully got a good group photo, we decided to do just the girls and then just the guys. The girls (minus Sarah who took the picture):

And the guys:

While I was taking pictures of the guys, the girls kept trying to steal the show... but because of that, I got this shot. And it's totally priceless.

Us girls opted for jumping off the bench, but those didn't turn out too well. Half our faces are distorted and we look a little bit crazy...

Please don't ask what they are doing... I haven't the faintest idea. Ben (far right) doesn't look impressed.

Look at the wide variety of differing facial expressions... from completely silly to picture perfect smile. Then there's the in between "I'm sort of amused expression" to the "lookin gangsta" face. 

One last group photo:

Seriously, this group of (crazy) people is amazing and they're all pretty awesome and fun to be around.

Uberchillers, I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to get to know you all and share laughs and good times with you. I'm going to miss you all... and I expect you to miss me too ;)

Friends in Fall: Photo Shoot with Bailey

The weather is steadily getting chillier, but that hasn't stopped me from getting my camera out, grabbing a friend and heading out once more for another Friends in Fall photo shoot. I think I'm just having way too much fun with this! And I don't think I'm the only one.

Meet Bailey

She has one of the best 'dreamy distance' gazes...

...and a wonderful laugh.

I got her to sit on this old wooden bench first.

Things were going fine (Bailey looking amazing)...

...until the bench began to move. It was rather windy out and whenever the wind picked up, the bench would creak and shift along with the movement of the tree. It caught Bailey of guard at first.

 And then she realized what was happening. She began to laugh.

And laugh.

We moved to another bench, and before long she was pulling goofy faces and laughing again.

We stopped at this old church and were excited to discover a vulture sitting on the roof.

But he soon took wing, no doubt disturbed by the unusual presence of humans.

Exploring the old church was quite interesting. The back had some very shady looking steps that gave one the feeling they just might disintegrate beneath your feet if you dared to try them.

The moss and leaves on them however was quite photogenic.

As were the lichens on the door.

The wood siding on the church was the perfect background for some great shots!

Here the wind is giving Bailey's hair that windblown, slightly dramatic flair that most photographers achieve with a fan these days.

Take a look at this beautiful path and imagine just strolling down it inhaling that wonderful autumn aroma...

I know, who couldn't resist?

It was just so beautiful, what with all the colors.

Leaf strewn roads are seriously quite a treat for the senses.

And the leaves are also great for throwing. Bailey and I wanted to replicate the leaf throwing shots from Shynae's photo shoot, but the wind wasn't very cooperative.

Finally we achieved the perfect shot.

A knot of wood from the door of an old house that someone used to call home.

It's interesting to imagine someone living here when you look at the state it's in now.

And I think eventually they did upgrade as this bigger (more modern?) house was not far away.

The barn though had obviously seen better day's...

Eventually Bailey and I traded places and she got behind the camera and I got in front of it.

Posing in the window of an old house.

"And Rebekah just can't sit still..."

Of course, we had to do a Friend Footsie. Just to throw you off though, unlike the other Friend Footsies, this time I'm not the one wearing beige boots!

I had a wonderful time with Bailey and her great sense of humor and wonderful laugh were so much fun to be around. Bailey, stay golden (and gorgeous)!