Cupcake Repertoire Expansion Attempt #2..Oreo Cupcakes

Along with everything else right now I am a little behind in expanding my cupcake repertoire and I know I say this all the time but I am overwhelmed with work, school and home stuff (but the end is insight).

With our friends barbeque coming up I thought this was the perfect opportunity to create "cupcake repertoire expansion attempt #2”. I searched the internet high and low for an idea...I finally settled on Oreo cupcakes!! I thought to myself...ohhh cupcakes and cookies… together!! PERFECT!!

After a quick trip to the store I had my supplies and was set!! Our party was Saturday afternoon around 1pm so I had time to make them in the morning before we left. The cupcakes themselves were very easy to make. Just your basic white cupcakes with crushed up Oreo's mixed into the batter.

The coolest part of the cupcakes (at least I think) is that once you put your liners in the cupcake pan, I choose purple polka dot and pink stripped liners, you split an Oreo cookie in half and drop it in the liner. A cupcake with an Oreo cookie baked right in!!


After you drop the cookies in you put the batter in and pop them in the oven. While they were baking I moved on to the frosting. Also very easy, just a basic butter cream frosting but again you add crushed Oreo's. I told Danny that if I continue on this baking trip I am going to need a counter top mixer because my poor little hand mixer is hanging on for dear life. It just can't handle making stuff from scratch...poor guy. (Of course I want a pink one, which is apparently up for debate because Danny just informed me that if it was pink then he wouldn’t want to use it. Hehehehe, it will be pink.)


After the cupcakes baked I let them cool off for an hour so they wouldn’t melt my pretty frosting. At this point I realized I wasn't going to have enough Oreo's to top all of my cupcakes, that is right, I had already gone through one package of Oreo's in making my cupcakes. Hey...I never said they were healthy.

I ran to the store really quick to get another package of cookies.Back at the house it was time to frost. I forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes pre-frost but just picture a white cupcake with little black bits in it. Hehehe. After you frost the cupcakes you take an Oreo, cut it in half and stick it on top of the cupcake. So for those of you keeping count that is a half Oreo in the bottom, crushed Oreo's in both the batter and frosting and another half Oreo on the top. So basically if you don't like Oreo's these aren't your cupcakes.

Here is a picture of all the cupcakes from above.


Here is one lone cupcake from above.

And finally my favorite picture, a little cupcake from the front.


In writing this blog I realized that I never tasted the cupcakes once I finished them, I have the bad habit of doing that. I just packed them up and took them to the barbeque. As far as I know though they turned out good. Danny said they were too rich but everyone else seemed to like them and even took some home. I hate to call him out but I think Dan S. had like 3 of them!! Hehehe.

I have already selected a couple of options for attempt #3 so stay tuned!! I am thinking something a little lighter this time.

"Oh,oh, oh, ice cold milk and an Oreo Cookie, they forever go together , what a classic combination. When a dark , delicious cookie meets an icy cold sensation, like the one and only creamy, crunchy, chocolate, O-R-E-O."

#2 On the List – Showdown at Saddleback Lanes

Danny and I have this list, which apparently everyone already knows about, and we are slowly working our way through it all the while adding things to it as we go. It isn’t any crazy life list or anything like that…it is simpler than that. It is just a list of things we haven’t had time to do over the last two years of our crazy life. It is just made up of fun things we like to do and in fact most of them we have already done before. It is all about bringing our life back to the simple things, the real things.

We already did one item on the list, the Nixon Library and a week ago we completed the 2nd item from our list…bowling. It wasn’t bowling in one of the newer fancier alleys like Lucky Strike; we opted for a simple old school lane complete with your traditional fried food, beer guzzling bar.

This outing was a part of the list not only because I think bowling is so fun but because Danny and I have only been bowling once in the 10 years we have been together and it was early on in our relationship. Let’s just say that on our first bowling outing Danny didn’t break any records with his score. Hehehehe. Ever since then I have been telling him that he sucks at bowling. This is so fun to me because Danny is pretty much good at everything!! AND I mean everything...watching Jeopardy with him I can’t even come close to competing.

Ever since that day he has sworn he was just messing with me and that he is really great at bowling…a bowling superstar!! I didn’t believe him and I waited years for my rematch!! I made sure to take pictures of our trip to the bowling alley so you can judge for yourself who the bowling super star is.

We arrive at the bowling alley and get our shoes from the bowling alley guy who takes his job way to seriously!! Danny of course sees the checking out of shoes as the perfect time to make fun of my large feet…I say let’s just take this to the lanes!!

This battle will be settled on Saddleback Lanes, lane #23. We put on our rental shoes and select our balls.

Which one do you think was mine?

You probably selected the pink one. This would make you right…kind of, because all three were mine. I like to vary it up, if one weight doesn’t work I just move on to the next…I am obviously a very skilled, very precision type bowler.

Time to hit the lanes. Danny of course had the form of a bowler, using all the right moves.

You can see he swings his leg back and releases the ball just right.

I on the other hand have NO form or method to my bowling, I would just let it go. Sadly I don’t have a picture of my “form” as I am usually the one taking the pictures. This is probably better though…I wouldn’t want to cause myself too much embarrassment. However we were able to figure out that the more thought I put into my game the worse my game got. So my basic strategy was to not have a strategy.

Which method worked better you ask? Well let’s take a look at some scores.

Game 1:

I was so excited to take the first game!! I was off to an awesome start and I didn’t win by a point or two, I took it by 11!! Yay!!

Game 2:

It was getting closer but I still won TWO in a ROW!!

Game 3:

I am not trying to make excuses for myself but at this point in the game my poor, little, weak arm started to get tired. I mean I am a girl, I don’t have the same muscles as Danny, it just isn't physically so.

Game 4:


The muscles are getting more tired with every frame.

Game 5:

Even though Danny won this one I was still impressed with my score of 97!! I was so close to 100 I could taste it!

Game 6:


Sorry this picture is a little blurry, we were literally being forced out of the alley at this point, but it does read 69 (Me) and 53 (Danny)! That is right, I was back. Before you ask, yes our scores were low this round. As I mentioned we were being basically kicked out at this point and we had to “speed bowl” just to finish the game. Plus after two hours of bowling both our arms were feeling a little weak.

For those of you who aren’t good at math that is three games Heather and three games Danny. It doesn’t sound like a bowling superstar to me, it sounds like another rematch it the making…after all a tie is like kissing your sister and who wants that.

P.S.

Just for some fun here are some funny pictures of us.

Danny so confident in his skills he doesn’t even need to open his eyes.


And me…do I even need to say anything. I mean who bowls like that? Obviously I do…poor me. Hehehehe.

Easter Eggs and Easter Wii

Happy Late Easter!! Yes I know I am a slacker, blah, blah, blah. I promise I am working on being more timely…it will happen…eventually.

For anyone who knows me I freaking love holidays and Easter is one of my favorites because I love hard boiled eggs (especially brightly colored ones) and Easter candy is the BEST candy of the year!!!! On a sad note, I have been so busy lately I didn’t get to put up my Easter decorations; this after I already missed my valentine’s decorations. AND, there is no need to ask, yes I do have Easter and Valentines decorations (and 4th of July, St. Patrick’s day, etc…). If you were to ask me my favorite holiday decorations I am not sure I could answer. Of course everyone tradionally loves Christmas, but I think Halloween is such much fun to decorate for and 4th of July could be my favorite, 1. Because I am super patriotic and 2. 4th of July always makes me think of home.

Easter morning started off as perfect as a day can…with me, Danny and the dogs all snuggled in bed. YAY!! I gave Danny his Easter basket…it was a mini one this year, and then I got to work. I had boiled 3 dozen eggs the night before, colored 1 dozen of them and baked 4 dozen cupcakes. The morning’s tasks included frosting and sprinkling the cupcakes (I didn’t take a picture of these cupcakes because they were just basic cupcakes, vanilla on vanilla with brightly colored frosting and spring sprinkles. I got Danny to deliver cupcakes with me to some of our neighbors as a “Happy Easter” treat…I am a Bree (Desperate Housewives) in the making…except I don’t clean. Hehehe. Then it was time to start the next task which Danny actually volunteered to help with…such a good boyfriend. We peeled the remaining 2 dozen eggs and Danny was so excited because by the end he developed a system where he could be the shell in one piece. If you try this it is actually a very difficult task, so he has something to be proud of, hehehe. This batch of eggs was for deviled eggs, as a result of the “Great Debate”…to relish or to not relish; we had two separate batches…one with and one with out. (I think most people at my Dad’s turned out to prefer the ones with relish but there were a few of us hold outs that did not like relish!! My Dad liked the ones without the relish but only because these were mine and I totally loaded the garlic salt in them!!) What do you prefer? Relish or no relish?

After all the Easter chores were done it was time to pack the dogs, food, Easter basket and Guitar Hero…yes I said Guitar Hero…all into the car. My neighbor Dave had the best line of the day, as we were leaving he saw all we were carrying and said, “Nothing Easter like Guitar Hero!”, so true, so true. Hehehehe.

Since my family lives out in the Inland Empire I don’t get to see them all that often so holidays are always great. I know the Inland Empire isn’t all that far but if you take into account traffic…it isn’t like I can just stop by for dinner after work. When we got to my Dad’s house everyone was there…my Dad, my sister, my brother, his wife, his mom and my nephew. Plus there were six dogs!! In my family we are all dog people and our dogs go where we go! Thank goodness my Dad has such a big back-yard!

I always think it is so much fun to spend holidays with kids, more than adults they really understand the holidays. My nephew Aiden is at that perfect age where he is finally starting to understand the idea behind everything but is young enough where everything surprises him!! It is so cute. At lunch I kept getting in trouble because I was teaching him how to open his mouth and show us his food…hehehehe. After lunch my sister-in-law brought a ton eggs so that we could have an Easter egg hunt for Aiden. And by ton I mean 65 eggs!! I asked her if she knew that we only had one kid in the family. At the beginning of the hunt everyone was out back watching Aiden, but as a result of the 65 eggs and Aiden’s desire to open each one to see what was inside, by the end of the hunt the crowd was down to just him and his mom. He really was a trooper.

Aiden checking out the Easter egg:

So excited over whatever he found inside:

Gracie checking out Aiden’s loot:

After the egg hunt it was time for some Easter Wii!! Everyone played bowling and then Danny, Johnny (my brother), Tracy (my sister-in-law) and Eric started a very serious tennis tournament. It was so funny because they all go so into it you would have thought they were playing at Wimbledon or something.

Check out the oh so serious expression on their faces (and of course Danny explaining what went wrong):

The boys really had to get into it:

To finish off the great day at my Dad’s house I thought I should give my nephew a cupcake (in addition to the candy and cookies I had already gave him) because it is so fun to feed peoples kids sugar and send them home!! You should try it some time!!

Aiden takes a bite:

I hope that everyone else had a great Easter too!! Holidays are such perfect days!!

Better Late Than Never

First of all…I just want to say, “I am back”!! Life has been hectic lately and I am sorry for the lack of posts but I am going to be better…I promise...I think…no wait I promise…ok I will try. On the bright side my absence from blogging means I was actually out doing stuff and have things to post about. Hehehe.

Better late than never! That is the idea I am going with for this post. Even though I know the post is technically 3 weeks hold, I had so much fun I thought it was worth posting!!

My boss was SUPER nice and allowed Danny and I to use two of our suite box tickets to go to a Kings game on March 6th!! We had so much fun!! So much that it is worth a 3 week old post! Good things come to those that wait, right? As everyone knows Danny and I have been on a budget lately so this allowed us to get out of the house and as Danny put it, “it is like we are on a date”.

The game was in L.A. at Staples Center so we wanted to head out early since L.A. traffic is a nightmare!! We actually made pretty good time out there until we got into the heart of L.A. where traffic literally just stopped! We sat on the freeway with nothing else to do but people watch and let me tell you there were some interesting people sitting next to us in traffic. At one point I was looking at the Staples Center from our car, so close yet so far, I told Danny I was going to get out and walk and I would see him there. Hehehehe!! Funny…but I really would have made it faster.

We arrived at the arena about an hour before game time so we decided to walk around the surrounding area. I think it is so crazy how in L.A. you can be walking in the ghetto and then PLOP there is an insanely nice building, like the St. Regis. I just think the idea of paying all that money to leave in such an affluent building and then you walk out your door and there is trash and graffiti everywhere is not logical…but I am a Master Planned community girl. I love cookie cutter homes because that means my neighbors house looks just as nice as mine!

There are several nice restaurants in the area surrounding Staples center but we didn’t want to eat because we knew there would be free food in the suite box and hey who are we to pass up free food. We did make a quick stop into a restaurant that Danny has been talking about, The Palms. It was definitely packed and smelled so yummy. I would love to go back when free food isn’t hanging in front of me. Since we had been walking around LA I wanted to make a quick stop in the bathroom. This is the point where things got a little icky. I hate dirty bathrooms more than anything and this one had a BIG TIME DIRTY…I can’t even talk about it. Plus I realized while I was in the bathroom that wearing BRAND NEW shoes for a walking tour of LA is probably not the best idea…I had BAD blisters on both feet. Before I left the bathroom I tucked, moved and covered my jeans just right so that Danny wouldn’t be able to see my blister…why you ask? Because he would yell at me. Hehehehe…no I am not joking. Oh and I figured I should get at least one picture from our pre-game activities. So I snapped this one.

Me in the bathroom at The Palms:


And off to the Staples Center.

I have been to a hockey game before but I must admit it had been a long time. It is crazy the temperature difference in the stadium when you come for a hockey game versus a basketball game, I was a cold little popsicle. Since it had been so long since I had been to a hockey game I wanted to brave the cold temperatures head down to the ice before we went up to the suite box. We met a super nice usher, I can’t remember his name (sorry – but he did make our game experience even better), that let us go down to the ice to snap a couple shots.

The ice:

Me standing in front of the ice, I know dorky but I was so excited:

After playing around down by the ice we went back up and chatted with the usher a little more. ALL Danny had on his mind was food… he kept asking the usher when they brought the food up to the suite boxes. Poor guy had no idea but was trying not to disappoint Danny because he could see starvation written across his face and I kept telling him they wouldn’t bring it out till right before the game.

If you haven’t been to the suite boxes at Staples Center before you don’t know that the elevators of the SLOWEST ones on the planet, I swear…you can time them if you don’t believe me. And then once you make it past the elevators you reach the three suite box floors. These three floors are navigated by a serious of escalators, now mind you they make it mighty easy for you to get up the escalators but getting down is a whole different story. My theory…it is like a Vegas casino where they want to trap you in the casino floor so you are forced to gamble (I have fallen for this trick before and $800 was gone before I knew what was going on)…Staples wants to trap you into the three high priced floors where you spend money on sushi, privates bars and all sorts of food cooked to order special for you.

When we arrived at the suite box we were the first ones there and to Danny’s crazy happiness, and my having to admit I was wrong, the food was already there. Danny was like a kid in a candy shop he didn’t know where to start first but he dug right in! Danny always says that all our pictures are of me, which I think is partly because he likes to take pictures and mostly because I am such a ham), but I was able to snap this one picture of him and he couldn’t even turnaround from the food long enough for me to get it.

Danny and the food:

I was just so excited to see the suite box; I had been before but forgot how pretty it is.

The view facing out:

More food:

As I said I am a dork and was very excited to be in the suite box so I took this picture:

After about 15 minutes with the suite box to ourselves, where we pretty much sat in silence as we both had chicken tenders, hot dogs, sandwiches, chips and salsa and anything else we could get out hands on…hehehe, the rest of the group arrived and it was game time.

Once other people arrived I tried to keep the, what I like to call “suite box tourist” to a minimum, I didn’t want to embarrass my co-worker in the suite. Hehehehe.

I was able to snap a few pictures of the pre-game activities.

The players take the ice:

LA Kings in lights:

They projected some really cool images and even movies on the ice, unfortunately my blog camera isn’t sophisticated enough to capture them.

After the first period of the game we decided to brave the escalators and head downstairs so Danny could get some more food and I could get cotton candy. I myself wasn’t hungry but I have this urge I can’t fight, that whenever I go somewhere and there is cotton candy I HAVE to have some…hungry or not. So as we were arriving back from our trip to get cotton candy, a chocolate chip cookie, Dips ice cream bites and something else I can’t remember, we saw the dessert cart sitting in front of our suite. If you haven’t experienced the dessert cart before it isn’t something you turn down. To me it reminds me of the carts in children’s books like Harry Potter or the Polar Express where while on the train a cart is brought around the has everything a child’s wild imagination could desire. So cotton candy in hand I selected my one dessert and Danny’s two. I snapped a picture because it all looked so yummy, please take note my dessert (a yummy Smores thing) is pretty much gone because it look me this long to stop myself long enough from to take a picture but on that same note Danny’s cheesecake didn’t even make the picture.

Too hard to resist:

Since I have spent the longest post ever talking about everything but the actual game, I guess I should mention that. The game was AWESOME!! I used to love hockey when I was in high school and never missed a Kings game…I just lost that somewhere along the road to being an adult. However attending this game reminded me why I used to love it so much. The Kings played the Senators and the final score was 2-0. The best part of the game was that rookie goalie, Erik Ersberg, who I think was playing in his 3rd NHL game and first start, won his first NHL game with a shut out!! Great story for such a young kid.

My favorite picture of the night was the one my co-worker Eric took of me and Danny. Danny and I don’t get a lot of pictures out so it was great for us to get one on such a cool night.

Me and Danny:

Happy Easter!!

We hope your day was filled with family, friends, bunnies, chocolate and eggs!!

Love,

Heather, Danny, Aspen and Gracie

Happy 4th Birthday Aspen!!

I still remember when Aspen was a tiny little guy, when we brought him home he weighed a mere 14lbs and was only 9 weeks old!! This may not seem small to some of you but now that Aspen is 88lbs it is small to me. Well to further add to what a big boy he is, 2 days ago he celebrated his 4th birthday!!

I miss my little puppy Aspen. I still remember the first day I met him like it was yesterday. We sat and played with him and his brother deciding which one would be right for our home. Aspen was the bigger and more calm of the two, his brother was crazy hyper but so cute (I wish we could have taken both, it broke my heart to leave his brother behind. I hope he ended up with an equally loving home). I loved how when we took him home to our apartment, he had his favorite little corner that he would seek out for comfort, it was his den. All he wanted to do was sleep and all Danny wanted him to do was be awake. Danny even told the vet something must be wrong with him because he slept all the time! The vets response, of course, “he sleeps all time because he is a baby!”

ASPEN IN HIS "DEN"

He spent his first week with us at our apartment and then the three of us (Danny, Me and Aspen) moved into our first home together. His favorite toy when he was a puppy was peoples keys, he was always stealing them from people, so I found him a set of puppy teething keys that he carried everywhere with him. The keys had a good run as his favorite puppy toy, until he wasn’t so puppy anymore and the big dog in him destroyed them!! Now it is only the toughest toys for him and those have an average life span of a few months.

PASSED OUT WITH HIS KEYS CLOSE BY!


He has always been a good dog with his own personality. When we took him to puppy training he was the star of his class…of course (he takes after me)! The teacher always used him as an example and when other dogs would get snappy Aspen would just look at them like what in the heck is wrong with that dog. People always remark about how mellow he is for a lab, we can have a house full of people and he will keep to himself unless you invite him over. The other thing that surprises people about Aspen is that he really could care less about eating. Before we had Gracie (Chub, Chub), we would just fill up Aspen’s bowl and he would munch on it all week, taking bites here and there as he got hungry. How lucky were we?!

FIRST DOG BEACH TRIP!!


Even though I miss my puppy Aspen, I love my big Aspen even more! I love how when we take him to the dog beach, even though you can see his leg hurts, he plays as hard as he can until we tell him that is enough. I love how on the weekends he will curl up with me in bed and nap until I decide it is time to get up. I love how when Danny is at home working his favorite spot is to be curled up in a ball under the desk, with his head propped up on Danny’s feet. I love how he can destroy a toy in a matter of minutes, but that he has a favorite stuffed animal toy that he is so gentle with and is careful not to destroy, he treats it like his baby. I love how he is fiercely independent but at the same times thinks no number of kisses is too many. And I even love how the dog that doesn’t care about eating won’t let me sleep in on the weekends because he needs to eat by 7:00am and won’t rest until I feed him. He usually wakes me up with a kiss to the face and when I ignore that, he paws at the bed until I relent, get up, go down stairs and fill his food bowl only to watch him take one bite and then walk around for 10 minutes before he takes a second bite. Yes we do this EVERY Saturday and Sunday.

So of course since I love him so much we had to celebrate his birthday!! I had work and school on his birthday but that doesn’t mean he can’t get presents. On Sunday I made Danny go with me to PetSmart in order to find what I thought would be the perfect present. What I wanted to get him was a raised food stand, I always feel bad because he looks so awkward when he eats and I worry that bending down to his dish hurts his bad leg. No luck…the only ones available at PetSmart were too short and too expensive, however I do have my eye on a hand made, personalized one I found on Ebay that is very reasonably priced. As a back-up I wanted to get him a “natural bone” which is his favorite. I went to TWO Targets looking for these but both were out, so sad. So what did Aspen get instead? He got a football t-shirt (sooo cute), a doggy pizza that he shared with his sister, a bag of strip beef treats and a tug toy!! All in all I think he made out!!


THE BIRTHDAY LOOT!!



YES THEY MAKE PIZZA FOR DOGS!!


GIVE ME THAT PIZZA!!


ENJOYMENT!!


Happy 4th Birthday Aspen!! I love you, thanks for being such a great doggy!!

The World's Ugliest Dog and the World's TWO Cutest Dogs!!

I think that when the phrase, "a face only a mother could love", was made, it was with this dog in mind. I have seen this dog before but EVERY TIME I see it scares the crap out of me!! I mean what is this thing...a dog...a cat...or did someone spill water on Gizmo!! He is actually a Chinese Crested Chihuahua mix, which now hold on to your pants for this one, is a popular breed in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest, I know shocking. Hehehe.




This poor little guy is so ugly it makes me feel sorry for him and almost makes him cute (I said almost!).

I may be a little partial on this one but I happen to think that living in my house are the World's Two Cutest Dogs!!

Aspen, who is going to be 4 in just a week, is my little baby. He is so independent and doesn't need anyone. He is an expert at slamming the door to his bedroom (otherwise known as my closet) when he just wants some alone time. When the family is cuddling in the bed at night I have to beg Danny not to touch him, because for whatever reason, this makes him mad. If you touch him while he is trying to sleep he gets up, gives you a dirty look, promptly jumps off the bed and heads straight to "his bedroom"! He is also sure to let you know when you have done something he doesn't like. The first time Danny and I cleaned his ears, as soon as we were finished he ran into the bedroom, jumped up on the bed, turned around to look at Danny and I, making sure he had eye contact and proceeded to open the flood gates! That is right... he peed all over our bed!!

At the same time he is such a smart guy! You can tell him to go get a specific toy and he will run upstairs and pick that toy out of all his toys, and he has around 30 toys! Ever since he was a puppy he has loved to lay on soft things and prop his head up on a pillow, I swear sometimes I think he is human. Hehehe. He also loves to give kisses more than any dog I have met. This is great if you are having a bad day because he is always there to make you feel loved!!




Now Gracie on the other hand is the exact opposite of Aspen!! She has to be the most needy timid dog I have ever met. In fact she can't go to the vet with out Aspen because the stress would be just to much for her to handle. She needs her big brother. I feel obligated to mention that Gracie came with her name and there is absolutely nothing graceful about her! She will run at you with all her love and excitement and the only way she knows how to stop is to crash into you with all 84 pounds! You can't yell at her for the this because anytime you yell at her she just crumbles to the ground, looking up at you with her puppy dog look and it just breaks your heart. When it comes time to cuddle in the bed Gracie can't get close enough to you!! She cuddles up right along side me so we are spooning (yes me and my doggies spoon), the whole time wiggling to see if she can get just a tad closer to you. Gracie rarely hands out her kisses but it makes them all that more special when she does.

My favorite thing about Gracie is her eyes. Danny and I always say that when you look into her eyes there is just something special about them. You can feel her loving you, if you are having a bad day you can feel her wanting to take the hurt away. She is so sweet and pretty that even after having her for only a couple months there wasn't even a question to spend a crazy amount of money to take her to see a specialist out in San Diego.



I can't say enough how much I love both my dogs, simply put they are perfect!!

P.S.
And no you don't need to tell me, I already know I am obsessed!!

One Time For Everyone!!

Ok, so in honor of it being the first Monday of Daylight Saving Time my friend Josh and I have come up with a brilliant idea!! Being that we technically had to get up early by an extra hour we were EXHAUSTED! Coffee didn’t help and it was determined that we HATE switching times!!

It would be fairly reasonable to say that the VAST majority of the United States would like to pick a time and stick with it; in fact some smart states resist this movement of switching times (shout out to Arizona and Hawaii). Now I personally prefer Daylight Saving Time but I would take either time if we could just commit to one!! I am not knocking Benjamin Franklin, he was a brilliant man, think bifocals, lightening rod and the flexible urinary catheter (hey don’t knock it…many people would be hating life if he didn’t invent it), plus he is on my favorite bill! But come on B.F.,…Daylight Saving Time…not one of your best ideas. There have been studies that show Daylight Saving Time saves the states money but for every study that says it saves us money there is one to contradict it. Blah, blah, blah!!

Through our half sleep daylight saving coma this was the plan that was hatched!! (And by the way don’t try and steal it…this blog post is proof that the idea is mine and Josh’s). We are going to take our idea of keeping just one time to the current Presidential candidates and sell it to them! We will position it as we have the one idea that will win them the Presidency! We think that no matter who takes this idea of “one time for all” and makes it the foundation of their campaign they will win!! It doesn’t matter if they are black, white, old, young, male, female, smoker or non-smoker...this is the wining idea and we are going to sell it!! It is time for American to stand up and fight for one time, we are so sleepy. Hehehe. Hey…everyone has to make their Benjamin’s some way and this is the way we are going to make ours!

So Happy Daylight Saving Time (I am celebrating by barbequing steak tonight)!! Get outside and enjoy your long summer evenings!!

Oh and P.S. John, Hillary or Barack if you are interested you know where to find me…just leave a comment on my blog!

Cupcake Repertoire Expansion…Attempt #1

If you are a regular reader of my blog then you know that back in February I stated my goal of expanding my cupcakes repertoire. Well last Friday was my attempt #1 at this goal. In addition to being cupcake obsessed I am also blog obsessed and one obsession help the other obsession as I have a few cupcake blogs that I frequent. After careful research I decided to combine two of my favorite things, cupcakes (of course) and SMORES!! I mean who doesn’t love Smores?!

I started out by making chocolate cupcakes with a little crushed graham crackers. This is where something happened that has never happened to me before…my cupcakes tasted horrible!! I thought maybe it was just me so I brought Danny in for a taste test, he said, “they have no taste”, which is exactly what I thought. Panic time, should I remake them or just hope the frosting made them better? Danny’s response…“well it depends on if you care what people think and want them to like them!” UMMM…OF COURSE I DO!! It was back to the store (at 8:30pm on a Thursday night) to get stuff to make a second batch.

I returned and made batch #2 of cupcakes and they tasted so much better…they actually tasted like chocolate!!

Ok…cupcakes down, now time to start the frosting. Remember I am making Smores cupcakes so what would the frosting need…MARSHMELLOW of course!! Well technically it was Fluff which is AWESOME for baking treats.

I mixed the Fluff, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla and it tasted like heaven!! It was time to frost the cupcakes and while I must admit the frosting tasted perfect, it didn’t look as good as I wanted. The frosting in the picture was so perfect and went up in a little spiral frosting mountain. While mine did this at first as soon as the frosting warmed up a little it fell down to look like regular frosting. It is ok….it was just attempt #1, I will get better. Oh and on a side not frosting made with Fluff is very sticking and not what I would call easy to get into the frosting bag. I was a sticky mess, the counter a sticky mess, my cupcake apron was a sticky mess and anything with in a 10 foot radius was a sticky mess!!

I put the finishing touches on the cupcakes, crushed graham
crackers and a piece of Hershey’s chocolate! They looked so
cute, not spiral mountain cute, but cute. I packed them up
and headed off to work.

They seemed to be a big hit at work, two of my friends EACH had TWO for breakfast (I won'tmention any names **cough, cough...Josh, **cough, cough MC), my boss loved them and my AVP and Finance Manager said I needed to make cupcakes every Friday!!

SO I guess all in all attempt #1 at expanding my cupcakes repertoire was pretty successful. Stay tuned for attempt #2!!!

Am I Really Lazy or Really Tired?

Ok so in my own defense I swear I was just really tired when I did this!! I am the first to admit that I can be on the lazy side, my idea of a good Sunday is spending the day snoozing in bed with my dogs…they love to nap just as much as I do. For me that is a hard quality to find in a friend.

However on Friday I was just plain tired. I must admit the last two semesters of school have kicked my butt!! Three classes and full time work is a lot to take on, I envy the “kids” in my classes that take four classes, live at home and have no financial worry other than paying for their night out. Plus we are going though some major changes at work, yet again, and everyone needs to take on extra work. I don’t mind, I really do like working and I am just thankful to have a job.

I probably shouldn’t be telling you this but on Friday, being as tired as I was, I found a way to drive home by just using my thumb!! That is right…JUST ONE THUMB! I think most people might be embarrassed by this but I think it is an accomplishment and shows that I am a very resourceful girl!! I think I am like the MacGyver of sleep deprived/lazy situations.

I found myself on the toll road driving comfortable speed thinking to myself, “man if I didn’t have to push my foot up and down this drive would be great!” As a little gleam of sunshine hit my cruise control the idea struck me!!

You might be thinking to yourself, “Duh, just turn on the cruise control…” but that wouldn’t be enough. While the toll roads flow pretty smoothly there is enough traffic (and IDIOT drivers) to where you speed needs to be adjusted here and there. This is where I thank the makers of my fine Chrysler Aspen for their thoughtfulness in putting in the accelerate/decelerate button. Yep that is right; with just a push of my thumb I can speed my car up or slow my car down.

On the right side of my steering wheel is a button where if I push it on the top my speed “accelerates” and if I push it on the bottom my speed “decelerates”. While this isn’t the best way to drive as the button doesn’t change at Ninja speed and I think Chrysler designed it for slight adjustments to your cruise control speed, it worked for this tired girl on her Friday commute. I was able to finish the toll road portion of my drive home with just using my right thumb...how resourceful is that!?

If I had some duct tape, I could fix that.
-MacGyver

P.S.
I might suggest staying of the toll roads on Fridays at around 5pm as this is when I am the most tired and therefore the most likely to engage in “thumb driving”. Hehehehe.