Butterscotch Cupcake Adventure...

One of my friends gave me a mini cupcake maker for Christmas so I decided to try it out.  The first one's I made with it were butterscotch.  I have to say, the cupcake maker is a little unsteady at first.  A lot of them came out a little too crispy on the edges (the recipe recommended not using liners) though the tops were fine.  For the next batch, I changed the time from 10 minutes to about 7.  There wasn't much of a difference, though they were a little more gooey like they were supposed to be.  What I love about the cupcakes were: they were really easy to make, they were crispy on the outside and doughy on the inside, and the cupcake maker only took 7 minutes to make them.  Actually, any of the recipes for the maker look relatively easy and fast to make.  If I happen to get anymore going soon, I'll definitely write about it.  I highly recommend you get a cupcake maker too!  Thanks for reading.

Bacon Cupcake Adventure...

To start things off I just have to say that the library is an amazing place.  I got a bacon cook book that has nothing but recipes with bacon in it (such as bacon bread pudding, bacon and tune bites, bacon cupcakes, etc.).  I was really excited to try the chocolate and maple bacon cupcakes out.  They were a success, except for the frosting.  You're probably thinking "bacon cupcakes, ew!" but that's not true.  They were a good mix of sweet and salty with some bitter sweet chocolate chunks and oats inside the cake.  To try them out, I took them to a bar for one of my friends birthday's and we handed them out.  Others were a little hesitant, especially with the big mess the frosting left behind, but they were open to the new idea.

Everything did really go great, but the frosting was melting pretty fast as I got it on the cupcakes.  It had been sitting in the fridge for a while and was hard enough to get on the first couple, but since it was so hot from all the baking and the cooking of the bacon in my tiny little kitchen, it went downhill pretty fast.  There's still some frosting with bacon on top inside of my fridge.  One day, it will get cleaned.  :P  Just goes to show; you really shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

Bake Sale Adventure...

There is a bake sale going on at work today in honor of a man that passed recently.  So, being the forgetful me that I am, I didn't think about this until last night after I got off of work at 9pm.  Needless to say, I was up until about 2am making cake balls.  Here's what I learned:

Funfetti cake is really awesome, but it's kind of dry when it turns into a cake ball.  I think the same thing would happen if I used angel food cake.  It got a little crumbly, though it still tastes pretty good.  I also made sugar free cake balls for the first time with devil's food cake and chocolate frosting.  They turned out pretty good too, but I didn't coat them with anything.  I did find out that I had to use the whole can of frosting for them rather than using only 3/4.  It got a little messy on the hands, but it was a fun time.  Now I must make more for when I go to work later because everyone said that they wanted one but wouldn't be there at the right time to buy one.  Pictures of those will be up later!

The Next Adventure...

I'm hoping to make cake pops that look like turkeys later this month.  If not, they will be something else more Christmas related.  I thought about doing marshmallows dipped in candy coating to make them look like little snow men.  It sounds interesting, right?  And I hope to get a little farther ahead on my "nerd glasses" project.  That one is just candid pictures of people wearing huge nerd glasses to raise awareness for reading.  Most kids are too caught up in gadgets to read on their own anymore.  The only time it happens is when they're forced to for homework.  It's more fun and developing to read rather than to play video games.  It's also safer as some platforms can lead to seizures.  If you think it's a worthy cause, let me know!

Thanksgiving break adventure...

I'm so happy I don't have to worry about my online classes this week!  But...I'm still doing homework for them.  It's kind of sad.  Anyway, that's not what this is about.  This is about the amazing new trend my boyfriend and I have created.  Thanksgiving dinner at his grandparents house was full of sweets that my body shouldn't be able to handle, but it did.  I don't have a coffee maker so I jumped at the opportunity when I got some during pie time.  Then we headed out to Wal-Mart around 8:30 to watch Black Friday crazy people be crazy.  It's now our new tradition!  Why spend our hard earned money on stuff that's going to be on sale from now til Christmas anyway when we can watch other people do it and not have to look for an actual parking space?  Though we did go inside of Wal-Mart, we just drove past Target and other places, such as Best Buy (people with lawn chairs and snuggies galore!) the line curved around the parking lot and it was only 10:15.  I'm surprised there weren't any tents, actually.  If only I had taken my camera...it was a good time, something we'll definitely repeat.  And I think that others should do it too!  Especially if you don't have money to spend or if you're simply doing the buying online or waiting til a more reasonable time to get out there.  :)

Work, not so much an adventure...

I work two jobs, one at a hotel cleaning rooms and another at a place for brain injured people.  I'm told that I have a lot of patience to work at a place that serves people like that.  I don't really know, I just do it and like it depending on the situation.  But anyway, that's all I've been up to for the past week...and school.  I am supposed to be taking pictures tomorrow for a friend, but we'll see how that pans out.  I also have a project that I've started involving some really big nerd glasses.  The pictures are candids, shot in low light places with a regular camera flash for the majority of them.  But that's going to be the beauty of it all.  I'm really excited to show people though!  If I'm not back by turkey time, have a great one!

Photography Adventure in Illinois...

I went to Illinois this weekend to go shopping with my sister, mom, and grandma as well as to take some senior pictures.  The girl who was to take the pictures canceled the day I got down there (it's a two and a half hour drive) and I'm wondering if I should take them for her next time...?  I like the business, but I don't want to drive all the way down there next time and be told that she's not doing them.  Good for me, I was down there for more than one purpose this time.  She's a friend of my sisters so she talked to my sister about it instead of contacting me.  Lesson learned: if the person doesn't contact you themselves, then you probably shouldn't make any big plans on seeing them.

But, I did get some pictures in of my sister and her new boyfriend.  We went out to a park in Moline with a nice lake and we did some at my parents place.  The dogs got in the way a couple times, but it was fun nonetheless.  Until I got home.  I put the pictures on my moms computer, thinking it would be okay to use the card.  I took the card out properly and put it right back into the camera.  Then I drove home and went to show my own boyfriend how cute some of them were only to find that there was no image file data on the majority of the photos...it was a fun time.  So Mom had to send all of them to me via email (something I'm really hoping works out) and I have to try and edit them with my broken computer before resorting to use an online editing system (aka picnik).  Second lesson learned: when you take your cable to plug in the camera, use it instead of the card.