Birthday!

Today is my birthday! And what better way to spend it than in the kitchen ^.^ I made some cupcakes this morning instead of a cake (not a big cake eater). My mom was surprised when I told her I wanted to make my own birthday cupcakes AND cook my birthday dinner. lol I don't mind, I love cooking and baking so I'm still having fun on my b-day. I made Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Chocolate Kahlua Buttercream Frosting. I found the recipe on one of my favorite blogs have cake, will travel. The frosting turned out really well! I made one with Kahlua and one just plain chocolate for those weird people who don't like kahlua. The plain chocolate one turned out very creamy and smooth because of the milk where as the kahlua one wasn't shiny and a bit thicker. No one will ever know they are vegan *sinister laugh*
I just made dinner for everyone and they loved it of course. I am trying to teach my brother portion sizes so he was a bit disappointed when there were no seconds. He'll be ok, there's still cupcakes and he doesn't need seconds anyway. I made some Flounder with seafood seasoning on the stove. I served it over a bed of white rice with broccoli on the side. I love broccoli :) I originally was going to serve the fish with a sauce from my Cooking Light magazine. When I finished the sauce though, it tasted like butter...I'm not a big butter person and decided to just toss it out and stick to the seasoning. Granished with scallions and a little bit of soy sauce for the rice. Yum!
Everyone ate my cupcakes and I waited till they had already started to tell them they were vegan. They still loved them, even my boyfriend who ate one of each. He has a bit of a sweet tooth. They were very good and pound-cakey. I would definitely make them again. I had a great birthday and thank everyone for my presents and b-day wishes!

Pita Bowl!

I think it'll be the next big thing :P I was making Pitas yesterday and for some reason my second batch got a bit dark and harder than they should have. I wasn't about to throw them away because the bottoms where still soft and all but one was still usable. I cut the hard part of the burnt one off and filled it with lettuce, cheese, and chicken salad. I was pretty good. I just picked it up and took bites out of it. ^.^ Very Nummy.

Going Green?

I am seriously considering going vegan... Most days out of the week at least. I love sushi way too much to go 100% veg. I have been browsing around and I know I wouldn't mind the food, it all looks and sounds delicious. My problem is the price of the groceries I would have to buy. I am a college student who can't find a job and I don't have a stove or oven either. I'm hoping maybe someone will comment and let me know what they think.
I would not be going vegan because I think eating animals is wrong, that's what they are there for. That and being cute of course. Don't worry PITA people, I only eat the ugly ones (chicken and fish). I would be going veg for health reasons. My stomach has become very sensitive for some reason and I think that maybe changing over to a more plant based diet might help. We shall see. I'm going to go check out Whole Foods and Lowes Foods tomorrow to see about how much their vegetarian foods are. I already drink Light Silk and eat tofu every now and then but that's about as far as I've ever gone. I know they aren't that much more expensive than regular products but I've seen other things that are kind of pricey.
Another of my big concerns is even being able to FIND some of this stuff. I don't know how many times I've had a recipe and gone in search of the ingredients just to have to people at the grocery store look at me like I'm stupid. Living in North Carolina is hard for those of us who don't wish to eat everything fried. I'm hoping when I move to a bigger city this fall that there will be more choice as far as groceries and restaurants. Wish me luck and any comments or advise would be greatly appreciated!

My First cake!

Ok, this isn't the first cake I've ever made but it's the first one I've made since I decided to become a pastry chef. I made this cake for my boyfriends birthday last Saturday. I spent all the night before make the 3D chess pieces and board with candy molds. I had never used molds before so it was a bit of trial and error. Everyone thought I had hand carved the pieces lol Saturday morning I started working on the cake. The checkerboard cake pans made thing go pretty smooth. While I was waiting for my cake layers to bake I started making whole wheat pita bread from a recipe out of my Cooking Light magazine. They turned out very well. Great taste and very fluffy :) Assembling the cake was fun and easy as well. I felt like I was on one of the cake decorating shows I watch and new without a doubt that this is absolutely what I want to do the rest of my working life! It was also my first time piping a design besides names too. I definitely need to practice that some more as well. When everything was iced I placed the checkerboard chocolate pieces on top and popped it in the fridge until it was time to go. The molded chocolate pieces were very sensitive to warmth. Just in the time it took to place the pieces on the cake they started getting soft.
That night I took the cake over to my boyfriends house and when his parents got home I made him go in the other room while I set it up. When I was finished they all stood there in amazement. That was by far my favorite part of making the cake or anything I make for people. They were surprised once again to find that even the inside was checkerboard! Everyone loved it's looks and its taste which was a butter cake with dark chocolate. It was very tasty and I was very pleased with all of it. I also made snickerdoodles from a Martha Stewart recipe for my boyfriend's twin brother. He obviously enjoyed those as well since half the plate was gone by the time I left.
I had a great weekend baking and can't wait to learn more and try new things! I'm finally going to school to learn this stuff this fall. My birthday's this Sunday but I don't think I'll be making my own cake. Hope everyone had a good weekend as well. Take care!

Valentine's Day!

Ok, I'm a little late but as promised, here are the pictures and the menu from Valentine's Day. I made all of this for my boyfriend and myself over the course of 3 hours so that each course had plenty of time to settle. I was nervous he might not like something but he LOVED everything! I decorated the table with my nice dishes and a center piece I made ^.^
First was the Fig and Toasted Almond Brie which I served with baguette slices.

The second appetizer was steamed oysters. I had never had oysters before. Despite how strange and someone gross they looked in the jar, they were pretty good. Always up to try new things. =)

After that settled I made up some Spring green's salad with Heart Shaped Croutons I had made and a Olive Garden copy-cat dressing. The main course was Sesame Seared Tuna with a ginger dipping sauce that I found on Martha Stewart's website. That was wonderful!

Finally for dessert I served Raspberry Mouse filled Dark Chocolate Boxes. I had a bit of a hard time making the boxes the night before. I had to make the cookies, dip them in dark chocolate and then when they cooled, glue them together with chocolate dipping sauce and left them in the fridge over night to set. They didn't want to stay in place when I was making them but they were practically inseparable by the time I served them. lol
We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding and WALL-E and gave each other a little gift. Over all it was a wonderful Valentine's Day. I love being able to cook for the ones I love. Hope everyone else had a good V-day as well! Take Care!

Craziness

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted on here but things have been really crazy. I haven't had a chance to cook or bake anything here lately except what I can make in my dorm room. But Valentine's day is coming up and I've been very busy trying to make it perfect! I'm not going to say what I'm doing yet but I will definitely take pictures and tell everyone what I did. ^.^ I'm hoping it won't cost too much to make everything. Money is kind of tight this year so my boyfriend and I didn't want to do too much for each other. I can't help it though, I love giving people gifts.
I found a school in Raleigh that has a culinary arts degree program! I can even specialize in baking and pastry. I want to go there next year but I want to make sure that I would have the same job opportunities as I would if I stayed at a University and got a 4 year degree in Hospitality Management instead. I feel I should just go to the Culinary school because I don't want to manage some chain restaurant, I want to be the one actually making and designing the cakes. We'll see, I'm going to go talk to the people at the school Friday and get all my facts straight first. Think that's all for now, post more after V-day. Take care!

Happy Snow Day!

ZOMG everyone! It's snowing! For some of you it has probably been snowing for the past month or a lot longer. For me, this is the coldest it's been all winter and the first snow I've seen in at least a year! I can't wait to make some snow cream ^.^ I hope it sticks enough to at least make some snow balls or a tiny snowman. We are suppose to get about 6 inches so I hope the weather man was right! So exciting. I use to live in Wisconsin and Iowa so I'm use to the snow but the people around here... They run to the store and get bread and milk. That was the strangest thing I had ever heard of when I first moved here. This county is also not prepared for snow, so I can kind of understand why people freak out when it does.