Today, let the madness that is the Christmas holiday season begin!

Black Friday always marks the first day where Christmas music will fill every potential sound-free aspect of your life. Hope your all ready with stockpiles of Ibuprofen and Excedrin Migraine :-)

The holidays have always been a wierd time for me. Ive always worked in environments where you see the worst of people during one of the supposed happiest times of the year: angry holiday shoppers desperate to save half off that laptop, people scrambling to spend way too much money on material posessions for loved ones, hungover breakfast patrons who want nothing more than to make their waitress more miserable than they feel...and of course, working on holidays.

This year, im taking a whole new approach on the holidays. I work in an environment where I believe attitudes will be unaffected by the gloom of the season, where perhaps I can begin to enjoy the holidays for the first time in a long time. Its kind of wierd, I havent been alone for the holidays...ever. My first Thanksgiving where I only spent a little time with family, but alot of time with friends who I could consider family.  I didnt cook a single thing yesterday (besides cupcakes to bring to my uncles!). I enjoyed myself. I ate things I normally would never eat, like baked mac n cheese, and goat cheese mashed potatoes (which are freaking AMAZING if you have never tried them!).  I watched awesome movies all night with good friends, and even after the credits are done, good times were still to be had. It was a really good day. And its also the first time in a long time that I stayed up till 3 am, then proceeded to sleep as long as I wanted, rather than feeling like I had to be up by 8 and therefore deal with tiredness all day. I woke up at 11:30. It was awesome!

I couldnt ask for better weather today either. Im thinking I will go for a long bike ride today, or tomorrow; it gets dark here around 4 so I wouldnt be able to do my usual 60-80 miles before dark. Maybe just a stroll around Seattle, carefully, though, to avoid sleep deprived, over caffeinated, manic holiday shoppers. Downtown is their breeding ground, Starbucks is their fuel, and they are out there! Beware!

Another joy that I am currently, um, dealing with, is a kitten: I havent had a kitten since my cat Miko was little, and he is currently almost 7 years old. Ive never came home to find so many random things strewn about the room with little teeth marks in them. She also somehow managed to completely lock up my laptop and I couldnt get it to work for a while. I actually had to go into safe mode and figure out what the heck went wrong.

But I love Kiwi so much :-)

As a parting gift, I leave you with a delicious cupcake recipe that I made for my uncles for Thanksgiving.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
Makes 12 (full) cupcakes
(Note: I make my own baking powder. If you have some on hand, omit cornstarch, cream of tartar and only use 1/4 tsp baking soda instead of 3/4. Add 1 1/4 tsp baking powder)
1 3/4 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c sugar
2 tsps good quality vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste! Amazing stuff!)
3 eggs, room temperature
2 tbsps oil
1/3 c buttermilk (I used 1/3 c 2% milk with a few splashes lemon juice, let sit for 10 minutes before using)

Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter and sugar together in mixer, or using hand mixer, for about 5-7 minutes until light and fluffy. While thats creaming, mix together other dry ingredients and sift well.  When the butter and sugar is light and fluffy, leave mixer running and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.  Add vanilla and oil, mixing until incorporated.  With mixer on low, add half the flour mixture. Mix for about 15 seconds, then add buttermilk. When thats all mixed together, add the rest of the flour. Mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix.

Portion out batter into muffin cups, filling about 3/4 full, which gives you 12 muffins. For less full muffins, fill halfway and it will give you maybe 15-18.  Cook in preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool in pan.

The frosting I kind of eye-balled, so proportions might be a little off. If its too runny, add more sugar. If its too stuff, add more milk.
Buttercream:
1/2 stick butter softened
about 2 cups powdered sugar, more or less depending on consistency
1/4 c milk
splash of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
dash of salt

Cream butter in mixer. Turn speed to low and add powdered sugar. Mix for a few minutes until sugar wont fly everywhere, then turn the speed to medium. Add milk, vanilla, and salt. Turn speed to medium high and whip until desired consistency is reached. I like a really thick fluffy frosting, so I beat it on medium high for a few minutes. Frost cupcakes when they are cooled down (or for an instant satisfaction, frost while really warm and put in a bowl :-) )

Happy Holidays to everyone, and I hope you all enjoyed spending time with loved ones yesterday.

Today is National I Dont Give A Fuck Day

...and I missed it! I spent my whole day giving a fuck, and for what?

The day is not ruined though! Theres still 3 more hours to not give a fuck, and im starting right now.

But writing this post means im giving a fuck, because maybe, just maybe out there somewhere, theres one person who might read this besides me! But you know what? I didnt make this so people would read it. I made it as a creative outlet for myself. And a place to write down what recipe actually turned out good, and which one was flung into the dumpster in a fit of rage followed by a beer/german food coma at my favorite place to eat thats 3 blocks away (theres only one of em!).

So anyway, ive spent the past 2 hours reading Hyperbole and a Half and The Oatmeal. If youve never checked out either, and just so happen to have a few extra hours of free time, or perhaps youve decided to start smoking copious amounts of weed again...Then you will find these websites highly amusing. Ive laughed harder than I have laughed in a long time on these websites. Ive also spent more time sitting in this spot on my computer tonight than I have in a long time. But hey, I guess I did need to just chill out and do nothing for a little bit.

Just a random side note: a man dressed as Santa was banging on the entry door to my apartment a little while ago. I heard the banging, but couldnt see the front door unless I stuck my head out. So I quietly opened the door, peered my head out slowly so as not to be seen. But the second I saw him, he made eye contact, waving his arms frantically, knocking on the door.

So I did what any other fine upstanding member of the community would do.

I hid inside. Closed the blinds. Turned on music.

Thats why I love living where I do. Its not quite guy-gets-shot-right-outside Seattle, or bums-sleeping-and-pissing-all-over-the-place Seattle, or retro-retarted-starbucks-lovers-on-their-cellphones-completely-oblivious-to-humanity-traffic-or-the-world Seattle. It has its own ambiance, the kind you can only get by living within 1000 feet of a major freeway exit, and right next to a main thoroughfare thats a one way street that apparently only half the population knows about or follows.  The place where douchebags who live in the nice apartments next door can take their stupid piece of shit chiahuahua over to my grass outside my window and let their little fuckers shit all over the grass, and not clean it up.  We arent even allowed dogs in this apartment. We know its you.

Anyway, now that I got that out of the way...Welcome to my new blog, where swearing is in abundance!

Ass.

Off to the gym to not give a fuck for a few hours. Nothing better to do than be in an almost completely empty gym on a Friday night, when everyone else is out getting plastered. I dont mind, I just added 20 pounds to my squat and deadlift weight, so ill be torturing my muscles while everyone else is out torturing their livers.

Crap, it happened again.

I swore I wouldnt let it happen again. But it did. I forgot about you. Im so sorry! I will try hard to make it never happen again!

So, whats been going on in the baking aspect of my life: lots of baking! Usually I bake whenever im very stressed. So there you go.
I made delicious red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. AMAZING!
I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chip cookie dough in the middle, and a chocolate sour cream buttercream frosting. Holy. Freaking. Crap.
Lapse in memory of the past week or two...
Today I made a two layer chocolate cake which is currently cooling. The final product will be a batman cake for a birthday present :-)
Currently in the oven is a coconut pineapple cake, destined to be a birthday cake as well! Two birthdays in one day? Im one lucky lady!
The coconut cake is a basic yellow cake recipe (box cake? AHH! Scary!) with a few tweaks to it. I used coconut milk for the liquid, and coconut oil for the oil to give it more of a coconut oomph. I sprinkled brown sugar, toasted coconut and diced pineapple in the pan before putting the batter in. Currently in the oven, destined to be flipped, broiled till slightly crunchy, layered, and topped with a toasted coconut buttercream frosting!
I was looking for the right recipe to base my cake on, but I kept finding pineapple upside down cakes made with cake mix, pudding mix, cool whip, blah blah blah....What the heck? No plain old pineapple cake? No pineapples folded enthusiasticly into a creamy cake batter, leading to a carrot-cake-esque orgasm in your mouth after being frosted while still warm? I wasnt having any of it!

Unfortunately, time is of the essense, and I do not have time to figure out what the heck I put in the cake. I will compose some sort of recipe to post on here in the next few days, and I will for once try and take pictures of my baked goods so I can start my portfolio!