Bananananana Cupcakes With Strawberry Frosting

It's that time again! I'm lucky I'm going home next weekend, I'm really running out of cupcakes to post. Jen's birthday is coming up, so I might go crazy with the baking and cooking!



These are from a few weeks ago again, but they were definitely worth the mention. I made banana cupcakes with strawberry frosting. Yet again, the frosting was divine. I was really surprised at the natural flavors of it since it actually used strawberry jelly rather than real, fresh strawberries.

The cake portion was good too, although it tasted more like a muffin than a cupcake. I'm still on the quest to find a great banana cupcake recipe, but in terms of strawberry, I definitely think I found a winner. My mom makes a wonderful banana cake every year for my birthday, and I should probably just ask her for that and change it for cupcakes. But that would be going to easy route, right?

Good Omens

I wanted to like this book, I really did. I've read Terry Pratchett before- only the book Going Postal, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also have read a few blog posts by Neil Gaiman. I've thoroughly enjoyed both.

Good Omens, however, I'm just not so sure about. I don't know if it was because I was listening to it, or because had so many story lines roaming at once, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I thought it would. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it- in fact, I really did. I loved the humor in it. I loved listening to Crowley and Aziraphale. I even loved Anathema Device and Newt. But every time the book veered toward Adam the Antichrist, I lost interest. I think it's because the other characters were so interesting, so engaging, that I didn't want to leave them. Adam and the Them dragged on in their frivolous childhood. It just felt rather out of place. And humorless.

Overall, I think I'll definitely be reading this again. It's one of those books that I think would be great a rainy day. I want to curl up in an arm chair with a warm cup of tea or soup and spend the whole afternoon in that universe. This is definitely a book I'd recommend, and I really think I'll enjoy it more as I reread it. As soon as I get an e-reader, this book is going to be at the top of the list. (Also, I want to be Crowley and Aziraphale's bff. I'm just sayin').

(5/5 stars)

Investigating the Purse

In lieu of anything remotely interesting to talk about, instead I decided to pull out that old trend of digging through my purse.

First off, this is what I carry on a daily basis. Yes, I could probably fit a seven year old child in it, but that's just the way I roll.



Yes, not the best picture in the world, but hey, it gets the job done. At any rate, I use those side pockets for lotion, gum, my phone, keys, miscellaneous nonsense, and occasionally I'll throw a drink in there for good measure. Inside, this what you'll find:



Alright, now you see a sneak peak of a current WIP (it's grown since then!), my coin purse, student ID card, knit kit (including various buttons and extra needles), scraps of yarn from when I finished my ocean ripple blanket that eventually will be used to stuff toys, neosporin (because I, ever the brilliant one, burned my entire palm and thumb last week), my favorite pencil, chapstick normally worn by a five year old, a bluetooth that desperately needs to be charged, my wonderful iPod (who knows where my headphones are), lotion, gum, phone and wallet.

On any given day, there's usually a folder of some sort thrown in, or a textbook. Plus, thousands of bits of trash and various receipt. My purse has to be big enough to hold a huge WIP, and normally it doubles for a book bag, so hence the largeness.

Plus it was like $10 at Target. Have I ever mentioned that I'm a cheap date?

Super Duper Zucchini Muffins

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'm a vegetarian. Okay, that wasn't really a secret. Anyone who's been around me eating already knows that. But what you probably don't know is that I'm a vegetarian who doesn't actually like vegetables (or fruit for that matter).

I mean, it's not like I hate all fruits and veggies. I don't actually hate many of them. In fact, if you give me a plate of them, I'll most likely eat them. They're just not my favorite (that's reserved for carbs. Mmmm carbs).

Zucchini is one of those veggies I'm just not a big fan of. I throw it in a few of the dishes I make when I'm at my parents house, but for the most part, I avoid them. So when I opened my fridge and realized my mom had snuck most of her stash of the veggie in my new apartment (thanks Mom). After a long debate (actually, like a five second wonder if I could mail them back to her), I went to searching for something to cook them in. I found these:



I made Super Duper Zucchini Muffins, and let me tell you, they really were super duper. I skipped the brown sugar and walnuts, and substituted butter for shortening, and they were absolutely divine.



The only problem? i still have like four zucchini sitting my fridge, staring at me.

Peanut Butter Stuffed Hot Fudge Cupcakes

These photos are old. So, so old. But, whatever, at least this means I'm going to have enough cupcakes photos saved that I don't need to bake for quite some time. That's especially good considering I rarely bake unless I'm at my parent's house. Cook, yes. Bake, no.

Have I mentioned I want to work at an office just so I can be like my mom and bribe everyone into liking me via baked goods?

Seriously.

I probably also shouldn't mention that when I have my own house, I want to to be friends with our neighbors exclusively so I can invite them to dinner parties, impress them with food, and then torture them for hours on end with games such as Pictionary Man, Catchphrase, and Apples to Apples.



Uh, back to the topic at hand. If you were wondering, these cupcakes were awesome.

No, not awesome. The icing was awesome. The cupcakes were mediocre. In fact, they were so mediocre, I actually didn't even bother using the cupcake recipe when I made it the second time. I just used a generic cake mix (shhhh).



See? Look how cute I am. I decorated them with mini Reece's cups. These were for my friend Wonju's birthday. Won's family owns a donut shop that makes the most delicious donuts in the entire world. Amazing. Whenever I'm home and feel like being a good big sister, I swing by their shop on the other side of town and pick up some for my sister. Somehow, my attempt at buying three donuts usually turns into six plus a bag of donut holes.

At any rate, every time Wonju comes over, she brings donuts. Lots and lots of donuts. I love it. So for once, I decided to repay the favor and baked Won lots and lots of cupcakes. Delicious cupcakes. Apparently her parents were baffled by the idea that I was fattening them up.

I look forward to doing it again in the future.



These are my first attempt at the cupcakes. Um, clearly the frosting was suffering from the 1000 degree weather. At any rate, the recipe I used was Peanut Butter Stuffed Hot Fudge Cupcakes. Like I said, I was less than impressed with the hot fudge sauce and the cupcakes themselves, but the frosting was to die for. Our birds (who are freaks for peanut butter and waffles), went crazy when I let them try a teeny bit.

I think the frosting is officially my go to peanut butter frosting!

The hairy bunny

One of my favorite people is my friend Jozy. Jozy absolutely *adores* bunnies. She has a bet bunny (cleverly named "Bunny"). The first piece of jewelry her boyfriend bought her was a bunny necklace. Whenever I'm bored or sad, I search for cute animal pictures, and without fail, the rabbit ones get forwarded to her.

Every time I talk about knitting, or mention that I'm unsure what to make next, she has the same response. "Bunnies"

Why? I have no idea, but the girl is obsessed. I will be genuinely surprised if she doesn't have rabbit-themed wallpaper in her first house.

At any rate, a few months ago, I finally obliged her. This is the result:



I don't quite remember how on earth I made it. I know I knit it out of this horrible boucle yarn that used to be Monkey's grandmother's. It smelled funny and was scratchy as all hell, so I attempted to wash it and let it soak with conditioner.

If I had half a brain, I wouldn't have used the giant vat of conditioner I picked up from Sam's, thinking it would be okay only to realize it left my hair nasty and I hated the smell. So the yarn really didn't improve upon washing.

Whatever, it's a toy. No biggie. It's not like Jozy's going to be snuggling it, it'll fit in the palm of her hand.



I must have used size two or five needles (because those are the only sets of DPNS I have for toys), and the yarn was truly horrible to knit with. Plus, it felt like I was knitting hair. Yuck. At any rate, I'll happily pass this atrocity along to Jozy the next time I see her. I'm sure at least she will appreciate it. In the mean time, I need to figure out what the hell I'm going to do with the other eight billion skeins of that nasty yarn.

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

I have to say, this has been an incredibly enjoyable book to listen to. The narrator, in particular really captivated me. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is told through the eyes of a precocious eleven year old girl, and the woman who narrated my audio book managed to capture her essence entirely.

As for the book itself, it reminded me in all the best ways of my childhood. It was like Nancy Drew, Matilda, and the Series of Unfortunate Events rolled up into one thoroughly delightful story. I've always been a fan of mystery books and movies, particularly ones I can predict the ending to halfway through (which may explain why Monkey and I spent our Sunday night watching two horrible movies on Lifetime, but that's beside the point). This book managed to keep me captivated while making me feel intelligent for figuring out the mystery well before Flavia did. By making each turn of the mystery easy to suss out, it also emphasized Flavia's lack of maturity, which added to the believability overall. However, the book had a sufficient amount of twists and turns to maintain my interest throughout.

Flavia's character was entirely believable. From her determination to torture her sisters to her obsession with learning, I demonstrated the same things in my childhood. I can remember hatching numerous schemes when I was a kid, as well as investigating the thesaurus for the most impressive vocabulary to spring on others. The best part of this book, however, is that I would feel comfortable letting a child of that age read it. While Flavia's gruesome imagination runs rampant, the author manages to reign in the gore to an appropriate level without dumbing it down for kids.

Like I said, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read. I actually applied for an additional library card in my University's town, just so I can download the sequel on overdrive. I'm thinking that I'll probably annoy my sister into giving the audio book a bit of a listen the next time I'm home as well. Two thumbs up on my part!

(5/5 stars)

Dear Blogger

Dear Blogger,

What the hell? If I have a post typed up, it should not take me an HOUR to finally get it to publish. It most certainly should not boot me to a search page when I push the "publish" button.

It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen more often than not when I try to publish a post.

I'm about two seconds to switching to wordpress. At least there I can comment on comments.

No love,
Lizz

Pony!

Hey, guess what?! I don't have anything remotely interesting to write about today. Why? Because my classes (already) took over my life, and I've been knitting the same boring shawl for the past two months. So. Uh, distract yourselves with this awesome version of me as a pony:



Can you tell I like bright colors?

Pesto with Cream Sauce

Oh, I made something. I made something delicious!

I put the teaser up a few weeks ago, and now I'm finally writing about it. What did I make those many days ago? Well, I made pasta with pesto cream sauce. With the first bite, I thought I had died and gone to Italian heaven. My mother felt the same way.



This was so delicious in fact, I made it again, less than a week later, for my dear friend Veronica. Our original intention was to deviously lure a boy into loving her through delicious food. That plan backfired when her boy didn't show up. That just meant more for us though, and her parents loved it as well. I've got to say, the tomatoes really make it, and I'm someone who really doesn't like tomatoes.

The boy will just have to wait until Christmas break. I'm sure by then, Veronica and I will have plenty of delicious recipes to force feed him.



Have I mentioned I'm in love with these plates? Veronica's mom wants to get rid of them if Veronica doesn't want them. I'm resisting the urge to garbage pick if that happens. When I do finally upgrade to real plates (rather than the plastic Ikea ones I use now. I swear, I'm not really five years old), I intend to buy brilliant white ones, but these are so cute. They remind me of tea parties and MeMe Rose. Anyways, back to the food.

I promise you, it's amazing. Try it. If you're particularly devious, try it twice. And with extra cheese if you're making it for my mother. And for the love of food, do toast the pine nuts.