Facing My Fears

Like most Foodies or pop-culture enthusiast I watched the movie Julie and Julia. The movie was excellent. Not just for Foodies, it's a great story of two people trying to find their place in the world. Even if you have no desire to make toast let alone boeuf bourguignon, you will enjoy this movie.
Because really who hasn't had that moment in their life when you ask yourself, "What am I doing with my life?".  This movie made me laugh and inspired me. More then that it made me really ask "what am I doing with my life?".
I love food, I love cooking and baking. I have shelves full of cookbooks that I could and do spend hours reading. I could blow an entire day reading food blogs. I always admire the people who make these recipes who aren't afraid to try something challenging.
I have a confession I haven't spent nearly enough time in my kitchen lately. Honestly it was making me sad. So the other day I was reading one of my favorite cooking blogs Smitten Kitchen when I came across a recipe for Chocolate Peanut butter cake .  Seriously what is not to love about a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing nothing thats what.
I wanted to bake this cake I had to taste it for my self. I had a party at friends house that weekend so I decided that would be the perfect place to take this cake. Once I committed to making it. The fear started sinking in.
What was I thinking? Three layer cake with two kinds of icing? Plus as I've mentioned before cake decorating is not one of my strengths. I wanted to back out of it. Call my friend and tell her I would bring brownies or something easy like that.
At that moment I realized I will never get good at layer cakes if I don't start making them. I can't keep running from challenges, I need to just do it. Even if it fails that's better then not trying. So I decided at that moment I going stop letting fear run my life. I was going to bake that cake!

First step baking the cakes this was easy

This is when things get tricky putting the layers together.

Crumb coat of icing so far so good.

Final icing before chocolate glaze

The finished product!

This cake is so good. I swear this cake is the cure for any bad day. Just thinking about it makes me smile.  I am so glad I baked this cake. Not only did my friends love it. I will never let fear stand between me and a good dessert again!

Happy Mothers Day!!!!!

Happy Mothers Day! To all the moms out. This year I was fortunate enough to actually spend mothers day with my mother and grandmother. I flew home to Albuquerque, NM on Thursday night for duel purpose of finding my wedding dress and spending mothers day with my mom!

It was a really wonderful weekend. On Friday I worked from home and on Friday night my mom and I went to her Salsa fitness dance class. We worked up a sweat and then went home and changed to go out for dinner and cocktails! Normally when I am home I try to hit up as many mexican places as my stomach could hold. This weekend was different, my mom wanted to show me that there was more to New mexico then just chile and enchiladas. So we had dinner at Nob Hill Bar and Grill.

I have to admit I was suprised at how good the drinks and the food was. The menu offers comfort food with an updated twist. My mom and I had the shrimp corn dogs, Tuna nachos and sweet potatoe fries. Those are appitizers on the menu so it was little plates that we shared. Also on the menu was a Kobe Chili Dog, Mac and cheese, Kobe chile frito pie (fredo pie on the menu). The best part of the meal was the cocktail.

I have had my share of good cocktails in my day but this one was AMAZING!!! It's called Berries and Bubbles. What it is, is blackberries and raspberries soaked in vodka. They mix the berries with blueberry vodka then top with champagne. Then they ad dry ice to make it bubble. It was so good. Too good if you ask me. The kind of cocktail you have three or four of without even thinking about it good. I only had one because I knew if I got two I would need two more. I have pictures of the food and the cocktails. I am currently sitting at the airport writing this post waiting to fly back to San Diego. I will share the photos when I get home and download them.

Besides the food. I had a wonderful time with my family and friends. I will tell you more. But they are startin to board my plane so. This will be continued. Have a wonderful mothers day!

I am Baaaccck!

I know, I know it's been a really long time since my last post like four months! I have a really good reason for not posting. Since you've last heard from me. I've moved into a new apartment. Gone to Europe and gotten engaged! Yes you read right I am engaged! Cory purposed to me while we were in Paris. So I hope you can understand why I have been so lax in my postings.

Also I have so much to share that I don't know where to start. So I am hoping that throughout the upcoming weeks I will catch up on my trip, life and last but never least the FOOD!

Everyday I was away I wrote in my journal to make sure I didn't forget at thing. Plus I took lots of pictures of all the delicious food I ate. I loved the food so much in Europe, that I had to buy and extra suitcase to bring home the cheese, chocolate wine that I picked up while I was there.

I promise to do a longer post on Europe when I am not currently under the influence of a sleeping pill. I can't wait to share all my food adventures and stories with you. I almost thought that I had been away so long that I didn't have anyone following my blog anymore. I was very wrong.

So thank you Charese and Amanda for reminding me that I do have an audience and stories that need to be shared. I promise to never let this much time lapse again between postings. :) 

Bonsoir 

Foodie Girl

Cupcake vs. Cake

I am going to a dinner party this weekend and was asked to bring dessert. After racking my brain on what to bring I settled on carrot cake. My only issue is this. I am not a very good cake decorator. I can ice a cake, however it never has that really pretty polished look to it you know. Instead my cakes look very, how do I put it, rustic. Mind you they always taste great but leave a little to be desired in the appearance department.
I was thinking that I could make cupcakes instead of one big cake. I am much better at decorating cupcakes. I just don't know if that is acceptable for a dinner party? I have visions of walking in with a beautiful carrot cake in my hand. Having slices with coffee after dinner. Handing out cupcakes doesn't really fit with my vision.
I am asking you readers, okay who am I kidding reader (hi mom). What should I do should I make one big cake or make cupcakes instead?

I ask and the universe answers!

I am sure must of your are familiar or at least heard of "The Secret". The secret is all about the laws of attraction. The basic idea is you ask the universe for something and the universe will provide it for you.

Last Sunday, Cory and I finished breakfast and I said lets drive around and see if we can find places for rent. I've been thinking that it was time to find a new place, one with more space and a bigger kitchen. Keep in mind I wasn't really thinking about moving any time soon. I just wanted to see what was out there and start the process.

I should learn not to ask for things I don't want to get. This morning I get an e-mail from Cory. Subject line : They are kicking us out! I didn't think anything of it, I thought he was talking about moving to a new office or something. Then, to my surprise I read that our condo owners are back from France and they want to move back in! They have given us 60 days to vacate the property! I had to read the e-mail five times to make sure I was seeing this correctly! I call Cory and I am like WTF!!!!

He told my you brought this on yourself with all that lets look at places to rent talk this weekend. You put it out into the universe and now the universe is making us move! That's not the worst of it. The worst of it is 60 days from now is my birthday. For my birthday I will be in Paris! A trip I planned 6 months ago! So not only do I have to find a new place to live I have to do it all before my big vacation.

Instead of focusing on the negative I am going to look at this from the positive side. I really did want to find a new place. And sometimes we need life to push us to make a change. Also as I mentioned previous post I wanted to get rid of clutter and be more organized. What better way to do that then to move. It gives me a perfect opportunity to go throw out all the stuff I've been dying to get rid of.

Plus I can move into the new place and set up a new functioning organizational system. I am hoping to enlist the help of my favorite OCD friend Sarah (there will be some brownies in it for you) . So it's a new year and it looks like a new place to live for me! I guess the universe did answer my plea, I now have the exact motivation I need to be organized and find another space to live!

The moral here is, be careful what you ask for you just might get it!


P.S. If any of you know of a great place for rent with a big kitchen and 2 bedrooms, washer/dryer in the SD area. Give me a ring ! ;)

New Year, new pantry

Happy New Year EVERYONE!!!

We are seven days into 2009, and I've made a couple of resolutions. I wont bore you with all the details. One of them is to be more organized and eliminate clutter. One place I really want to focus on getting organized is my kitchen!

This morning I was reading the NYTimes food section like I do every Wednesday and came across this great article on stocking your kitchen for the new year. It outlines the items you should throw out and what you should replace them with.

Some of the items like getting rid of bottled lemon juice and using fresh lemons I all ready knew. But, things like how do buy fresh vanilla beans online instead of using extract were tips I could really use. Another one for example is throwing out all spices that you have had for a year or longer. I am going to purge my spice rack and go out and buy fresh new spices for the new year.

I've notice that Cory and I have the really bad habit of buying groceries we've all ready have. Which leads to a lot of food being thrown out or not eaten. So I want to clean out my cabinets freezer and fridge. That way we know what we have and what we need. I also want to actually write a grocery list.

We go shop for food every week but mostly we shop from memory, bad idea! So once the kitchen is cleaned out we can go in every week and take an accurate inventory of what we need. Plus it will inspire me to cook with what we have so I don't waste it.

Plus this article gives really good points on how to eat real whole foods instead for processed imitation food. If you have a minute read the article, link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/dining/07mini.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Goodbye 2008

There is only one hour and 8 minutes left PST of 2008! I didn't want the year to end without one more post.

Yes in case your wondering I am home on my computer on New Years Eve ( No Judgement). Before you start feeling too sorry for me. I did have a wonderful dinner with my two longtime friends Dee and Monica. Now I am home with lots of champagne and a new Wii game to break in!

Anyway, 2008 overall was a good year. I changed jobs, got a new computer and made some great new friends. I also started this blog and my baking business Brown Sugar. 

I want to thank you all friends and family for all your support not only this year but every year. Tomorrow I plan to wake up drink a mimosa and make sticky buns from scratch!

I am going to go now I have champagne to drink after all.

Here is to a great 2009 !

Happy New Year!