Pig Cake

When I told my friends and family that I would be making a Pig Cake in honor of the Razorbacks (for the aforementioned event), I, apparently, was deceiving them.  They were expecting a nicely baked cake in the shape of a pig.  While I would love to have the ability to make said cake, my current skills are only sufficient to make this kind of pig cake.  A lovely cake that has nothing to do with pigs. 

It has canned fruit in it.  Canned fruit reminds me of snack time and cafeteria food in elementary school. 

Moving on...

This cake is actually pretty fantastic.  I'm more of a chocolate girl myself, but I didn't mind this fruity cake one bit.  It's also very very simple.  Notice my attraction towards simplicity on this blog? I rarely enjoy a tough recipe, as most of them end in frustration and a trashcan full of food.

The batter is really just about mixing a box of cake mix and a can of mandarine oranges (as well as some eggs and a dash of oil here and there). Doesn't get much simpler than that.

I made this cake a day in advance and prepared the icing right before the party arrived.  While we watched the game and devoured the food, the icing was busy setting in the fridge.

Once the icing has hardened a bit (to about the consistency of whipped cream), slice it up and top it with a mandarine orange! Delicious! You can find the recipe here!

I bet if certain football players had eaten this before a certain game, we wouldn't still be in mourning.

p.s.... you might have noticed some changes around here.  Don't worry... it's a minor flaw of mine.  I just can't leave things well enough alone.  Don't be surprised if it changes again in a month!

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Well, I've found it.  The perfect go-to dip for any social occasion.  This past Tuesday, I decided to whip up this tasty treat for the Sugar Bowl (Arkansas vs. Ohio State) watch party at my apartment. Unfortunately, our Razorbacks didn't turn out quite as well as this dip did.  This dip is delicious and oh-so-easy to make.

Garlic is my #2 favorite ingredient to cook with. Did you know that?

You're probably wondering what #1 is. 

No, it's not artichoke hearts.

 It's chocolate.  I know I know... so cliche.

I apologize for these terrible pictures... they were taken at night and my wretched apartment creates a nasty, yellow hue on every picture I take.  No amount of picture editing can undo the yellow atrocity. Regardless, this dip is incredible and I do hope you make it soon.  You can find the recipe here.

(Thank you to my brother, Nick, for graciously offering to model the chip)

Notice Jane in the corner biting her nails... this was a rough game to watch.  Rough, indeed.

Last but not least, my boys watching the game...

Pumpkin Cookies

Okay this one's more like it.... It just might make my "must-make-all-the-time" list.  This cookie is so simple yet soooo delicious.  I've never made a cookie that's as fluffy as this, and I've never made one that stays fluffy as long as this one does. The inside is almost cake-like, while the chocolate chips remain soft and gooey.  I adapted the recipe from here... the original recipe called for butterscotch chips, but my spur of the moment trip to CVS turned up fruitless.   I just used chocolate chips instead, but I'm anxious to try these again with the butterscotch chips, as I think they would be divine.

All in all this recipe took me 20 minutes... It's your basic drop cookie recipe with simple ingredients. 

Oh p.s... this is my companion in the kitchen.
His name is Wilson.

Please make these cookies soon. So so simple. And then you can let me know how the butterscotch chips are!

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

Let me just start off by saying these are not at the top of my "must-make-all-the-time" list... you could possibly say this was a recipe fail.  There's nothing more frustrating than spending an hour an a half of your day on something that you end up throwing in the garbage in the end.  If I were truly a dedicated food blogger, I would clean off my hands and go at it again, trying to get that perfect recipe to show your readers.  Seeing as how I have about 5 readers, family included, I don't quite feel up to perfecting this thing.  I'm just going to chalk it up as a failure.  

Easy ingredients, easy recipe.  For those of you who have made cinnamon rolls from scratch... bravo to you.  I'd like to shake your hand.  As much as I love them, the idea of spending that many hours making them has always seemed daunting and thus, I have avoided doing it.  However, this recipe does not require the many hours of waiting for the bread to rise or rolling the dough to get the perfect cinnamon:bread ratio.  Prep time is actually about 20 minutes and cooking time is about 20.  Not too shabby. 

So far so good...

Now here's where we run into the problem.  The recipe called for a pretty large sized bowl of the cinnamon sugar mixture.  With a recipe providing such an immense amount, one thinks that entire amount must be used.  wrongo.

Notice the burned cinnamon sugar around the sides? There was, alas, a too little bread: cinnamon ratio. The sugar overflowed (even though I mixed a lot of the sugar into the dough... as I was told to) and burned the crap out of my pan.  And my cinnamon rolls.

The insides were delicious, but unfortunately, the outsides were just too burnt to continue.  I would suggest NOT trying to use all of the sugar mixture that was in the recipe... Just lightly dust it.  You will probably end up with a large bowl of sugar left but, hey, some pumpkin pancakes could use some!

You can find the recipe here! I really would suggest making these... they were super easy but dumbo over here used too much sugar. Easy problem to fix!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Well, I'm back.  I've decided to start the blog up again.  Maybe it's a New Year's resolution.  Maybe it's just boredom during my last week of break.  Regardless, I'm back... with some changes.  I'm hoping this blog will be a little bit more structured... more cooking focused, less rambling.  I received a new camera for Christmas that will allow me to take a lot better photos of the food I cook.  I'm so looking forward to learning more about it and hopefully improving my cooking skills along the way.  Unfortunately, the photos don't turn out as great on this blog as I had hoped they would but still better than the camera I was using before! My horrible kitchen doesn't really help either.... I'm stuck having to take photos in fluorescent light.  Ick. Hopefully, my next kitchen will provide me some natural light!

I adapted this recipe from the Good to the Grain cookbook.  Kim Boyce does a great job of incorporating very different flours (aside from the traditional white flour) into the recipes while maintaining simplicity.

The recipe called for Kamut flour but seeing as how I really don't even know how to pronounce that word, I traded it out for whole- wheat flour.

 I also halved the recipe... the original yielded 20 pancakes.  That's a bit much for a girl and her dog to eat.

The topping she suggested and included the recipe for was a spiced sugar blend.  Sounded delicious but I'm more of a syrup/ fruity kind of gal on my pancakes.   I added a little bit of apple butter to the pancakes and it turned out divine.  The apple butter complimented the pumpkin and cinnamon in the pancakes, making for an overall delicious (and healthy) breakfast!

Recipe:

Yields about 20 pancakes

Ingredients

Butter for the pan

Dry mix:

1 cup whole-wheat (she used Kamut flour) flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp allspice

Wet mix:

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 1/4 cup whole milk

1 cup buttermilk

2/3 cup pumpkin puree

2 Tbsp. honey

1 egg

Spiced Sugar:

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. allspice

Directions:

1. Sift dry ingredietns into large bowl. set aside.

2. In medium bowl, whisk wet ingredients until thoroughly combined.

3. Using spatula, mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients.  Gently fold batter together with spatula.  The batter should be the consistency of lightly whipped cream and have a subtle orange hue.

4. Mix together spiced sugar. Set aside. 

5. Heat a 10-inch cast- iron or griddle over medium heat until water sizzles when splashed on pan. Rub the pan generously with butter. 

6. Dollop 1/4-cup mounds of batter into the pan (2 or 3 at a time). Once bubbles from on top of pancake, flip over and cook until pancake is dark-golden brown.

7. Wipe pan with cloth before next batch.

8. Serve pancakes hot, with spiced sugar sprinkled on top. 

Why I Haven't Blogged: Chapter 1

I'm very fortunate to be attending a medical school that offers their students informational sessions that they believe to be beneficial to their students.  One such session was held last week, and we were graciously given a speech on financial aid, specifically to paint the picture of the debt an average medical student will incur over a 25 year plan.  They offered us a very grim, sobering, and astonishing number of $900,000.  

moving on....

The next session was held today.  It was a planning session that gave us an idea of how to build our schedules.  They had us make a list of everything we cannot survive a week without.  They then gave us a grid that listed days of the week on top and all the hours in the day to the side.  Yes, it was a time table and we were to fill it out.

I'll skip the gory stuff and get straight to the moral of the story.  My life now, divided into hours:

(How much a day I need to spend doing the following activities)

Sleep: 7 hours 

Attending lecture: 4 hours

Attending lab: ~3-4 hours

Study: 5-5.5 hours

Eat meals (3): 1.5 hours

Commuting, getting ready (hygiene), and staring at a wall to relax: 2 hours

Totaling the high end of every one of those activities: 24 hours

Notice what is NOT on that list?  Spending time with Tad, spending time with my family, spending time with my friends, grocery shopping, doing laundry, cleaning my apartment, exercising, reading, watching tv, etc, etc, etc....

Granted, my weekends will have a bit more free time... specifically, 10 hours more.  Yes, it's that technical.  

5pm- 12 am on Saturday: free time (to be spent with tad and friends) 

6 pm- 9 pm on Sundays (to be spent with family).  

Also, we have to keep in mind that this type of "weekend" will only happen every other weekend... as every other weekend is a test weekend. Test weekends will have 0 hours of free time and significantly less sleep.

I don't think I'm going to go to those sessions anymore.

(p.s.... don't be fooled by the title.  There will probably not be a chapter 2 for quite some time.)

Finally caught up.

When it comes to certain things, such as technology, I am usually the last person aboard the boat.  Well, aside from my mother ha.

A few things have recently come into my possession of which I'm about 3 years behind the rest of the world in getting.

And I think... what took me so long?? Obviously financial reasons but fortunately enough, these items sort of just fell into my lap. By the grace of god? no, by a brother who got a free itouch with his mac and a boyfriend whose itch to play video games sparked him to get a wii game system.  It also helps that I have a brother going to college who is willing to give us all of his wii games... including wii fit. I guess my fortune cookie was right... I've had some very lucky past couple of weeks.

People, I have a sick obsession with wii fit.  Good thing? oh. yes.  Never did I think I would be obsessed with working out or breaking a sweat.  However, the day has come.  I've never had so much fun running.  I'm talking crazy talk.  Anyone want to try to beat me at the ski jump? bring it.

And for the past two hours (yes, it is not even 10 am) I have been messing with my new itouch.  Did I mention how much I love apple software? well, I do. And my luck has continued, as every app I want happens to be free. What's going on here? Does this mean my next two weeks are going to suck something serious? Let's hope not... med school is just around the corner.

Okay and I know that I am REALLY behind the times in getting the game Words with Friends, but for all of you out there who haven't given up on the game yet/ still play the game, wanna play???