Can I just take a second to say how proud I am of my big sister who just finished her Master’s degree and already has an awesome job helping in the set-up of the George Bush presidential library in Dallas. Way to go, big sis! =)
This isn’t exactly a newsflash I suppose. He’s fixed many things that I had written off as completely broken. But he still manages to surprise me. Case in point was the day he dropped his iPhone.
I saw that it was busted and went ahead and looked up if either one of us was elligible for a new phone. I told him that I was elligible and he could have my upgrade. He informed me that not only was it fixable, he had already ordered the kit on-line to fix it. Grand total? $15, but only because he paid for the expedited shipping.
The kit came in with a busted screen already, but the company sent a new one right away. Following a helpful you tube video, he managed to fix the thing. It required using my hair dryer and he seemed tense a few times, but it’s just like new again. I didn’t get a picture of it fixed, but here it is in mid-operation:
And due to his success, it looks like my phone might be getting a face lift shortly as well. I can’t wait to share that with you guys, but you will have to wait just as long as I do!
I rarely make chocolate chip cookies. They aren’t really my favorite cookie, so I generally make something else I would rather eat. My friend Theresa loves making them and since Matt missed out on all of her cookies at New Years, I made him a batch (following her instructions) and he thought they were pretty good*. But still it ranks pretty low on my cookie making list…
So the other day I ran across this recipe from the Test Kitchen that claimed to be the best chocolate chip cookies ever. It was supposed to be the perfect balance of flavors and textures. I was in charge of snack for life group, so I figured I would make them as they were mentioned twice the night our opening question was “What is your favorite dessert?”
Well the recipe certainly is different from the usual one on the back of the yellow bag. I pulled out the butter and cut it into small pieces to soften before collecting the rest of the ingredients. I had failed to notice that step one is melting the butter in a skillet until it starts to brown… I was nervous about the butter because in my mind it was going to go from perfectly browned & nutty to scorched in mere seconds! Actually, it wasn’t that dramatic – and note the perfect brownness:
After that, it required stirring in two types of sugar and waiting for 10 minutes, then repeating the process “stir & wait” two times. “These cookies had better be worth the effort” occurred to me multiple times while setting the timer on my iPhone. Only after following the rest of the steps did I notice the scoop size – 3 tablespoons – these cookies were going to be huge! Forget 4 dozen cookies, it made 18 with the same amount of ingredients. But I (and everyone in my life group) can attest that these were indeed the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten. Screw the back of the yellow bag recipe – I am sold on this slightly weird but much more delicious version!
* Sorry Theresa – yours were my favorite until I made these… “/
Here comes a no brainer: I like to make cakes. I use almost any excuse that I can think of to make a cake. The easiest one is for birthdays. There aren’t enough people nearby to keep me busy on that, so I started making cakes for my coworkers birthdays (in case you hadn’t figured that out already). I always ask someone their birthday at the most random time, so there is always the possibility they will forget I know and be surprised when they get a cake! Shockingly, this has worked more than a few times. At another random time I will ask what their favorite cake is and make that unless they give me a generic “Any cake is fine” answer. My favorites are the ones who pick cakes that I really like and don’t think get nearly enough play time in the cake arena.
Such is the case with Dave – he wanted a carrot cake. I love carrot cake! The only cake that tries so hard to pretend it is healthy, but in no way is. To be fair – I have seen some recipes recently that have a 1/3 of the fat and calories and I offered to make that version, but Dave is truly a person after my own heart and wanted the full fat version. So the only semblance of health in this cake is the full pound of carrots shredded inside:
After getting the cakes in the oven I tackled the delicious Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese icing. I tried my darndest not to eat too much of it because of the whole lactose-intolerance issue, but it was just soooo good. I had told Dave I was going to try to pipe carrots on it, but with the vanilla specks in the icing, I think it would have looked weird. Plus I’ve never really tried to pipe carrots…
Maybe one of these days I will get around to taking some decorating classes, because my skills are pretty basic. I can usually get the icing pretty smooth, but I decided to go with a more creative finish this time. I found a bakery in the north-east that uses simple but very pretty designs on their cakes like the Strawberries and Cream cake – that I thought I could probably do on my cakes with lower stress levels. In related news – check out their prices… Maybe opening a bakery isn’t such a bad idea. ;)
I think the finished cake looked pretty good, though one of my dear coworkers informed me that it looked like a tire. I don’t see it – I thought it looked more like a flower since I put the dot of icing in the center. My cake cutting skills are pretty bad when I do it a slice at a time – I figured the dot would keep me centered.
But honestly no one cared about the looks all that much because it was amazing. Cook’s Illustrated delivered a superb cake like always. If you have access to their recipes, I highly recommend trying it – Spiced Carrot Cake with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Icing. The recipe actually makes a 9×13 cake, but I made it with two 9″ round pans instead. I usually drop the temperature down 25 degrees and cook them longer so that the cakes don’t dome as much (as well as using cake strips). Also you will need to double the icing to have enough for a layer cake. Totally worth it!
Day #2 had much clearer weather – though it was still a bit too cold for this Texan’s liking. Luckily I was know that I get cold easily and packed enough clothing to stay warm. My nose did get a bit chilly though… 
After a few successful runs in the morning, I was starting to get hungry. Not cheeseburger and chili hungry (that was lunch), but enough that the aroma coming from the Waffle Cabin at the base of the slopes was much too tempting to resist. I am so glad that I didn’t even try. These things are quite possible the best waffles I have ever eaten. I would describe them as a cross between a normal waffle and a doughnut with chunks of pearl sugar cooked into them that caramelized on the griddle. I have got to find a way to recreate these bad boys (or order a dozen from their website)
Last run of the day, I told Matt to go up without me so he could go down a more Matt-acceptable run. My plan was to go get more waffles! Imagine my extreme sadness when I realized I missed have another heavenly waffle by 15 minutes. Definitely the low part of the Maple Syrup 2011 trip. =(
But the trip did not end on a low note. When we went to one of the sugar houses, we entered a drawing for one of three maple syrup jugs… and I won the half gallon! We only had to back track by about 1o minutes to go retrieve it and I think the store was pretty happy about a couple from Texas getting it. I was just super excited – I hardly ever win anything! (Plus it was $32 worth of syrup!)
