Rich Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Let's take a little break from all my baby related posts and get back into my other passion: baking. Oh how I've missed baking! This past weekend was my friend Christie's baby shower and I offered to bake something. I made vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting.

I got so many compliments, it felt nice :) Too bad I didn't make up the recipe, I'm sure anyone can be a good baker, you just need to have a good recipe and follow it, step by step. Anyhow, here's the recipe for this yummy frosting, it makes enough to frost a 2 layer cake, I had plenty of leftover after frosting 20 cupcakes. I also added food coloring, I made 4 different colors, but I'm only showing the yellow.

Here is the recipe, taken from The New Best Recipe Book.

4 large eggs

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1 lb (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool, each stick cut into quarters.

1. Combine eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer; place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. (do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water.) Whisking gently but constantly, heat the mixture until it is thin and foamy and registers 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer.

2. Beat the egg mixture at medium high speed until light, airy, and cooled to room temperature (about 5 min). Reduce the speed to medium and add the butter, one piece at a time. (it might look curdled at one point, but it will smooth out) Once all the butter is added, increase speed to high and beat 1 minute, until light, fluffy and throughly combined.

Edit: I forgot to mention, please use the frosting right after making it (on cool cake of course). I have tried to refrigerate after making it, but it gets very hard and when you try to mix it again, it curdles, not pretty! So frost away, then you can refrigerate. 

Enjoy!

What we eat

This past Sunday, we went on a tour of the ranch we bought our beef from. Between us and another couple of friends, we bought 1/4 of a cow. It comes from a local farm and the beef is grass fed. It was nice being able to see how the animals we eat used to live. It was a huge and beautiful farm. It was also my first time going on a hay ride :)

In case you haven't been following our eating habits, here's mostly what we try to do:

- eat only natural, non processed food (at least at home)

- cook everything from scratch

- buy grass fed beef, cheese and butter

- buy whole, grass fed, non homogenized milk.

- we try to buy most of our fruits and veggies organic

- we buy pastured eggs and chicken.

- we drink fermented cod liver oil and also eat high vitamin butter

- we try to avoid grains and sugar

Some of these things we have been doing for years now, but others are a most recent habit. Of course, this doesn't mean we don't sometimes eat out and enjoy some pizza and burgers or make yummy desserts, it just doesn't happen that often anymore.

We try to follow the advice of the Weston A. Price Foundation, because after doing our own research, that is what we believe to be the healthiest "diet". So movies like Food Inc and shows like Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, weren't much of a shock to us, but I'm glad it has opened up others people eyes to what they eat.

I noticed that we haven't gotten sick in a very long time. Also, when we started to eat less carbs, my menstrual cycles became more regular, I stopped having migraines and Mike and I lost weight :) I know a lot of people say they wish they could eat healthy but they just can't afford it, well I think it's all a matter of priorities. I could write a whole other blog post telling you the ways we save money ;)

Apple-Braised Pork Pot Roast

Among our many Christmas gifts these year was a subscription to Cuisine at Home. We rarely eat pork, but this recipe sounded just so good. Anyway, I made it and after 4 hours, it did turn out delicious. We're having leftovers for dinner tonight, yummy!

Taco Salad

One of our favorite quick and easy dinners to prepare is taco salad. When we went on our low carb diet, we started eating lots of salads, I don't know why we never had this one before. We used to have it without the corn chips when we were more strict about it.

My friend Candice recently decided to give the low carb lifestyle a try. I went grocery shopping with her and told her to get stuff to make taco salad. I don't really use a recipe, but I pretty much start by frying up diced onion in olive oil, then I add the garlic, then the beef, then all the spices. And garnish with everything else. This is what I put in mine:

For the meat: 1 small onion, ground beef, minced garlic, salt and pepper, chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper and oregano. Serve it on top of chopped romaine lettuce, then add black beans, salsa, sour cream, cheddar cheese, guacamole and tortilla chips. You should try it!

Welcome 2010

A little late in welcoming the new year but here I am! Things that have happened since my last post:

- Bought new Christmas ornaments for next year at Target. I got them in white and jewel tones... very cheerful looking.

- Spent my last gift card and with it, purchased my very first pair of skinny jeans... Is there like an age limit to wearing them? I hope I don't look ridiculous in them.

- Mike calls skinny jeans "Harry Potter jeans"... I don't know why.

- I also bought lots of cute new undies hee hee

- Celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday. We had lunch at Seasons 52, which we have never been. Other than that, nothing special :(

- Today we used our brand new standing mixer to make chocolate butter cookies, as usual, they turned out delicious.

- Speaking of cookies, I think they'll go great with my tea. I have completely given up coffee and I now drink decaffeinated tea with cream and sugar, I really like it!

- The weather is amazing, it's been in the 50's these past days... love love love

- Made scallops for dinner for the first time today... they were so good! How can we be such amazing cooks? ;)

We're back!

I'm so glad that Mike decided to spend Thanksgiving with his dad and his family, it was worth the 13 hour drive... not that I did any driving, but still, I had to try very hard not to fall asleep. Lily did really well on her first long road trip too. We left Monday morning and were back home last night around midnight.

It was nice being around a lot of people, I really miss that here. Everyone was very happy to see Mike. I also think they liked me, it was their first time meeting me... they sent me home with lots of goodies... among them the Pioneer Woman cookbook and a cast iron skillet to try some of her recipes, how cool is that?!

We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I even made a pumpkin pie, but for some reason I didn't like the way it came out, I'll have to make another one here at home. The weather was perfect, nice and cold. They said it wasn't very pretty because all the leaves already fell off the trees, but it was still a nice change of scenery for me.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Mike and I made my birthday cupcakes yesterday. I wanted something lemony and pink. So we just added the juice and zest of one lemon to our regular yellow cupcake recipe. Then we iced them with a delicious (pink) butter cream frosting that just melts in your mouth... so good!

Tonight's Dinner

Roasted chicken breast with creamy mushroom sauce and creamed spinach made with boursin cheese... yum!

Spinach Souffle

I've been making souffles about once a week ever since we checked out Mastering the Art of French Cooking from the library. Here's my own version of Julia Child's Spinach Souffle recipe, I hope it makes sense... You will need the following:

1 pkg frozen chopped spinach (thawed)
1 TBL Minced Shallots or onions
4 TBL Butter
3 TBL Flour
1 cup of Milk
4 eggs (Yolks and Whites separated)
1/2 cup Shredded Cheese
Seasonings: Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and nutmeg to taste

You will need: Souffle mold or square glass dish will do as well. Hand mixer, stainless steel saucepan, mixing bowl, whisk, wooden spoon.

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Measure out all your ingredients and grease the souffle mold.

-Melt 1 TBL butter and cook the shallots for a moment, then add spinach and some salt, stir over med-high heat for several minutes to evaporate as much moisture from the spinach as possible. Set aside and return empty sauce pan to medium heat.

-Melt 3 TBL butter in the saucepan. Stir in flour and cook for about 2 min, without browning.

-Remove from heat, when the mixture stops bubbling, pour in milk and whisk until blended. Mix in seasonings. Return to heat for 1 minute. Sauce will be very thick.

-Remove from heat and whisk in the egg yolks. Add the cheese and spinach mixture.

-Beat the eggs whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Stir ¼ of egg whites into the sauce. Fold in gently the rest of the egg whites and pour into greased mold. Turn the heat down to 375 degrees and bake for 20-25 minutes. Enjoy!

Back to normal

Sorry I haven't been updating, but I had guests in my house for the past 3 weeks. First my friend Paola from Cancun, then my mom was here for 2 weeks, who just left today. I'm feeling a bit sad because I don't know when I'll get to see her again.

We were able to go to Miami, just like my mom wanted. We went with Paola and another friend of hers. We drove around South Beach and spent most of our day at the beach. At night, we went to a place called Bayside, where we walked around listening to live music while enjoying some cold mojitos.

For the most part, we just hung out at my house and went to shopping centers. She cooked some Mexican food for me like pollo con mole, tinga and chicharron en salsa verde, it was all so good! She also brought with her some tamales and queso panela.

This past Monday I took her to Leu Gardens and this weekend, we met up with my mother in law and her boyfriend to have dinner at PF Changs. I had a good time with my mom, I just wished I could have taken her to more places. Now it's time to go back to my regular routine and keep looking for a job.

Me and my mommy :)

Hello there August!

My friend Paola that lives in Cancun is coming to visit in two weeks. She'll be staying with us for a week. Then my mom arrives a week after her. I'm excited about seeing them, I haven't seen my mom since we went to California for thanksgiving.

This past Thursday I helped my friend Isabelle with a photo shoot. It was really fun! I hope I have the opportunity to assist her in other shoots she might have. I even got to ride in her cute smart car... yes, I get excited about these things he he.

We've made a few more changes to our diet. We are now buying grass fed beef, butter and when we can, heavy cream. We also started drinking raw milk... I was scared of trying the raw milk at first, but it is really good! Other than that, we're still on our low carb diet. I'm reading Real Food: What to Eat and Why, it's pretty much just a refresher of everything I've already learned.

Lately, we've been using Julia Child's Mastering The Art of French Cooking cookbook. Many of the recipes call for a dutch oven. So, since we can't really afford to buy a Le Creuset right now, we bought a Lodge enameled cast iron dutch oven. We used it today to make coq au vin... even Lily approved. How was your weekend?

My point exactly...

Setting: Sunday afternoon, looking at a free magazine picked up at Whole Foods.

Mike: This magazine is all new agey...

Me: Well, you're kinda of new agey too...

Mike: No I'm not! I make fun of those people... Oh! I just remembered, I found a good new age station last night, can you turn it on?

Any way... We finally bought some grass fed beef and made some delicious chili with it. Mike also wanted to buy raw milk, but I drew the line with the non homogenized, it's actually very good and creamy! How was your weekend?

PS. Mike asked if they sold brains at Whole Foods... enough said

Happy Birthday my love...

We had some friends over for a little early birthday celebration for Mike this past Saturday. Food was great, we made a cream of mushroom soup, following a Julia Child recipe, spinach and asparagus salad with goat cheese and roasted chicken with a pan sauce. For dessert (yes, we cheated a bit on our diet with the dessert), an orange souffle with ice cream. Everything was delicious!

We also played a little bit of boardgames, watched a movie (The Wrestler) and went over to Avalon Park to see some fireworks. It was a good day overall. He got these speakers for his birthday. On Sunday, we headed over to Cool Stuff for another birthday present, a boardgame of course! He chose one called A House Divided. Happy birthday baby, I love you more than anything, can't wait to share more birthdays with you ♥

New Additions

We made a few purchases this past week. All new additions to our always busy kitchen. We bought a Zyliss salad spinner, a Microplane Professional Grater (so professional I already cut myself) and some ramekins that make everything look better. Who would have thought I would ever get excited about kitchen gadgets?!

(Caesar salad, steak and cauliflower gratin)

Diet

I went to the doctor this past Friday to discuss the results of my blood work and as I had suspected, my cholesterol was very high. My liver functions were still high and don't know why, so they took more blood to see if it still came up. Now I just have to wait for those results.

Mike has been doing all kinds of research for a few months now and he learned that the biggest factor causing obesity, high cholesterol and other heart diseases were refined carbohydrates (white flour and sugar, aka everything that is delicious in the world) So now we are on a low carb diet... and it's horrible!

This past week has been miserable for me. This diet is making me depressed and cranky. I've never been on a diet so it's been really hard for me. I seriously fantasize about desserts and bread ALL day long. It seems like everything I like has tons of carbs, so it's been very frustrating for me. I did loose 5 lb (not that you can tell by looking at me of course), but the main reason why we're doing this isn't to loose weight, but to be healthy.

I asked Mike why couldn't we just cut back on our carbs instead of giving them up all together so drastically. Turns out, your body stores carbs as fat, in the process making you feel hungry. Instead, we are eating eggs, veggies, meats, cheese, certain fruits, nuts, etc until we feel satisfied. We are still cooking with butter and coconut oil (saturated fats that are actually good, but everyone thinks they are bad for you) and olive oil.

Lets hope no one gets hurt during our little diet adventure, I think carbs are what used to make me a nice person. In the mean time, I'll go back to dreaming about pies, cakes, bread, cookies...

Changes

There has been a couple of changes in my life lately. The first one is that I legally changed my last name. I know this might sound corny, but I honestly feel like I've lost a part of my identity and heritage. I don't see how changing a last name makes a marriage more "official"... it feels like my husband now owns me or something. I still don't get what the big deal is, but it meant a lot to Mike and it was starting to become a hassle with insurance and other paper work, so I went ahead and got it over with.

The other change we're making in our life is in our diet. Just a few weeks back, while enjoying some tapas in Miami, I was telling my friends how I would NEVER go on a diet, that I loved food so much... well, so much for that conversation. I had some blood work done a few weeks ago and something weird came up in my liver, so I had to get more blood work done. Now I'm waiting to go back and discuss the results with my doctor.

We have been eating more natural for like 2 years now, making everything from scratch and not eating any preservatives, artificial ingredients, hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. But now, we are also trying to really cut down on our carbs and sugar, and that makes me very sad! I tell Mike I'd rather live a short and happy life, where I can eat anything I want! He doesn't seem to agree with me he he. I know it's all a matter of getting used to this new lifestyle, but it's so hard! I have the cravings of 10 pregnant ladies put together! I love desserts and bread so much it makes me want to cry... ok I admit it, I did cry about it already.

I know that in the long run it's the right decision. I don't want to end up like my parents taking tons of pills to control everything. As it is, Mike and I believe that most diseases are preventable by eating the right diet, I just didn't really care he he. We are still taking our food based vitamins and cod liver oil. We also started going on daily walks. Now that we are back on track in our trying to conceive (ttc) adventure, what better time to change our eating habits to try our best to have a healthy baby right?

Star Trek and Cookies

Hello! Mike and I are going to go watch the Star Trek movie later tonight. How did a girl like me get into this Star Trek mess you may ask, well let me explain. I made Mike watch the whole series of Friends and Sex and the City with me and in exchange, I would watch Star Trek with him, well let me tell you, there are enough Star Trek episodes for the next 100 years! I must find another girly series for him to watch with me.

We made peanut butter cookies last night. Although I really wanted crunchy oatmeal cookies, like the ones from Panera Bread, but we made those instead. I'm attempting to make a coconut cream pie today for my mother in law, that's the dessert she requested for tomorrow. I can blame Mike if it doesn't come out well, I'm doing it how he told me to.

I finally started working on new paintings for Sugar Village, it's going to be 3 pieces with an A, B and C. I'll show you when I'm finished with them. I want to start making paintings for any age group, because right now, they appeal mostly to people with babies. But every time I try to, it transforms into something cute, I just can't help it. Maybe one day...

One more week

I start training for the Census job next Friday at 8:30 am. I'm getting really nervous about it. I haven't had a "real" job in about 4 years, yikes! I hope I like it and that I meet some cool people along the way. It'll also be nice to finally earn some money of my own.

My mother in law came to visit us for a couple of days. Her and I went shopping yesterday at the Florida Mall. I bought 2 button down shirts, a pair of black dress pants and a belt for my new job. I only spent $48 since a very nice guy at the Apple store, printed a coupon for me from New York and Co. that I had in my email.

Lately we've been eating lots of strawberries and bananas with homemade whipped cream and chocolate syrup. I also made fruit squares again so Mike's mom could try them, they came out even better than last time.

Mike bought a new boardgame this Wednesday. It's called Metropolys. I like it because it is simple and fast compared to other boardgames we have. I'd say it reminds me a little of Ingenious and Power Grid put together. We'll see how long until Mike gets bored with it. I'll leave you with some pictures of it. Have a good weekend!

The weekend has arrived

I am down to my final free weekends before I start my new job. I still need to go buy a few "work" outfits... maybe even some comfy shoes, I'm sure I'll be doing lots of walking and standing.

I finally finished a big painting I had started like a year ago, I think I'm going to put it in my bedroom. I haven't been painting for Sugar Village this week because of that. I did however, designed a shipping label for my shop. I will have an Etsy shop print for me, it's really cute!

Since we finished watching the Vicar of Dibley, we started watching another British TV series . This one is from the 90's and it's called "As Time Goes By", so far we really like it. I know I know, you would think we were 50 years old or something...

I'm currently reading Split: A Memoir of Divorce by Suzanne Finnamore. I've read all her other books and really enjoy the way she writes.

I made pizza dough for the first time today, for homemade pizza of course! Sorry no photos of that. Instead, here's a much more cheery picture of a cupcake, dessert courtesy of our friends that hung out with us today for dinner and card games. Have a good weekend everyone!

Spring forward

I've never heard of it called that before. All that comes to my mind is Tigger from Winnie the pooh, bouncing around on his tail. Good thing it doesn't really affect us that much, since lately we've been going to bed around 2am and waking up embarrassingly late.

Mike has had a lot of work lately, so today since he had to work, I decided to ignore my messy kitchen and other domestic duties and went to a few stores all by myself. I bought a small canvass to attempt a painting for my bathroom. I also had a hot dog and a coke, nothing like junk food to try to cheer myself up from the horrible mood I was in.

The more I think about starting my new job, the more nervous I get. Why did they have to give me so much time to think about it? I'm mostly worried about the driving part, it still doesn't "come natural" to me yet. I think a GPS would be an excellent idea. I also need a few work outfits.

We've been baking fruit squares every week now. Mike calls them his breakfast bars, since they are way healthier than all the other desserts we used to make. Although, we do plan on making some chocolate pudding from scratch soon, I'll let you know how that turns out. I have a loaf of bread in the oven as I type, I added rosemary and parmesan cheese to this one.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week, I know it's spring break for some, so have lots of fun! In the mean time, I will be working on an old bird painting that I never finished from a long time ago. I also have paintings for Sugar Village to work on. By the way, I'm having a sale on selected paintings in case you want to check them out. Good night!

Recipe for the fruit squares

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats
1/3 cup granulated sugar ( You can use only half the sugar if you don't want them too sweet)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup fine chopped pecans (or any nuts)
12 tablespoons softened butter in pieces
1 cup of your choice of fruit preserves (we usually use Bonne Maman)

Take butter out of the fridge to soften (about an hour before). Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter pieces to the flour mix and with a hand held mixer on low, mix until it resembles wet sand ( a few minutes). On a greased glass baking dish (we use the rectangle one for thinner squares, but you can also use the square one for thicker pieces), spread about 2/3 of the flour mix and press it into the dish. Bake for about 20 minutes. Take out the baking dish and spread the preserves on top, sprinkle with the remaining flour mix and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.