Lent is OVER!!!

Did everyone enjoy their Easter? I know I did. Being Catholic, Easter meant the end of Lent. My boyfriend gave up sweets for Lent. I gave up gluten (which needs to be a permanent thing, but I like food too much) and eating out at restaurants.

So, I haven't really been baking for over a month now.

In celebration of Easter, I made cake balls decorated like Easter eggs. I've made these many times now, but I'll still give Bakerella credit for the idea. If you haven't heard of Bakerella, shame on you. Go look at her cake balls and cake pops.

Cake balls= piece of cake. Make a cake. Let it cool. Mash it up with a container of frosting. Roll the mush into balls. Freeze them. Dip them in chocolate/ almond bark. Let them cool. Decorate.

Over spring break, a guy at Rocky Mountain Fudge in the Galleria mall made me write down the directions for these on the back of a receipt so he could make them. I tell you, these things are highly addicting, and if you are trying to be healthy, get rid of them ASAP or you'll be constantly tempted by the deceptively small size, unaware of how many you've eaten until the tray is almost empty. You've been warned.

This was the Easter basket I made for my boyfriend.

Vanilla cake balls in semi-sweet chocolate, chocolate cake balls in white chocolate.

And Thin Mints that he's never tried and didn't particularly like.

I had an Easter lunch of ham and other fixins with my family on Saturday. I had to drag my boyfriend to church Sunday morning (he was grumpy because of the people who only go to church twice a year), and then I spent Easter baking and laying around, and eating PIZZA from Papa John's and watching How I Met Your Mother with the boy.

Next on the agenda, I need a cheeseburger. It's been so long...

Brain Dead

I am brain dead. Really brain dead. I'm also quite ill, so that might have something to do with it. I hate being sick, with a passion. My nose is stuffed, throat is sore, and I'm mouth breathing... ew. I also get super needy and it's not fun. Did I also mention I become super brain dead?? I just was trawling through the archives of Confessions of A Cookbook Queen's blog for a good 45 minutes. It was good mindless entertainment. I need someone to bring me soup while I watch Dr Who sneak peeks and get judged or nosed violently by my rabbit.

Yikes. Judgmental beady-eyed albino rabbit.

But besides whining about being brain dead (which I keep misspelling), I actually have something to say.

So after my last post about being poor, I remembered something. I have enough ingredients to make angel food cake, which is my favorite food ever.

However, I decided to dress it up and make it fun this time around.

That is a lovely angel food cake covered with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut. It was so good. I half got the inspiration from Get Off Your Butt And Bake! who made a coconut cream cheese lime angel food cake.

So fluffy.

And, let me geek out about this for a second.

Love that more than anything. I'm such a nerd, but that's what makes good angel food cake.

Traditionally, angel food cake pans come with legs to help support the cake as you let it cool upside down so it doesn't deflate. Mine doesn't come with just spiffy legs, so I have to improvise with whatever I have laying around.

Tabasco to the rescue!

And then a few days ago I made these.

By the time I finally managed to take a picture they've been pretty much devoured. These are a batch of chocolate chip cookies with walnuts. I got the recipe here at AllRecipes.com. They were really good, a little hard, but I think a little more butter could fix that.

My last week was pretty good. I also bought myself a new dress too. Again, I'm glad maxi dresses are still in style.

And it has pockets!

Well, I'm off to take more musinex and hope my sinus clear.

~H

Improvisation

Wow, it's been a while. I've been busy and pretty poor. No me gusta. So I haven't been able to upload as much baking/cooking pictures as I would like.

I have been doing a lot of cooking with whatever I can find in my pantry. Usually, this leads to why I think I could be a great chef, or one of the worst.

So, I suffer from this terrible habit when it comes to cooking. I improvise. A lot. I do it all the time, even with new recipes. Here is an example of said improvising recipe.

This WAS supposed to be oven baked fried chicken. Something looks off... It's not supposed to look like that! Mind you, I've never battered or fried anything so I'm pretty sure I had my processes wrong.

It still came out great and tasted pretty damn tasty, even though it looks like it hasn't been cooked at all.

So, in case anyone is actually wondering how to make it; here it is.

1 lb of skinless chicken breasts

1 c of Japanese Panko crumbs

1/3 c of whole wheat flour

1/2 c of liquid substitute egg (I used a real egg)

Salt and Pepper or your own seasoning, I used Sata seasonings from Penzy's.

Preheat to 425, bake for 25 minutes

Mix flour and seasoning in a gallaon bag, the panko bread crumbs in another, and the egg in a bowl.

First, place the chicken in the bag full of flour and seasoning and shake. Then take out and dip in the egg, and then the panko crumbs, and place into a pan and bake.

Spark Recipes "Fried" Chicken Recipe

~H

Back to Reality

Sad. I find myself in the same place again, instead of continuing to enjoy a vacation a completely different state. I ate so much chocolate, pie, cheese, wine, and curry with my best friend. It was the best 3 days of my life.

Best friends should not see each other only once a year, it's just inhumane.

While I long for Texas or beaches for the remainder of my break, I bake banana bread and watch No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. I don't know how this alleviates my pain, but it's helped.

It's helped mostly because, it's delicious! But still not a suitable replacement for best friends...

I've always found comfort in banana bread. It was one of the first things I've mastered and I've made it many different ways. I went crazy with this one and added lemon extract and poppy seeds. It's a little different but still has a very nice banana flavor. 

I will devour this loaf. Come share it with me?

Shortest Weekend Ever

It's Wednesday. Pain and Panic have been separated by the realities of life. A great time was had, but all good things must come to an end.

A quick recap of this weekend's activities:

I found my Hannah.

We tasted different olive oils and went to a chocolate festival.

 We wandered around in boutiques and tried on lots of hats.

We ate, drank, and were merry. We even went to the rodeo.

And.... We may have been little troublemakers. 

As usual, a good amount of time was spent at the mall, and we baked pies for Pi Day.

I had a great weekend. Best friends shouldn't have to go so long without seeing each other.

Pain and Panic

So it begins tomorrow... Copious amount of goofy photos, food, and back to back activities.

Woo hoo! Spring break with Jessica!

Too Much To Say

That's how I feel about life right now. Even though this is a blog about fashion and baking, I would like to point out a few things, some actually pertaining to this.

1. Jessica posted this on her Facebook a few days ago.
http://www.anneofcarversville.com/body-politics/lizzie-miller-body-image-model-and-beauty-debate-update.html
Really? Cindy Crawford too fat to model? I could only hope to be half as beautiful as her when I'm her age. But what does that say about models these days? One must be anorexic to model successfully? One must have the body of a lanky 12 year old boy? I don't know about you guys, but I'm 5'3", wear a size 2-4, am by no means overweight or chubby, but sometimes have a hard time accepting my body because I am bombarded with the atypical 4% of women who are of model quality. So, I feel, thanks to these glossy photos I see in magazines, that nothing but a burlap sack will look good on me,

And all of this dictated by men.

Speaking of men...

2. No. I seriously  hope this is a joke.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/16/gop-women-kids/
I'm sorry, when American society dictates that I must stay at home, bake, clean, and take care of kids, I'm leaving. End of story. I bake because I enjoy it. It's fun, it gives me great pleasure to create something, sit down, by myself, and eat it because I want it. Not because I must. I make food for my boyfriend because I want to, and he allows me to experiment with food on him. Again, not because it is a societal contractual obligation.

3. I'm seriously hoping this one is a joke too. I'll take number 2 over this list any day.
http://pol.moveon.org/waronwomen/?rc=fb
Redefining rape, to make it sound like we're back in the middle 20th century where rape was regardless a woman's fault because she let her assailant rape her by "leading him on"? Allowing me to die if the unborn child I have inside me is going to kill me instead of allowing me to live?

4. Planned Parenthood is gone.
Regardless of the stigma attached to Planned Parenthood, they were a great help to me when I had no health insurance. No, I never went there for a certain procedure, but I went there because when I had no health insurance. I'm at high risk for cervical cancer, if I don't get checked every 4-6 months, it could mean tumors and health issues beyond my control and wallet. It's inconceivable to me that our government took that away from countless women who needed it.

5.This is just an interesting opinion of a man and what Conservatives are doing.
http://georgelakoff.com/2011/02/19/what-conservatives-really-want/

6. This one is disheartening.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110301/us_yblog_thelookout/5-graphs-about-american-women
I hope this one changes in my future, or seriously, my effort in gaining an education is being wasted. Yes I'll make more than a woman who only has a high school degree, but I'll apparently still never amount to the men I work with. Hooray for $.75 for their $1.

7. I can't find the link, but when I do, I'll post it.
For a while, and I don't know how I missed this, but they wanted to take away women's rights to birth control. Luckily, that one was shot down. Birth Control pills, IUDs, etc, have been available to women for almost 60 years. So, my mom was allowed to have access but I'm not? What the hell? I practice safe sex, I don't strictly use birth control to have wild crazy, unprotected sex with every man that comes my way. It's helped my cramps, blood flow (I know, sorry, TMI), and acne. My roommate uses it because her cramps are so bad, she often cannot get out of bed. The birth control helps that, and allows her to go to school. The government almost told her she couldn't have it because they expect her to have promiscuous sex, when in fact she's taking it for medical reasons. Sorry men, often, Midol just can't cover that shit.

Good God men.

But I post these things because the way the men in our government want it, they want us all to be child rearing bloggers, blogging about cooking for our husbands, and not earning a dime of our own. I want to carry this blog knowing this is a choice for me, not as an outlet because I've cleaned my house, took care of my kids, and am waiting for my husband to get home.

Speaking of, there was another paper posted saying that women who have careers often have over weight kids because they're not there to take care of their kids properly. What about the spouses? Family support? That paper was almost incredibly anti-empowered workforce woman.

Granted, there are women who chose that life style, who want to stay at home and nurture. Good for them, they're probably doing something I couldn't. Everyone has different ideas of how to live their life. I just don't appreciate mine being dictated for me.

I promise my next post will be happier.