Baking BASICS!

Baking, to me, is relaxing, fun and (usually) delicious... But I know, many people see it as time consuming, stressful and difficult. It doesn't have to be!

Here are a few tips I live by:

- Before embarking on any journey, whether it's a trip or a project, I like to plan everything out. Very carefully and methotically.

• Take a look at the recipe and make sure you have EVERYTHING you need (preferrably more than enough, just in case).
• Make sure you have allotted yourself enough time. This will prevent stress and potential mistakes that could ruin your project!
• Get out what you need. If you've ever watched a cooking show, the chefs always have their materials readily available (this can also be helpful to realize beforehand if you are running low on something essential).

- Read through the entire recipe once before starting. If there are any terms used that you are unfamiliar with, look them up! There are an abundance of YouTube video tutorials to rely on.

- Be sure to pre-heat the oven ahead of time. It's pretty inconvenient to wait, wait, WAIT.

- Speaking of pre-heating, when you put something in the oven, don't open the oven to check it! Trust your timer and only open it when absolutely necessary! Opening and closing your oven will allow heat to escape and this can cause the temperature in your oven to fluctuate. This can be detrimental to your baking.

- Be sure not to over fill your cake pans and cupcake liners. Filling them about 2/3 full will yield a cake that won't be overflowing out.

- To ensure cakes come out nice and flat, cut up a towel into strips, dampen a strip and wrap it around the pan (safety pin it to keep it on). This will help the cake to bake evenly and not leave you with a domed cake!

- Last, but not least, HAVE FUN! This should be an enjoyable endeavour. Whether it turns out perfectly or not, it could be a fun activity to eat up some spare time and hopefully yield something tasty!

If there are any specific questions, let me know! I'm always happen to impart my little bits of knowledge on others:)

xoxo-S

Oh-So-Delectable Chocolate Turtle Cupcakes (Chocolate, Caramel, Pecan)

Hello!

So I don't know if you are familiar with the deliciousness that is a chocolate turtle...

...but they are clusters of caramel and pecans coated in chocolate.

They are one of my mom's favorite candies. Yum, yum, yum!

The office that I work in has a bake off from time to time, so various people who work here will bring in their best treat and then we all vote for which one was the best.

This was my first year competing and, though the competition was FIERCE, I managed to pull out a win! (well, a second place win, but whatever!).

I ended up making Chocolate Turtle Cupcakes, which are chocolate cupcakes FILLED with homemade caramel and then topped with caramel buttercream, a swirl of caramel and a pecan!

Yes, that sounds like a bit much, but it didn't take too long and the end results were to die for!!!

Yes, they did taste as good as they look :)

Best, Moist Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
(Yields about 2 dozen cupcakes or about 5 dozen mini cupcakes)

I rely heavily on this recipe.

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1-2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk*
1 cup hot water

(*I have used non-fat milk and 2% milk in it's place and had similiar results. I've also made my own buttermilk by adding 1tsp of vinegar to milk and stirring it vigorously).

Preheat oven to 300*F
Mix the first five ingredients in a large bowl.
Add in the two eggs and almond extract, and continue to mix.
Measure out the salt and mix this in as well.
Finally, slowly add in the buttermilk and hot water, a little at a time, until fully blended into a thin batter (it's going to seem REALLY watery but it's okay, do not worry!)

I prefer to pour the batter into a small Pyrex measuring cup to make it easier to pour into the small cupcake liners, but that's up to you!

Fill the liners up about 2/3 full.

Bake the cupcakes for 22 minutes, then check them with a tooth pick. If the tooth pick comes out clean, they are done baking!

Allow to cool completely before frosting!

Next, I'll tell you how I made homemade caramel!

I followed this recipe from Food Network

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Mix the water and sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until the sugar dissolves. Do not stir. Increase the heat to medium and boil uncovered until the sugar turns a warm chestnut brown (about 350 degrees F on a candy thermometer), about 5 to 7 minutes, gently swirling the pan to stir the mixture. Be careful – the mixture is extremely hot! Watch the mixture very carefully at the end, as it will go from caramel to burnt very quickly. Turn off the heat. Stand back to avoid splattering and slowly add the cream and vanilla. Don't worry - the cream will bubble violently and the caramel will solidify.
Simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until the caramel dissolves and the sauce is smooth, about 2 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature, at least 4 hours. It will thicken as it sits.

**If you let the sugar cook too long or on too high of heat and it doesn't look like it's melting correctly, NEVER FEAR! Lower your heat and BE PATIENT. Even if you are toward the end and your caramel seems to have SEIZED up and not become the right consistency, just let it sit on low heat and chances are, it will fix itself.**


I let this cool for about an hour in the fridge, then poured some into a pastry bag. I used this to pipe some caramel into the middle of the cupcakes!

I saved about 1/3 to add to a basic buttercream frosting and then just a little bit to drizzle on top of the finished cupcakes.


Let me know if you have any questions about this recipe! They were absolutely delish and worth all the effort!:)

xoxo-S

Vanilla Raspberry Cupcakes (BEST moist vanilla cupcake recipe)

So in honor of one my friend's birthdays, (Sarah of Sarah Christine Style!)  I let her choose her treat!

She picked vanilla cupcakes with raspberries. I thought about how I would make these and decided upon a simple vanilla cupcake, covered with raspberry jam and then a swirl of raspberry buttercream.

I've tried a bunch of vanilla cupcake recipes over the course of my baking life. I've made great ones (like the 5 dozen cupcakes I made for my cousin's baby shower) and not so great ones (uh... No comment). This recipe is BY FAR MY FAVORITE. It yields a light, fluffy, sweet and moist cake that domes up perfectly.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
Ingredients-

1 1/2 cp. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs
3/4 cp. sugar

1-2 tsp of vanilla (pure or extract)
1-2 tsp of almond extract
1/2 cup oil (vegetable or canola would work)
1/2 cup milk (I used 2%, I assume fat free, 1%, or whole could work)

First, pre-heat your oven to 350*F.
Next, stir flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in large mixing bowl; set aside.
Now, mix eggs and sugar in a second bowl with a whisk or mixer.
After that, add the vanilla, almond extract, oil and milk to the egg and sugar. Whisk well!
Finally, add this liquid mix to the powder mix in the other bowl and mix well with a mixer.

Fill your cupcake liners about 2/3 full (don't go too crazy, they will rise!) and bake them for about 12 minutes. Try sticking a tooth pick into one that has domed up especially high. If it comes out clean, they are done! If any moist cake crumbs come off, pop them back in for an additional minute or two.

Allow them to completely cool before frosting!

(I slathered on a layer of preserves then frosted them with a simple buttercream with some of the raspberry preserves mixed in!)

Ta-Da!

 

xoxo-S

One week update (ACL repair surgery healing/rehab)

So one week ago today, I got ACL reconstruction surgery. I was so worried and scared that morning when I woke up, but I knew I would be better off doing this now rather than putting it off any further.

The day of surgery, I went home and rested all day. People told me I might be nauseous or totally out of it all due after anesthesia but I was very fortunate; I felt fine those first two days.

 (Photos from my first couple days post op with my two best friends: pink crutches and my iPad)

In my surgery, they gave me a nerve block in the leg I was getting surgery on via an enormous needle into my femoral artery. Fortunately, they gave me my first dose of general anesthesia prior to that shot so I have no recollection of it. Those first two days post-op, your leg might still be numb if you get a nerve block. It's nothing to be concerned about. It's a weird feeling but it was blocking the lion's share of the pain, so combined with my pain killers, I felt fine... A little loopy, but fine.

Once that nerve block started to wear off, that's when I really started to get serious about taking the medicine on time. If I forgot to take my pain meds every 3-4 hours, I would get intense pain from my hamstring to my calf.

I am a very active person normally so sitting still for two days was absolutely horrible. My boyfriend got me out of the house as often as he could for happy hour (no booze though since I'm on painkillers), to the beach, over to his house to play with his dog, etc. which helped keep me sane... There's only so much daytime TV and Netflix one person can watch before they start losing their mind.

(I chose to not just sit around at home during my recovery... I took trips to the beach when it was nice out, had a game night with my friends (that's Cards Against Humanity, my favorite game) and to a local bar for pool!)

By the Saturday after surgery (I had surgery on Thursday so like 2 days later), I was able to hobble around a little bit on the leg. I also started some exercises, which at that time was only to try to straight my leg flat and moving my foot in circle a few times every hour to prevent blog clots. Walking was (and is) a struggle but it was easier than relying on crutches. The decision to walk or use crutches should be made with your doctor. I am young and very active so it was easy for me to get back to being physical but this might not be the case for everyone.


I had a doctors appointment on Monday to get my bandaids off and to get stitches taken out. The doctor said my knee was looking good and told me to get back to see my physical therapist. I was amazed when I saw my knee. I had anthroscopic surgery so they didn't need to split my knee open to perform surgery; instead they used small instruments, inserted through small holes in my knee. I will have absolutely minimal scarring, which is great.

(Left: photo four days post op (yup, THAT's it!) , right: standing four days post-op)

I had an appointment with my physical therapist on Wednesday that week. She mostly wanted to check in with me about how surgery went and where we would go from there for my post surgery rehab. I felt like I was basically starting from square one since I had made such huge strides in PT before my surgery. We started with my new exercises: 

1. 3 versions of leg lifts:

-10 lifts while lying on my back (she recommended I have someone there with me, "spotting" me while I do them).

-10 lifts while on my elbows

-10 lifts while on hands

2. Heel slides (starting to get my knee to bend again!) I only bend until I get uncomfortable pressure, not pain.

3. Hamstring and calf stretches (these will help to get my leg straighten again).

I'm hoping in the next two weeks to be back in the gym doing the stationary bike. That was the BEST thing I did in my pre-surgery rehab for getting my full range of motion back. I will be monitoring my process myself and with the help of my physical therapists and writing about it here!

If you have any questions about my experience or want any advice about what I've gone through thus far, feel free to comment!

XOXO, S

My experience with a torn ACL... Part 1

Though my blog thus far has focused on my various culinary endeavors, I decided to switch gears a bit and talk about my experience of injuring my knee and getting surgery.

A little bit about me: I strive to be a healthy, active woman. I'm in my early twenties, I try to exercise several times a week doing a variety of activities. My diet isn't perfect but I'm always striving to make better (but still tasty) choices. I've played soccer at a variety of levels since I was in elementary school and have never had a serious injury (until now).

This all started in mid-February. I was playing on a co-Ed indoor soccer tram and while trying to stop from a sprint and switch directions, I fell sideways on my knee and it popped/started swelling up. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you hear a loud pop in a joint followed by immediate swelling, seek medical attention as soon as you can. I was carried off the field and sat with ice on my knee for a while before heading home (fortunately, my BF was there to help me out to my car and drive me home). That evening, I iced and elevated my knee and wrapped it up with an ACE bandaid.

The next morning, I took the day off work and headed to the local walk in clinic. I arrived right as they opened so my wait time was next to nothing. The doctor took a look at my knee, tried bending it a little (at this point it was more or less stuck at about a 135 degree angle as both the most flat and most bent I could manage). The doctor got me a knee brace and crutches and told me to stay off it as much as possible until my MRI. He also recommended I see an orthopedic specialistic. I rested that day and returned to work the next day. Fortunately, my boss/office mate lives by me so she was able to drive me to and from work while I was hurt. My injury was to my left knee so driving my stick shift was pretty tough with little ability to bend/straighten my leg.

That Friday, I had my MRI. This was my first one so I didn't know what to expect. I laid on a bed with a blanket on my upper bottom then the "bed" slid into the machine so only my head stuck out. It was VERY loud but they gave me head phones to listen to satellite radio!

As I got to work that day, I got a call from a nurse with my MRI results... I tore my anterior cruciatr ligament, had some bone bruising and also a small tear to my meniscus. I was pretty upset to hear this since I've known many people who have gone through this and it did not seem like much fun. By the time I saw my ortho specialist, I was back to walking without crutches in my brace and driving myself around. He spoke with me about the procedure he wanted to do (arthroscopic ACL replacement using my own hamstring tendons and possibly repair my torn meniscus). He showed me the images of my knee from the MRI and I could see where my ACL should have been and also where my meniscus tear is. Here's what it looked like, though this is not my MRI.

 

  
(Source)

From there, I went to the physical therapy department (I really lucked out that my local clinic has all these facilities in the same building) to schedule my sessions. Before getting surgery, you really have to focus on being able to bend your knee and being able to straighten it completely. 

These are the exercises I started out with for the first four weeks of physical therapy. I tried to do the exercises at work and in the evening each day. I also continued to go to the gym during this time. I rode a stationary bike for 30 minutes two times a week and 10 minutes at the start of PT each time. I chose to wear my brace as I did that and it seemed to prevent any swelling. Using the cross trainer caused my knee to swell up the one time I attempted it so I wouldn't recommend that to others with a knee injury.

The week before my surgery, I started a more intense pre-hab set of exercises (as seen above) since my leg was able to be almost totally flat (my right leg, when straightened, was 0 degrees and my left could flatten to 4) and could bend back to less than 90 without significant discomfort. These exercises felt a lot more like my usual level of working out so that was a nice change. I did these at the gym or at home each day in addition to biking a few days a week.

Surgery Day

The night before my surgery, I tried to hydrate as much as possible and eat a good meal earlier in the evening. I had to stop eating and drinking by 12 am and then I had to get to the surgery center by 615 am. I did my surgery as an outpatient procedure meaning I didn't stay the night there. I was pretty worried when I got there but all the nurses and doctors were really nice and made me feel really safe and gave me plenty of information to keep my mind at ease.

I got an IV of a saline solution for a while then they moved me to the recovery area to administer my nerve blocker, which numbed my leg via my femeral artery. They gave me the first of my anesthesia after explaining how they did the nerve blocker and after speaking to my surgeon and the last time I remember is the nurse getting the ultra sound ready to find the artery they needed to put the leg numbing medicine in. It was about 7:05 am.

Next thing I remember, it's 9:55 am and I'm in the recovery area with an enormous brace on my leg. I was very fortunate that I woke up easily and without any nausea or discomfort. It was weird have a heavy numb leg but I'd prefer that to pain. When the nurse came by to ask me how I was feeling, I responded, "like a million bucks," and I meant it. I was so happy to be done with that phase of my recovery and ready to start getting my strength back. They gave me a snack, got me dressed and allowed my parents to come see me. By 11 am, they were preparing to discharge me. My parents got my prescriptions and the nurse wheeled me out to our car and I went home.

I am very fortunate that I'm able to stay with my parents and they are able to care for me while I'm going through this. Definitely try to find someone to stay with you or visit you at least those first few days after the surgery. You have to have someone to drive you there and back and monitor you that first day but I'm now on day two and am still very dependent on my parents for help getting food and drinks since its hard to carry things while on crutches.

Another piece of advice I'd give someone else going through a similar surgery/recovery time is to remember you had an intense surgery. The medicine you are prescribed will help to alleviate some of the pain but it won't get rid of all of it. I'm focusing on resting and being as active as possible, within reason, and just remembering to take my medication on time. As I move through my recovery, I'll update my blog on my status and talk about my experiences.

XOXO-S

What I have been up to since my last post...

Haven't had much time lately to blog about my baking due to the holidays then I tore my ACL playing soccer and have gotten really into home brewing beer and wine (post to come!)

Here are some pictures of things I did manage to make over the last few months:

Chicken kabobs with peppers, onions and pineapple. (Chicken was marinated for about 6 hrs in a lemon pepper marinade from Safeway, then BBQ about 2 minutes per side).

English style fish and chips. (I used this recipe for my batter without soda water though, and I prefer to bake my French fries on a cookie rack after soaking them in water for about an hr. and tossing them in olive oil. this yields some wonderfully crisp fries.)

Chocolate turtle cupcakes (my deliciously moist chocolate cupcakes filled with homemade caramel and topped with caramel butter cream, more caramel and a walnut. These babies won me second place in our office bake off!)

Shrimp pasta with tomatoes and lemon (my bf's new favorite dish. We've made it several times and its always good. I used this recipe but omitted the spinach. We made some red pepper olive oil, shown in the photo, that we tossed the shrimp in as they cooked that added a wonderful kick of spice. The bruschetta is just a slice baguette, topped with a mixture of diced Roma tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and sliced fresh basil with Parmesan or mozzarella cheese, then baked at 425 for about 5 minutes).

Quick mini cheesecakes (I used a mini cupcake tray and mini cupcake liners. I put on Nilla Wafer cookie at the bottom of each and topped it with a cream cheese mixture found in this recipe. If you haven't heard of Bakerella, I would highly recommend you look at her site; she has tons of wonderful recipes. I deviated slightly from her mini cheese cakes and topped mini with diced and sweetened strawberries instead).


Please, feel free to comment below if you want more info on any of those recipes!
XOXO-S

Homemade Hard Apple Cider (part 1)

So last weekend, my boyfriend, some friends and I went to Leavenworth for Oktoberfest! On our way back from Eastern WA, we noticed a ton of fruit stands and got the idea to make hard apple cider!

At this point... We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. I'm warning you; this is a long, tedious process. I would HIGHLY recommend just using a juicer or apple press to extract the juice from the fruit.

However, if you wanted to really get hands on and literally, hand squeeze your own apple cider, here's how we did it!:)

To make one gallon of cider, you need:
-glass, gallon-size jug (we used a jug of Carlo Rossi that we drank poured out and sanitized prior to use)
-18-20 pounds of apples (we used golden delicious and jonagold)
-apple slicer
-large stock pot
-whole cinnamon sticks
-whole cloves
-cheese cloth or a sanitized, thin undershirt
-potato masher

First things first, we dumped out most of the Carlo Rossi, rinsed the jug and put it in the dishwasher by itself to get sanitized.

...it wasn't very good. I mean, $10 for a gallon of wine, go figure!

In the meanwhile, we started to chop up all the apples. We rinsed them, chopped them with the apple chopper then sliced them into smaller pieces. We filled the pot with a few inches of water and let that come to a boil BEFORE we tossed all the chopped up apples in.

(For the size of pot we had on hand, we opted to cook the apples in two batches so the image above only shows HALF of what we made).

After letting the apples soften up (about a half hour of cooking on medium), we tried a few different ways of preparing the apples for extracting the juice.

1. A grinding apple sauce maker.

My bf just-so-happened to have several different kitchen gadgets that make apple sauce. This one looked like a small strainer except it had a blade connected to a handle on top, which was turned 'round and 'round to separate the apple sauce from the pulp and skins. This worked pretty well, but produced a thicker, chunkier apple sauce.

2. Another grinding apple sauce maker.

This one varied in that it was a conical funnel shaped strainer, which we filled with cooked apples and then "ground down" using a large wooden dowel. This yielded a thinner apple sauce.

3. Just MASHING them.

I don't have a picture of this but when we cooked our second batch of apples, we used a potato smasher (like to make mashed potatoes with) and smashed them into a very thin apple sauce. I actually liked this method best for what we were doing.

We then used cheese cloth and a sanitized under shirt to manually SQUEEZE the juice out of the apple sauce. We would scoop about a cup or two into the middle of a folded piece of cheese cloth or shirt and  would wrap the apple sauce and carefully squeeze, trying to avoid putting too much pressure: this caused more pulp to get through than we wanted.

This took a while... BUT we wound up with quite a bit of juice!

We heated the apple cider to 160 degrees F to pasteurize it then carefully poured it into the Carlo Rossi jug. (You could also add the cinnamon and cloves at this point too, we did, then strained them out).

You COULD stop here. You have perfect good, home made apple cider to enjoy!

TA-DA! One gallon of home made cider:)

However, we pressed on and wanted to ferment our creation! I left this part up to my bf since he is more experienced in homebrewing/ home fermenting.

***My understanding of this process is that the yeast eat the sugar in the juice and then produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. The bubbler on top has water in it so the CO2 can get out but no germies can get in! As long as we keep the cider warm enough, the yeast will keep eating the sugar and producing alcohol until the alcohol level gets too high and kills them.***

We, first, had to wait until the juice had cooled to between 100 and 120 degrees (any hotter and it would kill the yeast). Once it had, he added 1/5 of the packet of champagne yeast to the jug. He promptly sealed the jug with the special fermenting cork with a water bubbler on top.

This is what our final product looked like. We also did another batch using store bought cider. 

We set up an area in his house with a heater by them to keep them at 100 degrees. We hope they will be decently fermented in about two weeks, but might wait as long as a month if the yeast still seem to be producing CO2 bubbles. 

Here's to hoping this cider turns out wonderfully! Let me know if you've ever embarked on a project that ended up being as difficult and time consuming as this! (This took Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday morning!!!).

-S