How I Spent My Saturday

After baking for my brother last weekend and they loved my blueberry bread so much I decided to up the ante this week and back some more. I really enjoy baking, I think because I feel productive and love seeing the end result and working on taking pictures of it. One thing I don't like however is cleaning up the huge mess often associated with it. I had a tough time narrowing down recipes so I was crazy enough to make two different types of cupcakes, one chocolate, one vanilla. I settled on Snickers Cupcakes and Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes. I haven't tried them yet, well except for some of the pieces I hollowed out of the center of the snickers cupcakes but I'm looking forward to my family trying them today when I see them for graduation. I hope my brother and his roommates enjoy all the time and effort I put into these.

Oh, one more thing, it was hard to ice these cupcakes nicely since Mike threw out my icing decoration tips last time I made cupcakes, so they could look slightly better if I had the right tools to work with.

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

Source & Recipe: Annie Eats

Snickers Cupcakes

Source & Recipe: Annie Eats

My Poor Rocky

My little Rocky was neutered and also had a hernia repair earlier this week, my poor little guy. He was supposed to have it done last week but silly me put his monthly flea and tick medicine on him and had to wait a week to have it done. So finally we were ready this Tuesday. I was a little nervous for the little guy but the vet's office was great they called me before and after to let me know how he was doing. When I picked him up Tuesday night he was still so out of it as to be expected he had surgery and had to be put under.

It was so sad when I brought him home, he was totally disoriented and just stood there in the middle of the room just staring into space. He didn't want to lay down, it must have hurt him, so he just stood there looking so sad in his little cone all drugged up. I had to carry him around since he couldn't go up and down the stairs. Thankfully by Thursday and Friday he was well on the mend and getting back to his old self. He doesn't seem bothered by his stitches at all and so he hasn't had to wear his cone much at all.

Here he is in his cone looking pathetically adorable, it's adorably sad.

Graduation Reflection

I am finally graduating today with my Masters Degree. I started this journey over three and a half years ago back in January 2008. It's funny to look back, we were living in our apartment in White Plains, not even home owners yet or engaged for that matter. Now here we are living in our own home for over 3 years, married for 6 months (almost 7 really) and with our adorable puppy. I remember that first semester, closing on our house, moving, painting and all the other things that go along and trying to study for finals.

There were many late nights driving back from school getting out at 10:00 and an hour drive home, I remember that drive being so long. Driving through snow storms and pouring rain to get back and forth. I remember one night driving to Andrea's condo nearby school in the snow and thinking I would never make it, and now here she is living in Virginia and about to become a Mommy - this week!

There were difficult group projects with members who made life harder than it needed to be.  By the end of the program I gave up on group projects and wanted to do them on my own instead. There was an online class which I swore I'd never take again and would rather drive the two hours back and forth from school than sit in my living room and participate in the online forum for participation. There was summer school sitting through stats class and homework to read by the pool. I spent almost all my Sundays doing homework, passing up on family events or doing other things because I had homework to do.

I've left a space on the wall directly above my Bachelors Degree and have looked at the empty space on the wall for 3 years since we moved in waiting for when I can finally hang my piece of paper proudly on the wall. It feels good to finally have that weight lifted to no longer have that obligation or burden always hanging in the back of my mind of what projects or homework I needed to get done. Now I can do all the fun classes and things that I've wanted to do but haven't had time and I can't wait!

And this marks #4 on my 30 Before 30 - Graduate with my Masters Degree - that is one I am very happy to cross off the list

Mother's Day in Manhattan

Mom decided that it might be nice to spend Mother's Day in Manhattan this year since we could all meet in the middle, me coming from Jersey, her coming for Long Island and since Matthew already lives there. It was a beautiful spring day so Mom and I wanted to make the most of it, we had a whole list of places we wanted to check out with our intention of ending the day in Battery Gardens for a scenic dinner overlooking the Hudson and the Statue of Liberty. First we met at my brothers apartment which has a beautiful view overlooking the Hudson River and the Manhattan skyline.

We started our day at the Union Square Farmers Market, and then drove the car over to the west side to walk over to the High Line. This is where the walking began on 15th between 7th & 8th to be precise, the goal was to get to battery park. So we walked through the High Line and then we headed south and kept walking, and walking, and walking. I never thought we were going to get there. First my phone told us it was about 2 miles to get to Battery City Park, apparently this is different from the actual Battery Park. We came to find out that it was at least another 2 miles to go from there.

We walked through a whole bunch of very nice parks that line the whole west side, it was actually quite a beautiful walk going through the west side. We passed through beautiful residential areas and all the great parks, but we still kept walking and walking. We were determined to make it to battery park to enjoy a nice meal.

Alas we finally reached our goal, I was never so happy to see Battery Park before, it meant and end to our walk but it wasn't.... Disappointed by the restaurant selection we now had to find another place to go to eat, so we settled on the PJ Clarke's we passed at least a mile back north. We love going to PJ Clarke's by Lincoln Center so we figured it was a safe bet and we knew exactly where it was. So we called my brother and told him to meet us over. 

We enjoyed a nice meal at PJ Clarke's (although this location wasn't as good as the one in Lincoln Center) it was still delicious and in good company for a wonderful Mother's Day. I just hope we don't have to walk this much next year or I may be calling a cab and meeting my Mom there instead. 

High Line NYC

After we checked out the Union Square Farmers Market we headed back over to the west side to go check out the High Line. My brother had taken my mom to the High Line a while back since it's not too far from his place and she had been telling me about it and wanted to take me back to see it. While we were walking from our car to the High Line we passed right by Chelsea Market which I had wanted to check out. It's an indoor space and would be great to go to on a rainy day or in the winter time. There were tons of adorable shops and eateries in there. We passed some great looking bakeries and other fun restaurants, I would def go back and get some lunch there and stroll around and check out all the great shops again.

We then headed over to the High Line, I was very impressed with it. It'll be really amazing when they finish the park and it stretches many more blocks throughout Manhattan. The High Line is a park that was built out of old elevated train tracks and it is filled with beautiful greenery and has great views of Manhattan from being above street level, it's like you are looking down on the city. You can see remnants of the old train tracks and how they've incorporated the plants around it, even the planks you walk on fit in perfectly with the scenery. There were some benches and lounge chairs along the way and the bottom of the chair legs were flanked with old train wheels. It was such a great park in the middle of the urban oasis that is Manhattan.

Union Square Farmers Market

On Saturday we started our day in Manhattan by heading over to Union Square to walk through the Farmers Market they have there, my Mom and I had never been before and wanted to check it out. It was a beautiful afternoon in the city to stroll through and check out all the great products they had. We didn't buy anything but we certainly eyed a lot of delicious looking things. The market had tons of freshly baked goods to offer and all kinds of organic products. The pies looked the most appealing to us, they were quite tempting. They had all kinds of freshly baked breads, jams, wine, and a beautiful flower market. I loved all the beautiful colors of the spring flowers. Here's a couple pictures I took while strolling through the market. 

Baking with Buttermilk

I never thought the buttermilk was going to come to an end. After I made the Reeses cake and the oven fried chicken I figured maybe one more recipe, turns out after I made the banana muffins there was still more buttermilk left. For some reason I was quite determined to use up all the buttermilk so I quickly printed out another recipe and got to work. I made a batch  of banana-buttermilk muffins and also a vanilla buttermilk pound cake. I added frozen blueberries I had in the house to the pound cake to give it a  little extra something since I wasn't in the mood for plain cake, I'm looking forward to seeing how it turned out, so far the pound cake looks really good. After all this I finally used up the container of buttermilk, they really need to start making smaller containers of buttermilk for sale!

Banana-Buttermilk Muffins
Source: Apple A Day
From Williams-Sonoma, Essentials of Healthful Cooking

Ingredients:
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 c. whole-wheat flour
1/2 c. sugar (less if your bananas are very sweet)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. low-fat buttermilk
1 c. mashed ripe banana
2 TBSP canola oil
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degree Farenheit.  Spray a standard-sized muffin tin (the recipe will make 12 to 15 muffins) with canola oil spray or use paper liners. In a large bowl, stir together the flours, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, banana, canola oil, egg, and vanilla.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin, filling each about three-fourths full.  (I like to use a standard-sized scoop.)  Sprinkle the tops evenly with walnuts. Bake the muffins until they are very lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes.  Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes, then turn out and let cool completely.  The muffins will keep in a sealed container at room temperature for two to three days or in the freezer for up to two months.

Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cake -- With Blueberries! 
Source: Stephanie Cooks (Adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg white
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries - My Add! (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt); stir with a whisk. Place sugar, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg and egg white, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and buttermilk to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spoon batter into a loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from pans. Cool completely on a wire rack.

ps.... The Blueberry Pound cake turned out FANTASTIC. I gave the baked goods to my brother and his roommate and they both commented that the pound cake was outstanding. This is absolutely a make again recipe. It was so moist and delicious, we all loved every bite of it!

A Sunday in the City

I love a beautiful spring day in the city. My Mom and I got in the car and hopped on the LIE as we headed west into Manhattan. We were going to catch an afternoon matinee showing of the Broadway show Rock of ages and meet up with my 'little' brother. 

The show was different from your traditional Broadway production. It was certainly the smallest broadway theater we've ever been in, I don't think there was a bad seat in the house as a result and no one was that far from the stage. Also interesting was when we walked into the theater they were selling beers and shots to patrons in the audience, any type of food or beverage is strictly prohibited in all other broadway theaters but this one was encouraging the audience to drink. The show was a love story of two  young kids trying to make it in LA as they try to shut down a historic bar that they work in. Of course it was no Wicked with any powerhouse stars like Idina or Kristen but it was cute and enjoyable.  

After the show we met up with Matthew and went for a quick bite. Matthew was able to walk there from his apartment, he loves living in the city. We went to a little Greek restaurant on 9th and 51st that Matthew had been to before. It was good and then before you know it we were headed back to the burbs, back to Long Island and then back to Jersey for me, it is nice that Manhattan is so close by that we can spend a nice afternoon in the city. 

Some random shots - The one of Grand Central I took from the car as we drove by

Heavenly Chocolate Cake

Last week when we went to go meet Miss Olivia it also happened to be the day after her mommy's birthday so I wanted to bake her a cake. I was originally looking for strawberry recipes so I could bake something pink in honor of Olivia's arrival but my other friend pointed out that Miller loves chocolate so the natural selection for a chocolate lovers cake was to make Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate cake. This was actually my first time (or that I can remember anyway) making this cake, but my mom has made it dozens of times and it's always delicious. It's a can't miss easy chocolate cake that's sure to please any chocolate lover. 

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

Source: Hershey's 

Cake Ingredients:

2 cups sugar 

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour 

3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa 

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder 

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda 

1 teaspoon salt 

2 eggs 

1 cup milk 

1/2 cup vegetable oil 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1 cup boiling water 

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Frosting. Makes 10 to 12 servings. 

"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting 

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.

Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

More Puppy Treats

It's no big secret how much I love Rocky, I love this little guy so much, so I decided to make him some more cookies. I used a different recipe this time to change it up, this one had banana's in it too. This recipe is super simple to make and took less than 5 minutes start to finish. These cookies were even easier and quicker to make than my last batch of doggy treats, the only thing is these ones can't be made into the cute dog bone and fire hydrant shapes like the other ones, not that Rocky knows the difference.

I wanted to get a cute shot of Rocky eating the cookies, I may have created a monster on this one. I put them on a small plate and put them on the dining room table, Rocky hopped himself up on the chair and snagged one. Then I moved the plate of cookies to the coffee table a lower surface that he can get to, as I'm getting my camera ready for the picture the next thing I know he hopped up onto the coffee table and got the cookies. This boy was not waiting for me to take a picture, he really wanted those cookies. Even after I took away the extras he hopped himself back up there sniffing around looking for some more. And when we came back downstairs he kept running upstairs to go find more cookies. I'd say he really liked these cookies, perhaps even better than the last batch so given Rocky's reaction to these cookies they will def be staying in the rotation. 

Peanut Butter Puppy Treats

Source: The Novice Chef

1 egg

1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 overly ripe banana, mashed

2 tablespoon honey

1 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup wheat germ (or a 1/2 cup flour)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Stir together egg, peanut butter, banana, and honey in a medium bowl; blend thoroughly. Stir in the oats and wheat germ; mix well. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately smash cookie into a disk with the bottom of a glass. Cool on a wire rack.

Using up leftover....

Buttermilk. Sometimes I have certain ingredients in the house because I bought them for another recipe but then never finish them all. Buttermilk is one of those ingredients. I know I've bought it a couple times here and there for a specific recipe but then I never finish the container, and for some reason they don't sell buttermilk in small containers!

I bought the buttermilk to make the Reeses Cake but then still had a ton leftover. I knew I didn't want to make pancakes or waffles with it so I needed to find something else. I found an oven fried chicken recipe that called for a cup of buttermilk so I gave that a shot last night. The chicken actually came out really good, I think I almost preferred it over a more traditional chicken cutlets especially since it was baked and not fried. Unfortunately mine didn't come out too crispy but I didn't have a wire rack to cook it on so I just used my crisper tray but it was still delicious anyway. (And I just realized I cooked mine on 350 instead of 400, opps, Mike always makes fun of me that I cook everything on 350, my bad). I would def make this chicken again if I had more buttermilk in the house to use up.

Oven Fried Chicken

Source: Elly Says Opa

Ingredients: 
2 skinless chicken breasts
1 cup low fat buttermilk
1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne (I omitted since I didn't have any in the house)
1/2 tsp paprika

salt and pepper

Melba toasts (about 15-20), processed to a coarse crumb
 - I used Panko crumbs since that was all I had on hand
1 tablespoon oil

1/4 tsp. dried mustard

Directions
Whisk together buttermilk, garlic powder, thyme, cayenne, paprika, salt and pepper. Pour mixture over chicken breasts and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400. Combine crushed melba toasts, oil and dry mustard. Coat chicken breasts in coating mixture, pressing to adhere.

Place chicken on a wire rack (I used a cooling rack), on top of a cookie sheet. Spray the chicken with some oil spray. Bake until chicken is done, about 45 minutes for bone-in and 30ish for boneless.

Unfortunately even after making both the chicken and the Reeses cake I still have more buttermilk left to use up so I'm going to have to make one more recipe with it. It also has to be something light that I'll eat on my own since Mike isn't around to help me. I've narrowed it down to the following recipes:

1. Fluffy Biscuits 
2. Light Buttermilk Biscuits
3. Buttermilk Biscuits
4. Banana Buttermilk Muffins 
5. Cinnamon Buttermilk Muffins
6. Low Fat Strawberry Scones
7. Buttermilk Quick Bread
8. Vanilla Buttermilk Pound Cake

Rocky Graduates

Our son graduated from puppy school! For the past 6 weeks Rocky has been going to puppy school on Saturday mornings to learn his manners. It's still a work in progress though but he learned the basics such as sit, down, stay, come and others or at least in theory. It was a lot of fun bringing him to school and at least now I have tricks to work on with him, he's still gotta get some of them down but hopefully we'll get there. They even had a cute little graduation for all the puppies in the class. Our little guy looked adorable in his little cap and gown, such proud parents we were! 

NYC Tourist Style

We decided to play tourists in New York City recently. I found a deal on travel zoo that had half off NYC dinner cruises. Having wanted to try one of these for something different to do for a weekend dinner I somehow managed to get a couple of our friends on board with this idea as well. We figured for $50 versus the original $100 ticket it was worth a shot since none of us were really interested in going for $100 per person. Unfortunately we weren't able to plan it that our other friends that purchased vouchers could join us for the night we planned to go so it was just four of us (our friends Mike & Sarah joined Mike & I). 

After a relatively traffic-less drive into Manhattan (shocking I know but it was also Easter weekend) we got to Chelsea Piers early so we were able to go to the Chelsea Brewing Company before hand for a quick drink. When it was time we boarded our ship, we were directed down to the lower level (what can you expect for a half price ticket). The boat felt a little rocky for the first few minutes but we didn't seem to notice after a couple minutes. We ordered some drinks (more to come on that) and before we know it we set sail. 

Here's what we weren't expecting.... singing and dancing waiters! Yes they put on a little show and were  hideously ugly sequined vests while they sing around, Broadway-quality singers they were not. That was interesting to say the least as we watched them sing and dance around. Overall the food wasn't bad, we knew it was a buffet going in, the food was tasty. After dinner though it got interesting again, in the middle of the room was a dance floor, however the music they played was not quite our style. It included songs such as the electric slide, the limbo, cha cha slide and anything else of that genre. It was not however current pop or anything of that nature. The tourist on board though seemed to LOVE it, the dance floor was PACKED, they were all participating in the line dancing. 

By the end of the 'three hour tour' we were quite ready to get off the ship, we'd had our fun and the boys took some nice pictures of the sites while Sarah and I stayed inside drinking our wine. Let's talk about that for a minute, now I don't pretent to be naive about NYC drink prices, I know we were in a tourist trap. Sarah and I ordered a bottle of Monkey Bay, a personal favorite of mine, I know because I buy it often at our local liquor store for about $12 a bottle (at most). We were expecting the bottle to be about $40. Nope that same $12 bottle of wine went for a mere $55 on the Spirit of NY, that was more than the price of our actual dinner ticket. 

In the end we had a fun & interesting night. It was something different than our usual Friday night, got a nice view of the Manhattan skyline and enjoyed our $55 bottle of wine. Would I do it again? No probably not but at least we had the experience of doing it this time. 

The infamous $55 bottle of wine and Mike celebrating