Heaven in a Cupcake

So there's this huge, huge craze going on in the food industry right now. You probably know about it: it's the cupcake craze. There are cupcake shops EVERYWHERE now, and most of them stick to the simple or more traditional cupcake flavors, but quite a few of them also throw these curveballs. One of these curveballs has been haunting my dreams for months now: maple bacon cupcakes.

I remember hearing about them on Best Thing I Ever Ate one time, and I just thought they sounded like the greatest idea on the planet. It wasn't until last week that I had the sense to see if there was maybe a recipe for them online so I could make them myself.

Turns out there is. And I made them. And they are... just... so divine. A lot of people have been turning their nose up at the idea, including my mother, because bacon "just doesn't belong in a cupcake." Wise up. The blend of sweet and salty in a dessert is becoming a common thing, and I can gurantee there's something sweet and salty that YOU like (chocolate-covered pretzels, anyone?). So what's the difference, other than the actual flavors?

These cupcakes take two ideas from breakfast and blend them together. A lot of people already dip their bacon in the maple syrup anyway (you can even buy maple-soaked bacon from the grocery store). This is just taking that idea and making it much, much better.

So here's the breakdown:
It's a maple batter (using pure maple syrup, not Aunt Jemima imitation syrup or anything), with chopped bacon bits folded in, and baked in the oven like a normal cupcake. And there's a recipe for homemade maple frosting, too. Sprinkle sugar and sea salt (yes, salt sprinkled on a cupcake) on top, and it's pure Heaven. One thing I've learned, and now tasted, is that salt does not necessarily make something taste salty. If used lightly (like it is here), it actually just brings out the flavors more. I actually can't imagine these cupcakes without the salt.

I fully plan on making these again and again. I mean, not often because I'd rather not die of a bacon-induced heart attack (or would I...?), but they're so delicious. I mean, so delicious.

New year, new foods.

I'm going to upload my first picture of a new food I've tried (once I find the cord to hook the camera up to the computer)! Well, the food itself is not new, but I've never eaten it this way. It's Ina Garten's recipe for herbed-baked eggs. It's pretty good, but the recipe calls for three eggs per person... and I have trouble eating two. But for a person who usually doesn't like eggs just by themselves... this is a good step to take. I am sad that we didn't have any parmesan, which the recipe calls for, because I think it would have made the eggs much better.

I'm mostly excited because I got to use the ramekins my mom got. She bought them recently to make white chocolate creme brulee (I'm sorry to say that I didn't get to make it first because it was AMAZING), and just having ramekins opens a lot of doors to new recipes. If you don't know what a ramekin is, it's basically a bowl with vertical sides, and you can put them in the oven safely. A lot of fantastic dishes are made using ramekins, especially creamy desserts (see above mention of creme brulee).

I'm hoping I'll remember to take more pictures as I cook more foods, since I have a new camera. Until next time!

Revision: here's the picture of the herbed eggs.

Les langues

So lately I've been having a bit of a think about languages.

I took French in high school, and I enjoyed it immensely. I was very good at it, too, but then college rolled around and I found myself completely unable to continue it. When my mom took me to Paris last year, it came back to me in clumps--I could speak French well enough to get by and could pretend I knew what our waiters were saying, but I wasn't well-versed in it anymore. So after I graduated and realized I would be living with my mother for at least a year, I made a list of hobbies I wanted to pursue (stated in my very first post here), and re-learning French was one of them. I didn't think it would be possible to do, but I put it on there to remind myself of my love of this language.

At work recently, foreign languages came up in passing during a conversation I was involved in. One of my co-workers, Joel, mentioned that he thinks he would like to learn Russian. In my head, my thoughts immediately went to--not French--but German.

And THEN I thought, "German? Where the hell did German come from? I already like French!"

But the idea of learning German has kind of been poking me in my subconscious lately. Over Thanksgiving my grandparents on my mother's side, Poppa and Grandchuck, came up and Poppa was telling us a little bit about our family history; about how his great-grandfather had heard that the part of Germany he lived in was about to be taken over by Prussia, so he brought his family to America. He told us about how they decided to change their last name a couple centuries ago, and how we have very, very distant family still living on a farm in Germany, and I guess the thing to do in our family is to go and visit them. They speak little to no English, so in order to visit, you'd have to know German.

Now. That's not to say I want to go visit this distant family of mine, exactly (though I'm not saying I wouldn't like it, either), but it really got me thinking: I don't know that much about my heritage. This is seriously the most I have ever learned about where my family comes from, and that's just from Poppa's side of the family! We don't really have any traditions that keep ties with our German heritage (I think mostly because my family came here to immerse themselves into American society). I feel that maybe learning German would be one step closer to getting in touch with my roots.

Not that I'm completely German. I'm only 50% German, and it's all from my mother's side. I've also got English, Irish, Danish, and Polish in me, and I'm sure if I'd learned about that side this Thanksgiving, I'd be musing over learning Danish, Gaelic, or Polish, or visiting England extensively, but that's not how it panned out. And I feel that since German makes up the majority of my heritage I should be more connected to it.

I talked to my friend Anthony about maybe learning a new language, just to kind of voice the idea (because keep in mind: this is STILL only an idea). He asked me, "What language would you learn?" And I told him I was leaning towards German, and then he gave me some very sage advice (which is one of the things I love about Anthony--he's as abundant in wisdom as he is in childlike wonder): "Well, Lindsay, if you do learn a new language, do it for a good reason."

... I really do think my reason's a good one.

Thanksgiving Eve

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving! I'm less excited than usual, but only because I'm distracted by other things. Is it kosher to write about non-hobby-related matters on a blog created specifically for hobbies?

Last week I made pumpkin mousse with chocolate sauce. It was very delicious, but I won't make it again for a long time. It takes about six hours to make. Seriously. Six hours. It's a lot of work for a reward that is nice, but not quite worth the effort.

On another topic: the first part of the Deathly Hallows in the Harry Potter series blew me away. It was so incredible, I have a hard time finding words to describe how I felt about it. I think one of the first words that comes to mind is "relief." I felt such relief that the bad things weren't babied out of the movie at all. Everything bad that happened in the book happened in the movie. Everything that the characters felt in the book, they felt in the movie. And while it was very loyal to the book, the movie remained as its own entity, and I have so much respect for that. It's hard to do so with any kind of success. Bravo, David Yates. Bravo.

I also highly recommend Megamind and Due Date. I don't have as much to say about them because neither are quite as near-and-dear to my heart as Harry Potter is, but they were both excellent, excellent movies.

I'm currently looking online for options to voice lessons. I need them. If I ever want to have any future in musical theatre, I have to take voice lessons and I have to take them as soon as possible. I probably won't be able to get to them until February, what with saving money for auditions in January, but I'm excited to pursue it.

And now, I must bid you adieu, as I must rest my stomach before its epic workout tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Life at the Nestle Tollhouse

I imagine life at the Nestle Tollhouse would be magical. Full of chocolate waterfalls and chocolate chip cookies. Much like Willy Wonka's factory, but less mischevious, and more like Grandma's kitchen.

I made Nestle Tollhouse cookies the other day. The recipe calls for nuts. Just "nuts." So I used pecans. I have to say, I didn't enjoy the cookies that much (I think the backing sda made it taste a bit too salty), but I took them to work and everyone keeps coming up to me and telling me how freakin' perfect they are. Well... cool! I wish I enjoyed them as much as everyone else seems to. But I made some happy faces, so that's fine with me.

I really want to make a roast chicken. Just a simple chicken. Covered with butter. Roasted in the oven. Super French style. And pumpkin mousse with chocolate sauce. Mmmmmm. And I want to make creme brulee (SO BAD!)... You know, maybe I should just foray into French desserts and simple French cooking. And there's a TV show on the Cooking Channel all about siple French cooking. The host, Laura Calder, is easily my favorite TV chef, not only because she's talented but because she dropped her business career in pursuit of passion.

You know, the only problem with this cooking hobby is it gets (very slightly) in the way of my big goal: to lose at least 35 pounds. I know: "But Lindsay, you're not fat!" No, I'm not. But I'm not healthy, either. So I decided to give myself a true motivation. I've been thinking about getting a tattoo for a while now, and I recently figured out exactly what I want it to be. So after I lose the weight I want to lose, I'm going to get the tattoo. Yay! Apparently I've already lost some weight since I moved bck to Omaha (amazing what NOT eating like a college student can do for you), but it's purely by accident. So I don't count it.

This blog's getting to be a bit of a ramble, so I'm going to head off now.

P.S. Would anyone like to go to Savannah, GA with me to eat at Lady and Sons restaurant? It's Paula Deen's restaurant. I want to go and eat Hoecakes. Yes. Hoecakes. Pancakes of cornbread and buttermilk.

Cooking: Fail!

I reached my first epic cooking fail, and it was the simplest of things: macaroni and cheese.

Now, in my defense, it wasn't specifically me that failed, just the recipe I used. And maybe if I'd grown up with cheddar mac and cheese it would have been okay, but I grew up with Kraft and Velveeta (not the shells and cheese pre-packaged stuff, but Mom's mac and cheese that she used Velveeta to make). But this was too peppery, and I just didn't feel like it worked at all. AT. ALL.

Orson Welles believed in the "really bad thing" before a show. His belief was that before a show opens, something really terrible has to happen to threaten a show. If it doesn't happen, the show would go down in flames. Now, I've always kind of believed this, and I believe that it's true with cooking, as well as any other art form. So I'm going to take my mac and cheese failure and set it aside. Next time I cook I hope to do something more ambitious.

Cooking So Far

I wish I had pictures. I didn't think to take any until today, and I can't find the camera.

So I'm going to tell you about some of the meals I've made.

The first one I made that I really enjoyed (without following a recipe, so consequently I also felt very proud of myself) was a chicken breast, rubbed in a mesquite seasoning and cinnamon. I grilled it, and then put sliced strawberries on top. DELICIOUS. (This was the day after I discovered that I actually like strawberries.) If you want to make it, it's super easy. The hardest part is making the rub just right because I didn't use any measurements. Basically you just mix them until you feel that you can smell the mesquite and the cinnamon equally.

I also followed a recipe for a walnut-cream chicken, also muy delicioso. I added a lot of mustard powder. It was really awesome (and not spicy at all, it just kind of has the flavor of mustard and it goes great in cream sauces, trust me).

But probably my favorite thing that I've made so far was an herbed chicken (we have a lot of chicken in my house) with goat cheese on top. The herbed rub was really easy: equal parts onion powder, garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, oregano, paprika, and add pepper and salt. Grill it, and put goat cheese and a squirt of lemon juice on top of each chicken breast right before you serve it.

So far, so good. I haven't had any massive failures yet. We'll see what happens.