Thoughts for Thursday:

I'm In Love....with Red Velvet

As most of you know, I love to cook.   But more specifically I love to bake.  And, I am slightly obsessed with cupcakes.  I love experimenting with flavors and perfecting a recipe.  I love finding new concoctions like matcha flavored, or filling a perfect vanilla flavored cupcake with lemon curd.  I love whipping up the most amazing frosting to top off an already perfect baby cake with flavors like brown sugar vanilla, or a rich chocolate ganache, or to spice up a perfect cream cheese frosting with a citrus zest!  I love cupcakes.

Last night I made the ever-amazing Red Velvet!  I love these beautiful and elegant cupcakes.  They are the fanciful cupcake: rich, decadent, and beautiful.  I think the secret to a rich and moist red velvet cake lies somewhere in the buttermilk and sifted cake flour.  Oh, and the un-godly amount of vegetable oil.  The sexy and sumptuous red cake is sharply contrasted with the bright white and equally as bright in flavor with the tangy cream cheese frosting resting gracefully on top.  But anything with cream cheese in it and I'm in love.   Perfection.  It's even more perfect that calories don't count when you find the perfect recipe. (Although the previous sentence is not scientifically proven, I've trained my brain to convince my metabolism of this and I'm pretty sure it works...to a certain degree. But please do not quote me.)

This is the recipe that you write in your cookbook... in ink...possibly laminated as red food dye is unforgiving and hard to tame.  Just remember to choose carefully you who share it with as this cupcake has some serious thunder most will want to steal.

But, I'll share the recipie, only because I think that everyone needs to make this, especially if you're looking for love...in the form of food.

Red Velvet Cupcake Love

Ingredients

Makes 24

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, cocoa, and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and whisking well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl (it will foam and makes you feel like a mad scientist!!!); add mixture to the batter, and mix on medium speed 10 seconds or completely combined.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• about 4 cups of confectioners sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon pure madagasgar vanilla extract

Directions

1. Beat butter and cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time or until desired consistency is achieved., and then vanilla; mix until smooth. Frosting can be refrigerated for up to 3 days; before using, bring to room temperature, and beat until smooth.

*this glorious recipe is adapted from the Martha Stewart Cupcake recipe book.

March's Mantra

"No one can depress you.

No one can make you anxious. 

No one can hurt your feelings.  

No one can make you anything other than  what you allow inside."

Easier said than done, I know.  Believe me, I know.

But oh, so true.

I'll be honest, and for those of you who know me it won't come as a surprise but, I tend wear my heart of my sleeve.  I take things personally.  I feel it all-I am easily affected. Shocker, I know.  I can so easily get tossed and tumbled by the crashing waves and  to ride that roller emotional roller coaster we somehow end up on.

I first read this quote about 5 years ago.  I read it during a time in my life when internal strength was hard to come by, and I felt like I was hanging on to that proverbial thread.  

Over the years, it really stuck like glue to the walls of my mind.  It reminds me that I can either be tossed and tumbled by the waves, or pop up on my surf board use that force to get me back to shore.  It challenges me to simply not get on that roller coaster.  

And believe me, this is something I remind myself constantly.  It is a mantra that I still attain to fully grasp and practice.  But a good one, nonetheless.  

And so, I share it with you and hope it might bring encouragement your way.  And I hope it brings you freedom in your thoughts.

Thoughts for Thursday:

My dad loved nature.  He had a deep appreciation for the subtle details while seeing the bigger picture. He always pointed out the subdued shades in sunsets, noted the fog resting peacefully amidst the tree tops on dewy mornings, and sought out new vista points and views.  Camera in hand to capture the moment, pen and paper in pocket to poetically pursue his thoughts, my dad was a slightly less refined and adventurous Thoreau (or so I glorify him to be).

During my young years I remember taking hikes into the nearby forests and nestling among ferns, gazing at trilliums, and hunting for salamanders under fallen Redwood logs.  Growing up, like most children, I lost interest and got annoyed every time he pulled over to gaze at the sunset or take us on another boring family drive into the country on Sunday afternoons when I'd rather be riding my bike or making mud pies with the neighborhood kids.  But now, that he's gone, I appreciate his love of nature. And this, even, an understatement of my feelings toward it all.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of trail hiking.  While being both beneficial to my physical and mental health, it brings me closer to earth.  I feel more grounded.  And, in a funny way, I feel closer to my dad.  And, lately, I've felt his spirit with me.  In the sunrises, the light filtering through the trees-he would have exclaimed over it.  The pussy-willows beginning to bloom and show first signs of spring-he would have poached a branch or two and put it in a vase in front of our big mirror in our dining room.  And the wild daffodils, shouting happiness with their perfect yellow hue-he used to leave bouquet upon bouquet for me and my sister to decorate our home.

Last week, I was on a hike at through the Arcata marsh.  The sun was warm and the wind was cool.  I felt my dad's spirit from the minute I set out on the trail.  The birds were dancing the most beautiful choreographed movements through the air over the pond and everyone stood in silence and awe.  My dad would have been one of the speculating fans, binoculars around his neck and camera in his hand.  I sat and let it all soak in.  The sun was glistening, sparkling like a million diamonds, over the bay.  Tears flooded my eyes as the warmth of his spirit flooded my soul. I have never felt more grounded to the earth yet so connected with the spirit world as I felt my dad next to me, appreciate nature and all its glory.

Rolling In The Deep

I friggin' love Adele. 
True talent. 
This song kicks ass.
Enjoy.

"...Throw your soul through every open door
Count your blessings to find what you look for
Turn my sorrow into treasured gold..."

skimming the surface

while i skim the surface of the deep waters i have been treading as of late, let me just preface this by saying i have never had a deeper appreciation for life since my trip to africa about 10 years ago. a lot has happened, even since my last blog.  so, i'll just pick up where i left off, and let what has happened slowly fuse itself back into my writing and unfold gracefully in this blogspace...or spot, as it is more commonly referred to.