But why is the rum gone?

Happy Holidays all!  I got a little bored with Thanksgiving so I'm going to skip Thanksgiving part 3 (sorry!) and move on to bigger and better things aka Christmas!  But don't worry friends, my second family (i.e. Kayle's family) is Jewish and a challah post will be coming soon.  Also, just so I don't leave out my own heritage, Chinese New Year is right around the corner so expect a delicious Asian dessert that my momma taught me.

Ahh, but I get ahead of myself!  Let's talk about Christmas!  I love Christmas.  And I really love Christmas music - like really really love.  I've had my Spotify Christmas playlist on non-stop since Black Friday and I am still not bored of it.  I'm actually pretty sad it's not acceptable for me to listen to Christmas music year round.  Sometimes I just need a little holiday Josh Groban to make me happy, you know what I mean?  Is that really asking too much?  If you're my brother, it is.  He does NOT like Christmas music so I had to make sure I got my fix on the way to Mom and Dad's so as not to bother him with it during our week of confinement in Lincoln, NE.  And, to answer your question "What?  You're in Lincoln, NE?" - yes, yes I am.  It took three flights, two security checkpoints, and about thirteen hours of travel time, but I made it.  Don't ask why we're here.

Hand check!

Continuing with our epic 3-part Thanksgiving post extravaganza, I come to 2nd Thanksgiving....Thanksgiving day.  Today is the day where families all over the country get up at absurdly early hours of the day to get a gigundo bird in some sort of cooking device, eat until they can't move, then eat some more.  Sigh - I love America.

Since my parents have relocated to somewhere in middle-America, my roommate's family has officially adopted me for the holiday.  I'm absolutely amazed at how welcoming and generous Kayle's entire family (like extended family) has been to me.  My presence has never been questioned...even during the holidays I obviously don't celebrate (think Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur...I stick out like a sore thumb!).  So since this is a Thanksgiving post, I just want to officially express my gratitude to all of them, and especially Jane and Paul.  Thanks for taking care of me like another daughter.  Love you.

Pumpkin Chunkin

Yet another month (plus) has gone by and yes, I took a big baking hiatus.  I mean like - I did not bake for an entire month!  I know - I'm sorry.  I really don't know what got into me...sometimes you just need just take a few weekends, drink a bit, and sleep in until 2 pm like you're back in college.  And that, my friends, is exactly what I did.

The only thing that broke me out of my doingabsolutelynothingwithmylifeisfun phase was the approach of one of my favorite holidays - Thanksgiving!  Why is Thanksgiving my favorite holiday you ask?  Well, turkey, for one thing.  No pressure for gift-giving is another.  But being with family and friends who all celebrate this one holiday cause we're Americans (read: Amuuuricans) tops the charts.  Oh - and you can seriously have as many Thanksgivings as you can fit in a one week period.  I'm serious (and thankful...see what I did there?)

With that being said, I've now gone zero-to-sixty and have so many recipes and pics to share!  I think the easiest way to go about this will be in chronological order, or at least that's my excuse for appeasing my OCD-self.  Three Thanksgivings...three posts - get excited.

Apples to apples

Continuing on our quest to use up a bushelful of apples before they rot, this week was the week of pies.  Apple pies of course!  Lucky for me, my bffl from high school, Sandy, has been in town for the past month and decided she wanted to spend the day doing something Fall-related.  Umm...apple pie baking?  It absolutely screams Fall!

So - two girls who have been friends since middle school, two recipes, a dozen or so apples, a butt-ton of butter, flour, and sugar, and about six hours of hard-ish work (plus gossip of course)...and we ended up with four amazing and delicious pies!  NBD!  We chose two types of pies - one fairly traditional recipe and one that is a bit more cake-like.  Unfortunately for me, I don't have one of those old-school, passed-down for multiple generations recipes so naturally I just Googled it.  That being said, if anyone would like to share their old-school, passed-down for multiple generations recipe for apple pie, please email me!

Apple of my eye

Fall is here, Fall is here, Fall is here(!)...Fall is my favorite season in case you couldn't tell.  And New England is such a wonderful region to be in during this time, so all you west coasters can be jealous of us for a change (and for about a month max).  The leaves are changing, the air is crisp, and apples are everywhere - mmmm apples.  Now, whoever decided to charge people extra so they can pick their own fruit is a genius.  I mean - I could totally buy apples from the store, but no...I'm going to drive an hour each way to pay twice as much per apple to go frolicking in an orchard and do the work myself.  Amazing.

Almond joy

K - so remember when I was all ambitious-like and wanted to post every week?  Hah.  So young...so naive!  But just to explain myself quickly: 3 days, 9 girls, 2 suites, and about 10 hours of sleep total.  Vegas my friends - such an amazing time but I needed a full week to even begin to recover.  Well worth it, but I'm le tired.

So now I'm back and ready to bake - assemble the minions!  To add a little spice to the blog, I decided to throw in something different - maybe some French Macarons?  First things first, macarons are not the same as macaroons which are those shredded coconut cookie-things.  Macarons are sandwiches made from two delicious, merengue-based cookies with a fun treat in between.  Note: I don't know if the whole spelling of macaron vs. macaroon holds true, but Wikipedia says so and I'm OK with that!

Lady in red

Attention all...your party pants are required because I've officially made it to my 10th post!  Yay!  Okay, maybe not that big a deal, or any deal at all for that matter, but we do have many other things to celebrate.  Like birthdays!  And...a casino?  Erm - no matter!  I always love it when my baking can be used for multiple purposes and I tend to pull out my favorite recipes for these occasions.

I'm actually amazed that I've been able to hold out this long to bring out this tried and true favorite of mine.  It was one of the first cupcake recipes that I baked successfully and decorated, so go me!  It's also a cupcake flavor that is super popular, always requested, and should be required on the repertoire of every baker-wannabe (like myself).  Pants, party or of any other variety, however, are optional but suggested.

Blueberries for Sal

A group of friends and I went up to Booth Bay, Maine this past weekend and I was volunteered to provide dessert options.  To be exact, the suggested food list went as follows:

"Coffee, bagels, OJ, eggs, bacon, bread, cheese, cold cuts, Pooncakes, more eggs, all the bacon."

No choice whatsoever!  But then again, these guys have practically made Pooncakes a food group so I really couldn't say no.  It just so happens the weekend before the trip, we had also made a failed beach attempt and instead ended up at Russell Farms in Ipswich, MA to do some fruit picking.  It was awesome - not only did we pick these amazing blueberries, red raspberries, and black raspberries, we also got to see pigs, geese, turkeys, and a mini-horse!  I also may have contracted West Nile Virus with the number of mosquito bites I got, but I'm still kicking so I'm optimistic.  Anyways, the point of that story was my double inspiration to make something with blueberries in it.  Picked blueberries, blueberries grow in Maine...get the association?

I scream for ice cream

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret: ice cream cake is one of the super impress-iest desserts you can make.  Everyone oohs and aahs and is amazed at your crazy-good abilities...and of course you totally take credit for all the hard work while inside you just smile smugly at the 5 minutes per layer you spent on the thing.  Okay - maybe 10 minutes.  Ice cream cake can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it.  Crust?  Sure!  Bake a brownie or cake layer from a box!  And yes, although I morally oppose most box mixes I totally would totally allow it in this situation.  Oh, you want fancier?  Duh - bake it from scratch!  Ice cream?  Homemade or from a carton!  See what I mean?  There are also an endless amount of flavors and fillings you can choose from.  It's crazy!

The San Francisco treat (ding ding!)

Surprise!...I don't just make cupcakes, I make other stuff too!  Only sometimes though, and for special reasons.  This time it's because I feel like I've been neglecting a certain someone who has already admitted he can't bake any of my recipes and is 3000 miles too far to get any cupcakes.  Unfortunately for him, cupcakes are just not easily shippable.  I'm still working on a way to fix that, but for now he'll have to be happy with what he gets.

What's in store for the lucky recipient?  Chocolate chip cookies (!), which, by the way, are his favorite...NBD.  I've been meaning to test out a recipe from Not Without Salt who claims it'll be the last recipe I even look at.  Those are some big statements!  But I'm a huge fan of hers and she has yet to lead me astray.  So, are they delicious?  Well, honestly, who doesn't love a chocolate chip cookie, but in all seriousness, yes!  They have a bit of crunch to them on the outside, but inside is all chewiness.  I really encourage the last sprinkling of salt pre-bake.  It balances out the sweetness very well and enhances the cookie-ness.  I'll let the San Franciscan make the final decision though.  (Note to receiver:  Don't be rude and share with your friends who read the blog...they know where you live.  Hell, use the cookies to bribe your friends to read the blog.  Miss you!)

Call me, maybe?

What can you do with four extremely ripe bananas?  Well, for one thing, you can dance around with a banana held up to your ear singing Call Me, Maybe for a few rounds.  That will probably get pretty old for most people, unless you're a member of the Cornell class of 2007 and were at reunions this past weekend.  (To all who were worried about me...I survived but RIP voice.  GO BIG RED).  Fortunately, for those who are not as amused by Carly Rae, there are many other options!  You can put bananas into practically any type of not-so-healthy food to make yourself feel better about eating them: waffles, pancakes, bread, smoothies, ice cream sundaes, and of course, cupcakes.

Side note: Please tell me someone has seen the Despicable Me 2 trailer...it keeps running through my head as I'm writing this post.  If you haven't...enjoy.  You'll understand after you see it. 

This recipe is adapted from browneyedbaker.com.  It's a great banana bread-like cupcake that is a bit lighter and sweeter than its bread version.  I definitely want to try pairing the cupcake with pastry cream like she suggests.  Another must try is with peanut butter frosting...banana with peanut butter is hands down one of my favorite combinations.  For this batch, I was fairly short on time and wasn't able to get my act together early enough to go big.  Actually, it was out of sheer luck that I had powdered sugar in the pantry.  I ended up just making my favorite vanilla buttercream and they turned out great.

Strawberry Fields forever

To celebrate the beginning of a beautiful Boston summer (and an awesome sale at the grocery store) I thought strawberry cupcakes would be the perfect recipe to share as my first food-related post.  Unfortunately, it ended up raining ALL day so it was not as summer-y as I had planned...#NewEnglandproblems.

I can't tell you how long I've been searching for a strawberry cupcake recipe that isn't shortcake-like or artificially pink.  And friends, I have found it!  The cupcake itself has the perfect amount of sweetness that works with the natural sugar from the strawberries.  And there are actual strawberries IN the cake!  I found this recipe on one of my go-to sites, The Cupcake Project, where she pairs it with a champagne glaze.  This time around, I decided to go with a vanilla bean swiss merengue buttercream.  I've recently been on quite the swiss merengue kick - it's not too sweet and its so...so...fluffy!  It does require a bit more work than your typical American buttercream (butter, powered sugar, tada!), but it's delicious, requires no refrigeration, and you'll never want to go back.