Red Velvet Cupcakes

Today I made some Red Velvet Cupcakes, with cream cheese icing.  I am going to bring them into work for people to eat tomorrow.

All finished, garnished with a chocolate chip.

I can't stand using box mixes for things, and anyway, I never have a box mix in the house to even use if I wanted to (our pantry is pretty lean as far as stocking up items goes).  I like making things from scratch, because then you aren't eating preservatives that are usually put into foods like that.  Here is my Red Velvet Cupcake recipe, along with the cream cheese icing.  It makes about 20 cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cake:

1 1/4 cups flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup greek yogurt

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Red food coloring

Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the eggs, beating after each addition.  Add the yogurt, milk, vanilla and food coloring; mix until blended.  Add the dry ingredients, and mix until wet.  Add additional milk if batter is too dry.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Icing:

1 package cream cheese (softened)

10 oz powdered sugar (or to taste)
1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp greek yogurt

Beat until fluffy, ice cooled cupcakes.

I use an ice cream scooper to easily add the batter to the cupcake liners.



Making the icing while the batter cooks.

Ready for icing

All done!

I must say, they are delicious. 

The U.P.

The majority of the field trip was spent in the UP along Lake Superior's shore.  Lots of water, lots of waterfalls, and lots of deer.  The first night we spent in Minnesota, the second day in Wisconsin and Michigan, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th days were all in UP of Michigan.  The second night we stayed in ski chalets, which had hot tubs, saunas, fire pits, a pool table, pinball machine, and fun people.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to do the fun things with our tight schedule.  The third night we stayed in cabins, which were "rustic".  We had running water though, which was all I needed. 

Two different types of ripples, showing different depositional environment and change in current direction.

Stromatolite- the white thing that is arcing over the cobble. Formed when there was low enough energy to allow them to grow.

 View of the river draining into Lake Superior.  We saw several different ripple styles here, and grain sizes.  Pebbles in the river, and sand on the beach. 

The final night, I took a walk down the running trail before dinner.  Saw lots of boats and people sailing.

Minnesota/Wisconsin/Michigan field trip

I will be writing a couple posts about the recent field trip to the north - Minnesota/Wisconsin/Michigan.  I can now cross Minnesota and Wisconsin off my list of states I hadn't been to yet.  We spent the week looking at rifted sediments on the Lake Superior shoreline.  We saw everything from the basalts when the rift began, to the shale, conglomerates, and sands deposited following the opening of the basin, to some igneous extrusive rhyolite, related to a volcanic event that changed the bed dips of the sands/conglomerates in the basin.  The rift formed the basins for several of the Great Lakes, and they were subsequently carved out during advancement of the glaciers, and filled in with freshwater after retreat of the glaciers.   It was a pretty nutty field trip, I haven't ever been on one that can compare in quirkiness.  The saving grace was our SUV, filled with other young people.

Glacial striations on the basalt flow (that's what gives it the sheen/lines)

Hanging out with an anchor outside the hotel.

The early sunrise and the lighthouse

Fall trees

A waterfall over the conglomerate sequence.

A sharp contact between the conglomerate and a sandier unit. Most likely due to migration laterally and vertically of the alluvial fan/delta sequence



Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt

I love frozen treats.  Since we got an ice cream maker, I've been trying lots of new flavors.  I found a frozen yogurt cookie dough recipe here, and I decided to modify it to make it simpler.  I don't feel like making cookie dough when I'm not making cookies.  So, I used premade cookie dough, mixed it with yogurt, and had some frozen yogurt in no time at all. 

Recipe:
1 tub vanilla yogurt
1 package cookie dough, refrigerated

Mix together, put into ice cream maker as per instructions.  SIMPLE!!!! 

Here is a photo from when I just removed it from the ice cream maker - the "soft serve" version.

This is from the next day, after it had frozen solid.  Sooo creamy and still good for you!

The secret to getting creamy ice cream/yogurt without the ice crystals is simple - get it cold FAST! 



Christmas Decorations: Dining room

Christmas is my favorite.  Here are some images of what I did this past year in my dining room.  I had the help of some adorable glasses courtesy of miss Maria V. 

Painted vases

I made some vases to go with my decor as an accent color.  I had some candles I liked, and wanted to match the color with these.  So, I mixed up some paint and got to work. 

Then, I swirled it around the vase to cover everywhere

Finally, added the finished product to our built-in bookcases.



Flowers

Last weekend, Adam came home from the store with a gorgeous bouquet for me.  What a sweetie!  My favorite, lilies, plus some pink daisies.

Cute Wreath

I needed some door decor, so I went to Michael's and got some ideas and some supplies.  I wanted something a little more modern that could also translate into winter/spring.  I wanted something simple and clean.  I love the way it turned out. 

I started by gathering my supplies together.  A grapevine wreath, flowers, ribbon and a W.



Next, I cut the flowers off of their long stems, to the size I needed to attach them to the wreath.

Then, I hot glue guned the flowers to the wreath.

Finally, added the W with hot glue, and tied a green ribbon on to hang.

Chicken Gyros

For a quick weeknight dinner, I threw together some gyros.  I had some pre-grilled chicken strips, some pita, and then cut up some tomatoes, onions, and had some leftover cucumber sauce and feta. 

I made a little conveyor belt to make the gyros.  I heated the pita on the griddle, put it on some aluminum foil (to hold in all the goodies when it was picked up), and started adding my insides.  Grilled chicken, onion, feta, tomato, and topped by some tzatziki sauce.  Rolled up, and served with a side salad. 

Ingredients:
Grilled chicken or lamb
tzatziki sauce
feta
tomato
onion

Chop tomato and onion while chicken is heated on the griddle.  Remove from heat.  Warm pita on griddle, and assemble wrap on tinfoil adding desired toppings.  Serve warm

My assembly line

We ended up on the back porch for dinner, with the nice weather and good conversation.

Moody Gardens, Galveston TX

My friends Jessica and Jon invited me to go to Moody Gardens with them last year.  We took their cute baby girl also.  Moody Gardens is essentially two pyramids - an aquarium pyramid and a rainforest one.  The rainforest has monkeys, birds, sloths, flowers, butterflies, etc.  The aquarium has penguins, seahorses, fish, etc.  They also have a ferry you can take for a ride in the Gulf, and some other attractions like a water park and a dinosaur thing.  Some of my favorite photos were of the flowers and animals.

The gorgeous orchids of all varieties were everywhere.

So pretty!

Cute macaw - I liked the blue ones

Penguins in the aquarium

Cutie pie baby and momma

 

Bermuda

I went on a cruise with my dad and his friends Bud and Sandy to Bermuda last fall.  We left from Baltimore, and sailed for a day and a half to the island off the coast of North Carolina in the middle Atlantic.  We played a bunch of pool games, ping pong, did some swimming, and ate well while on the boat.  In Bermuda, we did some shopping, went to the house my Mom lived in as a child, and went on an island tour and snorkeling at the beach. 

Here we are in one of the many lounges, getting ready to play some trivia. 

Here we are in Hamilton, after taking a ferry ride to the island from the cruise ship port.  Dad and Bud are asking directions to the house my Mom lived in.

Here is Pembroke Hall, where my mom lived when she was 7 and 8.  They lived on the second floor.  She always wanted to come back, and they had this trip planned for her to get to see her home again. 

Bermuda is a volcanic island, which means the black rock is what we call Basalt.  Here I am posing with some of the basalt as we get ready to leave the beach for the day.

A view of Bermuda from the ship deck.  A terrific sunset.

Tiling a Frameless Mirror

Our master bathroom recently had the countertops installed, and I wanted to make our frameless, builder grade, mirror be a little more personal.  I had done a similar framing of a mirror using wood and glass tile (pictures here), but I wanted to try using only tile. 

I did take some in-between steps, as it takes a while to get everything you want done.  To begin:

No more ugly poop brown in a bathroom.

The counters were done, so painting the walls and then the cabinets ensued.

Now, the tiling of the mirror.  I started with a layout of stone and glass tile that I wanted to use, and laid it out to make sure I had enough.

Next, I began using all purpose liquid nails and glued the tiles to the bottom and sides of the mirror. 

When it came to adhering tile to the top, it was a little more tricky.  You can use tape to hold the tiles in place, but I found it more effective to add glue, put the tile in place, and remove it immediately from the mirror.  Then, I waited ~10 minutes until the glue became a little set on the outermost layer.  Then, I could add the tile to the mirror and it would stay in place!