A Science Experiment

I was always a fan of lab in chemistry and biology. I wish I could rewind and go back to the lab to test my skills again. To mix, to waft, to put all things unknown into my crucible and boil and boil. Those were the days. Since I can't go back to school and frankly don't want to, I make my own experiments and they always occur in the kitchen. This weekend, it was an attempt to mix two of my favorite things, cheese and cupcakes. Sound gross? It's not. It's actually quite tasty and simple. Mix up a batch of cupcakes, lemon or vanilla are best. Then mix together ricotta, eggs, sugar and vanilla. Spoon the ricotta over the cake mix and bake. The ricotta sinks to the bottom of the cupcake and provides dense cheesy layer. Dust the cake with a bit of powdered sugar and you have a successful experiment!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Back to Work I go!

So, after an extended weekend, I will be returning to work tomorrow. That means I will actually have to get up when my alarm goes off instead of rolling over and hitting snooze a bazillion times. It also means I will not have as much time to review my testing materials. While I can be a slacker studier at times, I typically have the best focus in the morning and will miss out on it for the next two days. It also means that I have two more short days to prepare for REG and well, I never feel like I am prepared. I think I could drink myself silly into a red bull high for the next two nights studying like a good little cpa candidate and still feel like a complete retard on Saturday at about noon. Not looking forward to it but will gladly suffer through it if it means it will soon be over! Good night everyone and if you don't hear from me anytime soon, rest assured I will be studying.

Finally, some cupcakes!!

When I initially set up this blog, I did so because I was in the regular habit of baking frequently. I'm not sure if it is because it is now too hot to turn my oven on for extended periods of time or if I am too concerned with gaining some additional pounds but I haven't baked any cupcakes in (gasp) months! How can it be? Well, when you mix the summer weather with some good old Becker study books, the resulting combination is that there is no baking going on in the Chicago Cupcake lady's kitchen. Reluctantly, I have given up my hobby briefly in order to try to accomplish a personal and professional goal that has been in progress for quite some time and well needs significant attention.

Instead, I will share some of my favorite cupcakes to be purchased in Chicago. In honor of my Birthday, Mr. Cupcake took me to one of my favorites, Sweet Mandy B's. I had a cupcake for breakfast, yellow cake with buttercream frosting, and Mr. Cupcake had a homemade cinnamon roll. We then purchased a red velvet cupcake and chocolate with buttercream cupcakes to enjoy later. The picture below is of the chocolate with buttercream. The good thing is that Mr. Cupcake accepts the cakes from Sweet Mandy as a replacement for mine. Actually, based on his reaction I think he prefers them to mine. So, when I get around to baking again my first culinary goal will be to figure out the recipe behind these things. Trust me, you will be happy that I did when I make them for your next occasion!

Please enjoy the flowers as well and pay no attention to the permarings on my coffee table. I promise we regularly use coasters, it just doesn't look that way.

Aging gracefully....

For those of you who have stuck with me since the inception of this blog despite the length between posts, you may remember that I chronicled the planting of my flowers at the beginning of the summer. Well, I can assure you that I have a green thumb and that the combination of direct sunlight and lots of watering from Mr. Cupcake has allowed these flowers to bloom into beautiful reminders of life and growth.

See the pictures below for transformation from beginning to now:

I

So, the true point of my post, for those that know me well, is that I too am approaching another year of what I hope is aging gracefully. While I am no where close to being old, I'm also old enough that when I was a kid I thought that being my age meant old. And yes, my body is showing some signs of age that I am NOT going to share with everyone as I don't want to give away all of my secrets.

Let's just say I really enjoy attending the weekly yoga sessions in Millenium Park as it gives me the chance to stretch my body out. That's right picture about 100 people practicing yoga at 8am on Saturday morning in the splendor of downtown Chicago. This morning, we even chanted at the beginning and end of our session all in unison. It is fantastic. It attracts those who have aged gracefully and some that have not but all that are interested in finding a little time for themselves. Thank you Chicago park district for providing the opportunity.

Belated: Fireworks for the 4th!

It is an age old American tradition to honor our freedom, the bbq and fireworks, on the 4th of July. Fortunately this year I had the opportunity to witness the most fireworks I have ever seen in my life. The location of our home and the perfect weather for the day afforded the brilliant scene. First, from our living room, we could see multiple shows, probably about 5 at once. Then, I stepped foot onto the deck and could see a few more. As the evening grew from dusk to night time, the Mr. and I grabbed the camera and headed to our building's roof top deck. Who would have thought that a building with 6 floors would have such a great view? The pictures that I am going to display below will not do the scene justice. We literally could see all fireworks shows to the North, West and South for what seemed like a 30 mile radius. It was amazing. Everywhere I looked on the horizon and up close in the city there were fireworks. Here are a few pictures of the sight. Again, no camera can "show" you what I got to see! Mark this fourth down in the memory book for me, as it was spectacular!



It's hard to distinguish a firework from a street lamp in this picture. However, if you look closely at the light bursts, those are all various fireworks that were going off simultaneously.

Spoils of today's farmers market!

The Mr. and I started our day off early this morning. By 10am we had been to the farmers market, had our morning coffee and retrieved any remaining groceries that we needed for the week from the store. Since I've had a bit more time on my hands lately, I've spent some of that time looking for new ideas for things to cook. So, now you will be able to see the fruits of my search! At the market this morning we picked up green beans, cucumbers, snap peas, zucchini, yellow squash, tart cherries, flat parsley, rosemary and onions. It was a very productive visit to the market. Following our visit, I dug up some of the recipes that I had recently found to cook today. First we started off with a zucchini squash pizza. We modified it slightly by adding some grilled chicken to the mix. We finished our evening dinner with tart cherry crisp. I used my Aunt S's recipe for the cherry fruit filling and the crumbly crisp topping recipe came from one of the magazines I've had the pleasure to enjoy in the past few weeks. Both recipes are keepers that we will be adding to our rotation of things to cook.

Lots of Catching Up to Do!

It's been a few weeks since I've posted...since then we've had family in town, we have our first baby tomatoes on the vine, I've been to Dallas and back, we've seen our friend Sue's new fabulous home, and it's officially SUMMERTIME!
During our family visits we have had the chance to go on an extended eating tour of Chicago. While managing to roll around town, we saw many of the more touristy attractions-the art museum, Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory, Millenium Park and the Bean, Wrigley Field, Navy Pier, the Buckingham Fountain, Soldier Field, Michigan Avenue and the Hancock building. While this list may seem rather long to squeeze into four days, the truth is we hit these attractions and squeezed in some shopping, caught the tail end of the Pride Parade and managed to relax at home. It was Waynie's first visit to Chi-town and we therefore had no choice but to have no restraint!
In other news, our flower and tomato and herb garden are progressing quite splendidly. As I said earlier, we have the first signs of fruit on the tomato plant and I can already taste the fresh red, ripe goodness on my tongue. Nevermind that our garden consists of one pot of basil, one mint and 2 tomato plants. But, when you live an urban lifestyle and your patios are about 30 square feet each, this is an accomplishment. I don't set the bar very high when it comes to gardening-can you tell?
That's about all that has happened at the cupcake house over the past few weeks. I'll be posting something in honor of our freedom in the near future.


This first shot might give you the wrong impression. No, we are not in the Carribean. These crystal blue waters are Lake Michigan ala the John Hancock building.



And this one is self explanatory. Home of Da' Bears!

Pictures of Chicago

So, last weekend, when the weather was amazing, we set out to see the sights of Chicago in the eyes of one that does not reside here. Here are some of the sights we took in.... Of course, there is much more to see than what two people can squeeze into a few hours on a Sunday afternoon, so please, stay tuned for more in the future....



Welcome to Chicago!!

We toured Millenium Park, walked along Michigan Avenue, took pictures in the reflection of the bean, and admired the boats in the river.










And, this picture is the view from our deck. On one gorgeous night when we were enjoying mojitos with Greta!

Adding a new page??

Does this work? Can it be done?? Let's try it...


YES! We are successful.

Hot Diggity Dog!

This weekend we visited one of our favorite places in Chicago. I happened to have some of these in my purse.....




And I thought I might need them. Fortunately, for me, I didn't. Even after enjoying the following.....Yes, we went to Hot Doug's. It's been almost a year since we have been here. While it is delicious, it is not the most healthy option for a Saturday lunch and well, it doesn't have the most accomodating hours for our schedule. Alas, we enjoyed a rib-eye (the green chimmichurri draped sausage on the left, blue cheese apple almond chicken and the white encased meat is the Harvey Korman- sundried tomato ala vodka sauce with borato cheese) And if those three weren't enough we gorged ourselves on duck fat fries. The perfect lunch that didn't require the rolaids I always carry in my purse. When you come to Chicago, we'll go to Hot Doug's. You won't regret it, I promise.