A Big Ol' Blog Full Of Pictures...

Thank you in advance to Purple who told me about Picasa.  You made this blog post much easier. 

In the past week, for reasons I'm not quite clear on, I have been experiencing quite the creative spurt.  It all started Memorial Day weekend, because we were expecting Cousin Face, MsLyss, Brother-of-Cousin Face, and the kids (from this moment to be known collectively as the "FamBam") for a family bbq of burgers and sausages.  So (you guessed it) I was put in charge of dessert.  We had a box of red velvet cake mix by Duncan Hines, and I know a great cream cheese frosting recipe, so I couldn't think of anything more patriotic.

Since we had small children coming, I thought it would be fun to make mini-cupcakes, and save some for their little hands to decorate.  Generally, this cake mix is enough for about 24 cupcakes, but I managed to get 55 (yup, more than double) with my mini tins.  I use a piping bag to fill my cupcake tins because I can better control the amount of batter per cupcake, but it's not necessary.  I also wanted to give you a few in process pictures (even though cake mixes are very user friendly) to show you how they look before and after being baked.

Once the cupcakes were baked, I wanted to do a little something extra to frost them.  I used Wilton Icing Coloring in Delphinium Blue, and mixed just enough to create a swirl effect.  Then I used my smallest star piping tip to swirl the frosting onto the cupcakes.  Sprinkle with colored sugars (I used red, blue, and gold) and you have some lovely, festive, pop-able cupcakes.  My cupcakes came out a little bit uneven, but the best way to avoid that is to put your cupcake tins on a flat surface (like a cookie sheet, or a foil covered oven rack) and rotate them halfway through the baking process.

The next night, Cousin Face, who had spent the night before with us, was a most excellent historian/sous chef while I made my family a dinner of meatballs and THE bruschetta from Julie & Julia.  As you know, that movie holds a very special place in my heart (and my kitchen!) and my mom and I have been talking forever about wanting to make this bruschetta that they rave so much about.  I finally found the recipe, concocted by the food stylist for the movie, and I've gotta say... it is every bit as good as they make it out to be.

This is a super easy recipe, with very few ingredients, and very little prep time. You should also be aware that the bruschetta alone is enough for a meal.  The most important things to remember, in my opinion, are making sure you have large, ripe, heirloom tomatoes (they make a difference), TEAR the basil, don't chop it, and have a nice loaf of crusty bread.  I used a par-baked round of Italian bread from Ralphs, most grocery stores carry par-baked breads in their bakery sections.  Rather than bake the bread for the full 15 minutes suggested by the package, I only baked it for 10 minutes since I knew the bread was going back in a pan to be fried, and I wanted to maintain some of the softness in the middle.  Cut the bread in thick slices (about 3/4 inch) and then cut them in half.  After frying them in the pan, rub them with a garlic clove (the heat from the bread will help bring out the juices in the garlic and it will spread more easily) and then spoon your tomato mixture onto your bread slices. *Note: It's better to spoon your tomatoes on each bread slice just before you eat them, letting the tomato mixture sit on the bread will make your bread soggy. 

To go with this marvelous bruschetta, my dad found a recipe for meatballs (link above).  I substituted the 1/2 pound of veal for another 1/2 pound of pork, so I had a 2:1 ratio of pork to beef. *Note the hilarious Star of David made of mostly pork meatballs.  For the marinara, I used Fresh & Easy's Tomato Basil sauce straight from the jar.  Don't be afraid when you cook your meatballs if they look a little charred on some sides - that's a good thing!  Meatballs are supposed to have a sort of, crunchy outer layer.  The moral of this adventure in the kitchen is:  it is very easy to over eat when the food you make is as delicious as this dinner was.

For my last segment of this blog, I'm going to switch it up from food, to hair.  For reasons I don't entirely understand yet, I'm going to link you to my comedian friend's girlfriend on YouTube.  Her name is Bree.  Under normal circumstances, this would not be happening, but I guess this is just another unexpected twist on my journey down the rabbit hole.  As I've told you before, I am a full-fledged hair retard.  I watched her tutorials, and by some magic... I think I actually learned something.  It will take practice, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.  It took me quite a bit of time to get it right, but it was late at night, and I wasn't using product of any kind (I was relying on my dirty hair to be enough product) but I managed to have some success.  And anyone who can teach me how to do something semi-difficult in the hair department certainly deserves a shout-out in my book.

That's it for today's installment!  See ya in Wonderland!