random\\\grrr

so i wrote a post last night and i saved it to upload pictures.  then suddenly i got the blue screen of death...(yes that one).  guess won't be able to post for a while because there aren't pretty pictures.  i will update the blog when my computer gets better :(  ta-ta and remember to donate to food drives as thanksgiving is coming upon us.  not everyone is able to afford a turkey, but we can at least provide stuffing and cranberry sauce.  speaking of which i need to make some soon...meaning up goes another recipe :)

if only my computer worked...grrr

recipe\\\baking contest

i had a class so i missed the judging of the contest but  i heard that the contest didn't really happen because the baked goods had been finished off far too quickly; i guess it was a draw then ;)  i made

a) something with only chocolate chips - chocolate chip cookies using a recipe

b) something without chocolate - soft & thick snickerdoodles (i stole a recipe)

c) something with fruit - gooey chocolate-chip sandwich bars

d) free choice - peanut butter and oreo brownie

it was funny because that night while i was baking i got ghosted.  in our neighborhood, ghosting runs a bit differently (but only with friends/people that we know well).  so the doorbell rung around 9 and i was in the middle of baking.  my brother runs out to get the candy and as soon as he stepped outside splash he got shot with water guns.  suddenly, i hear the click of a loading airsoft gun.  he sprints back inside with the bag of candy and he notifies me.  i take off my apron and look around for weapons...sadly we don't own airsoft or water guns.  i desperately look around and the carton of eggs sitting on the counter catch my eye.  i quietly hand one to my brother and i take one.  lacing together my sneakers i slip quietly out the side door while my brother creates a diversion.

'on three' he hissed to me.  we sprint around the corner and there was our attackers.  he smashed his egg into the sweater of one kid and i threw and i heard the muffled crack of my egg hitting something.  i had thought i missed and had only hit the wall.  it was not until the next time i talked to the poor kid before he told me that i nailed him. oops :)

anyways, what i wanted to say was that i got back inside after cleaning egg shells and drippings alike for a solid 30 minutes. it was about 23:15 when i came back in to do more baking.  i finished making the snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies around 2. i don' what idiocy hit me when i decided that it would be a good idea to try out a new snickerdoodle recipe they turned out decent because i got them off of Sally's Baking Addiction who is, like, the best baker, ever :P  check out her recipes, she has so many wonderful ones.

my go-to chocolate chunk cookie recipe is from her website with a bit of tweaking and making it over and over again.  my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe used to be nestle's but recently i've been making sally's more.

two down.  i couldn't decide what to make next so i decided to go with everyone's favorite.  peanut butter covered oreos baked into brownies.  mine turned out a little dry because i hadn't made them recently and i didn't really know the baking time.  broken down it is basically oreos lathered in peanut butter baked into brownies.  to make them it is fairly simple.  it was fairly late, i apologize for not taking pictures.

~peanut butter & oreo brownies~

+brownie batter (i used my super moist brownie recipe)

+12 oreos

+peanut butter

+muffin tin and paper if you want

preheat the oven to 350 deg.

prepare your brownie batter and split into two parts.  then fill a dozen muffin tins about 1/3 and bake for approximately 3 minutes.

while the batter is baking lather each oreo with about 1 T. of peanut butter.

after three minutes take out the tins and place each oreo into a container.  cover with remaining brownie batter.

finally bake slightly less then brownie recipe time because mine came out dry when i baked full time.  insert a toothpick and if it comes out clean, it is done.

I'll post the rest of my recipes later.... :)

here's a sneak peak ^_^

recipe\\\charity water bakesale

what's better than raising money for a good cause? baking for it.
my friend is in charge of having fundraisers to raise money for her cause: charity water. what this organization does is it takes funds from each school's campaign, and sends it to be used to build water supplies in India.  their view is that just because a person is poor does not mean they need to have a poor solution.

i decided it would be a great time to try out a new recipe [of course] because people will buy gross brownies because it's all for a great cause! they didn't turn out as hoped because i left them in the oven for a bit too long but all is well.

~Super Moist Brownies~

+ 1-1/2 cup all-purpose flower

+ 2 cups sugar

+ 6 T. unsweetened cocoa powder

+ 1 t. salt

+ 1-1/2 cup oil

+ 4 eggs

+ 2 t. vanilla extract

+ 3/4 cup chocolate chips

+ 1 cup nuts of choice [optional]

i made the recipe a little differently than called for, and as a baker, feel free to adapt recipe to past experiences and taste.

preheat oven to 350 deg. Fahrenheit

combine flour, sugar [i used 1 cup granulated and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar for a total of only 1-1/2 cups sugar], cocoa, and salt

salt is important to every recipe because not only does it give your tongue the perfect underlying taste, it brings out sweetness as well as getting rid of any bitterness from baking powder/soda.

combine well.  next use a large bowl and combine 'wet' ingredients.  i was lazy so i just made a well in my 'dry' ingredients for a faster process.

add eggs and oil and stir until you arrive at a consistent mixture.  it takes about 50 strokes, if one is hand-mixing.

finally, mix in vanilla and chocolate chips until evenly blended.

grease a 9x13 pan and fill with batter.  then and place into the oven.

bake for 24-26 minutes, watching to make sure it doesn't dry out.  when a toothpick inserted comes out clean it is ready to be eaten :)

as you can tell, mine was in the oven for about 30 minutes before i remembered.  i didn't put as much patience into this treat which is why i didn't get tastier brownies.  i have to save my energy for a baking contest on saturday.  any ideas? i can't wait! i will have a ~baketastic~ friday night, eating batter and all.

the rules of the contest are:

a) something with only chocolate chips

b) something without chocolate

c) something with fruit

d) free choice

goodnight! wish charity water and i luck :)

journal\\\nantucket - day 3

last day, leggo :)

~Day 3~

on our last day, we woke up, took down tents, ate breakfast, did chores, and mostly cleaned up.  the tent i slept in took maybe 10 minutes to take down.  daddy's and derek [my brother]'s took quite a bit longer...lets just say they aren't know for being efficient.  one of the kids, the 'firemarshall' took the liberty of burning anything that was paper.  it was a pretty nasty fire considering the stuff that was being burned ranged from cardboard boxes to used tissues.  everything was to be loaded onto a u-haul that would take the luggage back home. 

then we were set free into town to get lunch and return our bikes. our camp site looked empty, like the wild without the speckled color of our tents.  we went at a rather fast pace so that we would make it into time with time left to walk around.  i enjoyed the speed but a couple people in our group could not keep up, so we lost time anyways trying to find them.

the road to the bike shop

we were going so quick, i had a few close calls.  the drivers on nantucket aren't what one would call 'friendly'...   the cobblestone streets leading into town didnt' help either.

some mini heart attacks along the way

you see what i mean?!

once we got into town and recollected our group we headed towards the best ice cream shop in town: the juice bar but they were not opening until 11, the time we had to be at the dock waiting to board.  all of us [about 12 people] crowded around their entrance and waited.  one of the kids asked why we were waiting and i exclaimed 'because its like the best place ever' as the manager opened early so we would be able to have some before we left.  since i had not been here i asked what to get, and apparently 'the frazz' which is raspberry sorbet mixed into lemonade with a touch of sprite was the best.  they didn't have any sprite which is fine by me because i'm not a huge fan of fizzy drinks but it was still amazing.  we sat around enjoying our cool drinks and a couple kids visited a souvenir shop, but i stayed put.  i was soaking up the last few hours of my adventure.

we got to the dock on time and waited around for about an hour to board the ferry. before we left the harbour i made sure to get a couple more pictures.  i smiled into the sea breeze and snapped away happily.  then i got into the cabin and about six of us got a booth to play cards.  we played president for about a half hour until sleepiness over took me and i fell asleep.  it was the perfect way to end a great trip.

clearly i'm amazing at taking artsy pictures...

leaving the harbour

when i opened my eyes we were sailing into boston harbour.  as we were leaving hyannis, our carpoolers mentioned that the cape cod potato chip factory was nearby and daddy agreed to stop there and take the tour.  at first i thought they were not open because it was columbus day weekend, and they weren't open on holidays, but we we decided to stop by and look around anyways.

apparently we were supposed to follow the seagull

i didn't even have to follow the prints; my nose was directing me.

walking down the path of interesting facts about cape cod chips

found it!

it's ok we weren't really inside the factory yet

it was really cool watching potatoes sorted and dropped into vats of oil.  the smell was heavenly and i could not wait to get to the end to buy some.  i was amazed at how many potato chips were produced considering there is only one plant, the headquarters. these chips are available pretty much everywhere, and to think they originate from one place was mind blowing.  we got a couple bags of chips and left.

yum :)

it's officially done.  we had left the cape.  [couldn't find my camera until it was too late...sorry for the bad picture]

i was munching contently on my chips as we left the cape.  i only remembered to grab my camera but it was too late, but i managed an ishy picture.  i couldn't remember another time i was this happy and i cannot wait to go back next year.

journal\\\nantucket - day 2

here we go!

~Day 2~

i woke up naturally at 5:30 because that is when i usually get up but when i tried to wake my tentmate up....she rolled over and went back to bed.  we ended up getting up around 7 and i had a pretty big breakfast.  apparently the propane stove we got had a bad connection so we were unable to cook breakfast for a while until our fried came to help out.  one of the kids emptied half of the propane and decided to check to see if there was any left in the air by holding a lighter up to it [yes, the same kid who decided to set someone on fire as 'firemarshall'....]

so we found out that there was a demolition derby but nobody in our crew wanted to go.  instead we spent the day buying stuff in town and then followed by a trip to the surfside beach.

when we got to town we split into two groups.  one to go to the deli to buy food, and another to a chocolate shop to buy candy...guess which one i went to?  i bought chocolate covered cranberries for $5 [wicked overpriced, i'm aware] but i had to because A) chocolate, and B) there was a local cranberry festival that weekend and this place sold chocolate cranberries.

we met up at the town's bakery, and the town is really cool.  it's set up to look older but the insides are very modern.  i got this delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffin, and i was not hungry yet but i can't say no to food :)

thats where the nommy stuff came from ^_^

pumpkin chocolate chip muffin. nom!

we sat in a very tiny, secluded park to enjoy our baked goods while waiting for the other group to show up.  when they did, it was off to surfside.

the biking is so common on nantucket there were bike racks everywhere 

the road onto the beach. it was gorgeous!

we started this thing called 'fight club' which is basically a bunch of people fighting a kid who is really good at karate.  the catch is that he is really good and so we fight him blindfolded and we still get our butts kicked.  then one of us decided that sand angels were going to happen...so they did.  i remembered to take pictures a bit late, and some of them have people, which will go on my facebook instead.

sand angels :)

this is what i get for trying to be artsy.  keyword: trying 

after lunch, the guys started getting this idea in their head that swimming would be a good idea.  most of them brought swim suits but i had left mine back at the camp site.  me, and two other girls decided that we would just swim in our sports bras and pants since it was like wearing a bikini, except slightly less revealing [yet a bit more socially unacceptable].  at first my body screamed with protest at the cold, yet the water was a refreshing blast.  i got to the point it was warmer in the water because there was no wind.  i got knocked over by the crashing waves twice.

another view of the ocean

we had a couple chicken fights [my team being the winner...well i was on someone's back] and other fun water fights.  we got out and started to dry off, which was when i realized why it was warmer in the water: i couldn't feel my body anymore.  at this point, another group came along and we decided that it would be fun to try and drag them into the water.  a picked the other guys up and threw him into the water and this happened.  a couple more fights erupted [let's just say there was quite a bit of testosterone].

more attempts at 'artsy' pictures

we dried off, and then half of us decided to head back to camp.  the other half [whom i was with] stayed a bit longer before heading back.  we headed to the nearest convenience store [yes, it was crazy overpriced] and got caffeinated, sugary drinks for the way back into camp.  personally, i'm not particularly a fan of fizzy drinks, so i opted for vitamin water ^_^

one last look at the beach before departing

back at camp, we organized and got ready for dinner and had our venture crew meeting.  i guess from just being around each other too much a fight erupted and other not so good things.  on the bright side, things were resolved and we agreed on enjoying the rest of the trip.  we had cake to celebrate someone's birthday and we stood by the fire late into the night.

as were getting ready for bed, we decided party in one of the guy's tents.  of course he would have a six person ten to himself.  we played more president for a while and decided to go to bed.  as we were leaving...somebody [mostly me] decided it would be funny to throw the guy who's tent we were in out.  we made such a racket, one of the parents came and yelled at us to go to bed.  apparently we were not allowed in guys' tents...but it happened anyways.  last day tomorrow :(

journal\\\nantucket - day 1

i didn't end up doing any baking this weekend because i ended up going to nantucket as part of our local venture crew [a co-ed extension of boyscouts].  it was a biking/camping trip and it was such a blast.  the only thing missing was a baking but i got a taste of mountain dew cobbler [like the best thing ever] and friend tortillas which is pretty much fried dough.  there was also a third thing i didn't taste because i'm vegetarian but it sounded pretty good.  it was called ~bacon bombs~ which is basically a blob of cheese with dough wrapped around, which is then wrapped with bacon and then deep fried.  sounds like heaven right?

anyways i'll stop talking and show you ^_^

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~Day 1~

our family is known for being late so i made sure to set the alarm for 4:30 but i couldn't get up until 5.  we were supposed to arrive at 6:15 but i made sure we got there 10 minutes earlier.  of course my brother HAD to forget something so we disappeared to go home and grab his stuff.  we ~disappeared~ as the wormhole family [more on this later].

oh look boats!

the view from the back of the boat as boston disappears over the horizon

then a bunch of us go on top of the deck to play cards, mostly just president.  being me of course i sucked and was bum or vice-bum [which is an achievement].  the boat ride was about 1hr 45mins.  other than the occasional feeling of nausea, sitting outside was great. there was nothing i could do about my hair except put it up but i loved the feeling of the wind whipping so i left it down.  i met one guy who could not stop flirting with one of my friends.  just friends or so they claim...lets see how long that will last. finally we came close to shore.

is that nantucket i see?

land ho!

and there it is, the land of nantucket nectars :)

we got off the boat but it was pretty cold...and the boyscouts and venture crew lined up outside of Young's Bicycle Shop and got our bikes.  they were amazing, functional mountain/speed bike hybrid.  i don't know if it was good or not, but i fell in love because i was able to go at such a good pace.  we got locks and were instructed not to lose our locks...or the bikes.  i spent the rest of the day reciting my bike number under my breath.

we got to camp in no time and set up tent.  older guys took the spot that was doled out to the girls so we were led to a spot that could have been a christmas tree nursery [we were expected to sleep on trees] but because there were so many open spots among the guys' tents we just picked a couple spots to set up.  eveything ran smoothly and we were done.  lunch followed but being my dad, he only packed meat as a method to try to get me to eat it.  i bummed some nutella and bagels off of my friend and ate those

next along with two guys and around seven of us girls, we went to the beach to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

the scene was beautiful, but clearly i failed to capture the moment

it was cold, but we had our mind set on swimming the next day

we had a bit of wrestling going on but all was well.  we got back around dusk in time to cook dinner and enjoy a warm fire.  the fire pit was big enough for a massive bon-fire and we played cards some more.  i met a another kid, but he went to private school...we may have trashed talked some people.

late that night, we sat outside and looked at the starts until it was well around midnight.  we ran into a couple seniors who were out on a "night hike" but that was well past curfew...so we agreed that we didn't see each other.  my friend wanted to go running the next morning but i wanted to go biking.  lets just see how the next morning will go.

recipe\\\cinnamon snickerdoodles

whenever i get upset, i like to bake....but since nobody eats that much in my family, i will become so pudgy if i eat all that i make.  so i found a solution to my habits: bake and gift.  i have been randomly dropping by our neighbors (there are girls two girls, one is 5 the other is 8) and have been giving them plates of baked goods and my friend who lives just up the street.  i was upset about something sunday so i decided to make these ~cookies~.  nom!

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~cinnamon snickerdoodles~

+ 1 cup [2 sticks] butter
+ 1-1/2 cups sugar [brown or granulated]
+ 2 large eggs
+ 2 teaspoons cream of tarter
+ 1 teaspoon baking soda
+ a pinch of salt
+ sugar coating [as long as the ratio of cinnamon to sugar is 1:1, make as much as needed]
+ 5 tablespoons sugar
+ 5 tablespoons cinnamon

cream butter and sugar together

slowly beat eggs one at a time into the creamed sugar.  make sure to beat evenly until smooth.

add the dry mixture a little bit at a time.  make sure to blend well after each addition until both parts have been evenly combined.

scrape dough into a big ball in the center. place in the refrigerator and chill 10-15 minutes or until dough is firm.

combine the sugar and cinnamon together. roll the dough into one-inch [they are smaller than you think] balls and coat in cinnamon sugar.

place the coated balls of dough onto a cookie sheet [wax paper is optional because i didn't have a cookie sheet handy]. make sure to space them out well or else you will end up with cookies that expand into each other.

you can choose to flatten out the cookies a little bit with the bottom of an oiled cup but i prefer not to. the round balls of dough will become round [and flat] cookies.

finally, place the cookie sheet in the oven for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown. make sure not to leave them in the oven, a minute too long because the cookies will become hard and not the snickerdoodles you were just drooling over.

i opted to sprinkle some cinnamon on my cookies to garnish. this is also the time to use any remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture [don't want to waste anything, right?].

let cookies cool for a minute on the cookie sheet [or else it will stick!] before removing to cool on a cooling rack.

eat while warm with some milk or seal in an airtight container and freeze to enjoy another time :)