Featured Cupcake

Blueberry cake with a Rosemary and Thyme buttercream

Acorn Squash and Coconuts

I've got an Acorn squash and a coconut sitting on my kitchen counter right now.

I have a few questions:
1)  How do I break into that coconut?
2)  What do I do with it now that I do?
3)  What new recipe should I try with the Acorn squash?  I'm tired of my normal baked squash with butter and brown sugar.  I need something new.  Perhaps something with squash and coconut?!  Weird!  Maybe delicious!

I guess tomorrow (or today depending on how you look at it) I will try to break into the coconut and try something new!

Anyone have a nail?

Happy New Year!

Ok ok...I'm almost 2 weeks late with that but it's okay.  Right?  Sorry for not updating more frequently...left gets busy/hectic and some things get put on the back-burner.

Anyways, the new quarter at school has started.  I'm taking the chocolates class and the advanced cake decorating class.

Alright, as the saying goes: New Year, New You!

What is my New Year's Resolution?  Become a runner.  I want to run a half-marathon by the end of the year...I'm thinking sometime in September if I can find one.  Also, gluten-free diet.

And, of course, I've already gone off track with both.  I have a good reason for the running one though...I've been feeling really dehydrated lately.   Didn't think it would be the best idea to lose more fluids (i.e. sweat) when I'm already lacking.  The gluten-free thing...well...I'm doing pretty good for the most part but I had Quizno's yesterday and I think there was something else that I ate.  Working at a cupcake shop doesn't exactly help the cause either.  We DO have a gluten-free cupcake though so when the craving is too much to resist...at least I know I have something I can turn to!

I think it might be time to start taking those multi-vitamins that have been sitting in my cabinet for the past year or so.  Perhaps another resolution to add to the list?

I think I'll be able to hit the gym again tomorrow...pick up my running schedule again, finally.  I'm not too off track with that one anyway.  Maybe missed two of my workouts.  Not bad. Not good.  But not bad either.

Ok.  That's it for tonight.

Later!

Le Sigh

October is almost over and I still haven't made my candy corn!  Perhaps I will find some time this coming week...

Here's me with some I made last year (and yes, that is a Chinese take-out bowl):

You're My Cuppycake...

You're my Honeybunch, Sugarplum,
Pumpy-umpy-umpkin, You're my Sweetie Pie.
You're my Cuppycake, Gum Drop,
Snoogums-Boogums, You're the Apple of my eye
And I love you so and I want you to know
That I'll always be right here
And I love to sing sweet songs to you
Because you are so dear




Yup, you guessed it (actually, you probably didn't)...I work at a cupcake shop now.  A "cupcakery," if you will.

I love it.  I also love that I wake up happy in the morning.  The new job may or may not be the sole reason I am happy.  But it is at least a very SIGNIFICANT reason for my happiness.

LG asked me an interesting question the other day: "When did you get so gangsta?"

Hahahahaha....wait, what?  Come on, LG.  You know I'm the whitest person you will ever know.  Like, you pretty much have to explain to me what you and Erin and Eryn are talking about almost always.

Anyways...my response to him?  "Probably when I stopped caring at work" (to clarify by "at work," I meant, at the restaurant, not the cupcakery).  "Or maybe it was when I just stopped caring what people think.  It's whatevs.  You don't like me?  I don't care."

Don't get me wrong.  I do care.  I'm just more sure of myself now than I ever have been in the past...I'm "coming into my own."  I've learned so much about myself in the past few months...who I am, who I want to be, what I want to do "when I grow up," what kinds of people I want to be friends with, what kinds of people I DON'T want to be friends with, and basically why I shouldn't sweat the small stuff.

Sometimes things happen in life that really change your perspective of everything...sort of like having an epiphany...and I may or may not have had one of those "life changing" events a month or 2 ago.

And back to cupcakes.  Mom sent me a picture of the cupcake one of her coworkers bought her for "Case Manager Appreciation Day" at the hospital she works at.  This is my brother, Ryan, and the beautiful red velvet cupcake that Mom is so graciously sharing with him.  Also, notice there are cupcakes on the napkin:

FDA to consider OK of genetically engineered salmon

Brought to you by CNN: 
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/20/genetic.engineered.salmon.hearing/?hpt=T2

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will hold a hearing Monday as it considers whether to approve genetically engineered salmon for human consumption.

If approved it would be the first genetically modified animal permitted by the food safety agency. 

A company, AquAdvantage Salmon, has injected growth hormones into Atlantic salmon that enable the fish to reach maturity in half the normal growth time, 16 to 18 months, rather than 30 months.

The FDA in an analysis dated Monday, wrote: "We therefore conclude the food from AquAdvantage Salmon that is the subject of this application is as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon and that there is a reasonable certainty of no harm from the consumption of food from this animal."

But critics worry about the possible health effects of eating fish containing the growth hormone."

"It's impossible to talk about the risks other than saying they haven't been properly assessed, other than process has been rushed and we don't know," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch. She added that the FDA is a "very stressed agency" with all the latest recalls and outbreaks, that it "can't ensure the safety of the foods they currently regulate."

Hauter said that the FDA has relied too heavily on information provided by AquAdvantage and that there should be a more extended time given to thoroughly vet and discuss risks.

A final decision is expected in a few weeks.

My question to you:
If the FDA approves most of our beef and chicken (which are injected w/ growth hormones and raised on an unnatural diet of corn and grains), doesn't that mean Salmon would be the THIRD GMO animal to be approved by that terrible gov't organization and not the FIRST?

That is exactly what Americans need.  More food-like "food."  How about we raise animals to grow they way they are suppose to...on a natural diet and without growth hormones.  I'd rather pay more for grass-fed, hormone free meat and poultry than for some sort of food-like product that I'm not sure is even good for me in the first place.


And as my friend, Dan, pointed out:
"Seafood is one of the only untouched foods in this world...why do we humans always have to adapt this world to our needs... not even needs, our wants"

Food News Journal

Just the other day a thought popped through my mind (I know, my brain works, it's amazing!):  There's got to be some resource for news about food and the industry.  But where?


And then I never pursued that thought any further.  Should have, but being sick (and sleeping for 14-16 hours each night), homework, and work don't really allow much time for the things of my leisure.  I get a little reading in before work--while I'm sitting on the bus or waiting for metro--but that's about it.  However, I always manage to find time to read my RSS feed...my blog roll, if you will.  And one of the blogs, The Kitchn, mentioned that they were looking for new bloggers for their site.  Naturally, this peaked my interest (even though I know I don't blog much and don't have much time to blog).  I was reading the description and one of them was " Do you read Food News Journal every day?"  WHAT?!  No!  I didn't even know about Food News Journal!


Anyhow, now I'm totally excited about this and I have one more thing to add to my list of required reading each day.  I feel like a kid in a candy store!