Alice in Regularland |

My girlfriend Jen and I and a few other girls all decided it would be a great idea to go down to the beach and go black friday shopping at the outlets. So we met up at 10:30 and drove the almost 2 hours down to the beach and prepared to save some serious cash.

Upon arrival it was very exciting to find out that the sales did not disappoint at all. With deals like 50% off everything in Banana Republic and JCrew, an extra 20% off of the 50% off of Coach and buy one get one deals everywhere else we shopped till we dropped. Literally. Because the deals were so great it seemed like the entire state was there which meant we spent 8 and a half hours shopping/waiting in line. The lines were out the door and sometimes took well over an hour.

I was delirious and close to throwing up from fatigue but  in the end it was worth it. I finished almost all of my Christmas shopping and spent about half as much as I would have if I had not taken advantage of the sales so I'm happy.

Since I have no pics from this terribly tiresome experience here are some from Johns Birthday a few months ago. lol

I want to try to remember the point of Thanksgiving this which is simply to be thankful. So here are five things that I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving.

1) My boyfriend. He is strong and supportive when I need it and loving and funny when I need that too. I forever gratefull to have him in my life.

2) My parents. They have graciously taken me back into their home and we have had the wonderful opportunity to live together and get to know one another as adults and friends.

3) My job. It is very tiresome and frusterating most of the time but in these hard economic times I know what a rareity it is to have a job at all. To have one that continues to be an educational experience almost everyday is even better.

4) My Heavenly Father. Whom I know blesses me far above and beyond what I am ever capable of comprehending.

5) Myself. My stammina and perserverance. My willingness to keep my eye on the prize and always remember that the end justifies the means. This road has not and will not be easy but I am confident it will be worth it.

Thank you to all. I love you and have a happy Thanksgiving.

ps. and tofurky!

Its sunny and beautiful today. Something that would not be if not for global warming. So I am happy to have it, even if it does mean killing off the planet.

What have I been up to?

1) I received my OFFICIAL letter welcoming me to the nursing program starting in January. This would have been exciting to me if I had known I was waiting said letter. As such, it ended up making me feel annoyed and stressed because all I saw was;   Dear Allison, This is your college. Pay us money. Thank you. Which reminded me I still owe them from the present semester I'm in. yay.

2) I received another even less exciting letter in the mail. It went something like this;  
Dear Allison, This is the government. You are being audited. Pay us money. Thank you.  

3) My car decided not shift therefore forcing me to fork out a truckload of money to fix it. Oh, and the check engine light is still not off.

4) It is almost Christmas. And therefore I am going into Christmas mode. But with all of the above events I am having a hard time feeling the spirit of the season. But I am presently establishing a plan of attack so that despite all of my wonderful newly acquired bills I am guaranteed to still feel like its Christmas.

5) I have been knitting and baking to distract me from the above. This is what I've been churning out. (This is actually quite pitiful considering it is only about 1/4 of the holiday knitting list that I had hoped to finish by now. Oh well)

I will say that despite all this complaining I really am in good spirits. John is wonderfully supportive of me. He has even tried to help me study for my tests which is comical listening to him trying to tackle a question like "Where is the prosencephalon section of the brain?"  And my parents are of course wonderful as well, being endlessly supportive and caring.

For my friend Michele's 29h birthday (which she is NOT excited about at all I might add) I promised her cupcakes she we both have to work that day. So after much, much deliberation I decided at the last minute to make Red Velvet Cupcakes. Because I know she loves them and really, who doesn't love cream cheese icing.

At first I was going to go the cheater route and buy a box of red velvet mix but still home make the icing because I don't think the canned kinds are "cream cheesy" enough. But after a some research I learned there really is not a very good ready-to-go red velvet mix available so I did the next best thing and doctored up a cake mix.

I also knew that I wanted to stuff them. I LOVE stuffed cupcakes I cant remember the last time I didn't stuff a cupcake. I don't think an attribute of a cupcake should be low fat, healthy, light or otherwise. It is quite litterally a cake in a cup and therefore I want it to tast as such, a rich delicious single sized cake. So anyay, being that the nature of red velvet is chocolate albeit hard to tell most times, I put chocolate ganache in the middle.

Verdict:
The cupcakes themselves are bright red and really moist. I was disapointed that they fell after cooling. Im pretty sure that it was because the batter was pretty dense and I kept playing with the liquid ratio so it got a little over beaten. That and I think my oven could have been about 25 degrees hotter. But they are still good.

The Ganache was a splendid idea and I'm very happy I did it. It really brings out the cocoa flavor in the cake. Plus its a rich gooey surprise in the middle.

My only, and I do mean only, complaint about cream cheese icing is that it is softer than regular icing and therefore harder to get it to keep its form. Which is why the store bought kind is so much more sweet than homemade becuase the added sugar helps it stiffen up. That being said, the icing is in a word, fantastic.

Semi-Homemade Red Velvet Cake

1 Box Yellow Cake Mix. I used Betty Crocker Butter Recipe Yellow.
1 Box chocolate pudding - the cook and serve kind
1 stick butter
1 cup buttermilk. If you don't have this you can add 1 tbls lemon juice to regular milk.
3 eggs
1 tbls red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the wet ingredients first, then add the dry somewhat slowly. (to avoid a dust storm!) This will produce a thick cake batter. Line your cupcake tin with baking cups and fill to a little over 3/4 full. (I find it easiest to use a ladel to do this). Put them in the oven and bake for 17 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completly before frosting.

yeilds appox 2 dozen

Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz semi sweet chocolate chips.

Using a double broiler,  (This can be achieved by placing a glass bowl atop a pot of boiling water) pour in chocolate chips. Contiuously stir as they begin to melt to avoid scalding. When chips are about halfway melted pour in cream. Continue to stir until the chips have full melted and blended with the cream to form a smooth shiny chocolate mixture. Place in the refrigerator until cool, about an hour. Using a baking injector (I use a hostpital food syringe which is great becuase it has measurement markings all the way down) push it into the center of the cupcakes and twirl around a bit to make the hole inside a little bigger (not the one at the top) and fill with desired amount. Repeat till done.

Cream Cheese Icing - I doubled this recipe because I like a lot of icing
2 packages cream cheese softened to room temperature
10 tbls butter
4 cups confectioners sugar
4 tsps vanilla extract

Mix wet ingredients together until smooth. Slowly add in sugar. Beat until smooth.

I'm in the mood for a big bulky cowl and I happen to have a skien of some Lion Brand Thick and Quick in cream left from when I made my Wrenna. I was looking for something simple and bulky that was like the big beautiful cowls made by Fringe which I adore..  And I found the My Kind of Cowl pattern on Ravelry. I looked at it and said to myself "Yes. This is just what I was looking for. Super easy and simple. Why I could probably finish in a hour or so."

But, after reading the very simple and slight instructions I realized two things; 1) I don't know how to do a provisional cast on. And, 2)  I don't know how to graft. Which I know is other wise known as the Kitchener Stitch. A stitch I have read about many times but never attempted due to its complexity. So after watching this video on provisional cast on. Followed by this video on the Kitchener stitch. I'm off to make my seeming very simple cowl. And hopefully it will turn out like this.....