Rick leaves for San Fransisco on Friday morning and I am not-so-silently freaking out. This is what we want, this adventure. But there are so many aspects of it that completely scare the shit out of me.
I keep telling myself, you can’t be brave unless you’re scared.
This weekend we celebrated Meag’s birthday with a cookout, a bar crawl and these cupcakes.
They’re a slightly modified version of the mini cupcakes I made for my birthday a couple of years ago.
This batch came out so great, and I think the decorations were some of my best yet. Piping frosting has never been my strength, but the more I practice the more decent I get at it. The Martha Stewart chocolate cake recipe is the only chocolate cake recipe you’ll ever need (it almost tastes like a flourless torte).
The peanut butter frosting I made last time wasn’t perfect, so I tried a small alteration and I’m really happy with it.
Here’s the modified version:
Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting
1 stick butter, room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract (not imitation vanilla flavoring)
1.5 – 2 cups confectioners sugar (to taste)
In a stand mixer (with paddle attachment on), mix peanut butter and butter until smooth and creamy. On low speed, add vanilla extract, then add sugar about a 1/2 cup at a time. After you add 1.5 cups of sugar, make sure to taste. If you think the consistency is too loose, and the flavor can stand more sugar, add another half cup.
Once combined, blend on medium/high for 3 minutes until smooth and light. This batch makes a little more than enough to frost 12 regular sized cupcakes.
I used a medium French pastry tip to frost them, and then sprinkled with chocolate sprinkles and a half of a peanut butter cup.
When Hedy and Bryan got engaged I knew I wanted to send a gift, since we couldn’t be there to celebrate in person. I’d had this print in my Etsy favorites for forever, just waiting for the perfect occasion to buy it. I thought it would be a cute way to commemorate the day they got engaged, by adding the date underneath their initials.
The seller doesn’t make this print in a landscape orientation anymore, but I think the portrait layout looks good, too. The print is really nicely done and I think it looks so cute in the frame I picked (Home Goods, FTW).
I love it.
This is a pretty belated post, but things have been mildly crazy around here, so I excuse myself.
This year was the first Mother’s Day in a very long time that I actually got to spend with my mom. It was really nice to be able to make the day special for her. We started off the day with a breakfast of homemade coffee cake, per request, and then headed to Garden in the Woods (my mom’s idea of heaven).
I used to make this coffee cake recipe every week when I was still baking for profit in Philly, but I’ve never made a ‘just because’ batch of it until now. It’s definitely one of my favorite coffee cake recipes (just don’t pay attention to the nutritional content please, totally ruins it).
It’s a sour cream (don’t let that gross you out) cake, with a chocolate cinnamon swirl and a toasted pecan brown sugar crumb. It’s a little labor intensive, but worth it.
The recipe comes from the first Baked cookbook (Baked: New Frontiers in Baking).
Crumb Topping
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup pecans, toasted
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Cake
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
16 ounces sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Crumb Topping:
Put the flour, sugar, and salt in bowl of food processor and pulse to combine. Add the pecans and pulse until they are finely chopped and incorporated. Add the butter and pulse until mixture looks like coarse sand. Cover and refrigerate (don’t cheat and not refrigerate. I like to leave it in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. The topping needs to be cold when the cake goes into the oven, otherwise you’ll just have a coagulated, melty mess)
Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl:
Mix ingredients in small bowl, put aside.
Sour Cream Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Scrape down bowl and add sugar. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl as needed.
Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat just until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, scraping down the bowl before each addition and beating only until each addition is just incorporated. Do not overmix.
Pour one third of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Use an offset spatula (definitely use an offset spatula, otherwise you may want to give up in exhaustion) to spread batter evenly in pan. Sprinkle half of the chocolate cinnamon swirl mixture over batter, covering the entire surface of the batter. Spoon half of remaining batter over the swirl mixture and spread it evenly. Top with remaining swirl mixture, then the remaining batter, and spread the batter evenly. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top of the batter.
Bake in the center of the oven for one hour (mine always takes about 1 hour 20 minutes), or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.
We have a plan, finally. Although it’s been less than a week since Rick got offered the job in SF, it feels like it’s been a month. There’s just so much to do in such a short amount of time. But I’m starting to feel better and better about all of this as we slowly figure out how this is going to work.
We’ve been emailing everyone we can possibly think of, hoping that someone will know someone who knows someone who might have an apartment we can stay in for a couple of weeks, while we look for a permanent apartment. I was really starting to lose hope, and then on Friday we got an email that seemed to good to be true. My dad’s coworker from almost 20 years ago happens to live in SF now, and is coming back to MA for a couple weeks right during the time that we need a place to stay. She offered us her apartment, cost free, in exchange for us feeding her cats. This saves us about $2,o00. It’s crazy. If I had been questioning whether or not this huge move, the expense, the complicated logistics, were all really what we were supposed to be doing, this opportunity just unfolding in front of us changed my mind. I’m still scared, of course, but I’m really starting to feel like all of these things wouldn’t be coming together unless this is where the next part of our life is supposed to be headed.
Our plan as of now is that Rick will fly to SF on June 1 (we bought his ticket with frequent flyer miles, so no extra cost there. YES.), he’ll stay the first six nights in a private room in Noe Valley that we found through AirBnB and then he’ll have almost two weeks at my dad’s old coworker’s house in Hayes Valley. We’re hoping that he’ll be able to find us a permanent apartment during these 3 weeks, so Camden and I will wait it out in MA until we have a place to move into in SF.
We’ve been planning on shipping our car to CA, but this weekend my mom told me that she wants to do a cross country road trip to take the car out there with me. She’d be paying for hotels and food, so it would actually cost me less money to do that instead of paying for shipping. Plus, that means I won’t have to take Camden on a plane by myself, something I’m (probably irrationally) really worried about. So, I could potentially be driving across the country soon, weird.
We are both so excited for Rick to start his new job. We get full health, dental and vision benefits, for a really reasonable price. There’s no dress code, so no need to go out and buy a bunch of new work clothes. And there’s an employee shuttle with A/C and WiFi that goes from the city to the office in San Mateo, for only $30/week. I’m so happy that all of his hard work is paying off.
I found out last week that I’ll have to be on East coast time, so I’ll be starting my day at 6am and finishing at 2pm, which will be kind of a struggle for someone who likes to sleep until 8am…but I’ll take it. We also just found out that we’re going to get summer Fridays starting June 1, so during the summer I’ll be working 6-9 on Fridays, and that’s it! Sounds good to me.
Ah! So much is happening after what seems like a forever of nothing happening at all. Crazy.
Um, ya. A lot has happened in the last week.
On Monday, Rick lost his job. On Tuesday he got offered a job that he’s been interviewing for and waiting to hear back on for about three weeks now. Yada, yada, yada, we’re moving to San Fransisco!!
Rick starts work on June 11th, so we’re scrambling to figure everything out and make it work. Our biggest challenge right now is finding a temporary place to stay out there, so he can get started at work and we can take our time to find a permanent apartment. Unfortunately, the rental market is out of control there, so it’s not very easy, but we’re networking as much as we can and hope something turns up.
I have to stay back in MA until the end of June, because of work commitments, so Camden and I will head out there a little after Rick. We have so many things to figure out – how we’re getting our car out there, where we’ll live, will Camden completely freak out on the plane (she will fly in the cabin with me this time, not in the cargo like when she came from Australia), how we’ll afford first, last and security deposit on a new apartment (since our tax bill ate up pretty much all of our “moving expenses” savings plan), etc. etc.
I’m trying my best to remain calm and just trust that this is what’s supposed to happen and everything will work out. I may need a Xanax.
Friday night we made a last minute decision to drive to Fairhaven with Meaghan and Alex, and stay at Alex’s parent’s beach house. We got to the beach at around 11, had a couple of beers and sat on the deck, watching for shooting stars (I saw none…). When we went to bed, we left the window in our bedroom open, so we could fall asleep to the waves.
The next morning we woke up bright and early to this:
The weather was perfect. 80 degrees and sunny, with a strong breeze.
We made coffee and breakfast and then drove into town to look around at the shops. We even got to try a malasada, which is like a Portuguese donut. So good! I wish we had the chance to try these when we were actually in Portugal last May.
We had such a nice, relaxing time. It made me realize how much we need a vacation, just the two of us.
The most exciting part of the day came when we sat down to eat dinner. As soon as I saw that Hedy was calling, I knew it was because she and Bryan were engaged. He had surprised her with a trip to NYC this weekend (he even had a limo drive them!) and I just had a feeling there was more too it than just an ‘early birthday present’. When she told me the story I cried. And then I cried again while I was re-telling it to Meag, Alex and Rick. They all laughed at how I just couldn’t keep it together enough to get through the story. I am a hopeless romantic, I can’t help it! Plus, I think when you’ve been friends with someone for so long, especially during those early-mid twenty years where you date all the wrong people and have to continually pick each other back up after heartbreaks, there is something so, so satisfying and wonderful about know that she’s finally found someone who loves her and deserves her.
Oh, also, the ring is ridiculously stunning. I’m so happy for our friends, and wish we could be there to celebrate with them.
What a good weekend.
“When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Getting schooled by Oprah. So old.
I:
Went for a run on the bike trail, and I ran my best two mile time ever! New additions to the playlist that helped – Starships by Nicki Minaj (I know…) and Come Back Home by Two Door Cinema Club. I want to work back up to running a strong, comfortable 5k.
Bought these cute sandals at DSW.
Looked at lots of pictures of our niece (we gave her that bib, so cute!).
Painted my nails. I’m slowly getting better at it! I’m finding the key is to use a base and top coat, which I usually never do. This color is Flirt by Revlon.
We’re waiting on some really important news this week (not pregnant, thanks), so we’ve been trying to distract ourselves, but it’s basically all I can think about. I hope we have some good news to share soon.
We started out the month $50,762.15 in debt.
Current Balances:
$14,894.95 – Car Loan
$24,622.18 – Rick’s student loans
$10,601.57 – My student loans
Total: $50,118.70
$643.45 paid off in March
This month was not great financially. We had to pay an unexpected property tax bill for our car ($341, UGH) and had to start paying off the taxes we owe for 2011 (which were begrudgingly paid for on a credit card and I’m not including that amount in our total debt, because I don’t want it to interfere with my original goals for this year). The fact that we were able to make a dent in our debt at all this month is impressive. I was really hoping to get below $50,000, but what can you do? Hopefully next month is better.
