Why is it snowing again???

One of our next door neighbors came over just now to borrow a movie. As he was talking to us, I happened to glance in the direction of our massive windows only to see a form of precipitation from yester-season falling mercilessly onto our precious earth.... It IS spring, weather!! It was official as of last Sunday! Didn't you get the memo that the weather-memorandum person sends out to your vicious kind?!?

You make Aaron grumpy, too!!

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Cupcakes--in Pictures

 
ye ole wet/dry ingredients

the fillin'

 filled w/ the fillin'

 frostin' them up...

  

 ...in St. Patrick's Day colors!

 

YUM

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Dessert Questing

Since getting married, I have spent an embarrassing number of afternoons reading cookbooks and baking blogs, and I get excited over finding recipes for treats I love to eat that I never thought to make on my own. I've come a long way since even a year ago in my kitchen confidence and no longer settle with baking a box mix cake or cooking Kraft macaroni and cheese. Oh please, who am I kidding... I still have that mac and cheese on stand-by for particularly taxing days (and, whatever, even on days when I'm a-okay) and I juuuuust made a batch of Funfetti cupcakes with *GASP* Pillsbury frosting (and they're AWESOME).


Annnywaaay... I have four "dessert quests" (as I will refer to them) on which I will begin to embark as of Thursday afternoon. They are as follows:

• Vanilla Cupcakes (wait for it...........) filled with Chocolate Cream! This will be my first attempt at a "stuffed cupcake"--and it shouldn't be too hard. Right? This is my Thursday project... I will be coloring the frosting in Irish-like colors (see flag) as an added bonus. Blammo!
• Molten Chocolate Cake! I've made this cake before using a lazier recipe, and the results, though tasty, were sort of lazy as well (i.e. not what I had hoped for?).  
• Cannoli! Yes! I will make this fantastic dessert so that I don't have to pay $4 for one in Little Italy next time I find myself in Manhattan. I'ma go to Ferrara and sit at one of their fancy tables and pull one of my homemade cannol's (that's how they say it in Italy, duh) and my home-brewed cup of coffee that was in an open thermos (oops) out of my purse and the waitress is gonna be all like "you can't have outside food here, ma'am, and it appears your purse is leaking coffee" and I'll be like, "Yo, fuggedaboudit" and soon find myself sitting on the curb next to a thieving, ravenous pigeon. Moving on..
• Donuts! Of the baked variety! I was hoping to find a non-fried version, especially since frying is needed for cannoli shells, and here she is!! When perfected I believe I can make many small group members, co-workers, house guests, and my husband's desire for sweet foods very happy with this.
  

From a previous, not as ambitious "dessert quest"--strawberry shortbread cupcakes!

I'm so looking forward to the results of my dessert quests--provided my dear sweet oven doesn't give me too many issues. We've had a love (or rather--agreeable)/hate relationship going on for a while now. I'll let you in on my harsh critique of the process later this week! Until then...

"Cookies are made of butter and love."  -Norwegian Proverb (Well said, Norwegians!)

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Hockey Night, by way of Des Plaines

I got Aaron two tickets to a Chicago Wolves (minor league hockey) game for Christmas. His +1 ended up being yours truly (yeahyeahyeah) so we skidattled off campus right after I got out of work and enjoyed the afternoon together, taking the long way down to an arena we had never been to before. It started out wonderfully enough--we loitered around Barnes and Noble as we're apt to do, longing to purchase an entire shelf of excellent DVD's that were on an incredible sale. We came out with two cups of coffee and a much-needed day planner instead.

With still so much unexplored territory to be experienced, Aaron and I took the non-interstate way to the arena and ended up for a long time in the city of Des Plaines, IL. Here are a few fun facts about Des Plaines:

• It's pronounced exactly how it's spelled, unlike "Des Moines" in Iowa. Dess Planes.
• Apparently it's official nickname is "City of Destiny". Yeah, this makes sense, especially if the destiny in question is to get into a major car wreck at night because of the poorly lit streets and confusing intersections and one ways. (This didn't happen to us, but it almost did)
• First.McDonald's.Franchise.
• Also home to what I dub as "The Worst Wendy's Restaurant Ever".
• The Left Behind series? The story is set in Des Plaines. Is it bad to say that I find this to be very fitting?

Sorry to anyone who lives in Des Plaines... we were not fans of the town. To its credit we are judging the entire town based on one very nerve-racking, ill-conditioned main road--and the weather was super crummy. 

But we made it to the Allstate Arena! We got to sit right behind the Wolves bench, eat nachos, and watch their mascot (a wolf named Skates?) shoot pyrotechnics from his fingertips. Rock rock on! Check out Aaron's phone pictures:

All right, it's time for me to gear up for Saturday Night Live... I'm feeling like a 15-year-old all over again because The Strokes are the musical guests!!!!! WOOOOOOOO! 

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