Kentucky Derby Cupcakes!

Only one more day till the Kentucky Derby! I hope that everyone has their hats ready, their bets placed, and a nice plate to hold these delicious Derby inspired cupcakes for the party! In the spirit of the derby, I will be eating Mint Julep Cupcakes and wishing I had a hat as cool as Holly Madison's from a couple years back.

(notinnewyork.wordpress.com)

Yes, she glued 'My Little Pony' figurines on hers.

Here's a delightful little recipe from Celebrations.com:

"The official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby, Mint Juleps are a refreshing respite from the Kentucky summer sun. Create your own unique cupcakes fit for the winner's circle with a creative take on the mint julep – complete with an irresistibly delicious batter spiked with bourbon and mint leaf garnish on top! (adapted from Home Cooking)"

(from: Hostessblog.com)

Ingredients:

Cupcake Base:

• 3 cups cake flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 eggs

Bourbon Butter Sauce:

• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 teaspoons Bourbon whiskey

Mint Julep Frosting:

• 8 oz whipped cream cheese
• 4 oz butter
• 12 oz powdered sugar
• 1 ¼ teaspoon Crème de Menthe

Instructions For Cupcake Frosting:

1. Mix all frosting ingredients together in a large bowl until completely incorporated.
2. Refrigerate for twenty to forty minutes, then pipe onto cupcakes once the base is completely cooled and garnish with a fresh sprig of mint.



Instructions for Cupcake Batter:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl.
2. In a separate smaller bowl, combine buttermilk, butter, vanilla extract, and eggs.
3. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture. Beat at low speed for 1 minute, then increase to medium speed for 3 more minutes.
4. Pour mixture into muffin or cupcake pan pre-lined with cupcake liners.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Ten minutes before cupcakes are done, prepare Bourbon Butter Sauce.

Instructions for Bourbon Butter Sauce:


1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, 1/3 cup butter, and 3 tablespoons water.
2. Stir until melted and combined. Do not boil. Remove from heat, continuing to stir for 2 minutes. Then stir in Bourbon.
3. When cupcakes are done and still warm from the oven, use a skewer to poke holes around the top of the cake. Pour Bourbon butter sauce evenly over the top of the cupcakes. Let cake cool to room temperature in the pan before removing.
4. Frost with mint julep frosting once cupcakes are completely cooled, and garnish each with a sprig of mint.

Boba Fett? No! Boba Tea!

On my lunch breaks I start to get a little bit bored and uncreative when it comes to where I could possibly go and still make it back within an hour. Luckily for me, I am near a little place called the Taiwan Tea House. I have driven by the plain storefront for a while now and never really realized that it was a place you could go and eat. I just thought that it was a store that sold nothing but fancy teas.

After looking on urbanspoon, I realized that they have a nice little selection of goodies to choose from, along with a big tea menu! And I am not just talking the delicate little tea that your Grammy would serve you at Easter, I am talking the full on boba tea! AKA Bubble Tea! Anything that sounds like something the Spongebob would drink, I am totally willing to try, except for maybe a seaweed crabby patty with special sauce…

Anyway – back to the awesomeness that is the Taiwan Tea House. For an appetizer, that is only two bucks, I was able to get a huge serving of fried tofu. Now, a lot of reviewers recommended the Mapa Tofu, but I wasn’t feelin a huge lunch, just a little something to hold me over. I was a little nervous that it was going to be this massive fried dough thing, but it was a really lightly battered dish with sweet chili and green onion sauce on top. I am not sure if they made their tofu from scratch at the store, but it definitely tasted like they could have.

For the drink of choice: Honeydew Green Tea with boba. Ok, so the deal behind this drink is that it is a sweetly flavored tea beverage invented in Taiwan. “Drink recipes may vary, but most bubble teas contain a tea base mixed with fruit (or fruit syrup) and/or milk. Ice blended versions of the drink are also available, usually in fruit flavors. Bubble teas also usually contain small tapioca balls or pearls called "boba". Pearls made of jelly are also available in many places. These teas are shaken to mix the ingredients, creating foam on the top of some varieties. This drink is called bubble tea because of the marble-sized tapioca balls or “pearls” that is present and sit at the bottom of the cup. These chewy balls, although having little flavor, are sucked up through large wide straws and are consumed along with the drink. Sometimes the customer will be asked if he or she wants ‘boba’ or ‘bubble,’ added in the drink. Both these terms refer to the tapioca balls”…thank you Wikipedia.

I had never had one of these before, so I asked the server what the most popular drink was and I don’t think he understood what I meant. He didn’t quite get that I wanted the best selling drink..”So, what do you want?”Oh well. After the fact, I learned that the coconut red milk tea with boba is a popular choice.

The MASSIVE drink was served in a nicely oversized goblet with a huge straw...the perfect size to suck up all those little boba balls. It is such a weird drink, but it was quite a little experience. So if you haven’t tried a boba tea yet, head over to 4040 E. 82nd St!

Holy Cow Batman!

For someone that is in love with cupcakes, it is some what surprising that I have been living right next to a cupcake shop for months, and am just now getting around to checking this place out. It always helps to bring others along, so that one does not look like such a lonely and sad soul buying a cupcake to eat in solitude. Therefore, I had to wait until I had others to join in on the sugar fun.

Holy Cow Cupcakes, over in the Arts and Design District in Carmel, is an uber small shop that can be easily overlooked, since it is part of the same building that a gas station is in. I think that this is also part of the reason why I waited so long to visit the bakery (really? a gas station?). Do not let the location fool you! The hours are a little strange for people who work, but it's open Tuesday through Saturday 11-6.

All of the cupcakes are made with local and organic ingredients, so each batch is made from scratch and with love; meaning, when they are out, they are out. They make all of their cupcakes in babycake form too! So if you want to have them at a fancy schmancy party or just feel like poppin' em like popcorn during the next episode of LOST (eeekk!!) you can do that too.

When I walked over with my nephews they had a limited selection to choose from, but still it was a good selection. It is a positive sign if two little boys can see something that they want and are happy with the amount of green sprinkles on top.

(I know they are super cute model boys, right? )

Arriving around noon it looked like they had been busy that morning already. Our selections were:
The Coriander: Chocolate cake topped with chocolate frosting *available every day*
The Ryan: Traditional Red Velvet cake topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting **HCC!’s most popular flavor offered everyday*
Winter White: Almond cake with almond buttercream
Vanilla/Vanilla: Vanilla cake topped with vanilla frosting (usually topped with a seasonal sprinkle) *available every day*

They also had the Old School Cupcake, like a Hostess and of course that is what Caleb went for.
The frosting was perfect on these babies! It definitely tasted like a cream cheese type frosting and it wasn't the over powering kind that kicks you in the back of the throat and makes you wanna die. Both of the boys devoured theirs on the walk back and were ready for more! The woman threw one in for me, even though I thought the boys would not finish all of theirs and I would be eating the remainders. Oh glory day! So happy that I had my own, since neither one of them would share (trust me, you wouldn't have shared either!)

There are a few that weren't there that day, but I am quite curious to try these little concoctions:

PB & J: peanut butter cake filled with strawberry jelly and topped with peanut butter frosting

Guinness: Dark chocolate Guinness cake topped Jameson Irish Whiskey ganache *March flavor-of-the-month*

Mint Julep: Lightly scented fresh mint cake with a a hint of Woodford Reserve Whiskey and a mint/whiskey frosting **available during the week of the Kentucky Derby**mmmmmmmmmmm.....
Their list goes on and on and each cupcake is named after someone special in the HCC family, kinda like Stila cosmetics, so that it a sweet little touch.
Who wants to meet for a Mint Julep one in May?

"Everybody Loves to Boogie!"

Come on admit it, if you could bust out into a move right now, you totally would. So do it! I am while eating some not too exciting popcorn..

Well, this place makes me want to bust a move every time I think about it. Last weekend my dad was in town from Austin and so I thought it would be fun to take him out to some neat little joint that neither one of us had been too. He is your typical Texan and likes meat products, the bigger the better (still haven't figured out how I am his daughter...) Anyhoo, I went to the the wonderful site of Yelp and found that there was a little, and I mean LITTLE, place in Broad Ripple that had various veggie options!Woohoo!! Of course along with all of your typical burgers, Boogie Burger had two base veg options and then a crap ton of toppings to add to it. Everything from blue cheese and onion rings to peanut butter!Not too shabby for a store that is about 10 feet in width and 20 in length. The bases for the veg -friendly were either the:

Garden Burger		$5.25
	A HUGE Boca soy burger served w/ lettuce, tomato, mayo & red onion
	Add cheese	.60
	Or for something different, try your Garden Burger ‘Shroom, Blue Moon, or Inferno style	(extra $)
Chipotle Black Bean Burger		$5.25
	A flavorful blend of black beans, onions, green chilies, peppers & brown rice topped with all fixings

The awesomeness that is the Black Bean Burger

For being a Boogie Virgin I thought it would be best to go with the Black Bean since they make the patty there. I had that with all of the fixins, and an order of fries to go with it. They only have one size and it is ginormous! Even with two people chowin down on em we still couldn't finish the plate. The black bean was amazing! It was a huge patty with toppings that were not too over bearing, just the right amount of the goods. Also, not only was the food super fast and fresh, but even the people working there were really nice!A rarity these days. This places was so good and cheap that we went again three days later! Luckily this time Ch'en was with us and so it was no problem finishing everything...oh and did I mention that have Smoothies??







( two photos of the store are from Boogie Burger's Facebook page, yep they got that too)

"We Milk It. We Make It. We Serve It."

And so that is the motto for the Traders Point Creamery.

For the past several years, whenever I go to Whole Foods, I would see the giant glass bottles of this Traders Point yogurt and milk. I knew that it was a local company over in Zionsville, but other than taking a sip of a mango flavored yogurt of theirs years ago, I had never really paid much attention to it. That is until I started working with another foodie. There is a girl here that is into all the organic goodies that this planet has to offer...always going to various farmers markets and trying to be a local shopper. So when I heard her talking about this place and how amazing it was I thought that I should also check it out. Luckily, another girl kinda took the first step and took her teenage daughters with her to see if it was deemed "cool". And you know that when teenage girls are actually interested in something like that, then it must be.

The other week I had my nephews over and I knew that I would have a day ahead of me and better plan it properly. So I thought that it would be a pretty neat thing to take them to this place and kind of "steer" them in the right direction as to why one wouldn't eat these awesome little animals..(didn't work). They only wanted to make "Log Scene" films...King Kong..look it up. However, B and I did find the place to be quite a charming little place. The reason why it is voted #1 by the American Cheese Society (hehehe):

"The farm team nurtures the land through careful implementation of the rotation farming system that is a common practice in other parts of the world. The result is exceptionally fertile, well-nourished soil wherein grows a precisely selected blend of grasses, herbs and flowers. This keeps the herd outdoors, happy, healthy, and producing organic, grass-fed milk high in the proteins and naturally occurring healthy fats like Omega 3, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), and nutrients necessary to make top quality, delicious and healthful products. The farm team here ensure year-round, outstanding nutrition for the herd, which makes us the only Creamery in the country to provide 100% grass-fed whole milk in a bottle - along with all the outstanding health benefits that are unique to grass-fed milk."

It had lots of various guides that you could go on and walking tours. You were able to see the cows being milked and then frolic up to the top of the hill and prance around. Truly, they seemed to be dances up on the hill! I have never seen cows so lively before, it was really strange and amazing! Also, all of the chickens and hens were just out and about seeing what all was going on. They didn't seem scared or intimidated by anything or anyone that was going on around them. also a neat thing.

When we were heading out we went the Loft which is the restaurant and also holds their Dairy Bar. I thought it would be kind of a cool experience to test out the all grass-fed dairy from the cows...considering you can see everything that goes on into making these drinks I felt it would be an okay thing to do (as oppose to buying some Deans milk with god knows that in that white "beverage")

I got the boys a blueberry and strawberry vanilla smoothie. All made with fresh fruit and newly processed yogurt. Brandon and I got the mango, banana, berry and strawberry one (I like variety). It was a very unique flavor, granted I am not use to drinking milky products, but you could totally tell that the cows were all grass fed. It was a definite earthy tasty (going back to my Starbucks terminology). I can not wait to go back and try some of their other products, like a vegetable medley platter and grilled cheese, maybe next time though I won't bring anyone under 18.


(all photos from tpcreamery website, except the last)

"I'm Fat, Let's Party!"

At last sweet victory is mine! Another year down for SuSu. Yep, that's right I turned the big 2. 6.
I haven't invested yet in the Botox, but maybe some nice appointments for some Restylane will be in the future...

To honor the best day ever, I went to go get a sweet hair cut from the awesomeness that is in the Rip, grabbed a steamed bagel from the Broad Ripple Bagel and Deli, and went to go pick up some special little vegany treats for Ch'en at Three Dog Bakery.

After a day full of errands, we got ready for a fancy feast over at Naked Tchopstix. I am in love with this place, since it offers a great deal of vegan options-and a good selection of tasty drinks. We were able to get a private room in the back for the thirteen of us that showed.
I had never had any of their specialty drinks before, so I decided to opt for an Asian Pear Mojito. (Bacardi, Pear Juice & Puree, Mint) Normally I don't order drinks, or ever, but I was curious to see what the pear would taste like. It was absolutely heavenly. I good summers afternoon drink. I also tried Anna's drink, which was the Red Geisha-love the name. It was a Skittles infused vodka drink with edible petals floating on top. Another tasty beverage, but a little strange to be drinking "Skittle juice".

For the appetizers I had the vegetable tempura which had very lightly battered asparagus, sweet potato, carrots, squash, and broccoli and cauliflower. All with a nice sweet soy dipping sauce.

As the entree, it was the Spicy Tofu, as usual. Stir fried vegetables and Tofu with hot Chinese chili pepper, perfect balance of hot and sweet. This time it was extremely spicy, but I never feel like I am eating unless I'm sweating.

Spicy Tofu

Generals Tofu

So with our bellies full and a few good laughs thrown it, it was time to depart and pass out from a hard day of partying. Plus, I received some sweet Hello Kitty coloring books and crayons, so I needed to knock out a few pages before bed...

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs...

Yeah for Easter! That means that I will have received a get out of work free card, and I love those cards! So Sunday was spent doing the normal thing, drinking lots of coffee mixed with some sugar and little bit of Men in Black thrown in there. Being the typical holiday, Brandon and I headed north with our furry son in tow. Bringing along stretchy pants for over indulgence. On the way up, however, Brandon was in some serious need of caffeine so we hit up the McDonalds...(hissss..) so that we could try those new Mocha Frappes, and damn it! They are actually quite tasty. I know there is probably a crap ton of yuckiness that goes into it, so I am just glad that they are not on their Dollar Menu as well.
Getting up to Meh's we were quickly sent out to pick up Grammy Hammy and bring her back in to embark on our food fest. Its always so nice to see the multiple generations together. When we arrived back at the house, I was quite surprised to see the most awesome cake I have ever seen before!
My mom had met this girl who use to be a baker up in Chicago and she is down here testing her skills for the locals, and well, her skills are out of this world. She was commissioned to make a "susu" cake. A Tim Burton in the springtime birthday cake..have fun with that one!
She totally pulled it off with the black and white and off balance layers of oh my god awesome Italian buttercream frosting. I have never tasted any dessert quite like it. I will "follow" her on facebook that's for sure.
To help balance out the sugar, my mom made an all vegan lunch for us. Red Bean veganaise salad that I could eat by the pounds, celebration roast (always a winner) vegetable biryani, mango and pineapple dish and some couscous mixture.
After all the food was eaten we all went for a big adventure in the woods, looking for crawfish. The boys are obsessed with all things strange. We know where it comes from...
To top off an awesome Easter/BDay day, I became the proud owner of another Matt and Nat bag!!! Love love love that line!
I hope you all had a fantastic Easter!!