A St Patty's Day Celebration

My family, being of Irish heritage, always has a St Patty's Day celebration/ get together. This year was no different. My family is used to me always bringing a cheesecake, and while I was tempted at first to make a green colored cheesecake I resisted that urge and tried something new.

Guinness with a Chocolate Gnoche filling Cupcakes 

with a Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting

(recipe below)

 I would like to point out that nothing about these photos have been edited.....they really do just look that good.

Ok, I'll stop with the cupcake pictures. I just couldn't resist. They all looked so good.

Pretty much all of the food was either green or Irish themed. Of course we always have corned beef and hash. I LOVE corned beef. Maybe that is because I only eat it the one time a year, but regardless I love it and look forward to my family get together every year so that I can have it. 

It was also really nice because all of my brothers and sisters were there. We haven't all been together in the same room at the same time since Christmas, so that is kinda a big deal. 

This is what a family get together of mine looks like. Lots of people, sitting around, and enjoying each others company. It's a novel thing these days it seems. 

I would like to add a special thank you to my Aunt Caron for the use of her house, even though they weren't here. They were off on like a month long vacation in New Zealand? I think?

I adapted the recipe from 2 recipes so I kinda picked a chose what I wanted to do. Enjoy!

I will note that this is technically an Irish Car Bomb cupcake, but for family purposes I left out the whiskey. 

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

For the Cupcakes:
1 cup Guinness stout
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoons salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

For the Chocolate Ganache Filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

For the Baileys Frosting:
2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream

1. To Make the Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat!!!! (This is very important. I learned that the hard way and had to start over because one recipe did not explain that) Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the Guinness-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and beat briefly. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until completely combined. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Bake until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack.

3. To Make the Chocolate Ganache Filling: Finely chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then, using a rubber spatula, stir it from the center outward until smooth. Add the butter and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.

4. To Fill the Cupcakes: Using a 1-inch round cookie cutter (or the bottom of a large decorating tip), cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes, going about two-thirds of the way down. Transfer the ganache to a piping back with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

5. To Make the Baileys Frosting: Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar until all of it is incorporated. Add the Baileys, increase the speed to medium-high and whip for another 2 to 3 minutes, until it is light and fluffy.

6. Using your favorite decorating tip, or an offset spatula, frost the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Store the cupcakes in an airtight container.

(Recipe from browneyedbaker.com adjusted slightly from the Perfect St Patrick's Day cake recipe from Allrecipes.com)

Habitat

Last month I spent half the day with some of my coworkers working on the Beaverton site of Habitat for Humanity. It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. My arms were sore for several days, but it was so worth it.

Volunteering for Habitat for Humanity is always  something I've wanted to do, and I am happy I had the opportunity with my work.

Here are a few photos a few of my coworkers took.

 A few of the guys working on the second story of one of the houses we built.

We moved a lot of these and they are really heavy! They are the sub flooring boards... I think.

Another angle of doing the same thing, but in this one you get to see me rocking the tool belt and work gloves :)

 Poor Gladys had to vacuum out underneath the floor we put in place, it's a good thing she's tiny! haha

Our fearless leader, his name is escaping me at the moment, but he was a good sport with all of us who didn't know a single thing about how to build a house.

Standing next to him is Nannette who put this day together for us. Thanks Nannette, we had a lot of fun!

Next time maybe it won't rain, but it certainly made it interesting trying to get all the mud off my clothes and shoes.

The whole gang after a couple hours of hard work!

Love, Luck, Leap swap part 2

So for those of you who missed my earlier post, I did a swap with a lady in New York. You can read about it here.

She received her package from me, so I can now show you all about it.
 
I made "Jerry the musical monkey" by Rebecca Danger and while he was kinda a pain in the butt to make because he has a million pieces he is incredibly adorable!

SEE! Really cute. So cute in fact that I had a really hard time picking which photos to show you, so I just posted them all.

I'm not sorry :)

 Geoff didn't want to be left out.

Ok, so that was my mini photo shoot. I received these photos from my swap partner of the whole package I sent to her.

All in all a really fun experience. I might wait a little while before I do another one though. It is fairly time consuming. We'll see.

Have a great rest of your weekend everyone!

Monster Swap Part 1

So, most of you have probably figured out that I, not too long ago, learned to knit and I love it! I decided to give myself a bit of challenge and join in a Monster Swap on Ravelry, a online knitting community.

My swap partner lives in New York and I recently received my package from her. I will show you my package to her later, but for now you can see hers to me. Overall I have really enjoyed the swap process, but it can be a lot of work, especially when you pick a pattern that has a GAZILLION pieces but we'll get into that in my next post. :D

 This is everything that was in my package!

 The Monster Chunk she made me to go with my monster. He is the largest monster chunk I have seen. 

 This is the "Maddox" monster. He is really cute, but smaller then my monsters turn out to be. 

 Maddox checking out the surroundings in his new home

Bruce was not pleased when Maddox hopped up into his bed, but Bruce has been being a butt head lately so he doesn't get a say.

On a different note, Valentine's day was Tuesday. We spent it the way we seem to spend all of the other holidays. Geoff worked until about 9:15 and I made a nice dinner and waited for him to get home. When we finished dinner about 10 o'clock we went to bed. I did get some beautiful flowers though!

Night all--

Geoff has abandoned us......so I guess I need to pick up the slack?

Oh Hi!
It's been a while and I'm starting to feel guilty that I haven't posted anything on here. With Geoff doing his 365 project he has forgotten about us. He has some great photos and I had one real gem that I felt the need to share with ya'll.

I took this photo so he can't get all huffy about it.....

My little nephew Max turned 1 this week and I can't believe what a little man he is. We went down to Eugene for the night to celebrate in style and got to spend some time with the little man.

Geoff was great with him! I wasn't feeling up to my usual self so trying to keep up with a 1 year old wasn't high on my to do list so Geoff spent a good portion of the evening entertaining him while Lori tried to make Max's birthday cakes.
This picture pretty much sums up how Geoff is with him and Max loves his Uncle Geoff.

Here are some other random photos since I have neglected this for so long :D

Crazy Jordyn

Max's First Pumpkin Outing

The poor kid...haha

Roloff Farms outing

I am dumb

As if my life wasn't busy enough already.

Longtime readers of this blog might remember I once did a 365 project where I had to take a photo of myself every day for a year.

It didn't exactly go as I'd planned, and I cheated my way through 2/3 of it.

Well, since I didn't learn my lesson the first time, I've decided to do it again.

I won't plague you with posting a photo to this blog every day. You don't need that, but if you WOULD like to follow along, feel free to CLICK HERE.

It's a great project to do, if you do it right. You learn to look at the world a little differently,and to keep your camera glued to your side constantly. You learn to appreciate the little things, like brushing your teeth, or cleaning the cat litter (both of which, at one point made it into my past 365 project, along with starting a new career, a death in the family, two weddings and a bad case of malaise on my part).

For anyone out there thinking of doing ANYTHING like this, do it. Just do it. It's hard, it sucks at times, and its the most painful thing in the world, but it's so worth it, and you're a better person for it.

Anyway, that's enough of that. You should check out Pursinger 365, and come back often!

Halloween Countdown Day 7: JAWS

It’s Halloween, and Geoff is getting into the spirit by snuggling up on the couch and watching a scary movie every day until the trick-or-treaters arrive.

If you haven’t seen these movies, you should. You really, REALLY should. 

Miss any of the countdown? 

                  Day 1: My Bloody Valentine (1981)     Day 2: In the Mouth of Madness (1995)     

                  Day 3: The Walking Dead / Dead Set  Day 4: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) 
                  Day 5: Let Me In (2010)                       Day 5: Psycho (1960) 

Day 7: JAWS (1975)

I've said it for years: Richard Kiel has DESERVED his own spin-off!"

This is it, the last of the countdown.  Glad you stuck with us! 

We've laughed we've cried, and now it's time for the pièce de résistance: JAWS. There are some out there who don't classify the 1975 classic as a horror film, and while you could argue that there is a certain "action/adventure" vibe to it, the film is by far scarier than many of the so-called "horror" films out there. 

Jaws began the era of the modern Hollywood blockbuster, taking a B-movie horror flick and transforming it into one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time.

It is hard to find a film that scared SO MANY people, and its legacy is still felt today.

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

The Plot in 140 characters:"Mr. Mayor can I close the beaches?" "What! Why?" "Well a shark seems to be eating everyone." "NO! I WON'T STAND FOR IT!" Shark: OM NOM NOM!

The Actual Plot: Amity police chief Martin Brody desperately wants to close the beaches after a big ol' shark decides to make the small New England town his Thanksgiving dinner. 

But the tourist town depends on the beaches for its well-being, and the town-government won't let him. So Brody, along with Richard Dreyfussand a crazy fisherman  decide they have to kill the shark themselves. 

Of course, that's easier said than done, when the 3,000 pound murderer decides that normal beach goers aren't as tasty as Brody, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Trying to make the best of a bad situation, the town's "Come see the Shark!" promotional posters turned out to be a major money maker.

Why I Love It: Jaws is one of the single scariest films of all time. To me, this movie is just a frightening as The Exorcist, and in many ways, it's better. 

Jaws brings the terror in a different way that the traiditonal horror film. Like The Birds, the scares come from the elemental forces of nature. 


Sharks, after all, are out there right now They were 79 shark attacks in America in 2000. 

When you think about it, sharks really are everything a monster should be. They attack randomly, without remorse, and operate in almost total mystery. Little is known about sharks, and the fact that they attack from the water (which, in itself, the subject of many primal fears) make them an even more terrifying force.

Terror never looked so cuddly.

Jaws sparked America's love/hate relationship with sharks, single handedly creating events like Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, as well as any number of rip-off films like Deep Blue Sea and Megalaladon.

The movie works so well because of the suspense that it builds early on. There is little seen of the shark for much of the film, allowing the audience to construct the monster in their mind before they see it. 

And when you do see the shark, it is everything that you could have imagined and more.

Using real-life shark footage, as well as the famous "Bruce" animatronic puppets, the shark is one of the single most recognizable characters in all of film, and is still one of the most frightening, even after all of these years.

Jaws is a movie that sticks with you. Compared to some of the movies we've talked about this year, it might not be a movie that terrifies you outright, but go swimming in the ocean and tell me that one small part of you isn't just a little bit afraid. 

After all, most shark attacks take place in 3 feet of water, within 10 feet from shore.

Remember that, next time you head to the beach.

That's It! Our Halloween wrap-up is over! I've already got ideas for next year, so if you'd like to contribute and suggest a movie, I'm all ears!

Oh, Henry.

I have taken up a new hobby... knitting.

Yes, yes, I know. How old am I?

Pretty old, apparently.

I wanted to introduce you to my first project, though.

His name is Henry.

Meet Henry the monster chunk. He is terrifying! and by terrifying I mean adorable!

You better be careful this Halloween though, Henry will be keeping an eye out! Halloween is his favorite time of year (it should be, he's  made out of a yarn called Zombie BBQ).

Normally, Henry sits on my desk at work, but Henry has taken some time off from watching my desk to make sure the trick or treaters stay in line and no one eats too much candy. 

He has assured me that come Tuesday he will be back at my desk guarding my candy bowl.

I caught him watching me from the corner of the couch today, you never know where he is going to pop up!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Halloween Countdown Day 6: Psycho

It’s Halloween, and Geoff is getting into the spirit by snuggling up on the couch and watching a scary movie every day until the trick-or-treaters arrive.

If you haven’t seen these movies, you should. You really, REALLY should. 

Miss any of the countdown? 

           Day 1: My Bloody Valentine (1981)     Day 2: In the Mouth of Madness (1995)     

           Day 3: The Walking Dead / Dead Set  Day 4: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) 
           Day 5: Let Me In (2010)

Day 6: Psycho (1960)

There's just no way of getting around it, Alfred Hitchcock is simply the coolest of the cool. I remember exactly where I was when I first saw Psycho, and I remember the effect that it had on me. This movie alone is what made me afraid of a) roadside motels, b) showers and c) people's mothers.

And it's not just this film. Hitchcock movies are gold, as we briefly discussed last year. 

Hitchcock is, and always will be, the master of suspense and Psycho is still, after more than 50 years, one of the best horror films of all time.

 The Plot in 140 characters: Marion has had one hell of a day. After all, stealing from work really takes it out of you. Now, it's time to relax with a nice warm shower.

The Actual Plot: Janet Leigh steals $40,000 from her work and runs off to start fresh. But when she makes a stop at the reasonably priced Bates Motel, she meets a charming young innkeeper.

On Janet's trail are the police, and her family, wanting to get their hands on her for running off with all the cash.

"Have you seen this boy?"

That charming innkeeper, Norman Bates, is not a psycho-killer, if that's what you're asking. He's just a nice boy who wants to stuff animals and hang out with his mother.

His, mother, by the way, doesn't take kindly to the sexy Leigh invading her son's hotel. 

Doesn't take kindly at all.

Why I Love It: What can you say about one of the most celebrated movies of all time?

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE knows what happens in Psycho. It doesn't matter if you are 8 years old or 80, the second anyone says "Psycho" you think of Janet Leigh being butchered in a shower, while the famous shreiking violens play the film's famous theme.

"Oh my, I should probably stop reading this."

Psycho has embedded itself firmly into the American psyche, more so than any other Hitchcock film ever has.

Norman Bates, specifically, is one of the single greatest villians of all time. He is a character that is tragic, horrible and at he same time perfectly likeable.

See? Look at that face! How could you be scared of that!?!

Psycho is one of those movies that has so invaded American consciousness that we don't even realize it. It effectively kick-started the horror genre, and broke almost every rule in the Hollywood book. 

The film plays with our expectations, and features the mother of all twist endings (no pun intended, sorry) that set the bar for people like M. Night Shyamalan decades later.   

"Shyamawhat? I'm scared, Sam!"

There has never been a film that shocked as much as Psycho. It pushed the strong censorship rules of the day and made bold decisions for its time. After all, it starred women in their underwear, featured gruesome death scenes, and had the audacity to show a TOILET!?! (Seriously, Psycho was the first American film to feature a flushing toilet).

It also features a fairly large amount of FACE.

What is best about it, is how the films destroys our expectations. The first half of the film plays like a standard Hithcock thriller: Woman steals thousands from her boss and the cops are on her trail, but the second that shower door opens the film changes completely into one of the most terrifying films of all time.

Psycho is a bit tame by today's standards, but it stays as one of the best horror films of all time.

Tomorrow: We're almost there, so let's change things up a little bit. What's the scariest creature in the world? Grizzly bear? Cobra? Nope, you'd be wrong.

The real answer, the ONLY answer has got to be a creature known simply as BRUCE.

No, not that Bruce. THIS Bruce.

That's right. We're talking 'bout JAWS.