Show me the love!

 Happy BELATED Valentine's Day! To commemorate I'm going to share one of my loves: baking.

A few weeks ago my roommates, Shelby and I took a cupcake class at Butter Lane. It was a Groupon okay? And I really like cupcakes.

And I also started this post on Valentines day. Hence the weird intro. But anyhow back to the story.

It was a class of 12. Teams of four. Guess who was in my group?

We made (as a class) vanilla, chocolate and banana cupcakes as well as vanilla, chocolate, cream cheese and peanut butter frosting (we voted on this and split the vanilla in half to get enough). My group was in charge of the banana cupcakes and cream cheese frosting. YUM.

I learned a lot about baking cake. Little, basic, scientific explanations about why it's important to cream together butter and sugar for so long. That there is reason to the order of adding wet and dry into the mix. Why you fold in banana last (because they are a gluten and over beating makes the cake tough and dry).

And let's just say I think our cakes turned out the best. Well-shaped and even. And our frosting was yum.

Winning cupcakes!

We learned how to frost the cupcakes Butter Lane style. Then there was a contest to see who could get it the most beautiful. I'll give you three guesses to who won...YAY ME! Too bad I left my prize, a gift of half a dozen cupcakes, in the kitchen when I rushed out after class. But we did not forget our cupcakes. It was free for all grab at the end, so the cupcakes I took home weren't necessarily all decorated by me...or the roommates. Or Shelby.

It was great fun and my love for baking has not decreased since then. Vivian and Mattie visited this weekend. We made homemade oreos. A post about their visit is forthcoming. I should definitely try to be more frequent than my current semi-monthly pace.

Snow Daze

NY Public Libary on 5th Ave

I know I don't win for most original post title but it fits so well. Being from Texas, I never saw a lot of snow. Duh. I mean, when it "snowed" it was really icy rain and I remember waking up early to turn on the news, praying that school was cancelled. Since I've moved to the NE, I've realized that one, icy rain really is dangerous and two, snow in NYC is dirrrty.

Outdoor subway platform in my commute

It's been snowing, substantially, every week since Christmas. To me, this is what living up north is all about, to people who've lived in the city for the past 10 years, this is unusual. Apparently it doesn't snow all the time, like it has been. This year, it's been abundant. Blame it on global warming causing more severe storms. Who knows.

Walks to work can be fun.

Three scenarios when I wake up to a snowy day:

1. I wake up. I get dressed. I'm almost out the door and decide to look out the window. It's snowing. I sigh, exasperated, and tweak my outfit to work around my snowboots. The thing about snow is that it is silent! Unlike rain. But snow melts when it lands on your lashes and cheeks. I still haven't decided on whether I want to carry an umbrella out or not when it's snowing.
2. I wake up. I look out the window and the world is blanketed in snow. The sun is high and clear. Everything looks fresher, crisper, clearer. I bundle up excitedly and leave for work. Everything looks beautiful. Until later, when everyones tracks and the dirt of NYC taints the snow. And it's grimy and piled on the sides of the walkways. At least it hides the trash. But when it gets slushy and melty, it seems that all the corners are puddles of muddy slush. Bah!
3. I wake up. Because of a big storm anticipation,I call my work's hotline, even before I get out of bed, cross my fingers and hope that we get a snow day. That has yet to happen.

One of the neighbors has this snow plow machine that makes mountains!

 Regardless of what seems like a list of inconveniences about snow, I rather enjoy it. It's nice to have a real winter. My favorite part is being able to see my breath so well.

What is all this snow good for? SKIING! My roommates and I (and Yesenia) signed up for a Texas Exes (Hook'Em!) day trip, ski at Windham Mountain, this past weekend. It was a great site. Lots of trails. The day was beautiful, clear and sunny skies. All lifts were open and trails freshly groomed. We had a blast even if we did have to wake up at 5am. It was a great day.

Taking a break to blow my nose!

About skiing. I've only skiied like once before. And I wasn't bad at it. I'm just...reckless. I guess you could say I started running before I learned to walk. Or walking before I learned to crawl. Regardless, I can balance, go fast and such but I cannot, for the life of me, stop aptly. Or at all... But I love skiing and can go on blue trails now. YAY! Anyways I want to make skiing a more constant thing in my life. I mean, if my brother can own a snowboard and live in Texas, I sure as hell can go skiing more than once a year.

Readysetgo! (Jackie wanted to snowboard)

And what else does snow entice one to do? Cook stews, soups and other hearty items of course! And what better way to make hot, delicious meals worthy of a snowy, freezing day than in a wonderful dutch oven. I decided to treat myself to this baby:

Staub. 5.5qt. Graphite

I am in bliss. I've wanted a dutch oven ever since I started reading Pioneer Woman and this desire burned even more when I became smitten with Smitten Kitchen. Braised meats? Deep, flavorful soups? SIGN ME UP!

Yes, I did get grey and not dijon. Why? I am lucky enough to have a friend who's mother works at William Sonoma. Thus I was limited to the colors they carried but I got half-off so I'm not complaining. Plus I think that grey compliments yellow rather nicely so I guess I'll just have a grey and yellow kitchen in the future. It's chic!

To all my readers: keep warm!

-Sandy

*Just wanted to say that many of the snow photos and all the skiing ones are courtesy of L!

New Year...no pictures

So during my NYE deubachary I reset the passcode on my phone. And forgot it. And had to reset it.

As a result I lost all of my pictures. Or almost all of them. What I e-mailed myself before this all happened, apparently I was going to do a post about baked goods:

Simplest Apple Tart

Chris helped peel apples...I sliced them...

Simple Roast Chicken that I cannot stop making. Thank you Thomas Keller and thank you Mattie for making try this recipe.

World Peace Cookies

Wait, have I posted these before? Idk but they were good! I would do it again except I need more quality semisweet chocolate.

Speaking of, I'm really into quality ingredient nowadays. I recieved some vanilla bean paste for Christmas which I absolutely adore. And now that I've tasted the quality of Scharffen Berger, I do not know if I can ever go back to Nestle. Now that my sweets taste amazing (quality + my natural talent, harharhar) the only downside is that these ingredients are more expensive. Is it worth it? I'll let you know after I gain 5lbs.  Or 10.

 On the note of 10, we got 10" of snow last night. Let's just say that Lauren and I had the longest walk to work. Because we like jumping in snow drifts.

Sorry for the boring, albeit tasty, post. I hope it suffices until I feel motivated to upload more pictures. Because I do have some more. I'm just too lazy to get up and get my phone. Story of my life.

BTW, I am overjoyed at the amount of readers I have. I want to post more! Yay!

Raise your hand

Or comment...if you still read my blog. I don't know if I should keep updating it!

Goodbye 2010

Obligatory post about 2010.

Best moments:

-Jackie's birthday celebration at Hamilton Pool and West 6th. One of the most memorable days for many reasons: cacarones, learning that life is precious, good times with friends is one of the best things ever.

-Going to Vietnam for the first time, having my eyes opened and learning more about my culture. Appreciating my heritage.

-Getting a job and moving to NYC. One of the best and most bittersweet things I've done for myself. I miss home but I'd rather miss something then regret something.

Next post in 2011!

The Coming of Chris...tmas

As most of ya'll know I will not be returning to Austin for the holidays. Woe. Originally, my family was to come up. But my dad is visiting one grandma and my mother has deemed NYC too cold for her. Alan will be coming the day after Christmast to visit. Kevin got a ski trip, so he won't be coming up...I think...

Dressed for company holiday party, haha

With my roommates back in Tejas, I will be spending the holiday weekend with Chris, mainly, with visits from Henry and possibly Simon. We will do nothing but watch March of the Penguins, Law & Order and eat. I will bake goodies galore. It will be glorious and as stress free as possible. Not because my roommates are gone, but because I will have time to do NOTHING! YAY!

Two notes: my reason for not updating in so long is that I've been swamped at work. Also, it's the holiday season so there have been many goodies at work...cookies, brownies and candy galore. And I bake alongside all of these free treats. What to do. What to do.

We got a Christmas tree!

With presents from best friends!

Delicious cookies and caramels from Mattie!!!

Moules Frites with Chris. 

Had some people over to decorate sugar cookies

Opened one of my gifts halfway!

 Had a lovely Christmas Eve lunch with Chris and  Henry at Sho Shaun Hergatt. And then Henry came over for Christmas Eve dinner. We're watching re-runs of SNL. I'm waiting for midnight mass. I opened all my Christmas presents already...

I LOVE THEM! I thought this Christmas wasn't going to be too fabulous. But it has been. All my loved ones have sent me something and it means a lot since I can't be home to celebrate the season with them. And a common theme: everyone who is close to me has given me something food related from Trader Joes to bakeware to food itself. I am truly lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.

More pics to come!

Busy blues

I'm home sick today. I kinda did it to myself because I went to work yesterday while under the weather. Why did I do that? Because I wanted to go to trapeze school. (this will be explained in my next post!) So here I am, at home, attempting to do some work while eating steel-cut oats and ice cream.

Been busy since I've come back. Gabby is in town! She's been here for the past weekend and will leave on Friday. It's her vacation. She actually left for Boston today though, to visit some family.

And since I owe ya'll a post but I am not feeling to well but have a best friend who's on vacation and has a blog of her own we'll just recap my weekend through her eyes.

Wintry Weather Weekend

Did I mentioned it's super cold here? Maybe not like Chicago but it's pretty blustery.

OH! And I will be on the CBS Early show this Thursday. Tune in. See if you can catch me decorating cookies!!! My network TV debut!!!