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Goodbye Little Red, Hello Big Red

I know I told you I was going to tell you about sweet blueberry action, but it’s not ready. I have just about half the post all written up and ready to go, but then I got distracted.

Not too long ago I told you about a major life event. It was pretty exciting and I felt like it was a real stepping stone in my life as an adult.

Well, this weekend I took another step forward.

I bought a car.

(Ok, ok, this one is probably a bit more significant than buying a desk chair, but it was probably just as exciting (I got a lot of grief about that chair).)

It was sad to see the Corolla go. We named him (her? Are cars like boats and always girls?) Little Red just in time to see him (better late than never for a name, eh?) off to a new home.

(please excuse the crappy picture, apparently I don’t know how to use the camera on my phone)

I got Little Red in January of freshman year of college. I remember my only stipulations for a car were four doors and not red. (Apparently I don’t stand by my convictions very well…probably why I’m a terrible negotiator.) Since then, this car has taken me all over the place:

To 13 states
To and from college too many times to count
Home after college graduation
Moved me to Maryland
Moved me two more times since coming to Maryland
To my first day of work at my first real job
To the fateful snowboarding trip where I fell on my face on the first run of the day and spent New Year’s Eve with a huge black eye swollen shut
Endless trips between Baltimore and DC
To the beach
Road trips up and down the East Coast
Took The Jackster and me to the Outer Banks

But there are a few things I won’t miss:

Having to use one key to unlock the doors and a different key to start the car
The peeling trim, the CD console held shut by a bottle, the broken arm rest, and the general disintegration of the interior of my car
The feeling of wind blowing through my hair (with the windows up…)
The broken window that would go down, but wouldn’t go back up
Broken struts, dead batteries, new sensors, replacement belts…every month (although, I must say, my mechanic and I are quite chummy)

It’s been a fun ride (heehee), but I’m excited for my new wheels. Please say hello to Big Red:

Boy I look sheepish in that picture…ah well…cake is awesome though.

(Oh yeah…Big Red is a Subaru Outback…gotta support my active lifestyle! (and cake schlepping))

Sorry, no time to bake!

Been too busy playing this:

And traveling and moving and doing triathlons. I’ll try to be better.

Fun things are happening…

Perhaps the whole chair thing was a bit of letdown for you. Well, I promise this is actually exciting. Check back tomorrow and I’ll give you the full scoop. I’m excited!

Giant, unbelievable, exciting, major life event!

Yes, you read it correctly. It’s amazing! It’s wonderful! It’s about time!

I finally got a new desk chair.

What? You don’t think that qualifies as a giant, unbelievable, exciting, major life event? But look at it! It has wheels! And arm rests! And padding!

Still no?

Ok, well, let me show you what I have been sitting on for the past six years:

And this is the upgraded version. For most of college it was just a metal folding chair.

I have no good reason for sitting in that chair for so long except pure laziness. I’m kind of afraid my new plush chair is going to lead to even more laziness. How many more episodes of Mad Men do I have to watch?

This is what happens when you go to lunch…

…and it’s your birthday. Ice cream cake was involved too. I feel so loved.

Cinnamon Buns

cinnamon_buns

Cinnamon buns. What can I say about cinnamon buns? They are awesome. When I was little I would take a cinnamon bun and start unraveling it, eating it from the outside in. My strategy was that I would start with the fluffy, bready part, and make my way into the gooey, sweet insides. Is there really any other way?

cinnamon_sugar

These cinnamon buns are finger-lickin good. They take a while to make (which you can clearly tell by the lighting quality of these pictures), but they are so worth it. I’m telling you, all this snow is teaching me some baking patience, and man is it paying off.

Cinnamon Buns

adapted from The Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion

Dough

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp yeast
3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp nonfat dry milk
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 egg plus enough water to make 1 cup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp soft unsalted butter

Filling

1/4 cup soft unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon

Icing

3 Tbsp heavy cream
1 cup powdered sugar

eggs

To make the dough, combine all of the ingredients, either by hand, or with a mixer until a smooth dough forms. Seriously, no special method with making the dough, I just dumped all the ingredients together until I got something nice. Take the dough and put it in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until it doubles in size.

filling

flat

After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly greased surface and roll out into a rectangle that measures approximately 11 x 20 inches. Spread a thin layer of butter on the dough and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

roll_slices

Roll the dough along the long edge into a log. Using a serrated knife, cut the log in half. Then cut each half in half (so you have 4 equal pieces), and then cut each piece into 3 pieces, so you end up with a total of 12 pieces.

pan

Place the buns into a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch pan.

risen_rolls

Cover the buns again, and let them rise for 45 minutes to an hour until they are puffy.

baked_rolls

Bake at 375º for 20-25 minutes until they are golden brown. Let them cool for 10 minutes or so before icing.

To make the icing, mix the heavy cream and powdered sugar together to make a glaze and spread over the buns. Makes 12 buns.

iced

I made…pants!

pants

My first sewing endeavor since the 7th grade when I made monkey whose head rotated around. It took me two hours and one movie about pants, but with a bit of roommate help I’ve got some cozy new pajama pants.

This past week of snow has been rather productive though. I’ve made pretzels, white bread, French bread, macaroons, chocolate chip cookies, apple pan dowdy, and cinnamon buns. I promise I’ll post them all soon.

It’s a good thing these pants have an elastic waistband.

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!!!

snow

Snowverkill? Snowmaggedon? Snowpocalypse? In case you hadn’t heard, we’re getting a bit of snow around here.

We’ve been housebound for the better part of a week with a brief respite on Tuesday, but the winds continue to howl, the snow continues to fall, and the hysteria continues to be…hysterical.

No work means more time for baking. Oh, and baking I have done. We’re stuffed full of treats. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted…

I can’t believe it took this long…

Ok Maryland, what the heck?? Actually, let’s extend this to the entire Baltimore-Washington Metro area. Yes, DC, Virginia, this is directed at you guys too.

I deal with the slow driving in the left hand lane. I deal with the lack of use of directionals (blinkers, tickers, turn signals, whatever). I deal with the incessant traffic because of the ridiculous beltways. I deal with tailgating, cutting me off, and being rear-ended twice within the first 4 months of living here.

But I can’t deal with this.

Snow

Why is your idea of treating the roads to not treat the roads and just let people who are not used to driving in the snow try to figure out how to drive on slippery, snowy roads?? This just leads to more traffic, accidents, traffic caused by said accidents, and road closures. And this isn’t the first time this has happened. All I wanted to do today was go out and enjoy a little snowboarding, but the incompetency of the mid-Atlantic states ruined my plans.

Ok, rant over.

In other news, I made a pretty sweet guitar cake this week. I’ll give you guys a peek soon.

Boxing Gloves Cake

finished_product

Cake. Haven’t made one in a while. So it was a real treat when I was asked to make some boxing gloves for a birthday cake. This cake was made for a little boy’s second birthday. He’s a big fan of boxing. And Rocky. I mean, who isn’t? I actually love Rocky. I love Rocky so much that I watched all 5 (before there was that 6th one) in row. Like in one sitting. Ok, to be fair, I was on a bus from Haverhill to Washington D.C. and it wasn’t so much a choice as the result of lobbying by a bus full of boys, but by the end I was hooked.

This cake has a little something special though. It plays music! Yup, see that bell up there? When you press the center button, “Gonna Fly Now” (the theme from Rocky) plays. It’s pretty sweet. And I’m going to show you how I do it.

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