Midnight Baking Madness With Cornbread and Mug Cake

SO, what do you do when you are bored college students on a thursday night? BAKE of course! Now I was going to bake my famous cornbread anyway because it's about the perfect time for it, but I got a special request for an experimental super chocolate mug cake! How could I refuse, I mean it's CHOCOLATE?!

A few quick notes before I get into the baking fun, first: Two weeks ago I flipped over the handle bars of my bike avoiding a car and running into a pothole on my way to work. Knocked myself out for a few minutes when I smacked my head against the ground and gave myself a nice concussion. Also apparently I had put my arms up to try and shield myself when I flew over and thats how I ended up breaking my wrist. So I've been a one arms gimp for a bit as my friends call it. So I'm sorry about the spelling, it takes a great amount of time to write these posts when you are one armed.

Two: I smashed my wonderful love of my like iPhone 4 when I flipped over, but the coffee mug in my bag on my back somehow survived. I'm not sure what gods thought that was funny. BUT the new screen today and my super genius tech friend was able to spend over an hour taking the phone completely apart and replacing the screen with some youtube instructions and a replacement I bought off amazon. <3

NOW!
ONTO THE NOMS!!

My super simple delicious cornbread! In a Cast Iron! This is in high demand! I used to make it twice a week last semester. 

 Yes, thats a WHOLE stick of unsalted butter (the best kind) 

 Lots of sugar, why? Because cornbread needs to be sweet people!

 Drop the sugar into the melted butter, remove the pan from heat and drop in two eggs. Keep stirring!

 

 Add in the buttermilk quickly and keep stirring!

 I put just over a cup of cornmeal in. 

 Then just under a cup of flour.

 Mix until it looks this delicious.

 Bake on 375 for 30 min

 AND WHILE WE WAIT, SOMETHING CHOCOLATE THIS WAY COMES. 

 The Starfox mug is mine :D

It's all so simple!

 Add Flour

 Brown sugar!

 A little (a lot) of my love

 This is what it looks like dry

 Then add two table spoons milk and vegetable oil

 Mix!

A staple in every dorm room.

 Why you ask? Because I can. 

 Pop in the microwave for a minute, but make sure to monitor it, depending on the size of your cup you might need more or less time. 

 ............*dies of happiness*

 It fills up about half the mug.

NOM! 

AND NOW, BACK TO THE CORNBREAD!

Tap the top and center of the cornbread to make sure that it is fully cooked. The more you make this the more you realize by the color and touch when it's done.

 You can put a toothpick in it if you are unsure.

 How perfect is that cut?!

 I think it was enjoyed by the friends

Mostly since this guy polished off his and the rest of hers. 

 I think they were good! Can you tell?

 Midnight baking is fun, but the highlight of my day is that fact that the new screen for my iPhone4 came in! And since my wrist is still broken my friend swapped them out for me! Apple charges 180$ and they just give you a new phone, amazon charges 35$ and you can spend an hour doing it yourself. It's EXTREMELY tedious but it's worth it.

 I messed this up real good.

 This was in the hand with the broken wrist, it came in direct contact with the ground when i flipped over the bike.

It strangely worked just fine too, I was shocked and for two weeks walked around and used it just fine. So glad I don't have to look at my phone and cry now though. 

Anyway guys, Happy Midnight Baking! 

OH and this Thursday I'm heading out to a farm to pick up my 20 lb organic Heritage turkey! But more about that later!

Music of the night: Spirit, Stallion of the Cimmeron sound track. 

Bake on!

Farmers Market FUN!

So there is a nice sized farmers market that sets up a few blocks from my University that sells everything from vegetables to gluten free baked goods. Needless to say I was very excited and my friend and I took a trip there after catching some sushi at a local favorite of ours. I HAULED. Yes I'm going to say it. I HAULED at a farmers market! It was wonderful, I had lets say about 15$ in cash in my pocket. I walked away with two dollars left and THIS:

Two basil plants, 1 full sized yellow watermelon, a whole cauliflower, 1lb of garlic, two florets of broccoli and two oversized sweet potatoes!

 Those sweet potatoes are HUGE

My dorm apartment now smells like basil and its just heavenly!

Garlic is wonderful

Doesn't Cauliflower look like BRAAAAIIINS?

Just had to show you how big it was. That's one of those long tissue boxes for reference. Did i mention that watermelon cost me 2$?

I also seen to have neglected to say that everything was organic. :)

I think that this was a wonderful haul for a farmers market, I only wish I had more money on me to buy some of the organic angus beef that they were selling.


Music for the mood:
Mr. Blue Sky, By: The Electric Light Orchestra

Something Fishy

When I got back this past weekend from my cousins wedding I was greeted with a wonderful text message. "Guess what I got us!!" and curiously I wondered and guessed. (all wrong) until finally my tormented gave up. "I got us salmon!" and instantly I remembered why I love her so much.

So thus dinner was a few days ago but I was very busy writing a paper as well had a little accident where I pulled a muscle in my back/neck picking up some heavy boxes at work. Health services was FUN. (NOT) So this post is a bit late, sorry!

This is my friends FAVORITE rice, she makes it all the time and it's wonderful!

Read the directions! Cup and a fourth of water.

                  Add the packet of the rice into the water and turn it up to high. 

 Add the seasoning packet to the water as well and give it a good stir. The secret to good rice is actually doing nothing at all. Just leave it and turn the heat down until the water sinks below the rice and then give it a bit of a stir. 

 It smelled heavenly!

 This is a salmon steak for one or two, my friend and I split it. Add salt, pepper, a dash of soy sauce and a little brown sugar. (Lemon doesn't hurt at all either.)

Bake for about 10 minutes in the over on about 350

 Ok, I admit it, I love broccoli! Even if its frozen :P

 Add water and toss it in the microwave.

 When it's half done just add a little bit of butter and put it back in the microwave. When it's done drain the water and excess melted butter and add some salt and pepper.

Arrange it all nice and pretty on the plate. My friend and I split the salmon, which was more than enough for the both of us since it was so thick. 

I really loved this, it was healthy, delicious, and devoured. 

What I would do different:

Um, not much. 

Fresh broccoli would have been nice. 

Band of the meal:

Maroon 5

Enjoy! 

Amtrak Bento

Well I'm finally on my way back from what was and interesting weekend to say the least. My cousins wedding was absolutely spectacular in every sense of the word. Although I really expect nothing less from a Vera Wang bride. The food was out of this world. And I completely broke tradition and wore a long white gown. (the only one out of 200 people)People stared. Some were in shock. And my cousin was madly in love with it told me how much we needed photos of us.

Anyway onto today's bento breakfast/lunch.

I wanted a bit more snack than food because I'm on a train for over 6 hours I'd love to munch a bit more on pretzels and cucumbers than something heavy.

That's 12 grain bread with low sodium turkey and horseradish mustard
Snyder's pretzel sticks
Cut up cucumbers and carrots.

Of course all with the clean canteen full of water.

Song of the day is Generator. By Freelance Whales.

And the movie of the trip is Beauty and The Beast. :3 I'm a big kid at heart. I love this movie.