Scammed and Hacked

So this week has been a little hectic. It was the last week before finals week. I had a huge project that was worth about half of my grade that was due on Thursday of this week. Then on Friday on of the computers that we use decided that to crash and then our security system was not working. My dad decided that he would find a company that would fix it. He went online and found one that he believed to be trustworthy and what not. Well apparently they were not a legit company, and when they started talking about not having a firewall for our Internet and that it would cost between 1500 and 1600 dollars, I felt that there was something fishy going on. And this is after they got had already talked us into giving them about 400 dollars. So we called my cousin who is a geek squad guy and is awesomely adept at working on computers. He was able to fix it so that our computers are better. He told us that we needed to change every password that we ever used and those should be considered dead to us. I was a good person and started changing my passwords right away... Only problem is that that I was thinking "oh I'll remember this, I don't need to write it down." being that dumbo that I am. I didn't write any of them down. The bad thing about this is that my laptop has a password and I don't remember it. I didn't realize it until my cousin had already left. I didn't remember any of my new passwords so I had to go back through and change them all again so that I could write them down and memorize them. The only password I can't change is my laptop one because I can't remember the password to get in to change it... I was able to remember one of my passwords that I would have had to go into a department at school to get changed. Lesson of this story is to not believe what you see on the Internet, and to write down passwords until you can memorize them. Many of my passwords had been a variation of one password that I've had since 8th grade, its hard to try to not type that one in first. If you have a problem with your computer then don't let PCCARE247 help you, because they won't really help you, they just want to take your money and screw you over. If a different company uses a program called LogMeOn then quickly disconnect your internet and run screaming for the hills. This is my form of a public service announcement, I want other people to know about this scam that is going on so that then you don't get screwed over.
On a pastry note there is a guy in two of my classes that is spoiling us with delicious treats. He brought in sticky buns the other morning for an early morning class, they were so delicious. Then he brought in these towers of deliciousness, one was banana and the other was chocolate and it was creamy and on a heath bar like cookie, they were even more delicious. He had also brought in some delicious rum cakes and he was kind enough to give me the recipe which I will share as soon as I can buy some rum and make them myself, so check back in about three months. In three months from today, I will be turning 21! I'm excited, not to be drinking but because I think I will finally feel like a true adult and not a kid anymore. I won't be doing much drinking, except for what is in the baked goods that I will make with booze. There is a blog that I follow called Bake It With Booze! and I have been wanting to try some of her recipes but alas I'm not yet 21, so I can't buy the booze required to make the recipes.

I'm a horrible blogger. This is my 50th post, and I've had this thing for a while now. I keep saying I'll be better about updating but I'm obviously a liar. This week I went to a lecture that my school had going on by a man named Chris Young, who is one of the authors of the Modernist Cuisine. As one of my regular teachers describes it "food porn." While I don't do much cooking, I did enjoy this lecture because he talked about things that I could relate too, such as what makes a souffle rise and fall. I really want this set of books, but it is a little expensive. It has so much information and it looks so awesome.
In other unrelated news I made delicious amazing cookies today. I made sugar cookies, and I know a lot of people might be saying "how are those deliciously amazing?" Well I made the sugar cookie dough and then I wrapped each cookie around an Andes mint. It works with any old sugar cookie recipe.

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

As you may know I got a babycakes cupcake maker for Christmas, and I used it for the first time today. It is awesome. I had also gotten a cookbook strictly for the babycakes maker. I decided to make some a couple days ago but then my mom was in the hospital and I didn't feel like making them, I felt like being at the hospital keeping her company cause hospitals suck. The good thing is that she was in the hospital for only two nights. One of the things that she has to do now that she is home is give herself shots in the belly. Since I have a pretty squeamish stomach and have no chance of becoming a nurse, but wanting to give a shot and mom being a nursing instructor. She instructed me on how to give a shot, and then let me do it. She said that I did it as well as any of her students, moms are awesome. She asked me if I was nervous about it, but I wasn't, I was excited. I know that may sound weird, but I don't care. It was awesome, so awesome in fact that I got excited and fell down because my socks are too slippery for the hardwood floors. I figured that now is as good as anytime, since we brought mom home today, to make some cupcakes and try out my babycakes maker. It took my only about an hour total from start to finish to make them. It did not make as many as the recipe says it will, but I might have been filling it up a little too much, oh well.

Aren't they cute?








Cherry Limeade Cupcakes from 175 best babycakes cupcake maker recipes
2 cups white cake mix
2 eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup low fat cherry yogurt
Zest of 1 lime
1/4 cup lime juice
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 drops red food coloring
1/4 cup finely chopped well drained maraschino cherries
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat everything except the cherries for 30 seconds or until moistened. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Gently stir in cherries
If desired place paper liners in wells. Fill each well with about 1 1/2 tbsp batter. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Now the book said to use freshly squeezed lime juice, but I didn't want to waste limes so I used the fake kind except for what I squeezed out of the lime that I zested which wasn't enough

Cherry Limeade Buttercream Frosting also from the babycake cupcake recipe book
1/2 cup butter softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
3 to 4 tbsp cherry juice
1 tsp lime juice
In a medium bowl using an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat butter for 1 minute or until light and creamy. Gradually beat in sugar until blended. Beat in the juices until light and fluffy.
If a thinner frosting is desired, beat in extra juice.

Banana Split Cheesecake Bars

Mom reminded me that I haven't said anything about my favorite present, but that is because I forgot that it was a present because I got it before Christmas, because it was of more use to me in my hand than under the tree. I got a new camera. I love it, its blue and pretty and takes some pretty awesome pictures. I don't take many pictures of food because I can be pretty messy sometimes and I don't want to ruin such an awesome camera.

Holly KittenPants (HKP) annoyed at me 

Most recent shot of me

HKP interested in the new camera

Everybody makes mistakes, this is a short tale of one of mine, 

I get bored really easily sometimes. Today, was one of those days. I decided to make something. I had been planning to make these about a week ago, but I was told I wasn't allowed to make things for a little while because we had too many leftovers from Christmas to eat. Our refrigerator is pretty full still, but not with the same leftovers from last week. This recipe calls for a 9x 13 inch pan, but I didn't have room for a pan that size in the refrigerator, so I made it in a smaller pan. Which ended up being a bad idea. The smaller pan made the crust bigger so it didn't cook in 20 minutes. I let it cook until the center was mostly done. I then had trouble making the cheesecake part because the food processor we own is not big enough to hold all the ingredients for the cheesecake layer. When I finally got it all mixed together and put on-top of the brownie, or so I thought it was on top of the brownie. The crust wasn't as done as I thought it was and the cheesecake layer mixed in with brownie layer in the center. I went ahead and put it in the oven to cook and see what happens. I took it out when the center no longer jiggled just like the directions said. I let it cool, didn't put the top on, cause I'm a lazy baker sometimes, (plus I didn't have any of the ingredients). When I cut into it was still a little warm in the center, and because the size of the pan was smaller than what the directions called for, the cheesecake bar was deeper that what it normally would be. Somehow everywhere but the center got done, if not overly done. I mean it was like pudding, really soupy, the kind of undone the makes you worry if it is safe to eat. I tired the outer edges and found that it was pretty good and next time I should probably take the directions advice and use a 9x 13 inch pan. I got this recipe out the Denver Post.

Ingredients

For the Brownie Crust

12 oz semisweet chocolate

¾ cup butter

2/3 cup sugar

¼ cup all purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

4 eggs

For the cheesecake layer

2 8 oz packages of cream cheese

3 ripe bananas

½ cup sugar

2 tbsp all purpose flour

3 eggs

For the Topping

1 quart strawberries, hulled and sliced

¼ cup pineapple jam

1 tbsp water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees. Coat a 9x13 inch baking pan with cooking spray. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the chocolate and the butter on high for 1-2 minutes stirring every 20 seconds, or until melted. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour and salt. Add the eggs and vanilla, and whisk until smooth. Stir in the chocolate-butter mixture. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven. If there are any bubbles in the crust, gently push them flat. Leave the oven on.

To make the cheesecake layer, in a food processor, combine the cream cheese, bananas, sugar, flour and salt. Process until completely smooth, scrapping down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, processing and scrapping the bowl between additions. Pour the batter over the brownie crust, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the center no longer jiggles. Cool, then refrigerate until completely chilled.

When the cheesecake is completely chilled, arrange the sliced strawberries over the top. In a small microwave safe bowl, mix the pineapple jam and the water. Microwave until bubbling. Spoon the jam over the strawberries. Allow to chill for 15 minutes for the jam to set up. Cut into squares. Store, well wrapped, in the refrigerator.

Tiramisu Drops

Christmas did not feel quite like Christmas. My brother wasn't here and that made me feel like it wasn't really Christmas because my family wasn't together, but I guess that is part of growing up and moving on with life. Not always having my family together for major holidays. However I did get some good gifts like a mini cupcake maker, a doughnut maker and a soda maker, so I know my family and friends love when I make things otherwise they wouldn't buy me makers. I also got three cookbooks, one as a joke, but still has recipes. I also got 1500 count sheets and a bed pad warmer which makes my bed warm before I even get into it, both of these combined make my bed awesome. And some other odds and ends that I got that I'm not going to ramble on about, but one of the things that I gave were these cookies that I made. I got the recipe out of the Denver Post or whatever the newspaper is called. And of course I had to change it some because that is just what I do. The cookies were a quite dry and could be changed so it is better. Like I had a hard time trying to make balls out of the dough so I added milk to them so that they would stick together better. I also added Kaluha to the filling so that I was a little bit closer to an actual tiramisu.

Tiramisu Drops

Ingredients

1 cup slivered blanched almonds, lightly toasted

½ cup sugar

¾ cup butter room temp

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons instant espresso or coffee powder

¼ tsp salt

1 ¾ cup ap flour

1 tub mascarpone cheese (8oz)

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 tbsp cocoa powder

Directions

Heat oven to 350 F, line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a food processor, pulse together the almonds and sugar until finely ground but not reduced to a paste. Add the butter and vanilla, then pulse to incorporate. Add the espresso or coffee, salt and flour, and pulse until a crumbly dough comes together. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and place on the baking sheets. Using your finger, or the handle of a wooden spoon, press an indent into the top of each cookie. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden and firm. Allow to cool on the baking sheet. When the cookies are cool, in a medium bowl stir together the mascarpone and 2 tablespoons of the powdered sugar. Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag or a zip-close plastic bag with the corner snipped off. Pipe a dollop of the filling into the indent of each cookie. Sift the remaining tablespoon of powdered sugar with the cocoa powder. Sift over the tops of the cookies. Decorate with shave chocolate if desired.

Coconut Cupcakes

While every other blog that I read seems to be doing something very Christmasy I've decided to bring back one of my old favorite cupcakes. I haven't made these since high school, and while for most people that might be along time ago, but that the last time I made these was about five years ago I think. It might have been more recent. I finished my last required credit and should be getting my degree in the mail sometime after the end of the trimester. I'm excited. Except that all I face now are boring academics that some how always seem to be too much work. I did find a recipe that I want to try out soon, actually its more like five recipes, the only problem being that I don't want to have to eat them all. Like Tiramisu Drops, are cookies that are like Tiramisu but in a much simpler way. I might jazz up the recipe that they have, but that is just something I like to do sometimes. However I haven't really jazzed up this recipe because it is so delicious.

Coconut Cookies
3/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 extra large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoon (1/2 tablespoon) vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 325. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time with the mixer on low, scrap down the bowl after each egg. Add the extracts. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In three parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and buttermilk to the batter, starting and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in half the coconut. Line a muffin pan with liners. Fill each cup to the top with batter. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until golden and toothpick comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in the pan. Remove and cool completely. Frost with icing and sprinkle with remaining coconut.

Cream Cheese Frosting
3/4 pound butter, room temperature
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar

Blend cream cheese, butter and extracts in mixer. Add the sugar and mix until smooth.

Grilled Stuffed French Toast Waffle Cheeses

Or something like that. I have no idea what to call this delicious invention I thought of. Last night for dinner I could not decide on what I wanted to have for dinner. Some people have a go to dinner, like my mom, who eats eggs and toast whenever she doesn't know what else to make/eat. My typical go to dinner is french toast or calabasitas when we have zucchini from our garden. But last night I wanted french toast or waffles or pancakes. Earlier in the week we had chicken fried steaks and sweet potato fries. Since I'm the kind of person that likes to dip fries into some kind of sauce and the Utah fry sauce wouldn't be good on sweet potatoes I made my own kind of dipping sauce out of cinnamon, caramel and cream cheese. It was delicious. When I was trying to decide on what to eat last night and I had finally decided to have french toast, I wanted to have some of my caramel cinnamon cream cheese on my french toast. That is when my mom had the idea of putting the cream cheese in between two slices of bread, dipping that into an egg mixture and then putting that into a waffle iron. Delicious. Serve warm with maple syrup.
In other news I am almost done with my last lab class. This lab class has been one of the most difficult labs I've had to do. Mostly because of my schedule, but after Monday, there will not be anymore of the six to midnight class that made my life sleep deprived. It is also kind of sad for me, that I won't be able to get away from boring academics.
I'm going to be making coconut cupcakes tomorrow so I'll have that recipe for you then, and a picture of my favorite plated dessert from lab so far.