An almost sugar-free cake November 14, 2009

In my house (or rather, in between both houses) there are all sorts of special diets that need to be observed.  My grandfather and mother are diabetic, my aunt has thyroid problems and my grandmother has renal problems.  Not to mention all the high blood pressure, low blood pressure and high cholesterol that seems to abound all over the place.  So whenever there is an occasion, if one thing can’t be divined that will suit everyone, more than one thing will be made.  For example, on my aunt’s birthday, I made chocolate cake.  My grandmother cannot have chocolate and, therefore, I made some simple vanilla cupcakes.  I should have made them sugar-free but I’m a food purist… and I’m sorry, not matter what the commercials say, Splenda does not taste like the real thing.  Not to mention that it ruins the integrity of the actual baked product.  You have to make adjustments.  Sugar on its own, is a softener.  By substituting it with some other non-sugar sweetener, it becomes something else.  

The one thing, however, that I will make that turns out fairly delicious as a sugar-free alternative is carrot cake.  My grandmother can have carrots.  While I have yet to accept Splenda as a substitute for confectioner’s sugar, the cream cheese icing remained in its sugar filled state.  So the end product was low-sugar (if you can call a pound of the stuff in the icing recipe as low in sugar), at the very least.  The clincher is, this would have been an easy cake to make for my grandmother.  She can have sugar.  In fact, she can have most things used in pastry.  As long as the cake had no chocolate, nuts or raisins she could eat it.  But as much as she argues with my grandfather, she refused for me to make her cake unless it was low-sugar.  

And because the birthday person always gets what they want…

This leafy bombshell made what her grandmother commanded.

 

She was touched, in fact she got teary eyed when we sang her happy bday

I really need to remember to turn cake slices upright for better presentation

 Sugar-Free Carrot Cake

• 1 stick butter
• 2 cups Splenda
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3-4 cups shredded carrot

1. Blend softened butter with Splenda.  
2. Add all the seasonings and leaveners.
3. Add flour and carrot then slowly blend in one egg at a time.  The batter will be quite thick.    
4. Bake at 325 F for 40-50 min if in a single 8″ round or 20-30min if halved into two thinner layers of 8″.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A girl with hair on the brain November 8, 2009

Since yesterday when I finished ironing out my hair, I have been contemplating my hair.  

You can’t tell, but my hair is actually mid-back when its all straight and sleek.  Its the longest it has been for many years.  I would say that its the longest it has been since I graduated high school.

Yesterday I was at the hair salon waiting for a friend to get his haircut.  (Don’t worry, I didn’t cut mine but I was very tempted. VERY tempted)  So tempted in fact, that had I cut my hair, I would have cut it up to my chin.  

That would have been major!

I think more than one person would have stopped talking to me had I gone through with it.

I do need to get my hair trimmed, though.  But until such time that I can guarantee that I can see a stylist and NOT tell him to chop it off, chop it all off, I will have to live with the split-ends I’ve been spotting for a little while longer.  It will be safer, I believe.  

What does everyone think?  

Should I cut it off a la Sinead O’Conner?

Should I get a cute pixie or a sweet bob?

Or should I just give it the usual trim and shaping?

The leafy bombshell wants to know. 

And yes, the leafy bombshell is aware that she has dark roots.

But I’ve decided to let my hair grow out to its natural brunette shade for a while.

A girl having technical difficulties November 1, 2009

Goodness! I always promise myself that when I get caught up on my blog that I will keep it up. But then a week goes by and I don’t post. That is when I promise myself that I will catch up that week. I knew what I was going to write, all I needed to do was sit and actually write. Then another day passes and I swear that tomorrow will be the day I will sit and write. Days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months. And with everyday I feel worse for slacking. What could I write to make up for it? What excuse did I have for not writing a few words?

Nothing ever sounds grand enough to explain my absence. And its not like I didn’t have anything to write and blog about. I started studying pastry and I have made so many delicious naked goods! For the first term I didn’t feel challenged enough. I told my mom that all I learned was how to use a scoop. Doesn’t that sound sad?

It turned out that even though I was part of the half of the class without previous culinary studies, I ended up being the one with the most personal experience. I have been baking since I was 8, afterall. Not to mention that I have a passion for food. Add that to the fact that I was relaxed and saw this course as a way to pass my next year, it all came very naturally. Now with breads and doughs, my arms and elbows hurt but I’m finally feeling the challenge.

But all that isn’t even why I finally decided to post on my blog. In fact, it was my sister in law that wanted me to take part of National Novel Writing Month now in November. I thought she had been referring to National Blog Posting Month. The first event is a writing challege where you have to write 50,000 words in the month of November. A group of friends decided that we should use it to write. We were all, for various reasons, too caught up in our own heads and not actually writing like we felt we should be. With NaNoWriMo, it would give us a fun way to worry about getting a novel done relatively quickly, then worry about editing later. I have so many stories in my head. This would be the perfect way for me to let words pour from my head, down my fingertips and up onto the screen.

As for National Blog Posting Month, I think that is pretty self explanatory! I needed a reason to just jump right back into blogging. So I signed up my blog a few days ago. But would you know it?! My internet isn’t working at home! I was sure that I was going to fail before I could even begin this challenge. However, luckily for me wordpress allows you to post to your blog via email. I will give it a try. Tomorrow I can use the mobile wordpress application. The important thing is to write and try to make the daily commitment to share. In my case, I will share my usual wife variety of stories and projects.

Wish me luck with NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo! November is looking to be a very wordy month… To say the least.

A girl in California June 12, 2009

Boy, talk about something being better late than never at all!

So it’s been a year, almost, since I made my trip to Monterey, California.   

I went on the excuse that my sis in law desperately needed me there.  But really I was doing it to escape myself.  I’ve made it no secret my dislike for living here.  But, due  to no other clear alternative, I remain and try to make the best of it.  When my mother heard that I was going to California with the help of my uncle to get me there, she decided to send my little brother with me.  

 

So what I thought was going to be 6 weeks of sweet tranquility with my best friend in the whole wide world, turned out to be first 4 weeks of hearing my mother bitch at me for not taking good care of my little brother and then finally 2 weeks of just getting to be myself.

But it wasn’t all bad… I was in amazing company.  

There were the Mary Kay ladies with all their spirit and perkiness:DeeDee is going to hate me for putting this picture.

There was my beloved older brother, who is in the army, and his wife, who is my bestest friend ever

:

There was also my gorgeous nephew, who is the cutest child in existence (& will remain such until I have my own someday):

There was Army Blue Eyes, who took me out for a date & a fun evening out on the town: 

  Then there was the food! OMG the food!  I wish I could go into minute details about every place I went and every single morsel of food that I ate (but then I’d break the rule I set for myself when summarizing that I’d do this in as little posts as possible).  But there was NaRa (amazing Korean barbecue), Ambrosia (exquisite Indian cuisine), Rosine’s (pseudo Italian but with AMAZING desserts).  Then there were just the basics from Carl’s Jr and the Bagel Factory (which I shall have you know that there are NONE of either on this entire freakin’ island!).  Not to mention the Farmer’s Market which we’d go to nearly every Tuesday so I could stock up on fresh berries.  How I miss blackberries and raspberries.. so many for just a few bucks (I’ll have you know a single pound of strawberries here is about 7-8 bucks.. I know, whatta ripoff!) and the wonderful little stalls of food.  I had my fill of pita, hummus, spanakopita and more! 

In the end, I returned feeling energized and, of all things, I actually returned with a full time job.  While in Monterey I did 4 full interviews for a company based there looking for Bilingual residents of PR.  So I landed and within a week after filling out the appropriate paperwork, I had nabbed me a job as an on-phone Spanish Interpreter.  Not too shabby, eh?

Movie Review: Chronicles of Narnia- Prince Caspian May 15, 2008

Alright, so… I TOTALLY loved this movie.  I loved the first Narnia movie.  I mean, what’s not to love about Narnia?  As a little girl I had to read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for third grade.  It was assigned reading.  So was Magician’s Nephew and Horse and His Boy, as well as Prince Caspian I believe.  I can’t remember, but I think those were the only ones we covered in class.  I, however, went to the library and read  Silver Chair and, my absolute favorite Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  No matter in what order you read the books, I have always found them to be a delight.  (It wasn’t until I got the Narnia box set that I knew about the final book, The Last Battle, and I read it… and cried profusely and loved the series even more).

Shame on anyone who hasn’t already read the full set of Narnia, seriously… I’d say to stop reading, that Narnia existence offends me, but that would actually seem a bit rude.  Instead, I will just beseech those who haven’t read them to go out and get them!

Anyways, we’re talking movies and not books.  So, the story behind Prince Caspian is that while it’s only been a year for the Pevensie children, it’s been well over 1000 years in Narnia.  In that time, the old ways of Narnia have been forgotten and the Telmarines have taken over, thinking they had eradicated Narnians.  When Caspian’s uncle finally gets an heir, he realizes his life is in danger.  He flees and ends up with all the supposedly extinct Narnians.  With use of Susan’s horn, the Pevensie kids end up back in Narnia, prepared to get their kingdom back in order.  War ensues, but in the end good prevails.

I have to say, as a true Narnia fanatic, I ALWAYS walk into these sorts of movies with a boulder of skepticism.  I mean, my wary attitude has a reason, while LOTR was well done, just look at what they’ve done to the Harry Potter films.  Seriously.  However, I have to say that so far both Narnia movies have been just beautiful.  The cinematography is breathtaking, the plots are true to story and it truly seems to capture all I envisioned of Narnia since I was a little girl.  Overall, I just loved it.  The kids are original from the first movie and it was amazing to see them growing up. 

As far as I know, they will be continuing with the Narnia Chronicles for a few movies more.  While it is not in the Narnia chronological sequence, it seems to be following the publishing sequence… which in all reality is good to follow because then we get to keep the same actors in the movies and watch them essentially grow up.  But, taking away all of my Narnia bias, the movie is still wonderful.  So everyone go and see it, go rent the first movie if you haven’t seen it first though… so you can be in on all the history. 

A girl going home for mother’s day May 9, 2008

So, even though I have neither spoken to my mother nor been home in a month, I’m trekking to my hometown this weekend for Mother’s Day.  While we may have our disagreements, I know I could not snub my grandmother on such a special weekend.  Nor can I ignore my aunt who is my mother away from home (she works on campus and she REALLY comes through for me whenever I have any type of emergency away from home).

The cold war may well continue…

An all out war may even be waged…

I might even try to escape somewhere else…

But for better or for worse, I’m bucking up the courage to hit up my hometown.

Hopefully when I get back I will remember to back-post all about the fun night I had at Karaoke on Wednesday.

I will surely also have wonderful pictures of the delicious food I have made over the weekend.  I already have thoughts of red-velvet cupcakes (I’m blaming CB for this) , trying my hand at making Dorie’s Golden Brioche Loaves and even churning out French bread petit pains.  This will all compliment Sunday’s menu beautifully.  At least I have cooking and baking to look forward to!

To all the mother’s…

I wish a Happy Mother’s Day!

I know this holiday is celebrated at different times of the year around the world.

But I still think the sentiment carries weight.

Where would we be without our mother’s?

(Even if you’re on the outs with them

, the love is always there)

(

The random parade May 5, 2008

Every time I watch a Puerto Rico tourism commercial I always think to myself how lovely it would be to visit that island they advertise. They show such idyllic settings, lively activity and almost rustic portraits of life on this island. I’ve been living here for a decade already and very rarely has this place looks as pretty as those commercials. In no way am I saying that those advertisements are lying. I’m almost positive that if you looked hard enough you could find the locations and the scenes depicted in the colorful reel aimed at tourists.

The truth is that most of those commercials are targeted to a certain audience. Actually, they also mean to lasso them into only visiting a certain portion of the island. Whenever someone asks me about whether PR is a good vacation spot I always answer with the same thing: “It’s a beautiful place to visit but don’t get caught in just the metropolitan area. The rest of the island is not only cheaper to go to and stay at, but you’ll get a better sense of the culture. Not just what the tourism board wants you to believe our culture is like.”

For those of you who don’t know, I study in a town called Mayaguez. It is one of the more known cities on the island, located smack dab in the center of the western coastline. When I moved her for college was about the time that I felt that I could actually survive here and not just wait until I could hitchhike on the first airplane out of here. I really like the town, where I actually live in it and not on the outskirts like other college student dorms. There are some great eating places within walking distance, some of which i have happily reviewed about here on my blog. There are some nice stores and a wonderful plaza in front of the alcaldia, which is where the town’s mayor works out of.

But every once in a while something happens that reminds me of those silly commercials I’ve seen. I mean, people in PR don’t just start dancing randomly on the street and colorful parades don’t just happen in front of you. Well, as it so happens, yesterday a parade did actually go right in front of us as we hit up Sancho Panza for lunch.

At first we noticed a lot of people standing at the end of calle McKinley.

“What’s happening?” I asked the two gents with me at the time.

“Mayaguez is happening.” One of them answered with a broad sweep of his arm.

And it just about seemed like he was right.

There were even these poor girls wearing sparkly outfits…

And I say poor because it had been raining and they were stuck in those things

Can you imagine being stuck wearing that?

In the rain?

On a flimsy little float?

They could not pay me enough to do so.

After eating we didn’t stay to watch the parade unfold. If it rained again we didn’t want to be caught in it. So the boys indulged me by waiting as I flashed these random pictures. Then we walked on home.

The thing is, I sort of felt sorry for those poor people in that silly little parade that to this day I have no clue as to the reason for it. For about 6 years I was in the marching band in my hometown. I hated those random parades with no purpose and I hated them even more when it rained and you still got stuck marching on.

I bet they’d never show that on a tourism commercial.

A girl not feeling too well May 4, 2008

I have no idea what triggered it but i spent the weekend with a nasty headache. I also didn’t have anything to take for it so I suffered greatly for an entire day. When I began contemplating the best ways to either lop off my head of commit other forms of suicide, I knew I had to take drastic measures.

I want to thank the heavens for creating 24-hour gas stations and the fact that there is one about 4 blocks from me. I also wish to thank the heavens for the fact that I live in a relatively safe neighborhood that allowed me to make the journey at 1AM in relative safety.

I also wish to thank the heavens for Advil.

Of course, I’m feeling much better. Just the shadow of the migraine remains. I can’t promise I’ll have much to say in the coming days. My laptop refuses to turn on and I’m trying not to panic. It sucks majorly since there are a few things I want to write about… and I have been having this intense need to work on the romance stories I’ve had in my head for like forever and a day.

We’ll see how that goes. And we’ll see how long it goes until I crack. There’s no need for me to mention how I’m an internet addict. Perhaps this headache was from withdrawal?

Obituary: RIP Emma April 13, 2008

Pets are always small joys to have in our lives.  I know I have had a few in my years and all have been dear to me.  Mostly my pets vary from the cute, big and furry kind… as most of you have noticed with my beloved cow.  Before my cow, I had a bunny named Nimbus.  He was New Zealand white and since then I have not had another bunny.  I just go and stalk CB to see her beloved bunnies.  I know how precious our little critters can be.  My cow is as near and dear to me as any child could ever be.  For the past 3 years she has been my room-mate and my travel buddy. 

So, it is because of this that I can feel so very strongly scizor’s loss for his cockatiel.  He’d had her for almost as long as I’ve had my cow.  The four of us used to travel together and Emma would be most upset at the steady stares my cow would give her.  Emma wasn’t fond of me either.  I admit to ruffling her feathers and entoning very tiny-toon-Elvira-ishly “I’m gonna hug you and squeeze you and love you forever and ever” while petting the poor bird none too gently.  Still, she was a sweet soul and my hubby loved her to no end even when he left her more in his hometown because she became just too needy for him to handle. 

This weekend she had complications with trying to lay an egg.  It got stuck in her tiny birdy pelvis.  Scizor dutifully took her to the vet and tried his best to get her to eat.  This morning she passed away.  I felt his sadness.  I spent the day when he got to Mayaguez just laying with him in bed.  I tried to get him to honor his birdy by doing birdy things in the day but he wasn’t feeling up to it.  But, I understood.  I think I would have been a whole lot worse off had it been my pet the one that had had to be buried that morning. 

Pets are so essential and bring us such joy.  It hurts no less with their passing than if they had been human.   So it is that I honor Emma with many fond thoughts and many loving wishes to her family.     

And… the winner is! February 24, 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen, please…

bring your attention to me.

I present to you my latest christened member of my family!

Miss Poppy Pinkerton

What does this mean?

It means that both my stalker, Rach, and Slush, have won the name contest! 

I spent many hours trying to decide on a name.  Many more of them being bugged by the participants to go and make up my mind already because they really wanted to win the prizes.  When it came down to things, I felt that Poppy was perfect, but Miss Pinkerton had an appeal too.  So, they got smooshed together, somehow hoping that the same person submitted them both.  However, I’m happy to announce both winners here! 

Now, if the winners would kindly email me at bombshell [dot] within [at] gmail with their addies, I will get about figuring out how to divvy up the goods.  I’m sure neither lady will be disappointed! 

I hope those who submitted names are not disappointed.  Perhaps another name contest will happen in the future.  Or, if there was something in particular you desired, email me as well and we can discuss it on the down-low. 

Thanks again for all the participation!  You lot are just the greatest!