Happy 6th of July

Normally I do Wordless Wednesdays.
Today, I’m not because it is my 26th birthday.

Wow. That’s really hard to believe.
I’ve been wondering to myself lately, “When did this happen? When did I become a grown-up?”
I’ll be getting married next week, I picked up the license yesterday, we got the judge and picked the park.

I don’t think I should have any more birthdays. I think last years’ birthday was my last. Nothing exciting planned. Probably go to the gym and the man make me dinner.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my most memorable birthday. It was my 5th birthday. I woke up everyday for a week before and would tell myself “I’m 5 now. I won’t cry anymore.” Then something that day would make me cry and I would tell myself the same thing the next day. That birthday I got Hungry, Hungry Hippos and we went to St. Louis.

We get these ideas in our heads that we have to have accomplished something or be a certain way by a certain age. Like a professor I had once said “Normal should only be a setting on a dryer.”

Ferrero Rocher

Still plenty of time to enter to win a gift certificate to Bead Eclectic!

According to my calendar, today is Mother’s Day in pretty much South America. I found a recipe for Ferrero Rocher cupcakes, so thought this would be a perfect opportunity to make them.

I first attempted these Sunday night, and they were a disaster. I used this recipe to being with and it wasn’t pretty.

So I tried again last night. This time I used just a chocolate cupcake recipe with a dash of hazelnut syrup. The original recipe called for hazelnut extract, which could only be found online and I didn’t want to wait for it to get here. I was at World Market and saw Hazelnut Syrup and decided to give it a try. I used the sugar free syrup, no Calories! Winning.

Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
Dash of hazelnut syrup

Directions





1. 
   
   Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
   
   
2. 
   
   In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk. Add dash of hazelnut syrup; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
   
   
3. 
   
   Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Frost with your favorite frosting when cool.

Once the cupcakes were cool, I cut a cone out of the top and filled with Nutella.

The Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Recipe

1/2 c heavy cream
8 oz good semi-sweet chocolate chunks
2 T light corn syrup
2 t hazelnut syrup

Heat the cream on the stove until it boils. Pour over the chocolate and stir to melt, adding the corn syrup and hazelnut syrup.

I drizzled the ganache over the cupcakes and sprinkled hazelnut pieces on top. Delicious!

How To Pick a Wine

Enter to win a gift certificate to Bead Eclectic’s  Etsy Shop!

This weekend I learned a lot about choosing a good wine. I’m sure most people have heard to Swirl, Smell, and Sip the wine to fully experience it. The problem with this, you have to have the wine already purchased and opened to do this.

This weekend, I had a friend over and so picked up some wine. Not really knowing anything about wine, other than I like it sweet, and she likes dry.

So, I wandered around the liquor store looking for some good stuff. I picked up these:

I figured I would like these, but wanted to make sure she had something she would enjoy too. An employee asked me if I needed help. So I said yes, I don’t really know anything about wine and to help me find a good wine. I told him I picked the one because it has a penguin on it. And then asked “That’s a good way to pick a wine right? If it has a penguin on it it must be good right.” He hesitated, “Well, some of the best wines have simple labels.” Then I think it sunk in what I said and he laughed at me, because obviously I was completely insane I knew way more about wine than he could ever hope to.

I gotta say, it worked for me. The cupcake wine was the best ever. I can’t wait to try more from this vineyard, but first I have to forget this previous weekend find the right occasion. I picked the penguin wine, cause a while back the zoo had a Pints for Penguins event we wanted to go to, but couldn’t so this was the closest we could get to drinking with penguins.

Later, we picked up some Monkey Bay and Black Swan. I haven’t tried these yet, but monkeys are pretty amazing and so is Natalie Portman, so I’m sure they will be great.