My Birthday, Part Two

On Saturday morning, after we recovered from Friday night's festivities, I met the girls in downtown Bryan for breakfast at a Mexican food restaurant for chips, salsa, and breakfast tacos.  Naturally, everything was delicious.  Then we headed out to a local vineyard for their annual Wine and Roses Festival.  Despite the fact that I've lived in B/CS for nearly seven years, I've never been to the vineyard, and I have been missing out!

We took a tour of the facility, took advantage of the tasting tent, and walked around the vineyard a little bit.  Everything was so beautiful; flowers in bloom, bright sunshine, and fantastic friends to share it with.

After we finished up at the vineyard, we went back home to change and head out to dinner.  Little did I know, my friends had gotten together to surprise me at one of my favorite restaurants in town.  Those little sneaks were all there when I walked in, and it took me a little longer than it probably should have to realize what was going on.  I finally figured it out when I saw my friends Cara and Daryl, who live near Houston, at the table.  Jessi baked me a cake (chocolate with raspberry filling, delicious) and afterward we went out for drinks and dancing on Northgate.

Sunday was my official birthday and it was an appropriately low-key, fun ending to the craziness that was my 25th birthday.  The girls and I went to an Aggie Baseball game to cheer our boys on to victory against OU. Though we ended up losing, we had a good time yelling and heckling, and that's really what baseball's all about.  Isn't it?

I really wanted to share how much I appreciate what my friends did to make my birthday special.  If you're reading this, THANKS!  You have no idea how lucky I feel to have people like you in my life.

I promise the next few posts will be baking related; I've made so many things in the last few months, there's a lot to catch up on!

My Birthday, Part One

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had a birthday recently (and by recently, I mean at the end of April so not recently at all).  It was by far the most amazing birthday I've had in a very, very long time.  I've written before about what a big deal birthdays were when I was growing up, and have tried and failed to recapture the magic for myself throughout the years since I moved away from home.  This year though, I decided things were going to be awesome. 

Want to know why having an awesome birthday was so important to me?  I seriously spent the night of my 21st birthday by myself, in the library, studying for a lab practical and finishing a sociology paper. That's why.  Seriously, terrible birthday.

THIS birthday, my 25th, was amazing.

It started a whole nine days before my actual birthday, I went home and spent a wonderful weekend with my family.  My mom made me a cake, I slept in, had a sleepover with Shelby, and all was right with the world.  I got the Pioneer Woman cookbook from Dominique and it turned out to be perfect timing.  My mom was leaving for D.C. at the end of the week and would be attending the Pioneer Woman's book signing while she was there!  I love the Pioneer Woman.  For serious. 

I decided to do one thing every day the actual week of my birthday and it went a little something like this:
Monday- volunteering and Pilates, doesn't sound very exciting but a good way to get ready for the week
Tuesday- meeting in Austin until 8:00, which resulted in meeting at Magnolia Cafe with my step-sister and a friend for Mag Mud (which you should rush out and try ASAP)
Wednesday- kickball games followed by burgers and beer
Thursday- Quiz Night!

I'll stop here and say that Quiz was the official kickoff to my birthday weekend celebration.  Allison and Nicole had cupcakes waiting for me at the bar when I got there, and I felt really, really special.  Seriously, look at them.  So pretty, and tie-dye!

I took the next day, Friday, off because who wants to work on the Friday of your birthday weekend?  And I really enjoyed waking up late and goofing off almost all day.  That night there was a concert that I was looking forward to; Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, and Coolio were all performing at the same venue, so we packed up our lawn chairs and set up camp in the grass at Wolf Pen. We danced and sang along to almost everything, and then there was a robot.  Pretty much the perfect start to an awesome weekend.

 

*As a side note, can I just say the fifth-grade version of me was so pumped to see Coolio perform Gangsta's Paradise?  I know it's lame but, at least in my hometown, there's no way you didn't know all the words to that song and LOVE IT.  True story.*

Pictures I Love

I usually write about my baking, but lately I've felt a bit nostalgic.  I blame the rapid on-set of my 25th birthday, but it could just be due to the fact that I'm now surrounded by mementos from my entire life.  You see, when I thought I was going to be moving to another state to be with my now-ex, my mom gave me all of my old stuff.  Not in a "get out of my house" kind of way, more "you're a grown-up who is starting a new life and you should have these things with you".  Anyway, there are boxes and boxes; baby clothes from Germany, a scrapbook of elementary school accomplishments, my trunk filled with high school yearbooks. And pictures.  Oh, the pictures.  I was quite the snap-happy junior high school student, let me tell you. That's not what I'm going to post though, the reasons for which only start with the bangs I was sporting during 1997...

This is one of my most favorite pictures in the collection/ever.

 

Let's just pause to marvel at my cuteness as a two(ish) year-old.  I mean, honestly.  That's adorable.  Except for that hair, what is going on there?!  This was taken at a biergarten in Germany, and I'm sitting beside my dad.  He obviously has no idea what's going on right next to him; I was quite the little sneak back in my younger days.  Also, thanks to this picture, I want a pretzel.  I'm even willing to risk dealing with yeast to make my own. *Update: I've bought the yeast so all that's left is for me to work up the courage to make the pretzels.  One of these days...*

Then there's this...

That's me and three of my cousins hanging out at my MeeMaw's house, probably around Christmastime.  I can tell that it's Christmas because we're all wearing jeans and I recognize the shirt I'm wearing as a long-sleeve.  Gotta love Texas weather.

This picture is special to me because the four of us represent one kid from each family; my MeeMaw has four children and they're all represented here.  That and the fact that Cody, the tiny one on my lap, is SMILING.  He's much, much, much taller now, and considerably more reserved, so I like to remember that he used to be a smiley little kid that would just plop down in my lap of his own free will.  He just graduated from high school.  I feel old.

Then there's this one.  It's of my great-aunt and uncle who are two of the most generous, caring people I've ever met.  When I was 16 I went on a summer exchange trip to Germany with my school.  We were given the option of staying overseas for a bit longer if we had family over there and these two (who hadn't seen me in eight years) said I could stay with them for two whole weeks.  These people offered to take in a 16 year-old girl who didn't speak the same language as them, for half a month!  That's crazy talk!  My great-uncle died in November, and this is how I'll always remember him.  Smiling, making kissy-faces at my Tante, and having a fantastic time. 

These are just a few of the pictures I've found and felt like sharing, so expect more to pop up from time to time.

Beeramisu

Apparently I write blog posts and then don't post them.  I wrote this at the beginning of April...

This week was Michael's birthday!  I bet you didn't know Michael is who started my baking craziness.  Sort of.  His last birthday was my first venture into baking new and crazy things; Guinness Chocolate cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.  I can count on him for an honest opinion, and he's not shy about requesting something specific- a characteristic I value, since I am constantly worrying about what to make.

When I saw this recipe, I knew Michael needed to see it if he was to make a fully informed choice for his birthday treat.  I mean, c'mon.  It's beeramisu.  Michael LOVES beer.  Once he gave me the green light, I promptly forgot about it.  I even suggested something else, Bacon Brownies, but he reminded me about the beeramisu and I set about finding my ingredients.

The savioardi, ladyfingers, were what I knew I'd have the hardest time finding. Luckily, we have a World Market in town and another blogger had posted about seeing them there.  Whew, seriously that was the hardest part! 

Here's the link to the recipe.  I went a little overboard and bought two packages of the savioardi, which seemed dumb at the time but actually worked out quite well.  The mascarpone/heavy cream/Kahlua mixture makes a lot of filling and I was able to make two large batches, a small "tasting" batch, and we still had cream left over.  Delicious.

Sopapilla Cheesecake

 Oh. My. Goodness.
You guys have no idea how delicious this was.  I printed off this recipe about six months ago and just never got around to making it.  Until last week.  I was in a rush and wanted something super quick to bring to quiz, so I busted out the page and bought my ingredients.

Everything came together so easily, I couldn't believe that I was "done" so early.  I was getting ready for the evening when suddenly, I could smell the wonderful mixture of cinnamon, sugar, butter, and cream cheese.  It was calling to me from the kitchen.  I ran to tell Anna, her door was closed and the scent hadn't quite gotten all the way down the hall, to stop studying and come in to the kitchen. I opened the oven door and we were hit in the face with one of the most delicious aromas I've ever smelled.  Wow. It was as if I had a cinnamon roll candle in the oven.  

I took the pan out of the oven and set it on a wire rack, hoping it would decrease the amount of time it took to cool.  Right before we left for quiz I cut the cheesecake into squares and took just a little bite.  Quality control. You understand.  Then I had Anna taste it since two opinions are always better than one.  We decided they didn't live up to the smell but, as Anna pointed out, that's probably a good thing since candles are rather waxy...

As with the Toffee Sandwich cookies, these were better the second day.  The cheesecake layer needs to set a little, so I would suggest letting them come fully to room temperature before serving (though I tried them as soon as they were cool enough to cut and they were still really good).

Sopapilla Cheesecakes
2 cans crescent rolls
2 8 oz. packages cream cheese
1 1/2 Cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick butter

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray a 9 x 13 with cooking spray.  Unroll and press one can crescent roll dough into the bottom of the pan, pressing the seams together to seal. 

In a large bowl, blend the cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla until well combined. Spread cream cheese mixture over top of dough. 

Unroll second can of crescent rolls and place on top of cream cheese layer, pressing seams together again.

Melt butter and pour over the top layer of dough. 

Mix the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon together.  Sprinkle cinnamon sugar generously over the top.  Bake for 20-30 minutes, until bubbly and bottom crust is slightly brown (the pan I used wasn't glass, so I couldn't see the bottom, but the top was super bubbly).  Cool on a wire rack.  Wait until bars are completely cool before slicing/serving.  It's worth the wait, promise!