Cake In A Mug (Oh yeahhh)

Don’t worry y’all — the mug cake recipe is here.  I just want to spend a few moments chatting with you first.  I feel like we haven’t chatted in forever, bloggies!

STORY TIME!!!

It’s the back-to-school thing after my nice week of spring break, and on Sunday I was pretty much preparing myself for the awfulness that is trying to get back to swing of things after a week of slacking and watching far too many episodes of The Mindy Project.

But then, the greatest thing EVER happened.  Champaign was hit by the mother of all snowstorms, and we got a snowday!!!  I thought snowdays were fun as a kid, but adult ones are even better because you have REAL responsibilities that you get to shirk for a day.  Best thing ever.  I spent the entire day on Netflix watching neglected TV shows and thinking about how I should really be working on my appellate brief.

Anyhoo, since Monday was spent on my couch in pajamas, I had the strange experience of my Tuesday being my Monday.  Let me tell you, it was weird.  Like, peanut butter on steak weird.  But, the great thing is that I only have one class on Tuesdays, so the torture was nice and quick.

Today the weirdness of the week continued with my running for an executive position that I had actual competition for!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but both positions that I’ve gotten on SBA have been uncontested.  That made the campaigning and speech-giving pretty laid back.  Today, however, I ran for a position in the Women’s Law Society and had to deal with actual real-life opponents (not just the ghost write-in candidates every one joked they were going to put in for my SBA positions.)  I tried to play it cool but inside I was pretty much freaking out and hyperventilating like a contestant on The Price is Right.

I am happy to report that I did get the position and will be serving as one of the 1L coordinators for the new little 1L marshmallows next year!  I am beyond excited to share this place that has grown to be so special to me with all of them.  I can only hope they love it as much as I do.  Okay, I think I’ve talked your ear off  about my life enough now.

RECIPE TIME!!

This would definitely be Liz Lemon’s reaction to cake in a mug, btw.

Cake in a Mug is a great recipe to have up your sleeve because it means you can literally have cake any time you want.  You probably have all of these ingredients in your kitchen (if not, your neighbor probably does) so whenever the craving hits you can make yourself a perfectly portioned mug of delicious cakey goodness.  What is there not to love?

Cake In A Mug — Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Ingredients:

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp sugar 

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp peanut butter

1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

In a separate bowl, melt together the butter and peanut butter, and set aside.  Mix the egg, vanilla and sugar in the coffee mug.  Mix in the butter-peanut butter mixture.  Add the dry ingredients, mixing well.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Cook in the microwave 1-2 minutes.  Stuff yo’ face.

Lessons In Being A Klutz

I am going to tell you a little story about my day at the courthouse.  I went to shadow a judge through a program at my law school, and it started out all fun and games.  The judge was very kind and I sat in on a whole bunch of law-ey things that would bore you to tears to explain, but I promise you it was all very exciting.  And lawyer-ey.

Anyhoo, he had a trial scheduled for that afternoon and of course little miss pint-sized-bladder (i.e. me) found herself needing to use the bathroom halfway through opening statements.  I had enough willpower to wait until a sidebar, but my strength didn’t go much further.  The moment the judge and lawyers went to the side of the courtroom I slipped out and headed to the bathroom.

I thought leaving during the trial would be the most embarrassing thing I did that day.  I was wrong.  Very, very wrong. After I washed my hands in the bathroom (yay for hygiene!) I turned toward the paper towel dispenser and did my best Nancy Kerrigan impression as I slipped on some water and landed LITERALLY face down on the bathroom floor.

It was a beauty of a fall.  Really.  If it was taped, I’m pretty sure I could become one of those slow-mo videos they use on America’s Funniest Videos.  I managed to hit my knee and elbow before smacking me cheek into the bathroom tiles, and it’s probably a good thing that those two body parts broke my fall first.  Miraculously, I got right back up, dried my hands, and returned to the courtroom with a brand new welt on my face.  According to the other girl shadowing me, it just looked like I put on some blush.

This is what I imagine I looked like — as when she said this, I had no actual mirror.

Anyway, since it’s possible this baby will bruise over night I’ve been thinking about all the cool ways that I could explain my potential face bruise.  I mean, slipping in the bathroom is pretty funny (I’ve laughed my fair share about it) but if given the opportunity, why not spice it up a bit?  The top contenders are:

1) I got in a full on brawl with one of the court marshals because he gave my shoes a funny look.  The moral of the story, of course, would be that discerning glances should be kept to yourself whenever it involves another’s footwear.  Particularly if that footwear belongs to me.

2)  I got caught by a herd of jurors in the bathroom at the end of their break and was trampled as they ran back to the over-air-conditioned court room.

3)  I walked into a door because I was so distracted by a young, strapping lawyer’s good looks.  He, of course, came to my aid and held a cold Coke zero bottle to my swelling cheek while insisting that I let him take me to dinner after his trial.

Sort of really wishing that last one had happened.  I mean, how much of a meet cute would that be?  Anyhoo, the real truth, as you read, is that I’m just plain clumsy.  Although I do think the water on the floor is a bit to blame there.  I’m not just slipping everywhere; usually there’s some catalyst — and yes, sometimes it is my own feet.  But, hey, at least my klutziness gives me some good stories.

Scenes From The Week

This week has been pretty great.  I know it’s a little untraditional to do a week recap on a Thursday.  I mean, it’s technically not even over.  But I say, “Why not?”.  Thursday-Thursday is a full week.  So, there you go.  It totally works.  Without further adieu (i.e. meaningless blathering) I bring you scenes from my delightful week!

1)  I interviewed with the American Dental Association for a summer externship and am beyond happy to report that they offered me a position.

I just want to take a moment to say how wonderfully blessed I am to have been given this opportunity.  The ADA is exactly what I was looking for in an externship and I am beyond excited to spend the summer there.  It just shows that if you work hard and have faith in yourself, wonderful things can happen.

And, that was very schmaltzy.  True, but schmaltzy.

Anyhoo, funny story of how I first saw the offer email.  There were some heavy hints at the end of the interview that I would be getting a quick response.  I figured this meant within the day or maybe over the weekend.  Instead, I checked my email in the Anthropologie dressing room about fifteen minutes after my interview and there was already an offer waiting in my inbox.  I flailed a little in the dressing room.  Called my brother.  Flailed a little more.

In fact, I think I’m still flailing.

2)  I went back to my old internship’s office after my interview and visited with my former supervisor.  It was so nice to catch up with her and be back in the office.  I had a big hit of nostalgia as I was walking down the hallway.  So many things had changed since I had last been there – I’m in law school; I’m out of the city; I have BANGS.  It felt good to go back, though, and have something concrete to report.  I knew about my offer at that point and it was very special for me to be able to share that.

Past this, the week’s substance drops significantly.

You’ve been warned.

3)  One of my friends started watching Doctor Who a few weeks ago, and I’ve been riddling him with questions about what episodes he’d seen and how he liked it.  Today he told me that he was no longer watching.  He is two episodes away – TWO EPISODES – from the wonder that is David Tenant’s Doctor and he is quitting.

To be honest, it sort of hurts my soul.

4)  I went to Best Buy with my roommate last week and bought a chord that connects my computer to our television.  This means I now get to watch Netflix (i.e. Buffy, Doctor Who, Firefly, I CAN’T EVEN HANDLE ALL OF THIS) on the big television.  It’s basically the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Also, when you are sitting on the couch and your computer is out of reach, that auto-play function that Netflix added about a year ago is dreamy.

5)  I want to marry this man.

This really has nothing to do with the week, but I felt like it needed to be said.  Because Ben Wyatt is perfection and has the hair of a shampoo model.

What has your week been like?

Chocolate Chip Nutella Cookies with Sea Salt

There is a place called The Land of Constantly Doing Stupid Things and I am its Queen.  Remember that professor I told you about who paid 200 dollars on my cookies at an auction?  If you don’t remember, well, that last sentence pretty much sums it up.  We settled on Monday as cookie day, and I baked all Sunday to make more than enough cookies to feed my class.  I think I had over seventy cookies, and when I brought them in he gave me a nice little introduction and the cookies were passed around.  I had some  left over and took them with me, acting like cookie Santa as I gifted everyone I knew with the leftovers.

And then I found out he never got a cookie.

My professor – who paid 200 DOLLARS for the cookies – didn’t get a single one.  Of course, this made me feel like the worst person in the world.  Sure, the cookies were meant for the class, but it’s sort of assumed that the person who pays fro them gets at least one.  I had a different batch of cookies in class yesterday (I swear people think I’m a crazy baking lady) that I made for my weekly SBA meeting, and I considered offering him one, but I felt like that would be a consolation prize.  He deserved the cookies that he put the money up for not some replacement.  So, I’m attempting to fix this by baking an entire batch of the auction cookies just for him.  I figure it’s the closest thing I can do to remedy the situation other than getting a time machine and doing it right the first time.

Pretty sure time machines don’t work (despite me REALLY wishing they did for a variety of reasons) so I hope these cookies work.

Anyhoo, this post is not about the auction cookies.  You can find the recipe for those here.  This post is about the replacement cookies – a name which makes them sound so much less special than they are.  As stated above, I made these Chocolate Chip Nutella Cookies for my SBA meeting, and one of my SBA-ers told me it’s the best cookie I’ve made. He then proceeded to eat about eight of them.

Great success!

This is yet another cookie with browned butter.  I swear I make so many browned butter cookie recipes because I just really hate having to use my mixer.  It’s always an inconvenience to take it out, and then I have to clean the beaters and deal with finding an outlet.

Chocolate chips are folded into the batter and then a touch of Nutella is added to the center.  The cookie then achieves the perfect finish with a sprinkle of sea salt when they come out of the oven.  An added bonus is that they’re relatively easy to make.  I made them while half-watching The Following and freaking out at all the freaky twists.

Chocolate Chip Nutella Cookies with Sea Salt

Ingredients:

2 1/4  cup flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup Nutella

Directions:

To start off, cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and put 1 tsp dollops of Nutella on the parchment paper.  You’re going to want around 25 dollops.  Don’t worry if you have too many — you can just eat them later!  Freeze for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.  Heat the butter over medium heat in a sauce pan.  Stir constantly until brown specks appear at the bottom of the pan.  Remove immediately, as the butter burns quickly.  It should be a nice amber color and smell nutty.  Let cool completely.

In a large bowl, mix together the two sugars.  Add the cooled butter and mix until combined.  Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract.  Fold in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips.

Take the Nutella out of the freezer – it’s time to get stuffing!  Take roughly 2 tbsp of dough and roll into a ball.  Press a divet into the dough ball and stuff the Nutella dollop into it.  Pinch the dough around the Nutella so it is fully covered.  Continue with the rest of the dough.

Bake for 14 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for one minute, and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Source:  Annie’s Eats

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

I started watching Private Practice yesterday, and my only complaint is that I didn’t watch it five years ago when it was actually on air.  For some reason, when I was younger I had a major issue with Addison Montgomery Sheperd.  And by major issue I mean I had a deep-seated-cannot-be-swayed hate for the character.  Probably because I was sixteen and she was getting in the way of my oh-my-gosh-they-just-have-to-get-together-and-make-pretty-babies couple Meredith and Derek.

Yeah, they’re pretty cute.  But still, I had all this pent up Addison aggression which was seriously misplaced.  Because upon my Grey’s Anatomy re-watch (more like my re-re-re-watch) I realized that Addison Montgomery Sheperd is a grade A boss.  She’s opinionated.  She’s outspoken.  She wears kick-ass salmon colored scrubs.

If at any point in my life I get to wear scrubs, I am insisting that they are salmon colored.  She is just the epitome of cool and class, and I think we all could benefit from living our life a little more Addison-like.  Except, you know, don’t cheat on your husband with his best friend.  Even if he does look like McSteamy.  I’m really excited to watch Private Practice now and watch the next Addison chapter unfold.  With Shonda Rhimes at the helm, I know it’ll be pretty eventful.

So, I have a recipe.  What I don’t have is a clever or remotely smooth transition, so I’m just going to jump ahead and pretend this flows.  Which it doesn’t.  Sorry ’bout that.

Bacon wrapped asparagus!  Ah, just the sound of it makes my heart go pitter patter!  I love asparagus.  Like, I don’t even care if it makes your urine smell funky or whatever.  I’ll take a life time of funky smelling urine if it means I get to eat asparagus all the time.  Especially if it’s wrapped in bacon, because we all know that everything (and I mean everything) is better with bacon.

It seems like an almost inappropriate thing to do.  You have this delicious and nutritious (hey, I rhymed!) vegetable and then you wrap fatty bacon around it.  This shouldn’t happen.  This should be wrong, and yet, it is so right.  The moment you bite into the asparagus and the saltiness of the bacon hits your tongue, there can be no question that this is the most right thing in the world.  It’s up there with calling your grandparents and church on Sunday.  So very right.

And, in this case, so very delicious.

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Ingredients:

 

1 package of bacon

1 bunch of asparagus

Salt/Pepper

 

Directions:

 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

 

Clean the asparagus, and break the stalks.

Next, wrap half a slice of bacon around the asparagus, leaving the tips and bottom visible. Arrange on a baking sheet and sprinkle salt and pepper.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the bacon is cooked and asparagus tender. Serve at room temperature.

Coconut Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

This has been one of those weeks where every day you mistakenly think it’s the next day.  So, Monday you think it’s Tuesday.  Then you think it’s Wednesday.  Then you think it’s Thursday, which is pretty much the worst, because nothing makes you feel more like eating a pint of ice cream than thinking it’s almost the weekend, and then realizing you have three whole days left.

But now it is actually Friday, which is exciting for a myriad of reasons!  To start things off, today is my very first Unofficial at U of I.  To be honest, I’m equal parts excited and terrified.  I’m not a huge drinker and Unofficial is pretty much an all-day-boozefest.  I’m looking forward to the experience, though.  I’ll be with my friends and if I play my cards rights maybe I’ll get to see someone walk into a wall.  Which, honestly would be the greatest thing ever.

Anyhoo, beyond the all-day-boozefest I also have my parents and brother coming into town tomorrow – another reason for me to keep it cool today.  I don’t think they’d be too happy to drive all the way out here to deal with no-sleep-zombie-Liz.  There’s something I love about the idea of them coming down here and me showing them the town.  Granted, there’s not that much town to see, but it feels like a little bit of a vacation from the craziness that is law school.  Plus, my brother is also in law school at University of Pennsylvania, so we can complain about appellate briefs and I can make fun of him for the eightieth time about going to an Ivy League.

Anyway, for those of you who are thinking, “I don’t care about your social life.  Just give me some cookies”, this part of the post is for you.  Who would have thought I’d post so many cookie recipes while I cannot actually eat cookies?  I think it’s me living vicariously through my blog.  Also I just like looking at pictures of cookies.  Some people have Ryan Gosling photos on their desktop.  I have cookies.

These cookies are great because with oatmeal in them you can pretend that they’re healthy and eat lots and lots of them.  That weight gain?  Yeah, it’s totally just that time of the month.  The bonus about these is that they freeze beautifully.  I always love a good freezer cookie because it makes me feel less guilty about making huge batches.  So, basically you should make these cookies.  Or I will make this face.

Yeah, you better go make those cookies.

Coconut Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

 

1/2 pound butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soka

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups oats (any type)

1/2 cup coconut flakes

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Directions:

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

In a bowl mix together the oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars.  Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until blended.  Mix in the vanilla extract.

 

Mix the flour mixture in with two batches, mixing until just combined.  Fold in the coconut and chocolate chips.  Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto a prepared cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes.