The Madness (and the non-diet) continues...

So, the heartbreak of Purdue losing to VCU has passed.  I really thought they'd at least get to see the Sweet 16.  Apparently not...and though my bracket has many many red lines, surprisingly I'm still in it. (at least, in the one bracket where I didn't have Purdue go all the way)  All of my Final 4 teams are still alive, all but one of my Elite 8 is still alive also.  However, obviously, that can change at any moment.

I wish the weekend wasn't over...

Friday night, the husband ditched me to watch Purdue play in Round "2" of March Madness. We had opera tickets for Carmen, so I took my friend Stephanie and we made a girl date out of it.  On a recommendation from a friend, we went to this fantastic Thai restaurant for dinner in the loop.  We splurged on dessert and got mango with sticky rice AND banana spring rolls with coconut ice cream.  This was the first time I'd ever watched Carmen and I was pleasantly entertained.  I loved it.  Although by the end, I started thinking about the Bugs Bunny opera episodes and wasn't quite as moved as a normal classy opera-faring individual should be.  Of course, it wasn't like Steph and I were being all that 'classy' to begin with.  At one of the intermissions our conversations drifted towards male ejaculations.  I certainly felt mature when I overheard the two gentlemen seated next to us talking about business models, and there we were talking about jizz. Yeah, we're real sophisticated..said in my snooty voice.

Saturday after being productive and finally getting my oil changed, and getting lectured by the auto specialists for the poor maintenance of our vehicles, I spent the rest of the day baking and cooking.  I tried these homemade funfetti cupcakes posted by Evan B on SwEEts by e.  They just looked so damn delicious and I had the opportunity to bake so I did.  It was also a beautiful day out so I had the dogs outside and the door open. 

Mmm..funfetti!

Yes, I have engraved spatulas. They were a wedding gift...came with an engraved cocktail shaker.  My Tita Judy knows what's gonna get used in my house! :-P

Pre-baked....

...and decorated with colored buttercream frosting

They are absolutely delicious!  I really should bake more often. I love to bake and cook...hubby is hardly allowed in my kitchen, although he is the grill master.  Here he goes prepping a rub for the pork butt he smoked yesterday:

"hmm, what do i need?"

There's not much room in the kitchen for the both of us, and then there's always the puppy who never leaves our sides even in a big roomy house...

i love to bask in the warm sun!

he used all my spices!

I did mention I let the dogs out to play right?

he's so photogenic..

mm breakfast...for lunch.

I was enjoying myself in my kitchen, so I continued the baking extravaganza...with the homemade thin mints I told myself I would attempt last month. 

I think maybe it's still worth it to buy the $4 box of crack thin mints every year.  This was much more complicated than I would normally be comfortable doing unless I was in a serious baking mood as I was over the weekend.

the hardest part...getting a thin coating of chocolate w/o breaking the cookie!

finally done.

OK...now I'm starving.  Time for left over pork butt. :-)  I haven't uploaded those pictures yet so I'll save that experience for a later post. That, and it was so delicious it deserves its own entry.  <3

My girl scout cookie addiction...

Every year, it never fails, at least one mother brings in that glossy tri-fold order form offering the greatest treats ever invented....the girl scout cookie.  Continuing to perpetuate my unending addiction to the best of them all, the thin mint.  If left unattended, I will eat the entire box in one sitting.  The order form has changed many many times, names have changed, cookies dropped from the selection list, etc...but the one thing that has always been constant is the thin mint. But of course, its the best seller!

Last month, our resident girl scout mom brought in the order form and of course I had to order some.  At $4 a box though, I curbed my addiction and only ordered 4 boxes of thin mints, 1 box to leave at my desk for munchies and 3 boxes to go home and be devoured by the husband.  I also ordered a box of samoas, previously known as caramel delites.  The delectable combination of chocolate, caramel, and coconut adds a new layer of mind blowing sweetness that only makes my taste buds do a happy dance.  Yet, nothing the sweet samoa offers holds a candle to the minty crispness of the thin mint.  Every crunchy bite of peppermint flavored chocolate explodes in my mouth causing an eruption of endorphins to surge through my blood, creating blissful euphoria for the few seconds it takes to devour one cookie.  I cannot stop at just one little taste, I must have more!


There must be more to the cookie than a simple chocolate wafer covered in peppermint chocolate, yet as I examine it inside and out using all my senses I can find no such difference.  We have tried once to make homemade thin mints last year after the last of the seasonal cookies were ingested...it didn't turn out so well.  It is quite difficult to make such a small skinny cookie.  I will attempt to create this delicacy in my home kitchen again this year, keeping at least one sleeve available for taste testing.  But sooner or later, it will get eaten.  Hopefully I am able to find the best replica recipe somewhere in this world...that's what the internet is for is it not? Many people have come up with 'thin mint' knock-offs, but from what I can tell so far...none are the right consistency for the wafer cookie, or the right amount of peppermint, or light and flaky just as the original. 

I most recently found this recipe for "Homemade Thin Mints"  and I hope with everything in my belly it's close.  The picture looks awfully close to the real thing...doesn't it? <----------
Maybe this weekend I will vainly attempt to recreate it in my kitchen.  I know the husband would be all for it if I could concoct such tastiness with my own two hands and he wouldn't have to wait for girl scout cookie season.

My cookies have arrived, though I asked my co-worker to hold them hostage since I haven't paid for them yet.  And if I receive them and take them home I'm liable to forget to pay her.  I did snag a sleeve of thin mints, and have managed to refrain from eating it all...but now I have the taste in my mouth and it's bringing out my inner cookie monster....*roar*

I'm not sure I can hold out from eating the rest of them before the end of the day.  My hope is to bring the rest of the sleeve to my PE review class tonight so I can snack on them whilst sitting through a session with the most incredibly boring speaker/lecturer in this series thus far.  Just another hour to go and I should be good to take them to class with me.

COOOKIES!! NOM NOM NOM...