My best friends sister introduced me to cornmeal pizza crusts and now I've been obsessed with making pizzas this past week! They are called Vicolo Cornmeal Pizza Crust and you can buy them at Jimbos. I topped the pizza off with some mozzarella, ricotta, feta cheese, chives and spinach.
And with the left over ricotta cheese I decided to make some Italian Ricotta Cookies, Here's the recipe...
Italian Ricotta Cookies
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces ricotta cheese
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
In a medium bowl, cream together 1/2 cup butter and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and ricotta cheese. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the cheese mixture.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
In a medium bowl, cream together the remaining butter and confectioners' sugar. Beat in vanilla and milk gradually until a spreadable consistency is reached. Frost cooled cookies.
I won my first cake contest at the 2009 Holiday Show at Ro Z's Sweet Art Studio. It was right after I completed the Cake Design Program at Ro Z's and it was a requirement to enter as a final for our last class. I had noo clue what to expect and definitely did not expect to win!!! The theme of the show was anything to do with the Holidays, and with my love of all things Disney I had to do The Nightmare Before Christmas! The cake was set on a turntable so you can spin it around to view a 360 view of the whole cake with different characters all around it :)
The next show I did was the 2010 Carlsbad Art Splash, the theme was "Recycling" and novelty. Toy Story 3 just came out in theaters and since my mind is always set to Disney, I thought hmmm donating toys is a type of recycling! So I created a "cardboard box" labeled Donate and Sunnyside on the sides with the Toy Story characters. This time the winner was chosen by the peoples votes and I got lucky and won again!!
So now the 3rd cake show I'm entering is coming up on Sunday Sept. 25 at the 2011 Carlsbad Art Splash, the theme is "Rock Around the Beach" and rounds... here is a hint of what I'm going to do....
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dun dun duuun.. something DISNEY! lol of course :)
Check out the tabs on the top of this page to view other cakes and goodies I've made! ^_^
I haven't posted stuff in a while (shame on me!), I've been so siiiccck :( still am.. booo.. but anyways... Last Tuesday I went to the Katy Perry concert at Valley View Casino Center (aka the Sports Arena) and it was aweeesoomee :) Granted she didn't come out till about 9!! aah it seemed like fooorever.. We looked up who the opening act was suppose to be and it said Robyn (totally a one hit wonder deal), I don't know if anyone remembers her 90's hit "Show me love" but all of my friends definitely had memories with that song in the 6th grade! So we were actually kinda excited to see her but the opening acts were Oland? and some DJ?, a DJ as opening act >_<.. really...? lol maybe I was just super impatient that it was taking forever for her to come out and we left at like 5ish to avoid traffic and got there 6ish buuut if I wanted to go dancing and listen to club music.. I would've just gone to a club (omg such a debbie downer).
Well back on the actual concert, so the whole arena smelled like cotton candy when you walk in! so awesome! If you didn't know.. her CD smells like cotton candy haha. And her whole set was all candy and cake like which is amaazing! Her concert started off with a story... Katy Perry working at a butcher shop with her mean creepy boss showing her how to cut meat (so weird) and he yells at her that she isn't doing it right and she runs away... She passes by a cute bake shop with the hott baker boy working and orders a cupcake.. totally eyes the hott baker boy turns away and sighs and goes home to bed and she dreams her cat "Kitty Purry" runs away and Katy follows her into a candy cake world! And starts the show off singing "Teenage Dream"...
I have to say her costumes/quick costume changes were incredible!! I would LOVE to have been her costume designer! Heres a link to Instyle.com that does an article on her costumes. Everything she wore had bright pretty colors with glitter and cupcakes or candy on it, the girl even had a catsuit. And she had 6 costume changes during her "Hot and Cold" number!!
She brought some people from the crowd up on stage and let them dance and take pictures with her which I thought was super nice. She also said the first guy who takes his shirt off gets to come up on stage and she brings up this guy and basically makes fun of him on stage (hilarious!) but she gave him a kiss on the cheek and let him give her one in return. Heres a vid..
She did a lot of crowd interaction... maybe too much at times, she said San Diego about a million times and talked about "adult beverages" which was funny but was kinda getting old. The crowd consisted of generally lots and lots of girls and gay guys... oh and the lesbian couple sitting in front of us with their Mom (who kept butting into our conversations which was weird but that's a different story..) but I was also surprised about how many old people there was! I swear we were surrounded by middle aged people or even older just watching and enjoying the show, ooor little kids with their parents. Kinda surprised considering some of her songs are kinda raunchy... come on now.. "I wanna see your peacock!"... yeah... lol
In the middle of the show she did "Katy Karaoke" and covered "Big Pimpin, Only Girl in the World, Friday, and Whip my Hair"
One of my favorite parts was actually when all her dancers danced a "Candy Medley"...
She ended the show with of course "California Gurls"! she was reunited with her baker boy and there were giant beach balls being thrown around, confetti spraying everywhere, gingerbread men dancing, and she topped it off with spraying the whole crowd with "whip cream" which I'm guessing was some sort of foam?
Nonetheless an awesome way to end the show, and you definitely feel like you've just experienced Katys world of cotton candy, cupcakes, glitter, fireworks, lasers, kittys and you seriously could not leave without thinking what an amazing production you just saw. Mad props to her and her team and girl actually has some pipes, she can really sing!! Super entertaining, I left with a smile on my face and completely deaf from all the screaming fans...
ps. I totally forgot how extremely loud fans can scream at a concert... or maybe I'm just getting old... o_O
I was only allowed to take my small point and shoot camera so I took some pictures and video zooming in as much as possible (our seats were on the lower level so kinda far away), but of course I lost my cord so I can't upload it onto my computer. But all these vids I got from youtube.. Thanks youtube!
Here are some behind the scenes footage of her show...
LA Rehearsals
ATLANTA
JAPAN
I love how she yells out "They deported my husband!" someone laughs and replies "No they didn't", shes says "Yes they f**king did!" lol they apparently did because of incidents from a decade ago, and later on her and her team do a group huddle before the show "To Japan and Immigration!" so funny.
I bought these Mini Ice Cream Cones at Trader Joes... They are so cute! *Soo Excited*
I swear its the little things in life that make me oh so happy ;) (no pun intended. :P) and they're only 70 cal each!! Just don't end up eating the whole box.. they are delish!
I try to bake every Sunday to try out a new recipe. I decided I've always wanted to try a "breakfast" cupcake... Soo I found this recipe online for Maple Buttermilk Pancake Cupcakes with Maple-Butter Frosting and I added crunchy crumbled bacon on the top.. I think it turned out pretty yummy! The sweetness of the Maple Syrup and the salty of the crunchy bacon complement each other well :) Here's the Recipe:
Maple Cupcakes
Ingredients
2 1/2cup(s) all-purpose flour
2teaspoon(s) baking powder
1teaspoon(s) baking soda
1/2teaspoon(s) salt
3/4teaspoon(s) ground ginger
1stick(s) unsalted butter, softened
1/2cup(s) light-brown sugar
2large eggs
1 1/4cup(s) maple syrup
2teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
1/2cup(s) buttermilk
1/2cup(s) walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ginger. Set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar together using a mixer set on medium speed in a large bowl until fluffy.
Beat in the eggs, syrup, and vanilla.
Stir in flour mixture by thirds, alternating with the buttermilk. Stir in nuts. (I decided not to add nuts in my batch)
I always use an Ice Cream Scooper when filling my cupcake liners, So each of the cupcakes will be filled evenly.
Fill 18 lined muffin cups and bake until a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
A Filipino Dish... I don't ever really cook, just bake :) So I decided to try to make some Chicken Caldereta.. Course I cheated and used a Mama Sita's Caldereta Mix, Gotta take baby steps! I've never even cooked chicken before (okay maybe once..), I'm always too scared to cook chicken cause if you don't cook it long enough you can get sick and if you over cook it it becomes all rubbery.. bleh.. Buutt, what I cooked actually turned out pretty decent, and the chicken was soft and juicy because you first fry it a little, then add water and boil it with the mix and then let it simmer.. add potatoes, carrots and peas, and voila! done. Pretty easy actually I don't know why I was so nervous...
At first I was just going to post this video of Taylor Swift but I decided to dedicate this blog to my fascination with some entertaining videos of white girls covering rap songs.. :P
How adorable is Taylor Swift? Here's a vid of her covering Eminems "Lose Yourself" then afterwards Uncle Krackers "Smile"
Gotta love this girls sense of humor! Here she is rapping with T-Pain, "Thug Story" a bit she did for the 2009 CMT awards
Selena Gomez covering "Super Bass" Nicki Minaj
Aaand.. Last but not least.. If you haven't already seen this youtube sensation duo called Karmin. Not only can this girl sing, she can really rap! They performed "Look at me now" and "Price Tag" on Ellen and also sang some songs on the BET awards, aand their song "Take me Away" was featured on the NBA 2011 Finals.. Can you believe giirl even does Busta Rhymes part??
"Look at Me Now" Chris Brown Ft. Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes
"6 Foot 7 Foot" Lil Wayne Ft. Cory Gunz
"Super Bass" Nicki Minaj
(Special Guests Questlove and Owen Biddle)
oh and is it even more adorable that these two are engaged!! :)
Just got home from watching Captain America... I thought the movie was entertaining enough, it was just Okay for me. I definitely felt the whole 2 hrs of this movie, the beginning seemed slow (I was getting real antsy for something to happen, but maybe that's just me :P) but it finally picked up at the end. I thought there were a lot of cheesy moments too but I guess that's pretty unavoidable with a buff Chris Evans in a red white and blue jumpsuit throwing around his shield while making googly eyes at his love interest Peggy. And it was kind of depressing how things turned out with her.. Like I said entertaining enough and it was definitely cool to see this small kid with extraordinary courage and determination turn into this massive superhero kicking ass defending America. Surprisingly too Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 78% and they pretty much hate almost all of the movies out there. I have to say The Avengers trailer after the credits was probably one of the best parts of the movie. Super exciting to see these characters come together!
Here's a video of the cast of The Avengers at last years Comic Con.. *exciteed*
So far this is the best version on youtube I can find of The Avengers trailer after the movie..
I have found a new obsession for podcasts! There is an awesome app called Sticher Radio you can download on your phone.
Here are some of my favorite podcasts I listen to and watch online :)
The Totally Rad Show is the summer blockbuster of geek news shows. Every week, hosts Alex Albrecht, Dan Trachtenberg, and Jeff Cannata rip into the world of movies, video games, tv, comics, and more and pull out what's rad.
Who were the stars of the Wild West shows? What were the battles of the Pyramids and Nile? Listen in as Katie and Sarah unravel history's enigmas with the Stuff You missed in History Class, a podcast from howStuffWorks.com.
click here to find out more about the Ian Somerhalder Foundation, which focuses on habitat conservation, species protection and clean energy initiatives.
