Homer Simpson would be proud (3 of 8 goals met)

When it starts getting to the end of my work week, I start to get excited. And unable to sleep. So I do things like stay up late to fix my bedside table that's been broken. Or write stories that or due. Or write blog post entries for posting later :) Tonight is my Friday after a very long week. We're just getting into the swing of sports at work, which means lots of posting of game stuff that I'm not totally used to yet. I'll get better at it, but the first few nights are pretty tough. Speaking of sports, though, how about those Jayhawks? Granted, I slept through the whole Georgia Tech game, because that's the middle of the night for me. But it's quite the turnaround from losing 6-3 the week before. Who knows where this season will lead. Plus, sports means fall, which is my favorite season. For one, my birthday is in fall. But I've also discovered a new favorite time of day — driving to and from work. It's dark out, the weather is great and it's perfect for rolling down the windows and turning the music up. It's cathartic and clears my mind, and it's frankly a perfect few minutes. Too bad pretty soon it will be freezing out!


I felt like more cupcakes this week, and for some reason snickerdoodle was at the top of my list. I was flipping through my Martha Stewart Cupcake book and it just popped out at me. I don't even like snickerdoodles that much, but anything is better in cupcake form I think. Plus, I had a new piping tip for icing, so I wanted to try that out. A cinnamony cake, a quick buttercream and then cinnamon sugar on top. Voila! A tasty rainy day cupcake (and we've had plenty of rainy days lately!).


Here's where we get to the Homer Simpson part. I also went to my Aunt Betty's house last week for another baking extravaganza. One thing I made I can't talk about yet, other than saying I joined something called Daring Baker. It's a monthly challenge that a bunch of bloggers do together, but you have to wait till a certain day to reveal it. So that date hasn't come yet. The other thing we made was doughnuts, another of my baking goals. All you die-hard (or even just normal) Simpsons fans know Homer loves his doughnuts, and now I know why. They take a while because it's like normal bread dough with all the rising and such, but believe me, that day I needed some dough to knead to take my anger out on. Anyway, when I was in NYC, I bought a doughnut cutter (of all things, right?). So we made the doughnuts, frying them in a cast-iron pan and everything, then adding a chocolate glaze. Lemme tell you, I will never look at doughnuts the same way again. They were SO good. And I'm not even that much of a doughnut person! Pretty damn tasty though.


Last, I decided to do a repeat of a dessert I made in June. They were cookie dough cupcakes, and every bit as yummy as you can imagine. Kelly helped me make them, and even piped some of the frosting (this is significant because she generally complains that I only let her measure. So there, she frosted!). I just tasted them, and it really is like eating a completely rich chocolate chip cookie, because it's a chocolate chip cookie cupcake filled with eggless cookie dough and topped with a cookie dough-flavored icing. A friend at work said it was in his top 3 cupcakes ever, and he's eaten a lot of different cupcakes. I will take that as a compliment :)

So now I'm off to accomplish other things before my Friday. Can't wait for a couple days off to relax...and take care of everything I haven't had time to before now. Ciao!