Fudgy Baby Cakes :)

This weekend has been less than ideal for many reasons, but I'm not going to focus on the negatives for once. 
On Tuesday (Valentine's Day) I got the best pick-me-up when I came home from school:

Beth sent me this book and a cupcake corer for Valentine's Day!

I took some time on Thursday night to look through it, and let me tell you, it gave me baking fever for sure.  I am trying to count my calories and I already had a cheat day when we were in Louisville for KSHA on Wednesday but since I am spending my weekend at home, alone, studying and doing homework, I thought I would treat myself.  So in order to test out the recipes in the book but not be too bad or too ambitious, I picked a very simple cupcake without frosting (I calculated the calories online -- around 200, and I saved enough to have one...or two). They only have 8 ingredients, and they are supposed to crack and fall in the middle, so I didn't have to worry about them falling! I decided to document the process just in case, by some act of God, they turned out good.

They call them "Fudgy Baby Cakes" (Baby Cakes was a short lived nickname of my mine given to me by Beth)

Semi-sweet chocolate squares and lots of butter

Flour, eggs, and a TON of sugar.

 

 

The batter smelled delicious! 

So I popped them in the oven and crossed my fingers.

 

And this is how they looked when I pulled them out of the oven.  Perfect, right? Except they are SUPPOSED to crack and fall in the middle.  Really?!?

 But they just needed to cool a little.  Now they look perfect!

I didn't take a picture of the gooey deliciousness in my bowl with a little scoop of Vanilla ice cream, mainly because my scoop of ice cream was sad and a million different pieces, not very photogenic. Icing-less cupcakes does not accurately describe them.  I would say they are more like half baked brownies, mmmm. I couldn't have just one, and luckily I saved enough calories for two. Now I have 20 of these bad boys left, just mocking me from the kitchen. So if you are reading this and nearby, please come eat these!

A weekend in pictures

So, these next two weeks are pretty much going to be terrible BUT this weekend was wonderful!  Anthony told me a few weeks ago that he had an idea for Valentine's day but he wouldn't tell me what.  He is super good a keeping secrets, even with me badgering him every 25 seconds, but he did let it slip that he was packing a bag, so I knew that we were going somewhere...Louisville, I could only hope!

So this is what I woke up to on Friday morning after Anthony had gone to work:

 

Cute little note on the bathroom mirror.  An envelope full of goodies:

A little teaser article about Louisville food

 

 Reservations for the weekend (he made them in November!):

 

Dinner options for Friday night:

 

We chose Taco Punk.  Neat little place. 

We also checked out a super cool bar nearby:  Garage

I got the District 8.  It was delicious.  I mainly took this picture to help remember ingredients!

And Reservations at our favorite, Varanese, on Saturday night!

I can't get this one to rotate, so turn your head sideways!

 

 

(not a stock photo)

Dinner was delish, as usual.

We walked (brrrr...) to the Comfy Cow after dinner for some dessert.  I had a piece of pecan pie with chocolate caramel pecan ice cream and Anthony and bourbon ball ice cream. It was magical and the place is so cute.

We made it back to the hotel to watch the last part of the UK game!

and we won, of course! (We watched the Cards win earlier from bar downtown, too)

So we uncorked a bottle of champagne:

From the little gift I put together for him:

Really, the least I could do after he gave me such a fab. weekend.

All in all a GREAT weekend in the 'Ville!

I couldn't find the best place to fit nap time into the highlights but this is real cute, so I had to include it!

Not so happy about the weekend being over. So I cheered myself up by making Valentine therapy materials for tomorrow:

And  made delicious (and easy) treats for my beautiful Valentines at school:

http://www.musesofmegret.com/2009/02/13/chocolate-pretzel-buttons/ 

Happy Valentine's Day ya'll!

I got 9 hours of sleep last night and that calls for a blog post!

Life is much better with sleep.  My whole changes with a few extra hours.  Today has been a good day.  Possibly the best non-weekend day since school started back.  School is consuming me.  I find myself overwhelmed 98% of the time and the end of the tunnel is nowhere in sight. I have been trying to make myself believe my new mantra "Life is more than school." I keep reminding myself but it still hasn't clicked yet. But today, I checked off everything on my to do list (oh, I edited it for feasibility, don't worry...there is always something else I could be doing), got in a work out (which is great for clearing your head), and I am spending the night doing laundry and watching TV.  Today might be the first time in two weeks that I feel like I am going to be okay.  Seriously, sleep is crazy good. 

P.S. I am part of a cohort of beautiful, hilarious, and incredible girls (and a couple a boys..who are all of those things too) who keep me smiling and laughing while we all suffer through together.  So thankful for them.