Valentine's Day Ice Cream Cake

In addition to knitting and crochet, the hobbies I spend the most time on, I also enjoy baking. My project yesterday was trying out my new heart-shaped filling pans to make an ice cream cake. The pan is from Wilton, and I found it over on ThinkGeek:

See the indent in the middle of each pan? The pan on the left creates the bottom of the heart, and the one on the right creates the top. I used Pillsbury chocolate cake mix and Joe and Ross (local brand) chocolate chip ice cream. The first step was to make the batter. It came out kind of thick, so I had to spread it out with a spatula to make sure it got into the bottom of the pan all around and covered up the raised parts in the middle.

The next step was to bake the cakes. The recipe book that came with the pan set said the most of the cakes should bake for 25-30 minutes. However, their chocolate cake recipe had a baking time of 38-42 minutes. I was unsure if this was a typo or if chocolate cakes took longer to bake. I decided to start with 30 minutes, and that seemed about right. While the cakes were baking, I moved the ice cream and the Cool Whip (for the icing) from the freezer to the fridge. 

The floor in our kitchen is slanted slightly, enough that it actually can affect cakes and things while they are baking. I once had a pan of brownies where one corner was thin enough to break like peanut brittle, and the opposite corner was very thick. I tried to correct this problem by turning the pans around halfway through, but I must have waited too long because they had already started to rise unevenly. 

The one on the right (the top half) had me especially worried, because it looked like there was a small hole in the cake. They looked pretty good once I turned them out of the pan, though.

There was no sticking, because I made sure to use plenty of spray in the pans. I may have even used a little too much. But to get the cakes out, all I needed to do was turn the pans upside-down and tap on them a few times. The next step was the filling. I used a regular spoon to fill the cavities with the ice cream, which had softened very nicely in the hour or so it took to bake and cool the cakes.

It looks like an owl face, doesn't it? The "beak" in the middle is a dollop of ice cream that accidentally dripped onto the rack and melted onto the table:

Anyway, after freezing the cakes for about half an hour to let the ice cream set, it was time to flip the top over onto the bottom and frost the whole thing with Cool Whip. The flipping was the step that had me most worried. Fortunately, it went off without a hitch.

I started frosting by putting a big scoop of Cool Whip in the crevice on top. Cool Whip is much easier to work with than, say, buttercream icing. The cake is sitting on a rotating stand, which I bought when I took Wilton cake classes a couple years ago. It made it very easy to frost it all the way around. I smoothed the Cool Whip with the spatula as best I could.

Not quite ready for the cover of Martha Stewart Living, but not bad either. The cake stand has a tab that can be pulled to lock it in place, so I locked it, covered it with foil, and stuck the whole thing in the freezer.

The only question left is, how did the heart-shaped filling come out? Check back later this week! We are saving the cake for Valentine's Day.

New Things, Including a New Hobby

Sorry for not updating in the past couple weeks. Life has been pretty busy. When I last wrote, I mentioned that Chicago was recovering from the Blizzard of 2011 quite nicely. After a pretty good cold snap, we had a stretch of warm, spring-like weather, so those 20 or so inches of snow are all gone now.

Some new things in the past few weeks...Jason and I had our first Valentine's Day together. I cooked breakfast-for-dinner for us. One of my favorite things to do is cooking for him. Before anyone protests that I am setting the women's movement back to the 50s, I would like to point out that I grew up in a house where everyone cooks. I have been helping my mom bake since I was very little. My dad and brother love to make chili together. When my brother starts dating, he will probably cook for his girlfriend. Cooking for someone is a wonderful gift, no matter who is doing the cooking (or the eating).

I also went to the Chicago Auto Show for the first time on Friday. My brother Johnny wanted to go, so our dad took him, Jason, and me. On the one hand, it was kind of neat to see all of the new cars. On the other hand, Jason and I know very little about cars, so most of the technical talk was lost on us. They had a slot car track, which was pretty cool.

My new hobby is building things out of Legos. Here is one of my favorite TV characters, in half-inch plastic form:

"Hello, I'm the Doctor." The sonic screwdriver in his hand is actually a sonic wrench, because there is no way to attach the blue piece to a screwdriver. I am not sure if Lego even makes minifig-sized screwdrivers.

And, of course, what would the Doctor be without something to save people from? Here is a close-up of my Lego Dalek design.


Good thing I was able to snap that photo without getting caught...

"ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?? YOU SHALL BE EX-TER-MI-NA-TED!!"

Next on my list of things to build is a Lego TARDIS. I found some great designs on Flickr, and was quite excited to find a video tutorial for one of my favorites.


I only have about half the pieces I need, but that is easily fixable. I shall have more photos soon!

Blizzard Of 2011!

I am keeping up with my "new things" resolution, but most of them are not very interesting..updates will happen when something big comes along. Case in point: Chicago is currently experiencing one of the biggest blizzards ever.

For the first time in my lifetime, our local high school is closed. They are notorious for remaining open; the last time they had a snow day was in 1967. My parents both grew up in the area, and remember the blizzard of '67 as one that completely crippled the city. My mom was a girl at the time, and remembers how excited she was because not only was she home from school, her mom was home from work. Then there was the blizzard of '79, which my parents remember because they were house-hunting at the time. They bought their first house (which we still live in today) without knowing whether the front porch was wooden or concrete. It was completely buried under all the snow. The last big snow I remember was the blizzard of '99. When we finally got dug out, one of my more adventurous friends came to school on his snowshoes. We made a snow fort in our backyard.

I have to say that I am enjoying myself very much. We are all home safe and sound, and have not lost power (yet). Plus, I am the kind of person who still wishes for a white Christmas every year. I love snow: sledding, snow angels, snow forts and snowmen, you name it. The last I heard, the official count was over 17 inches of snow, with two to five more expected before the snow stops this afternoon. None of us is planning on leaving the house today. To celebrate our snow day, Mom and I are making pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Jason is safe at home too. He decided to take his vacation this week, which turned out to be a very good decision. He was a little peeved about being snowed in during his vacation, but I pointed out it was better than dealing with the craziness at the grocery store where he works. He is planning on coming over here once the weather dies down.

I will have pictures in my next post!

Resolution: Jan 18-20

For the first time, I am starting to wonder if I will be able to keep this up all year...

January 18: Spent most of my day with the kids I nanny for. It is harder to think of new things to do when stuck in one place...I put the youngest one down for his nap before his brother came home from preschool. Jason and I watched a special on PBS from their series "Pioneers of Television." This one was all about sci-fi, and they focused mainly on Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and Lost in Space. Really interesting, especially because I think Twilight Zone is one of the best television shows ever created. I find it amazing how relevant most of the episodes still are, even after 50 years. Both Serling and Gene Roddenberry (creator of Trek) decided to start writing sci-fi as a way to discuss issues that otherwise were considered taboo. There was a lot more substance in those shows than in most of the crap that passes for television these days.

January 19: As I wrote about yesterday, I bought myself a Lego set online! I have a feeling this could be the start of a new hobby. Now I have the urge to go through all of our Legos and organize them. We still have a giant bucket full of them. The question now is whether they should be organized by size or color. Size would probably be more useful, but it would also require more containers. No way I would organize by size AND color. My collection is not large enough to warrant that.
Yet.

January 20: Nannying again. Took the little guy to the library so his mom could get some sleep (she works at a hospital, and got stuck on the night shift). Ran into a group of college students there on a tour...and realized that they were from MY alma mater. Remembered the professors from when I took the same class. I fit right in with them, because I was wearing my college hoodie. Completely unexpected.
Then I had the kind of afternoon that reminded me why I love working with kids. While the little guy was napping, his brother showed off the cardboard-box castle he made at school. He decided it was just the right size for Lego people, so the Lego firemen ruled the kingdom with their pet dinosaur. Then I built a spaceship for the Lego aliens, and the kingdom was invaded by UFOs. It was great.

Resolution: Jan 13-17

Current music: Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here." Good song.

January 13: Jason bought me a lightsaber for my birthday! He has quite a few in his collection, but this is my first one (and yes, my birthday was Sunday, but the box was delayed by the dark side of the Force). Not only does it light up, it has LEDs in the blade. This makes it look like the light actually starts at the base and goes up to the top (rather than, say, a flourescent light that turns on all at once). AND it has sound effects when you turn it on or wave it around. Jason's favorite feature is that it has a removable blade, so I can take it out and wear the base on a belt clip. Very cool.

January 14: Went to Wendy's for lunch. I hardly ever do fast food anymore, but I liked their mandarin chicken salad. Discovered they no longer have it, and decided to try a chicken sandwich instead. Also tried their re-vamped, "natural" French fries...which still do not taste like potato. Then I went to the library and got some books on searching for a job. This will be my first time utilizing outside help in my job search. I already have a job--in fact, I work at no less than three places--but all of them are part-time. This means that I could work as many as six days in a week (which has not happened yet) or as little as one and a half (which did happen, last week). I like all of the places I work for, but would also like to have something more consistent.

January 15: My mom printed out a bunch of recipes she found online, and asked everyone to pick one that they would like to try. Saturday was my pick; we all tried French chicken stew. It was delicious.

January 16: Spent the day with Jason, who was off of work. Even though we have been together for more than 7 months, it seems as though we are always doing something new...Jason's pick of the new recipes was ginger chicken soup. Also a hit with everyone who tried it.

January 17: Dinner was my brother Johnny's pick: chicken and leek casserole. I had never tried leeks before. The flavor reminded me of a combination between onion and cabbage. Not a big fan of cabbage; not too sure if I like leeks.

Wow. I just realized how many of my firsts are food-related. I can justify this by admitting that, at the age of twenty-three, I am still a picky eater. It is a bit embarrassing, and it can get me into trouble when we go out to eat or when I am invited to someone else's house for dinner. I guess this is an area where I have a lot of room for growth. Who knows, maybe by the end of the year I will be eating head cheese. Or haggis. But don't count on it.

Resolution: Jan 10-12

January 10: I made dinner on Monday night...my first time cooking without a recipe! Nothing too complicated, just chicken and pasta. When I am making something in the kitchen, it is usually baking, which you really need a recipe for. The combination of sugar and flour and leavener needs to be just right, or the texture is all wrong. But pasta is easy to do without a recipe (boil water, add pasta, cook until done, add seasonings and/or sauce) and I knew how to cook chicken from making Chicken Helper. Heat up a couple tablespoons of olive oil, season the chicken, cook it for about 6 minutes on each side...I had to cook it a little longer because the chicken breasts were pretty thick. But it was good. Jason and Johnny agreed; we ate all the chicken up.

January 11: Jason and I were both off of work, which has not happened on a weekday in a very long time. We spent the whole day together. Our original plan was to go out somewhere, but it was snowing pretty hard all day, so we went out for brunch and then came home and had a snow fight. I say "snow fight" because it was too powdery for snowballs, so we ended up just throwing handfuls of snow at each other. It was hilarious. I'd never done that before.

In the afternoon, I learned how to jump-start a car. Fortunately, I was in the car providing the jump. My dad's car broke down in the parking lot a few blocks from our house, so Jason and I drove over to help him out. It took a few tries, but we got it working.

Jason and I watched Ninja in the Claw of the CIA. I had never seen a ninja movie before, and after that one I am not sure I would ever want to again. It was incomprehensible, plot-wise, not to mention that it was hard to go longer than a minute without someone attacking someone else. The main ninja (named John Liu, played by...John Liu) had a girlfriend. She was killed by a harpoon to the chest. In the very next scene, he has a completely different girlfriend who was never mentioned before. We kind of gave up on trying to follow the plot after that. Jason says that one was about on par with the other ninja movies he has.

January 12: I have been working on knitting myself a pair of "convertible" mittens--the kind that have a mitten top that you can flip off, with fingerless gloves underneath. Here is a pair in plain grey:


I need to take some pictures of mine. I have wanted for years to make mittens that match my favorite hat (which was handmade from fleece many years ago by a friend) so last week I went to the yarn shop and found yarn in the exact colors in the hat. I have been working on them off and on since I got the yarn, but yesterday I got to the fingers. I know I said I would not count knitting projects as something new, but this is my first pair of gloves. It is also my first time adding color work to a pattern for plain gloves, and I am working the mitten top without a pattern. I have a pattern for gloves, so I just changed the finger measurements so they end at about the first knuckle. I read some other convertible mitten patterns to get an idea for the general principle of how to create the top. I have been trying them on frequently to make sure they fit, so I am confident they will come out the way I want.

I can feel myself becoming a little more adventurous; before I made this resolution I probably would have stuck to something familiar. Time to make dinner? Open up a box of Chicken Helper. Need a mitten pattern? Search for someone else's. Now I am branching out to try things on my own.

Resolution: Jan 7-10

Movin' right along...in search of good times and good news, with good friends you can't lose, this could become a habit...

Sorry.

Note to self: Do not listen to the Muppets while blogging.

As I was going to say: I'm moving right along with my New Year's resolution!

January 7: Working at Mrs. F's daycare again. For the first time, got to bottle-feed a baby. I love working with young kids--I thought for a long time that I would be a good teacher--but actually have very little experience with infants. Up until now, all of the kids I took care of were toddlers or older. Anyway, the little boy I took care of was very good about drinking his bottle. I had to experiment a little bit with the angle and find a balance between enough milk that he wasn't sucking any air but not so much it started running down his chin because he couldn't drink fast enough. Also got to change some diapers, but I've done that before.

January 8: Working at the spice store again. Went to Breugger's Bagels for lunch. Instead of my usual PB&J bagel, I decided to try one of their salads. It was good: lots of leafy greens, grilled chicken, wonton noodles and sliced almonds. It was also expensive. I have noticed that there seems to be an inverse relationship between how much food costs and how good it is for you; my favorite place to go for lunch is the pizza place with $2.50 giant slices. By contrast, my salad was $7.99.

January 9: My birthday! The first time spending it with Jason. It was an excellent day. It was also the first time that he went to my favorite pizza place with us (which was another reason I went for salad on Saturday; I knew we'd be going for pizza the next day). I could tell he enjoyed it, and none of us had been there for a while, so it was really nice. Dessert was Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake (Oreo ice cream and chocolate cake). Another first; definitely something I would order again. I usually ask for vanilla cake with vanilla frosting, but since everyone else in the house prefers chocolate/chocolate, I decided to try for something everyone would like. It was a resounding success. Even my brother, who is not much of a cake person, loved it. As the final icing on the cake (LOL) I checked my email last night and saw that The Dark Crystal had been re-posted to SwapaDVD, which completely makes up for my missing it the other day.

January 10: First time filling out a "fraud packet." I found out last year that I had been a victim of identity theft. I thought it was all taken care of; long story short, this should solve the problem for real. Today I mailed the fraud packet and had it sent out certified. I have been going to the post office a lot lately, sending out DVDs and books (SwapaDVD has a sister site, Paperback Swap, that works on the same principle but with books). Today my first two DVDs from SwapaDVD arrived! I got Ninja in the Claw of the CIA and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The ninja one was Jason's idea; I have a feeling I will be sending that one out again real soon after we watch it. I also requested two books from Paperback Swap. I was incredibly surprised to find them; both books were pretty obscure, but they were available right away. It was nice to find the exact books I was looking for, especially after my disappointment with the DVD selection.

Resolution: Jan 5-6

January 5: My first time attending a Catholic funeral. Jason's grandfather died last week, and I wanted to be there with his family. I had planned on being more of an observer than a participant, but even if I had wanted to follow along I would have been lost. I was able to stand and sit when everyone else did, but that was about it. Everything else moved pretty fast. There was more up-and-down than I expected. As Jason commented, "The best part about a Lutheran service is you don't have to kneel." I think we'll just leave it at that.

January 6: First day at my new job! I know a woman who runs an in-home daycare, and she needs another assistant. I was pleasantly surprised at how much nicer it was than the daycare center I worked at briefly last summer, where they basically put me in charge of the Caterpillar Room. Alone. Yes, it is legal for one adult to be responsible for ten preschool-age children without any assistance. The child-to-adult ratio really makes all the difference; the in-home daycare has more infants and toddlers, where the ratio is 4 or 5 children per adult. Yesterday we had 8 kids and 2 adults, which suits me just fine. The kids are really sweet, too.

Resolution: Jan 3-4

Well, we are five days into the new year and I have not broken my resolution yet. Excellent! Here is what I have done in the past couple days.

January 3: I filed my "Estimated Taxes." Exciting, I know. Apparently I make enough money from my nannying job that I need to report my earnings to the IRS, but since I never filled out any forms to start my job it counts as self-employment, and I need to pay all of the money that an employer would deduct from my paycheck for taxes. I might get some of it back in April, which would count as the first time I get a tax refund instead of having to pay (although it usually works out fairly even).

This was also the first time I had to speak to a Fraud department (completely unrelated to the taxes). Also not fun, but the woman I talked to on the phone was very helpful and this means that we are one step closer to solving a problem, so I will count that as a good thing.

Also, about a week ago I joined a website called SwapaDVD, where you list DVDs you want to trade. I finally earned a free credit for posting 10 DVDs, so for the first time I got to request a movie instead of sending one out. The only caveat is that you are limited to what other people want to trade, so it gets kind of tricky predicting what is available. Jason and I finally decided on a ninja movie, based on the name alone: Ninja in the Claw of the CIA. I wish I hadn't been so eager to use my credit, because less than 12 hours after I requested that movie, The Dark Crystal became available and I lost my spot in line because I had no credit to pay for it. It must have gone to someone else, because the next day I started receiving credits for movies I sent out and Dark Crystal was no longer available.

January 4: I went to Caribou Coffee for breakfast and tried their oatmeal. It was all right, but a little bit more watery than I usually like it. I tried the Maple Brown Sugar; I think next time I will try something different, because that one was too sweet after a while. I also tried their dark chocolate hot cocoa, which was excellent. I don't go to Caribou that often because I don't drink coffee. I'm hyper enough without caffeine.

I also went somewhere new for lunch. Potbelly Sandwiches just opened up down the street from my other job (as a spice girl; no, seriously, I sell spices). I decided to get their pizza sandwich: marinara sauce, mushrooms, pepperoni, and provolone cheese. It was very good. At the recommendation of my co-worker Daniel, I also decided to order a milkshake. It was delicious, but I don't think I will order another until it warms up a bit.

Finally, I got a call yesterday that will hopefully mean I have a new job soon! I know a woman who runs an in-home daycare center. We ran into each other a few weeks ago, and she mentioned that she was looking for someone to help out. I am going over there this evening to fill out an application, and then she wants me to start on Friday! Things are looking up all around. Time to move beyond the past and look forward.

Resolution: Jan. 1-2

January 1: Let's see. I had my first "kiss at midnight"...very nice. Ahem. Jason and I were together all day, and we rang in the new year by watching all of the original Star Wars trilogy. I had seen the movies before, but this was my first time watching them back-to-back, and the first time with a rabid Star Wars fan. I feel like I understand the story a lot better now. Also, I knew Jason did an excellent Palpatine voice, but until I re-watched Return of the Jedi I never realized how uncanny it is. Jason's Palpatine costume for the 501st is coming along, and I can't wait to see it when it's all finished. Especially because his friend Pat is in the 501st as well...as Darth Vader. Also does an uncannily good voice. The two of them are hilarious together.

January 2: We went to the Museum of Science and Industry, and for the first time I saw their U-boat exhibit. Very interesting; before you actually get to the submarine they have a whole exhibit of WWII history, showing the importance of the U-boats to the war, and how everything depended on the Allies being able to capture one. My favorite part of that was all of the posters: encouraging men to join the Navy, encouraging women to join the Waves (my grandma did!), reminding everyone that "Loose lips sink ships!" Then you get to the submarine itself. You can get tickets to tour the actual submarine (which we decided not to; we already had tickets for the Jim Henson exhibit) and there were more displays around the outside of the ship. My brother Johnny's favorite part was an interactive display of an Enigma, a German code computer that encrypted messages. Johnny sent himself an encrypted message, with the decryption code "NARF." The message? "HOWAREYOUGENTLEMEN" (the Enigma did not have a space bar). Yes, we're dorks. No, we don't care.

The Jim Henson exhibit was probably my favorite part of the trip. I love the Muppets, from Sesame Street to The Muppet Show to Fraggle Rock...I am disappointed that Sesame Street has been hijacked by Elmo in recent years, but that is another rant for another time. Henson was a creative genius. They had a video playing with some of his early work, including some excellent commercials with pre-Muppet puppets that he created. My favorite was for a laundry finish called Linit which stars a spray-can puppet named "Sir Linit". I love how he speaketh like he cometh from a Shakespearean play.



The La Choy dragon is pretty good, too.



There were some really interactive exhibits, like a puppet show stage and a wall with, essentially, paper doll Muppets (except they were made from fabric and cardboard instead of paper). Those were, not surprisingly, flooded with little kids. They had some of Henson's original sketches for the puppets, along with a few of the Muppets themselves. Including Ernie and Bert (with Rubber Ducky, naturally) and Rowlf. The Muppets are awesome. Jason's favorite part was right at the end of the exhibit, where they displayed some of the costumes and props from The Dark Crystal. I must see that movie again sometime.

This year is getting off to a good start. More new things coming soon!

New Year's Resolution

As many people are, I have been thinking about this past year now that is almost...well, past. One thing I noticed is how many "firsts" I had in 2010. While a few of them were not ones I'd care to repeat (first time getting fired, first time filing a police report), many of them were good (first boyfriend, first trip to Six Flags, first time falling in love). I also spent a lot of time this year with older people, by which I mean people old enough to be my grandparents. I noticed that by the time you get to 70 or 80, you fall into one of two categories. The first category is people who are uncomfortable with change and tend to focus on how great things were in the past. The other category is people who roll with the changes and still seem to have more energy than people half their age. I definitely know which category I'd like to fit into in my old age.

My thought is that the best way to have an open mindset when you're older is to start out living that way as soon as possible. So my New Year's resolution is that, every day this year, I will do something new.

Technically, we all have "new" experiences all the time, because we have never lived this exact moment before. But I have noticed that most days are made up of doing the same things I've always done: wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch TV, go to bed. I would love to see the world, or drive cross-country to visit all 48 states (in the continental US; driving to Hawaii would be a bit difficult). But for now, I am going to start with one small thing every day.

It might be taking a different route home from work, or eating lunch at a new restaurant. It might be learning a new crafting technique (although I will not count new knitting/crochet patterns; that would be too easy). Every summer I make plans to visit different movie theaters; this summer that may actually happen. Every couple days, I will recount my new experiences here.

Question for the comments: What is the best New Year's resolution you've ever made?