Blaze your own trail ... with cookies?

My senior year of college, I participated in the campus-wide stand-up comedy contest. That's right. I'm funny. Like it wasn't already obvious. Anyway, there was a long audition process to get to the finals... and ladies and gents let me inform you that I was the first female to ever make it to the live show. Yep. The student newspaper dubbed me a "trailblazer"... they even gave me a t-shirt from the show with that on the back... see?

Well, actually, I couldn't find the shirt anywhere to take a picture. Like, anywhere.

On an unrelated note... mom, can you check your laundry? :)

Anyway, so I have this awesome legacy of being a trailblazer. And I did it again. Today. In my own kitchen.

I have officially led the way for the boycotting of brown sugar in chocolate chip cookies. Yes, I know.

You're thinking, "But the back of the chocolate chips bag says use brown sugar! My cookies will EXPLODE if I don't use brown sugar!"

First of all, no. They won't.
Second of all... just calm down and keep reading.

Ok, so all of a sudden I just really wanted cookies. We don't keep sweets in the house, mostly due to the fact that my gluten allergy prohibits me from eating most of them. And the gluten free ones you can buy are icky. Like, super icky.

And, my supermodel of a husband wants to keep his physique.

So, I decided to make some cookies. Real cookies. I'm pretending like I'm not allergic to gluten because I'm still not 100% confident in my use of gluten free flours and baking. I've mastered the bread but, still experimenting with everything else.

So anyway, legit cookies. But, alas! No brown sugar was to be found in my cupboard! I had used the last of it for my banana-coconut caramel upside-down cake.

I did a little google-ing to see what to substitute, etc. And then I just sucked it up and went for it.

(Sorry for the lack of pictures... I completely forgot! Hopefully my stellar writing style will keep you interested enough...)

Alright, here we go.

What you need

• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 3/4 C of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla 
• 2 1/4 C of flour
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Chocolate chips

First, make sure your butter is nice and soft. With this heat wave, I probably could have just stepped outside with them for ten seconds; instead, I opted to leave them on the counter for a little over an hour. 

Before you start, preheat your oven to 375*.

Cream the butter and sugar for about 30 seconds. Don't overdo it, though, because the longer it whips, the warmer the butter gets, and it starts to break down and separate. This is what usually leads to cookies spreading out too much and not giving you the color that you want. (Yep, I know a little bit of sciency stuff.)

Add the eggs and vanilla. Since I was feeling kind of rebellious, what with blowing off the brown sugar and everything, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. 

I didn't even measure the vanilla. I just dumped. I always over-vanilla anyway, because I think it's a flavor that should be celebrated. So, I guess it could have been more like 3 tsp. But if you're a measurer, start with 2 tsp. 

Combine all the dry ingredients, minus the chocolate chips, in a bowl and then add to the liquids. Let that get all nice and stirred together. I had to scrape down the sides of my bowl a few times. Be aware that this dough is light in color and texture. It's not going to look like the run-of-the-mill,  back of the bag cookie dough. Just a heads up :)

Next, get rid of those flappy arms by hand-mixing in all those chocolate chips! I always see people using a wooden spoon for this, but that makes me super uncomfortable... porous wood, raw eggs... you see where I'm going with this? So I opt for a plastic spoonula. 

Spoon the dough onto a cookie sheet and don't worry about putting them too close together. This dough doesn't spread out a whole lot so make sure you shape the dough how you want it to look. Pop those babies in your oven for about 9 minutes.

As soon as that timer dings, get those suckers outta there! Let them rest on the cookie sheet for a minute or so and then transfer them to a wire rack. And as soon as you're sure that you won't scald your tastebuds... please, do yourself a favor and try one. 

YUM

And, to make up for the lack of cookie pictures, here's one of  my 'niece' that I am puppy-sitting for the week. This was her giving me good-morning kisses.

Banana Coconut Caramel upside-down cake

So... ever since the world of 'blogging' became a thing, I've been obsessed.

 I love blogs. I love reading about people's lives and the activities, crafts, or 

recipes that they are trying out. I live vicariously. Over any type of blog, though, 

I'm ALL about food blogs. You can blame The Pioneer Woman for that. 

Anyway... today, I'm going to realize a dream. I'm becoming a food blogger.

With pictures (from my phone, but still!). I'm ecstatic.

We had a big reason to celebrate last night -- my husband finally got the 

promotion that he's been working towards for almost 2 years! 

He has worked so hard and finally nailed it! So, I wanted to celebrate him 

and his accomplishment with a few surprises.
I went out and bought some champagne, 

a new movie (to add to our overwhelming blu-ray collection -- a whole 2 movies!), 

and a card. Then, I came home and made this little beauty....

I present to you... banana-coconut-caramel-upside-down-cake!!

 As you can see from the picture above, we were pretty eager to dig in that I 

didn't get a shot of the whole cake! It's ok, it wasn't that 

pretty anyway.... but BOY! Is it good!!

What you need:

• bananas (2 did it for me)
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup canola/vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup sour cream (I used fat free)
• 1/2 cup water
• shredded coconut
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (that's 1 stick)
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

First, pre-heat your oven to 350*. 

Start by mixing together the cake mix, eggs, oil, water and sour cream. 

I love anything that involves mixing because I get to use my favorite 

wedding present -- the KitchenAid stand mixer!

While that's doing it's thing, slice up the bananas. Start with 2
 and go from there, that way 

you're not stuck with a bunch of peeled bananas on your hands.
Spray your baking dish  really well with non-stick spray.
I used an 8x8 and had batter left over; the original recipe

 called for 2 8" round cake pans. You could honestly use
any size pan, just make sure you have a cake
stand/platter big enough to turn it out on. Also, I wouldn't suggest 

using a spring-form pan, as the caramel could leak through. 

Anyway, after you spray the pan, go ahead and lay the banana pieces down, filling in

 the whole dish. Try not to overlap them -- I made this mistake and when I turned

 it out, some of the bananas fell off 

(conveniently, they fell off the side that we ate before taking the picture haha)

See the overlap on the bottom? No good. Don't go there. I know you

want to cover every last bit, but it's better to have some cake

without banana on it, than to have it fall all over :(

Next, you need to make the caramel. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

In a saucepan, melt the butter. When it's all melted, add the brown

sugar and lemon juice (I just squeezed a little bit from half 

a lemon I had lying around). Stir it all up and let it simmer until the sugar is dissolved.

Make sure the heat is not up too high, or else you could burn

your caramel, making for a lackluster cake. :)

(I know it's sideways, but you get the idea. Gimme a break; I'm new at this!)

Then, simple as pie. Pour the caramel over the bananas.

(Do you hear the people sing? No? Oh... well, it's the hallelujah chorus.)

Then, sprinkle shredded coconut all over (if you're into that sort of thing.) 

I was so busy picking up all the pieces of coconut that missed the cake

and putting them in my mouth, that I forgot to take a picture.

Next, pour the cake batter over the banana-caramel-coconut. Make sure it's all even.

You don't want a lopsided cake when you turn it out of the pan,

do you?

Look at all those layers of goodness!

Pop that beauty in the oven for about 35-40 minutes. 

In the meantime... I had left over batter,

so I poured it into muffin tins and sprinkled just a little shredded coconut on top.

I got rid of the left-over caramel before I decided to do cupcakes :(

Anyway, those bake for about 15 minutes or so and taste really good,

because the coconut on tip gets all toasty and yummy.

(Blurry I know... shaky hands + iPhone....)

Once the cake comes out of the oven, let it sit for a while. 

Like, really a while. I let mine go for probably an hour or so.

When you're ready, take a deep breath and get ready to flip it. 

I had to mentally prepare myself for the flip.

And voila! A beautiful, delicious cake is born!

It's delicious by itself but would be super good with some whipped cream on top.

Infused with rum. Yes. Yes, rum whipped cream next time.

Now, let me be honest with you. 

This cake is AMAZING. The sour cream in 

the cake makes it so light and fluffy. I might add it to all of my boxed

cake mixes from now on. 

You all need to try this. This is a perfect recipe for

summer, a bridal shower, a baby shower,

Easter, or just because you want

to celebrate your husband.

If you try the recipe, let me know! 

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a.... Mrs?!?

Well well well. Let's all just forget about the fact that this was my new year's resolution (to blog), but I haven't even touched the site since January. =P Since we're half-way through 2013, we'll just conveniently forget about the last 1/3 of my 2012 in review. So, let's just jump right to it...

(I just got distracted by a weatherman on TV trying to be funny and say that it was "muy cala-hente"... I've never felt more needed as a Spanish teacher!)

Anyway...

(Also, Shaun White is on the Today show and actually looks good! No more bushy orange afro!)


Ok. Turning the TV off...


We got married!! Nathan and I said "I do!" on June 7th in the candlelit chapel at Nathan's home church. We were surrounded by our dear friends and family, including my uncle and Nathan's best friend's dad, who co-officiated the ceremony. The girls and I walked down the aisle to "Come Thou Fount" played on the piano and acoustic guitar. I'm told that it was beautiful, but I didn't even hear a thing. I didn't see or hear anything except Nathan. I don't think I even looked at my mommy!!

After the ceremony and a lightning fast round of formal pictures, we headed over to a golf club for the reception. Our amazing photographer, Nathan and I took off in golf carts to take advantage of the GORGEOUS sunlight that we had at 7:00. When I say amazing photographer, I mean... amazing. We're still waiting on all the pictures, but the ones that I've seen could easily be in any wedding magazine (because of him, not because of us!). After a few group shots, we headed in for the big announcement into the banquet room. And of course, Nathan wouldn't be Nathan without doing a split in the middle of the dance floor.

We ate (and OH! Was it good!), we drank, and we were merry (and married!). My beautiful little sister teamed up with our good friend (and her vocal teacher) to serenade us at the reception. There were few dry eyes after their rendition of "I see the light" from Tangled. After the touching, albeit comical toasts, we burned up that dance floor! One of the highlights of the night was seeing my new mother-in-law on the dance floor during "Sexy and I know it". Our super photographer also set up this fun photo-booth, providing some really fun pictures :) Here we are with my sister and her fiance...

As the night wound down, our lovely guests sent us off with a tunnel of sparklers, creating some awesome pictures.

Over the last several weeks, Nathan and I can't stop talking about the wedding! We have decided that if we were to go back in time and do it all over again, we wouldn't change a single thing! The attire, venue, decor, flowers, hair, photographer, DJ, and cake were all perfect. I would highly recommend any of the vendors we used to anyone getting married in the Dayton area (and it was all on a tight budget, too!!).

Here are some more pics:

(See? Awesome light!)

Our super awesome wedding party

Well, there's the official report! So tell me, if you were at our wedding, what was your favorite part!? Or, what was your favorite part of your own wedding? Have you been to any weddings where something was extremely awesome? Or maybe a little disturbing?? Share your thoughts (but let's not name names for horrifying weddings haha)

Peace out <3