Gopher Hunters

In my last post, I talked about our gopher problem. Here is a clip of Pearl and Dodger trying to help.

Audio commentary is courtesy of my sister and our friend Joann.

As you can see, Dodger - the Jack Russel terrier - was the one who's actually designed to hunt rodents. Pearl, on the other hand, just wanted to feel like part of the action so she dug... and ate weeds.

The hunt was unsuccessful, as in no gophers were found, killed or even scared out of their holes. But it was fun to watch, and there is now less area for me to rototill when we do get around to landscaping in this area of the yard. Thanks doggies!

Waiting for Spring to spring...

I don't know about you, but I've had just about enough of the cold, windy, cloudy, snowy, windy, cold weather this winter. It's been one heck of a late winter... we've had over 300" of snow so far in the Sierras! So, while Spring takes it's sweet time getting here, I'll be day dreaming about flowers, gardening, warm weather and open windows.

My lovely sister-in-law from the east coast got us a gift certificate to White Flower Farm for Christmas and I've been pouring over the catalog and website trying to decide what to get. Here are some of my favorites:

The floral front-runner at this point is the lavender. (Also shown above: hydrangeas, prairie blue, asclepias, Peruvian lilies, and petunias.) Living where we do, we have several gardening challenges. One - we're in the middle of a desert, two - our soil is really alkaline, so in order to use our garden budget wisely we need to pick plants that are more likely to survive. We didn't plant many new things last year after we moved in, so I'm sensing some trial and error in our near future.

We like to grow vegetables too. At the old house, the hubby built me some great raised planters for our veggies. I was sad to leave them. We'll probably do that again here at the new house since it makes planting, maintaining and harvesting so much easier, but also because of a third problem - a furry, burrowy, annoying gopher population. The images above are some of the veggie types that we've planted in the past - tomatoes, garlic, peppers and assorted herbs.

Below are some new veggies that we've never tried... lettuces, rhubarb and potatoes. Not sure if this is the year to try something new, but they're on my list.

Doesn't all of that get you excited to get outside and start gardening?

Why, I do declare!

You have to say the title of this post in your best southern accent... which is exactly what I did when I finished these Southern Comfort Red Velvet Cupcakes for my sister's birthday this weekend.

This recipe comes from a cookbook by Lucy Baker entitled The Boozy Baker... it is fantastic! Every recipe has some kind of booze in it, plus some really yummy-looking cocktail recipes. I stumbled up on this gem of a cookbook when I was down in San Diego last summer. To-date I have made the Donut Bread Pudding with Tennessee Whisky Sauce and the "Bottoms-Up" Pineapple Tequila Cake. I didn't blog about them then, but they were so good that I will probably make them again and write about them afterwards.

Anyways... back to the southern yummy-ness... The full recipe is included at the end of the post, but I'll walk you through some of these steps...

First, get your ingredients, mix the dry ones together in a bowl, mix the wet ingredients together in a different bowl.

Then, cream your butter and sugar together in the bowl of your mixer, add eggs (not shown), alternately add the dry ingredient mixture with the wet ingredient mixture - ending with the dry ingredients. Scoop batter into cupcake liners - I used a 3T scoop that portioned everything out nicely. I also happened to use a new liner from Reynolds with a design on it that they swear will stay vibrant after the cupcakes have been baked. (They work!)

You'll notice above that my batter isn't especially vibrant - at least not as vibrant as some I've seen. I think this is because I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa rather than the regular kind. If you're a stickler for RED Red Velvet, stick with the regular cocoa. (Side note: I've often thought that it would be fun to make Blue Velvet Cupcakes... or Purple Velvet Cupcakes... wouldn't that be fun?)

This is where some bakers would tell you to start working on your frosting while the cupcakes are in the oven. Not me. I start mine AFTER I've pulled my cupcakes out. This way I'm not tempted to frost them while they're still warm. Check out my GIANT icing bag below!

Ah, the finished product... The cakes baked up even darker than the batter, but I'm sure they'll still be fabulous. And see the cupcake liners? Looking good!

Like my cupcake tote? That was a birthday present from the Hubs one year. I love that thing. The bottom part is a cupcake pan that you can bake in (it's pictured in the top-middle pic of this bottom collage) and then there's a plastic layer that holds another 12, and a fancy lid with a handle that snaps shut and makes your cupcakes portable.

Southern Comfort Red Velvet Cake from The Boozy Baker
Makes 12-16 servings or 24 cupcakes

Cake Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
4 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup Southern Comfort
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 (1 oz.) bottle of red food coloring
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs

Frosting Ingredients:
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup Southern Comfort

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare cake pans with nonstick spray or butter and flour, or put liners in cupcake pans.

To make the cake - whisk together the cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, Southern Comfort, vanilla, vinegar, and food coloring.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture alternately with milk mixture in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

Divide the batter between the prepared pans (or cupcakes) and bake for 30-40 minutes (15-20 for cupcakes), or until toothpick comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans to cool completely.

For the frosting - beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes. Add 6 cups of the confectioners' sugar, the milk and the Southern Comfort. Beat on low speed until creamy. Gradually add the remaining confectioners' sugar, a little at a time, until the frosting has reached the desired consistency.

All in all, I think they turned out good. The frosting was a bit sweet, but it had that wonderful spicy SoCo taste. And, I couldn't really taste the SoCo in the cupcakes that much, but they made a nice counterpoint to the frosting.

Love is in the air, part 2

Remember how I said I'd post picture of my Valentine's Day project up after I got it done? Well, I did get it done... and it was done in time for Valentine's Day, but I had a couple of malfunctions on it that made it un-worthy for a post. It needs a tune-up, so I'll post it when it's out of rehab.

In the meantime... I do have another post that I'll get up soon that PROVES that I have been busy doing other things. In our family we're wrapping up the Week of Birthday for my sister, so the next post will be all about the Southern Comfort Red Velvet Cupcakes that I made her for birthday celebration #2.

Stay tuned!

Hello stranger...

Dear Blog,

I didn't give up on you. I promise. I just got really busy for a couple of weeks and didn't have the time to write. How are things with you? Oh, the same you say? Nothing has really changed that much? That sounds about right. I'll try to get better about posting things, but in the meantime here's a funny little style survey that I thought would be fun to share. I originally saw a post on it over at Young House Love...  

Love,
Me

P.S. Here's my results of the style survey...