coconut and pineapple is the best

So Heather and I made these delicious pina colada cupcakes, and I brought some to work... needless to say, they're all gone. (aside the ones I saved for Amy)

I figured I'd share the recipe! I made up the recipe for the frosting, so feel free to make your own adaptions.

For the cake part, we used a yellow cake mix, and we simply added crushed pineapple to it. We wanted to use fresh pineapple, but the store we went to didn't have any. Next time, that's what we're doing...

For the frosting:
1 bag sweetened coconut
1/2 bag (ish) powdered sugar (to taste.. I didn't use a measuring cup.)
2 t vanilla
1 C butter
1/3 C (ish) coconut milk (to taste)

Mix the cake as usual, and add the pineapple. You can add the juice, too, but be careful so as not to mess with the consistency of the cake.

For the frosting, Whip the coconut milk with the butter and vanilla, and add powdered sugar to taste/consistency. (Add more coconut milk, if necessary.) Toast the coconut on parchment paper for five minutes at 375 degrees. Fold into the frosting.

Heather and I poked holes in the cupcakes with a fork, and we dripped more coconut milk into them to make them more coconut-y and moist. :) :)

Garnish the cupcakes with more pineapple (fresh, if possible), and enjoy!!

Anthony said that these are the best cupcakes he's ever had, and a coworker of mine said the same thing. I don't think you'll be disappointed...

Easter Chronicles

It has been a busy week/end!

To start it all off, on Thursday, Kathy and I helped the residents at work color Easter eggs. Everything went really well until we collided and we spilled orange dye all over my pants and shoes. I had orange legs for quite a while. All in a day's work, I say.



On Friday, I was given the honor of dressing up as the Easter Bunny for a daycare that visited our facility for an Easter Egg Hunt.  The residents loved watching mini humans run around finding 420 eggs that we had hidden in the dining room. (The weather was horrible, so we had to move the hunt inside.) I got made fun of a lot, but I'll admit that I had a good time. (I blurred the edges of the picture, because I can't have pictures of the residents on here.)



These kids were kindergarten age (I think?), and there was a group of them sitting at my feet when they were counting eggs. I kept cracking up because they would just stare at me. I was like, "WHAT'S ON MY FACE?!" until I'd realize that I was dressed up in a gigantic bunny costume. Then it made sense.
One of the kids looked at me and said, "You're not real." I was appalled, so I responded, "Yes, I am." He said, "No, you're not. You're not real." I said, "Prove it." I should have been fired from bunny duty, but I wasn't.

On Saturday I went to Red Velvet with Amy, Lydia, Mandy, Kim, Tiffany, Keisha and Lillian. You can check out their blogs about the day by clicking on the links in "Blogs I Love." They all took pictures... I didn't. Haha. Anyway, I'm not much of a clothes shopper/vintage wearer, but I did like the way that the shop was decorated. I would have bought stuff to decorate my house with, had that stuff been for sale.
Anyway, I had peach tea with boba pearls in it, which was delicious. I highly recommend it. I was so glad to meet Mandy and Kim, and it was wonderful seeing the other girls again.

Sunday was awesome! Antho and I went to Harrison, Arkansas again to go to church with his family. The service was a little different from what I'm used to, but I definitely enjoyed being there. It was a good reminder of why I even celebrate Easter, given that I have been (literally) wrapped up in bunnies and eggs for the last several weeks.
We ate a great potluck lunch after church, and Ant's mom made a super incredible Mississippi Mud Cake  and I could have eaten the crust as my main meal. But I didn't.
During lunch, I introduced Lindsey to the pink Starburst jelly beans and referred to the pink one as the "Queen" of jelly beans. Several hours later she mentioned the queen jelly bean and I was oh so proud. (She also, without thinking about it, addressed me as "Aunt Liz" and my heart melted. I'm not her aunt, but I'd be happy to be an honorary aunt to both her and Bren.)
We went back to their parents' house for the kids to do an Easter Egg Hunt. They were so cute running around the house looking for eggs.



 Ant and I got in a cupcake war, but I had the last say. Liz=1, Ant=0. I wish I had a picture of it. We had blue frosting all over our faces. (I'm also noticing that I have a cupcake problem. I can't just make one batch. I have to make.. like.. at least three. So now I have tons of cupcakes.)

Oh, and why was the frosting blue? Let me tell you, via text messages:

Me: What kind of cupcakes do you want for Easter

Ant: Chocolate rain

Me: Seriously. I'm in Walmart.

Ant: Yellow

Me: With chocolate frosting?

Ant: No, blue

Me: This is getting to be less and less funny

Ant: I'm serious

Me: Fine

5 minutes later

Ant: Did you get me the blue kind?

Me: Yes

Ant: You are the best girlfriend :)

Anyway, after the egg hunt, Amy made deviled eggs out of the hard-boiled eggs that she and the kids had dyed beforehand. I think I ate about 5 halves. Yum.

It was such an awesome weekend. My weekends are becoming constant reminders of how blessed I am.

So aside from Easter, the only interesting thing going on is the massive amount of RAIN that we have been getting! It's unbelievable. I'm doing a lot more laundry, now that I have to change pants every time I go anywhere new. 

As far as the rest of the week goes, I'm in "finals mode," or at least, I should be. I'm starting to freak out about where I'm going to go to graduate school... And I'm really nervous about getting all of my projects done. I'm at the point where I'm so overwhelmed by everything that I have to get done that I don't want to do any of it. But I have to. Blah. I'm trying to take my own advice, so I have made a list of everything I have to get done for the rest of the semester, and I'm physically crossing things off so that I feel like I've at least done something productive. 

Okay- that's it, I think! Thanks for reading!

Cheers :)

Valentine's Day FOR THE WIN

Today has been an incredible day. Not only am I single, but I am totally okay with that, especially when I get to spend the day celebrating with awesome people.

I was telling Anthony on the way home that I feel more like myself when I'm around these particular people. They may say that this is not necessarily a good thing, but hey- I like myself! (haha)

But seriously, I have had a wonderful day. I got up early (and it was a super gorgeous day) to deliver cupcakes. [success]

And tonight, I went with Anthony, Amy, Dave, Hannah and Nate to Belgian Waffle and Pancake House for dinner. I almost peed myself from laughing so hard. I love nights like that.

(Look at her dainty pinky! SO DAINTY.)

(Brendan and Lindsey are two of the cutest kids I have ever met.)

 (Secretly, he's my valentine.)

I am so thrilled to know these people. I'm not a very good photographer... and I didn't get ANY pictures of Anthony, Hannah or Nate, but oh well. Amy IS a good photographer and she got some good pictures, so check out her post, here.

_____________________

Since it is Valentine's Day, here are a couple of things I've been thinking about:

In a study involving a group of lovelorn Stanford undergrads, researchers discovered that high-octane romantic love might be a natural analgesic.

Love's painkilling effect isn't just that the person is distracted by thoughts of the loved one -- although that works, too. Instead, the researchers found that feeling "head-over-heels" activates the same dopamine-oriented centers of the brain that tune in to illicit drugs such as cocaine.

"These pain-relieving systems are linked to reward systems," said Dr. Sean Mackey, senior author of a paper appearing online Oct. 13 in PLoS One. "Love engages these deep brain systems that are involved with reward and craving and similar systems involved in addiction."

Check out the article!

Love: a benevolent intent focused toward the well-being of others, as affecting the heart's electromagnetic pattern

So what have we learned? 

1. Being single is perfectly fine.

2. Friends are awesome.

3. Laughter is actually good for you.

4. Anthony is awesome.

5. His family is also awesome.

6. Love is better than cocaine.

7. Love actually affects your physical heart. 

Cheers; I love you ALL!

:) :) :)

Baking Therapy

There's always been something about baking. As a kid, I made tons of desserts for my family. (I even made a lemon meringue pie from scratch for my history teacher when I was in seventh grade. Kids thought I was sucking up, but frankly, I just liked to bake.)

Anyway, baking is soothing to me. Perhaps it's the idea that a combination of ingredients create something delicious, or maybe it's the fact that I love sweets. Who knows! (haha) 

But I don't bake for myself. I don't really see the point in that; so, I bake for other people. It's way more fun that way. 

Last night, I baked cookies with my evening crowd at the nursing home, and we decorated four dozen cookies for Valentine's Day. I had a ton of fun-- I just hope that they did, too. We made enough to eat our weight in cookies, but we handed the rest out to the employees. 

My pantry has been overloaded with stuff to bake cupcakes with, so around 9:30 tonight, I decided to start baking. It's convenient timing, anyway, considering that tomorrow is Valentine's Day. (perfect!)

I made 8 dozen cupcakes!

It was awesome. I made carrot, vanilla, chocolate and lemon cupcakes. I did this by myself, listening to music. It was super therapeutic. 

I smell like a cupcake, and my house smells like... a lot of cupcakes.

I took a plate full of cupcakes to McDonald's for a friend and his coworkers that were working till two o'clock this morning.  He seemed to enjoy them. Maybe I'll start making a habit of baking and delivering. It was fun!

I then made a delivery to a new friend that lives down the street from me. Hopefully he enjoys them.

Tomorrow, I'm taking some to class and to a few friends. Maybe I'll even stop by work. Who knows. 

Anyway, I've got several posts in the making-- I am just trying to get my thoughts together. I'm also waiting for Anthony to send me his pictures/video from the AMAZING concert on Friday. He is very slow. 

Have a great Valentine's Day, everyone! Cheers. 

Stream of consciousness, hair, Valentine's Day and cupcakes

I dye my hair A LOT. It all started right after I graduated from high school and my sister dyed my hair a purplish/maroon/red color. Ever since then, I've been addicted. I'm especially partial to shades of red. I have found that I change my hair at different stages of my life; although, I don't know if it's because of the stage, or because I just love an excuse to change things up. 

Anyway, tonight I dyed my hair. It was a failure. Notice how the two (before and after) photos are incredibly similar. It was supposed to be drastic. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL.

I am going to have to give up and find a professional to do something about this.

My next hair color is going to be this (or this): 

                                                                    (found here & here)

Or maybe it won't be any of those. I never really know until I tell the hair stylist to whatever they want. I'm not too terribly picky with my hair.

______________

We made these cute little ladybug picture frames for our Valentine's Day craft at work tonight. 

I made these little bears for the ladies, since using a hot glue gun was necessary.

This photo is incredibly embarrassing, but I told the ladies that I would post it. The quality of the picture is terrible, but I'd like to see you try and keep massive plastic eyes on your face without jiggling the camera.

Tomorrow is our party at work for the residents. I'm so excited! I love holidays. I also love old people. Win, win!

______________

Being single, I'm not thrilled about this upcoming holiday; however, I have at least one friend coming over on Monday. I have stuff to make cupcakes. I am thrilled. Anyway, my mother is a dear and sent me a beautiful Valentine's Day care package!

Contents include: a heart dish towel, heart socks, poppyseed cake, pumpkin bread, York mints, molasses cookies and popcorn. AMAZING. My mom is the greatest.

She also included some pictures from Christmas that we got done at Wal-Mart. I'm not thrilled about them, but they are decent. This was also before I started my diet, so I can actually notice a difference! It's a small one, but hey, it's something!

 ______________

Finally, I adore cupcakes. 

This particularly glorious cupcake has been brought to you by my friend and co-worker, Merissa. She is an incredible baker. This cupcake did a dance in my mouth and I liked it. 

Here is the recipe:

Cinnamon Sugar Cupcakes:

1 box white cake mix- "I make this like the box says and add 1 t cinnamon and bake."

Frosting:

1 pkg cream cheese- room temperature

1 stick unsalted butter- room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

1 t vanilla

2 t cinnamon

Blend cream cheese and butter until smooth- add vanilla and cinnamon and mix well. Slowly add powdered sugar until desired sweetness and consistency!

Thank you, Merissa. You made my night so much more enjoyable. 

 ______________

That was a huge post.

Thanks for sticking with me.

I am going to St. Louis tomorrow with Anthony to see Interpol. I AM SO EXCITED. The band is good; Anthony is awesome. I will probably not be back to post anymore until Sunday, hence the lengthy post.

Cheers, friends!