How we Spent our Second Anniversary

Photo by Steph Carson.

This year, our anniversary was spent in a way that is unlike any other: on tour. Brian left to join the corps mid-June, and I flew down to Texas on the 17th of June to meet them and primarily so we could spend our anniversary in the same state on June 19th. We knew we really wouldn't get to spend our anniversary "together"--he had to teach all day and I had to cook. But we did have one "special" moment when we rolled into our housing site sometime between probably 2-3 am the morning of the 19th. 


To set the scene: 

We get to the housing site at a very questionably "nice" school and find out we'll be sleeping in the auditorium. Which is fine. They're really dark when you turn the lights off. Usually plenty of outlets and a flat stage to sleep on. But then we walk into the auditorium and find out that it has obviously been locked up since school ended. With no air conditioning. 

So we're thinking we'll hear the AC kick on any minute and set up our air mattress in the back of the auditorium. For some reason everyone else went to sleep and turned out the lights in like 2 seconds. So I'm fumbling around in the dark trying to find my contacts stuff and glasses in my suitcase. We try to settle in and it's obvious we're not getting any AC. And it's not like we can just prop some doors open. It's Texas, and unless you want to wake up with a snake or some insane spider for a bed buddy I'd keep the doors shut tight.

The plot thickens:

So we're down to wearing as little as can still be called decent, keeping in mind we're sleeping in a room with 20 other people. We're lying on our backs trying not to move or touch besides a couple fingers because it's SO HOT in that room. And that's when the noise starts. I questioned whether it was human at first because I've never heard a noise like that in my life. And then it became apparent that a staff member, who shall remain nameless on this blog, was snoring. I seriously thought he might be slowly dying. And it was relentless. It was probably going to continue all night. 

In the midst of this, all the staff got a text from the corps director about the next day's schedule. So one by one around the room we watched all these little spots of light flare up and alarms go off as everyone's phones registered the incoming message. It was quite a funny little choir of beeps and songs. And then on top of that I realized that if you used your imagination the snoring kind of sounded like a chorus of tree frogs. And if you REALLY used your imagination maybe we weren't really in an unairconditioned  auditorium at 3 am listening to the most insane snoring I've ever heard. Maybe we were on a blanket under the stars, listening to the sounds of night. 

And then we lost it: 

Once I shared my tree frog thought with Brian the giggling and laughing began. We couldn't stop. I could barely breathe because there's nothing worse than laughing really hard and having to be as quiet as possible. And the fact that we were exhausted. Tears were literally pouring from my eyes. And every time there was another snore we lost it all over again. At one point we calmed down and Brian looked over and said "Happy Anniversary!" and I realized that it didn't matter if we went out to a fancy dinner or spent every minute of our day together. We had what will probably be one of the most memorable anniversaries ever, sharing his passion for drum corps with me and laughing hysterically. And I couldn't think of any way that would have been better to spend the first few hours of our second anniversary. 

My Roomie Claire is getting married today and I couldn't be more excited for her and her fiance Brad. They are wonderful people and are going to have an amazing life together. I am so lucky that we get to be a small part of their wedding day. I hope they get to have some amazing, unexpected anniversaries together for many, many years to come. 

Strawberry Cream-Filled Cupcakes

Drooling yet? I spent my Friday off work baking--literally, all day. I made cupcakes from scratch, a cream cheese icing, and a strawberry cream filling. And all so I could carry them to a NYE party in one of my wonderful Christmas presents from Brian: a cupcake/cake carrier (Williams-Sonoma calls it a "courier" but we're not that fancy).

Photo from Williams-Sonoma's website. Buy one here! P.S. Do you see those flower cupcake muffin things?! How does one make those!? 

So first I made the icing because it needed to be in the fridge for awhile to thicken up. 

I've mentioned before that butter and brown sugar are two of my favorite ingredient combinations. Unsalted butter and cream cheese is another great one. I know it seems kind of weird and like it could actually taste pretty disgusting. But if you love cream cheese and butter independent of one another as much as I do, you understand how great putting them together can be. 

This particular recipe called for 5 cups of confectioner's sugar (also known as 10x in the baking world. Don't ask me why!). It sounded like a lot, and by the time I had added 4 cups I was a little overwhelmed by the sweetness! And that is truly saying a lot for a person with a sweet tooth of my caliber. I only added 4 cups on the first batch and then a little less than 4 on the second batch. Then I mixed them together and the result was pretty amazing--plenty of sweetness but a big cream cheese flavor as well. 

On a side note, if you plan on adding confectioner's sugar "one cup at a time while continuously beating the icing on medium speed" with a KitchenAid as the recipe suggests, this is what your kitchen will look like. 

Powdered sugar EVERYWHERE. The mixing bowl is hiding some of the mess as well.

I would suggest adding it VERY gradually, and if you can aim the sugar to hit the blade it seems to work much better. Otherwise, when the mixer makes its way around and hits the pile of powdered sugar you just put in, it explodes into a big cloud all over everything, including you!

The cupcake batter was the best I have ever had. It was light, fluffy, sweet, a little floury. The texture had so much lightness to it it's hard to describe. It was almost like a mousse. It made me so excited to actually bake the cupcakes. I was paranoid about ruining that wonderful batter in the oven that I sat next to the oven with the light on and practically watched them rise and bake for the last 7-8 minutes of bake time. 

There are no words for this!

The real point of this little exercise was to try out the cupcake corer I got for my birthday. 

It looks kind of vicious but it's just plastic. 

It makes cute little cupcake plugs

Brian cored all these. :) 

Then I made a strawberry cream filling while the cupcakes were cooling. I think whipping heavy cream was the most exciting thing I've done yet with a KitchenAid. If you've ever whipped cream without one you understand how exciting this moment was for me. I think I even went into the office where Brian was on the computer and did a little dance of excitement to try and convey how awesome this was. (Especially the fact that I could leave the cream whipping in the kitchen while I left to do a dance.)

This is all I've ever really wanted in life. 

And then, the finished product, iced and ready to go in my carrier/courier! And for the record, that thing is HEAVY with 36 cupcakes in it!

If you're thinking the icing looks a tad bit runny, you'd be right. It never actually fell over the edge of any cupcakes or anything traumatic like that, but if you're used to a canned frosting or canned whipped frosting you might be a little worried. If I had added the other two cups of 10x sugar the consistency would have been much thicker. But then I'd also be on the floor in a sugar coma and you wouldn't be learning about these great cupcakes!

Finally it was time to go to Em and Scott's to see their beautiful little girl.

"It's a baby!!!"

It's almost the smile we tried to get out of her all night.

Hope you all had a safe and lovely New Year's Eve!

P.S. for all the recipes, get this book. Everything is from the famous Magnolia Bakery in NY. Look through the table of contents on Amazon--you'll hardly be able to contain yourself. Or, if you're just dying of curiousity, let me know and I'll post the cake and icing recipes here. :)

Congrats to Brian!!

It has been a whole week since my last post! I blame the holidays. :) I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and relaxation time away from your jobs and school. 


Brian received some big news the week before Christmas, news he's been waiting to hear for a couple months now: He made it on staff with Blue Stars for the summer!!!


Some of you are reading that and thinking, "Wow! That's amazing Brian! Way to go!" The rest of you are thinking, "What's Blue Stars? And what do you mean by 'staff'?" 


Blue Stars are a Drum Corps (a "professional" marching band if you will), and in the top 8 (Elite 8? Or is it too early for college basketball references?) of all the corps in the activity. Brian will be teaching the baritones (that's a brass instrument. It's big and heavy) all summer as they tour the country. When I say all summer, I mean that he'll be leaving for Blue Stars camp when high school lets out at the beginning of June, will come back for his own away band camp in mid-July and then will go back on tour till the season ends towards the end of August. All summer. 


***I'd like to take this opportunity to bring up two important points!***


Point #1: This summer, if you would like to hang out, have sleepovers, talk to me on the phone, invite me to your home, etc. etc. I ACCEPT!!! Right now, in advance. This is going to be a challenging, crazy, quiet, very alone summer. I think it'll be good for me. I think it will be a growing and learning experience for Brian and I. But when it comes down to it, it's just going to be plain old hard. 


Point #2: You may have noticed that I just let the world know I'll be by myself for most of the summer. So for any moronic creeps out there thinking it would be a great time to rob the house or attempt harm to me or my fur children, here's what I have to say to you: 

This is me. And this is my shotgun. It lives next to my bed. Do you know what I use as a coaster for my water glass on the bedside table? A box of deer slugs. See the smile on my face? That is how much I love my gun. I've taken a concealed carry course. Trust me: I know what to do to defend myself while incurring absolutely no legal repercussions. 


Need any more deterrents? Check out my sweet knife skills. One of those lives next to my bed, too. Okay one more? A solid miniature Louisville Slugger bat. (I've listed my weapons in order of most lethal.)


Well, now that that's out of the way, I found some really great videos on YouTube when I was searching for examples of the Blue Stars to show those of you who still have no idea what I'm talking about. The Blue Stars are out of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and man do those people love the Blue Stars. They make these promotional packages every year when the Blue Stars come back to town to rehearse. They're very well done! It gives you a sense of the corps and the activity in general. These first two are a couple years old, so please excuse the old ugly uniforms. 

One of these also has a really horrific drumline feature. Please excuse it as it's early in the season and the news people putting together these packages have no idea what they're listening to (i.e. that was embarrassing don't feature it on the news and then put it on YouTube!)


**Also, a funny note, especially for any Milford band grads out there. Our very own Brian Kraft is in that first video! Wearing a Bengals jersey, told the corps they sucked at something and to do it again. Cracks me up. :)**

These last two videos are packages from the 2010 (last season) corps. You can see how much improvement they've made in just a few short years from the first videos up to the present. I'm so proud of Brian and so excited for him to be a part of a wonderful group of young people and staff!

I'm personally very excited because I plan to go to camps and on tour for at least a week this summer (and perhaps various weekend trips) to help cook! There's a cook truck and lots of mouths to feed 4 times a day or so. They need lots of volunteers to make this activity work. Plus, I'll get to see Brian more that way. Yay for exciting things in the future!!