Ancient Chinese Secret...

Something is different, something has changed, new lessons have been learned, growth has occurred, I sense the winds of change...oh, wait, maybe that's just my brother letting one rip, or, quite possibly it is an ancient Chinese secret.

I have had some cupcakes in mind for a while now, but I am not quite ready to make them, I think I need to wait just a little bit longer before opening those doors and creating something so sweet, also it would be irresponsible of me to only feed my brother cupcakes for dinner. For now my loyal readers, I present a home made dish of mine: orange ginger chicken with white rice and broccoli.

I will keep this one short and sweet, just like myself :) and leave you with these thoughts that I have come to realize.

           Amazing things come to those who wait

           Don't settle for anything less then what you want

           Only when you respect yourself will others respect you too

By the way, I never once saw a fortune cookie in China, but it goes with the theme here so if you don't like it then bite my fortune cookie! :)

xox - The Mixing Minx

Rebound Girl Cupcakes

Are you a recently single male? Did a girl break your heart leaving you feeling as though your whole world has been turned upside down? If you fit into this category then I am the girl for you! For the next month or so I will be your rebound girl. As your official rebound girl I will complete the following tasks:

• be your rock
• provide positive support
• listen for countless hours about the girl who broke your heart
• take care of you when you are sick or after your surgery
• cook, clean, and help you re-organize
• embrace your quirky interests
• help mend your broken heart
• drive long distances to get to you
• drive us around in my car so your ex doesn't spot us
• open my heart to you and try to take away some of your pain

Here are my Rebound Girl Cupcakes, made with a chocolate cake base filled with peanut butter, topped with chocolate fudge frosting and a delicious Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. 

These cupcakes represent my two glorious rebound girl moments. I would like to thank these two gentlemen who have allowed me to learn and realize my true inner strength. A special thanks to the first reboundee who is continuously there for me, shows me friendship, offers wise advice that one day I swear I will listen to, and a wish of good luck to you and your new lady who makes you happy, which is all I ever wanted for you. 

Unless you are going to pay me by the hour to be your rebound girl then I have officially shut down this business so I can open up a cupcake shop! 

xox - The Mixing Minx

Down & Dirty Cake

Get your nasty little mind out of the gutter! Gosh, I can't believe that is what you thought I was talking about! Bad Mixing Minx reader, bad!

Nah, it's cool, but seriously, this is my Down & Dirty Cake. I recently took part in a gardening adventure which resulted in the flickering of a few light bulbs in my head. Gardening requires quite a bit of time, effort, and patience. Preparing the yard, where you rake up the leaves and discover a whole new species of bugs that you never knew existed. Next you get super friendly with the dirt as you dig holes for the seeds and plant them. After planting all of your seeds you rejoice with a feeling of confidence that you completed the task you had planned. You begin to water these little seeds which is then followed by waiting....and waiting some more. Here is where the Gardening Gnome Gods (aka the GGG) come into play, they snicker behind your neighbors bushes and mutter back and forth about how much fun they are going to have watching you wait for your seeds to show some kind of action.

Well there you are, great job Mr. Green Thumb, you got those seeds in the ground and you have been keeping up with the watering, but what now? Oh, yes, now you wait even longer, you sit on your cute tushie and wait.

After waiting for what seems like forever, after putting in so much effort, hard work, time, money, care, love (yes, plants need love too) and after considering some therapy services for the strange Gnome-e like snickers you seem to be hearing, something abso-freakin-loutly amazing happens. Those seeds that you cherished and cared for so deeply begin to sprout and with continued care, they grow buds, and finally blossom in to the most beautiful flowers you have ever seen. Why are they so beautiful you ask? They are because you put your time, effort and patience into growing this garden.

So basically, to sum up, there are many aspects of life that can be compared to gardening. If you have a goal, if you are determined to do something, if you strongly believe in what you are going after, if your feelings are so intense that you truly believe that they are real, then go for it. Go for it big and as you do, remember that to see your seed grow and bloom into a flower, you will need to put in your time, effort, and a great deal of patience. Amen!

My Down & Dirty cake is made with yellow cake mix, chocolate frosting, oreo and chocolate graham cracker “dirt,” sesame seeds, and marzipan sprouts and flowers. I am hoping you caught on, gardening can be quite a dirty job that requires you to get down to plant and care for your seeds, also “Down & Dirty” sounds quite incising to convince you to actually read my blibbity blab. 

This cake represents my determination to go after those things that I feel are important, I continue to put in my efforts and care, and secretly I hope and pray that what I am going after is worth the time, effort, and patience....if not, I am so joining the GGG and muttering with the rest of the Gnomes as you try to plant a garden. :)

xox – The Mixing Minx

Patience and Cherry Pie

I am a Mixing Minx, I love to cook, bake, and concoct anything that I can in the kitchen while being some what sly and minxy. Some of my mixings are simplistic, and take minimal time and effort while others are more complex and require time, patience and accuracy.

Take a cherry pie for example, first you have to take out the dough and let it come to room temperature before you can even roll it out. After flouring the work surface and rolling pin you can roll out your dough and place it in the pie dish. Don't forget to turn on your oven, which means that you need to wait for it to preheat before you should place your pie inside. Damn, we haven't even put the pie filling in (the easiest part) and I am already loosing my patience.

So then you open your can of pie filling (if we were making an apple pie, well that would take even longer, no canned filling for that) and carefully pour it into the pie dish. Now re-flour your work surface and pin, roll out your second pie crust and hold your breath as you carefully align it on top of your filled pie dish. I like to get all fancy and punch out cute shapes for decoration, so tack on extra time for that.

Finally, push the top and bottom pie crust together around the edges, fold any excess under and use your fingers to create a waved edge. Then wet your hands, gently wipe them around the outside of your pie and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top. Are we done yet? No! Grab your pie crust ring, or for kicks and giggles, have a grand time making one out of tin foil.

Super duper finally, if you are like me and your delicate cherry pie is ready and the oven is preheated, say a little prayer: Dear Cooking Gods, please let this incredible cherry pie bake thoroughly, remind me not to open the oven too often, and for the love of all goods that are baked, let this cherry pie be tasty and worth the effort and time I put into it.

Let your cherry pie bake, baking time may vary depending on oven, size of pie, placement in the oven, and a variety of other factors. When the time is right, take your cherry pie out, let it cool and enjoy the fruits of your hard work.

Of course, if you are a wise Mixing Minx reader, you will be able to read between the lines and realize that this is not just about a cherry pie...

xox – The Mixing Minx

Caffeine Cupcakes

Oh yeah my friends, these are Caffeine Cupcakes! Caffeine – an unusual drug that I have slowly become accustomed to out of necessity. The past two weeks and the following two weeks will be sufficiently doused in caffeine from my two cups a day of espresso. Which means that the past two weeks and the following two weeks will also be accompanied by multiple trips to the bathroom, but that's besides the point.

Grad school is a witch, with a b. It has forced me to lower my standards on the number of hours slept per night, increased my production of tears and their spontaneous ability to spew out at any given point, and has aided in my reduced mental stability. Grad school has done something so terrible, it has forced me to do something that I really rather not, it has enabled me to become a caffeine addict!

In honor of caffeine and the Gods (devils?) who created it, I have made Caffeine Cupcakes. These cupcakes are made with a yellow cake base, chocolate espresso frosting, and topped with dark chocolate covered espresso beans, all for your caffeine in take pleasure :)

So as this semester comes to an end and my fate in a course is in question, I reflect back on the previous semesters and conclude that the first two weeks and the last two weeks of each semester provide the proper breeding ground for an overly caffeinated, immensely sleep deprived, one step forward and twenty steps backward, psycho basket-case. Adding any other outside factors to this equation results in a new psycho basket-case hybrid form that can only be tamed by chocolate and hugs.

xox – The Mixing Minx

Have Faith and Trust, Not-Cakes

My faithful and caring Mixing Minx readers, I have something new for you, something out of the ordinary and unusual. If you are here only to admire baked goods, then leave. If you are here and do not like cheese, and/or its pairing with meat, then leave. If you are here and strongly object to fried foods, then leave! Otherwise, hold on to your jaw, so it doesn't drop to your belly button when your mouth overflows with saliva from ogling at these Have Faith and Trust, Not-Cakes.

Have you ever had a situation arise where someone who seemingly cared for you did something to break your faith and trust in them? Trust is such an important factor to have in life, trust in your family, your friends, your significant other. Once the trust is broken, and the faith in that person is lost, how is it recovered? Can it be recovered? How long will it take? My thought, it depends. Every situation and person is different, some faith and trust will be forever lost, and others will return with time.

I like to think going with your gut feeling is often the right way approach and handle a situation. Currently, my gut is screaming, (not from a lactose induced frenzy, I haven't eaten one of these yet) I have trust and faith in it, and if on the off chance it is wrong (if I am wrong) then at least I can be wrong with a bang. BANG!

In honor of my pleasantly surprising new found old friend, and the new friends I have recently made, I present to you a daring mix, a twist on the typical cheese stick you may find at any restaurant, this is a munster cheese and salami stick. I carefully rolled munster cheese and salami together, double breaded it, and then said a little prayer, as I always do before cooking....it goes something like this: Dear Cooking Gods, please let this food turn out alright, Amen. I trusted and had faith in my gut feeling about this new dish and fried up a storm. 

Since I am a fairy fan, I will conclude with this:

“All you need is faith, trust, and a little pixie dust.”

xox – The Mixing Minx

Hakol Sababa Cupcakes

     Before delving into the reasoning and rationalization for these amazing cupcakes, I need to acknowledge that these were not the cupcakes originally planned. I was going to be a real minx and make Foot in Mouth Ugh-cakes, with my traditional chocolate cupcake, vanilla frosting and a foot and mouth made out of marzipan. I wanted to talk about how I felt as though I put my foot in my mouth yet again, and all of this other pessimistic, negative blibbity blah. Then something changed my mindset, maybe it was playing “guess that bug in my house” with a good girlfriend, hearing a positive song on the radio, listening to my brother tell a dozen Chuck Norris jokes, (did you know that when the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris, and that only Chuck Norris can dislike on facebook, oh yeah, the list goes on), or possibly it was getting the reassurance I was looking for. Anyway, my mind was changed, so the cupcakes had to be changed too.

     In light of my recent adventure and change of mindset, I feel it is appropriate to stop being so pessimistic, to stop being so negative and just say “phillips head screw it!” Hakol Sababa means something along the lines of “everything is good,” or at least that is what it means now. As you may have guessed if you keep up with this obnoxious blog, these are chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting, and my favorite, rainbow sprinkles.

     I think sometimes in life we get so caught up in our own little bubble, focus too much on what is wrong and not going the way we planned. We get so wrapped up in this “woe is me” perspective that we forget all of the positive things that are going on in our lives. Although your day may have been long and stressful, I know there is at least one positive action, feeling, person, or activity from your day. Although my day was stressful while playing ketchup since I was gone for a few days (yes, it's “ketchup,” food blog, remember?) I had an amazing, well needed vacation, met some wonderful people and came home to my family who filled my day with endless jokes and delicious food.

Hakol Sababa,

xox – The Mixing Minx