I baked food, kids!

(If you click "Read more" at the end of this entry, it will take you to this entry on its own page and the recipe will be right below this text, before the rest of my blabbing. I did this so you don't have to scroll past a lot of stuff to see my other entries and you don't have to scroll down to see the recipe. And because I am that cool.)

It is below because I don't like the code I found.

Here's the recipe in American (with my notes in italics):

Prep time: 1 hour
Baking time: 25-30 min. (Either my oven was really hot or was preheated for a long time but mine only took 23 minutes)

Ingredients (yields about 8 egg-cupcakes):
6 TBSP and 2 TSP butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
8 eggs (medium or large, shells only) ONLY USE 3 for the batter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
~2 tbsp eggnog (I don't know where you can get eggnog all year round. Maybe you can make it using your other five eggs. It's just for white egg-cupcakes. Just make chocolate ones and you'll be fine. Or, please, please for the love of all that is holy, use a box mix.)
1 tbsp cacao powder (Cocoa powder. Stupid British.)
~2 tbsp milk
sunflower oil for greasing the eggs (I used vegetable oil and it was fine.)
aluminum foil (I used these awesome disposable mini-muffin/cupcake aluminum foil tins that Katti bought for mini-quiches. It was perfect, like it was made for this recipe. She bought them at Meijer and they came in a pack of four or so with wrappers.)

1. Poke a tiny whole in the bottom side of the egg by using a needle or an egg poker. (I gently cracked the top of the egg on the table then poked a hole with a toothpick. I then just broke a bigger hole with my finger. It ended up being pretty big, about an inch.) Carefully enlarge the hole using a pointy knife, make sure to only break small pieces of the egg shell to better control the size of the hole, about 1cm (or .5") would be perfect. Turn the eggs upside down and empty them in a small bowl (ONLY DUMP THREE EGG INSIDES INTO ONE BOWL. Dump the other five eggs in another bowl AS YOU USE ONLY THREE EGGS FOR THE BATTER like a terrible, wasteful person. Make an omelet for breakfast or something.), some of the egg white/yolk will be used later for the cake batter (three eggs). If the yolk and egg white refuse to come out, take a wooden skewer and poke inside the egg. (I used the toothpick to drag the yolk out. It is really gross and sounds gross and feels weird and seems really hard but after the first one it is really easy.)



2. Clean the shells in cold water and prepare a bowl with salt water (I put a bunch of salt in warm water and stirred it with my fingers until it dissolved), fully immerse the egg shell, make sure there's no air trapped inside. Remove them after about half an hour, rinse them under cold water and let them dry on a paper towel, with the hole pointing down. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 355°F. (I rinsed out the eggs in cold water both before and after the salt water soak. Don't worry, eggshells are actually pretty thick and strong. Just don't turn the tap on all the way or YOU WILL WASTE ANOTHER EGG YOU TERRIBLE PERSON.)



3. Baking prep: A muffin tray works great, use little pieces of aluminum foil to form rings, which will help the eggs to stand upright during the filling and baking process. (Again, I used Katti's awesome disposable mini pan. Really, this can wait because this other stuff is so annoying. Unless you are using cake mix. Then it is awesome.)



4. In a large bowl beat the soft butter together with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved, then add three eggs. (ONLY THREE EGGS. The three that you oh so wisely separated from the other five earlier when I told you so. It is okay if you didn't. Eggs are awesome and tend to stay in their own eggy package so just pour three out.) Beat well until the batter gets a creamy consistency, then add the flour together with the baking powder. Whisk until evenly combined. (Just buy a mix, people. The beating and the whisking is so hard. So, so hard. And so annoying. I hate beating butter. And creaming butter. ugh ugh ugh. I wish I could pay someone to cream butter for me so I would never have to do it again. Sigh. And whisking that concoction? I made Nick help me toward the end because it was really thick and my arm started to hurt.)



5. Divide the batter into two separate bowls. (This is only important if you are making both white and chocolate egg-cupcakes. Otherwise, just keep it in the one bowl.) Add the eggnog to one, the cacao (COCOA!) to the other. If it is too thick, you may want to add some more eggnog (for the yellowish batter) or a bit more milk (for the brown batter) (Mine was thick back there when they tried to make me whisk rubber cement. I actually didn't have to add any extra liquid here.)



6. Drizzle about 1 teaspoon of sunflower oil (Vegetable oil is A-OKAY!) in each egg and turn/flip it in your hand until the inside is completely covered. Get rid of any excess oil. (I put a little bit of oil in the first egg, swirled it around then dumped the excess in the next egg, swirled it around and dumped the excess in the next egg etc, doing the same for the rest of the eggs. I was already wasting five eggs, man.)



7. The hardest part is to fill the eggs, you can do it with a teaspoon and A LOT OF patience or you use a piping bag with a small nozzle. (Katti reminded me that I could MacGuyver a piping bag out of a regular ziploc bag. I just filled it up and cut a hole in the corner like I've seen good old Alton Brown do hundreds of times.) If you want bicolored cake eggs, start with one batter and finish with the second batter. Fill the eggs up to half and two thirds full, sort of trial and error - I seem to never hit the exact amount: Sometimes it is too few and the eggs will look incomplete or it is too much and the batter escapes through the holes, making a mess. You can easily remove the excess parts after they're cooled down, so better add a bit more. (It is really hard to tell how full the eggs are. Make sure to have a bright light source around to hold the eggs up to. Maybe I had small eggs (probably) but filling them up to two thirds full totally made them overflow. But this kid is right, just pick off the extra when it has cooled down a bit and you are fine. It was super easy.)



8. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. (Again, mine were great after 23 minutes because my stove is crazy lame) A wooden skewer should come out clean, if the cake eggs are done. (Or a loyal toothpick!) Remove from the oven and let cool down completely before cracking them open and peeling off the shell. (I am sorry but the coolest part is the fact that you cooked them in the shell. Leave the shell on, stick them in an egg carton, and be proud of yourself. You just cooked cupcakes in eggshells! If you just want egg-shaped cupcakes, get a jello mold, loser.)

Again, I'll let you guys know how they taste and if the cake mix really does make it easier. I am thinking of using my five extra eggs to make iles flottantes tomorrow night. If I do, there will totally be pictures. I'll keep you posted!

I made these today:



We are going to Nick's parents' house linner tomorrow and I've wanted to make these awesome egg-cupcakes for about a year. I sadly found the recipe right after Easter last year.

I would have taken pictures of the process but somebody couldn't find my camera the last time I wanted it and wouldn't wake up when I tried to get it from them this time.

So I used their cupcake pan ha ha.

I can tell you one thing, you definitely have to have a lot of patience. I thought "this is the hardest part" at every single step. I still don't know which part was the worst. Probably the last.

I just made chocolate ones because I don't know where to find eggnog at this time of year. The only bad part about that was the fact that they overflowed and looked really...gross when they came out of the oven. And I only cooked them for 23 minutes instead of the 25-30. Oh and I had to convert the recipe to American. I'll post my converted recipe at the end of this. The converted recipe can be found by clicking "read more" at the end of this post. It will take you to a new page that has the recipe right at the beginning of this post so you don't have to scroll past it and I can be awesome.

It was a lot of fun though. I'll let you guys know what the in-laws think of them tomorrow. I kept them in their shells and put them back in an egg carton for maximum awesomeosity. I'd take a picture but...

Next time I make them (probably Monday night for work on Tuesday), I'll just use cake mix instead of making it from scratch. It's pretty silly to make cupcake mix from scratch when I can just buy a box and save myself so much trouble. And there will be pictures.

Killer Balloon

I received two birthday balloons. One I received on my birthday. This balloon is still alive somehow. It still touches the ceiling and everything.

Today, this balloon stalked Katti. I was sitting in my room watching TV after work and it floated across the room to Nick's desk by the door. It appeared to be plotting something with my other balloon. I returned to watching Jon & Kate Plus 8 reruns and at some point it escaped my bedroom. I didn't notice it leave but Katti came to talk to me and the balloon was waiting for her right outside her door. To get to this point, it needed to float down from the ceiling and through my doorway. It proceeded to follow Katti down the hallway and then made a break for the kitchen. In order to get to the kitchen, it had to float down from the ceiling to get around a part where the ceiling lowered a little to make room for the ducts/vents. AND IT DID IT. It then turned a corner to stop in the middle of the kitchen.

This is where it stayed and waited for us after we got back from the grocery store. I cleaned the cat's litter box and threw it back in our bedroom, hoping that it would stay there and stay away from me.

I started to get ready for bed and I went to kick it out of our room when I noticed it wasn't in the room. I searched the apartment and couldn't find it. I finally called Oliver out to see if I had just gone blind and couldn't see it but he couldn't find it either. I decided that if I was looking for it, I might as well look everywhere and opened the door to the third bedroom (the door that stays shut to conserve heat) and the balloon was hovering on the other side of the room, past some boxes.

I am keeping it in there. This other balloon better watch it or it might get kicked out too.

Birthdupdate

See what I did there? Remember when I promised you a birthday update and then nothing happened? Well I slept in today and can't sleep so here it is! Finally.

I worked on B-Day because otherwise I would have just sat at home. Alone. And I wouldn't have gotten as many birthday wishes. Work had a mini party for Cindy and I (her birthday is the day after mine) and I realized that I do not want to be working there indefinitely like Ashley. After work I waited for Nick to get home and we went to meet my parents for dinner at Palace of India. My dad was out of town (like he tends to be on my birthday. I don't know if you remember but he was out of town the day I left for France. And he felt awful about it.) but he made it just in time. The food was delicious. My family was awesome. My mom gave Nick a hug (A HUG!) so I think she's finally decided that he is sticking around for a while. Mind you we have been only dating for almost five years, Mother. But whatever. She's weird.

I got a cool retro red dress that I would find and link to for you but I have a cute cat on my lap. I also got a shirt that says "I got an A+ in 'French'" and John Hodgman's new book (autographed!). Oh and a board game I wanted for Christmas that Katti has already found out how to win. Yay!

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we didn't do anything. I got moody (see below) and hid in Nick's car to surprise him at work. That "ruined his surprise" of buying himself ice skates so we can go ice skating together all the time. We planned to go ice skating that night but got sleepy and napped instead. We didn't go Sunday because of the game and finally went Monday.

Monday I got out of class early and went to dinner with Nick's parents (and Jess and Ryan and roommates). We went to Logan's and it was delicious. It turns out that they bought this 2002 Chrysler Town and Country and are fixing it up for me and Nick! After they fix everything it should only cost $1000 and they'll give us a year to pay them back. So soon Nick and I will have an awesome, pimpin', working van/car to drive! This means road trips, kids! And happy Rachel again! Yay!

Nick took me ice skating after dinner. I had to relearn everything but it came back to me quickly. And I wore my own ice skates! I don't know what it is with ice skating but I didn't stop smiling the entire time. It was perfect.

Then we got home and I wasn't feeling well. My nose starting running and I seriously said "oh no I better not be getting a cold" and went to bed early. I woke up with a death cold. Stage 2 of Nick's death cold. I've been sleeping ever since.

Anyway my birthday week was awesome and I'm blessed to have such awesome friends and family. Thank you all for the birthday wishes and presents. Moi, I seriously cannot wait until I get my period again so I can whip that cute little case out. Or my next hot date.

I love you all.

I may be in a mood...

Dear Life (formerly of The Cereal, now Comma My),

Thank you for the awesome birthday week. It was great to have dinner with my parents at a delicious Indian restaurant and I'm glad you let me drag Nick along while he suffered through the terminal stages of Extended Man Cold™.

I am blessed to have awesome friends that wished me a happy birthday all week long. Although work has become super lame since you decided my favorite kid needed to get fired and you brought my arch-nemesis back from Spain, it was great to have to work on my birthday and celebrate with the people I have been stuck with for the past four years. You made me look forward to graduation and leaving this town so much more!

I've got to say though, the coolest part of this birthday week has to be all the plans you decided weren't awesome enough to actually work! Instead of going ice skating with my boyfriend, you gave him a cold and death cough for a week and a half more -- just long enough for him to be whiny, unbearable and asleep by eight o'clock every night of my birthday week. It was also really nice of you to give my roommate a great car, tempt us with a Sonic located closer to us and then decide that her car needed a new alternator the day before the planned trip, trapping us at my school for an hour and a half longer than we really wanted to be there. That was great.

I have one thing to thank you for though. For my birthday weekend, I will pay rent, pay all overdue bills (most likely on my own) and get a haircut then be unable to eat or do anything for the rest of the week. Thank you so much! This is even better than the time you tempted me with seeing the friends I hadn't seen since August and then decided that all six backup plans wouldn't work. And I thought that was awesome. Oh man, I didn't even know you were going to get me a birthday present!

I guess I wanted to just say thanks. Now I know that I really should never plan anything ever again.

However, if you want to come to my graduation, I was just planning on becoming poor and homeless afterward. I don't need a new car, we only need one door to be able to open really and who doesn't love scraping off the outside and inside of the car? I also was just planning on staying in Michigan and never getting a job with my bachelor's degree. Maybe I should plan on drowning in all my debt? Alone? Because I'm planning on never being engaged or married and I never truly wanted kids.

If you want to ruin those plans, go ahead.

Love,
Rachel

P.S. No, I did not get to make that birthday cake, Toi. Because I planned on it and I wanted to.

Birthday week!

I decided that my birthday week (a week-long celebration of your birthday beginning the week of your birthday) will begin tomorrow as my birthday is too close to the end of the month for actual birthday week enjoyment.

Nick and I commenced birthday week by making frozen pizzas and drinking sparkling wine. Both of us being quite buzzed, Nick is now asleep.

I think I'll let him sleep.


I went with Katti and Oliver today to get this. Do you see that brush? It's really a comb. It's weird. But it was free.

I've never done the whole makeup thing so it is taking a little bit of time to get used to. I am not looking forward to taking it off.

And I poked myself in the eye a couple of times. Now my eye is bloodshot. But it is gorgeously bloodshot.

I am going to look for my camera tonight and tomorrow so you guys can have photographic proof of the awesomeness that is birthday week.

P.S. I totally am still laughing about my facebook fight. One of her skanky friends messaged me and I can't figure out why. I think she was trying to defend her but I seriously asked her why she was contacting me.

LIFE UPDATE, STAT!

Exam week
I had two exams. They were easy. I got a C+ in my art class and cried. I found out that my favorite new kid at work got fired and cried. Bieneman said we could turn in our final projects on Friday but the weather was bad and our internet was out so I didn't. I emailed him on December 23rd to let him know it was coming. I looked at my grade and saw it was an F and emailed him apologizing on its tardiness.

CHRISTMAS
The Eve: Nick worked until 4:30 so we weren't able to leave until he got home. Then, me being awesome, I had to wrap all the presents with pirate and wedding wrapping paper. Or I would have if I didn't drag Katti to Meijer with me to grab the first wrapping paper I saw. I quickly wrapped all the things I had made in my art class for my family and gathered up the roomies. Around 6 we finally started up to my parents' house where we exchanged family gifts and Nick got money then we went up to Nick's parents' house and pigged out. We spent the night there and I barely slept because I always get so excited for Christmas.

I'm boring myself.

I got awesome PJs from my dad and everyone loved them. Christmas Day was weird because I'm usually there to see everyone open their presents but this was the first year I didn't.

I got ice skates from my parents and cried.

BREAK
I played WoW with Katti and Oliver and only worked last week. I found out that Bieneman actually meant to give me an incomplete and put in the wrong date so he's okay that I'm handing it in super late. I still have to do it and I'm lazy but that's my project for this week.

Oliver started at Comcast on the 6th. Which is cool because now they have money and they will maybe pay bills for the third time since we've lived together.

I also found out that the book I requested through interlibrary loan last semester finally came in. So I can start my French paper before the incomplete deadline and get both my incompletes done early.

If I'm not lazy.

Nick got me WiiFit. Did not cry but felt guilty.

So that's what you've been missing.

I am already excited for this semester to be over and it's only the first week.

Graduation, here I come!

P.S. Ben and his stupid girlfriend got engaged. Everyone hates her and the two of them as a couple. They have not been together a year. They are so poor, both their parents are helping to pay their bills and rent. Ben did not tell us they were engaged, facebook did. Katti railed on Ben for not telling us. He said he didn't know facebook told everyone and he was planning on telling us. He suggested we all get together to celebrate some weekend. Katti's reply: "Oliver works on Saturday." We (Katti, Oliver, Nick and I) agreed that we would never celebrate their engagement because we are not happy for them. And that was that.

So the unemployment benefits that Oliver totally was going to get and sit on while he didn't look for a job?

He didn't get them.

So Katti and Oliver have barely any money. They just received their stimulus check in the mail so there's that.

But other than that?

Rent is due in two weeks. They haven't paid us for cable, gas or electric since we moved in.

Nick and I cannot afford to do this but we can't afford to do it alone either.

Bummer.

Every presidential candidate should visit one of Michigan's unemployment offices.

Oliver lost his job last week. Katti and I accompanied him to the unemployment office Michigan Works!. I can only assume the office was named by someone who actually has a job in Michigan. Not the 25+ people I saw who didn't.

In the ten minutes we were there, I saw three different people who represented what is happening today to average American citizens.

One man was on the phone with his bank (or trying to be on the phone with his bank...no one was answering his phone calls) trying to figure why his house was being foreclosed. The bank he had his mortgage through went under and another bank bought it out. He was upset that he didn't have a say in what happened with his money and his house.

Another man was wondering why he needed his birth certificate for his new job.

And then there was Oliver. Oliver worked for two and a half years at the same job, was making $14 an hour plus commissions. He was not allowed to take time off when his niece had a funeral for the baby she miscarried. He almost couldn't take time off for his sister-in-law's wedding and rehearsal dinner. Then he slowly got crappier and crappier shifts as they brought in new people who they could pay less and the company went under. He was just an average unemployed guy and like every average unemployed person in that room, he had no idea how to apply for unemployment.

The unemployment website and process is confusing. He did everything that he thought he needed to do, and they told him he was okay but he still had no idea if he was done, getting unemployment or if he still needed to do something. And he's pretty smart.

How can a system help people when the system can't even explain itself well enough for those who need it to understand what they need to do?

Instead of going to big rallies and stupid debates where they repeat the same things over and over, someone needs to see what's happening here. Someone needs to talk to us, to find out what we need.

Because we need help.

Recap of Rachel's life

Since you all abandoned me to your happy little homes, here's what has happened:

Nick and I decided to move in with Katti/Oliver (in their GIANT house) because it would be way cheaper. I didn't really want to but $250ish compared to the $805 that we're paying where we are sounded great. (House residents: Katti, Oliver, Ben, Ben's new gf, Elliott, Dickhead, Mumbling Man, Jeremy)

The only problem was, they didn't have a room for us.

So they decided to kick out one of the two roommates who were not paying rent on time.

Once that was decided, one of Katti/Oliver's roommates, Dickhead, made a pass at me. I didn't care but Nick refused to move in with Katti/Oliver after that. He later recanted but it didn't matter because....

Two days later, while she was trying to tell him he was a douchebag (but in a nice way) Dickhead made a pass at Ben's new girlfriend, WannabeWinehouse.

WW told Ben they couldn't live in the house anymore.

Katti/Oliver were just going to try to find new roommates when they found out that Dickhead knew he screwed up and hit on WW just to screw everyone over.

Ben kicked Dickhead out.

Mumbling Man left. Without paying rent. Without telling everyone.

So Katti/Oliver decided to forget about living in the awesome house and I suggested we find a place together since our lease was up at the same time (August 1st).

We were leisurely looking at places and everything was going smoothly until Nick and I found out our lease was actually up June 30. Not August 1st.

Nick, Katti, Oliver and I went into frantic apartment hunting mode. Every place we looked at was too small for Katti.

Finally Nick and I decided to just pay fifty dollars more to stay at our apartment for another month.

After looking at a few more places (each too small for all the things Katti/Oliver had gathered during their six and a half years together) someone had the brilliant idea of looking at a three bedroom apartment in the apartment complex we are in now.

We checked it out, it passed and we decided to take it.

We sign the lease on Friday. And Nick and I are going to move all our stuff in on that same day.

We can manage this because the three bedroom apartment is across the sidewalk from our current apartment. So it's down the stairs, out the door, across a sidewalk and ta da!

I am just so excited that this whole thing is over. Finally.

Confessions/Rants

I recently discovered the truth about myself. I have kept it hidden from so many people for so long but I feel that now you must know the truth.





I am a multilevel dork.

I am a closeted comic book nerd. I am excited for the Captain America and Thor movies that are not due out for years.

I like using HTML more than being able to press ctrl b here. I'd rather less than b greater than rather than do this ctrl thing. It makes me feel common.

I love Mario Kart but when I get frustrated with it, I pop in GTA IV and go work for the mob or drive down sidewalks taking down everyone in my path.

If a band is popular, I no longer like it. only like it ironically.

I think Angelina Jolie is a crazy whore.

I hate people who don't use blinkers. Especially when they change lanes.

I always drive the speed limit.

When we saw the preview for the new X-Files movie (BOTH TIMES), I squealed and flailed (BOTH TIMES).

Whenever there was an in-joke during the Hulk movie, I was excited.

I have not watched Trapped in the Closet since my last update.

I do not have a place to live after July 31 and this fact worries me more every day. Sadly, I am tired of looking at apartments already.

The Smiths will forever be my favorite band.

Music is very important to me. I cannot write papers without music. I clean with music. It is hard for me to drive our car because we don't have a radio and I, therefore, have no music.

Improper spelling drives me insane. I don't care where it is. Firefox automatically corrects your spelling. Get it, losers. In this same vein, I did not label one of my boxes "accessories" because I could not remember if both letters were doubled and it would pain me if I was incorrect. It instead got an &c.

People who cannot use the correct your/there drive me insane. I can always see it like it is jumping off the page/screen. Nick is one of these people. It should bother me more but when he does it, I never notice.