5. And my cupcake specialty is...

Who came up with the phrase "if at first you don't succeed; try, try again?" Clearly, they have not met me, because if they had, the phrase would be: "If at first you don't succeed; stop what you are doing, find the nearest exit, and keep your head down so no one recognizes you."  So as you know, I've been trying my hand at homemade pizza and, as you also know, it hasn't gone very well. I keep hoping that the next time will go better, but that's not been the case. Two weeks ago, I decided to make homemade margarita pizza. I won't go in to details, but let's just say it ended with a house full of smoke, a very well-hidden kitty, and me balling my eyes out on my basement stairs and vowing I would never, EVER make homemade pizza again...until five minutes later, when I remembered that my pizza dough recipe made enough for two pizzas, and I had a ball of dough in my freezer. Eff. I've been avoiding that ball of dough like the plague. A very cold plague, squatting in my freezer, glaring at me every time the door is open. You're a bitch, pizza dough. Anyway, I decided that I should just make a final pizza, and then I could bid farewell to my homemade pizza days. So, tonight I went all out and made a chicken alfredo pizza. Homemade sauce, fried bacon, lots of cheese. LOTS of cheese.

My damn good alfredo sauce. It's damn good.

As always, the prep went fine. And actually, getting the pizza in the oven went fine too. But then my damn good alfredo sauce decided to share the love with the bottom of the oven and well, the rest is history. Thank goodness I'm an expert at disarming my smoke alarm! Twenty minutes later, in a very cold kitchen (did I mention I had to open all the kitchen and mudroom windows?  Oh, well I did...) I got to eat my pizza. And it was actually very good! But now, homemade pizza, I bid you farewell. From now on, I'm only sticking to pizza of the frozen or delivery variety.

My pretty pizza!

 

So, after ten months of cupcake making, I've found my specialty! And it's not at all what I expected. My (current) cupcake specialty, the recipe responsible for another item crossed of my list is....BUFFALO CHICKEN CUPCAKES! Ok, I know what you're thinking: chicken and buffalo sauce in a cupcake? Nasty! Well good news: they are nothing like that at all. I found this recipe on one of my favorite cooking blogs: The Girl Who Ate Everything. (I highly, highly recommend her blog, especially if you're in a cooking rut. I've found some of my favorite recipes there.) Anyway, these cupcakes are basically a wonton shell, layered with a mixture of chicken, cream cheese, buffalo sauce, ranch, and cheddar cheese, layered with another wonton, layered with more mixture, topped with cheese. Yum. I've made them three times in ten days. They are SO. GOOD.

 

Cupcakes pre-oven

Deliciousness! (Please ignore the giant bite out of the one on the right)

 

So, how did I come to the revelation that these were my cupcakes? My special cupcakes? The cupcakes that defined my year of being 25? Well, in the past year, I've developed an obsession with buffalo chicken anything...dip, chili, nachos, you name it. So these seemed a perfect fit. I've also found, in all of my baking extravaganzas, that I'm simply not capable of eating an entire batch of cupcakes. But with these, I can refrigerate the chicken mixture and make them up at my own convienience. I can also refrigerate the leftover cupcakes and they reheat well. (Which is saying something, because I hate leftovers.) And, to top it all off, I felt that these were "outside the box" and I like thinking outside the box. So, there you go. But fear not. This is not the end of my cupcake making adventures. I got three cupcake cookbooks for Christmas as well as a frosting and decorating kit. Oh, and I'm baking cupcakes tomorrow for a baby shower. Yes, a baby shower. For the first time, my cupcakes will be going on the road. Here's hoping I don't burn down my kitchen...and if I do, you'll get to read about it on Sunday.



8. The One I Can FINALLY cross off...

Happy New Year, blog readers! I hope that by this point, you've all recovered from your NYE shenanigans. Mine involved The Dark Knight, wine, Chex Mix, The Dark Knight Rises, and more wine. Holla! Probably one of the most excellent ways I've ever celebrated the New Year. At some point during The Dark Knight Rises, I started writing down my goals for 2013. I was fine with my list being the extent of my goals, but the list expires on March 19, which still leaves me with a lot of time to create some chaos. So I figured, what the hell? Let's set some goals.

1. I'm going to pay off SOMETHING this year. I'm still trying to figure out what (I've got a few choices...ha) but by December 31st, I'll have one less payment to figure into my budget.

2. I'm going to go out more. Yes, I'm 25 and this is one of my goals. If I'm not at work, I'm at home, but I want to make a point to get out and do more. Baseball games, martini bars, bowling, whatever. I just need to have more fun this year.

3. I'm going to run the Bix this year. And by run, I clearly mean, walk. For those of you not from this area, the Bix is a 7 mile race held every year at the end of July. People from all over come to run it. I've lived in the QC for almost eight years now, so I figure it's about time I participate.

4. I'm not settling this year. Take that as you will. But if I'm not feeling it, it's not happening.

5. I'm going to try to come up with a witty response to the popular "why are you not married/why don't you have kids/why do you hate happiness" questions.

So, it appears 2013 is going to be a busy year. I better stop procrastinating.

One thing I haven't procrastinated about? Number 8: Let my job just be "my job." If you don't remember this one or haven't been with me for that long, read about it here. There have been several times I was going to cross this one off, but I kept making myself hold out. It's a good thing I did, because as soon as I would have crossed it off, it would have gone back on the list. But then I got my ultimate test. As I mentioned a few posts ago, our show this year is going to be "The Wizard of Oz." It's a fitting choice because we have seven girls graduating this year. Seven. Seven girls that I've taught for three to six years and have gotten to know and care about quite a bit. Anyway, two summers ago, I was watching an episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" and there was a hip hop piece to a song called "Coming Home." I think I watched it about a hundred times in one day before deciding that I would be using that song if I ever did a Wizard of Oz recital. Fast forward two years, I'm doing that show, I'm using that song, my cast is AWESOME, and...I've set such high expectations for this piece that I can't choreograph it. Like, at all. I think I started it like 3-4 different times and ended up erasing it every time. Normally, starting over that many times a) wouldn't happen and b) wouldn't be a big deal if it did, but I started teaching this piece this past Tuesday. As in five days ago. I only had to teach half, and the first half is blocking so that worked out fine. But I have to teach the second half this Tuesday. I was pretty much panicking (quietly) and terrified (x10) that the piece wasn't going to get done, was going to suck, was going to be as bad as my Ghostbusters dance (the worst piece I've ever choreographed...I don't like to talk about it) and that, worst of all, both my dancers and I would just be disappointed. I hate to disappoint people. I'd rather have people angry at me than be disappointed. But I digress. Now, the Steph pre-list would have just spent my nights at home trying to work on choreography and watch endless hours of videos to inspire myself. But, I'm not allowed to do that...and didn't want to do that. So, I didn't. Ok, there was one night when I watched two videos right before bed (I was hoping I'd dream up some awesome choreography) but that was all. On Friday, I finished the piece, at work, and couldn't be happier with how it turned out. And that, my friends, was the ultimate test. That much pressure for one piece and I didn't cave. I didn't bring it home with me. I didn't give up my "me" time for work. Now, I can FINALLY cross it off the list. Not to say that I won't ever bring work things home with me...my job is one of my passions, and it's hard to keep your passion in just one place (that's what she said?) but I'm really going to do my best to leave work at work.

I am officially down to 65 days until my 26th birthday. 65 days to finish my list...