I was planning on making these for a pot luck months ago but got sick the day of the party. The little meaty guys have been stuck in my head so when my friend had another potluck, I busted out the cupcake tins.
I used this recipe with slight variations due to laziness. The recipe is for regular size cupcakes, not mini. I made minis because it was a pot luck and I wanted everyone to get to try one!

Step 1. Mix everything in a big bowl. The directions say with your hands but I was reluctant to touch the meats. This is not one of my prettier batters.

Step 2. Grease and fill the cupcake cups with meats. The meat shrinks so it is good to fill the cups to the top and pack it in so the cups don’t detach from the meat.

Step 2b. While you are doing all of this, boil some potatoes. I boiled the hell out of mine so I wouldn’t have to work hard to get the lumps out. You want the mashed potatoes to be nice and smooth so they look like icing.

Step 3. While meat is cooking, make your mashed potatoes. I decided to use a few drops of blue food coloring to make it looking more icing like.

Step 4. When the meats are done, ice those bitches! I slopped on a lot of icing but it still looked cute. I chopped shredded cheese into small bits to look like sprinkles.

Keep them warm, mashed potatoes don’t taste great when cold. Unless you’re serving them to kids. The kids at the party shoved the cold cupcakes into their mouths like rabid beasts.

I’m not a big fan of meatloaf but these tasted pretty good. My mom is asking me to make them for Thanksgiving!

I made bruschetta tonight with tomatoes and onions from my mom’s garden. It’s pretty tasty even though I fucked up and added too much balsamic vinegar. I just added more tomato and basil to make up for it.
Now I can’t get the onion and garlic smell off my hands. The internet suggested salt, fondling metal bowls and mouthwash. Salt did nothing, rubbing metal just made the wok feel dirty so I tried the mouthwash. My hands don’t smell like onion anymore but now they smell like citrus mouthwash! Goddamn, I can’t win.

Other than the things I’ve touched with my dirty onion hands, the apartment smells like clean. We had a cleaning woman come in this morning and de-fur the apartment. I threw some stuff on the back porch last night and the living room almost looks livable now. I still need to work on find a nice, cheap couch.

We gave my roommate’s cat to a friend tonight so we are on our way to become fur free! I am cruising Craigslist for a new desk chair and maybe a new couch. Not that she messed up the couch but it is horribly ugly.

My mom gave me some vegtables from her garden and I made some awesome pico de gallo. I should make it more often, it’s really simple. The onions actually made me cry while cutting them! That’s never happened to me before so it must be because my mom has an awesome garden.

This whole patriotism thing can suck me but I was loving the backyard fireworks this weekend. I stayed out late Thursday and Friday so instead of cursing the 2am fireworks in the alley, I was on my back porch watching them. Due to a technical failure (listening to a boy) I could barely see the city’s fireworks show on the 3rd. North Ave beach may be crowded on the 3rd but there are a bunch of goddamn buildings in the way between you and the fireworks. A ton of other people didn’t seem to know this either so I don’t feel too stupid.

Boxing boot camp is almost finished so I need something new to keep me active. Jabb boxing gym has similar classes that I might go to. I like boxing but I really want to run away and join the circus. OK, it’s not quite that kind of trapeze training but it’s still trapeze! My upper body strength has got slightly less sad since starting boxing but it’s still pretty pathetic. I’m hoping the aerial training class will help me work toward the awesome back I want. (Awesome back=showing off tattoos)

I didn’t do a pictorial like I usually do with new recipes but I made some really good granola just now. I’m taking spoonfuls while waiting for it to cool. I’m concerned how its going to clump when it cools. I used my friend’s family farm honey and expensive Irish oats that come in a tin. I didn’t use the wheat germ suggested in the recipe and my fruit is raisins, dried cranberries and dried cherries.

(Answer to the title is Yes. And there is a 5th,6th and 7th of July, too. Haha! Egocentric Americans!)

I’ve been slacking on meditating and not really feeling like I have a good grasp on this whole Buddha thing so I started an intro to Buddha class. I was meditating at a Zen temple/dojo and I’m taking the class at a Pure Land temple.

I’ve talked a little about the difference between Zen and Pure Land but the best comparison I’ve heard so far is that you can walk or take a boat, you’re still going to get to the same place. (That’s not the direct quote but the idea is there.)

That doesn’t mean I am giving up on meditation. I liked meditation especially at the temple. The little bit of ritual helps me focus.

The first class was about the different sects of Buddhism and where they came from. I started thinking about how long Buddhism has been around when the teacher pointed out that certain terms are Sanskrit. One person in class said his family has been part of the temple all of his life but he has never learned the basics. No Sunday school as a kid for him. Buddhism goes much deeper than reading scripture and sticking a Jesus fish on your car. It’s like gender. Society and family teach you what it means to be a girl but they don’t give you a book or make you take lessons on how to be a girl. Some people see Buddhism as more of a culture or philosophy than a religion. Older members of the temple pride themselves on not having studied Buddhism, they say it’s not necessary when you live it.

I like the teacher for this class. He’s an old white guy, retired teacher, a forgetful professor type. He became interested in Buddhism about 30 years ago but I think he comes from a Jewish family. I googled him and found a site with his poetry. Some of his poems are dirty! I am well aware that seniors like to get it on but it’s always surprising to see evidence of it.

The nice weather has put me into a good mood. Pink jelly shoes also put me in a good mood. I had a hard time finding jelly shoes last year but Target has a bunch this year. They’re not comfy or practical but they scream summer nostalgia.
I walked around a lot yesterday. I stopped at Starfruit along the way. They have Kefir frozen yogurt. It’s a little bitter at first but the more I got into my cup of cherry, the more I liked it. And according their noisy, boingy site, it’s all low fat.

I brought my mini cupcakes and cherries in snow to the parents’ for Easter and some of it was actually eaten! The cupcakes were a bit misshaped because I couldn’t find mini cupcake baking cups so the cupcakes stuck to the bottom of the pan and I had to pry them out with a knife. Everyone made fun of their appearance and likeness to poop but everyone ate them.

Cherries in snow was a bit harder sell. A few of my family members ate it. I thought it had a good contrast between the sweet cherries and milk gelatin. I took the leftovers to the boy’s place and since he doesn’t actually have food in his fridge, he is probably reading this, thinking about how he forgot about the dessert in his fridge. Yes, it’s probably still good.

I’ve been trying to eat healthy so I’ve been making more food rather than buying prepackaged. I like to take recipes down to a basic level, something I can make anytime. Tonight I made guacamole and chips. Guacamole consisted of some leftover avocado, tomato and onion powder. Chips were flour tortillas baked in the oven. Tadas! Chips and guac.

I have been making an effort to lose weight for a month now and I recently weighed in on a good scale and found out I have only lost a couple pounds. I’m eating better and more active so there is obviously a need to rework the plan. I’m also tired a lot. I started using FitDay again to keep track of my foods and activity. I talked to a few people that have lost weight in the past, consulted the internets and to my surprise I need to be eating more. My calorie intake was too low (which is why I feel OK about just eating a snack).
The elliptical was betraying me, too. So I started doing a short, hard workout on the elliptical then moving to weights. I’ve just started doing these things this week. I’m sore already. I need to weigh in more and it’s a pain to hunt down my coworker that owns the “official” scale so I’m going to buy a scale. I should have been weighing myself weekly all month but my previous superstitions about motivation and weight loss kept me away. This time I am giving myself a week and if there is no change, reworking the plan again.

I’m going to the parent’s tomorrow for Easter. I don’t actually celebrate the holiday but I do like food. I’m being nice this year which means no blood of christ filled communion cake and no burning cross cake.

I am bring my Xmas tree butter in case my aunt that brought lamb butter to Thanksgiving last year comes to dinner. I will warn people not to eat it since it has been in my freezer for a couple years (at least). It keeps my lamb butter company!

Since I am trying to lose weight I offered to make a low fat dessert. I was thinking a fruit tart but I know how my family rolls. Chocolate, icing, pie..fruit wouldn’t go over well unless it was covered in sugar. So I found an awesome recipe for mini chocolate cupcakes. I just baked my first batch and they are really good and only 177 calories per serving (3 mini cupcakes). They are kind of expensive to make because unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder is $8 a box. I probably could have substituted something cheaper but I’m not even sure what Dutch processed is and the first time I make a recipe I look to do it by the book then improvise later.

I also found an interesting recipe called Cherries in snow. It’s milk gelatin covered in a cherry/port mixture. It looks good but I am not sure my family would agree. I am going to make it anyway but I have the cupcakes as a sure winner and the gelatin as something to chase them around the kitchen with yelling “just try it!”

It takes a strong ego to clothes shop with a big ass.

I tried to find a New Years Eve dress tonight. Something a little dressy but not sparkly like I did last year.

Why dress shopping sucks this year:

Trapeze dresses
The model doesn’t even look good in this dress. I tried on one, thought I looked like I belong in a 70’s sci-fi movie, made some raygun noises in the mirror and changed.

Jewel dresses
I’m excited about wearing real jewelry with my dress, I don’t need you to bedazzle it for me. A lot of the extra large “jewels” are placed around necklines which are not good for making the dress cover boobies. Unlike girl in picture, I like to have some parts clothed.
That covers most of the dresses so now all that’s left is

ugly prints and weird ruffled dresses

I would rather not look like I belong on a shelf in a 7 year old’s room.

So big project is done at work. It ended up going really well, we got awards, everybody hugged. Ya, I’m serious about that last part. I got a hug from the CEO! And I got a special shout out for being nice. Nice! Haha!

Now my boss is taking time off for the holidays so I won’t have much to do. I played with the bling today. I would loves me some alexandrite and diamonds but I always opt for something more practical.  Alexandrite is just so pretty! It changes colors in different light.

I did more Xmas shopping on Amazon today and updated my wishlist because my mom asked me what I wanted for Xmas and I just kind of stared even though I was thinking about what I wanted from the parents earlier in the week.

I found my big brother’s MySpace profile and he lies in it and say he is 10 years younger than he is! Ha!

Today was pretty damn girly.

I went clothes shopping. I didn’t get what I wanted, which is a shiny shirt for holiday parties but I got other stuff.

Then I went to Ulta and sprayed myself with too many Demeter fragrances so I smelled like a Sugar and Spice Laundry Mojito. I’m not a perfume type girl but I love me some Demeter.

My trip to Ulta was not to play with scents, it was to get hair dye. I love having red hair or red highlights but they fade out so quick that it’s not worth getting them done professionally. So I tried the at home all over color/highlight kit and it didn’t turn out too bad. There’s one section of highlights that is way too light but its under my top layer of hair so I’m not concerned.

And tomorrow I’m going to Macy’s with the parents and they have a Lush boutique in the store so more girly-ness!

Thanksgiving was not too eventful. My aunt brought lamb butter. She claimed she thought it was turkey butter but no, that’s definitely a lamb and this has definitely been sitting in your freezer since Easter. So I did the only thing you can do with months old lamb butter. I decapitated it during prayer.