He's going to be a good dad.

me: Stephen said that he hasn't gotten any sleep since they brought the baby home. Welcome to parenthood!
Mark: Babies love whiskey.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes and the French Sweeney Todd

Cinnamon cake:
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
¾ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup sour cream
Vanilla Cake Mix (YCoC says not white cake mix but that made no sense to me since the vanilla cake mix IS the white cake mix.)
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Buttercream:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
½ cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup Cinnamon Toast Crunch powder

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees in your friend's mom's wonderfully well-stocked kitchen with the crackerjack convection ovens. 

- In a large bowl (that took me three trips around the kitchen opening all the cabinet doors to find), combine the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Mix in sour cream. 

- Add cake mix and cinnamon and mix until smooth. Batter will be very thick and will smell of French toast. Resist the urge to eat raw cake batter (OR eat a tiny bit of cake batter). 

- Bake cupcakes for 15-18 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tin and let cool on cooling racks. 

- Buttercream: beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add vanilla then powdered sugar in batches (I can not stress this "in batches" part enough unless you want a confectioner's sugar cloud in your kitchen. It wasn't even my kitchen so I was doubly careful). Adjust consistency with milk. Mix in crushed cereal. 

- Frost cupcakes and top with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Try to watch Apocalypse Now (no longer on Netflix's instant view!) and watch most of Delicatessen instead. Suspenders, short shorts, and musical bed springs, how awesome. Cuddle with Teddy the Yorkie (who did not warm up to me until I had been there for at least two hours). 

(recipe adapted from Your Cup of Cake)

so super bowl sunday

 

 

 

My last name doesn't actually have that many na's. 

"draw me like one of your French girls"

 

 

Cheesy corn dip (adapted from Notions & Notations of a Novice Cook)

three cans of corn, drained

about a cup of sour cream

1 green bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper, diced

half a red onion, diced

s&p

cayenne

about a cup or two shredded pepper jack cheese

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

2 Tbsp. butter

- preheat oven to 375. 

- melt 1 Tbsp. butter over medium heat and sauté corn until golden, set aside. Rummage through your friend's bachelor pad kitchen for a sharp knife. Give up and use the dull knife. 

- sauté onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno until translucent. Add corn, sour cream, a good amount of cheese, s&p/cayenne to taste. Try not to make disparaging remarks over the unrefrigerated marinara sauce. Fail horribly. 

- transfer to oven-safe vessel, top with remaining cheese and bake until gooey. Serve with garlic-rubbed toasted baguette slices.

- Eat all the delicious things while you "watch" the Super Bowl. Translation: eat all the delicious things while you ask annoying questions about the game of football (What IS a blitz? Is it like a blintz?), play with all the adorable children, and watch someone have an allergic reaction and refuse to make a big deal about turning beet red while his throat closes up.  

- Spend a few hours in a Centreville dive bar, watch all the local drunkards, and accidentally make googly eyes a few times.