Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

The frosting on these is A-Mazing!
This is my combination of a cake recipe and a frosting recipe I found on www.tastykitchen.com

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

• FOR THE CUPCAKES:
• 1-¾ cup All-purpose Flour
• ¾ Tablespoons Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ¼ teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1-½ stick Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
• 1-⅓ cup White Granulated Sugar
• 3 whole Large Eggs
• ⅔ cups Peanut Butter, Creamy Or Chunky, Reduced Fat Or Regular
• ½ cups Sour Cream
• ½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1 jar seedless raspberry jam

• FOR THE BUTTERCREAM:
• ½ cups Butter, Softened
• ⅔ cups Peanut Butter
• 3 cups Powdered Sugar (you May Need 1 More Cup)
• 1 Tablespoon Of Milk (have 1-2 More On Hand)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 pinch Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.
Whisk dry cupcake ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition.

Reduce speed to low. Mix the remaining wet ingredients in a bowl. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape sides of bowl and mix until fully combined. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.
Bake cupcakes until testers inserted into centers come out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins on wire racks. (Cupcakes will keep, covered, for up to 3 days, unless otherwise noted.)

When cupcakes are cooled, frost with raspberry jam, let set while you make the frosting.


For the frosting:
Cream butter and peanut butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add powdered sugar with mixer on low speed and gradually add milk and vanilla extract. Add a pinch of salt and mix until frosting is smooth. If too thick, add more milk; if too thin, add more sugar.
Put the frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a tip. Poke a hole in the cupcake with the pastry tip and fill the cupcake. Then frost the cooled cupcakes as desired.

I topped mine with little miniature pb&j sandwiches, they look super cute! I found the mini toast at Costplus World Market.

Twitter

I must say, I do not get Twitter.

Once upon a time, I signed up for Twitter and I was on it for about three days, before I deleted my account.  I just did not understand how it all worked.  I was not sad to leave Twitter.  My life did not end, I did not feel an urge to sign on again and see what was happening in so and so's life.  It just was not intriguing to me.

However, I was once again struck with the Twitter bug yesterday and I signed up.  I must say this again, I do not get Twitter.  I don't understand how it works, why people love it so much, what the point of it all is and why it exists.

I suppose I will give it a few more days before I make my final judgement.

I mostly want to know how you get people to follow you and how you find your friends and others to follow.  I realize it should not be this hard, but it is proving to be so for me.

Are you on Twitter?

Sincerely, Lost in Tweets

Gavin DeGraw

Gavin DeGraw...

He is awesome.  I have followed his music since 2004, maybe a little earlier.  I think at times I have followed him so much, that I may have annoyed my friends.  For example, my junior year of college, I listened to his album 'Chariot' in the morning when I got up and any other time throughout the day that I was able to get a song or two in.

It didn't help that, that was the year I first saw him in concert.  He had come to town and played at Claremont Colleges.  It was pouring rain... I mean pouring!  It was an excellent show, he performed well and I still remember how great it felt to be there.  I was supposed to meet him after the show, but my mom had to leave and the friends I stayed behind with didn't want to wait any longer.  So, we left, and we were not 15 feet away when we heard cheering... he showed up and I missed him.  Boo.

It turns out that my now best friend Monica was at that very same show, but we had not met yet and in the years following that show Gavin has proved to be one of our strong bonding points.

We have seen him at the House of Blue on Sunset Strip and we have seen him at a small location in San Diego called SOMA.  Each time we have seen him, we have been closer and closer to him, but had yet to meet him...

WELL!  THAT HAS ALL CHANGED NOW!

I won tickets through 104.3 myfm and on Monday June 20, 2011...  I met Gavin DeGraw and I brought Monica along for the ride!  She got to meet him as well and we both walked away with a signed photo.

We saw him at the Myfm performance studio in Burbank.  We were in the very front... his keyboard was maybe two feet away from us.  I was front and center.  We got to be there for the radio interview and he also played three songs.

1.  In Love With A Girl
2.  Not Over You (His new single, which is on the album 'Sweeter' due August 9th)
3. I Don't Want to Be

Everything was perfect!  At the end of the performances, we all got to get our picture taken with Gavin and he really took the time to talk with each fan.  I found that to be really neat.  But, as my mom said, "If he doesn't take the time to have a photo, then he doesn't care about his fans, and without fans, he doesn't have a job."

He held my hand that I shook his with, the entire time we talked and he had is other arm around me.  I totally felt like I was in high school.  Ha ha.  I told him that I had been following him since 2004 and that I went to his bar last year.  He said, "Oh yeah?  Did you get hammered?"  I said, "No, I was with my mom, I couldn't do that."  He had a good chuckle.  I wanted to tell him so many things, but they all flew out of my head once I got up there.  Typical I am sure.  I thanked him for his music and for taking the time to chat and he thanked me, I don't really know why.

So, I pretty much think he should be my husband, but then I am a realisitc person and I know that would never happen, but it sure would be nice.

Here are the photos to prove that all of this greatness truly happened!

Gavin and Me

He's pretty tall, because I have heels on here.

Gavin and Monica

The two of us celebrating our Gavin DeGraw experience outside the studio building, with our signed photo!

Gavin was so nice and personable and that made me like him even more.  I wish him all the best and I hope he continues to make great music and continues to make me swoon!  A girl needs agood swoon every now an again.

Check his Music Out:

Chariot- His first album

(photo from uulyrics.com)

He also did this album accoustic and it is called 'Chariot Stripped'... he has all of the songs from 'Chariot', plus a few extras.

Gavin DeGraw- Self Titled second Album

(photo from clicp zones)

Free- His third album (fourth if you count Stripped)

(photo from behindthehype)

'Not Over You', the first single from his soon to be released album, 'Sweeter'

I am curious to hear all of the songs and to see what the album cover looks like.

Well, all I can say is this, "Please listen to Gavin DeGraw because he is fantastic!"  The end.

An Ode to Stacie

I had not told anyone about this blog... because I didn't want anyone to make fun of me.

But I told Stacie yesterday, when we were making hangars for our finisher medals.

So, because of that I have written and ode to Stacie:

Stacie, Stacie, Stacie
You are my friend
Stacie, Stacie
I am your friend
Stacie, Stacie
Friends together are we
Stacie, Stacie
Friends forever we will be

Enjoy your day at work Stacie!!

Operation Baking GALS (Give A Little Support)

Operation Baking GALS... what can I say?
I have been baking with this organization for nearly a year and a half now, and I am still loving it!  I already love to bake, but then to bake for someone who really deserves it, makes baking much better!

I had a surprise not too long ago, I was reading about one of the teams and they were supporting a guy I went to college with.  He was a nursing student in school and then he joined the Army, so I was very happy to bake for him.

I have been leading a team for the past few months.  I am supporting my friends husband.  He left on this deployment in February and he will hopefully be back by Christmas time.

Here is info. from the site, on what Baking GALS is all about:

Baking GALS (GALS stands for Give A Little Support) is a group of volunteer bakers from around the country who bake and ship homemade goodies to our heroic military men and women who are currently deployed in a war zone. Our goal is to show our support and send a little bit of home to remind them that we appreciate all that they do for our freedom.


And boy do we bake!  Once a month we bake and ship out the goods.  It is not out goal to hear back from those we ship cookies to, but it sure is nice when we do hear back from them.  In my year and a half (almost)  I have only heard back from about 5 people.  That is pretty amazing to me!  I also find it amazing that they used up some of their free time to send me a thanks.  But, I am speaking of an amazing group of people and I would expect nothing less.

I just love sending out goodness from my kitchen to someone who might really need a pick me up in a dangerous situation.  To send a little bit of home to a man or woman in service is really an exciting thing!  They deserve much more than cookies and a note, but this is what I can do and I will continue to do for as long as I can!!

If you are interested in joining and seeing what all of the fun is about just click on any of the Baking GALS links below:

Baking GALS  Baking GALS  Baking GALS  Baking GALS  Baking GALS

Believe me when I say this, "You won't be sorry!"

So check out the site today!!