Tiramisu Cupcakes

I am hoping to post more of my favorite recipes on this blog, another goal to add to the "why I should blog more" pile...but really, recipes are so easy to share and I love hearing what other people enjoy and then trying it out for myself! I think it's only appropriate that the first recipe I share is for my one true love (in the food world, at least!)-cupcakes.

So, here is my recipe for Tiramisu cupcakes, created by the musical director of "Annie Get Your Gun" which was performed last spring in the community theater in Beatrice-I played in the pit orchestra and got paid in yummy wares. I use a different vanilla cake recipe than she did, but you could use whatever white cake or vanilla cake recipe you prefer.

I have discovered that the recipe for vanilla cupcakes from the famous Magnolia Bakery in NYC is one of the tastiest around-however, they can be a little dry, which makes them perfect for this recipe. Check out the link for their vanilla buttercream recipe, as well.

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 ½ cups self-rising flour; 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Liquid Coffee Mixture:

1/3 c + 1Tablespoon Strong brewed coffee
1 oz Kahlua
¼ c sugar (*note-this all mixes together better if the coffee is still warm)

Marscapone Frosting
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz marscapone cheese
½ c powdered sugar
1-2 Tablespoons Kahlua

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two (capacity 12) muffin tins with liners. In a small bowl, combine flours; set aside. With electric mixer (yeah KitchenAid!) cream butter until smooth. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Spoon batter into liners, filling 3/4 full. Bake 20-25 minutes or until tester comes out clean (tops will be golden yellow). Let cool 10-15 minutes.

While the cupcakes are still in the pans, use a fork to poke holes in each cupcake.

Spoon or brush coffee mixture liberally onto each cupcake (I have found that using a pastry brush first works well, and then pouring the remaining mixture on really soaks into the cupcake better than just brushing alone).

Beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. In separate bowl, blend together mascarpone, powdered sugar, and Kahlua. Fold this into the whipped cream. Pipe on to cupcakes and top with sprinkling of cocoa, chocolate shavings, a chocolate covered coffee bean-whatever you like!

Did I mention these are really fun to make with friends?

And, just for fun, the other version of cupcakes we made that weekend...chocolate cake with mocha buttercream...they were DELICIOUSLY amazing.

Happy baking, my friends!

Yay! Friends and babies!

This post is dedicated to two wonderful boys who came to visit me and dragged their mamas along (so what if the visit was 4 months ago...).

Evan and Eric, best friends!

The second day they were in town happened to be the day our new camera arrived in the mail, so we had fun taking lots of pictures of these two happy (most of the time) subjects. And, the moms and Mara (now mom to be...more on that later!) had great times catching up, baking, and playing baby swap.

I won't say much more, because I think these adorable pictures say enough!!

Carla and Evan check out the fishes

Don't worry-Liz has a great handle on him :)

There were happy times...

There were not so happy times...

Carla and Evan, having fun

Liz and Eric, having fun!

And now, for my favorite series of photos. We start with a harmless attempt at posing..."come on boys, hold hands! that would be so cute!"

"See? We love each other!"

"I am so done with this."

And finally, one last photo of cuteness for your viewing pleasure (as if these two adorable boys weren't enough...!), Jon's newest hobby: teaching babies how to do pushups.

That's all folks! And big thanks to Liz and Carla for taking some time to bring their babies down to Beatrice so that Aunt Mara could dote...

New York City, 4 months later...

So, I am finally getting around to all of these posts. Maybe I shouldn't curse myself-maybe I should just say, I am finally getting around to the NYC post...there. Less pressure. Ahhh...

Anyhow, the first day started off with a beautiful view of the city at night.

Our friends Jared and Alina started a new habit for Jon...pictures of him licking my forehead (if I can find the original, I'll post it here sometime). So of course, this happened several times on the trip *sigh*

Have I mentioned how much I love my job? This trip was just one more of the great perks of what I happen to get paid to do...escort this lovely group of people around for a week.

We did lots of sight seeing, including a brief visit to Times Square...too many people for my tastes but I'm glad I got to experience it!

Jon and I, being the Metho-dorks that we are, did lots of old-church sightseeing too. I could probably create 5 posts with all the pictures I took in the churches and cathedrals, but I'll save you all that pain...here's just one of my favorite shots from Trinity Cathedral.

On Friday, our free day, much of the group did the Liberty Island/Ellis Island tours. Jon and I joined in but for the sake of time, we didn't get off the ferry at Liberty Island-so I have a picture of Lady Liberty's backside.

Let's just say that visiting the Statue and Ellis island is something that apparently every tourist wants to do, especially on a Friday, so Jon was a little ready to be done standing in line...here's the best shot I have from Ellis Island :)

After our dutiful patriotic tours, we moved into the city for some real fun, including F.A.O Schwartz (yes, I'm still kicking myself for NOT playing on the BIG piano...)-this one's for you, Jared.

We spent some time wandering around outside (and inside) Rockefeller Center/Plaza, and I won't lie-the whole time I was on the lookout for Tina Fey. I also expected to see Will Ferrell, thanks to the movie Elf...no such luck.

The day ended where else-on the subway. A very late night before a very early morning, including quite the eventful travel time to the airport-but that's a story for another day.

Well played, New York...well played.

I'm baaaaaaack

Well. Yes. It's been awhile. Several reasons:

1) Uhm, full time ministry is busy. And exhausting. Fun and exciting and fulfilling and all that-but good Lord there is no time for anything else. I'm working on more balance, I swear.

2) my laptop broke early fall, which means I have to fight for time on Jon's. Added with the above exhaustion, unfortunately blogging our life has not been at the top of my list.

3) I don't know what to write about. I already posted about the transitions over the past year...but really, our lives aren't that exciting. Unless you want to see pictures of our cats...there's lots of those.

4) our camera broke in August. I hate posts without pictures. But guess what...

We got a new camera!!

That, with the addition of summer, means I plan on puttin' stuff up here a whole lot more. Brace yo selves...

A taste of posts to come:

We went to NYC for the first time!

Two of my favorite babies came to visit! (it was fun having their mommas around, too...)

I learned some new baking skillz from aforementioned mammas. And, I'm super stoked to combine my love of baking with my love for this new camera...which is seriously awesome if I didn't mention that yet. Between baking and babies, I may or may not have taken a gross number of pictures this past weekend...

Anywho, that's all for now!

Vacations are amazing

But what isn't amazing, is when your camera is busted (which you don't learn until the day you arrive at your destination). So, I can tell you all about it, but I can't SHOW you all about it...to do that, you'll have to check out my friend Skye's totally awesome blog.

The first week of August we joined three other couples (friends from seminary) and headed to Possum Kingdom Lake, in Texas. It was an amazing week of great food, great company, and a beautiful setting!

We played fun games at night (Skip-Bo and Mexican Train!).
We spent a lot of time on the boat-swimming in the middle of the lake, tubing, and just cruising.
We made beer can chicken (a first for me, and I think many there...)
And guess who lost his glasses at the bottom of the lake on the first day? Yes, my husband.

So...we also got to spend some quality time at the Wal-Mart vision center! The good news is that he's in contacts again, for the first time in several years...and handsome as ever!

We watched the sun set one night-it was gorgeous.

We got a little sunburned (ok, as of two days ago I was still peeling...gross!)

All in all, it was a fabulous week! Relaxing and filled with good friend time, which I desperately needed.

And, I finished reading a REALLY GOOD BOOK that I recommend to EVERYONE!
The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. HILARIOUS! He's a great writer.

So now, it's back to the real world...which is getting quite exciting. New students moved in today at Nebraska Wesleyan University...which means I'm about to get my first dose of "are you sure you know what you got into"-so if I talk to you on a regular basis, be prepared for the semi-frequent freaking out phone calls. But it's all good. I know God brought me here, and for some inexplicable reason thinks I'm capable of leading college-age persons through this phase in their life. Hopefully I have something decent to offer them in the process!

That's all for now. Next time, hopefully something with pictures!

Newness all around

Yeah, I know, it's been awhile. I've realized that not every post has to be a breathtaking, thought-provoking masterpiece. Plus, this blog is supposed to be about OUR LIFE, not just my thoughts on the world around me. So, I'm going to try really hard to update more frequently on what's actually happening in our lives, even if it's just a few sentences about our weekend or something.

So, here's the world's fastest recap:

• May 15th: Jon and Mara Graduate from Perkins School of Theology
• May 17th: Jon and Mara move out of their house in Red Oak, TX.
• May 18th-June 24th Jon and Mara adopt the transient life and rotate between the guest beds of various family members. We had a great time visiting not just our parents but family and friends we haven't had as much opportunity to spend good, quality time with since moving down to Texas.
• June 24th: aside from this being our 4th wedding anniversary, we moved into our new home in Beatrice, NE
• July 1: Jon begins his appointment as the Associate Pastor at Centenary UMC in Beatrice. Mara begins her appointment as the University Minister at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln.

More to come!

What if...no, really, what if?

Lately I've felt a bit bombarded by this question. It's been almost a year since the UMC launched the "ReThink Church" campaign, and one of the major components of that was a bunch of questions starting with "what if..." What if church wasn't just a building? What if church was thousands of doors? Many of my friends and colleagues have used this as a discussion starter, and many churches have acted on this in a variety of ways.

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of hearing Donald Miller speak at a nearby church (my reflections on that experience as a whole require an entirely different post...maybe I'll get to it someday. Let's say I learned a lot about why I like the tradition that I'm a part of). A few weeks ago Don issued a challenge on his blog titled "The Single Most Powerful Question You Can Ask". Guess what it was: "What if...?" This was also the focus of what he talked about on Sunday. So, needless to say, over the past year, I've been asking this question a lot, and thinking about honest answers.

Today I woke up with a thought in my head. It was a what if question...

What if the United Methodist Church actually embodied it's connectionalism? To me, this is what it would look like (and yes, this is based on my most recent experiences with the connection...)
Perhaps conferences would actually trust each other! With Jon and I preparing to walk the stage in a few weeks with our M.Div degrees, we have any number of friends preparing to move about the country to pursue first appointments. What I found especially intriguing were the people on both ends of this spectrum: those going to serve conferences in dire need of pastors, and those being turned away from their conference because it is saturated with candidates and pastors. Don't you just wish that we could all realize we're in the same business (making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world)? I have a friend who transferred conferences because of marriage, school, etc, and lost a year in the process because of this move. Why? Because of course, the conferences can't trust each other. One conference doesn't trust that the candidacy process of the other is good enough. And of course, this fact is further illustrated since EVERY STINKING CONFERENCE has their own idea of what candidates should go through for ordination.

Perhaps the Church Universal would be better served. Going further on this issue of conferences in need vs. saturated conferences, I think it would be great if those in need could freely utilize those candidates/provisional members who are in need of a place to go because their conference is asking them to go away for a few years and come back when there's room for them. Wouldn't it be great if some kind of list could be published and the word spread for places in need of preachers? And then good quality, seminary-trained persons called to the ministry could begin their careers in places where they know they could be fully utilized. Hey, maybe they could even explore what it's like to serve in a ministry setting or geographical locale to which they feel called! Imagine that...

I've also got some thoughts related to money...but I think I'll save that for another day.

What are your thoughts? What does the answer of this question look like to you?