Getting Settled

Here I am today, sitting in my new apartment at my kitchen table with a hot cup of coffee looking out the window at the aspen and pine trees standing quietly watching me back in drizzling rain. Lennon and Maisy stream from my phone while lazy Egon fights off sleep only to lose.  My kitchen smells like a bakery with cake and pumpkin in the oven baking happily at 350.  This is the start of my weekend.

My kitchen is twice the size of the kitchen in our old place and as I came to realize that half the boxes we brought in were for the kitchen I marveled at it all and wondered to myself. “How the fuck did I fit all this into that tiny space with no storage?”  How did we fit anything into our place?  I really loved the look of our little apartment, but it wasn’t the right size for us.  Even now I would love to double the size of my kitchen and have a third bedroom, but hey, baby steps right?

Anyway, we have our housewarming tomorrow and I am making it a Halloween themed affair since I have a thing for Halloween.  Pumpkins have been carved.  Food is bought and planned.  Today I am baking and creating goodies to share with our friends. Later I’ll be sculpting the fondant zombie for the brain cake.

Which leads me into my quick tip for this morning:

How make your boxed cake mix taste better.

• 1 box cake mix
• 1 tsp buttermilk powder
• 1/2 C melted butter
• 1 C milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 eggs

In your bowl dump in cake mix.  Add in buttermilk powder and whisk dry.  Next pour in milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.  Begin to mix.  Once combined, add eggs one at a time.  Once it’s all in there, mix for about 2 minutes.  Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake at 350 till tester comes out clean.

Sometimes I like to add extra spices depending on the flavor I am going for.  Never be afraid to experiment.  It’s a boxed cake mix, go crazy and make it your own.