Fall in MA

It is fall in New England, one of the prettiest times of year. Though I don't have any pictures of colorful trees, I do have a few pictures from the last few weeks of life.
The new Sel de la Terre kitchen in the new Mandarin Oriental hotel complex. The window opens up to a hallway that will have some pretty swanky shops in it eventually.

Classic Boston shot on the bridge in the public garden. Brentan doesn't look so happy, probably since we always make fun of people taking pictures here!
A wedding party moving from the Taj to the public garden, most likely to take some wedding pictures. I love how everyone is looking at the bride as if she is a celebrity. A bride should be a celebrity on her wedding day. I loved the bridesmaids dresses. They had these giant bows in the back.
I made cupcakes with Sarah the other night. They were so cute, and VERY delicious.

I want to blog again

I want to blog again. And I'm going to. And I can write about whatever I want and don't need a theme, because only several people read this.

I started another blog, but I don't think I'm going to continue it, since my one and only post was this one, several months ago:

Valentines Cupcakes

I made these cut cupcakes for Valentines Day this week! The recipe is from recipezaar.com, Kittencal's Easy One-Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes. Really, they were easy. Everything goes into a bowl, mix together, and bake in a cupcake pan. Its just as easy as my bread machine. They turned out a little spongey, probably because I used butter instead of shortening, like the recipe specifies. Or maybe I mixed them for too long. But I LOVE the buttercream frosting I used, adapted from Magnolia's Bakery cookbook. The heart designs on top are drawn on with gel frosting from the grocery store.

Easy One-Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes

2	cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2	cups sugar
1/2	cup shortening (I used butter)
1	cup half-and-half or milk
3 1/2	teaspoons baking powder
1	teaspoon salt
1	tablespoon vanilla
3	eggs

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1. Set oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat all ingredients on medium speed of an electric mixer, scraping the bowl constantly, until well blended for about 30 seconds.
3. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes.
4. Pour into paper-lined muffin cups, filling HALF full.
5. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes test done.
6. Immediately remove from pans.
7. Cool completely before frosting.

Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes.

Buttercream Frosting
1/4	cup butter, very soft
2	cups confectioners' sugar
1/8	cup milk
1/2	teaspoons vanilla

1. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add 1 cup of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla.
3. Beat until smooth and creamy.
4. Gradually add the remaining sugar, until icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency (you may very well not need all of the sugar).