Someone once told me that if you don’t like the weather in Michigan wait five minutes. Oh how true that has turned out to be. Last week I was in shorts, tank top, and flip-flops basking in 87-degree weather and this week I’m in a puffer coat and a scarf. Luckily, I follow the weather/news as if I were getting paid to and was sufficiently warned to bring my precious basil plant indoors, saving it from the frost, for now anyways.  Of course, I took the flannel sheets off my bed over the weekend because I was sweating like a freshman on the first day of high school.  I am fully regretting that choice seeing as last night I think we hit a low of 17 degrees with wind chill. One last strike of irony I got a pedicure on Saturday in the event I should be wearing sandals as I had been for the proceeding week. Ha! Thankfully, I was in the right mind not to jump the gun and unpack my summer tote of clothing and pack up all the winter clothes. I am looking forward to the day when the puffer can safely live in the hall closet and the scarves can be cleaned, folded, and put away until next year, which in this state probably means September but you know what I mean.

Michigan produces about 8% of the apples in the United States. A drop in a bucket compared to Washington (58%) but substantial nonetheless. Apple growers are having quite a fit, as all of the orchards started budding last week with our incredibly warm temperatures. This is a major problem because once an apple tree begins to blossom there is no turning back and furthermore frost kills apple blossoms. History has shown that with every full moon until June there is an accompanying frost or freeze. Guess how many full moons there are until June? Two. This means many apple farmers could lose up to three quarters of their entire crop.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed our orchards aren’t completely ruined I’m sending good vibes by creating an apple, bacon, and brie galette! If you’ve been on the site more than once you probably figured out by now that I freaking love the sweet and salty combination. The galette is incredibly easy to whip up and is decadent and rich. It’s perfect for an appetizer to share or a love thy self kind of night. By the way the love thy self rules state that there are no calories in anything consumed on such an evening and that you are fantastic in which case it is perfectly okay to consume an apple, bacon, and brie galette in entirety.

Apple, Bacon, Brie Galette

|Gather

1 puff pastry sheet

1 large apple thinly sliced

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 pinch cinnamon

1 pinch nutmeg

1 pinch salt

1/3 c brown sugar

1/3 c water

½ small wheel of brie thinly sliced

2 slices of bacon, fried and roughly chopped

|Create

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large skillet heat sugar, water, lemon juice, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon, once bubbling add thinly sliced apples. Cover and cook at simmer until apples are soft and sauce is mostly reduced. Place puff pastry on baking sheet and spread the first bacon slice and layer with brie and apples then sprinkle final bacon pieces. Fold puff pastry in a circular shape over mixture. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake until puff pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbling, about 20 minutes.

|Enjoy

Best enjoyed warm.

In N out Cheeseburger:

Pro:

• Moist patty
• Fresher toppings (tomatoe, lettuce, etc.)
• Special Sauce
• Fresh French fries, thin cut. Processed in front of you.
• Real grilled onions
• Cheeseburger has 480 Calories and 27g of fat.
• You can add “animal style” to any order

Con:

• Limited menu selection
• Thinner patty
• Few locations outside of California

The following conclusion may be drawn from the above information: In N Out stomps on Five Guys. Period. End of story. I think what happened here is five guys, literally five dudes, traveled to California had In N Out and were like wow this is bomb lets start a restaurant like this. Oaky, that’s not really what happened, but it sounds better then some family had five kids and started a restaurant.  That being said I did eat my entire burger although as aforementioned it was hella dry. If you’re going to make a larger patty it’s crucial that it’s moist and juicy and finger licking good. Not the case. However, the fries were another story, I was fully disgusted in the grease bath that was the French fries. One of a couple of things can happen to create disgustingly greasy French fries; I suspect that the oil was not hot enough when the potatoes were fried thus resulting in extra oil logged fries as they soak up large amounts of oil when the oil is not properly heated to the correct temperature.

(even this crummy photo can show the grease soaked fires)

The calorie and grams of fat difference between the two burgers is substantial Five Guys coming in at almost double the calories of its In N Out counter part, totally not worth it in my opinion. All in all my experience at Five Guys would deter me from a return trip to the restaurant, in other words I’ll wait till I visit California again for a nice fresh In N Out burger!

Discolusre: The opinions of this article are my opinions, I was not paid or offered any compensation in the reviewing of these restaurants.

The In N Out and Five Guys logos are registered trademarks of the respective restaurants and have been used from their respective corporate websites.

Love bugs!!!! Howdy, hola, ciao! I promise I haven’t forgotten about you. I have so much to share. The move went fantastic but as you can imagine it was quite a task unpacking and getting organized. But now that’s all behind us and we can move on to the more important things like cupcakes filled with two types of booze and hearing about life in West Michigan.

I know you’d rather cut to the booze filled cupcakes and if you were here I’d give you one to get you to your happy warm place so you shut up and listen to me tell the stories I wanna tell. Unfortunately, you’ll just have to stick with me to get to good stuff.

If you visit my site regularly you’ll see that the “hire me” tab is now gone. (for those of you who aren’t familiar it was a shameless pitch to find a job, resume included) anyways…. I have begun my new job working as a product developer for a dope company. I work primarily on the meals platform, such a great fit considering my love for all things cooking!

Let’s talk about the working world for a minute. Uhm I freaking love my anti-student budget ie. I can grab drinks on nights when they aren’t having two for one deals, haha I am not really that cheap. Oh wait yes I WAS (see that past tense, oh yeah baby). College is expensive and I am definitely not missing that part!  Afternoon naps and I have had a rather rough breakup it was messy, I was mostly mad, aggravated, and dead tired when dinnertime rolled around. We still see each other on the weekends and I cherish that special afternoon hour of pure napping bliss. But it’s just not the same.

This past weekend, Saturday was my dear friend Kelly’s Birthday so naturally I felt it was the perfect time to get back in my old sheriff saddle. I made one of my favorite cupcakes Guinness Gasm from SF Food Wars. It’s freaking bomb. It’s an Irish car bomb in a cupcake in your mouth. A Guinness chocolate cake stuffed with chocolate ganache, topped with bailey’s buttercream frosting. Perfect for celebrating St. Patty’s day!!

Original Recipe from SF Food Wars the following modifications have been made:

ganache drizzle over frosting for extra sugary rush just the way I know you like it and because its so good so why not? I also used ¾ of the fat and “light” sour cream. Cooking time was slightly modified as I did not create the mini version I made the real deal party in your mouth sized one.

Warning: this is a cupcake labor of love. Many steps but well worth it, consequently its not going to be done in 60 minutes. I plan the whole day and do a little every couple of hours so I can catch up on dishes. Although the recipe only requires 1 cup of beer, I’m sure you can come up with a creative use for the rest…

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Makes 24 cup cakes or 50 Mini ones

|Gather

For the cupcakes:

1 C Guinness

3/4 C unsalted butter

3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder

2 C all purpose flour

2 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 eggs (room temp)

2/3 C “light” sour cream

For the gancahe:

8 oz bittersweet chocolate

2/3 C heavy cream

2 tbs room temperature, unsalted butter

For the frosting:

3 to 4 C confectioners’ sugar

1/2 C room-temperature, unsalted butter

3 to 4 tbs Baileys Irish Cream (depending on how crazy you wanna get)

|Create

For cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the butter into large chunks In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, bring the butter and Guinness to a simmer. While the butter melts, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. The butter and Guinness should be simmering by now; remove them from the heat, add the cocoa and whisk together until smooth. Allow this mixture to cool for a few minutes. While you wait for the beer butter mixture to cool, mix the eggs and sour cream with an electric beater until smooth. Pour in the butter-Guinness-chocolate mixture, and mix until just combined.
 Pour wet mix into the previously whisked dry ingredients bowl. Stir until just combined. Place paper liners in two cupcake trays. Fill the cups 3/4 full of batter and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan half way through for even baking.
 After the cupcakes have cooled, poke a hole in the middle I used a little plastic spatula but if you have one of those fancy cup cake corers, well then do ya thang!

For the filling:

Put the bittersweet chocolate in a bowl, a medium-sized pan bring the heavy cream to a simmer then pour the cream over the chocolate, add the butter and stir until smooth and combined. Refrigerate, stirring every 10 minutes, until it’s pourable but not too runny. To fill the cupcakes, spoon the ganache into a frosting bag or a plastic ziplock with the one corner cut off. Gently squeeze the ganache into the holes in the cupcakes.
 You should have plenty left over for the drizzle.

Now make the frosting:

Put your room temperature butter into a large bowl. With an electric beater, whip the butter until it’s light and fluffy.
 Slowly add 3 cups of the powdered sugar, a little bit at a time. This keeps the frosting from getting grainy. Add 3-4 tablespoons of the Baileys.

|Enjoy

Frost cup cakes then drizzle ganache over the top. Eat.

Have you ever had one of those times in your life where you’re neither really here nor there? For example, the summer in between high school and college, your not in high school but you certainly haven’t been through the trials of being a college freshmen yet either. Graduating college but haven’t started a full time job, your done with school but not officially initiated into the working world. I suspect being engaged is somewhat like this as well, your not exactly single but you aren’t married yet either. Did you have one of these moments recently in your life? I’m there, I’m in the college to real world working middle ground. At first it was kinda cool, everyone was going back to school and I was sleeping in, working out when the gym was least crowded, and relishing the no homework side of life.

That wore off far too fast. Not to mention I think I have fully credited my sleep debt for the all-nighter’s I pulled throughout my college years. Now I’ve taken to stressing over moving and walking Dakota the dog for 5 miles to enjoy the unbelievable California weather before its gone. Oh, I guess I’ve been packing too.

The holidays may be gone but that doesn’t mean hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps have to go with it. Here is what I’m thinking so you might be on a diet but just swap this drink for dessert and you will be more then satisfied. Its rich and creamy with a zing of peppermint to finish it off. Not to mention non-fat milk is a part of a healthy diet right? And nuetella too? Oh no…not nutella? Hmmm that’s weird, I wonder how that made it on to my food pyramid.

Nutella Hot Chocolate with Peppermint Schnapps

Serves 2

|Gather

For the Hot Chocolate

1.5 C Low Fat or Non-Fat Milk

1.5 Tablespoon Nutella

1.5 Oz Peppermint Schnapps

For the Garnish

1 can Whipped Cream

|Create

Heat the milk to steaming either in the microwave or on the stovetop. If using the stove heat milk over medium heat until steaming then whisk in the Nutella. When combined slowly poor in the Peppermint Schnapps and whisk. Pour into mugs and enjoy.

|Enjoy

If you’re looking to spruce it up a bit garnish with whipped cream, although the drink is a bit rich to begin with so I’d say try it first before garnishing.

Some of my favorite people: Ali, Me, Grace, Amy- post graduation ceremony 

As some of you may know I graduated from Cal Poly last month. It is such a weird feeling to finally be done with school. The reality of the change hasen’t completely sunk in yet. Half of my brain is still expecting to return to San Luis Obispo to begin winter quarter. My experience at Cal Poly was wonderful and although there have been ups and downs I will miss the school, the town, and the lifestyle very much.

Graduation weekend was INSANE. I think I slept all of 6 hours for Friday and Saturday combined. That being said, some of my post ceremony pictures show this lack of sleep and maybe a bit of a dazed look. The graduation ceremony was really special and completely surreal. The fall ceremony is much different from the spring one. It’s held in the school gym as opposed to the stadium, its far more personal, and much more intimate graduating a couple colleges at a time.

Each graduates name was called after making the walk across the stage we got to shake the president of the Universities hand and had our picture taken with him. I’d say its pretty cool that your family can actually see your face when your name is called.

My almost to tears moment came when I was driving on to campus and started to think this was the very last time I was driving on to campus as a student of Cal Poly. It made me so sad to know that when I left I would be an alumni. I know i’m ready to go, Cal Poly has prepared me for this moment but there is just something so assuring and predictable about school, for the most part you know what’s coming next. Consequently for the first time in seventeen years of academic life I did not know what was coming next and it was terrifying.

My brother and I!

I’ve been in the job hunt/ search/ grind for months. Between my blog and looking for a job I was working full time! Just before Christmas great, wonderful, give-you-wings-without-the-redbull, news came my way. I was offered a position at one of the largest food corporations in the world. After the happy dance to the song slight work by Wale. I madly began texting and calling my friends. Being mindful of confidentiality I can share that my position is science based and will follow my passion, food. I’m extremely excited about this opportunity. It will push my personal and professional limits, I’m ready for the challenge! My job will take me to Michigan…yes as in the Michigan 2,000+ miles away from my Northern California stomping grounds Michigan. Oh, what a culture shock this is going to be…luckily I’ve got a friend who goes to Michigan State so he is going to try and help me out and has been more then amazing in answering my tireless questions. I mean, hey, I NEED to know if there is going to be Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods (there is not), what type of tires to put on my car, and whether all the girls wear uggs.

 Cameron, Me, and Momma

As I prepare to move across the country sheriffofthekitchen has taken a bit of a backseat. I’ve been ultra bad about posting. I promise it’s temporary and hope that as soon as I get settled in my new place I’ll have plenty of new tasty posts to come.