Let Her Eat (Birthday) Cake

Eek! I'm already slacking off on my blog...but I guess you can do that when it's your birthday week. Actually, the main reason I haven't been on the computer much is because it's a constant battle with the Mister for computer time. We've been "sharing" a laptop for a few months now but I honestly could not justify using the computer for long periods of time, playing around on Facebook and Pogo when he was actually using it for work. So when I decided that I was going to start blogging, I knew I had to get my own computer somehow. Tax refund? Nope, must be a grown-up, be responsible, and pay off the credit card. Sugar Daddy Scott? Nope, he's already been covering my behind for the past few months for basic necessities....like gas for my car so I can actually go to work and make money. Paycheck? HA! Think Suzy, think! Birthday!! As soon as I thought of it, I immediately told my mom to spread the word to the family...get me Best Buy gift cards to contribute to my new venture. Well guess what, my awesome family pulled through, along with Scott and I was able to get my laptop last night. Thanks family!!

On my actual birthday (last Thursday), Scott had to teach for a little bit so I finished up on my Hello Kitty cake pops for a baby shower. Scott's boss's two sons are having baby girls and the dual baby shower theme was Hello Kitty. When I first heard about this, Scott thought it would be a good idea to give them my cake pops as a present so all the guests could fawn all over how cute they were and maybe get my name out there a little. Sure why not. I wanted to try it ever since I saw it on Bakerella.com. I usually have a fight with my cake pops whenever I make them because candy coating is so temperamental and I usually get more all over myself and the kitchen than on the actual cake. But I guess it was destiny for me to make HK cake pops and the baking gods were smiling down on me on my birthday. The cake was strawberry (It wouldn't be HK if it wasn't pink inside!) with vanilla frosting. The ears are actually white chocolate chips which I think are so creative, the nose and flower are sprinkles, and the eyes and whiskers are decorator's icing. I love how they turned out :)  (I'll be talking about my obsession with cake pops in a blog really soon!).

Oh and the Hello Kitty birthday extravaganza does not end there. Going back about a month ago, my mom and I decided to take a field trip to the new Asian market in Chula Vista (yup, going to the market IS considered entertainment in my family...especially the Asian market...don't know what you'll find there!). Inside the Asian market, there is a food court that has all the Filipino bakeries. One is Red Ribbon Bakeshop (http://www.redribbonbakeshop.us/) and when we were looking around, like an alien tractor beam, I was instantly pulled towards the Hello Kitty cake. I must say that although there are a lot of talented cake decorators in San Diego, I've always been impressed with the skill that Filipino bakeries have for decorating cakes. The icing and cake looks and tastes good and really isn't too sweet. The handmade sugar flowers are always so pretty and they almost look real. (I didn't hesitate when my mom suggested I get my wedding cake from a Filipino bakery and I personally think my wedding cake, although simple, could stand up to a lot of wedding cakes...and cost half as much too!) Sorry, I got sidetracked on how good cake is...lol. So back to the story. On Friday, my mom texted me:


Mom: What kind of cake do you want?
Me: Doesn't matter to me....not like I can really eat it anyways
Mom: I'm trying to get them to make it with Splenda
Me: Oh in that case I want something coffee flavored!
Mom: Oh they can't make it with Splenda...they said the icing wouldn't hold up

ARGH STORY OF MY DIABETIC LIFE!  So when I showed up to my mom's house for the party, I still wasn't too surprised to see my HK cake....chocolate with coffee cream and toffee crunchies in the middle. Yes, I know I'm 29 and my mom got me a HK cake but so what! Don't judge...you know it's cute!  Luckily, my birthday is the one time of the year the Sugar Police backs off a little and lets me enjoy a slice of regular, full power cake. I took my shot of insulin and savored each bite of my birthday cake. I even behaved myself and didn't eat any of the pink frosting.

So that is what I have been up to lately....saying "Hello" to lots of cute and yummy cake. Hopefully now that I have my computer I'll be able to post more often. I have a few things planned for the next month or so but nothing really set in stone. I'm just going to go with it :)

 <3 Lil Ms. Sueshine :)

Bummer Baker Sueshine Makes Cookies

I have to admit....I can't always be a ray of Sueshine all the time. It's in my nature to be an optimist but we all hit a wall head on sometimes and get a little bummed. I haven't been sleeping well for the past few days due to the weird San Diego weather (yes, we have another weather setting other than 75 and sunny). My regular 9-5  job has also been stressful and stress can wear you down to the point of wanting to crawl back under the covers and hiding from the world for the rest of the day. So when I got home, I made dinner, cracked open a bottle of red wine, and parked my butt on the couch to sulk.


Me: *sigh*
Scott: It's Bummer Baker Suzy...


I hate being in a foul mood and whenever the Mister calls me Bummer Baker Suzy, it makes me hate my "poor me." attitude. What could cheer me up other than another glass of wine? Baking. But what? I certainly didn't want to go out to the grocery store to get ingredients. What did I have in the house. Ahhh the staples....everything to make my diabetic friendly chocolate chip cookies :) A long time ago, my mom started making chocolate chip cookies as holiday gifts for everyone and they always commented on how good her cookies were. I'll tell you the secret to my mom's amazing cookies....she makes it with care and patience (I'm DEAD SERIOUS)....cause really, my mom's cookie recipe is actually just the Toll House cookie recipe (Ooooh I might be getting the Filipino flip flop for revealing her secret! (O.o) hehehe!) But seriously, my mom would tell people it was the Toll House recipe and they would NEVER believe her because they were so heavy and dense and theirs would be flat and slightly burnt. So when Scott started bugging me for sugar-free chocolate chip cookies and I couldn't find a ready made cookie dough tube or mix, I decided that I had to learn to make it from scratch and why not use my mom's "secret" recipe and adjust it slightly. Believe me, it took me a couple of tries to get this right so I encourage that you experiment and adjust to make your cookies taste the way you like them. So here we go:


Filipino Mom's "Secret" Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

(Sueshine Notes regarding ingredients: I usually cut back on the amount of salt to half and sometimes leave it out all together. I also cannot stress enough that you must use unsalted butter for this recipe or you WILL end up with salt cookies. I would recommend just adding the nuts to cut the sweetness of this recipe but that too is optional)

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated Splenda
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 bag of Hershey's Sugar Free chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. (Sueshine Note: I like my cookies with crispy edges and soft centers so I aim more towards 12 minutes. Adjust to your oven. Also, invest in a wire rack if you like making cookies. I use to think my mom was crazy to have wire racks...I don't get the purpose. Listen to your Filipino mom....she knows what the heck she's doing. I now know why you use wire racks for cooling)

Store your cookies in an air tight container so they stay soft and yummy.....if they even last that long. In the end, when my house smelled like sweet noms, I was still sitting on the couch but I had a warm cookie in one hand, a cup of cold milk in the other, (a VERY happy husband at the other end of the couch "You're AWESOME!"), and a smile on my face. Happy Sueshine -->  :)

The Great Pizza Debate

One of the constant struggles in our household is the food staple known as pizza. Everyone has probably had the pizza debate. For years, the Mister and I have argued what good pizza is....everything from the thickness of the crust to what delicious toppings should go on it. The one chain pizza place (who shall remain nameless) that we sorta agree on is pretty good especially since they deliver to our house. The downside? Each time we order, we play this game we lovingly call: "Who gets the poison slice?" That's right....it's a game the whole family can play but the twist is, the real winner is the person who doesn't gets a really bad stomach ache after 30 minutes of eating the pizza. Score so far for the poison slice game? Sueshine is losing.

So the quest for good pizza continued. One random day about 2 years ago Scott took me to Balboa Park to play Robin Hood and shoot a bow. Before we headed over to the range, we wanted to grab a bite and he mentioned that he found this little pizza place in Golden Hill called Pizzeria Luigi. Great....here we go again with the pizza debate but hey, I was willing to try it.

!!!! I think I might have walked into pizza heaven! The brightly lit case at the counter had about 15 different pizzas in it. I think my eyes got as big as one of those pizzas. They had everything ranging from the classic cheese to BBQ chicken to basil/artichoke. The biggest bonus: Pizza by the slice. That's right, I didn't have to have the same carnivore pizza as the hubby AND I didn't have to have just one type of pizza.






Tonight we went out to get some pizza and I knew exactly where I wanted it from.

ME: "Why does pizza have to be so far away?"
SCOTT: "Cause if we lived closer, we would get fat."


Yeah he's probably right. Above was our pizza mashup of the night made up of 5 different pizza flavors. For Scott, 2 classic slices of cheese and 2 slices of The Capone: pepperoni, meaball, and sausage...both pretty self explanatory. I went with 3 different flavors cause well, I can never make a decision. I had slice of Mona Lisa, which has been featured on The Food Network's Diner, Drive-In, and Dives (the recipe is even on The Food Network website). The Mona Lisa is your typical deluxe pizza with cheese, pepperoni, onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, and black olives. Pizza number 2 was a Margherita cheese, sliced tomato, lots of garlic (bring some breath mints), basil, and no sauce. Slices 3 & 4 were the first pizza that I ever had at Pizzaria Luigi's and I have ordered it every time I've gone here...mushroom and ricotta. Okay okay before you say yuck, let me just say that they put some of the best ricotta cheese I have ever had on their pizzas. If you aren't into mushrooms, I also recommend the ricotta and meatball. The ricotta is so creamy that it just melts in your mouth. If you like your pizza crust thick, this is not the place for you. The crust is thin with crunchy edges and I think this might be what makes their pizzas good. The sauce is a little on the sweet side but that doesn't bother me....just giving you a heads up.


So next time you are in the area, especially after a late Saturday night out (Friday-Saturday hours are listed on their website as 10:30am to ???), give this place a try. If you do go in on the weekend, be prepared to wait in line for a little while (Saturday was about a 15-20 minute wait to get our pizza slices). Parking is also difficult at the Golden Hill location so be ready to drive around the block a few times. I'm sure the debate will continue and people will disagree with me that other places are much better but I give this place my approval simply for the variety...especially since I can't ever make up my mind ;)


Pizzeria Luigi
http://www.pizzerialuigi.com/
1137 25th Street
San Diego, CA 92102
(second location in North Park)

Everyone's Irish on St. Patty's Day!

"May the sun shine all day long,
Everything go right and nothing go wrong.
May those you love bring love back to you
And may all the wishes you wish come true!"

-Irish toast/blessing

I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day yesterday and made smart choices....like drinking green beer and eating corned beef. My friend Allison and I went to Hooley's in La Mesa last night and had some yummy Irish noms. Lookie!

Grilled corned beef sandwich on rye bread with cheese and grilled onions....then washed it all down with a "pint" of Guinness. Yup, definitely got St. Patty's right this year.


So going back a few days, when I decided I wanted to start a blog, one of the things I knew I wanted to do is try new recipes and share my experiences/experiments, whether they worked or not. I was sitting on the couch with Scott, paging through my Williams-Sonoma Baking cookbook when one recipe caught Scott's attention...Beer Batter Bread. Of course it would catch his attention...this coming from the man that gave me a "beer education" shortly after we started dating. I was kinda wary at first because my mom, who is a phenomenal cook, said the one thing she hated making in culinary school was bread. If my mom didn't like making bread, then I may be in serious trouble. I thought I'd at least give it a try. So in honor of the man who pushed and encouraged me to start this blog...and also in honor of St. Patty's Day, here is an easy recipe for everyone:


Beer Batter Bread

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose (plain) flour
• 3 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 bottle (12 fl oz/375 ml) beer, unopened and at room temperature (SUESHINE NOTE: The cookbook says that the bread will taken on the flavor of the beer you choose. I would think you would want to use a darker beer if you really want to have the beer flavor but I used Carta Blanca since it's one of the Mister's favorites...still turned out pretty tasty)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing and serving

• Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.
• In a bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Open the beer and add it all at once; it will foam up. Stir briskly just until combined, about 20 strokes. The batter should be slightly lumpy. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and drizzle with the melted butter.
• Bake until the top is crusty and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes.(SUESHINE NOTE: Mine took a little longer...not sure if it was my oven. After 40 minutes, the middle was still kinda doughy. I put it in for an extra 8 minutes)
• Let rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn the loaf out onto a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature the day it is made. Cut into thick slices and accompany with plenty of butter.

Source: The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book, pg. 81

The end result? Success!!

It would probably be really good to use this bread to recreate my St. Patrick's Day dinner (since I'm not a big fan of rye bread). What did I end up using the bread for? At first, I just cut a few warm slices and put lots of butter on it like the recipe says. The crust was really crunchy and buttery. Scott had another (but probably not the healthiest) idea to make grilled cheese sandwiches with extra sharp cheddar. I made them tonight and that was one damn fine grilled cheese sandwich!! Only problem: It was really heavy....I probably could do a few curls between bites hehe.  Also probably not the best thing to eat as a diabetic since it's all carbs but everything in moderation....not like I'm going to eat this every night (as tempting as it might be).

<3 Lil Ms. Sueshine

LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN

Yup....that's me (the one in the pigtails). One year old Sueshine, staring in wide eyed wonder. Two tiers. Fluffy white shells. Pale purple rosettes. Plastic ballerinas dancing on sugary sweetness. It was love at first sight. My relationship with baked goods began on my first birthday.

I, Susanne Babb, am a baker.

Unfortunately, I’m also a type-2 diabetic. My body doesn’t know what the heck to do when it come in contact with sugar. It was pretty much destiny for me to become a diabetic because when I was little Sueshine, I vaguely remember my biological dad showing me how he had to prick his finger every day and put it in a little machine that would pop out numbers that meant nothing to me at the time (diabetes is highly hereditary). I didn’t think of it much until I was in college and I had to go to the clinic for a physical or something. They ran blood tests and I was told I was a pre-diabetic. WHAAAT…..LALALALA I’M NOT LISTENING!! Like any 19 year old college student, I shrugged it off and was in perpetual denial. So much so that my first date with my now husband, was to Extraordinary Desserts (horrible, I know). I mean, it did linger at the very, very, very back of my head occasionally and nagged at me from time to time. After a few years, I knew deep down I was full blown diabetic. I did little things like give up sugary sodas and switched to diet. When I got married, I only at a few bites of my AMAZING mocha wedding cake. Then it hit me about 2 ½ years ago. My mom went in for a physical….and she was diagnosed with diabetes. What the heck!? My mom too?!  At the time, I was still in denial even though I had all the signs of a diabetic. I was always tired (blamed it on the stress at work) and I would either get shooting pains in my feet or get the total opposite and my fingers would go numb. In 2009, I went in for a physical and was diagnosed a diabetic.

OH CRUEL, CRUEL WORLD TO MAKE ME A DIABETIC BAKER!! Kiss the desserts and baking goodbye  :( <---Sad Suzy!




My husband is dubbed the sugar police. Bless his heart though…he gave up sugar also to support me. I went on a desperate search for sugar free desserts but with little success. The ONE bakery in San Diego that specialized in sugar free baked goods closed the week of my 27^th birthday (they made an exception and made me a black forest cake!) I did find out at the time that Pillsbury made reduced sugar cake mix/frosting and sugar free Oreos were better than the regular ones. So when my hubby asked me for the 10 billionth time to find sugar free chocolate chip cookies (not pre-packaged), I thought, damn it, I’m a baker by nature, I can make them from scratch! I made them successfully with Splenda and it inspired something in me. If I wanted sugar free baked goods, I would have to teach myself to make them. I even took a cake decorating class and wondered how I could make frosting sugar free. I’d make cupcakes, pies, and cakes then bring them to work or family parties and little did everyone know (they do now…ha-ha!) that most, not all, of the stuff I was making was either sugar free or reduced sugar. No one ever called me out on it and I was even told I should start my own bakery. I started posting pictures of my baked goods on my Facebook, just to log what I had made.




In December 2010, little did my cousin Kristeen know her Christmas gift would spark something in me. She gave me a cake decorating book called Cakepops by Bakerella. Bak-a-who? I’d never heard of her but…..oooooh, pretty pictures of cakes….on sticks!! I wanna make one! Kristeen also told me that she had a blog online (http://www.bakerella.com/) and a Facebook….and I was hooked! I was on a cakepop/cake ball making roll and got positive feedback on the stuff I made. Then I got depressed. (Before I go further, brief background: My other inspiration for my blog is my hubby. A few years back he turned his little class in east San Diego county into an internet success. He started posting videos of his martial arts techniques on YouTube and now his style has gone international). So, back to my depression. Here was my hubby, making something of himself and I felt like I wasn’t doing anything with myself. I needed a hobby to keep myself occupied. What am I good at? The only thing I could think of was baking and cake decorating. Scott suggested that since I was already logging my stuff on Facebook, why not start a blog? Share my experiences and struggles as a diabetic baker. Share what I learn and discover along the way.




So as I approach my last year in my twenties, I begin this new journey. I plan on sharing my adventures/relationships/alternative recipes with food, both sweet and savory, my decorating projects, and my struggle to keep from biting into those cake decorating projects (and going into a diabetic shock). I hope you’ll come along with me and enjoy the ride.




Love <3 Lil Ms. Sueshine