Maineiac Heart

This late winter has been filled with snow and stormy days and impassible roads, which is fun if you are a couple of big dogs and have a dad who snow blows a running path around your pen. But, if you are a human and you can't get out of your yard, it can be a bit of a bummer.

Cody in hot pursuit of his obnoxious brother.

So, it's time to experiment with cooking! I am a non-cook who is just starting to realize how much joy there is sharing food you have made. Baking is the easiest for me, and that will be the first Maineiac Kitchen Covers entry. Since I am a beginner, I am no where near creating my own recipes. However, I can manage to "cover" someone's recipe and start to adapt it to my own voice, so to speak. Inspiration first came from molly yeh hagen's, (no caps in her honor), cake here. It looked luscious. However, my family and friends, (as well as myself), lean more toward pecans. I decided to swap pecans for the hazelnuts in her recipe.

Next, I was feeling adventurous and wanted to add something to this cake. Salted caramel seemed like a good addition. Who doesn't like chocolate, pecans, and salted caramel??? Yum. As I mentioned previously, I am, was, a non-cook. There is no archive of family recipes to follow, and no experiences from which to create recipes. I have to cobble together information from food blogs, cooking shows, and friends and family in the know. To make these cupcakes I used the internet. In addition to mynameisyeh.com, a Google search for a recipe to guide me led to this and this at Audra Fullerton's, the-baker-chick.com. Notice in the cake recipe, Audra recommends poking holes in the top of the cake to allow the caramel sauce to ooze down into it. Oh, yeah!

Finally, I was daunted by trying to make a multi-layer cake. I am just not there, yet. My frosting skills are negligible and I don't have all the tools, like one of those rotating cake stands. This led me to make this cake in cupcake form. That, I figured I could do. After all, Molly credits the Magnolia chocolate cupcake recipe as the one she used for the cake and she does say that her cake recipe is "halfable and cupcakable."

With inspiration from Molly and Audra, I made these.

Look who came to peck some suet while I was baking.

I used the chocolate cake recipe from Magnolia Bakery and Molly and the salted caramel from Audra. The frosting was simply Molly's without the nut filling.

I made the Salted Caramel Sauce first. Here's Audra's recipe: Salted Caramel Sauce Actually, I would recommend having this on hand the day before, or days before, to minimize the process the day you make the cupcakes. I had the hub help, as I am a clutz and there is a whole timing thing going on that requires coordination and, for me, multiple hands. One part to emphasize, when pouring the cream, do it slowly while stirring quickly. That's where it was particularly handy having the hub stir while I poured. Oh, and when pouring things into the caramelizing sugar, be careful of the splatter! It could really give you a good burn. Follow Audra's directions as to the size of your pot.

Now, for beginner's tips:

Frosting: (There will be leftovers of everything, because I used a cake frosting recipe and didn't have time to test how much to reduce for just cupcakes. Sorry, but it never hurts to have extra frosting, at least in my opinion.If you don't want extra, cut the measurements in half.) Make the frosting while the cupcakes bake. For those who are novices like me, be careful with adding the powdered sugar s-l-o-w-l-y as it makes a mess (I learned to add by the tablespoon), and make sure you have the speed of your mixer initially on low. My hub saw what a mess I could make and ordered me a pouring shield for my KitchenAid. Maybe I'll keep him around : )

Once cupcakes have cooled, take a toothpick or uncooked spaghetti noodle and poke several holes into the tops of the cupcakes. I spread (using a knife or spoon) warmed (so it is liquid) Salted Caramel Sauce over the tops of all the cupcakes, like a little surface frosting.

When the salted caramel has cooled on the surface of the cupcakes, I slather a gob of frosting over each one. (Edit--I now drop it from a small cookie dough scoop, the kind that you squeeze and the little metal bar scrapes it out onto your surface.Because, as I said, I'm a slob and this is the cleanest way for me to do this.) Work the frosting around the cupcake. Feel free to just pipe it, if that's your thing. Here's a video about how to make your own piping bags and frost. Or, there is this video from Audra. Don't press too hard when spreading the frosting, to avoid pulling caramel sauce onto the surface. But, if that happens, no biggie, it's all going to taste the same. It helps if the frosting is closer to room temperature as it makes it more spreadable.

Once frosted, I just drizzled more liquidy caramel sauce around the tops of the cupcakes and scattered some pecan crumbs on top of that.

Voila (accent over the a--I'm still learning these formatting details)!

We start in winter. Not the typical place to begin, but it is apt. This winter is particularly remarkable, as we have received a massive load of snow--70+ inches in only four weeks. And, it's FREEZING. Lowest average temps for February on record, a whopping 4.5 degrees F. I wasn't kidding when I said in my "About" section that Maine challenges me.

Yet, winter is the time when things rest and it's a great time to reflect on where we are and where we hope to go. Winter's quiet, (and its impassable roads!), allow you to be present. To stop moving. To wonder. You get the chance to both feel and see your breath! You get the chance to store energy and get ready for the spring to come.

My first year in Maine, I was living up north, in central Aroostook County, teaching in a small, rural school in Mars Hill. Mars Hill is known as the first place in the U.S. that gets the rays of the rising sun. Look it up on a map. It's the great north woods, on the US/Canadian border. That January in 1984, we had 18 days of -30 degrees F and below (that's NOT including windchill). I had to buy an engine heater for my car and plug it in each morning to warm the engine so it would start. I grew up in Nebraska and thought I knew how to handle a cold winter. Boy, was I ignorant. On March 16th that year in "the County", we received 36" of snow in less then 24 hours and they didn't even cancel school!!!!!!! That winter killed my love of snow and cold. I developed a pervasive case of Seasonal Affective Disorder--just ask my roommates from that year and they will confirm this.

It took years of hating, and then working to once again love, winter. But I did it. I learned to get out and play in it. I bought a sled and used it like I was a 10 year-old. I bought some snowshoes and began to explore the University of Maine woods' trails in winter. The hush of a snow-covered forest is soothing, and it soothed me. It also gave me confidence. If I can learn to enjoy and make the most of something I once loathed, I can change how I feel about other things as well.

One of those things is cooking. I, as of only a few years ago, was a non-cook. I was actually a disaster in the kitchen, hence the page of this blog that will house my entries about cooking, "Maineiac Kitchen." My husband used to say, "I never in my life saw anyone who dirtied so many dishes to make one recipe." That's me. However, something changed for me over the past year. I began to read some food blogs and tried my hand at the easiest ones, mostly those containing sugar. Gradually, I'm improving and oddly, for me, I'm enjoying it. It's actually becoming relaxing. There has always been some shame for me that I couldn't nurture family and friends with food. Panic would set in at the idea of having people over. I am embarrassed to admit that I worried when we got invited to someone's house for dinner that I would then be obligated to return the favor. (Yes, I am that neurotic.) I noticed that many food blogs don't speak to novice cooks. They use terms, ingredients, and cooking utensils that we beginners can't begin to understand or utilize. I hope to fill that niche, a bit. I will do my best to speak to those of us who have limited culinary knowledge. There's a lot of information out there for experienced cooks, but not so much for those of us just discovering the satisfaction of cooking for others and ourselves. I thought I would start with simple recipes, however I found that I am drawn to things with various elements. If I'm going to do something that isn't easy, I want to enjoy the end result when it actually turns out, and when it doesn't, I have a great lesson in acceptance and a chance to remind myself that, "while it didn't work, you took a shot and that's what matters." Plus, the old adage about learning more from mistakes than successes is true.

Additionally, I am a therapist and will use this site to post information, stories, and strategies for resolving stress and exploring how focusing mindfulness, including being mindful of thoughts and beliefs, can foster a sense of well-being. Those entries will be stored in the "Maineiac Mind" page.

I sit here typing, with my dog, Toby's, head on my foot. The woodstove is crackling. The sky outside the window is almost as white as the snow. The sun is fighting to break through. It's a start.

For this moment, this one section of time, all is well. That, in itself, is everything.

Snow Day Chocolate Pecan Salted Caramel Cupcakes!

Winter is the Beginning