Here I come a waffling

So Mark and I recently bought ourselves a waffle maker.
BEST. DECISION. EVER.

We made some delicious regular waffles the first time.

But today we made...

That's right. Cinnamon Roll Waffles.
With Cream Cheese Icing.
So Delicious.
So Easy.
1 can cinnamon rolls (w/icing)
1 waffle iron

That simple.

Apparently you can waffle just about everything.
Like brownies, grilled paninis, hash browns, etc.
I am excited to start experimenting with waffling things. I think Mark is too.

Yay for my waffle iron!

1 quarter down, Christmas to go

Okay so it's been a while.
Grad school has basically been kicking my butt for the past few weeks. (I did get 100% in anatomy though.) Now, I am finally done for the quarter. So far things are going smoothly. I even think I did well in the class from hell, aka language development.
Now that classes are over I am free to make the house EXPLODE with Christmas. Between my mother and I we could decorate oh, lets say an entire neighborhood to be conservative. I really wanted to get a real tree this year but, A) Mark is never around and I'm not going by myself, and B) my parents had an extra fake tree that they didn't want cluttering up their garage.
My mom did buy me a little real tree as a consolation

It's cute :-)

I am starting to make my list of Christmas projects (thank you Pinterest)
I'm DIYing the heck out of Christmas this year. Here are a few of my hopes and dreams:

• Christmas stockings for Mark and me 
• Tree skirt. There are two I can't decide between...
• No-Sew Ruffle
• Ruched Tree Skirt
• Holiday card boards 
• Bacon Ornament for Mark (see it here!)
• Coasters for family and friends
• Ornaments for my Mom
• Pillow covers for my Nana
• A wreath (also cannot decide, probably this one)

And of course Cookies! (and candy, of course) I won't bore you with the entire list of what I'm hoping to make, but here are a few:

• fudge (all types: peppermint, marshmallow, maybe some peanut butter)
• Mexican wedding cookies (aka Russian Tea cookies, pecan sandies)
• Peanut butter kiss cookies
• good ol' chocolate chip
• peppermint bark
• oreo balls (aka Reindeer poop)

Just to name a few...

I have a few other revelations, but I'll save those for another post.

Happy Holidays!

Wife Rating

Yes, you read correctly "Wife Rating"
"What the hell is that?!" You may ask, well I shall tell you.
Recently, a fellow student came up to one of my other fellow students and said "Katie, you're married right?" (Side note: this was funny because Katie and I were talking about marriage) Our fellow student preceded to show us this:

Interesting, no? Now, you must be saying to yourself, "this looks like it's from 'back in the day.'" And, well, you're right! (1939 to be exact!) I find it so funny now too look at this, and I even asked Boyfriend to give me a rating. He laughed when I told him to be honest. I got a 10, by the way. That's "Very Poor (failures)"
But really, who uses the word 'demerit' any more? Do I need to go get my dunce hat and sit in the corner?
To be fair, according to the article there was a woman's version too. But what would that have had on it?
Merits:
Makes money
Does not talk to you or engage your children
Does not beat you
Pretends to enjoy your cooking
Watches TV and relaxes when he comes home
Comes to bed ready

Demerits:
Does not dress in a suit
Does not buy you nice things
Leaves cigarette butts around the house
Is a drunk

Feel free to brainstorm with me here, since the article did not show us the wife rating the husband version I'm curious.

Cupcakes, Camping and Caves

Another week and grad school is slowly beating my morale down. Although, I did better on my recent quizzes than I thought I would.
Luckily, this weekend Mark and I were able to have a nice getaway in southwest Wisconsin. A weekend of technology-less communing with nature and rucus RV-camping neighbors.
Although it was chilly, and rather windy, the weekend was pleasant and enjoyable. AND hiking yielded these views:

Yes, It was lovely :-) and might I say that the boyfriend gets major points for being a manly man. (and for carrying all my stuff in his tiny backpack)

After our woody adventure we decided we would hike to a nearby attraction that said it was just off of a major hiking trail. Not true. We had to hike all the way back to the car and drive. In hindsight, this was probably better.
We found ourselves at one of the more delightful Southwest Wisconsin tourist traps- Cave of the Mounds. View their website here. The cool thing is that this is a real cave in the side one of the Blue Mounds just outside of (West-ish) Madison. It's something you don't see in this part of the country. Here are some awesome pictures from that adventure as well.

the weird veiny thing on the top is cave bacon or ribbon stalactites

Cave dome where sulfuric acid bubbled up a long time ago

Cave coral and a small lake

Rock "waterfall" although it's really rough

Stalactite

Stalactites and Stalagmites

It goes really far back

A dome. I think there's some cave bacon in there too.

And last but not least for this post, as promised by the title, cupcakes. Last weekend I made those dark chocolate ones again and this time i put marshmallow and caramel on them... they very VERY messy, but very delicious. :-)

And this is how babies are made....

I know you may have clicked on this merely because the title looked intriguing... and perhaps sexy.

Well, it kinda is.

Babies are made because of dark chocolate cupcake batter. Yes, this is true. It's pure sex. I haven't even gotten to taste the cooked product (I hear it is DIVINE, by the way). I will go ahead and answer the question that probably hasn't crossed your mind just yet, no, I am not pregnant. I've got my bases covered...

Okay, now that you really didn't need to know that.... back to the ever delicious dark chocolate cupcakes. Want to see pictures?! Because I actually have pictures! *gasp*

I am super proud of these, I have wanted to do these designs for a long time.

Today's Project

Okay today's project (after school, of course) is dark chocolate cupcakes!
I am becoming known in many circles for my cupcakes, which is kinda cool, and a friend's mom called me to make some for a bridal shower for her work. She said she wanted chocolate, so I'm going to give her chocolate :-)

I am super excited about this recipe, it is from one of my favorite food blogs Brown Eyed Baker. She pairs it with a peanut butter frosting (yum!) But I'm still not sure which kind of frosting I'm going to use. I'm thinking good ol' homemade vanilla.

In other baking news, the SLP bake sale is coming up quickly (Oct. 19, 20, 21). I'm starting to gather some recipes for my bake-a-thon. I know I'm going to make some pumpkin whoopie pies, but I want another recipe... Perhaps if these dark chocolate cuppies go well I will make a marshmallow frosting and top it with some sea salt caramel.... Okay, now that I'm drooling all over the keyboard... Any other fall-inspired flavors? Should I do some fancy decorating? So many decisions!

Happy baking!

Long time no write...

Okay, they title can be a few things for me, 1) I haven't written in my darling little blog for a while & 2) I haven't written papers in a while and I'm kinda freaked out about writing one... (I know, I know, I'll do just fine.... can't a girl have a little anxiousness?!?!)

Well, so far all is well and good in the new casa :-)
We actually have a lot of new things, like a mattress (Mark actually fits!) and the new edition to our home arrived today... a 60" TV. Happy boyfriend, happy home right?

The first week of school is over and the first half of this week has been good so far. I"m getting used to reading things other than interesting young adult novels and I'm actually managing to make some friends. Oh, and I'm already known as "the Cupcake Girl". In fact, one of the girls even said to me "sorry, can you remind me your name again? Cupcakes right?" Yes, I will respond to Cupcake. I'll respond to anything really... That reminds me, one of my (former) roommates was very fond of giving people nicknames in college and had a bit of trouble coming up with one for me. She decided on Cupcake, but I don't think it was ever used. Well, darling, here you go!
I am excited for the SLP bake sale coming up on October! I have been scouring the interwebs for delicious, and fall-inspired, yummies. I have definitely decided on pumpkin whoopie pies a) because they are pumpkin and b) because I have never made whoopie pies before. And, of course, the picture looked amazingly delicious!
And how awesome to these puppies look! Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting
I have to admit that I am a fan of anything salted-caramel related :-)

Oh and I HAVE made cupcakes lately, but of course, I took pictures with my phone, and the phone decided to delete all my pictures... *string of expletives*
I do have another project coming up soon, so hopefully pictures will be a-plenty!

Ta for now