Get out of the fish bowl!

I love weekends. This one was particularly fantastic because I got to spend it with some friends that I haven't seen for months. Oh and there was dancing and horses involved. If you have never participated in a good Texas two-step, then you are seriously missing out. Find a guy/girl that knows what they're doing and get on it. The experience is so much fun with the right person.

I also got a bit of good advice from a speaker on the radio when I was driving home.

"Let God take us from our fish bowl and put us in the open ocean."

Get out of the fish bowl!! The speaker was talking about how a fish can only grow as big as the fish bowl he lives in. When you put him out in the ocean though, he has room to grow as big as he was intended to be. I don't want to be confined to a fish bowl...do you? Think about those poor fish they sell in little cups. How confined is that life? No thank you.

 Oh! And I made cupcakes last night :)

 Mint Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from the chocolate recipe here)

 2 cups sugar 

1 3/4 cups flour 

3/4 cup cocoa 

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 

1 tsp. salt 

2 eggs 

1 cup milk 

1/2 cup oil 

1 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract 

Mix the first six ingredients together. Then add the eggs, milk, oil, and peppermint. Mix well.

Preheat the oven to 350F and bake cupcakes for 20 minutes. Let them cool and then frost them.

Chocolate Frosting

12 Tbsp. butter, softened

5 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup cocoa

2/3 cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla

Add butter to bowl. Cream.

Then add about 1/3 of the powdered sugar. Mix well.

Then about a 1/3 of the milk and vanilla. Mix well.

Next 1/3 of the cocoa. Mix well after each addition and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Repeat until all is added.

 

Even though I am not a huge fan of mint chocolate, I really like these cupcakes. The original recipe calls for vanilla in the cake instead of peppermint, but my cabinet could not supply me with the needed ingredient at the time. Thus the mint was added.