Listless Things- Books, Knitting and One Ginormous Twinkie

 

I have been away pursuing schoolish endeavors and it appears I have two whole weeks of nothing to do. No papers due, no books to read.... NOTHING! Needless to say my needles have been empty for about 8 weeks. That is a looooong time for me.

 

That being said, there are a few things I would like to work on and my choices are thus:

 

Reading// I want to read the first installment of my Sookie Stackhouse novels. My awesome hubby gave me the entire set for Christmas and I have yet to read past the first chapter.

 

I recently took an English Science Fiction and Fantasy course and was literally up to my eyeballs in Sci Fi novels. I am not complaining since I am a huge fan, but it's nice to read something other than robots and dystopian societies for a change.
 

Knitting// Knit-spiration: The LUCY Scarf

Lately I have been catching up on one of my favorite network television shows, Elementary. (I normally don't watch network television but my sister has turned me on to Grimm, Once Upon a Time and Face Off.) It is my mission, Nay! My obligation to knit a particular scarf I saw Lucy Liu's character wearing. 

 

I have been unable to find out the specifics of the scarf but it will be mine! It appears to be braided and ribbed. It might not come out as dainty as the one she is wearing, since I have a penchant for knitting everything in chunky yarn. I do like the color a lot. The challenge will be finding this dusty rose color....

 

Eating// Twinkie Bundt Cake Recipe by Leite's Culinaria

My sister and I just celebrated our birthdays and since I live kind of far from our home town, we were unable to spend it together. She will be visiting sometime in the next two weeks and I plan on making this Twinkie Cake to commemorate our Old Ladie-ness :)

 

So that should keep me busy for the next 14 days! ... and then some.

The Hulkster's Pastamania! CupCakes ala Yarn-Zombie

My submission for Sugar Slam III:

A Wrestling Themed Bake Off

 

Aside from knitting, I also dabble in baking. I'm no Martha Stewart but I can make a pretty mean cupcake! For the past two years I have entered Bake and Destroy's wrestling themed bake off, Sugar Slam III.

 

Last year's submission was dubbed Candy Land Cage Match, paying homage to Beth Phoenix, who happened to be judging last year's contest. This year, although he's not a judge, I decided to reincarnate Hulk Hogan's Pastamania! in cupcake form.

For those of you not familiar with Hulk Hogan's Pastamania!, it was a restaurant which opened at the Mall of America, in the mid 90's, that didn't get very far. I thought I would pay homage to Hulk Hogan's penchant for pasta, while meshing it with my love of pastry.

 

Pastamaniacs look no further, for I have just the cupcake for you!

 

THE HULKSTER'S PASTAMANIA! CUPCAKES:

 

INGREDIENTS:

Yellow cake mix

Vanilla frosting

Cocoa Powder

Ferrero Rochers

White Chocolate Bar

Strawberry Perseves

(Low Sugar) *the color is the best*

Yellow food coloring

*not shown

Cupcake Liners

Ziplock bag

-Go ahead and bake your cupcakes as specified on the box.

-Tint the frosting with 1/2 tsp of the cocoa powder and three drops of yellow food coloring.

-Frost cupcakes.

-Put remaining frosting in the Ziplock bag with a small corner snipped off.

-Arrange cupcakes and pipe liberally with frosting.

-Toss the Ferrero Rochers in the strawberry preserves

-Spoon some preserves onto cupcakes and place the "meatballs" onto each cupcake.

-Grate some white chocolate over the top and you're done :)

 

Happy Baking!

 

(Stop by Sugar Slam's Flickr and let me know what you think!)