Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake.

Wow, Rach, two posts in a week. Good for you! Haha Food is clearly my muse and I love writing and sharing about it. My last post about the amazingly tasty refried pinto beans was a huge hit for you guys! Lots of "OMG I'm making this immediately!" Very flattering. I kept checking the post itself to make sure I had no typos and my instructions were clear enough. Haha

Ok, let's get to the point! You read the title of this post, you know what's about to happen. The saliva is accumulating in your cheeks. You're ready. I'm ready. Let's talk about it! Cinnamon Roll Bundt Cake. 

Yeah that's right! You heard me! All the lovely things you have ever wanted in a delicious, warm, ooey gooey roll, but like half the effort. No waiting for the dough to rise, no rolling out the dough, smearing the melted butter around, rising the dough... again... Well, that or buying a tube of it in the grocery store next to the sour cream and tater tots. But let's be honest here, nothing beats a big fluffy homemade roll. Except this cake. OMG.

I was sifting through the pages of Pinterest months back when I found this recipe. What attracted me to it was the "Bundt" part of it. My dad had just bought a pan a few weeks prior and I was waiting for the right recipe to break it in... and boy did I find it! 

The blog was called Bake Or Break. The lady that writes for it said that she found the recipe on King Arthur's cookbook I think. I took the recipe and tweaked a few things to my taste. Less sugar, more cinnamon, my own frosting recipe, etc.

So... let's make this damn thing! The list:

Dough:

2 Cups Flour (all-purpose/unbleached)

1 Cup Sugar (white)

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp salt 

1 Tbsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

4 eggs

1/4 Cup Oil (canola/veggie)

1 Cup Sour Cream

1/4 Cup Butter (softened)

1 box Vanilla Pudding Mix (3oz size)

Filling:

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar (packed)

1 Tbsp Cinnamon

Frosting:

16oz Cream Cheese (plain/softened) 

1/2 Cup Butter (softened)

3 Cups Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Salt (kosher)

So many things! Ok, so the obvious first thing that you'll need is a Bundt pan. They come in all kinds of shapes, here's mine:

It's by Wilton. I think it was around $10-15? You can find it at Michael's Craftstore, Walmart, or any specific cookware store. Or, if you're super introverted and don't like human contact very often... Amazon.com 😉

Preheat your oven to 350°. Sift your dry ingredients in a bowl. The flour, salt, baking powder, pudding mix, and cinnamon. 

*Sifting these ahead of time helps with the lumps. Smooth batter, smooth cake, happy tastebuds! If you're using kosher salt, you'll have little grains left in the strainer, just press them through. No biggie.*

In a separate bowl, mix the filling, set aside. This is going to go in layers inbetween the batter. The goal being to replicate the swirls in your typical cinnamon roll. Replicate and totally conquer! 

Now for the wet stuff. Cream your butter and white sugar. Just mix on a medium high speed until pale and fluffy. If you are #blessed like me and have a Kitchen Aid, use the paddle attachment! Let your hair down! You earned it! You deserve to have nice things. Or, if you're slumming it with a hand mixer, just... do that I guess. I'm so sorry, I just can't imagine life without my Kitchen Aid. Game changer.

Mix in the rest of the wet ingredients: eggs, vanilla, sour cream, and oil.

*Side note! Quick word about why I use certain ingredients. I use both butter and oil because it gives a dense enough cake but still has some height and flaky-ness to it. Oil creates weight to a cake while butter creates flakes. Using both creates a wonderful marraige, especially for a Bundt cake. The sour cream is kind of like buttermilk for red velvet cake, tangy flavor! I use 4 eggs because it gives me the best consistency in my dough.

The one you're probably wondering most about is the instant pudding mix. Haha I give all the credit to the blog I got this recipe from. The pudding mix gives the cake such a rich, sweet, dense flavor! I think there's pectin in the mix or something. Either way, there's a big difference without it. Use the pudding mix. Haha*

Now you have 3 bowls: wet, dry, and filling. Mix your wet and dry together getting a pretty thick dough. Very sticky. Smells awesome. Time to layer!

Grab your Bundt pan and spray the living hell out of it with cooking spray. You want to be able to lift the cake out of the pan. Would be a shame to have all of that go to waste because you were a dumb dumb and forgot to spray it. Haha

Spoon 1/3 of your batter into the pan and spread out in a smooth layer. 

Time for that filling! Sprinkle 1/3 of the filling around the center of the batter. It's ok if it hits the sides, but you get more "blow-outs" that way. You'll see what I mean in a second. Now for the second layer of batter!

This one is a little more difficult to smooth over the sugar. Be patient. Deep breaths.

Thick, pillow-y goodness! Ok, last layer of sugar. Grab a kabob stick or tooth pick and swirl the top layers of batter and sugar together. 

You'll wanna do this because the sugar is going to boil and harden in the oven. Like a caramel candy on top of your cake. That's a hard pass for me. Haha

Ugh, so pretty. I spray a little more cooking spray on top because I'm paranoid about the candy thing. Haha Pop it into the oven for 50min. Do a toothpick check. If you get some of the filling coming back, that's fine. But raw dough means another 5-10min. Depends on your oven, weather, etc.

Yaaaas bundtcake! Giving me all the life right now! Cool this for 10min, then invert it onto a cooling rack to cool completely. You don't wanna take it out of the pan straight out of the oven because its still cooking technically. It's called "carryover heat". You wanna let the cake start to set first before moving it around. I've been impatient before and it resulted in a sunken in cake and a very weepy Rachel. So sad.

See that line of filling? That's what I meant by a blowout. When I removed this from the pan, I had some cake stuck in the pan where this line of filling was. Luckily, this wasn't too bad and I left with most of my cake intact. Yay me!

Frost it! Oh yeah, I have to tell you how to make it...

Mix the butter, cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Sprinkle the salt in. Mix. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Scrap the bowl inbetween mixes. Taste it for more vanilla or salt. Texture should be kinda goop-y, but firm enough to stay on the back of your spatula.

Sooooo good! You could have this for breakfast if you wanted! Make this. Eat this. Love me for it.

R.

Twitter/Instagram:

maplebaconrae 

Refried Beans

And I'm back! Long time no writing on this blog. Lots to talk about, lots to update on, but that's for another post. 

*Also, I feel like apologizing for how totally NOT tech savvy I am with this blog. I have no idea what format and layout I'm supposed to use. I can't "code". Plus, I use my phone to write these posts anyways. All good intentions I swear! Haha*

Ok! Today I share a great triumph. Gold medal Olympian worthy accomplishment... I have mastered the art of Refried Beans! 

I, the whitest of white girls, by a complete and total accident, made beans that tasted better then ANY restaurant I've been to. (that's not really saying much, I'm from Salem, OR hahaha) Guys, I could cry. No more canned beans that you reheat in the microwave and pray it doesn't taste like metal. Legit, from scratch, takes like 3-4hrs to make but totally worth it beans!!! I've made it! We're in the big leagues now!!

Wanna know how I made it???

Grocery List:

3 Cups Pinto Beans (raw, uncooked)

2 Cups Onion (sweet yellow/large dice)

1 jalapeño (large dice)

2 Tbsp Garlic (minced)

1/3 Cup Bacon Fat (you heard me)

1 Tbsp Cumin

2 Tbsp Chili Powder

1/2 tsp Cayenne

1 tsp granulated garlic

2 tsp granulated onion

Salt and Pepper to taste

*If you're wanting to keep this vegetarian/vegan, you can use veggie oil for this. It's fried beans after all so it needs some kind of fat/oil to help the "frying" process. Also, if you're a total whimp when it comes to spice, take out the jalapeño and cayenne. No judgement here.*

Y'all ready for this? A quick rundown of how you can make these bad boys. The first step is to soak the beans. 

Raw beans have a hard exterior and you wanna soften that outside a bit. Also, if you've never seen a raw pinto bean, it has a bunch of black flecks on it. You wanna get rid of that as much as you can. Soaking helps! You can do this overnight. Just put your beans in a pot of water and set aside overnight. But if you're very forgetful and last minute like me... here's the quicker method! Grab a big pot with a lid or Dutch oven (contains even heat really nicely, worth the investment, your friends will be totally jelly) and pour your beans into it with about two knuckles of water covering it. 

You'll notice the beans float, so just push them down to the bottom so you can see how much water you have. Pop it onto the stove, high heat, until it starts boiling. When that happens, kill the heat and put a lid on it for 1 hour. This softens the beans and pulls some of the dark flecks off of it. I think it's dirt? Maybe? Idk, it tastes bitter if you don't pre soak that off so just trust me on this. Haha

Like Moses parting the seas! Or like the Orcs surrounding the Fellowship in LOTR Return of the King. Haha

Ew. Rinse and drain that immediately. Dice your onion and jalapeño. Doesn't really matter what size since it'll be blended later. You can also use fresh garlic for this, but the container of the minced stuff I get from Costco reminds me that some shortcuts in life are worth taking. Add your rinsed beans and veg to the pot with your spices as well. 

*Ok, the salt and pepper. I said "to taste", but if you're totally freaking out and not confident in your taste buds/cooking abilities to rely on that, I used 1 tsp of fresh ground black pepper and 2 tsp of kosher salt. I added 1 tsp of salt to begin with and 1 more tsp after everything was blended at the end. It changes every time I make them. Some beans really soak up the flavor and other beans I have to play with.*

Cover with water about 2in above the beans and bring on the heat! I put my stove burner at a 7/10 just to get the water boiling faster. I popped it down to a 5 when the bubbles started happening. Now, you can put a lid on it or leave it open to air. It reduces down faster if you don't have a lid. Steam is able to escape because it's not trapped by the lid creating condensation. Blah blah blah...

*The liquid! I've seen people use milk to boil the beans in (yep, you heard right!), I've seen chicken stock used to help cheat the amount of flavor you get. I like using water because I can control the flavor a little more. Stock has a distinct taste and could overpower your dish.*

This is after 2 hours of simmering. You can see the line where the water level was at initially. You can also see the black flecks on the beans are gone! You can take a bean out to see how tender it is. Smash it with the back of your spatula. See how much resistance you get. I stirred every 15min just to make sure nothing was sticking to the bottom. Depending on how "loose" you like your beans, you'll wanna make sure you have enough liquid to work with when blending. I like it thicker. So that means less watery-ness. 

*If your beans are reducing down too fast, you can totally add more water during cooking to help it not stick to the bottom. If your beans are tender and ready to be blended, but you have too much liquid, you can get a ladle and take some of the liquid out before blending.* 

You can get a regular blender and pour some of the beans in at a time. But, it's really hot liquid flying around, so I like to use an immersion blender. Great for really hot things that you need to blend. And you don't have to do it in batches either. It all stays in the same pot it's cooked in. Less dishes. Happy Rachel. Haha

Blended! Sorta kinda loose still, but thick enough to coat my spatula. Now for the fat! Ah, bacon fat. How I love thee.

Sweet mother of God, Rachel, do you have a giant mason jar of lard just sitting in your fridge? Why yes, I do. And so should you. I like to take it out and smell it. Like a Christmas ham. Ahhhh... 

Ok. Back to where we were. This is what makes your beans "Refried". The reason it's "re" fried is because you already cooked and blended the beans. This step elevates it to the HNL. (Hole Nother Level) Pop it back on the stove on medium heat (6/10) and watch it bubble away. Every minute or so stirring so it doesn't stick to the bottom. You're waiting on color preference and consistency here. I let mine cook down for another 15min.

Looks kind of weird, not gonna lie. Haha 

I made this for the first time in April and it keeps getting better every time I make it. I feel that way about every dish I make. You learn something new each time you get in the kitchen and cook something. Whether it's flavor or time management. Constant growth. Super cool!

Until next time,

R.

Twitter/Instagram:

maplebaconrae 

PSL

It's that time of year where everyone is festive! And that includes coffee companies and their drinks. Yes, the glorious time of Peppermint Mochas and Pumpkin Spice Chai Lattes has arrived... Or it did last month but I'm just getting to writing this blog now. Whatever, don't judge me.

For years, I was a die hard supporter of Starbucks. The high school I went to had one a block away from campus, so that was a lunchtime necessity. Then, my junior year, there was another coffee company being built right next to it. Some place called Dutch Bros. Never heard of it. A few of my classmates flocked to this drive thru to see what the buzz was about. Super friendly employees, punch cards, colorful straws... but no Pumkpin Spice Latte. The beginning of my junior year at school was tainted. Now I had to go by myself to Starbucks. Ugh...

Flash forward a few years and everyone is on the PSL trend, including DB. In all that time, I still happily sipped my Starbucks thinking no one could touch that magic. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that my brother, Paul, had the idea to compare the two. Ugh, ok I guess.

(Now, before you all start to think that this was my conversion to Dutch Bros initially, think again! It took one Double Chocolate Mocha about 4 years ago to make me switch "coffee" teams. Plus, they're local and I like supporting that as much as I can. But PSL? No no no.)

So, as not to hurt the feelings of our beloved DB crew on Market st, we went to a different location and ordered and Chai latte with pumpkin spice. Same for Starbucks, then homeward bound!

 

We grabbed a small size of each and I poured both into mugs so Paul and I wouldn't be biased while drinking each (he made different mugs for me). 

We both had a look at them first. With the Starbucks one, you can clearly see the pumpkin syrup in it. With Dutch Bros, though, it's pretty pale but with flecks of what we think were nutmeg/pumpkin spice mix.

 

Now for the taste test! I ended up tasting the DB one first, then Starbucks. I immediately knew which one was which. But comparing the two one after the other was a real trip! Starbucks has that overly sweet, syrup-y taste while DB has a more spicier kick to it. You can still taste the sweetness, but it finishes with that spice.

Overall? Dutch Bros for the win!! Both Paul and I preferred the finish of DB compared to the overly sweet of Starbucks. I do have to say I did like the packaging of Starbucks more. They made the effort and I appreciate that! Haha

So what's your favorite holiday drink? 

Happy Holidays!

R.

Twitter: maplebaconrae 

Instagram: maplebaconrae 

Hot Wings: An Experiment.

We all have those appetizer dishes we love. Nachos, cheese sticks, potato skins, dips, chips... and the holy grail, hot wings! Drenched in a spicy buttery sauce, crisp skin, and tender meat make the perfect bite. Also dipped in a cooling ranch sauce if you swing that way. It's always been a white whale of mine to accomplish what restaurants make so effortlessly, but in my own kitchen. 

Now, before I get into the task from hell that is chicken wings, let me reassure you fine folk that I am normally a sane person. Haha But when it comes to the idea of standing over a pot of hot oil, my patience is slim. 

You get super overheated, the whole house reeks of oil for the next day or two, and good luck getting all that oil splatter off of your counters. I hate it. But normally that's how chicken wings are done. That's how we get them in the restaurant. But they have deep fryers with temperature control. Kinda does the work for them! At home, you're fumbling with a thermometer, never truly knowing how long the chicken needs to cook. You end up getting underdone meat that you need to finish in the oven which then burns your beautiful golden brown, crispy skin you worked so hard to accomplish. Like I said, the task from hell.

I had given up on the dream but then, the other day, I was at the grocery store staring at a party pack of chicken wings... and the bravery/insanity kicked in. I joked to my dad that I wanted to test them out and he reminded me of the amazing Alton Brown and his method to the perfect wing! NO. FRYING. NEEDED. I raced to the Internet and there it was. All the steps, though a little labor intensive, seemed necessary. So here I am today to embark on a journey of you will! This was my process through Alton Brown's Hot Wings recipie. 

Alrighty! Here's what you'll need:

- Chicken Wings (I got a pack of 12 whole wings which I cut down into 24 pieces)

Sauce:

- 1 1/2 cups Hot Sauce (of your choosing)

- 3/4 cup Butter (melted)

- 2 tablespoons Honey

- 2 tablespoons Corn Startch 

- 1 tablespoon Garlic (minced)

- Salt and Pepper (to taste)

*You'll also need a steamer. Or a big pot with a metal strainer and a lid. Haha*

Ok! The chicken. You might luck out and find a pack that has the wings already separated. But normally you'll get the entire wing waiting for you to chop it in thirds. I forgot to take progress pictures this step but you can easily find Alton Brown's "Good Eats" episode on YouTube where he breaks it down. It's so easy that I wasn't intimidated by the time he showed how to do it. Very simple. A quick explanation though, there's 3 joints to the wing. The tip, the flat, and the drummette. Toss the tips and keep the other two. Once you have your little wings ready to go, give them a rinse:

Having a sharp knife is what saved me here. It glided through the bones like butter, especially know where to cut. 

The next step is to pat the chicken dry and lay on a sheet pan. Alton says to spread them out in a deep set bowl so the items in your fridge don't get salmonella. I say as long as you put them on the bottom shelf with no open containers on the same shelf, you should be fine. 

Chill these babies for a few hours. This step is about drying and tightening the skin out. The more water and fat you have in the wing, the less likely you'll achieve crispy skin. 

Next step is steaming. This is what separates just throwing your wings in the oven to then have a kitchen full of smoke from the rendered fat popping everywhere, to having an actual positive experience. Haha Steaming helps to get all the excess fat out and cook your meat a little too. I lined my 2 level steamer with 6 wings each to provide plenty of room for the steam to reach every angle of the chicken. Like so:

Steam them for about 10min. I probably could've done them for 15min. I found that my oven still smoked up a little due to the wings still having a little excess fat renduring out. Once their steamed, the should look kinda weird and yellow-y white and you may think you've gone horribly wrong. Haha My kitchen also reeked of that stock smell too. I hate the smell of stock cooking, especially chicken stock. Great flavor, stings the nostrils.

Yay! Partially cooked meats! Now, as you can see, I've transferred them to a sheet pan lined with paper towels and a cooling rack to continue to drain the fat off. Let them drip for a few minutes and put them back in the fridge for another hour. I told you this was slightly labor intensive. But at least it isn't hanging out over hot oil! 

Oh, you might wanna take a look at your water left in the steamer. Yuck. 

Now it's time to bake! Set your oven to 425°F and I went ahead and just took out the paper towel and used the same rack. Do 20min on each side and you now have delicious, GBD, tender, juicy chicken wings!

Yaaaaas! Time to get sauced! No really... 

Combine all the sauce ingredients and simmer until it thickens. You'll wanna pour it over your wings immediately after they come out of the oven to ensure the sauce sticks to them.

Serve them right now! I made potato skins and a thick ranch dip to go with. These guys actually turned out! 

Something I learned from this, time management wise, was that you can steam them and chill them in the fridge for even more than an hour. That way, you don't need to be in the kitchen for several hours in a row. You can steam them the night before, chill, and have 40min in the oven the next night. It's important to leave them in open air when chilling too because that's how you get the tight skin. Condensation is no good!

I hope this inspires anyone who wants to break away from frying and try baking as an option. I would say this was way healthier than frying would've been but I used sooo much butter and ranch... so much. Haha

Happy Baking!

R.

Twitter: maplebaconrae

Instagram: maplebaconrae 

Marinara sauce for your nerves.

Like the title? Haha Big fan of RuPaul's Drag Race over here. Let me tell you, I LIVE for drag! 

Alrighty! Welcome back! Been away for a while. Mixture of personal things and a lack of inspiration to write. But it hit me the other day that the main thing I love to write and post about is food. One of the main reasons for my username. Haha So this blog may focus more on that and I have a lot of friends who probably won't be mad at that at all. Every time my brother and I go to Dutch Bros, it's always "ok, what are you cooking today?" followed by me showing a picture of said meal and drooling from the baristas. My family and I make good food. Simple as that. So I might as well share the wealth. Haha

I thought I'd ease into writing again by posting a super simple marinara sauce recipe. I have to give a big credit to my brother, Paul, for teaching me the basics of red sauce and the wonder that is San Marzano tomatoes. Seriously, it's life changing.

The Rundown:

- 3 28oz cans of whole San Marzano Tomatoes

- 4 tablespoons freshly minced garlic

- 1 1/2 teaspoons Red Pepper Flake

- 1 teaspoon Oregano

- 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning

- 1 teaspoon Salt & Pepper

- Olive Oil

This makes roughly 2 quarts of sauce depending on how much you reduce it.

*Why San Marzanos and not regular canned tomatoes? These babies come from Italy and are sweeter and meatier than other plum tomatoes. While most tomatoes have about 5 seed pockets (aka that watery part), San Marzanos have only 2. This is perfect for a red sauce because you don't want a super acidic and watery sauce. You'll end up doing a bunch of extra stuff to it to overcompensate. A can of these will run you a little more cash than regulars too, but like I said, they make your job easier.*

Alrighty, first you wanna mince your garlic. I ended up using about half a head total, so just keep peeling and mincing each clove until you get the right amount. Using fresh cloves instead of pre-packaged minced garlic is better on the aromatic front. Helps the "blooming" process when it hits the olive oil. Also, if you're not a huge fan of garlic, you can use just 2T but, let's be real here, this IS Italian cooking! Gotta use the O.G. stuff.

Next I would get my tomatoes ready to go because once you get your garlic sautéing, it's less than 5min before you need to add your tomatoes. Do you want burned garlic? No. No you don't. So glove up (or don't, but now you have to wash your hands in the middle of cooking so...) and pour all of that San Marzano goodness into a bowl and start squeezing that anger out! Most brands will have whole basil leaves mixed in and I just pick those out. No one likes a big slimy leaf in their red sauce. Doesn't help the mouth feel. Now you want all of the tomatoes to be very well crushed through. I still like a little chunkiness, it's very rustic, but if you want a super smooth sauce you can strain them. Just make sure to get all that you can out of the tomatoes before you toss the meat out. Press it through the strainer and such. 

Once your tomatoes are prepped, it's time to heat up some olive oil in your pot. You only need just enough to cover the bottom. You'll want your burner on a medium heat and you'll know when the oil is ready for your garlic when it shimmers a bit. You can also throw in a piece of garlic and if it sizzles a little (not violent volcanic eruptions but definitely some bubbles happening) to tell if it's ready. For example:

Toss in your red pepper flake, stir, and wait for the garlic to brown a little. Should only take a few minutes. This was mine after 4min:

Perfect G.B.D! Ok, add your tomatoes and seasonings, stir and cover it with a lid, leaving a small window for steam to escape. This helps with reducing that liquid down because steam equals water and if it just keeps reaching the top of the lid and dripping down into the sauce that defeats the purpose of reducing and makes you sad. Don't be sad, let your steam escape! The only real reason I say to cover it is because it will bubble up and splatter all over your stovetop and surrounding counters. You'll end up losing precious sauce. Ok, I'll show you where my sauce level was at when I started. About an inch or so from the top:

Annnnnnd this was after 2 hours (notice the little red dots of doom from the 30sec removing the lid and stirring. Told you! Haha):

Yes. It takes that long. You'll wanna stir occasionally to make sure all the bits on the bottom don't burn or get stuck there. This also depends on how thick you like your marinara. For pizzas, you typically want a thicker sauce because a thin one will make for a soggy, undercooked dough. But for a dipping sauce and for over noodles, it's ok for it to be a little bit thinner. It's all trial and error and preference. Everyone is different. 

This is also a good time to do a quick taste test. Again, this is a matter of preference. I thought mine was perfect so I went ahead and let it chill to almost room temp before I put it in a Tupperware. This sauce will last in the fridge for probably 2ish weeks. Don't quote me on that because I usually use all of what I make that day or only have about 2 cups leftover and that gets used very quickly as well. There never has been a situation of opening a bad container of sauce for me, and hope I never have to experience that. Haha

Hope this helps with your adventures into the red sauce making world! For me, this sauce gets better every time because I get more and more comfortable with the process. I think that goes for all of cooking. Practice makes perfect. And you also develop your pallet too. I used to put dried basil in mine and I found that basil is a very powerful herb and it took over the sauce. It was all I could taste. Unless it's for a pesto sauce, I'm not a huge fan of using a bunch of it. And if you were wondering how I used my sauce today:

Until next time,

R.

Twitter: maplebaconrae 

Instagram: maplebaconrae 

Bodi

He came into my life on November 7th 2002. It was a Thursday, a very windy one too if I remember correctly. I woke up to the sound of the door of our mustang slamming shut and the gentle cooing voice of my mom. I got out of bed and in the window there he was. A little brown ball of fur in my mom's arms. I couldn't believe it, she actually did it. She got a dog. I raced downstairs to greet this creature at the door. My mom talking in hushed tones immediately led me to believe that this wasn't a family decision, this was a mom decision, and we were about to greet my dad in the living room. She plopped him down on my dad's chest, "here you go!" My dad trying his very best to be mad but this little puppy wasn't going to have that. It took one look at his face and we knew, we were his and he was ours.

We named him Bodhisattva. In Buddism, this is a person who waits to enter paradise in order to help others reach it first. Just to be clear, we're Christians but this felt perfect for us and for Bodi. He gave our life a special meaning. He taught us lessons we wouldn't have learned without him. He was the 5th piece to our puzzle. 

The next 12 years were the best of my life. Who knew that a dog could do that to you? I'm sure those of you who have owned or currently own any animals will share that same feeling. It truly changes your life. All in a flash, from the moment he climbed into my arms, I knew I would do anything for this creature. He was the love of my life. I was 10 years old and it was then that I finally knew what true love  meant. 

Bodi had a special relationship with all 4 of us. There were certain things he'd only do with me and not my parents or brother. The same went for the 3 of them as well. I've never seen that in any other dog I've come across. It's like he knew us, really knew who we were and connected with us. It was magical. 

On April 6th we said goodbye. 10 days prior Bodi had a lot of trouble walking, wouldn't eat. It happened overnight. Long story short, we think he may have had a brain tumor causing nerve damage.

I don't wish this feeling for my worst enemy. This is the worst pain I've ever been through. I feel like there is a hole in my heart. You don't realize how quiet the house gets either. It's gotten a little bit better each day but I'm having trouble getting Monday out of my head. We had an emergency vet come to the house. She was there for a total of 25min. Just like that. But we were with him in the comfort of home, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. He felt no pain, he was safe in our arms. 

It's been a little over a week but it feels like longer. We picked up his ashes on Monday, another surreal and weird experience that I don't wish for anyone to go through. This whole process has drained me and my family too. You just feel like you're floating through each day. Like you're not really present or have a purpose in each task of the day. I have to remind myself to eat, to shower. 

But everyday I get these little visual cues from Bodi letting me know that he'll always be with us. I'm finding some comfort in that. I'm sure that 3 years from now I'll still find his hair in my clothes and I'll say a little hello to him. And I know that he'll let us know if another puppy is right for us. Maybe tomorrow or next year. We'll know when the time is right for us. And I know this isn't a final goodbye. I'll see my little man again in heaven where he's 2 again, running around. Smell his forehead, my favorite spot. I love you, sweetheart. I wish we had 12 more years.

DIY "Burning Face" Mask.

As someone who has suffered from severe acne for most of her life, I know a thing or two about what works and what doesn't. In fact, my very first pimple came on my 5th grade graduation ceremony day right on the center of my chin. It was big and red and I should've known then that I was screwed.  

I've tried just about every topical you can think of, both drugstore and high end. The "all in one" face washes, the 3 step routines, spot treatments, prayer. Haha Plus, my skin doesn't fall into one catergory. I have sensitive skin, acne prone skin, oily in some areas, dry in other areas, and the seasonal changes in weather heavily affect my skin too. Again, I'm screwed. Because of this, there's no one product line that "works" for me. I have to switch up the products I use every few weeks to keep my skin guessing. Also, if I use exfoliants too much, I get a ton of excess oil coming through my skin. Same thing with "ultra moisterizing" stuff. Dry and patchy. Oh, and most of these things are too harsh for my "sensitive" skin. I can't win. 

More like I couldn't win. Through trial and error (and a dermatologist) I've learned that my skin needs natural ingredients sometimes. A break from chemicals. It worked for Cleopatra, it can work for me! So today I'm gonna share one of my go-to masks for when I have acne flare-ups or the texture of my skin starts to become uneven. 

4 ingredients in this mask that are all probably in your kitchen already:

-3 tbsp honey

-1 tbsp lemon juice 

-1 tsp cinnamon 

-1/2 tsp nutmeg

A quick overview of why these ingredients are fantastic for your skin. The honey, cinnamon, and nutmeg all have anti-inflammatory properties in them. A.K.A. It helps with swelling of the skin/tightening of your pores. They also have anti-bacterial properties in them as well which helps a great deal with the formation of acne/clogged pores. No more bumps! Now, the lemon juice is a natural bleaching agent. Very mild, don't worry. But this helps with redness and acne scarring. It helps so much to even out the overall tone in your skin. This mask is a miracle worker for you. 

Note: Of course, if you have allergies to any of these ingredients, don't use this mask. Haha Pretty simple but I felt like I needed to mention it. 

Now for how to put this stuff on your face! 

1. Mix the ingredients until smooth. 

2. Grab a washcloth and run in under warm water, wring it out and press it on your face for 5min. This opens up your pores to help the mask get right into your skin and work it's magic.

3. Dip your fingers into the mask mix and spread it out evenly onto your face, avoiding your eye area. This is a little messy so do a little at a time. You'll notice the cinnamon and nutmeg feel like little exfoliating beads. Take advantage of that and rub your face in small circles for a few min.

4. Let the mask sit on your skin for up to 20min. You should feel a warm tingling sensation from the cinnamon. That's ok. But if it becomes irritating, immediately take the mask off. But you should be fine. Butch up! Haha

5. After 20min, grab that wet washcloth and start wiping the mask off. I wouldn't advise anyone to just splash water on their face and rinse it off because it can get in your eyes. It's be like getting soap in yours eyes but like 10x worse. No good.

6. Once you've gotten all the mask off, grab a face wash and wash your face like normal. I use Biore Blemish Fighting Ice Cleanser.

7. Probably the most important part is to use a moisterizer afterwards to lock it all in! I use Clinique Dramatically Different Moisterizing Lotion. This is the best lotion I've tried. Ever. Works for every skin type.

I hope this helps anyone dealing with acne, scarring, uneven skin tone, etc. I use this mask 3-4 times per month. And, right now with the seasonal change, my skin needs it!

Here's to clear skin!

R.

Twitter: @maplebaconrae

Instagram: maplebaconrae

Cherry Blossoms in bloom.

Spring is finally here... maybe. Haha You never know with Oregon. The running joke here is that you can have all four seasons in one day. Hot desert in the east, torrential downpour in the valley, blizzards in the mountains. You get the idea. 

For me, when the trees start to come back to life, I let out a big sigh of relief. I hate winter. The temperature, the fact that everything outside is dead or hibernating, it's not ideal for someone like me. I, along with many North Westerners, have a touch of Seasonal Affective Disorder. That's right, I'm S.A.D. How fitting. Haha So each winter is harder for me because the way the clouds affect the lighting (which means a guaranteed headache for the day) and the lack of vitamin D from the sun. 

BUT! Spring is approaching and I can feel my skin soaking up that vitamin D! All is well in my world. Plus, with all the colors blooming outside, it got my creative makeup vibes going. So I sat down and grabbed every pastel I could find and this is what I came up with!

Super soft, pinky/peachy/lavendery eye. Pinks are tricky to pull off due to the fact that it can look like you're a little infected, maybe some conjunctivitis. No judgement here! Haha 

Undertones are key with pinks. You need to pull some oranges through to warm it up a little. But if you're feeling super 90s grunge like myself here, go for it. Haha  I tend to go for a very blended/blown out type smokey eye whenever I do one. On me, if I were to concentrate the color only on my lid and lashline, it would make my eyes appear smaller. No good for me. I like my eyes big and rounded.

I used a bunch of things for this look:

Eyes:

-Urban Decay Eye Potion Primer (Eden)

-Coastal Scents 88 Color Eye Shadow Plallete

-Neutrogena Healthy Volume Mascara (Black)

-Maybelline Master Shape Brow Pencil (Blonde & Soft Brown)

Lips:

-NYX Slim Lip Pencil (Pale Pink)

For my cheeks I used what was leftover on my eyeshadow brush to continue the pink a little. Just a quick sweep on the apples. Speaking of eye shadow brushes, I used one. About 6-7 shadows and one brush. Did I tell you guys that I'm a fan of blending? Haha This is just adding little by little and lots a sweeping back and forth. Very simple. I focused my peachy colors in the crease and on the lid, my pinks on the inner corner and lashline, and purples on the outter edge of the eye and the bridge of my nose. Blend blend blend. 

I know this choice of color isn't for most but, if anything, let this be an inspiration to those of you who are itching to break out of your makeup boxes! And, by the cruel joke that is Oregon, I'm looking out my window right now to a bunch of clouds forming. That means one thing. Rain. Hahaha

Happy Spring! (maybe)

R.

Twitter: @maplebaconrae

Instagram: maplebaconrae 

Caramelized Onion Dip.

If you're familiar with my Instagram (MapleBaconRae) then you know all too well the love I have for food and taking pretty pictures of it. I would even go to the lengths of considering myself a "foodie". With that said, I get recipe requests on a near daily basis from friends and fellow foodies via my Instagram and Facebook. Gotta love social networking! So, reason number 27 of starting this blog, I thought I'd embark on the lovely task of sharing a few of my favorites and most requested recipes!

Today is an old favorite! As the title suggests, I'm going to teach you fine readers how to make my delicious, mouth-watering Caramelized Onion Dip. I've been making this dip for... 3-4 years? Yeah, that sounds about right. This is great for parties, Sunday football or, in my case, when you're family begs you to make it. Haha It's loaded with onions (no duh, Rach), Parmesan and cream cheese, and mayo because... we live in America. But seriously, if you wanna switch out healthy options, plain Greek yogurt is a perfect substitute. Adds a little "tang" too it. But I come from a family of indulgence. Haha 

Let's get started shall we? Here's what you'll need:

4 med/large onions (sweet yellow)

1/2 cup cream cheese

1/2 cup mayo

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

2 tbsp butter

salt and pepper to taste

Optional: 1/4 cup white wine

Now I should say first and foremost that this recipe takes patience. Like, a lot of it. Onions take a while to caramelize and reduce down properly. Another thing I should mention is that I highly recommend using a cast iron skillet. They retain heat very well and will last you forever if you take care of them properly. It's life changing.

Ok! Ready to dice those onions?!?! You can take the easy way out and grab a food processor and pulse them a few times to get a medium sized dice. Or you can do it by hand! You want the pieces to be about as big as your thumb nail. Easy bite sized pieces.

After you're done chopping up your onions, you should check yourself in the mirror to see if you've aged at all. Haha Now grab your pan/skillet and heat it up to a low/med heat on the stove. We're slowly bringing our onions to caramelization. You do it too fast on a super high heat, you get uneven color, burnt pieces, and the onions aren't tender at all. Not good eats!

Toss in your diced onions, butter and salt/pepper. Mix around and let it be! I repeat, let it be. If you've got your heat low enough, you shouldn't have to worry about anything sticking to the bottom of the pan. Right now we're "sweating" our onions. Drawing the moisture out. This is where that patience of yours comes in handy! It's worth while in the end.

You should stir your mixture around every 5-10min or so. Once you start to see a translucence in your mix, turn up the heat a tiny bit. You're going to do this process a few times. Sweat it, stir it, turn up the heat. Remember that the hotter it gets, the more frequent your stirring should become! This is what mine looked like after about 25min:

Just a little bit of color peaking through but not nearly done yet. Haha 

Pro tip: Once you've got some golden colors in your mix, you can add a sprinkling of sugar. It helps the caramelization process. 

After about 40min, turn your heat up to med/high (like a 7/10) and keep a close eye on it. Stir every min or so, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan and pick up those delicious bits. Should kinda sorta look like this:

Now would be the time to preheat your oven to 350°. If you've decided to add the white wine, do so! Splash it in and stir it around, scrapping up every bit from the bottom. 

Pro tip: This is called "de-glazing" your pan.

Wine isn't necessary, but it elevates your cooking skills, adds great flavor, makes you look cool in front of your friends. Haha Once you've got your wine mixed in, turn off your heat and add your onions to your cheese mixture. But Rach! You never told us how to make the cheese mixture! Never fear...

Grab a big mixing bowl and combine your mayo, Parmesan cheese and cream cheese. It helps if your cream cheese is room temperature, makes it easier to mix. You can also add a little more pepper if you like. Mix those ingredients together. You wanna make sure everything is evenly incorporated because if you just add the onions and mayo/cheeses one at a time, mix it around a little and through it in the oven, each bite will be different. It's better to have everything pre-mixed so that when you stir in your onions, each bite has consistency/the same uniform taste. It should look like this:

Yes, that's a 9x13 pan. I probably should've mentioned that. Haha Pour your delicious mixture into your pan and spread it out evenly. Pop it into the oven for 30min or until the top is GBD. Golden, brown and delicious. You'll hear that term quite a lot from me. 

Let it cool for 5-10min and dig in! It's savory and warm and gooey and I should probably check to see if I have any left. My family is a bunch of heathens. Haha

Happy cooking!

R.

Twitter: @MapleBaconRae

Instagram: maplebaconrae