Victory Cookies

It was a sunny morning in Connecticut and I was getting dressed, filled of excitement.  We were getting ready to hop in the car and head to Boston for the Red Sox game.  I asked my mom what the weather would be like, and she said it should be warm and sunny, as the sun was shining in CT and assumed it would be in Boston too.  We drove to the game, only to find clouds, but no rain, so we proceeded into Fenway Park.  As the game started, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped.  My brother and I were freezing, wearing shorts and t-shirts, and my Dad kept taking us under the stands to get food to keep warm.  I remember wrapping the plastic bag from the pizza stand around my arms to keep warm.  It was freezing!  Eventually my Dad ran to the car and brought back a sheet and we both huddled under it, cheering for our favorite team.  It didn't matter how cold and miserable we were, because we were in the best place in the entire world.  I'll never forget that game!

My brother and I grew up at Fenway, literally.  My parents took me to my first game when I was 5 and we were going to games every two weeks or so.  My parents never cared if we were up late on a school night... Dad would call Mom and ask if we wanted to go because he got free tickets from Coca Cola, so off we went. Coke box, 600 Club, bleacher seats.. we sat in them all!  At the time, we lived only 20 minutes north of the city.  When we moved to Connecticut, it was harder to get free tickets but we still went regularly.  I have been a fan my entire life. 

 Fenway Park is my favorite place to be. You may get older, and the park may add new seats or more ads on the Green Monster, but the Fenway experience never changes.  The smell of The Sausage King's onions and peppers fill the air as you approach the stadium, and boys standing on milk crates try to sell the game's magazine for a few bucks.  You enter the stadium and it is bustling with people rushing around, getting pretzels and beer, trying to find their seats.  The stadium is old.  You dodge pillars in the middle of your path, the floor is uneven, the wooden seats are tiny and cramped but that is what makes it so great. There's 100 years of history in that place.

The Red Sox are different than any other team in baseball.  Being a Sox fan is like being a part of a giant family.  You see a stranger in the store with a Sox hat on, and you're instantly bonded. There is that sense of unity.  The Sox can make you the happiest person alive, or they can break your heart.  Luckily, I've seen them win 2 world series (hopefully 3!) in my lifetime.  Before 2004 they hadn't won in 86 years...There are fans who literally never saw them win one.  Heartbreaking!

So, here we are tonight playing for our spot in the 2013 World Series!  It is an exciting time to be a Boston fan! In the spirit, I decided to make some flooded cookies in Boston's honor! I am sort of becoming obsessed with flooded cookies.  It is becoming a problem because I don't know what to do with all the cookie cutters I keep ordering on Amazon.

I decided to go with a chocolate sugar cookie. This recipe is delicious, the cookies taste like brownie ends.. SO GOOD! So I started by whipping butter, sugar and cocoa powder and essentially made chocolate butter. I could have stopped here, because it was so delectable I wanted to toast a bagel and spread this on!

But I didn't. I proceeded with the cookies. I ordered some awesome Red Sox licensed cookie cutters on Amazon (help I am addicted, seriously) and then baked for 8 minutes. The results were thin little cookies that are surprisingly chewy but hard enough the withstand royal icing.  

So, I spent this fall Saturday piping my little heart out, decked out in my "We Own The East" shirt for good luck!

Whipped up some royal icing. You know royal icing is ready when it looks like this--Elmer's Glue! If it drizzles into the bown and disappears within 3 seconds, it's ready for flooding.

I started with baseballs, using the toothpick technique to create the stitching.  

The Boston "B" logo was my favorite! A challenging pattern to pipe but it really ties it all together.

And here's the finished product!! 

I am really happy with how they came out.  I am going to continue to work on my piping skills, to clean up my edging... But otherwise, I am excited to enjoy them with my boyfriend tonight while we watch the game, and package a few up for my coworker Pete who is a giant Red Sox fan! He called them "Victory Cookies"! Let's hope we come out on top tonight and win our ticket to the 2013 World Series!  Fear the Beards! GO SOX!

-Elena

My First Bite

I don't remember my first bite of chocolate cake.  I wish I did, because I bet it was delicious. It was probably for my second or third birthday, when my parents made me a chocolate cake with The Little Mermaid on top.  Or maybe it was a cake my Yia Yia made for Easter, shaped and frosted as a bunny.  All I know is that I am a chocolate cake-aholic. I have no shame.

Growing up, my grandma and my mom made the best chocolate chip cookies imaginable. Gooey and chocolatey and just delicious.  My friends would come over and eat them all up.  My brother's friends would take them from the freezer and polish off the entire tin.  Friends from Massachusetts still talk about them, and friends in Connecticut still ask for them.  They're famous in three states. It's a fact.

I have been cooking and baking my way through life for three full years now.  I grew up around food-- grandparents are Greek and French and always stuck to their roots in terms of food, and I always loved eating it all but never really knew how much I loved creating it until after college.  It started with cooking, then it grew into baking.  Then I decided to take my passion for color coordinating, scrap booking and event planning and mix it with my baking.  So I made a few cake pops for my brother's graduation party. They were messy and as I look back on them, they were ugly. But wow... they tasted like heaven. Moist, chocolate heaven. And so it began...

I got my Bachelor's Degree in Communications with a focus on Marketing, and though I work full time, something was missing.  I found myself dreaming of my next edible creation while sitting at my desk creating spreadsheets.  I had to immerse myself in my new found passion. So I enrolled in culinary school, and though I am taking it slow, I will be fully accredited when I finish.  No rush though, I have no concrete plans.

My dream would be to open a catering business. I want to create gorgeous baked goods for parties.  I want to make dessert tables for little girls' Princess themed parties. I want to make gorgeous cakes for a bridal shower... and I want to make people smile when they see something beautiful created JUST for them.. 

And that's why I've created this blog. So many people ask why I don't write a blog to share my photos and passion, and I've never had an answer as to why I haven't created one.  Writing was always another passion of mine, and I think I need an outlet.  A place to write to the world about what it's like being a "twenty-something" young woman of the "Generation Y"... broke, buried in college debt, living at home, and trying to find where I fit in this giant world of craziness.  I have no idea what I am doing yet, but I do know that when I am in the kitchen, whipping three pounds of butter into delicious butter cream frosting, I feel content. When I touch the top of a double chocolate cake, fresh out of the oven and it springs back, I feel satisfaction.  When I deliver a tray of cake pops with small baby faces on them and see the expectant mother almost in tears, I no longer feel like that lost twenty-something girl...I feel like I am right where I need to be.  It snaps be back to reality and reminds me that I need to take this life "one sweet bite at a time."