Cupcakes! Cupcakes! Oh yeah, Cupcakes!

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Now that I have your attention, I would like to have a very serious discussion about something near and dear to my heart: cupcakes. Ok, maybe near and dear to my tastebuds, but you get the picture. It almost doesn’t matter what flavor, as long as the cake is moist and the icing is sweet I want one. I have something to admit, I am not very good at making them…yet.

I have been working at perfecting my skill in this area. I can make a pretty decent cake right now. It is moist and spongy, but I am still very early in my learnings. I have been watching many of the shows on the Food Network (namely Cupcake Wars) and I am amazed at all of the different recipies that people come up with. It is truly an art form mixed with a bit of chemistry. Baking really is the crossroads of science and art. You must be precise with your ingredients and the conditions, or your cakes will not turn out the same way every time.

This is where I still have much study to do. I have experimented with using different wet ingredients in the cakes. One batch I used Grand Marnier, another some spiced rum, and another some blackberry wine. It hasn’t really done what I have wanted it to do. It gives the cakes a moist texture, but it doesn’t enhance the flavor as much as I have been hoping.

So, the journey continues. Here are a couple of things I have learned as I have been making cakes the last couple of weeks:

1. Using the food processor is a very good way to mix the batter.

2. Old fashion paper cups are still a good way to go. I tried some silicon cups. Eh…no thanks. I am going to stick with the paper.

3. I am going to have to start taking cakes to work if I intend to keep practicing. Holy cow…I could gain 20 pounds in a hurry with this experiment! But, I don’t like not being good at something I want to do. It irks me. So, I will have to practice, practice, practice.

4. Strawberry sauces can taste just as good over a cupcake as icing. Yes it is true!

Do you have a good recipe that you could share? Here is the one I have been using lately as my basic recipe (thank you Food Network!). What tips and tricks have you learned?

Engaging the creative process.

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

How long can you stare at a blank screen and nothing appear? I have asked myself this questions several times and the answer is always the same. I sit down with the full intention of creating (posts, stories, songs, etc) and the void of white space engulfs me..until I put my fingers on the keyboard and start to type. The answer is, the screen only stays blank until I write something. I have to engage the process. It won’t do it by itself.

I have selective memory on this topic unfortunately. I have discovered this principle many times over the years. I once told Marixa that I wasn’t coming to bed until I wrote a new song. It had been six months since I had written anything and I felt that it was time. So, I came to be about an hour later. The song was written. I chose to engage and I got it done. Funny enough, it is still a song I hum to myself from time to time. I wrote it over 8 years ago.

I think the people that consistently produce really good stuff  are masters of this process. They are not more creative than most of us, but they are much better at demanding that the creativity flow out of them and become art or song or whatever else it is they do. Creativity can not be rigid by any means, but we must sit down at our craft and create. That is what the creative does. Day after day after day. Sometimes what we have created really stinks, but that isn’t the point. If we are truly creative, good will come.

There is a great scene from the movie Finding Forrester (one of my favorite movies, Marixa was not so thrilled) where Sean Connery’s character William Forrester is giving instruction to Rob Brown’s character Jamal Wallace. He points to a typewriter and instructs Jamal to write. The scene unfolds like this:

Forrester: Go ahead.

Wallace: Go ahead and what?

Forrester: Write.

Wallace: What are you doing?

Forrester: I’m writing like you will be when you start punching those keys. (Jamal looks uncertain) Is there a problem?

Wallace: No, I’m just thinking.

Forrester: No. No thinking. That comes later.

The old man is a master at his task. He sits himself down in front of the keys and he writes. This is a skill he helps teach Jamal throughout the rest of the movie. This is evidenced by the fact that Jamal’s teacher see such a rapid improvement in his work they question if it his own.

In my pursuit of the life I am meant to live I have to acknowledge that being creative is how God has wired me. Knowing this, it is my privilege to sit down to it. Whether it is through words, music, or food I choose to use my creativity. My job is to sit down and do it. No excuses. If only one person benefits, it was worth the time.

12 Years and counting…

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Anybody who has been around me for any amount of time know this about me: I am passionate about my marriage. I am married to a wonderful woman. She is beautiful and smart, funny and sexy, thoughtful and witty, and the best friend I have ever had. These things make it  easy to be passionate about my marriage to her. But, truth be told though, I would be passionate about my marriage even if she wasn’t some of those things.

I have a bold statement to make. One that I know many people will not believe. Marriage is not broken. People are. Marriage works. What do I mean by this? Simply that. It works. It is one of the most awesome experiences of my life and it works just fine, if we work on it. If we submit ourselves to the process, marriage most certainly works. You don’t always get your way. You compromise. You find solutions that work for both of you. And you learn that all of that is a very good thing.

I married my best friend 12 years ago this month. We have been through a lot of life in those 12 years and we are happier today than we have ever been. Taking a brief glance back it might be hard to see how. There have been deaths in the family. Both of her grandmas, her dad, her mom, and me have all been through bouts with cancer. (Her parents and I are out on the other side cancer free. We miss both of her grandmas dearly). There have been hard times. We tried to get pregnant with our son for over 5 years. Money has been tight at times. Life has bombarded us from all sides. I wouldn’t choose to do it any other way.

For as much hard times there have been awesome times too. We spent time on our anniversary day (January 9) remembering about our wedding day. We looked at where we were (see above…did I really ever have that much hair?!!) and where we have come. We have walked with each other. We have loved each other. We have enjoyed each other. We have shared our hopes and dreams. We have helped each other make some of those come true. We have much to celebrate.

In marrying one another we made each other a promise that we would walk with each other through the good times and hard times, remaining faithful to each other. We chose each other that day twelve years ago. We have made that choice, and will make that choice, every day forward. I chose to be her husband. She chose to be my wife. No second chances. No do overs. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The sense of wonder hasn’t left me either. With each year that passes I am still amazed and still so very thankful to God that she is the one I get to spend my life with.

Why do we fall down?

~ David Willis ~ 4 Comments

I have been a comic book fan for as long as I can remember. Good versus evil. Right overcoming wrong. Justice for the underdog. My heart is stirred by those themes. One of my all time favorites is Batman. I mean, who doesn’t love Batman? (Um…bear with me….)

I am not talking about the 1960’s Boom Pow Zap Holy Everything Batman. I am talking about the Batman from the comic book. The character who experienced loss as a child in the murder of his parents and works to bring those who would perpetrate the same to justice. The character was very accurately (in my mind) portrayed in the movie Batman Begins. A young Bruce Wayne is angry and unfocused, but finds his calling in defending Gotham.

One line stuck with me from the movie. You see in a flashback to Bruce Wayne’s past a conversation he has with his father. His dad asks him this: ‘Why do we fall down Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up again.’

I have been thinking hard about my life this month. I have made the choice to give my best this year and to live my life on purpose. I am realizing in the pursuit of that goal I am going to fall down a lot. The bad thing about goals for the New Year is we don’t suddenly become different people on January 1st. We just are more hopeful with the prospect of a clean slate.

It takes a lot of determination and guts to envision the life you want and then take progressive steps to see that vision carried out. What you don’t see is all the times the successful people you know almost threw in the towel, but didn’t. They persevered. Every time life knocks them down they get back up.

Maybe that is why I like super heroes as much as I do. They don’t give in. They don’t surrender. They get back up when they fall down. Good wins over evil. Gotham is saved for another day. And they get to wear a cool utility belt that does everything from opening bottles to vaccinating for the flu…You know what I mean.

Why do we fall down? So we can pick ourselves back up again. To get anywhere worth going you have to.

A Friday Evening Feast

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

I do my best to not be part of the ‘Oh, lord it’s Monday…Thank God, it’s Friday’ crowd. I think that attitude makes us miss a lot of important stuff that goes on during the week. At the very least, we don’t get the kind of enjoyment out of life that we can. With that being said, I was very excited that it was Friday a couple of days ago. Why? It was time for seeing good friends and having some home made Mexican food.

I got a little more ambitious than normal and made the following: Chicken and Beef Fajitas, Fried Jalapeños, Fresh Squeezed Limeade, and Tex-Mex Sundaes. I had a blast. Since I covered the jalepenos in a different post, I am going to focus on the limeade and the Tex-Mex Sundaes. (We will save the fajitas for another time!) All in all I was in the kitchen for about three hours.

I found the limeade recipe through Chef Rick Bayless. It is the perfect blend of sweet and tart and absolutely refreshing. It is also very easy to make. It takes the juice of 6-8 limes, a cup and a half of sugar, and a quart of sparkling water. Give it a try and you won’t be disappointed. One word of caution though, the sugar will react with the sparkling water and create quite a mess if you aren’t careful!

The Tex-Mex Sundae is courtesy of Paula Deen. It is all kinds of awesome. It is a wonderful blend of textures. It starts with a base of a fried tortilla that is then sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. On top of that put 2-3 scoops of homemade cinnamon ice cream. The recipe calls for a topping of chocolate syrup and a cherry. I have taken a little creative license and have topped it in a few different ways. I like the chocolate syrup topped with whipped cream. Marixa doesn’t want chocolate syrup at all, but prefers a strawberry sauce over the top with whipped cream on top of that.

The strawberry sauce can be made by thawing a package of frozen strawberries, adding 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and half a cup to a cup of powdered sugar. You don’t want to make the sauce too sweet or it will mask the flavor of the sundae.

Overall, I would call Friday night a success. Everyone enjoyed the food and that is what we cook for isn’t it? I continue to be amazed at how food can bring people together. It can be a very intimate time that is shared among friends. I am very thankful for this. It is one of the reasons I enjoy cooking as much as I do.