I’m often caught off guard by the kindness of strangers. Maybe it’s because I’m too busy to see everyday occurrences of unsolicited good deeds. Or perhaps I’m just hanging around the wrong places. But the rarity is probably what makes those moments of undeserved goodness so special and memorable.

I was the recipient of such a good deed this week. I was fervently typing up an freelance article (ironically, about volunteerism) when a knock at the door sent the puppies wildly crashing down the stairs to who could be gracing up with their presence. The postman had visited, like an everyday Santa Claus, and left a package on my stoop. With the passion of a two-year-old on a sugar high, I pounced on the box, eager to see what awaited me.

Inside, I found this mysteriously wrapped parcel:

After untying the ribbon and folding back the brightly patterned fabric, I discovered:

Cute stickers! A handmade book of recipes! A pretty journal the color of ruby red grapefruit! And a cookbook titled The Best Bake Sale Ever Cookbook! Wheee!

This pleasant surprise to my day was actually the wonderful work of blogger Frugal Hostess, who shares DIY projects, lifestyle advice, and guidance for living a frugal yet satisfying life. She had a contest on her blog where participants merely had to comment with their favorite baked good to enter. Well, my challenge was deciding on my favorite. So I wrote in “rum-soaked tiramisu” because of the fond memories I associate with it. And by random luck (or fate!), I won.

So, someone I know only from the internet shipped me this amazing package of goods! Wow. Just plain wow.

Other acts of kindness from Internet people or complete strangers:
- Fellow NH-ite @Sully lent me David Meerman Scott’s book on The New Rules of Marketing and PR and when reminded that I still had it, simply told me not to worry about it and to forward it on.
- A friend I know purely through Livejournal has been giving me comprehensive advice on running and triathlon training, despite being in the middle of a house sale and busy up to her eyeballs.
- A customer recently gave me a Lindt chocolate truffle. (Yes, I take candy from strangers!). Surprisingly, it was not the first time that has happened.
- Former NH-ite @EmilysPearl offered to let me crash at her place if I ever make my way to NYC.
- Aspiring career coach @tboyum spent a whole evening talking with my about my career goals and giving me good advice on pursuing my dream career.

To those of you who have been kind to me and I have forgotten to mention you here, I apologize and thank you also for your selfless giving of time, talent, and treasure. I strive in my life to pass on the favors you have done for me and hope that others do the same for you.

I attended a tea party in Boston this week. Yes, a real bona fide tea party with real tea and assorted items for noshing. While the Tea Party Express rallied tax protesters on the Boston Common, I and a hundred or so other folks gathered for what was dubbed The Real Boston Tea Party. Most of us dressed up in fancy smancy outfits and had an old-fashioned tea party picnic right on the Common.

It wasn’t political or obnoxious or theatrical. It was simply a tea party. Some folks did bring signs, but one sign in particular summed up the event perfectly. It said: “Our tea party has cookies.” And indeed it did! As well as scones, crumpets, petit fours, bread, cake, and in my case, cupcakes.

Despite my late Victorian garb, I veered into a more modern style of tasty treat — the moist and fluffy cupcake. I made Chocolate Stout Cupcakes, using a recipe from RainyDayGal on Tasty Kitchen. However, because I had to transport these lovelies by car and train, I chose not to frost them. To be honest, though, I didn’t miss the frosting, and it seemed that no one else did either.

Paired with a cup of fine peach ginger black tea, these cupcakes were delish! Immediately, the cupcakes began to disappear as my boyfriend and I offered them to other tea party attendees (and often receiving other fine goods in return). A few days later and the ones I left at home are still yummy. Dare I say they get better with time? Moister, at least.

I began this recipe around 8pm the night before the party and didn’t finish baking until midnight. I realized about one-third of the way into the recipe that the numbers of cupcakes it would make is 48. Forty-eight cupcakes a lot of cupcakes! If you don’t need so many, use Tasty Kitchen’s awesome serving adjustment tool to modify the recipes amounts to accommodate your cupcake quantity needs.

Also, don’t worry about using a hand mixer as the recipe calls for. I used a whisk and beat it really fast and everything turned out fine. Instead, worry about having a bowl big enough to mix all the ingredients together at the end. Because it will be a lot of batter. Seriously, a lot. I ended up splitting up the batter and using my Kitchen Aid mixer in two rounds of final mixing. It worked out okay.

One final note: Use good stout. I know it may seem unimportant, especially since you’re consuming it in a baked good and not straight from the bottle. However, if you’re going to bother to consume this many calories and this much saturated fat, opt for the good stuff. Good food is made from good ingredients.

I used Rogue Chocolate Stout from Bert’s Better Beers in Hooksett, NH. Very rich, very creamy, and very good in these cupcakes. It also added a final note of a bitterness for a bittersweet chocolate taste.

Happy eating and hope your weekend rocks!

[Now let’s head into the kitchen…]

Morgan has her head buried in kibble like she hasn’t eaten in days. But when the younger, larger Buster approaches, Morgan runs away, and Buster goes in for the kill until I shoo him away. It’s the almost-comical evening routine at my house known as feeding time for the dogs. And it’s making me rethink how I approach life.

As an 80-lb. pit bull puppy, Buster is a bit intimidating to the 10-year-old 30-lb. cocker spaniel, Morgan. Realistically, though, all he’d ever do to her is lick her, something he does whenever she barks at him. (Again, a comical sight.)

Yet, when he pesters her for her dinner, she gives in and lets him bully her away from food (aka her favorite thing on earth).

We humans can be the same way, avoiding things we’re scared of, when really, we’re not at risk.

Think of that job you want but are fearful of applying for because you feel under-qualified.
Think of that person you’d like to talk to but don’t approach because you don’t feel “cool enough.”
Think of that class you want to take but don’t because you don’t feel smart enough.

Let’s be real here and think “What are you actually risking?”

Nothing.

You, like Morgan, have created an irrational fear of something that is actually innocuous. So what if you don’t get called in for an interview? Nothing lost except a little time and effort. But you got your name out there and gave it a shot.

So what if that person you finally get the guts to approach snubs you? Clearly, they are not someone you’d want to be friends with anyway.

So what if you struggle in that class? You’ll come away with a better knowledge of your skill set and where to direct your studies. Or perhaps you’ll meet someone in the class who can help you understand the material. Sure beats being friends with that person from example two, right?

One way you can boost your confidence is by trying new recipes that appear overwhelming. Take, for example, these shrimp tostadas. Looks like [Now let’s head into the kitchen…]

The small, subtle hints of summer have crept in. First, it was the disregard for heavy, winter coats. Then came the reappearance of grass. Gradually, the sun started making casual visits, punctuated by wind storms and an onslaught of flooded basements.

But finally, the true sign of summer had arrived–an explosion of miniskirt wearing preteens donning flip flops and bare arms. Truly, summer was here, even if we’re still technically in spring and, at least in New England, still at risk of snow.

And just like that, we are darting about, fetching gardening supplies, making summer to-do lists, and fervently praying that our clothes from last summer still fit (or just saying “Forget it!” and dashing off to get new ones). Everything feels so full of potential. Everything feels so full of hope and life and energy. It’s like euphoria that leaves you light-headed and a bit drunk on joy.

We have plans! We have goals! We are on a mission to get splendid things done this summer! There are mountains to be hiked, camping trips to be taken, and new recipes to be tried! (And excessive exclamation point usage habits to be broken.)

But how do you make sure that you actually try all these new things that have caught your eye or do the things that never quite got checked off last year’s list? I am, by no means, an expert on actually accomplishing everything on a to-do list, but I will share with you something has helped me go from “planner” to “doer.”

[Now let’s head into the kitchen…]

If chefs can make an array of sumptuous meals upon request and waitstaff can whisk away dirty dishes that you don’t have to wash, why bother to cook at home? Especially for you folks who can afford to eat out every night, why go through the effort of finding a recipe, shopping for ingredients, doing all the prep work, cooking the meal, and dealing with piles of dirty dishes?

Why not dine out or order in or pick up take out on the way home from work?

Two words: Control and independence

1. Control. When you cook, you control what goes into your meal and what doesn’t. When you order a meal at a restaurant, you are eating a meal you can’t control the contents of. So, if the chef loves to add lots of butter, even if you’re trying to cut back on extra fats, you don’t know how many tablespoons went into your “healthy” mashed potatoes. The sugar, the oils, the unnecessary additives, and preservatives that restaurants are putting into your meal are all things you can’t control. This means your body’s health is out of your hands at that point.

Furthermore, a lot of the food you’re getting at a restaurant is pre-made, pre-packaged, and/or made in massive amounts. This leads absolutely no handcrafted artistry to freshly julienned carrots, cuts of meat, or fluffy yet gooey molten chocolate cakes. Basically, your meal is nothing special. If you really want to get a meal that screams “Fresh! Quality! Handcrafted! Excellence!” you have to be willing to shell out some dough for chefs with true skills who can masterfully execute a well-planned meal.

2. Independence. Perchance a zombie apocalypse occurs and you are forced to feed yourself, you will not, in all likelihood, have the luxury of restaurants, personal chefs, or access to meals beyond prepackaged goods in the abandoned grocery stores. If you can’t at least make a grilled cheese sandwich, you will starve and the zombies will eat you. Granted, that’s an extreme situation. However, there is something very admirable about someone who has the skills to feed themselves without relying on the cooking abilities of Boston Market, KFC, or Olive Garden.

Anyone can order take out. Anyone can buy a meal a restaurant. It doesn’t take any amount of talent. But not just anyone can make a tender beef stew or roast a flavorful chicken or bake flurry, moist muffins. Or can they?

Actually, I think you can. Yes, you, the person currently hunched in your chair with way too many Firefox tabs open and a true appreciation for ice cream with little bits of goodness blended in. The only thing keeping you from being independent in your cooking is your hesitance to risk failure by trying a new recipe. But, who wants to try a recipe that might end in a completely inedible mess?

Good news, you’ve got this site. And me, your guinea cook/baker/guide. So, let’s get to it and make some food that you can control ingredients of and that you can make all by yourself. Well, no need to cook alone. Grab a friend. Make a friend. And get in the kitchen. We’ve got food to make!

In New England, cabin fever starts to set in around the beginning of March. Kids become restless, having bored of purposeless trips to the mall every weekend. Adults are eyeballing their bathroom scale with distrust, having seen a steady increase in digits since the holidays.

And the whole area seems to hum with a pent-up excitement, like a washing machine about to blow soapy water in every direction and send Barbie and friends floating through the basement on a white water rafting trip they could not have predicted.

To keep our sanity, we resort to: 1) an increase in alcohol consumption, 2) a sudden fascination with driving aimlessly just to get out of the house, and 3) making plans with people we don’t actually like, simply for something to break the monotony.

Or, in my household, we buy a pineapple. Silly as it sounds, eating a tropical fruit when it is 30 degrees outside is sublime. Thanks to a southern hemisphere that grows stuff while we’re busy shoveling snow and also thanks to the miracle of international shipping, we have access to fruits at a time when the only thing growing here is our impatience for spring.

But cutting up a pineapple is pain, if you haven’t devised a plan of attack. Its thick skin, balloon shape, and fibrous core make cutting it a challenge. Fortunately, I’ve managed to develop the easiest pineapple peeling plan possible and have documented it step-by-step for your convenience.

It’s not necessarily a recipe, but hopefully, you too can find it useful in fighting off the cabin fever, even if your cabin happens to be located on the silky sands of Hawaii.

To begin, you will want to [Now let’s head into the kitchen…]