School & Birthdays

This last week, with no looming deadlines to worry me, I was able to reflect some on my first semester now that it is officially over. First of all, the adage that what you put into your education you'll get out of it is completely true. I put a lot of effort into this class, and that is reflected by my final grade. An online program is hard to accomplish unless you stay on top of your work. A couple of times this semester, I did fall a little behind; each time, it was difficult (but not impossible) to catch up. I would recommend for anyone starting or considering an online program to 1) schedule out your school work time and 2) start readings and assignments as soon as possible. Secondly, there is a LOT of material and a lot of topics that were covered over the course of the semester. My instructor ran the class like a seminar, and we were provided with so many articles and other readings outside the class textbook. I really appreciated this because I was exposed to so many viewpoints and so much information through just the readings that I don't think would have been possible in a traditional classroom setting. My classmates and I engaged in some very valuable discussions, and our diverse backgrounds (many of us came from very different fields) lent even more to the class forums. In this alone, the online program has been a very valuable experience.

My instructor has also been an incredible resource of ideas, topics, and discussion. She is very knowledgeable and active in several areas of librarianship including open access and intellectual freedom, secrecy, government documents, and social responsibility. I think it was my instructor even more than the material that was such an inspiration for me. She brought up a lot of topics that don't seem to get enough discussion in the field, and she asked thought-provoking questions that really made me examine certain aspects of the profession and librarianship as a whole. I got so much out of this class, and I saved everything that was on the reading list in a binder to refer back to in the future.

On a side note, I got my ALA membership card in the mail this last week too. The dues are reasonable and there are a LOT of workshops offered for professional development. There's a webinar next month offered to ALA members that I plan to take; the topic is one that I think the students here on campus would really benefit from. I'll post more general info of the workshop and my impressions after the middle of next month.

Yesterday was the much-anticipated birthday party for my mom's birthday party. I won't disclose her age (it's a number she doesn't like mentioning yet), but it's one of the major years so of course we had to do something special. My older brother came up with the idea of us hosting an open house for her at her place. He also came up with a gift idea: guests could bring Christmas ornaments to put on a jubilee tree, a nod to her penchant for putting up Christmas trees--big and small--all over her house (I have to say that her house always looks so lovely during the holiday season). She got a lot of beautiful and unique ornaments, and the bare tree that had been set up with lights for this day will not need any more ornaments since guests were so generous and several brought more than one ornament. There were so many people in the house--it was standing room only! But Mom had a wonderful time and my dad tells me that she was reading through the guestbook when he left for work this morning. She even got to see friends and relatives that she hasn't seen or talked to in years. I have a feeling that she will remember the party for years to come.

We did have part of the food catered, but we also bought and made some of the food ourselves. My contribution was a large batch of mini red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I have to smile as I post this because red velvet is a trademark of my best friend, and she passed on her recipe to me. Sadly, I couldn't find her recipe, so I turned again to southern cuisine queen Paula Deen for her red velvet cupcake recipe. The original recipe can be found here. I did make a few changes, so the recipe as I made it is below.

What you'll need:
For the cupcakes:
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cocoa powder
1 1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 c. buttermilk, at room temp
2 eggs, at room temp
1 oz. bottle of red food coloring
1 tsp. white distilled vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla

For the frosting:
1 lb. cream cheese (softened)
2 sticks butter (softened)
1 tsp. vanilla
4 c. powdered sugar

What you'll need to do:
1. Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a medium bowl.
2. In a large bowl, add the oil buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla and gently beat everything together. You can do this by hand or with an electric mixer on a low setting.
3. Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing them into the wet ingredients until you get a smooth batter.
4. Grease mini or regular cupcake tins or line with cupcake paper cups. Distribute the batter among the tins until cups are slightly more than 2/3 full.
5. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees. For mini-cupcakes bake for 12-15 minutes then check them; for regular cupcakes, bake for 20-22 minutes. Use a toothpick to check the cupcakes; toothpick should come out clean when inserted into the center of the cupcakes.
6. Remove the cupcake tins from oven and let the cupcakes cool for 5 min, then remove the cupcakes from the tins and finish cooling them completely on a cooling rack.
7. Using an electric beater, combine the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together in a large bowl until you get a smooth mixture.
8. With the mixer on a low setting, slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until completely mixed. Increase the speed and mix the frosting on high until it's light and fluffy.
9. Frost the completely cool cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles if desired.

If I don't have the chance to post again before next week, Happy Holidays to you. Enjoy!