All good things start in North Carolina

Back in May, The Pioneer Woman embarked upon a delightfully grassroots book tour for her new cookbook {also known as Leslie's Favorite Kitchen Utensil}. One of her stops was in Charlotte, North Carolina and I totally would have been there if it wasn't for a little thing called my job and a stupid administrative policy that doesn't allow us to use our vacation days in May. Apparently, Charlotte made quite an impression on Ree when a fan brought her a box of pastries from Amelie's French Bakery.

And yes, the fact that sugary carbohydrates are a priority in Ree's everyday life is part of why I admire her so.

Ree wrote about the entire box but what especially stood out to her was one salted caramel brownie. Unfortunately, she lives about a thousand miles away from Charlotte and therefore- no daily salted caramel brownies for her. Some folks sent her the recipe for them, she tried it out and voila, Salted Caramel Brownie.

Turns out, the brownie was slowly starting to work its way into the hearts and minds of anyone who saw Ree's post. It grabbed a hold of Traci over at Total Momsense and caused a complete writing block.

{This I understand. I blame my writing block on the fact that Lifetime insists on showing about four episodes of Grey's Anatomy a day. Yes, please!}

I added to the writing block by sending her a post about Salted Caramel Cupcakes and the gauntlet was thrown. The next thing I know, Traci is not only blogging about making said cupcakes, she's come up with a spectacular sounding cupcake recipe and a ridiculously tempting cream cheese icing. 

Did I mention she lives up in Franklin, a mere two hours from me? Roadtrip! I'd get to hang out with her and her super fun family, bake an obscenely decadent recipe and poke around the city I lived in twenty years ago.

Lucky for y'all, we video taped our cooking escapades and I took a shot at editing everything together using my fancy new Mac {school computer, and now my PC is dead to me.}

A few observations:

1. I totally hogged the camera and was pretty much useless in the kitchen. I could say it was for the sake of photojournalism, but let's be honest- there's nothing a drama queen loves more than a camera. Been that way since I was seven, folks.

2. Traci was infinitely more patient with the caramel than I would have been. I took notes on how to handle frustration in the kitchen without throwing things.

3. For those of you who don't read Traci's blog regularly {and you should}, you need to know that Coach is her husband and he likes to clean. A lot. Especially when he's nervous or anxious. It's quite endearing.

Watch, be inspired and go make these cupcakes!