Cheating at Cakes

I have many heroes these days... a world of people that I look up to from the ground as I kowtow before them. One of my favorites, right now, is Duff Goldman, baker, chef, proprietor of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, and star of Ace of Cakes. I watch that show in awe, all the while scheming and planning how I can do that (so to speak). There are many things I am sure I would never be capable of doing, but fondant is something I'm starting to get. What I've discovered about fondant is that the scariest thing about it is the ignorance factor. Once you get over that and learn how to handle it, it's actually pretty easy. Buttercream, on the other hand is a skill I don't think I'll ever master. Beautiful roses, basket weaving and scroll work... not my piece of cake. But, fondant is like cheating, to me. Mostly because I can do it. At any rate, I'm learning... and in the interest of constant practice and skills-honing, I've now made my third fondant covered birthday cake... and here it is (and no, the smudgy red part is a doctored image thing, not a cake decorating catastrophe)...



My sweet middlest Beauty, the Princess Posh, will be five years old tomorrow! Sniff... She is having her party at a kid's gym~ hence the ball pit and the monkey bars. I wanted to put another kid on the cake, but I ran out of skin tone fondant. Sniff (again). I am mostly happy with the result... but it was a serious amount of work. Luckily, it's worth it for the fun factor. The not-fun part is the part where there is confectioner's sugar in every nook and cranny of the kitchen, ground into the kitchen floor and coating each alveolus in my lungs. For some reason, I can't control the sugar from going everywhere when I decorate cakes. However, I've lucked out in another way, in that my dear hubby gamely cleans up the mess when I'm done.

At any rate, it was a long, sweet, sticky morning, but the end result is something that I hope Posh will remember for a long time. Happy Birthday to my Princess!

Long Time No See

It's been a long time since my last post... Sorry to all two of my devoted fans. It sounds so cliche, but the plain truth of the matter is that it's been crazy busy for the last 5 days or so. I know I don't have the monopoly on a busy life, but I beg your understanding anyway. The comedy that is MY life continues. And it's not going to get any better for the next few days at least, but in the interest of not going an entire week without a post, here I am.

Here are some highlights from the last week:

Wednesday, May 30th I attempted to volunteer in Sporty's second grade class. Attempted is the operative word, because I was forced to take Baby with me (due to an overwhelming dearth of babysitting availability), and she refused to sit still. So I spent 15 minutes chasing her around the 2nd and 3rd grade Pod while I was supposed to be listening to the children read to me, before I threw in the towel and asked the teacher to be excused. After that, I took Posh and Baby on the preschool field trip to our local farm park. We picnicked in the 87 degree sun and walked through the barns and finally went on an exceedingly sweaty wagon ride through the park:


Hot as Hades on the wagon ride. It was fun, but ay caramba!

On to: Thursday, May 31st: Happy Birthday Mom (my mom not me)! Relatively quiet, except for the mad cleaning burst getting ready for the arrival of Chris's parents for a long weekend visit... oh and an evening sit for a friend. I actually had a chance to get some reading in. YAY! So, I guess really only that part was quiet. The rest was a little desperate.

Friday, June 1st: Rabbits, rabbits rabbits! Drop off at school, pick up at school... visit, visit, visit (not complaining... this was very nice!)... desperate trip to the mall (notice the theme?) to find a bathing suit that actually fit, for a pool party on Saturday. I found one, but if I tell you what I had to pay for it, you'll die, so I won't. Fast forward to evening: Stamping meeting... very fun new project. Seriously it was just what I needed to re-motivate myself in my stamping doldrums. I've been so unmotivated to stamp anything... it ends up falling into the same category as this blog. Something I love to do, but always set on the back burner. Bummer.

Saturday, June 2nd: Woke up completely crabby. Sorry to all and sundry who had to put up with me for the day. Blush. I do reserve the right sometimes to be a crank, but I always feel like a heel afterwards. Stupid hormones. Anyway... part of the reason I was so crabby was because I had to drag all three kids to the soccer field by myself. Not so heinous, but I hardly ever have to do it, so I was sort of bummed about it. And it was hot again. Been there, done that, soaked a tshirt. And I felt guilty for not wanting to do it, because plenty of mommies do it all the time and really I'm very spoiled in that regard. But I still reserve the right to be crabby about it. The game went well. Sporty made a few good moves, and Posh and Baby ran around with all the other tag-along siblings. All in all it went pretty well... then the coach declared that he had seen not one but TWO ice cream passes (pass pass goal) and he promised to buy all the girls an ice cream. Very sweet of him... but that left bitchy me in a little pickle. No lunch yet... three whiny girls... and a sugar rush. Oh well. Off to the frozen custard place we went. We ended up milling around for about 15 minutes because the place wasn't opened yet. That good old desperation started to kick in a little again. Finally we got in there and everyone got their ice cream... except Her Highness, Baby Spice, who threw a fit when I tried to put the ice cream in her mouth. Oh well.

That afternoon we went to a very lovely pool party for Chris's sister's boyfriend's birthday. His parents had kindly agreed to host it at their home, where they have a beautiful pool.



We all had a great time... a few minor injuries aside. The last injury brought back our old friend Mr. Crank, but can you really blame me? Baby could have gotten a concussion. Enough said, as there was no concussion. But, I was very grateful for my nice soft bed that night, let me tell you.

Sunday, June 3rd:

Rain. And rain. And more rain. Probably just as well. We had a nice quiet day in the house, except that Sporty got to go to a birthday party for her friend from school. The whole day was nice, because it was so laaaaaaaazzzzzzyyy, and then in the evening, Chris and I got to (drumroll, please).... go to the movies. I almost feel like I have to whisper that phrase. It sounds like sacrilege to my ears. For a pair of people who used to go to the movies at least once a week, this once a year thing really sucks! Thank you, Chris's parents for taking charge of the girls for us while we saw POTC: At World's End. Very confusing sometimes, but extremely funny and ahhhh yes... the eye candy was worth the three hour tour (for both of us, I think). The ship wrecked a little at the end (SPOILER ALERT) when my eye candy had to walk into the sea for a 10 year tour aboard the Flying Dutchman. What a waste of pure male yumminess~ ferrying the dead to the Other Side. There better be a sequel. I'm (still) feeling a little verklempt about it. Waaaaaahhhhh.

So, now that you can see for yourself that I wasn't any busier than you (only whinier about it)... the saga-of-an-excuse as to why I have been MIA is done. Hopefully things will go better this week. Wink. Later alligator.

These are the Days of our Lives in Digital

We got a new toy this week... A Canon Rebel XT (digital SLR) camera. You just can't take good pictures of a soccer game with a point-and-shoot. Of course, since I'm still learning how to use the SLR, we can't get good pictures of a soccer game with the new camera, either. But they're getting better. This picture was taken from across the field, on the SPORTS setting... so I was just holding down the shutter and continuously shooting. It's not even remotely as focused as I'd like. Someone's going to have to show how to do that better. But I love the action in the picture.


I LOVE this picture of Shorty. It was shot from across the room and I cropped out a bunch of stuff around her (yay 8 megapixels!) . She was trying to cute-bully me into letting her watch more "Blue's Clues".


My poor Middlest Beauty was sick as a dog when I took this picture (strep and 103 degree fever), but she still found a sparkling smile in her so Mommy could practice with the portrait setting.


And just for fun, a shot of a bellflower (which is approximately 1 cm from the top of the stem to the tip of the petals). A teeny little flower that I shot from 6 feet away. Again, nowhere near the focus I hoped for, but still a pretty picture, I think.


I guess there's no chance I'll ever give up my day job, but I figure there's no harm in trying to get great pictures, right? To quote one of the great philosophers of my generation: "Life moves pretty fast... if you don't stop to look around once in awhile, you might miss it." I want to remember it with as much clarity and color contrast as possible. So I guess I'd better start learning fast. Or I might miss it.

A Wii Confession

Here is my Confession for the Week:

As of today, I am not in the running for the Housewife of the Week Award. In fact, if I had a boss and a paycheck, I'd probably have been called into the office for a serious hand-slapping by now. Call it the home equivalent of spending the work day on the computer playing Solitaire, but I can't help it... I'm officially addicted to Wii.

I finally got my paws on a Wii system yesterday, after months of fruitless searching, and now I can't stop playing. My arms literally ache from playing Wii Sports (Bowling appears to be the family favorite). I actually broke a small sweat playing Wii Tennis yesterday. And today I bowled two games against Middlest Daughter and got roundly schooled by her Mad Skills. Seriously... she bowled a 162 on the second game (6 spares and a double strike in a single game). All the curve correction and stance strategy in the world can't compete with a 4.75 year old on a mission.

The only good thing that can possibly come out of this is that I may actually get some exercise by playing a video game. If the ache in my triceps is any indication, I should have great tank top arms within a few days. I may actually be able to wave goodbye to someone without having to do the Beauty Queen Parade wave. No more wrist palm wrist palm wrist palm for me.

The possibility of upper arm fitness aside, I am going to quit playing for today, before someone refers me to a 12 step program. The bathrooms really can't wait any longer for the attention they deserve. Not that they're going to get the scrubbing they really need today. I don't think my arms can take it.

Bad Megan, no biscuit.

Iron Chef Megan (Gross Out Warning)

Anyone who has ever watched Food Network... and more specifically Iron Chef America knows that there is a world of food out there that most of us had no idea was there. And could probably live our whole lives without knowing was there. Take this week's episode for example: The theme ingredient was garlic.... mmmm.... Delicious, sweet, pungent... essential to any good cook's kitchen, the ubiquitous staple of any cuisine. Yes. And apparently sucking the brains out of a roasted squab head is a tasty way to enjoy the flavor of garlic. Sorry for the visual, but that's what they did. Seriously. Kind of like slurping oysters.

Now ordinarily, I'm a big fan of ICA. I've even got a TiVo season pass to the show. I love to cook and what better way to learn new and interesting ways to spice up (no pun intended) the kitchen~ and quickly too? But, there's cuisine, and then there's just plain crazy. And yes, I'm being culinarily closed-minded, and a little bit of an anti-gourmand. But come on... ewww.

I pride myself on having a family that will eat just about anything I put in front of them (with the definite exception of Shorty, my finicky gourmet). And they always seem ready to try new things. If the main ingredient is something the girls recognize, they'll try it no matter how it's prepared. Chicken a la King, Chicken Piccatta, Chicken Pad Thai or Chicken Paprikash. "What's for dinner?" they say... and I reply "chicken"... "Yummy!"... and everyone is happy, even my little carnivore, Ms. Finicky. So, I like to think that they can stomach a slightly more high-brow level of cuisine. But, to quote Tim Curry, from one of the funniest movies of all time: "Monkeys' brains, while popular in Cantonese cuisine, are not often to be found in Washington D.C." Likewise, squabs.

I guess the kitchen's not in Kansas anymore, and most of the time that's fine with me. But I draw the line at brains, tripe and talons (yes, there was actually a talon gripping a clove of garlic on the plate). I especially draw the line at sucking things out of heads. I raise my glass to raising my children to be epi-curious individuals, but you won't find any squabs in my kitchen. And I hope I won't find any in yours... shudder...

The goal of cooking is that people will eat the food, right?