September Cakes

The summer has had me very busy making lots of special order cakes and cupcakes and spending the rest of the time trying not to be hot which includes not turning on the oven unless someone is paying me! So no TWD lately :( boo!  Oh and we are getting new windows in our house Saturday! Im most excited, I will have to share the before and afters.

I have two more upcoming cakes in September which will be lots of work but lots of fun too.

The first is for a gal that is having her very first birthday party and the very young age of 70!

The second will be for a baby shower with an Orange and Pink Dress theme. This one will a lot of cute baby paraphernalia and some cute dress cookies to accompany it.

So busy!

I've been crazy busy with work lately and updating my cake website too. So since I don't have any time to bake, I  thought I would share some projects I did awhile ago.

Accessory temptation....

Do I really need a glass mixing bowl? Probably not, but I'm so tempted to get one. I blame it on Martha Stewart and her fancy pants show with their glass bowls....


When I was in culinary school, we started out with big white professional Kitchen Aid mixers and for some reason the school, in their infinite wisdom, took away all the Kitchen Aids and gave us these ridiculous Hamilton Beach mixers. The Hammies, as we called them, were big pieces of crap. I would stare longingly at the locked racks of Kitchen Aid mixers in the storage area when I walked by them everyday.....

Maybe this is why I am lucky enough to horde have two Kitchen Aid mixers. A 5 Quart Blue Boy that I got from my in laws many years ago and a Professional 600 I call Bertha. What kind of mixer do you have?

TWD: Maple Tuile... Crumbs...

Uhm yeah so my maple tuiles are not very tuile like at all.... obviously! I won't bore you with the details of how this came to be.

You can go see how these really should look by visiting our host this week Clivia at Bubie's Little Baker.

Thanksgiving Dessert

Uber cute Turkey pops by Bakerella-

What are you making for your Thanksgiving Dessert? 

Every year I make pies for my co-workers to raise a little extra dough for Christmas gifts... and usually the pies run the gambit from Apple to Lime... this year everyone seemed to choose the exact same thing. Pumpkin Cheese cake or Banana Cream Pie.... yes really Banana Cream Pie! I'm completely surprised by this, it seems so off the wall for Thanksgiving.

Nostalgia

I was in the toy section at Target the other night browsing for god knows what... we don't have any kids young enough for toys but we go play with stuff in there anyways..... in the nostalgia section of the department they have been adding cool little things... slinkies, sock monkeys and crap like that. Meh... nothing exciting.

But then.... I saw this...

 
Monchhichis! I must have them! They don't have any cool outfits.... but they are just too cute!

My honey didn't understand my excitement over these little balls of fur... so I texted a picture to my bestie from when way back when and she was just as excited as me so :P!

And if the Monchhichi song isn't already stuck in your head...

...little patience, mm yeah, ooh yeah,

Need a little patience, yeah
Just a little patience, yeah
Some more pati... (ence, yeah)

Ok truth be told I've never had enough patience to listen to that Guns N' Roses song in its entirety....so I always thought the title was sadly appropriate.

To make your own Vanilla Extract you'll need:

• 6 Supple Vanilla Beans 
• 16 oz Vodka 
• A whole crapload of patience..... 

                     8 weeks of patience!

I scraped the vanilla beans, cut them up and tossed everything in a big mason jar. Closed it up tight and put it in the cupboard, with instructions for the honey to shake it like a polaroid picture if he happened to notice it sitting there. 8 or 9 weeks later (I lost count and interest) the hubbie's patience ran out and he claimed the experiment triumphant as he had opened the jar and spiked his morning coffee with a little of the extract. 

Waiting for anything has never been my strong suite. That's why I'm not a big fan of making bread... to much waiting, too much patience. But as with bread making our own vanilla has rewarded us with something pretty fantastic. Give it a try if you have allot of Vanilla Beans hanging around, for some reason I do... well that's because I'm kind of too stingy to use them.

Zero Calorie Sweet Treats

I wanted to share this saweeet new collection of wallets made by Christian Marie. The Confection Collection is adorable and she has lots of other creative bags too.

I'm totally loving the Wedding Cake Zipper Wristlet. I don't know if its because I want to use it, or duplicate the cake designs!

And the super cute Lemon Clutch, food related but not sweet, unless you sprinkle in a little sugar. So summery!

Check out her entire collection by here, and she does custom orders too! I may have to get that wedding cake fabric made into a tote... how deceptively put together would I be if I went to a cake consult with that!

We the Jury.....

Just when you think you may have merrily skipped through you appointed jury duty by just calling in... they slam you upside the head and make you go on a Friday! Seriously!

I'm already busy this week so I don't have time for this crap. I would love to do my part and all that but really... does it always have to be when I'm super busy?! Now I have to go into work at 6am so that I can terminate an employee then get to the courthouse by 8am to happily sit on my arse for several hours. Well I guess in hindsight I won't have as bad a day as that termed employee so I should just quit my bitching!

Dutch Oven Lovin'

I've been drooling over this Mario Batali Pesto Dutch Oven ever since we got the Pesto Risotto Pot as a wedding gift last year. It was one of those things you put on your registry with your fingers double crossed because it was just gorgeous and poised to be useful in the kitchen! My sister-in-law was good enough to indulge us and we use it all the time. As a matter of fact I will probably make some curry in it tonight. The only thing wrong with it...... is that its fricken HEAVY! Like we bribe each other to put it away kind of heavy. I know that the dutch oven will  be even heavier and may just end up in the back of my cupboard unused. Were only a family of two so this might be overkill for us and a total waste of money. So... if you have a dutch oven of any sort... how often do you use it?

Farmers Markets

I love going out to any Farmers Market...

From the big kahuna in LA The Original Farmers Market which can be more of a tourist attraction than anything else, but if you go, get me some Blueberry Honey please! To more local smaller variety where you elbow yourself into the mix of other patrons vying for the best pluot. My favorite is the Pasadena Victory Park Market which used to be a hop-skip & jump from our old house, I still drag my honey out there on bright and shiny Saturday mornings because they have an awesome egg vendor.

Were pretty lucky here in California, you can probably find one close to you on any given day. I stumbled upon this site (while looking at something completely unrelated/wonders of the internet) I thought it might help you find more markets if you so happen to live round here. http://www.farmernet.com/ 

Morning Hookie

Its about 8:23am and I'm supposed to be at work. I'm feeling under the weather, so I'm waiting for a piece of toast to settle down a bit so I can take some Advil cold&sinus (my savior).

Anyhoo to pass the time I thought I would share a photo of this flower arrangement I saw at my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. It was at the venue as an advertisement for the florist Im guessing because it has a stack of business cards nestled in there.

So here's my question.... Anyone know what those bulbous green things are? I'd love to know. They were kinda spongy and hallow.

Stay tuned for the cake I made for this particular party. I was so nervous to make it and it came out just lovely if I do say so myself.

Cuz you can can can...

I was flipping through the channels last night whilst the hubby was putting together a sofa table. I had already put together two chairs, thank you very much! OK OK I confess they were from Ikea so it wasn't rocket science, it was Swedish rocket science!

Anyhoo... back to the tv flip-fest... I landed on PBS and the A Capella singing group Straight No Chaser was on. I've seen one or two clips of these guys before and they are fantastic. If you haven't had the pleasure please take a listen.

Shaking off Thanksgiving

It's 9:30 Monday morning... I'm having a hard time getting back into the groove of things @ work. Strangely no one is bustling around in their normal end of the month fuss... yet.

On Saturday we managed to clean up and set up the garage, a project that has been looming since we moved into our new house in May. I know 6 months is a whole lotta procrastination... but it still feels good that its done! You could actually park a car in there if your car was slim enough to clear the door, mine isn't. I don't understand our garage, weren't cars BIGGER in the 1950's?

In an attempt to give our new digs some character we also started work on the front bathroom on Sunday. Most of the day was spent trying to undo the bad DIY done by the previous owner... he tried I guess, some things we just had to give up on lest we end up ripping out all the drywall.

Were adding white wainscoting (courtesy of my mom's overbuying super powers) new molding and painting the top a teal green color. The vanity will be black satin and I will be adding some Haeckel prints and other funky steampunk-ish sorta things which is really easy to do now a days since they have funky things even at Target. Hmmm well clearly not very original but at least it won't be this white Home Depot sheik that it is currently.

Did you do anything fun this long weekend? I know the above does not sound fun but it is for me! Organizing crap makes me happy... I know I have a few screws loose.

File under ridiculous....

Because we had ever so loverly change of time Sunday, I had the rare occasion to sit on the couch and eat breakfast this morning.

Apparently if your up really early (or really late) you can experience the most ridiculous products on TV. That over there to your right readers is a Pump Glove! Pure geniu.... err ok maybe not. I think its my grandmas garden glove with a bow glued on. Who the hell is going to whip out some polka dot gloves at the gas station?!

I say save the $14.95 + shipping & handling and get your hubster to pump your gas for you! Cuz that's what my momma taught me!

Ominous

The first fires started in the hills of Azusa, the first thing I though was great our new house is going to burn down! Well luckily that fire didnt come near anyone and is pretty much out as of today.

The big fire up in the San Gabriel Mts near La Canada spreading all the way to Acton is huge and seems like it will take weeks to contain. I feel for the fire fighters and appreciate all their efforts. My parents live North of Acton and we live to the South East, so we've been passing smoke back & forth the last few days, with the wind blowing one way or the other.

My dad has captured some amazing photos. The 55mph sign makes this look like an end of days scene from a sci-fi movie.

Hells Kitchen~ Overconfidence

Overconfidence-->leads to mouthing off--->leads to not letting the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Somehow I knew that this would eventually be Roberts demise, because I too have this affliction. I recognized it as soon as the new season started. He was way to comfortable. Too bad we were really cheering for him!

Hell's Kitchen

Soooo I realized the other day when my BFF was telling me her hubby was accepted for tryouts to next season Hell's Kitchen (go Kevin! go Kevin!) that I had missed the beginning of the show!

So I ran home at lunch and set the ol Tivo to record, actually I don't think its Tivo anymore since we got Fios when we moved to the new house. Anyhoo.... anyone else baffled as to why that crazy dude freaked out on Chef Ramsay like that? It's not as if Chef was being antagonistic like usual. I guess I may have missed something from the previous episodes.

I'm so glad they let Robert come back! I hope he gets his shit together and wins... though after I was watching last night I'm not so sure he will last too long.

Bubble & Brown Baker

Am I being lured in by the purdy color of Rachel Ray's Bubble & Brown Baker?

I really feel like I NEED this....

I have the old standby clear pyrex dishes and a few retro white dishes with cute roosters (and roosters are all the rage according to the Renegade Craft Fair we went to this weekend) but I can just imagine a bubbly potato & Gruyere gratin in this will just taste so much better in one of these.

Anyone have these?

Ahhh! Sweet Vacation!

I decided a few days go to take off two extra days for the three day weekend at work because that place has me seriously burnt out, 5 days might not even make a dent in the stress.

My plans? To sleep-in and do absolutely nothing and/or stuff around the house if the mood should strike.

What I want to know is... why on your days off do you wake up at the butt crack of dawn wide awake. But if its a work day you snooze it until your practically late for work?

I'm sure there are lots of you on vacation this week... I pass a round of margaritas and wish you all a great vacation!