Weekend discoveries, bad first, good after (because really, who wants to end on something depressing?)
1. I'm not quite ready to watch romantic comedies....I may laugh at all the funny parts and tear up when appropriate, but I'm left feeling rather bitter at the end. Might need another month or so...
2. My chocolate pumpkin cakes turned out not so good. This is the second time a recipe has gone horribly wrong in 3 weeks. Not good.
3. Cold Stone no longer has dark chocolate ice cream. Sad, sad day (especially as said ice cream was needed in response to #1).
D (because I can't decide if it's bad or good or just plain 'is'): Dog does not like large, inflatable, light-up, ghost-topped, lawn decoration pumpkins. As in full-attack-mode-teeth out-hair up-barking like a maniac and scaring the shit out of me.
5. I heart my down alternative mattress topper. It is fluffy and warm and snuggly. yay!
6. Shopping is cathartic. And raises endorphins (See also, dark chocolate ice cream). And gives me a reason to put off doing laundry for just one more day...or two.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Rugelach, meet mini torte pans!
Ok...so the original plan for baking this weekend was to use the freakishly adorable molds lent to me by Frenchie. I had it all planned out...carrot cake with cream cheese icing. I bought edible spray paint. Colored sanding sugars. I was so darned excited. Until I tried the batter....hmm....well, maybe it would be different when it cooked and the carrots weren't crunchy. Yeah. Nope. Not only was the batter bad, but even if it had miraculously become edible in the oven (I can hope), the cakes refused to come out of the molds. So, no super cute, spray paint and sugar decorated, cream cheese frosted carrot cake. Damn.
I was determined to bake though, so I pulled out a Christmas cookie cookbook that my mom got for me recently and flipped to one I've been dying to try: Rugelach. The book says they are Eastern European and the cookie dough is made with cream cheese and topped with fruit and nuts then rolled into crescents. But it was Sunday afternoon. And I had to pick up a friend at the airport in like 4 hours. And hadn't really slept. So the prospect of rolling out the dough and making 40-some odd crescent cookies was not so much appealing. Enter the torte. I used my mom's Italian grandmother's recipe for the dough from her apricot and apple torte, sprinkled milk, cinnamon, and brown sugar on the crust, and topped with honey (not called for in the Rugelach recipe, but makes it oh so much better!). Here are the results:
Friday, October 15, 2010
Running with scizzors
I have a lot of extra energy in the evenings....so I'm making hair clips for my niece, Curly. I had bought her 2 super cute flower clips when she was out visiting this summer, but they were $7 each (absurd!) and my sister wants more. So between me and her Curly will have a veritable garden of hair clips.
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| The little yellow one with the green ribbon is my favorite so far |
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Amazing amazingness.
Amazingness #1: Over the weekend, in between two separate 8 hour shopping stints, I made about 70 mini marzipan pumpkin stems and curly-cues...along with, of course, mini pumpkin cupcakes....
Amazingness #2: This morning when I stopped in the office at work for some papers Frenchie, my boss, asked if she could place an order for Thanksgiving! She had mentioned it in passing a few times, but this morning said that she definately wanted the mini chocolate hazelnut cakes (see this post) and that she had her mom bring some chocolate from France (French chocolate!!!!!!) for me to make them with! YAY!
Amazingness #C: After informing me about the chocolate (French chocolate!!!!), Frenchie told me she had something I could borrow. Ok...we are currently at a day care/pre-school, so when she takes me into the kitchen telling me how excited I'm going to be I really didn't believe her...till she pulled out 2 of these:
SO FREAKIN CUTE! Yes, those would be little mini carrots. And radishes. And cabbage (cabbages?). And look at the adorable little peas!!!!! I'm planning carrot cake for them and am super excited to spray paint the frosting...I bought a can today to start practicing :) (And yes, that would be a Williams Sonoma bag in the background....which also makes me happy, because, although I did not buy the cute little pans there, I did see other cute little pans there and purchased a fabulous cutting board and spatula)
Amazingness #4: It's 8 pm onTuesday. Which means that a) I survived an atrocious Monday and b) Glee is on. And I'm a Gleek. So this makes me happy! Woo! (But seriously....look at the cute little peas!!!!!!)
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| The beginnings of my mini pumpkin patch |
Amazingness #C: After informing me about the chocolate (French chocolate!!!!), Frenchie told me she had something I could borrow. Ok...we are currently at a day care/pre-school, so when she takes me into the kitchen telling me how excited I'm going to be I really didn't believe her...till she pulled out 2 of these:
Amazingness #4: It's 8 pm onTuesday. Which means that a) I survived an atrocious Monday and b) Glee is on. And I'm a Gleek. So this makes me happy! Woo! (But seriously....look at the cute little peas!!!!!!)
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
possibly permanently scarred
This kinda summarizes my life right now....but substitute a cat and a baking obsession for 2 of the dogs.
That being said, Dog is loosing his manhood on Friday, and I'm feeling kinda bad about it. However, 2 specific incidents have led to this suddenly being a rather urgent necessity....
1--While sick over the weekend, I spent a few nights at my parent's house and, as any good pet-parent, I brought Dog and Cat. Dog was planned to sleep upstairs with my parents and their 2 dogs so I could actually get some sleep....yeah, right. My mom came down to get Dog's bed and went back up....then came back down, this is where it got bad. Mom informed me that Dog started *ahem* humping his pillow....yeah, that part I could deal with...then my mom proceeded to re-enact it, complete with hip thrusts and arm movements. That was something I absolutely never needed to see and pretty much sealed Dog's fate.
2--Although I called and scheduled the removal of his boy-stuff the morning after the previous event, Dog further confirmed that this was the right decision at puppy class that night....when, while practicing "come" (no pun intended) in front of the entire class, Dog decided that he was suddenly and inexplicably turned on by the middle-aged, rotund, mustached female trainer and that he needed to act on that feeling immediately.
Bye-bye boy parts
That being said, Dog is loosing his manhood on Friday, and I'm feeling kinda bad about it. However, 2 specific incidents have led to this suddenly being a rather urgent necessity....
1--While sick over the weekend, I spent a few nights at my parent's house and, as any good pet-parent, I brought Dog and Cat. Dog was planned to sleep upstairs with my parents and their 2 dogs so I could actually get some sleep....yeah, right. My mom came down to get Dog's bed and went back up....then came back down, this is where it got bad. Mom informed me that Dog started *ahem* humping his pillow....yeah, that part I could deal with...then my mom proceeded to re-enact it, complete with hip thrusts and arm movements. That was something I absolutely never needed to see and pretty much sealed Dog's fate.
2--Although I called and scheduled the removal of his boy-stuff the morning after the previous event, Dog further confirmed that this was the right decision at puppy class that night....when, while practicing "come" (no pun intended) in front of the entire class, Dog decided that he was suddenly and inexplicably turned on by the middle-aged, rotund, mustached female trainer and that he needed to act on that feeling immediately.
Bye-bye boy parts
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Plus one
I hate being sick. Ok...so I get that no one really likes being sick, but maybe I wouldn't dread it so damn much if it didn't always seem to come with reinforcements (namely, the flu or things that masquerade as the flu) and snide remarks. Recent evidence....
Dropped of super cute kiddo on Wednesday and noticed my throat hurt. Got worse quick, called in to work for Thurs. Woke up unable to swallow without feeling like someone was trying to rip off my ears while simultaneously shoving sharp pokey things into my throat. Drove to the doctor....resulting in being told that my allergy to eggs "sucks" (yeah, thanks, hadn't realized that), and that I either had strep or the flu. Did a strep test, waited for the results while alternating between questioning the decor choices and considering passing out on the floor till he came back. Was about to snag the exam pillow and get comfy when he came back....
Dr: Two blue lines! You either have strep or you're pregnant!
Me: (....wait, what? why would they make a strep test that tests for pregnancy too? can't they separate them? I didn't know you could use a throat culture to test for pregnancy...oh...he's waiting for me to say something).......I can't be pregnant, it's not physically possible right now. (was that what I was supposed to say? He's looking at me kinda funny, like maybe he doesn't believe me?....but I'm NOT pregnant! Wait...was he serious?)
Dr: Yeah....that isn't always the best timing for that joke
Me: Joke, right, haha. (you meanie head! Do I look like I'm coherent enough to distinguish a joke right now? Or that I would even find a joke funny? Which, by the way, your's was not!)
So I managed to make it out of there with a prescription for one of the few antibiotics I'm not allergic to. Headed to Walmart to get it filled. And, ok, so I might not have been looking my best at this point. But seriously, how much of a wreck could I have been? So when, while sitting on a bench waiting for my pills, the guy in line tells the pharmacy lady he's "doing better than she is!" (complete with thumb-jerk at me) I was rather put off...or would have been if I wasn't about to fall asleep on the cart handle. But whatever. I got my pills and did my sicky version of the happy dance....it consists of me making it to my car and downing the first 2 pills...not much dancing really. Despite the happy-dance-inducing-antibiotics I didn't exactly get better....in fact, I got worse. I got hives on my elbows and kneecaps (weird, I know), body aches (who knew lying in bed could make your ankles hurt?!), and a major headache (but who needs to be able to turn their head? I have peripherial vision!). Several hours and $200 later we had it narrowed down to strep plus one or more of the following expert opinions:
Dr 1: Said the additional symptoms were due to an allergic reaction to the antibiotics, something I've been told would happen eventually, and prescribed a new antibiotic from my tiny list of options
Dr 2: Said it was not classic allergic reaction but the only way to know would be to continue the first antibiotic and see if I get better or not. Decided it was a bizzare reaction to the strep infection, then proceeded to tell me that hives are always caused by an allergic reaction and gave me an entire handout on them (if you know me at all, you know I'm no stranger to allergies or hives...clearly this woman didn't believe me)
Mom (whose opinion counts because, well, she's mom): Agreed with Dr. 1 and with Dr. 2 about the reaction to the strep infection, and decided that I had a 24 hr flu as well (she got all the bases covered)
Conclusion: So we still don't know what my plus-one was, but it's basically gone. I don't really remember much else from the last 48 hours, except that I may have adamantly insisted that my sister go to her husband's work and call the receptionist a whore. Maybe.
Dropped of super cute kiddo on Wednesday and noticed my throat hurt. Got worse quick, called in to work for Thurs. Woke up unable to swallow without feeling like someone was trying to rip off my ears while simultaneously shoving sharp pokey things into my throat. Drove to the doctor....resulting in being told that my allergy to eggs "sucks" (yeah, thanks, hadn't realized that), and that I either had strep or the flu. Did a strep test, waited for the results while alternating between questioning the decor choices and considering passing out on the floor till he came back. Was about to snag the exam pillow and get comfy when he came back....
Dr: Two blue lines! You either have strep or you're pregnant!
Me: (....wait, what? why would they make a strep test that tests for pregnancy too? can't they separate them? I didn't know you could use a throat culture to test for pregnancy...oh...he's waiting for me to say something).......I can't be pregnant, it's not physically possible right now. (was that what I was supposed to say? He's looking at me kinda funny, like maybe he doesn't believe me?....but I'm NOT pregnant! Wait...was he serious?)
Dr: Yeah....that isn't always the best timing for that joke
Me: Joke, right, haha. (you meanie head! Do I look like I'm coherent enough to distinguish a joke right now? Or that I would even find a joke funny? Which, by the way, your's was not!)
So I managed to make it out of there with a prescription for one of the few antibiotics I'm not allergic to. Headed to Walmart to get it filled. And, ok, so I might not have been looking my best at this point. But seriously, how much of a wreck could I have been? So when, while sitting on a bench waiting for my pills, the guy in line tells the pharmacy lady he's "doing better than she is!" (complete with thumb-jerk at me) I was rather put off...or would have been if I wasn't about to fall asleep on the cart handle. But whatever. I got my pills and did my sicky version of the happy dance....it consists of me making it to my car and downing the first 2 pills...not much dancing really. Despite the happy-dance-inducing-antibiotics I didn't exactly get better....in fact, I got worse. I got hives on my elbows and kneecaps (weird, I know), body aches (who knew lying in bed could make your ankles hurt?!), and a major headache (but who needs to be able to turn their head? I have peripherial vision!). Several hours and $200 later we had it narrowed down to strep plus one or more of the following expert opinions:
Dr 1: Said the additional symptoms were due to an allergic reaction to the antibiotics, something I've been told would happen eventually, and prescribed a new antibiotic from my tiny list of options
Dr 2: Said it was not classic allergic reaction but the only way to know would be to continue the first antibiotic and see if I get better or not. Decided it was a bizzare reaction to the strep infection, then proceeded to tell me that hives are always caused by an allergic reaction and gave me an entire handout on them (if you know me at all, you know I'm no stranger to allergies or hives...clearly this woman didn't believe me)
Mom (whose opinion counts because, well, she's mom): Agreed with Dr. 1 and with Dr. 2 about the reaction to the strep infection, and decided that I had a 24 hr flu as well (she got all the bases covered)
Conclusion: So we still don't know what my plus-one was, but it's basically gone. I don't really remember much else from the last 48 hours, except that I may have adamantly insisted that my sister go to her husband's work and call the receptionist a whore. Maybe.
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