Apple Pie

Hello, Autumn.

ROBOT PARTY!

My son is turning 5 on Tuesday.  Today we celebrated with a few of his friends.  

The theme: ROBOTS!

I decided this year that instead of little paper baggies full of cheap crap that breaks right away, I'd make T shirts for favors to give the guests of my children's parties.  They go over like gangbusters, and my kids LOVE to have them.  For these I bought some foam blocks and cut out the robot part shapes, then used them as stamps.  I used puffy paint for the eyes, mouth and 5 on the chest.  Then I outlined the whole thing and added antennae with green glow paint.

Each child gets their name on the back of the shirt, outlined in glow paint, too.  

Robot cake: I made two 9x9 squares.  I used one as the body (slimmed down a little on the vertical sides), and cut the other into four squares.  One quarter for the head, one cut into the two arms, the other two I shaped into the two feet and the two claw/hands.   Box cake, homemade buttercream frosting, a little bit of white sparkle gel icing.

Big thanks to all my Twitter people who helped me when my frosting separated.  I chilled and re-mixed, and all was well.  You guys rule. 

Happy Birthday!

Radish Math

Toast + butter + sliced radishes* + kosher salt = Delicious Springtime Snack

*French Breakfast Radishes are pictured here.

Overnight Prep

Soaking cannellini beans and salt-and-sugar curing lamb shoulder overnight for tomorrow's supper.

I'm trying to simultaneously respect the cold weather this weekend and pray this is the last snap of the season. Slow-roasted lamb does this girl's soul good. And I've been dreaming of these beans for months!

Birthday Season

 My husband, daughter, mother and I all have birthdays within 16 days of each other.

This year, my daughter wanted a SPACE themed party for her 7th birthday.  Here's the cake I made.  It's the solar system.  And yes, Pluto is represented.  I'm old school like that.

I used this pan for the sun, and this for the planets (both purchased at Michael's).  The planets are dipped in different colored candy melts, with the rings on the gas giants made of candy as well. --  I spread an oval of melted candy on waxed paper, let it dry, peeled it up, then cut out a circle the size of the cake pop and fit them on the planets.  

The Sun cake has buttercream frosting on it because it's the best frosting in the entire world. I used chocolate box cake for both cakes, following the directions on the pan for modifications involving more or less oil and eggs.  The Sun cake stayed moist forever.  

Happy birthday, big girl!  May you always follow your own star!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is my daughter's 7th Birthday Party.  The theme is SPACE.  I have done definitely ridiculous and possibly awesome things. WATCH THIS SPACE for pictures and stories.  

Hand Made Tee Shirts!

Hand Made Games!

Craft Projects!

She invited BOYS!

Ice Cream! (Duh)

Solar System Cake! (Including trendy-three-years-ago-cake-pops!)

I have outdone the Jessie party. Or at least I intend to.  The party's not til 2pm tomorrow (11 hours away including a few that will be spent sleeping), so, you know, I'm not really done prepping/started decorating/iced the cake yet.

It's gonna be AWESOME!!

Can't. Stop.

Making: Lemon Curd

Thinking about: Getting a new puppy.

Going to: The gym (Found a new machine! Love my new shoes!)

Playing: Draw Something

Eating: Spicy things

Drinking: Gazela Rose

Opening: All the windows. The air out there is so wonderful!

Planning: A garage sale.  I'm decluttering, with a vengeance.

Putting off: The next steps to opening SugarBean for real. But that stops now.

Hi There.

Ok, so my last post was about my jack-o-lantern.    Let's move on.

I've been finding myself actually writing restaurant reviews on Open Table after we've gone out to eat.  This has mostly been because of disappointment in my experience.  The last two restaurants we've been to on our few-an-far-between-precious-nights-out when forward planning, a babysitter and  a few extra funds have all come together on the same day, were really..... meh.  Or worse.  

It made me think that if we're going to eat out, we need to go better places.  We can't pick places just because we haven't been before (last weekend), or places that are conveniently located to the rest of our evening, have available tables 20 minutes before we want to eat,  and give us 1,000 points on Open Table (last night). We need quality.

It also reminded me that I love to cook and I'm good at it.  So we're having a couple over for dinner next weekend and I'm going to outdo both our latest restaurant experiences. It should be easy, since the first one blasted cold air and 70s Prog Rock at us, and the second's food tasted like the chef shopped at Trader Joe's and then didn't even follow the directions on the package.

I've been so busy thinking about and making ice cream lately that I almost forgot how much I enjoy, and how good I am at cooking savory food.  So, thanks, "Hit-and-Miss-but-Mostly-Miss"  and "Never Again" restaurants I've visited in the last two weeks.  You were an expensive lesson, but one of which I'm happy to be reminded.

More about the ice cream soon.  And I think I'll even start posting again.  Welcome back.