I was making a batch of Chewy Granola Bars, and it was looking a bit dry after I added in the oatmeal & the 2 cups of stuff... so I pondered. Instead of vanilla I had used a lemon extract, I was thinking of adding a tablespoon of peanut butter to add a bit more wet to the mix.
Does peanut butter & lemon go together? I gave this 30 seconds of thought before deciding not to find out in this batch of baking.
I'm not very experienced in what goes with what. I know peanut butter & chocolate go together, I know chocolate & lemon can go together but I don't know if peanut butter & lemon would make a good mix.
I think when we were pondering frostings to put on our lemon wedding cupcakes (oh does our baker make awesome lemon cake), we fell back on Vanilla Buttercream because we didn't know what would go really well with the lemon. At the cake tasting she was pretty busy with all the groups coming in & giving final or first instructions.
I'm happy with our choice of cupcakes. I can't wait to taste them!
In other news, with work being rather slow I've been thinking of doodling what the cookies will look like. I only have round cookie cutters, and I was thinking I wouldn't mind a fluted round, square or fluted square to add to this mix. I did end up going to the store in town to get the Americolor gels & they were less expensive than I thought THEN there was a 10% discount on them. WOOT.
I also picked up a whoopie pie pan, my first batch of those will be for the Hen Party.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Soup & more wedding stuffs
I like cooking & baking, this is fully evident on my increasing waist size. Unfortunately, I do not have Giada De Laurentiis genes. I've sort of put away the baking pans now so I don't look like a stuffed pickle at my wedding.
I made butternut squash soup this past week (or was it the week before?). The way I've done it is cut my squash in half & in half again. Microwave it for a few minutes, scoop out the goodness into a blender and blended. I don't have an immersion blender & really I don't think I need one. We have a blender that does a great job. A tip though, remove the top part properly or you'll have freshly blended squash/onion all over your counter.
As my counters were clean & I was going to be putting this back on the burner I slid most of it into the pot. I was then very careful to make sure I was twisting off in the correct direction. It turned out really well.
Another day, thanks to our freezer full of meat, I made ribs & my Sweetie made ribs. I like the sweet saucy kind so I stumbled around AllRecipes for awhile & mashed a few together with what I had on hand. They turned out quite well. Both of us claiming victory in our kitchen stadium ;)
Today I went with my mom, my sister & my friend Jo to pick up bridesmaid dresses, have lunch & check out the Crocs store at West Edmonton Mall. The dresses fit, both bunched at the butt which was expected because of some weird thing with the liner. Easily taken care of by a seamstress. We then marched past Bourbon Street to the Croc store. I'm a big fan of Crocs ever since they saved my feet in Vegas a few years ago. I currently have two pair, one is the classic croc and the other is a strappy dress shoe croc. If you didn't know they weren't crocs you wouldn't think they were.
With this already being a non traditional wedding, and with me being more about comfort than looks; I decided to check out Crocs to see if I can get a wedding shoe. There were a few styles I saw online that I liked that I wanted to check out. The WEM Croc store was small, luckily they're moving 2 doors down to a bigger one. I didn't find the shoe that I really wanted to try so I'll wait a week until the new store opens to see if they have it in stock then. I could order it online but I figure it'd be best to try it on first. I tried a pair of 2" heel Crocs a year or two ago & they looked fabulous but I kept sliding in them. I don't want to break an ankle on my wedding day.
For our honeymoon, we will be spending a few days in Banff. Sweetie has wanted to hike Tunnel Mountain for awhile now & last summer when we went we got as far as it's base before I pleaded for him to retire to the comfort of the hotel hot tub. I am not a fit person, but I plan on being more fit for the honeymoon. Anyway, Croc makes a nice sporty shoe too! I didn't see it under the ladies section but as I'm a size 7ish mens I'm sure I can find a pair to fit. Walking in WEM on all that concrete/tile really takes it out of a foot so I wore my classic Crocs in preparation of walking from one end to the other.
*Crocs don't know who I am, I just really love their product*
I made butternut squash soup this past week (or was it the week before?). The way I've done it is cut my squash in half & in half again. Microwave it for a few minutes, scoop out the goodness into a blender and blended. I don't have an immersion blender & really I don't think I need one. We have a blender that does a great job. A tip though, remove the top part properly or you'll have freshly blended squash/onion all over your counter.
As my counters were clean & I was going to be putting this back on the burner I slid most of it into the pot. I was then very careful to make sure I was twisting off in the correct direction. It turned out really well.
Another day, thanks to our freezer full of meat, I made ribs & my Sweetie made ribs. I like the sweet saucy kind so I stumbled around AllRecipes for awhile & mashed a few together with what I had on hand. They turned out quite well. Both of us claiming victory in our kitchen stadium ;)
Today I went with my mom, my sister & my friend Jo to pick up bridesmaid dresses, have lunch & check out the Crocs store at West Edmonton Mall. The dresses fit, both bunched at the butt which was expected because of some weird thing with the liner. Easily taken care of by a seamstress. We then marched past Bourbon Street to the Croc store. I'm a big fan of Crocs ever since they saved my feet in Vegas a few years ago. I currently have two pair, one is the classic croc and the other is a strappy dress shoe croc. If you didn't know they weren't crocs you wouldn't think they were.
With this already being a non traditional wedding, and with me being more about comfort than looks; I decided to check out Crocs to see if I can get a wedding shoe. There were a few styles I saw online that I liked that I wanted to check out. The WEM Croc store was small, luckily they're moving 2 doors down to a bigger one. I didn't find the shoe that I really wanted to try so I'll wait a week until the new store opens to see if they have it in stock then. I could order it online but I figure it'd be best to try it on first. I tried a pair of 2" heel Crocs a year or two ago & they looked fabulous but I kept sliding in them. I don't want to break an ankle on my wedding day.
For our honeymoon, we will be spending a few days in Banff. Sweetie has wanted to hike Tunnel Mountain for awhile now & last summer when we went we got as far as it's base before I pleaded for him to retire to the comfort of the hotel hot tub. I am not a fit person, but I plan on being more fit for the honeymoon. Anyway, Croc makes a nice sporty shoe too! I didn't see it under the ladies section but as I'm a size 7ish mens I'm sure I can find a pair to fit. Walking in WEM on all that concrete/tile really takes it out of a foot so I wore my classic Crocs in preparation of walking from one end to the other.
*Crocs don't know who I am, I just really love their product*
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Oh google images how you tempt me
I believe I said earlier that I was making cookies as my favors for my wedding. We have about 50 guests coming & I was planning on making 2 flavors of cookies with 2 designs. Then I went on Google to find me some clipart to make tent cards for the professionally made cupcakes we're having.
*BAM*
So now I have a couple other designs floating around in the ole noggin. I think I'll just keep to the 2 flavors, but I'll have 2 shapes to each flavor so that means I'll have 4 cookies per guest.... which now that I look at it is 200 cookies. Hmm.
Maybe just 3 cookies per bag... We shall see how much ambition I have come May.
*BAM*
So now I have a couple other designs floating around in the ole noggin. I think I'll just keep to the 2 flavors, but I'll have 2 shapes to each flavor so that means I'll have 4 cookies per guest.... which now that I look at it is 200 cookies. Hmm.
Maybe just 3 cookies per bag... We shall see how much ambition I have come May.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Birthday cookies
My old roommate, Jo had a birthday recently. I decided to be budget friendly & make her cookies. I asked her who her favorite Disney character was, she said Cinderella. I even printed off some Cinderella stuff. Here are the cookies. I ventured into non circular ones for the first time. I need to get some more cutters.
I also need better colors, I have Wilton colors. I don't like them. I tried to make red, it turned out pink so I thought I'd ad a tiny bit of another color to darken it up. No, it turned brownie burgandy. Orange was neon though, pink was very pink.
These ones were for one of the renters recovering from surgery & for my mom & aunt.
Close up of some of Jo's.
She likes Twilight (see howling wolf), Harry Potter (Hogwarts crest in pink with hearts on corners & wrong lightening bolt). The rest were sort of random & learning how to pipe better. While I'm happy with the majority of my lettering, I really need to do that on less of a slant.
I used the chocolate sugar cookie recipe from Joy of Baking (the only thing I changed was extract I think), and a thinned down MP Buttercream from Karen's Cookies.
I have learned that I'm not liking the cleanup of icing with proper tips & couplers. I DO LOVE the control of them though, and that far out weighs the cleanup.
I found a local supplier for Americolor, unfortunately it's $30 for 12 small bottles. I think I'll go for it, since online they are WAY cheaper but adding in shipping/customs it's almost the same & I don't have to wait.
I also need better colors, I have Wilton colors. I don't like them. I tried to make red, it turned out pink so I thought I'd ad a tiny bit of another color to darken it up. No, it turned brownie burgandy. Orange was neon though, pink was very pink.
I used the chocolate sugar cookie recipe from Joy of Baking (the only thing I changed was extract I think), and a thinned down MP Buttercream from Karen's Cookies.
I have learned that I'm not liking the cleanup of icing with proper tips & couplers. I DO LOVE the control of them though, and that far out weighs the cleanup.
I found a local supplier for Americolor, unfortunately it's $30 for 12 small bottles. I think I'll go for it, since online they are WAY cheaper but adding in shipping/customs it's almost the same & I don't have to wait.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Child Cookies?
A co-worker asked me today if I'd be able to make alphabet cookies for her sons next birthday. It's in the middle of June, which is after the wedding so it should be doable. This is the first time anyone has asked me to bake anything for an event.
I'm not quite sure if I should charge her, she was the one who brought up payment. It's not like I have a lot of experience in decorating cookies. I'll definitely have to pick up Americolor gels. The Wilton colors I have just are too, meh. I don't like the color they give, red tends to be on the dark pink side no matter how much color is used. I want my red to be RED! These I'll have to get before the wedding as I'm not going to be using Wilton colors for that.
TGIF
Might remember to post pictures of Jo's birthday cookies I made last week, but as my camera is all-the-way-over-THERE. I won't be doing that tonight.
I'm not quite sure if I should charge her, she was the one who brought up payment. It's not like I have a lot of experience in decorating cookies. I'll definitely have to pick up Americolor gels. The Wilton colors I have just are too, meh. I don't like the color they give, red tends to be on the dark pink side no matter how much color is used. I want my red to be RED! These I'll have to get before the wedding as I'm not going to be using Wilton colors for that.
TGIF
Might remember to post pictures of Jo's birthday cookies I made last week, but as my camera is all-the-way-over-THERE. I won't be doing that tonight.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
RINGS!
The rings are here *bouncebouncebounce*
They're shiny & look AWESOME *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
I highly recommend Mint & Richter Designs. People looked at me like I was crazy leaving it up to an Etsy shop for these important rings. Having searched a lot on the net to see what regular jewerly stores could do for us, these guys have what we wanted. I just thought I'd get the rings in a small envelope but they really put a lot of effort into the packaging.
*sigh*
Will post pics after the wedding in... 80 days... ok maybe after the honeymoon. OK probably after I got all caught up with work after the honeymoon.
They're shiny & look AWESOME *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
I highly recommend Mint & Richter Designs. People looked at me like I was crazy leaving it up to an Etsy shop for these important rings. Having searched a lot on the net to see what regular jewerly stores could do for us, these guys have what we wanted. I just thought I'd get the rings in a small envelope but they really put a lot of effort into the packaging.
*sigh*
Will post pics after the wedding in... 80 days... ok maybe after the honeymoon. OK probably after I got all caught up with work after the honeymoon.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Mini Rant
FedEx Ground doesn't move on the weekend. What is the point of updating the tracking with "Departed FedEx location" if it actually isn't DRIVING anywhere. BOO.
One of my former employers had stuff shipped from Texas or the east coast ALL the time. Texas to Red Deer, AB was a 4 day trip. That's regular speed, if we wanted a team it was there in a couple days.
No wonder FedEx Ground is the unwanted step child.
One of my former employers had stuff shipped from Texas or the east coast ALL the time. Texas to Red Deer, AB was a 4 day trip. That's regular speed, if we wanted a team it was there in a couple days.
No wonder FedEx Ground is the unwanted step child.
Wedding update
Our rings have shipped, we bought them off Etsy from this store. Fed Ex ground is not being the best at updating where they are, we know they left Saint Paul MN on Friday night but haven't had an update since. My local FedEx guy said FedEx ground was the unwanted stepchild of FedEx.
After the harrowing experience of ordering our centre pieces off Ebay, they arrived wonderfully. They're a bit bigger than what Sweetie was thinking and I love that they don't look cheap.The colored tulle arrived so we can take the ugly pink (I don't like pink) bows off the arch we got for a steal & replace them with green & blue ones :)
We have our guest book, my dress, favor bags, cookie recipes & vows are written. All over venues & vendors are booked, just need a final confirmation from them. 82 days until the big day!
In baking news I've made my own granola bars, tweaked this recipe from Allrecipes. I didn't have rolled oats, just quick outs. Tasted good but didn't taste like store bought. I added 3-4 Tablespoons of ground flax to my dry ingredients. My 2 cups of stuff were: mini chocolate chips, craisens, dried cherries & sliced almonds. I did what some of the commenters were saying & flattened it pretty good before going into the oven, and flattening it again once it was out. I didn't have any issues with crumbling. MM MM tasty.
I ventured into banana muffins this weekend, I only had 2 banana's so the ones I made could have had more of that flavor. I split the sugar between white & brown, used half whole wheat flour & added a Tablespoon of flax & a dash of mini chocolate chips to this recipe. I also added a bit of cinnamon & nutmeg. The oven time isn't correct at all from what the commenters were saying, I only had my muffins in the oven for about 20 min. Toothpick came out clean. I resisted the urge to frost them with a peanut butter buttercream. Gotta fit into that wedding dress ya know.
After the harrowing experience of ordering our centre pieces off Ebay, they arrived wonderfully. They're a bit bigger than what Sweetie was thinking and I love that they don't look cheap.The colored tulle arrived so we can take the ugly pink (I don't like pink) bows off the arch we got for a steal & replace them with green & blue ones :)
We have our guest book, my dress, favor bags, cookie recipes & vows are written. All over venues & vendors are booked, just need a final confirmation from them. 82 days until the big day!
In baking news I've made my own granola bars, tweaked this recipe from Allrecipes. I didn't have rolled oats, just quick outs. Tasted good but didn't taste like store bought. I added 3-4 Tablespoons of ground flax to my dry ingredients. My 2 cups of stuff were: mini chocolate chips, craisens, dried cherries & sliced almonds. I did what some of the commenters were saying & flattened it pretty good before going into the oven, and flattening it again once it was out. I didn't have any issues with crumbling. MM MM tasty.
I ventured into banana muffins this weekend, I only had 2 banana's so the ones I made could have had more of that flavor. I split the sugar between white & brown, used half whole wheat flour & added a Tablespoon of flax & a dash of mini chocolate chips to this recipe. I also added a bit of cinnamon & nutmeg. The oven time isn't correct at all from what the commenters were saying, I only had my muffins in the oven for about 20 min. Toothpick came out clean. I resisted the urge to frost them with a peanut butter buttercream. Gotta fit into that wedding dress ya know.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Let them eat cake...
Today is the birthday of my Sweetie. I made him a cake. I was unsure if he even liked cake but you can't have a birthday without cake, least not around me.
In my daily reading of blogs I came across a truly awesome cake and the best part is it was SO EASY to do. I found it at The Baking Sheet, which I was linked to from another blog I follow.
I had also discovered what I'm going to call royal icing decals. Basically it's piped icing onto either parchment or a clear plastic. I was really hoping the tips & piping bags I had ordered weeks ago would have shown up by now, but they haven't. I had already made the icing so I fudged it with a ziploc bag with the tip cut off. Many a squeal of disgust was heard while I was making them. I had printed off some things I wanted to trace with icing. It's really quite simple.
Here's the cake all done up.
The plate I glazed a few years back at a Red Deer pottery studio.
I used a bundt pan or what some people call a fluted pan as I didn't have 2 round pans. This made it a little hard to ice with my limited experience. I had done a crumb coat in a mauve as I didn't really know at the time what color the final cake was going to be. Sweetie was prodded into telling me green would be great.
I had iced/frosted the cake, covered'r all up in plastic wrap & tossed'r back in the fridge while I made decals.
These would have been more awesome if I had tips etc, and if I had planned better. I didn't make a brown or a black & that would have been better as an outline than white. All in all, the cake et al tasted good. Which is the whole point right?
Can't wait to try something like this again with the proper tools.
Happy Birthday Sweetie
In my daily reading of blogs I came across a truly awesome cake and the best part is it was SO EASY to do. I found it at The Baking Sheet, which I was linked to from another blog I follow.
I had also discovered what I'm going to call royal icing decals. Basically it's piped icing onto either parchment or a clear plastic. I was really hoping the tips & piping bags I had ordered weeks ago would have shown up by now, but they haven't. I had already made the icing so I fudged it with a ziploc bag with the tip cut off. Many a squeal of disgust was heard while I was making them. I had printed off some things I wanted to trace with icing. It's really quite simple.
Here's the cake all done up.
The plate I glazed a few years back at a Red Deer pottery studio.
I used a bundt pan or what some people call a fluted pan as I didn't have 2 round pans. This made it a little hard to ice with my limited experience. I had done a crumb coat in a mauve as I didn't really know at the time what color the final cake was going to be. Sweetie was prodded into telling me green would be great.
I had iced/frosted the cake, covered'r all up in plastic wrap & tossed'r back in the fridge while I made decals.
These would have been more awesome if I had tips etc, and if I had planned better. I didn't make a brown or a black & that would have been better as an outline than white. All in all, the cake et al tasted good. Which is the whole point right?
Can't wait to try something like this again with the proper tools.
Happy Birthday Sweetie
Thursday, February 3, 2011
So close
I added a couple more blogs to my lists ----->
I can't get enough of baking blogs lately. I want to do a themed cookie for my friends bday that's coming up. She'll like em.
I'm not so patiently waiting for my tips & icing bags to arrive from the couple places I ordered them from. Micheals is great n all but pricey on some stuff. I got my tips & some colors from Karens, they've shipped I just get to wait until they clear customs & make their leisurely way to me. I want to decorate awesomely dammit!
I can not find mini chips, granted I've only looked in a couple of places. I want to remake the chocolate chip cutter cookies since I've read another blogger made them & had the same comment I did. That they were very dry, she backed off on the flour too. I really enjoyed their flavor, more so than the other sugar cookies I've made lately.
My mom & aunt were the first people to RSVP for the wedding so I'll be sending them some cookies once I get my schtuff in. Not exactly sure what design to use but that's why I have hours & hours on the internet. Today I have about 20 minutes of work to do. Being the receptionist is pretty easy most days. It's only tough when guys bring tickets in & expect to get paid on them ASAP. Um no.
Weird/bad dreams the last little while. Some related to the wedding in obscure ways - like last night I dreamed that I had a really thick diamond embedded ring. It was really heavy & started to warp my finger, wouldn't come off when I wanted it to, would slip off when I didn't want it to.
I've been playing Little Big Planet 2 since Saturday. Sweetie rented it for a game day with his cousin & I, and I love it. You can customize your sackperson any time you want, to just about anything you want. Currently my sackperson is lightbulb bright with cog sunglasses, a strawberry hat & pusling light wrists & feet. All sorts of fun. now if only we could concur these last couple of levels. There are some AMAZING custom created levels from players in the community section. I diddled around in it the other day & you can certainly get carried away. I keep forgetting it follows the basic premise of gravity so stuff I place falls down when I engage it. Oh well, I'll still enjoy playing other peoples levels.
I even have some pictures of the last batch of cookies I decorated, one of these days I'll put them up.
I can't get enough of baking blogs lately. I want to do a themed cookie for my friends bday that's coming up. She'll like em.
I'm not so patiently waiting for my tips & icing bags to arrive from the couple places I ordered them from. Micheals is great n all but pricey on some stuff. I got my tips & some colors from Karens, they've shipped I just get to wait until they clear customs & make their leisurely way to me. I want to decorate awesomely dammit!
I can not find mini chips, granted I've only looked in a couple of places. I want to remake the chocolate chip cutter cookies since I've read another blogger made them & had the same comment I did. That they were very dry, she backed off on the flour too. I really enjoyed their flavor, more so than the other sugar cookies I've made lately.
My mom & aunt were the first people to RSVP for the wedding so I'll be sending them some cookies once I get my schtuff in. Not exactly sure what design to use but that's why I have hours & hours on the internet. Today I have about 20 minutes of work to do. Being the receptionist is pretty easy most days. It's only tough when guys bring tickets in & expect to get paid on them ASAP. Um no.
Weird/bad dreams the last little while. Some related to the wedding in obscure ways - like last night I dreamed that I had a really thick diamond embedded ring. It was really heavy & started to warp my finger, wouldn't come off when I wanted it to, would slip off when I didn't want it to.
I've been playing Little Big Planet 2 since Saturday. Sweetie rented it for a game day with his cousin & I, and I love it. You can customize your sackperson any time you want, to just about anything you want. Currently my sackperson is lightbulb bright with cog sunglasses, a strawberry hat & pusling light wrists & feet. All sorts of fun. now if only we could concur these last couple of levels. There are some AMAZING custom created levels from players in the community section. I diddled around in it the other day & you can certainly get carried away. I keep forgetting it follows the basic premise of gravity so stuff I place falls down when I engage it. Oh well, I'll still enjoy playing other peoples levels.
I even have some pictures of the last batch of cookies I decorated, one of these days I'll put them up.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Too many cookies
I made 3 batches of cookies over the weekend. Two were from Karen's Kitchen, and one was from Cookie Crazie (links in the sidebar).
I didn't add enough flour to the first Karen's cookie sugar cookie, I didn't want to over add like I did one time before. They were rolled too thin & the first bit burned a little. My sister still enjoyed them though. The second baking I just rolled it out a little thicker & cut them up after - turned out better. They were quite sweet though.
My sister was over because it was dress trying on day. The Dress fit for the most part. Which isn't exactly motivation for weight loss LOL. I'll have to take it to a seamstress to see what I can do about the boning & what would happen if I lost enough weight to need a serious alternation.
Second batch of the weekend was from Cookie Crazie - Sour Cream Sugar Cookie. I rolled them a bit thin, I keep thinking I'll get one of those measure device things to check it out but I think my eye does a good job (ha). They were tasty. I flooded them with green/blue royal icing (a la Sugarbelle) and then piped on some silly faces with Karen's buttercream. Took me awhile to get the right color, in the end it was more a dark purple than dark brown but it's a taste test cookie no one (but me) cares about color.
The last batch which I actually baked on Monday was Karen's Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie. This one I rolled pretty good, cut pretty good & baked pretty awesome. I just flooded them with royal icing and brought them to work today.
My coworkers liked the Cream cheese ones over the Sour Cream ones. Sweetie liked the sour cream ones better. I think I've gone taste blind cause they tasted fairly similar to me. This means I'm going to bake up the chocolate chip ones again minus the chocolate chips. I'm finding it very hard to find mini-chips these days.
I'll bake more next week. This week is full of groceries, getting ready for Sweeties bday & trying to declutter the duplex (that is a story for another day).
With that me and Woosh (my very own personal hell of tinitus) are going home.
CHEERS
I didn't add enough flour to the first Karen's cookie sugar cookie, I didn't want to over add like I did one time before. They were rolled too thin & the first bit burned a little. My sister still enjoyed them though. The second baking I just rolled it out a little thicker & cut them up after - turned out better. They were quite sweet though.
My sister was over because it was dress trying on day. The Dress fit for the most part. Which isn't exactly motivation for weight loss LOL. I'll have to take it to a seamstress to see what I can do about the boning & what would happen if I lost enough weight to need a serious alternation.
Second batch of the weekend was from Cookie Crazie - Sour Cream Sugar Cookie. I rolled them a bit thin, I keep thinking I'll get one of those measure device things to check it out but I think my eye does a good job (ha). They were tasty. I flooded them with green/blue royal icing (a la Sugarbelle) and then piped on some silly faces with Karen's buttercream. Took me awhile to get the right color, in the end it was more a dark purple than dark brown but it's a taste test cookie no one (but me) cares about color.
The last batch which I actually baked on Monday was Karen's Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie. This one I rolled pretty good, cut pretty good & baked pretty awesome. I just flooded them with royal icing and brought them to work today.
My coworkers liked the Cream cheese ones over the Sour Cream ones. Sweetie liked the sour cream ones better. I think I've gone taste blind cause they tasted fairly similar to me. This means I'm going to bake up the chocolate chip ones again minus the chocolate chips. I'm finding it very hard to find mini-chips these days.
I'll bake more next week. This week is full of groceries, getting ready for Sweeties bday & trying to declutter the duplex (that is a story for another day).
With that me and Woosh (my very own personal hell of tinitus) are going home.
CHEERS
Friday, January 28, 2011
D'oh
At some gawd awful hour last night I realized the buttercream/royal icing I made on Wednesday contained 1/2 cup more shortening than the recipe stated. Why I was thinking about this in the wee hours of the morning is beyond me.
I got this big mental image of me cutting up the shortening block & cutting it too big. *sigh* It still tasted good, but it does explain the texture issue I had.
So now I have a tub of this in the fridge, waiting for coloring & to be put on something baked. I want to try a couple more sugar cookie recipes I've been finding on my food blogs.
My sister comes over tonight so I can try on my wedding dress! That realization quickly made my day better. I've been having some bad headaches this week & not getting what I feel is enough sleep. I'm sure if I lost 50 lbs I wouldn't feel the need for the amount of sleep I'm wanting now. Saw a Vlog on youtube last night where a guy lost 171 lb in a year. I didn't watch all the "episodes" but he took it quite seriously. I'd love to lose over 100 lb but right now I'll focus on getting more active so I can a) fit into my dress & b) go hiking with my sweetie on our honeymoon.
I just need to flick that switch in my brain to either get up with sweetie at 5:30 or go after work. All this week that's what I've been trying to do & nothing got me to the gym. I'm my own worst enemy.
I got this big mental image of me cutting up the shortening block & cutting it too big. *sigh* It still tasted good, but it does explain the texture issue I had.
So now I have a tub of this in the fridge, waiting for coloring & to be put on something baked. I want to try a couple more sugar cookie recipes I've been finding on my food blogs.
My sister comes over tonight so I can try on my wedding dress! That realization quickly made my day better. I've been having some bad headaches this week & not getting what I feel is enough sleep. I'm sure if I lost 50 lbs I wouldn't feel the need for the amount of sleep I'm wanting now. Saw a Vlog on youtube last night where a guy lost 171 lb in a year. I didn't watch all the "episodes" but he took it quite seriously. I'd love to lose over 100 lb but right now I'll focus on getting more active so I can a) fit into my dress & b) go hiking with my sweetie on our honeymoon.
I just need to flick that switch in my brain to either get up with sweetie at 5:30 or go after work. All this week that's what I've been trying to do & nothing got me to the gym. I'm my own worst enemy.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The Dress Is Here!
I warn you I still have "The dress is here" brain, this means I'm more easily distracted.
I had ordered it on January 13 & it arrived this morning, only 12 days from order to door! I went with someone I found off ebay who's out of China. I like how inexpensive that was, that it's custom fit and that I could change the color of the liner to get the color dress I wanted.
The bridesmaid desses were ordered January 2nd, and aren't scheduled to arrive until the later part of April. I find this highly entertaining since I'm quite sure their dresses will also be made in China (80% of formal dresses are made there, heard that somewhere).
Mom wants to wear a color similar to my dress, now that I have my dress & can take pictures of it she might change her mind. Both her & my dad are walking me down the aisle. Mom has contributed so much to our wedding so far, it's quite humbling.
*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE MY DRESS IS HERE*
I had ordered it on January 13 & it arrived this morning, only 12 days from order to door! I went with someone I found off ebay who's out of China. I like how inexpensive that was, that it's custom fit and that I could change the color of the liner to get the color dress I wanted.
The bridesmaid desses were ordered January 2nd, and aren't scheduled to arrive until the later part of April. I find this highly entertaining since I'm quite sure their dresses will also be made in China (80% of formal dresses are made there, heard that somewhere).
Mom wants to wear a color similar to my dress, now that I have my dress & can take pictures of it she might change her mind. Both her & my dad are walking me down the aisle. Mom has contributed so much to our wedding so far, it's quite humbling.
*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE MY DRESS IS HERE*
Coooooooookies Part 3
The chocolate sugar cookies were by far the leader in the weekend bake. The rolled nice, they cut nice (well after I stopped using the unicorn cutter), they baked nice, they iced nice and they tasted good.I got a pretty fair amount of cookies for the recipe too. This one has made the cut to be at the wedding, now to decide on a second cookie.
I've been asking some of the baking bloggers what I might be able to do to get prepared for my wedding. How far in advance I can bake, flood ice etc. So far nothing but I shall be going over their blogs to see if that info has already been posted. After I get some work done that is, yesterday I worked but was fuzzy for most part of the day.
Today my dress arrives! I'm nervous to see how it turned out since I ordered it direct from China - not through any bridal store. UPS tells me it'll deliver before days end. I'm can't say I'm not sqeeeeeing already.
We ordered our rings last night off Etsy. I can only wear a few metals as most of the lower karat golds etc eat my skin. The lovely ladies at Forest of Jewels in Riverbend Square in Edmonton were quite helpful in getting proper ring sizes. We had both forgotten ours from when we got our engagement rings. They had nice thick bands to try since our bands are going to be 1/4". Made it easier & made me more confident in the size. It's nice that the ring maker we chose goes into 1/4 sizes.
*big sigh*
We ordered our centre pieces, picked up our guestbook stuff (well we need to pick up pens, but that can wait until May), ordered the correct favor bag size. Now I just need to get all the icing stuff for the cookies. I know I'm stressing out over it but I'm glad I'm doing this (with the help of my maids & my sweetie) because I like the thought of giving something homemade as a favor over just tossing a bunch of candies in a box. It's more personal to me.
Today I shall see if I have time at work to make stencils, if I can find something to make them out of first.
Cheers!
I've been asking some of the baking bloggers what I might be able to do to get prepared for my wedding. How far in advance I can bake, flood ice etc. So far nothing but I shall be going over their blogs to see if that info has already been posted. After I get some work done that is, yesterday I worked but was fuzzy for most part of the day.
Today my dress arrives! I'm nervous to see how it turned out since I ordered it direct from China - not through any bridal store. UPS tells me it'll deliver before days end. I'm can't say I'm not sqeeeeeing already.
We ordered our rings last night off Etsy. I can only wear a few metals as most of the lower karat golds etc eat my skin. The lovely ladies at Forest of Jewels in Riverbend Square in Edmonton were quite helpful in getting proper ring sizes. We had both forgotten ours from when we got our engagement rings. They had nice thick bands to try since our bands are going to be 1/4". Made it easier & made me more confident in the size. It's nice that the ring maker we chose goes into 1/4 sizes.
*big sigh*
We ordered our centre pieces, picked up our guestbook stuff (well we need to pick up pens, but that can wait until May), ordered the correct favor bag size. Now I just need to get all the icing stuff for the cookies. I know I'm stressing out over it but I'm glad I'm doing this (with the help of my maids & my sweetie) because I like the thought of giving something homemade as a favor over just tossing a bunch of candies in a box. It's more personal to me.
Today I shall see if I have time at work to make stencils, if I can find something to make them out of first.
Cheers!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Coooooooookies, Day 2
Today we went to the magical world that is Michaels, where we picked up a few wedding activity things & cookie decorating things. I didn't pick up any tips or icing bags because somewhere along the line I learned that using snap close bags with a corner cut off worked rather well for piping.
After the failure of the cutter chocolate chip cookies, I decided to go with a gingersnap cookie for Test Cookie #2. My sweetie likes gingersnaps so I took this recipe I had from Christmas. My new little hand mixer pumps out the power, so my arms got a break mixing this one. I'm not a fan of the smell of molasses straight from the container-ewwwwwy.
This dough rolled out beautifully! I used a tip I read on one of the cookie blogs to roll out your dough between two layers of parchment paper - the lack of mess on my counter is so amazing. I cut out some rainbows & tried to cut out a unicorn but I hadn't floured or oiled my cutter prior so it just made a mess. I loaded up one sheet with the rainbows & rounds, tossed them in the fridge while the oven heated up. Then re-rolled for round 2 with the unicorn cutter, even greased up it liked to stick to something (leg, head, what have you). I took my time & got 3 made. Rather than try to lift them onto the pan I just left them where they were on the parchment & put that on the pan. Great idea! Unfortunately they were entirely too close together - the gingersnaps spread out more than I thought they would.
Round 3 with the unicorn had me spacing them a little farther apart and still I got a few rainbows out of this roll. The apartment smelled so much like gingersnaps it was a bit overwhelming. While I let these babies cool I tried Icing #2 which I picked up from Joy of Baking, I have a few friends or relatives that are allergic to raw egg or would scoff at using raw egg in something they would eat so I used the Meringue Powder version. I had also picked up butter flavoring & used it instead of Almond extract. Mmmm Mmmm tasty!
I only had one small zip close baggie, so I had to use 2 large ones. Ruh Roh, they have a double corner crease. This proved a little problematic in the piping so I've now decided to go pick up some icing bags & tips. I know these cookies aren't going to be perfect or how I'd originally envisioned them, but I also don't want them to look like a 3 year old decorated them. The gingersnaps totally overwhelmed the taste of the icing. So while they aren't knocked out of the running they're not my favorite either.
While at the Joy of Baking I saw a pic for Chocolate Sugar Cookies so I whipped that up before making the icing. More on how they turned out tomorrow, they're currently chilling in the fridge.
After the failure of the cutter chocolate chip cookies, I decided to go with a gingersnap cookie for Test Cookie #2. My sweetie likes gingersnaps so I took this recipe I had from Christmas. My new little hand mixer pumps out the power, so my arms got a break mixing this one. I'm not a fan of the smell of molasses straight from the container-ewwwwwy.
This dough rolled out beautifully! I used a tip I read on one of the cookie blogs to roll out your dough between two layers of parchment paper - the lack of mess on my counter is so amazing. I cut out some rainbows & tried to cut out a unicorn but I hadn't floured or oiled my cutter prior so it just made a mess. I loaded up one sheet with the rainbows & rounds, tossed them in the fridge while the oven heated up. Then re-rolled for round 2 with the unicorn cutter, even greased up it liked to stick to something (leg, head, what have you). I took my time & got 3 made. Rather than try to lift them onto the pan I just left them where they were on the parchment & put that on the pan. Great idea! Unfortunately they were entirely too close together - the gingersnaps spread out more than I thought they would.
Round 3 with the unicorn had me spacing them a little farther apart and still I got a few rainbows out of this roll. The apartment smelled so much like gingersnaps it was a bit overwhelming. While I let these babies cool I tried Icing #2 which I picked up from Joy of Baking, I have a few friends or relatives that are allergic to raw egg or would scoff at using raw egg in something they would eat so I used the Meringue Powder version. I had also picked up butter flavoring & used it instead of Almond extract. Mmmm Mmmm tasty!
I only had one small zip close baggie, so I had to use 2 large ones. Ruh Roh, they have a double corner crease. This proved a little problematic in the piping so I've now decided to go pick up some icing bags & tips. I know these cookies aren't going to be perfect or how I'd originally envisioned them, but I also don't want them to look like a 3 year old decorated them. The gingersnaps totally overwhelmed the taste of the icing. So while they aren't knocked out of the running they're not my favorite either.
While at the Joy of Baking I saw a pic for Chocolate Sugar Cookies so I whipped that up before making the icing. More on how they turned out tomorrow, they're currently chilling in the fridge.
Coooooooookies
Somewhere along the line we decided on cookies for favors. It was supposed to be an economical from the heart kind of thing. With this decision made, and stuck in my head now it was off to decide what kind of cookies.
I've been reading a lot of baking/cooking blogs since before Christmas and one of the things that kept amazing me was iced cookies. Since the theme is Rainbows & Unicorns I thought I could make some cookies that looked like rainbows & unicorns. Somewhere on ebay I found a pony cutter that kind of looked like a unicorn so I snapped that up. It's a double layer cutter so it cuts the outline then imprints the shape of a pony in that outline. Pretty neat.
My idea for the rainbows was pretty simple; get 2 different sized circle cutters, take out the smaller circle & then cut the doughnut shape in half. That worked out real well with a bonus of having a round cookie that I can monogram too.
The first recipe I tried was Sugarbakers' Chocolate Mini-Chip Cookies that was recommended to me by Jessie at Cakespy (randomly contacted her off her blog & she responded so fast!). After seeing what Sugarbelle can do with cutters & icing I bookmarked her blog too. I only had regular chocolate chips & margarine on hand. I don't know if it's the winter dry Edmonton climate but my 2 cups of flour made for quite the dry mix. I'll be trying this one again with the recommended unsalted butter & mini chips (in rainbow if I can find them) and probably a wee bit less than 2 cups of flour.
This failed batch was so dry I couldn't roll it out to cut it, so I formed 2 massive cookies and fresh out of the oven I just used one circle cutter on them. That worked out well, they tasted like chocolate chip cookies but had a flaky almost pie crust like texture.
The icing I used for this was found on I Am Baker. It was very simple to remember & I thought the corn syrup would give it a taste that everyone would love. I found it quite sweet, but then I also forgot the drop of lemon juice. I still liked it but I know others wouldn't be so fond of it. I iced some of the failed cookies and went on to play some Rock Band & Cranium with my sweetie & his brother & cousin.
I've been reading a lot of baking/cooking blogs since before Christmas and one of the things that kept amazing me was iced cookies. Since the theme is Rainbows & Unicorns I thought I could make some cookies that looked like rainbows & unicorns. Somewhere on ebay I found a pony cutter that kind of looked like a unicorn so I snapped that up. It's a double layer cutter so it cuts the outline then imprints the shape of a pony in that outline. Pretty neat.
My idea for the rainbows was pretty simple; get 2 different sized circle cutters, take out the smaller circle & then cut the doughnut shape in half. That worked out real well with a bonus of having a round cookie that I can monogram too.
The first recipe I tried was Sugarbakers' Chocolate Mini-Chip Cookies that was recommended to me by Jessie at Cakespy (randomly contacted her off her blog & she responded so fast!). After seeing what Sugarbelle can do with cutters & icing I bookmarked her blog too. I only had regular chocolate chips & margarine on hand. I don't know if it's the winter dry Edmonton climate but my 2 cups of flour made for quite the dry mix. I'll be trying this one again with the recommended unsalted butter & mini chips (in rainbow if I can find them) and probably a wee bit less than 2 cups of flour.
This failed batch was so dry I couldn't roll it out to cut it, so I formed 2 massive cookies and fresh out of the oven I just used one circle cutter on them. That worked out well, they tasted like chocolate chip cookies but had a flaky almost pie crust like texture.
The icing I used for this was found on I Am Baker. It was very simple to remember & I thought the corn syrup would give it a taste that everyone would love. I found it quite sweet, but then I also forgot the drop of lemon juice. I still liked it but I know others wouldn't be so fond of it. I iced some of the failed cookies and went on to play some Rock Band & Cranium with my sweetie & his brother & cousin.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
I'm new here
Hi!
I'm new here. This is my first post. To keep my sanity I'll be talking mainly about the things that keep me up at night. Trying to filter them out so I can sleep. Don't get me wrong, most of them are ideas for things or things I want to do - not crazy ramblings. Ok there will probably be crazy ramblings.
A little background info:
I'm getting married in 129 days. Never thought this time last year I'd be getting married. It was a whirlwind courtship, we're both in our 30's and it feels right.
As of now we have everything booked, we've put our deposits down & the dresses are ordered. That's the main thing. Currently the mental lists are about budget, the favors & just general worry of how everything is going to go.
We've decided for it to be a dry wedding, which hasn't sat well with my family as there's a lot of lushes there. We also don't want childrens about because neither of like them. Almost all the cousins I'm inviting (cause I'm not inviting all of them) have childrens under 5. We're offering my mothers house a haven for them with a couple of child sitters so hopefully that'll work.
The invites go out tonight so I'll find out how dissapointed the cousins are about not having their childrens allowed.
We went with a wax monogram of our new last name to add a special touch to the invites. We also went non traditional on the invite, the first page is a brief Story of Courtship that the man mainly came up with. The second page is all the details regarding the wedding, lodging etc. The first page is pretty green/gold shimmer velum.
Ye gods this is getting long. Next post I shall discuss favors!
I'm new here. This is my first post. To keep my sanity I'll be talking mainly about the things that keep me up at night. Trying to filter them out so I can sleep. Don't get me wrong, most of them are ideas for things or things I want to do - not crazy ramblings. Ok there will probably be crazy ramblings.
A little background info:
I'm getting married in 129 days. Never thought this time last year I'd be getting married. It was a whirlwind courtship, we're both in our 30's and it feels right.
As of now we have everything booked, we've put our deposits down & the dresses are ordered. That's the main thing. Currently the mental lists are about budget, the favors & just general worry of how everything is going to go.
We've decided for it to be a dry wedding, which hasn't sat well with my family as there's a lot of lushes there. We also don't want childrens about because neither of like them. Almost all the cousins I'm inviting (cause I'm not inviting all of them) have childrens under 5. We're offering my mothers house a haven for them with a couple of child sitters so hopefully that'll work.
The invites go out tonight so I'll find out how dissapointed the cousins are about not having their childrens allowed.
We went with a wax monogram of our new last name to add a special touch to the invites. We also went non traditional on the invite, the first page is a brief Story of Courtship that the man mainly came up with. The second page is all the details regarding the wedding, lodging etc. The first page is pretty green/gold shimmer velum.
Ye gods this is getting long. Next post I shall discuss favors!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)