Tis the season

For a little gingerbread house making fun!

I recently got an email announcing a gingerbread house workshop and honestly peed a little due to the excitement. I was certain after the instructors saw some of our mad construction skills, they would want to cast a bronze statue of our creations.

(See here and here, if you have no clue what I'm referring to)

Alas, we weren't recognized during our class, but we had a great time.

The birthday cake

I was actually pretty impressed with the way this one turned out. Unlike some of my other attempts to be creative in the kitchen, this one actually resembled the picture in the book.





I got the idea from this great book called "Hello Cupcake." It has a ton of great pictures and provides step-by-step instructions.

And most important, the birthday girl LOVED it!

Happy 34!

Someone in our house turns 34 today; however he won't be celebrating with us.

He will be at Disneyland.

He started a new job on Monday so it only makes sense that day three would be a trip to Disney.

Whatever.

Disney ain't got nothin' on my cake makin' skills.

So, anyway...

We celebrated on Sunday.

This year's cake was inspired by his love for yard work. You may recall my passion for making all birthday cakes at home with lots of love.



It was inspired by these cupcakes on familyfun.com. However, I don't think they made their cupcakes in the humid land of So. IL. My lawnmower handles just wouldn't stay perky.



Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you and miss you already!

Basic cooking

Take one box of this...



Add a few of them...



Mix with a couple of these...



And VOILA! You have dinner that two little kids will eat!



Go ahead...look really close. The spaghetti is coming out of the hotdogs.

I totally wish I could claim the creativity points for coming up with this one, but I can't. I found it earlier this week on this lovely blog.

The boy added some ketchup and ate the entire bowl. The girl added some spray butter and enjoyed hers just the same.

I, however, thought it looked absolutely disgusting and opted for some pretzels.

And here it is...

For those of you who track my incredible cake making skills,I bring you the birthday cake (or birthday sushi).



And, yes, once again, those are twinkies in there. The kid's both LOVED it.



In order to keep the birthday posts to a minimum, I'll just go ahead and let you check out the pictures for yourself.

My cookies

I am not good in the kitchen.

There I said it.

I have dreams of becoming the next great chef and A. can attest that I watch enough Food Network to have earned the right to be at least an okay chef. But, it just never works out for me.

Exhibit A: Any of my husband's birthday cakes.

Exhibit B: Any of the gingerbread projects for assorted holidays.


But this weekend, I had a break through.

I spent TWO WHOLE HOURS making these gems...



TWO HOURS - I should get an award alone for dedicated that amount of time to something other than reading or wasting time online.

When I was coming home this week from a business trip, I scammed this month's People magazine Country double issue (btw, I may start volunteering at the local airport to clean planes. I was like a kid in a candy store with all of the left behind magazines. I'm pretty sure I have every periodical published for the month of February.) The magazine had knock off recipes for Girl Scout cookies. Knowing how much A. loves the samoas, I decided to whip up a batch for Valentine's Day.

I'm not a fan of coconut and I'm not sure A. actually enjoyed them. I kept hearing comments like "Wow, they are really rich" and "do you think you made them too big", but whatever, they looked amazing.

baby steps.

Holiday Gingerbread - Part II

Dear Food Network,

I am writing to express my interest in competing in your 2009 Gingerbread Mansion Challenge.

Actually, my request is on behalf of my two culinary prodigy children. They have practiced hard this past year with their haunted house and Christmas Coy projects. Their most recent project is what I like to call, Fall from Candy Mountain.

This first photo is what the manufacture determined the project should look like.



You can see from my children's finished project that they add a certain je ne sais quoi to the kitchen.



And finally, I was able to capture a snapshot of the magic in action...



I think you will agree inviting our family to your set would be a truly memorable event for your staff and viewers.

We anxiously await your response!

The House of O

Holiday gingerbread project part 1

A lot of mom blogs are busy posting about their ideas for holiday projects that you can replicate in your own home.

This is not one of those posts. In fact, I am pretty sure there is no way you would ever be able to copy what went down in our dining room last night.

Exhibit A - What was supposed to happen. I once again fell victim to the retail genius' behind the pre-made gingerbread kits.




Exhibit B - Early on, we could tell that something wasn't quite right. Clearly the water to icing mix ratio described on the box was off. I think it looks a little bit like a rabid animal in this picture. "Look sweetheart! The Christmas coy fish is foaming at the mouth, it's like tiny snow filled bubbles!"



Exhibit C - Baby Bear went and grabbed the real thing for inspiration.



Exhibit D - Lightning McQueen busted after a bad run in with egg nog in Vegas. I may forward this one on to the Food Network so I can be featured next year in one of their holiday specials.

The house of crazy

The other night during one of our twenty weekly stops at Target, we noticed this lovely Halloween gingerbread house kit. Given my love for baking and creating in the kitchen, we just had to have it.



It was nice because the house comes fully assembled, all we had to do was mix up the icing and add the candies.



Some of us just wanted to eat the icing...



Our version was not quite as manicured as the house pictured on the box. Ours looked a little more like a house of crazy.

Bonnie and Clyde in the kitchen

Alas, my toddler cooking classes are starting to pay off!

The funky bunch was able to create this masterpiece for my birthday...


Baby Bear was in charge of decorating...

Another year wiser! Thank you Daddy for all your hard work!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Two things I am completely passionate about:

1. Magazines - retailers make a killing off of me at the check out counter.
2. Making the cake for each family member's birthday.

When those two passions collide, it's usually a hot mess.

This week was A's birthday and in our traditional fashion, the kids and I set out to bake yet another masterpiece. I saw it on the cover of a magazine and just knew it was the perfect choice for this year. It was similar to this...


Four hours, a couple of "accidentally forgot" key ingredients, an emergency icing run later - this is what we ended up with...


O, well - it's the thought that counts and the kids had a blast!

Happy Birthday Daddy!