Plus 2 in Hotness Points

After a lot of $$$, and some family hookups, I've been told I gained two points on the hotness scale! I got my hair (re)done the other night while Shameonyou21 got her eyelash extensions done, and then the next night, I got mine done. My sissy works at this spa as an aesthetician, (or esthetician depending on how you want to spell it) and she helped in this effort of mine.

My Mammy was the first guinea pig in helping Megs get certified to do the eyelash extensions. She looked so fabulous, and I hate my eyelashes, so I thought I would give it a try too. The girls at the spa pretty much just said it as a generalization, that all girls who get the eyelash extensions gain two hotness points, but I took it as I, personally, gained the two hotness points. Cause why not? DUH!

Sorry for the creepy pics of me, but I had to demonstrate my point. Let me know if you agree with my hotness points! You don't have to lie, I just rather you not burst my little bubble right right now by telling me the truth!

BEFORE

AFTER

HOTNESS POINTS GAINED!!!

Cake Anyone?

About a month ago a friend asked me to make her wedding cake. I didn't even know she was dating anyone, not to mention engaged! I couldn't really lie to her and say I didn't know how to make cakes, since she was good friends with the two girls for whom I made those first cakes. CRAP!

There's been nothing but drama surrounding this particular cake. All during the cooking process, the stupid cakes were having issues coming out of the pans. Even though I sprayed the crap outta them with pam, greased the snot outta them on the remakes with crisco, and then both greased AND sprayed on the re-remakes. Stupid 6 inchers hated my guts all week!!!

Day of the wedding, things are finally going pretty smooth. I decide to pull out the cake stand provided me by the bride, to make sure I knew how the thing actually worked. That's when things went downhill very quickly! Assembly was really easy. Almost self explanatory. I pull out the clear plastic "glass" looking plates the cake layers are supposed to sit on while on the stand. The freaking 8" piece is MISSING!!!

After my assistant, ran all over town looking for another stand to buy, we settled on some round mirrors, which actually worked out great, cause I think they look better and they aren't cheap plastic!

My floral arrangements were courtesy of my Mammy, Sissy, and B-I-L Tay Tay! Tay Tay and EK would make FABULOUS florists doncha think???!!! Belnap Bundles of Flowers or something dumb like that!!!

I was under the impression that Shelly ordered arrangements from the local grocery store, not just individually bundled flowers. The Bride was not having any flowers of any kind at her reception, so Shelly offered to buy these for the tops cause the Bride also couldn't decide on what she wanted on top besides NOTHING! Specialty orders have to be at least two weeks in advance, so this is what the florist had in stock. The blue flowers are actually just painted baby's breath, not little cute unknown name flowers!

Anyway, here are the pics. Don't adjust your screen, the bride's colors are actually the primary colors of red, yellow, blue. Turned out better than the image I had in my head. Maybe it's the Mammy/Belnap magical floral arrangements that did the trick!

MMM Cake!

For Idyllic Ideas' birthday, I ordered her something that she'd been drooling over for a while, but never actually ordered. I was struggling with an idea, and also running out of time (even though I had tons of notice) so I came up with a brilliant plan...

Introducing one of the coolest new toys to enter my household since...well...ever! Is it a cookie? Is it cake? It's both! It is the Cookie Cake Pan!!!

According to the recipe on the box, this is what you will look like when it is all done:

It will work with any type of cake though. We made a lemon pound cake with raspberry cream cheese frosting on the inside. Idyllic did a great job while I was half sprawled out on the couch with ice on my head, and face due to my concussion and sore jaw. Next time I decide it would be fun to see what it would be like to be a brick wall, and get bull dozed over, will someone remind me it WASN'T that much fun!

I will have to get Idyllic Ideas to email me the finished product, but this is what it looks like coming right out of the pan.

Hooray for cookies. cakes, and now best of all, COOKIE CAKES!!! I think this little movie could also apply for my new friends the cookie cakes. Don't you?!

"I'm Concussed!"

Or at least that's what we think. Turns out that slow pitch softball actually can be dangerous. Who'duh thought it?! I know what some of you are saying to your computer screens right now...

"She hurt herself AGAIN?!" "What the crap did she do to herself now?!

See how well I know you! Anyway, so last night while playing on my city co-ed team, I took a turn playing catcher for an inning. Turns out that wasn't so much fun. While rounding third base, the stupid girl decides she wants to try and make it all the way home. My team throws the ball in for the play. The rules say that if there is a play at a base, the runner has to slide. She didn't. I caught the ball fully expecting to tag the runner at my feet, instead I got bulldozed to the ground. I upon landing on the ground the back of my head did a nice little bounce in the dirt. Not such a soft landing.

Technically the girl should have been out anyway since she didn't slide, but luckily for me, I held onto the ball so she was FOR SURE OUT!!! I got up and finished the game alright, with the only thing really hurting was my jaw from tensing up. Today, chewing is a bit of a task, and I've been on the verge of dizzy all day with a slight headache. That's when we decided (my Mammy and I) that a slight concussion was probably the likely outcome. Now I wish I'd gotten up and punched the retard girl in the teeth or something!

I know I have this unusual habit of injuring myself (burns while cooking, road rash from sliding into 3rd base in shorts, etc.) and a crazy attraction to an array of ski breaks, I just can't help myself. What can I say? I'm like Martin Short in the movie "Pure Luck" or something! Dumb things just have a way of finding me!!!

Cooking Mood

I do love to cook. That is no secret, nor has it ever been. I have recently been very very lazy and not really made anything for a long time. I have eaten, don't mistake that, my meals have just been parents/sammiches/Shameonyou21's house/restaurants/VERY BAD Red Rooster fried chicken and waffle restaurants.

No worries though! I think I have found my passion again over this last week! I made homemade scones with homemade honey butter one Sunday. I came home from work one day last week, and all of a sudden had the desire to make homemade broccoli beef. So I went to walmart, bought the groceries, came home and made it! I also threw in some homemade ham fried rice for good measure!

The night before last, I asked my new roommate around midnight----OH YEAH, I forgot another new event for my list! I got a new roommate! Idyllic Ideas finally moved in! There goes all of my future roommate bashing posts though. I know how much you all believe that too! ANYWAY, I asked her what she wanted me to make for dinner the next day. She came up with the kabobs idea.

I made both chicken kabobs and steak kabobs. I bugged Shameonyou21 at 12:30 a.m. over text message for some suggestions. I marinated the chicken in my usual soy sauce/7-up marinade starting the next morning. I did not marinate the steak, but just brushed the finished kabobs with garlic butter before cooking. Idyllic Ideas really wanted to add the fruit of the devil (pineapple) to her kabobs, so I made sure those stayed far away from my kabobs (even though those that ate them said they liked them)!

I really wanted to BBQ the skewers, but somehow, my small charcoal grill disappeared at my parents' house, so I settled for baking them instead. I guess they turned out alright...in fact, they were pretty freaking fabulous!!!

My neighbor made us dinner tonight since I have basically fed her over the last month off and on! Anyone got any other ideas while I am on a roll? You all might want to try and take advantage this roll if you know what's good for you--mmm food...good...

New Post!!! (arms stretched straight in the air in glee)

Don't fall off your chairs. This IS in fact a real post!!! I have recently fallen WAY off the wagon when it comes to the blogging world. OK, so it's probably more like AWOL instead of just falling off the back of a wagon.

There's been so much that has happened over the last almost three months, I think I just got so far behind, I didn't know where to even start. I think I am just going to do a quick synopsis of what has happened over the last little while. If there is something you need more clarification on something, just let me know!

Ahem...

1. My baby sis got married at the beginning of may. Beautiful bride, handsome groom, gorgeous/awesome reception. Build-your-own Panini Bar, and candy buffet. Find ME a husband committee was founded.
2. My older bro got a long awaited call up from the LA Dodgers. He spent about three weeks with them before getting sent back down to Triple A when a suspended Manny Ramierez returned. He had his very first hit, but didn't really get a lot of opportunities to get into any kind of rhythm since he mainly only pinch hitted. He still had a .308 average in 10 at bats which is still very good. Even got a double in one of the games! Whole family (except the bro and s-i-l and nephew in PA selling alarms) flew out to CA to watch his debut week!
3. Softball team won our tournament championship after going 0-12 in the regular season. We had to play 4 games in one night to do so, and even beat one team twice in a row (beat them badly the second game). None of us thought it was possible at the beginning of the tournament, but we found ourselves a pitcher who was also a homerun hitter so that also helped a lot too!
4. I got a new church calling. Gospel Doctrine Teacher. Can I tell you how freaked out I was. It's always been one of those calling I always thought I never wanted. I've only taught one lesson so far, but I can tell that it is probably going to be very good for, and I will probably learn more than I will ever teach.
5. Ink Spot moved. We moved from one happy valley city to another. Family City, USA to be more exact. It is a lot bigger location, a lot nicer location, and a lot closer to Ma and Pa. State Street is a very busy place. Provo is just not the place to be any more unless you are a student. At least that's what we keep hearing and the feedback from those who have followed us. The move was hard on all of us, but no more so than our big embroidery machine. It got dropped off a forklift and is now outta commission. The insurance company is now playing games with us, and is trying to do everything in their power to jack us around instead of paying up to replace it, even though we have good insurance and have never had a claim in the 20 years of business with them.
   

Anyway, I think there is more, but I can't remember right now. It has still been three months after all!!! Keep your eye out for that sore thumb that might be coming your way in the next couple of days too!

Baking Frenzy

I had the [un]fortunate pleasure this month of hosting our bunco group. Which, if you all remember one of my previous posts on that subject, everyone always seems to bail when I host it! I had to scramble to find the subs at the very last minute, so thanks to Idyllic Ideas and her roomie, and Serena for coming on short notice!

I promised them a fun, fancy, yummy treat if they came. I was originally going to make the desert that is shown on the front cover of this Culinary Institute of America textbook, but changed my mind when I saw that I could buy frozen puff pastry shells. Not all of them baked up perfectly when I actually baked them, and the cream filling wasn't completely set, but I still think they turned out alright. My bunco group seemed to enjoy them anyway, so I guess I can't complain too much!



I had a ton of leftover cream (I made a double batch fearing I wouldn't have enough to fill the puff pastry shells), so I promised one of the girls who did me an enormous favor that I would make her cream puffs as a thank you! It's been since I was in my first couple of semesters of Culinary School since I made these, so I was WAY out of practice! I used a recipe I found in one of my textbooks, and the batter (pâte à choux or eclair paste) was runnier than I remembered, but I thought I would bake it and see how they turned out.


No need to zoom in or come back with comments about how these are either sugar cookies, or snickerdoodle cookies and not cream puffs. They are,in fact, the first batch of the puffs! No need to post a pic of the second batch, because there wasn't much change in appearance. I decided to add a bit more flour to tighten up the paste. Turns out I had too much flour in there! I again, wanted to see how they baked, just in case. Not much puffier than the original, but definitely more dense! (Heavy cream puff cookies!)

Anyway, I left and went to dinner with the fam, and was still fuming and very disappointing that these were not working and not up to "my standards!" Nats, my roommate, was quick to recite the little vinyl saying we have stuck to our kitchen wall:

"If you don't like my cooking, lower your standards"

That made me more determined to get it right! I quickly jumped on the Internet to one of my favorite recipe websites: www.allrecipes.com to get a different recipe than the obvious not-going-so-well recipe I had been playing around with for two hours beforehand. I changed it a tad from what they wanted me to do, but right from the get-go I knew this was going to be a much better recipe, and a much better turnout! I was right! My cream puffs were tall and puffy, light and fluffy, and golden brown! I filled em, drizzled em with melted chocolate, and then dusted them with powdered sugar! Now these I am actually proud of enough to call them mine (meaning that I actually made them and I will admit to it), and then give them away so I don't eat them all!

They took up all the room in my fridge! I am actually suprised that my other roommate who often seems to find her way into mine and Nat's food didn't steal any! Especially when I told her I used all HER eggs to make 'em since I was out!