Loose Threads

I have a lot of things rolling around in my noggin, and not much of it is coherent...or maybe related? This is likely going to be a dumping post.

1. I am tired of hearing the word Ebola. I am tired of the fear mongering that the news stations are pandering. I am tired of the panic that others are succumbing to over this. Yes, it is scary stuff - it's unknown and that makes it more scary. Yes, you should be smart about washing your hands, etc. I personally do not think that we all need face masks to go outside our houses, and I live in the Dallas vicinity. I don't think that this is going to wipe out all of North America. I think it's damn impressive that this is the first time we've had to deal with Ebola here given the numerous travel that happens between those countries that are dealing with Ebola and the rest of the world. I think we should all be much more concerned with the flu and the number of people who choose to not receive the flu shot if they can.

2. I'm already tired of the early political ads here in the South. Beating me over the head with biased ads will not win my vote. Give me some actual information and then we can talk. This is exactly why I block certain "friends" on Facebook once the Presidential election machine starts up in earnest. I'm capable of having a discussion regarding why I have views and why I choose to vote the way I do. I don't respond well to someone shoving their views in my face while yelling "SEE?!?!? I'M RIGHT AND YOU'RE JUST IGNORANT!"

3. On a much lighter note DH and I nailed down our Halloween costumes. My work is having a costume contest and so the 80's are coming back with a vengence on Friday! Full blown leggings, lace and leg warmers. DH is going to be Bob Ross...I'm assuming only the parents who are helping little trick-or-treaters will know who he is. I'd be surprised if anyone under the age of 30 knows who he is. Evie also got into the Halloween spirit by trying to eat the Bob Ross wig and licking the adhesive off the packaging for my fingerless gloves. My exact words were "Stop licking that! It was probably made in China and will kill you!" She paused, considered, and continued on her quest for the 1.5 seconds it took me to wrench the cellophane away from her.

4. Henry had a surgery a couple weeks ago and we were finally able to remove the Cone of Shame for good this week. He is a rare one indeed. Most cats do not grow fatty tumors, otherwise known as lipomas. But Henry did. He had a little extra jiggle in the booty area when he walked. So now he is both tumor and hair free in a large part of his right back half. Our magnificent vet assured us the fur will grow quickly but for now it's like seeing the man beneath the clothing - he's got such long hair that it's easy for use to forget how much of his hulking self is hair.

5. DH took the PE exam this past week. I'm so proud of him! He took classes and studied for months. Now it's sitting on pins and needles for the next 2 1/2 months waiting to see if he passed. I have every faith that he did! He's currently enjoying some time gaming, something he hasn't had a whole lot of free time for lately. Can I just say I do not understand the video game side of my man? It makes my head hurt to think of sitting in front of the TV for that long shooting at things, driving cars or saving Ellie.

6. I miss blogging. Which is ironic...since I'm blogging. But I miss the ease that the words used to flow off my fingertips with. The way my older posts were witty and funny. Well, at least to me. I have forgotten how the practice of writing makes you a better writer.

7. I am beyond ready for Fall. Yesterday was our Number One Niece's first birthday. When we got her invite a few months ago and saw the party would be at a park, I was really nervous about it being a nice day. I was hoping for no rain and nice temperatures. The 70's would have been nice. I need not have worried. It was 90 degrees. 90. Degrees. Is Fall ever coming?!?!? I'm ready for sweaters and boots and scarves and slouchy shirts and fleece lined leggings and a fire in the fireplace and hot chocolate. Do you hear me Mother Nature?!?! I'm done with this verrrrrry long Summer. Oh, but don't ice us in over Christmas. Please?

8. My father-in-law built us a kitchen table and it's a dream. It is a gorgeous family style farmhouse table that Henry is sure was designed just for him to lounge upon. He is constantly laying on it when we walk through the kitchen. Luckily there is a place nearby that sells unfinished chairs so we can stain whatever we pick to match the table. He doesn't build chairs anymore; which is understandable if you know how much work goes into constructing one, much less four.

Evie has just curled up with me and is slowly pushing my laptop onto the floor, so I'm going to wrap this up. Still have a few loose threads but there always are.

Ay ya ya.....fiesta!

When I think of fiesta I think of The Three Amigos, sombreros, margaritas, pinatas and burros or donkeys. So when Little Monkey's 3rd birthday theme became a fiesta complete with taco bar and chili pepper pinata, I knew that I had to make donkey cookies.

I love to bake. I love starting with flour and sugar and a little salt, add some heat and voila! Cookies! Cake! Pastry! Pie dough...well, we're working on that one. Anyway, there is something magical and soothing about being in the kitchen for me. It's a way for me to pour my love into something that is shared with others. I never keep an entire batch of anything for myself. Pieces and slices and servings are doled out to friends, co-workers, family, DH's coworkers. Anyone. If it wouldn't be weird, I would leave anonymous  baked goods on strangers front doorsteps.

I hum, sing, dance and concentrate fiercely when I'm baking. When I'm icing cookies I end up with hand cramps and a chapped lower lip. I am like a small child concentrating on getting it "just right" and subconciously alternate between licking and biting my lower lip while I pipe and add details.

My kitchen looks perfect when there is disarray such as below...

The end result wasn't as great as I'd have liked, but I will be the first to admit that I am a very large Type A. Nothing short of perfection makes me happy when it comes to what I put out there.  I figure that no one at the party will even notice the uneven blankets when they taste the killer chocolate icing. Oh yeah, no dyed brown icing here....it's chocolate all the way!

Baking is my way of having my dream job for a few hours. Surrounded by baked goods...that's a great job!

London Calling...Or Maybe It's Just Me

I have a confession. I am bad at staying in touch. I suck at it. Majorly. If you aren't part of my daily life or if you didn't give birth to me, I am horrible at picking up the phone.

It's not that I don't want to catch up. It's that I worry about people talking to me instead of doing other things they need to be doing. I worry that I'm really not that interesting to talk to. I worry that I'll realize that there are friends who aren't friends anymore. And that's just sad, even if I know that it's a part of life.

One of my two New Year's resolutions was to be in touch more with my friends and family. I've pretty much fallen off the resolution wagon and into the procrastinator's den of laziness. So be warned, brothers of mine, grandparents, friends from childhood and high school and undergrad and grad school. This is like the public posting of my intentions. I may only have 20 minutes when I call, but I will try to be a little more consistent about this. Because it shouldn't be so so difficult to ask Siri to call y'all. So lock up your children and prepare to chat...no, seriously, lock them up. They make it hard to focus. Ok, fine, don't "lock" them up but just give them lollipops and soda and send them outside.

Thanks, Shell, as always for letting me pour out my heart.

Why I Love Wednesday

Wednesdays are my favorite day - it's my day off every week! And I can tell you from experience that Wal-Mart on a Wednesday morning at 6:45 is as quiet as it's gonna get. I love being able to take my time and not be elbow to elbow with weekend shoppers.

Ashley and sweet Savannah came over to hang out for a bit after my run. Savannah is such a big girl now and so sweet! She loved playing with Roomie's Pup. And the Pup loved her. It's so nice to catch up with a good friend! Ashley was encouraging me to consider taking my sugar cookie skills into the business arena. Thoughts, anyone? I know I've asked this in the past, but I think about it more and more. The fact I had a dream that I was on Top Chef Just Desserts last week isn't helping things.

To help woo Fall along I pulled out the crock pot this morning and made some Fiesta Chicken and am working on a shredded pork made with rootbeer - thanks KW for the recipes! The chicken was so good made this way - usually when I try to make a shredded anything the meat is dry and tough - it was so juicy and tender! The best part of the recipe is that you can really make it however you like it. All the basic recipe includes is chicken breasts, a can of cream of chicken soup, a can each of black beans and corn drained, a cup of salsa and 2 tbsp of taco seasoning. You could totally start with chicken and soup as the base and put whatever floats your boat in there. I stuck it on high for 4 hours and it was amazing!  It makes a lot too, so come Friday night DH can choose whether he feels like some slightly spicy chicken or sweet and tangy BBQ. I like to have options for him! If you haven't checked out Crock Pot Girls, go browse their site for a while. The recipes are a little overwhelming since they all sound amazing, but I'll be trying them slowly over the next months.

Laundry is done and the dishes are clean. Maybe I'll take a nap....Man, I love Wednesdays.

A Sailing We Will Go

There once was a boy named Joseph who was so cute that he just had to have cookies made for him. As his second birthday approached, there appeared a Captain's hat and striped invitations to go sailing with him.

But before the celebration could be had, there was baking to be done!

That fancy pants mixer came in very handy. Royal icing appeared as though out of thin air. The fondant, on the other hand, almost blew the motor to smithereens.

Life preserver cookies were requested as there would be so much laughing and happiness we would be in danger of floating away!

A very happy Captain greeted me with a request for a "red cookie" when I arrived bearing the fruits of my labor.

No sailing party is complete without a boat cake...yummy fudge icing!

But even more important than the cake or cookies are the presents! The Captain definitely needed the car he was given by friends. After all, he can't spend all his time on the boat...here he is waiting on Aunt Mean to get it unleashed from it's packing.

But once that super boy approved remote control car was free to zip, zip it did.

In the meantime the sweet First Mates helped Mama unwrap and clean up.

I'm relieved the Life Preservers were given the seal of approval - the Captain ate one before the party and started two more throughout the party - or else I would be stuck swabbing the decks.

A Bunch of Nothing

There's not terribly much going on right now. That can be really nice actually - that means no crises, no surprises of the bad variety. So what follows will be a general mishmash of what's been going on, both in the world and in my head.

I made cookie dough tonight using that beauty of a mixer. There is a Little Monkey who will turn 2 this week and is having a sailing party - life preserver cookies are on the list! I'm going to make my first foray into homemade fondant - we'll see how that goes. It involves marshmallows and a microwave - marshmallows and any heat source are a bad combo in my history of baking disasters so I may have to go buy the expensive box kind. I also may end up with purple hands due to dying the fondant red and blue.

My workouts have been pretty great - the new shoes are a huge improvement! Even just switching out the pairs every day helps. I ran 4 today which is the longest I've gone in a long time. I miss my running partner...KW can we run soon? I know it's roughly a million degrees here but c'mon! The weeknight 5-7 mile treks across golf course and roadway are helping my endurance, at least that's what I tell myself. Running intervals in this heat has to increase my endurance, right?

Speaking of working out, there is the diet change to consider. I am looking at this change as a lifestyle change. I don't feel deprived of anything and my cravings for sweets has diminished drastically. I don't much want cake or candy or cookies. I do miss Italian bread and soft cheese, but I can still eat these things. Just in smaller portions. It's difficult to stick to the plan day in and day out because I feel that DH is my one supporter of this. My lunch, or "lack" of a lunch has become the subject of discussion at times at work. I just get tired of justifying what I'm ingesting because I don't feel hungry because of what I'm not eating. I really enjoy what I am choosing to eat, for all of my meals and my snacks. 

Cheat day is coming up. That's a diet cheat day, y'all. DH says it's good to have one every 3-4 weeks so the body doesn't adjust to the lower calorie diet and stop losing weight or think you're starving. Yes cheat day is still a week away but we're already making lists of what we want to eat. A brief view of cheat day? Donuts, oreos, Twisted Root for burgers, fries, fried pickles and shakes, and probably pizza. That's as far as we've made it and I already feel a little sick. Apparently I'm not supposed to work out on cheat day so I did it all wrong last month. I know that I'll still eat moderately that day, it'll just be a lot more calories than usual. Looking at our wish list is funny since a lot of people eat this way more days than not but it's a special day for us!

I've gotten DH hooked on Alias and we're into the second season. He was trying to watch them without me but I pointed out then I wouldn't know how to answer questions without giving things away. I love that he figured out who The Man was without any guidance! I'm dying to get to the end of the second season because the third season opener is AMAZING. But I can't say anything about it until we get there. Sigh....it's so hard keeping the seasons straight and waiting for him to be able to see what happens.

My heart goes out to those in Norway that lost family in the attacks this past weekend. I don't know what triggers people to act on delusions or beliefs in such a physical attack. I know that fanaticism based out of any political or faith based agenda is wrong, yet it happens. Sadly I suspect that all too often we forget this and are quick to say "Well look at his politics....all right wing nuts would do the same" or "What do you expect from a liberal?" when in fact these are the outliers of society. Just because someone is the loudest does not mean that we must pay attention to them as a society in ways that reinforces both those stereotypes and those actions.

Well, that's about everything rattling around in my head for now.

A Lovely Morning

Yesterday morning I had the opportunity to spend some time with great friends, good food and amazing conversation. The wonderful YaYa was in town and brought Chubby Cheeks with her. It was a small group that met up and drove to Big D for brunch.


This is the gang

This is us taking advantage of the timer on my nifty camera

Two of the most beautiful women I know

This is the spread of goodness that we partook of

This is Hank reminding us that God cares for us

All in all, it was a great way to start a Saturday

Because I'm A Ninja Baker...

...Carmen bought me the best little happy for Christmas.  Check it out right here. Is it because I'm stealthy in the kitchen?  That I can bake cookies before they know what hit them? Because I look good in black? Maybe because I'm just a kid at heart and think baking should be fun - that would explain the flip-flop and longhorn cookie cutters that I own.

However, I suspect that she has ulterior motives. She has a boy. And Little Monkey doesn't want no stinkin' flowers or hearts for birthday parties. He wants ninjas in all stages of attack. He does like to throw his food...good thing she didn't get me any Chinese throwing stars or we'd all be in trouble.

Unrelated Posts Part I

The baking urge has taken over recently.  Oh wait, it never left since it showed up while I was in high school.

Last weekend it was Sweet Reagan's 2nd birthday. The cookies were simple, except for the royal icing that went awry. Because I wasn't making a full batch of cookies, I tried to halve the recipe.  I don't know exactly what went wrong, but the icing never finished setting up. It was still kinda sticky two days later. Luckily Sweet Reagan's mama is a fantastic photographer, and in her pictures you can't even see the splotchy bits.

Forgive the shaky out of focusness....I need a camera way better than the one I have.




Then this week is Christmas cookies. The Mother of Us All came through and I am now the proud owner of Christmas cookie cutters, including a horse, a cat and an entire bridge set.  I don't know about y'all, but we sit around eating animal shaped cookies and playing poker on Christmas Eve.

Luckily, this batch of icing set up and did what it was supposed to.

Love the way icing can change a naked cookie

I think they're sweet

Those stars are actually shimmery thanks to some luster dust.

Birthday Extravaganza Finale...or, I Should Never Have Picked Up That Piping Bag

As promised, there are pictures aplenty below outlining my baking fiesta that occurred last week.  Little Monkey turned ONE last week (along with #1 Godson turning 5 and #1 Little Man turning 8). Seeing as how I was only contracted, I mean volunteered, to make cookies for Little Monkey, that's the bulk of this post.

Step One: Make cookie dough while simultaneously turning the kitchen into a federal disaster zone.

Who needs a "Garbage Bowl"?

Will somebody please do those dishes? Thanks. 

Step Two: Let cookies cool while staring at them in trepidation and a decent amount of fear. And building up my strength via a fancy steak salad.

Step Three: Make royal icing. Outline and flood cookies with the base icing, praying fervently that the icing stays on the cookies and hardens into something between liquid and rock.

Step Three A: Wag those tail feathers! All my ducks in a row...

Please note the duck rightmost in the middle row...he appears to either be channeling Patton or attempting to leave the drying rack. I ate him first...he looked like trouble.

Step Three B: Attempt piping Happy Birthday onto cookies, as well as a very modern monogram, and have it be legible to those who can read at this shin-dig.

Step Four: Box up baked delicacies in boxes purchased from Hobby Lobby which lends an distinct air of professionalism to this whole endeavor.

Step Five A: Almost drop cookies attempting to get out apartment door.  Feel free to skip this step.

Step Six: Arrive at destination without further catastrophe and  set up these beauties on a fabulous tray provided by the hostess.

I don't know if you can see her from here, but check out Vampy McQuackerson in the upper left corner of the tray.  She's making eyes at the other ducks.

The party for Little Monkey was fantastic! There were balloons aplenty, small children galore, cookies abounded and kiddie pools overflowed.

I'd love to do it all over again...in 364 days.

Birthday Extravaganza Part 2

Dearest Little Monkey,

 There are many cookies left to ice and you don't yet own the skills necessary to help me. Or the motor control.  On second thought, I may not have the motor control either... if all the cookies look like they say "happy kjhuitg", well, now you know why.

 Things I have learned in this journey of cookie madness and enlightenment:

1. Black icing is harder to make than you think.
2. Black food coloring for icing is very scary when it's in a little pot instead of a squeezy tube.
3. I tried my hardest to find sugar googly eyes for the duckies...but couldn't. Hence the black food coloring.
4. Bakery boxes from Hobby Lobby make my unfinished cookies look like they're way more professional than they are.
5. I am more creative than I ever realized.

Even PT Girl has her limits when it comes to cookies covering the entire dining room table...and kitchen counters at times. Lucky for you, you're a cute little monkey and therefore are exempt from her possible frustration.

 Love, Tante Andrea

For those of you who have developed reading skills, unlike Little Monkey, pictures will be uploaded later this weekend. I want the Momma and Pappa Monkey to see them first!

Birthday Extravaganza Part 1

Ok, spunky show kids...there's a little man's very first birthday coming up and I've veered into lunacy...err, volunteered....to make cookies. Not just any cookies but hand piped cookies that A LOT of people are going to see. It's a duck theme, so the cookies will be in yellow. I'm also making ducks, but they are just gonna be yellow unless I really lose my mind and decide to try wings, eyes and beaks. Below are some of my piping practices.

I used wax paper, outlined my cookie cutter, and then piped...while watching Gerard Butler screw up Jamie Foxx's world. Hence, the blue and white stripe under the wax paper (IKEA ottoman, thank you very much).

This is the first attempt at monograms and some capital letters. I switched out from a #4 to #2 tip, for you baking aficionados since my flow was way to fast and the letters just glopped together.

Here are the attempts at "Happy Birthday". I think I really love the lower case letters. Plus they are so much easier to pipe on! You'd think straight lines would be easier, but everywhere they connect becomes a big Royal Icing Blob threatening to take over the world.And finally, my favorite ones of all...the monograms! Which do you like? I'm vacillating between...oh wait, they're all the same! I did attempt a capital letter monogram, but it's way to "Mwah ha ha- Muffy let's go have a drink at the club" for a 1st Birthday.
Little Monkey, who loves you? Tante Andrea, that's who! Now hurry up with the teeth so you can enjoy the goodies at your whole shin-dig!