Vanity August 27, 2010

So I was at the gym this morning and while running on the treadmill I noticed that the gym walls are covered in floor to ceiling mirrors.  I know, not exactly news as most gyms are this way, but it made me think.  Why do gyms have mirrors?  Is it so we can check ourselves out?  Check out the hot guy or girl on the machine next to us?  To keep an eye on our form as we lift weights?  Or is it simply because most gyms have no windows, so the mirrors make up for the lost light and the dungeon feel it would have without the mirrors?

Personally, upon reflection (pun intended) this morning during my run, I realized that I use it for all of the above.  Somewhat vain if you think about it.

Oh yeah…now I remember why I shelved the cake business! August 26, 2010

So this week has been a little hectic around here. Not only do we have until September 15 for preschool to start again (kids getting restless, mommy running out of things to do), but I’m also working on my last official order for The Rising Flour! The order, is a three tiered wedding cake with handmade fondant luggage for the top and an electric guitar grooms cake. In addition to the cakes, I also am trying to workout more, give my children more patience and make nutritious meals that the kids will eat (help in this category appreciated). Oh, and I decided today that if I’m going to have this blog I should really to blog more than just 4 times a year;-), but hey! I’ve been busy!

That’s it for now, short and sweet, I’ll post some new pictures soon!

Midnight Sun June 15, 2010

Ok, so I may be a little late on the bandwagon, but Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series is fantastic!   I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it, so I checked out the first two books: Twilight and New Moon from the library.   Four days later and over a thousand pages read I was desperately searching the library shelves for Eclipse and Breaking Dawn only to find that they were all checked out.  So my sons picked out some books and I went home, sad and missing Edward and Bella.  At my first chance I ordered the series on Amazon knowing full well that I would read them over and over again.   However, now I’m kicking myself for using the Super Saver option and not paying for the shipping!  – What was I thinking!?!-  To suffice my addiction (this is what it feels like) to the series I visited Stephenie’s website and was happy to find a draft of Midnight Sun available for reading.

For those of you who are not familiar with the series, it is a romantic yet twisted love story between a teenage girl, Bella, and a teenage Vampire, Edward (who is actually over 100 years old).  They are in essence soul mates, however, Edward is constantly on guard so that he doesn’t kill the poor Bella with his thirst for her blood.

The Twilight series is told from the viewpoint of Bella, an independent, shy and clumsy girl who falls completely head over heels in love with Edward.  I don’t want to give too much away, so that’s all I’ll say for now.  In the book draft Midnight Sun, Stephenie turns the Twilight book upside down by telling Edward’s side of the same story…Genius! Stephenie!  While I love the original story, hearing it from Edward is somehow amusing, moving and complete.  I, of course, have finished the 12 chapters Stephenie made available and am now eagerly awaiting the release of a published version.   PLEASE Stephenie don’t make me wait too long;-)  I truly feel Stephenie has a second series viable through Edward’s eyes and would love to read the rest of the Twilight series again from his point of view.

My package from Amazon has yet to arrive, so in the mean time I will just have to read the Midnight Sun draft again.

The Rising Flour…officially shelved June 15, 2010

While it’s been a while for a post, I can assure you I have not been just lying around.   The last month of The Rising Flour proved to be more busy than I thought with a wedding, birthdays and other occasions.  The closing was bittersweet and I’ve found plenty to keep myself busy since then.  My husband of ten years and I were able to take a much needed adult vacation to Orlando.  While this wasn’t the ideal place for a kid-less vacation (think Disney, Universal, Sea World = tons of kids), it was a gift from my parents, therefore free and what could be better than that!?!  Since we returned I’ve had a harder time than I thought getting back into the groove of the ‘stay at home mom’ again, part of that is the book series I started while on vacation:  Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.  I absolutely fell in love with these books, however I borrowed them from the library and I only checked out the first two and well, I read these both in a total of 4 days!  It would have taken less time if I had the leisure to just sit and read, but I did have to tend to my kids;-)  More on the Twilight series in another post.

Here’s some pictures of  my last couple of cakes and my youngest son’s 2nd birthday, Enjoy!

Stuffed Peppers March 25, 2010

Isn’t it funny how something you despised eating as a kid is now one of your favorite entrees?  One entree my mom used to make often is stuffed green peppers and I’m not sure I ever ate that dinner.  I recall trying it, not liking it and never eating it again, until…I got married and was looking for new recipes that used ground turkey (at the time I only ate poultry and fish).  Years ago, like 10 years, The Turkey Store brand ground turkey offered a cookbook if you sent in something like 5 UPC codes and some amount for shipping.  Lost at what to do with ground turkey and other cuts of turkey I sent away for the cookbook and let me tell you it is the best cookbook I have ever received this way!  Every single recipe I try is great!  It’s easy, tasty and even my kids will eat them.   This brings me to one of my favorites:  Colorful Stuffed Peppers.  Enjoy!

Stuffed Pepper with Simple Spring Salad

Colorful Stuffed Peppers (The Turkey Store cookbook)

1 pkg. ground turkey

4-6 red, yellow and orange peppers (number of peppers needed depends on size of pepper, most often I can fill 6)

2 T. vegetable or olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. dried basil

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

14 0z. can diced tomatoes (plain or seasoned), drained

1 1/2 cup cooked white or brown rice

6 oz. shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (see tip below)

1 1/2  T. melted butter

Cut the tops off the peppers and clean out the seeds, alternately you could cut the peppers lengthwise through the stem.  Bring 4-6 quarts of salted water to a boil and add clean peppers, boiling for 4 minutes.  Remove and drain peppers.  Place peppers in a greased 9×13 baking dish.  Preheat oven to 350  F.

In a large, deep saute pan heat oil and saute onions and garlic, 5 minutes.  Crumble ground turkey into pan, sprinkle with basil, salt and pepper and cook until no longer pink.  Add tomatoes and rice cook until heated through.  Remove from heat and add cheese.  Fill prepared peppers with turkey and rice mixture.  In a small bowl, mix bread crumbs and melted butter.  Place bread crumb mixture on the top of each filled pepper.

Bake peppers at 350 F for 30 minutes or until bread crumbs are golden brown.

Serve with a fresh green salad.

*Fresh bread crumbs tip:  take the ends of your sandwich bread (the ones no one eats) and process in the food processor or blender.  Place in a freezer safe bag.  Voila!  Fresh bread crumbs whenever you need them!

Struggling… March 22, 2010

So my plan is to send out an email to my existing customers on April 1, 2010 about the sabbatical that will start on June 1, 2010, but it’s so hard when you get such good feedback and so many people want to purchase something that you make!  I feel so torn.  I really like making the cakes and creating these one of a kind custom cakes for all of my customers, but I would really like to have more time with my kids, be able to go to sleep before midnight more than just a couple days a month, and have the freedom to just do whatever on a nice day!

Today I received a call from a cake (see photo below) I delivered this weekend, the customer said how much she enjoyed the cake and all the guests loved it and were asking for my information.  The guest of honor is even going to send out my business cards in her thank you notes (which I feel torn about since I am going on sabbatical in a couple months)…that’s how many asked about the person that did the cake!?!  One even said something about the cake being like the ones on Cake Boss!  This is still crazy to me, I’ve never had formal training, just one class at Micheal’s and trial and error.  I guess I’ve really found a niche that needed filling in the northern Virginia area, though, I know there are other custom cake shops around and I also know that some of the cakes could have been done differently and more cleanly.

I’m just struggling with this decision to go on sabbatical.  I guess we’ll see what really happens once April 1, 2010 comes along.  Of course all this could be due to the cranky children I seem to have today.  They will always make me second guess my choice of staying home on these cranky days!

Panchoo March 16, 2010

You have to just love it when your kids come up with new words and then continue to use them in place of another word.  This is what ‘Panchoo’ is in our house…it’s a word my then two year old, Caleb, said instead of Shampoo.  The crazy thing is, he is now 4 and still uses the word while bathing.  Not all the time, but sometimes.  You’ve gotta love kids.  After bath tonight we were brushing teeth and drying off and my youngest, Tristan (22 months), decided he would poo on the floor.  Of course this warranted another bathing and loads of giggles from the twin 4 year olds.