Macy's Day Parade

So I know I'm late with this posting but then again I did just start the blog. But here are the pictures that Michael took for me during the Macy's Day Parade in NY this year. It was so cold out that I couldn't bare the thought of taking my icicles, also known as fingers, out of my gloves and pockets to take the pictures. Thank you Michael.

Project # 3

So this is probably my last post for the night because I have things I need to do around the house, like I don't know cook dinner... ooopps.

So here is my third project within the last 2 weeks. For Michael, why are all of my projects starting out this way... but for Michael's place of employment they draw names at the beginning of the year for birthdays. And whoever you draw you are responsible for bringing in the cake for that person. So he drew Misty's name and like a good southern girl Misty likes John Deere tractors. Again making a 9x13 cake with a John Deere design would be WAY to EASY. No instead I found a tractor mold at Michael's that had the colors and decorating tips needed for the tractor.

After all the arts and crafts I've had with baking lately I think I'm keeping Michael's in business - at least the cake isle. I did make the mistake of purchasing the Wilton Buttercream icing and didn't like it. It was way too sweet and made my teeth hurt when I tested it. So that ended up in the trash and I just made the buttercream icing from scratch and it was yummy!!! Just the way buttercream icing should be. I do however like the Wilton coloring kit for making different color icings. After the icing was ready and all supplies were out Michael and I were ready to start decorating. Keep in mind I've never made a 3-D cake before and the only icing I've done is on a 13x9 cake pan and it was chocolate icing with my sad attempt at using the tube icing to write a message. I so wish I would have had a picture of our clothes and kitchen when this was all over. I don't think anything made it out alive except for the cake, which is the only thing that mattered. I must take a moment to brag though - the cake did actually come out rather cute and I'm proud of what we made.

Happy Birthday Misty - I hope you enjoyed the cake.

here is a picture of what we were creating:

Here is what we created:

Christmas 2008, Project # 2

So my second Christmas project of the year has to do with baking. Michael had a work Christmas party this past weekend and he, well Me, was responsible for bringing dessert. As I went through a list of what I could make each one of them got shot down. He wanted something festive and different and apple pie, pumpkin pie, and cheesecake didn't make that list. So I started searching the Internet for fun recipes. I ended up finding the Bakerella site through Pioneeer Woman (both avid cookers and bloggers). I found the cutest cupcakes from a Bakerella, the post was called Making Your Cupcakes Pop! It looked easy enough and fun enough to do so I thought I'd try it out. But I couldn't stick to her original recipe and suggestions, oh no because that would be too easy. And those that know me I do nothing the easy way. I decided that I would find mini cookie cutters that were Christmas shapes and I would make a Christmas tree that would hold the cupcake pops and underneath would be a winter wonderland scene. Needless to say I got a little carried away and the imagine I had in my head was tougher to create than I thought.

First noted mistake was thinking I could do what she did and have it turn out as cute as she did. My second mistake was the cookie cutters were too small and the little balls that I had to roll the cake into were either too small or too mushy. I think putting in the freezer for 15 or 20 minutes is way better than putting in the fridge overnight. The cake balls just didn't get hard enough... (you know that sounds way more perverted than it should). The cake balls I was trying to mold into Christmas designs were falling apart before my very eyes and I thought they were too mushy so I decided why not bake them a little longer to see if they harden up some... even though Bakerella said nothing about having to bake the things again... Needless to say 3 cake mixes later and 7 1/2 hours of standing in the kitchen I finally had something somewhat worth taking to his Christmas party. It's one thing when you take food to the families house or a friends house you have known forever - but when you are meeting most of your husband's co-workers for the first time there is a sense of panic at hand.

Would you like to know the sickest part of all of this..... I refuse to let a cupcake pop defeat me and ohhh yes I plan on attempting this thing again tonight to take to my mom's for one of our desserts for tomorrow night. Only this time I'm making it much easier - Bakerella showed reindeer, Santa hats, and trees that are all easier to make. And this time I only plan on using 1 box of cake mix. It's a good thing Duncan Hines is sold at Wal-Mart for $.88 - maybe I should have bought stock in Duncan....

Christmas 2008, Project # 1

So as you can obviously see this is my first post to the blog. I think I set up an account over a year ago but didn't think I had anything interesting to write about and not that I do now but I have to start somewhere. I have been waiting for something 'cool' to happen so I could write about when in fact I probably do have more to share than I thought since 2008 was a pretty good year. Some other stories might come but they'll be out of sequence so please forgive me. I have recently gotten myself into some projects that have been quite fun this Christmas season. So I thought for my 'first time' I'd post pictures.


The first set of pictures comes from a project that was created as a result of something my father in law wanted for Christmas. He lives in NY but loves the Gators which poses a problem because both my husband and I went to FSU. Michael and I were in NY for Thanksgiving and had the unfortunate experience of watching the horrible FSU vs. UF game with my father in law. And he along with every other Gator fan I know just loves Tim Tebow thus came the result of our project. Don't get me wrong, I like Tim and think he's a good kid with good Christian values and morales but sometimes enough is enough. I think the only thing cute I find about Tebow anymore is when my 3 year old nephew wears his jersey or recites Phil 4:13.


At first we couldn't bring ourselves to actually purchase a shirt so we were going to make him the Gator shirt. While thinking of different sayings to put on the shirt we came up with quite a few funny ones, some that we can share and some well that we probably shouldn't share. So here are the tame less offensive ones my husband came up with; Tebow for Hiesman 2009, Who's Your Daddy, Tebow you are the son I never had....Below are the ones that actually made it to a shirt. (Just in case you are wondering we did in fact purchase a very nice UF polo for my father in law....so his Christmas present wasn't that ghetto from us..)

Shirt number 1:




Shirt 2:



Shirt 3: Apparently there was some thing about how the votes were cast and most people didn't even put him as their 3rd choice but if they had he would have won or something.... I don't even know I think I was only half listening to Sports Center that morning.





So there you have it; our present to my father in law - all in good fun. My favorite is shirt number one... maybe because that's the one I came up with and drew.