Believe

Happy New Year's Eve! I can't believe 2010 is coming to an end. This year has gone by so, so fast I can barely recall everything that happened.

The past couple of years have definitely been challenging. I've lost many people that I love and some days I still struggle with the fact they aren't here. This summer an old co-worker and friend was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma and has since been fighting for his health. And then this past November I lost my beloved grandpa. It was a long, difficult year for him. He moved out of his home and quickly ended up in a nursing home. He then was in and out of the hospital with various issues and those that love him had to watch him slowly deteriorate. So while it was incredibly difficult to lose him, it was comforting to know he was no longer struggling.

The end of 2010 has brought about some changes. After 23 months of unemployment, I will be working again starting January 3rd. It's funny... I've never been a big believer in signs, but I think that has now changed. I was laid off at the end of January, 2010. I hadn't heard from the company I worked for (a company that places workers by contract to other companies) since shortly after being laid off. I had resubmitted my resume, but not applied for any jobs with them as the ones posted were not in my field. The morning after my grandpa passed away the company called me about a job opening. I had just finished meeting with the funeral home and the minister was on his way to my house and I get this call about a job. It was just the oddest timing. I had been my grandpa's caretaker and it would have been difficult to take this job with him here. Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was my grandpa telling me it was time to get my lazy ass out of this house and back to working. Who really knows?

This whole rant is really a long way of getting to something a read online today on a few different blogs. The posts were about choosing a word for 2011... a mantra of sorts. I'm not much into making resolutions - I've usually broken them before they've even started, but this word thing I think I can handle.

The word I've chosen for 2011 is "Believe". I'm going to believe that things will be better. Believe that this job is meant to be and it will be great. Believe that I have seen enough loss over the past 3 years and that this year will not see more. Believe that my friend is going to beat this cancer. Believe that change is a good thing. Believe that the things that have happened in the past were meant to pave the way for something amazing.

So, to anyone out there who might read this, my wish for you and your new year is this: Believe that anything is possible. Believe there are good times to come. Believe in yourself, in your loved ones, in God, in whatever you choose... just believe in something.

Bird Vendetta

So, I think birds have some sort of hit placed on me. A few years ago I was driving across a bridge with the sun roof open and there was an unfortunate incident involving a bird. I won't be graphic with the details, but let's just say 2 years later I'm still very apprehensive to drive with the sunroof open.

Then, Christmas Day I was parked on my dad's driveway and this happened:

The picture really doesn't do it justice... I couldn't see out of the windows and despite the fact that it was 25 degrees outside and the roads are a mess, I had to spend money on a car wash.

Why do the birds hate me??

Christmas Decorations and a (slightly) Scary Santa

Last weekend we had a couple of family Christmas parties. I am a lousy blogger who forget to take pictures of any food that I made. I did, however, take a couple of some new decorations I have up this year...

I made these wreaths for the bedroom doors. The wreaths themselves were super cheap at Menards... I think the decorations cost more than the actual wreath!

I found these cute ornaments at Walmart and thought they would go perfect with the kitchen holiday design.

This wreath used to be on the front door, but I thought it went better in the kitchen. It's missing an ornament so I added the ribbon this year to hide that spot.

I have been searching for a card holder/tree for years and can't find one I like. Well, that's not exactly true... there's one from Pottery Barn that I love, but I refuse to shell out that much  money. So this is my own little attempt to have a card tree... just some cute garland I found at WalMart and some clips. I was running out of room on the fridge for all the photo cards this year, but I hated to not display all of them... this has solved my problems!

I stayed under budget on gifts this year, but I like to have more than one gift for people to open, which explains why they won't all fit under the tree!  Please forgive the poor photography... I hope to improve my photo skills next year!

And finally we get to this one... Santa comes to the family party every year and each kid gets to sit on his lap, tell him what they want for Christmas, and then they get a present. I was sitting on the floor taking pictures and didn't even realize I took this one until I was editing them today. I'm a little worried... do you think he was trying to tell me something? I kind of feel like I'm in trouble here... I swear, Santa, I've been good!

Baking Up the Past



My grandma and me in what is now my kitchen... note the floors which still (much to my dismay) exist

 I remember when I was younger my grandma would make dozens and dozens of Christmas cookies and I would always get to help her. Well, if I'm being honest I probably wasn't the biggest helper... I more preferred to eat the cookies in dough form rather than bake them.

This year I'm a little behind in the Christmas to-do list. I'm struggling a bit to get into the spirit. I've decorated the house, but that's about all that's gotten done. The presents are not all bought and the ones that are have not been wrapped. I also seemed to have misplaced all the ribbon I bought after last year's Christmas. And until today I hadn't baked a single cookie.

As I was thinking back to all the baking my grandma would do I realized she would not be happy with me for being so bah humbug, so I got my not-so-little, cranky booty into the kitchen today to try and find some inspiration. I decided to make one of the recipes she used to make... Jam Thumbprints. These are super easy to make and you can use whatever filling you like. If you're not a fan of the jam (yeah, I totally did not mean to rhyme there) then you could use about any filling... I'm thinking of testing out some carmel later.

And now that the house smells like cookies I think I'm feeling a little less cranky. Maybe I'll throw on White Christmas and wrap a few gifts. Now, if I could just find my ribbon...

Jam Thumbprints

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

1/2 cup jam

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy; add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt; mix until combined. Roll dough into small balls and then roll these in the chopped walnuts. Make a thumbprint in each cookie and top with jam.  Bake at 350 for 13-15 minutes. *I would recommend putting parchment paper down on your cookie sheets so if any of the jam rolls off the cookie you'll have a much easier clean up!

There's a Monkey in the House

Earlier this year I casually mentioned to my friend that I had a great idea for a birthday cake for her little girl. I think this was like May or June and the birthday wasn't until December. I told her about this cake I had looked at online that was a simple stacked cake with a monkey head on top. As it turned out she had just ordered the invitations for her party (even though it was at least 6 months early) and what do you know - they had a monkey on them. Perfect we thought! 

A few months later I found another picture on line, this time of an entire monkey. Oh - this is even better I told her. It will be SO great. And I knew her daughter would love it and I'm a sucker for these little kids in my life. They can talk me into anything. OK, so she's only 2 and does more grunting and pointing than talking. But it's the blue eyes and the chubby cheeks... they hypnotize me into doing crazy things. Like the time I made ruby slippers out of gum paste for my niece. Anyway, I decided it would be a grand idea to make this giant monkey. Little did I know...

Actually, it wasn't a complete nightmare. It did, however, take me an entire night to make. At least it didn't look like someone stepped on it like the time I made her son a soccer ball cake. The monkey had a moment of craziness when I tried making the arms out of rice krispie treats. Oh dear. That would have landed me on Cake Wrecks for sure!

So, while she's only turning 2 and will most likely not remember the time that crazy cake lady made her a monkey cake, at least I can say it happened. And I survived :)

Back to Baking...

*OK, a little side note/confession... I actually wrote this post on Wednesday AM to post that night. And I promptly forgot. Wow... I'm off to a great start as a blogger! I blame the cold medicine.

I guess the winter season has officially begun since I have had my first cold of the season. It's been a long few days of looking at nothing other than my couch. I think I've left the house once since last Friday night and that was just for a grocery run. But the sun is finally shining and I think I'm on the mend. Or at least I'm going to make myself believe that I'm on the mend. And with what little energy I have I'm going to spend it on baking. Yes, there's laundry that should be done, but where's the fun in that?

So on tap for today are Peanut Butter Dough Balls, which is a recipe I found here on What Megan's Making.  Now, the recipe calls for cake flour and I KNOW that there is cake flour in this house, but I could not for the life of me find out where it is stashed. SO it's Joy the Baker to the rescue! She has a handy little tip on how to make your own cake flour. She's now my very own super hero.

Full disclosure, mine look nothing like the one's Megan made. However, they taste fantastic! They are a little crisp on the outside, but soft and (just like their name!) doughy on the inside. Not sure why they flattened out. Maybe it's because I used reduced fat peanut butter? Probably, but it's all I had on hand and I wasn't about to go to the store. On her blog she recommends adding milk or more pb if the dough is dry. Well, I had to had quite a bit of milk. I didn't measure so if your dough ends up crumbly, just add some milk until it's a more dough-like consistency.

Here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter Dough Balls

recipe from What Megan's Making

 

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup cake flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup chocolate chips

Beat butter, peanut butter, sugars and vanilla until fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, combine baking powder, baking soda, salt, and flours. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar; mix until a dough forms (*this is where I had to add in some milk... if your dough is too dry and crumbly add milk until it's more of a dough consistency). Stir in chocolate chips; chill dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350. Roll dough into balls (I used the small scoop from Pampered Chef); place on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. They'll still be soft and won't flatten out (well, mine did, but technically they're not supposed to). Let them rest for a minute before transferring them to a cooling rack.

It's Official.. I'm Blogging

Well, this is it... no turning back now... I'm officially beginning this blog. Why no turning back? Well, for starters in this year's Christmas card I have declared this blog to be open for viewing. And it's been months of talking (and talking) about doing this, so I guess this is as good of time as any.

I have no idea if anyone will read this, but I'm going to take a chance. Might as well do something with my time while I'm trying to find an actual job, right?

So, what kind of things will I be blogging about? Good question. My goal is to document a few things...
1) cakes. I'll be transferring the Sweet Cakes blog to this location.
2) recipes... not ones I've made up - let's not get crazy here. As I've mentioned I have spent a lot of time recently on other blogs and have found some great recipes. I'll be trying them out and sharing the results here.
3) life in general... I'm sure they'll be lots of pop-culture references (I am the queen of the pink-pie piece afterall), maybe some shopping finds, decorating ideas... I think in the beginning the topics will be a little random. Hopefully along the way you'll find something entertaining and/or useful!

Thanks for stopping by!

Erin