Cookies!!!!

Today I filled my van with Girl Scout cookies!! I went with our "cookie mom" to help pick up the cookies. Doesn't looking at that just make you hungry??

Later that evening we had an activity for the ladies at church. I was asked to make a few dozen heart-shaped EKG cookies to go along with the "911" theme for the evening. I found some great examples on Pinterest here and here. I tried a few different recipes for the cookies, and decided I liked the one from Martha_Stewart the best. I really don't like the taste of royal icing so I tried a Glacé_Icing. It tasted great and I loved the way it turned out. It also helped keep the cookies moist. 

Surprise Party

We threw a surprise party for my dear friend Melinda's 40th Birthday. It was a lot of fun and she was surprised. Doesn't she look fabulous!

Melinda is currently on a gluten-free diet. I told her I wanted to make her a cake for her birthday, so she loaned me Rose's_Heavenly_Cakes for some recipes. I made 2 different cakes for her. The first was Chocolate Feather Bed with Raspberry Ganache. There is no flour, just lots of dark chocolate bars and eggs. The raspberry ganache was a pain. Mainly because I didn't have a food mill to puree the raspberries without getting any seeds. I had a very small fine-mesh strainer that I had to push the raspberries through with the back of a spoon. I think that step alone took almost 2 hours. I was also caught off guard when the recipe said "make 2 batches". I had read it earlier and thought it said "makes 2 batches". I had 16 minutes to whip up the second cake before the first one came out of the oven (took 45 minutes). Luckily I had enough ingredients to make it again, since I stole the chocolate from the ganache. Had to go to the store to replace that before I could make the ganache. I also didn't have the right size pans for this, had to buy 2 new ones at the store.

The verdict: It took forever to make and I got very frustrated. I am much more for the quick and easy and still tastes great. This was not quick and easy. But the taste was heavenly.

For the second cake I made Lemon Canadian Crown. The best way to describe it is similar to a frozen whipped lemon meringue. I love lemon desserts. I saw this in the book and had to try it. I had a similar problem with using a fine-mesh strainer to push lemon zest through, but it was a very small amount compared to all the raspberries. Overall, it was a much easier recipe. I bought gluten-free ladyfingers from Wegmans. That saved tons of time. I didn't have a 9-inch spring-form pan for this recipe but was able to borrow one from a friend.
The Verdict: light, airy, and very lemony. I loved it. Didn't care for the ladyfingers, maybe because they were gluten-free and too thick. Might try it again with a different crust.

Happy Birthday Emma!!

Today Emma turns 9! We asked her what she wanted to do on her birthday and she said canoeing. We took the ferry across the Potomac River to a little shop that rents canoes. We had to split up, myself and Emma in one canoe, Clay and Rebekah in the other. We paddled about 1.25 miles up to a couple of little islands. There we stopped and had lunch. Then we paddled back down to return the canoes. It was a beautiful morning, a little hazy to keep things cool. The river was low and slow, like a lake. So beautiful with big green trees lining the banks. I wish I had pictures but we were afraid to take the camera with the girls with us. We saw lots of herons and other water fowls. We even saw some fish jumping out of the water.



That evening we invited Uncle Jay and his girlfriend, Leigh, over for dinner to help celebrate Emma's birthday. I made skirt_steak_tostadas_with_mango_salsa. It is so good! One of my favorite marinades (except I use balsamic vinegar instead of soy sauce). Turned out great and the girls love it too. After, we opened presents and had some cake!



I made this cake completely egg-free so that Rebekah could have some too. All the flowers are done with real buttercream. No meringue powder to stiffen it up, so I had to work fast and keep it in the fridge. But it tasted great! I love doing these cakes for my girls. Emma loved it! I also tried a new_method for frosting the cake to get it smooth. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!

Early Birthday Dinner

Emma wanted pizza for dinner for her birthday. However, we found out that one of the guests we invited over for dinner can't eat dairy. So we had her birthday dinner a day early.

Emma's pizza was Pillsbury crust, sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, and sausage. I can't eat pepperoni because of the MSG, so I made another pizza. Mine was freshly ground whole wheat crust, olive oil, mozzarella, tomatoes and basil from our garden, garlic, and parmesan. This may have been the best pizza I have ever had! It was delicious!!

Gardening and cakes

Here is what our garden is looking like. We've got a lot of things growing right now: strawberries, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, marigolds, zucchini, cilantro, mint, rosemary, oregano, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. While I was out taking this picture of the garden I noticed we had a visitor:

There is no way he is going to get in. We've got chicken wire, fencing 6 ft high, and netting on top. But he was looking for a way...

We had an activity tonight for the women at church, I was asked to make 24 cupcakes, decorated in white. I decided I wanted to make a mini-tiered cake too (top layer is just 2 inches). Just for fun to see what I could do. I wanted to cover it in fondant, but my fondant wasn't working, so it's just butter cream with edible pearl decorations.

Little Red Hen again

I decided to try my hand at making some granola today. I got a couple different recipes from friends. This one I had all the ingredients for (no nuts b/c I don't really like them). Anyway, it turned out really good and was easy to make. Now I can add that to my list of things to make (bread, dinner rolls, and now granola).

More little red hen

My first batch of bread turned out so good that Clay keeps begging me to make more. I now find myself making 3 new loaves of bread about every 8 days. It has been a fun experience for me.

Then I decided to try making "WheatQuick". It is just a whole wheat version of bisquick. I make Rebekah some egg free pancakes with the last of my bisquick. Then I made the rest of us pancakes using the WheatQuick. They were so good!! I was really surprised, but the bisquick didn't taste too good after having the WheatQuick pancakes.

Finally, I had a bunch of strawberries that were getting overly ripe. I used my WheatQuick to make shortcakes according to the bisquick directions. They were a little flat, but still tasted great! Rebekah loved it and called them "cookies".

The little red hen

I feel a bit like the little red hen. We bought the wheat this summer and sealed it in cans. Today I ground the wheat into flour and then made 3 loaves of bread. Now we are going to eat our bread. :)