MUTANT cake

OK, so it's Dylan's birthday and he wanted a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cake (because I already had the pan). I bought all the ingredients and carefully prepared the cake pan to be SURE that the cake would come out flawlessly. Uh--no, that's not what happened. Not only did half the cake stick in the pan....

but the cake also broke in half. Dale said if it was him making the cake, he would have pitched it out the window. Luckily, I started first thing in the morning so I still had a little patience left. I figured I might as well see how much I could cover up with frosting.....so....

....this is how it turned out. Pretty good for being all broken and crumbly. We figured a four-year-old would like it anyway. Dylan doesn't like the "4" at the bottom of the cake. He says they don't have numbers on the real Ninja Turtles. We'll cut that piece out first, OK?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN!!!!

Fall Brunch

Here are pictures of some fall decorations and favors that I did for a brunch the other day.

The party favors were ghost mint "sammiches," little bat notepads that I got for a dollar at Target, and the napkins were tied with a leaf and packages of hot apple cider mix and hot chocolate.

I also scattered some green and orange truffles in and around the leaves on the table. For the menu we had strawberry cream cheese-stuffed french toast, bacon, apples and carmel dip, and then hot chocolate and whipped cream to drink. Yummy!!!

How long until the election?

WOW! This election season seems never-ending. Good thing there's only 19 days left. At that point, I think that anyone running for 2012 better get going. They better start running their ads now because they will have just under four years to bombard us with their platforms, agendas, and sound bytes. I don't sound cynical, do I?!?!?!

Having said that, no matter who you support, make sure you get out and vote. Then, in 20 days, you can complain all you want because at least you participated.

Thank you. (The preceding statement was paid for by the Committee to end Eternal Campaigning.)

Operation Baking GALS--Round Three

OK, just finished my second round of baking with Operation Baking GALS. This round we sent goodies to a soldier serving with the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq. This is a really fun and easy way to do a little to support the soldiers in Iraq. This time I made Macadamia coconut bars. They also have white chocolate chips and dried cranberries in them. They're delicious--I just got the recipe from a party Dale had for the kids that went to Japan this summer. We then filled the rest of the box up with Halloween popcorn balls. (They're nice and light.) I hope it makes it safely to Iraq. This has been so much fun, I think I'll have to sign up for round four. If anyone else is interested in this, you can click on the Baking GALS logo at the bottom of my blog.

Have a good one!

Erin

Happy Rosh Hashana

To celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, I decided for the very first time to attempt making Challah. I noticed several of the food blogs I visit had recipes posted for this. I've always wanted to make it, but never tried. It wasn't too hard, and the results sure look impressive! The bread tasted good, but not amazing. Of course, put butter and fresh raspberry jam on anything and it's heavenly. The color on this picture isn't the best because I took the picture with my phone. (Dale and Jesse had the camera with them on their hunting trip.) This was also the first time I'd ever done a four-strand braid. A little tricky, but fun. Some people make a six-strand braid for their Challah--maybe next year.

Have a good one!

Erin