my parents

My parents are the best. You see, I basically still live at home with my parents. Yes, I am married. I have 2 children but I live at home. Some wise person once suggested to my mom to stop cooking with cheese, but they love us so much. They not only cook us many meals throughout the day, but they BOUGHT my little family a 2000 vw jetta. They allow us to live in our cozy cabin and PAY for our utilities. And more than that......they PAY us a monthly income. How great are they! Last summer, my dad even talked about putting a pool in for the kids and me!

I am honored to have a mom and dad who show us such love. I love you, mom and dad.

best cookies ever!

So a lady I work with brought in these delicious cookies. They were soft and colorful and soooooo yummy. I haven't stopped talking about them or drooling over them. My limited self control has forced me not to make them...yet.

Hmmm, I should clarify...me not having a dishwasher or electric mixer has forced me not to make them because I am so tired of dishes or hand mixing at the moment ( see cake making, cake decorating blogs). Okay without further delay here is the recipe:

Super-Duper Mini Eggs cookies

1 Cup butter/margarine, softened
1 Cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
4 serving pkg instant vanilla pudding
2 cups crushed mini eggs ( not finely chopped)

Preheat oven 375*F. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at at time. Mix in vanilla. Add flour, b.soda, pudding powder...mix. Add crushed mini eggs.....Mix. Drop byheaping teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

P.s. Enjoy and no, I don't have any pictures because we have the slowest internet ever and it takes far too long to upload. If you want pictures regarding any of my life see " her beautiful mess" blog. My sister is my photographer and she is funny.

cake decorating Part 2

If you haven't read part one posted March 12, it probably doesn't matter

After making the ganache the night before and glazing the cake, I had read you could whip the ganache and use it for piping. I thought what a great idea. I would get great taste and looks. Now my one book said refrigerate overnight and whip it the next day. And they were smart because they knew I was tired. But for some reason, I choose not to listen and whipped it last night. I also thought it would set hard because that is what is was doing on the cake.I was having a hard time telling if it was too soft to pipe and questioned if it would hold its shape....so at that point I decided to listen and placed it in the fridge.

So this morning I got up to finish my mom and Lisa's cake. I thought after such a smooth day yesterday, today should be nice and easy and it is the more fun part. Upon opening the fridge and the whipped contents, I discovered I had made the most delicious mousse but not the best with trying to decorate with. Waste not , Want not...I tried to make it work. I tried with 2 different thing to soften and pipe and then I attempted it on the cake. Yep, it definitely wasn't working. So my beautiful delicious ganache cake got down graded with my attempted piping, the grouse tasting fondant came out to help beautify the situation and my son screamed...not that green stuff! And on top of it all, I ate a lot of extra calories because the mousse just tasted sooooooooooooooooo good.

cake making

So for the past little while, I started dabbling in cake decorating. It started with trying to get creative for my kids birthday cakes andI found I enjoyed it. Next came my other family. Sister, mom, kinda brother-in-law ( he challenged me with ice cream cake which isn't really decorating ) niece and even my own birthday cake.

My mom and Lisa have been my biggest supporters besides my kids( I can do no wrong in their eyes if it has sugar!). So seeing that it is March and both Lis and mom's birthday. I took on the fun and challenge of doing their cake. I want it to not only look good but taste good. Fondant is very fun but doesn't taste good! So after you peel it off, the cake is less pretty.

It was off to a great start when after placing my cake ingredients in a bowl, I remembered I no longer own a electric mixer. No Problem for me. They never had it in the olden days ( one of my favorite sayings, to keep me grounded). So I whisked the ingredients for 2 minutes trying to use my arm muscles that haven't had much of a work out, besides playing wii.

I poured my cake into my prepared cake pans with parchment paper I still haven't returned to my mom but since it is for her cake...no big deal. Then I was trying to decide on the filling. I thought a mocha filling would compliment the swiss chocolate cake. So I looked in my fridge and realised, I had 1/4 c of whipped cream and no chocolate pudding and no instant coffee. Crap! NOW, I not only no longer have the mixer to whip the cream, but I also don't have any ingredients. So I called my mom.

After borrowing all the ingredients for the filling and her mixer, I made the filling and assembled the cake. I am getting better at this part , so all went smooth.

Now for the next attempt, the ganache. I have read all the instructions via internet and from the best cake decorating book I got for my birthday from my sister. The only problem is......I still have no ingredients. So another trip to my mom's, an arm full back and I am ready.

I thought it looked tricky and re-read the instructions soooo many times I pretty much have it memorized. The funny thing is it has very simple instructions my 7 year old could make it but it looks so fancy and it seemed so intimidating. All went really well. And I could whip the leftovers and use it for piping but I have to let it chill overnight.

So I mostly have the cake made for mom and Lis. A cake made from pretty much my mom's food and her "tools". My kitchen is a complete disaster.! I used a lot of unnecessary dishes and have them piled high. We don't have a dishwasher.....

so I called my mom.

my gripe about skype

When we decided that Don aka my husband, was going to go to school in toronto and the kids and I were going to stay in BC, we discovered Skype. In the beginning we loved it. We could see Don and talk to him and it felt like he was soo close. I even carried my laptop around so that he could join in the family get togethers.

Now one year later, after several dropped calls, feed back, kids interrupting, sound cutting in and out during a good conversation.....my love has faded away. I almost would rather use a phone except that at least skype is free and I guess on that note, you get what you pay for.

At least I can still see his handsome face and watch him pick his nose and roll his boggers. Man, I love that guy!

ten things I want most

Top ten things I want most at this moment

1. My husband done school, home and working
2. A bigger house with nice yard
3. A healthy body where I could walk into any store and by a regular medium size
4. A chef
5. A personal trainer
6. $50,000 (and up)
7. A big dog
8. A vacation to somewhere hot
9. A pool
10. This list completed

too busy to blog

So apparently with spring cleaning my attitude, it meant not being on the computer. Haahhaa. My sister told me I should say that I will blog about as frequently as I get my periods...once a month. But the real truth was I was enjoying my time. We had the Olympics to watch and even more important was my best friend who happens to be my husband was home! Hooray.
The end is near of us being apart. He is on his last 6 months of school and we are starting to see the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Today I am optimistic but ask me again in another few weeks and the light will probably have dimmed again.

And because he is away, my blogging is back!