Bakin' a cake

This blog will be primarily photos.. because I'm tired... Tucked the hubby into bed early tonight because he has a belly and headache and is feeling puny... so I loaded the new pictures from my phone to share with my avid readers... you are avid readers right? whoever you are? out there reading about my cupcakes.. and my garden? of course you are.. I'm sure you're on pins and needles waiting for my next blog... right?


Photos of the 2 cake orders I had this week. I'm such a cupcake baker... and it's hard to venture into sheet cake world.. but I'm trying.. and I hope to get as comfortable with it as I am with my cupcakes... eventually.

ALSO- I have a large cupcake order this week.. so I'll be sure to post some photos!

I've also discovered that rubbing parchment paper on the set buttercream makes a ridiculously smooth cake.. makes it look like fondant.. but without the icky rubbery sheet of nasty (how I refer to fondant).

Oh! and here's and update on my garden! Veggies are growing SO well.. they must love our little patio :) We decided to rip out the bushes on the other side of the patio as well, so I'll post some 'finished' photos when the job is completed.

Here's a random picture of the hanging basked on our porch.. it's also doing SUPER well.. I just water it every evening until it's absolutely drenched.. and that's it !

Goodnight World!

cupcake

Tonight.. I went to Walmart at 10:30pm.. against my husband's wishes... we were completely out of toilet paper, and paper towels are scratchy :) So.. $40 bucks later, I returned home..

Also.. I needed some baking gear for a cake order that I'm doing this weekend.. no.. I'm not usually a cake baker, but I was asked to make a birthday cake for my great aunt (last weekend), and I've been asked to make another for one of Tommy's UPS friends for this weekend.. I'll add some photos of my great aunt's cake from last weekend.. I KNOW it was delicious (I guarantee delicious goods for my customers) , but I worry, and stress about the 'pretty' factor... and I'm really working on that part... I feel comfortable that I produce pretty cupcakes... and eventually, I want to be that comfortable with my sheet/ round cakes.


I'm thinking about making a 'diet coke' cake soon... Have you heard of those?  You basically take a cake mix, and add ONLY one can of diet soda, and then bake it!

There are endless possibilities... yellow cake with diet orange, chocolate cake with diet cherry coke... lemon cake with diet sprite, strawberry cake with diet big red...

you get it.

anyway, this significantly cuts down on the calories and fat (no eggs, no oil, no butter) and I promise you, it makes a delicious cake ! ! It doesn't rise quite as much as a normal cake, but it's delicious, dense and beautiful.. and now.. I've got myself wanting to make one right now... great. it's 12am, and I've got the bakin' itch.

Goodnight World.

masterpiece

I just created a masterpiece, vegetarian meal...

Started by making cilantro lime rice (trying to recreate the rice at Qdoba).. then I roasted some canned corn in a pan with a little butter, until it started to brown.. finished by chopping fresh cilantro, roma tomatoes and onion for a fresh pico de gallo. .. holy cow ! ! !

Now, I'm literally 'vegging' out on the couch.. with a burrito to die for ! ! (added sour cream and cheese)...

such a quick meal, and so yummy ! ! !

Obviously, Tommy's working at Sears this afternoon.. so I was making a meal for myself.. Tommy prefers meat with every meal.. and could actually care less about the vegetables.. I'm not much of a meat eater, so I'm having a vegetarian type of day :)

I'm also giving him a big surprise when he gets home.. I dug up 2 bushes in our patio, and trimmed down the others.. we were planning on doing it together this week after he gets off work one night.. but he's tired after a long day at the office, and I thought I would take a load off of his back.. I'm nice like that :) But, I expect he'll want to take me out to dinner after he sees how much work I did.. and I'll let him :)

healthy

We're trying to live a little healthier here at the Watkins' household.. in order to lighten our loads that our poor little feet are trying to carry around.. and so far.. it stinks!

For example.. I did great all day.. cooked a protein rich dinner served with fresh veggies.. and I didn't go back for any seconds.. but around 11pm (the hubby went to bed, and I should have followed!!!).. I started craving chess pie.. chess pie?!? of all things?!?! I was looking at chess pie recipes, and I headed to the kitchen at 11:45pm to start making my chess pie..

Then I spotted a new granola cereal in the cupboard.. and I decided to give it a go (healthier than pie, I assume) .. if you're a horse.. it would probably be pretty good.. because it tastes just like horse feed (I assume). So I put that back.. and it will probably be in that cabinet until it goes stale and I throw it out.. it was some serious nasty-ness..

Then, I saw a new block of colbyjack cheese in the deli drawer of the fridge (oh, I guess I opened the fridge- I left out that part).. so I sliced off a couple of thin slices.. and then I saw the fresh grapes.. so I grabbed a handful of those.. By then, I needed a plate.. so I got out a styrofoam plate (I don't do dishes after midnight!) and a few saltine crackers from the fresh box of crackers (can't have cheese and grapes with no crackers!!! what kind of ancient greek would I be? )  (I'm not greek.. I don't think.. just seems like the type of meal that one would eat while watching the gladiator games from high in the luxury seating section.)

So there I sat... on the couch, with cheese, cracker and grapes.. basically ruining the work of my eating healthy all day... but here's my justification... it's better than baking a whole chess pie... right?


Here's my snack... (okay this isn't it.. and.. this looks nothing like my little styrofoam plate of goods.. but I googled 'fruit and cheese'.. and it's pretty.)

Goodnight World.

can't think of a great title..

I've been filling the boring parts of my weekend.. with cooking.... which has been great~ and stress relieving..

Had a great 31 party on Friday night, so that was a great start to the weekend. It was hosted by an old high school friend I graduated with, so the guests were familiar faces and it was nice to catch up. Also a very successful party, so that will look nice on our finances next month.

I'm a cooking finatic.. While the hubby is winding down at night and watching tv, I'm always perched nearby with either my laptop open to recipes or Pioneer Woman's blog.. or I've grabbed a cookbook from the shelf, and I'll read them page for page.. like a novel.. until I've completed it, and made notes.. and then, all I want to do is head for the kitchen and start a new food project.. This week I made Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie, and her monkey biscuits... best pot pie I've ever eaten.. and the monkey bites were like little cinnamon sugary balls of goodness.. So far, everything I've made that was a Pioneer Woman recipe, has been heavenly. We'll be having the pot pie again this week.. maybe Monday night's dinner :)

I wish I enjoyed running.. or aerobics like I enjoy cooking and recipe researching, and blogging about food... and I wish it was a lower caloric hobby!

Tonight.. Tommy (out of the blue) told me that I will be a great mommy, because I take such good care of him, and I can 'do anything'... and that rounded out the weekend on a positive (but happily tearful) note :)

productivity.

I've learned that a hard day working on the house is much more fulfilling and mentally satisfying than a day at the office... and today, I got up early, and worked until after dinner (in which I fell asleep from 8pm-10pm) (which is why I'm up at this late hour)..  My last project of the day was re-organizing the kitchen cabinets.. and I realized that I had duplicates of so many items.. because I didn't know what I had, so I just kept buying things over and over.

I also moved all of my most used items and utencils to the lower shelves.. why should I be reaching over stuff I don't use? Well, problem solved. I trashed all the items I don't use.. mostly glad containers, and cool whip containers, and cottage cheese.. and so on and so on.. I come from a long line of 'save that container!' people.

It was right at one year ago that I found this house, and fell in love and decided to buy it... (while falling in love with Tommy at the same time, and knowing that it might be 'our' house someday) and looking back over the year, I feel like I've done more in the time that I've been home, than I've done the entire year. Our house is now running well and everything has a place and a purpose..

Oh, and my new cookware arrived from Macy's tonight.. and I jumped up and down like a school girl... I had the box open before the UPS man had time to pull away from the house.. and everything is so shiny and clean and beautiful (give me a few meals on it, and it won't be so pretty).. it's lovely and I'm now searching for the perfect recipes to use in my new stainless skillet (non-nonstick, or just stick, I guess.. ) and my beautiful (and huge!) cobalt blue dutch oven... yay.

Love you all.. whoever reads this thing.... and thanks for reading.

it's late.

Well it's super late.. nearly 2am.. and I've been meal planning, shopping online for cookware and looking at recipes for several hours. The hubby was in the basement (his 'man cave') working on a computer project- so I made myself busy.

Great Mother's Day today with all of the wonderful women that I would say 'shaped me into the woman I am today', but they're still shaping me! and I think they always will, so we'll say they are the women that continue to influence me the most.

Oh- and I've decided to explore the world of canning.

Pioneer Woman recommends this book for beginners. I've asked for it for my birthday (6-8). and I'm hoping to get some jars for my birthday as well.. hey, if you don't ask, you won't get it.. so it doesn't hurt to give the family some ideas..

I was still holding onto some wedding giftcards.. and in lue of buying shoes and new clothes, I decided to shop online for some new cookware (shipping was free, so I don't consider myself a lazy bum for not driving to the mall to pick what I wanted.) Here's the item I'm most excited about.. a dutch oven ! 

                                                     

Sorry so blurry!

Hope to have many great occasions, roasts, veggies and more with this bad boy.

my kitchen is clean..

Here's the problem with a clean kitchen.. I want to COOK in it... as soon as my kitchen is good and clean.. I lose my mind.. and I google recipes that use the items I know I have in stock in that ultra clean (I should go to bed) kitchen.. this is a serious problem!

I've been addicted to thepioneerwoman.com and her recipes are delicious and wonderful... I want to try all of them.. literally, I want to try all of them.. She has pictures for each step in the recipe, so you can literally follow the recipes picture by picture and not have to read the instructions! I love it !

Tonight- I made her lasagna.. it was time consuming, and the ingredients were numerous.. and we're not eating it until we go to Tommy's parents tomorrow night.. but it looks wonderful and smells divine..

and here's the trouble... I cleaned the kitchen.

Several hours ago- I cleaned the kitchen.. and we watched a movie... and now.. I've been recipe searching, and I'm dying to get in there and make something sweet and scrumptious for a late night snack.. this is a problem, an addiction, it must stop!

Gotta go. Either going to cook something- or have my husband literally drag me upstairs, and away from the clean kitchen, and my passionate desire for late night cooking...

the mud puddle.

Our adorable little patio is a mud puddle.  
here's a 'before' picture.. this was taken 1 year ago when I bought the house..

Tonight- we (mostly the hubby) pulled out everything from the big tree in the middle, all the way to the right..  Including scooping out all of the rocks.. it's down to a big mud puddle.. and it's going to be my vegetable garden!

My big muscle man of a husband worked from right after dinner until 10:30pm scooping out rocks and getting the dirt ready for plowing.. he's a good man. He won't even eat the vegetables that are born in my little garden.. maybe a tomato slice on his double decker bacon cheeseburger.. that's about as far as he'll be going towards my vegetable offspring.. bless his heart for working so late to make me a little garden.. The plants are growing like crazy in their pots- and we're just about ready to get them into the ground.. should have some tomato varieties, cucumbers, carrots, yellow squash, green onions, and corn.

Yes! I said CORN!

Funny story about the corn. I've never seen it for sale in plant form.. only seed form. and since it was 1.89 at Lowes for the adorable little pack of corn plants....  I bought it.

        Told the hubby that we'll be able to have a corn maze by fall.. maybe we can charge admission? ;)

 Here are my little corn plants. Aren't they so cute?!?!   

                                                                                                                

I'll try to upload some 'after' pictures soon.. when 'we' (mostly the hubby) get's my little plants in the ground. At this point, I think he'd rather me just buy the vegetables at Kroger this summer.. That was my best argument for starting a vegetable garden. 'Because the vegetables are full of pesticides, and they are SOO expensive at the grocery store.. I'll save us money!'  I think he's way over my persuasive argument.

Way over it.

Oh. and here's what I did while the hubby was playing in the mud.

Strawberry cupcake order. Trying out a new 'two tone' icing method.

on being a housewife...

Here's my juice on being a housewife.

First of all- after two weeks, my house has immaculately improved. The laundry is nearly caught up- and I've created a laundry system where I'll know what he needs clean and when and can hopefully bring my laundry down to 1 load every other day.. it's just the two of us! for goodness sake.

So far, being home and taking care of things here has diminished arguments, straightened up the house, given me loads of self confidence. Get this- I feel more prideful and accomplished after a day of laundry and house cleaning than I ever felt after a day at the office.. amazing. thank you Lord for this opportunity.

Tommy and I took a huge leap of faith in my coming home and our giving up one income. We would never go back.. we've never been happier and felt more calm and in love than we do now. He's happy. Giddy even. He's so excited when his lunch is packed in the fridge and clothes are ready for the office. Before now, I was gone so much.. and with my commute, he usually beat me home.. then I would rush in, complain about having to cook dinner (when I absolutely love to cook).. and he would remember at 11pm that he didn't have any clean clothes for the office the next day. Rough stuff on a new marriage! Plus, the house would be in disarray until the weekend came.. and I'd be so tired when the weekend did come- that I'd try my best to pick up, but it was never the way I wanted it..

I see mom a lot too, and I've been trying to help her with some of her chores a few days a week. She's a busy woman!  She keeps me busy.. but it's fun.. and I always come home with something.. she is the most generous woman. Sometimes, she'll send me home with dinner, or a new shirt, and I'm allowed to raid her pantry for cangoods and things if I'm running low.. a free grocery shopping trip- I'm in !

Before we decided that I should leave my 'real job'.. we discussed the money, the house, the budget.. but what I never discuss with Tommy was my fear of not having.. a purpose. I knew that I wasn't fulfilling my God given purpose at the office.. I felt trapped, and of no help to anyone.. anywhere.  But I was so scared that coming home and taking care of the house and a wonderful husband would leave me feeling empty, and without purpose.. like I didn't have a place in the world.

I was wrong about that. God definitely showed me otherwise. My purpose is to be a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter, sister, niece, friend and someday a mother.. but I couldn't see that while I was at the office, because I was so desperately searching for a purpose that was complex and career oriented...

I'm exactly where I'm meant to be. I love every day, and having a chance to stop and smell the flowers, throw on my flip flops and head to moms for some girl time, grocery shop during the day (it's not crowded during the day!!! who knew?!?!?!) and prepare dinner for a worthy and loving husband to come home and enjoy. Life is wonderful, and every day is getting better.

On being a housewife.... one word... purposeful.

that darn chocolate cake

The chocolate cake is staring at me.. literally.. It sits on the stove, laughing and mocking me until I swing by and cut off a tiny bite... trying to demise a way to make it look as though I've eaten very little cake.. so I don't look like a total porky pig to my husband when he comes in this evening..

Make the cake. Pioneer Woman's chocolate cake. Minus the pecans in the frosting.
It's delicious.. literally the best homemade chocolate cake I've ever made... and I'm telling you.. I've tried several times to find a homemade chocolate cake worth repeating.

I'm still surrounded with vitamin C drops, tissues and a very strong antibiotic... can't seem to beat this sinus mess.. I think I've overcome it until I wake up miserably the next morning.. no choice but to get out of bed at that point... because I will not be going back to sleep while sneezing and snotting all over myself.. Hopefully, whatever is in this Ohio Valley that continues to make me miserable, will either cease to exist- or fnish blooming so I can breathe again.. Ready for the hot 'dog days' of summer.. so allergies will be behind me, and the pool before me. Another perk of living in a 'community' of townhouses and patio homes.. a huge pool that I don't have to maintain.

Blog 1- May 6, 2010 Early AM

Greetings from the housewife.

Confessions 'of' a housewife was taken... I tend to think I chose the more grammatically correct phrasing anyway.


Tonight- I will blog about chocolate cake... and it's deliciousness. and yes, I know that's not a word.. I went to college.. to be a housewife.. but whatever.

Chocolate cake from the pioneer woman. Have you heard of her? www.thepioneerwoman.com. She's amazing.. her pictures are beautiful and her recipes are even better. She's a woman after my own heart.. a city girl, turned into housewife and mom.. couldn't get any better than that.

I tried the pioneer woman's chocolate cake tonight.. well.. I baked it.. I haven't tried it yet.. because the icing has to set.. so I've been staring at it for several minutes.. and I'm sure I will still cut into it too early.. causing a pool of icing in the remaning empty square.. That pool of icing will then be consumed by my husband with his piece he will most definitely eat for breakfast.

Is it bad that I'm basically feeding my husband chocolate cake for breakfast? Something is better than nothing, gets the metabolism going.. right?

Chocolate cake is something that I've tried to master for years, literally. Every recipe is a tweak different and I can never get that tweak just right.. never found one homemade chocolate cake that was better than Duncan Hines.. until tonight.. maybe. I'll let you know in a future blog.

However, no matter how bad it is.. the husband and I seem to lap it up like we're starving.. with a big glass of cold milk.. it's chocolate and that's good enough for us.

Enough about that cake. I'm going to go eat a slice.. Yes, I'm sure it's way to late for cake.. and I'm sure it will be noticeable on my hips in the morning.. but that's just something I'm going to worry about tomorrow.

Goodnight World.