Holiday Goodness

There are three things that I aboslutely love to eat this time of year because, well, they're good! And also because you can't get them any other time of year. Tasting them is like eating happiness. They mean Thanksgiving and Christmas, presents, family, snow, decorations and everything lovely about the holidays. One smell, and I'm in heaven...

1) Peppermint stick ice cream. I don't know how many years I have been enjoying this seasonal ice cream. Many. I prefer Farrs, which has little crunchy green and red bits of peppermint candy in a cool pink mint ice cream. When I was pregnant with Daphne during the holidays, I subsisted primarly on this ice cream because it didn't make me sick. My one problem is that I never remember to stock up on it. One day in December I'll go to the store and it will simply be gone. And then I'll franticly try another store. Gone. And then I'll know for sure that the holiday season is over. This year I SWEAR I'm going to dump all the Lean Cuisines and chicken nuggets out of my freezer and stock-pile peppermint stick ice cream.

2) Eggnog. This is an interesting item because it's not like I drink a lot of it. I can only drink maybe 1/3 cup at a sitting. And I often go the whole holiday without finishing up a quart of it. But it wouldn't be Christmas without some rich eggnog coating the lining of my stomach like fattening, nutmeggy Pepto-Bismol.

3) Fresh cranberry sauce. I am a big believer in homemade cranberry sauce. As a kid, we'd go to my grandparents' house in North Carolina either for Thanksgiving or Christmas. And it was always the job of us kids to sort out the bag of cranberries, separating the bad ones out from the good so my grandmother could make that beautiful, tart, ruby red cranberry sauce. She always served it in a cut-crystal bowl. It really completes the holiday meal.

I also have to give an honorary mention to Meier's sparkeling grape juice. Even though you can find it year-round, in our family we never had Thanksgving or Christmas dinner without some sparkling Cold Duck, sparkling Burgundy, or sparkling Pink Catawba by Meier's. It's way more delicious than that crappy Martinelli's. Granted, it gives you terrible gas, but that's part of the holidays too, right? No? Oh, must just by my family.

(If you thought I was going to say something about pumkpin pie, sorry to disappoint you. That stuff is revolting! BLECH. Every year my mom makes pumpkin chiffon pie. And every year she ASSURES me that it is delicious. And every year she tries to make me eat some. Sometimes I appease her by taking a bite, sometimes I don't. But every year the one thing that never changes? Pumpkin pie is disgusting. Now make me a pecan pie and we can talk.)

What about you? What foods are the taste of the holidays for you and yours?

WEDDING TAG!

Wedding Tag! Answer the questions below, post this on your blog, then follow the instructions at the bottom.

1. Where did you and your husband meet? Working at Magleby's Restaurant. I was a waitress and he was my boss.

2. How long before you kissed? We didn't date until a couple of years after we met. Once we start dating, I think it only took us a few days to kiss.

3. Who kissed who first? I honestly can't remember. I think it was mutual.

4. How long from the time you met until you were engaged? How long from the engagement to the wedding? We dated for about 2 1/4 years before we started talking about marriage. The engagement is kind of complicated. We started planning the wedding about 4 months before it took place. But the actual proposal was 3 weeks before we got married. Long story.

5. How did he propose? He came to my work--I was a teacher--and tried to propose in front of my students, but they had already gotten out of class and there were only a couple of straglers left. But still, bonus points for trying!

6. Did he pick out the ring or did you? He did. I gave him guidance (antique, sapphire not diamond, silver/white gold), but he picked out the final ring.

7. Do you still like the ring? Yes. Although I wish the stone were a lighter blue. It's so dark that people always ask me what kind of stone it is. Maybe someday I'll replace it.

8. Where was your wedding and reception? We got married in our house--the one we live in now. Our reception was in the beautiful concert hall foyer at the school where I worked.

9. How many bridesmaids did you have and who was your maid of honor? I didn't have any bridesmaids. I got married late, and all my friends were already married. It seemed silly to have bridesmaids when they were all bridesmatrons.

10. What color were your bridesmaid dresses? Invisible.

11. What was your bouquet made of? Mainly gerber daisies with a few roses and other flowers. Bright pink, pale pink, yellow and red in a big ball with short stems.

12. Who gave you away? My mom did.

13. Did you cry during your wedding? I was barely holding it together the whole time. I had to keep my teeth gritted together and my lips tight to keep from breaking down and bawling. So I look strange in all my pictures.

14. What style was your dress? It was sort of 1890's reminiscent. A-line skirt with a bit of a bustle in back. Corset top with wide straps. A bit of seed-pearl beading and crystals on the top and down the back of the train. I bought it off of ebay from a going-out-of-business bridal store. And I LOVED it.

15. Was your wedding kiss sweet or sexy? Very short, but sweet.

16. Who caught your bouquet? I think Cathryn, who later became my sister in law. Then my x-sister in law. So maybe my bouquet wasn't so lucky.

17. What flavor was your cake? I believe one of the layers was chocolate with raspberry filling and one was white with chocolate filling. And I have no idea about the third layer. I'm not even 100% sure about the other two. The icing was white fondant with green frosting tendrils and real flowers matching my bouquet.

18. Did you smash the cake onto each other's faces or feed it to each other nicely?
We did it nicely. We hadn't talked about it before, so I'm glad it worked out that way.

19. What was "your song" that you danced to at your wedding? Our song was "Tupelo Honey" by Van Morrison. But during our wedding video, it played "Wildflowers" by Tom Petty and "Come What May" from The Moulin Rouge soundtrack, so I always get sentimental about those two more than "Tupelo Honey."

20. What did you serve your guests to eat? A bunch of things...um, stuffed mushrooms, little quiches, swedish meatballs, mini eclairs? I'm not even sure. I didn't get to eat any!

21. What did your friends do to decorate your car? No one decorated our car. :(

22. What was your favorite wedding gift? Probably my Kitchenaid mixer. I actually hate that mixer, but I really needed one and it was expensive, so I'm grateful for it.

23. What was the worst wedding gift you got? We didn't get anything horrible. Thankfully, most of our gifs were from our registery. But we did get a big box of glass goblets that we're pretty sure were re-gifted. We have never used them once.

24. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Belize. It was unbelizeable, hardy har.

25. Looking back, is there anything you would have changed about your wedding? Yes. My photographer. We got cheap on the photography and had my brother in law do it, who IS a professional photographer...but of nature, not people. So he didn't do the typical posed wedding shots. Just a bunch of snapshots mostly. So if I could go back and do it over again, I'd spend a lot of money on a really good wedding photographer.


Thanks for playing! Now tag 4 people: two people who didn't attend your wedding and two people whose wedding you didn't attend. Type their names here, and leave a comment on their blog letting them know that they have been tagged.

I tag Cara, Mindi, Tiburon, and Kami.

Boring Kid Post Again - The Izma tree

I feel guilty posting stuff about my kids. Because I know writing about your kids is interesting to two people: You and their grandmother. And sometimes not even her. But since this is a journal of sorts, I feel like I should document it when my kids say something funny. Well, funny to me at least. This is Daphne's latest...

We were walking over to a neighbor's house to play a couple of days ago. In their yard there was a tree that grew small, orange berries. Several had dropped to the ground, and Beck's first thought was, "Candy!" Daphne saw it then and asked me, "Mommy? Is that CANDY???" I'm sure in her mind this was a miracle from heaven; a tree that dropped candy to the ground. "No," I told her. "Those are berries. But don't eat them because they are poisonous." I stepped on one for emphasis and a gooey gelatenous substance smeared across the sidewalk. "I won't eat the poison berries, Mommy," Daphne said solemnly, "because they will turn me into a cat!"

Thank you, Disney.

Oh, The Horror!

On Saturday, Big Daddy and I went to see this.



We had an hour to kill before hand (THANK YOU LARRY MILLER FOR ASSIGNED SEATING!!!) so we went to Kohls.

I really didn't need anything new (or at least I couldn't justify spending money on something new), so I just browsed the jewelry/purse/purfume section while my husband looked for more shades of khaki pants.

I was drawn to the cheesy celebrity perfume section after I found two pairs of earrings in the clearance section for $4.60 each (Naturally, I could justify THAT score!). I'm super picky about perfumes. I can't stand them to be heavy or flowery. I mostly like them very light and citrus-y, which they rarely are. My other problem is that either I will smell one in the store after smelling several dozen and think I will like it, only to discover once I have it at home that I actually hate it. OR I will smell something I like on someone else but when I smell it on myself it will make me want to throw up.

So imagine my absolute HORROR when I picked up a green glass bottle and sprayed it on a sample stick, then sniffed it, then liked it, then sniffed it again, then sniffed it over and over for about 5 minutes (resembling, I'm sure, a crazed cocaine addict) and still not getting sick of it, then spraying it on my wrists, smelling it and LIKING it on my wrists, and then looking at the bottle to discover...

IT WAS A BRITNEY SPEARS PERFUME!!! I've already blocked out the exact name of it out of disgust. OK, that's a lie. I memorized it. It's called "Believe."

But what am I to do now? I am pretty sure I am too cool..ok, too old...ok, too embarrassed to buy a Britney Spears perfume even if I actually like it (and continued to like it all through the movie, by the way. Dagnabit.) So please, someone ease my mind by telling me you secretly have a stash of Hillary Duff and Celine Dion perfumes lining your vanity.

A Few Of My Favorite Things

If it has not been made clear to you thus far that I adore baked goods, you haven't been reading my blog nearly close enough. Shame on you. I suggest you go back to last January when I began blogging and read each post over again, much more thoroughly this time. You might want to take notes. Or... if you prefer to cheat yourself out of hours and hours AND HOURS of hilarious, thoughtful, sometimes bitchy posts, fine. Just take my word for it--I love baked goods.

I am also a bit of a baked goods snob. Like everyone who is a connoisseur of something--be it fine wines, Swiss watches, or incredibly bloody video games--you get to know what you like, what is quality and what is trash. And unfortunately, a lot of baked goods and pseudo-baked goods out there are trash. At the bottom of the scale is Hostess. Hostess was a dream come true to me as a snack-food-deprived child. But as a baked goods critic-of-sorts now, I wouldn't waste my time, let alone the calories, on something so base.

Store bought cakes come next. Some are good, some are not so good. The factory produced ones are usually pretty disappointing, while the in-store bakery ones can be pretty decent if you shop around.

Restaurants vary in their ability to make a good dessert. Some are excellent. Some so-so. Some not worth eating again even for the cherished sugar rush they produce.

Mostly the ones that I like best are homemade. Nothing beats the fresh ingredients and tender loving care of a homemade dessert (except perhaps the fresh ingredients and tender loving care of a French bakery dessert. But I digress...) And if you make it yourself, you get all the glory and appreciation for the fact that your cake tastes 1000x better than store-bought.

There's probably something else you have picked up on about me if you read my blog: I hate to be a follower. I'm not a train-jumper, a trend follower, a copy cat, or a craze-keeper-up-wither. Usually my policy is that I prefer to do anything that no one else I know is doing. Unless said trend is clearly, totally, 100% ME, in which case I'll avoid following the trend until it has almost become passé. Then, and only then, will I jump on the bandwagon-- pretty much just before the bandwagon breaks down. So it is with some level of chagrin that I admit to being a pretty shameless copy cat of my sister when it comes to baking. She just picked it up sooner and got better. So now I just have to set my pride to the side and learn from the expert.

Yes, in case you were wondering, I am finally going to arrive at the point of this post: My Favorite Things. This installment is Baking Strips. Are you completely let down? All that introduction and talk about sugary confections and I'm going to talk about baking strips? Well, you'll see why in just a second. First, let me explain what they are. Baking strips are little strips of cloth that you soak in water prior to baking layer cakes, then you wrap them around the cake pan. And then when the cake bakes, rather than getting a huge hump in the middle of it, it rises completely evenly, making it flat on top. Ever try to make those humped cakes into a layer cake? It's a nightmare. Not only is it virtually impossible to cut them flat on the top. But then you have to try to get the frosting to stick to them without picking up crumbs from the cut-off area. (Or else you have to flip them over and deal with the same issue on the bottom of the cakes). Baking strips are the magic cure to the cake hump. And they could not be easier to use.

Here, examine my proof:

See how nice and flat they are? And they still have that golden brown, firm skin on the top that makes frosting them so much eaiser.

Now you can see why I must bow down and worship the flour covered floor my sister bakes upon. Because without these little numbers, my cakes would be humpy. And while they'd probably still taste good, I'd miss out on all the oohs and ahs produced by a truly delicious AND ergonomically correct cake.

Lucky!

These clips speak for themselves. (They're all very short, less than a minute)

What's in a Name?

Does your purse say Brada instead of Prada? Has "Western Family" become your nickname? Is "Kirkland" a hot label for you? If so, you're probably a bargain shopper. And all things equal, I like to be a bargain shopper too. I do. But I also hate to waste my money on crap. So usually my policy is that if I can taste the difference or see the difference in some other significant way, then I pay for the name brand without worrying about it. If the difference is negligable,however, I don't. I will never pay $200 for a pair of jeans because the difference between $200 jeans and $50 jeans just isn't big enough. But sometimes I don't know. I'd like to save $5 per tub of washing machine soap, but will my clothes come out looking like I rolled around in mud? And if I buy designer imposters fragrances, will dogs and cats start howling when I come near? If I go with the dollar store bubble bath, will my kids grow extra toes? Sometimes I just don't know! All I do know is if I buy the cheap brand and it just plain doesn't work, then I've wasted money, not saved it. I don't want to spend my money and get a vastly inferior product. That's why I LOVE when Consumer Reports comes out with a new article that pits name brands of common products against the store brands. I love when they do all the dirty work for me. Because I'm pretty sure they will mention it if extra toes are involved.

In this month's article, Consumer Reports rated batteries. AA batteries. And guess what? Those fancy expensive litheum ion batteries that cost $4 for 2 actually do work better. But when it comes to just plain old alkaline batteries, Kirkland brand rated 7x better for the price than Duracell or Energizer. SEVEN TIMES BETTER! For the price. So let me be clear. That doesn't mean that one Kirkland battery will last last 7x longer than one Duracell. What it means is that if you spend $10 on Duracell and $10 on Kirland, you'll get 7x more battery life for that $10 with the Kirland. So unless my memory serves me very poorly, I've been paying $1.50 more for Duracell batteries at Costco and getting 7x less energy. Hmmmm....now who's giving me extra toes?


.