Allow me to take you back in time several weeks. Hop aboard.
Sep28
Category Archives: baking
Jul19
Yes, I am alive. And, well…
Actually, I am well. I just wanted to use that title.
What’s most occupying me these days is a two-week girls’ self defense camp I’m teaching at my kids’ school. I’m halfway through and loving it. The girls are so attentive and into it. One girl showed up on day one looking the picture of, “I don’t want to be here, but my mom is making me do this.” However, she perked up quickly and was smiling throughout class. Win!
One of my daughters is helping me and is a dynamo. “I really like martial arts,” she said, and it shows.
One day we did Taekwondo kicks. Not in a position to be doing those myself, I spoke, Daughter demonstrated. Then, feeling nostalgic, she stood on one leg and threw kicks of different sorts in all directions. One student said, “Go, Elise!” And we clapped. Whichever girl she partners with I can ignore because I know Elise will help her with the moves as needed, leaving me to watch over the others.
She’s also multi-talented. For July 4th, she made mini cupcakes. Starting with white cake batter, she divided it into three bowls and put red and blue food coloring into each of the two other bowls. So, not only were the cupcakes striped red, white, and blue (and delicious), she used tweezers (washed first!) to painstakingly embellish the frosting with tiny sprinkles.
Sep5
This is beyond ridiculous. Time to unload some pics.
I found this image in my Picture File of Doom, aka that vast netherscape of random pics I’ve dumped into a folder for potential blog usage. I need to put on my flashlight hard hat every now and then and mine that puppy for gems. This one would’ve been perfect for the last post.
Aug28
So this is what it means to be a hot mess
My daughter had a high school retreat. I signed the permission slip and paid the fee. She packed her backpack and grabbed her sleeping bag from the closet.
An hour before we left, I felt very proud of myself for suggesting we double check her items with the packing list–well in advance of leaving, mind you. (Seriously, I was like, Go me!)
Pajamas–check
Shower shoes–check
Socks and hiking shoes–check check
Everything was going great. Then I got to the bottom of the list:
Feb15
Where there’s a belt, there’s baking
I was determined not to have a baking story to share because everything would be smooth sailing.
Hahahahaha!
First of all, I had asked a daughter to be sure we had all the ingredients we needed for our black belt ceremony cake. I was told to pick up whipped cream; otherwise, we were good.
Then Monday morning, day of the ceremony, I checked the recipe just to be sure. Wouldn’t you know it, I needed both milk and dark chocolate chips and heavy whipping cream. This was after going to three stores the Saturday before.
Son of a biscuit. Mondays are my busiest work days. I was at the closest store as soon as it opened at 9 and was out by 9:03, rushing home to get my work done. Finally, around 3:00, I took a break to make the ganache frosting.
I had three bowls with a cup each of white, milk, and dark chocolate chips and had to watch the heavy whipping cream in the microwave, at 30 second intervals, to catch it when it was just boiling. Then I needed to pour 3/4 cups immediately into each bowl.
Naturally, my boss called me twice while in the midst of this.
Dec31
Photo Dump, Part 2
Happy New Year’s Eve! Maybe if you’re trying to stay up late tonight, this will help. Orrrrr, it might put you to sleep. In which case, lo siento mucho.
Hubby: Oooh, you doing another photo dump post?
Me: I thought I’d sneak one in before the year was out. Why? You like these?
Hubby: I enjoy the randomness.
He knows my middle name.
Anywho, without further ado, random things that made me think of you. (Move over, Dr. Seuss.)
Sep29
Newton’s Fourth Law: If Ilsa is Baking, Something Will Go Wrong
When combing through Diane’s recipes for my last post, I came across the most brilliant image.
A heavenly light shone upon my computer. My eyes widened in delight. A choir of angels sang. I had discovered:
Sensei keeps giving me zucchinis, right? And he loves chocolate. This was perfect. But it got even better. I was told Coral would be in town for her birthday weekend and intended to come to class.
I texted Mrs. Sensei.
Writing and Martial Arts 