Archive for December, 2010
>
You Can Count on Me – original ACEO>
About 10 or so years ago my two bff’s from my grocery store gig and I got together around the holidays to make a ginger house. The fine lady on the right is a pro baker and actually made the ginger houses herself – with candied stain glass windows! They were awesome. If you like candy decorated homes that make you feel like you’re five years old then you would have been in heaven! We had a lot of fun and this year I was inspired to try and re-create the process. But I’m not confident about baking just yet (enough to make constructive walls and windows that is). I bought a ginger house that wasn’t decorated. Lame. I know. But things are different these days and I opted for the easy button there. Conditions were perfect: I bought a ton of candy. My sister came over last night to watch our most favorite Christmas special; Pee Wee’s Christmas Special, of course! Unfortunately I don’t think the same magic was there for my final result. It’s pretty, but i think the factory made house is kind of distracting. I will shoot for better another year. So, I guess the moral of the story is this: go authentic when making the ginger house for more satisfactory results. And eat lots of candy.
>
Yesterday it was up to 4o some degrees in the middle of the day so I thought I’d take the dog out to see what the park looks like in December. Turns out the park is empty. No babies getting leaves thrown at them, no brides to be getting dipped by the lake, no crazed parents helping toddlers down the slides. Just me, the dog, and some wild bird life. Tons of birds; ducks, geese, whatever. They are the semi fearless variety that walk in massive groups and poo all over the sidewalks. You might already know because I’ve mentioned before but I am kind of terrified of wild animals no matter how small. So walking the park with all these dog sized birds around me was a little alarming. I bucked up, and kept walking though. It was actually kind of beautiful. The ice was covering the lake and it was sooooo quiet. I won’t be getting back to the park very much this season but I’ll sneak back when I can. And will be patiently awaiting the return of the sun, the green, and people.
>
You know if you splash some ginger men on a mini cupcake wrapper it’s a pretty much a done deal that I will impulse buy it. Got home….and immediately began looking for mini muffin recipes. Found one with ingredients I can handle. I used strawberry applesauce that my daughter won’t touch because it has pieces of real strawberries in it – yuck, right? and I sprinkled some oats on top. Click here for the glorious and super easy recipe.
>
I forgot to set my alarm and overslept. No big deal, I don’t have to be at work today. So after everyone left for school and work I started my morning rituals a little later. By 8:30 I am starving. I made my most perfect breakfast; yogurt with a lot of whole oats, fruits, almonds, and brown sugar. I’m in love with this breakfast because when you mix it all up it is like oatmeal cookie dough. Today I added real blueberries. Heaven. I’m glad I overslept because it is nice to eat breakfast with the sun up. Also I had a fantastic breakfast song to keep me company.
