The Great Cake Disaster of 2010

I mentioned a few posts ago how I have this desire to bake glorious cakes fueled on by the endless shows depicting (real) bakers (maybe not semi domestic housewives) making these splendid cakes.  Part of the allure is that they make it look so...easy and...effortless. 

So, I thought for A.'s second birthday I would embark on a glorious cake.  Her birthday gets swallowed up in the whole Thanksgiving holiday and I wanted something to make the day distinctive because it also coincided with my family's Thanksgiving celebration.  And the Utah/BYU game, of which we aren't going to discuss. 

And distinctive I got.

I really like the Mad Hatter Cakes.  They look like this:

I had grand plans to make my little Mad Hatter a Mad Hatter cake of her own.  I decided to do three tiers.  The bottom two tiers, I was going to make out of rice krispies because they're a much easier medium to work with than cake and then the top tier was going to be regular cake.

I made some templates so I'd have right size circles and found a website that talked me through the entire process step by step.

I began Friday afternoon.  I made batch after batch of rice krispy treats, and after a lot of melting marshmallows and butter, I had the 2nd tier done.  I froze each layer (3 for each tier) and took a nap (remember, I was out all night the night before shopping?).  Then, I had to go shopping for the food for the Thanksgiving party/Birthday party.  I ventured out in the freezing cold to the most hated place during the Holiday Season (walmart) and finally checked out with my groceries an hour later.  I stopped at a friend's house on  the way home, then carted in the groceries and then started to go back to work on the rice krispies when it dawned on me that I had forgotten to pick up more marshmallows.

If we had been living in an industrialized area, this would not have been a problem.  However, since we live in rural USA, the grocery store is 8 minutes away.  And it was like 19 degrees outside.  I made a few phone calls but couldn't find anyone who had five bags of marshmallows hanging around. I drove to the gas station, but they didn't carry marshmallows either.  So, it was back to the store. 

Meanwhile, my body was rebelling because I had only slept 3 hours in the last 36 hours and it was starting to dawn on me that maybe my cake idea was going to implode on itself.  But, like the captain of a sinking boat, I was in for the ride and wasn't about to give up quite yet.

I made like a bazillion more batches of rice krispy treats and FINALLY I had both of the bottom tiers done. However, to cut corners and save time, I tried to assemble the biggest tier without freezing the individual layers first.  Almost simultaneously,it began to disintegrate right before my eyes.  I ran it down to the freezer and started making the cake tier.  I baked the cake just like it told me, but apparently, that wasn't long enough because each of the three layers fell apart upon removal from the pan and it was obvious that the cake wasn't cooked all the way through.

I threw all three cake layers in the freezer, threw my arms up in the air, and went to bed.  At midnight.

The next morning, I woke up.  I was not going to be able to finish the cake how I wanted with the half-baked frozen mush that was in the freezer trying to pass itself off as cake, so I decided to make the top tier out of rice krispies as well.  I made MORE rice krispies, and learning from last night's mistake, popped those into the freezer.

Then I got to work on the actual decorating.  I had bought some fondant at the store and I was trying to roll it out but I belatedly realized that I am freakishly too tall for the table and the counters didn't provide enough space to adequately roll out the fondant and at each passing second I was getting more and more frustrated and Wade was in the shower and J was picking on A until she was screaming bloody murder at an impossibly high decibel level and it was inching closer and closer to the time that the party was suppose to commence and then...

I'm not all sure what happened.  The cake might have leapt out of my hands as I held it above my head.  Surely that's what must have happened, because me--undomestically geeky me--would never admit to having  thrown the cake I was making at the kitchen wall in a fit of anger fueled on by extreme sleep deprivation and stress. 

Nope not me. Not cool little me.  Nope.  It must have been the cake's fault.

However, J. thought that it was me who had been the demise of the cake and he want crying into the bathroom telling Wade over and over again:

"I tried to save the birthday party, Daddy.  I tried to save it, but mommy ruined it."

And my mom happened to call about 10 minutes after all this and Wade answered the phone and I heard him say something along the lines of:

"The cake went airborne, but you didn't hear it from me."

Luckily for A., my parents came through and bought her a birthday cake on the way out to our house.  And it tasted much better than any cake I could have made.  So the cake, deciding to leap out of my hands and against the kitchen wall was probably a blessing.

Black Friday Madness

I was the girl who swore I would never go out on Black Friday.  I've teased my sister-in-laws about going.  I always thought that a deal was never worth the effort and the crowds. 

But I repent.

So, Monday, I was out to lunch with a friend and she mentioned that she was headed out Friday morning, but that this year she was going alone.  And I felt bad.

Note: this is almost always why I end up doing something crazy/stupid/fantastic/life altering/crazy-stupid-fantastic-life altering. 

I said I'd go with her.  For kicks. 

Thursday evening she called with her game plan.  She wanted to hit the Wal-mart sale at midnight and then target at 4 am.  Plus Toys R Us.  So I said, why don't we hit Wal-mart, then drive into Salt Lake and go to Toys R Us and Kohl's and then to Target. 

Have I mentioned that I have some serious time management issues?  I figured we'd be home by 5.  I've stayed up until 5 am a few times.  It shouldn't be too bad.

So, C. (yes, the same C who also does insane runs with me) picked me up at 11:25 and we headed to Wal-mart.  I had been pre-warned that Wal-mart is NUTS on Black Friday.  And NUTS was an understatement.  C needed four Zhu Zhu Pets for her kids.  Apparently, so did everyone else.  We found the Zhu Zhu Pets display roughly about the time the associates uncovered it--10 minutes early.  Luckily, C found a little hole at the bottom of the crowd in which to squeeze her 5'1"  115 pound frame into and emerged victorious with her four Zhu Zhu Pets in hand.  It was one of the most amazing thing I have ever seen.  We each picked up a few more items and then I went in search of the check out line.  Good thing because that line took forever to get through.  And I ran into an old friend who had moved so it was nice to get caught up.

We next headed into Toys R Us, which was crowded but they had really good crowd control.  Afterwards, we were going to go grocery shopping, but we couldn't find a grocery store open so we headed to Kohl's, which was going to open at 3 am.  We got there at about 2:15 and a line half way around the building had already started to form.  It was like 5 degrees outside.  It was SO cold.  So we sat in the car until about 2:50.  Then we got in line.  I was laughing with the ladies behind us and I said that we can't even tell our kids the sacrifice we made because they were presents from Santa. The line was around the building and then some.  At 3 am the doors opened (by which I mean to say that one door opened) and we all filed inside.

CRAZY.  I have never seen anything like it.  C looked around for a bit and then went and got into the checkout line.  I would periodically check in.  I found some awesome deals on some things and I think it was worth the stop.  But the checkout line took FOREVER!  C would leave and go look for a bit and then I'd leave again and go look. We stood there for over an hour.  But I ran into another friend and got caught up a little bit there too.

After our Kohl's visit, we headed to Target.  There wasn't a parking spot to be found, but finally we got one.  Then once inside, it was a madhouse.  People everywhere!  This particular Target had some people managment issues and while C was out looking for something I decided to get in line to check out.  It snaked through all these aisles and I finally found the end of it.  After C found me, I went to look for something and overheard one of the managers tell some people in our line way up ahead that this wasn't actually a line to anywhere.

Have you ever seen a large group of people who are sleep deprived be told that they have just spent the last 45 minutes in a line to nowhere?

It wasn't pretty.

But, eventually we found the line and I have to say that from a business perspective, Target had the right idea.  They weaved the line through the aisles of the store.  In hindsight I should have just gotten in line and done my Christmas shopping from there.  However, I did end up spending probably 50 more dollars then I would have had I not been snaking through the store.  And some of it may or may not been on someone besides myself.

We did find the cash register and all our teeth were still intact, so bonus points for us.

Last stop was Bath and Body Works and this is where I started to shut down.  The store is small and there's all these smells competing with each other to see who can overwhelm the most number of people.  It was another long line and by the time we got out, I was cooked.

And then Wade called. 

"Where are you?" he asked when I answered.

"I'm on my way home." I replied.

"Do you know what time it is?" he asked.

"7 in the morning."  It was late (early?), but I could still read the digital clock.

"Okay."

"I love you?" I asked, sensing his anger.

There was a brief hesitation.  "I love you too."  And then click.

Next year, I'm going with a game plan.  Because, while in normal circumstances, I hate crowds, this was so mind-boggling fun and crazy, I can't wait.  And I did get some killer deals.  And I got to do some awesome people watching.  Reminder: Just because it's 3 am, doesn't mean I can't see your underwear peaking out from the holes in your sweat pants.  And, you aren't running to the grocery store because you have a sick kid at home and you need medicine.  You're actually going out in public.  So you should attempt to change out of your pajamas.  Even if it's only into yesterday's pants.  Yet, at the same time, it is 3 am, so you probably don't need to put on your makeup in line and wear 3 inch heels.

And, who would've guessed that I would be able to cross #14 off The List as well.  Go me!

But even stories about my Black Friday Madness can't compare to the story of how A.'s birthday cake which I spent an insane amount of time on, committed cakicide by leaping off the kitchen table and hitting the kitchen wall approximately two hours before her b-day party/my family Thanksgiving celebration was about to start.

But that....is for tomorrow.

What's For Dinner Wednesday--Italian Wedding Soup

It's cold.

And when it's cold, I want soup.  So today, that's what I got.

I found this on here.  It's my new favorite website.  She has some AWESOME recipes.  And apparently, she just made this up on the fly.  What I would give to be confident enough to do that.

So first up, I made the soup part.  Her directions tell you to use a Dutch Oven, but I was lazy and didn't want to unearth mine from the garage.  So I just used my regular soup pot.

Heat 1/2 to 1 tsp olive oil in the bottom.
Cook one yellow onion, finely chopped, 3 carrots, diced, and 2 stalks of celery, diced for about 3-4 minutes.  Add in 2-3 cloves of minced garlic and cook for another 60 seconds while stirring constantly. 

Now this is the part the screws me up every time.  The recipe next says to add all these spices, but I don't have them out or measured or anything so then I have to take the pot off the stove and find all my spices and measure them out.  I should just do that all beforehand right?  This is not the first time I've had this thought either.

Add 1 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp oregano, salt and pepper, 1/2-1 tsp chicken bouillion granules, and 9-10 cups chicken broth. 

Let this simmer for 45 minutes on low.

MEANWHILE:

Make these cutesy little meatballs by combining:

1 lb ground beef
2 tsp yellow onion, finely diced
2 T parmesan cheese
2 T fresh parsley (didn't have that, so I used dried, which is like 1 tsp of dried = 1 T of fresh)
1 egg
1/4 C bread crumbs
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
pinch of crush red pepper flakes

(incidently, I forgot the last three ingredients.  I think that would have pepped the meatballs up a little bit)

Mush everything together and roll into little balls.  I made probably about 24 meatballs.  Preheat the oven to 350 and put the meatballs on a cookie sheet covered in foil that had been sprayed with PAM.  Bake for 10 minutes or until cooked through.  DO NOT OVERBAKE.  You don't want crunchy meatballs.

Last thing is to make the star pasta.  There is a pasta out there shaped like a star.  It's a little tiny  pasta, but I couldn't find it at the store, so I just used Acini de pepe (Frog eye salad pasta.)  Cook that according to the package.  Drain.

Add the pasta and the meatballs to the soup and cook on medium for 10 minutes longer.  Add 10 oz of spinach (Spinach isn't my favorite vegetable to eat, so I just added a few leaves to each of the bowls) And voila!

Wade was a little skeptical of the meal because of the strong onion smell, but it turned out to be really good.  Even he said it was.  The meatballs needed some more zip in my opinion, but I think if I would have put in all the ingredients, it would not have been an issue. 

This would have been a great meal to have with a hard crusty bread, but I wasn't on the ball enough to make it.  Or buy it.  So we just ate our soup.

Family Pictures

Woot!  Woot!  We finally got family pictures done a few weeks ago.  It was my birthday present.  I know, I know.  My birthday is in May.  But, at least they got done.

The photographer was Erin of Pink Daffodil Photography.  She was amazing.  You can't even tell that A. pretty much cried through the entire shoot.  We went to a canyon up past Wasatch Drive.  I had never heard of it and can't think of the name right off the top of my head.  The weather was GORGEOUS.  And the leaves were at their prime.  Overall, I think we got some good shots.  Finally, we have a decent picture with the four of us in it.

We're a pretty good looking bunch given the right light and conditions.  And if you shoot enough pictures.

Things

So, I'm currently in the middle of this thing that is HUGE.  And I only have a few days left.  Like 6 days to finish it.  And I'm a little stressed about it, but if I do pull it off, it will be the most amazing thing that I have done in a long, long, long time.  What is it?  You will have to wait and see.  But, I'll give you a hint.  It will take care of not one, but TWO things on my list.  By the way, I'm a little behind on crossing things off The List.  I've done them.  I just need to cross them off.  I totally plan on getting that taken care of soon too.  Maybe in 7 or 8 days.

We're leaving for Cabo soon.  Very soon.  And currently, it's 17 degrees outside, but apparently it feels like 5 degrees, with an expected high of 13 tomorrow but in Cabo, it's 68 degrees with an expected high of 81 tomorrow.  If you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know that I've chosen to stay. Don't take it personally.

I mentioned at one point that my record for running is -1 degrees.  I was out this morning, and while it was fairly nice (38ish?) I realized that I no longer have the motivation to run in single digit temperatures.  Tomorrow has been declared a treadmill day.

Speaking of running, my buddy H and I were the only ones out today.  During the summer, the roads were teeming with runners and bikers.  Dedication is a lonely sport. 

A. turns two on Saturday.  TWO!  When did that happen?  I am embarking on a crazy cake design.  I hope it works.  I blame cable television for fueling this desire to make glorious cakes.

And speaking of making, I am slated to bring two pies to Thanksgiving.  Key Lime Pie, which is my all time favorite and apple.  I've made Key Lime before, but I've never made an apple pie.  And I hope the pies will turn out more aesthetically pleasing than they did last year.  BUT, today, I needed cool whip for my test key lime pie I made and Wal-mart was unbelievably crowded and the kids were acting up and it was like a glimpse into the hell I'll be sent to if I don't make it into heaven, and naturally, I forgot the cool whip.  BUT lo and behold, I googled it, and found out that you can make it at home. 

MAN, I'M SO COOL.

I made it and it tasted great and I called my mom to tell her of my great culinary achievement and she was the proper amount of impressed.  I love my mom.

And speaking of my mom, she's doing awesome.  No more weird trips to the ER.  No more long hospital stays.  We're just waiting for the skin graft now, so thanks for all your thoughts and prayers and kind words and dinners  (yes, I got two dinners from two friends and both dinners came when I needed them the most.) and babysitting.

Still coughing.  But I'm feeling better.

Saw Harry Potter.  In hindsight, I probably should have watched the first six beforehand.  Or at least read the books.

Now, how's this for totally random??

I Wish...

• I wish I was more organized.  I have tried a plethera (love that word!) of things to become more organized, but I just can't seem to get on top of stuff.  My dream would be to have a schedule where I'm doing the same mundane daily things at the same time every day so that I could actually accomplish more during the day since that stuff would already be taken care of.  Any suggestions?
• I wish I was a better baker.  I want to make those really cool cakes, but most of the time, my effort falls short of glorious--really short.
• I wish I was better at time management.  Goes back to #1.  But, I'm constantly late to everything and always rushing around.  It's poor planning on my part and I realize that.  Just wish I could manage time better.
• I wish it wasn't such a struggle to get J. out of bed every. single. day. 
• I wish I knew what was next in "the plan".  I'm trying to have faith, but there's this impending doom hanging over me that I'm not sure what it means.  Is it my perception?  Is it my answer?  Is it just my humanness? 
• I wish I could get rid of this nasty cough.  That's the only symptom I have and it's been lingering for almost two weeks now.  I didn't run at all last week because I thought it would aggrevate it, but so far, it's not showing any signs of improvement. 
• I wish it was time for Cabo.  I could use a break with some sun and a little sea air.
• I wish it was past Thursday because I'm dreading this funeral.  I don't deal well with death anyways, and this one was so shocking and their life is so mirror-like to my own life, I've been having a hard time processing it.  Part of the human aspect is to project an experience into your own life, and I can't help but think that I wouldn't be dealing as well with this unexpected curve ball in life like Forrest's wife appears to be.  It's a testament to how strong and independent she is.  And how I should better emulate that.

It's kind of been Debbie Downer over here on (semi) undometically geeky.  I'd apologize for it, but it's life and to pretend otherwise would be a disservice to everyone else encountering trials, large or small.

Mixed Blessings and Thoughts

You know how sometimes you look for hidden blessings among the rubble. like "at least this didn't happen" or "wow, we dodged a bullet there."?  And you know how sometimes, things just suck? 

First up, mixed blessings.

Sunday night, I called my mom for my daily check-in.  I have rarely gone more than a day or two without calling my mom since Wade and I got married nearly ten (10!?!) years ago.  Recently, I have been calling her pretty much every day, you know with the whole surgery, infection, artery exploding episodes.  So, I called, and I could tell that something was off.  Though I couldn't really place it.  We talked for a few minutes and I hung up feeling uneasy.

I called my sister-in-law and talked to her for a few minutes and then over a course of a few more minutes and half a dozen phone calls back and forth between my brother, my dad, and me it was determined that my mom had a fever and the oncologist said to rush her to the ER.

I made the executive decision to drive in and meet them there.  I have felt kind of like the liason between my parents and my brothers through all this because I'm geographically closer than them and my schedule isn't as rigid.  I definitely feel that this is a blessing that I'm able to be there.  Sometimes my dad's communication skills can be a little lacking (like: "Oh dear." when I called him about the artery episode).  Most of the time though, it always helps to have two coherent people listening in on what's happening so that nothing gets missed.

To make a long story short, my mom had gotten a NEW infection up in her upper thigh where they had removed some lymph nodes during the initial surgery.  She presented at the ER with a fever over 104 degrees.  When I finally found them, she looked sicker than I've ever seen her.

They admitted her to the hospital and on Tuesday, they did "a procedure" (I prefer to call it surgery because (a) they had to put her under (b) I had to wait in the surgery waiting room (c) the surgeon did it.  But they refer to it as a "procedure") where they cleaned out the wound.  The oncologist said that had my dad not gotten her in when he did, my mom probably would have ended up in the ICU or worse.  It turns out the infection was staph and could have been potentially lethal had they not caught it when they did.  This oncologist is a God-send.  She came to the ER on Sunday night at 12:30 just to see that my mom was okay.  There are not a lot of doctors anymore that would do that.  I can't say enough nice things about her.

My mom gets to finally go home today and I'm happy about that.  She'll be on IV antibiotics for the next two weeks and they've put another wound vac (the apparatus that was at the center of the whole artery episode) on this new wound, but the doctor insists that it's no where near any arteries.  Thursday, she'll have another "procedure" to put another wound vac on her ankle and then hopefully in two to three weeks, she'll have the skin graft done and we can put this whole experience behind us.

So the mixed blessings:  It's hard to think of any of this as a blessing.  However, when you look at different parts, you realize that you are being blessed.  Like how it happened on a Sunday night when my dad was home instead of a Tuesday morning when my dad would have been at work.  Or that at least the cancer hadn't spread, because if she was doing treatments on top of all this, it could have turned out much differently as well. 

Now, the sucky things:

Wednesday night we received some shocking news.  Wade's cousin, who is a month younger than him, had suddenly passed away.  It was such a surprise and a shock.  He leaves behind a wife and two little girls, a three year old and a 10 month old.  I've done a few runs with his wife and Wade and I went canoeing with them back when we were all newly weds and kids-free. 

Forrest was definitely a rock star in his own little world.  It's hard to believe that he's gone.  He had lived more in his 32 years than most people do in their lifetimes.  I can't say that we always saw eye to eye on certain topics or politics, but Forrest always stood up for what he believed in and never wavered.  I admired that most about him.  I know that his vote for president was not because of the color of his skin or to oust the previous president, but because he truly believed in what his candidate was preaching.  He had a presence in any room he was in and held every occupant in the palm of his hand. One of the last things he did that made me smile was quitting his job at a law firm so he could spend more time with his family.  He hadn't been practicing law for very long, but had decided that that lifestyle wasn't for him.  I admired his courage for giving up the "big" paycheck and status so that he could stay close to those things that really mattered.  He had just started a job reviewing patents for the government and by all accounts, it was something he really enjoyed.

There are no blessings in this situation, or at least none that I can see.  A bright and up and coming star has been snuffed out too early, a wife widowed at 31, and two little girls lost their daddy.  He hadn't been feeling well and laid down to never wake up again.  It's scary to think that in just one second your whole life could be turned upside down.

Sometimes, things just plain suck.