A Trip to the Hill Country

We spent last week doing a little bit of sight seeing and a whole lot of kicking back and relaxing down in the Hill Country of Central Texas. We stayed in a very cute little place that we found at the last minute...literally - Country Sun B&B Cottages (http://www.country-sun.com/). We checked in on Sunday nite. We met Vera, one of the co-owners, on Monday morning. She did an exceptional job of taking care of us. She brought us a very nice 'European' style Continental breakfast every morning at precisely 8:30 a.m. (our request). It was always very well done w/the pastries warm and in a pretty basket, the OJ was poured into champagne glasses, it also included sliced meat/cheese, little boxes of cereal, assorted jellies and butter - more than enough to fill us up so we were always able to share with Abby of course. On Monday, we went into Wimberly and San Marcos and did a little bit of shopping. On Tuesday, we went into Gruene (http://www.gruenetexas.com/), toured historic Gruene Hall where we made it our job to sit in the bar and drink one of their Texas beers (a Shiner, of course), had lunch at the Gristmill (http://www.gristmillrestaurant.com/) and then more shopping before returning to the B&B. On Wednesday, we went to Shiner and toured the Shiner brewery (http://www.shiner.com/home.php). That was not only fun and very enlightening, but free! They also give out 4 tokens each for free tastings of their various brews. More shopping and free beer - who could ask for more? Our personal favorite was the Shiner Blonde. We weren't done yet though. On our trip back to the B&B, we drove thru Luling (http://www.lulingcc.org/4584868_37583.htm), once known as 'the toughest town in Texas', the home of not only some of the greatest BBQ I've ever eaten, the very best BBQ sauce I've ever eaten (which I plan to order lots of via their website), but also, the home of the big Watermelon Thump (http://www.lulingcc.org/4951471_37583.htm). Yes, you read that right - the Watermelon Thump. Apparently the biggest annual festival in Luling. They have a pageant where all the contestants post signs literally all over the town of Luling - and I do mean ALL OVER! They were setting up for the festival before and during our visit on Wednesday (the festival was to begin on Thursday - it's held the last weekend of June). During this 'big-time', much anticipated (for Luling) festival, this little south Texas town hosts local and not-so-local bigger name bands, beer gardens, a carnival, street dances, cook-offs, a giant parade, craft & food booths, and yes...watermelon eating and seed spitting contests and much, much more. While there, we ate at the previously mentioned BBQ joint, the Luling City Market (http://www.lulingcitymarket.com/) and it was as good as promised and better than anticipated. Very primitive, as their are no plates or utensils so to speak, but between the brown paper, the massive amounts of paper towels, we managed just fine. You get your meat (and pay for it BTW) directly from the smoker room in the back of this fine dining establishment and then move to the front of the restaurant where you can pick up the most awesome BBQ sauce I've ever tasted, any of their other menu items and a drink, directly out of an old cola box! After eating, we walk around town in an attempt to walk off some of the food we'd just eaten and took a few pictures. Before leaving, we discovered another set of unusual items that this 'sweet' town has to offer - their decorated oil well pump jacks, mostly located along and/or near the railroad tracks. You can see a few of these here (http://www.lulingcc.org/4951475_37583.htmcc.org/4951475_37583.htm.htm).

Baseball Glove Cake

This cake was the result of a request for a cake for an end of the season baseball party from a good friend of ours. The only real prerequisites were that the cake feed a whole lot of hungry young men and their families. We thought this one would fit the bill. It's a white 1/2 sheet cake topped with a chocolate baseball glove shaped cake that is probably about the size of a 10"-12" round cake. The icing is a chocolate butter cream that tasted totally decadent...like fudge but was the hardest thing to work with that we've found to date. I found the recipe online and as good as the reviews were, it was really hard to work with. It didn't smooth well, but it did pipe and decorate well and as I've said already it was absolutely delicious. It's a miracle that Ashley & I did so well at WW's weigh-in the next morning, because I think we did more than the usual 'tastings' due to the fact that it was so incredibly yummy. We delivered it on Saturday morning and hopefully it was a hit at the party.

Another Baby Shower Cake - Winnie & Eeyore

This was a very cool cake - our customer sent us a scan of the napkin she was using for the baby shower she was giving and I think we hit it dead on! This cake was a 2-tiered hexagon shaped cake (one of our favorite cake shapes thus far) with buttercream icing throughout (8" & 10" layers). We replicated everything all the way down to the butterflies and the caterpillars and in almost exactly the same colors as the napkin. It took a lot of time but was totally worth the effort! We loved it and so did our customer.

Graduation Time

Recently attended my nephew's High School graduation and it was way cool for a lot of reasons....1) to get the opportunity to once again see what an incredible young man my brother & SIL raised, 2) to get the opportunity to spend a little extra time with my beloved family members and 3) to have the opportunity to realize that even though there are much larger graduating classes, a small graduating class can add so much to the event and the nite. Each one of those young ladies and men had the opportunity to speak for 1 minute and they each did a very eloquent job of thanking their loved ones, which included family, friends and those that helped each one of them get where they are. Thank you to my brother, SIL & nephew for allowing me to be a part of that terrific event and I totally love being an aunt to an amazing young man - my idea for the perfect son!

A Busy Weekend for Cakes!

We're working on 2 cakes this weekend. The 1st is a cake for a 50th b'day. The request was pretty generic - white cake/choc icing that will serve approx 50 and not to much more direction and/or requests than that. We opted to do a 2-layer, 1/2 sheet cake carved in the shape of coffin as you can tell.

The 2nd cake we made was for a baby shower. Our client sent a picture with pretty detailed instrux. She wanted a marble cake with buttercream icing using 'boy' colors and a ducky on top. The little boy baby's name is to be Edon so rather than use the ABCD letters that were on the example cake, we opted to use the letters of the baby's name.

In addition to making these 2 cakes, Ashley and I delivered & setup a very simple, but absolutely beautiful wedding cake for the bakery she works for (http://www.cremedelacremecatering.com/). This was my first 3-tiered cake delivery ever. My truck was the perfect vehicle to deliver this cake in as it's back seat is designed in a way as to give plenty of room but it was a little nerve-wracking to take an already stacked cake for that long of a ride...okay, it wouldn't have mattered how long the ride was, it would still have been nerve-wracking. Anyway, we got the cake there in perfect shape, did the set-up work to it that needed to be done, took a couple of pictures and then scooted out of there with nary a problem.

Memphis in June!

You've heard of Memphis in May (http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/Content?oid=oid%3A40285)? Well this is/was Memphis in June. Flew in on Monday nite for MK work related stuff. Because downtown Memphis is apparently not a safe place to be out alone as a woman (in the evening), I've spent much more time inside than I'd care to admit. However, during the day, I've had the opportunity to meet and spend a lot of time with some really amazing women who've given me so much good information to take back to work. Because of the 'safety' issue, I haven't had much opportunity to explore the town until tonite when Marie & Angie took Randall & I to the Flying Saucer (http://www.beerknurd.com/) and then to the Blues City Cafe (http://bluescitycafe.com/) where we had some amazingly good pork ribs. I took a few pictures inside the cafe and then when we left, right outside on Beale Street, we saw more motorcycles than I've ever seen in one place...and that includes the time RH and I went to Kerrville/Fredericksburg for the Honda Motorcycle Rally!!!!!! I am not kidding you...there were motorcycles all up and down the street and they were still coming when we walked away. We walked and drove around for a little bit, exploring, kindof, and saw the Peabody (http://www.peabodymemphis.com/) and the Orpheum (http://www.orpheum-memphis.com/) as well as a few other historic places. It's been way fun and I would really love to come back and spend some time here w/RH doing some serious exploring. FYI - while here we've eaten at Lenny's (http://lennyssubshop.com/) and Sam's on Main - and both were definitely good eatin'. I'll be going on tomorrow having made some good friends and with a lot of useful information. Thank you to all who took their time and energy to spend with us - you were all great and very helpful.

Biker Babe

I don't think I've put a picture of my youngest little girl on this blog, but I couldn't resist sharing this one! How can anyone resist that sweet little face? Spoiled...oh no! Not this one...not at all!!!

Fondant/Gum Paste class #4 and a great class it was!

Finished this class tonite and everyone's cakes turned out to be beautiful works of art as you can tell. Thank you Belinda - again we learned a lot from you and look forward to learning more and the opportunity to share even more tips and ideas in the future. You are a great teacher and this was, once again, a great class. The white cake with the pink and purple daisies is Ashley's final cake, the pink and coffee colored one with daisies is my final cake, the yellow and white cake is Sonia's and the pink and white cake is Veronica's. And, once again, we had fun and made some new friends. Good job by all!

More Cake Classes

After so many things happening between the last 'official' cake decorating class that Ashley and I took and now, we are finally able to take the final class that Wilton offers for cake decorating - 'Fondant and Gum Paste'. Lesson #1 was a quick replay of previous lessons after which we learned the process of covering a cake base with fondant. Lesson #2 was using that covered cake base, adding fondant to the cake we brought and using gum paste to make this drape and some simple flowers. This is the completed practice cake that I made for that class. I missed Lesson #3 in lieu of making the cupcake 'pops' for my Keno group (see 'A request for cupcakes' below), but Ashley assures me that I can catch up and be ready for Lesson #4. Stay tuned for our final graduation cake using all the techniques that this class has taught us.

Awesome Kyle Field Cake!

Ashley sent me these pictures this evening after she'd spent the day delivering and setting up a cake designed to look 'exactly' like Kyle Field http://football.ballparks.com/NCAA/Big12/TexasA&M/index.htm at Texas A&M University. Her co-worker, Amber and her have spent weeks designing it and working on it. It was a Groom's cake for a reception held at the Fort Worth Club http://www.fortworthclub.com/. As you can tell it's huge so it took several trips from the bakery http://www.cremedelacremecatering.com/ and lots of work to get it completed in time for the reception but they pulled it off with only a little time to spare. I am a little jealous but ever so proud that she's finally doing what she really wants to do and is apparently pretty darned good at!

A request for cupcakes....

...turned into an excuse to experiment with something new and different for Treasured Cakes to make. I was asked to make some 'Spring themed' cupcakes for my Keno group and was having a hard time deciding just what I could make that would 'impress'. While cruising the cyberspace highway, I read about and was intrigued by a blog on http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ about 'cupcake pops' and decided that this might be the perfect way to come up with something that would bring thoughts of Spring to mind and impress all at the same time. Fortunately, for me, it did both. And I took the extras to work the following day, in another flower pot, and they were equally delighted and impressed! Both groups claimed these cupcakes were totally decadent and a few even claimed they were the best they'd ever eaten!!!!!! Just for the record - these are made with red velvet cake mixed with cream cheese (on the inside) and then dipped in candy molds (shaped to look like the bottom of a cupcake) filled with melted chocolate. The tops are then dipped in pink tinted white chocolate. Each one has a candy/sucker stick stuck into the bottom and is individually wrapped and tied w/a green ribbon.

Walk for the Cure - Tyler, TX

The family (mom, daughter/Ashley, brother/Gary & SIL/Debbie) and myself did the 5K 'Walk for the Cure' in Tyler on the Saturday prior to Mother's Day. It was lots of fun and a great event for an even better cause. In addition to losing my father this past year, my SIL lost her mother to breast cancer so it was doubly meaningful for all of us. We all found out that 5K (3.3 miles I think) was a little harder than we'd anticipated but mostly because it was mostly on brick streets that wound thru some of the neighborhoods of downtown Tyler - a beautiful area really. It was a great time and a good way to spend some special 'family' time together doing something that was important to us all.

A Re-Trip to The Shed Cafe & Blue Moon Nursery

A truly terrific day we had on Saturday (the 3rd of May). Ashley, Aunt Margie and I drove to Edom to meet my Uncle Charlie, Aunt Frances & Mom for lunch at The Shed Cafe http://www.theshedcafe.com/. This place is crazy good and crazy popular (for motorcyclists and non-motorcyclists as well). The service is great, the food is great, the crowd is a total mixture of everything imaginable. I LOVE THIS PLACE and this tiny historic little town in E.Texas.

After a great 'country' lunch (we all ordered the sweet potato fries & black eyed peas and our 'protein of choice' - mine was fried catfish fillets which were waaaayyyy gooood), we went back to the Arbor Castle Birdhouses shop http://arborcastlebirdhouses.com/. This is a must see for sure and the website is just a little taste of the of walking thru this amazing place. This little store has the most creative and whimsical birdhouses I've ever seen and the rest of the group was in total agreement. This was my 2nd trip and I couldn't wait to share with everybody else.

After our walk thru downtown Edom, including our 2nd trip to the most amazing and whimsical bird house place I've ever seen, we went to Blue Moon Gardens http://www.bluemoongardens.com/, aexperience pprox 4 1/2 miles from downtown Edom, which is another great place to visit/tour. We all wandered around in amazement at all the fairy gardens, the gnomes, the mosaic animals and yes, all the gorgeous plants! This is, for me, the ultimate nursery. They have everything you could possibly want in the way of plant and much more....in the way of 'fairy gardens', knick knacks, custom jewelry, gnomes, books, etc. They also offer 'how-to' classes which is something that I'll be looking into for sure.

Here ye, here ye....

...announcing the latest in the saga of near impossible accomplishments...taking (and passing!) 2 tests at the 'ripe' old age of 51......I did it, they are officially over - the Series 7 (with a score of 77!) and the Series 63 (with a score of 81!). That makes me, again, officially (after the State imposed 30 day waiting period, of course) a 'Registered' Sales Assistant! YEE-HAA! I am happy and even more relieved that test taking is finally over. If I NEVER have to take another test that requires studying multiple hours each day, it'll be too soon. Thank you to all of you who sent well wishes and prayers my way and thank you Dad & God for watching over me from Heaven! Only 1 more task to complete - a trip to our home office in Memphis, TN for some one-on-one training and a tour of the MK offices.

Latte & Pink Daisy Cake

This weekend Ashley and I were able to redeem ourselves a little after the disastrous 'Tiffany Box' cake we attempted a few weeks ago. Because we are determined to improve upon our cake decorating skills, we decided we'd make another practice cake using fondant. And because we'd learned so much from the last one, we went after this one a little differently, in several aspects, and as a result, this one came out so much better. I was delighted to present it as a gift to the neighbors since the whole family is great (even the little boys rush to help me unload the truck when they see me come in with groceries and such). And they all gave a huge gasp and lots of smiles when I showed up with this one and once again, I totally ruled as the 'Cake Lady' next door!

Another cake, another grandbaby....

...and another weekend over way too soon! I didn't help with this particular cake because Ashley had my #1 grandchild, Alexis there to help. She didn't but it wasn't her fault. Ashley had taken Alexis to the orthodontist on Friday to get some dental/braces work done, and bless her heart, she was in such pain, she wasn't able to help. Ashley did well despite that though. She even experimented with more new recipes that came out very well. This cake (design, flavor and icing) was made by special request for #3 grandchild, Damion Jr. He wanted a yellow cake w/chocolate frosting and wanted it to be in the same exact style as his big brother's cake that we'd made in February.

We delivered it on Saturday and he was delighted. The cake itself must have been quite good because it was all but gone before we left.

While there, Ashley and I were able to play with the newest grandbaby. At 2 months old, he's grown a lot and has really huge beautiful eyes - not that you can see them in this picture because Ashley had just gotten through rocking the little guy to sleep.

A Special Invitation

Check out the comment on my 'It was fun and a good learning experience' post:

Greg Lane wrote, 'I am a New York Times bestselling author working on a new book about mother-daughter relationships and thought you might want to contribute. Please visit my page for details about submitting stories for Mom's Little Angel. Gregory E. Lang, Author of “Daddy’s Little Girl,” “Why a Daughter Needs a Dad,” “Why a Daughter Needs a Mom” and more.'

After pondering on it for a couple of days, I responded and who knows, maybe one of these days you'll be able to read about an 'inspirational story' featuring my daughter(s) and myself in a 'real' book rather than here on this crazy blog ;-)

See http://www.gregoryelang.com/ for details about him and his books.

Keno Night

This past Wednesday nite was Keno nite with the ladies and as always, we had a blast. What a great group of women to have as friends. We all get along so well and really enjoy our monthly get-togethers. This isn't the entire group, but it is the group that played this month. It was my turn to host (which for me means bring the food). It's a small group and we try to take turns having it at a different a member's house each month, but since I live so far away from the remainder of the group, it falls on one of the other girls to let me host it at their house. Lisa is always a very gracious hostess and I'm so grateful that she allows me to host at her house.

This time I made a chicken enchilada casserole, a layered salad and a banana cream pie. All recipes were healthy and low-calorie. I figure if I go for making the 'healthy' stuff, we don't have to feel so bad about eating so much and these days everybody seems to feel pretty much the same way. The food must have been a hit because I didn't bring any leftover home and recipes were requested. See recipes below (and notice I used Pampered Chef cookware in honor of my personal consultant and daughter, Ashley).

Chicken Enchilada Casserole
3 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast

18 corn tortillas, medium

3 cups enchilada sauce

5 cups colby & monterey jack cheese, shredded

1 cup onions, diced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil the chicken in water until done. Drain & chop into small pieces. Chop onion. Spray a 13x9" pan with cooking spray.Dip tortillas in the enchilada sauce one at a time, making sure they are completely covered with sauce. Layer covered tortillas in the bottom of the pan, it should take six. Add a layer of chicken, onion & cheese. You don't want the tortillas to be completely covered with any one of the ingredients but you should put about half of the chicken & onion & about 1/3 of the cheese. Add a another layer of the tortillas dipped in sauce. Press down gently all over the pan. Add the remaining chicken, onion and cheese mixture. Add remaining layer of tortillas dipped in sauce & press down gently again all over the pan. Add the remaining cheese on the top. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until cheese is bubbly, starting to brown and the casserole is hot all the way through. # of Servings: 16. Note: recipe can be easily cut in half and lean hamburger or ground turkey can be substituted. Recipe courtesy of www.sparkpeople.com

Classic Layered Salad

Makes:8 servings, 1 cup each
8 cups chopped iceberg lettuce
Cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen peas, thawed
1 pkg. (6 oz.) OSCAR MAYER Smoked Ham, chopped
3/4 cup KRAFT Mayo Real (Lite) Mayonnaise
1/4 cup KRAFT 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup KRAFT Shredded 2% Cheddar Cheese
LAYER lettuce, onions, peas and ham in large straight-sided clear glass serving bowl.
MIX mayo, Parmesan cheese & sugar. Spread over salad to seal; cover. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.
TOP with cheese crumbles and tomatoes just before serving; toss gently.

Note: The variations are endless.

Recipe courtesy of www.Kraftfoods.com

Banana Cream Pie w/Caramel Drizzle

1 banana, sliced

1 reduced-fat graham cracker pie crust

2 cups fat-free milk (or 2%)

2 pkg JELL-O Banana Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Free Topping, divided

1/4 cup fat-free SMUCKERS Caramel Ice Cream topping

Arrange banana slices on bottom of crust. Pour milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mixes. Beat w/wire whisk 2 min or until well blended. Gently stir in 1 cup whipped topping. Pour into pie crust. Refrigerate 4 hours or until set. Top w/remaining whipped topping and drizzle with caramel topping before serving. # of Servings = 8. Recipe courtesy of http://www.kraftfoods.com/

Winnie the Pooh Baby Shower Cake

Ashley and I created another really awesome cake. This one was for a baby shower, the first request we've had for one of these. We were hired by the new grandmom-to-be and I think she was very pleased when we delivered it today. The cake was a two-tiered, hexagon shaped cake using the classic Pooh colors in the icing. The bottom tier was white cake and the top was chocolate, as requested by her and was covered in buttercream icing with a strawberry glaze filling in both tiers. It was a fun one to make and involved a couple more 'firsts' for us.