Celebrating is Very fulFILLING!

Another first....yes, it was and a great one too! Russell promised a real treat when I passed the Series 7 and last nite he delivered. He took me to Del Frisco's Double Eagle Restaurant (http://www.delfriscos.com/fortworth/) in Downtown Ft Worth and it was awesome! The experience began with their incredibly terrific fresh bread (their website boasts.....THE BREAD: Rip it. Break it. Just don't cut it with a knife. The bread is baked fresh daily and served piping hot to your table.) and some sort of truly decadent whipped butter. To begin our meal, I ordered a Caesar Salad, the Governor's Fillet (6 oz and cooked perfectly medium rare as requested) with Chateau Potatoes (these were sort of a creamy mashed potato(s) w/lots of garlicky, cheesy taste and slightly browned on top). Afterwards we really treated ourselves by ordering dessert and it was even more decadent than the bread! Russell had a huge slice of chocolate layer cake covered in chocolate ganache w/white chocolate shavings and I had the White Chocolate Cinnamon Creme Brulee w/fresh raspberries. I'm telling you, by the time we were done, we had to be all but rolled out the door. Frankly I was glad that we didn't take them up on the valet parking, because we needed that 3 block walk to the car to walk off some of the dinner we'd just eaten. An amazing dinner for an extraordinarily amazing accomplishment given how many years it's been since I've had to study and pass a test for anything other than the renewal of my driver's license.

Ever Heard of Herd?

Yep, there really is a place called Herd's Hamburgers and it's located in Jacksboro, TX. It's been around and in the same family since 1916 (www.bikerroads.com/possumkingdom/pk.html). Claude Herd does the cooking and Mrs. Herd does the order-taking while lots of younger Herds perform the other tasks. The place is small and what little seating is on the inside consists of some old-style school desks with lots of memoirs on the surrounding walls. There is some extra seating on the outside in the form of picnic tables or you can do like we did and sit on the tailgate of your truck.
The menu is short and sweet and totally to the point - people come for their terrific burgers and pretty much nothing else. There are no fries or other 'sides' on the menu as any 'sides' you might consider consist of a small bag of chips. I had a cheeseburger and Russell had the double double. Take my word for it and go ahead and order the double double. It's worth the few extra calories because the single cheeseburger I'd ordered definitely left me wanting more. It was a bit of a cruise (approx 1 1/2 hr from home), but worth the trip if you want an outta-sight burger!
A little background and history of Herd's Hamburgers: http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=20897&#313847

Time to Celebrate!

OMG....I passed the Series 7 (Genl Securities Registered Rep Exam)! Not with the 80 that I'd prayed for, but true to form, the 80 was all about giving myself a little working room. I made a very well earned and very hard fought 77....and I'll take it with pride. I went in believing that both Dad & God were with me and that I'd be fine - even if for just that 8 hours and I was. I'll even admit that I cried (tears of relief, gratefulness and thankfulness) while walking out on legs that truly felt like jelly! I do absolutely believe, with all my heart, that all the prayers and well wishes from each and everyone of you that sent them (along with Dad & God's help of course) were what carried me through and got me to the finish line. Thank you - each and every one. Now I only have to take the Series 63 (State Law exam) and be shipped off to Memphis for a little bit of corporate training and I'll be all done!!! Yee-Haa and thank you very much. Soon I'll be able to get back to 'real' life (my house is a mess), cake decorating, having some fun without feeling guilty about not studying (definitely includes Keno nites with the gals) and dare I say it....grieving. Yes, I know I've put that off and studying has kept my mind busy, but I need to get there so I can get past some of this anger I've felt since Dad's passing. Thank you, again, for your support, encouragement and friendships and for letting me share. Now, I've gotta go watch Dancing With The Stars! Hugs to all.

Another first - Sugar Paste Figures

In an effort to expand our cake decorating talents, Ashley and I created our first sugar paste (fondant) figures. We decided on teddy bears, however, I think mine looks more like a pig than a bear. We used leftover fondant from other projects and did it totally without instruction or directions. We decided for a first attempt, we did pretty darn good.

Left Lane is for PASSING Only!

I guess it pays to pay attention to hi-way signs. Saturday evening, Ashley & I were returning from E.Texas where we'd gone to visit mom/Grams for her upcoming b'day and after passing a Highway Patrol pulled over on the side of the road and being thankful that for a change, I wasn't speeding - I got pulled over by said Highway Patrolman. Ashley and I had just had a discussion about how even though he didn't pull out after we passed, thankfully, we like to look in the rear view mirrors to see if any other 'law breaking' citizen might be in the process of having that experience. Not 5 minutes later, as I'm talking on my cell phone and no longer paying attention (but still not speeding of course), I see flashing lights in my rearview mirror! Oh crap! was my response. I pull over, completely puzzled as to what I might have done...other than not possibly the lack of attention I was giving the road because I was having a conversation on the phone...maybe this was what I was being pulled over for???

Nope, that wasn't it at all as said Highway Patrolman informed me that I'd been 'driving' in the 'passing' lane and that particular lane, the LEFT hand lane, was to be used for passing only and if I'd been paying attention to the road signs that I was passing, I would have known this! (Law says something like, 'left lane is for passing only and once you've passed a vehicle, you have a certain amount of time to return to the right hand lane or be in violation of said law'.) I had to think this thru because I'm slightly directionally challenged and have a hard time with right and left!!!! I omitted the part that I wouldn't have seen the signs anyway, cuz I was too busy talking on the phone! Officer Jackson then asked me for my insurance certificate and driver's license, which I promptly handed over. Oops...another snafoo on my part...the insurance certificate I'd handed him had been expired since November! Another Oh crap! moment. I quickly told him I was sure I had a current one, which he suggested I locate while he went to run a check on my license. Thankfully, Ashley and I were able to locate it along with several other expired ones in the glove box.

After what seemed like a very long time, he comes back to the truck with his clipboard in hand and kindly informs me that he's only writing me a warning ticket - no penalty no points he repeats several times. 'Kindly' was the key word here - he was very nice and I appreciated him not giving me a real ticket as I definitely don't need anymore of those!!! Moral to this story is...don't talk on the phone while driving (or anything else) because it takes attention from highway signs we should be paying attention to and KNOW THE LAW and replace the insurance certificate in your wallet with the new one when you get it instead of just piling them up in the glovebox!

Series 7

Big couple of weeks - am attending a 'crash' course school to take my Series 7 exam on Monday (St. Patrick's Day) and am truly nervous but looking forward to getting it behind me. I'm totally positive that I'll do well, but am asking for all your well wishes and prayers that I not only pass, but make 80 or above. I know that Dad is looking down on me and saying 'You'll do well' and for that I'm motivated and grateful. For any of you who can fit it into your 'prayers for the day', please include me, because I want it really, really bad x infinity +1. Prayers and positive thoughts are the very things I need and want from you. Please and thank you from the bottom/top and both sides of my heart.

Surprise B'day Party!

Yes, it was a total surprise! My Uncle Charlie's 80th b'day was this past Thursday (2/21) and in honor of that, my Aunt Margie (Elaine to most people) and I planned a special surprise party for him. He and my Aunt Frances are living near Tyler so we made arrangements for them to be picked up (by their nephew and his wife, Eddie & Sue) on the pretense that they were going to the The Shed in Edom, Tx (http://theshedcafe.com/) for lunch which they were...they just didn't know what awaited them when they arrived. And when they did arrive, we were there along with a few other friends, Loraine, Mickey & Frank. I don't think he or Aunt Frances could have been any more surprised. I made a sugar-free cake w/sugar-free icing (both Sweet-n-Low mixes) which was good and lunch at The Shed was terrific. They are quite well known for their chicken-fried steak and people drive or ride (motorcycles) from all around to eat there. Our waitress was a real sweetheart and took care of everything for us. We wandered around Edom (http://www.edomtexas.com/) for a bit and enjoyed a little more 'family' time together before parting. While wandering around we discovered this great little shop full of the most whimsical birdhouses (http://www.arborcastlebirdhouses.com/). Apparently, Edom is well known for more than 'The Shed'....it is full of craft & antique stores as well. Who knew??? And what a terrific day full of truly terrific surprises!!!! Lots of love to the family and to Edom, Texas!

Two more cakes ordered and completed

Ashley and I made these cakes last weekend. The Snake cake was ordered by one of her co-workers for her 5yr old son. He wanted a Mario cake at first and then changed to snakes. Go figure! Anyway, they/we decided on a 'snakes in the grass' theme and he loved it. Ashley had a little too much fun with the green icing, because don't know if you can tell it or not, but she's actually wearing almost as much of the icing as she has on the cake at that point.

The Flower Power cake was ordered by our aunt for a cousin's 17th b'day. This one was covered in a pink tie-dyed fondant (over flavored buttercream icing) and then decorated w/neon flowers made of a specialty fondant. It, too, was loved by it's recipient.

Two More Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to 2 of my grandsons this month - Dylan just turned 9 and Dom will be 5. Ashley and I made them each their own birthday cakes (Spiderman and Skateboard cakes) and I'm thinking that you can tell what they are each into by the theme of their particular cake. The other 2 children pictured here are their brother, Damion Jr and sister, Alexis (yep, more of my grandchildren). The boys were pleased with their cakes and their presents and Ashley and I had a good time making their cakes and visiting with them today.

A Day on the Square - the Waxahachie Square

A gorgeous day - a nice occasion and something fun to do. RH and I spent the afternoon wondering around the town square in historic downtown Waxahachie (http://www.waxahachie.com/c3web/index.htm) in celebration of and because it is his b'day 'weekend'. It was a wonderful afternoon with temps in the mid '70s... in February? - unusual at best. No jackets, no thermals, no gloves...just regular everyday weekend clothing, oh yeah! We walked the square, toured the old Rogers Hotel (http://www.rogershotel.com/), the Museum, more antique stores than he wanted to go into I'm sure, a furniture store and then made our way (our final destination and the initial reason for our trip to Waxahachie) to the Catfish Plantation (http://www.catfishplantation.com/). We tried to tour the the o so beautiful Waxahachie courthouse, but unfortunately it was closed today so did our best to do it 'justice' by getting some good outside pics.

Leonard's Dept Store Museum

We enjoyed the food at the M&O Diner and the Leonard's Dept Store Museum so much last week that we returned today and brought Russell's mom with us. We'd told her about the great hamburgers we'd had here but the museum was a total surprise for her. Having lived in Ft. Worth for such a long period of time, the museum brought back a flood of special memories for her. She remembered coming here and doing her shopping, riding the subway and said she'd even bought Russell's babycrib here! How sweet was that?? Once again the food was great and she actually seemed to (and said) she enjoyed the outing.

RV show, M&O Diner and Leonard's Dept Store museum

Russell & I went to the RV show today at the Ft Worth Convention Center. Wow! I can't begin to tell you how awesome some of those huge monsters were!!!!!!!!! There was every kind of RV (this picture is the inside of one of the RV's that we 'toured'), 5th wheel trailer, pop-up trailer, etc that you can possibly imagine with every possible amenity that you can imagine. We went thru so many and picked up so many brochures that it made our head's swim. After about 3 hours and 8,000+ steps (according to my pedometer), we felt like we were pretty 'full-up' on what RV's, etc had to offer and were ready to go (it didn't help that I'd totally worn the wrong kind of shoes to be climbing in and out of RV's!). Afterwards we made our way to the M&O Diner on Carroll St. in Ft. Worth (thanks to a recommendation from the Ft. Worth Weekly - http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=6601) where we had very tasty burgers and the opportunity to stroll thru the very interesting Leonard’s Department Store Museum (I think you can ck out the history of Leonard's Dept Store via this link and if not, it's certainly worth Googling). Even if the burgers hadn't been incredibly good, discovering this very unique museum would have made seeking out this little 50's style diner totally worth the trip. And according to the sign outside the diner/museum, it also plans on being the future home of one of the old subway cars from subway that the Leonards built in downtown Ft. Worth back in the day.

Another Treasured Cake creation

Another Treasured Cake creation for your viewing pleasure and our customer's eating pleasure. This particular cake is a chocolate and red velvet flavored cake (top tier is red velvet and the bottom is chocolate) with marshmallow fondant textured and colored to appear as if it were black leather with pink asymetrical circles and pink satin ribbons (Ashley was able to find this tastier version of fondant via the many message boards that she frequents) . This customer (and our most recent) loved it and claimed that it was the perfect cake for her 16 year old daughter's b'day.

PS: We rcvd a really nice e-mail from her saying that her daughter loved the cake!

Birthday Present

Check out the birthday present I got from Russell! How cool is this????? Not only did he sing Happy Birthday to me (this would be the first time in as long as I could remember that Dad wouldn't be singing it), but he surprised me with the one thing that I'd been drooling over for a while! Since Ashley and I began taking cake decorating lessons and started Treasured Cakes, I've been looking at these mixers, checking out every sales ad, comparing prices, models, etc. What a great birthday present and a great surprise! And it didn't stop there. We had a wonderful day as well. We went to Italliani's for dinner where I had my most favoritest meal - the lemon flavored tilapia over couscous, surrounded by fried spinach (yes! fried spinach and oh my! it is awesome!) and from there we went to the movie and saw Charlie Wilson's Wars which was also very good - definitely worth seeing. It was a good day.
PS: Ashley & Blake gave me a Pampered Chef stoneware Pie Plate which was pretty terrific given that I love making pies these days (Honeycrisp apples make really yummy apple pies!). I've managed to put it to good use multiple times already and am sure that it, like my new mixer, will become one of my favorite kitchen items.

In time, I will heal I hope

This was originally written to explain my absence between posts and thanks to 'blogspot', it has disappeared twice now....so this is the 3rd time I'm writing. Maybe that's part of the healing process? Anyway, my precious dad got sick enough to be hospitalized the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and passed into the hands of waiting angels on December 13th. There is much to the story and is still far too painful to discuss. During the time that he was in the hospital, I spent as much time with him as I possibly could given that I had just started a new job and that the hospital was a couple of hours away. I treasure the time that I was able to spend with him and miss him far more than there are words to explain. He was my strength, my friend, my advisor, my confidant and a terrific father...always!

Thanksgiving Cake

Another Treasured Cakes creation...a cake for my friend, Lisa, to take with her to her new husband's family's Thankgiving dinner. It's not incredibly fancy, but I'm betting it was pretty darn tasty. Her only request was that it be a chocolate cake and the rest was up to us. It's an 11" x 15" sheet cake w/buttercream icing. I wanted to put 'Happy Thanksgiving' on it with fondant letters but Ashley thought that would be a little cheesy so I didn't. I did like the colors though and I do think it turned out well given the time constraints. I think I'll go ahead and purchase the letter molds for future cakes but for this one, I think I'm satisfied that it came out as well as it did. Check it out and see what you think.

Website News

A big FYI to all. The Treasured Cake webite is up and running. Obviously it's a work in progress and will be as long as we're adding cakes to it. Check it out at www.treasuredcakes.com and send your friends there as well. And remember, if you're looking for a cake for a special someone, ask us and we'll try to accomdate you. We don't have the price list up yet, but stay tuned and it'll be up soon as well.

Another B'day Cake....

....for a real live person (meaning it wasn't a practice cake for class). This particular cake was created especially for a terrific lady and my good friend Cathy, to celebrate her recent birthday. It was designed to represent a gift box with bow and name tag. As I hear it, it was a hit and quite delicious.

Graduation from Course #3

Yee Haa! We are graduates again! You can check out the finished cake...but first I'd like for you to understand what it took to get there so you'll have a better appreciation of cake making and cake decorating. Prior to taking these classes, I thought that cakes, especially 'specialty' cakes were overly expensive. May I say, I'm sooooo sorry?! This weekend, Ashley and I baked 14 layers of cake in various flavors of course, made 76 roses in various stages of bloom, 80 leaves and used 3 different types of icing including buttercream icing, royal icing and fondant (3 of the cakes were for class and 1 was for granddaughter's b'day). We worked well into the morning on both Friday and Saturday nites, stayed up late last nite and she's still working tonite on tomorrow nite's make-up class (the basket weave cake). I have definitely gained a new and true respect for the art of cake decorating. The classes we've taken have taught us so much - Belinda was a terrific instructor and hopefully we'll be able to go forward with sharing what we've learned and our combined talents by making beautiful cakes for others via our newly formed 'Treasured Cakes' cake decorating business.
Check out somne of the other graduation cakes. Ashley's is the gorgeous one with the mauve colored roses. Everyone did a great job!

The 'Results' Show

We did it! You can see the results here. My granddaughter, Alexis wanted a hot pink and lime green cake for her 13th b'day and although Ashley and I had never made a stacked 2-tiered cake before, with some instruction from our class instructor, Belinda, we managed to pull it off much to our and Alexis' delight.

It was totally unplanned but there were/are 13 'buttons' on top of the bottom layer and there are 13 letters in Happy Birthday. In looking for candles to top her cake, I also found these candles that spelled out Happy Birthday! How neat was that? It all just worked out so perfectly.

You can see how happy she was when she saw it. That's Dylan in the back - one of her 3 little brothers.

Ashley and I had a lot of fun putting the cake together - I worked on the bottom layer and she worked on the top.

I think Ashley's favorite part of putting 'stacked' cakes together is going to be being able to use a hammer - a requirement for getting the wooden dowel that holds the cakes together thru the cardboard that is under the top layer.

Feel free to ck out our Treasured Cakes blog for more pictures (http://www.treasuredcakes.blogspot.com/) as they should be up in a day or 2.

Big Plans for Big Cakes

A big weekend coming up. Ashley and I agreed (promised actually) my #1 granddaughter, Alexis, that we'd make the b'day cake for her 13th b'day party. And for some crazy reason we even said we'd take on a cake that we've never attempted before (and won't have had a class for until AFTER the b'day party!), a 2-tiered 'stacked' cake (I think that means no pillars). In our elation to make cakes, we promised a cake w/hot pink icing and she wants lime green dots/stripes on it (we'd suggested black but she wants lime green). We've decided to nix the stripes already and will go with only dots. Originally it was our plan to do it w/fondant, but at this point we're thinking that buttercream icing will be more pleasing to all the children. Additionally we have to make the 40 roses for Monday's 2-tiered wedding cake class (Class #4/Course #3) so it will be a busy weekend for sure. Stay tuned for the 'results show' as they say on Dancing with the Stars.

Cake Deco Class - Course 3/Lesson 3

Tonite's class became a lesson in patience. Seems that more of us than not had a problem with our icing either being too thin or too stiff and then in an attempt to make it right, it seems we went a little too far in the other direction creating a totally different issue. For this particular class, we were to bring several different colors (pink, yellow, green, blue & white) of icing of different consistencies for practicing making Easter Lilies, Petunias, Poinsettias and Morning Glories. None were particularly hard but it was pretty apparent that we need to get the consistency right and practice a little more than the time that we had during class. We were only able to spend about 15 minutes on each flower after doing the prep work (loading the bags w/the proper color and tip, preparing the lily nail with the foil candy wrappers - a lily nail is used to give the flower its shape) and getting the instrux and demonstrations. As much as I hate sharing this particular picture with you....here it is minus the flowers that didn't make it home undamaged.

My Plumbing Hat....

....obviously didn't fit well, but fortunately for me, my good friends from McCoy Plumbing came through again. These people are the best and if you ever need a plumber, you absolutely MUST call them. They're very responsive and absolutely awesomely (is that a word?) good! Thank you, thank you, thank you James, Ronnie, Beth & Cathy! You've once again come through in ways that I wouldn't have expected and couldn't have imagined. I love you all. And really good treats are coming your way!!!!

Cake Decorating - Course #3/Lesson #2 - The Gift Box

Okay, this was a big one. Lots of preparation, lots of work and a great big payoff. Check out the 'pre-lesson' picture with the prepared cake that I took to class and a few (and I say a 'few') of the items necessary for this class and our completed cake.

Part of the reason for Ashley and I beginning this cake decorating course, was so that we could learn to use fondant. We hadn't really even considered all the flowers, borders and the like that we'd be learning...we thought fondant....yippee! We'll learn to decorate cakes using fondant and that'll be fun. Little did we know how much fun we'd have, how much work would go into it, how rewarding each and every completed cake would be and yes, how much it would cost (!). But we have, it has been, it 'totally' is and yes, again it is, but it's been worth every penny...I mean $$. We've created beautiful cakes much to the delight of our co-workers, neighbors and Blake ;-)

Check out my completed project (another strawberry flavored cake) and the rose that we made tonite. I think we have 40 of these roses to make for out final cake project which btw is a 2-tier wedding type cake. I'm thinking I need to get started right away!!!



As some of you have already read and/or heard, we have been working out the details of starting our own cake decorating company, Treasured Cakes. We've already received a few orders - much to our delight. We're official now, but are in the process of working on getting our website up and getting business cards. We'll pass those on once we have them. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, yes, yes, yes...working with fondant is every bit as awesome as we'd hoped it would be (although I'm not sure it'd be called tasty) and we are looking forward to our future classes and the opportunity to learn even more using this particular technique and many, many more!