enjoy every moment

Today I went to my goddaughter's 6th birthday party at Scooter's Jungle. She is the sweetest, most polite little kid with the prettiest smile and the perfect princess wave -- hey, it's her birthday, which makes her the princess, and she can wave if she wants to ;)

We went down the giant slide over and over and over together, laughing all the way down. Then she'd say, "Let's go again!" and start back up the stairs. So we would. When the party was over and I left, she got the biggest hug ever.

Then I came home and checked Facebook for the first time today. Everywhere there were lists of the names of the 6-and-7-year-olds and their teachers who that stupid, selfish fuckhead gunned down yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut. None of them will get to go down the giant slide or bounce off the walls of a bounce house again. And that makes me SO angry.

I could go on a tirade about guns, but I'm sick to my stomach of hearing about them over the last 24 hours.

Instead, I will say enjoy every moment you have with the people you love. Life is too short.

May those 26 new angels in heaven rest in peace. And may their families, whose hearts are irreparably broken, somehow find the strength to go on.

random thoughts on 121212

I'm watching the 121212 concert for Hurricane Sandy relief tonight and having a lot of random thoughts I'm going to document here because there is no one in my living room at the moment to share them with. I apologize in advance. I'm in a snarky mood. But to make up for my snarkiness, let me remind you that you can buy music from the concert here on iTunes, with all proceeds going to the Robin Hood Foundation. (Hopefully that will keep me from going to hell for what's about to occur ;)

First, one non-snarky comment: This is the first time I've heard Springsteen and The E Street Band play live since Clarence Clemons passed away. "Born to Run" just isn't the same without The Big Man on sax :(

Now, let the snark begin:

Kristen Stewart needs to fire her stylist right now.

Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen should not duet together anymore. They don't sing in the same key. Jon messed up "Born to Run." Bruce messed up "Who Says You Can't Go Home."
-- Sincerely, a huge fan of both Jersey Boys... separately.

Why were the only musicians who played this benefit OLD? The Who, Clapton, Springsteen, McCartney, The Stones, Billy Joel. Even Bon Jovi is now all officially 50+. Do the organizers think fans of people under 25 have no cash to donate? Or did Taylor Swift and One Direction have a hot date tonight? (Not that I actually want to hear Taylor Swift and One Direction, mind you. But maybe the concert could've been on network TV if they had an act or two that wasn't a member of the AARP. Just a thought considering the goal of this whole thing was to raise money.)

Also interesting that they were all either from the tri-state area (not surprising since that's where the hurricane hit) or Great Britain.

Alicia Keys looks to have hired Victoria Beckham's hair stylist. OOOH! Alicia's under 40. There's one! She's also from NYC.

Did Roger Daltry really think unbuttoning his shirt to show off his waxed, fake-n-baked 70-year-old chest was a good idea?

Okay, Kayne West is now rapping. The "one of these things is not like the others" song is playing in my head.

So this Nirvana reunion thing with Sir Paul McCartney singing... ummmm. Let's just say I never really liked Nirvana. And that fact has not changed tonight.

This was, I am fairly certain, the longest concert ever.

baking-palooza 2012 - day 3

Today's "Baking-palooza 2012" session was a short one... just one item on the agenda: adding frosting to the cupcakes I baked last night. (And thank goodness.... I'm kinda baked out ;) 

My friend Diana came over with her cake decorating gadgets, specifically her coupler and decorating tips, and made me realize I've been really stupid frosting cupcakes with a knife or spatula all these years. Stuffing frosting into a decorating bag and squeezing it out into pretty, fluffy designs not only looks better as a finished product, but it's faster, easier and more fun that spreading frosting the old-school way. 

During today's decorating lesson, we used one decorating tip for all the cupcakes and I made two different designs -- the swirl (left below) and what I shall call stars (or from the angle of the photo below on the right, Hershey's kisses ;)

"The Swirl" 

Stars (or Hershey's kisses)

Decorating two dozen cupcakes with frosting and then holiday spinkles took a grand total of about nine minutes. I shall never frost with a spatula again... and I can't wait until Christmas Eve when I make my big Christmas cake! Gotta buy my own coupler before then ;)

Cupcakes - After Photo, with sprinkles

baking-palooza 2012 - day 2

Day 2 Group Shot

"Baking-palooza 2012" continued today with day 2 of cookies. 

The Sugar Cookie and Chocolate Crinkle dough I prepped last night for overnight chillin' was joined on the agenda by Snickerdoodles.

Today's common theme: "Cookies that are messy to make." (Powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar and sprinkles... oh my :)

Read on for my cookie commentary and stay tuned for "Baking-palooza 2012 - Day 3" tomorrow... I'm getting a lesson in fancy cupcake decorating!

*Again, Please Note: Recipes linked to are not necessarily the friends & family recipes I used, but are close enough :)

Sugar Cookies

For something that seems oh-so-simple, these cookies are the biggest pain. Maybe that's because they involve a rolling pin. And artistic talent, which I don't have when cookie icing and decorating pens are involved. That said, I do think my snowmen cookies came out cute. The frosting pen and my star-shaped cookies did not like each other though. And by the time I got to the Christmas tree-shaped cookies, I was sick of the pen and just dyed the icing green and dumped sugar sprinkles on top.

Chocolate Crinkles

I make these from my Aunt Trudi's recipe every year. They are soft, chewy, chocolate, powdered-sugary-deliciousness. They are also chocolate, powdered-sugary-messiness to prepare. :) But having to scrape layers of chocolate and powdered sugar off my palms is worth it. 

This year, I actually read how many cookies the recipe is supposed to produce, and realized I've been making these too large for a long time. So for those of you who eat these each year, don't be shocked when you see what I shall lovingly refer to as 2012's Mini-Crinkles ;) 

Snickerdoodles

These are the cookies that gave me my upper body workout today, which consisted of quickly waving dish towels in front of the smoke detector near my kitchen (which legally has to be there next to the door to the master bedroom) in order to stop it from going off over and over and over again as the parchment paper these bake on got a little crispy around the edges.

Other than the noise, these are pretty simple to make. ;)  I usually double the recipe (I have a whole jar of cream of tartar taking up space on my spice shelf and these are all I use it on... I'd like to get rid of it before 2022 ;)

baking-palooza 2012 - day 1

Day 1 Group Photo on the Cooling Rack

Today marked the start of "Baking-Palooza 2012." Yay! 

This year, "Baking-Palooza" is being split into a three-day event because :

a) baking dozens and dozens of at least four types of cookies and baking cupcakes in one day (as I've done in previous years) is exhausting and... 

b) let's admit it, I've got the time this year ;) 

That said, I'm raising the stakes and making six different cookies this year. 

Today, I completed three of the six, totaling about 9.5 dozen cookies. The common thread was peanut butter and/or chocolate :)

I also prepped the dough for the Chocolate Crinkles and Sugar Cookies I will shape and bake tomorrow after the dough has chilled overnight. 

Here's the scoop + yummy food photos for today's batches:

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies*

These are super easy, as long as you remember to unwrap your Hershey's Kisses before you take the cookies out of the oven. Because once the cookies come out, you have a very limited amount of time to stick the kisses in them before they harden. I am proud to say that this year, I remembered to do this ;)


*Note: Recipes linked to are not necessarily the friends & family recipes I used, but are close enough :)

 

Peanut Butter Truffle Cookies

Also super-easy! And a great, quick way to get rid of the peanut butter in your pantry that you bought back in June because you wanted to make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich... and then never did. 

Entertainment Bonus: These look a LOT like chocolate chip cookies (since have chocolate chips in them). So it can be very entertaining to watch people react to the bite of peanut butter they thought was something else. (Of course, some people have peanut allergies, so to purposely feed these to random strangers for your own amusement would be evil and irresponsible.)

Celiacs Take Note: These cookies have no wheat and are therefore gluten-free. That means my friend Susie, who was also at one time allergic to lettuce, can eat these. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Not really a Christmas cookie, but a classic. Also something that comes in tubes of refrigerated dough that someone might have had sitting in the bottom drawer of her fridge and decided to throw in the oven while it was conveniently already heated to 350 degrees. (I'm making five other cookies. Gimme a break on this one cheat :)

"oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree..."

"... I really should've gotten a bigger version of you." Oh well.....

I get a live tree each year and it's always a gamble trying to find the perfect noble fir that is full enough to not look like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, yet has enough space between branches for my long, dangly ornaments plus enough strong branches for my heavy glass-blown ornaments. This year I went to three places looking for a tree. I found the almost-perfect tree at Home Depot for at least $20 less than the private tree lots charge. But alas, its needles were yellowing and I knew it would be dead at least a week before Christmas. The tree guy looked at me like I was nuts and then sold the tree to a couple who didn't even check for the freshness of the needles. They will be regretting that purchase by December 20th, mark my words. 

Anyhoo, my tree came from the "Oliver Holt Sons and Daughters" private lot I've gone to for at least the last five years that keeps moving farther and farther away from my house. (They used to be in a lot across the street from my grocery store/vet/Starbucks, which is now a gas station. This year they are located near the Northridge mall.) They had a good selection and I picked out a really full, green 5.5 footer and was really happy with my purchase till yesterday when I was decorating it and was running out of space for long, dangly ornaments. Thus, the very bottom of my tree is SO decorated! I'm sure if my cats weren't old and lazy, they'd be having a field day with those ornaments. Instead, they are spending their time figuring out paths through the presents to get under the tree stand and sleep/hide. I thought I'd done a good job blocking them out until five minutes ago when I saw Lily's tail sticking out from under the tree skirt. Oh well... that seems to be a theme with this tree. ;)

Bare tree, pre-lights

Step 1: My least fave part - stringing the lights 

Step 2: Unpacking & hanging ALL of my ornaments (and I have a LOT!)
I think I have enough snowman ornaments now though ;)
(Note: this isn't even all the snowmen!)

Step 3: Add all the presents I wrapped last week.
(Yes, I know you hate me :P)

"raindrops on roses..."

I love the fact that it's December 1st and my ginormous rose bush is still blooming. I cut this beauty and brought it inside so I can enjoy its lovely smell just after I finished putting up my outdoor Christmas decorations this morning. Gotta love Southern California, even on a rainy weekend :)