cake!

I would like to begin by explaining the fate of my previous 3 two-layer cakes.

Cake one was a mountain dew pineapple cake (yay Cake Doct0r) for my mom's birthday. The cake fell and so the pineapple topping was more like soup in a cake bowl. It tasted yummy though.

Cake two was a box birthday cake for my sweet husband. I had just gotten my icing tips and I wanted to make something beautiful. It ended up breaking in half, and while I was slathering icing over the crumbs to "put it back together" and sobbing, while occasionally falling in the middle of the floor.... Jacob finally took it from me and threw it away.

Cake three was another Cake Doctor attempt - this time at a Strawberry cake, for my mother in law's birthday. This one not only got the soup bowl effect, but it tasted like strawberry powdered milk. Not my best evening...

So onward to cake four. I decided to offer to bring a carrot cake to my grandmother's house for Easter, because I had seen this very cute decorating video on allrecipes.com that I wanted to try. Given the fate of my previous three cakes, I thought I'd do a trial run this weekend, and if it succeeded, take it to a friend's party later.

Yaaaaay!!! (Note, my husband has insinuated that objects in pictures may actually be less lovely than they appear.)

But I would just like to proudly state that this cake is totally covered in frosting, the carrots resemble carrots and there is no huge dip in the center. I win the cake making game. :)

And if you'd like them, here are the recipes for Carrot Cake, and colored frosting (although the frosting was a little slippery... and a how to decorate video.

Gardening in 1975

Last night Jake and I went up to a local college. After visiting a comic book store, a used bookstore and my second ever Bubble Tea (much tastier than the first time I tried it.), I came home with a book on vegetable gardening. First of all, there are not very many books on vegetable gardening... Hundreds and hundreds of books about flowers, but if you wanna grow some food, you are on your own.

I started reading mine in bed last night. The author keeps talking about how vegetable gardening is gaining popularity due to the energy crisis and the high cost of food, not to mention the economic downturn... this book was written in 1975.

So I spent a little time on wikipedia this morning: 1975 - Watergate had just happened, and the Vietnam War, which had started almost 15 years previously, would FINALLY end that year in April. There was of course the ongoing Cold War, and they started Daylight Savings time in February because of an energy crisis. Wheel of Fortune started that year, which I thought was kinda fun. The world population was only 4 billion (we're at 6.8 billion now.) Apple Computer would be founded the next year and they're about to land on Mars.

And apparently, people liked to grow their own food.

I've already learned a lot from this book, but mostly, it's kinda fun to be connected to the gardening divas from 35 years ago.

Oh, and I have several sprouting cucumbers and romaine lettuces inside already!!!! :-)

Chicken Tetrazzini

Currently Playing: Memories Are Made Of This - Dean Martin

Tonight, I tried Lauren's recipe for Chicken Tetrazzini. Jacob and I were both getting sick of the ginormous lasagna I made this weekend and I thought I was going to scream if I had one more tomato based food item.














I added extra minced onions, because I was actually dicing and sauteing a fresh onion, and because Jacob has some Italian heritage, I added red pepper flakes. (he tells me this is the way an Italian dish ought to be eaten.) Lauren, what kind of cheese do you use? We used Swiss because I accidentally bought some a few weeks back so I had it on hand...

Lauren- two thumbs up!! Thanks so much for this delicious recipe!

Worms...

Currently Playing: The Bird and the Worm - Owl City

I just bought a half pound of worms. Red Wrigglers, they're called. Ew. So why, exactly, would I have done that? Because Jacob and I have been composting for awhile now... but there are two types of composting. Worm kind and microorganism kind. We were trying for the microorganism kind, but there are 2 key elements:

• warmth (you only need about 50 degrees)
• and air

We tried to get air by drilling holes in our composting container and shaking it every day so that it flipped around and got air in there... but we have learned that:

• Time + Warmth + Not Enough Air = SMELLY microorganisms...
  

(apparently if we had gotten enough air, the nice smelling microorganisms will compost your food for you. Seriously.)

However, worm composting is faster... worms can compost half their body weight a day... sooo... my 1/2 pound of worms can compost 1/4 pound of food a day. And make baby worms. Yay!

So while this may be more than you ever wanted to learn about my garbage (and smelly composting bin)... well, that's just too bad for you, I guess. :)

Couch to 5k!

Currently Playing: Such Great Heights - Postal Service


I heard about this c25k thing a few weeks ago and I wanted to try it. The idea is you take people like me - easily frustrated, hate working out, and completely out of shape, and in 9 weeks, they're running 5 kilometers (or about 30 full minutes.)


So far I've completed 2 days and it's amazing. You alternate running and walking and me and my doggie run together, and I can actually do it! I downloaded one of the c25k apps for my itouch (it announces when to switch, but it still lets you listen to your own music while you go, which is a big plus.)

I really struggle with self image... I guess a lot of us girls do. But I either attempt some obsessive diet for a few days, or else eat tons of junk food. My husband is extremely encouraging and always tells me that I'm his beautiful girl, but I still struggle. The great thing about this running thing is that I feel so sore and SO GOOD when I get home. It helps my attitude, it helps my hormones and it helps my self image.

A Garden Girl

Currently Playing: Grapevine Fires by Death Cab For Cutie

Ever since I was a little girl and I read the American Girl Doll books about Molly and her Victory Garden... I have wanted to grow my own vegetables. My mother in law gave me some seeds so I went ahead and seeded them today (in the middle of my living room, haha.) I'm so excited! I've got (if they all come in)

• 7 Yellow Bell Pepper plants
• 10 Jalepeno Pepper plants
• 3 Watermelon plants
  
• 3 Early Girl Tomato plants
  
• 3 Big Boy Tomato plants
  
• 4 Sweet 100 Tomato plants
  
• 9 Cucumber plants
  
• 10 Celery plants
• 8 Spinach plants
  
• 12 Romaine Lettuce plants
  
• 3 Cilantro plants

I am really nervous that I'll kill everything, but hopefully some of these will grow up to be yummy food. I just can't imagine how proud I'll be to know that the cucumber on the table was grown by me!! I can't wait to move into our new house and get these little seedlings planted. It meets all of my goals of being frugal, healthy and enjoying a new fun hobby!


Cost: Seeds = free (from my Mother in law who had extras); Jiffy Profession Greenhouse =$5.50. Water can = $2.00. Total: $7.50

How To: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/directory.html <-- my vegetable bible... -Domestic Diva