Gestures

Thanksgiving Day Post...

2009-11-28T23:44:00.007-05:00

Every year I take on the task of preparing the Thanksgiving day feast. Although it has been an enjoyable task, it had also been incredibly exhausting. There are a lot of steps that go into preparing a large meal and it is easy to forget one. This year was different. The one thing that made this year different was having my mom here. I really can not recall the last time I was with one of my immediate family members for a holiday. Usually by the time Thanksgiving dinner is finally prepared I am exhausted and there are dishes up to the ceiling. My mom was a huge help and I loved making memories in the kitchen, have a look:

Of course I would use nothing other than Martha Stewart recipes. I used Turkey 101 for our delicious turkey.

The recipe starts off by soaking your turkey in a brine. Every time I make this brine the scent fills the house and immediately reminds me of Thanksgiving.

Working at the various cooking jobs I have and watching a lot of cooking shows I have learned what you can and should make in advance. The pies (pecan, pumpkin pie and pumpkin praline cheesecake) were all made in advance.

I loved showing my mom how easy it is to make piecrust in the food processor and the fillings are just as easy. There is really no reason to buy frozen pies. Actually, my mom's pie crust came out beautiful and mine came out looking like I made it in some back alley.

We used Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie recipe and the pies came out so delicious!

I woke up early on Thanksgiving morning to take the turkey out of the brine. It has to sit out and come to temperature before placing it in the oven. Just like last year the poor turkey came out of the brine looking almost purple.

No Stove Top for us. I cubed two loaves of Italian bread and let them dry on the counter for a few days and of course Martha Stewart's Classic Stuffing recipe was used. What did not fit into the neck and tail end of the turkey was baked separately in a buttered casserole dish.

Here is Ma cutting up 1/2 of the onions for the stuffing.

The turkey was stuffed in the neck and tail ends baker's twine was then used to truss the turkey. Trussing is done to make the turkey more compact and ensure even baking. The wing tips are turned under and the legs are tied close to the body. If the wings and legs are left away from the body they would finish cooking way before the rest of the turkey and most likely become way too dry. Turkey 101 does not require a baking bag or foil to cover the turkey, instead cheesecloth soaked in two sticks of butter and a bottle of wine is draped over the bird.

As an alternative to regular green bean casserole we used Everyday Food Magazine's green bean casserole. I thought the recipe was okay, but the mushroom sauce was a bit to runny for my liking. Maybe I should have cooked it a bit longer so it was thicker.

Here is the cheesecloth covered turkey after a few hours. The browned cheesecloth is removed and the turkey bakes a bit longer to brown and cook more. I placed foil over the parts of the turkey which I though were browning too quickly.

Of course Lucy was in the kitchen carefully supervising our cooking. She was willing to clean up any wayward scraps. I also had to include a picture of my beautiful Martha Stewart Collection turkey platter which I found on sale at Macy's a few years ago.

When the turkey was done we placed it on the platter an garnished with persimmons, grapes, parsley, sage and starfruit. I must say out of all of the turkeys I have made this one was beautiful.

Since I am a vegetarian I have never tasted my turkey. My mom was willing to carve the bird here she is with her birthday apron. Well since I am a vegetarian and have never tasted my turkey I must rely on everyone's comments to gauge how well I did. My mom said it was the most moist turkey she had ever had and everyone else said it was so delicious.

Everyone was sooooo stuffed when dinner was ready, but none of us could resist dessert. There was pumpkin praline cheesecake, pumpkin pie and pecan pie (all from scratch) I also heard someone say, "Oh there is nothing like homemade whipped cream!"

This may seem like a bit much, but it was so helpful. My mom said that she liked the way that I had everything planned to be ready at dinner time. I actually wrote out a schedule on the dry erase board in my kitchen and it helped a lot. I had everything planned by the hour and it worked great.

I told my mom today THANK YOU for helping make this Thanksgiving special. I told her that I was not thanking her for helping me make pies, shopping for ingredients or cleaning up my mess. I told her I meant thank you for just being here, I said that it was the best Thanksgiving I have had in years and it was better by just having her here by my side and making memories with me.

Last Day at New Job...

2009-11-08T20:00:00.006-05:00

I was so nervous to start working at my new job in a restaurant downtown. Between three jobs I worked really hard and some days were very long. To be honest I liked my jobs, but I felt like all I was doing with my life was sleeping and working. Any time I had off of work I was sleeping. I came to the realization that I was not enjoying my days and was working every minute of my life away. After some strong encouragement from Brian I made the decision to go back to school.

In January it is my plan to start the Master's program in Hospitality & Tourism Management. I would be doing this with the goal of teaching in some capacity. I believe that every single one of us are teachers and I personally find extreme joy teaching others. My last day was this Friday. It has been so nice to have a day off with time to enjoy my day, my house and my family. I have been making dinner and playing with the pups, decorating for the holidays and various other things that I did not have time or energy for.

I made dinner the other day. Have a look:

I decided to make Ina Garten's Lemon & Garlic Roast Chicken . It was easy to make and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

I used organic vegetables and an all natural chicken.

A rack is usually used to raise the chicken off of the bottom of the pan and ensure even cooking. A good way to make a side dish and not use a rack is to line the bottom of your dish with veggies. I used carrots, onions and Yukon gold potatoes.

The chicken needed to be washed.

Here is the chicken all rinsed and patted dry.

Here is the poor chicken standing on its neck. The inside cavity is generously salted and peppered and then filled with an entire head of garlic cut in half lengthwise and two lemons.

I then tucked the wings under and tied his little legs with twine. This ensures even cooking.

The chicken was then rubbed with butter and lined with bacon.

I also made mashed potatoes.

Here is the beautifully browned roasted chicken.

I cut it up and put it on a platter with the vegetables.

I also made bread pudding and served it with Haagen-Das Five Brown Sugar ice cream.

And of course Lucy looked interested in the bread pudding. Look at her teeny ears flopped back!

That meal was a few days ago. I am going to miss the creative freedom that I was given at my old job, but I have noticed a desire to cook and bake more at home. Tonight I made eggplant and chicken parmesan, lemony asparagus, pasta and an apple upside cake with homemade caramel mousse. I AM SO FULL! HAVE A LOOK AT THE CAKE:

I know this life decision will be a challenge, but I know it will make me a better person and I know that I can do it. I hope everyone has a happy week... Tomorrow is Monday :(

Happy Birthday Ma!

2009-10-24T22:22:00.002-04:00

My mother's birthday is this coming Monday, but the restaurant we wanted to take her to is not open that day so we decided to take her today. I know I had a great time trying to make this day for her as special as possible. Everyone asks her what her secret is to looking young and having nice skin and her response is, "Pond's Cold Cream." I had a great time, I hope she did too. Have a look:

We went to eat at Combine Brothers in Hermitage, PA. The food there is wonderful and they give you tons of it!

Here is my beautiful mother!

Haha! This picture cracks me up! In the photo I was trying to show how huge the rolls are and I was using my mom's head as a comparison! I think she thought I was going to throw it at her and knock her out...

I am a pastry chef and a cake decorator so I have learned a thing or two about decorating cakes fast. Last night Brian took my mom with him to pick up some take out. While they were gone in about an hour I baked a Pineapple Carrot Cake from scratch and cream cheese icing. When they got home I hid the cake to cool and put the frosting in our refrigerator in the basement. I made my mom the same cake that I requested for my birthday. We both love carrot cake. Oh yeah and my mom was quite proud that her sparklers set off the smoke alarms!

My sister Marcie introduced my mom to the world of frothed milk on your coffee. Since then my mom was on a hunt for a milk frother. I found one for her as one of her gifts.

We also gave her a cha-cha apron which looks more like a party dress than an apron. She loved it!

I decorated this cake IN THE BASEMENT after I came home from work. It did not take long and I think it came out great!

I used a beautiful antique cake pedestal, which was given to me by my wonderful friends Steph and Jeff

It was so delicious!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Around the House: Halloween Edition

2009-10-21T16:30:00.003-04:00

Oh my God is all I can say about the past few weeks. I wrote a blog post back in July of 2008 titled Hello Life, How I've Missed You. I feel like another one of those blog posts is necessary. For those of you who do not know I have 2.5 jobs. I work at a supermarket as a cake decorator, I also work as a Pastry Chef for a posh restaurant downtown creating desserts and confections. In the past four days I worked close to 40 hours. I worked at the supermarket in the morning and in the evening I had to make desserts for parties and buffets at the restaurant. Brownies for 150 with only one day notice and desserts for over 600. There were some days that my feet hurt so bad that I wanted to cry and there were times that I was so stressed that I wanted to cry some more. I made it through that and I have learned a lot and have made some good life decisions (which I will discuss later).

In all of the craziness we still found time to decorate the house for Halloween. Have a look at some of the events and pictures from around here.

Here is Lucy posing by the Cinderella pumpkin trying to stay warm wearing her skeleton Halloween shirt.

She was nice enough to let her brother and sister join in her Fall photo shoot!

It is true that buying pumpkins for Halloween is addicting and this year is no exception.

Here is our dining room table. Of course there is no where to eat, but there is plenty of glittered items including two Halloween trees, glittered skulls and pumpkins.

Last year I made one of these Halloween trees and it sold at a craft show. I was so sad because I wanted it for me. Ma and I each made one.

Here is another view of the dining room. Look at the creepy claw in the window, which is of course from Martha Stewart.

A pair of gargoyles waiting to be glittered.

Here is our fireplace and mantle looking the same as it did last year.

Here is a better picture of my Jack-o-clock.

My Ma carved this pumpkin, which is getting spookier as it gets older.

I will never get tired of the glittered skull centerpiece on the dining room table.

An eerie green fleshed pumpkin on the table. It looks like zombie skin!

That Bakerella is quite a lifesaver. I needed to make mini desserts for the buffet at work. I found a recipe for mini cheesecakes on her blog and I used those which were simple and delicious. I garnished them with various items including whipped cream, chocolate mousse, pecans, cherries, toasted coconut and caramel.

I had to make about 7 of these platters.

I did a few trays of brownies with whipped cream, mousse and caramel.

And pumpkin pie squares too!

I must apologize for such a long absence from posting. Lately I have just had energy to work and sleep. I am hopeful that it will change soon!

A Good Day...

2009-10-03T20:17:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to post some quick pictures from our pumpkin picking excursion today. My friend Connie told us about a pumpkin patch in Cortland by her house. She said that the lady who grows the pumpkin had all kinds of pumpkins and warty ones too! Anyone who knows me should know that I am a big Martha Stewart fan. A few years ago Martha proclaimed her love for warty and nubbly pumpkins so of course I love them too!

There were so many varieties and sizes of pumpkins to choose from.

Here was the largest field of pumpkins, but don't be fooled they had hundreds more.

We were provided with a wagon to collect pumpkins with. Here is the gang.

Brian was assigned to wagon pulling and pumpkin heaving.

Now these are the kind of pumpkins that I was interested in.

My mom walked the rows looking for the perfect pumpkin.

This monster pumpkin was only 7 dollars!

I told my mom that I was going to buy a warty pumpkin and she said NOOOOOO. She said she would not come out of her room if it was in the house or she would put a handkerchief over it when we were not home so she would not have to see it. I took a picture to remind her of it!

Here are all of the pumpkins we chose, THEY ARE ADDICTING! Fellow blogger and friend Bridgette said today, "I need more pumkins!!"

I had such a nice time today, I hope everyone else did too!

Sugar Cookies...

2009-10-01T22:17:00.003-04:00

Today was a good day. My Ma and I shopped, stopped for coffee and then came home and created some lovely sweets. I was fortunate to have a full day off today, unlike most days I am either at one job or the other. We stopped by a cake decorating shop suggested to me by my co-worker and friend Connie. The place was called the Sugar Shack in Niles, OH and it was great. The woman working there was very friendly and they carried items that I have not been able to find locally.

After we returned home we began baking and decorating sugar cookies. Have a look:

I purchased a few different Halloween cookie cutters including a tombstone, pumpkin and extra large pumpkin.

I used the sugar cookie recipe off of Martha's website. Whenever this recipe is featured on The Martha Stewart Show, Martha staff member Dani Fiori uses. Her cookies are so cute!

In leu of using flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the counter the recipe suggests rolling the dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap. The plastic wrap trick worked beautifully.

Here I am cutting out sugary tombstones.

After baking the cookies they needed to cool for a while.

Brian has a meeting at work tomorrow and he requested some type of sweet to take. I made him applesauce cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting. I found these cute little orange cupcake liners.

The cupcakes call for unsweetened applesauce. We did not have any applesauce at home so we made our own out of Honeycrisp apples from White House Fruit Farm. After the cupcakes cooled I frosted them and sprinkled them with various orange and black sprinkles and sugars.

Here are all of the cupcakes ready to be devoured tomorrow. I hope they like them.

Back to sugar cookies, we used royal icing tinted in various colors to decorate the sugar cookies. They came out so cute and were fun to decorate.

These black cats were iced black and then dipped in black sanding sugar.

Here are a few of my favorite sugar cookies. I think they came out so cute and delicious too!

I love how the tombstone cookies came out. We bought sugar eyeballs at Sugar Shack and used them. They were so cute on the spider cookie, but they make the cat look like it had way too much coffee.

These cookies were delicious and so fun to make. I can not wait to make some for Christmas.

Rock Out with Your Cake Out: Claribel's Guitar Cake

2009-09-26T23:16:00.003-04:00

Our former tenant Rachel messaged me the other day asking if I could make a cake for her girlfriend Claribel's birthday. Claribel loves guitars and also plays. Rachel wanted a guitar cake made out of chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream. This cake was so much fun to construct. Have a look:

I had to make a template so I could carve the cake into a guitar shape.

The cake was double layered. My mom and I had to do some construction to cut out the cake board to hold the the pieces of the guitar together. Once I had the cake trimmed we had to cut out some squares in the middle which would have wooden pieces. These wooden pieces were there to enable us to screw guitar strings into the cake.

The cake was then covered with homemade chocolate buttercream and put onto the cake board.

We made black marshmallow fondant and covered the cake. After we added the black layer we were then able to start adding the details.

We used different food colorings to paint the various knobs and switches. I absolutely loved how it was coming together.

Here is the guitar painted with a wood grain and ready to be strung with wire.

We then added guitar strings from eye hooks on the body of the guitar to eye hooks on the neck.

Here is an aerial shot of the guitar.

I think Claribel liked the cake and was surprised.

After working so hard on this cake it was hard to watch it get sliced and devoured.

Here are Rachel and John getting a piece of cake.

This cake was so fun to make. My mom and I kept on commenting how we loved making it and how it just came together very well, unlike the Statue of Liberty Cake.

It has been a long day and I have to work early tomorrow so I am keeping the text portion of this post short, but please enjoy the pictures and leave comments of your opinions of the cake!

Plotting My Death...

2009-09-19T20:49:00.002-04:00

I just had to post these pictures of the pups in their favorite Halloween costumes. Okay they hated them, were deathly afraid of them and were plotting my death the entire time I was taking these pictures. Have a look:

Now here is our hound dog Charlie. These devil horns should be a permanent part of Charlie's head because he is awful. If there is something to get into then he will get into it. If there is something that you value then he will shred it to bits. Here is Charlie as the Devil otherwise known as Charlie.

Since Lucy is a mini Dachshund I figured this hotdog costume would be appropriate. It looked so big in the store, but when I got it home it fit her more like a saddle than a costume. She was petrified after I put this on her and she would not move. I think she just went to her happy place in her head.

Sofia wanted in on the action too. Once I put this costume on her she immediately gave me hardcore side eye.

Fall is quickly approaching and it has been pretty exciting prepping the house for Halloween. The Fall wreath is on the front door, Ma and I made Halloween trees and the weather is getting much cooler. Here is a photo of the Martha Halloween Jack-o-Lantern clock. I used a styrofoam pumpkin which I found at target for $10.00. I also used a real clock movement inside so the clock actually works. I had it on the mantle until a gust of wind came and blew it off so I will have to fix it tomorrow.

Happy Fall!

State of Liberty Cake challenge

2009-09-13T23:14:00.005-04:00

This weekend we had a cake order for a Statue of Liberty Cake. The cake was for a little boy who is in love with Lady Liberty, he refers to her as Lisa. This cake was a challenge to do since it was the first time we tried an upright cake sculpted out of fondant, buttercream and rice krispies. Have a look...

Here is the sketch I came up with for the concept of the cake.

My mom and I at Home Depot looking for pipes and fittings was quite a sight to see. We needed supplies to create the support structure for Lady Liberty. After about 1/2 an hour we found some pvc pipes and elbow joints. We trimmed and cleaned the pipe then started to build the rice krispy treats around the structure. It was sort of like brick laying using buttercream as the mortar.

Here is her internal structure. After we were happy with the shape we coated her with buttercream and let her firm up.

We tinted some marshmallow fondant to match the real Statue of Liberty and used it to cover the rice krispy statue.

I do not know how those cake decorators on Food Network Challenge do it it was so stressful making this! Her left shoulder started to slouch and fall down. It was frustrating and I did get a little upset, but after walking away for a while and coming back we were able to fix her slouching shoulder, oh yeah and a shot of vodka. Here is the Statue after we had her done.

We gave her a coat of green luster dust.

I was told that the little boy loved Lisa. Here she is at his party behind the chocolate cake we made. My mom made little boats to put in the harbor. I think its pretty close to the sketch.

A Day Off....

2009-09-09T17:44:00.004-04:00

It has recently become a rare occasion for me to a day off at both of my jobs on the same day. That day is tomorrow and I am so excited to have a ay off of both jobs! Today was a good day I found out at one of my jobs that I do not have to complete a really big task which is a big relief off of my shoulders.

At work I had to make a cake for a party. I wanted to make it look really nice so I put a lot of detail work on it which took my entire shift.
Here is a picture of the side of the cake...

We have a lot of tomatoes ripen at once in our garden so my mom and I had to do something with them. Yesterday we went to Brian's dad Ronnie's house and he let us pick some tomatoes from his garden too. Have a look.

We blanched and peeled the tomatoes to get them ready to preserve.

Seeds are the most bitter part of the tomato so we had to remove them by gently squeezing the peeled tomatoes. While removing the seeds we collected the juice using a strainer in a bowl.

We put the peeled tomatoes in the food processor for a quick pulse.

Viola! We have crushed tomatoes for sauce, salsa or whatever else we can use them for.

Look at all of the juice we collected. My mom is going to use it for soups and/or spanish rice.

Here are all of the tomatoes, we divided them into 28 oz portions of crushed and 2 cup portions of juice. All of these containers went directly into the freezer for later use.

A weekend of Cakes and Welcome Back Internets!

2009-09-05T17:34:00.003-04:00

At our house we've not had the internet for over two months and that time has been hell! You really do not know how much you take something for granted until you do not have it anymore. I have missed blogging so much and have missed keeping up with my fellow bloggers and various other friends online. So with that said I just wanted to give a quick explanation of my lack of blogging lately.

As far as cakes go we have been busy here with a few cake orders every weekend. It is so great to have repeat orders and to hear people rave about how the cakes tasted and how they helped make someone's day a little more special. Our friend Tara needed another cake, same flavor, but Dora themed. When the cake is for a child I love to put a toy on so the child has something to play with after the cake is gone. I saw a cake similar to this in a catalog at work so I placed Dora's house on a cute landscape (underneath which is chocolate cake with caramel filling and chocolate buttercream).

Our other friend Kris' daughter is celebrating her birthday today. They requested a tie-dyed orange cake with peace signs on top. I was so excited to do the cake, but being that I am still learning and do not have an airbrush of my own I was facing a challenge. Brian suggested I use multiple flavors of marshmallow fondant and swirl them together. They worked together well and created a neat effect. I hope Miranda has a wonderful birthday and enjoys the cake!

On a more personal note today is my partner Brian's birthday. I had a challenge of making him a cake for his birthday too. Luckily he worked so I was able to run home after I worked and get his cake decorated. Anyone who knows my Brian knows that he loves chicken nuggets and peanut butter. I didn't think a chicken nugget cake would taste too delicious so I opted for peanut butter. I had such fun making this cake, I was aiming for super decadence. We are going to need big glasses of milk to wash it down! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!

Lightning "McQuinn" Cars Themed Cake

2009-08-21T21:40:00.002-04:00

I would have to say that Brian is my #1 fan. He is always bragging about everything I do and has more pride and confidence in my skills than I do. One of his friends from elementary school contacted him and asked if I would be interested in making a Lightning McQueen cake for her son Quinn's Birthday. I did a bit of research online and found some pictures. My mom is such a great help. She bought me a small Lightning McQueen toy car to use as a model. It was great fun making the cake, have a look:

Brian's friend wanted white cake for the car on top of the cake and chocolate for the bottom. I baked the cakes and then had to carve McQueen out of cake.

After the car was carved I had to crumb coat it. This layer of buttercream helps the homemade marshmallow fondant stick to the cake.

Here is the vibrant red fondant rolled out and ready to cover the cake.

Here is the cake covered, the fondant then had to be smoothed into place.

McQueen really started to show once I added the eyes and mouth.

I printed McQueen's decals on edible rice paper. They came out wonderful!

McQueen is on a double layer chocolate half sheet cake with chocolate buttercream. YUM!

Close up!

I hope they like the cake. HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUINN!

Sunday Night Dinner....

2009-08-16T20:15:00.003-04:00

I have been busy at work lately so I have not had a lot of time to blog. There has been plenty going on around here just not a lot of time or energy to blog lately. My friend Brooke needed a cake for the Marquee awards happening so my mom and I were happy to oblige. The day prior to making the cake we took a day trip to Pittsburgh. While in Pittsburgh we found some Martha Stewart Collection cake stencils and we got to use them on the cake, have a look:

We gave them a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. We used the stencils and cocoa powder to embellish the cake.

Here is a view from the top. We all agreed that it came out lovely and hope they liked it.

At Rosetta I had to make 140 mini quiche. Making all of those quiche had me craving some quiche of my own. Here are some pictures of the quiche being made.

I wanted to make two different quiche. I started by making Martha's Pate Brisee . I then sauteed some mushrooms and leeks for one of the quiche.

Homemade piec rust is so easy to make and well worth the minimal time it takes. Martha's rule of pie crust is make it cold and bake it hot.

Here is my homemade pie crust.

After my pie crust was formed and chilled I prepared the filling. I made one quiche with leeks, mushrooms and cheddar cheese. The other was grape tomatoes, spring onions and goat cheese.

We had a simple salad with vinaigrette, while the quiche were cooking I made croutons out of asiago cheese rolls. YUM!

Here are the beautiful quiche, which by the way were delicious! Everyone commented about the buttery flaky crust.

They were so good! You should try some making some of your own...

Golf Cake

2009-07-31T20:22:00.003-04:00

I believe that sharing all of the tasty confections that we make is an important part of being a good baker. I am always sending sweets to work with Brian. The other day I received an email from one of Brian's co-workers requesting a red velvet cake for her father's birthday. She said that he loved golf, but his birthday was upcoming weekend, but because of the short notice we could make it any time. I responded to her email and told her that we would be able to accommodate her order and make her dad's birthday special. When I graduated from college it was with the goal of having my own bakery. I was lucky to have my mom move here and help me to achieve my goal. She is/has been a big help, have a look:

Going with the golf theme I drew out a sketch and emailed it back to Tara for approval.

It seems as though red velvet is a very popular flavor. I was so tired when I got home from work today I handed my recipe over to my mom and "supervised" as she made it.

We used gum paste to create golf balls with cute little dimples.

After the cake was baked we frosted it with buttercream and had to make a hole for the golf ball.

We used a grass tip to create a beautiful putting green!

My mom picks up on decorating very quickly. I showed her the grass tip and how to use it. She told me that they did not have grass tips when she was younger. She did an excellent job creating a lawn!

I put a vibrant blue border around the top and bottom.

When the grass was ready we were able to place the ball on the cake.

Here is my mom practicing writing, "I LOVE GOLF!!"

She was soon ready to write it on the cake.

My mom had the idea to use a smaller gum paste golf ball in place of the "o" in the word "golf."

Here is the cake with the writing on the side.

And here is the finished cake all decked out with an 18th hole flag!

I hope her father loves the cake and it helps make his birthday special. My mom had a wonderful time making it and I had a wonderful time sharing tips and tricks for decorating and watching her get excited as the cake took form.

Gimme Some, Some, Some of that Cinnabon...

2009-07-24T21:42:00.003-04:00

I have no idea why, but I've had a craving for Cinnabon. There are no Cinnabons located anywhere close to our neck of the woods so I did some research online and found a recipe that is pretty close. Next time (and I will not lie about the fact that there will be a next time) I will cook them a little less. I baked them for 20 minutes and they should have been cooked for only about 16-17 minutes. The result was delicious and easy cinnamon rolls with a gooey center. Everyone loved them. Have a look:

I first started by using my stand mixer to knead the dough. I love my stand mixer it makes all of my baking tasks much easier.

Once the dough had been kneaded it had to rise for an hour. After an hour passed I rolled the dough out into a large rectangle.

Butter in the dough, butter in the icing and a slathering of butter inside of the rolls.

Once the rectangle of dough was slathered with butter, I generously sprinkled it with brown sugar and cinnamon.

The rectangle was then rolled into a long roll.

The roll was then cut into 16 1" pieces and then placed into a baking pan to rise again for a second time.

While the rolls were rising I made the icing.

Here are the rolls after they were allowed to rise for a half an hour.

After the cinnamon rolls came out of the oven they were ready to be anointed with gooey icing.

Here are the cinnamon rolls after receiving their first slathering of icing. Make no mistake, of course they were covered with a second coat of sugary goodness.

I recommend trying this recipe, the result is sinfully delicious and gooey cinnamon pleasure.

In a Pickle....

2009-07-23T18:25:00.002-04:00

Last weekend my Ma and I went to the Hartville Market. It was such a wonderful experience and some of the deals we were given were just too good to pass up. I taught my mom one of the tips that I learned from shopping at farmers markets, do not buy the first thing that you find. That tip held true because right when we were about to leave we came to a booth with a woman who everyone referred to as "mother." Mother had huge baskets of cucumbers for 3 dollars. When I saw these cucumbers I knew they would be perfect for homemade Amish Garlic Dill Pickles . Mother gave us a bigger deal, she gave us two baskets of cucumbers which weighed about 30 lbs for 5 dollars. When we got them home Ma and I made pickles, have a look:

We have a very big and very deep sink. Here are all of the cucumbers "mother" sold to us.

As I always say, I love the opportunity to teach. My mom had never canned before so I shared with her everything I know about it. I told her the number one rule is to be extremely clean. Here are all of our sterilized jars. Most of these use to be Brian's Mother's jars.

We made a huge pot of flavorful pickling brine.

We made the pickles a bit thicker than in prior years. We used my Pampered chef crinkle cutter until the arthritis set in.

I told my mom that we needed to put enough cucumbers in the jars so there would be enough pickles in the jars after they were done pickling.

Once the jars were filled with brine and cucumbers we used a chopstick my sister Marcie gave me as a gift to poke around in the jars to help all of the air bubbles escape.

Again I stressed to my mom the importance of being clean and sterile. After filling all of the jars we wiped the rims clean.

Here are some of the jars ready to be processed in a water bath.

After about 8-10 minutes the jars needed to be carefully lifted out of the water.

YUMMM PICKLES!

These pickles need to sit for two weeks and after that they will be ready to be devoured and share!

Ronnie's Birthday Fish Cake

2009-07-19T21:29:00.023-04:00

Yesterday was Brian's Dad Ronnie's birthday. One of Ronnie's favorite passtimes is fishing. We decided to have all of the family get together (which doesn't happen often enough) and celebrate. I jumped on the opportunity to improve my cakemaking skills and decided to make Ronnie a widemouth bass fish cake. Have a look:

I first started by researching pictures of bass online. After that I sketched out my design.

in a tribute to Steele Magnolias I just knew the inside cake flavor for the fish had to be red velvet. I started by baking a red velvet cake.

I then sculpted the red velvet cake into some form of a fish.

The fish cake was then crumb coated with delicious homemade buttercream.

I needed the top and tail fins to be hard so I made those in advance.

For the base of the cake we chose marble.

My mom was a big help. I love teaching and learning with her. After we decorated the base of the cake we had to get the bass ready to be placed in his new home. We Covered the fish with scales.

I painted the bass with shading and shimmer.

Here is the finished cake. I just love him! He was delicious too!

EXTREME CLOSE-UP!!

I'll blog later about the fish being fileted at the restaurant as he made the ultimate sacrifice for Ronnie's birthday. There was quite a but of interest from everyone in the restaurant. Strangers were coming up to admire and we had sooooooo much cake we shared with the kitchen! They loved it too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RONNIE!!

Vacation Part 4: Key West

2009-07-06T19:18:00.004-04:00

I can say one thing about Key West. It is hot! It was hot. I would tell Brian, "MY FACE IS MELTING!!!" On one of our excursions out into town we decided to take the trolley around the island. Have a look:

The trolley driver was nice and full of useful information. He provided us with extensive information about almost every inch of the island. They provided us with "air conditioning" which was a paper fan that did not help much.

The different tidbits of information we were given about the island was interesting such as the wild chickens running around the island are protected by law. They were brought to the island to cockfight, once it was outlawed the chickens were released and are now protected. There is a $500.00 fine for causing harm to any of the chickens.

My sister got us tickets to a few different attractions on the island. We all agreed that the Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory was our favorite. We got off of the trolley and walked to the conservatory, once inside it was such a beautiful, peaceful and surreal experience.

The staff really work to make the conservator a peaceful sanctuary. The foliage inside was just beautiful. I was in awe of all of the Bird of Paradise plants.

These butterfly benches were beautiful and the faux aged copper patina blended well with the plants.

There were so many kinds of butterflies fluttering around and some of theme were hard to take pictures of because they would not sit still.

I am glad these ones were cooperative.

This one is so beautiful!

The koi pond and fountain added to the peacefulness.

We could not visit Key West without stopping by the original Margaritaville. My favorite part of it was the air conditioning.

We walked around the boat dock for a while looking for manatees, but we did not see a single one! We saw barracudas jumping trying to escape sharks.

We also had tickets to an aquarium so we visited there too.

This is the touch pond. This pond is full of creatures for visitors to gently touch and feel. It turns out I was the only one brave enough to touch any of the creatures.

Okay, so the sea cucumber was a bit gross, but it makes for an interesting picture. I also had to pick up the huge hermit crab to take a picture of his face for my friend Steph. There was also a conch, which I saw Martha eat on her show once.

Here are some various fish.

Anemones..

Now in this tank visitors are not allowed to touch any of the animals. It is full of nurse sharks, stingrays and turtles.

Once outside we were able to see the sharks being fed. There was food available to feed some of the other fish which share the tanks with the sharks. It was a feeding frenzy. Oh yeah and I so wanted to put this staghorn fern in the trunk of our car and bring it home!

After disinfecting and sanitizing this conch shell my mom tried to make melodious music. She sounded like an injured dying porpoise.

Vacation Part 3: Off To Key West

2009-07-05T22:20:00.003-04:00

Brian and I both were a bit terrified of driving across the bridges to get to Key West. We left Daytona Beach early in the morning and made it to Miami by lunch time.

Driving into Miami was beautiful. It would have been great to have more time to spend in Miami.

We stopped for lunch in Miami, afterwards were off to the Keys. When we actually started the long drive across the many bridges that connect the Keys we realized it was not bad at all.

Once we were all settled into our hotel rooms we found a beach to put our feet in. The water was sooooo warm and there was a big heron walking on the beach.

We woke up early on our first morning in Key West to watch the sunrise. The water was beautiful, but it was too cloudy to see the sunrise.

We returned to the beach we visited the night before and walked around for a while. The water was not as warm as it was the night before.

This was the highlight of my mom's vacation (mine was the air conditioning!) On the way back to the car a man asked us if we were interested in purchasing fresh coconuts. We bought two coconuts one to drink and one which was riper than the other to eat. I was expecting the inside to taste like fresh Pina Colada, have a look.

Here is the man retrieving two coconuts from the pile that he collected that morning.

The man used a knife to cut through the thick exterior of the coconut.

Okay, so I have to be honest. The inside coconut water did not taste anything like a fresh Pina Colada. It tasted like fermented coconut mixed with 5 week old stale warm beer.

The man had to relocate to the sidewalk to break open the coconut for us to be able to eat.

While waiting for the coconut to be opened I noticed this beautiful flower growing on the beach.

Finally inside the coconut.

We bought a coconut for my mom too. She posed for this picture, but after she tasted the awful coconut water inside she dumped it into the bushes!

Eating the fresh coconut was really good. I loved walking on beach early in the morning and the coconut man was also something I will always remember.

Vacation Part 2: Familiar Places

2009-06-30T16:24:00.003-04:00

While we were in Daytona Beach, Florida on vacation we had to stop by Brian's dad Ronnie's hometown of Seville. Seville is a very tiny place and Brian jokes there are more people in the cemetery than there are living in the town. Brian's uncle was not home while we were in Seville so we stopped by the cemetery to pay respects to Brian's grandmother. Have a look:

Here is the main road running through the cemetery. It was a very hot and humid day so there were plenty of mosquitos out ready to gnaw on me.

Inside the cemetery there are old trees covered with spanish moss and air plants. Brian told me that his mom use to bring Spanish moss back from Florida for use in flower arrangements.

I love visiting places and looking at all of the plants and greenery. I am also excited to show plants to other people. My mom had never been to Seville before so I made sure to show her the epiphytic airplants growing on the bark of the old trees in the cemetery. I got excited when I saw these. Vendors at the flea markets in Florida sell airplants which have been placed inside of various vessels such as seashells and pots. I am not sure of the exact type of airplant the one below is, but I think it is called Tillandsia.

My mom picked plenty of these airplants to try and get them to successfully grow in a shell at home.

I am not sure why this always amazes me. Some of the tombstones in the cemetery are very old. At first glance this tree does not seem too out of the ordinary.

Upon closer inspection you will see a very old tombstone. The tree has grown around the tombstone and almost completely enveloped the stone with its trunk.

My mom wanted me to take a picture of this beautiful sweet pea.

We just could not go down to Seville Florida without stopping by a roadside vendor and getting some fresh, hot, boiled, cajun peanuts. If you have never had boiled peanuts before I highly recommend them. They are made by boiling RAW peanuts in a strongly flavored brine. I specified raw because Nicole and I tried to recreate boiled peanuts at home and tried to use roasted salted peanuts. After cooking them for four days in a crock pot we called Brian's mom and asked her what we were doing wrong. Brian's mom cracked up at us like we were fools (and I think she said we were fools) for waiting four days to figure out something was wrong and again for not using RAW peanuts.

We opted for cajun boiled peanuts which are salty and a bit spicy. I would compare a boiled peanut to the flavor and texture of a cooked bean. The vendors keep the peanuts in hot brine and scoop them out into plastic bags for customers to eat.

When we were walking back to the car I snatched the bag out of Brian's hand. A woman who had just purchased peanuts was pulling out of the lot rolled her window down and said while laughing, "I saw you snatch that right out of his hand!" We all laughed.

My mom never had boiled peanuts before, but she loved them! They were so good and brought back fond memories of our short time living in Florida.

Vacation Day 1: Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons

2009-06-20T17:37:00.002-04:00

As a graduation gift to ourselves Brian and I decided to get out of Ohio. Brian dubbed our vacation as a "Tour De Florida." On the drive down to the Key West we decided to take a detour in Savannah, Georgia at Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons restaurant. It was quite an experience. Have a look:

We arrived in Savannah at 9AM after driving all night. The Lady & Sons opens for lunch at 11AM, but the hostess begins to take names at 9:30. We arrived at 9:00AM, to put our name on the list at 9:30AM, to have lunch at 11:00AM. THERE WAS A LINE WHEN WE GOT THERE!

We had a pretty good place in line. I felt bad for the people who were all the way down the block, it was a hot day. We finally were greeted by the hostess and were able to put our name on the list.

After we put our name on the list my mom shouted, "OMG THERE SHE IS!!!" It turned out that it was just a cut out of Paula standing in the Paula Deen store window. We went inside to look around and enjoy some of the air conditioning. Here are some pictures of Paula's beautiful storefront. Inside the store I fell in love with the variety of cute platters (I am a platter junky!)

The hostess instructed us to be across the street at 10:45 and wait for further instruction. Here is a picture of the 11:00 lunch group.

While waiting in this line we chatted with a woman who was very friendly and worked in an information kiosk across the street from The Lady & Sons. She told us that the crowd that day was nothing and the day before there was a large crowd and a belligerent woman. We were talking to her and laughing when she said, "OH HERE COMES JELLYROLL" we looked at her and must have had a "what the heck are you talking about" expression on our faces. She told us to look across the street towards the restaurant and we would see "Jellyroll" she then went on to tell us that "Jellyroll" was Paula's homegirl. When we finally saw Jellyroll she looked very intimidating and serious.

Her stern demeanor suddenly transformed into a welcoming smile.

It was Jellyroll's job to tell us how we would be seated and to welcome us to The Lady & Sons. Jellyroll instructed us to use the crosswalk and not get a ticket for jay walking. She then asked everyone, "ARE YOU READY TO EAT!!!!!"

After Jellyroll gave her instructions she rang her big bell and shouted "COME AND GET IT, COME AND GET IT!!!"

Inside the AIR CONDITIONED restaurant we were taken to the one of three floors which seated the hundreds of guests who travel to taste Paula's food. I am not a sweet tea drinker, but I just had to have a sweet tea while there. Ma said that she never had fried green tomatoes before so we ordered some as an appetizer. They had a wonderful consistency and flavor, but they were incredibly, super salty. We did not finish them because they were way too salty.

We all decided to have the buffet. I am glad I did because I am a vegetarian and I tried a bit (okay a lot) of everything. I had rice, greens, mac and cheese, black eyed peas, grits and creamed corn. There was a woman walking around handing out garlic cheddar biscuits and ho-cakes (which Brian described as a cross between corn bread and a pancake) they were served with syrup.

We were stuffed by the end of the meal and then the waiter came around with a tray of desserts for us to choose from. We had a choice of peach cobbler, banana pudding and gooey butter cakes. I chose the gooey butter cake IT WAS GOOD!

I think that the overall feeling of the restaurant was the food was alright. They love their salt down south and it is apparent. I am glad we went to eat at the restaurant because it was an unforgettable experience.

Around the house...

2009-06-16T18:10:00.003-04:00

Today was my day off of work(s) so my mom and I decided to do a bit of shopping. We first went to lunch and then to White House Fruit Farm to pick up some fresh strawberries.

As you can see on the side of these boxes White House Fruit Farms provides a "pick your own" option for its patrons to pick their own strawberries, to that I say HECK NO! Who needs their back blowing to bits and burning up in the sun. NOT ME!

We purchased a total of 8 quarts of strawberries to make jam. A secret that I learned from Brian's mom Carol is to freeze berries until you are ready to use them. Of course I will be blogging about making jam, but that will not be until after we get back from vacation. The strawberries had to be cleaned hulled.

This is 4 quarts of the strawberries (half of them). This colander is huge you and this picture does not do show how large of a quantity of berries this is.

I love this picture.

Here are our washed and cleaned berries ready for the freezer.

At home, in the back yard my dill was ready to be picked. I am waiting to use this dill until I have enough cucumbers to make pickles.

Here is all of the dill I chopped down.

I don't know why I love this little pig, but he looks at home in a pot of lemon balm.

In the front yard there are plenty of blooming flowers.

lilies

Hydrangea

In my fern garden

Japanese Painted Fern

Cinnamon Fern

In the kitchen Brian has his vacation counter marked. On Thursday we are going to Savannah, Georgia to eat at Paula Deen's Lady and Sons restaurant and then to spend about 9 days of r & r on the beaches of Florida.

Our pups are not allowed in the kitchen so here they are looking sad while sniffing for dinner.

Cutest Cupcakes

2009-06-12T18:33:00.006-04:00

Brian and I had over 60 people at our graduation party where we had a cupcake buffet. One of our friends Lisa ordered cupcakes for a bachelorette party. The party colors are hot pink and black so Lisa wanted cupcakes to match. It is so great having my mom here because she helps me a lot while making cakes and she is as eager to learn new things as I am. I have tasted store bought fondant before and to me it tastes like a combination of sugar and dust my mom and I made our own and it is quite delicious. Lisa wanted a combination of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes frosted with Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream. We finished the cupcakes tonight. I really hope they like them as much as I love them. I am so happy with how they came out. I hope they make the bachelorette party special! Have a look.

Here are the vanilla cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream. We piped just enough on to hold down the fondant caps that we were going to cut. Bailey's buttercream is so good!

Here is the pink and black homemade fondant we made. I cut a piece of pvc pipe to roll the fondant out (a little tip I saw on Food Network Challenge."

We used a patterned mat to press a design into the fondant.

We used a scalloped edge biscuit cutter to cut the fondant tops out for each cupcake.
I think they look so cute!

Here is a close up of one of the black scalloped disks for the top of a cupcake.

Lisa said she wanted diamond dust so we used pearl dust mixed with vodka to paint the tops of them. My mom and I both agreed the pearl dust made them look complete.

Lisa also wanted a small cake for the bride. We covered a chocolate cake with pink fondant and then used different round cutters to make circles and rings. The rings and circles were then painted with pearl dust.

Here are the cupcakes and cake boxed up. I hope Lisa, the bride and the party love them as much as I do!

"Sexy Desserts" & Six Cakes

2009-06-10T17:41:00.004-04:00

UPDATE: Here is the video of the news segment featuring my desserts.

Source: http://www.wfmj.com/Global/category.asp?C=83318&nav=menu491_4

The restaurant that I work at is going to offer breakfast to its patrons so I was asked to make pastries such as muffins and danish to accompany the gourmet coffee. I did not get a chance to finish making these items on the day I was asked so I decided to go in on my day off and make some quick muffins. I worked at my other job at 6:00AM that day and figured it would take me about 2 hours to make the muffins.

When I arrived at work I was tired and one of the owners of the restaurant came to me and asked, "would you be able to put together three desserts to be on the news tomorrow?" My automatic response was, "yes..." in my head I was saying "OMG WHAT!!!!" He said that he wanted something summery, light and "sexy." I am not sure why, but I have been wanting to make napoleons for a while so that was one of the three. After that I remembered that Ina made meringue cups and strawberries are starting to peak so that also came to mind. He told me that he could use the triple chocolate mousse cake I made the other day so I actually only had to make two.

The meringues needed to bake for two hours and then rest in the oven for another 4. I knew that I had to get those in the oven before I started anything else.

After I had the meringues whipped, piped and in the oven I cut disks of puff pastry and started those baking in another oven. I found a recipe online for a lemon and strawberry napoleon so I used that as the foundation. While the puff pastry was baking I made lemon curd and put it in the cooler to chill. When the puff pastry was done I split each round into three layers. While plating this dessert I kept on hearing in my head, "It has to look sexy" the first attempt looked as Ina would say, "like a dog's breakfast" I asked one of the new chefs if she had any suggestions and she was such a wonderful help. She said she loved plating food and came up with the final plate design that I presented. After we had the lemon curd and raspberry sauce on the plate we both agreed that it needed some green. The only green herb that we had in the cooler was basil. Basil and lemon go together well so I garnished the plate with a chiffonade of basil. Have a look...

This is the plate design that the other chef came up with....

From here I began to build the napoleon...
A layer of puff pastry

After I put a spoonful of lemon curd on the pastry I topped that off with some freshly whipped cream which had finely chopped basil and more lemon curd folded into it then strawberries.

These layers were repeated and then topped with a final puffed disk dusted with powdered sugar. Here is the final dish. I garnished with some fresh basil from my own garden.

After the meringues were done I placed them on a blue plate dusted with powdered sugar. They were then filled with fresh whipped cream and a ladle full of cold cooked strawberries and blueberries.

Here is the meringue and cream ready for the berries...

I had to go into work this morning to plate all of these desserts up so they were ready for television. I did not want to add the berries to the meringue until the last minute because I did not want it to look like a mess. When the news people came into the kitchen they asked if the desserts were ready and I told them that the meringue just needed to be topped with the berries and then two mint leaves. They asked me if I wanted to do that on camera. My eyes got huge and I replied, "no thank you." HAHA they had the idea to have the anchor man do it on camera. It was all very surreal to watch this happen to something I made!

The meringue that they did for the news segment was actually taken to another room after they finished filming to be used in another segment so I do not actually have a picture of that one. Here is a picture of the test meringue which I assembled yesterday.

The third and final dessert they showed was one of the triple chocolate mousse cakes. Here it is plated....

Here they are discussing my desserts.

I still can not believe that any of this happened!!!! The news segements will be on tomorrow morning. If possible I will try and record video of it and maybe even post it!

In other cake news Rabbit Hole is opening at The Oakland Center for the Arts this weekend and they needed a few birthday cakes. My mom and I worked on these all day and we are quite happy with how they came out. Here is a cake collage!

It is true what the president of the board for The Oakland called me I am "the busiest bee!"

Work and then Work...

2009-06-06T18:51:00.002-04:00

I have been busy getting use to my new job at Rosetta Stone Wine Bar & Cafe. I was getting real bad anxiety prior to going to work, but now I feel better. It has also been weird not having a regular schedule. Being a student at YSU I became accustom to a regular schedule and after graduation that regularity was just gone. It has taken some time to get back into some sort of groove/schedule.

I have been busily making cakes and sweet confections at each of my jobs, have a look:

At Sparkle I found beach themed cake picks. I made a cute beach cake.

At Rosetta Stone chocolate seems to be a favorite so I concocted various chocolate desserts.
Double chocolate trifles.

A chocolate sheet cake for 50 people. This cake was huge and weighed a lot!

I made a pineapple carrot cake last night. It looked so delicious that I came home and made one here too.

The cake must have been a hit because this was it today.

Today at Rosetta I made toasted coconut crème brûlée and triple chocolate mousse cake.

They looked very good and I was quite happy with how they came out!