Wordless Wednesday

I know..these are words, but I feel the need to explain. I've seen other blogs where they do a wordless Wednesday blog weekly and I felt compelled to do the same. I will attempt to post a picture every week and do my best not to write too much about it.

October 31, 2004 - NC Zoo

TWD - Devil's Food White Out Cake

Thank you Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater for choosing Devils Food White Out Cake on page 247-249.

I had read that others had problems getting their cake to rise, but I didn't find that to be a problem for me. Mine rose and the top cracked. I wish I had taken a picture of the mess of me trying to cut the cake in half. I had crumbs all over trying to cut both of the rounds in half and trying to cut off the rounded mounds.
The frosting proved to be a little difficult for me. The temperature when cooking it just wasn't getting hot enough, then all of the sudden it was too hot. I guess it turned out okay, because the kids have NOT complained.
I put the cake in the fridge after I was done. It does give the cake more of a brownie texture when eaten, and I love brownies!

My Dancing Girls!!

This weekend my girls had their first competition of the year. They did really well, I'm very proud of them.
In the above picture is Raeyven, Sarah and Mackenzie. They are in their Jazz costume about ready to go on stage. This costume is wonderful and is one of my favorites, but my camera didn't like it. It had a hard time trying to find something to focus on.
In this picture is Kacie, Meghan and Ella are decked out in their Hip Hop costume. This dance is lots of fun to watch.

As with every dance competition my day starts early. Sarah had to be at the theater dressed and ready by 7am. This means I had to be up at 4:45 to get myself ready and then get Sarah up around 5:30 and start on her hair and makeup. Then get Ella up and get her makeup started before we leave for the competition.

The 3rd dance of the competition was Sarah's solo. This year she dances to a song called Legs by Art of Noise. This is an Acro dance, but she is entered into the Character category since she is dressed like a spider. I wish I had a picture of her in this costume, but I didn't take one yesterday. I'm sure what you are picturing in your mind is NOT what she looked like!

Ella then had her three group dances yesterday morning. Her first of the day was Ease On Down. This is an Acro dance which is also entered into the Character division. They are all dressed like Dorothy. Her second was Here We Come which is Hip Hop. A picture of this costume is above. Her final dance was Material Girls for jazz. This is beautiful costume. I was just so rushed yesterday, that I missed out on taking photos. I'll try to get more pictures at the next competition.

Sarah had her group dances in the afternoon. Sarah has 5 group dances which made me even busier than I had been in the morning. The first was Practical Magic. This is an Acro dance in the Character division, they are witches. The second is Krazy Klownz and is another Acro dance. Third is Get Loose which is Hip Hop. I love this dance and the girls did an excellent job!! The forth dance was Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy for tap and the fifth and final dance was We're Strange for jazz.

Below is how the judges rated them. Of course I think they should have been ranked higher, but what mother wouldn't think their child did awesome!!

Sarah's Solo received a Gold and she came in 4th place in all the 9-11 year old solos.

All of Ella's groups received Gold. Her groups are in the 8 and under age category (average age of the groups). Here We Come (Hip Hop) came in 7th. Material Girls (Jazz) came in 6th and Ease on Down (Acro) took 3rd place out of all the 8 and under small groups.

Sarah's groups are in the 9-11 year old division and 4 of them received Gold and her Acro Group - Krazy Klownz got a Platinum!! Get Loose (Hip Hop) came in 10th, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (Tap) was 8th, Practical Magic (Acro) was 7th and Krazy Klownz (Acro) came in 5th out of all the 9-11 groups.

With them doing so well at the first competition of the year, I can't wait to see how they do at all the rest of the competitions!! Wish them luck!!

Time for a new post....

I guess since it has been a month, I'm overdue for a new blog post. I have been steadily working on wedding plans in addition to trying to keep up with daily life. I have also recently signed up for Facebook at the request of one of my friends. It is really time consuming (aka - addictive). It's been nice to be able to reconnect (online anyway) with many friends I hadn't heard from in many years. It can also be rather annoying to have some of these people "request" to be your friend. I wasn't friends with them in high school. I may have never even liked them....I don't know. I'm not sure of the proper etiquette on these online sites, but I am ignoring some of these requests. I guess since they made that an option, I'm going to use it!!!

I will posting another blog entry soon. I have recipes that I need to blog as well as wedding plans to post about. I PROMISE to do better about my blog updates (I hope).

TWD has been interupted due to the following announcement........

I'm Engaged!!!

This picture was actually taken prior to Josh proposing, but it's the best pic I have of us. I'm sooo excited, I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am.

Those of you who know me, know what I've been through these past 2 1/2 + years and I thank you for your thoughts, prayers, emails, calls and support more than you will ever know. I plan to have a wonderful future and NO funerals for many many years. I've been to enough in my lifetime, I need a break from them for about a decade or so.

Now...I can't wait to see how fast word travels!! We have announced the engagement to our families and local friends. I want to see who is the first to call me from out of state!! You have to call, email or IM me to find out the date of the wedding. Yes, I have the date already!!

TWD - I really did intend to make the French Pear Tart!! I certainly wanted to make the recipe that Dorie herself picked for this week. We went out of town this past weekend and announced our engagement to Josh's family, so I just didn't find the time. I have all the ingredients and hope to make the recipe this week sometime. Please come back and check out my blog later this week for my "late" TWD French Pear Tart post.

TWD - Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

Oh, how I love cheesecake!! A big thank you to Anne Strawberry for this weeks selection of Tall and Creamy Cheesecake. Be sure and check out her blog!

This recipe was really wonderful. I like a good cheesecake and usually don't add any extra ingredients to my cakes. This week I decided to step out of my cheesecake box and add some Reese's Peanut Butter cups. These are the mini cups and I quarted them. I folded them into the batter just before pouring into the springform pan.
Now of course I said I don't usually add any extras into my cheesecake batter. I failed to mention that I don't use graham crackers for my crust. I have found that I like to use a box of the 100 Calorie pack of Oreos. It does take the who box crushed up, but it is really good. In the past, I have also used regular Oreos as the crust!! Wow is it good!
This is a recipe I will use again. It was really light and had a wonderful texture.

Christmas Eve - TWD, update #1

Okay folks....I've got my cheesecake in the oven. This is a TWD recipe, so I won't post any pics or go into details just yet. I'll wait until next Tuesday and actually be on the regular TWD schedule for once this month.

The cheesecake will have my ovens undivided attention for the next 2 1/2 hours, so I think I'll go and throw together either my breakfast casserole or the sausage balls.

Christmas Eve - TWD

Today, Christmas Eve, will be a busy day for me in the kitchen. I have a long to-do list and hope that all of it will be done before I go to bed tonight. I've already crossed one item off the list. My Tuesday with Dorie recipe, Real Butterscotch pudding. This recipe was chosen by Donna and can be found on page 386 in Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I whipped it up fairly easy this morning, but didn't exactly follow the directions. After reading lots of comments about small food processors making a mess of this recipe, I opted to leave it out. Instead, I whipped everything by hand until the very end. At the point of adding the butter, vanilla and scotch, I poured it all into my blender and used it to smooth out the consistency. I have to say that the smell of the pudding was wonderful and very hard to resist as I was pouring it into my individual bowls. The pudding is now resting in the fridge until later tonight when I will dig in.

I hope to be back later today with updates on how my baking and cooking is going. I plan to make a cheese cake (another TWD recipe), Cookies, Sausage balls or Sausage Pinwheels (or perhaps both) a Turkey if the crazy thing will ever thaw, a breakfast casserole for tomorrow morning and of course dinner for tonight!! I hope that's all, but I'm thinking I've forgotten something along the way. hmmmm......

TWD - Grandmas All Occasion Sugar Cookies

A big thank you to Küchenlatein for this weeks selection. This is a great recipe for December. I realize it's now Wednesday, but....here is my Tuesday with Dorie blog anyway...

I usually shy away from sugar cookies because rolling and cutting just isn't my thing. I'm not good at it and it frustrates me (perhaps I just need more practice). Anyway, I opted for the slice and bake method. I made the dough several days ago and placed it in the freezer. One suggestion on keeping the dough in a nice round log, is to save a paper towel roll and cut it open and put in inside. This way, you don't end up with a flat side. Once I was done with my dough and had 2 nice cookie logs, I realized I had NO empty paper towel rolls. It was time to improvise...lol. I had plenty of paper towels, so I used a full roll. It was kind of funny to watch me trying to stuff the dough into the full paper towel roll. Luckily I had the logs skinny enough to just fit. My dough stayed nice and round in the freezer and my paper towels are no worse off for being frozen.
Yesterday, I pulled out my logs and decided I would do the first half with colored sugar. I rolled the log in green sugar, sliced the cookies and then sprinked red sugar on top and baked. These turned out really well. I liked them so much that I almost did the same with the second batch. However, I resisted the urge to use the same route and opted for colored icing on the next batch. I sliced the cookies again and baked them plain. Once they had cooled, I made green Sugar Cookie Icing and spooned it onto the cookies. I then added colored sugar or bits of candy canes to some of the cookies and left others with only the frosting. I think they turned out great. I'm going to be making more of these this holiday season.

TWD - Linzer Sables

This weeks recipe can be found on page 134 or visit Dennis at his blog to view the recipe. I know it's not Tuesday, but I'm adding my December TWD baking blogs as I have time this month. It is a rather busy month you know.

The recipe was easy to put together and the end result was good. I did decrease the amount of cinnamon and ground cloves that the recipe calls for. Dorie said she liked hers spicy, but I don't like when cookies have too strong of those spices. I played safe and opted for less. The recipe calls for either Almonds, Walnuts or Hazelnuts (finely ground). I opted for Almonds and ground them up in my food processor. After adding all the ingredients in my mixer, the dough was rather dry, but I resisted the urge to add some additional liquid. Instead, I kept on with the recipe and rolled out the dough. After reading lots of comments on TWD about many bakers not being able to get enough cookies with the dough being 1/4 of an inch thick, I rolled mine out a little more.
Of course, some are thicker than others. I'm not good at rolling out the dough evenly yet. The edges are always a lot thinner.In the end, I was able to get 23 sandwich cookies. This is only 2 fewer than Dorie said she had. So, I think I did pretty well. I put raspberry jam in my cookies and the girls and I had lots of fun adding the powdered sugar to the cookies.
I think my cookies look very similar to Dorie's. What do you think??