Austin, TX

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been very busy. I have baked so many cookies I could have fed an army. In fact I did feed some, if not the entire, Army. I adopted two troops for the holidays this year. One troop has as a member the son of one of my cake club members. I’d heard that one of the ladies had a son in Iraq and I asked her if I could adopt his troop. She told me that her son was home but that another member’s son was still in Iraq. I contacted her and she was very happy to have my help. Ellen had been doing her best to bake cookies and ready packages for the 41 members of her son’s troop. With work and baking she was only half way done so having me help her out was, as she put it, “a god-send”. I was happy to do it and when I told another friend about my baking efforts she joined in and made several dozen cookies, too. Not only that but her church sent along cards done by their Sunday School and two big bags of personal hygiene stuff like toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash and dental floss. In addition I decided to adopt a second troop, a small one consisting of only six people, four men and two women. I packed their box full of nuts, pop tarts, candy, cookies, popcorn, drink flavors for bottled water and personal hygiene products. You know, I used to think that those “personal sized” toilet paper packets were stupid until I saw them listed often on soldier’s request lists. The troops can be out on missions for several days and it can be challenging to find bathrooms and toilet paper can become a premium item to have on you! A lot of the troops don’t have access to the base stores to purchase every day items that we take for granted. Women are desperately in need of feminine hygiene items like tampax.

It’s a bit late to adopt a troop for Christmas at this point, with Christmas a week away but it’s so great for troop moral to have packages from home so please think about doing it anyway. A great place to find a troop to support is AnySoldier.com The site allows you to read through the requests sent by troops serving in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. You can filter the list if you want a troop from a particular branch or if you want someone from your state or with the same last name. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. The troops are happy with anything you want to send and home baked goodies are a particular favourite.

Last night I stayed up late baking cookies for my library kids. I am a storyteller at our local library and at the end of storytime each week we do a craft. Several weeks ago I suggested letting the kids decorate cookies for Santa one day and today was that day. I made sugar cookies and cut out hearts, dipping each in chocolate. I had a plan. The plan was to make reindeer cookies. Each child got two cookies, two mini red m&m’s for noses, four regular sized chocolate m&m’s for eyes, two small pretzels for antlers and a snack size ziplock bag with a spoonful of royal icing for “glue”. The cookies cake out soooo cute!

Take the same heart cookie cutter and mini m&ms, add red sprinkles and coconut and you can also make Santa cookies:

These cookies are so fun and easy to decorate with your kids. Serve them up with a nice cup of hot cocoa and if you’re looking for more “snow day” activities, check out Summer’s blog for more fun ideas.

Christmas, Army, Troops, Adopt, Cookies, Reindeer, Santa, Kids, Easy, Snow Day, Fun

About 3 months ago, I got a speeding ticket. Yeah, not my best day. It was maybe the third ticket I’ve ever received which is not bad for someone who has been driving for 24 years. I was driving the new Honda Fit and it’s so quiet that I didn’t even realize that I was speeding. I was going 15 mph over the speed limit.

Of course I opted to take the defensive driving class to keep the ticket off my record. Of course I procrastinated until the last minute to take said course. With 90 days to take the class, I took it on day 88. I should get a crown marked “Queen of Procrastination”.

The problem with waiting until the 88th day to take your class is that the certificate for class completion takes more than 2 days. I could have paid an extra $25 to have the certificate fed-exed overnight but a woman in the class told me that hers came in two days so pushed my luck. Luck was not a lady and my certificate did not arrive on time which meant that I spent my afternoon at the Municipal Courthouse downtown begging the judge for an extension.

Getting the extension was surprisingly easy. The hardest part was finding a parking place on 7th. Inside, I dutifully put my belongings in a tray to be x-rayed, stepped through the metal detector and up to the information counter. Everyone has to stop at the information counter, it’s where you receive your waiting number. You explain to the clerk why you are there and they assign you to a queue based on that information. There is a large reader board on either side of the waiting room with three sets of numbers going at all times. Numbers are called out in both English and Spanish. My wait was surprisingly short, perhaps 10 minutes at the most. I explained to the clerk that I needed an extension and why and she told me I would have to see the judge. One printout and a short walk around the corner and I was in a small courtroom where they took my printout and told me to take a seat. There were about 10 people ahead of me. There was white noise in the room but I was fairly close so I could hear a little bit of what was being said as each person stood before the Judge.

It was really quite interesting to listen in as the Judge dealt with each case. One woman was there for the same reason I was and I was relieved to see how easily she got her date extended. Occasionally someone would have to make a plea or pay a fine. The Judge would ask if they were working and if so she’d give them a payment plan, usually $50 a month. Occasionally the person would be unemployed and she’d assign them community work instead. Usually at 20 hours a month. For some reason it made me happy to know that they took peoples financial situations into account. When my turn came the judge granted me my extension and it was all over and done with in a matter of minutes.

Hopefully there is not a next time but if there is, I don’t think I’ll be procrastinating again. Tomorrow I’ll post a review of the defensive driving class I took last Sunday at Funny Bones. Until then, don’t forget about all the great Christmas Bazaars starting this week!

My niece, Sophie, is crazy about SpongeBob’s friend, Sandy Cheeks, a lovable squirrel from Texas, who just happens to live in the sea. Sophie desperately wanted to be Sandy for Halloween but we couldn’t find a costume. You could buy one online but it wasn’t a very good costume so she ended up going as Winnie the Pooh. My mother told me that she was very into her character and refused to remove a single item no matter how overheated she got.

Sophie’s birthday was last week so I thought I’d make her a Sandy Squirrel cake but then my sister-in-law told me that Sophie had seen a castle cake and wanted that, instead. Since they live up north of Dallas and the cake was fairly simple, they decided to do it themselves. I would then make a second cake here that the whole family could share over the holiday. When I asked my brother if I should do a castle cake or the Sandy cake he told me to do a castle. Apparently the one they’d made had collapsed while they were out to dinner.

I was excited because I had won the Wilton Romantic Castle set a while back at our cake club Day of Sharing and I hadn’t had a chance to use it yet. I baked the cake up the day before everyone arrived and got it torted and crumb coated. The next day we set to work icing it and then I got the castle set down and pulled out the pieces. Anyone sensing a problem here?

In retrospect, I realize that it might have been a good idea to look at the set prior to baking the cakes. Can you say “failure to plan?” Yes, I thought you could. Ah well, when all else fails, improvise! I had made two layers which was fine but the top layer should have allowed enough room for the roof to sit on top of the bottom layer. What we did instead was to cut out a piece of the top layer to slide the roof into and Voilà! we had a castle. As you can see, I had helpers:

This is my niece, Sophie, and my nephew, Robin (her brother). We made fondant flowers and painted them with luster dust. We managed to finish the princess before the kids took off with their parents to see the Dr. Seuss exhibit at Arts on 5th. While they were gone I got the fondant on the cake, sugared the turrets and put it all together. The cake came out really cute, if I say so myself. This morning I got an email from my friend Carmen at the library asking if I could make a castle cake for her for a friends daughter. Isn’t that funny? Here is the finished cake:

It looks as though I may be making two more castle cakes this month. I’ll probably submit the best of the three to Wilton’s castle cake contest. The Grand Prize is a two week master course at their headquarters. That would be very cool!

birthday, cake, castle, princess, Sophie, wilton, romantic castle, set

I like to do my Black Friday shopping from my armchair, preferring to let my fingers do the walking. This year, because I’m a good sister, I braved the crowds. We didn’t rush out the door at 3am or anything crazy but we did brave Fry’s. Where else would you expect a geeky girl to go shopping? We got there some time after lunch and it was craziness to park and craziness to get in the door. There were people trying to get out the doors and big 50+ inch TVs going out the door. I managed to get the bargains I wanted, a 300Gb hard drive, 2GB memory sticks and a computer case.

As I wandered through the store I kept seeing long lines. I wondered what they were for but it took me a while to realize that it was the checkout line. Ugh. That had to be the longest checkout line I’ve ever seen. It was worse than a military commissary on payday! The line started just to the right of the entry turnstiles, wrapped around to the right, up the center aisle behind the games, left past the player piano and the cafe, left along the appliances, right toward the bathrooms and back past the the music and videos and finally down the main check out aisle. Considering the length of the line, it actually moved fairly fast. They had the checkout lanes open on both sides. The poor girl checking me out had already been there 4 hours by the time I checked out. They all looked a bit sluggish but were being very polite.

Normally I hate having to go through the checkout process at the door and allowing them to view my receipt. This time, however, I was thankful. Not only did I stop, but he guy at the door actually looked at my receipt. Not that cursory glance they usually give your receipt. He said, “I don’t see your RAM” and then I remembered it sitting on the counter unbagged. He went back and got and I was very thankful. It would not have been cool to get home and find that missing, having paid for it.

We finally got out of there. It was 3:30, we stopped by Costco for gas and then we headed downtown to South Congress. My brother wanted to look at Maya for jewelry for my sis-in-law. He’d had good luck there last year and he hoped to have the same luck this year. Everyone must have been at the big box stores because driving downtown was easy and parking was no problem. We stopped in at Vespaio for the best amaretti cookies in Austin. Mmmm… They also serve great food. Their calamari is just incredible!

If you’re looking for fun and unique gifts it doesn’t get much better than South Congress. We stopped in at Monkey See, Monkey Do and bought a few fun stocking stuffers and then turned around and headed back to Maya Star to check out their jewelry. They had some beautiful pieces. My brother settled on a gorgeous green intaglio. Intaglio is sort of a reverse cameo, with the design recessed. The g is silent in the pronunciation.

While we were there my niece, Sophie, spilled her popcorn. My mother told one of the clerks, apologized, and asked if they had something she could sweep it up with. The clerk was an absolute sweetheart about it and very cheerfully swept it, even stopping to smile and chat with Sophie. This act of calm kindness won my mother over and she said, “I’d have bought something just because they were so nice”. That’s the kind of customer service that can earn you a customer for life. Go check them out!

We got home around 6, tired and hungry and set to work making dinner. We’d bought mussels at Costco Wednesday night and were disappointed to find that they’d gone bad. We should have cooked them earlier but with all the Thanksgiving preparations, we didn’t get to it. We’d only paid $2.79 a pound for 3lbs so it wasn’t too big a loss. We had leftover crab so one brother pulled together a quick crab alfredo and the other toasted bread for garlic bread and bruschetta. Yum!

Tomorrow is supposed to be wet and cold. I am supposed to do Zen training but if it’s too nasty we may give it a miss. Brrrr… My poor folks are supposed to hit the Renaissance Festival in Houston. It’s going to be wet and cold there, too, but it is the last weekend for the Ren Fest.

If you’re looking for fun things to do this weekend, don’t forget that this is the last weekend to see the Ted Geisel/Dr. Seuss exhibit at Arts on 5th.

Black Friday, Austin, Fry’s, Texas Renaissance Festival, Ted Geisel, Dr. Seuss, South Congress, Vespaio, Maya, Star, Shopping, Christmas, Jewelry

Another holiday has come and gone and now the Christmas frenzy can begin. Tomorrow is Black Friday, possibly the scariest shopping day of the year. Normally I would not venture out but my youngest brother is in town and the boy likes to shop.

My family is fairly non-traditional where Thanksgiving is concerned. We stopped doing the traditional meal a few years ago when we got sick of ham and turkey at the holidays. This year we did the traditional feast of turkey, ham and all the trimmings yesterday and today we did our non-traditional meal. We had decided on doing tapas but later decided to make it a 7-course tapas meal with different people being responsible for the various courses. These are the courses we decided on:

1. Appetizers: Bacon wrapped dates, bacon wrapped water chestnuts brushed with BBQ sauce & green bean crustini.
2. Avgolemono Soup (Greek Lemon Soup)
3. Hummus, Tomato Bruschetta
4. Ceviche
5. Palate Cleanser: Ginger lemongrass sorbet
6. Lamb burgers with aioli & feta
7. Dessert: Baklava & Mango Sorbet

My brother was insistent on trying the green crustini. We were not convinced. He cooked fresh green beans with think slices of garlic and then put a chunk of cambozola on thin crustini with two green beans and a sliver of garlic. They were quite pretty. I’m still not convinced but they weren’t bad.

The Avgolemono soup was heavier than I expected but quite tasty. The home made hummus was delicious. I’m normally not a big fan of hummus but as with most things, it’s better made fresh.

The ceviche was just fantastic as was the ginger/lemongrass sorbet. We had planned to serve the palate cleanser before the ceviche but thought better of it when the time came. That worked out well as the ceviche has a very dominant flavor. The lamb burgers made a nice main course and the baklava was divine as was the mango sorbet.

The only downside to this gastronomic feat was the incredible number of dishes we went through by making each tapas its own course. Normally when we do tapas we just put everything out let people serve themselves. This way everyone wanted/needed new dishes for each course. I think we used every dish I own.

Tomorrow is leftover day! I hope you and yours had a lovely Thanksgiving! This weekend there are lots of great things to do. My two favorites are the Empty Bowl Project and the Victorian Christmas Festival.

Thanksgiving, menu, family

I am 44 years old and I’ve never had a fake Christmas tree. Pretty funny for a self professed tree hugger. When we were kids my grandpa often got potted Christmas trees or he dug one up from the yard. After Christmas he’d plant or re-plant the tree. My parents were quite snobbish about fake trees and I guess I got that from them. I love the smell of a real tree. I don’t even mind vacuuming up pine needles for months afterward.

My mother has a LOT of Christmas ornaments. So many, in fact, that my Christmas tree memories often involve my dad tying the tree to the wall so that it would not fall over. She was very grateful when the last of our handmade “salt dough” ornaments broke. Those things were heavy. Branch breaking heavy. My dad also had a thing for very big trees. The bigger the better. We often had to cut the tree down to fit it in the house. Have you ever noticed how deceivingly small trees can look outside? Get them in the house and suddenly they loom several feet taller.

The closest we ever came to having a fake tree was during the time my dad was stationed in Spain. My mum called me up. “Honey,” she said tentatively broaching the subject, “your dad is getting a fake tree this year.” There was a brief pause while I collected myself. “Who are you, and what have you done with my real parents.” My mother sighed, “now don’t be difficult, the trees here are pathetic. They look like Charlie Brown Christmas trees. They have bare spots in many places.” “Get two,” I said, dryly, “tie them together.” I was not amused.

I arrived in Spain for Christmas to find not just your average run of the mill fake tree, but rather a gargantuan white fake tree. I stood in the center of the living room, mouth agape. “THAT,” I said, pointing and blubbering, “is NOT a Christmas tree. THAT is something more closely related to the abominable snowman.” The next day my dad took me to the big superstore and we found a real tree. It cost a small fortune but we were all much happier. Yeah, I’m a spoiled brat.

Come to think of it, I’ll be 45 in January and I’ve had an easter basket every year of my life.

Yup, very spoiled. I love it.

Just two more days until Thanksgiving, have you got your Turkey?

Christmas, tree, spoiled, real, fake, traditions, family, about me

When my brother Kevin and his wife were expecting their son, they decided to name the baby Elvis, my brother being a huge Elvis fan. My mother thought that this was a particularly bad idea. “He will be teased in school,” she said, among other things. That turned out to be a moot point as Kev and Liz home schooled Elvis until recently. The argument went on for months and eventually things went from bad to a “subject-not-to-be-discussed” as it just made everyone angry.

Then one day I was listening to the news. It seems a new constellation had been discovered and it was called Ophiuchis. An evil thought crept into my mind and took root…“And we shall call the baby Ophiuchis!” Muahahahahaha…

So I called my brother Kevin and urged him to call our mother and tell her he’d changed his mind about calling the baby Elvis. I explained my evil plan and thusly, he called our mother.

“Hey Mom,” he said. “I think you’re right. We’re not going to call the baby Elvis after all.”

“Oh good,” she said, relieved, “I think you’ve made the right decision.”

“Yeah. I was listening to the news today and it seems they have discovered a new constellation. Ophiuchis. So we have decided to name the baby, Ophiuchis, instead of Elvis.”

“Oh….” And thus 15 seconds of silence ensued.

I know that doesn’t sound like a long time but count that out in your head and you’ll see how long that silence stretched out. That is a very long time, indeed, when it comes to my mother being silent. I think she was struggling to find something that she possesses very little of and that would be TACT.

Finally, in a very small voice my mother said, “Welllllll, we could call him Opie.”

My brother burst out laughing. He couldn’t help himself. Of course he also told mother that I’d put him up to it, so I was in the dog-house. What’s new?

After that, our dear mother, found the name Elvis to be perfectly acceptable. Heheh…. I wonder why?

In a somewhat related story, my mother can never remember the words to songs, so she makes up her own.

Many years before Elvis was born, I was visiting with my folks in Germany and chanced to hear my mother singing.

“We had eeeee ohhhhh, just like Bogey and Bacall….”

“Mother,” I said, raising my eyebrow quizzically, “what the heck is E O?”

“I don’t know,” she said defensively, “thats what the song says!” As if she couldn’t be held responsible for stupid writers writing stupid lyrics. She, after all, was just singing what they had written. I half expected her to stomp her little foot.

“It’s We.had.IT.ALL!,” I said, enunciating each word clearly.

“OH!, yes, that makes MUCH more sense!”

The next day I heard my mother singing.

“We had eeeee ohhhhh, just like Bogey and Bacall….”

I just laughed and shook my head, sighing to myself.

When Elvis Orion arrived, though, I called up my mother.

“Hey Ma,” I said, “we finally have E O.”

Sometimes you have to wait awhile for a good pun to come to fruition.

humor, family, elvis, Ophiuchis, Bogey, Bacall