The Baby Shower

On Saturday, I hosted my first-ever baby shower. People came and brought cut little things like this:
Here is the mom-to-be, Juliana, with her pile-o-presents:

She seemed to have a good time opening everything up. And we, in true baby-shower fashion, oooooohed and aaaaaaaaaaaahed at them all. How can you not, really?

But what is all this doing on my food blog, you ask? I give you, the snack table:

(Please pretend that I had remembered to take the plastic wrap off of the goodies before taking this shot. Or better yet, just focus in on the cake.)

Here, I'll make it easy on you:

This is the cake I made for the shower. It was my first time doing a cake with any kind of "filling" other than frosting. I used Pillsbury yellow cake mix, then I leveled the bottom layer by cutting a bit off of it's top. I put strawberry jam in between the two layers, and then I froze it overnight so it would frost easily in the morning. I made up some pink homemade frosting to finish it off.

Everyone said it tasted really good. And I have to agree. It was delicious!

Enjoy!

Belated Halloween Cake

Hello again, blogging friends!

Here is a pic of me with our Halloween cake.  Bryan made it and decorated it.  I think it turned out really nice.

That is really all the food-news I have from recently.  I've been using my slow cooker more lately, making homemade soup and other dishes.  But I haven't been packing cute lunches.  

I am thinking about doing another gingerbread house for the upcoming Christmas season.  We shall see.

I will try to come up with something worth posting here again soon, ok?

Homemade Frosting

Remember this?


If you are thinking your cake looks a bit forlorn, like the one above, you probably haven't frosted it yet. Let's get to it.

Gather up:

• powdered sugar
• butter or margarine
• some milk-like liquid
• vanilla extract
• food coloring (optional)

Start with the wet ingredients. Don't use very much to start. You can always use more, but never less (and it doesn't take much)!


Add some powdered sugar. Use your hand mixer to mix it up until it looks spreadable but not too runny. This isn't rocket science. Don't stress exact amounts.

If you want your cake to look extra fun, add lots of crazy food coloring like I did:


Spread on your cake. Display...

...and then consume.

Enjoy!

My Husband's Cake

So yesterday, Bryan decided to bake a cake in honor of our golden retriever's 2nd birthday. He got to work, chose to make it two-tier, made homemade frosting, and generally did a great job.

This isn't very surprising, as he often bakes us brownies or cake. What was surprising to me was after he was done he said, "You gonna take a picture of it? You know, to put up on your blog?" "Uh, yeah. Sure."

So here it is in all it's glory:

Unveiled:


Sliced open:

Dioji wants to know, "Do I get some?"

No, you don't. But how about some wet dog food?

Hope everyone enjoys game day!

My 1st Bento

"Hey, my sandwich is making a face at me!" I teased in the cafeteria. It went over pretty big with my students.

This is a close-up of my first bento ever, made on September the 12th (for anyone who is keeping track of such things.)

I had looked at bento galleries online that left me asking the question, "Even if I DID manage to boil an egg and shape it into a tugboat and dye it red... would I want to eat it??" Then I finally I hit upon a simpler design that I could sink my teeth into. A sandwich with a face on it.

It is a ham sandwich, with Miracle Whip teeth, and a ham tongue. Cherry tomatoes from my garden form its hair and one stem makes a "bow." The green leaves surrounding are the tops of the celery (sticks of which are on the right of the sandwich) that was also grown in my Square Foot Garden. The baby carrot, ditto on the origin. I did NOT grow the Triscuits which are on the left, or the olives and pickle used to make the face. Sorry.

Dessert consists of a piece of chocolate cake with green apple slices as bookends. The design in the middle is fashioned out of sliced almonds, and adhered with peanut butter.

It was all very tasty! (Except the celery from the main meal. It was too "flavorful" for my taste. Celery shouldn't taste like much, in my mind.)