Lazy Cooking: Pumpkin Cake

Jane Deere, one of the foodie blogs that I read, shared a great recipe that I just had to try out last night.  It technically requires only 2 ingredients however, since we can't make things too easy... I used 5. 

Cake Ingredients:

- 1 box cake mix (I used spice cake as it is my favorite, though Jane Deere says you can use Vanilla, Chocolate, Buttered Pecan, or Carrot)

- 1 15oz can pure pumpkin

- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (optional)

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Basically you mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until all the lumps are gone (I did this by hand and it took awhile).  Then you spoon the mixture into a well greased bundt pan and bake it at 350 degrees until a skewer or toothpick comes out with just crumbs on it.  Jane Deere recommended 20-30 minutes baking time, but I found I needed 40 to have the skewer come out cleanly.   So, I recommend that you start with the 20 minutes, poke the cake and stick it back in for 5-10 intervals until it's done so you don't accidentally overcook it. 

Rather than dusting with powdered sugar I opted to make a quick icing to dribble over the cake slices.  Consisting only of powdered sugar and water (and perhaps a little vanilla) this icing is super easy!  You start with about 1/4 cup of warm water and slowly add powdered sugar until you have a drippy, lump free consistency that you like.  I found that putting the mixture in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time to help the sugar dissolve removed almost all of the lumps without having to sift the powdered sugar beforehand.  Then all you have to do just drizzle it over the whole cake or just the individual slices.  I brought this cake to my office and the general consensus was that it was Yum!!!

A Very Happy Birthday Card for Mr. Harley Kitten Shurkus

In honor of her very cute kitty's 3rd birthday, my favorite crafting instructor, Jenn Shurkus, is hosting a raffle on her blog.  In order to enter we needed to make a birthday card just for Mr. Harley and send it to her.  I'm coming in just under the wire and submitting it just after midnight on April 13th rather than on Mr. Harley's birthday, but I think he'll forgive me.  I had a pretty long day and he is a very sweet guy.  

Materials I used to make this card:

• Stampendous - Kitty Silhouettes clear stamp set
• a muse - Happy Everything clear stamp set
• Ichiyo- Cat with long tail stamp (not the real name, couldn't find it online)
• a muse square note cards (unavailable)
• Shake it Up - mini mat stack papers
• Memento Ink - Tuxedo Black
• Dew Drop Versamagic Ink - Pretty Petunia
• Spica Glitter Pen in Olive
• a muse olive ribbon
• foam tape
• mono adhesive
• patience of a saint

So, while this wasn't what I had planned to do originally, it came out nice and I am happy.  I need to exercise my paper crafting and stamping juices more often... this card took me way to long to finally figure out.  Oh well, hopefully more stampy goodness to come in the future!

 I hope you had a wonderful birthday Harley!!

Edited for spelling and grammar issues.  Apparently, one shouldn't blog tired ;-)

Cause for Celebration

I want to wish my very wonderful mom an even more wonderful birthday!  To celebrate we had a lovely dinner at one of her favorite restaurants, The Sole Proprietor in Worcester, MA.  We left very full of  fish, wine and dessert.  Mom, I hope you birthday was what you hoped for and you know how appreciated you are.  XOXO

This Hat is DONE!!!!

After about three months of neglect, I have finally finished the hat I said I would make for my husband for his birthday.  Does it count that I started it in October at least?  You know, when he actually had his birthday?  Hehe... oh well!  He seems pretty happy with it tonight when I handed it over anyway.  

The pattern I used is titled "Eat - A Hat" and was designed by Naomi Drew.  It is a free download and can be found on Ravelry if you have an account (which is also free, I might add).  You can download the pattern by clicking here.  

The hat is a fairly simple pattern without being too boring.  I've managed to actually make two hats like this, which is almost unheard of for me.  I tend to be a process knitter and enjoy learning knew things and don't usually repeat the same project over and over.  This time I used a DK weight Baby Alpaca yarn by Misty Mountain Farm that I got when I went to Rhinebeck this past year.  

Rhinebeck, or the New York Sheep & Wool Festival, is the first fiber festival I have ever gone to and I had a blast.  I think I went to Rhinebeck sometime during my Anti-blogsmas period of the year, so I apologize for not having spoken of it before.  I hope to go to more local festivals this year such as MA Sheep & Wool.  I might even venture up to NH or VT to check those out as well.

Well, I'm all tuckered out from all this finished projecty excitement.  Sweet dreams!

A Card a Week - Belated Birthdays

Week 2 of card making was successful!!  So what if I cheated and actually made this card last Saturday?  I was on a paper crafting roll and knew I would see my friend Bob that day so I could give him his birthday card, albeit belated.  Whatever!! What matters is that a card was made :P

To further aid my Card a Week posting goal, I bought a whole bunch of 8.5 x 11 A Muse papers when I was up at Ink About It on Wednesday night for my class with Jenn.  We made really cool things that night, but I will share that lovely creation with you in another post.  I think I might have come close to buying one of every different color and style paper they have, but as they are only 45 cents a sheet, the bill wasn't too destructive :-)

Papers:

•  1 A Muse Orange Square Card (these are unfortunately discontinued, I just happened to have some)
• 1 sheet 8.5 x 11 A Muse Vintage paper in Orange
• 1 sheet 8.5 x11 Neenah Classic Crest paper in Solar White 80 lb (or any other good white card stock you like)

Stamps:

• Fortune Cookie stamp by A Muse
• Happy Belated Birthday stamp by A Muse
• Fortune Cookie Words clear stamp set by A Muse (I used "The cookie has spoken" sentiment in this set for the inside of the card)

Inks:

• Memento Dewdrop in Rich Cocoa (800)
• Memento Dewdrop in Tangelo (200)
  *You can purchase all the inks listed on A Muse's website here

Markers:

• Copic marker in Sepia (E37)
• Copic marker in Sand (E33)
  *You can purchase all the Copics listed on A Muse's website here

Ribbon & Bling:

• A Muse Sheer Polka Dot Ribbon in Orange
• A Muse Mini Dots Twinkles Stickers Multi Pack (I used Orange)*

 *Edited to add Bling info

A Red Sox Filled Week

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to actually go to two Red Sox games in one week! One was our Red Sox night for work which I went to with Darth Coco for her birthday. I'll post more about that night later, but for now I'm going to focus on the second game we went to. The evening started off well, we had dinner at the Boston Beer Works (very good, btw) though there was a very long line.















We were very fortunate in the game we went to because we were able to see Jim Rice's number get retired. That was pretty cool.


































I just love close seats! It allows me to play paparazzi so easily...




























And I HAD to have a piece of fried dough.... I got a Fenway frank (or 3) when I went to the game against the Orioles, so I decided fried things were appropriate for this evening.















Let's just say that the night got a little tense... The Sox were ahead and then the A's slowly started catching up... GGRRRR!!! It's like we were just waving at them as they rounded the bases. So very frustrating after an early lead. Below is a little example of the tension getting the best of people.





















So, after a long (long, long, long, long, long, long game) the Sox lost in the 11th at around 11:30pm. /cry Oh well, you can't win them all... it was a very good night despite the loss. We kind of ran the gambit of the emotional spectrum during the game: elation, anxiety, sadness and hope. Another added bonus was that we both had Charlie cards, which make it much faster to get on the T. Thank you so much Mr. Charlie Card, you saved our lives... or at least let us get a few more minutes of sleep.

A Day with Mom

This year, for my Mom's birthday I decided to shirk the traditional and instead gave her the gift of a coupon. Yes, yes, I hear it now... "that's so lame," or "...so, you couldn't pick out a real present?" I must protest, I personally think that spendng time with someone you care about is better than almost any present. This coupon was good for one free mother/daughter day to anywhere she wants.
















So, Mom picked Friday and went from there. We decided the itinerary would include a trip to our favorite craft store (where they were having their 5th anniversary sale), breakfast at Paul's Diner (a family favorite right next door to the craft store), a trip to the Johnson & Wales Culinary Museum, Lunch at Fire & Ice and a quick trip to another craft store we had been wanting to check out in RI.

Needless to say we were both pretty tired at the end of the day... Here are a few neat pictures we took at the museum:





















I inadvertently asked Mom to pose in the incredibly short face hole... we think it was meant for kids... oops!





















One of the many amazing examples of pastillage, which is "a sugar-based dough used for decorating and creating decorations for pastry, showpiece work and decorative molded forms."
















The sign from Moody's Diner (or a replica of it, I didn't catch the placard to see) which is in Waldoboro, ME. My family often talk about Moody's. You can check out the diner and it's history here.
















An old scale... yeah, that's pretty much it, but i thought it looked neat up close.
















A closeup of a milling machine, probably used to crunch up all sorts of yummy things.

birthday cake shenanigans

I've been in a cake baking mood as of late so I have been making birthday cakes for members of the fam, see also Spice Cake entry. My latest venture was one for my mother in law. After some contemplation I decided a chocolate cake with a strawberry frosting might do the trick. Here is what I ended up with...
















I chose a Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe from Nigella Lawson. It was very dense and the batter was so thick I was a little worried that it wouldn't come out ok. I think that the cake itself was pretty good... however, the frosting was the real winner in my book. It was Fresh Strawberry Frosting and while I can't seem to follow directions to save my life when it comes to cooking, this came out very well despite my attempts to massacre it.
















I ended up making a double batch and making it a little too thin by not straining the strawberries out enough first, but it actually would have worked very well as a poured frosting over a bundt cake the way I made it. As a result of the thinness of the frosting, I had to line the bottom of the cake with cut strawberries.... really, it ended up being a feature more than a bug.

Happy birthday Janet! I hope you liked the cake. I certainly enjoyed making it :-)
Love, Jo

happy 1950's birthday Kate!

Ok, so I know this image looks odd.... but I wanted to put up one I took at our friend Kate's birthday party and I didn't really have a chance to get any good shots. So I was playing around with the filters in Photoshop (which I usually avoid) and thought this one actually gave the rather "blah" image I took some interest factor.

The filter is called water paper and I guess it's supposed to mimic the use of watercolors and how the paint bleeds across the page. Overall, I think it makes the picture look like it's from the 50's. So, it's nothing much, but I wanted to share it and wish Kate happy birthday!

birthday shenanigans

This was just one of the indignities I was forced to suffer this Tuesday when the fam got together for my birthday dinner. I knew something was coming.... mostly because dad had called and warned me that my torture was imminent. I also had a tiara with flashing lights and feathers that had a big "30" written on it. The candle pictured is actually a very specific kind of retaliation for what I did to his cake one year.

Let's just say colored green sugar made the top look like AstroTurf and there was a gravestone candle involved... I'll just leave it at that. Also, my mother I'm sure played a part as well. I have tortured her with such illustrious birthday hijinx announcing her 50th birthday on Medway Cable Access, actually putting 50 candles on her cake (all lit) and then giving her a birthday card referencing the fire dept. being ready for her cake to be lit.

Is that wrong?!? Nah..... so I guess I had this coming right?