On a More Serious Note or: Fuck You Cancer

What the hell, Cancer?

I just found out today a woman I went to high school with has ovarian cancer.  She and I were not close friends.  At best, we could be described as acquaintances.  Hearing the news of her illness today affected me in a way I didn't really expect and took me quite off guard.

I got really weepy.


I mean, I am not a callous bitch. (Just a regular bitch, thankyouverymuch) I do get feelz.  For instance, I can not hear the song "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" from the movie Frozen with out my throat becoming uncomfortably painful, and tears spilling from my eyes. This reaction just kind of floored me.

I don't know if I am just entering that time in life where people my age start dying, or what.  It just seems like there has been a lot of this happening and I think it really sucks.

I have always really been able to "hold it together" but now it just seems like I can't anymore.  I had another friend from high school lose her mom last year.  Anyone who knows me knows that my mother and I are seriously best friends.  When my friend lost her mom, (to ovarian cancer, dammit) I seriously could not look at her with out just openly crying.  All I could think about was how I would feel in her place and quite frankly, for lack of a better term, it fucked me up.  Just thinking about it now, I am about to lose my shit.(I apologize for the blue language, but you are kind of getting a dose of Cassie Unfiltered here. )  Another friends' 14 year old son has been dealing with cancer and chemo for the last year.  I can't even wander into the realm of feeling there- children?  Fuck that.  Fuck Cancer.

*big sigh*

I don't know where I am going with this.  I just needed to acknowledge my feelings. I have friends that are like "Everyone dies, so and so is lucky" and to that I say bullshit. In my head of course, (we are really too old to be so confrontational.  Unless it is on Facebook, in a comments section of a Tea Party post.  But I digress.)  Somethings are good, somethings are bad.

This thing, is bad.

In the words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."

Thanks for reading.

Well, Well, Well... I simply have no excuse. 2013 regurge.

One of my friends from high school was talking about standing in the shower and thinking of all the things that had gone on in the past year.  She said "OH CRAP, I better start writing some of this shit down!." That got me thinking. I have blog, and have had one for nearly ten years.  Yes Dear Reader, if you are reading this now, I have had this for ten years this coming September.  I remember I started it because I wanted to talk shit and be able to remember all the adorable things that my children do/did.  
     Everyone has the best of intentions with their first child. They go whole hog, scrap booking and keeping memories.  Then the second one comes and, not so much.
     So, in the spirit of continuity, I will do a regurge.  It's been a long time since I have done one.  now I have to go get my phone and get some pictures of of it to post.  I know I don't have to say that I will be right back, because you don't actually know I am gone, but I will say it anyway, just to be contrary.  
 Be right back.

That took a while.  Not that you know that, but it did.  I got a case of what I like to call "Cindy Smedley Sidetracked" I was making photo collages, because too much happened this year, so I had to consolidate space.  

Of course I like to take silly pictures with the kids.  We all know this.  It's a fact.

Also, I am huge on costumes.  I made Ayman an Obi-Wan Kenobi costume for Halloween a couple years ago.  We got to use it again for Star Wars Night at the Stockton Thunder.  So much fun.  I also made Jennah a bad ass Princess Leia costume, because sewing your own damn costumes is a lost art and also, BECAUSE I CAN.  For Halloween, which is the picture on the right, Ayman was Jack Sparrow, and Jennah was a Pirate Wench.  My mom totally scored a great pirate costume with hat; it was a little small so some modification was in order.  Also, I made him a wig bandanna combo from a cheapie mask my mom had in her costume trunk.  We topped it of with a pirate beard and make up and BOOYAH, Mommy rulez!  Jennah and I had a great time thrift store shopping for her costume bits.  That girl can shop.

We also had a year of fake moustaches and broken right arms.  

So, Ayman broke his arm in August.  He fell off his bike because he hit a curb, because of his desire to be FIRST at all times.  I hope he took something away from that experience.  Jennah broke her arm in early January, (I know it is in 2014, but I am lumping it with 2013 for posterity)  Let me tell you how, dear reader, since this is for you too.  Ayman and Jennah call our bedroom "The Training Room".  It has a big Cal King bed, and the kids wrestle with each other.  Roughly.  They have just always done it.  This time, big brother accidentally stepped on Sissy's arm.  You know how when your kids cry, you can tell from the tone if something is really wrong?  Well, I heard Jennah make a noise of pain. Then she said, "I'm not gonna cry, I'm not gonna cry.... " It was at that point I threw my laptop on the floor and hauled ass back into the bedroom to see why she wouldn't be crying.  Due to a policy I have called "If One of You Ends Up Crying You're Both in Trouble" they didn't want to tell me a thing.  I waived my normal policy on that night.  Ayman was torn up- he was sad he hurt his sister, and terrified he would be in trouble.  Jennah was cradling her arm and doing what can be best described as Lamaze breathing.  I took her to the urgent care, it was xrayed and splinted, and we went out to the county for a cast the next day.  What a difference, let me tell ya.  Ayman was damn stoic about his broken arm.  He wept silently.  Jennah, not so much.  Ayman had tylenol with codeine the night of the break.  Jennah was asking for pain meds three days later.  She really is her mother's daughter, just as Ayman is his father's son.  Genetics are fun, huh?

The above picture is just so cute.  I picked the kids up from school in December and decided to take them to Panera for some hot chocolate, a cookie and some conversation.  They're adorable.  I am not biased at all.  

     So that is about as many pics as I will post, Ayman turned 10 last year and is in the fourth grade.  His teacher is Ms. Wendt.  He loves to read.  In about August, he started reading the Harry Potter books.  By the end of the year he was pretty much done with them.  Now he is reading The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.  We went to his teacher conference and he has read, get this, 600k words since the beginning of the school year.  He loves to read so very much.  It warms the cockles of my cold, dark heart. Jennah turned 8 last March.  She is in the second grade, and her teacher is the same second grade teacher Ayman had: Mrs. Ellis.  Jennah's reading is coming along wonderfully. Jennah's big thing is art.  She loves drawing pictures, making jewelry and just about anything that exercises her creativity.  She is a thoughtful and sweet young lady.  I am so proud of the both of them.

     On a personal non-child related note, since September I have lost 48 pounds.  Amr and I joined the gym and I have been going regularly. Between my mom, dad, brother and I we have lost about 250 lbs.  My brother has lost a whopping 100lbs!  It's really awesome. Amr and I celebrated our 13 year anniversary at the end of July.  Time does fly!

Also, if you are just joining us, I do not try to pretend that I am a professional writer.  So please, if you feel the need to grammar/punctuation nazi me, don't. I just don't care.
   
There is the regurge.  Hope you enjoyed it.  I would promise to do better, but I am sure that I won't.

Christening Cookies

I recently made an order of cookies for a Christening.  I used Americolor Teal to get the Tiffany blue color and then just tried to come up with some thing pretty.  I made script  T's on the scalloped round ones, in addition there was a smaller round cookie, Capital T shaped cookies, as well as the obligatory cross.  I am beyond happy with the finished result.  I am always surprised when I start making these because I never know how they will turn out.

Hey while your here, why not like my Facebook page?  MMMMkay?  That'd be greeeaaat.

Southwest Biscuit Casserole. DELICIOUS

This is not a food blog, or a cupcake blog or a cookie blog.  I know it looks like one though.  This is just somewhere for me to come to share the things I like, and have done.
Here is something I like.  A LOT.
Who loves comfort food?  Who loves biscuits from a can?  Who loves easy?

I DO! I DO!  I DO!

I got the bare bones of this recipe, from my friend Kafi via Facebook one day.  I have a habit of constantly tweeking things, so I tweeked this.  Here it goes.

Southwest Biscuit Casserole

Preheat oven to 400°

½ cup sour cream
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 small can diced chiles, whatever temp you like
1 cup or so of red potatoes, diced (microwave for 4 minutes)
2 chicken breasts cooked your favorite way, then diced
1 can of corn
1 can any biscuit in a can
1 cup pepper jack cheese
½ cup sharp cheddar cheese

Ok, really the best part is this is easy.  I am sure anyone reading this is like, "What the hell? This chick just opened cans"  Yeah? Well, sue me.  This takes me a a half hour to prep, only if I have to cook the chicken.  If you have chicken leftovers, BOOM, this is the recipe for you.

In a medium bowl combine: soup, chiles, sour cream, potatoes (don't for get to microwave them to cook them a little) diced chicken breast, corn.

Pour the mixture in to a casserole dish, I like to use a square one. There is only 4 of us.

Mix up your cheeses, spread over the top of mixture in casserole dish.

Open can of biscuits.  stretch out the biscuits, to fit and cover the top of the casserole.

Bake 35 minutes at 400°

Let sit when done cooking for about 10 minutes.

When I have leftovers of this, all I do is think of them, forcing me to eat some.  If you make this you will know what I mean.  I mean look, it has all classic elements: biscuits, cheese, and creamy stuff.  YUM.

Baby Girl Cookies

Here is another batch of baby shower cookies.  We have baby faces, carriages, rattles, bottles, onesies and other cookie shapes in flowers, hearts and circles.  All cookies were embellished with candy pearls and flowers made of royal icing.  I really love these cookies.

As per usual, i got my inspiration from Sugarbelle's site, however, i can't find the link right now.  However, that is ok.  Go look.  it is insane cookie porn!

Adorable Ducky Cookies

I was contacted not long ago about a cookie job.  The lady wanted some cookies and cupcakes that would go along with her theme which went with the above invitation.

Here is what I came up with. I stenciled the basic duck shape on all of  them, and then went through refining them with a few more colors.  I like painting on cookies with food coloring.  The customer was very happy and so was I.  What do you think about them?  

Hey remember when I bartered my Ninjago cookies?

Did I tell you about the time I bartered my cookies for delightful handcrafted jewelry?  Well, I think I did tell you.  It isn't my fault if you don't remember. Are you having a senior moment?  Anyhoo.  I made sweet Ninjago cookie favors, and my friend Jamie sent me these sweet Doctor Who inspired bracelets. Jamie has super cool stuff, and she will custom make stuff as well.  Not only that, but she is reasonably priced.  I would highly recommend her for custom gifts.  I am thinking Jennah may need some (more) custom jewelry from Jamie.  So, if you are not into looking at my old posts, (I linked to it in the first line of this post, how much easier do I need to make it?) here are her links.  Justahausweyef 's Facebook Page and Justahausweyef's Etsy Page.  Check her out and give her a like!

Wedding Gown Cookies

Here are some wedding gown cookie favors I made for a group of bridesmaids.  The design is pretty simple but I really think it works.  What do you think?  The wedding colors were rainbow, and the final result was bagged in cello bags and tied with rainbow ribbon, which I should have posted a picture of. #missedopportunity.

I have quite a few orders coming up at the end of the month!  No complaints here, people.  Today I had to sit down and figure out the number of cookies I need to bake on my "baking day".  It comes out to about 200.  Yikes.  Oh well, I love a cookie challenge!  What tips did I use here?  Wilton #1 in case you wanted to know.  Thanks for checking me out, feel free to comment!

Halloween Cookies 2012

Halloween is like, my favorite holiday.  I love dressing up, (although i dont so much anymore) and now making costumes for my children, and it is the eve of my birthday month.

With all of that in mind, how can I not make some adorable cookies? I made these guys last night.  I love them.  The bats especially.  They have purple sanding sugar "lining" to the wings, complete with little bloody fangs.  The spider web cookies are also pretty cool, with a hand painted spider.   Also we have a couple of ghosts as well as candy corns.  I made a pumpkin too, but i ate it. LOL!

Happy Halloween everybody!

Safari Baby Shower Cookies

I made these cookies using a Wilton set i picked up a couple years ago.  I had never made the lion before, but i am so happy with how he turned out!  I didnt want to paint the faces, so I went ahead and used my food coloring painting technique.  I really think they are adorable!

Ninjago Cookies

I made these cookies for my friend Jamie.  She made me super sweet Doctor Who inspired bracelets (pics to follow of those soon, but until then why not check out her Etsy shop or her Facebook page?) some cute earrings and a necklace and bracelets for my daughter.  In return, I made cookies for her son's birthday.  These cookies got bagged and bowed as cookie favors that look adorable.  For once I didn't go to Sweet Sugarbelles site to find inspiration.  I went instead to the internet and just checked out Ninjago stuff on Google.  I did however, use techniques I read on her blog, so there is that.  All in all, I have to say I am pretty happy with how they turned out.

Spiderman cookies and cookie favors

More cookies on my cookie making odyssey.  These are Spiderman cookies, and cookie favors that I made for a little boys birthday party.  I am really happy about how they turned out, even if the black icing gave me fits.  I have to give credit where credit is due, my go-to cookie resource blog, the Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle. She is very talented, and has been an outstanding resource for me, I really should think of thanking her for her awesome tutorials.

Winner winner, chicken dinner! UPDATED.

I am very excited to announce that my Chocolate Cherry Beauties cookie recipe won a blue ribbon from the Just a Pinch Recipe Club!  I am thinking I should take the time out to say that before I posted a recipe there I was using it like crazy for different cake recipes.  It was always popping up in my sidebar on Facebook with delicious creations that made me click.  So what did we learn today?  That I am a baking nerd, and that the Just a Pinch Recipe Club is a great website and resource.  Still haven't heard anything about my entry to the cookie contest, but I am keeping my fingers crossed!

UPDATE: The cookies were a finalist in the Just a Pinch Cookie Celebration contest, and was featured on the front page of the site during the week of July 10th, as well as featuring them in their Facebook ads..  They made me an Honorary Kitchen Member and sent me a Chefs hat.   So now I can ca call these cookies "Award Winning"!!! Woo Hoo!

Wine Themed Cookies

I made theses cookies for a rehearsal dinner for a wedding being held in Sonoma,  Ca with a wine country theme. I am pleased with the results.  A little bit of hand painting and voila!  Cookies.

Pirate Cookie Collection

 I made a pirate cookie collection for a three year old's  birthday party. The collection included pieces of eight, pirate ships, pirates, swords (or cutlasses?idk.) Treasure maps, and personalized scrolls. Here is a picture of all of them:

Below is a closer view of the scroll banner cookies.  I painted them with food coloring "paint" The pirate cutlass came from a palm tree cookie cutter because I was not able to find a cutlass cutter.  Improvisation!

This one is my favorite.  I used the "F" cutter, (the boy's name is Frankie) and flooded the cookies with an almost flesh toned frosting, then painted it to look like a treasure map, finishing it with a red royal icing "x" to mark the spot. I had no idea what that was going to look like when i started it and it just turned into a totally happy accident.

On the right, is what I am calling a pirate ship.  All I could find was a sailboat cutter so I used that and made some alterations to it to make it work.  I used little round cutters to make the pieces of eight, making several different ones.  Finally, there is this little pirate.  I got this cookie idea straight from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle, who is my cookie idol.

If you click on the first picture, you can kind of see the different patterns i made for the pieces of eight.  all I really did for that was look at different fonts and pirate themed stuff on the internets to get my ideas.  Thanks for stopping by to look at my stuff!

Ninjago Birthday Cake

I made a Ninjago themed cake for a boys birthday, and wrote his name in royal icing on the side of the cake.  I am pretty excited to deliver it.

Cupcake bouquet...

I did a cupcake bouquet for a garden themed birthday party on Sunday, and I think it turned out great. Here ya go, instructions! (Sharing is caring people!)

1 six inch pot
1 pot saucer
1 six inch floral ball
Popsicle sticks
glue gun and sticks
a rock to weigh it down.

Glue the saucer to the bottom of the clay pot.  Put the rock in the pot.  Glue the floral ball to the opening of the pot. Stick Popsicle sticks around the ball about a half inch above where it meets the pot, all the way around, spaced about an inch an a half apart. Stagger the next row up and so on.  I recommend using one cupcake to get a feel for the spacing before placing all the Popsicle sticks. Place the Popsicle sticks angled upwards.  The bouquet takes 19-20 cupcakes.  make a slit in the bottom of the cupcake about the width of the Popsicle stick, then place the cupcakes on the sticks. for empty spaces I tucked in tissue but you could easily stick in leaves or fresh greenery as well. Please note you need a denser cake, with no filling and a firmer frosting, (not a whipped frosting) the bottom row is a little precarious, and if the day is warm and you are outside, that frosting is going to slip right off those suckers. It is very pretty and versatile... The possiblilities, they are endless!

Nojo "Safari Baby" inspired cookies

I did these cookies for a baby shower.  So cute.  I was inspired by Targets Nojo collection, "Safari Baby".  To accompany the cookies I made Boston Cream Pie cupcakes.  The feedback was very good on both items.  I think my skillz are improving.  I just wish Michaels had better treat bags.  the ones I get (the only ones they have that i find acceptable) have a narrow neck that I have to slit to get bigger cookies into.  Bigger cookies are basically every cookie, so that really sucks.  I am going to have to look at Ebay or Amazon.

Minnie and Mickey Mouse Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a rehearsal dinner.  The Mickey and Minnie's are made with royal icing that I dried.  How crafty am I?  I really love the way they turned out.

The cupcake flavors are lemon cake, make with 7up, and white cake, with a whole strawberry and some fresh strawberry filling in in it.  They turned out delightful.

Cookies for Baby's Arrival...

 Still doing cookies.  Here we have baby bottles ad rattles.  I used sanding sugar on the outline of the rattles, but chose to leave the bottles somewhat plainer, but I am very happy with the result. I have to say I really am enjoying the cookies. I also made a delicious marble cake this week with a fresh strawberry filling in it.  So hmmm, what have i learned with this batch...Ahh yes. Pressure.  When using a #1 tip for lettering, pressure is so important, but even more important: consistency.  Icing consistency is incredibly important in achieving the effect you desire.  I think i am finally getting that.  When I made thos batch of cookies I also made lamb and duckie cookies, but i am lazy and have not iced them yet.  Rest assured when I do I will be pinning them.  Thanks to you visitors, for checking out my work.  I appreciate it!