A change of pace

Life as we all know, has it's little journey for each of us to follow individually.  Somehow my atv went off the trail, and has led me to a place where I may have to give up baked goods for the rest of my life.  Am I sad?  I don't know yet... too early to tell.  It is the main reason I haven't posted in a while, I feel pretty gross most of the time, and have no energy to do anything more than daily activities like work, laundry and cooking dinner.

I've been diagnosed with Diverticulitis, so in turn I have Diverticulosis or Diverticular Disease.  What's that you say??  It's usually older people that get this?  You are correct, at 38 I am a little young to have this fantastically painful little gem of a disease. I know how it happened, I'm not blind to my hours of cross stitching, or sitting on my bum in general, enjoying too many cheeseburgers and not enough water.  I know how this happened, but it has left me in a bit of a pickle.

I haven't seen the Dietician yet, so all information I've been getting is from the internet, or 3rd hand, I am trying to take this all with a grain of salt until I talk to a doctor/dietician who knows the skinny on DD.  In the meantime, I am avoiding seeds as there seems to be a relatively high concensus that they can cause issues, and I'm drinking water like I've been walking through the Agobe for a week.

I have 2 cakes and a slough of cupcakes to make this month, it will be difficult to not eat any for "Quality control"... let's face it, QC used to involve a pint of cold milk and a six pack of goodies after the hard work was done.  I love my cakes, but they, in addition to the other things I haven't been doing for myself, have left me in a position where if I want to live to a healthy old age, or at least an old age without too many painful flare ups, I had better behave.

I will be starting another blog in view of my lifestyle change, and will use that as a means of working through the DD, and I will continue to post cakes and cupcakes for friends on this site.  Hey - just because I can't have them, doesn't mean I can't make them and see the joy in other people's faces.

Just keeping you posted - there will be cake pictures this weeked, horray!

What's new?

Yo

'sup?

So... yah.  I've been a bit busy.  My stitch, she's finished, and lookin' mighty fine if I do say so myself.  I'll be doing some decorations tonight, I'll post pictures later this evening - should be cute, Harry Potterish type things.

I've got a Mario cake coming up as well, which should be great fun!  I think every baker should get to do a Mario cake.  I also need a little inspiration for the store... any thoughts on what's good for summertime?

I'm thinking sheep in bikinis... but I'm worried it might turn out looking creepy.  Will people eat that?  I dunno.  I suppose considering it's free sugar they probably wouldn't care if it looked like a brick with a bunch of cotton balls stuck to it... but since that's not what I'm going for we'll stick to sheep.

sounds lovely no?  sure thing

Yes, I am answering myself.  Admit it, you do it too.

I get to go on a roadtrip in a couple of days, visit the Fam and see the new Potter flick with the kidlets, I'm looking forward to it :)  I also in the meantime have a BBQ to plan for work on Friday morning.  Potato salad is okay in the sun right?  mm hmm... got my foodsafe cert. somewhere around here

I get to organize, shop, cook, and clean for a "team building" afternoon.  Fantastic.  in case you missed it, I'm being sarcastic.  I don't think it's fantastic.  I think it's shite.  Once again I get to be the one doing the work for what will surely be an afternoon soon forgotten.  I seem bitter... maybe I am.

Oooh coffee!!  I'm going to get a cup of coffee now and stop being a poo.  In the meantime, here's a picture of something fun to look at:

You gotta love the bag in the picture... honestly when will I learn?  I'm putting this in here in honor of the ridiculousness that is the display at Michael's.  They have halloween stuff out already.  And not the "you're making it yourself so you need time to prepare" Halloween stuff, it's the "stick it on the shelf and call it Hallow's Eve" stuff.  I love Halloween, but I felt dirty... I went in for cross stitch floss, and left feeling like a piece of my soul had been tarnished.

yah, coffee now... catch you peeps later

Step 9: Ah forget about it, I'm bored with the steps, I'm sure you are too

So the super secret project was hubby's birthday cake.  And here's a look:

It's the Muppets Treasure Island!  I found out that taking a holiday with the person you're secretly trying to make figures for, doesn't always work out so well :(  pout

I got Piggy, Gonzo, Kermy, and Statler & Waldorf for the prow all done, I had wanted more of them, but just ran out of time.  It was good though, Chocolate cake with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.  yummm  I made planks out of modelling chocolate and used that to cover the entire outside, the cannons were fondant, the figures were gumpaste.

I also made hubby an ice cream cake out of Chapman's no sugar added ice cream - I puree'd a bunch of strawberries, added it to softened vanilla ice cream, layered it with low sugar chocolate oreo cookies, and the vanilla, and froze it in a loaf pan.  He loved it, and it meant he got to eat cake on his birthday, that made me happy :)

This week is another venture into cupcakes - some for the store, and some for work.  I've got a pina colada cuppy in mind, and a chocolate espresso cream - might even do a strawberry one.. not sure.

Here's another shot of the cake, have a good week everyone!

Step 8: Make a list of all persons harmed, and make amends with them

Alrighty then, so here we go:

M's wedding cake, the only time I've had a malfunction with a cake - and just my luck it was her bloody wedding cake.  Le Sigh.  I still beat myself up about this one, hard to let it go.  I did email afterward and offered to return the moola or make a cake for a birthday or something else, never heard back from her though.

Husband:  That poor bastard has to put up with me swearing every time I'm overly tired and my fondant isn't working.  Or when I've been so wrapped up in my art I've forgotten to eat for 9 hours and I'm a bit 'touchy'.  He always sounds a bit trepidatious if things are going well, the kitchen is quiet save for the movie in the background, it's like the calm before the storm I guess.. occasionally things go smoothly and I don't have to pitch a fit :)  He knows I'm working on my anger toward the art, and I make things up to him in other ways.

Like making dinner or doing the laundry pervs... knock it off *wink*

Roommate: The poor bugger doesn't know how to deal with me when I'm pissy.  He thought I was this calm, mild-mannered person when he moved out here, little did he know.  hehe  I make sure he gets part of the goodies if there are leftovers though, so I make amends that way.

Other than that, I think we're good.

And on to other things.  The office is packing up and moving... or should I say a few of us are packing the office, the rest are packing up their cubicles.  I get to deal with a lot of it, but that's part of my job so I'm trying to take it in stride.

I'm considering entering my latest cross stitch into the Calgary Stampede arts competition.  There is the issue of size, you can't enter anything larger than 120" in perimeter... I forgot to measure it last night, so if it's bigger the point is moot.  I have 1 more sheet of pattern to finish, just the bottom corner, and it would be a good incentive to get it done - having a bit of drag happening with the ambition on that front.


They also have a cake decorating competition.. so I'll be looking into that as well.  Could be a busy weekend :)  yay!

Step 7: Humbly ask him to remove shortcomings

Alrighty campers - we're halfway there, and then we'll move on to some other things I have planned.  For this post, I will - as the steps instruct - humbly ask him to remove my shortcomings.

heh hem....

'Oh Sir Gumpaste,  I humbly ask that you remove my shortcomings.  That you remove the temptation for me to violently hurl my modelling implements across the room when things aren't going my way.  That you help me stop swearing like an overweight trucker in a fender-bender during an August heatwave / ice cream shortage whenever I have problems with my fondant.  That you'll help me stop being so jumpy that if I'm concentrating on something and the cat meows outside to come in, I don't jump and swear at the same time while I run vibrantly colored icing all over the side of a pristine cake.  thank you.'

There, stick that in your cornpipe and smoke it.

So last week we had greek night (kindof).  I made lamb burgers with a gorgeous feta and creamcheese spread that was liberally schmeared on top of the warm burger patty, topped with fresh red onion, new tomatoes and crisp romaine lettuce.  All of this on a warm toasted bun, served with a healthy side of greek salad.  It was a fantastic trip to flavor town, if you'd like the directions I can send them to you.  Later we had 'Chapmans brand no sugar added' vanilla ice cream, co-op brand chocolate frozen yogurt (no sugar) and fresh cherries and strawberries on top.  Deeelicious!

Last week I did not go to work.  I wasn't protesting or anything, just took some time off to hang at home.  As much as I'd love to vacay in the OK, unfortunately I'm not made of money yet, so it's home for me to clean, organize, and stitch.  I was doing a lot of work on the super secret project, and I'll post some pictures soon.

I went on a field trip to see what the new office for work will be like.  Pretty much what I expected, it's a cubicle, there's no free parking, you have to take transit there, and there's no lunch room.  Blah.  So I shall take every opportunity to enjoy the current office while I'm here, and to show you what I'll be missing, here's a little thing I like to call "Ka Kaw!"

They're pretty impressive.  Well, they are impressive, but taking photos on my phone is not.  We have hawks at the old office, quite a few of them, and the video was of them riding the wind and kawing at each other.  

Step 6: Entirely ready to have Sir Gumpaste remove the defects of character

Poor Sir Gumpaste, I'm putting an awful lot of pressure on a made-up deity.  I hope he recovers.

In any event, I suppose praying to Sir Gumpaste to remove my defects is as effective as praying to anyone else.  Really I think it'll boil down to doing the work myself, finding some sort of serenity while I work.  My art angers me, is that normal?  haha

Last night I delivered cupcakes to Make 1 Yarns in Calgary - they have knit night every Tuesday evening, and the last Tuesday of each month I bring them goodies.  Normally I deliver a cake, but cupcakes seemed like a fun idea, and probably less mess to clean up afterward.  I may do it again, the response was good and it sounds like I've got an order for a birthday cupcake cake out of it.  I'm not a huge fan of cupcake cakes, hopefully it's not the type that's just a bunch of cuppies shoved together and covered with a schmear of icing over them, then decorated to look roughly like the actual shape of something... they're usually awful.  I've seen 2 or 3 that aren't horrible, so we'll see how it goes.

Tonight is lamb burger and greek salad night.  I'm looking forward to it, and then afterward, more of the super secret project will be done.  I almost got caught last night, so hopefully he didn't see it.  It's exciting and stressful at the same time... I'm literally wandering around the kitchen trying not to make any noise so he can't hear me in there... if he thinks I'm on the computer I can sneak in a bit of work :)  Do not underestimate my sneakiness...

A little word here on coffee.  I love coffee.  It needs to be good coffee though - 7 Eleven is not it.  I am currently enjoying a Tim Hortons 'like' blend from work, and I must admit it is delicious.  There is something very zen about that first cup of coffee in the morning.  I don't know that people are only addicted to caffeine, I honestly think there's something in the whole process of taking even just a short moment to enjoy that first sip, letting the aroma and the heat fill your senses - it is bliss.

It's supposed to rain later today, I may be barbequeing in the downpour - I will probably look something like this: good times!

Step 5: Admit to Sir Gumpaste, another human being, and myself the exact nature of my wrongs

The exact nature of my wrongs... in no particular order:

swearing uncontrollably when I bake, sometimes the air is a lovely shade of 'forget me not'

pitching my brush at the wall when I get the shakes and manage to paint a figures eye in the shape of a kumquat

pushing too hard on my fondant and having it buckle or tear

expecting my work to be perfect

Ahhhh... I feel better :)  I'm sure there are more wrongs, but these are the big ones that make me feel funny afterward.  and now you know, Sir Gumpaste and I had a little chat on the weekend, I am going to have to give him some time to recover.  It was quite a mouthful.

So last night was burger night, I molded the meat into triangular patties to match the shape of the triangle Costco buns we had - and made some really yummy mushrooms for it as well.  Deeply satisfying, although some miserable little mosquito bit my finger when I was cooking out there... bugger.

Inside the kitchen was also fun, lemon cupcakes with lemon filling, vanilla buttercream and my first batch of candied lemon peel.  There were also white cupcakes with hazelnut filling, chocolate frosting, and butterflies for decoration.  Pictures will be posted slightly later today.  I need another project other than the super secret one, any suggestions??  More for you than for me, I have lots to do, but telling you about it and not posting pictures is just rude... wait... I already did that.  woops

Here's a picture of something completely unrelated, because I can. 

Step 4: Make sure you know what is wrong, and try to change it

Well I know what's wrong, my fondant is never smooth enough, or a corner cracks and I have to cover it up with a flower (yeah, that's  inconspicuous)....  Is it that the work isn't good enough, or again I'm being particular?  Let's go with improving the work for now.

I suppose I could try to go to school for this, I mean I am flying by the seat of my pants.  Mind you they are well worn, worldly traveled type pants, so I've got that going for me.  My education was in my mother's kitchen.  We'd work on making fresh bread and buns, brownies, cakes, cookies, and my mom's awesome Nanaimo Bars. 

My not having gone to school probably has me at a bit of a disadvantage, but I'm a clever tool-using monkey, so I keep thinking I should be able to figure this all out.  I'm not sure if that's arrogance, or just misguided faith. 

It's very rainy today, one of those days a person should be at home in front of a fire, curled up on the couch eating soup or snoozing with a cat.  I could use a hug.  This guy looks like he could help...

I made this for my friend Katie, it was her little guy Liam's first birthday.  I liked him a lot - probably the big eyes and plushie-ness of him, that's not a word.. but you get my point.  He's so squashy!  *think "Despicable Me*

Alright, so back to step 4.  I have identified the problem.  My fondant work makes me crazy.  I will look at the possibility of a class, or some sort of schooling; however, in the meantime I will continue to search the web for ideas and tricks.  Oh and by the way - if anyone knows how to actually work the 'paper towel trick' on buttercream, I'd be very interested to learn about it.  I have tried it several times, with several different recipes, but to no avail.

There, you see?  I'm trying to change :) *grin*

I fear change, especially loonies.

Step 3: Find faith in order to help with the situation

I could go all "I'm gonna pray to St. Honore!  Patron Saint of Bakers!".. but then I remember that I'm not religious.  So confusing sometimes, life that is.

Who will I find faith in?  Probably something made up, that sounds cool, like St. Fondant, or Sir Gumpaste, patron saint of the insane...

So the other night we had nachos, and here they are.  I think I'm realizing that the nachos are simply a delivery system for the salsa.  God I love salsa... is there a patron saint of salsa? 

Yummy hey?  They were indeed.  We have nachos for dinner quite often, they are very filling and not too bad on the glycemic when I use the correct chips.  Now looking at this picture I'm thinking the chips are doing double duty as a delivery system for the sour cream.

"Why can't I lose weight?"... really??  stop whining, enjoy your nachos.

:)


I did a whole batch of cupcakes last weekend, and they were a whole week early.  Awesome.  God my memory sucks.  Oh well, the house smells good.  In any case, roommate and I got to take cuppy cakes to work and the co-workers were suitably pleased and sugared for the remainder of the day. 

I think my sister would be proud of me, it's a good cake to buttercream ratio, plus they each have a yummy filling inside.  I have a super secret project that I'm working on, so tonight I will be busy with that, and in a few weeks I can post pictures of said super secret project.  It's going to be awesome.

Step 2 is admitting that baking has taken over your life...

Okee dokee, so I need to admit that baking has taken over.  hmmm..


Well, my kitchen table is still covered in royal icing butterflies, the counter between the fridge and the stove has cake on it (not just willy nilly mind you... it's wrapped up and waiting until I get home so that I can lovingly turn it into something wonderful).

I'm considering adding a second craft caddy in the kitchen to house the fondant tools and supplies that don't really fit into the first caddy....


interesting... perhaps I do have a problem?


Alright... it's taken over.  Is that really so bad?  I think not.  For starters the cake is a birthday gift.  Who doesn't like gifts?  Or cake?  I'm going to try the ruffled look, wish me luck.

Last night I snapped a bunch of photos, baked cake, and then got sidetracked by life.   I tried adding the photos this morning at work, but apparently there's some socializing aspect of the site so I can't do it during my lunch at work... I guess that will have to wait until later tonight. 


In the meantime, here's something to think about:  if you smack someone with a bottle of Johnson's "no more tears" baby shampoo in the head, and they cry... does that create a beautiful irony?  Not my original thought, but it bears repeating and consideration.


Here's another cake while you mull that little gem over:

HA !  Jem :)  I crack myself up.

The first step is admitting you have a problem...

Okay, my first hurdle was deciding if this was going to be funny, or serious.  Will I try to amuse you, or just inspire?  What if I'm not funny or inspiring?  I suppose that's an easy answer, you'll just stop reading right around here.....


Still with me?  Good, because I think this will be fun for all of us.  We're going to run the first few weeks like a 12 step program for Bakers - tell your friends, because like the lunchlady from my grade school cafeteria, we can all use some support.  Please lunchlady Barb, for the love of mystery meat, find some support.


To make this easier, I'll start things off.  "Hello, my name is Amy, and I'm a baker".  This is step one, admitting you have a problem.  Now it's your turn, first names only - and then admit you have a problem.  I'll wait here.


......


Everyone had a turn?  Excellent... I would like to point out that I don't necessarily feel being a Baker is a problem, but rather that I'd like to be a better Baker. 


Stop it.  I know what you're thinking.  I am not.


I believe the word you're fumbling around for is 'particular'.  I am particular.  There.. I've admitted my problem.  Happy now ???  oh wait, this was my idea...


Anyway...so tonight is nachos night (YUM), followed by more butterfly wing creating.  I'm experimenting with some leftover icing, trying to see if it will work well with melted chocolate.  I'll post some pictures later tonight and let you know how it turns out.  In the meantime, here's a picture of a cake I made for a friends' birthday. 

Happy Baking!