As Promised I Present To You...

...my daughter's ELMO cupcakes!

They turned out really cute and I am just a little bit proud of them!

So let me give you the step-by-step on how I (with the help of my dear hubby who lovingly formed and colored the mouths at 11:30pm at night for me the night before the party) I came to create this cuteness!

I chose a really nice ready to bake chocolate cake mix by "Pamela's All Natural" I think it's called. I wasn't going to make the cake myself, just because I knew the faces would take up enough time to create. That cake mix is the bomb, by the way, the fluffiest and most chocolaty ever, much better than the Betty Crocker mix! I filled them into individual cupcake cups, not the cupcake pan, just because we made over 30(!) of 'em. Now, let me ask you: Am I obsessive/compulsive for making 30 cupcakes, if there are only 19 at the party?
So this is what it looked sans decoration:



I know, not that exciting yet. But wait, I'm building up to it! I decided to make it an all edible face (which was a bit traumatic for our youngest ones, who didn't like the idea of "eating" ELMO's face...) ELMO's nose and mouth were made of Marzipan, tinted orange and black respectively, and for the googely eyes I chose white Fondant (no, that's not wine), which turned out to be really easy to work with (I've never ever worked with Fondant and it turnes out to be a great medium!).
And here we have a very spooky looking assembly of facial parts:




And here I dear hubby, getting really into it! Thanks again for all your help, love!



For the frosting, I decided to make a cream cheese frosting, but added some Raspberry puree to it. Yes, I made that one from scratch, cooking, then pureeing it, in order to get all the seeds out. At first, I thought it would be easier to tint them red in the end because it's already red (which it did), but then I found out that it gave the frosting a really nice, tangy flavor, too! BONUS!! I wish it would have made the red a real ELMO red, but to tell you the truth, I was worried about putting that much food coloring into it...even though it's safe to eat, it just goes against my thinking. They did turn out a nice shade of red, just not THAT real ELMO red. I used a pastry bag for the "fur look". What a messy job!!

So this is one half of the final product. Cute, eh?





We had a lot of fun doing this, but it was a LOT of work! So please, don't come asking for ELMO cupcakes any time soon, OK?! Haha

Toodles,

Bettina

Does A Chicken Need A Rooster To Lay Eggs?

Call me stupid, but I just didn't know! Two weekends ago, we were invited to a 2nd Birthday party from one of my daughter's friends. It was on a huge farm in Los Altos, CA, called Hidden Villa. If you're in the area, or you live close by, you should visit once, it's a really nice place.
So we're there and we're getting a private tour to see all their animals, including their chickens and roosters. I was fascinated by it, because I've been dreaming about having my own couple of chickens in my backyard for fresh eggs. So I thought 'get all my answers straight from the experts', right? First, we got to feed the chickens, which was totally cute, I even have a video of it below!



Then, the friendly guide led us into the chicken coop, where we got to see where the hens lay their eggs and how they hatch them! This was my time to really embarass myself by asking "Do Chickens Need A Rooster In Order To Lay Eggs?" And the answer I got, and I don't believe I heard wrong, was "Yes"... I immediately saw my little chicken coop dream disappear, because of course, since we live in a residential neighborhood, I don't think it would be wise to have a rooster in my backyard! Nor would I want to have to live with the cock-a-doodle-doo day in, day out!!! I don't need fresh eggs THAT badly!!

Well, I did some 'research' of my own, and it turns out: You DON'T Need A Rooster For Your Hens To Lay Eggs!

Now, of course I don't feel so stupid anymore! And it turns out that you really can't ask stupid questions after all! HA!

So, I just asked my dear hubby if he could please build me a chicken coop of my own...well, yeah, you guessed his answer...it was no, but not a definite no, more like a "Not today or tomorrow, hon" kind of answer.


I have hope...

PS: As for the friendly guide...well, I guess I could go over there and educate her on her hens, but instead I thought I'd post this topic on my blog for all of you to read.

In Honor Of My Daughter's 2nd Birthday

She will be two years old (!) on Monday the 20th! Wow, I can almost not believe it!
But anyway, we are going to have a little birthday party for her this coming Sunday (not at our house, because as you may remember, the backyard is now torn apart from digging those darned roots!). It will be an ELMO theme, well, you know, we'll have ELMO decorations and party favors and of course ELMO cupcakes! I will be making the cupcakes and please come back to see the pics beginning of next week. I found a really fun way to make his face, but I'll explain once I've got the pics. I was going to have pizza with it (because it's ELMO's favorite food), but decided against it and go with Hot Dogs instead. We'll have all kinds of crazy toppings, such as guacamole, sour cream, tomato, bacon, chili, baked beans, as well as the traditional relish and sauerkraut! Yum! It's a fun way to get the people involved with their food and more fun to present than just pizza. But again, I will go into more detail next week.

So, while I'm starting to stress out over this party (because that's what I do, I'm a perfectionist...) I still somehow find a way to entertain myself! With this You Tube video about ELMO, which is so fitting... Enjoy!




Now, wasn't that fun??

Ross the Intern...gotta love him!

I just have to share this one with you guys! I blurted out "Pineapple! Pineapple" one time, I can't remember why, and ever since then I can't stop but think about this video with Ross the Intern (Jay Leno) when he meets Steve Irwin! I was never a big fan of Steve (rest in peace), meaning I never really followed his shows or anything, but after having seen this one, I'm sad I never did. Well, just go ahead and enjoy this one, it will make you laugh no matter how hard you try not to! God, I love this one:

Have You Ever....

...tried to get rid of a tree stump and its roots? No? Well, let me give you one piece of advice: HIRE A PROFESSIONAL!! Seriously, unless you have a LOT of time and energy, get someone else to do this particular job!

My dear hubby and I (well, mostly I) have decided to take on this task ourselves. Because I felt like SOMETHING needed to be done at least SOMEWHERE in our new house, we went out and got some shovels and what not and started digging... this is what it looked like when we started:

Two weekends and a lot of sweat later, this is what it looks like now:

I KNOW! Not much different, huh? And look at those roots! it's amazing how long they are. They just keep going! I now have a love-hate relationship with this tree, I'm serious! As much as I like doing all that stuff, meaning, I don't mind getting down and dirty, but you just never know where those roots will take you! One moment you think "Aha! This one must be the one that's surfacing again over on the other end of the backyard." But NO! That one completely disappears into the ground, impossible to be dug out, and the one you though it was, is well, connected to one you haven't even figured out its origin yet!! AHRGG!!

Dear hubby has now drilled holes into the stump (which is still sitting there, because for that one we REALLY have to get a professional), and poured bleach into it. My mother-in-law gave him that tip. Supposedly, it will kill it, because right now, it wants to sprout more, and we really need to get rid of it (sorry my dear tree, but you HAVE to go!)

Sofia had a lot of fun "helping" and kept asking for the "hands", which are my gardening gloves:

Oh well, it won't be finished for Sofia's Birthday, but that's ok. I am learning to accept that I can't have everything done at once, as much as I want to.

I'll keep you posted on how everything is coming along!

Toodles,

B

Chicken Curry Recipe ~ To Die For!

Hey all!

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I'd like to share some recipes with you. Well, here is the first one! I'd love to hear your comments on it if you decide to try it!!

The recipe is for four people, but you can easily adjust it by cutting it in half. I try to use organic ingredients whenever possible, but that's totally up to you. You can also subsitute the chicken with prawns! I made this last night for dinner and my hubby thought it was super delicious! So i think it's worth sharing with you all! Here it goes:

• 1 cup of your favorite rice (or Couscous works well, too!)
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or if you buy it fresh from the butcher, they might give you a whole breast, which is actually two)
• 1 Apple
• 1 medium can of Pineapple (about 8 slices)
• 1/4 cup of Pineapple juice from that can
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 4 Tbsp. Sour cream (you can use low fat, if you like)
• 1/2 cup of Chicken Stock
• 2 Tbsp. of your favorite Curry
• 1 Tbsp. Flour
• 1 Tbsp. Butter
• Salt to taste

Cook the rice (or couscous) according to directions on package. I used brown Jasmin rice, which worked beautifully.

Cut up your chicken into stripes (like you would for a stir fry) and brown it in a frying pan. Meanwhile, peel and cut up your apple in bite sizes, but not too thick. Open your can of pineapple and make sure you save the juice for later.

Drain the chicken if necessary, return to pan and dust it with the flour and curry. Stir well, making sure everything is evenly covered. Then add your chicken stock, the pineapple juice and the apple slices. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce and cook uncovered for approx. 20 minutes.

Stir in your frozen peas so that they have enough time to thaw (about 5 minutes). TAKE YOUR PAN OFF THE FIRE and add your sour cream just at the end. You don't want to heat it up anymore after you added the sour cream, it will curdle! Add salt to taste.

In a separate frying pan add the butter and heat, then add your pineapple slices and brown them on each side. Put on top of curry chicken and serve with rice. Voila! Bon Appetit, or En Guete, as we say.

It's Day Two Of My Workout Regime

I have started working out again after an umm, maybe 5 month hiatus. We have been really busy, first my daughter and I went to Switzerland to visit my family for six weeks (hubby followed us and stayed with us for the last two weeks, then we got all caught up in the house search, which, I am happy to report now, has ended in acutally moving into our "new" house mid August! Yay, for us! I'm saying "new", because it's actually a fixer-upper, or what's called "Starter Home" in Real Estate lingo. It's acutally in pretty good shape, but I'm sure I will find time to give it a whole separate section in my blog.

So, I have visited my local YMCA this week and got settled in today so that I can use their nifty Fitlinxx program. It's cool because it records my work out and logs my progress automatically! I am very excited about it, because my daughter seems to like the child watch, that's available! phew! It's so much easier to work out, knowing she's having fun, I'll tell ya!

I've been using the elyptical machine and the treadmill, plus some weight lifting machines, but what I'd really like to try out (and I'm going to this Sunday) is their Zumba class (I hope to be looking like the gal with the cut off shirt and blue bra showing off her fabu abs in NO time, folks!)! It is suppose to be great aerobic exercise, as you can see if you click the link. Anyway, I have more possibilities up my sleeve, but I will try these first.

So wish me luck! I have to lose about 20lbs...hmpf