Today's Excitement:
We finally put up the kitchen shelf!!!!! and whoa nelly.... was it an experience. I don't know what it is about projects in this house, but D & I always end up at each other's throats. both of us seem to think "my" way is better and neither of us likes to admit we we're mistaken. I like my power tools you see... but this thing... sweet baby Jesus... this monster drill? intimidates the heck out of me. It makes you seriously think twice before putting holes in the wall. for when you drill into concrete, you have to drill a gigantor hole so that you can put in the wall anchor. we're talking at least a 1/4" to 3/8" diameter gouge in the wall. this leaves no room for error... lest you want your wall to look like it's taken mortars from a lego set. bottom line, perfection is optimal. and most of you know how i am when it comes to perfection. *sigh* it's not my proudest moment, being princess of control freak central... but i'm working on it. i gladly handed (more like heaved) the drill in D's direction saying "alright babe, it's all you. i'm too scared." what this really means is "alright husband, i am too afraid to do this because i know i'm going to screw it up.... and at least if you screw it up i can yell at you and not be angry at myself for hours." but luckily Dana knows exactly what i'm up to... and my favorite line from last night was "so what happens once we've drilled all the holes and find out that one of them is in the wrong place.....?" this of course gets the ever-famous eye roll/sigh combination and while fearing for the walls in front of us i say "well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there..." we somehow managed to work together. i don't know how... but we did. and the shelf went up with no problems! no miss drilled holes, no dents in other furniture... it's actually up there completely level, and the thing stayed up through the night! i threw my arms around D when all was said and done and thanked him profusely for helping me. Now the task is figuring out what to put on the shelves... (: stay tuned...
Icing on the Cake relocates to Germany....
so once upon a time i had a little cupcake company.... with customers like people from Sephora and Neiman Marcus to the city of Richardson, and co-worker's at Starbucks. Friends and family were my best marketing device. while working at OPN architects in Iowa, there was many a day that i longed to be back in front of a mixer full of cake batter and butter cream frosting.... it seems the two loves of my life are destined to switch once again. while getting my architecture career in order overseas, i have decided to pursue Icing on the Cake with vigor. and while it isn't open for delicious tasting quite yet... as i have to get supplies and make sure i have containers to send them off in... i wanted to get the word out to the husbands and wives of the ramstein-kaiserslautern community that Icing on the Cake is here and opening soon!!!
i was able to create a new recipe in the past couple of weeks: Champagne Cupcakes! A light pink champagne flavored cake with a creamy butter vanilla champagne butter cream frosting. YUM! D took the to his office and they practically flew out of the container. i wont lie, there is a huge part of me that's ecstatic with girlish glee to start this again!
The KW Test Kitchen
so i have also been testing out other recipe's that i've found online, in magazines, on Pinterest (duh!) and various other places. these recipes are not all sweet things, but of course my tendency will be towards anything with massive amounts of sugar. Below are the latest adventures....
Homemade Cheeze-Its
I found this recipe and was skeptical. Cheeze-Its are my FAVORITE crunchy snack food. i wondered how well this could actually work. and much to my dismay this recipe is brilliant! My biggest tips are getting the dough as thin as possible. perhaps using a pasta roller? i like think crispy crunchy crackers, not thick chewy ones. so the thinner the dough, the thinner the crackers. Also, storing them in an airtight container is a must. the crackers taste best on the first day... but totally worth it!
the cheezy dough in a ball. reminds me alot of pie crust dough.
rolled out and cut. so psyched!
close up.
Strawberry Cake Balls
this recipe was sought after while looking at a picture posted by Brittney Couch of snacks brought in celebration of a friend's baby. I had to whip up something to take to a potluck at D's office and decided to try something completely new. I have to say i was psyched at how well they turned out. not to mention DELICIOUS. dana's superior had to take them to a different room because he was "having a little self control issue." lol i just wish they didn't take so long to make. it ended up being a two day process. i'm considering offering these in my company... but it just opens up a whole other sector of flavor combinations! seriously though, not a day goes by where i don't wish we had more to munch on...
the cake ingredients...
cake crumbled in a bowl after baking
add the icing and mix together to form a ball of dough.
roll dough into cake balls.
dip into white chocolate and add whatever garnish you'd like!
they kinda look like truffles to me.
this makes me sooooo hungry...
Macaroni Glitter Time
in addition to passing the time baking, i've also been a bit crafty. and yes, most of this has to do with the wedding, but i'm happy to share it just the same. This is a service offered by my company and i'd be happy to do it for anyone in the area. I've been hard at work hand addressing wedding save-the-dates in calligraphy... and extremely happy with how they turned out! i just wish i had better stamps!
This Week:
is filled with normal stuff. and more wedding prep. if i can finish all the save-the-dates, i'll be a very VERY happy camper. D & i are going to catch a dress rehearsal of Robin Hood and his Merry Men tonight... which should be a hoot. This weekend will hopefully be more productive than last.... we had a Warehouse 13 marathon all weekend long. while it snowed. and we never left our pajamas. and if you watch the show, you know that they always have cookies. so midway through our marathon on saturday evening, i told d i wanted cookies... and he agreed. and i just happened to mention that i had everything for chocolate chip cookies on hand. and he's adds that we don't even have to bake them! then it was a mad dash rush to the kitchen to whip up the fastest batch of chocolate chip cookie dough known to man. it was SO delicious. and totally worth it! we were out of much of our grocery food supplies, so we survived on cookie dough and breakfast burritos all weekend. (:
well that's all for today.... more stories soon! Happy Tuesday!
