WISHING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY
A HAPPY, AMAZING, PROSPEROUS & HEALTHY 2012
love the Mana girls
XXXX
{Mana re-opens January 3, 2012}
happy NEW YEAR
Diposting oleh good reading on Jumat, 30 Desember 2011
{ Add komentar }
A Little Change
Diposting oleh good reading
Syd's look got changed up a little bit today. She's wearing bangs for the first time in her life! She may or may not keep them. And if she keeps them, we will probably cut more to make them thicker. Time will tell, I suppose.
What do you think? Keep them? Grow them out? Cut more? We would love to hear your opinions!
More about → A Little Change
What do you think? Keep them? Grow them out? Cut more? We would love to hear your opinions!
{ Add komentar }
Happy New Year!
Diposting oleh good reading
I used little bits of leftover icing from my Christmas cookie decorating to make these guys. I think they'd work on just about any plain shape of cookie. You could even use a knife and cut out squares or rectangles if you don't have basic cookie cutter shapes.
I didn't even bother to outline the background, I just used flooding black royal icing, then with teeny-tiny holes cut in my bags of the other colors of royal icing, I made my fireworks and words.
You know... I just thought about another way to do this... use melted chocolate or Candy Melts! Do the background in dark chocolate. Use a tip #1 or just cut the tiny hole in a disposable bag and use colored candy melts for the fireworks. Man! I wish I'd have thought of this earlier. My Chocolate-Loving Husband would have really, really loved that! Next time, I guess!
The recipes I used:
Royal Icing Recipe
Vanilla Sugar Cookie Recipe
And don't forget, if you shop at Amazon.com through my link
, you support this blog and its contents. Thank you!
{ Add komentar }
Re-Ported
Diposting oleh good reading on Kamis, 29 Desember 2011
We had a great trip to Michigan. The first round back on Tykerb went pretty well. I definitely had some downtime when I felt crappy, but nothing scary. The house we rented was great and I especially liked having a window seat and a wood burning stove. The weather wasn't as snowy as I was hoping for, but I still feel like I got my winter on. We got back last night and this morning I went and got my new port. I was relieved to have the same doctor putting the new port in that took my old one out. It just makes things easier when the person you're dealing with knows the story. We got there around 8:15 and were out of there by 11:15. Not bad really. Now we're back home and I'm resting comfortably. Once the numbing meds wear off I'll be sore, but hopefully it won't be too bad. The doctor recommended Advil, so clearly he isn't expecting terrible pain. Fingers crossed!
More about → Re-Ported
{ Add komentar }
Easy Christmas Style
Diposting oleh good reading
I hope you all had a great Christmas!
My original goal was to take pictures of Syd's hair, which she styled herself in a simple twist out for Christmas. Unfortunately, I spaced out and didn't take a single picture of the back of her hair. So now all I can do is show you a picture of the twists on Christmas Eve and another of the twist out on Christmas morning. Better than nothing, right? :)
In the picture below, you can see Syd's twists that were done on Christmas Eve. She has a little side part and some pretty chunky twists.
The next morning, Syd removed the twists and put on a headband that she found in her stocking. It was nice to have her hair looking good after using up just few minutes of Christmas morning for styling.
Quick, easy, and cute.....perfect for Christmas morning!
More about → Easy Christmas Style
My original goal was to take pictures of Syd's hair, which she styled herself in a simple twist out for Christmas. Unfortunately, I spaced out and didn't take a single picture of the back of her hair. So now all I can do is show you a picture of the twists on Christmas Eve and another of the twist out on Christmas morning. Better than nothing, right? :)
In the picture below, you can see Syd's twists that were done on Christmas Eve. She has a little side part and some pretty chunky twists.
The next morning, Syd removed the twists and put on a headband that she found in her stocking. It was nice to have her hair looking good after using up just few minutes of Christmas morning for styling.
Quick, easy, and cute.....perfect for Christmas morning!
{ Add komentar }
GF CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Diposting oleh good reading on Rabu, 28 Desember 2011
GF Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Yes, I’m baking again! whooohooo!
Unfortunately, the kitchen reno is not complete, but we have a working kitchen: the refrigerator, microwave and oven are in and working. However, cupboard doors, grouting of the backsplash and several miscellaneous things need to be done…
I have been buying e-cookbooks on my ipad and Kindle. It’s certainly not the same but for all my GF cookbooks, I feel it’s more economical. Besides, GF cookbooks don’t exactly have fabulous photography. Most are not coffee-table worthy unlike some of my other cookbooks. So, e-reader format is okay by me.
This GF cookie recipe is the first batch of cookies to be made in my new kitchen. yah. I couldn’t wait to bake so I jumped the gun before the reno was finished. Ah well.
The recipe I used was from Artisanal Gluten Free Cooking. The Artisanal GF flour blend consists of: brown rice flour, potato starch, potato flour, cornstarch, xanthum gum, and sorghum flour. I kept the rest of the blend in an airtight container.
The cookie dough came together quickly; even though I didn’t use the mixer. I wanted to mix it by hand and keep cleanup to a minimum. Besides, I couldn’t find half my kitchen supplies as they are still all over the house stuffed in boxes somewhere.
I couldn’t even find my cooling racks; so I allowed them to cool on my new Wolf Range top on the cookie sheets. The kids did not wait for the cookies to cool down and started eating right away (homemade cookie withdrawal)! I think the recipe is decent and doesn’t taste GF. The cookies were crispier and drier than I usually like them. I didn’t get the chewiness I liked. Seeing as I didn’t adapt the recipe, perhaps next time I will fiddle with it to get the texture I like.
E.T.A. of the completed kitchen reveal is mid-January (fingers crossed).
GF CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
from Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli & Peter Bronski
- 1/2 pound (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp GF vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 3/4 cups Artisan GF Flour Mix (or your favourite blend)
- 2 3/4 tsp xanthum gum
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 oz chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
- Cream the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla in a mixer, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until incorporated
- Add the flour, xanthum gum, baking soda and salt. Mix until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Using a cookie scoop or a teaspoon, drop dough balls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets (or in batches, if using only one cookie sheet).
- Bake for 8-10 minutes [cakebrain’s note: I baked 8 minutes] until lightly golden on top. Let the cookies rest for 5 minutes on the cookie sheets. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
{ Add komentar }
New Year's Eve Cake Banner
Diposting oleh good reading
Here is a cute and simple way to make a New Year's Eve cake...
Add a 2012 banner!
This was super easy and really dressed up this cake!
Another bonus was that I actually used some of my scrapbooking supplies
that I have been neglecting for about a decade...
that I have been neglecting for about a decade...
What You Need:
Number stickers
Card stock circles in two sizes: 1 7/8 in. and 2 in.
Hole punch (rectangle shape)
Grosgrain ribbon
Grosgrain ribbon
Wooden skewer
Glue
I attached my numbers to the smaller circles, which I then glued to the larger circles. I punched out 2 rectangle shapes at the top of each circle, and threaded my ribbon through. I cut my skewer in half, and tied the ribbon to the ends. To finish, I placed the skewers in the cake at an angle.
{ Add komentar }
