Foghat, Thunderbirds and a First Birthday

March 25, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 6 Comments

In January my friend’s son had his first birthday. I made the cake, cupcakes and cookie favors. I will share some pics of those with you shortly, but first some other firsts…

The first time I laid eyes on my all time favorite stuffed animal, my Bedtime Bear Care Bear..

I was 4. I am now 32. I cannot sleep without that bear under my arm.

My first time operating heavy machinery…

My first pet, our dog Britt…

He was awesome. He loved pizza crusts. He would beg for one, we would oblige, he would run with it into another room and then run back to beg for another. We figured he was scarfing them down but he was actually depositing them into a pile behind my dad’s recliner.

My first car was a 1986 Ford Thunderbird. For some reason it was dubbed the Thunderchicken. For some other reason, I don’t seem to have any pictures of it.

My first concert…No, it wasn’t New Kids on the Block or Debbie Gibson (although my first ever perfume was Electric Youth). My first concert was the WDRE Fest – June 2, 1996. Here was the lineup: No Doubt, 311, Filter, Toadies, Cracker, Fishbone, Gravity Kills, The Nixons, God Lives Underwater and Spin Doctors. I’d say that was a damn good first concert. My first “classic rock” show (At the time, this referenced music from the 60’s and 70’s. Apparently now classic rock includes bands that I grew up listening to, like Bon Jovi, which means I am officially old) followed two months later.

I was sixteen and I went with my mom. The bands were Iron Butterfly and Foghat. I watched women with a good ten years on my mother, women who looked like they could have been my teachers at school, screaming like teenagers and rushing the stage trying to grab the drummer from Foghat’s ass. It was a good time.

The first time I was a bridesmaid (sharing this one because I LOVED my hair!)…

First time I ever saw the Pacific Ocean…

There are some firsts that thankfully went undocumented… The first time I threw up from drinking too much (Mad Dog 20/20 Orange – it will never again pass my lips), the first time I was called Ma’am, the first (and only) time I watched the movie Twilight (I still have nightmares about the bad acting…”Your hand, it’s so cold!”).

Then there was the little man’s first birthday. It was my first time making a crown shaped cake! They had chosen a prince theme so I also made cupcakes with blue chocolate crowns on top and of course, I made #1 cookies.

AJ has many, many firsts ahead and despite my ever advancing age, hopefully I do too!

Hop, Skip and Go Naked?

March 21, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 2 Comments

No, it’s not some kind of adult playground game. It’s a cocktail! I stumbled upon this gem while poking around on my favorite recipe site – Allrecipes.com.

If you Google “Hop Skip and Go Naked recipe” you will most likely find a bunch of recipes that involve a combination of beer, vodka and lemonade (ew?). You might also find a cookie recipe or two. Cookies are good, but this drink is better!

Simple ingredients – cherry vodka, Triple Sec, cranberry juice and grenadine. Tastes just like Hawaiian Punch.

Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red (Photo credit: Like_the_Grand_Canyon)

It is SO good that it’s quite easy to knock back a few, kind of forgetting the vodka part, until suddenly… you’re drunk! Thus, I have renamed this drink Hawaiian Punch Drunk. It’s a much more suitable moniker, and removes any connections to that hillbilly beer/lemonade concoction. Whatever you call it though, you should definitely try it – especially if you live in my neck of the woods where it’s going to be 80 degrees tomorrow!

A Sneak Peep

March 18, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 4 Comments

I LOVE Marshmallow Peeps!! I love them fresh, I love them slightly stale. I love them dipped in chocolate! Fluffy sugary goodness (and they’re fat free!)

I am not a Peeps purist; they are not just for Easter! Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day – if the stores are selling, I’m buying!

Honestly, I think Peeps should have their own place on the food pyramid.

Some New Year’s Eve I would love to go to Bethlehem, PA to witness the Peep Drop.

You can do many things with Peeps besides eating them. You can make an adorable Peeps Wreath for Easter, watch some Peep Jousting on You Tube or make Peeps Dioramas.

You can crochet Peeps, like my good friend at CrochetBitch. She gave me this AWESOME Peeps Easter Basket!

There are even Peeps movies, like this hilarious version of Office Space…

You can also make Peeps cookies! I’ve been messing around practicing cookies for Easter and I made some Peeps Bunny cookies. I had to search the internet for quite a while to find the right shaped cookie cutter, but find it I did. If you too are dying to make Peeps cookies, you can get the cutter here (they also have the traditional chick shape as well).

So here is my Easter Cookie preview! More to come… : )

Peeps Out!

When Irish eyes are smiling…There must be a cookie nearby!

March 15, 2012June 16, 2013 ~ Angela ~ 6 Comments

It’s almost St. Patty’s Day!!! Since it falls on a Saturday this year I figure most people will be too blasted all day to bother reading my blog, so I decided to share my St. Patrick’s Day cookies a wee bit in advance! But first, a little music to set the mood from my favorite Irish band – Flogging Molly!

Okay. So, I had grand plans for shamrock cookies and pots o’ gold and I’m happy to say everything turned out better than I had hoped!! I even got some props and whatnot so I could take snazzier pictures than my standard fare of snapping shots of cookies just lying forlorn on my dining room table.

As you can see, I did not have a black icing disaster this time! To read about when I did – click here! I was a little worried at first, because when I mixed up the icing it looked more gray than black but I let it sit for a while and it darkened up nicely. The pots came out perfect!!

I ended up having to make a second batch the other night because people who saw the first set just couldn’t resist and had to have some for themselves. This time around I had a NEW black icing disaster! I made the icing the same exact way that I did the first batch, and then left the cookies to dry overnight. To my absolute horror when I checked on them the next day I discovered that a number of them had become splotchy looking. I freaked out. Were they wet, moldy, infected with cookie pox?!?!

After a brief internet search I learned it was most likely due to humidity. It had been pretty humid the night I iced the cookies even though it’s not even Spring yet! (Strange weather these days, earthquakes, locusts, cookie pestilence…those Mayans might be on to something) Anyway, there was nothing to do but work with it!! So I wrote on the damn things.

I should have taken a picture of the splotches so you could see what I’m talking about, but I was in no mood for documentation. Trust me though, under that writing lurks dark spots. I think it was a nice cover. No one has to know, except everyone reading this right now. You won’t tell, right? ; )

I hope everyone has a fun St. Patrick’s Day! Time to start plotting for Easter…

Cupcakes Taste Better Than Gasoline

March 11, 2012March 11, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 4 Comments

Exactly how does one become addicted to drinking gasoline?!?!??? I’m watching My Strange Addiction on TLC and I am completely baffled. “I liked the way it smelled, so I decided to drink it… It didn’t taste good.” No, really?! Yet somehow now this chick is addicted to doing daily shots of the stuff.

I like the smell of some weird things. Elmer’s Rubber Cement and Play-Doh (check out Play-Doh Cologne!!) to name a few.

Rubber Cement suicide (Photo credit: Chapendra)

I don’t eat them though!! Okay, so ONE time in elementary school I licked a smelly marker – who hasn’t done that? Point is – I didn’t do it AGAIN! I don’t need to become a member of Marker Lickers Anonymous. I need to know – how does trying something once and NOT liking it lead to becoming addicted to it? More importantly, where does TLC find these people?!

Sigh.

Here’s one of my addictions…

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes!! You can get the recipe I used here. I bought a package of Pepperidge Farm Snickerdoodle cookies and cut into triangles for the decoration. This has to be one of the most delicious cupcake recipes ever, and it uses boxed cake mix so it’s super easy!

If you ever get the urge to drink some gasoline, try one of these instead.

Oh (no!) Baby!

March 10, 2012 ~ Angela ~ Leave a comment

I just read an article about a two year old who threw such a massive fit that her family was kicked off a JetBlue flight bound for Boston. My ears hurt just THINKING about the amount of screeching and screaming that must have been taking place for things to come to that. UGH.

I don’t want kids, and I oftentimes question the sanity of those that do. I mean, really – the screaming, the crying, the pooping, the puking, the snot, the not sleeping, the worry – and that’s all just the first night you bring one home! I value my sanity (and my nap time!), thank you very much. However, I LOVE shopping for baby clothes and shoes and toys – a frequent necessity since my friends are having them left and right. Small things are cute, what can I say? Chipmunks, mini cupcakes, baby booties…

Also cute – these cookies I made for a baby shower! A friend at work was throwing one for her daughter and asked me to make the cookie favors. We decided on a baby carriage and I ended up doing a very simple design, using only pearl dragees as decorations. Cute, classy, and unlike a baby – won’t get you kicked off a plane!

Lego My Organic Waffle

March 5, 2012January 15, 2014 ~ Angela ~ 5 Comments

So tonight I was sitting around making myself hungry watching Diners Drive-Ins and Dives. I wandered into the kitchen in search of something tasty for dinner and for some reason decided to make waffles. Not just any old waffles though – organic blueberry waffles. Sounded wholesome, smelled great heating up in my toaster, tasted…like cardboard. I didn’t think it was possible to mess up a frozen waffle. I was wrong. I won’t name names, but this was just not right.

Back in front of the TV, completely unfulfilled and Guy Fieri is mocking me with some delicious looking pizzas. I think about the crummy, disappointing waffles. Then I think “leggo my Eggo!” which then reminds of LEGOS which leads me to today’s post. LEGO Man cookies!!

My coworker was having a LEGO themed birthday party for her son and she asked me to make cookies for favors. We decided on a cookie in the shape of the LEGO Man’s head, and chocolate LEGO bricks. I found a LEGO shaped chocolate mold on eBay (what CAN’T you find on eBay?! ((oh yeah, you can’t find a LEGO Man head shaped cookie cutter, so I made a template out of a coffee can lid using this template from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle))

Here are my cookies, lined up and ready to decorate.

I knew I wanted a smoother finish on these cookies than I had on my angel cookies so I Googled how to decorate cookies with royal icing. The short version is that you make the royal icing per the recipe, outline the cookies, then water down the icing to a very runny consistency which you then use to “flood” the cookie. The outline can be done in the same color you will be using to flood, or it can be done in a different color. For the look I wanted, I went with black (more on THAT disaster after the pictures!) then flooded with yellow.

(note my handy mustard squeezy bottle – perfect for dispensing runny icing!)

You may be thinking to yourself, “What disaster? They look pretty damn good!” Just as I learned tonight that the word ORGANIC in relation to waffles really means DRYWALL, on that night I learned that it is really hard to make icing black. I knew that it wouldn’t be as simple as mixing some black gel color into the white icing (because black + white = gray) so I also Googled how to deal with that ahead of time. All I had to do was make a different color first – blue,brown, dark green, mix of everything?! – and THEN add the black. Well, I tried that and got gray. I had also read to try adding cocoa powder so I dumped some of that in there with a little more black gel color. STILL gray. Finally in desperation I mixed in ALL of the black gel color I had. Black icing accomplished!!!!

So I outlined and flooded and let them dry overnight, then I piped on the faces the next day.

Once they were dry I started bagging them up with my chocolate LEGO blocks…

….only to discover that apparently dumping an entire pot of black gel color (along with other colors and cocoa powder) into your royal icing can really dry it out. : / The faces on my poor LEGO Men started flaking off!!! I packed them up as carefully as possible, boxed them, took them in to my coworker, apologized and told her not to move the damn things until she was ready to give them away. Luckily they survived the trip and she was really happy with them (at least that’s what she told me!). I had two coworkers who saw them ask if they were supposed to be computers, so it would seem that there are people who actually have never seen LEGOs before – who knew?

Anyway, I hope that someone out there can learn from my mistakes. Organic Blueberry Waffles suck, and don’t over-color your royal icing. I have since read that Americolor Super Black gel paste does the trick, and I have a bottle of it just waiting to be used next week when I attempt to make Pot of Gold cookies for St. Patrick’s Day! Stay tuned…

A Taste of the Tropics

March 4, 2012March 11, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday my mom and I went to the Philadelphia International Flower Show. The theme this year is Hawaii – Islands of Aloha. Saw tons of cool stuff; the show runs all week and I would definitely recommend going if you are in the area! Here are a few pictures…

Unfortunately, I have never been to Hawaii. I was, however, lucky enough to take a trip to Costa Rica. My parents go every year and are planning on retiring there. In September they were going to be spending two weeks in Costa Rica and invited my boyfriend and me to fly down and join them for the second week of their trip. I had only ever flown twice in my life, and both times I had panic attacks. I was petrified at the thought of getting on another plane but I would have been a complete moron to turn down a mostly free trip to Costa Rica (we just had to pay for our plane tickets) so of course we accepted the invitation.

I spent the months leading up to the trip worrying. What if I had a complete freak out in the air and they had to scramble fighter jets to escort the plane for emergency landing in Mexico? What if I made it there and then got attacked by malaria carrying mosquitoes? What if I was too scared to get on the plane for the return flight home and had to spend the rest of my life panhandling at the San Jose International Airport?! AHHHHHH! Instead of just being excited about getting about the fact that my boyfriend of seven years and I were getting to go on our first REAL VACATION together (an overnight stay at the shore just doesn’t count…), my brain was plagued with dozens of horrifying scenarios. As I waited at Newark International in the early AM to board our flight I was quite sure that I was going to die.

Well, I obviously didn’t die. In fact, about fifteen minutes after takeoff I realized that I was perfectly fine and that I wasn’t going to cause any international incidents. We had a layover in Houston (they have a Bass Pro Shops store IN THE AIRPORT there – really?) and then flew in to Costa Rica. My parents came and collected us from the airport and we began our adventure!

We got to see crocs…

…monkeys…

…one sloth (but only from behind!)…

…and glorious sunsets!

Plus we got to stay at the most beautiful resort…

…where my mom spent the afternoons drinking a most heavenly concoction made with this stuff –

This, my friends, is Cacique! It is a hard liquor (kind of like vodka, I suppose) called Guaro made from sugar cane and manufactured only in Costa Rica. Check out the second half of this clip from the show Three Sheets and watch Zane Lamprey do shots of Cacique, also called “The Gringo Killer” by locals!

I will agree – consumed by itself this stuff does taste like turpentine (or at least, I can imagine that it tastes like turpentine since I have never actually attempted to drink paint thinner…) BUT – when you blend it with cream of coconut and ice, and add a splash of grenadine you have tropical heaven in a glass!! It’s amazing how good it is! Lucky for me we brought home a few bottles from the duty-free shop at the airport. Unlucky for you (unless you are reading this blog in Costa Rica) I don’t know of anywhere you can buy Cacique, at least not in the NJ/PA area.

Since I have now teased you with something most likely unattainable, I will give you a recipe for the next best thing – the Bikini Martini! I found this recipe here, on Allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

1 fluid ounce coconut rum
3/4 fluid ounce vodka
1 fluid ounce pineapple juice
1 dash grenadine syrup

Directions

Combine rum, vodka and pineapple juice in a drink shaker. Shake firmly until frothy. Pour in a martini glass, add a touch of grenadine in the middle. Garnish with an orange wheel.

Pretty simple to make, and it will definitely give you a taste of the tropics!!

Put A Stick In It!

March 3, 2012March 3, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 2 Comments

Last May my friend was having her son’s baptism. I was helping her look for centerpiece ideas and we both loved the centerpieces made out of cookie pops. Not only do they make cute centerpieces, but at the end of the party everyone takes a cookie and you have your favors taken care of as well. Plus, it’s a cookie on stick – what’s not to like about that? Well… there is one thing. The price!! Fifty, sixty bucks for ONE centerpiece! Obviously that wasn’t going to happen so I said, “We can make them for WAY less than that!”

Now, I’d never made a cookie pop in my life and my only previous experience with making any type of decorated cookie resulted in some slightly sloppy (but still cute!) Pac-Man Cookies. How hard could it be though? You cut out your cookie shape, put a stick in it and bake.

Well, for the most part it really was that easy! We decided to do angels and crosses. My friend got the cookie cutters, and the only real snafu was that the cross cutter made cutouts too small to be sticking sticks in. In the end I think that worked in our favor because we wound up making crosses out of blue melting chocolate instead and they made a nice contrast against the angel cookies.

I knew from my Pac-Man cookie experience that I would need an icing with a little thicker consistency to decorate the angel cookies and the good old internet told me that royal icing was the way to go. So I whipped up a batch using the recipe from the container of Wilton Meringue Powder that I bought and got to work. I’m definitely no artist, so all I did was trace the outline of each section (head, wings and body) and then filled them in. Being only my second attempt at doing a decorated cookie I had yet to learn about the technique called flooding which makes a much smoother finished product (more on that later!) so they were a little lumpy looking but other than that I thought they came out great.

I used an edible color marker to draw on the face, then wrapped each cookie in individual cellophane bags. For the base of the centerpiece I had purchased little white square buckets from Oriental Trading Company. I put a foam craft ball in each bucket and then stuck the cookie pops and chocolate pops into the foam. To cover up what you could see of the foam ball I used some green tissue paper and green gem stones. Here is the final product…

Not bad for not spending a fortune, eh?

Totally Awesome 80’s Party and Pac-Man Cookies!

March 2, 2012March 4, 2012 ~ Angela ~ 2 Comments

A. Being a child of the 80’s I have a special place in my heart for hair bands, jelly shoes, and all things neon.

B. I love theme parties.

A + B = C (aka Totally Awesome 80’s Party!!)

A few years ago I decided to throw an 80’s themed party. I spent hours surfing the internet for ideas for decorations, food, drinks and the perfectly tacky 80’s outfit. One of the food ideas I came across would become my first attempt at making decorated sugar cookie cutouts – Pac-Man Cookies!!

The cookies themselves were simple enough to make. I needed three mini cookie cutters – tulip, a circle and a heart. Flip the tulip upside down and you have a ghost (or to be more specific, a Pinky, Blinky, Inky or Clyde). The circle makes the Pac-Man, and the pointy end of the heart can be used to cut a wedge out for Pac-Man’s mouth. They baked up perfectly!

Next step was to ice the cookies. This ended up being a little messy (remember, I said this was my FIRST attempt!!). The icing recipe I ended up using was more like a glaze and my application method involved a spoon, a toothpick and some foul language. Despite the cursing and the dripping icing, my finished product was pretty cute and VERY tasty.

: (a mini chocolate chip placed in a small dot of white icing from a tube makes the eyeballs)

The cookies were a hit, as were the drinks! I made a pitcher of Electric Smurf and a pitcher of Slimer’s Ecto Cooler, both which fit my 80’s theme in name AND color. Just in case that wasn’t enough sugar I also had a table filled with candy from my childhood. That’s right people, I found RAZZLES!!

I set up a playlist of all the greatest hits of the 80’s, covered my walls with 80’s posters and my couches with He-Man sheets, scrounged up an Alf hand puppet, and also had an 80’s game table!

I put a ton of work into my 80’s theme party and for the most part it was in fact, Totally Awesome! One note of caution – it seems that when you throw a party that reminds people of their childhood/teenage years there is a greatly increased likelihood of people actually acting like children. That is a story for a whole different blog though… : )

Oh, and that perfectly tacky 80’s outfit??