A weekend of Celebration!

This weekend marked the 5th birthday of my darlin'. My Ian Marcus. Do you know, I love that little boy? That frustratingly sweet child of mine. The child who is just like his father. He's had a good birthday! While today is his official birthday, we celebrated on Saturday. He had several people come to visit, one though was visiting me, more on that later.

I think his favorite present is still... the toy Black and Decker Chainsaw! His first thing, I'm gonna go cut trees. Hey... I have a boy. One of those hyper blue blood boys old movies were made of. I love him. Granted, he still loves to play with dolls, his sister wanted to use the Chainsaw too. It was a win-win. God love them!

Starting my Christmas...

We generally try to mourn Thanksgiving for a bit. You know, indulge in it's leftovers, bask in the togetherness... mourn for the distended waistlines.

So this weekend, we have officially began decorating for the Christmas Season! I've also began baking, and have... mostly successfully attempted to make Rainbow Cookies. I also had much more success with Almond Paste.

Several Notes: On the Almond Paste, depending on the grade of your food processor. I've found it is EASIER to get those almonds to almost power prior to adding your hot sugar syrup. If you are like me, and can't afford high powered processors. This will help save your motor, and allow you to keep that hard paste feeling, without having to water it down too much. I still had to add simple syrup.

On another note - Making Rainbow cookies? DO IT! But do it better than I did! Thin Thin layers! less is more on the Jam. You really need just a thin layer, because you will be compressing this cookie, and it will help those layers set to each other. You are wanting to glue, not lubricate. (Yeah - by the way... I totally did THAT the other way around! I lubricated my thick layers of cookie with jam.)

The other note, is on your chocolate layer, use the cup of Dark Chocolate, and give it a threesome in a pan with some butter and heavy cream. Not enough to make a Ganache, but enough to make it spreadable and not to seize on you!

That being said... enjoy the pictures of my labor.

In case I ever Die...

Just in case I ever die... I'm going to share a recipe that was shared with me. That way, Tom and the kids can still HAVE this soup!

Cheesy Potato Soup

4 Bouillon Cubes
9 Cups Water
2 Cans of Whole Potatoes Chunked
3 tbs dried minced Onions
1 tsp each - Oregano, Salt, Pepper, Cilantro
1 cup Processed Velveeta Cheese
1/2 cup dried milk
a package Four Cheese Instant Potatoes

Keep in mind - I guestimate this stuff... I'm a pinch and drop kinda cook.

Put spices, bouillon cubes, minced onions in water and bring to boil. add dried milk incorporate throughly. Add velveeta and melt, add potatoes and warm through. Add Instant Potatoes. Allow time to warm through.

The whole process? Under 30 minutes! Is it Tasty? *looks in her soup pot* They are either hiding it somewhere in the house, or they ate it all.

Always in motion... Always changing...

So... the coloring I had was a little... morose. I wasn't feeling it. So we are trying something light with a splash of color. What do you think? I also took away my 'Updates on Tuesday's and Thursday's'.

I'm being honest, I haven't been the most dependable blogger. I'm working on trying to get better at that, so without the dead lines, maybe it will be more natural for me to write... and you to read.

So the other thing I changed? It was thanksgiving, and let me tell you - I cooked up the most succulent and moist turkey I think I have ever tried! You can check out the method on allrecipes.com (The Perfect Turkey). I will admit, When I got to the whole, 'Flipping the bird over in a hot oven with the potential of flying boiling juices'.... I got a little nervous. It took me some thinking to figure out HOW to do it.. which by the way, a set of the two prong wide set tines that come with MOST turkey carving kits, work just fine. I do however encourage you to remember - DO NOT have anything else in your oven with this bird at the time you need to do the flip-flop and butter. You will need every bit of space you can to flip it.

Other than that, I've kept life pretty boring. My MIL is currently looking at my sewing machine trying to help ME figure out how it works. So that is my next mission.... well. *looks at sleeping husband* maybe not my absolute next mission. *grin*