Seeds and Things

Lets see, I've been a busy bee lately.  I now have two tomato plants, but for the sake of full disclosure that is two out of three plants.  My very first tomato plant fell victim to the gusty wind with a mortal wound right at the base of the stem.  but I have since gained two new plants, the first is growing quite well excluding some fungus issues that have since been addressed thanks to my friendly Horticulturalist at the home improvement store.  We are now all set with a child and pet friendly omni safe fungicide.  I cannot undo the damage but I can keep it from spreading.  That survivor of a tomato plant is already popping out little green tomatoes and more pretty little yellow flowers that, ideally, will give way to more little green tomatoes.

My second, and younger, tomato plant is growing very well, though it looks a bit silly.  Both tomato plants are in grow bags hanging upside down.  The smaller plant is trying to grow back up, and the stem has formed a U shape!  It is the strangest thing to see.  this one has been giving a preventative treatment of fungicide.

My flowers in the wine barrel plants are doing very well, overflowing their containers.  I had to cut some down today and put them into a vase to cheer up the house.  My raspberry plants and the flowers they were potted with have since been transplanted to the front yard, hopefully they will thrive a bit better out there.  I have never known any raspberry plants that did not thrive to the point of taking over, but these darn things are barely hanging on.  If only I could figure out what they are unhappy about I could bottle and sell it to all the people who can't get rid of the raspberry plants.  I remember my Grandmother had raspberries in her backyard when I was growing up.  When they got to the point of overtaking the garden my grandmother would go out there and cut them all down only to have them suddenly reappear growing bigger and faster than ever.  There were times she tried to remove them all together but somehow they always managed to grow back.  I loved going outside to play and eating fresh raspberries straight off the bush.  The rabbits loved them too.  My Grandmother, however, did not love the rabbits!  I used to get very indignant about her shooing the rabbits away from her yard, because I loved all the wild creatures and didn't see the harm in a few rabbits playing in the yard, eating some low hanging raspberries and being relatively safe from the neighborhood predators.  Now that I am grown and have a yard and garden of my own I have a much better understanding of the destructive path a rabbit can leave.  Last year they demolished my entire stock of flowering bushes before they even had a chance to leaf.  And don't get me started on what can happen to a plot of strawberry plants if a rabbit sneaks into your yard!  We have been very lucky at our new home that the rabbits and squirrels have so far seen fit to steer clear of our yard.  I hear constantly about how everyone's yards are covered in holes and nothing seems to keep them out.

Oh, I also planted some pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, cantaloupe seeds, and summer squash seeds!  I am super excited because I want to try growing them from hanging baskets and using supports.  By no means do I have the sheer square footage to grow them on the ground in a traditional manner. But after touring The World exhibit at Disney World and reading about innovative growing methods I learned that it is completely possible to grow vine plants up, or down, and they are strong enough to support their fruit until it reaches the size of a volleyball.  I also discovered that we apparently have a fruit or vegetable plant growing in the little fenced in area for our television dish.  At first I thought it was cantaloupe, but now I think it might actually be a squash.  Time will tell.

I do have some exciting news.  One of the women that organized the Bake-off that my cupcakes won asked if I would consider making the cupcakes for their Spouse Appreciation Dinner this week.  At first I was thinking  that I would say no, but Prince Charming talked me into it, which wasn't hard since I wanted to do it anyway. I am going to be spending a lot of time baking in the next few days.  They need approximately one hundred cupcakes.  They wanted multiple flavors so I think I have pretty much settled on Spiced Chai & Honey, Coconut, Red Velvet, and a traditional Vanilla possibly with a Vanilla Rum frosting.  What do you think?  Would vanilla and rum partner well for a cupcake?  I use rum in my Tiramisu cupcakes and it complements the marscapone cheese nicely.  I thought about making the Tiramisu cupcakes but they are expensive to make and very time consuming, especially considering that the frosting needs to set in the fridge for 4 to 12 hours before serving. I make everything from scratch and my recipes, excluding the coconut, only make twelve cupcakes which means I am going to be spending a lot of time mixing and whipping.  I decided to bake over two days, then frost them all the last day so the frosting is nice and fresh.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for hanging around,
K

Why are Pancakes so Easy?

I have to admit that I love pancakes.  And waffles.  But mostly I love the way you can turn a boring pancake into something fantastic.  I am partial to Spiced Blueberry Pancakes myself.  I stand by the theory that if you are going to eat delicious carbs, you might as well do what you can to make them good for you.  I love the taste of blueberries and they have so much to offer, not to mention the spices and seasonings you can add to any baked good to give it not only an added flavor kick but add nutritional and health value.  My secret weapon is Nutmeg. And my right hand spice is Cinnamon.  I sneak them into probably 50% of the foods I make.  I even drink Cinnamon tea at night before bed when I have that horrible snack craving.

Pancakes are fantastic for about anything, you can make them sweet or savory. Anyone who knows me will know that I prefer the sweet breakfast version.  I am not sure if my children know what a plain pancake is.  Toss in some blueberries, a cut up banana, even an apple will do (with a nice added crunch and sweet or tart flavor).  Something else I have learned to love is tossing some yogurt into my pancake mix.  Not too much or it won't cook right.  If you get it right, you will have the moist, fluffy pancakes that we all envision but rarely actually find when we order pancakes.  I know that it is just edging into summer territory, but for a seasonal bend you can add a little canned pumpkin puree or pumpkin pie mix to your pancakes...utterly delicious.  Don't worry about getting it right the first time, finding delicious flavor requires experimentation and practice and a great deal of "oopses."  I was lazy this morning and tried to cut corners by making my pancakes in a frying pan instead of on our electric griddle and I burned the first half I cooked.  I couldn't get the temperature just right and the butter ended up scorched.  Failure is a prerequisite for any worthwhile success.

Thanks for hanging around,
K

Cupcakes and Procrastination

Its been a while.  Our internet is so terrible that most days we only have sporadic internet access, if any at all.  Prince Charming finally decided to switch internet providers and hopefully this issue will be resolved by next week. "Yay."  I was wandering around the store a few days ago when I spotted a cupcake book...I fell in love.  No, I did not buy it (but I plan to...hehehe).  I love my recipes but I would like to try a few new ones and this book is prime material for cute, fancy, creative, and ingenious cupcake decorating.  They have it broken down into categories and there are designs and ideas for most seasons and holidays and special occasions.

While we are on the topic of cupcakes now would be a good time to share the happy news!  A friend told me about a local Bake-Off competition last minute and urged me to enter.  It was as good an excuse as I needed to make me some cupcakes :-)  I ended up staying up until 2am mixing, baking, and whipping.  In the end it was all worth it (not just because then my house smelled amazing and I would have "left overs" in my fridge) because my custom specialty Tiramisu cupcakes not only won Best Fingerfoods (it was originally going to be the Best Cupcake category but they decided to merge all the individual desserts i.e. cupcakes, cookies, chocolate dipped strawberries, etc at the last minute) but my Tiramisu cupcakes won Best In Show.  I was very excited.  My main competition was a woman who has her own cottage business baking gourmet cupcakes and her cupcakes always look fantastic.  I was excited because sometimes you just want to know that you do something really well, something that sets you apart from the pack.  I work really hard to be good at what I do, professionally, academically, etc and like most people who work hard can understand, there is a lot of stress that comes with setting high standards for yourself.  Well, baking cupcakes makes me happy and washes my stress away.  I like to think of it as aromatherapy for the carb inclined :-)  Smelling something baking is such an instant relaxer, eating it makes you forget what you were so worried about in the first place, and giving it to someone else to enjoy makes you feel warm and happy inside.  I could never be a full time baker, that would take all the fun out of it...but finding time to beat butter and sugar into submission improves my outlook on my week.  I was happy that someone else really liked my Tiramisu cupcakes.  They are definitely one of my more complicated recipes, and overall more expensive too since I use authentic ingredients.  I baked Tiramisu, Pumpkin Spice, and Chai and Honey Cupcakes for the bake-off.....then my munchkin plowed through the extras in the fridge.  He was actually getting up early and sneaking into the kitchen to help himself to breakfast!  I left half of the extras bare, no frosting, so it really wasn't that bad for him...especially since he was eating the Pumpkin Spice cupcakes.

Happy Eating!
K