One Ugly Cake !!!

Well, I almost kept my goals for the week! I missed two posts here and I didn’t list anything new in the shop yesterday. I did, however, produce a decent party last night so I guess it was a trade off. I was kept petty busy the last few days getting the party together.

We used to throw huge events for 30 people or so but, in our maturity, have decided to keep crowds more manageable at a dozen or less. We expected 12 folks yesterday but there were only 9 of us when all was said and done. It was an easy crowd - all family or friends that are even closer than family. No need to impress, just needed to serve up some good grub. I think we accomplished this and a good time was had by all.

The biggest challenge with this crowd is serving up variety. When you have the same guests over and over, you really want to think up something new and different in the way of food. “NEW RECIPE” and “GUESTS” don’t always go well together! This party’s experiment was officially called a “Snickerdoodle Cake.” It’s new name - “Ugly Cake.”
The Big Guy’s favorite cookie is a snickerdoodle. Since I didn’t get any cookies made this holiday, I decided to give him this flavor in a new recipe I’d found for Snickerdoodle Cake. Sounded like a great plan. It was a simple recipe, wouldn’t take long. Great idea for the party.

I whipped it up according to directions and then came to an ambiguous step in the recipe. Between combining the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients and pouring it into the pan, the instructions said to “sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the cake.” Okay, if it isn’t in the pan yet, wouldn’t you say sprinkle it over the “batter”? If you’re calling it “the cake,” wouldn’t that infer sprinkling AFTER it was in the pan?

Assuming it was, ultimately, a basic cinnamon cake, I went with the pouring it into the pan first. (I have made cinnamon cakes before!) I then sprinkled the cinnamon sugar, according to their measurements, over the entire cake. It seemed to be a pretty heavy coating.

About midway through the baking process, I watched through the oven window. It looked a little strange. The batter was rising around the cinnamon sugar coating but not really absorbing any of it. (Most of my cinnamon cakes have kind of allowed the topping to sink in a little and “look” baked in.) When all was said and done, it was one ugly cake. The cinnamon sugar just sat there on top of the finished cake, like a heavy layer of dirt.
I was a little disappointed and definitely did not want to serve this “ugly” cake to my guests. Obviously, I didn’t do it right! I mixed a new batch but, before finishing it off, decided to go on line and see if there was another version of the same cake that might clarify that step or at least show a picture. There were other versions but they indicated doing exactly what I did. I didn’t find any pictures. (Obviously, no one else liked its “looks” either!) So, I did it again! This time I went a little lighter on the cinnamon sugar than the original recipe called for.

Once the second cake was in the oven, I played with the first one. Using a pastry brush, I cleaned off a fair amount of the cinnamon sugar. I figured it shouldn’t taste bad, it just wasn’t attractive. I didn’t want to waste it. We would live with it as a family.

Turns out, the second cake looked just about the same! This is simply an unattractive cake. The Big Guy and I tasted the first one. It tasted fine. It was actually fairly good.

When dinner was over and it was time to serve the desserts. I got out the brownies one of the guests brought, the pumpkin pie I’d made the night before and warned them all I was also serving “one ugly cake!” I think everybody had a brownie or two, a few tried the pie and ALL wanted some “Ugly Cake.” All pronounced it tasty, but “Ugly.”

As one guest put it, “When you think about it, snickerdoodles aren’t one of the most attractive cookies either but everybody likes them!.”

The moral of this story: Don’t judge a book by it’s cover - or a cake by it’s appearance. Oh yeah, there’s a second moral here, too: Don’t go with a new, untried, unseen recipe for guests. (Stick with what you know!)

Goal status and a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie

One week down and only 51 to go in the new year. So, what have I accomplished so far? To be honest, not a heck of a lot! I've been feeling lazy most of the week. I guess I'm winding down from the hectic weeks just past and the weather hasn't helped.

It's been cold. When it's cold, I just want to hunker down, pull up a blanket and hibernate. Can you guess I'm not a winter gal? Our temps have run about 20 degrees colder than normal for this time of year. While we did have one deep snow (19") the other few have only been dustings. It should be snowing within the hour but we're only expecting a few inches from this storm. I know in the big picture of weather around the country, we're not doing bad, just shivering a bit. In my world, it's miserable and can't turn to Spring soon enough for me!

So, I've basically stayed inside most of the week. I have stuck to my goal of listing one item a day in my shop. When I add a listing, I also make at least a dozen entries in the Promotion section of the Etsy Forums and I also Twitter right away about the new item. This generally gets me off to a start with about 20-25 views within minutes. I'm not sure if it means much to my sales but it makes me feel better.

I've made no sales this week at all. Nothing online or otherwise. I have to admit, I really didn't expect any this week but it would have been nice.

We're having a little gang in for a get together on Saturday so I've had to give some thought to what I'll be serving. I finally came up with a menu and did some grocery shopping today. It was a heavy duty shopping spree (involving 4 stores) as I not only needed things for Saturday but the cupboards and fridge were getting a little bare in general. I also needed cleaning supplies. Seemed like everything ran out about the same time in the last week or two.

I've cooked at home everyday this year so far! (That's a little unusual for us.) I started working on preparing a chicken pot pie as soon as I got in from shopping but things were going slowly and time was getting a little tight. The Big Guy had an errand to run so we went ahead and went out to dinner, too. Guess we'll have pot pie tomorrow!

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It's been a while since I've shared a recipe, so I'll share the basic pot pie recipe I follow.

CHICKEN POT PIE

2 packages refrigerated rolled pie crusts (total of 4 crusts)
4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. flour
2 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. thyme
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup light cream
4 cups cubed chicken
2 (1 lb.) bags of frozen mixed peas, corn & carrots
1 can small whole onions

*In a glass lasagne pan, take two crusts and cover the bottom and sides of the pan, cut extra crust from the overlap of pan and fill in all open spots.
*Melt butter in large pan over low heat, blend in flour, salt, pepper and thyme. Cook until mixture is smooth and bubbly, remove from heat.
*Stir in broth and cream. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly, boil and stir 1 minute.
*Stir in chicken and vegetables. Pour into pastry-lined pan, spread evenly over pan.
*Take last two pie crusts and place over pan. Cut pie crusts with about ½ inch overhang. Use extra pieces of crust to fill in the open spots, pinch the edges to seal the pie.
*Melt 2 Tbsp. butter and brush edges and center of pie. Cut 2 two-inch slits in center of pie to let out steam.
*Place pie on shallow cookie sheet, and bake at 425° for 1 and ¼ hours. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
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Okay, I start with this and expand a little. This is actually my nephew's recipe which I alter a bit. I don't use the cream but make my "gravy" more like a roux for gumbo. We prefer to add chunks of potato (which I pre-cook in the microwave) to our pot pie. I also spice the roux up a little with some spices.

This will be a good stick-to-your-ribs meal after the snowy morning that's forecast for tomorrow!

Grandma's Apron

Like most of you, I get tons of humorous e-mails each day. I use very few for blogpost fodder but I just love this one and really feel compelled to share it with all of you. By the way, should you be inspired to buy an apron when all is said and done, I do have a few in my etsy shop. (Just sayin"...) I have also used it as a means of introducing y'all to another great blogger and her shop.

The History of Aprons

I don't think our kids know

what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to

protect the dress underneath,

because she only had a few.

It was easier to wash aprons than dresses

and they used less material,

but along with that,

it served as a potholder for removing

hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears,

and on occasion, was even used for

cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs,

fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs

to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons

were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold,

Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow,

bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that
apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the Fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents

something that will replace that "old-time apron"

that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER:


Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.


They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.

I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron,

except maybe a little Love and Caring !

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Guess what? Aprons seem to be making a come back! They are once again readily available in the market place. BUT, some of the best I've seen are featured in a great etsy shop called Aprons and More. I'll share just a few pics of those beautiful handmade aprons here but, please, go and look for yourself.

Don't need an apron at the moment, but looking for a good read?

Check out her blog here. From her home in "middle" Georgia this great woman shares a warm loving look at family life, sharing the adventures of such characters as Sweet Mama, Skippy and Beau, among others. (By the way, Beau is one of those 4-footed, furry family members. You know the kind, they think they rule the world!)

Move over Julie Powell, here comes Robyn Okrant.

First came Julie Powell. She was infatuated by Julia Child and her cooking and, in a moment of inspiration (or possibly, just desperation) she set out to accomplish something. That something turned out to be cooking her way through Julia’s cookbook. Ultimately, she accomplished several somethings. She did the cooking, AND kept a daily journal of the experience in the form of a blog. The blog developed quite a following and, ultimately, became a story worth telling - thus the movie “Julie and Julia.” I, for one, loved the movie. I give Julie credit for perseverance and for coming up with the idea.

Now, comes Robyn Okrant. Robyn has just published a book entitled Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Walk the Walk of the Queen of Talk. Robyn spent 2008, following all of the advice and recommendations made by Oprah. She read the books, bought the shoes and furniture and ate the food recommended by the media icon. She even followed Oprah’s advice and recommendations about one’s sex life. It was time consuming and costly. She estimates she spent over 1200 hours incorporating all that advice and spent at least $4,700 in the course of the year. (Incidentally, she says the sexual advice resulted in a somewhat “boring” sex life.)

Oprah claims to provide information to help her viewers and readers (of O Magazine) to live their “best life.” When asked if she found her “best life,” Robyn says she did find some clarity in areas of her life and, once the experiment was over and she could relax, she thinks she did find happiness and comfort in her life.


I don’t know. I like Oprah. I think she often gives great advice or gets me thinking about how to improve a situation BUT one size does not fit all. That goes for pantyhose, cars, jobs, and, yes, even sex lives.

I don’t think Oprah ever intended for anyone to take every word she says as gospel. I’m sure she doesn’t want all the women out here in the audience to begin thinking, acting, dressing and behaving like Stepford Wives cut from the same cloth using the same pattern. I believe she has always encouraged independent thinking, self reliance and doing what makes an individual happy with their life.


No one has heard from Oprah on this subject yet. While it may be quite flattering to have someone foster that much faith in you and your advice, it is a daunting responsibility I’m not sure she wants.

I have to think Robyn saw the basic concept executed by Julie Powell and decided to capitalize on that general idea herself. I consider her effort a basic copycat type action. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is a brilliant approach. Attach Oprah’s name to anything and it will sell. I’m sure her book will rise quickly on the best-seller lists. She will make money off that $4,700 investment and it will be a great stepping stone to her further literary success in the future. She’s already making the rounds of the TV talk shows.


Robyn appears well educated (She was a graduate student at the time of her experiment.) She is obviously quite savvy in the ways of the world. (She knew who to hitch her wagon to!) I have not looked at either of her blogs. (She journaled about her experiment on Livingoprah.com and has now started a new blog entitled robynokrant.com) I’m guessing both feature paid advertising.

I’m sure there’s someone out there now trying to come up with a new twist on following Martha Stewart. Look for that new venture coming to a prison near you soon.

I’ve given it some thought. I think I’ll follow Paula Deen. I’m sure I won’t write a book about it and they’ll never ask me to do a screenplay but, who knows, maybe the butter producers of the world will beat down my door. Or maybe, I’ll just wander on down to the Deen homestead, find me a big ole lounge chair in the shade overlooking the river and share a mint julep or such with her. I’d just love to have a personal chat with her. Paula’s my kind of hero!

Paula, let's do lunch!!

The FREE offer one should refuse!!

Although common fodder for stand-up comics, late night TV hosts and a number of sit-com story lines, drunk diving is no laughing matter. Most of us know someone personally who has been traumatically affected by the actions of a drunk driver but I've got to admit this little news tidbit brought a smile to my face. Is there such a thing as an "ironic smile" ?


For the tenth year, the McGuire, Jennings & Miller Funeral Home in Rome, Georgia, ran a holiday promotion for New Year's Eve. Now, you might wonder just what kind of promo a funeral home can come up with - "2 for 1" deals, "in by 8 p.m." specials, "DIY embalming" classes - it boggles the mind!

Oh, but they really came up with a good one ! A FREE funeral including the casket, grave, preparation of remains and, even, the limo for anyone willing to sign a contract stating they intended to drink or take drugs and then drive on New Year's Eve and, if as a result, they died in a wreck on that day !!


Inspired by the loss of a family member as a result of a drunk driver, they started the promotion to draw attention to the issue and to make drivers think twice before getting behind the wheel after imbibing. Hopefully, the publicity surrounding their "offer" will keep other families from experiencing such a loss.


Of course, there are some restrictions or rules to the offer. The potential victim must come into the funeral home in person with a copy of their driver's license and next of kin to complete an official funeral plan and sign a written contract. They must then sit down and write letters to their loved ones explaining why they chose to gamble with their lives and the lives of others by drinking (or drugging) and then driving. The funeral home will hold the letters for the victim at that point.

Thankfully, for the 10th year, there were no takers for this FREE offer. McGuire, Jennings & Miller intend to continue the promotion again next New Year's Eve.

Say, what?!? Jewelry from reindeer poop!!!

As most of you know, I’m a reindeer collector. Yes, I admit it. I love all things reindeer. There are over 500 reindeer oriented items in my collection (I haven’t counted this year, so let’s just stick to the “over 500” figure.) They keep watch from kitchen shelves, tops of cabinets, hallways and peek out from even the tightest corners BUT I don’t have any Magical Reindeer Gems!!!


How did I ever miss these?

The creative little elves and a fantastic PR drive at Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington, Illinois, has made these bits and pieces (or would that be “blobs” ) of sterilized reindeer dung a sought after, “gotta have” item this year. Yep, you heard me right. “Reindeer Dung!!!” Sign me up for the 2010 advance sales list, please. (Seriously. Santa, if you’re reading this, I really do NEED one of these.)

They always say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” So, in this case, “One critter’s s--- (err) excrement is another being’s GEMS !?!

Each piece is handmade and includes one “gem”. Volunteers actually collect dime-sized bits of reindeer droppings (“gems“)which are then dehydrated, sanitized in a an autoclave machine, painted with glittery paint and drilled to attach a hanging loop or ring.

They actually made the first ornaments last year and sold them in the zoo’s gift shop. They were a hit and, as news spread, sales went national. (They have received international requests too but it seems there are federal regulations that don’t allow reindeer droppings to be exported.) Last year, they sold over $5,000 worth of gems.

This year, in response to customer requests, the necklaces were added to the product line. They sold out of the 2000 ornaments and 100 necklaces for proceeds of about $16, 500. (Ornies sell for $7.50 in the gift shop, $10 by mail and necklaces at $15 and $20, respectively.) Kudos to those who came up with a constructive means of battling the city’s budget cuts to the zoo’s operating budget.

As the story goes, these unique little ornaments and necklaces grew out of a tale told by retired Miller Park Zoo Superintendant, John Tobias. Or, maybe, the story developed around these creations. (After all, everybody needs a gimmick, right?)

It went something like this:

"John’s grandmother used to gather her grandchildren and take them outside on Christmas Eve to scatter homemade chocolate chips. She would tell the children that the chips would attract Santa and his reindeer to their home because reindeer would know that other reindeer had already visited and left droppings…”

So … it follows, that if you hang a Magical Reindeer Gem ornament on your tree or wear one of these necklaces on Christmas Eve, it will help Santa and his reindeer find their way to your house !

If you’d like information about the 2010 Gem product availability forwarded to you when available, please send a note to susie.mpz@yahoo.com and ask to have your email address added to her mailing list.

As I said, I’ve got to get one of these for next Christmas!

"The hurrier I go, the behinder I get !"

I've always been told that's an old Amish saying, but I've never heard the Amish speak that way. We do a lot of business in Amish country and, while they do have some unique sayings, I sometimes think this one is just part of the myth about the Order.


It does , however, speak the truth. It seems the more I set out to do, the less I'm accomplishing. I'm choosing to blame it on The Big Guy. He distracts me and misleads me along the way. When he's at work, I usually get a lot done and I cross things off my list at a steady pace. When he's home, I seem to get very little done and then, only do things grudgingly. He's been home since Wednesday afternoon. Not much has gotten done.


Today's big activity was going out to breakfast, something we try to do every other week or so on the weekend. Seriously, we went to breakfast and came home. That's it. We were back snug in our warm living room before 10 a.m.!! That's exactly where we've stayed. (Baby, it's cold outside!!)


The most constructive thing I did was read my e-mail and add one listing to the shop.

Yep, I added the first of the hamster shirts to the shop! My offline sales of this one are rolling pretty good. What can I say? Hamsters are BIG at the moment!! You can check out the listing here.


So, I'm already behind for the year!! (I didn't add anything yesterday!) One of my Business Goals was to add one item per day for the month of January. This should accomplish several things.


First, it will rebuild the shop stock. (You can't sell what you haven't got!)


Secondly, it will bring my shop to the front of the line at least once each day. I'm not a big believer in relisting for that purpose. I consider it a waste of money as it hasn't worked well for me in the past. I know I personally get tired of seeing the same merchandise day after day as sellers relist simply to get their name out there. I would prefer to get there with new listings.


As an added push, I've made a habit of putting at least 10 blurbs in the promotion area of the Etsy forum each time I add an item. Again, I'm not sure this is useful but it takes little effort and costs nothing. I have found the best way to get views is putting a blurb on Twitter when I list something new. The promo section of the forum got me 2 views in 40 minutes today. Twitter brought 18 in less than 2 minutes. I feel most of those coming from the forums are sellers who are just taking a gander. Folks on Twitter actually have to make the effort to change sites and may actually have an interest in buying. I have had sales traced directly to Twitter.


One of my Home-Related Goals was to add at least one freezer meal each week to my stockpile. This goal was for a specific time period, after-all, my freezer isn't that big. At any given time, I like to have 5 or 6 meals stored up that can simply be pulled out and heated. These come in handy when the schedule gets tough, the weather gets bad and limits runs to the grocery store, we have surprise company (this happens a lot around here!), or even when I just feel lazy. The holiday rush completely wiped out all stockpiled meals.


I just barely squeezed that one in tonight by putting a pork shoulder in to cook overnight. (I slow cook it for about 13 hours.) I'll get up in the morning and make a large pot of pulled pork. We'll eat some and stockpile the rest. I often do two shoulders at once but I only had one on hand this time.


I really had hoped to have a more exciting start to the year. It feels like I've already WASTED valuable time. On the other hand, I've spent quality time with my man!


Okay, I've at least spent a fair quantity of time with him this week!!