Wedding Wishes...

So after much procrastination (nothing like the last minute for me!) I got together with a friend to make a collegue (well my ex-boss from 2 jobs ago, but my friends' collegue) a card. Used the fancy folds tutorial here. I had a hard time getting the fold right. Tutorial is great, I just had a hard time with math saturday night.
Colour scheme was just because I had Old olive designer paper!

You can't really see it, but I did go a bit glitter crazy on this card!

M has one of those Michaels' pregnant women stamps. She joked we should stamp that on the back. I was so tempted, but then she would have had to take responsibility for it. I stuck with rings. Though I do kinda regret not using the stamp!

You can see the full fold here...

Pie + Candy =...

Ever looked at a recipe or the final result and been grossed out but seriously intrigued?! This was my reaction to the Halloween Candy pie. I thought "who's crazy mind comes up with these things...I bet it's the same mind that thought to deep fry a twinkie that's stuffed with a snicker."

But yes you all now that while I may not be crazy enough to come up with these things, but I am always intrigued. Though usually I am grossed out enough that I won't actually take the trouble to make. Then I mentioned this little culinary nugget to my little brother and his response was "hell ya, when are you making it?!" Well...today (or well really yesterday.)

This is one of the things I love and hate about living at home. My brothers (especially the little guy) is willing to try pretty much anything. So experiments that I may have bookmarked but passed by now actually see the light of day or the light of oven!
On a somewhat healthier note I tried this Morccaan Stew and it was excellent!

To Soda or Not to Soda...

These pictures shocked me. Yes I knew soda/pop/soft drinks, what ever you want to call them contained sugar. But to actually see straight up visual from sugarstacking.com was a bit shocking.




I gave up soda 6-7 year ago. That summer we were had work BBQs every two weeks. Ahh good times. The meal of course came with a soda and I used to sip a can (or very rarely two) the whole afternoon. During my regular check up a few months later the doctor found cavities. I had been free of such things the prior visit. “Cavities” I moaned. But I brush, I floss obsessively and for good measure I use the hated mouthwash. What more is there left to do?



So we tracked the changes in my life the last 6 months. This was pretty easy, my life wasn’t anymore exciting back then! The big neon light flashed on my soda habit. Not only did I drink in a regular basis but I sipped! Constant sugar in my mouth for hours. This may have a coincidence, I was looking for a cause and this was a good scapegoat. Or at least this is what Coke’s CEO would like me to believe.

Whatever the truth, I have in most part given up soda. This article suggests it was a good thing all around. Still I will still sip, yes sip, a soda once in while but that is a pretty rare occasion. Now my drink of choice is water, no ice, lemon if you have it thank you…well except for mornings where I seem to have become a coffee addict…again…but that’s another rant.

In case you don't make it to the full article, here are some highlights from a study done in California...

1. Over 10.7 million Californians over the age of one drink at least one soda a day (or other sugar-sweetened beverage).
2. 41% of children ages 2-11 drink at least one soda or other sugar-sweetened beverage every day.
3. That number goes up to 62% of adolescents ages 12-17.
4. Only 1 in 4 adults drinks pop though.
5. Adults who do drink one or more sodas or other sugar-sweetened beverages each day are 27% more likely to be overweight or obese.

6. Almost half of the additional calories growth in our diet since the 1970’s come from soda.
7. Each American consumes an average of 50 gallons of sugar sweetened soft drinks per year.
8. Soda is the #1 source of added sugar in the American Diet.

9. The average size of a soda increased from 6.5 oz in the 1950’s to 16.2 oz today (149% increase!)
10. Milk consumption, on the other hand has decreased by 33% in the last 30 years.
11. Each additional daily serving of soda increases a child’s chance risk for obesity by 60%.
12. In the last 25 years, the obesity rate in California rose from 8.9% to 24.3%. That’s one in four Californians!
13. The cost in medical and health expenses to the state is estimated at $41 billion.

Snowflake...

Bah talk about being an inconsistent blogger eh?! Sadly I do have cards...well kinda...I have bits and pieces of a bunch of cards but in every design I am missing a bit of something here and there. Hopefully I'll get all parts before x-mas!!

I bought the snowflake punch especially for this card, but I am not sure I like the results! I like the blue part and the snowflake, maybe it would be better on chocolate chip or something...hmmm will try a modification...

One of my friends went apple picking and brought a giant bag of apples for me. Best way to use it up??? Make apple sauce and apple pie. Pie that much better since I ended up using half of the crazy amount of apple sauce I made the day before.

My issue lately has been pie crust. I was afraid to attempt it, the whole thing off "rubbing in the butter" properly, but don't let it get warm, don't over mix etc. etc. worried me. First time I tried it, I left in butter chunks (obviously didn't understand how fine this had to be!) and my pie literally cooked on a cushion of oil as the butter melted.

So I bought a pastry cutter. It's bigger than I wanted but the store didn't have many options. This didn't quite work out as i still had to get my hands in there, the butter stuck to the cutter a bit.

Finally on saturday I sat down with a whole lot of butter and flour and thought if it doesn't work this time I am going to be buying from now on. I used my hands to work the butter in and totally worked! Sadly I ended up burning the bottoms of post of my pie, but that's another story in incompetence!

Elves Noel...

I don't know how I feel about these cards. I really liked the image and really enjoyed colouring it. Then I took the cards out to the natural light and all of a sudden wasn't too impressed with my efforts. Meh maybe they'll grow on me!

Hunt for the Chocolate Chip Biscuit...

I am still on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip biscuit. Not too sweet, not crispy but soft, not cakey and good chocolate ratio. The mesquite chocolate chip from Heidi Swanson was pretty good, but it not the traditional straight up chocolate chip.

So I gave Claire Clarks a whirl. It wasn’t bad. Though I am convinced half of the yumness comes from the actual butter I used. They flattened well, remained soft, but it is too sweet for me. Brothers liked it though and pretty my gobbled up the stash!
I’ve been told the recipe in the Hershey cookbook is good, so that might be next…