Bragging Rights

I just want to show off the turkey I made today.

Why do I think anyone cares? I don't .... but I am going to show you anyways.

This is coming from a girl who a year ago pretty much only cooked cereal.

Now This I Can Do!

We all know I am not an awesome cook or baker. I make boxed cakes and still manage to ruin them. After my first attempt with cake pops I had some of the candy melts leftover and decided to use them this weekend for Easter. D's kids are here for a night and we plan to do up a turkey dinner. (oh yes you read that right). I chose to make Angel Food cupcakes with a drizzling of the melted candy melts.

I am extremely proud of this one!

Here is some of the batter. I really wish someone would invent a left handed ice cream scoop. If there is one out there please let me know! 

Right out of the oven. Brown and crispy on top. 

A drizzle here and a drizzle there. I am not artist, but they sure tasted good! 

Cake Pops: Take 1

I have seen a lot of talk from Krisitin Chenowith on Twitter about her love for Cake Pops. I had never heard of them and for some reason my mind pictured cake inside an old fashioned soda pop bottle. 

Weird I know. 

Now, I am the Queen of Google and for me to not do some research on these cake pops was very out of character. I blame laziness, and the fact that KC often posts totally out there Tweets about anything and everything containing sugar. I wasn't convinced they were real. Then a friend from Vancouver Island posted a photo on facebook of her daughter enjoying a cake pop from Starbucks and I was excited to see that maybe they did really exist. I entered Cake Pops into my Google search bar and came upon cake pop heaven! You can make tea pots, flowers, snowmen and bugs out of these cake pops! They were the cutest things I had ever seen! I had to learn to make them in time for Audrey Jane's birthday in June.

Here is my first attempt:

Chocolate cake batter.

Melting chips and sucker sticks.

Boxed cake mix of course.

My first MISTAKE! Didn't notice it was whipped till I took the photo. Caused the cake balls to be too soft where regular frosting would help them be at a stiffer consistency. Trust me, you want stiff balls. 

(Yes I am looking for a Betty Crocker endorsement) 

Cake balls ready for chilling. 

This is a great way to make cake for me, as all my cakes end up looking like this anyways. 

Melted chips ... pink of course. 

My baking helper taking a dinner break. 

Second mistake .... not having styrofoam blocks to sick the cake pops in to dry. I tend to think I can break the rules and still succeed sometimes. 

Right before this cake pop met my mouth. 

Overall, they tasted quite good. They definitely take a lot of time and patience to make, but I can see this being a great baking project in years to come for AJ and I. I will make sure to not buy whipped frosting and will invest in the styrofoam blocks. I give this Un-domestic Goddess a B for a fabulous first try. 

The Laundry Incident

I dread doing laundry. Dislike going all the way downstairs to the dark, jail like laundry room. I do not enjoy folding and putting it all away. Very much dislike ironing and you can ask my Mom about that. So thank goddess I have a laundry loving man! D enjoys it, mostly because he is so anal about how it's done. But that's ok! Gets me off the hook.

Last night D did a basket full of Audrey Jane's clothes, most of which was being washed in preparation for consignment. When the items were separated and folded AJ was already in bed asleep, so I was unable to put them away. As of 3PM today they were still sitting here in the basket by the couch. Then as of 3:15 they were all over the floor.

A new toy? For me??

I need to get to the bottom of this mess.

Shoulda put the laundry away Mom!

Really? I had this much?

I remember when I used to wear this! 

If I stick out my tongue maybe I can get inside this thing.

Oh well, most of it's too small for me anyways!

Sticky Situation

The whole reason I began writing this blog was to share my struggles and triumphs as a first time Mother and Housewife. I didn't really have much going on so I was doing a lot of reflective writing.

But today is the day!

I am having my Mommy Group over tomorrow afternoon so I decided to make a cake. I had cake mix in the cupboard, which for this UN-domestic Goddess, is perfect. I learned a neat little trick about using diet soda in place of oil and eggs to cut down on the bad stuff and to also help make the cake moist. I have tried it before and it was pretty tasty; although I don't drink diet pop, so I use regular. The cake is good .... but .... I will just allow the photos to show you how well I did with the rest of it.

Ready for the oven!

I tired to get the cake out of the pan, but most of it didn't want to come out

I swear it never fell on the floor. Just looks that way. 

The Mommies will be getting cheese and crackers instead! 

Hidden Messages

Apparently there is a reason for everything. And this is actually something I have become to believe about life. We may never find out what the reason for something tragic is, but there has got to be some kind of hidden message in there somewhere. I discovered this because of my Dad and something he once said.

About eight years ago my Dad woke up one morning and decided to leave my Mom. He had been fighting a gambling addiction, which was certainly wearing on their marriage, but not so much that my Mom would have walked away from him. He went back home to his parents basement while my Mom moved in with my Aunt, her three kids and me.

They spent about a year apart all the while still in each others lives. I guess it was like taking a break from being married and resorting back to dating each other. I don't really know many details about that, but I recall divorce never being an option.

My Dad was having issues with his stomach and had been getting all sorts of tests done to try and find the culprit. On the very first day of 2004 we found out that his intestines were full of tumors. There was not much the doctors could do to help. My Dad passed away three and a half months later with my Mom, his wife, by his side. I don't know why I struggle to remember details about that time, but I do. It is either my mind's way of protecting me and aiding in the moving on process, or I just never lived in the moment enough. Either way I do know something intriguing was said by my Dad about why he left my Mom. I am not certain when he said it, how he said it exactly or even if it was said directly to me, but I do know that he made the statement. In his mind he left my Mom so she would be used to living without him and life would be easier when he was gone. He never knew for sure that he would be dying at the time he left the marriage, but in the same breath he did. My Dad never thought he would live past the age of 50 and he surpassed that by only three years. No one knows why he knew that; he just did.

Could that possibly be the hidden reason for him walking away? It does make some sense. Then again it could just be an excuse. But it has always stuck with me and sort of been my proof that bad things happen for a reason. Someone else said something to me once that I file away in the "reason why" folder in my brain. It is not hard to question why something so tragic like the earthquake in Haiti last year had to happen to people who are already struggling. I mean why would higher powers do that? Here is a possible reason: so many people talk about how beautiful the children of Haiti are. Their eyes are so full of life and hope. Since the earthquake many of them have been adopted by undercover Angles all over the world. Now the beauty and hope from these children has been spread across the planet. How is that a bad thing? There is your hidden reason.

I don't plan to sit down and analyze every horrible thing that happens in the world, to people I know or even to myself. But I will continue believing that it all does happen for a reason. It helps me live.