I heart Amber...and I heart food!

Half of you who come here already know Amber - she is one talented lady who seems to have boundless energy and skills. And if you don't already know her, you really must check out her blog: Amber's Ambry. You'll thank me for turning you on to it...probably more so than you'll thank me for sharing cookie recipes with you, but I'll do that too (at the bottom of this post). :)

Amber and her very cute, and equally talented, apparently, boys made the sweetest bird seed ornaments, which I just had to have because I love to spoil our birds. Heh.   Aren't they cute and perfect for the holidays?

I first knew Amber for her soap-making skills, and she never disappoints:

Amber made this incredible hand-balm that is so emollient, it actually speeds the healing of paper-cuts!  I kid you not.  I have empirical evidence!

Because no blog post is complete without the mention of food, and because I don't want you to think that I didn't bake at all during my months off from blogging, here are some pics of FOOD.

These are magnificent Magnolia Bakery chocolate cupcakes. They were one of my best batches yet!

I was making a lot of the no-knead artisan bread for a while.  Here is a slice that became an experiment in seeing how Vegemite (on the left) differed in taste from Marmit (on the right).  Dh and the boys definitely prefer Vegemite.

Because the sweet potatoes kept so well in the utility room over the winter, I was able to make a sweet potato pie:

As a healthier change from Coconut-Cranberry Chews, I made some Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies instead. We definitely preferred the former, even though the latter has heart-healthy oats in it.

So there ya have it...my past 2 months reduced to two blog posts, and missing all the really juicy stuff (that's in my other blog).

I'm now back in full blogging force and am looking forward to reading everyone else's blogs again!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Numba one son turns 15!

I have a back-log of a couple of posts; I'd started writing them, but because I wasn't really blogging, or reading blogs, I never posted them. So in the spirit of "feast or famine", I will dump them on you in a matter of days. ;) Here's the first:

It's not possible because I haven't aged a day since he was born. I am still in my early 30s as far as I can tell.

Yeah, I lied. The kids have aged me beyond recognition. I'm just a shell of the vibrant person I once was.

I lied yet again. The truth lies somewhere in between: I'm not 32 years old - my age minus 3 months when ds#1 was born - but I'm not decrepit either. I hate the idea of staring at Five-Oh, but I look forward to my AARP membership for those fabulous discounts! What am I complaining about anyway? At least I'm not a grandmother. (The idea of being a grandparent in my 40s really makes me queasy.)

But this isn't about me, even though I do go on. Ds#1 turned 15 on the first of February. We got hit by an ice storm that day, so we never took him out for a special dinner, nor cooked him one, as is our tradition. In fact, our power went out for about 21 hours, and I didn't even make him a cake until the weekend.

He chose Mocha Chiffon, and it turned out pretty well. I got the recipe from the Company's Coming cookbook I got from my mom's stash of cookbooks after she died.

Mocha Chiffon Cake
2 1/3 C sifted cake flour
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
1 T instant coffee granules
3/4 C hot water
1/2 C cooking oil
5 egg yolks, room temp
1 t vanilla
1 C egg whites, room temp
1/2 t cream of tartar
3 oz semisweet baking chocolate, shaved thinly

Preheat oven to 325F. Wash angel food tube pan in hot soapy water to ensure it is totally grease-free. Sift first 4 ingredients into bowl. Make a well in the center.

Dissolve coffee in hot water. Cool.

Put cooking oil, egg yolks, vanilla and cooled coffee into well. Set aside. Don't beat yet.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until very stiff. Set aside.

Using same beater, beat egg yolk-flour mixture until smooth. Fold 1/4 at a time gently into egg whites. Add shaved chocolate. Fold in. Pour into ungreased 10" angel food pan. Bake in oven for 60-70 minutes. Invert pan until cake has cooled. Frost with frosting of choice.

And on a completely unrelated thought, here are the socks I finished knitting in January. I'm staying on track with my projects resolutions so far, but I don't know how much longer I can keep it up with more writing and critiquing on my schedule.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams