Happy trees…

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Growing up I loved watching Bob Ross on PBS…even as a teenager (did you know he was on for 31 seasons! That’s a lot of happy trees). So much so that I convinced my dad to get to use his oil paints (he used to paint). It’s not that I really every think I wanted to paint. I think it was that Bob Ross and his happy trees was just so darn happy that I thought maybe if I painted myself something in sky blue and Van Dyke brown my happiness would come too. It was probably just the paint fumes. :P Anyway I painted a variety of things…all landscape of course and I made what Bob Ross would call happy accidents a lot (as he would say “we don't make mistakes, we just have happy accidents”). My first ones were mostly blobs but my father hung them proudly and my mother followed along and hid them in the dark corners of the house. :) I wasn’t just randomly thinking of Bob Ross…yesterday he was on the Google page and several people “thought of me” when they saw it and asked … [Read more...]

Operation Wedding Cake…

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  Today I started what I am calling Operation Wedding Cake. Many a person asks me to make them a wedding cake. I laugh. They look puzzled. I tell them I can’t decorate a cake. They don’t believe me. I then ask them if they have ever eaten a layer cake that I have made. And no one can really say that they have. Because I don’t make them often and if I do it’s never full size. I can’t frost. I can frost cupcakes just fine because there is a piping bag to help. But cake. Cake is my nemesis. I feel so bad about the fact that I can’t help people out (and I hate disappointing people) so I decide to start Operation Wedding Cake. I have zero desire to go into the wedding cake world. But I would love to help my friends out who are on a tight budget and ask me to make a cake for them. So I am giving myself a year to practice cakes. The first thing I learned is that I need proper tools which I don’t have. I needed cake rounds and I didn’t have those just a square … [Read more...]

The Savory, mostly Sweet Life…

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If you don’t know Alice’s blog Savory Sweet Life then you are very much missing out on things. Two years ago when I attended a food bloggers conference here in Seattle I finally met Alice in person. Alice is someone who to me is the real deal. Her genuine warmth shines through when you talk to her. Alice is a busy lady with three children (two of whom I have met and are beyond adorable), runs a blog (a very popular one at that), writes for PBS Parents Kitchen Explorers, and of course wrote herself a cookbook Savory Sweet Life: 100 Simply Delicious Recipes for Every Family Occasion . And yet with all her hectic-ness Alice finds time to make time for others, myself included. When I found out about her cookbok I hinted about as subtle as I could that when it did come out please send a copy my way. I'm hoping that when the time comes my not so subtle hints to her to come out of retirement from wedding cake making will be well received as well (don't worry Alice you have a long time … [Read more...]

Get your Vegan on…

Back in 2007 I reviewed a Vegan baking book called My Sweet Vegan for my blogging friend Hannah Kaminsky. If you don’t know Hannah, she runs the blog Bittersweet. One of the things I love about Hannah is that even though she is Vegan herself she is more than okay with others not being Vegan. While I very much liked her first book, I must say that Hannah has really grown in her dessert making in the years between. There are quite a few vegan books out on the market these days but very few dessert ones. As many of you know I have a slight dairy allergy so I *try* to not have dairy all that often, usually turning to coconut milk based ice creams, as I can also not have soy as well. The first recipe I noticed right away was for Mojito cookies which I made, but you won’t be seeing them until an upcoming Farm Update post as I used the mint from my own farm for the cookies. I made them the non-vegan way and that is okay. Just like when I make something that is non-vegan and vegans come … [Read more...]

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