Random Updates

Congrats to my Aunt Mary on her retirement - yay! Patrick and I wish we could have been there to celebrate with you last night, but we were there in spirit!

Speaking of my Aunt Mary, for a wedding gift she knitted us a GORGEOUS afghan. In this picture it is folded in half, so when it is completely unfolded it is HUGE! I can't imagine all of the hours it took to create this masterpiece. It means so much to us to have such a beautiful piece in our home. Not only is the afghan itself incredibly special and meaningful, but as is the story that went into making it.



Hmm…what other happy updates are there?

Well, Patrick planned an absolutely awesome birthday for me. I think some of my craftiness has worn off on him. We're planning a trip to Europe in 2010…our plans are France and Italy, and if we can make it work Germany. But we only have 3 weeks, so we shall see ;) Anyhoo, as a birthday gift I had requested some travel books to gear up for this big trip (I'd requested "Let's Go France On A Budget" and "Let's Go Italy On A Budget" - which I still would like to get). So, being the great husband that he is, he got me a whole slew of books…including one for Greece - which I didn't know were part of our European Adventure this go around (it has since been returned ;) lol But, not only did he get me the books, he created a whole theme around it. He made this fabulous little coupon book:



Which individual coupons to various European inspired restaurants inside:



So, to kick it off we started with my birthday dinner in Matisse - a French restaurant downtown. Karen, Paul and Meg (thanks guys!) were able to come and we enjoyed a lovely meal with several baskets of their freshly made in-house bread - yum - o!



I opted for the flourless chocolate cake for dessert, and Patrick opted for their "World Famous" crème brulee:



I used to not be a big crème brulee fan, but this one had me changing my mind.

And I purchased this little handmade ceramic owl planted made using a vintage mold as a birthday gift for myself. A girl has to treat herself to a random little thing ;) You can find them at www.fruitflypie.com - she has an Etsy Shop:


Oh, and some more exciting news is that our couch arrived! Yay! I think it arrived two Saturdays ago…and although it took nearly 5 months, I think it was worth the wait ;) Here are a couple of pics of it:





I have a couple more exciting updates…but seeing how the aren't directly about me/us, I never know how people feel about me sharing their news. I'll just say that life in Victoria is splendid!

Probably Not The Best Idea...

I'm just beginning to put out some fall decorations (much to Patrick's chagrin...he's more of a last minute kind of guy) and found a really cute glass pumpkin from Peir 1. I thought I'd use it as a candy holder and bought 4 bags - the larger bags...not the single serving ones ;) to fill it up. Well, it is barely half full...and is already slowly becoming less and less full. With two M&M lovers in the house (Patrick the peanut ones and I the chocolate ones) it probably wasn't the best idea...lol

Would anyone like to venture a guess of how long they're going to last?!

Principle Bedroom Plans

I've said it before, but as a result of moving from a <600 square foot condo, to a much more roomy home we've had to work away in furnishing the house room by room. Although some interior designers/decorators say you should finish each room before moving on to the next - I disagree. To live comfortably in a home you need to have a few key pieces to do this.

In a previous post about our dining room/area, I talked about my desire for new dinning room chairs, a new light fixture…etc, etc. Well, we have the core pieces (table and chairs), as well as a few decorative items. Because this room/area is functional and dare I say comfortable I felt the need to move onto more sparse areas - meaning our bedroom.

I would post a picture of it, but it is so embarrassingly barren, that I won't. Our bedroom is minimalism at it's finest. It seriously has a queen sized mattress and box spring floating in the center of the room, flanked by two alarm clocks (on the floor) and a fan that Patrick "must" have to sleep. That's right folks, we have no bed frame, no night tables, no dressers…nothing! But fear not, because a glorious new bed frame is on its way. We ordered, from Costco ;), a lovely queen sized upholstered bed - yay!

Honestly, I haven't really been sleeping overly well since we moved in to our new place - perhaps because the one room that is supposed to feel cozy and safe lacks permanence and personality. Hopefully that will change beginning with the new bed! Yay!

Here's another inspiration board I've been working on that includes the nightstands and dressers we hope to purchase…they're from The Bay - just need to save the funds!



We're trying to avoid things being too matchy/matchy, but we also lack the patience to continually hunt for items that are unique, but also go with the mood/style that we are aiming for.

I'm in LOVE with the round capiz mirror in the inspiration picture above - here's another pic:



My plan was to use it over my dresser (the low one) - I really think it will add a little sparkle or pizzazz to the room - plus a much needed mirror. Compared to the condo we have hardly any mirrors (other then the bathrooms). We're looking for a large round mirror for our entrance way, or a unique large square one…but we need to find a little console table for that space first ;)

There are only two problems with the round capiz mirror. The first is that it is $199 - eep! That's going to be a hard sell to Patrick ;) And the second is that it is from a store I love called West Elm

And West Elm currently doesn't ship to Canada, so I'll have to go to the US to get it. There's a store in Portland…we're hoping to go on a road trip through there next summer…fingers crossed we'll stop in ;)

PS It's my 24th birthday - whoot! lol

Icing job gone wrong - but still yummy!

We had a great night last night…full of laughter, yummy food and great company! Here's one of Pat's fav pics he took of the birthday girl:

As promised here is a picture of the finished cake…before I added the white icing:



Okie…you can see that it kinda looks like crap…even with the flowers in the background - te he he. I covered it with chocolate butter cream icing, however, I didn't make enough icing for a 3 layer cake (remember, I thought it was a two layer cake recipe…lol). Why didn't I just make some more you ask? Well, I had run out of icing sugar and it was nearing dinner time - I was just DONE with it! To make matters worse the cakes peaked a bit when baked, so when I stacked them they required extra icing along the sides - and you can see from the picture, I didn't do a great job of disguising the deep crevices. What I probably should have done was trim off the tops to make them flat…but I didn't.

Because I was sooo not impressed with my icing skills I decided to cover it with white icing. I bought a Care Bear (my sister's name is Karen…we call her "care bear" on occasion ;) candle to top the cake, so I figured by icing it white it would look like a big cloud ;) So, on my lunch hour I bought a tub of Betty Crocker icing and went at it…but I BARELY had enough of that…and I was just icing the outside of the cake! I think they are skrinking those icing containers to make you buy the larger size! You can see in the pics where I went wrong ;)





And of just the cake:





It was a tasty cake…but I still need lots of practice - before this year I've ALWAYS made cakes using a boxed mix and they usually turned out really well…and nicely iced! But one of these days I will master the perfect chocolate cake!!!!

For funsies here is a picture of the whole gang last night. I've put a smiley face over Karen's Dad - he prefers to not have his pic on the web ;) LOL…I hope he likes his smiley!


PS My 24th birthday is tomorrow - whoot!

The Making Of A 3 Layer Chocolate Cake For My Sister's 32nd Birthday

My sister turns the big "32" today…we're heading out to dinner to celebrate tonight and I offered to make her birthday cake - yay! Another reason to use some of my new kitchen gadgets and not be left with all the baked goods to eat.

I hunted and hunted for the "perfect" chocolate cake recipe. Over the weekend I tried one to make chocolate cupcakes…the batter was dry, dry, dry. This could have had something to do with over baking (over baking is my biggest challenge!), or it could have had something to do with it being a purely cocoa recipe, which used no melted chocolate. The yummiest chocolate things Patrick and I have made, have had melted chocolate added it - I think it really makes for a yummy, deep, rich, moist chocolate cake.

Anyhoo, of all places, I found this decadent chocolate cake recipe from one of my favourite cook books: Eat, Shrink & Be Merry It is called:

Died-and-Gone-to-Heaven Chocolate Layer Cake
Serves:16
Ingredients
3 cups granulated sugar
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1.5 cups buttermilk (regular milk works too)
1 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled
3/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
4 oz unsweetened chocolate squares, melted and cooled slightly

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Lghtly grease bottom and sides of three 9-inch (23-cm) round cake pans. Cut circles of wax paper or parchment paper to fit bottom of pans and place in pans. Lightly grease paper. Set pans aside.
Combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In another large bowl, beat eggs on high speed of electric mixer for about 3 minutes, until they have thickened slightly and are lemon coloured. Add buttermilk, coffee, oil, vanilla and melted chocolate. Mix on low speed until well blended.
Mmm….melty chocolate:

Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix on medium speed until batter is smooth.

Patrick got a DSLR camera over the weekend…so I thought I try out the action setting - neat, huh?

Divide batter evenly among pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in centre of cakes comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans, peel off paper and cool completely before frosting.

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There is nothing "shrinking" about this recipe…it is so bad, yet so good!

I didn't go with the icing that went along with this recipe…it called for cream-cheese and A, I didn't have any and B, it would have to be refrigerated, which is a pain in my keister because I am leaving directly from work for her dinner.

Anyhoo, I made a couple of cupcakes with the extra batter to make sure the cake didn't taste like crap - as my last chocolate attempt did…and it was yum-o!

For the icing/filling I used the chocolate butter cream recipe from Betty Crocker:

1/2 cup butter
4.5 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp Vanilla



You'll have to wait for tomorrow's post for the big reveal…I've added one more element that I'm going to leave for a surprise for the Birthday Girl, just in case she reads this. I don't know why, but I think that the cake shouldn’t be seen by the person who's birthday it is - until the big reveal…but when it is revealed, I think it’s gonna be goooood!

Twitter

So I opened a Twitter account...I'm not sure really the point...but I'm having fun figuring it out ;) If you have an account lemmie know so I can follow you, your feel free to follow me :)
www.twitter.com