A Few Random Things About Me- 36 thru 40

So, I thought I'd wrap up my month by adding another installment of 8,452 Things About Me.

40- I have never watched the following things on TV (or at least not for more than 30 seconds)… American Idol, Everybody Loves Raymond and The OJ Simpson trial (I did watch about 10 minutes of the bronco chase, but none of the trial). This is, by no means, a complete list of things I've never watched on TV.

39- Usually, when I smile, my eyes squinch up and disappear.


(photo credit- Jenny Gay)

38- I can do the bridge thing when shuffling cards. I learned to do this *without* the help of the internet (I know, wow), while procrastinating during my freshman year in college. Though, I don't usually do it with dance music in the background.

37- I've been to several mountain man rendezvous when I was younger. (I'm not sure what the plural of this is.)

36- When I go under water while swimming, I can plug my nose using only my lips. My bottom lip pushes up on my top lip, which covers my nose. (I hope you can picture this, because I am not going to be posting a picture of it.) I don't actually *need* to do it to swim, but that's how I learned to put my head under water as a kid.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

Peace out.

Weird Kid Wednesday- Check Out the Big Brain on Kam!

Added Note- You can see the jell-o that this mold makes here. And we bought it online from Educational Innovations Inc.

Monster Cake

Last weekend, we all managed to put together the most goofy birthday cake (so far).

Aurora's daughter Jaden wanted a monster party and found this picture on Flickr. We gave it our best shot, adapting it to our skill level. I think it turned out pretty great considering that we've never really worked with fondant or gumpaste before and had no idea what we were doing (well, Jeff and I did a fondant cake for Joey, but it didn't involve rolling it or anything).



This was a huge collaborative effort.



This second picture shows the stitches and brain a bit better.

My suggestion about learning to work with fondant is to start with a monster or halloween type cake. That way, when you screw up, it looks like you meant to. Or at least it's easier to hide and/or incorporate into your working theme. Like deciding to make the unfortunate seam in the fondant into a stitched up scar. I think that turned out pretty cool.

And here's a summary of the various components...
Who Did It and What It Was Made From
(aka Too Many Links to Pictures)
-Homemade Marshmallow Fondant (Joey and I made it from this recipe which is so much less nasty than the store bought fondant)
-Cake (Aurora and I made a red velvet cake)
-Buttercream (Jeff made it from a recipe in Baking Illustrated.)
-Assembled and frosted (by me)
-Covered in homemade, purple fondant (by Allison and me)
-Lips (unprofessionally piped by me using buttercream)
-Teeth (formed out of gumpaste by Allison and the girls)
-Ears (formed out of gumpaste by Allison)
-Bow (formed out of store bought fondant by Kenzie and Joey)
-Horns (marbled and formed out of gumpaste by Allison)
-Stitches (piped with buttercream by Allison)
-Brain (formed out of store bought fondant and attached by me- This addition was Jeff's idea. My execution of his idea can be seen here and here and here and here and here- in case you're curious about how to make and attach a brain. Oh, and that mold I used, we bought it online from Educational Innovations Inc. which has some really great stuff. It also makes awesome Jell-O.)
-Eyeballs (made out of homemade fondant by Jenny, Aurora and Joey)
-Joey and Kenzie made the snails and worms.
-And Jenny helped put everything in just the right place.
-Aurora took lots of pictures and gave advice.

Notes
-The homemade fondant seems a bit softer than the store bought stuff so it doesn't work as well for things that need to stand up and have much form. (This also could have been because I added too much Crisco when making it, though.)
-For anything that really needs structure, use gumpaste. Apparently, it's inedible (according to a couple of sources on the internet), but it really sets up much sturdier than fondant.

Now whose birthday is next and what kind of cake do they want?

Our Daily Awesome

I just couldn't help myself. I had to post this.



Found on Boing Boing, which had this to say about it, " Thank you Jesus for this, our daily awesome."

I couldn't agree more.

A Message from Kam

When I turned 22, I baked several dozen cupcakes, brought them to work and passed them out, saying to each and every person, "Happy Birthday to me!"

Yah, I'm still like that.

Well, Happy Birthday to me!


Note- these are just still pictures put over top of the audio we recorded. It's taken me over a week to get these put together. I was running out of steam when Jenny stepped in and made the audio into movies today.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Doug!


Happy Birthday, Linda!


Also, Happy Birthday Raven and Jaden and Teri (I can't believe I forgot you!!!) and Jeff's grandpa Herb and my cousin Ryan and Brittany (from elementary school, who has the same birthday as me) and apparently Angry Chicken as well. See I told you May was full of other peoples' birthdays.

I also happen to have two ex-boyfriends who have birthdays in May, and I guess Happy Birthday to them too, but Christ, I really hope they aren't reading.

Weird Kid Wednesday

I wonder if this was inspired by Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky (which she's been reading lately).



We recently discovered Terry Pratchett and are really enjoying him.

Seed Sprouting

We celebrated 2 different birthdays this weekend (neither of them mine). And for each of the birthday girls, I made up a little sprout growing kit.



I used untreated seeds from my gardening stash along with seeds from my pantry. SproutPeople was a huge resource in deciding what to use.

If you're interested, you can click the picture above and mouse over it to see which seeds are which.



How To
-Basically, I repurposed a cleaned, plastic egg container by filling it with very wet coconut fiber.
-Then I sprinkled it with the seeds, one type per section.
-After I'd gotten all the seeds where I wanted them, I covered them with plastic wrap. (I'd already cut off the top part of the egg container for a different project. But, if you have an intact egg carton it would work brilliantly to just close the entire thing back up.)
-I told the birthday girls to take off the plastic as soon as they start to grow stems and their first leaves pop out.
-In order to spell out the names, I was unable to get them where I wanted them on the first go, so I scooched them into place with a toothpick, which was way easier than obsessing about getting them there initially.





The Seeds I Used (after narrowing it down)
-Dill
-Mustard
-Fenugreek*
-Quinoa*
-Black Lentils*
-Amaranth*
-Broccoli
-Sugar Snap Peas
-Oat Grass
-Mung Beans*
-Sesame Seeds* (these didn't actually sprout, but I just had to give them a shot, if only because of Mitch.)
-Buckwheat
(*Seeds directly from our pantry)

Tips
-If you live in a very humid environment and are worried about mold, it helps to mix up a solution of 1 tsp citric acid (they actually sell this in the pharmacy area if you can't find it with canning supplies) and 1 quart of water to wet the coconut fiber and seeds with.
-If you use bigger seeds (peas, mung beans, fenugreek or buckwheat for me) it helps the process if you soak them in warm water for half an hour or so before putting them on the coconut fiber.

If you want to see what they looked like after they just started to sprout, take a look here or here or here. The amaranth looks particularly cool. I think.

I know at least one of the girls is very very picky and I'm hoping that she may be inspired to try eating something new.

I'm thinking that a blindfolded, tasting game would be just the thing.

Note-Here's what it looks like about a week after planting. Some of them have obviously made it past the 'sprout' stage without being devoured. Oh well, at least they look pretty.


(Thanks for the picture, Aurora.)

Oh yah, watch out for the mustard... it's hot.