A (self-) catered affair

I did it! The Volunteer Luncheon was a great success. I had 13 of my office volunteers show up, and they all seemed to enjoy the meal. I made ham and cheddar quiche with spinach salad for lunch, followed by cupcakes and cookies for dessert. I did all the cooking, and a friend from the church volunteered to assist as waitress. It was fun, and I think it is going to become an annual event.

I mean, I've been a little nuts (and obsessed) for the past week or so, but it was totally worth it.

The cupcakes turned out great, once I had the complete recipe for the lemonade ones. I also made chocolate coconut cupcakes. Originally I had planned on filling the chocolate ones with a creme filling, but I didn't have enough time thanks to the lemonade fiasco. But since nobody knew the chocolate cupcakes were supposed to be filled with creme, it didn't really matter that they weren't.

 

I was really pleased with my "cupcake stand." 

Yes, I think I did good. And I think I'm going to go get one of those leftover cookies...

Butterflies!

I've been busy making butterflies today.

 

Cookie butterflies.

 And fondant butterflies. This is actually the first time I've ever used fondant, so I'm very pleased with the way they've turned out. I'll be using them as decoration on the tops of the cupcakes.

Very pretty!

The countdown has begun

First I overslept. (It wasn't my fault. I was up most of the night because my neighbors were having a very loud party. Which I didn't complain about because it's the first time since I've moved in that they've been noisy. And I know that they can't say the same about me.)

Then I spent the afternoon (if you count the afternoon as lasting from lunch until well after dinnertime) with mom. First we met up with the Stuart knitting group. Afterwards, we went for a "quick" shopping trip looking for supplies.

When I got home, I couldn't resist trying to hook up the Roku that my children sent me for Mother's Day. (There's a long story involved, but I received the package today.) Even though there is only four steps involved (plug the unit into the TV, plug it into the wall, put batteries in the remote, and turn on the TV), I wasn't able to my new Roku to work. For a long-time geeky nerd, I'm not very talented when it comes to the television. I still can only watch movies on the dvd when my daughter is home. (Which is why they bought me a Roku. Since I can handle the computer so well, they thought hooking my TV into the internet would solve my problem and I would finally be able to watch shows alone.)

Finally, having outlasted all possible distractions, I started preparations for Tuesday's luncheon.

It's not Christmas without Cookies!

I ended up not spending the day the way I expected to spend the day. (And for the record, the way I expected to spend the day was not how I had originally planned to spend the day.) But despite the way things twisted and turned, it turned out to be a pretty good day.

Part of that was because I gave into the impulse to bake. I made chocolate chip cookies. I ended up with 7 dozen cookies, so if anyone wants to bring the milk I’ve got cookies to share!

I want a cookie!

It doesn't look like much yet, but this is the start of some really yummy cookies. Now I just need to decide if I'm going to make pumpkins, flowers, butterflies, or (Becca's choice) elephants.

It's the start of something good...

Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I think housework is the reason most women go to the office. (Heloise Cruse)

I really don't have much to say today. It's been a gotta-get-the-house-clean type of a day. There's so much going on in the next few weeks -- my daughter's prom (with her friend and mother coming here to get ready), graduation and my older daughter's  visit home for that -- that I want the  house "company ready" as soon as possible. And "company ready" should be read as "obsessively clean and all clutter organized and/or removed so as to have a house that is worthy of a magazine spread." Because that's the way I get.

Sigh. I think I'm going to go eat another cookie...

Missing in cyberspace

For the past couple of days, I haven't been able to get into Blogger to write new posts. Apparently they had a problem after some routine maintenance. Posts disappeared, strange error messages appeared, and bloggers ended up confused and complaining. In an effort to fix the problems, Blogger had to revert to an earlier backup of the system, then go in to restore all the new posts and comments. For two days Blogger has been turned off, so to speak, so that the repairs and maintenance could be completed. (You can read all about it on the Buzz.)

Unfortunately, my Wednesday post was not restored. It's a shame, too, because it had a really great kniterary reference in it. I've already returned the book, but I'm going to try to find it again the next time I visit the library.

I couldn't get in to post on Thursday or Friday. Thursday's post was going to be about cookies.(They are really yummy cookies, and I'm still going to share the pictures.) Friday's was a rant about doctors and testing and spending money to be told what everyone already knew. (So it's probably best that I couldn't post Friday.)

(Just admire the cookies, and ignore the ugly old cookie trays please.)

I used to be the computer geek for where I worked, and I know how much pressure it could be to try to figure out a computer problem while a non-tech-savvy person is breathing down your neck with helpful comments like, "Typewriters never lost my letter. Where did the computer put it?" I can't imagine what the guys at Blogger must have been going through with the thousands of bloggers crying, "But MY post was important. Fix mine first!" So while I'm frustrated over the loss of an unusually good Wednesday WIPs posting, I appreciate the dedication and expertise of the techs in bringing back Blogger.

Three Lessons in Baking

I made more cookies today. I wanted to give away some of the pretty butterflies and Easter Eggs I decorated on Sunday, but that would have left us without any cookies. And since PJ is actually eating them (he usually doesn't eat any of the cupcakes or treats that I bake since he doesn't like sweets), I would have felt guilty if I gave them all away. So of course I had to make more. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.)

Maybe Sunday was a fluke. Or maybe I just got overconfident after Sunday's success. Either way, today's baking adventure was a definite learning experience.

Lesson 1: Logical math cannot be used when baking cookies. Since I had fun decorating a dozen cookies, logical math lead me to believe that I would have twice as much fun decorating twice as many cookies, and even more fun decorating three dozen. The truth is that, although decorating a dozen cookies is fun, decorating two dozen cookies is work. Continuing to decorate cookies after the first two dozen, instead of freezing them to decorate another time, shows a real lack of judgment on my part.
Lesson 2: Children, even teenagers, are too smart to fall for the "wouldn't you like to have as much fun as I'm having" ploy. There is no way you can trick (or entice) them into decorating the last dozen cookies. This is especially true if they've been listening to you mumbling and grumbling while working on the third dozen.

Lesson 3: The consistency of the royal icing is extremely important. You cannot use a piping consistency for flooding, or a flooding consistency for piping. If you decide to listen to a tutorial that says you can pipe and flood with the same bag of royal icing, then you should follow the tutorial's instructions for the icing's consistency.

Edible Canvases

Lately, I've been fascinated with food blogs. Specifically, cupcake blogs. In my search for more cupcake ideas, I've started following cookie blogs as well. It's absolutely amazing what can be done with royal icing on a simple sugar cookie. So I decided that I absolutely had to give it a try.

I used the sugar cookie recipe from Glorious Treats. The recipe is wonderful. I did make the mistake of leaving the dough in the refrigerator overnight before rolling it out. I had to let it sit on the counter to warm up about 2 hours before I could work with it. (Too chilled, the dough just crumbles.) Also, it would probably be a good idea for me to buy a rolling pin before I make my next batch. I used a drinking glass, so the cookies were an uneven thickness. (Not to mention that I worried the whole time that the stupid glass was going to break!)

Glorious Treats also had a really good Royal Icing recipe (although I had to add more than the 6 tablespoons of water listed) and a tutorial on how to decorate the cookies. Another good source for decorating tutorials is Sweetopia.

I made polka-dot Easter Eggs.

And then I got adventurous and made fancy Easter eggs.

Then I got artistic and made butterflies. I really like the butterflies.

The cookies are almost too pretty to eat.