Still more cake decorating!

Tonight is the last night of Course I for cake decorating.

We finished our three-step lesson on how to make a rose (really, was it necessary to drag it out three classes?).





We learned how to make various leaves and vines. A few of us also learned a smaller flower, the sweet pea.

How did I do?

More cake decorating!

For tonight's class, we made the EXACT same cake that my mother made for me as a child. Goes to show you that if something isn't broken, don't change it!

Voila, my clown cake. Yes, I named him Tom. I was practicing my letters, but didn't have room for something longer!



I looked through my photos to see if I had that photo from when I was a kid, sticking my finger into the frosting while wearing yellow feetsie pajamas (not unlike my friend, the clown), but no luck. My sister will have to do some spelunking in the family archives for that...

Cake Decorating, take 2!

Alas, i didn't take a picture, but made a sweet little Valentine's Day cake. We learned how to make hearts, dots, and shells.

I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo. Seriously...

Cake Decorating 101

In my never-ending quest to limit whatever freetime I may have, I signed up recently for a cake decorating class. Wilton, the ubiquitous supplier of professional cake decorating products, offers small classes at both Michael's and AC Moore. My mother took a class when I was a child and I remember her bringing home amazing cakes. I've been dying to take a class for years, so when I ran across a class at AC Moore, I jumped on it. $22 for the class, plus supplies.

Well, the supplies could run you considerably more, if you don't watch out! At first I thought I could borrow most things from my mother -- at least the frosting tips. Most of the other supplies don't age well, so it was off to the races to buy pastry bags, couplers, icing colors, etc. Tom accomplanied me on one trip and quickly calculated that it's cheaper in the long run for me to buy an entire kit, using those wonderful 40-50% off coupons that are in the paper, than it is to purchase items individually.

Tonight was the first class -- an introduction to making the frosting, how to level a cake, how to put together a pastry bag with the frosting tip. Good thing I watched my mother as a child do all these things!

For each of the next three classes, we bring in a plain, small frosted cake to decorate with whatever skills we've learned from that class. Stay tuned!

Our favorite annual laugh for a great cause: Comics Come Home

Last night, Tom and I went to see Comics Come Home, benefiting the Cam Neely Foundation. Now in its 14th year, CCH is apparently the longest running charity comedy show in the nation. I started going in its early years, a year or so before I met Tom. He's gone with me to at least 8 or 9 of the past ten years, so I'd say this is a strong annual tradition.

Neely was one of my favorite players on the Bruins -- #8. A heavy hitter when you needed him to be, he retired far too early in his career after taking a nasty shot that debilitated his already-shaky hip. On the personal front, both of his parents died of cancer in the 1990s, and he and his brother quickly realized that there are not nearly enough resources for families dealing with cancer. The Foundation established the Cam Neely House, a home away from home similar in concept to the Ronald McDonald House. They've been very successful over the years, raising $19M and establishing several different cancer centers in the Boston area, including the most recent addition, the Neely Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at the Children's Floating Hospital in Boston, a fantastic hospital at which Tom's nephew was treated years ago.

The show last night was AWESOME -- probably one of the best in a few years. They've decreased the number of acts and lengthened their time on stage. They also got rid of a few all-to-familiar faces, such as Steve Sweeney, whose acts were simply a regurgitation of the previous year's and no longer funny.

Denis Leary is the perennial emcee and steals the show every year. Local boy, swears every other word, and a fantastic singer (here's an old video of The Asshole Song for the uninitiated - -warning, it's pretty off-color and not for little ears to hear!). I'm still laughing at his hilarious story last night about shitting his pants by accident while traveling in Italy with his family. He's irreverent as hell, and took a few minutes to make a very personal and clearly angry statement about the backlash against his upcoming book in which comments he made about autistic families were completely taken out of context and politicized. George W was also a big target this year -- Denis started with a song about how much he'll miss making fun on him.

Jim Breuer was pretty hilarious - Tom and I saw him Friday night at Montien when we had dinner before the Smashing Pumpkins, and yes, he always does look stoned. Lenny Clarke, another Boston boy done well, was simply fantastic -- he's lost a lot of weight, his material is fresh and always taking a jab at Boston politics. Al Madrigal, who co-stars with Jay Moore on a show that I haven't watched, was a pleasant surprise -- his bit was about his new baby and how his world view has changed. My personal favorite was his bit about children who are tethered on leashes. He went over to pat one, the parent said "my child's not a dog," and he responded, "exactly, so why the F*** is he on a leash." Who hasn't wanted to say that!

Tom Shillue and Anthony Clark were both okay -- Clark needs new material. Mike DeStafano got heckled by some jerk in the audience who was promptly escorted out (score 1 for security for acting so quickly!). The show ended with Patrice Oneal who is disgustingly funny - not for the faint of heart!

Making Pasta with Dave

Tonight Tom and I took a pasta making class at Dave's Fresh Pasta in Davis Square. Tom learned about the class through Slow Food Boston, an organization that runs counter-culture to "fast food nation" and promotes eating local.

The class, which held about a dozen people, was taught by Dave himself. We began by learning the basics of pasta making, creating a simple dough from flour (duram and semolina), egg and a pinch of salt. Tom scored well on the dough-kneading -- his was used as the "model" for the rest of us to follow. We left one ball of dough plain and added parsley to the other. After 20 minutes in the fridge, we rolled out the dough and sent them through the cutters, making both angel hair and linguini.

Dave then gave us a tutorial in sauce making, including a great, absolutely easy marinara sauce. Tom asked for a few pointers with his own garlic/white wine sauce, and Dave quickly identified the problem: not enough salt and/or cheese. What a difference it makes using the right quantities! He also made an alfredo sauce and a very cool sauce with blue cheese.

Next class in November is for raviolis -- we're hoping we'll be able to sign up!

Revisiting a favorite childhood activity: Boston Harbor Islands

Tom and I were recently approached by an organization interested in hosting a race on one of islands in Boston Harbor. We bailed out of both of our football games this weekend, citing loads of laundry and general fatigue, and took a trip out this morning to Spectacle and Georges Islands to scope things out and enjoy a day off in the sun.

When I was growing up, my father would take me, my uncle and his then-girlfriend (now wife) out boating on the weekends. We would drop the Midido (name leftover from the previous owners down in Florida) into the Charles River at the public boat launch in Watertown, travel down the river into the Harbor and out to Georges Island. I have very fond memories of tooling around the Harbor and running around the island.

It's been easily 20, maybe even 25 years since I last went to Georges Island, and Tom's never visited any of the islands, so this was a great treat. Spectacle was very cool -- open, untamed land covering a landfill. Beautiful vistas of the city and the other islands. The trail along the perimeter is just over 1.5 miles, so there are great possibilities for a fun road race here. Great investments have been made in amenities like a visitor's center, a modest eatery, and plenty of tables and benches. We had the good fortune to meet one of the Park Rangers while we were out measuring, and she gave us incredible insight as to all the island offers. A caretakers lives there year-round, and the rangers live in temporary dwellings called yurts.

To the right is Tom just ahead of me on the path walking with our measuring wheel. We got a lot of strange looks from folks on the T that morning, and quite a few inquiries as to what we were doing when we reached the island. :)

Georges Island is home to Fort Warren, a civil war era fort that has been incredibly well maintained. We stopped at the Information Center for a quick bite to eat (note to self: this late in the season, 'tis wise to bring one's own picnic lunch!), then headed inside. We couldn't resist putting Tom behind bars at our first stop!

It amazes me how accessible the fort is -- there were a few nooks and crannies that definitely gave me the creeps, and a few precarious stairwells and edges overlooking deeps wells that would make me think twice about letting a child run around on their own. Yet, this is exactly what I was doing as a child!

Our trip to the islands brought back great memories for me, and Tom couldn't help but note how he has lived his entire life near the city, yet never took advantage of the harbor islands. The ferry rate is a fair price, and you can bring your own food, games, and other beach gear and enjoy a great day out of the city.

Add this to your to-do list next summer!

Running of the Brides

This Friday was the bi-annual "Running of the Brides" at Filene's Basement. It's turned into quite a production, and I'm proud to say that I did it before it went totally commercial!

Just a week or two after Tom and I got engaged, my now sister-in-law, Mary, urged me to go with her to the upcoming sale, telling me to have no expectations, be prepared to be shocked and amused, and to just go with it and have a good time. I have to say: I had no interest whatsoever in going. When I was young, my mother used to drag me into Boston to catch a good sale at the Basement, and I have very strong and rather unpleasant memories of being practically bowled over by over-eager women of all ages trying to get a bargain. Running of the Brides is not my idea of fun.

I gave in. Mary met me around 6am and we headed into town. We were there by 6:30, and I think the doors (of the original Filene's Basement) opened at 7am. Some girls had camped out for an hour or two, but we were fairly close to the front. At her suggestion, I wore running tights and a tank top that I could easily scoot a dress over. The doors opened, we rushed in, grabbed whatever we could, then the trading began. All very cordial -- I'll give you this for that. I saw a petite girl wearing the dress I would ultimately buy and told Mary "we have to get that dress!" No expectations, but I somehow ended up with a designer dress that cost thousands for only $250. Apparently there was local TV footage later that night of me trying the dress on and twirling around in front of a mirror.

Today, the footage is a little more frightening. Girls camping out the night before. Grooms with them, ready to defend their future wife's dress stash physically if necessary. Cutesy matching t-shirts with catchy slogans. Way too many whistles. Way too much flesh being bared -- apparently my modesty is a thing of the past. I think these girls have seen Sex and the City one time too many!

Learning how to cook, take one!

Since Tom's going back to school, my days of living life large off of his cooking (no pun intended) are numbered. We unfortunately were so busy last week and this weekend, that a few of the vegetables from last week's CSA went unused. Thank goodness we split them with one of Tom's coworkers who kindly picked them up while we were at DMB.

Over the weekend, I searched around Cooking Light's recipe index for some good, easy recipes to use up the beets and dill, neither one of which Tom particularly likes. Well, it's ridiculously hot in our house and the A.C. is broken upstairs, but I thought it was a great time to make soup!

The dill was turned into a lovely (and thankfully cold!) Cucumber-Dill soup. Came out pretty well -- I think it needs a little more dill (ours was looking a little worse for wear, so I tossed more than I used).

The second was a hot Beet Soup, which came out awesome, but a little thinner than I had expected. I've learned how to sautée onions and use the blender on liquefy and puree (as opposed to the usual crush needed for margaritas!). Tom is still laughing at my joke "so this is what a dutch oven really is." I know...poor taste, especially around food!

I still have garlic scapes that look like they're in good shape, as well as some rhubarb. I was going to make a pie with the rhubarb, but every recipe seems to call for more than I have. I'll have to take a good look at it again tomorrow and get Tom to estimate how many cups we can get out of it.

Meanwhile the Iron Chef (aka Tom) was not to be outdone and is marinating chicken wings and legs with the intent to make fried chicken tomorrow. Did you know that Kellogg's corn flakes come in boxes of crumbs? Seriously, I knew you could get graham crackers that way, but if you take a good look at the Shake & Bake section, you'll find Kellogg's horning in on their act!

Last lecture

If you haven't already, you need to read or watch Randy Pausch's last lecture. It's an incredibly optimistic view of a life lived well by a Carnegie Mellon professor who has pancreatic cancer and only a few months left to live.

One of my favorite parts of his talk:

"So my next piece of advice is, you just have to decide if you're a Tigger or and Eeyore. [shows slide with an image of Tigger and Eeyore with the phrase "Decide if you're Tigger or Eeyore"] I think I'm clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate. [laughter] Never lose the childlike wonder. It's just too important. It's what drives us. "

I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind that I'm a Tigger. Several of my posts have included lists of things I want to do when I have time. But it's a bit more than that -- everyone should have a list of the 101, 1001 or million things they want to do before they die -- have something to aspire to!