If it begins with "Martha"...

I am no Martha Stewart.  In the future, if something begins with Martha and ends with Stewart I should probably LEAVE. IT. ALONE.

I was reading a few blogs over the weekend and they had all seen the cover of the new Martha Stewart magazine.  The cover of the mag had these amazingly gorgeous cookies on them.  Cookies that looked like fireworks bursting.  You know, in honor of the 4th of July. 

Oh, how the writers of the blogs raved about those cookies.  How cute they were, how easy they were, how utterly fabulous you would be if you, too, made those cookies.  I fell for it.  Hard.

I bought the magazine, bought the necessary instruments (meriguine powder, disposable icing bags, icing tips, gel food coloring in red and blue, and cookies.  Yes, I bought the cookies.  Ssshhhhh! PLEASE don't tell Martha!).  I came home, prepared the Royal Icing (the name alone should have been a clue!) and set to work.  Only I ran in to a few, um, issues.

--I don't have a whisk attachment for my mixer.  Hmmmm....ok.  I just beat it a little faster.

problem solved

--I was about 4 ounces shy of a pound of powdered sugar.  Hmmmm...ok.  I'll just adjust the recipe.

problem solved

--The meriguine powder and the water weren't forming "soft peaks" while mixing on medium speed.  Hmmmm....ok.  I'll just turn up the mixer.

problem solved

--The icing was too thick.  Hmmm...ok.  I'll just thin it out a little with some extra water.

problem solved

I finally got the right consistincy and was able, albeit messily, to fill up the squeeze bottle with the white icing and the two disposable bags (fitted with the proper tips) with white icing tinted red and blue.  I set to work.

The squeeze bottle was sticking when I tried to outline a circle on the cookies.  I'm still not sure what was the problem since, a little later on, it decided to unstick.  FAST.  ALL OVER ONE COOKIE.  The bag holding the red icing decided to split where it met the coupler (that was holding the tip).  Red icing was everywhere.

Please try to imagine just how sticky this royal icing stuff is.  And sweeter than anything you can imagine.  I spent about half an hour mopping my little kitchen when I was done to try to prevent an onslaught of ants.  Blech!

About an hour, and a great deal of patience later, I ended up with these:

And this:

And I have decided that, if it begins with Martha and ends with Stewart, I want nothing to do with it.

Ugh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA !!!!!

My kind of math....

Those who know me know how much I despise, loathe, abhor, math. Especially the kind of math that mixes letters and numbers. That is just five million different kinds of wrong. Here, for your viewing, but alas, not for your smelling pleasure, is the kind of math that I do enjoy.

These:

+ this:
= this:

Yum.

And this concludes our math lesson from today.

Question: If you and a friend are going to cheat on a TAKE HOME TEST, don't you think you should, oh, I don't know, make sure your answers aren't EXACTLY THE SAME?!?! Duh!

My day (what a boring title!)

So.....what did I do today?

Well, I did not stay home today! Whoo-hoo! My roommate and I went out today. Yes, melicity, there is an outside world!! :) We went to go see the new movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightning Thief. It was a pretty good movie. I've never read the book and I'm kind of glad. You know how it goes....the book is usually way better than the movie. I didn't have anything to judge the movie against, so no reason to be disappointed. The effects were pretty good. Not Avatar worthy, but still not bad.

After the movie we went to Panera to eat. I love me some Panera! I had the new veggie soup w/pesto and a turkey sammie. Very yummy indeed and good company. :)

After we got home and I took miss raven out I set to baking. I made sugar-free chocolate chip cookies and sugar-free banana bread. (Note to BFF: If you want some, you must come get it for yourself. The delivery truck can't make it that far right now!) The house smelled SO GOOD!!!! After dinner I had a piece of the banana bread (the bread butt--hehehehe). I cut it in half and put peanut butter on one half and chocolate/caramel spread on the other half. pure bliss. Excuse me while I clean the drool off the keyboard. I'm sorry you can't smell these through the computer. I'll wait while you clean the drool off of your own keyboard........

Back now? ;)

I am getting ready to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the winter Olympics. I {heart} the Olympics. I can't even choose between the summer and the winter because they both have their great events. Watching Michael Phelps in the last summer Olympics was incredible. I also love watching the diving and gymnastics. In the winter there is the luge (sad, sad, sad about the olympian from Georgia that died today! :( ), the bobsled, ice skating, speed skating, snowboarding, skiiing, skeleton, and many others. I am SO excited about the Olympics. And, I'm not the only one, am I, BFF?!?!? :)

miss raven doesn't care about the Olympics. As I type she is sleeping (imagine that!) under the blankets (NO, I didn't make my bed...again!), at my feet. She was sweet enough to pose for some pictures today, though. Here is my favorite:

I love her SO much!

The games have started! GO USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

SNOW-ver kill

hehehehe.

I wish I could take credit for these witticisms. The fact is, I am just not that clever. "Snowpocalypse", "Snowmageddon", "Snow-ver kill" are just plain funny to me. I mean, I have been trapped inside all week, for all intents and purposes. Things like that start to get to a person. Who wouldn't think those were funny? Oh, who am I kidding?!? I would have thought those were funny whether or not I had cabin fever.

So, we are closed for the rest of the week. That means I don't have to wake up early until NEXT TUESDAY!!!! (please refrain from mentioning that they are calling for yet MORE snow on Monday. If I don't think it, it won't come, right??) I am running out of projects to occupy my time. Ok. That's not entirely true. There is much I could be doing, I just don't want to. Instead I am crocheting, baking, taking pictures, taking naps, and shoveling. Can't forget the shoveling.

This is what I made today:

I can not take credit for any original-ness here. They are a recipe from Amanda at i am baker. I think mine turned out well, though. The chocolate cakesters are double stuff, hence the height difference. They are SUPER easy and were actually a lot of fun. My fingers ended up a little stained from the red food coloring I used, but, heck, it is Valentine's Day, right? Not that I am celebrating or anything.

This is what it looks like outside right now:

well, not right now. Right now it is dark because it is night. That picture was taken this afernoon about three-ish.

I broke down and threw birdseed on the porch today. I can't stand it for the little birdies any more. I feel so bad for them!

Back to working on the BFF's birthday present!! :)