Cake Popped Off

I don't know why I do this to myself.  

I used to think I was a crafty kind of girl ~ and I don't mean a weasel ~ I mean,  I thought I could make stuff. 

But then I go and try to make something cutesy for the house...cause I've been inspired by all the amazin stuff Viv & Jen Jen & Shawn & ok....everyone....can make.  

And once again, I fail...miserably.  I don't know why I even think I can do it.  I mean, look at my latest mess.....

Anyone else been inspired by this woman???

Bakerella....ah how I love your cake pops!!! I think they are precious and adorable and I always promised myself I would try to make them......

And then I received the Cake Pops book from a dear friend.  I spent weeks reading the "how tos" and built up courage to make them myself.

So I finally did it.  $50 in supplies and 3 stores later, here we go!!

Bake the cake, cool it, then tear it apart.

got it. easy.

3/4 a can of frosting.

don't forget to clip the Box Tops for your favorite school!

mix it together - not very yummy looking.

 and then roll them into balls - but make sure you have atleast 48- panic a little while you are doing it that you might not have 48, so pinch a few balls down to size - there you go - 

messy hands and 48 cake balls

 now one of the pains for me was finding styrofoam that could hold 48 cake pops.

I had to go to 3 stores to get enough that was thick enough to hold them

And even 3 rows was too much for one block - argh!

 So after chilling (not freezing) the cake balls, the actually dipping was easy.

But why do they look all misshapen?  Bakerellas are all perfectly round.....

I took 30 minutes to make each tiny bow for the heads of these girls....

4 1/2 hours later and here is my finished product.

hmmm.

not so pretty.

especially when they should have looked like this:

What went wrong?

1. It took too long - It was exhausting!!

2. my edible markers would not write on the frosting well.

3. It took too long- I had laundry to fold that day!!

4. I managed to "overload" one side of the styrofoam block too much and the whole thing tipped over when they had just been dipped.

4. It took too long - I have a baby!!!

5. The noses were all pointy, not perfect dots like "she" can make.

6.  It took too stinkin' long.

So, how did I fix the 47 other cake balls to make them ready for the shower the next day?

I melted down some white wafers, added blue tint, turn the pops upside down and drizzled away!!

At this point, I am pretty sure the crafting Gods are against me.  I'm done - don't come waving your adorable homemade Easter eggs at me any more (you know who I'm talking to!!).

I will buy it from now on.

Spoons are Messy Y'all

My little man has always been a good eater.  Loves to eat anything most anything ok, he's getting a little picky. And lately, he really wants to feed himself - not let momma feed him.  So, when he argued with me to eat his oatmeal by himself, I let him. And then ran to get the camera.....

thanks momma for letting me make a mess!

now, how exactly do I hold this spoon?

ok- got some food...now can I get it to my mouth?

close

almost

let me try upside down

can I have "more" momma?

nevermind...playing is so much more fun than eating...

"all-done"

why the sad face bubba?

don't you know that if you throw your bowl on the ground, you don't get it back??

momma may not like you to do that, but Chief sure does!

Eating Our Way through Austin

We had some guests in the house over the Holidays!!  Aunt Ginger and her fab fiancee' "new Uncle Andy" came to visit for New Years.  As we are a family who likes to eat and Austin has some fantablous (that's a word - look it up) eateries, we decided to eat our way through Austin.

Ok, not really.  It just happened to turn into that.  We started at the LBJ Presidential Library on the UT Campus for a educational and inspiring afternoon.

It just so happened that we were famished when we left.  So we headed over to South Congress Ave (home of the infamous 'Keep Austin Weird') to visit some trailers.  yup.  I said trailers.

Austin has had a rash of food trailers popping up all over the city.  These aren't your ordinary food trailers either - no hamburgers and hot dogs for this haute city.  Our trailers sell gourmet foods like waffles & chicken, chocolate-dipped frozen bananas, homemade pies, brisket tacos, and the one that started it all....cupcakes.

So why not try it all??

 We started at our favorite pizza joint in the city - if it weren't 30 mins from the house, we would be here all the time.  Yummy New York style pizza.  And they happen to have this handy-dandy walk-up window next door to the restaurant and a block away from the trailers - talk about location.

 So the wait is a little long - they make it as you order it...but it's worth it.  And what do most guys do as they wait in line?  Get off your phones guys...what happen to conversing???  Poor Sis.

 But it was worth the wait to bite into a slice of pizza that is bigger than your head!

 Daddy likes it too!  And yes, on Dec. 30, it was warm enough to wear shorts & a t-shirt.  That's why we live in Texas y'all!!

 Aunt G and I decided to try the cones from this little place - not your ordinary cones either....

 Mine had lightly battered chicken & avocado, wrapped in a tortilla with mango slaw and an amazing sauce- YUM!!!

 But poor Brody - nothing for him to eat at the trailers except a basket of french fries. sigh.

 My favorite part has to be the amazing atmosphere - you can sit on benches and people watch all day long.  South Congress Ave. in Austin has some very interesting people!!!

 We slipped on down to Hey Cupcake! for my favorite cupcakes in Austin (they happen to be the first trailer!!).  All season I wanted to try the Pumpkinator - a pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting - it did not disappoint y'all.

 And we were so close to our favorite candy shop, that we just had to stop in.  Big Top Candy Shop is one of my kids favorites.

 So many amazing candies to choose from.  But they were out of the Elvis Bark - "Elvis had left the building..."  That's ok, someone in our group just had to try the truffles....to die for.

Have I made you sick yet???  No??  It was an awesome day - come on down to Texas - we can certainly feed you well!!

My Kind of Town....the Food!

Now this could only happen to a family like

And only happen in a town like this

So may I say to each of you most gratefully

As I throw each one of you a kiss

This is...

My Kind of Town...Chicago

Mmmmm.  When I travel, I like to make a point of trying the local food.  You know, the stuff the city is "known" for. And Chicago didn't disappoint.  Let's just put it this way... The food in Chicago was Ah-May-Zing.  Starting with this bad boy.  Yes, it's a hot dog, but not just an ordinary hot dog....a Chicago-Style Dog!

Start with an all-beef hot dog and top it with chopped white onions, diced tomatoes, pickled sport peppers, neon green dill relish, a pickle spear, celery salt, and lots of mustard.  And please, NO KETCHUP!!  Ok, ok, I won't put my ketchup on it. Frankly, it didn't need it.  This was DELICIOUS!!!  I was a little scared to try it, but there is so much flavor, that it was heaven each & every bite.  I don't know if it was the atmosphere of the wonderful, sunny, summer day Chicago provided me or if a hot dog with this much stuff on it truly is delicious.  Either way, it was a great experience that I recommend every tourist try at least once.  

While enjoying our time at the Bean, we decided an ice cream would be about perfect.  The place we stopped in advertised the "Famous Chicago Rainbow Cone."  Chicago-famous?  Don't know what I am ordering, but I'm in!!  Oh dear friends, I am weak in the knees thinking about this treat:

Yes, it is possible for all of these flavors together to be DELICIOUS.

 Even my kids were jealous that they didn't order one.  

And another famous snack we just couldn't go without?  Garrett's Popcorn. You know, the stuff that Oprah made famous on her "favorite things" list one year?!  Right off the Magnificent Mile (the amazing shopping mile...), there is a line out the store for this stuff.  

Garrett's popcorn is sinful.  Especially the Chicago Mix - warm, buttery-cheesy popcorn mixed with the sweetest caramel corn you've ever had.  I can truly understand the addiction to crack now that I have had this sinful treat.  (well, no, not really, but you get the metaphor)  It is best to eat it warm, so we stopped in the middle of the street, got our hands all cheesy and enjoyed this worth-every-minute-in-line-snack.  

Dinner?  Anyone hungry for dinner after this?  Of course we saved room for one last famous Chicago meal.....

CHICAGO-STYLE PIZZA!!

Gino's East is my Sis-in-law's favorite, so we made a point of finding the closest one to our hotel.  And thank goodness I asked our concierge about it, he gave us a pass to go to the head of the line when we got there.  See the line in the pic?  Those people had to wait over an hour to get a table.  The Texas Darlings with a pass?  10 minutes.  Uh huh.  We're cool like that.

Absolutely worth the 45 minutes it takes to cook this delectable slice of heaven.

And what did my kid's enjoy MORE than the pizza?  They actually encourage you to write on the walls.  So here is Bubba getting to do something his mama would never let him do it at home.  

And it looked like so much fun, I had to try it to:

There we go.  We were here!

Ah, what a nice little food crawl through Chicago.  Makes me hungry for it all over again!