Cake Show

My friend Ginger is a baker extraordinaire. She is in pastry chef school and makes cakes on the side for friends and family. I have indulged in many of her tasty treats! A couple of weeks ago I tagged along with Ginger to a cake show in Austin. The show features a competition with various categories (culinary student (like Ginger), beginner, intermediate, advanced, professional, and a tasting competition as well.) There were some amazing cakes there, and I haven't uploaded them all yet, but I will post a few that I have online already.

Shout out to my dad and his two Harley's. ;)

Dr. Seuss Fish - So cute!

One of Ginger's cakes!

Ginger showing off her two medals!

Apparently it runs in the family...

Sister

Brother

Laying on the floor with your dog on you. Phil's side of the family that is. Hopefully Tracy doesn't mind showing her butt to our blog readers. ;) Penny signed the release form.

Oh the places we'll go...

If you have dogs, you've more than likely caught them in funny places. Patton has an obsession with Phil. If Phil leaves for a bike ride, Patton will go check the window multiple times and cry for him. I guess I'm not a good enough companion for him. When Phil studies, Patton will stare at him, and yes, cry for attention. He's very needy. So I wasn't surprised when I walked in on Phil studying and found this: (excuse the shirt off, Phil thinks our house is a nudist colony)

Then a few days later, for some reason he was studying on the dining room floor, and I find this:

I know I'm not the only one living with furry sun worshipers. Our dogs follow the sun across the living room all day long, making sure they are always in the patch of sunlight. Lately it has been nice enough that they will take their sunbathing outside. Patton decided that he would even take it up to our pool floats that are stored on the poolside bench. It caught my attention because poor Dodger was crying, and it took me a few minutes to figure out what he wanted. He wanted up there too, but the leaf basket thing was in his way, and Patton was too. So outside I go to take off the leaf thingy, and get Patton to hop off. Dodger hops up, Patton gets back on, and everyone is happy.

Unhappy Ridgeback

Content

The paparazzi has been spotted through the window

Happy Valentine's to my Valentine

No, Dodger is not my Valentine! But I couldn't resist this picture of him. He says "Be Mine!" to all you ladies out there. I don't say this enough, but I am so very thankful for my sweet husband. A lot of the time we wives focus on what our husbands don't do. So he leaves his breakfast bowl in the sink pretty much every day. Well I also have a pile of shoes to greet you when you walk into our bedroom. But that's not the point of what I'm writing. I am thankful for the little things. How he walks in from work with a smile on his face, so happy to see his wifey as he calls me and his two dogs. How he still brings me flowers every couple of months even after we've been together for TEN years. How we take the dogs on walks together and end up out of breath from laughter over something that happened at work that day. How his health and his family are important to him, and how he will never put work before them. How, despite the previous sentence, he is such a hard worker. For all of these things and many more, I love you Phil!

Finally! Fall apart Pot Roast

I have a love hate relationship with pot roast. I love to eat it, I hate to make it, because for some reason, I've never ever been able to get it to that fall apart tender goodness. I consider myself a decent cook. I cook for us at least 5 nights a week, so I know my way around the kitchen. But for some reason, my poor pot roast has never been good. I blame several attempts on my crappy crock pot. Emily knows what I'm talking about. It's the Smart Pot with the different settings....well for some reason the "low" setting cooks at about 1000 degrees and you end up boiling anything you put in there. I should probably just throw that thing out.

My keys to success this time were buying the right cut of meat, and cooking the roast in the oven in a dutch oven. I used a boneless chuck roast, trimmed of visible fat, seared it over high heat, then laid it over carrots and potatoes in a dutch oven and cooked it on 225 for three hours. I can't bring myself to cook with cream of anything in a can that looks scary and gelatinous, so the only liquid I added was beef broth mixed with lipton's onion soup mix, and a little bit of red cooking wine. I thickened up the liquid with a little cornstarch once the roast was done. You should have seen me in the kitchen when I pulled out the pot. Phil was already in bed, but I think I did a little dance of success at not ruining another $10.00 in meat, and it actually being good! :)

The Anti-Emily and Anti-Liz Meal

This recipe is called Bacon Explosion. It looks and sounds disgusting to me, and I like bacon, and while picky about sausage, I will eat some of that too. Basically, it is a huge mass of sausage, surrounded by bacon, then painted with barbecue sauce and cooked. How gross is that? Don't worry Liz, we won't serve this at your baby shower.

Best week of work ever....NOT

Monday - Layoffs
Tuesday - Ok day
Wednesday....

Oh Wednesday! I get up, dutifully check my work voicemail, office opens at 10:00. Get ready, face the perilous roads, slip and slide on ice, get a call when I'm on Ross from my nice coworker Nick, also out on the perilous roads.....oh, our group decided to work from home today! Did they call us? NO. Did they e-mail us? NO. Am I supposed to be psychic? Apparently that answer is YES. So, I sit here in this office alone, angry, about to run around and scribble X's on the faces of their loved one's pictures. Not Nick's though. He's angry too. Oh, and they changed the opening until 1:00. Apparently you are supposed to keep calling after you get the initial voicemail? Really? Umm, ok. It's like going to back to junior high and calling your friends or the boy you like 5 times in an hour.