Dr. Seuss in Clay and Cake

I'm much more of a Dr Seuss fan than I use to be. (Aside from the classic Grinch Christmas special. I've always loved that.) When I was younger, I really didn't have much exposure to his books. I mostly just remember a big stack of them at the doctor's office and reading "Green Eggs and Ham" there. To be honest, I wasn't super fond of it. I just never liked books that repeated lines over and over again like that. And I hate to admit it but all those silly made up Seuss-words kind of irked me when I was a kid. (Which doesn't make any sense at all. I was a weirdo. :P)

The Grinch's leg broke off  :(

Steve, on the other hand, has always been a big Dr. Seuss fan.  He also happens to be fantastic at reading his books aloud.  The summer before we were dating, I sat on my porch swing one warm night and listened to Steve read me "The Lorax" over the phone, and ever since then I've realized just how lovely "those silly made up Seuss-words" are. :) 

So, for a late V-Day/early 1.5 year anniversary gift, I decided to try my first attempt at modeling clay.  (Yeah, I know. It's not edible.  But hang in there! I'm tossing a cake in at the end of this. :P)  I figured if anything, it would be good practice for fondant figures.   Overall, it was a really time consuming fun project, and a neat gift.  The Lorax seemed to approve of his miniature-self as well.  Grinch, on the other hand, just looked as devious as always :P.

As far as cake goes, I figured I'd post my first fondant cake, which  I made for Steve's birthday last summer.  It's subject-related obviously, but also, I'm desperately searching for the best fondant recipe out there.  The batch I made for this cake came from the funkiest fondant recipe I've every seen.  It even had a small amount of glycerin in it. (At the time, I didn't realize how strange that was.)  Since then I've tried simpler recipes and marshmallow fondant, and I've yet to be satisfied.  Then again, I've had professionally made cakes with fondant, and I still think the stuff is unappetizing..  Either way, if you have a good fondant recipe, drop it this way.

  On a quick side note, I've been adding a few things to the blog.  I've had it set so you don't need a Blogger account to comment for awhile, but now you can subscribe via email by using the box to the right of my posts. (Or find the button for subscribing through my RSS feed if that floats your boat instead.)  Also, if you use Stumble Upon, it would be just awesome if you could click on the Stumble Upon badge, or even click the link to share any posts on Facebook.  See, lots of fancy stuff here. :P

Alright, I'm done shamelessly self-promoting now.  Toodles! ;)

<3 Rachel

"Gingerbreads" and Sugar Cookies

My mom's never been much of a cook.  I mean, dinner's always good when she does make it, but cooking just isn't something she's ever enjoyed very much.  Because of this, I've probably had more than my fair share of Mac and Cheese and PB&Js over the years.  But for as much as my mother dislikes cooking, she makes up for it in baking.  I didn't even realize (until I started writing this entry) all the countless times I've come home to a full cookie jar or Oreo brownies in the fridge.

Now that it's Christmas time, Mom's gone a bit cookie crazy.  The freezer's jam packed with Thumbprint Cookies, Oreo Balls,  and Chocolate Chips.  And after tonight, some decorated sugar cookies and gingerbread men are occupying the fridge as well.

Somewhere within the last week or so of extremely stressful Christmas preparations, I missed out on the actual baking of the two types of cookies.   I'm serious, this year has just about turned me into a Grinch.  Being absolutely broke and trying to Christmas shop had me super worn out a few days ago, and even though I had a good time at  Secret Santa party the other night, the world's just got me down.

But today's been nice. Thank goodness.

Steve and I woke up at 4pm today after arriving home late from the Secret Santa party last night.  Sometimes I really hate sleeping in forever, but today it was just relaxing.  In contrast, the last-minute-shoppers traffic was soo crazy by the mall when I dropped Steve off at his car.   I'm surprised it didn't make me berserk. (Okay, so it didn't a little.)  Maybe I was just happy I wasn't actually shopping in all that craziness, who knows, but I was in a pretty darn good mood.

And not long after getting home again, it was time to decorate cookies! :)

These cookies were more for fun than showmanship, but some of them turned out kind of neat.  I divided up our frosting into four colors, which were "the best looking colors we've ever had" as Mom stated several times. :P  Besides that, it was mostly just splashing on sprinkles (and the occasional raisin.)

The cookies got rather time consuming and the initial thrill of them wore off quickly.  So we beckoned my brother John and two of his buddies to come in for Operation Cookie Overlord, and we finished them up a few minutes later.  (On a side note, Operation Cookie Overlord was nowhere near as epic as it sounds.)

The rest of my night so far has been good as well. I  drew a Christmas present for my dad and watched a rather Christmasy episode of Conan.  And since my sleep schedule is all out of whack (just regular kind ;P)  who knows how late I'll be up.

Anywho, I hope everybody has a super awesome fantabulous Christmas!

TTFN!

<3 Rachel