Archive for October, 2007

best costume: Dumbo

Published by kindli on October 31, 2007 in fun and townhouse. 1 Comment

Spiderman, Tigger, a ninja (?), several Princesses, Dumbo, and a few assorted others came to visit us this evening.

In keeping with good Halloween Etiquette we left our light on to signal that we had candy; I also kept the light on in the entry way so everyone could see everyone clearly as candy changed hands.

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I got the impression the little ones had been driven as a group and were trick-or-treating together. They showed up with in five minutes of each other, all dutifully accompanied by their mothers.

By far the cutest costume was Dumbo, it was worn by a young person who was still slightly unstable on their feet. It had a little stuffed stomach, ears and a little mouse and feather in the hat. When prompted by the mother to “say Thank you” the child promptly chimed “You’re welcome.”

A little later in the evening we had some unaccompanied trick-or-treaters, probably in their late tweens/early teens, one had a ‘fro and tried to look like a hippy, the other two dressed in black, one had a skeletal mask, the other a ghastly attempt at ghostly makeup.

They were not cute, or polite. If you’re going to push the age-appropriate envelope for asking for free candy, try and do both.

I turned our lights off at 8:20 pm. By then the young trick-or-treaters are usually back home, and the older ones should be going home.

mutant vampire jack-o-lantern cookies

Published by kindli on October 30, 2007 in cooking and fun. 1 Comment

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In celebration of Halloween (and mostly because I could) I made pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies. I then iced them in orange, added little cute green swirly stems, triangular black eyes, and a rather unique looking attempt at jack-o-lantern mouths.

I am not pleased with the black gel icing, eventually I may try making my own buttercream icing so I have more control over the consistency. Then I’ll need to dig out my icing bags, tips, decorating guide, and practice my piping skills.

24-hour kitchen round up

Published by kindli on October 29, 2007 in cooking. 0 Comments

On Sunday while Gavin played computer games upstairs, I watched Pirates of the Caribbean and made some amazingly good Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

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For dinner we had Savory Chicken Crecents (recipe on our recipe page). They were really simple to make, tasted fantastic, and looked complicated. They were great for dinner, but did not microwave particularly well for lunch today.

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Today I decided to make Caramel Apples. I used my double boiler (that was fun to clean) instead of the microwave method. Later I might dip them in chocolate and roll them in pecans, I still haven’t decided.

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The Sebastopol Quartet

Published by kindli on October 29, 2007 in California, adventures and townhouse. 1 Comment

Many people have heard of the Bremen Stadtmusikanten (made famous by the Grimm Brothers), fewer however, have heard of Sebastopol’s famous Musical quartet.

In Bremen the there was a Donkey, in Sebastopol we have a fire engine. The rest of the ensemble is true to the original story, the dog, the cat (or in our case cats), and a rooster (yes a rooster).

Last night the Dog felt the need to howl until well into the night, the Cats (yes plural) decided to fight (or mate?), and the last few mornings the Rooster decided to wake us up by spasmodically going off.

While the Sebastopol the Quartet only did a series of solo pieces, they still gave us plenty to listen to.

cheesy fries in the little megaphone

Published by kindli on October 27, 2007 in family, friends, fun and townhouse. 0 Comments

In an odd fit of baseball nostalgia, this evening I felt compelled to watch the Boston Red Socks play the Colorado Rockies. I also felt compelled to finally bake the no-egg, no-dairy, no-nut sticky buns that I made a few days ago from the recipe Nick sent me (they’ve been sitting in our fridge waiting to see some action).

What better combination than baseball and fresh hot sticky buns?

Baseball, cheesy fries in the little megaphone, and the largest container Coke (and by “coke” I mean dr. pepper) they sell at the concession stands… but I’m not at the Dome.

Baseball is one of those games that is much better in person. I never actually saw the Red Socks play, but I’ve seen many Astros games (I’d go with Jane and Michelle).

One of my favorite parts of baseball (and most organized sports) is the fans. At the Dome there was the little man with the trumpet and he’d blast away loudly when the Astros had a home-run. He was in the really-awful seats, and I didn’t see/hear him at Minute Maid Park (formerly Enron Field), after all, who needs a trumpet when you have a little train?

Gavin would like to point out: “The humidity of the ball has more to do with the home runs hit than the skill of any players… that’s not a sport… of course now I’m going to watch it” he sat down in his Harvard chair and slurped oatmeal. “Want to watch a movie?”

I think the third inning just started. Clearly we don’t have the attention span necessary for TV baseball. Then again, I could be wrong.

“Oh, the Rockies are going to loose now,” Gavin declared with confidence, “because as good as the Rockies are, I don’t think that the Rockies can pull a Red Socks, not against the Red Socks…” he then launched into an analysis of the Red Socks and the Yankees. “Six to nothing…” followed by more baseball commentary.

I should have figured he knew about baseball.

Update: Gavin commandeered the computer for a little while and uploaded scores onto Wikipedia. Apprently it made him “feel like a reporter” and “lots of people will see!” After a while he lost intrest and read comic books (and I got the computer back).

Sticky bun update: they probably would’ve been better if they hadn’t been sitting unbaked in our fridge for nearly a week, which is interesting because the usual pecan-loaded buns I make last OK unbaked in the fridge.

Punky Puppy

Published by kindli on October 24, 2007 in adventures and hobby. 1 Comment

The pattern for this creature is “Lucky Dog” but after seeing the end result I felt “Disastrous Dog” or “Punky Puppy” would be more appropriate.

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The ears and face turned out mostly OK.
“It has no arms,” Gavin pointed out.

Don’t look too closely at its head, my results prompted Gavin to suggest that I needed better fabric. I tend to agree, his old bathrobe isn’t the greatest source of material, but I’m pretty sure my hand stitching isn’t the best either.

Faux Webs are Overrated

Published by kindli on October 24, 2007 in California, adventures and townhouse. 0 Comments

I see no reason to spend money on fake spider webs this Halloween, we have enough real spiders living around the outside of our townhouse.

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This one is just outside our front door, it stretches impressively from the roof to the bushes and off into the blue. I guess the location is good, if it wasn’t the spider wouldn’t be living there, or living so large.

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A closer shot of the spider reveals it is just as large (if not larger) than the fake plastic spider rings you can find in bags of faux web. I’m not a huge fan of spiders, but I am quite glad this one has spun its web where I can’t walk into it.

Bats are Cool

Published by kindli on October 24, 2007 in cooking. 0 Comments

There is something inherently domestic feeling about icing bat-shaped sugar cookies while watching Martha Stewart talk about how to make creepy Halloween decorations.

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I found the recipe on Baking Bites (one of many sites I’ve come across recently). I was most thrilled by the recipe because it didn’t require any vanilla (yesterday I ran out while I was making more brownies).

The recipe is for Candy-Corn Cookies, but it can be rolled and cookie-cutterd into what ever you’d prefer. The dough warms up quickly and becomes less cooperative the more it is worked with. I learned this the hard way and had to re-freeze a lump of it.

I did not use the egg yolk icing suggestion (I’m wary of raw egg), instead I used the same powdered sugar-OJ icing I used for the Amplemanchen. To get black, first I made a dark purple with blue and red, then I added green. The eyes and mouth are store-bought mini-tubes… I know, I could’ve made my own butter cream, but I wasn’t in the mood.

Bats are cool.

Bathrobebot (of doom)

Published by kindli on October 23, 2007 in adventures and hobby. 0 Comments

My newest sewing adventure was the Bathrobebot, a little robot made from Gavin’s old bathrobe.

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Gavin watched me stab away with the needle. “You need a sewing machine?”
“This pattern recommends one, yes.”
“Just don’t try anything difficult, I don’t want to get home and find you all tangled up.”

I think he means the tea dress under the stairs.

My first robot attempt looks almost nothing like the picture in the book. That’s OK, it is my first try. I can keep trying, eventually it’ll get better looking (I hope).

eat/don’t eat

Published by kindli on October 22, 2007 in cooking. 0 Comments

Ampelmanchen started as the walk/don’t walk men at cross walks, and have turned into the pop-culture phenomenon from East Germany.

The over simplified version: after the Wall fell the general attitude was life in the West was better, and so all things from the East (Communism) had to go. After awhile, the East Germans put their foot down, after all, there really isn’t a need to change the little stop/go ped-xing signs (and they’re really cute).

Instead of getting rid of them, some Capitalists capitalized on the idea and now the Ampelmanchen of the former Communist East now have massive stores in Berlin, are on t-shirts, postcards, bags, purses, cookie cutters and have been further stylized into women, and animals.

The Ampelmanchen of East Berlin have also remained at intersections where there are pedestrian crossings.

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A few years ago when I visited Berlin on my first Austria/Germany Abroad (‘02) I picked up some Ampelmanchen cookie cutters. Every now and then, I feel inspired to take them out and use them. I’m still looking for a good sugar cookie recipe to use when I make them.

I went to Martha Stewart’s website and she has about 20 kinds of sugar cookies. I picked one that looked somewhat promising. The first batch turned out crispy, 1/8 inch was a little too thin, the following batches were a little thicker and turned out well.

After they had sufficiently cooled I iced them with a mix of 1 table spoon OJ and 1/2 cup powdered sugar with fun food colors. It takes some practice to get the consistency right, and sometimes I have to add a little more powdered sugar and whisk more.

The Gavin Rating: Really Good