Ode to Fondant

I have always wanted to try fondant, but was completely intimadated. I am slightly addicted to cake decorating shows and I am completely amazed at the power of fondant. Me, being me decided to attempt using fondant on Molly's 3 tier birthday party cake, nothing like starting big.

First, I discovered a great blog with awesome cakes: http://blog.pinkcakebox.com/ This is where I found the inspiration for this orange/fushia/lime creation. Then a quick trip to Michael's Crafts, I bought a box of white fondant, and a few other tools including small cookie cutters, paste food coloring, pink wire and a $8 piece of plastic called a fondant smoother. I know what I want this cake to look like, I hope I can make it happen.

I baked the actual cake : 12 inch round, 9 inch round and 6 inch round, Molly wanted chocolate pound with oreo filling and buttercream icing. After I dirty iced, (I feel like Cake Boss or Ace of Cakes) I let the cakes sit for a few hours.

Now its fondant time, I divided the fondant into 3 parts and colored them pink, orange and lime, it was easy just like play-dough for grown ups. The hardest part was rolling the fondant thin and covering each layer smoothly, and it wasn't really that hard. Now, I am not saying that this cake didn't have his share of wrinkles and holes but everything was fixable. After stacking the tiers and inserting dowels, the fun begins. We cut different color stripes, pok-a-dots, stars and diamonds and literally "glued" them to the cake. How do you glue shapes to a cake? VODKA, it actually works.

After a few hours, the cake looked really good, I was actually surprised how well it turnded out. The kitchen was another story, all I could see was food color stained counters, powdered sugar every where and of course an open bottle of vodka. Oh well, alls well that ends well.

We say Good-Bye to the Beach

It is with sadness that I type these words, our vacation is over. In looking back on our week, I think it was one of our best vacations ever. We often vacation with good friends or extended family and have always had good times and lots of great memories; however, this year it was just the 6 of us. It was so nice, different, quiet but really great. My kids only had each other, and guess what, they actually like each other. The house only had 1 TV (in our family that is a hardship) and it forced us to gather together, make decisions together and I think we are stronger for it. (Although, I now know way too much about the Kardashians, Phinnias & Ferb and the Wizards of Waverly place, I guess you have to take the good with the bad.)

Friday was the perfect day, we spent the entire day on the beach. I filled the big cooler with drinks, snacks and sandwiches and off we went. The water was warm, I was even in the water. There was a moment; all my family splashing in the waves, laughing in the sun, when I knew that life does not get any better than this.

Well, back to reality, looking forward to:
*moving Jamie back to college
*getting both girls ready for cheer camp
*motivating the kids to finish summer workbooks and reading assignments
*Molly's "friend" birthday party
*getting myself ready to go back to school
*did I mention Ants is working the next 7 days straight

I know everything will get done, I hope with the last 7 days of rest and relaxation, I can get things done with out losing it.

Thanksgiving , Para-Sailing & the Beach

What do Thanksgiving, Para-Sailing and the beach have in common? It perfectly describes our wonderful day. We are still on vacation in Ocean City, NJ and celebrating Thanksgiving dinner, this has become a family tradition that is loved by all.

I started my beach thanksgiving yesterday by giving my beautiful turkey a flavor rub of and let it "marinate" overnight. This morning I made mashed potatoes and cornbread stuffing, I guess it's a good thing the weather was not great. Tom, the turkey, went into my little vacation house oven at 12:00 and then off to para-sailing.

My big kids tried para-sailing last year and loved it. I thought Jake was not old enough and would not let him try; a fact he did not agree with and has not let me forget. So, here we are again, and all 4 are "going up." Ants and I dropped everyone off at the dock and went to the beach to watch the para-sailors fly by. Fly by they sure did, watching my guys being pulled by a speed boat on a 500 foot rope high in the sky over the Atlantic ocean was quite disconcerting. The weather was not great and the water was very choppy, I was so worried that Jake would get sea sick and lose his 2 egg sandwiches he wolfed down earlier. All my worries were for nothing, everyone had a great time, not only was Jake NOT scared he actually fell asleep. Another great vacation memory in the bag. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. It was not a great beach day for most, but I loved it. It was cool, overcast, not at all crowded and no nasty bugs.

Thanksgiving dinner came together nicely, I don't know if it's the salt air or we were just really hungry, but it was the best turkey ever!!! I did make some alterations from my traditional Thanksgiving, instead of regular corn we had jersey corn on the cobb, instead of pumpkin pie we had strawberry short cake and instead of a roaring fire, we had a beach breeze. There was even an Eagles game on TV completing the Thanksgiving feel of our day.

As I look back on this day, I am reminded to be thankful for all the blessings in my life, today and everyday.

Vacation Day 1 - Rough Start with a Smooth Ending

Day 1 of our vacation started out rough, lots of rain and an unplanned trip home to get Jakes luggage. There was nothing I could do about the weather, but I felt bad about missing suitcase, but packing 4 kids into 2 cars and dealing with 3 dogs, something was bound to fall through the cracks. Oh well, things soon got better, the sun came out and Ants made a quick (2 hours each way) trip home and we went to the beach. The waves were great and all of us enjoyed some relaxation.

Dinner was a family favorite, triple stuffed shells. What would you consider the ultimate recipe, a decadent chocolate cake, a succulent lobster or an easy weeknight casserole the entire family loves. My answer is triple stuffed shells.

10 oz pkg frozen spinach, thawed and drained
2 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1 c cooked ham, diced
15 oz container ricotta cheese
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese
1/2 c fresh parsley, minced
1-1/2 t. garlic powder
1-1/2 onion powder
28 oz jar Alfredo sauce (homemade if you have the time)
12 oz jumbo shell pasta, cooked
Garnish: parsley and tomato, chopped

Mix spinach, 1 1/4 cups mozzarella cheese, ham, chicken, ricotta, parmesan cheese, parsley garlic and onion powders together; set aside. Spread 2 cups Alfredo sauce into the bottom of an ungreased 13 x 9 baking pan and one cup in an ungreased 8 x8 baking pan. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of filling into each pasta shell; arrange shells in a single layer on top of Alfredo sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until sauce starts to bubble; sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese over the top. Bake for an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts; garnish with parsley and tomato. Serves 12

Well more later from Ocean City. If life is good then life at the beach is really good.

Stressed about Vacation

We are leaving for a week in Ocean City, NJ on Saturday and this family is not ready. I pride myself on my ability to plan anything, a party, a fund raiser, or a family vacation, but not this year. I don't have any packing done, no meals prepared and frozen, there is no box full of snacks and cereal sitting on the dining room floor. What happened to my list making, my menu planning, my fun schedule????

I know exactly what happened, I worked summer school and it just ended today. It always seems to be such a good idea to work in the summer way back in March, its only 5 hours a day, 4 days a week -- easy breezy. Well, reality check, teaching in a different school than your home school means packing 18 boxes of supplies that we may or may not need, unpacking them and packing them up again. Also, its hot, the school has air conditioning, but we do a lot of outside activities, and it's HOT. I did love seeing the kids during the summer.

Back to my vacation planning, how does this sound:

menu:

triple stuffed shells

bbq chicken and ribs with cornbread

mexician night

thanksgiving dinner (a shore tradition)

buffalo chicken sandwiches

chicken in a hut (a family favorite)

take out

Fun Family Activies:

smoothies / spa night

game night

movie night

board walk

shopping in Stone Harbor

late night at the beach

Ok, so now I have a plan, I still have a lot of work to do, wash, shopping, packing and of course cleaning (don't we all have to leave an imaculate house when we leave for vacation.)

The most important thing I need to do is remember how lucky I am to be going on vacation with my family, we are all together and we are blessed with the means for a fabulous week at the beach. Life is Good>

Today was Molly's Birthday

Today my youngest daughter, Molly, turned 11 years old. We marked this occasion in the usual way, presents opened first thing in the am (Nintendo DSI was a big hit), some relaxing pool time and a family dinner at Molly's favorite pizza shop. The moment I will remember from this momentous occasion was a fairly small, insignificant but extremely heartfelt by me, my oldest daughter, Abby, helped her sister get ready for her birthday dinner. I was able to witness an actual moment where both my girls were having true sister time, Abby straightened Molly's hair and gave her wardrobe advice. At one point Abby recieved a text asking her to go out and miss her sisters dinner and when I left the desicion to her, she chose family over friends. THATS HUGE, it gave me hope that my family is on the right path.