Another busy day

But I'm starting to get back on top of things. I was able to carve out a little sanity time today.

After work, it was errand time. I had to get hat stuff and groceries.

My first hat stop at Michael's Craft Store was pretty successful, they had what I wanted, and part of it I figured out how not to buy. Good thing, since I ended up spending more than I intended. So much for this being a cheap hat. I'm glad I got a break on the base.

My next stop was less successful. I couldn't find my fabric; and that fabric store people were singularly unhelpful. One of the salesladies was reading a magazine as I stood there, obviously in need of help, and the other one was on a personal phone call. I eventually saw everything and left. I don't think they had what I wanted anyway. I may have to resort to Wal-Mart, as much as I hate it. This is the one time a year when Michael and I used to break down and go. Because all is fair in love and hats. And because Wal-Mart has pretty much wiped out the sewing notions market.

While I was in the area, I went to the new Super Bi-Lo in Verdae Marketfair. I have to say it is a beautiful store. And huge. But the bigness seems to translate into carrying many more of the same items they have in their other stores. They still don't have a lot of the things I buy every week. Fortunately, they had what I wanted last night, for the most part.

By the time I got home, I collapsed. I have to bake a pie tomorrow night for BB. I also hope to buy hat fabric before the weekend, so I can get right to work on Saturday.

Busy, busy day

It was the last day of the month at work. I processed the write-offs, processed new clients (since they were trying to get them off their desk for month end), and called on my other clients.

When I got off work, my stomach was still all torn up, and I was craving some peace. I decided to go to the library.

They had an exhibit at the library on the 150 most prominent architectural buildings in the United States. They had pictures of each, and captions of interesting facts about each building. It was a great exhibit, and very relaxing. By the time I left, I felt almost human again. I also got some more books, since I was almost out. I'm on my latest Charlaine Harris right now, Club Dead, but I generally tear through hers pretty fast.

I talked to Dan a bit before bed on the computer. He is such a nice guy.

Recovery Time

I ran through the flea market today, but no one was there. The weather was overcast and windy, which made it cold.

Today I just hung around the house and caught up, since I did almost nothing around here last week. I cooked a big pot of green beans with red potatoes and onions, did laundry, changed the sheets, etc. I cooked some sweet potatoes I bought to make BB a pie. That was the only things she asked me for was one of my sweet potato pies. I’ll have to take her one this week.

But I am just plain ole worn out. My stomach is all torn up too, I think from all those strawberries last night. The only thing I left the house for today was to go to CVS to pick up a prescription.

Next week, I have to start work on my hat. There is only one weekend before the Hat Party. I was lucky enough to find the base for my hat at the flea market yesterday, so next week I get the rest of the stuff. The yard is all growing back in, so it will need some attention soon. It’s going to be a busy week.

Dana's surprise party!

The Cake

I went to the flea market this morning for a quick run through, and found another cobalt Moderntone plate like the one I found the other week. It is so strange how you find one piece of something, and then start seeing it frequently, even if you have never seen one before. I also bought a pink plate that I can't identify. It's a swirl pattern, and per Gene Florence, a lot of the swirl patterns haven't been idenitifed because there were so many of them put out by obscure little glass companies that are long gone. I saw another 3-legged bowl like the one I bought thinking it was Windsor, but in a vile color that would have been a dead give-away if I had noticed it before.

After doing a few things at the house, it was time to head to Russ and Billy's house to get ready for the party. Billy had kindly offered for me to finish icing the cake there, so I wouldn't have to transport it already decorated. That was GREAT, but then I had to pack up all the icing ingredients, and make sure I had them all, plus my kitchen utensils I had to have, etc. Billy has a great kitchen, but I needed a few familiar pieces to work with. I decided to use my Depression Glass for the service too, so all that had to be taken out and packed up for transport. I also used the Columbia plate for the cake, since I bought it at the flea market when I went with Miss Kat and dana. Now it has another memory of them for me. :)

After stops for wrapping for the present, for a card, for extra butter I forgot, and to pick up lunch, I got to their house and set up.

First, I made the cherry butter cream for between the layers. A traditional butter cream, flavored with cherry juice and Kirschwasser (a German cherry brandy). I adapted the recipe from a Black Forest Cake recipe. After painting the cake layers with a mixture of butter, a bit of Kirschwasser, and powdered sugar, I spread on the cherry butter cream, which I topped with sliced tinned black cherries.

Then it was time to make the outer icing. My charge was to make a "light, whipped" icing for the top layer, but it was supposed to be coconut as well. The problem is that most light whipped icings don't have tons of holding power, unless they are full of shortening. My idea was to combine Cool Whip and marshmallow cream to get what I wanted. I had eaten cupcakes with marshmallow cream on them before and they were great. It would have the lightness of whipped cream (plus Cool Whip doesn't deflate), plus the hold of the marshmallow. In theory, it sounded great. The problem was, I tried adding some powdered sugar to the mix, to stiffen it up to hold the coconut. As soon as the sugar went in, the whole thing turned to liquid. The sugar pulled the water out of the Cool Whip (which is just sugar, air, oil, and water, suspended in a petroleum wax emulsifier). I had a marshmallow puddle that wouldn't have stayed on the cake by itself, much less hold coconut. Adding more sugar just made it sweeter. Adding cornstarch had no effect.

So I just had to start all over again. I dumped the marshmallow drool into a container, stuck it in the freezer (I already know what I’m going to do with it for the campout), cleaned the mixer, and started all over again. I just made a butter cream icing, and whipped in the leftover marshmallow cream to try to lighten it up, and then mixed in the coconut. It wasn’t really all that light – I was upset because the results weren’t what I wanted. But it did make an icing that would cover the cake without running off.

The cake was good. I think it would have been better if the cherries hadn’t been so sweet. In retrospect, I would have used cherry pie filling (gussied up) in between the layers, but I was trying to use the best, and the Black Forest Cake recipe specifically called for Bing Cherries. I would also have done an easier (but really bad for you) lard-based icing for the outside, which would have whipped up to be closer to what they wanted. But once again, I was trying to do something better. For the first time making something like that though, and pretty much flying by the seat of my pants, it was pretty good.

Russ and Billy, in addition to hosting, donated lovely decorations of balloons, and a banner to go over the table. When Nicole got there with the other decorations, the table looked really good, I have to say.

dana was totally surprised, you could tell. She was stunned to silence when she walked in, and just stood and stared.

she seemed to really like the gifts she got, and it did seem that people knew her well enough to get her things she really liked. she gave a very touching little speech after she opened the presents – which told me just how deeply she was moved. dana is generally a person of few words (of course, comparatively, most people seem taciturn around me), and though she has no problems asserting herself if need be, she is not the type of person to make herself the center of attention. The things she said were really sweet, and obviously from the heart.

There was play space available, but only Miss Kat and dana took advantage of it. They really needed the time together, you could tell. The headspace was just radiating off of them when they were together. It was very moving to be near them.

Of course there was much conversation and laughter, and it was a really nice party. I had a great time, and I think the others did as well.

The margaritas were delicious, and well worth the time I spent turning fresh strawberries into margarita mix. I mixed them a bit strong though, and I think that may be why the party broke up kind of early for a LOCK people thing. I was home in bed by 12:30.

Nicole and Lori helped me with the party, and I was really glad for their help – particularly when it came time to clean up and they just jumped in there with Billy. After the week before of work and worry, and then the party itself, I was whooped.

C-Day

Well today was cake baking day.

I actually ended up with plenty of time to chill before I baked.

I got an email today from a guy I used to know back in the bar days. It was really good to hear from him, and we started getting caught up on what we had been doing, etc. He is a nice guy, and an attractive one, and he seemed to be intersted in me. All good. I ended up inviting him over for a while tonight, just to talk and see where things went.

We did talk, for several hours. He is a talker too, so there was lots to say. We sat on the porch for a while, since the weather was nice. But as the evening went on, I started to get the feeling that this guy was pretty ego-centric. This idea was kind of finished off when he informed me that sexual practices which require the removal of his rings were just too much trouble. And I'm sitting there thinking "Yeah, you're a giver."

So I said good night, and sent him home.

Then I started baking. I had arleady partaken of a couple of glasses of wine at that point, so I was pretty relaxed. The cake went together surprisingly well, despite my panic when I broke a yolk separating the eggs, and had to use two cold eggs out of the fridge. I just put the bowl with the whites into a warm water bath until I was ready for them, and they were fine. Then I whipped the whites too soon - I had forgotten to pre-heat the oven. But I beat them a bit more afterwards, and they went in fine. And my cakes did not fall.

I am INCREDIBLY relieved. I could have done the rounds of the bakeries for Italian Cream Cake layers (the icing will not be the traditional icing), but that would have felt like cheating.

I should sleep like a baby tonight.

Back to Russ and Billy's

I had forgotten to get an extra cake pan from Billy, since this recipe calls for 3. Fortunately, Billy had three that matched, so I just borrowed all three. Also picked up the coconut that they were giving me. It's not on Weight Watchers, so he said they wouldn't use it.

I also went shopping for the cake stuff.

I am really nervous about making this cake. It will be by far the most elaborate thing I have ever made. I am no baker, and this cake is leavened primarily by beaten egg whites. I just know it's going to fall.

I was talking to Mom tonight on the phone. I had to call in the expert because I was at the store without my recipe and needed to double-check on the nuts. I also wanted to make sure the coconut would be OK, and that I didn't need to buy fresh. I found out that, contrary to my belief, Mom hasn't actually made this cake before. It is from a book she says is good though. I was thinking I was using a vetted recipe, so there was no need for a trial run. Looks like I'm going to just be nipples to the wind tomorrow though... It is so good to have a mom to call when I'm in over my head. She knows me so well too. She said "You better have a glass of wine or something and sit down for a while before you start baking - you know you can't bake when you're stressed. Your cakes fall when you try it." Which is absolutely true.

So I put a bottle of wine in the fridge for tomorrow when I got home.

More party prep

Did some shopping for the party tonight, and got most of the rest of the food. Talked to Billy and took the food and strawberry mix over there, since I figured that would be one less thing to worry about on Saturday. On the way, I stopped and got the special mints from Capri's. They are chocoloate and candy coated butter mints, and they are fab. Unfortunately, they were also $5 bucks a pound (!!), but I couldn't really say anything because I had practically begged the restaurant to sell them to me. I couldn't find them anywhere else.

I ended up hanging out with Billy most of the evening. Russ was late getting in. When he got there, we had dinner. It was nice just to hang out at their place. Haven't done that in a while.