A Fifth of Therapy » In The Kitchen

New Endeavor

Kimberley — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:17:39 +0000

Hey you guys! Guess what I did? I made another website, just cause I felt one wasn’t enough to neglect. To *really* feel guilty you gotta have TWO.

Anyway, it’s a new thing I’m trying. Just a place to store recipes and talk about cooking junk. Check it out if you want: http://www.shuckbeans.com/

And, I don’t know, you might find something you like. Maybe. Perhaps. I hope.

Good Ol’ Twelve Layer Glaze

Kimberley — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:12:36 +0000

I’m taking a cake decorating class. I never knew how much I didn’t know. I still don’t, but I’m having fun learning. Wilton offers some basic classes through Michael’s Craft Stores and that’s where I’m at. There’s four courses and each course is comprised of four classes. The classes are cheap but where they get ya is the product. They want you to buy all this garbage to learn to decorate. But I already had most of that stuff so they’ll have to make their money somewhere else. I can’t be contributing.

Anyway, you have to bake cakes for homework. Terrible, right? Matt and the boys are hatin’ on it, let me tell you. They’re all like, “OH, alright, if I HAVE to I guess I’ll eat it.”

We could choose between a character cake or this round rainbow thing. I chose the rainbow thing because it would take me about 30 years to pipe all those stars on the teddy bear. Not bad for a first attempt, but I can do better. Fo sho.

Baby, it’s cold outside.

Kimberley — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:48:32 +0000

Not the most original title, but it will have to do.

It’s freakin’ freezing out there. It says it’s 20 degrees outside, but it feels more like negative 20. Our pipes froze this morning but Matt got us fixed up in no time. Take a look at this, would ya?

That’s the view from our front yard. And this is the back:

This is what USED to be my patio:

And this is the exit out my back door. Nice, huh?

The only remedy for this is a nice, hot, steaming bowl of Chicken Tortilla Soup:

and top it off with these tie-dye cupcakes. They’re fun to eat, but a lot of work to make:

When you cut into it, this is what you’ll find:

Cool, huh? I’ll post the recipe later, but for now the kids are eating them all up. I’m on frosting patrol. Kaileb says they’re Tie-Dye-Licious. So, that’s good, right?

I won’t be going anywhere for awhile, not in this weather. So you’ll probably see me here again, with more recipes and complaining. Hooray!

Goober Peas

Kimberley — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:59:13 +0000

A good friend of mine sent me some raw peanuts from Louisiana. You can’t really find them in Seattle. I made some boiled peanuts with them. I have fond memories of growing up in South Carolina, stopping at some mom and pop gas station on the way to the beach and buying a wet, steaming brown paper bag of these for the ride. We ate them like candy. If you’ve never had them, they’re an acquired taste.

I’ve also been baking like a mad woman.

Yummy chocolate chip cookies. My sister-in-law gave me a great tip. If you add a box of vanilla instant pudding mix to your cookie batter it makes the cookies softer longer. I like a crispy cookie occasionally, but nothing beats a soft, warm, ooey gooey choco-chip cookie.

I also made…

These delectable brownies.

Mmmmn! Want some? Too bad. I’m sorry, they were for the neighbors. I gave out tins of them cause we’re new to the neighborhood and I wanted to start out on a good foot. And also I was hoping to buy them off cause Jacob is getting better at the drums and to get better at the drums you have to practice and if you have to practice you’re pretty much going to piss off the whole little cul-de-sac in one go.

I’m being proactive!

Oh, dinner was MY job?

Kimberley — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:11:11 +0000

If you search the web for “what to make for dinner” you’ll find plenty of advice. Plenty of recipes. Plenty of ideas. And plenty of women asking the exact same question. Someone, other than me…someone with actual technical skill and know-how, they should create a dinner generator. Either you press a button and random ideas pop up or you throw in a couple keywords like “chicken” or “potato” or I don’t know… “toenail” and then voila! the generator spits out some delicious ideas. If you don’t like the first one you can just hit the button again until you find something you want.

Go ahead, do it. Google “what should I make for dinner” and you will find a LOT of women (and some men too, I’m sure) struggling with the same question. Universally, the cry seems to be the same: I don’t mind making dinner, I really don’t. Just please, PLEASE for the love of God just tell me what you want.

Cinnamon Fail

Kimberley — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:06:37 +0000

Tonight was oven-baked Ziti with garlic bread and a veggie. It came out better than my attempt at cinnamon bread. Can’t all be winners, I suppose.

They tasted okay, I guess. The trouble I think was with the yeast. I’m not very experienced with it, so it didn’t rise as much as it should have. As a result, they were a little flat. I got the recipe from Joy the Baker, who, in case you didn’t know, rocks the kitchen like Zeppelin rocked the Stairway to Heaven. She does amazing and beautiful stuff. I bet HER bread always rises.

Anyway, I tried. I’ll give it another shot. I’m not one to quit so easily. I’m going to walk away from them for a little while. The recipe is here, on Joy’s site. There you can see how they are SUPPOSED to look.

Ah well, enjoy some photos instead.

The view from my backyard:

The little black specks in this picture happens to be birds. Lots, n lots of birds.

Majestic Mt. Baker:

Not sure what kind of mushroom this is, but it’s adorable! I like it’s little tail thingie.

Junk growing in my yard:

Nooksack Falls, near Mt. Baker:

and, finally, more water from a stream at the foot of Mt. Baker:

That’s all. For now. It’s a beautiful time of year around here for getting some really good photos. I just hope they haven’t slowed the site down to a crawl in terms of loading.