Our Adventure to Powell's

Powell's City of Books is my absolute favorite place in Portland. I'd been having a hard time tracking down a copy of our next book club book -- Girl of the Limberlost -- so I got to make a trip downtown to visit Powell's. Plus, I've been really excited to take Simon with me. So what better day than Thursday (or "Mommy Day" as I like to call it) to do it? And of course I had to document this monumental occasion!

Simon was so anxious to leave...

And he was the hit of the trainride down! He just kept making this low "uuuuhhhh" noise. I think he liked how the vibrations make his voice sound. He does it in the car too.

Once we arrived we made our way to the children's section.

Might I say that Powell's is kind of a pain to navigate with a stroller. There's just so many stairs that the only way you can get around is to take the elevator and the elevators are so slow there! But it's really a moot point because, let's face it, YOU'RE AT POWELL'S!!!!
By the time we left, Simon was pretty tired out...

Overall it was a successful trip! I stayed within my budget and got a a few books for Simon, a few books for me, and found a new author for Tony. Here's the haul:

And I finally got one of these too...

My Favorite Photography Subject...

I took a few photography classes back in college and found that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I worked with film back then and now I primarily use a digital camera and an excellent photo editing website called picnik.
So...here are some of my photos of my favorite subject: Simon, of course!
The raw image... (1 month old)

The edited one...

The raw image... (3 months)

The edited one...

The raw image... (Just shy of 4 months)

The edited one...

The Spaghetti Cake..

Yes...I know. Post #2 is yet another cake but I'd been dying to try this one out ever since I first saw a picture in my stumblings across the web. I give you: Spaghetti and Meatballs...Cake Style!

I started by baking a 9 inch round cake in two layers. Chocolate, of course!

Just fill and stack. I put the cake on a big, rounded dinner plate and kind of carved a little divot into the top so the meatballs could nestle in a little.

Next, I applied a thin layer of frosting. No need to worry about it being "crumb free" since you'll be covering it with a bunch of piped noodles.


Using a pastry bag and #5 tip -- it's a round, writing tip -- I piped tons and tons of "noodles" across the cake. I built up the edges and sides more than the middle.



I made my meatballs out of fondant. I had some leftover from a previous cake so I turned it brown using Wilton coloring -- a lot of brown and a little black. After they were a satisfactory color I rolled them into little lumpy balls. Then arrange them on top of the cake. (Sorry the 1st image is so bright!)


The original directions said to use truffles for the meatballs. I didn't have any chocolate so I just used fondant.

Now for the sauce... I combined some strawberry jelly with a bit of blackberry jelly and heated it up in the microwave for about a minute so it would pour/spread easily. I then spooned it on top of and between the meatballs. You mostly just want to cover the middle of the cake. so that the finished product looks like this...



I took it to a family dinner on Labor Day... My relative got a kick out of it and I had a blast making it!

The Burrito That Started It All...

I was inspired to start a new blog after creating this...
My department at work recently had a "Fiesta Style" birthday potluck and, as usual, I volunteered to bring cake. I didn't have just any cake in mind... I wanted a fiesta inspired cake. Thus the "Burrito Cake" was born.
I attempted to make it a jelly roll cake to begin with but my practice cake was a huge fail! (It split in about 8 different places when I tried to unroll it in order to add the filling.) So I used a cookie sheet as my cake pan, split it into thirds, then stacked and carved it to give a rounded look to the cake. Instead of just using plain old frosting I covered the cake in fondant. (I tinted the fondant using a little yellow and brown Wilton cake decorating coloring. Tortillas aren't stark white!) After covering the cake I made a crescent of sort and attached it as the "seam" of the burrito.
The final touches are "salsa" -- strawberry jelly -- and "sour cream" -- extra frosting. If you attempt to make this, it's a good idea to garnish your burrito right before serving it... The jelly and frosting didn't want to stay on top during transport.