Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Barbie-licious!

It never fails, someone in Suburbia is always in need of an emergency doll cake. It's always extra tricky when they "don't like the taste of fondant." I find working with buttercream details to be a bit of a high-wire act. Luckily, Barbie was very cooperative.













Other dolls from my past...

My niece's 4th Birthday Cinderella Cake:

Boo's 4th Birthday Princess Cake:


Thursday, September 11, 2008

Hot Lunch Bracelet

I received a notice home from Boo's 1st grade teacher providing her lunch account number for the year. It stated:

"Even if your child will have a hot lunch only one time this year, he/she will need to know her lunch number.
Please help your child commit this number to memory."


Boo only has hot lunch on fridays, pizza day, to give both of us a break from the usual. I could picture my confused little girl hungry and crying on the lunch line. She gets nervous in those situations, so I came up with this bracelet to help her remember her number. She picked out the colors and we added a star charm so she would read it left to right since some of the numbers may be misread upside-down. It gives both of us piece of mind and Boo a bit of fancy jewelry on Fridays.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Sick Day Slippers

My little peanut is feeling sick and is home from preschool today. It's actually a little chilly here in CT this morning and so the peanut wants his flannel pj's and blankie. He has set himself up on the couch with his monster trucks to watch TV. He doesn't like to wear socks around the house but it's a little chilly to be going around barefoot so I knitted up a super-quick pair of slippers for him. It took less than an hour...

I used Tahki Baby that I had in my stash and followed Imagine's Zippy Little Slippers pattern, designed by Melissa Mall. It took less than an hour and he loves them. They are a little goofy because I followed the cables on the first foot and ignored them halfway through the second foot. I like them better without the cables. Luckily you can barely tell because it's a dark wool.





Today's Bento Box for Big Sister
is PBJ sandwiches with mandarin oranges,
carrots, and a brownie muffin treat:
I manage to keep the mandarin oranges from leaking by using Glad Press n' Seal on the section. The brownie muffin is made with lots of beet puree--it's surprisingly good! I followed the Beet Bundt Cake recipe from Allrecipes.com, as submitted by Vermadel Kirby. I made a total of 24 mini-muffins and 12 regular muffins with the batter. I also made the following substitutions: used half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour (instead of all white flour) to add whole grain, reduced the sugar to 1 cup, and added 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder for a richer chocolate taste. Be careful not to overbake them and they will stay moist and rich like a brownie. The kids LOVE them. Even my husband loves them! I can't imagine any other possible way of getting my family to eat beets, proving once again that chocolate can just about fix anything.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Lunch Will Never Be the SANE

BENTO MADNESS: About a week before the start of this school year, I stumbled upon some amazing websites of bento box lunches for kids. I quickly became obsessed and ordered a Laptop Lunch for my daughter and a loot-bag's worth of awesome Japanese bento box doodads from various sites. Lunchtime for my 1st grader will never be the sane...


Ham and Cheese Roll-ups
with cherry tomatoes and honey mustard dipping sauce.
Pretzels and carrot sticks with yogurt dipping sauce


Rice Onigiri
with edamame and molded boiled egg


Sesame Noodles with Dried Shredded Pork
Mango spears and watermelon, carrot sticks and cucumber,
and chocolate chip cookies


Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
melon kebobs and goldfish crackers


Ro Song Sushi and Molded Egg
Carrot and raisin salad with rice chips