A New Adventure

Hello Readers~

 I wanted to let you know all about my new business.  I have signed up to be a distributor for The Gourmet Cupboard.  Some of you may be wondering- What is The Gourmet Cupboard?  Well, we sell over 200 different mixes like soups and meals to feed your entire family.  Available are dips, wonderful desserts including many sugar free, cookies and bars, beverage mixes and much more!  Each one is handmade using only the finest gourmet ingredients at just the right proportions.  Each mix includes all of the dry ingredients; you simply add a few additional ingredients (sour cream, cream cheese, water, etc).  The products are all individually handmade in southeast Texas and most contain no preservatives, msg, or chemicals.

          Don’t cook?  All of the mixes are really simple to make!  Anyone can cook delicious foods with the help of The Gourmet Cupboard!! 

On a diet?  You can make many of the mixes using low fat ingredients.

On a budget?  Our mixes are very reasonably priced.  Where else can you spend around $5 and literally feed your entire family? 

          If you would like to host a party, I would love to set up an online party for those of you out of town or an in-home party for those of you nearby (Western Montana).  I’m flexible to help arrange the type of event that earns you the most free products!  By hosting either type of party, you would earn 15% of the total amount sold in free products of your choice (for all parties $100 or more).  

          Our mixes are great for giving as gifts, to have on hand when company drops by, or just for serving to yourself and your family.  They have a shelf life of 6 months to 1 year. 

          Contact me if you would be interested in having a party.  Here is a link to my website.  You may email me using the link on the right hand side of this page.  Many thanks to my friends that have already signed up to host a party- you won’t be disappointed!  Please feel free to purchase mixes directly from my website as well.  I think you will love the selection and ease that The Gourmet Cupboard provides!

"Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover" Apple Pie

I've been wanting to make a homemade pie crust for the longest time.  I have always used pre-made store bought pie crusts in the past as 1) they taste good and 2) I was a big chicken to try to make my own.  
I came across a recipe some time ago from Cooks Illustrated that uses Vodka in the recipe as a way to keep the pie crust tender and flaky (something about less gluten than just adding water....blah, blah, blah, too much chemistry for me....).  That particular recipe uses a food processor to bring the dough together.  But I found a very similar recipe that comes together by hand.  It turned out great!  And it was actually super easy to make.  I did add 1 Tbsp of sugar to the recipe.   (Couldn't link to the recipe but search "Easy Vodka Pie Crust" on Allrecipes.com)
This pie was not pretty.  I'll call it rustic.  We'll pretend the flaws add character.  

Funny enough, I do not like apple pie.  I know, I know...then why make one?  Josh loves them.  I just don't like the idea of fruit as a dessert.  It's a side item or snack.  That's all.  I did taste the crust minus the pie and it was really good and flaky.  Josh loved it as well.  This one is a keeper!  

Worm Composting!

Well, 100 creepy crawly worms arrived in my mailbox today.  They have officially moved into their new home and are happily eating our food scraps.  I hope I have crossed all my t's and dotted all my i's and this is going to work!  

Celery Experiment

  So, the other day I came across an article that demonstrated how if you plant the base of celery (remove and use stalks of grocery store purchased celery reserving just the base) it will sprout new stalks.  It seemed too simple, but I tried it and after just one week I have a lot of new shoots coming from the base producing new celery stalks.  I am hoping that once they get large enough to cut and eat that they will be nice and firm.  I'll keep you updated on their progress.  I planted the base in shallow soil with the top barely covered.  I have made sure to water them every other day or so as I read that celery appreciates lots of water.
  One day we hope to have a "real" garden, but in the meantime we are experimenting with growing things in our flower bed.  When we moved in 3 years ago, there was an already prepped flower bed with some ground covering vines growing and plenty of good rich soil.  Now in the flower bed and in some potted planters placed in the flower bed we have the following growing: celery, rosemary, oregano, basil, aloe vera and jalapeños.  
  We are also going to being worm composting soon.  I have the worm bin on hand and am gathering some supplies to start the composting bed for them.  The actual red worms have officially been ordered from Ebay this weekend and should be here on or before Thursday.  Can't wait for their arrival!  I will update with the worm composting progress.

                                     New celery stalks coming from the planted base.

New haircut

Sorry about the foggy/fuzzy pictures.  I really like my new haircut.  I went to a new (to me) stylist with an arsenal of 5 pinterest photos for inspiration, only 2 of which were actually the same haircut.  After blabbing on and on, yet basically saying I don't really know what I want, she worked some magic and I really like her interpretation.  We'll see tomorrow if I can style it in the same way that she did....

Latest cake for Bake A Wish - Sunflower theme

Cupcake Quest Part 2 (Cupprimo)

So after being a bit disappointed in our first attempt at finding Austin's best cupcake, we ventured up to North Austin to Cupprimo.  Oh, boy...I might not need to look any further for Austin's best cupcake.  I ordered the Nutella Surprise ~ A chocolate hazelnut cake with Nutella filling and buttercream.  The cake was super dense and heavy but so very soft and moist.  The butterceam icing was good, but had already crusted quite a bit, naturally, and I think I would have liked it quite a bit more had we eaten the cupcakes right after they were made/iced.  It is hard to adequately explain how yummy the cake part was.  You could taste layers of flavor: chocolate, hazelnut and I think possibly coffee.  So, so yummy and filling!  Lucas picked out the Brownie Sundae (brownie cupcake with vanilla buttercream and chocolate ganache) and Zachary had the Double Chocolate (chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream). Thankfully, neither boy could finish their large cupcake which means I got their leftovers for an afternoon snack and after dinner treat.  Zachary's cupcake was very good.  Again, super dense yet moist cake and yummy frosting.  But let me tell you, Lucas's cupcake was heavenly.  I have never had a brownie cupcake, but it was exactly what you would image the marriage of a fudge brownie and a deep chocolate cake to be. Incredible!  This is how much I loved  Cupprimo (or how weird I am):  I couldn't sleep later that night (probably from all the sugar and caffeine) and when I woke up at 3 a.m.ish all I could think was, "must have the brownie or hazelnut  cupcake recipe."  I remembered that Cupprimo was featured on Cupcake Wars and knew that some of the recipes from that show are posted on the Food Network website.  But I didn't know what season and episode featured Cupprimo.  So up at 3am, I watched YouTube videos to find when they were on the show (the episode was a lot of fun to watch as their event was an I love Lucy celebration) and found that they were eliminated after the 2nd round.  Anyway, the recipes from that episode were from the winning team so no Cupprimo cupcake recipe for me.  Oh well....
At Cupprimo there are several daily flavors and the rest rotate.  Large cupcakes are $3 but you can purchase mini cupcakes for $1.  I meant to take a picture of the boys in front of the counter, but between the cupcakes and Krispy Kreme's (just down the street) siren song, I went into a bit of a trance.  But next time I'll remember the picture.  I'll certainly be back!