Cake and Roses

This is a cake I recently made for my friend, Meagan, who is having a baby.  Another friend, Amy, showed me how to make roses and since then I've liked to add them to most cakes I make. As I've found, roses cover a host of mistakes in the frosting.

I saw the idea to do a half moon shape on the top with roses on some website after doing a "google" search for ideas on cake decorating.

Oatmeal Cookie Bars

Around the time when fall changes to winter, my local grocery store was getting rid of it's fall stock.  There was a grocery cart filled with clearance items and I just had to take a look. I don't always get the clearance items, but I always have to look. Among the items were some chocolate chips, candy, and other baking goods.  One thing that caught my eye were cinnamon chips.  They looked just like chocolate chips, but were cinnamon flavored.  The price was right so I picked up a bag or two thinking I'd use them in oatmeal cookies.

After I brought them home, I was in the mood to bake, but I really didn't feel like going through the task of making cookies. So, I did what I usually do and "googled" a recipe for oatmeal cookie bars.  I hadn't even put in the cinnamon chip requirement, but lo and behold, I found a recipe containing them. 

Sparkly Eggs

The Saturday before Easter, we traditionally dye our eggs.  This year we made sparkly eggs and even some eggs with faces.
  

I bought the kit last year on clearance, true to my thrifty nature!  I'll be looking this upcoming week for some egg dye kits on sale.

I'm not sure if we'll be eating sparkles later when we go to eat the eggs themselves, but the package assures me that rinsing them off will take care of it.

Deviled Chicks

I originally saw this recipe in a magazine (Deviled Egg Chicks) and also in a link from an email my mom sent me.  I decided that since the kids had their fun dying Easter eggs earlier, it was my turn to have fun making this delicious snack for tomorrow.

After my eggs had been hard boiled and cooled, I cut them in a zig-zag pattern.  Next I scooped out the yolk and put it into a bowl. I found the using my fingers was the easiest way to get the yolk out without damaging the egg. I did have a few casualties anyway.  I then mixed up the yolks with some mustard, seasoned salt and mayo.  I put the mix in a pastry bag with a star tip and put it aside.

  

Getting Started

Image by Pippalunacy

This is my second official blog.  My other blog, Jill's Curious Mind, found at jillscuriousmind.blogspot.com, has been dead for more than a year other than the one recent post I wrote.  The trouble with that blog is the vagueness of the subject matter. I could write about anything, really, but I was so unfocused. So here I'm going to write and show you the things that I do from my home. I love making things from scratch, be it cookies or cleaners or knit hats, but sometimes I cheat (I buy boxed cake mix).

I love reading about health and natural living, but to be honest, the wealth of information out there has caused my head to spin on more than one occasion.  I try to take what I can use and leave behind the stuff that makes me crazy. For example, as I read through Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, I gained great insight and even a new way of looking at things.  I am no Weston A. Price foundation groupie,