Month: January 2017

Los Cabos Mexican Grill & Cantina {Independence, MO}

Last Friday my friend Karen and I went to Kansas City. There is a Duluth Trading Company store up there and she needed to return/exchange some items. We started out in downtown KC and ventured out to the suburbs to find Duluth. Um… let’s just say we had an adventure. You could see all the stores you wanted to go to, but actually getting there was another story so we’d take roads that would lead us in the right direction, and eventually, we got there. Yes, I know, we could have used our GPS, but what’s the fun in that?

We got out to Independence around lunchtime and seeing as though we were hungry, we decided to find lunch. We passed this restaurant, Los Cabos, and eventually decided to stop and try it. So impressive things about this restaurant, it was HUGE! There was a sign in the door that said max capacity 285. That’s a lot of people. Second, the view. No, I didn’t take a picture, but where we sat, we had a gorgeous view over the lake out back. And it was cold enough that there was a thin layer of ice over half of the lake. Beautiful. I’ll bet it’s even prettier in the fall when the leaves are changing colors, but another trip for another time, because we’re now in January. Gloomy old January.

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Cake Decorating Day

We had a Cake decorating day! Believe it or not, all these mixers on this counter are mine… Okay, well technically the blue one is my mom’s and the gray one is the hubs. The black one is a spare one we have and I don’t own one anymore… I sold mine. But still… They are all mine. They were all transported to Deb’s house via my truck. Okay fine… hubby’s truck. Geez… lol

It all started with Tracy and me discussing Russian decorating tips and the fact that I took cake decorating classes back in like 2008. Then the day stemmed from there. Back in December, she mentioned she heard that I took classes and wondered if I could help her. Of course. Then she said she had Russian tips. I’d never heard of those. Turns out, they are just bigger tips. I can’t say I’m totally crazy about them…. but that’s just my opinion. From there we decided to get together and play with decorating cakes. But it turned into a party.

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PW’s Chocolate Cake Recipe

When we decided to have a cake decorating day, I decided maybe I should make my cake ahead of time so that we weren’t waiting on mine to bake. Good thought, right? We had access to two ovens, and there were going to be at least 3 of us that I knew about and possibly four. Turns out, there were four so it was a good thing I baked mine ahead of time. When I showed up that morning we baked Deb’s off real fast, then the other two baked about the same time. It worked out perfectly.

So I was trying to decide, box cake mix or from scratch? From scratch won. Then I debated what type of cake I wanted to make. This is when I decided, Chocolate. Then I had to decide, what chocolate cake recipe to use…

 

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Fried Pie Day

I learned Abug gets her face making abilities from mommy….

So a while back… try last spring, last summer maybe… hubby and I had Karen and Jared over for dinner. I tried to make fried pies and let’s just say it was doomed from the start. I told Karen sometime we’d go to my grandma’s and have her teach us how. And that’s just what we did.

The weather outside was awful, so why not eat pie! I mean do you really need a reason to eat pie? I called Grandma up and got on her schedule. I’m telling you, my grandma is 84 years old and has a more rigorous schedule than I do. Anyway we went down to her house and she showed us the ropes on making Fried pies. Of course not with out the messes of messing up someone else’s kitchen. I may or may not have dumped cornstarch slurry all over the counter and Karen may or may not have tried to throw an egg across the kitchen. I have no idea on that one… I was down in the basement getting the apples for the apple fried pies. We made apple fried pies and cherry fried pies. And boy were they yummy!

Decorator Icing – Large 7 cup batch

Over the weekend we decided to have a cake decorating day. Back in 2008 (or maybe 2007… I don’t remember) I didn’t have much better to do and really wanted to learn how to decorate cakes. It’s ironic because I’m not a huge icing fan… I prefer the cake without icing… Go figure.

So they wanted to put my knowledge to work over the weekend and I was willing to oblige. Kristi’s dad was having an 80th birthday celebration the next day so we decided to decorate a cake for him. Tracy has a 1st birthday cake in a few days, weeks, months… she never really told me that she’ll be doing. Deb wanted to learn too, so it was the perfect opportunity to mess up someone else’s kitchen because why mess up your own kitchen. Just saying 😜.

So when you make up icing, or this particular icing anyway, it starts out as thick icing. Then you thin it out with either water or milk to the consistency you want. Typically you add a tbsp of your liquid at a time until you get the desired consistency. There are really 3 types of consistencies that you look for in cake decorating, thick, medium, and thin and each has their place in the course of decorating a cake.

One thing to consider, thick icing requires the most strength to push out of the bag and you’re more likely to blow the tip out of the end of the bag. Just something to note. In my opinion the two hardest things to learn about cake decorating is how to get a smooth finish on your cake and learning the correct consistencies.

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It was a Birthday!!

It seems like on everyone’s birthday, you know except for mine, we’re out riding horses. Tbug’s 14th birthday was no different, but she does have a thing for riding horses. I hope she always has that desire! Sadly, Abug might have confiscated her horse….

Never fear, Kansas stepped up to bat for Tbug to ride… only problem was, then Abug wanted to ride with Tbug. Aloha looked a little lost. At one point, I hopped on her back but Abug told me I was to get off her horse. Tbug said, I’ll share a lot of things with you, but Aloha is mine. Gosh I love both of those girls.

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Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Have you ever had chocolate covered strawberries? OMG, they are awesome. Obviously that’s just my opinion but my opinion counts so it’s all good.

When my mom was pregnant with me, I guess she craved strawberries. There were 3 stores in town and every night she’d go to a different one, buy a quart of strawberries and a tub of coolwhip and eat them all that night. That might be why I like strawberries?

Now chocolate, I’m kind of a take it or leave it type. Yes, it’s okay and sometimes even good, but I’m a savory over sweets person. When it comes to chocolate, I really prefer the dark chocolate over milk chocolate which is totally different than pretty much everyone else in my family.

Over the weekend though, I got to eat some chocolate covered strawberries. We had chocolate (although I think it might have been dark chocolate) and white chocolate. I can tell you I prefer the chocolate covered over the white chocolate covered. The white chocolate covered are a little too sweet for me, but maybe that’s because I prefer savory…? But don’t get me wrong, they are both awesome. And so easy to make!!

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Champagne-Vanilla Cupcakes

There is one magazine I love to get and that’s Food Network. I really credit Food Network for my love of cooking. Truthfully it was my grandma’s (both of them), but when I went to college I kind of lost that until I stumbled across Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals show… I then somehow became hooked again. So the re-found my love my grandmothers instilled in me.
I used to get the magazine, long ago before I went to grad school. Then grad school came and I didn’t have time to read anything other than school books, but now I’m back to reading Food Network Magazine. My first issue was the January/February 2017 issue. I read the editor’s note and she mentioned that they came up with a cupcake for any reason for every month of the year. I decided right then I needed to partake and try them all. Some sound better than others, but still… I need to try them, right? Something to do anyway.

January’s cupcake is the Champagne-Vanilla Cupcake. Yes please.
The first thing I was supposed to do was pour the Champagne (or in this case sparking white wine) into a bowl and whisk until the bubbles dissipate. ✓

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