Bea's Big Girl Bed

Well, I guess it's time. Time for our little girl to go from baby bed to big girl bed. Sigh.

Eric's been busy in the woodshop (i.e. his half of the garage), building this cute, simple, modern twin bed for Bea. He used birch plywood for the mattress platform & side rails, and solid cherry for the top storage unit. It's built so that you can slide the mattress platform along a groove and position it left, right or centered in the room. Her bedroom is so tiny, we have it all the way to the left so that there's still space to play and read books on the floor. The best part though, is the added storage. (Perfect for housing diapers, blankets and 218 stuffed animals.) He used some special hinges that keep the lids open until you push them closed, and they won't slam down on tiny fingers. When she gets big enough to sleep without the rails, Eric designed it so they can be switched to become a headboard or footboard, or neither.

As you can tell, Bea's had no problem adjusting to her new bed. We've already had an inaugural pillow fight – with stuffed animals, of course.

Bee My Valentine?

I've decided that everything is cuter in miniature form - especially cupcakes. I baked 50 of these tiny bumblebee cupcakes for Gus' Valentine's Day party at school, and I just love how they turned out.

The wings are almond bark hearts that I piped onto parchment paper. The eyes, nose and bee stinger are white & milk chocolate chips. And the dark stripes are made by dipping the cupcakes in crushed Oreos.

Beelicious!

A Punxsutawney Phil Party.

Last Sunday night, I decided that it would be fun for Bea to take some Groundhog Day treats to daycare on Monday to share with her little buddies. So I found this cute idea for (what seemed to be) simple groundhog cupcakes. Four hours later, after the Super Bowl was over, I finally finished the little edible rodents. Maybe next year I'll just make "shadow" brownies instead. Sounds a hell of a lot easier.

This Snickers Candy Bar groundhog is peeking his Tootsie Roll nose out of a snowy, frosting-covered hole in the ground - and getting chocolate cake crumbs everywhere.

And folks, Punxsutawney Phil tells us there's six more weeks of winter. I guess that's OK, 'cause I'm gonna need that time to work off these cupcake calories before swimsuit season.

Ice-ing.

Betcha didn't know that you could use snow to frost a graham cracker?

Is Bea a Mini-Me?

We might have another baker in the house. Or maybe just another sweet tooth. Bea comes running when she hears the KitchenAid mixer going. And she already knows to ask for a spatula to lick. Yummy mommy!

Sweet Seventeen.

My niece, Alyssa Peppiatt, turned 17 last Friday, and since we were going to Salina this weekend to visit my mom, I baked her one of my favorite, giant cupcake cakes. Sweet treats for a sweet niece – love ya darlin'!

I tell you what, this cake pan rocks! It's so easy to make and it looks awesome every time. I highly recommend it. I got mine at Target, but you can find them at Amazon.com too.

An Edible Ode to Joe.

Last Friday, I had the privilege and honor of baking one last sugary treat for Joe Norris. He was my boss, mentor and great friend at Sullivan Higdon & Sink, and he retired at the end of December. The theme for the party was a ShamRockin' Winter Hoolie - an Irish Pub Party. So I volunteered to bake him a sugar cookie limerick. (Steve Hobson, another great copywriter friend of mine at SHS, actually wrote the limerick. Thanks much, Steve.)

Of course, Eric got roped into my craziness and had to build a special display board for the cookies. And he graciously offered to help me set everything up - keeping me calm when I realized, 45-minutes before the party started, that I'd forgotten to bake a freakin' word! It all worked out just fine though. Thank you, dear.

Many years ago, Joe once called me "Betty Crocker on Acid." So I couldn't let him retire without proving him right. Best wishes to a truly great, great guy. May your retirement years be sweet.

Sandywiches.

I have a new baking obsession: french macarons. (Think mini-moonpie, but crunchier - and much more complicated.) A few weeks ago my brother-in-law informed me that, "macarons are the new cupcake." He read about them in a magazine somewhere, so of course I was intrigued. Over the Christmas break, I Googled all kinds of information on these adorable, fabulously-colored, sandwich-like cookies. And I desperately wanted to bake them. But in the City of Wichita, with a population of 350,000, do you think I could find the almond flour that all the recipes call for? Nope. Nada. Zilch. WTF?

I think I may have finally tracked some down at the Whole Foods on Central, but in the mean time, I really wanted to try and make these pint-sized, party pastries. So I used my Kansas Sugar Cookie recipe and my buttercream icing recipe, and made my version of a french macaron: Sandywiches.

They're good, they're cute, but they're TOO sweet. (...yes, you heard me say it, TOO SWEET, even for me.) But now that I know where to get that elusive almond flour, you can be sure I'm going to make another attempt. Stay tuned.

Cute-As-Can-Bea Kitchen

Two weeks before Christmas, Eric decided to build a play kitchen for Bea. He settled on this fun, little retro-blue design with chrome handles and legs. There's glass on the doors and even a crisper drawer in the fridge.

So far, Bea has cooked for us: Pluto the Dog au Gratin, Boots the Monkey Souffle, and other assorted stuffed animal delicacies. Yes, apparently we need to get the girl some pretend food to work with.

We hope she has many happy memories cooking her kid cuisine in the kitchen that daddy built.

I got a hippopotamus for Christmas.

Bea was all giggles as she opened her presents this Christmas. And much to our surprise, she adored her new "potamus." 

And Gus was all smiles as he opened his favorite present - a Nintendo DS. He's already mastered Mario Cart and is begging for more games.

We had an abbreviated Christmas with the Weishaar family in Salina (as my mom recuperates from back surgery), and then spent the rest of the week in Colby with 22 or so of the Dennelers. Good times, good food, and lots of laughs.

Cheers to 2008, and all that awaits us in 2009!

Snow Cookies

Being the designated Sugar Cookie Baker for both my family and Eric's, I find myself with cookie cutters and pastry bags in-hand every year, just days before Christmas. And there I was last night around midnight, putting the finishing touches on my "Snow Cookies." Six trays and approximately 160 cookies. My carpal tunnel started setting in around the 93rd cookie. I've gotten lazy the last couple of years and have found creative ways to use ONLY WHITE frosting - I just hate the mess that food coloring makes. Plus, white-on-white decorating can be so pretty.

Anyway, here are the Christmas cookies for 2008 - snowflakes, snowballs, snowmen and the word "Snow." Eat up!

Visions of sugarplums.

We had a Christmas luncheon at the office this week, and I signed up to bring dessert - imagine that. Mini cupcakes and jumbo cupcakes came out of my kitchen this time with little cherry sours on top. I always struggle with how to "transport" my baked goods once they're done - hate for my little babies to get demolished on the drive. This time, I used lots of Christmas candies inside the dishes to help keep them in place and smash-free. Worked like a charm. You takin' notes, Martha Stewart?

Oh Post-it Note, Oh Post-it Note....

I decided my office at WSU needed a little holiday cheer, so I made this Post-it Note Christmas tree last week. It took 10 packages of lime green Post-its (and no, I did not expect the State of Kansas to fund my little creative whim - I bought them myself.) However, other office supplies lent themselves to the decorations - paperclip garland, CD ornaments, a star pencil, and an inter-office envelope for the tree trunk.

* Special thanks to Craig "The Elf" Lindeman for helping bedazzle the tree. He finally found himself caught up in the Christmas spirit, but only after two days of razzin' me for wasting all those Post-it Notes (made from a tree) just to make another tree. I'm making a donation to the Arbor Day Foundation in his name.

How to celebrate your 37th birthday.

5:25 am - Wake up & run on treadmill so you can have extra cake
6:22 am - Pull out that one, grey hair, reminding you you're 37 today
7:12 am - Open thoughtful presents from husband and kids
7:18 am - Have a birthday breakfast cupcake with Gus and Bea

8:00 am - Open email and see lots of birthday wishes waiting to be read
9:12 am - Sit, chat and eat birthday treats with work buddies
10:18 am - Read more happy birthday wishes on Facebook
11:15 am - Watch the snow blow outside during a birthday blizzard
3:27 pm - Read and reply to more online birthday wishes
4:38 pm - Drive home in birthday blizzard to warm house
5:22 pm - Go to mailbox and find it filled with birthday cards
6:01 pm - Eat bowl of chicken curry soup made by thoughtful husband
6:33 pm - Find funny birthday card in Gus' backpack
6:47 pm - Go to Walmart for tub of Breyer's ice cream
7:08 pm - Get "Happy Birthday" phone call from mom
7:58 pm - Bathtime, booktime and bedtime for Gus & Bea
8:20 pm - Eat one more chocolate cupcake WITH ice cream
9:15 pm - Enjoy glass of wine, Mad Men DVD, and cozy husband
10:00 pm - Bedtime for anyone 37 and older

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.

We were singing that silly Christmas tune this morning as we drove to see Santa Claus at Cambridge Market. They had this cute little gingerbread house all decorated up with Santa and Gingerbread Boy outside to greet the little ones. Gus and Bea loved the Gingerbread boy. (Who wouldn't love a giant kid made of butter & sugar, right?) But I expected lots of tears and resistance from Bea as we put her on Santa's lap. She was remarkably silent and barely moved a muscle. She wouldn't smile, talk or even look at him for that matter, so Gus asked Santa to bring her a new doll. I think I heard him request a crane and a marble tower for himself. (Which is unfortunate, because the "elves" have already made a Nintendo DS and a remote control helicopter for him. Hummm... what to do, what to do?)

Afterwards, they both got a great big gingerbread cookie to take home. Thanks Santa. We'll see you in a few weeks.

"Yes, I've been a very good boy, Santa Claus."

"I munna eat cho."

"Don't look at me and don't talk to me, just take the picture."