it's sunday baking day...

well, it's maya's birthday tomorrow (13, already!!!) and i'm also going back to work after vacation, so today was baking day.

i figured that maya's mom will get her cake and she'll probably be caked out when she gets over here, so i made her some mini tarts instead.  blueberry strawberry ones to be exact.

i randomly got this cookbook from the library and i liked it to much i got a copy off of amazon.  $6 bucks new!  (grace...you should get this cookbook, you will LOVE it!):

so i made the mini-tart crust and put it in 6 muffin tins:

filled it all up:

and 18 minutes later...

these smell really good.  i hope they taste as good as they smell.  i'll stick whipped cream on top before we eat them.  i'll see if i should have browned the edges more or not after i shove one in my face.

i also made myself some chocolate chip granola bar thingies to eat at work.  i gotta cut down on the sugar so....

oats, choc chips, dried cranberries, pecans, cashews, condensed milk and butter!!

i wasn't sure how hard these were going to be after they cooled down, so i didn't roll them into the pan with a rolling pin, i just pressed down with a spoon.  if i make them again, i'll roll them in. they're pretty soft.  but pretty good!!  i'll share with people at work.  yes, jane....this means you!!

and the baking was all made better with tea that i got from this great shop in eureka, ca.  

so far i like the plum berry white better than the peach.  we'll see which i like better when i make iced tea again.  y'know...for summertime.  when it's hot out.  hopefully that will happen this year.  yeesh.

but this song is why i wanted to go to eureka...this is for you sally!!!

oh em gee!!!

so i got a new to me computer (thanks alex!!!) and my old keyboard didn't work with it.  so i HAD to order a new keyboard.  what's that  you say?  did i order the hello kitty keyboard i've been coveting?  YES! yes, i did!  and a hello kitty mouse with 3 different mouse covers.  i went on vacation with my mom and came back to a nice big box waiting for me! 

i haven't been so excited for something i bought in a long time!!  HELLO KITTY!!!

my new computer space is excellent now!!

pigs in a blanket!!!

so last friday at work we were told that june was actually AP dept's turn to throw the deck party.  this was quite a shock seeings as how the ENTIRE DEPARTMENT thought that we had july.  later in the day it was revealed to us that it was to be thrown the following wednesday.  which was yesterday.  so denise and nicole grabbed me and we started planning the picnic style (denise and nicole's idea) deck party.  we decided that we would all three cook for the event and that denise and i would go shopping on saturday for food.  

on saturday denise showed up armed with a pcard and re-useable grocery bags and off we went to grocery outlet.  i'd never actually been in grocery outlet and i'd always been interested in what kind of a grocery store they were and we were not disappointed.

i decided to make mini pigs in a blanket and to throw together ingredients for simple sandwiches.  denise was making a bean dip, macaroni and cheese and banana nilla wafer pudding desert.  nicole was making tater tot casserole.

it was nice to see such healthy food in the basket.

then we stopped off at fred meyers and got the beer and some other stuff:

we even got julie her very own beer:

she was either going to be super pissed about the clamato and bud light or super excited.  i wasn't too sure which one it was going to be.

after work on tuesday i made the pigs in a blanket:

alistair always cuts frozen blueberries on the cutting board, so it's stained a nice brownish purple!

i was really proud of myself that i only stuffed one in my face when i was cooking them.

i didn't get much work done at work on wednesday and pretty much spent the whole day setting shit up for the deck party.  other people from our dept volunteered to help out:

xine looked fabulous in her apron.  julie and her made ants on a log.  and julie got her beer early.  she needed a little something to help her through shiteloads of celery, peanut butter and raisins.  needless to say, she LOVED her beer!

everything looked fantastic.  amy found red and white tablecloths.  xine busted out a killer watermelon basket.  i think it all came together nicely!

the deck party was supposed to be located out on the new 6th floor deck, but since this is seattle and it's june  that was pretty much out of the question.  we stuck the beer out there in coolers and let people fight for their lives in the horrible wind.

it was a typical grey cloudy crappy june day.  although the sun did come out right when i was coming home at 5:30 so that's super neat.

i had a little of everything except the mac n cheese.

emily made the announcements: new hires, birthday and anniversaries for june.

i think everyone had fun...

it doesn't look like there were many people there, but that room was CROWDED and loud!  i really should have taken a shot of the line of people for food.  impressive.

dan didn't come up when ivy told him to and he missed all the food.  so he scraped the pans and got what he could:

ivy had a glucose test for the baby scheduled for today and she was drinking a tiki punch and then realized just HOW MUCH sugar was in it!

i'm sure she had fun fasting all night and today.

the wind was horrible and these brave souls were out there.  for hours. 

this was fun, but i hope we have a little more notice next year.  we were rushed, but i think we pulled it off!

YAY!

german pancakes!!

i used to spend every summer with my dad in portland when i was growing up and we would go to elmer's a lot for breakfast.  i always got the same thing...a german pancake (or dutch baby, if you wanna get sassy).  i don't remember ever ordering anything else from there.  i'm sure i must have at some point, but i don't remember.  anyway, it's my favorite breakfast in the whole wide world.  every time i go to portland, i always go to elmer's and get one.

i finally got smart and thought of looking online for the recipe and found out how to make them and have been eating them regularly here at home for the past 6 months or so.  i keep meaning to do a blog post, but haven't got around to it until now.  mostly because our small supply of strawberry plants in the yard are getting ripe and maya and i wanted them for breakfast!

not too many were ripe, just enough for both of us:

the recipe is here, but i don't add the nutmeg (ick) and i heat my oven to 450 degrees and don't change it and cook for 10 minutes and pull it out.  other than that, everything is the same as the recipe.  

i usually add lemon juice to it after it's done and today we went all out, so here's our toppings:

mmmm....whipped topping.  i never use this crap.  but it's soooo tasty!!

here it is in the oven right before i pulled it out:

and it's on a normal sized plate, you just can't see it :)

it looks like a huge freaking pancake, but really, it's not.  2 eggs, 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup flour.  not really much.  it's just poofs up so nicely.  i gobble the whole thing down no problem.  and i'm not that big.

they were delicous.  maya and i each had one.  she couldn't finish hers, but i had no problem.

on a side note, my plant out in the yard is blooming.  it blooms for about a week a year and the blooms last one day each.  they're such pretty blossoms.  all crinkly and white.  i'm always happy when it blooms.  i should probably find out what it's called...