LAGUNA BEACH

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Here are a few shots from a Nick Carver class Cari and I went to last Tuesday. The setting was beautiful - a beach full of mossy, curvy, soft-sculpted rocks.

I felt I understood more but didn't feel as artistic. I'm guessing once the camera basics soak in that I'll get to that dreamy, inspired, autistic zone again.

(And you probably thought I just needed more coffee!)

We have one more class in March that should involve green hills and wildflowers - I'll aim for more inspired results in March.

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After the workshop Cari located a great Japanese hot pot restaurant. It was so cool! We both had a plate of raw veggies and meat and a hot pot of bubbling broth. The waitress showed us how to cook the food - You grab a bit of veggie with chopsticks, swirl it in the hot pot- Say Shabu, shabu, shake-shake-shake . . . dip it in some yummy sauce - Ta-daa' - delicious hot pot!

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Photos, Phine Phriends and Phood, Life is good!

Photo Classy-ness

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Cari and I went south for a photo class last Sunday. The highlight was Sunday morning at the Hazelrigg meeting. This is where Dave and Brenda Kettler met - You could tell they still had Dave and Brenda in their hearts . . . we felt very, very welcome.
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The class Sunday afternoon was outstanding. It was taught by Nick Carver, a very talented photographer. He teaches the complexities of photography with simplicity and in a way that is easy to absorb. He doesn't waste time teaching how to touch-up or fake in Photoshop - I admire that. I really like Galen Rowell's writing and work and Nick's genius is hauntingly similar.

If you want to see what he shoots and teaches it is here at his website: http://www.nickcarverphotography.com/
The class was held at a cool studio, Shutterstories in Riverside. It was inspiring to see the photo art that was hung and see where studio photographers shoot.

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After the class Cari drug me kicking and screaming to a Thai restaurant. I don't know how much more I can take of Cari.... and I still have another day with her this Tuesday! ~wink~

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For the record - I love Thai food and you know I love Cari! I don't think either one of us stopped talking the whole way going south and coming back - of course it was all about apertures and shutterspeeds!

Happy 90th, dear Marjorie Rose !

A very good friend, Marge turned 90 this last Friday!

Here are the cakes I made for this fine celebration.

This white one is a take on the local Smith's Bakery "Champagne Cake".
It is a white cake filled with vanilla-bean custard and frosted with Whipped cream/cream cheese frosting. The frosting has shavings of white chocolate patted generously all over. The leaves are colored white chocolate ("green chocolate" in this case!) painted on the back of clean rose leaves. After the chocolate hardens the rose leaves are carefully peeled off. The roses are my first attempt at gum paste. (I'm kind of impressed with 'em!)

. . . And a Dark chocolate frosted Hershey's cake with Trader Joe's belgium-chocolate dipped strawberries.

(Rich, smooth, sweet, tall, daaark and handsome ! ) Any comments Anna ? ;0)

W o l f M o o n

Tonight is said to be the biggest and brightest and first full moon of 2010. Kind of nice to think of all those we love looking up at the constant moon from each corner of the earth. Hope it is glowing down on you.

Geeky Link
Here is a hilarious link from brother-Gary, who exceeds in "geekiness". (A very high compliment).
It is titled "What Engineers do when they retire" or "How to open living room blinds automatically"

http://www.baynhamtyers.com/contraption2.html



Doesn't this make you want to grab a pocket protector and go genius with gears, solenoids and duct tape ? !

Flourin' Fish & Fishin' for Flowers

This is tonight's bodacious supper, a Panko grilled Halibut sandwich! The recipe that inspired it is on one of my favorite blogs, http://ahintofhoney.blogspot.com I cooked mine in a skillet on the stove top. I added chopped cilantro, kosher salt, garlic salt, a teaspoon or two of lemon zest and a pinch of red pepper with the panko crumbs. I think "Dagwood" would be proud of this sky-high sandwich!

I brought home this bunch of beauty from Trader Joes. I really like the orange flowers and green mums and decided that I should put some in the garden! I searched and googled to try to find the name of the orange one and finally found it by accident. It is an orange safflower. A pretty common crop flower that growers have morphed orange and less spiny to be admired in our vases. It looks like seeds for this critter are readily available. So maybe I'll have photos of these in my garden come summer.

It sounds like these mums maybe either Kermit mums, CeKiwi or Yoko Ono mums. I'm going to try ordering from Knights Mums out of Oregon when their website re-opens in March.

Small Sample of a Wonderful Christmas and New Years

Kay-K enjoyed a sleepover at Granma's house before we headed south

Owen took us to a great clamming spot in Coronado

It was amazing fun! We went out in low tide and just poked around with potato rakes - and voila! Clams were down there ready to be picked! I got four and I had a camera to protect - As the tide came back in we ended up to our waists in the surf. Funnnnnn!
It is amazing to realize that under the surface of the ocean water that we gaze at - there is a whole ocean world --- full of creatures !
Chef Ross and sous chef Gary both clammed up when asked for their seafood prep secret
They said we would have to wait and sea ...

Smokin' and grilling the clams along side skip-jack, bonita and albacore that Ross had caught - Yummmmm! I am positive we have Viking in our DNA with this seafood affection!

Beautiful and delicious !

A promise of more pictures to come . . .

Thanksgiving in Colorado - Preview

(warning the account below may exceed the legal limit of run-on sentences!)

This is the dinosaur contraption I made for Brady under the name of cake. It all began with the help of Mechanical Engineer-Geek#2-brother-Gary ... We rigged up a turkey baster taped to refrigerator tubing that went up the center of the cake. The tubes destination was the icecream cone "volcano" that was perched on the very top of this creature cake. The idea was to fill the turkey baster with lava and Brady could enjoy squeezing the baster and watching the volcano-cone erupt! When I made the "lava" that would fill the turkey baster and flow up the tubing and over the volcano cone.... I neglected to strain it. (The lava contained cornstarch and jello that clots up.) Gary did a clean job of filling the turkey baster-lava-erupter up with bright, full of red food coloring "lava", we stuck glo-sticks inside the cone, surrounded it all up with re-lightable candles...and we were ready.....

To drama this birthday contraption up we turned out the lights (and Gary set up his video camera) and invited Brady to come and blow out his re-lightable candles and squeeze the "lava" erupter machine. It was EXCITING! We had forgotten to tape where the bulb attaches to the baster and the "machine" hit a clot ... Lava erupted- It did! Gary expertly pushed the fine-tuned machine together and Brady gave her another hit -- It was just like Mount Helena! Spurt, clog, major spurt, clog, major spurt... There was lava on the walls, the floor, the table, on Brady ... It was so real we wouldn't have been surprised if the T-Rex had roared -While we were laughing uncontrollably and wiping up lava - the candles relit and began burning the icecream cone "volcano" --- I'll bet Brady will never forget the chaos of the creature cake - Aunt Becca may be banned from dreaming up these great birthday ideas. :0)

This is the tower that Brady built himself while he was waiting for the adults to stop playing, "set-up the birthday cake".

Dark Chocolate Coffee Bean Cake

This cake experiment turned out great! It had a nice, rich coffee flavor.

Dark Chocolate Coffee Bean Cake with Expresso Bean frosting:

Follow recipe on box for Dark Chocolate cake mix, except for water use strong coffee. (i.e. cup of Starbucks with two shots of expresso.) After mixing split batter between 3-9" round pans. Next, follow recipe on box for White cake mix, except for water use strong coffee and mix in a sleeve of instant coffee (2g -same amount that would make 8oz), (i.e. Starbucks Via Italian roast) Split batter between the three pans. Sprinkle about 3/4 cup of Dark Chocolate-Covered Coffee beans (Trader Joes Dark) over batter and marble the two batters together. Bake at 350degrees for about 30 minutes or until cake test done. (clean toothpick)

Make brush-on Expresso glaze, Heat 3 Tablespoons of water and dissolve 1 sleeve of instant coffee, add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. Mixture should be watery.

Assemble layers: Trim cake to make each layer level. Brush top of each layer with Expresso glaze and fill between the layers with Dark Chocolate Buttercream http://beccasbugsnbrownies.blogspot.com/search/label/Dark%20Chocolate%20Buttercream

Frost top and sides of cake with Expresso Bean Buttercream.

Expresso Bean Buttercream: Heat 1/2 cup of whole milk and dissolve 4Tablespoons of Instant Coffee (or two Starbucks Via Italian Roast sleeves) Cream 1 Cup of Butter (room temperature). Alternately add 8 cups of powdered sugar, sifted with Coffee Flavored Milk mixture. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 Tablespoon of finely ground coffee. (Costco's Jose Vanilla bean is a good choice) Decorate with more Dark Covered Coffee beans and a few coffee beans if desired.

I wanted to make this Red Velvet Cheesecake after I saw a picture of Cheesecake Factory's version. (here's the link: http://www.pe.com/imagesdaily/2009/07-27/stefanie_s_ultimate_red_velvet_cake_cheesecake_400.jpg

Here is cake that I made. I was very happy with how it turned out. Next time I make it I'll post a picture of the cake after it is cut.

Red Velvet Cheesecake

Bake Red Velvet Cake (posted earlier) http://pinchmysalt.com/2008/11/10/red-velvet-cake-recipe/

Bake the cake in 2-8"pans

*Double the Cream Cheese Frosting recipe from the link above.

Make the Cheesecake filling from Ina Garten's Cheesecake recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/raspberry-cheesecake-recipe/index.html Line 2-8" cake pans with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Cook as directed except reduce the 1hour and 15min, 225 degree baking cycle to between 45min to an hour. Cool as directed in recipe. After cooled put cheesecakes in ziplocks and freeze.

Make Vanilla cake glaze: 1/4 of powdered sugar with 3-4 Tablespoons of water, and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla. Mixture should be watery.

Assemble cake: Trim cake to make layers level. Place Red Velvet Layer on plate, brush with Vanilla cake glaze. Fill between layers with Cream Cheese Frosting. Stack Cheesecake layer on top of Red Velvet Layer and repeat with last two layers. Frost top and sides with Cream Cheesecake Frosting. Pipe bead border if desired. When serving I would recommend small pieces. This cake is gorgeous but really, really rich.

I have enjoyed a couple of links if you are interested in cake decorating . . .

An Australian lady shows her beautifully decorated cakes: http://www.cakesbyfrancesca.com.au/weddings.html

This link is a good tutorial of how to make a gum paste rose: http://cakesbyfrancesca.com.au/videos/rosetutorial.wmv (it takes a few minutes to download)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/franjmc/ (more photos of fran's cakes)

http://www.cakejournal.com/

A good decorator supply website: http://www.sugarcraft.com/

Cakes

Here is the final Rum Cake,

Rum Layer Cake with Rum Buttercream: Bake a boxed yellow cake mix, following directions on box. I used 8" pans and used two boxes for this four layer cake. * I always wrap (1 gallon ziplock bags work) cooled cake layers and freeze. I think it improves the cake texture and it makes it easier to frost the next day.

Brush each layer with Rum Glaze : Heat 1/2 Sugar, 1/3 Cup of water and 1/4 Cup of Rum until sugar is dissolved.

Frost with Rum Buttercream: Beat 8 Tablespoons of butter (room temperature) alternately with 3-3/4 Cups of Powdered Sugar, sifted, 4 Tablespoons of Rum and 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla. Beat until Fluffy.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting,

red velvet recipe link: http://pinchmysalt.com/2008/11/10/red-velvet-cake-recipe/

Fresh Strawberry Cake.

Fresh Strawberry cake recipe:

Strawberry cake box mix (follow directions) * I have a recipe from scratch but I like the mix.

Fresh Strawberry Frosting (Cake Doctor) : Cream 1stick of room temperature
Butter

Mix in: 4Cups Powdered Sugar, sifted (use more if frosting too thin)

and 1/2 Cup finely chopped
Strawberries
1/4 teaspoon Almond Extract

And a few more cakes . . .

Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting and carrot curls

Carrot Cake:

Grate 3 cups of Carrots and mix in 1/2 cup of sugar and set aside.

Pour 1/2 cup of hot water over 1 Cup of golden Raisins. (optional add 1 Tablespoon of rum or rum flavoring) and set aside.

Combine and beat at high speed until light and well mixed: 1-1/2 Cups of Brown Sugar, 1 Cup of Oil, 2-1/2 teaspoons of Cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of Nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon of ground Cloves, 2 teaspoons of Vanilla.

Drain: Carrots, Raisins and 1/2 cups of crushed Pineapple (8oz can) .

Sift following and add alternately with 3 Tablespoons of Milk: 3 Cups Flour, 3 teaspoons of Baking Powder, 1/2 teaspoon of Soda and 1 teaspoon of salt.

Stir in: grated Carrots, raisins and crushed Pineapple. Pour into 3- 9" cake pans and bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees, or until cake tests done. Let cool in pans about 10 minutes and then turn out to cool on wire racks.

Frost with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat 8 oz of soft Cream Cheese, 6 Tablespoons of soft Butter, 2 Tablespoons of grated Orange Rind, 1 Tablespoons of Orange Juice with 1 pound of powdered sugar, sifted.

Beat until fluffy, It takes a while. If too stiff add Orange juice a drop at a time.

Carrot Curls: The curls are fun and easy to make: In a skillet bring 1cup of water and 1cup of sugar to boil. Peel a wide carrot until the strips are wide, too. Put wide strips in skillet mixture and cook until translucent (about 15minutes) Drain carrot strips and lay flat on a baking sheet lined with a silicon liner. Bake in 225 oven for 30minutes. Curl dry carrot strips around a wooden spoon handle and put back in oven for 30-45minutes, until curls are crispy.

This one is Milk Chocolate Cake.

I didn't like this milk chocolate frosting. Below are three chocolate frosting recipes that I think are terrific;

Dark Chocolate Buttercream: Beat 6 Tablespoons of butter (room temperature) with 1 Cup of Cocoa (Dutch-processed if possible), Gradually add 1/3 Cup of Milk alternately with 2-1/2 Cups of Powdered Sugar, sifted. Add 1 teaspoon of Vanilla

Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting (Cake Doctor) : Melt 4 Tablespoons of butter (room temperature) with 3 ounces of semisweet chocolate. Combine melted butter and chocolate with 1/2 Cup Sour Cream. Add remaining 2-1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar, 2 Tablespoons of hot water, alternately and beat until frosting become a spreadable consistency. Add 1 teaspoon of Vanilla

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting: Melt 1/2 Cup of Butter (room temperature) and stir in 2/3 Cup Cocoa. Alternately beat in 3 Cups of Powdered Sugar, sifted and 1/3 Cup of Milk. Add 1 teaspoon of Vanilla.

As usual I used a mix for the cake: Triple Chocolate, following recipe on box.

I've been making lots of cakes!

Warm, Mellow Fall !

Soaking in the gentle fall sunbeams

Sunflowers and coffee beans

Leaves crunching

Crisp, cool mornings

Peaceful easy, afternoons

Fresh Fall Produce

What we've dreamed of on those hot August days!