Please come visit The Cheerful Novice

As Adora and I traipsed through San Francisco we wandered from the cable car down through Fisherman’s Wharf, home to the famous  Boudin Bakery. Alligator shaped sourdough bread has to be the pinnacle of baked treats and it was worth the walk to bring this beast back into captivity.

(Adora made me an adorable crochet alligator friend that survived the party a lot better than my sourdough buddy)

I used this sugar cookie recipe since I’m fond of almond. It rolled out easily between parchment paper and baked without much added expansion or puffiness. This cookie cutter is highly detailed, so the chopstick in the picture above was instrumental in getting the shape out in one piece.

I used Martha Stewart’s royal icing recipe and it worked like a dream. A few practice lines and I was all set. This was actually fun and not the intense pain I thought it would be!

After waiting an hour I used the flooding technique of adding a tiny amount of water to the icing to help fill in the outline. I used a #2 tip on the outline, but switched to a squeeze tube for the fill. The toothpick is definitely necessary not only to fill in corners, but to pop air bubbles and get the smoothest finish possible.

After another hour I added a few details in black and white. You can see on Kermit the Alligator that the the flood icing didn’t have enough water and ended up being bumpy, Stripey above him is a little better and finally the mix was right for Two-eyes.

I’m still far from matching the likes of the many gorgeous iced cookies out there, but I’m thrilled with initial results and excited to do this again!

Oh yeah and there were fish…

However the Ikea furniture is almost all built! Victory!

The dream

Fine fine, out of work with no incoming money doesn’t make buying a $300 stand mixer a great idea, but, but, but… With the move I haven’t been able to bake in awhile and the urge is fierce. Yes I can do with a hand mixer, but a boysenberry Kitchen Aid makes me swoon. Like pass out on a fainting couch because Colin Firth just proposed to me swoon.

We all need a bit of pure sexy in our kitchens.

Me: Shouldn’t we just pack things and worry about cable organization later?

R: It’s better to be organized before moving! Oooo this is a nice cable! This is a $50 cable!

Me: You have cables for products that don’t even exist any more!

R: <talking to himself> Oh! I forgot I had this one!

The next day I’m joking around with my friends about R’s cable obsession when the guys chime in with their support.

“Oh yeah I have TWO boxes of miscellaneous cables at home.”

The guys are actually trying to out cable each other!

“Hmmm I’ll have to check our your boyfriend’s cables! Sounds like he has a nice collection!”

Yesterday a box from Amazon arrived and R grabbed at it excitedly. I’m not even kidding, it was a new cable.

Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Recess at Takada Elementary

While I was teaching elementary school in Japan with little effort on my part I dropped about 50lbs over 2 years. Was it the amazing fish and rice diet? No way! Japanese food is rife with delicious fatty fried things. Was it not having a car? That helped, but it wasn’t the big factor. No the greatest thing for losing weight was the children. I literally ran part of my ass off and budded collar bones due to dodge ball, tag, and dancing around a classroom in order to keep the attention of 28 fidgety 3rd graders.

There are a lot of reasons why I gained back most of that weight (cry more! sob) since returning to the US, but I think the biggest killer has been my desk job. I spend almost 8 hours a day crunching spreadsheets into bite sized bits. I’m looking forward to getting back into the classroom and working off excess energy and pounds. While I spend the next few months unemployed and working on my credentials my plan is to live like I was teaching. Running, jumping, playing, and all around active. Anybody have any mobile quick toddlers they want me to watch?

I’m going to get a Seinfield calendar for activity (exercise? why does that word seem more daunting and evil?). I’ll aim for at least 30 min a day spent living like the hyper elementary school teacher I used to be.

For now I’ll post about anything and everything. Things on this blog might include my hobbies like baking and photography, my weird projects like gluing tiny jewels on a Gundam toy, my efforts to get healthy and lose weight, and my life as it continues to change and evolve.  Over time I assume I’ll split these up into separate blogs, or give up on certain subjects altogether.

For now let’s put on our metaphorical seat belts and enjoy the ride. Safety first!