Baking Shenanigans. Master Degree.

First up!
As of this afternoon, I have been officially accepted into GRADUATE SCHOOL!
WOOOOOO!

To be honest, I was convinced that they would pass on me. I had no academic references (only professional) and my GRE math score was abominable (like, I'll cringe for the rest of my life when I think of it), but somehow those things didn't really come into play.

What I'd really like to say though, is that even if your academic plans veer slightly off track (i.e. having a baby), you can always go back to school and commence with kicking school's ass.
So now you know, and knowing is half the power. G.I. Joooooe...

...ahem

There was a good amount of random baking experiments this week.


Lemon Meringue Experiment, Take One.
As I'm trying to rework my pie, I threw one together with diced strawberries in the curd.
I do not recommend.

It wasn't a complete disaster, but the strawberries added too much moisture to the filling and the results were creepy and tart. Also, since I'm not accustomed to making just a single pie crust, I wound up leaving out half of my shortening and that my friends, that was the disastrous part.

Lemon Meringue Experiment, Take Two.
A few days later I needed to prove to myself that I actually can make a single pie crust, with all the shortening it deserves. So I did. This time around we only had one lemon (I usually use the juice from two), but we did have that juicy little half-breed, the Minneola Tangelo. So I used the juice from one lemon, about a 1/4 cup, and the same amount from the tangelo.
The results?

Eh....so, so?

Delicious, yes. But I was hoping for more of a blend, you could barely taste the tangelo. I'd really like to tinker with the recipe more, especially since the Minneola Tangelo is from the Orlando area (where the pie championship will be, geography points?) but we're running out of patience and tooth enamel. We'll just have to wait and see.


*By the way, that lemon meringue pie image is definitely not mine. I'm still without my card reader and I've come to the realization that camera phone pictures of food do not look appealing, in any way. Unless you're in really great natural light, which I am obviously not.

Cheers!

Midge.

This past weekend we took an exciting trip to the mall. (Woohoo! Saturday nights!) To make it even more spectacular, we actually just went to the mall to pick up some underwear for my husband. I know, it doesn't get any more fascinating than that, right?

We found ourselves in Pottery Barn kids and Ella did the strangest thing. She walked over to a barrel full of toys and grabbed this 2 foot tall stuffed animal. Which doesn't sound completely strange, but I guess you'd have to know that our baby does not attach to anything, most of the time not even to her parents. So we were completely taken aback by Ella stomping around the store, with the sides of this toy crammed into her chubby little fists. Needless to say, we splurged and bought her this guy:

That's 20 inches of hot pink, corduroy mouse- named Midge.
And no, there's no buyer's remorse here. I am ridiculously in love with the fact that my child now has a dance partner her size and that she has someone else's mouth to force feed crackers into, but the hot pink really threw me.

Here's my theory.
Never try and avoid certain colors when preparing for a baby.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the color pink, but I certainly haven't been its most avid fan. And I definitely did not fill little baby girl dressers with it. Needless to say, I was surprised when she completely bypassed the super tall green owl and toddled full speed towards the hot pink mouse.
You just can't run away from the color pink. Your baby girl will find it and she will looove it. Lurve it, even.


Sometimes though, especially late at night, I'm afraid Midge might go all Velveteen Rabbit on our asses.

Pillows. Pies. Valentines.

Goodness. It's been a busy week.
Here's what I've been up to.
I know, I know...the picture quality sucks.
I've been without my card reader, so camera phone pictures it is.

For some reason I've been on a pillow making rampage. I'm actually an awful seamstress so my finished pillows wound up being all kinds of wonky, but they're for Ella's room. So wonky's okay by me...or her. Whatever.


I also made a Valentine's Day pie. Cherry, obviously.


I guess you could say I'm in the process of "training" for the National Pie Championships. Woohoo! (Man, I am a baking nerd.) Currently I'm trekking along, trying to master my recipes and get my time management in check. 3 hours? Two pies? Huzzah!
Can I bake you a pie? No, seriously. Can I? Eat my pie!

OH! Valentine's was ridiculously awesome. I woke up to 99 red balloons, literally, in my living room.
It was perfect. When I was younger, I used to have major issues with grand gestures of romance. I'm pretty sure my husband kicked me of the habit, or maybe he just spins it into something quirky and digestible.

We're also still waiting to hear back from Tennessee's Graduate Program. It's sticky pins and needles kind of stuff. I hate having the What's Next conversation with myself.
"But this is Plan B. There is no Plan C. Oh shit, there's no C?!"
My fingers are crossed and my breath is held. Eep.

On a much lighter note though, Happy Chinese Year!


Look at how white that baby is. Even in a changshan. Who would've guessed?

Cheers!

New new-ness.

Wow.
New resolution to update more often.
Which essentially translates to finding more time for myself.
Sweet, sweet selfish me time.

Here's the quick and dirty.

In September, Ryan and I were married again.
It was crazy stressful, awkward in all the right places and ridiculously awesome.

The only thing my mom and I fought over was the whole pie vs. cake ordeal.
Our compromise went something like this:

D: Fine, I'll have a cake. But it needs to be awesome.
M: Deal. What kind of cake do you want?
D: Kenyah tribal battle shield!

Exhibit A: Shield from my mom's family (the ones in the jungle).


Exhibit B: Battle Cake!


Huzzah! Everybody was happy!
And hopefully I scored some points with my long lost headhunter ancestors. Which is never a bad thing, right?

After the wedding Ryan made a huge career change and picked up a shiny new job (salary and benefits and daytime hours, oh my!) Although deep down, he'll always be my favorite salty bartender.

The holidays came blazing around the corner in a rush of too much food, lots of family time and a whole lotta pie.
Ella's birthday was on the tail end of the season and we celebrated at home and at my friends' wedding.
She was pretty much the sleepiest kid throughout the entire weekend. Although, she did manage to shake her stuff at the reception. Just a bit.

And as of right now?
We're the proud parents of a full blown toddler, whose favorite thing, as of today, is walking backwards in circles.

And to honor Ella's first 12 months of life, here's a group of pictures I call "Thanks for being such a good sport about all of this!"




And maybe just one that's not completely silly.


Cheers!

Two more things.

Laughing at the raspberries.



Moments later.
Attempting her own raspberries.




Honestly, I never thought I'd post about all things baby.
I can't help it.
I am very much in love.

Most Colorful Post. Ever.

It's been a month full of milestones here.
First up, we had Ella sitting up by herself.
And then everything kinda snowballed after that.
She's in love with the solid foods. Like a lot.
Like she lurves them.
After the sitting up and the solid foods, we felt that it was our
parental duty to buy her the most colorful toy ever.
Seriously.
It's funny.
Before I became a Mom, I have to admit that I had this impression
that I wouldn't be the type to run out and buy all these colorful baby toys,
that somehow I would be able to have a very modern
and streamlined look to the house.
Minimalistic toys, neutral tones, a place where people would come over and say, "It doesn't even look like a baby lives here!"

I laugh at the pre-baby me. I laugh hard.













Well, following the new toy purchase she's also decided to be a mover and shaker.
Well, more appropriately she's a roller over.
In a matter of 24 hours, her play area went from a 2x2 play mat to the entire living room.
She's not crawling, but she's mobile.
She'll get there by rolling.
To be completely honest, it's really hard to believe how quickly she's changing.
I was under the impression that we could take things slow.
It hits the hardest when I see my Mom holding her, since Ella is almost half Sr. Rose's height.
It's pretty unreal.

Moving along.
Here's the beginnings of my wedding project.



I'm in the process of folding 1000 paper cranes.
It's an old Japanese legend, that the folder gets a wish. But y'know, I just like cranes.
Signs of fidelity and good luck and whatnot.
And, they're pretty cost effective reception decorations. Woot budget-ness!
The only problem I have is that I'm not sure where to store them.
That's a box of 30 or so.
I might have a closet full of cranes come September. Which is creepy.
It's weird though, I've found that folding these is surprisingly calming.
I might actually be asian after all.

Oh goodness.
I guess I fall into the category of "slow to update/not awesome at the blogging" category.
Eh...I'm not really complaining. I never update my facebook status, so it seems a little lofty to expect blog-consistency.
Currently, I am knee-deep in wedding plans.
For those scratching their heads saying, ,"...but I thought you already were married?"
Yes. I am. Legally.
But with Sister Rose for a mom, technically we're not reeeeeeally married, since a ceremony never took place in a church.

As of Easter, Ryan became a shiny new Catholic and thus began the plans for our Big Drunk Catholic Wedding.

After looking through a slew of all things wedding, I figured I could probably rock some entries about these plans.

Our budget is itty bitty, ridiculously itty bitty. Like you have no idea how itty bitty.
And if we can somehow pull this off, with 100 people fed and somewhat tipsy....I will be so proud of us and of all the friends we wrangled in to help.
It's something that'll be DIY to the extreeeeeeme and we've got 3 months.
Pictures of progress we'll be up, as soon as progress is made.
Woooooo!

As of right now, I'm looking for a super cropped green cardigan sweater.
Why green? Initially I wanted to wear an ivory colored sweater, but my Mom so
tactfully replied, "WHHHHAAA.....you cannot wear white on your wedding day!"
(All while overzealously pointing and head-nodding towards my baby.)
So...green it is.

Huzzah and also, hurrah.

I'll update more. I sorta promise.