I feel like it’s taken forever to get to July, and we’ve had so much good weather already that I am excited about how much more summer we have left. However, the weekends for July and August are filling up so quickly that I’m afraid it’ll all pass by before I know it.

Starting from last weekend, we had the best visitors in town for the 4th of July long weekend, and I have much to post about that. This weekend has officially started with lots of errands, since we’re moving at the end of the month. But…we also have lots of fun things kicking off. Tomorrow’s our first rowing league practice, which I’m excited about, and also a little scared (remember, I don’t swim…at least, not well). I also did some prep work for something else happening tomorrow, and here’s a sneak peek!!

I was also feeling quite decadent today in my flurry of kitchen prep, that I made the ice cream cones covered in sprinkles. A coworker and I were lamenting that as little kids, our parents never really let us get the waffle cones with chocolate and sprinkles. So I made them. I have quite a few issues with things I wasn’t allowed to have as a kid, and that might also be the reason why my mom ended up with three Easy-Bake ovens to give away when my sister and I moved away.

To make these, it’s quite simple:

1. Melt semi-sweet chocolate wafers in the microwave, and stir until smooth
2. Brush onto inside of a store-bought waffle cone (sorry, I cheated) with a small heat-proof spatula. Chill in freezer as you continue with the other cones.
3. Take out of freezer. Brush the outside rim with the chocolate, making sure not to put too thick of a coat on, and also not too deep (the sprinkles will add quite a bit of weight if you do too much chocolate).
4. Dab in a shallow pan covered in sprinkles, until the edges are all covered.
5. Chill again in freezer while you work on the others. Once you’re finished, give them a few more minutes in the freezer, then take out and wrap individually in parchment or wax paper. Store in a place where things won’t be squished.

Stay tuned for what all these fun things are for!!

First of all – if you’re in a position to help out, please give generously to those in Haiti who need all of our happy thoughts.

My charity of choice was the Canadian Red Cross, and it made me happy when the server crashed when I tried to donate – thanks, other donors who crashed the system with me!

Alright, Christmas is over, but somehow I’m still sitting next to my Christmas tree. This clearly shows that 2010 hasn’t officially started for me. The first couple of weeks have been busy catching up and finishing up some loose ends from 2009, so hopefully this weekend we’ll get around to taking down the tree, distributing the last of our presents, and on with 2010.

Lots of trips coming up, so I’ll be updating on those as I go! I’m heading down to NYC again in a week for a long weekend, and then to Vancouver for a, um, low-key hockey game during the Olympics. I’ll be back for a couple of months before heading up to Vancouver again for my bff’s wedding on May 1, and then who knows, I might actually squeeze in a REAL vacation not long after that.

I swear I won’t turn this blog into a starry-eyed, all-about-weddings discussion because that’s just so rude to those expecting me to continue to gush about food. However, because everyone’s been asking me casually (or seriously, haha) when we’re thinking of getting married, I’ll just say this – WOW weddings are expensive! Therefore, I have no conclusive plans/ideas, because first, I have to get over the big hurdle of setting a budget that we can actually live with. If I won’t spend $1,500 on a pair of awesome Louboutins that’ll last me at least a couple of years, why would I spend double that amount on a person who’s supposed to take photos of me for a couple of hours?? I’m not even photogenic!!

Alright, enough with the ranting, and on with 2010! Happy new year/happy 15th day of the year!

Fill out memes.

And watch Gus sleep.

• If I were a month, I’d be September
• If I were a day of the week, I’d be Saturday
• If I were a time of day, I’d be 7:30 A.M.
• If I were a planet, I’d be Earth (because The World Is Just Awesome^TM)
• If I were a sea animal, I’d be an otter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• If I were a direction, I’d be South
• If I were a piece of furniture, I’d be a large rustic dining table.
• If I were a historical figure, I’d be Coco Chanel
• If I were a liquid, I’d be water
• If I were a gemstone, I’d be a giant chunk of unpolished emerald
• If I were a tree, I’d be a Rainier cherry tree
• If I were a tool, I’d be an Allen key. Go IKEA!
• If I were a flower, I’d be lavender
• If I were a kind of weather, I’d be sunny
• If I were a musical instrument, I’d be a harp
• If I were a color, I’d be vintage pink
• If I were an emotion, I’d be giggly
• If I were a fruit, I’d be a mango from Taiwan
• If I were a sound, I’d be the orchestra tuning – bunch of A’s
• If I were an element, I’d be Gold
• If I were a car, I’d be the Batmobile
• If I were a food, I’d be a sweet potato
• If I were a place, I’d be a cozy backyard with twinkly lights
• If I were a material, I’d be yards and yards of organza
• If I were a taste, I’d be sweet and tart, like Sweetarts
• If I were a scent, I’d be mainly fruity, slightly floral, and a dash of baby powder
• If I were an object, I’d be an ice cream scoop
• If I were a body part, I’d be a shoulder
• If I were a facial expression, I’d be a toss-your-head-back kind of laugh.
• If I were a song, I’d be any Christmas song
• If I were a pair of shoes, I’d be mary janes

Time has flown by since October, and I can’t really tell you what I did this November, because it all went by like a blur. As of Friday, things have finally slowed down enough that I think I might get my personal life back, with no guarantee on how long it’ll be around for. Oh well, I suppose beggars can’t be choosers.

I’ve also been very behind on my holiday shopping. I’ve been picking up little things via Etsy since late November, but I really haven’t picked up anything that needs to reside under trees, to be opened on December 25. If I’m honest, most of the things purchased from Etsy ended up being for me, anyway. I have awesome arm-warmers to go with my 3/4 length sleeve coat, a beautiful cake pedestal, and a neck-warmer-esque scarf that I will probably end up giving away just because I don’t have enough presents. I attempted to shop yesterday for some presents, and I managed to get something little for Alex, while discovering a new work wardrobe for myself. I tried again today, and walked away empty-handed for others, but with a beautiful new winter coat for myself. I’m pretty sure I’ve blown my presents budget – on stuff for myself. Ughhhh.

Anyway, rant aside, I’m back, and I’m determined to catch up on all the festive joys I’ve missed (read: baking), so I’ll be making something new everyday until I go back to Vancouver on Christmas Eve – stay tuned for recipes!

I have emails in my Gmail inbox from Spends2Much from November 2007, October 2008, and again October 2009 trying to get people organized to sign up for the Visions of Sugarplums workshop at Dundurn Castle in Hamilton. After two years of not being able to get into the little workshop, this year we finally got in, with 6 people, no less! According to Wikipedia, a sugarplum is “a piece of dragée candy that is made of sugar and shaped in a small round or oval shape”. How cute does that sound? Therefore, with my own visions of sparkling fairy lights and candies in a fancy castle, I was super excited to make these legendary candies this morning.

We got to the castle, and were warned before descending to the basement (the servants’ quarters) about how dark it is down there. They weren’t kidding. However, it was totally quaint and cute and full of kitchen gadgets and a cool oven/stove thing that I think is referred to just as the “hearth”. We got to use the hearth for our baking. I could totally get used to baking in the dark with a hearth.

The hearth! And a pump! I don’t think any of us heard any explanation on the pump – it was too cool of a novelty for us to notice what the worse alternative might’ve been.

Sugar in a packaged in a cone! A cup measure was actually a tea cup!

Under gas lights and candles, we read the recipes of the day: gingerbread, shortbread, pudding, other British-sounding desserts. Finally, Lori piped up for all of us: “Where are the sugarplums?”

Oh, it’s a misnomer. Yes, they apologize, but they will change it next year. O-kay then, we were a little disappointed, but we were also immediately distracted by the Ginger Pudding – something that is tied up into a cheesecloth ball and boiled. Seriously, that goes against everything we know about having ovens on for hours during baking marathons over the holidays, so we had to try it!

Many inappropriate comments were made about these balls prior to dropping them in the boiling water on the hearth. When they came out, it was even funnier with the steam. Schwetty balls, anyone?

These tasted like semi-cooked wet dough, full of ginger and brown sugar and butter. Nothing wrong with that, especially with a buttery brown sugar and cider glaze!

We also made Scottish shortbread with one of these fancy Springerle molds, and as if that didn’t offer enough butter, we also made flaky cheesy cookies.

Afterwards, we did a tour of the castle. First of all, not a real castle – a large estate is more like it. The castle was decorated for Christmas, and it was neat to see some of the traditions being observed in Victorian times.

I thought this tree looked kind of tacky at first, but now, looking at this picture, it makes me happy.

That’s right, the original Easy Bake oven!!!!! This one probably functioned better than a lightbulb, too.

This totally reminded me of James Garfield.

Being silly with the cookies after they were done – love the sugar high!

It was a fun time, but a little part of me feels unfulfilled about not having anything in my bag about sugarplums. I have located a recipe from Saveur.com that I would like to try before Christmas. I’ll keep you posted!

If you think I’m quirky, you need to meet my mom.

Mom: You know how there’s just been a lot of wasps around this year?

Me: Mmm… (clearly not paying attention)

Mom: So one flew in yesterday when I was working with chocolate and landed in it.

Me: Ew. Gross.

Mom: Well that’s not the point. It sank into the melted chocolate and I had to scoop it out…

Me: *pictures my mom at work, with her little offset spatula, and the poor bee*

Mom: …and so it had six chocolate-dipped legs.

Me: Where is this conversation going?

Mom: So I felt bad because it couldn’t move because its legs were heavy with chocolate, so I thought maybe I’d get some water and give it a bath.

Me: You were going to give a bee a bath?

Mom: Well, no, because then I realized that the chocolate would harden on his legs with cold water and he’d be even more immobile!

Me: …

Mom: So then I left it alone for a while and couldn’t find it around anymore…and then I saw it again this morning in the store. It only had FOUR LEGS left.

Me: Wha?

Mom: I KNOW! I think the bee self-amputated in order to fly again!

Me: … Are we related?

Ever since the start of September, I’ve felt slightly shell-shocked about how quickly another summer went by. I remember moaning and groaning last summer about all the rain we got on the weekends, and going through a long winter after Christmas last year, wishing for an early spring. When the first strawberries hit the farmer’s market around my birthday, I was ecstatic…and now I feel like that was also just a couple of weeks ago!

This summer was especially busy for us, and I barely got time to share some of my favourite moments…

We survived a garbage strike that lasted for more than a month.

I went to a casino for the first time.

We made use of the BBQs in the common area a lot, and had some great get-togethers with friends.

Kingsley had his second birthday. Time flies.

Alex and I went to Coldplay. He had an amazing time. I realized the only concert that flutters my heart is, sadly, the Backstreet Boys. I can’t wait for them to come back to Toronto.

Alex and I went to New York City: survived the heat wave, got an extra night, and ran Central Park.

My Dad visited and opened many cans of worms.

My Mom visited and we went to Nova Scotia. I decided I like Vancouver more, but the lobsters are tempting.

We did the cottage thing for Labour Day Weekend, thanks to Kasia’s parents. New rule: thou shalt not ditch early on a cottage weekend. Clean-up should be a communal bitch.

And now summer’s drawing to a close and I was already chatting to the melon lady at the market about when her last weekend might be this year. Worse yet, next week’s Autumn Equinox, whatever that means.

Freezing the last batch of local berries so I can have little tastes of summer in the middle of snowstorms.

Conclusion: really must move to a place where I don’t act like a summer-deprived lunatic for 6 months of the year.

I wake up and shower. Then I make & pack our lunches. If I have time, I eat breakfast at home, too. I’m out the door at 8, and I get to work. I go through the piles of stuff waiting for me at work, with many breaks in between to check up on my Google Reader, my Gmail, and sometimes the news, too. Somewhere along there, my iTouch dies and I have to listen to crappy music I downloaded in 2002 for free. I get a surge of energy to work through more stuff at about 5pm when the office starts getting quiet. At 6pm my stomach protests enough that I go home, with the intention to continue working from home.

I get home at 7pm, and I eat dinner, watch some TV. Then I’m stuck in front of my computer checking Facebook and I lose the momentum I had to continue working. I drag my butt to bed.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

It’s not very fun these days as I’m working up towards a 3-week vacay – I have earmarked a couple more recipes to test for Cookie of the Fortnight, but have not gotten to them yet. So far the one I tested on the weekend is a maybe, with quite a few tweaks. I promise I’ll get to the recipes before I go on vacation!!

I’m going to Taiwan next week – will be blogging from the homeland, no worries! I can actually devote time to blogging, I think/hope. I’ll be gone for a total of 3 whopping weeks from work, and I’m quite nervous about it (as is the rest of my team as they eye the piles on my desk warily). I’ll be in Taiwan for two weeks, and then one week in Vancouver before returning. Let’s meet up if you’re reading this from the West Coast!!

It has also come to my attention that my Mac is so beautifully set up that my pictures actually look a bit funky (colour-wise) on other computers. I’ll fix that eventually. Meanwhile, no, I didn’t think I was going crazy editing my photos in Aperture. Until now.

For the past five Tuesdays, minus the one during Spring Break, I’ve been questioning my own sanity between the hours of 6:30 to 9:30 in the evening. You see, I’ve been taking an intermediate cake decorating class.

First, I had to learn how to roll fondant and cover a styrofoam block, for which I had gladly signed up.

Then they made us pipe 14 sets of strings onto this bloody 8″ square. FYI, the strings are dangling off their two endpoints. When you add four more on top of one, it kinda weighs all the strings down and makes them fall off!!

the completed work
i did not choose ANY of these colours

a close-up of the self-imposed stress

just in case you can’t appreciate the almost-heart-attacks yet

How do you do the strings upside down? Well, I’m glad you asked! You turn the freaking cake (styrofoam in this case) upside down, supported by another smaller styrofoam block.

We also spent 3 hours making tiny flowers.

We made enough to fill this completely edible flower basket.

When we got to tiny roses the size of dimes, I whimpered.
They were directly piped onto the flat ends of wooden skewers.

Then we stepped it up and made them on the sharp tips of toothpicks.

Finally, she convinced us to try them on wires.
This is where I gave up. These look nothing like roses.

I’m not sure if I’m an appreciator of delicate string work on wedding cakes.