Football-Houston Style

I haven't mentioned it yet, but I'm a football fan.  Back in the day, I would spend Sundays watching nothing BUT football.  Well, that and taking naps.  I used to take a lot of naps now that I think of it... Anyway, I've had favorites over the years, but I always support the home team.  It's been difficult sometimes (you people in Dallas know what I'm talking about... ) but at the end of the day you gotta' support the local boys right?  Luckily, the past two seasons have been reeeaal easy here in Houston.  And in case you didn't know, we've got a big game coming up...and it's not at home.  And it's against a team that's also 7-1.  And they've got Brian Urlacher.  So, in anticipation of the game I made up some cookies to keep everyone at our house inspired.  I should warn you that my original idea just involved cookies for my favorite player, but my children (and husband) talked me out of it.  Apparently I'm the only one in our house that has an all-abiding obsession  appreciation of J.J. Watt.  Wattever.

Oh, and if you want to see some amazing cookies (and cake pops, and all-around fabulousness), you should check out what Bakerella and one of her friends did for last year's Superbowl!  Clearly I'm not trying hard enough!

Sweet and Sour

I like to think that there always needs to be an offset to the sweetness of life.  And, while I was thinking of keeping these posts purely food-oriented, I found that offset last night as I channel-surfed.  It's called Snooki...and her own personal fragrance collection.  Enough said...well, enough before it turns into a rant. 

And this is why I always have a container of ganache handy...

Apparently my house is some sort of time-space nexus where time is reset everyday.  I'm sure if I thought about it hard enough I could pull in a Star Trek reference, but typing this post is the best I can do for now.  I can only assume some sort of temporal disturbance (oh, maybe some wormhole activity associated with the dishwasher???) to explain the fact that, each day, my children are completely blindsided by reminders to brush their teeth, brush their hair and do their homework.  I'm no rocket scientist (as evidenced by my lack of awesome Star Trekness here), but you'd think that this information would sink in eventually...therefore, I think that it must be the time-space continuum, and not them.

As a solution, I'll be making a chart complete with numbers associated to tasks, so I only have to say "number 3" and they can look at the chart to see "brush teeth."  Or "number 47-don't hit your brother with a golf club."  All of which will be eventually followed by   "number 2"...because that's how this makes me feel.

Is that the only reason I keep ganache so handy?  No, of course not.  But it is the reason it's right in the front of the fridge...next to the beer.

So, I was in total geek mode on Saturday. 
(It's at this point that my friend Carlos would ask if there was a Star Trek convention in town...)
Bridget Edwards of Bake at 350 had a book signing for her new Decorating Cookies cookbook.  And, while I normally don't buy books these days (I'm a total library junkie), I packed up my children for the hour-ish drive and went to get one!  The book signing was wonderful-Bridget was everything that she seems on her website: funny, gracious, and she took time to talk to each and everyone who came to see her.  In addition, she had her sister (of the Bride of Frankenstein post-whose hair looked great BTW), her son and her husband all helping out. 

I left feeling inspired and (sadly) wayyyy overconfident in my cookie abilities.  I did however have some success in copying one of her designs for a friend who just had a little boy.  I knew I wanted to make some onesie (you know, the outfit) cookies, but was so happy to see that she had her own designs in my brand new book.  Seriously, I had the book for less than a day and it was already paying off with new ideas!  If she'd only put in lottery numbers...Anyway, here's a picture of my finished product-not as great as hers, but still not too bad.  And that's just from my first day with her book...


So, if you need some inspiration, or even a little help getting started go get this book! 
Oh, and send me the winning lottery numbers too please.

I spent the other day making Halloween cookies after being inspired by some of my favorite blogs. 

I'm just getting started here, so I feel like there's this whole family of people that come together, hang out, and are just generally fabulous and I'm like the waiter at the party who left her cummerbund in the car and now can't even get back in to serve cute little appetizers and eavesdrop.  Is that too random a reference??? 

Anyway, after most of the day of icing, waiting on icing, watching Bones, icing some more, I really only ended up with one cookie that I really liked, and two that I was on the fence about.  I hopped of the fence when I showed them to my son this morning and he actually laughed out loud.  I've still got so much more work to do before I can make it anywhere near the "big" party, but at least it's a start.

Oh, and if you have nothing to do you should totally check out what some of the cool people are doing (and tell them I said 'hi'):
I am Baker
LilaLoa
The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle
Bake at 350 (who also has a new book out that looks great!)

Ganache Jones-I imagine myself in a really cool 70's movie with Richard Roundtree.  He's making the streets safe from crime, while I scour the streets and back alleys (and kitschy over-priced boutique restaurants) for diabolically frosted sweets.  Oh, sure the streets are tough and that's why he carries a gun.  But I'm no less intimidating with my...spatula.  A lethal spatula that's illegal in 7 states (and Puerto Rico).  At least that's how this goes in my head with a very impressive voice-over by Samuel L. Jackson of course.

Or, it's that feeling that comes over me at least once a week: a ganache jones.  Come on, you've had it too right?  When a Snickers or 4, or a batch of chocolate chip cookies just won't cut it?  You need something dark, deadly, so sinfully sweet it could make your face melt.  Yeaaahh, that's it.

That's not all that I'm about, but it's not a bad intro.  Sadly, I'm not usually one for coming up with fabulous recipes or things like that, but I know where to find them so can send you their way.  Because Ganache Jones may be deadly, but she's not completely heartless.