The blind, deaf, half-lame, 14-year-old poodle is not so easily parted from her chewie. At least as long as she still has teeth.

Bear is Watching You

Baby Bear Cake

For Amy's Baby Shower















Mr. Bear enjoying the shower.

The unfortunate aftermath.

Seared chicken thighs and edamame with a wee splash of soy sauce.



I couldn't decide which pic I preferred.

I will say, though, that I think I prefer edamame plain, just eaten out-of-hand, like peanuts. It's really good.

Homemade Potato Salad and Shish Kebabs

Memorial Day, just enough sun to grill! Rick brought his delicious beans, I made mom's potato salad, and we grilled burgers and shish kebabs. I had to hold off the hungry mob to take these photos!

One of our landlord's chicken barns.

A blind shot of a birds' nest under the eaves of our porch.

Aww. Purple floweries.

Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

Second try at the berry cake, this time with blueberries (and some blackberries) and cooked at 325 instead of 400. This time it was perfect. Also...last time I forgot to put the sugar on top. The sugar adds a great crust on top!

Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit

1 Can Baked Beans -- (32 oz.)
1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
1 Medium Onion
1/4 Pound Bacon
1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

Fry Bacon and Onion, drain. Combine all and bake at 350 for one hour.

Double chocolate marble cake: not just for '70s church potlucks anymore.

Strawberry Jello Cake

Strawberry Jello Cake for Heather's Birthday bash. This was the cake I most often had for my own birthday :-)

Light Box

These are the clamp lights in question.

And the ghetto-fabulous box


Box with posterboard.


and the subject of our photo shoot today, some cerveza


cropped


beer and marble if you want to be extra fancy.



The whole thing probably cost $20.00, which is way cheaper than this.

Honey Wheat Bread

Honey Wheat Bread (made with my cousin's Pennsylvania honey)
2 1/2 C Bread Flour
3/4 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp salt
2 T butter
1 egg
1 cup + 1 T warm water
1 pkg yeast
2 T honey

Whisk dry ingredients together, add butter and the egg, combine the honey, yeast and water and then add. Combine and knead about 10 minutes. Let rise 1 hr. Form into two loaves, let rise again. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or so.

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

Cupcake Porn

Mojito Cupcakes

240 grams buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tbsp. dark rum
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
426 grams all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
227 grams/2 sticks butter, at room temperature
396 grams granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place a rack in the center of the oven.

Combine the buttermilk, rum and vanilla extract. Set aside.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sift and then set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar. Mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 4 to 5 minutes).

Reduce the speed to low, and add the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

With the mixer still on low speed, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix well.

Add half of the buttermilk mixture and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Mix for a minute or two.

Add another third of the dry ingredients (on low speed) and mix well.

Add the remainder of the buttermilk mixture, once again scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Mix for another minute or two.

Add the remainder of the dry ingredients (on low speed) and mix for a minute or two, until the batter is smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that all of the flour has been incorporated.

Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for about 15 minutes.

Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let cook for 5 minutes before poking holes in them with a skewer or toothpick. Immediately spoon the rum syrup over the warm cupcakes and let them soak it all up. Once they’ve cooled completely, you can ice them with the lime and rum frosting.

For the rum syrup:

198 grams granulated sugar
58.75 grams (1/4 cup) water
56.75 grams (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup dark rum
zest of one lime
a few sprigs of fresh mint (I crushed this a little with my fingers before adding, not sure if that actually helps or not)

In a small pot, combine the sugar, water and butter over medium-high heat.

Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring often.

Once the butter has completely melted and the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat.

Carefully add the rum. The mixture will bubble and spurt so take care not to burn yourself.

Once you’ve mixed in all the rum, add the lime zest and mint and let the syrup infuse for 5 minutes before spooning over the cupcakes.

For the lime and rum frosting (this was more than enough for the batch of cupcakes

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 sticks butter, at room temperature
114 grams icing sugar (I always sift this)
2 tbsp. dark rum
zest of 2 limes

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese and butter at high speed for 5 minutes.

Reduce the speed to low and add the icing sugar. Mix for a minute to incorporate the sugar and then increase the speed to high again and mix for another minute or two. The frosting should be light and fluffy.

Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the rum and the lime zest and mix at medium speed until well incorporated.

Green Beans
Pepper!
Strawberry blossoms

Da Bear

Roommate's rosies.

Spider web, mercifully sans spider.

Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening, butter flavored
1 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats (old fashioned)
1 cup raisins
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup chocolate chips, minis

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins, coconut and chocolate chips.

Bake them for 12 minutes or so.

Adapted from some recipe I found somewhere on the internet.

New Camera

Dudley Surveys His Domain