It's Not Goodbye... It's See You Later

Well Friends, today's the day. The movers are going to the house and packing up. Josh came in on Friday, and the weekend has been a crazy whirlwind trying to get everything organized for the movers. We had to seperate all of our stuff (what's going now vs. what's staying), get the house kinda organized, prepare his truck for the drive, etc... As of tonite, I will be in the house with the puppies, some clothes, and a few extra things which I insisted on taking myself. It was kinda tough, deciding what I was ok with living a month without, making sure it would all fit in my little car, but I think we got it all sorted. It helps that the house here is in some ways its own entity, so there are a lot of things that "live in the house". There are plenty of dishes, pots and pans, and towels. There's a bed, and the rooms have drawers built into the walls. There's a futon, a kitchen table, a miniature couch (not a loveseat, more like a really really wide chair), even a tv and dvd player. It should be about as comfortable as living in the dorms in college (we had really nice dorms...). The one thing that I will be missing is a computer. Yes, my friends, Josh is taking the computer, and since my laptop met its rather untimely demise earlier this year, I will be blog-less while at home.
I will still be working, so I will not disappear completely. Things at work are starting to be more and more crazy as I work to organize things for whoever comes to take my place. All this to say, I may take something of a haiatus for a while. I'll try to update as I can, but it may not be very frequently. So, it's not goodbye, it's just see you later :)

My Husband Rocks

Before I start telling you all about the wonderful hubby, you should all know that Katy Lin is having a contest this week in honor of her 1 year anniversary :) You should go check it out!Ok, now then, *ahem*, I've been thinking this past week a lot about the ways in which Josh takes care of me. He wants to make sure that I'm ok, and that I have everything that I need. It's been difficult for him to be away for so long (not just because he misses the small tornadoespuppies), but because it's hard for him to not be here to take care of me. Every time I talk to him he asks about the puppies and he asks about the house. At one point, I commented that if the puppies die, or if the roof blows off, I would probably tell him. He responded with, "I know, but I'm not there to take care of things, you're all alone, and I want to make sure that everything is ok." It struck me then that he didn't check on these things daily only because he was actually worried about them, but because he was worried about me. He's so awesome at fixing anything and everything that goes wrong, not because he has to, not because it's "his job", but because he wants to take care of me.Also, my hubby rocks because he'll be back in town tonight! YAY!!!The End.

On a totally unrelated note, I'm a guest blogger today! Pop over to Blog Around the World to check out my awesomeness :D

A True Story

Not too long ago in the not-so-distant past, I was making my way across the parking lot and into Big Lots (which, in this town, is found as a part of a shopping strip). On my way into the store, I noticed a vehicle with its lights on. Being the good citizen that I am, I decided to do my small part to inform the owner. What follows is an actual account of the conversation that I had as a result. The involved parties are the random worker who happened to be the first worker whom I saw upon walking into Big Lots (from henceforth known as RW) and me.

Me (to RW): Ummm excuse me...?
RW: *really annoyed and disgusted look*
Me: Ummm... I was wondering if you had any sort of speaker system or anything in the store for making announcements.
RW: *slightly blank really annoyed and disgusted look*
Me: Well, you see, the reason that I was wondering is that there's a black Honda out there with its lights on, and I thought maybe you could announce it in case they're in the store.
RW: Just because they're parked in the parking lot doesn't mean they're in the store.
Me: Ummm... *slightly stunned look*
RW: You see, there are lots of other stores around, they could be in one of those.
Me: Uhhh... yeah, I guess that's true...
RW: *Supreme look of Superiority before turning her back on me*
Me: Ok, well, thanks.

The End

And yes, I do tend to use "ummm" a lot when I'm in a situation involving people whom I don't know.

Sad Story

So... I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon perfecting a (super amazingly cute fabulously adorable) notecard craft for some future T3. Let me tell you, SO CUTE! It's lovely, and I wish I knew more people so that I could send them out to everybody. Anyway... in preparation for any how-to or tutorial, I like to complete a nice, finished product, and then take all of my pictures and everything as I recreate it. This way, I have two variations to show, and it helps me to perfect the method before tossing it out there for you.
Moving on... so I finished it, and it was lovely. So sweet, exactly how I wanted it. I left it on the table beside our couch so that I could photograph it today after completing a second one (do you see where this is headed yet?).
So this morning, I'm doing my thing, getting ready, and I notice that my house is completely quiet. Now, as all of you mommies out there know, quiet is often not a welcome sound, if you catch my drift. When I realized how still the house was, it struck me as odd because the beasties puppies generally use the mornings while I'm getting ready to release some of their energy. As in, normally I get ready to the sweet sounds of them playing, play-fighting, and knocking each other into various pieces of furniture. ***Editor's Note: At this point, I would like to say, I am in no way comparing the fiends puppies to children, I was merely stating that there are a few similarities between having a toddler in the house and having two dogs in the house.***
So this morning, when I heard none of these raucous, usual sounds being emitted from my living room, I felt the dread begin. I'm sure you understand. That feeling when you know you have to go check it out, but you just know that you really, really don't want to see... Yeah... Well naturally, I walk into the living room to find my wonderfully fanciful, sweet, whimisical, lovely note card torn to shreds and half-devoured and two happy, sweet, calm puppies enjoying their morning treat.
It's a sad story.
The End.

Try This Tuesday

…or, as it will henceforth be known, T3.
Ok Friends, today I’m going to try a little something. I’m kinda nervous. I would like to start up a recurring event that will be called “Try This Tuesday” (because I like alliteration). It could also be called “Trust Me Tuesday”. I have often found in my travels and the like, that when I suggest projects, recipes etc… to my friends, they will laugh and say, ‘Oh, hahaha, that’s wonderful… but I don’t think that mine would turn out like that.” The problem (I’ve found) is that many people like to stick to what they know, and sometimes my ideas are slightly out there. Anyway… today I want to talk to you about sewing. I’m going to take you through a super easy, super cute project just to kinda ease our way in (this will not be the last time you see my sewing machine). One of the things that I love about this project is that not only is it functional, but I made more than one mistake while doing it. Now, I can hear you saying, “what? You made mistakes? How do we know it’s safe to follow your instructions? Why are you showing us this terrible atrocity?” The reason, my friends, is that I want to show you that sewing isn’t always about getting it perfect (I’m pretty sure my sister just disowned me for saying that :/). It’s not scary. Don’t be afraid that you’re going to mess it up. Trust me :D By now I’m sure you’re just totally on the edge of your seats wanting to know what I’ll be trying to convince you to do today. So here it is…(Oh! And I apologize in advance for the horrendous picture quality. The lighting in my casa is not what you would call stellar for the picture taking.)

From T3

You can see that I obviously use mine to hold my makeup brushes. This would also be super cute to hold pens and pencils, paint brushes, markers, crayons, get creative! And it’s really insanely easy.
To start, you’ll need a piece of fabric. It should be barely longer than you want the end product to be, and tall enough that you have room for whatever you’re putting in it as well as some extra to function as a flap over the top, savvy?
The first thing you’ll do is pin and iron down the edges where your hem will be.

From T3

Now, with your sewing machine, sew along the top and the bottom (for this project, I used a wavy stitch because it matches my makeup bag). Go ahead and trim off any excess fabric (you’ll notice I almost always have a ton of extra fabric along my hems… It makes me feel better. I don’t know why.
Ok, here you get to see my first mistake! When you sew your bottom hem, the sides get sewn down as well. At the time, I totally thought that this was going to lead to major problems, so I cut the fabric to free the side…

From T3

Turns out that wasn’t really necessary, but all’s well that ends well I suppose. Anyway… From here, fold up the bottom hem so that it forms a pocket (make this as deep as you need it to be depending on what you’re going to be using this for). Contrary to normal sewing behavior, you’re going to fold this so that the raw edges are inside. As in, you will sew it exactly how it’s going to stay. Savvy? (At this point, I will need to show you a photo that may or may not have been taken when I was at this step, so ignore the superfluous seams at the bottom. I will explain those momentarily.

From T3

Go ahead and pin, iron, and sew the sides so that you end up with a nice pocket. Turn it inside-out so that you can trim up the excess fabric, then flip it right-side out again. You’re almost done! Now, take one (or two) of whatever you’re going to be putting in here, and determine how big the little pockets need to be. Take a pencil and draw out where you want your pockets to end up.

From spare time

Now just sew along those lines

From spare time

At this point, I realized another mistake that I had made… I made it way too long. So I simply cut it off where I wanted it to end and sewed another side hem (recognize the picture?)

From spare time

All you have to do now is attach the ribbon. I suggest filling the pockets, rolling it all up, and wrapping a piece of ribbon around it to determine how much you’ll need. I wanted my ribbon to go around twice, so I measured for that.
Unroll your pocket, and take everything out.
The last step is to sew the ribbon on to one of the sides so that it stays put.
You’re done!
See, wasn’t that fun?! And soo not difficult?

***If there is something that you have been dying to try, but are a little nervous about, let me know, and I'd be glad to try it for you first :)

Decisions, Decisions...

From A Life of Delight

Ok so... I've been thinking a lot recently about this whole "moving" thing. Now, I'm insanely ridiculously excited about moving. It's been way way too long since I've had a proper adventure. It's getting close enough now, though, that I'm really starting to look around the house and think about what is going, what is staying, etc. I mean, the movers are coming next Monday. EEK! For those who don't know, the plan goes a little something like this... Josh is coming in town this weekend. He'll get in Friday night (YAY!). Monday, movers will come pack up the majority of our stuff (furniture, appliances, most clothing, books, pots, pans, etc...). They will take it all away Monday. Tuesday, Josh will head out. He'll get up there and find us a home. I will stay here (with the mini-monsters puppies. I will continue working (building up our savings just a wee bit more). Once Josh finds us a place (and hopefully gets most of our stuff in), I'll start the journey up there (this will probably be at the end of October or the beginning of November). SO, what this means is, I need to figure out what I have to have to live for a month, but it all has to fit in my car along with the puppies' little kennels. Anyway... all this thinking about moving made me think about some things.
First, I'm changing time zones! I mean, I've moved a lot, but I've never moved out of the central time zone. What does this mean?! I don't even know.
Second, it's like a 17 hour drive, so I feel like it makes sense for me to break it into two days. This is the part where all of you come in. Anybody know the area around Kingsport, TN (it's about halfway) very well? Hotel suggestions? Puppy-friendly hotels? Areas of the city to avoid? Any advice would be much appreciated :D
Also, ohmygoodness, I'm so stinking excited about road-tripping :D I LOVE driving! I love long drives (especially to part of the country that I haven't driven in before). I'm so jazzed!
Well... now that you know the story of my life... Happy Monday!

MHR Friday

So... This is my first week to participate in Katy Lin's "My Husband Rocks Friday", and I'm pretty excited :) I think it such a great idea (if you want to learn more about it, click that button at the top of this post)!Since it's something that has been on my mind a ton lately, I'd like to talk about Josh and the Air Force. Now, for me, this is one awesome adventure, and I'm so excited to be in on it. I often forget to stop and look at it from his perspective. So today, I'd like to let everyone know that my husband totally rocks because he willingly "signed his life away" for the next four years to enter the armed forces. He agreed to go wherever they told him to go, even if that meant that he would be leaving everything familiar to him and moving far away from his family. He agreed to go to a war zone and endanger his life if they asked him to. He agreed to do whatever they told him he was going to do (granted, he's a nurse, so there's only so much wiggle room there...). He agreed, because it's what he thinks (we both think) is best for us right now. He agreed because it will help us get out of debt (yay student loans for a private university :/). He agreed because he knew that it was something that I was excited about. He agreed because he loves me. So today, I'm going to remember to tell him how much I love him. I'm going to remind myself that this is a huge leap of faith for him. And today, that is why my husband rocks :DAnd... Mushiness Over. For my next post, I will return to my usual ego-centric non-mushy self :DOh, and by the way, for all of you out there waiting on the edge of your seats, Josh is doing great. They did a mock deployment this past week, so he got a (very small) taste of the types of situations he might be put in. He seems to really be enjoying himself, now that he's gotten his bearings. He has one last test coming up, but he's done so well on the previous ones that I'm not really worried. And he's coming home (for like three days) in one week! YAY!

I'm Living in Denial

Ok so... yesterday,Debbie asked everyone how tall they are. Now, this isn't something that I would've ever thought about asking, but it's seriously interesting. So I left my comment, and then I continued to check back throughout the day to see where I stood (haha, stood, height... am I the only one who thought that was funny?) compared to everyone else. I've got to tell you, I continue to be surprised by my non-average height. Now, I'm just over 5' tall, and I can acknowledge that most people are taller than me. My head wraps around that concept. Somehow I don't connect that with reality, though. I mean, if you put me in a room with somebody who's my height, I'll feel like I have to look down to look at them; stick me in a room with somebody who's 5'4", though, and I feel like they're my height. Is this normal? In fact, I often don't realize that my friends are taller than me until I see a picture of me with them. Exhibit A...

From spare time

Until I saw this picture, I didn't realize that I wasn't the same height as everybody else. Is that normal? Does anybody else have this problem? Just curious.

Note To Self

From Kiroli

Ok, hypothetically speaking, if, at any time in the near future, I think that it's really nice outside and I want to do something nice for the terrors puppies, so I decide to take them to the park after work. Would somebody please remind me that I'm probably not the only one enjoying the weather. I mean, I like the weather, the puppies seem to like the weather, and, oh yeah, the mosquitoes are loving the weather too. Because I live in Louisiana, and it's September, and I go to the part just before dusk, and the park is by a pond! So maybe it would be a good idea to use some bugspray, because if I don't, there's a good chance that I will be followed by a swarm (I'm so not even exaggerating here) of the little blood suckers from the moment that I step out of my car to the moment that I get back in. This, by the way, seriously ups my chances of that whole West Nile Virus, which I'm so completely not ok with. Also, I'm not a fan of inhaling the bugs that have formed a cloud around me. I just don't like it! So anyway... if someone could just remind me of that. Hypothetically speaking. That would be great.

Delightful

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm totally a re-poster. This is a post that is acutally a re-post of a repost. It's kind of the explanation of my blog title, and I think that it's important. So anyway... I originally wrote this about 3 years ago while in college (while I still had a xanga, yeah, I did :/). It is in response to Psalm 37:4 which says "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."

David says that we are to DELIGHT ourselves in the Lord, yeah? On a total side note for a moment, every translation that I have ever read has translated that word as delight, now...that strikes me as something worth looking at. Well, so...I love words, and I was really kinda wanting to understand the full definition of delight, so I went to my dictionary... now, the definition of delight is something like, find pleasure in, to please, something fluffy. So I said to myself, "hmmm...well, I feel like God wants us to find more than a happy squishy feeling when we think of HIM." Now maybe I'm wrong there, but that's my thought. So...I checked out some synonyms of delight. There were some kinda boring ones that didn't really do much for me, pleasure, joy, blegh whatever, yeah? Ok, so then I saw enthral. Now, as I said, I love words, and the more specific a word is and the more able it is to paint and sculpt and entice emotion the more I absolutely love it. Well, for me, enthral has always kinda been one of those words. I mean, for me it envokes this awesome sense of being completely consumed by something, to the point of not being able to see anything that was outside of the agent of the enthralling, the person or thing that held one enthralled. Ok, so...I already had this image in my head of a person being completely captivated beyond the point of release by anything that they were enthralled with, but I wanted to find the actual definition of enthral. Now here's where it gets really cool to me...the actual meaning of enthral is "To reduce to bondage or servitude; to make a thrall, slave, vassal, or captive of; to enslave." At first glance, I feel like this has a really negative connotation, but it really doesn't! I mean, when you think of enslavement, the first thing that comes to my mind is a sort of beating into submission, but that's not what this is saying at all! This is just saying that you are completely held captive to be made into a slave, but it doesn't say that you were forced there, you just are. You choose to be made a captive. How awesome that we are given the opportunity to be enslaved by the sheer awesomeness of God. We are told to delight ourselves in the Lord. Delight is such an amazing concept of sheer and utter giddiness. Now, imagine if you were completely captivated by that giddiness. You were so filled with joy over God that you were made into a slave by sheer adoration and excitement. Now that is awesome. I think that I would be ok with being delighted, being captivated, being enslaved by God and His awesome wonder...I would be more than ok. I would be complete.

So now, I have made it my goal in life to live with delight, to live my life in complete delight of the Lord... it's a work in progress :)

*Grin*

STOP! Take my poll. It's over there <---, above my profile.
Ok, now continue :)
First, I would like all of you to partake in my joy in the fact that when I stumbled out of bed this morning to take the puppies out, it was cool out. As in... I was a little sad that I had just rolled out of my nice warm bed and was standing outside in my pjs cool... Now, I know that it won't stay this way. I'm sure that this is just leftovers from Ike or something like that, but still... It was a nice change of pace. I kinda like not sweating by 7 AM. It was a nice little change. I'd also like to talk about this...

I'm ever so mildly in love with it. See, I have this thing for mustard yellow... and with this nice warm plaid... *sigh*... I've been needing a new bag. Mine is fabulous, gun-metal gray, shiny "patent leather", the perfect size and shape... but alas... I've used it till it's at the end of its life. the handles are peeling, and the zipper pulls are breaking. It's time to move on. I can accept that. And to ease my suffering... I have this pretty little jewel! I'm just so happy with it :)

Moving on... Happy Monday!

Me and My Hand

You know, I've been thinking recently that I really love all my new bloggy friends. Josh makes fun of me for being totally anti-social except when it comes to the blog world (and it's true...). You have all become a very real support system to me in ways that you may never know. Sometimes I think about this and how funny it is that I've never met any of you in person (well, except for my IRL friends who come play :)). I mean, I feel like you can tell a lot about a person by their physical traits (no, I'm not saying that I judge people by their outward appearance, it's just that it's interesting to see the body and soul combined, you know?). Anyway, today I've decided that I'd like to share a little bit of me with you. So today I give you, my left hand. You excited yet? You should be. Anyway...

From spare time

This is my left hand. It says that I'm married to a wonderful hubby who loves me. It says that I'm pasty white and the only reason I go outside is so that the puppies' bladders don't explode. It says that I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that I'm not really afraid of needles, or being labeled (which, by the way, I told Lula that I would tell the harrowing drama of my tattoo one day, and I will, just not today). If you look closely, it says that I keep my fingernails short (a spill-over from the decade during my childhood in which I played piano and had to keep them trimmed at all times). If you saw it in person, you'd see that I have small fingers (as in, when I picked up my wedding band from the jewelers, he asked me if it was a child's ring) which is fine since I'm just barely over 5' tall. You can't really tell in this picture, but at the moment the fingernail on my ringfinger has a small dent in it from where I nearly sliced my finger open the other day (thank you Jesus for giving us fingernails!). If you flip it over, there's still a faint remnant of the callouses that used to inhabit my hands at the base of my fingers from the years that I was a gymnast.
Well, I suppose that's about the extent of what this hand'll tell you... Anyway... Have a happy day!



***Seven years ago today, I was sitting in Physics, waiting for Dr. Bottrell to start class. He walked in, turned on the tv and said, "Some things are much more important than Physics". I haven't forgotten.***

Ahhh... Autumn...

I love Autumn (really, I love whatever season comes next, if you know what I mean)(not that I'm experiencing it yet, as I wouldn't call 95 degrees autumn, but whatever, everyone else is talking about it, and I like living vicariously through the seasons in the rest of the world). It's such an exciting time of the year. It makes me think of being a kid, going to school, plaid, books, the thrill of changing weather... I also really love the colors of autumn. Like the colors in this...

From spare time

I also love that after Gustav, my yard is putting on some really great September clothes. Like these that have sprouted all over my yard...

From spare time

From spare time

and these (these are my favorites!)

From spare time

Mostly I love that so many of the flowers are red! And that I don't have to do anything to make them grow (this is especially good considering my extremely potent ability to kill all plant life placed into my care (I'd like to remind everyone of the Man-Eater. The one thing Josh told me when we moved into this house, the one thing that he said was most important, he told me not to kill the Man Eater and everything else would be ok. He said that it was very special and that I shouldn't worry cause it had lasted 40 some-odd years up to this point, and surely it would be fine. Yeah, well... tell that to the Man Eater corpse that's sitting in my backyard waiting to be burned (I mean, you can blame it on the fact that it bloomed and that's what happens, but I know it was me))).
That's all. :D

Craft Time!

Ok Kids, on today's show, I'd like to talk a little bit about magnets. Now, I'm sure none of you have this problem, but in my house, there is a serious lack of strong magnets on the fridge. We have some of those flat ones that are cool, but can't really hold a sheet of paper up, but we only have like 2 that can do their job. Anyway, I've been wanting to get some more magnets for my fridge, but I wanted cute ones, and I've been having trouble. So the other day, I was browsing Etsy, and I saw these. I thought to myself, wow, those are cute. But I couldn't convince myself that they were worth a dollar apiece plus shipping and handling, you know? So I stared at them for a while, cause that's what I do when I see something I want but decide I don't need. And I realized, I can totally make those! So I went to Hobby Lobby, got the supplies and made totally cute knock-offs. I will now proceed to share my secrets with you.
First, you need... ModPodge (I keep the matte kind on hand at all times), a brush (or sponge, or whatever you apply ModPodge with), scissors, cute paper (I got this scrapbook paper set on clearance for like 3 dollars), regular black round magnets (I found them in the craft aisle at walmart), and glass pebbles (this is a really bad picture of them, but you'll see them later. At Hobby Lobby they're in the wedding section. I recommend the big (a little bigger than a quarter) ones that are totally clear. They didn't have the totally clear ones when I went, so I settled for the irridescent ones. They're still cute, just way shinier.


The first thing you're going to do is cut out chunks of paper (I also had some random circle cut-outs that were the right size, so I threw those in) that are slightly bigger than the pebbles (I normally do about 2" by 2").

Now, gloop some Modpodge on a piece of paper, and plop one of the pebbles flat-side-down strait on it. Press it down a little to make sure it kinda seals.

You'll end up with a bunch of these...

From A Life of Delight

Now, when you look at them, you'll notice that they look milky because of the ModPodge, like this...

From A Life of Delight

Don't worry about it. As the ModPodge dries, it'll turn clear. Promise. Ok, now... When they've dried (make sure that there's at least not any wet glue still around the outside), you're going to cut off the excess paper by cutting around the stone. The easiest way to do this is to make sure that the bottom blade of your scissors is the one closest to the stone. Get as close as you can and just trim off that excess paper.

From A Life of Delight

Now, flip them all over so that they're paper side up. Take your magnets (I like to seperate mine before starting this part), put some modpodge strait on the magnet (you don't want it to be super thick, but you want the magnet to have a layer of white), then stick the magnet on the stones. At this point, I like to (carefully) flip them over so that they're resting on the magnet. The main reason is that sometimes the stone will shift with the weight of the magnet, and it'll slide around before it dries. Now, just wait for them to dry, and you're done!

From A Life of Delight

These make great stocking stuffers, gifts for teachers, I put some in each of my swap boxes... They're just so easy. You could also use pictures, or drawings, stickers... whatever!
Anyway, enjoy!

My First Swap!

So... I got home this afternoon, and I was greeted by this...

From Swap

When I opened it, I found lots of these...

From Swap

In which I found all of these...

From Swap

I took a close up of the jewelery because it is so pretty...

From Swap

Funny story... See that book? No, not the awesome cookbook... the one called "Created to be His Help Mate". Yeah... not even a week ago, one of my best friends told me that I might want to check it out. Well, of course, I totally put it in the back of my mind, and nearly forgot all about it. Then, behold! Here it is, in a package sent to me from a perfect stranger :) I love the way God works. Apparently He has something to teach me through this book :)

A Bit of Ganache

First, thank you all so very much for your honesty. My sister was happy to get so much input.

Now... a word on ganache. Being the etymology nerd that I am, I would like you all to know that the word "ganache" is a french term originally used (loosely) to call somebody a fool. One day, a chocolatier (greatest job in the world!) accidentally spilled some cream into some chocolate that he was melting. The result was ganache (an accident, "foolish").
Anyway... I have only recently discovered my love of ganache. It was always one of those things that I thought was amazing, but I was too scared to even attempt it because I just knew that it would be insanely difficult.
So, for a while now, I've been on a search for the perfect brownie recipe. Many that I've found come with a frosting recipe (every one has been a powdered sugar/cocoa powder base). None of them have really spoken to me. I couldn't figure out why they never seemed chocolatey enough (has anyone else had this problem, or is it just me?). Moving on... a while back, my IRL friend, KD posted her mom's brownie recipe. I decided to give it a shot. I know her mom, I like her mom, and I can imagine her mom making awesome brownies.
As they were baking, I got to thinking about ganache... I wondered how difficult it really was... I mean, I love to bake, and I've gotten pretty adventurous as of late. Also, I'm totally into frosting on brownies, and I knew that ganache could be used as frosting, and I had become totally disenchanted with all the frosting recipes that called themselves frosting, and I thought that maybe if I called it ganache, it would taste better, and I'm sorry for this run-on attrocity.
So to google I went. Boy, was I in for a surprise. Ganache has got to be one of the simplest things to make (and with insanely amazing results, I might add). I feel like it's kinda like pasta; pasta is really easy to make good, but it takes quite a bit of skill to totally kill it, or to make it totally killer, you know?
Moving on... Ganache... To make ganache, you first boil cream (I just brought the cream to a boil cause boiling dairy makes me nervous), and then you pour it over chopped chocolate (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you're not supposed to use chips... you're supposed to use baking chocolate that you've chopped). Then you stir them together. That's it. There are tons of variations... The most important thing (as far as I can tell) is that you should never have more cream than chocolate. So if you use a cup of chocolate, don't use more than a cup of cream. Other than that, you're golden. Now I (being me), didn't have quite as much cream as I wanted, so I put a splash of milk in. This was wrong :/ Don't get me wrong, it still made something delectable, but it never really coagulated, you know? It remained a little too liquid to be a good frosting. So I stuck the brownies with the liquid ganache frosting in the fridge (which was fine by me since I don't like warm baked goods and prefer them to be cold anyway). Once cooled, my ganache solidified just the right amount.
Basically, ganache is one of those things that is used as a filling for truffles, an icing for cake, a frosting for anything... it's just wonderful, and it totally brought out the chocolateness of the brownies, if you know what I'm saying. So... the next time you need a little fancyness in the kitchen... make some ganache... it's wonderful. Also, play around with it. Make up your own rules. Have fun :)
Next time, I think I'll try whipping it once it has cooled a little to make a fluffier frosting...

I Promise I'll Write a Real Post Soon!

First... ok people, this is another booger moment. I'm looking for complete honesty here. This is not the time to make me feel good about myself. This is not the time to be diplomatic. I need you to keep it real. My sister has requested my advice, and I'm enlisting you all (with her permission). She's wondering about the price of her bags. Is $40 too much? Too little? Just right? HONESTY people. If you're uncomfortable putting your real thoughts into comment form, shoot me an email at lbspringer@gmail.com Seriously, help a sister out :)
But until then... My sister has posted a couple more items on her Etsy site.



And... she said she'll give free shipping to anyone who mentions my name :D