A Sunday of Productivity

I'd love to say that my life has been so full, I've been completely incapable of sitting in front of a computer to blog.  But that is a little bit of a lie.  the truth is, I've been idle.  I like to think of it as idyll, because it's been peaceful and enjoyable to be under the comfy covers by 8:30, curled up with a good ebook.

Oh, right, the ebook.  I never thought I would be that technological with my reading, because I do so enjoy reading actual books, but my phone has a nook app, and it's backlit.  So... I've been married to it.  I've spent my "free time" the last 2 weeks in the world of Percy Jackson.

Hellooooooooooooo, Perce!

And would I love to tell you that my obsession with Percy Jackson is due to this guy ------->

Because... Seriously.  Damn.  (and he's over 18, so it's okay for me to be a smidge cougarish over here.)

But it's not.  The fact that Percy got the most adorably impish and perfect face for the movie is not the reason I love the stories.  And the casting of Percy and the big three gods is about ALL the movie got right, but I'm not going into that.

No, I'm into these stories because I am a Greek Myth Nerd.  When I was very young, my mom had a copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology.  I read it all the time.  I was fascinated by the awesomeness of the stories.  They had everything, adventure, death, power, good versus evil... It was great stuff.  (she also had a fantastic book of Celtic Myths and legends that I adored as much.)

When I was in elementary school, I fell in love with Perseus, the hero of Clash of the Titans.

"Be in awe of my awesome Farrah Hair."

 The original, because Harryhausen monsters are the best, and I still have nightmare visits from Calibos.

Harryhausen is the Bomb with Phantoms, yo.

I took Latin in high school because they didn't offer Greek.

I LOVE ancient literature.  Ask any of the women I made crossdress to put on an all female version of Trojan Women for my senior Theatre project.

So, when I found out Rick Riordan, writer of the Tres Nevarre books (another one of my guilty pleasures), wrote kids books, I was sold.  I read these books the way I'd read Harry Potter books.  As a genuine Kidult.  An adult with the wide-eyed awe of a child.

Then, see, they stopped for a bit.  And the stories came back, but I didn't pick up the Lost Heroes books.  Until about 2 weeks ago.  And now, I've read all three of those, too.  And, since I couldn't bear the thought of waiting a full year for the next lost heroes book to come out, I've been devouring the original series again in ebook form, thanks to gift cards from students.

So, for the last two weeks, when I haven't been at my soul-sucking job, I've been fully immersed in a fictional world of gods and monsters and magic.  (and also, I read on my lunch breaks at my soul-sucking job.)

And THAT is why I didn't blog about my Sunday of Productivity when it happened.


It started simply enough with a pin.  Apple Fritter Cake.  About a month ago, I repinned this with every intention of making it.  And it sat in the back of my head.

"Hey, Robyn," it whispered, "I'm full of cinnamony goodness.  I'm crispy and gooey and sweet and hearty.  I'm what you've always wanted in a dessert."

And I'd remind it that there wasn't a churro involved, so it wasn't the perfect dessert.

"Put vanilla ice cream on me, serve me with a warm cinnamon churro..."

The Apple Fritter Cake is pretty persuasive.

So last Sunday, I was determined to make the cake.  I bought the apples and I prepared to make history with the best dessert to ever emerge from my oven.

Also, bout 2 weeks ago, I saw another pin, for homemade laundry soap.  And then, on Friday, my mother suggested we make Beef Stew.

So I said "Why not do all three?"

There is more to this Sunday than you even know...  So I shall segue awkwardly into the next part...

In late September, one of my dearest friends suffered a spinal injury.  She is currently residing in a rehabilitation center in Chicago.  She's lonely there.  And I have to go visit her.  It's not a "want" it's a compulsion, a need, a calling from God that must be answered.  This happened to me once before, when another dear friend lost her mother.  Two weeks later I was on a road trip to Macon, Georgia, to spend Christmas with her, so she didn't have to do it alone.  It's a pulling feeling in my gut telling me it's the right thing to do.

So, I must get to Michele. 

So, my Sunday began at the grocery store picking up the items for beef stew, apple fritter cake and laundry soap.

The Apple Fritter Cake recipe can be found here:
http://nerdybaker.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/apple-fritter-cake-and-ufos/

The soap recipe can be found here:
http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-detergent.html

I started by grating the soap.  And starting the meat.

THIS IS DANGEROUS, so don't forget which pot is which...

 Once the stuff in the laundry pot started boiling, I whipped it up in about 10 minutes.  I used old Purex bottles from my recycling bin, so I didn't have to worry about cleaning out milk jugs.  The soap works.  The clothes smell clean, not fragranced, but cleaned.  After a few days, though, it's a bit chunky, so i shake the crap out of it before using it. 

Then it was time to drain the beef and rinse it.  I always do this with meat.  I always drain it and rinse it, to get off the grease and fatty stuff.  Here is the meat browning:

 After that was done, I tossed it in the crock pot with one can of corn, liquid in, one bag of frozen stew veggies (Kroger brand), one can of family sized Campbell's tomato soup and one can of water (from soup can.)  Then I put in red pepper flakes, chili powder and a ton of shallot pepper.  then I left it for 6 hours.

Have I mentioned Penzey's Spices?  www.penzeys.com/   Bookmark it.

 Then I began the Apple Cake.

I was SO EXCITED!!!!

Here are pictures:

Here is what I have to say:

I doubled the amount of apples.  Because I love them.  But I kept the other measurements the same.  Except the cinnamon.  I don't measure cinnamon, I just pour until an inner voice says "It is done."  I don't think there is ever enough.

The cake itself is bland.  It needs nutmeg.  Put nutmeg in there.  Up the cinnamon to at least double.  But also, the cake is AWESOME.  It is moist and perfectly textured.  I'm going to try it with a million different fruit fillings.

My glaze was very runny, but I have trouble with glazes, so that might have been me.

It was also a pretty big hit with my most difficult critic... The little brother.  He is the Anti-Mikey.  He is very picky.  He doesn't like anything.  But he liked this cake.

In the midst of ALL of this, I google mapped my trip and checked out hotels on hotels.com

I am terrified about this trip.  I am not an affluent person, so this is a scrimped trip.  I plan to drive straight through because I do not have the budget for a hotel stay on the ride up or down.  It's Houston to Chicago.  I've done Houston to Macon so many times, and that's a few more mile, I'm confident there.

But Penny, my precious car, is giving me fits right now.  her tie rods are doing something i have to fix, and her check engine light is on for the upteenth time, and I have no idea if she's feeling well, although she has a new transmission, and accelerator pedal thingy (I'm not car-literate)

So, next weekend will be all about me fixing up Penny post payday to prepare.

And I'm excited.  I love road trips.  I love solo driving because no one can roll their eyes if I feel the need to sing a mix of show tunes, country and alternative rock loudly.  I'm stoked to go to Chicago, because I have never been (and a little worried I'll get lost for the same reasons)

But on top of all of this, I am determined.  Because I NEED to do this.  And I will do this.  Everything is going to work out, and it's going to end with an awesome, tearful, much-needed reunion with one of my besties followed by long periods of gossip truly worthy of Wesleyannes.

In fact, this trip, as daunting as it seems, is the only thing keeping me going at my soulsucking job right now, because I'm losing my mind there, every day I feel a little less equipped to be a teacher.  I force myself out of bed because I have to, I have to go make money so I can go on this trip.  It's a quest, even.  I have a quest, and I will not be deterred by monsters or ill-mannered children or helicopter parents or coworkers who say hateful, hurtful things about me in front of my students.  I will not fail.

Well, this is the longest update EVER, and I'm officially done typing.  I need to get back to "sea of Monsters" now.  They just found the donut shop.  And donuts sound kinda good...

Remember this:

Today is Make a Difference Day.  You can make a difference in someones life with something simple... a smile... a kind word... (A comment on this blog entry)...

Reach out today.  It doesn't take a doctor to save a life.


:o)
Robyn

Et tu, Brucake?

Well, it's October, and all my draft posts with ideas and random vignettes have pretty much expired, so you're just getting this regular old post.  I've lost 5 pounds this week.  It hasn't been easy avoiding stuff.  Tuesday was a staff meeting complete with vast amounts of sweet desserts including my most favorite candy of all time.  Bottle Caps.  I love them so much, I think they can even be called my "most favoritest."  I took the box, but, it's still over half full and I've been giving it away to people to eat some, too.

So, yeah, I've been dieting, which I hate to do, but, really, I was just in a funk and had nothing better to do with my life than see how much weight I can lose in six months.  I'm already down 5 pounds, so I'm thinking I'll be super model skinny before you even know it.

But don't worry.  I still managed to make some cutey cupcakes today.

Randomly, it's Clergy Appreciation Month, and I'm trying to come up with the perfect cupcake to give to my ministry team at church.  I go to a Lutheran Church, so they have this thing about wearing red on Reformation Sunday, and I think I might go with Red Velvet cupcakes.  Last year, I did little Halloween one.  They were tasty, but also, generic.  Sooooo... If anyone knows of the best red velvet recipe ever, I'm taking submissions in the comments below. 

So, on to today.

A few days ago, I was in Kroger.  And I came across these killer cupcake decorations... literally...

Wilton always tempts me to make cupcakes with their kitchy little decorations for the holidays, and I can usually resist, but , DAMN, these were too awesome...

Royal Icing Knife Decorations by Wilton.

Aren't they adorable in that sorta twisted way?

So I bought them.

But I couldn't eat cupcakes because I'm calorie counting or some bupkiss like that.

Then I remembered the one point cupcake.  You take a cake mix, usually the "low sugar variety" and mix it with a 12 ounce diet beverage.  Voila!  50 calorie cupcake!

So I whipped up these cupcakes. 

And I frosted them with 3/4 tablespoons of light, whipped, frosting (40 calories)

And I got Red decorating gel, and I used gel icing color in copper to make the candy apple red a little bloodier.  And...


TA DA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The cake mix didn't make a full 2 dozen cupcakes, so there were extra daggers.  So I made an e, tu, Brucake.  Let that sink in for a moment.

Yeah, there we go. 

AND! 

Then Fall, Caesar... 

And in life news, I'm in the praise band at my church as a rotating vocalist.  There are 4ish of us who rotate in and out with the regulars.  Today I am just beginning the upswing on my recovery from laryngitis.  And I was pretty much sotto voce to put it nicely.  (In my technical terms, I sounded like peter brady when it was time to change).

I didn't want to tank the couple of female vocals heavy songs we did today, so I said a little prayer that my voice would recover long enough for church.

It didn't happen.  It was reedy.  And gravelly, and I had trouble sustaining notes for any decent amount of time.  

So I was disappointed that I didn't get my prayer answered :o(

And then, people came up to me and told me how great it sounded.  So...

obviously it was much easier for God to much with their ears than cause super vocal healing.  And now I know next time to just be like "Lord, let them hear Mariah Carey though I be William Hung.  Amen"  And He'll make it so.

The End.