The One with Beans Coming Out My Ears

I have been going a hundred miles per hour in 10 different directions lately--but loving all of it! I'm not usually a fan of this-is-what-I've-been-doing-in-the-last-48-hours type of posts, but this is good stuff that I want to remember and I'm a little impressed at how much I've been accomplishing. tee hee. 

Sunday was busy, busy, but beautiful! We spent the afternoon chatting, laughing, and eating a healthy (thank you!) and delicious lunch with Brian & Karen and their son. It was great fun! They are so easy to be around. You know how it is when you just feel comfortable? Yeah, it's nice. 

After we rode our bikes home (yep, total bonus of small town--almost everything and everyone is a 2-10 minute bike ride away!), I headed back out. This time to Sheryl's for an afternoon of green bean snapping and sweet conversation. You know me and my love of productivity mixed with fun.* The two of us had a great time together, as always, and we both have a freezer full of beans. yum! 

*disclaimer--I also thoroughly enjoying sitting and doing nothing productive other than reading, watching tv or playing games with friends.   

Bible Quizzing and Youth Group filled the rest of the night, and Monday morning I hit the ground running. I had another Etsy Adorkable Bakery order to bake, package and ship, a dozen cookies to send off to my friend Betsy for her birthday, a meal to prepare for a local family needing dinners for a week (potato soup, homemade bread, and cookies), and then an afternoon of canning tomatoes. Sheryl and I are both novice canners, but we managed to get 9 quarts of tomatoes canned. And boy is that a process! We were both super thankful to have each other's company. Chores are always more fun with friends. 

That evening I went home with jars of freshly canned tomatoes and a bag of chopped peppers for the freezer, then headed out to drop off the local family's dinner. They were thrilled--especially with the bread--which made me super happy. I made it home just in time to deliver that batch of Adorkable Bakery cookies and then Kevin and I headed over to the high school volleyball to support one of our teens. (This made me miss our Michaela!) We had a great time and then enjoyed our evening at home together. 

I've been almost as busy today.--filling another Bakery order (coffee speckled chocolate chip cookies and chocolate covered butter toffee--amazing stuff that is!), preparing to add a third student (!) to my piano studio this Wednesday (*cue cheers of excitment*), making chili with some of the leftover tomatoes from Monday, searching for cheaper bakery and shipping boxes online, and balancing our checkbook. Starting the day with a bike ride to Sheryl's followed by a 4 mile run together was the perfect way to start the day. 

And now, having re-read what I just typed, I'm tired all over again. I might just need a nap. 

How have YOU been these last couple days?! 

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The One with Organized Baking

Sometimes, I just need to organize. 

It's amazing how cluttered one's drawers and cupboards and hiding spaces can become over many months. Though most people would have probably still identified my baking cupboard as "organized" I knew, deep down, it needed some serious attention. 

I have accumulated a massive amount of baking mix-ins (mostly chocolate)--semi sweet chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, unsweetened baker's chocolate chips, mint and chocolate chips, Hershey's kisses, toffee brickle bits, sweetened flaked coconut, candied ginger, raisins, walnuts, pecans, almonds, and more. 

When I see a sale, I stock up. For instance, I may or may not have 4 jars of molasses. Yes, I love molasses cookies. Yes, I was baking them non-stop over the winter. Yes, they will get used eventually. Yes, each bottle was 8 cents per ounce cheaper than the other varieties. No, you may NOT make fun of me. I'll know you're laughing inside, though. 

In any case, I also have a frugal streak when it comes to food storage. My salsa jars, pepper jars, and pasta jars have all been washed and cleaned and used for other purposes (such as homemade salsa storage.) I won't even mention the 6 boxes of canning jars in the basement. Oh wait, I just did. But it occurred to me in a moment of brilliance, "Why not use the abundance of jars to contain all of my bags and bags of baking ingredients?!" Bags are not easy to access or stack or organize, plus they require the use of my bag clips that seem to be a hot commodity as of late. 

And so I set to work. Mason jars went in the dishwasher and the already-clean salsa/pasta sauce jars went right to use. Now I have a highly organized cupboard and beautifully stored baking products which can be identified through the clear glass. Heck, they're pretty enough to display on open kitchen shelves. 

I feel awesome right now. 

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The One with the Business of Baking

I have many hobbies. I love learning new things, expressing my creativity, making others smile. In the past few years, I've dabbled in crocheting, knitting, scrapbooking, jewelry making, laptop slipcover sewing, cookie decorating, recipe creating, blogging, graphic designing, and photography. Honestly, I've loved every one of these activities, though some of them were more easily mastered* than others. 

*I use the term "mastered" a bit loosely. I would consider myself a life-long learner. 

I have high hopes for photography. I love my Canon Rebel. I love experimenting with settings. I love setting up a shot. Unfortunately, I don't have much of a technical understanding of this multi-faceted art form. I would really enjoy taking a few photography classes, I have dreams to develop a photography business with my husband, but most of all I want to capture the beautiful moments of life. 

One day--maybe someday soon--I'd love to take cake decorating classes at our local craft store. I have a set of decorating tips, but I don't have much of an icing-making skill and creating anything other than a flimsy edging is beyond me. This hobby flows over onto my cookie decorating desires. I see so many beautifully decorated royal icing sugar cookies all over the blogosphere and I want to emulate them. Creating favors for showers or weddings or birthdays would be so much fun. I've already found my favorite sugar cookie recipe. Now to learn to sophisticatedly decorate them.  

Knitting and crocheting and sewing are super useful skills. Too bad I never had a real home economics class in high school. I envision myself embellishing existing clothes, making lovely gifts, or re-purposing old fabrics. I only know a stitch or two of each of these crafts, but with a book my grandma gave me, I'd love to learn more. 

Blogging and graphic design go hand in hand, and I can't imagine leaving these hobbies behind. Being a part of the blogosphere is now more of a lifestyle for me than a hobby. I love connecting with friends--new and old--and learning from those with more (or different) life experiences than I have had. 

And then there's my baking. If you know anything about me, you hopefully know I'm a lover all of things sweet. I can spend hours in the kitchen creating new treats, perfecting old recipes, and licking the batter off my fingers. (I wish cookie dough would stop being delicious to me. And don't worry, I wash my hands.) 

I have tried various mini-business ventures in the past year and Kevin's encouraged me along the way. Last week, though, we were talking and he had a wonderful idea. It is high time I focused. I need to focus my attention and energy on one hobby-turned-business and develop it into the best it can be. 

And so I choose baking. Cookie baking to be precise. The blogging and graphic design and photography skills are all essential elements to making an online bakery business successful, so I won't have to turn my back on all of my newly developing passions. But I'm going for it. I opened my Etsy shop for business yesterday evening. Search for The Adorkable Bakery under adorkablebaker and you'll find me! You should totally check it out. And if you have suggestions--design, recipes, or otherwise--let me know. 

For months now, our teens, our friends and our family have been filling my ears with praise for my cookie creations. I believe I make amazing cookies, and I would love to make this into a sustainable business. But I will need your help. If you've ever tasted my baked goods or peanut brittle or chocolate covered butter toffee, and you thought it was totally tasty and ridiculously amazing, please tell your friends about my shop [http://www.etsy.com/shop/adorkablebaker]. I'd love to do business with them. 

Whether it's celebrating the exciting or cherishing the everyday, my cookies and candies are for you!

The One with My Love of New Kitchen Gadgets

CSN Stores contacted me a while back about doing a review of any product in any of their 200+ online stores. SWEET. I got especially excited when I discovered the cookware.com branch. Umm, yes I'm totally there! 

I had an awful time narrowing down my selections. They have every item I have ever even considered wanting for my kitchen. Brands range from Rachael Ray to Cuisinart, KitchenAid to Calphalon. I'm fairly certain cookware.com carries every quality kitchen product known to mankind. 

I looked through my wishlist and crossed off the items I received for Christmas (thanks, family!!) and finally made my decision(s)----

drumroll, please..................

The Chicago Cutlery Woodworks Cutting Board AND these Oxo Stainless Steel Measuring Cups 

This is the most beautiful cutting board I have ever owned. No. It's way better than that...considering I've only ever owned 2 plastic cutting board of only-average-physical-appeal. But nonetheless, this is a really great looking slab of wood. 

It has this lovely little moat carved out around the edges to contain all of those pesky juices. 

AND there are two finger grips carved into the under side of the cutting board--for easy transportation. Very convenient. 

Between the quality of the Chicago Cutlery brand, the hard wood that will keep my Chicago Cutlery Santoku knife sharp, and the sheer beauty of this slab of cherry wood--this board is a new staple countertop product. I love it. 

But get this, my exciting new cutting board is not alone in the newbie section of kitchen gadgets. Nope. It has this amazing set of stainless steel measuring cups to keep it company.

And don't tell the cutting board, but I'm also a little bit in love with these measuring cups. If you know anything about me, you know I bake ALL the time. My measuring cups (I already have 2 sets) are always dirty. In fact, sometimes I just shake the flour off and call them clean. Don't judge. 

I chose these new cups because I needed a sturdier measuring device. As I was scooping out and packing brown sugar, I heard a crack in the handle of my lovely candy-apple-red plastic measuring cups. Not a good sign. Though these new steel handles have some give to them, I know they're not about to break. The cups themselves are thick and strong and just scream, "I CAN STAND UP TO ANY MEASURING JOB YOU THROW AT ME!"

Something I didn't know about these color-coded measuring cups was the awesome convenience of the extra length in the handle. These handles are at least an inch and a half longer than mine (or anyone else's measuring cups I've ever used.) This is way cooler than I would have thought. It's nice to not have to stick my whole arm into the baking supplies. :) 

In other words, I highly recommend these measuring cups. 

And the cutting board. 

Even if I wasn't asked to write a review, I would be singing their praises. These products (and subsequently cookware.com of csnstores.com) are TOP NOTCH.  

The One with the Tiring Nothing

Besides going for a run every morning, I really didn't do much of anything this week. I've never been so unproductive in my entire life. (Well, except maybe for that one afternoon sophomore year of college, right, Britt? "The Day Mel Did Nothing." Yes, it was that infamous.) My husband is the sole reason I accomplished so much relaxing this week. He cast a lovely vision for me before we set out on this goal--"Imagine you're in elementary school again and it's summer break. You have no responsibilities besides having fun. What do you do?" Without him all but forcing me to just sit, I would have found things to do. There's always something to do, right? 

I learned a few things from this week of sheer relaxing. First, my initial memory of summer vacation during grade school equals Little House on the Prairie. It was on every morning at 10am I believe, right before The Price is Right. I loved me some Bob Barker game shows. 

Secondly, I can handle some heavy duty television watching. (This is not what I learned. It's coming up in a sentence or two.) It's one of the only activities that requires almost nothing of me. Perfect. The funny thing is, I really do get bored and annoyed with tv after a while. It may not have happened quite as quickly had there been anything new and exciting on (thank you, "in between fall and winter programming." sheesh), but there wasn't. So most of the tv time was focused on dvds--namely Seinfeld, Planet Earth (thanks Mom and Dad E), The Emperor's New Groove (thanks, Brian), Date Night (not as good as anticipated), and Friends. LOTS of Friends. I don't know why, but that is the one show that both Kevin and I can watch over and over and over and over again and still get hours of enjoyment out of it. 

While watching tv, eating meals around the coffee table, and experiencing butt-numbness from sitting on the couch in one position for WAY too long, I also did a lot of blogging (and blog reading) and read a couple chapters in my recent library books--Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry and For Women Only. Kevin said I was "free" to do some baking and cooking if I wanted to, and normally I would have taken him up on that offer. But not this week. After the last month of NON-STOP food preparation for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and party after party, I was just plain burnt out. (This was the third thing I learned--the desire to bake really can leave me.) Don't worry. I'm sure I'll be back to it next week. 

And finally, I needed a week where I was allowed to sleep in (till 8!), sit around in sweatpants all day, watch too many hours of television, never bake or cook or clean, beat my husband (for the first time EVER--in ANY game!) at Scrabble, and eat far too many pieces of fudge. It was refreshing. 

But also exhausting. I'm ready for regular life again. :)

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The One with the Quick Clean-up Tip

One of my most helping kitchen tools is a little adujustable plastic measuring "cup" perfect for peanut butter, pureed pumpkin or shortening. 

The first time I used one of these simple gadgets was in my mother's-in-law kitchen. 

As soon as I ran across one in a cheap bin at a rummage sale, I snatched it up,

and boy have I been glad I did! 

Because it measures nearly any incremental amount all the way to 2 cups, it's versatile. 

It's perfect for those not-quite-liquid-not-quite-solid ingredients. 

It launches those tricky ingredients (like peanut butter) into your mixing bowl with ease. 

(I've always despised trying to scoop all of the peanut butter out of a measuring cup. 

BUT. 

As cool as this gadget is, I HATE cleaning it--mostly because I use it for those greasy, sticky ingredients that make cleaning a real chore. 

SO, I use handy dandy PLASTIC WRAP to make my job a cinch! 

First, I prepare my cup at the necessary measurement (i.e. get it ready for 1/2 cup or 2/3 cup or whatever.)

Then, I tear off a piece of plastic wrap that will be big enough to be pressed down and cover the bottom of the cup. 

Be sure to get it evenly spread across the bottom for accurate measurements!

I fill the cup with my ingredient of choice, push up the bottom of the cup to release the ingredients into the bowl then THROW AWAY  the mess! 

Awesome!

Works for me!