time for some cupcakes

It's a bit costly to bake. The bulk of the cost comes from the butter and eggs. I would love do it more often but the side effects of inflated hips and deflated wallet temper my enthusiasm.

Last week I decided to bake so I could bring cupcakes for my mom who was in the hospital at that time. They would also serve as snack foods for my dad and sister for whom I have been temporarily playing the role of home cook since my mom was sick.

As always, the joy of creating something delicious and pretty from a bunch of raw ingredients never fails to lift my spirits.

bread before bed

I got a bit carried away. I was updating and fixing and clearing and then I found a to-do list that said "Bake bread" plus the recipe of an easy no-knead homemade bread. So before I could make excuses and think too much about it I was taking the flour jar out of the shelf and opening up a sealed bag of yeast and thirty minutes later I have a dough wrapped up in a big bowl left to rise for the next three hours.

I started putting the dough into the oven at around 10:30PM and before that I got caught up in a movie on cable (Switch starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman) which I haven't seen before and I realized I haven't seen any movie for quite a long while.

Before the movie I was doing some work and in between during breaks I would put stuff together for my vision board.

My home smelled like a bread shop as I cooked three batches of bread (because my oven is small). The bread came out crusty with a soft center and was great with butter. I could be biased but I think it actually tastes good. ^__^  So tonight is kind of a special night because it is the first I have ever tried baking bread and it turned out quite well.

What new thing did you do today? :)

gifts and goodies

A quick break from Christmas cramming to share with you some snapshots of this year's gifts and goodies.

bread pudding with mixed fruits

decorative tape used on kraft paper instead of buying printed giftwrapper

my color theme

hand-designed gift tags

surprise pie

It's my sister's birthday today. So to give her a little surprise treat I baked her a berry pie - strawberry and blueberry. But I couldn't find the Betty Crocker Pie Crust mix in the supermarket so I made from scratch - and luckily it turned out alright, despite a rather crunchy edge (which my sister actually liked as they softened in the cream and filling).