Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 63

Weekend Roundup

This weekend was good! Maggie’s test to check for crystals that form bladder stones came back all clear. I was relieved and happy about that. She got her rabies shot, and while she was sore and slept a lot, she didn’t throw up. I call that a win.

I made an Oreo Drip Cake–all non dairy. I was happy with the results:

I played with fondant, this is my first attempt at cutting out the flowers and experimenting with some various painting techniques (food safe). I have so much to learn, but it’s all fun.

We had a great time at Youngest’s yesterday. My test victims, uh, I mean family seemed to enjoy the cake. And way more impressive, Youngest Son built Turbo (my grandson) a really cool, bright orange wagon. Youngest had it in the garage under blankets, took Turbo out to uncover it. Turbo was surprised and thrilled! It was so cute to see Turbo’s joy as if he understood that this was a special handmade gift, and Youngest son was beaming too.

So that was my weekend, how was yours?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF. Let’s jump right into sharing 5 random things about our week:

Today Maggie is going to the vet for a urinalysis to check for crystals that form bladder stones and her rabies shot. Unfortunately, the rabies shot make her sick, but getting rabies is a lot worse than not feeling well for a day. She’s due for two more boosters, but we’ll do those in a couple months.I made a non-dairy chocolate cake from scratch that was good! My only note so far is that I should have used parchment paper on the bottom of the cake pans instead of just relying on my baking spray (that’s me being lazy, LOL). One of my 8 inch pans lost a couple chunks when I released them. On the upside–that gave Wizard and I some tasting pieces to confirm the cake is good. AFTER Wizard tasted it, I told him it was vegan. His shocked expression was priceless as his experience with vegan baked goods in the past hasn’t been great. (By the way, I wasn’t looking for vegan, just dairy-free but this recipe looked well designed to me, so I had to try it.) This was a large recipe that yielded two 8-inch layers and two 6-inch layers, so now I have two full cakes ready to pull out of the freezer and decorate when I wish to do it.We are going to Youngest’s on Sunday. Oldest, his wife and Turbo will be there too. Middle and his wife are helping another family member.I might break out one of my freezer cakes to try an Oreo cake with chocolate drips–all non dairy. It all depends if Youngest on what they want me to bring–if anything.It’s been a quiet week–the highlight was buying Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla for my cakes and cookies. I was seriously excited when that came and made Wizard smell it, then I made him tell me it was amazing or I wouldn’t bake anymore Yep, that’s right, I got excited about a fancy version of vanilla extract, LOL

So that’s my five, I bet your five things are more exciting than mine I hope everyone has a safe, happy and healthy weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

My Drama Queen

So I don’t have a good recent picture of Maggie. She’s getting really gray, but that’s not why. Nope, the reason is that she’s too smart of us. She hides when she sees a camera.

It’s pretty funny.

But that’s not the end of her talent. So at night, she can only get on the couch when I put her blanket up there. I usually do this around 8pm, as that’s our routine. That’s the rule, and she never breaks it. But she does try to get us to put the blanket up sooner.

So usually she hangs out upstairs for a little while in the evening. She has a bed up there, and sometimes, she likes being in the dark room. She’ll go up there sometimes in the day too. That’s all fine.

But at night, every fifteen minutes or so, she’ll come downstairs and “check” if it’s time to get on the couch.

We say no.

First she skulks back up the stairs.

Fifteen minutes later, she runs back down and “asks” again. She does this with her big brown eyes. Trust me, you know what she wants.

We say no again (we’re not mean, it’s just fun, LOL).

This time Maggie does a Dramatic Exit. She walks a few feet, stops and looks back over her shoulder. Then she goes slowly half way up the stairs, and pauses on the first landing, and looks back to see if we’ve noticed. Eventually she goes the rest of the way.

You can set your alarm for another fifteen minutes. She trots down and asks again.

Nope.

This time, I kid you not. SHE LIMPS UP THE STAIRS ONE STEP AT A TIME. One paw goes up, then a big limp to get the next paw up. We can’t get this performance on video, but oh man, do I wish we could! It’s hilarious. Of course, the first time I fell for it and checked her over, worried she was hurt. She was fine and probably amused that I fell for her ruse.

By the way, she had a comfy downstairs bed right by the couch that she likes just fine when she wants to lay there. Sometimes, we do let her up early, it just depends. But honestly, watching her perform is just too much fun

Happy Wednesday!

The post My Drama Queen first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

Two words: Cake Fail!

Every now and again, people will say, “I’ve never seen you mess up at baking.”

Well sure, because I throw away my fails, LOL. I’ve failed COUNTLESS times. I just usually don’t serve my failures if I can help it If you hang around my kitchen enough, you will definitely see me fail and probably get a good laugh in the process.

This fail was based on a bag of Butterfinger pieces I saw at Walmart. They were with the chocolate chips and meant for baking. I though…ohhh, I should make a Butterfinger Cake by adding a bag of Butterfinger baking pieces a vanilla cake batter and in the filling layers. Except do you think I bought the bag when I saw it?

Of course not, I’m cheap. Then I couldn’t find it when I wanted it (cheap and foolish!) But I had a solution, I’d just chop up the candy bars into pieces and dump some in the batter. Two problems: I don’t think the chopped candy had the same texture as the processed bag of Butterfinger chips and I way overestimated how much to put in.

Um…it was a tad overwhelming. A little too crunchy, sweet and it threw off the texture of the otherwise good vanilla cake. The cake was not bad but not great.  Not a gross fail but as Wizard put it, “Not my best effort” And not what I’d feel comfortable serving to anyone else.

So a half fail on the cake.

But then I tried making a chocolate Italian Meringue Icing. That’s a level up from the Swiss Meringue Icing I’ve been making. Essentially you boil hot syrup and then carefully pour it into whipping egg whites (points for not burning myself!). Once that is whipped and cooled to room temperature, you add butter that must also be at room temperature. It’s chemistry and important to get all the elements and temperatures right.

I clearly did NOT do that. The first slice of butter caused the icing “break” which means it deflated into something resembling cottage cheese soup. I knew that second I was in trouble, but do you think I stopped so I could save the rest of the not-cheap butter?

If you want a serious answer, there’s a reason my brother and sister call me a bulldog. I am stubborn to a fault and beyond. I made that danged icing and yeah, I saved it to the point of being usable and it tasted good…but it was not pretty. Or even passable in my opinion.

Total Fail.

Then guess what I did? Walk away and read? Walk my dog? Go in the pool?

Any of those would have been an excellent choice. But I wanted to save the day and do some chocolate work thinking that I might be able to make the cake look better with some pretty chocolate pieces distracting from sadness of the broken icing.

WHY DID I THINK THAT WAS GOING TO GO WELL?

It didn’t. The chocolate was dirt cheap candy melts I’d bought from the big box hobby store and they don’t harden to the firmness I needed. As soon as I picked them up, they were so soft, they broke.

At that point, it was all pretty funny. I really should have taken pictures but I couldn’t bring myself to document the disaster. Instead Wizard and I opened a bottle of wine, grilled a New York steak for dinner and laughed.  Wizard was pretty awesome throughout the day, patiently trying to keep my spirits up while I kept stubbornly trying to save the cake…and each step getting progressively worse. I swear, I don’t know how he held off laughing as long as he did

So that was my weekend how was yours?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF! Where is time going this year? I can’t seem to keep up! Okay, time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

I have green nails that glow in the dark I haven’t taken a picture yet, but they are pretty cool.I went to a big box hobby store yesterday and bought a few things to attempt to teach myself fondant work (for cake decorating). I’m starting with flowers and butterflies, and it’s going to be hilarious since I have no natural artistic ability. I’m strictly a paint-by-numbers-with-step-by-step directions type. But it’s all just for fun.I’ve been keeping up with my yoga practice. I usually do it three or four times a week.Yesterday I prepped enchiladas so that Wizard could pop them in the oven while I was getting my nails done (by my talented daughter in law!). That went great, but when I tried to pour out the cooled from frying tortillas, I missed the can and spilled vegetable oil onto my counter and floors. That was a joy to clean up, but I got the job done. Yay me!Then I realized my cleaning spray bottle was nearly empty. I popped the top off, refilled it without spilling any and locked the top back into place. Except the top didn’t lock…when I picked it up, the lid came off and the full bottle of cleaner fell. But I caught it with no spills!!! I was so impressed with myself until about an hour or two later when I realized that someone in the process of catching that bottle, I managed to some tweak my bad shoulder. It’ll be fine, but how do I even do this stuff??? I couldn’t recreate that scene if I tried.

So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Wednesday Update

I am so good at procrastinating! If I could find a way to monetize that skill I’d be rich, and then I could make more money off teaching others how to do it the point of all this procrastination is that I hit a wall so hard on this book, I was ready to totally give up. I stopped talking about the book, I didn’t dream about it, I couldn’t even make myself read any romances because then I just got upset at myself.

Wizard had to talk me off the edge.

Yesterday, I began to get a glimmer of an answer to fixing my heroine–her backstory and the inciting premise of the book were creating logic flaws that caused massive havoc in three drafts at the 100 to 150 point of the book. It’s been a tad frustrating. But I’m hopeful for the first time in weeks. Cross your fingers, friends!

So that’s my quick update before I have to run out and pick up a prescription I forgot about

Now I’d love to hear your Wednesday Update. Anything you want to share about your life, projects, hobbies or animals.

The post Wednesday Update first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

A weekend came and went exactly as my calendar predicted

So I’ve been stress baking. My latest thing had been working out how to build a chocolate peanut butter stuffed cookies.

And make it lactose free.

It’s like me writing a book, I can’t just do simple, straightforward storyline. Nope. I must complicate it to the max. Which, in case you were wondering, I have done with Primal Magic and now that book is so not working and we are back at page one.

But I’d rather talk about my cookie win. I did it, I figured out a lactose free chocolate peanut butter stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Tada!

 

Shoot, I just realized I should have taken a picture of the inside of one to show you the creamy chocolate peanut butter center. I only kept a couple and gave the rest away. Oh well. Trust me, it worked and got the approval of youngest son

If anyone cares how I did this, here’s the basic steps:

I melted a 1/2 cup non diary chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life dark chocolate chips), and mixed in a cup of peanut butter, then added in a little sifted powdered sugar (I don’t know how much, maybe a couple tablespoons).  I let the mixture cool, then formed that into balls and froze them for a couple hours. I converted this CakeBoss Soft & Thich Chocolate Chip Cookies to nondairy, but swapping out a 1/2 cup lactose free margarine and a 1/2 cup butter flavored vegetable shortening for the 1 cup butter. I also increased the salt by a 1/4 teaspoon to compensate for not using salted butter. I took a couple tablespoons of dough and formed that around the frozen chocolate peanut butter balls, and then froze all the cookie balls over night.I baked them frozen at 375 for 15 minutes and I’m pretty happy with the results. I bake them frozen so they hold their structure without spreading too much or the chocolate peanut butter center melting too fast and breaking through the outer shell of chocolate chip cookie dough.

The cookies made me happy.

And yes, I have been procrastinating on the book. Majorly procrastinating. I don’t want to go back to the beginning and start over, but…maybe I need to bake something else. Like a life-sized cake of the Statue of Liberty.

How was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF!! I’m trying to remember what I wanted to share this week

Monday was my birthday. I had a really good day. I had coffee with Biker Witch (my sister), got gorgeous flowers from oldest son, and went to dinner with Wizard where I had chocolate cake I didn’t have to make And then talked so long to middle on the phone, my arm and shoulder locked up, LOL. It really was a good day. Lowkey but perfect for this year, if that makes sense.As I mentioned, the flowers are stunning. But…and this had never happened before…they aggravated my sinuses. I was NOT giving up these flowers. We finally realized it’s because the house has been literally closed up for at least 6 to 8 weeks with the heat, and the A/C is recycling everything. I put the flowers outside early one morning for a few hours, aired out the house, then brought the flowers in and found a great spot for them in the living room–away from the main living area. That solved it and I still get to enjoy the flowers.Wizard saw the spine surgeon yesterday–the same one that did my surgery. I’m hugely relieved by this. I know he’s methodical and good. He’s ordering more tests that will get him more specific information, then we’ll develop a treatment plan. Wizard is handling all this remarkably well.Here’s my practice cake for this week. It’s just a rather bland boxed cake, as I had 3 goals for this attempt (1) making a version of Swiss Meringue Buttercream for hotter climate, which means swapping out about 1/3 of the butter for vegetable shorting and putting in a little sifted powdered sugar. This version held up better. The original one tastes better, but even in A/C gets melty in my kitchen (2) practicing icing–I did better partly because of the amazing turntable Wizard got me. (3) doing a stripe technique. The small holes in the icing are from not rewhipping after the crumb coating and chilling. I didn’t care about that, I was working on technique   For a first attempt at this, I was happy.  Overall this cake taught me a lot. I’m not sure what the weekend will bring. Anything could happen!

That’s my 5 random things, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Suggestions to Break My Reading Slump

I’ve been listening to audio books, but not reading. I’m looking for a recently publish un-put-downable romance to read. I prefer paranormal or contemporary, but there’s little that I actually won’t read.

Any suggestions???

Thanks!!!

The post Suggestions to Break My Reading Slump first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

Can you all believe it’s August??? This year is going so fast!

So my weekend was good. Wizard and I are deep in throes of House Fever, and shopping around. We do this every six months to a year,  then get frustrated and stop. It’s pretty routine for us, LOL.

Sunday evening, we went to Youngest son’s for dinner last night to celebrate my birthday (which is actually today). It was amazing. He BBQed tri tip and made cookies, while daughter-in-law made some cilantro rice. All things I love. It was a really nice evening.  While we were talking about houses, daughter-in-law looked up a house that’s pretty much around the block from them and showed us on her phone. I was sitting there thinking how danged lucky we are to have a daughter-in-law is was encouraging us to move into their neighborhood.

Today I’m meeting Biker Witch for coffee, then Wizard and I are going to dinner–probably at the Cheesecake Factory. Because Covid is escalating again, we kept our plans casual for my birthday this year.

I’ve gotten lost in the weeds on my book, so yesterday afternoon I printed my original notes on this book, and am mulling over some real problem points to solve the issues. The notes are really helping me get the right focus. I’m also accepting that the Wing Slayer books are complex to write, even if they don’t appear that way when reading them. And it takes me longer right now due to life distractions and limiting my time at the computer.

So that was my weekend, how was yours?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.