The Minion Cake

As promised, I made a little Despicable Me cake for my son's second birthday. Yes, it's not professional and I won't be posting it on Pinterest, but I think it's still pretty cool.

Want to know how I did it? Here's is my extensive recipe list:

Lemon cake mix
Buttercream frosting with blue food coloring
Twinkies
Candy eyeballs
Black gel frosting

It's also good to have some artistic skills and an internet connection so you can see what a minion looks like.

My favorite part? The minion who looks scared to death.

My son's favorite part? The candles I dug out of a junk drawer. Go figure.

Pinterest Bitches

http://bitchinsisters.wordpress.com/

A few hours after I wrote my "I'm out of time" post, a friend of mine sent me this link from Bitchin Sisters.

It's about moms who have the time to make cute little gifts for their kids's first day at school.

My kids aren't even in school yet and I already know what they're getting for the first day. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a brown bag. Okay, that's not true. I will go buy them some cool lunch box, but you get the point.

The Bitchin Sisters blog is awesome if you want to check it out.

PS: The boy's birthday is in a few days and I will be attempting to make a cake with dumb Twinkie Minions. It will not look like this:

http://cakecentral.com/

It's Official, I'm Out of Time

When I first started this blog, I needed a distraction. I love to write and I love to cook, so there you go. But now I have too many distractions. They're called my 4-year-old and my 2-year-old.

Let's face it, the days of being able to flip though a cooking magazine and then spend an hour at the market finding some ridiculous ingredients are over. Instead I spend 10 minutes at the park trying to get the two kids to look at the camera at the same time.

Yep, photo fail.

Cooking is beginning to fail for me too. I still love it, I just don't have the time. Yes, I still have saffron in my spice cabinet. But I also have Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in the pantry. Guess which gets used more often.

Not that any of this is a bad thing. Lives change, priorities changes, people change. I still love to cook, and I still subscribe to those cooking magazines. But cooking those special dishes will be reserved for birthdays and holidays. Not every days.

As for this blog, I want to... What? Your brother did what? He put it where?

Never mind, I'm out of time.

Seattle: Year Three

The view of Seattle from the West Seattle Bridge

Today I was talking to a friend about my contract and realized we would be in Seattle until at least 2016. That seems so strange. We arrived two years ago with one kid. Now we have two. By 2016 both will be in school. One will be in second grade.

Not that being in Seattle in 2016 will be a bad thing. It's just strange. Strange to grow roots in a city we never imagined living in. Strange to see Orcas in the water near our house when I grew up in the desert chasing lizards. Strange that this may be the place my kids call home.

As we begin our third year in Seattle we can't wait to ride ferries, go to Friday Harbor, visit Leavenworth for the first time, sit on rooftop decks, cheer on the Mariners, and be the 12th man.

Do we feel like locals? Not quite.

Will we by 2016? Definitely.

So strange.

What The What?

There's nothing like a little boredom to help dust off the "favorites" page. Hmm, what's this? Pinterest? I forgot I had an account. Hall of Fame FFL? Oh yeah, that old fantasy football league I didn't join this year. Seattle Dish? I haven't posted there since February.

Wait, February? What the What?!?

The little one with a mouth full

I used to love to write little nuggets of news and share my recipes. What happened this year? Oh that's right, I now have two kids. In February my youngest one was five months old. He was so cute, taking mid-morning naps or playing quietly on his blanket. Now he's one, and he a crawling, smashing, eating machine. Yes, that's a picture of him eating a rock. 

Not that having a healthy baby boy is a bad thing. 

What is a bad thing is not finding time to do what I love. Which is cook and write. The last meal I made came from a Trader Joe's bag. The last recipe I followed was probably on the back of a bisquick box. The sandwich place across the street from work has become my best friend. 

Yep, it's time to get back into the swing of things. I owe it to my thighs.

So starting this weekend, I'm going to start cooking again. Not reheating, or microwaving, or baking for 10-12 minutes at 375. Actual recipes, that require raw ingredients, measuring spoons and a grocery list. I can't wait to get started, but first I have to find a recipe.

Hey look, there's Pinterest....

  

Growing Pains: My Backyard Garden

Summer is approaching and that means gardening is going to be a life or death situation for my plants. Luckily I have the antidote - Water, shade and a little luck.  

This is the second year I've been gardening in my rock backyard. And when I say rock, I mean rock - Push away all the decorative stone and there's nothing but a hard solid surface. It's called caliche and you need a sledge hammer to get through it. Thank God we didn't try and put in a pool. 

Luckily for me, gardens can grow in pots and raised boxes, and I have both. In a pot under my patio I have garlic chives, thyme and oregano. The pot gets about 6 hours of sun in the morning, but shade all afternoon long. The chives are unbelievably sturdy. The heat doesn't bother them, they go dormant in the winter, and when spring comes around they sprout right back. I love my sturdy little chives.  

The thyme and oregano are new this year. The thyme has been in for several months now and seems to be doing great. The oregano was planted this weekend to take the place of the Basil that died. The woman at the nursery said the oregano would do just fine, but it's the desert so we'll see. 

As for basil, this is the second year I've tried to grow it and the second time it's failed. I'd rather not talk about it. 

New this year is my raised garden bed. There's really nothing special about it - Just some wood screwed together and filled with potting soil. But it's a great addition to our backyard. By luck, we built it in the partial shade of one of our trees, and this summer I think that shade is what will save my pepper plants. 

In the garden bed I'm growing radishes, beets, bell peppers and anaheim chilies.  I've already killed cucumber and green beans. They sprouted and then quickly withered. I'm not sure if it was the soil or the sun. It was probably a little of both. 

If you've never gardened before, start with radishes. Yes, not many people like them, but they're easy and they grow quickly, giving you a little ego boost when the rest of your garden is dying off. I'll probably plant radishes every year just to prove that things will grow in the desert. 

As for my beets, they're small and seem to be stalling. I'm going to leave them in the ground for a few more weeks and see what they do. My bell pepper plant already has four baseball sized peppers on it, and the anaheim chili is growing like a weed. 

I have a lot to learn about desert gardening, but I'm having a blast. Next year I'd love to try tomatoes and even give basil another chance. I'm sure my husband would much rather have a nice basil, tomato mozzarella salad instead of radishes. But hey, those radishes were grown in Las Vegas, in a rock backyard that sits on caliche. That's hard not to appreciate. 

My Sturdy Chives

I Love the Thyme 

My Little Raised Garden

Radishes are Doing Great

Bell Peppers are Growing Too

Vegas Farmers' Market: Small But Special

I've been living in Las Vegas for three years, but today was the first time I went to a local farmers' market. I've been avoiding them because they're always held during the week when I work and well, it's Vegas - The only thing we grow here are ideas to get tourists to split with their money.

But this little food blog of mine has inspired me to seek out something new and fresh, and sure enough the Las Vegas Farmers' Market has expanded to Saturdays. It's held at Floyd Lamb State Park, which was another first for me.

After packing up the kiddo and a 25 minute drive, we arrived and what was probably the smallest farmers' market I've ever been too. I can count the vendors on one hand: Farm with plenty of produce, the strawberry guy, corn dogs, roasted corn, ice cream, fire roasted pizza. Okay, maybe I need two hands.

As you might expect, the farm selling the fresh produce was busy. I arrived about 45 minutes after the market opened and they had almost sold out of yellow corn. I grabbed some leeks, cilantro, corn, zucchini and tomatoes. Total was $12.50 and I was on my way in less time than it took to drive there.

Yes, it sounds like I'm complaining a big, but here's the deal - I'll be back.

It was great seeing produce that had just come out of the field. Being able to take a taste before I bought it. And the yellow tomatoes we bought were probably the sweetest I've tasted in a long time. Kiddo ate half the basket on the way home.

Yes, it was small. Yes, I've been to better farmers' markets. But for right now, it's all we have and I'm going to support it. As a bonus, it's held in a beautiful park with lakes and grass. The next time I go, maybe we'll stop and have some of that fire roasted pizza, relax on the grass, and let kiddo feed the ducks. Yep, I'll be back.