Saturday, January 17, 2009

Holiday Goodness: Part Deux

I love never-ending holiday celebrations! Due to our hectic holiday travel schedules, we didn't get to celebrate Christmas with Aimee and Sky until last night. We had made plans for the week before Christmas, but Aimee had a sudden death in the family and had to fly to Florida. We left for Rhode Island when she returned to Michigan. When we were finally in the same state last weekend, a blizzard got in the way of our plans again. It's been ages and their yummy gifts have been waiting patiently in our refrigerator for over a month now. Finally the snow held off long enough for dinner, although it was cold enough here for school's to be closed (25 below zero windchill!).

I spent my day off roasting lemon rosemary chicken and baking cupcakes. I really wanted to test out these silicone cupcake liners that Eric gave me for Christmas. They were in my stocking with a mini frying pan that fries only one egg. Last year my stocking included E6000. You know you are a crafty nerd when Santa brings utility strength adhesives and baking tools. I was really excited about these liners, though, because you don't even need a muffin tin! They can withstand heat up to 500 degrees and are machine washable, so no more wasting paper liners. Sadly, the first test did not go as well as I had hoped. The instructions call for lightly greasing the cups before filling, but I think heavy greasing is probably better. The cake got so stuck that we had to scrape the middle out with our fingers, while Eric flipped his inside out and used his teeth. It could also be a cake issue, since I used the old Betty Crocker Silver White cake recipe from 1950. It's my favorite white cake recipe (so fluffy and light thanks to egg whites!), but it may be too soft of a cake for these liners. I do think these will have lots of fun other uses, though. Giant Jell-o Shots, anyone?
After we stuffed ourselves like gluttons, we moved on to the next and most important part of holidays: getting presents. Aimee and Sky gave what is now officially my favorite gift of the season (Don't tell Eric. We went to Ruth's Chris for our gift this year, so it doesn't really count :P). Anyway, I got lots of Lush! I adore good bath products, but all-natural, socially conscious bath products? Can it get any better than that? These gals know me too well. There was more than what is pictured above, but the Massage Bar is already in my shower. It is heavenly, by the way. The Charity Box (now sadly out of stock) is a gift set of fabulous fair trade, natural products wrapped in 100% recycled or recyclable packaging, and 100% of the cost goes to charity. My gift helped out Odd Squad Productions, check 'em out! The packaging even goes so far as to tell you who made your products, along with a happy Lush employee mug. So Thank You, Nic and Susan, thank you (and thanks again to Aimee and Sky!). Your smiling cartoon faces will make me happy every time I shower. I feel nice and soft and I smell much better now. My husband will appreciate your efforts.

1 comment:

Sam said...

"It could also be a cake issue, since I used the old Betty Crocker Silver White cake recipe from 1950. It's my favorite white cake recipe (so fluffy and light thanks to egg whites!), but it may be too soft of a cake for these liners."

I would guess it's the cake. You mentioned the use of plenty of egg whites. Egg's get confused because their molecules are similarly shaped to those of plastic and will try to stick to it as if it is more egg and not plastic. What can I say? Inanimate objects aren't that bright.

Have a good one.