The good times - they have rolled. I am in mourning. Today is March 9th - Ash Wednesday - also known as the beginning of a hellish 40 days. Every year for the past 18 years, I have given up sweets for Lent. Every year, it's the hardest thing I do all year. You would think that it would get easier at some point - but you'd be wrong. So. I "laissez les bon temp rouler"-ed yesterday and begin sugar withdrawal today.
More importantly, this marks the "slow season" in baking for me. I can't very well bake something sweet and give it away without tasting it first, can I? That would be irresponsible. You see my dilemma. My mother-in-law swears by the "Sunday Cheat Day" theory to Lent - that is, that what ever you have given up for Lent, you are allowed to have on Sunday. That really never made sense to me, but some Lenten seasons, that theory has really saved me from killing myself... or anyone else for that matter.
So here I am - smack in the thick of things on Day One - sugar-free and suffering. Pray for me, friends.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Back in the saddle...
2007? Really?? I can't believe I'm just now getting to this - talk about your never ending to-do list! In any case, I'm going to really make a go of this blog. Feel like I need a bit of a creative outlet to temper the over-analytical seriousness of my day. Lawyering pays my bills and feeds my family - baking feeds my soul. It's time once again to get back to the kitchen altar!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Hello, my name is...
I'm a lawyer... I'm also a mom. You may not believe this, but the two jobs pretty much draw from the same skill set. The truth is much of lawyering anymore is playing mom to clients - dispensing such valuable wisdom as "That's against the law - you can't do that even though everyone else is doing the same thing" which of course is the legal equivalent of "Don't make me stop this car" or "If Jack jumped off a building, would you?"
Waiting for me when I get home are the 4 loves of my life - my sweet stay-at-home husband, my almost 6 year old, Rob, my almost 4 year old, Kellen, and my just turned 2, Loren. They are the reason I drag my carcass to work every day. Not because I feel the maternal need to make money to keep them clothed and fed... don't get me wrong, I do feel that, but not as strongly as I feel I have to get out of the house or else someone's gonna die. You see, I am a mom who knows her greatest weakness - I cannot stay at home with my children. It's not that I don't think about it everyday - the guilt is unbelievable (I'm preaching to the converted, I know). I just know (from prior experience) that this is an unbelievably hard job and I'm just not up to the task. My sweet husband on the other hand has it down to a science. More on him later.
Back to the guilt... my mom, Marsha, henceforth known as The Smartest Woman I Know, once told me that the two saddest things is the world are a parent who wants to stay home with her kids, but can't and a parent who doesn't want to stay home, but has to. I chose to keep working - not because I made more money than my husband, but mostly because I wanted to. But I'm still racked with that working mom guilt.
Now on to a lighter subject. I'm also lawyer with a cake problem... or am I a cake person with a legal problem. The latter sounds a bit too ominous so let me tell you all about my cake problem - I love cake! I mean I really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cake! I've had this problem for awhile now - really as long as I can remember. But my problem has really reared its ugly head recently. It's birthday season at my house. My youngest turned 2 two Saturdays ago, my middle turns 4 this Saturday and my oldest turns 6 in August.
I'm a terrible cook - the women in my family are all (well, almost all - hats off to you, Grandma Alice) terrible cooks! We're career women - we'll take up cooking later on in life as a hobby! I've always said "Don't cook, then they'll expect it" and I married a great Italian chef (not formally trained, mind you - the best kind!), but I've always fancied myself a bit of a baker. I made my son's birthday cake last year (after ordering his cake as well as his sisters' cakes for the preceding years from this wonderful bakery) and had a great time! It was a box cake and frosting, but I made it for him and invented my own little "Cars" creation - his chosen theme.
So this year, I made my youngest, Loren, a Curious George cake - again out of a box, but my own design - she LOVED it! I got excited! So I found this wonderful marshmallow fondant recipe online by this wonderfully sweet woman named Peggy. I also managed to find a simple from-scratch cake recipe too... and presto! A homemade cake was born for Father's Day! Tons of fun to make - and even more to eat - it was actually very good! Now my daughter, Kellen, has asked for a princess castle cake for her 4th birthday. I'm ashamed and embarrased to admit that I've been planning her cake for the past 2 weeks - sneaking in some Internet searches in between my billable hours at work at my law firm, thinking about just how to put this monster cake together while on my morning runs, thinking about fondant as my sweet husband describes his day with the children. Is this wrong? If it is, as they say, I don't want to be right!!! I heart cake!!!
Waiting for me when I get home are the 4 loves of my life - my sweet stay-at-home husband, my almost 6 year old, Rob, my almost 4 year old, Kellen, and my just turned 2, Loren. They are the reason I drag my carcass to work every day. Not because I feel the maternal need to make money to keep them clothed and fed... don't get me wrong, I do feel that, but not as strongly as I feel I have to get out of the house or else someone's gonna die. You see, I am a mom who knows her greatest weakness - I cannot stay at home with my children. It's not that I don't think about it everyday - the guilt is unbelievable (I'm preaching to the converted, I know). I just know (from prior experience) that this is an unbelievably hard job and I'm just not up to the task. My sweet husband on the other hand has it down to a science. More on him later.
Back to the guilt... my mom, Marsha, henceforth known as The Smartest Woman I Know, once told me that the two saddest things is the world are a parent who wants to stay home with her kids, but can't and a parent who doesn't want to stay home, but has to. I chose to keep working - not because I made more money than my husband, but mostly because I wanted to. But I'm still racked with that working mom guilt.
Now on to a lighter subject. I'm also lawyer with a cake problem... or am I a cake person with a legal problem. The latter sounds a bit too ominous so let me tell you all about my cake problem - I love cake! I mean I really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cake! I've had this problem for awhile now - really as long as I can remember. But my problem has really reared its ugly head recently. It's birthday season at my house. My youngest turned 2 two Saturdays ago, my middle turns 4 this Saturday and my oldest turns 6 in August.
I'm a terrible cook - the women in my family are all (well, almost all - hats off to you, Grandma Alice) terrible cooks! We're career women - we'll take up cooking later on in life as a hobby! I've always said "Don't cook, then they'll expect it" and I married a great Italian chef (not formally trained, mind you - the best kind!), but I've always fancied myself a bit of a baker. I made my son's birthday cake last year (after ordering his cake as well as his sisters' cakes for the preceding years from this wonderful bakery) and had a great time! It was a box cake and frosting, but I made it for him and invented my own little "Cars" creation - his chosen theme.
So this year, I made my youngest, Loren, a Curious George cake - again out of a box, but my own design - she LOVED it! I got excited! So I found this wonderful marshmallow fondant recipe online by this wonderfully sweet woman named Peggy. I also managed to find a simple from-scratch cake recipe too... and presto! A homemade cake was born for Father's Day! Tons of fun to make - and even more to eat - it was actually very good! Now my daughter, Kellen, has asked for a princess castle cake for her 4th birthday. I'm ashamed and embarrased to admit that I've been planning her cake for the past 2 weeks - sneaking in some Internet searches in between my billable hours at work at my law firm, thinking about just how to put this monster cake together while on my morning runs, thinking about fondant as my sweet husband describes his day with the children. Is this wrong? If it is, as they say, I don't want to be right!!! I heart cake!!!
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