Thursday, August 21, 2008

Happy Birthday Poppy

My Father turned 61 yesterday so last night I ordered in some fresh quail and quail's eggs and made a feast. He also requested a "Ding Dong" cake. The menu was stuffed quail, grilled zucchini and poached quail eggs on toasted polenta cakes.

The quails came boned packaged nicely in a cooler with ice to keep them fresh and the eggs were laid that morning. I started by making the stuffing of Portabella and button mushrooms mixed with goat cheese, green onions and garlic.


I stuffed the birds and laid them in the backing dish before a quick saute in bacon fat before baking.


The tiny eggs were so beautiful! It took a few tries to perfect getting them out of the shell without breaking them.
Here is the "Ding Dong" cake Poppy requested. It was made with dark rich chocolate ganache which went very well with the red wine.

Monday, August 18, 2008

"Hey Cupcake!"

Saturday Riley and I were treated to a movie and a big cupcake. The is the new hip spot on South Congress in Austin Tx. It is called "Hey Cupcake!". It's a very small Airstream with a very large rotating cupcake on the roof. It was Saturday evening about 6:30pm and raining and the line was wrapped around and down the side walk.

Riley had "The Standard (Chocolate Top, Vanilla Bottom)" with sprinkles of course!
I had a "Double Double Whipper Snapper (Chocolate Top, Chocolate Bottom with a squirt of cream filling in the middle)"

OMG Delicious!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Two Year Anniversary!

To Celebrate 2 Years as an Art Director, I thought I would share a few of the fun things I have created.

Main Street Light Post Banners promoting our River Activities



5 Foot Billboard that can been seen entering Luling from the North



Hippie Picture Opportunity - Chili Cook Off 2007 (yes that is my parents - SMILE!!)



Wearable "Groovy" bus - Chili Cookoff 2007



Press Check - Milwaukee This is where I go every couple of months for the printing of my catalog.



Watermelon Thump Float 2007 (We won 1st place in the Business Division)



Watermelon Thump Float 2008 (We won 2nd place in the Business Division)



And of course, I made a few cakes...

Riley's 7th Birthday Cake (Hannah Montana themed of course)



Dual Birthdays for Mom and Laura



Baby Shower Cake for a Co-Worker

Monday, August 11, 2008

Cow Herding

A typical evening in Cow Town! At 3:47pm Tristian and I went to San Marcos for dinner and a movie. We first had to visit the outlet mall for a little shopping but then off to dinner at 5:30pm .....Gordo's (as most SWT alumni know from the square) has branched out with a second location toward the outlet mall. Gordo's exceeded our expectations with hot, fresh mushroom swiss burgers and the evening was off to a great start.

We had been preparing for the new X-Files movie by watching all episodes from the beginning and I felt ready so we went to see the new flick at 7:10pm. (The time line might be important) Since I am neither Siskel or Ebert I will spare the movie review. We left about 9:30pm and made one stop at Hastings before heading home.

This is were the fun begins......half way between Martindale and Luling, we came upon a wreck that clearly happened about 1 min prior to us driving up on it. Several cars were involved and a dead cow was in the center of the road. This poor cow managed to take out 3 or more cars with major damage to all. We checked to make sure that emergency vehicles had been called and then proceeded on towards Luling. About 50 yards from the wreck we spot the rest of the herd.

This stretch of road is VERY dark. We played this scenario out in our heads and realized that this could be a dangerous situation as more cars and emergency vehicles would be racing to the scene of the accident. We decided to keep the cattle in sight and try to keep them from crossing the traffic again. We called 911 several times to alert them of our location and attempt to get help keeping these cows out of traffic but as anyone who lives in the sticks knows....this is a county law enforcement responsibility and the only TWO officers on duty were assisting the accident victims. So after about an hour of holding the frightened bovine, we managed to get them down a dirt road with little to no traffic.

Our evening ended up as an unforeseen adventure. Of course I had my camera and never thought to take a single picture. :(

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The New Me

Ok - I was finally sick of my Mother telling me to cut my hair so here it is. Enjoy!