Week 51: Christmas Party and Lost

This past week was Justin's Duke work party. After over an year and a half of Justin working at Duke I finally got to meet his coworkers. The Party was at the Marriott, which brought back prom memories, in downtown Durham.
It was great to finally meet some of the people Justin works it.

I have really enjoyed having Netflix and getting to watch things on instant watch. So, as I have been speding hours decorating cookies I decided it was time to find a new tv show to watch. So, I finally decided to see what everyone was so intrigued about Lost. I am really enjoying it so far. I have more questions than answers but it's a good show so far. I am looking forward to seeing what will happen next as I continue to watch it.

As far as baking goes this week I worked on more cookies and a couple of cakes for gifts.

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Week 51 Gingerbread houses!!

I have wanted to make Ginger bread houses for a long time. So, it sounded like the perfect thing to do with our bowling wiigue! We decided to make 2 houses in teams. We had a ladies' team and a guys' team. I made ginger bread for the first time following a recipe from one of the cook books I got in Portland. It smelled really good but we didn't eat any of it. It did however work really well to make houses. I used the wilton recipe for Royal icing which held up really well.
I know I say this a lot but we had a lot of fun! I really enjoy our bowling wiigue. Here are some pictures from that night:

There are lots of more picture on facebook.

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Celebrating Teresa's life

Any one that has known me in the past 8 years has either met or at least heard about Teresa. I started to babysit for Teresa when she was pregnant with the twins over 8.5 years ago. I started by coming over to play with Cyrus as Teresa and Merhan decided he should get to know me before his brothers were born. At first, the plan was for me to come over once or twice a week so Cyrus would have someone to play with as mom and dad would be busy with work and the twins so they wanted to make sure he would have some attention all to himself. Very shortly after the twins were born, 5 days to be exact, things changed. Teresa was in a lot of pain from a pinched nerve on her neck and had to be taken to the E.R.. That was the first night I started babysitting over night. That summer, the summer before my junior year of High School, I came over a couple times during the week to help with the boys and 2 or 3 nights a week to stay up with the boys so Teresa and Merhan could sleep. Back then, MTV still showed music videos so I would set up my "bed" in the living room with a baby on each side and watch videos and nap on and off.
The following spring I got to help them move in to their new house. The twins were 9 months old at the time. I continue to help out on weekends, breaks from school, and whenever else they needed me.
When the twins were 18 months old Teresa and Merhan split up. I was at UNC-G by this point. I came home on the weekends T had the boys to help out. I also lived with T and the boys over the holidays and summers. T would jokingly introduce me as her wife as I was around to help with the kids or do things like laundry, grocery shopping, help organize the bills or whatever random projects Radius needed done so she could spend more time with the boys. I have many, many memories of T. From our yearly beach trip with the boys, to holidays with her family and mine, harder things like packing up her old house on Manora Lane, the death of John and so many others. T was like an older sister to me. We didn't always see eye to eye on things but she was there to help me with things, but she also needed my help at times. She used to say that I was there to take care of not only the boys but of her as well.
Back in March she found out there was mass in her lungs. They soon discovered it was cancer and that they couldn't operate. In the months after that she went through chemo and radiation. I have never had anyone close to me be sick before and I didn't realize how sick she was in till very late in the game.
This past Sunday her close friends sent out and email to let everyone know she was in the hospital and not doing well. On Monday afternoon mom and I went to go visit her. Teresa had passed away just 30 minutes before that.
Today I had a new experience I would have never hoped to have had. Today was Teresa's funeral. The service was wonderful, we sang some of her favorite hymns, friends shared stories about T, and there was a wonderful picture montage. We also got to listen to a recording she had made for the boys. After the service we went out to the grave site. After the funeral it was time to celebrate her life! When Teresa moved to the Carrboro house she was planning to have a big party, and tonight we had that party for her.
Teresa had many close friends, many of whom have been her best friends since college, some ever before that. I have always admired how her friends were like family to her. They have always been there for her and each other no matter what. They don't all live in town, nor do they all agree on everything but they have always been there.
In a couple weeks I will be helping her friends pack up her house and I am guessing how I feel now is nothing compared to how hard that will be. I have lost a good friend but I know I will see her in heaven some day. But, I can't imagine how her boys, or friends who don't share her faith must feel.
I am asking you to please pray for her boys, her friends/family, and Merhan who will know be raising Kaveh, Jahon (8) and Cyrus(10).
I also want to encourage you to tell the people you love just how important they are to you and to reconnect with people you care about. Nothing is big enough deal or a big enough fight to loose a friendship and you never know how long they will be around for.

To all my friends thank you for being there for me.
Everyone of you has made a great impact in my life even if I haven't talked to you in years please know that you still mean a lot to me.


thanks for reading!

week 50: BAKING marathon

This week I had the pleasure of making Jeff and April's cupcake/cake for their wedding. This week I made a total of 324 cupcakes - for April and Jeff's wedding, 18 for Lili's bday, 30 for Sebastian's birthday, 24 for Maddie's birthday and 3 cakes- one for April and Jeff, one for Maddie, one for Seigrid's birthday.I also made cookies cookies- 50 chocolate chip, 55 sugar cookie sandwiches and several dozen iced sugar Christmas cookies.

So, in order to get all this baking done I came up with a system . First, make 2 batches of batter at a time (enough for 48-52 cupcakes). Pour them into cupcake pans, I have 4 so I can prepare 2 while 2 are baking. That way, I could baking continuously, and save time/electricity. Next the cupcakes bake for 17-19 minutes

Then they cool on in the pans for 10 minutes

They then get moved to the storing containers to finish cooling, while the next batch bakes

They then all get filled with butter cream icing

After they are done cooling they get iced

After the icing swirl they each get a flower. I made all the flowers before this week as they can be done ahead of time and stored.

Some of the vanilla cupcakes got chocolate icing, some got vanilla icing. The dark chocolate cupcakes got almond icing.

April made stand for all the cupcakes

Here are the pictures from some of the other baking I did this week:

Cupcakes for Sebastian's birthday at school

Lili's cupcakes Maddie's cake and cupcake

Seigrid's Birthday cake

Thanks for reading!

Week 49: lacto-ovo-vegetarian, make your own cookie cutter

When I first decided to have my year of experiences I had made a small list of things I wanted to do. One of them was to be a vegetarian for a week. I love fruits but I am not a fan of most vegetables. I also don't like peanut butter so I knew this was going to be a challenge. There are Types of vegetarians and I decided to try to be a lacto-ovo-vegetarian. Translation: one who eats dairy and eggs as well as fruits and vegetables.
I started by going to trader joe's to pick up lots of bananas, nuts, soy nuggets, and soybeans.
Monday I started the day with a yogurt and granola bar. For lunch I had Soy nuggets and a salad. I had never had soy nuggets before. They look just like nuggets but don't taste at all like chicken. They weren't my favorite but they were decent. For dinner it was our turn to cook for bowling wiigue so I made pancakes.
Tuesday for lunch I had a quesadilla, carrots, and soy beans. For dinner we had pizza right before I went to work. Wednesday I had a queasadilla as well. For dinner I had pasta with nuggets. Thursday for lunch I had a grilled cheese and green pea chips (they were really yummy they are dehydrated peas in their pods from traider joe's). By Thursday night I decided I really wanted meat, so I had meat balls and pasta for dinner. I continued with my vegetarian lunches but, decided while I plan on eating more "healthy", I enjoy meat too much to give it up.
My baking experience of the week include using my awesome new toy: The make your own cookie cutter kit!!
Sebastian asked for a Starwars party. So I made a starwars cake similar to the one I made earlier this year.
I wanted to make something cool for the cookie pops. I went to kitchenworks (an awsome store in University mall) to see what I can find. And there it was the make your own cookie cutter set! So ofcourse, I had to make a lightsaber cookie cutter.
They turned out pretty well and the kids loved them.
Thanks for reading!