Yank Bakes

So I have done a little bit of renovating on my blog, I get bored of the same thing all the time so I thought I would shake it up. You may have noticed the Yank Bakes list on the right hand side; this is part of my new weekly “feature” post. Each one has a link to blog I found it on and one I have tried the recipe and reported back here it will change to a link to my blog entry. Don’t worries I promise the blog entry will link back to the original blog I found the recipe on. I will most likely be making up the recipes on the weekend and blogging about them on Mondays or Tuesday. I will also be adding new fun recipes as I find them so it should be never ending; the neighbours are going to love all the goodies! In true Yank style I have not figured out all the details yet I am just making up the rules and I go along. This weekend’s recipe is Mile High Devil’s Food Cake with Brown Sugar Butter cream Frosting

The YUCK

So last November Mr. Y in E and I got thrown a handful of YUCK, we thought the YUCK would be over quickly and life would return to normal. After Christmas it became apparent that the YUCK was not going to pass anytime soon and I went into crisis mode in hope of averting a complete meltdown while dealing with the YUCK. The problem with me going into crisis mode is that the only thing that does not fall apart when I am in crisis mode is the particular item that has thrown me into crisis mode. The YUCK seems to have moved on and due to some creative thinking has done little damage other than the fact that in the last six months we have not really move any closer to the goals we had set as a couple and also for ourselves. In a lot of way I consider us lucky and while certainly not sought out the YUCK has brought us much closer together. So when if was apparent that the YUCK was really on the way out the door I sat down to pick up the pieces of my life and move forward. So I have reconstructed the goals for 2009 slightly, some I have missed completely and had to rethink, others no longer seem so important. So in all its glory:


Goals for 2009



Loose another 20lbs by summer. Okay I have really sucked at this; I have actually gained a few pounds, what can I say I am a stress eater and stress baker. Good news I have found the most awesome recipe for chocolate chip cookies, bad news I have found the most awesome recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Plan moving forward only one baking project a week of which I get 1 portion the rest is donated to our neighbours/Mr Y in E’s family. Starting back up at Weight Watchers I got really slack with this and I need the accountability and the support. Restructured goal: Loose a stone by the end of summer and find an outdoor activity I can do 3-5 times a week for at least 30 mins. Buy a Pilates mat so I can actually do the Pilates DVD I bought a few weeks ago when the weather is too yucky to do out door activities.



Choose a feature topic for my blog, assign it a day and write on that topic weekly. Again another suck really and truly suck. I have rethought my original idea for a feature and I think I might link it to my above once a week baking, I have really enjoyed it and come across lots of good recipes I want to try.


Pay off the credit card. Due to above mentioned yuckiness this was not moving forward but I have done budget projections till year end and I am thinking it is still possible, there are a few variables that can not be accounted for but looks very probable.



Quit smoking. Fell off the band wagon, need to buy new ticket for the band wagon. Thinking might buy ticket for Saturday, will see. I promise not to bore you with how much my life sucks while I am quitting this time.


See more of England. Take advantage of the fact that I no longer work weekends and drag my mother in law or my husband out to the millions of cool things to see with in driving distance. Okay so this is really the only goal I have done particularly well at. February saw a trip to Wisley Gardens the flagship gardens for the RHS. March saw a return trip to Wisley Gardens with my MIL who had not been since she was a child. April saw a trip to Hyde Hall another RHS garden (I am a card carrying member of RHS). May has seen a trip to Sissinghurst Castle Gardens which has been on my list of to do for about two years. Wish List for the next few months: Canterbury Cathedral- it is spitting distance would be a shame not too. Long weekend to Guernsey* with a day trip to Sark- a girl can dream right?.



*Guernsey and Sark and not part of England, they are not even part of the United Kingdom, they are part of the Channel Islands which are bailiwicks of the United Kingdom.

Whitie

So as another summer draws closer I have yet again vowed that this will be the year that I will religiously use gradual tanner and for once I will not be the one with scary pasty white skin. Naturally I only have two colours WHITE and RED. Every year I buy my bottle of gradual tanner and after one or two application it is forgotten and is thrown out around Christmas. This year however I am painfully aware of my white skin, it is actually starting to creep me out, what I once considered as alabaster now just looks washed out.

I mentioned my intentions to my MIL last weekend as we strolled along at Sissinghurst Castle gardens, yes we were strolling and yes the whole experience was a little cliche but lovely all at the same time. She mentioned she had tried gradual tanning lotions the year before but had just ended up with orange hands. I asked if she had washed her hands after application as the bottle suggested and she said she hadn't bothered to read the bottle. I marvel at the woman who has successfully raised three terrific sons who still come home often to visit their mother, a woman who as been amazingly successful with her fiances although they have been small. A woman who no matter the hour or the strangeness of the item always has what I am in a tizzy to find for some project and quickly arrives at my house with it. The woman who expertly puts up with two eccentric foreign daughter in laws who apparently couldn't be bothered with reading the label on the bottle.

If anyone is wondering I washed my hands after I applied my lotion this evening I guess a lack of orange hands is the only thing the my one day future daughter in law will have to be awed by.

Killing fairies and other detritis

I was informed today that if you reply thank you after someone say bless you for sneezing you kill a fairy. While I am not a believer in fairies I think I will err on the side of caution and come across rude as I don’t want to burn in hell for killing fairies.

Listing to the news on the radio Saturday morning I found it quite odd when the announcer said “Medical officials are doing everything they can today to stop the spread of swine flu.” Were they only going at it half heartedly yesterday and are they all on holiday tomorrow?

Watching TV yesterday I was subjected to an add selling beauty cream claiming to be the non surgical option to naturally beautiful skin. If I have to apply anything to my face does it not become unnatural, and if it is an alternative does that not also imply that surgery is a natural way to beautiful skin?

Random Tidying

So I have a new plan for when I can't find stuff I need. I use to hunt an peck for it in a most organized fashion checking first in the most likely place and then trying to figure out the last time I used the item and think back to where I was and then I went into the destroy the house and become obsessed with finding the item. This rarely worked and the missing item would show up a few day, week, months later at a really weird time in a place I swear I had looked for it. So I would be really irritated and I would have destroyed the house looking for it.

Now when I can't find something I engage in what I call random tidying. I admit to myself that I have no idea where the item I want is let it go and start tidying in a completely random fashion. I am in no way looking for the item I want, I put it completely out of my mind. I just start putting away the first item out of place that I find and let my mind lead me where I may. As I see half finished tasks I finish them up. This weekend it lead to me finding my dresser again and saving it from the mountain of clean clothing which had taken up residence. I reorganized three drawers in my bedside table and got rid of all my single socks that did not match up as well as organizing the extra buttons that always come with clothes. I finally unpacked all my craft stuff that I took to a crop a few weeks ago and somewhat tidied up my craft stuff. In the process I found the top coat I was looking for (behind the computer) and my bone folder that had been missing for over a week (under some stuff in a bag I had yet to unpack no sure how it got there as I have used it since the crop). I am thinking random tidying has multiple benefits and I may have to continue this idea.

Moving Day

So the new tenants of Casa de la Yank have been moved into there semi-permanent accommodation. I say semi-permanent because this was not the accommodation I wanted for them but after much looking at several places that sold plant accommodation with no luck finding what I wanted I gave up. I am sure that now I have re potted them I will find exactly what I am looking for.

My MIL and I went to Hyde Hall this afternoon, after a morning of working in her garden. This little fellow decided that he needed to come join me at my house. Looks like I am going to need more accommodations.

My MIL had a bag full of these bottle tops. Seriously how cool are these work just like a watering can. After a dig around in my recycle bin I found a bottle (I rinsed it really well as I am sure Diet Coke is engineered to KILL plants) and I was in business.


Can't really see the shower effect as I am trying to juggle the camera with my free hand. I am loving my new water bottle though.

Reading Lables

I like to read the labels on things, I usually do this when I am waiting for something. The pasta package while I am waiting for it to cook. The shampoo bottle while I am letting the conditioner sit for a minute or two. While I stood waiting for my crumpets to toast the other evening I was reading the label on my jar of Nutella. In big bold letters on the front it reads A full glass of skimmed milk in every jar, followed by an astric. Now having already read the list of ingredient I found this slightly funny. A product whose first ingredient is sugar is touting the fact that a full glass of SKIMMED milk goes into every jar. Following that little astric to the fine print I learn that an actual glass of skimmed milk does not go into every bottle but the equivalent of 220ml glass of skimmed milk in powder form goes into every jar. I seriously feel like my intelligence has been insulted lets call a spade a spade Nutella is just a seriously good excuse to put chocolate on your crumpets. It is not going to make my bones grow strong or sustain me until my next meal, it is kind of like those adds with sports stars saying Snickers were a source of nutrition for them that were so popular in the 90s. Snickers are a candy bar, I guess if you work as hard as a sports star you work off the calories but the average Jo who might go to the gym 2-3 times a week should not be chomping away thinking he/she will be the next all star NFL quarterback.





That said the crumpets with Nutella were excellent.


(Note: While I am not the woman in the picture I sort of wish I was)