Baking Away!

Tomorrow afternoon/evening is our Halloween party!!!! Superman, Batman and I will be going down to Ramstein to see Kristin, Elphaba, and their boys and having a spooky old time! :D It's going to be so much fun! I can't wait!

I'm taking some goodies with me, so today I spent much of my time baking. (And when I wasn't baking, I was cleaning...my house needs it!!!) I had originally wanted to make these Pumpkin Pillows, but there isn't a snowball's chance in H-E-double hockey sticks I'd be able to find wonton wrappers at the Commissary. Granted, I could have done some variation of a pie crust, but I honestly didn't feel like going to the trouble. LOL So instead, I resorted to these 2 ingredient pumpkin muffins!

Unfortunately, I didn't look closely enough at the recipe posted before starting (oops!), and ended up opening the wrong can of pumpkin! So now I have to find something to make with the pie mix/filling. (Which, if you know me, is so heartbreaking, giving how much I love pumpkin...LOL)

The RIGHT pumpkin (puree) on the left and the wrong pumpkin (pie mix/filling) on the right

As I could only find the 30 ounce cans of pumpkin at the Commissary, I split the can in half and made one batch with French Vanilla cake mix and the second with Spice Cake mix. (I can already tell from the smell that the latter is going to be my favorite!) And I know the recipe says you only need the two ingredients, but it wasn't mixing the greatest, in my opinion, and still a bit dry, so I added one egg to the spice mix batch.

While I was waiting for the last set of muffins to come out of the oven, I started in on preparing for the Oreo cookie spiders.

Unfortunately, we don't have the black licorice pull and peel here, so the legs will be red, and I cannot buy black jelly beans if it's not Easter season, so I substituted with M&Ms. I cut the pull & peel whips into the 1.5" segments (I used 4 pre-peeled whips and had about an inch leftover on each whip, ending up with 215 leg pieces). When I sat down to put the legs into the cookies, they wouldn't fit. :( So on my way to the gym tonight, I stopped by the Commissary to pick up Double Stuf Oreos. Wouldn't you know it....they don't even carry them. So instead, I will try shaving off some of the end that is to fit inside the cookie and try that route. And if that fails, then I'll just use Ritz crackers, peanut butter and pretzels to make the spiders! LOL

While I waited on the appropriate time to replace the cookies, I worked on the Mini Witch Brooms.

Each Fruit Roll-Up gave me 15 pieces of the 2" requirement (and I cut the 2" strips and the fringe before removing it from the paper to avoid unnecessary sticking to everything!), and I had leftover the ends that are folded in on themselves.  I had some issues at first, but it turns out I had cut the fringe the wrong direction, which gave it a completely different (and completely unsatisfactory) look.

The one on the left is done properly and how it is SUPPOSED to look

I used a teacup to hold the water and a syringe that the pharmacy gives out to give infants medicine (Don't worry, this one was unused! lol) to dab a drop of water on the Roll-Up. (A cheap, new paint brush would also have worked just as easily.) It was actually a little bit tricky, and while wrapping them the wrong way, I actually contemplated going for the fatter pretzels, but it all worked out in the end.

And let me tell you, between peeling all those Twizzlers and rolling all those little Roll-Ups on the end of pretzels, my fingers got a bit sticky (as did my kitchen scissors)! LOL

I waited on making the sugar cookies until the boys were home to help me cut out the shapes, but that ended up backfiring because of how long everything else took, so I haven't even begun to make those! They will have to wait until tomorrow while the boys are at school.

For those of you that know me well enough to know my baking preferences, you know that it's a pretty big deal that I'm resorting to "cheating" and using pre-made mixes to bake cookies. (I'm of the "bake from scratch or it's not truly baking" camp.) But with all the other goodies I'm making, I just don't really have the time to take to make it the right way. :( So tomorrow, more kitchen time and cookie cutters are in my future!!!

Great Weekend Quotes

I must say that the following was the funniest I've heard in a while...

The Instigator (while walking to Her Majesty's Theater in London to see Phantom of the Opera and dressed accordingly in nice clothes): "I look like a n00b in this gear with these white socks."

(To those that don't understand the significance of this, it is a World of Warcraft reference, in which he is pretty much obsessed with constantly upgrading his gear, which is what he referred to his [dark colored] clothes and black shoes as. Yes, I think this is indicative of a needed break from gaming, though it's not likely to happen...)

Matt (sitting around the table at Elphaba's house after dinner): "Do you want a washing machine to try dyeing in?"

(laughter)

Me: "Actually, I think I'd like to live a few years more...."

(That one is probably more of a "you had to be there" moments, but it was still pretty funny!)

Jet lag!

I would call this most recent 4+ week silence uncharacteristic, but that's not entirely true. (I do tend to not blog for longer stretches of time...) This time, however, I have had PLENTY to blog about that should have kept me from being anything but silent! Paris, the boys starting school....So why haven't I? One simple reason: I'VE BEEN IN THE STATES!!!!!!! I spent three weeks split between Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Oklahoma. My BFF got married and I was her Matron of Awesome (read: Matron of Honor, lol), so I had to be there. I spent my first week in the Springs, seeing friends and family (I got to spend a lot of time with my mommy, which makes me VERY happy!), the second week in Fort Collins being Torie's personal gopher (which I was ecstatic about and completely relished in!), and spent the last week in Oklahoma, going all over to see my amazing in-laws (yes, my in-laws are that awesome that I don't have to have my husband with me to see them...I LOVE my in-laws!). I've actually been back home to Germany for a week, now, but I have spent most of that time either unpacking, knitting, or sleeping. (I've not even been cleaning! So bad of me!) But I have much to post about (I still haven't finished about Paris, after all!), so I will get there. It may just take me some time...

Over a Week Ago...

I cannot believe that it's already been over a week since I was in Paris! This entire past week blew right past me between resting up from the eventful weekend and preparing for Batman's 5th birthday and party. (I can't believe that he's 5!!!) I'd better finish blogging about Paris before everything gets too fuzzy!

After we finished seeing the interior of Notre Dame, we walked around to the back side of the cathedral and into Square Jean XXIII.

Notre Dame from the back & the Fountain of the Virgin in the Square

The Fountain of the Virgin in Square Jean XXIII

Do you see how cloudy it is in the background of that last picture?...yeah...Keep that in mind...

While we were resting in the square, we heard (cliché of clichés) accordion music!!! I just had to find the source of the music and get a picture! (There were street musicians everywhere...even in the metro stations! I loved it!)

Accordion player in the middle of Paris

After that, we picked up the bulk of our souvenirs.

My souvenirs for ME!!!

I was eying the umbrella, and it turned out I actually needed to get one, as it started to rain! (Remember those cloudy skies? Yeah, they opened up!) So we crossed back over the Seine and sought refuge in a cute café.

A Paris "beach" along the Seine!

Our view from the café...see the Eiffel Tower in the distance?!

After we had our lunch (I had a croque-monsieur, which I haven't had since French food day in high school, and the most amazing fruit tea!) and the rain had subsided, we walked down to the place that Misha was looking forward to the most....the Louvre!!!

Part of the Louvre

The view of the Louvre that is the most famous

(L to R:) The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower (in the distance), and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

We walked from the Louvre, past the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and through the Jardin des Tuileries all the way down to Place de la Concorde where we found this:

The Luxor Obelisk in Place de la Concorde

And did you know that this square used to be called Place de la Révolution which was centered around a guillotine...the guillotine. The one that beheaded Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Danton and Robespierre! 

One of the two fountains on either side of the obelisk set against the Tower

The Instigator gave me grief for asking for spending money for souvenirs for myself. He thought that just going to Paris should have been enough for me...with as long as I wanted to go, not likely! LOL And true to (recent) form, I bought my obligatory thimble! Isn't it cool? It's got Notre Dame on one side and the Eiffel Tower on the other.

My growing thimble collection!

But our day wasn't over yet!

TO BE CONTINUED...

Second day in Paris!

So to all of my friends that ever told me a) Paris is a filthy city, b) Parisians hate Americans and are, as a result, outright rude to Americans, and/or c) it would not live up to my expectations (because of one of the two previous points, or even for some other reason entirely), I say "pooh, pooh" to you! I LOVED my time in Paris. I was not disappointed. Paris wasn't really any dirtier than any other city (on that scale) I've visited. And absolutely none of the Parisians were rude to me, at all! In fact, the only thing that got in my way of having the perfect time while there was the phone heist. That was it. Everything else was AMAZING!!!! (Well, okay, the bed wasn't too comfortable, and as a result I didn't sleep well, but that was because of my hotel selection, not because of it being Paris.)

We started Saturday off bright and early, and having learned our lesson about the benefits of the Metro system while in London (plus how long it took us to walk to and from the Eiffel Tower the night before! LOL), we went straight to the Metro. For anyone traveling in a large, European city with similar means of getting about, they often have a pass you can use to get around for a set number of days (or as we did in London, a card you could "recharge" with money to continue using the Underground). Misha and I got the 1-day pass (which covered an unlimited number of uses of the Metro system for the entire day, which included the Funicular in Montmarte!) and hopped on board. I am soooooooo grateful that we learned how the Tube in London functioned before going to Paris! It made getting around easier than I could ever express.

1-Day Metro pass for Paris (well worth the Euro!!!)

Our first stop was at Notre Dame. (And no, that is not pronounced the way Americans say it in reference to the University. ::shudder::)

Crossing the bridge to Île de la Cité

One of the doors on the cathedral

Gargoyles of Notre Dame

The West Front (main entrance) façade

Statue of Jeanne d'Arc in Notre Dame

We actually got to witness something while at Notre Dame that I doubt few can truthfully claim to have also seen. A wedding inside Notre Dame! Heck, how many people can say that they have been married there? Even fewer! LOL That would be an amazing experience, to be sure!

The High Altar with Nicolas Coustou's Pietà

 Upon further research, the official website for Notre Dame de Paris says that as they do not belong to a parish, they do not do weddings (or baptisms or funerals) there, but I don't know what else this could have been...hmmm....

The Rose Windows (yes, plural...there are 3 of them!) were absolutely breathtaking, and I absolutely love stained glass.

The West Rose Window and the Grand Organ

I lit a candle in memory of both deceased grandparents

 Entrance into the cathedral was free, as it is a church, but we did pay the fee to go into the Treasury. I think it was well worth it!

Part of the scene of Death of Sainte Geneviève in the Treasury of Notre Dame

Stained glass in the Treasury of Notre Dame

A beautiful crown of sorts in the Notre Dame Treasury (I'm guessing for ceremonial purposes)

Base of a display in the Notre Dame Treasury

We could have also chosen to pay to go up to the tower and gotten some amazing views of the city, but in hindsight, I'm glad that we didn't, otherwise we'd have fallen over later in the day! LOL Had I realized we could have gone into the crypt, however, I likely would have tried to! (There is an episode of Smallville with Lana Lang in Paris doing an art project involving a certain Countess Margaret Isobel Thoreaux....)


And that was just the beginning of the day!

TO BE CONTINUED.....