Rainbow Cake!

I have a major sweet tooth; this isn't a shocking revelation or anything, I've always had it.  Last night, Azi and I enjoyed a fantastic dinner at Kathy's new place (taco night, as usual), and I had it in my head that I wanted to make a cake.  I'd seen a great looking olden days recipe on a local blog through the Bangor Daily News - for something called "Harvard Cake" - apparently named after a person, not the college. This post was actually her first on the blog, aptly named Stop Thinking and Cook, but with the deliciousness, and easy recipe, I'm hoping it will be the first of many!

I started out just making the base white/yellow cake batter, but I wanted it to be prettier, so I took a little bit of the batter in three of my trusty pampered chef prep bowls, and mixed them with food coloring.  I then poured all of the plain batter into the pan, and put plops of colored batter all around, then swirled a knife through it to mix the colors:

The Batter, after I swirled it a bit

Following the recipe, I baked it 25 minutes, and took it out of the oven.  I resisted huge amounts of temptation to keep myself from snitching it before I frosted it.  

Baked cake (it came out a little flat, since I couldn't find my measuring spoons, and apparently didn't use enough baking powder)

The baked cake

While it was cooling, I whipped up the easiest butter cream frosting in the world (butter, vanilla, milk, and powdered sugar).  When the cake was (most of the way) cool, I frosted it with the plain, white frosting (fyi - I made the frosting very soft - if I had planned to just straight up frost it, I'd have probably added more sugar, to make it firmer, and I definitely would have let the cake cool all the way!).

Plain frosted blank slate

Then the fun began anew! I took the leftover frosting, and divided it into two prep bowls, mixed red food coloring in one, and blue in the other, then I dropped spoonfulls of the frosting on top of the cake, in a semi-pattern.

Getting ploppy with the frosting

The last thing I did was rinse off my little metal spatula, and drag it through the different dots.  My final result was one groovy looking rainbow cake! While I know I'll never be a professional cake decorator, it does make me pretty darn happy to be able to whip up something so whimsical in my kitchen on a Wednesday night!!!

My whimsical final product - delicious!

Decisions, Decisions

In case you hadn't noticed, it's almost March.  If this were a normal year, it would be March, however the leap year has left us with an extra special day: February 29th.  Maybe it's the fact that the date is four times more significant than usual today, but I'm really feeling the fact that I have yet to buy a calendar at home.  Last year, I scored a super deal on the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies calendar some time at the end of January/Beginning of February.  No such luck this year.

There's a sweet spot when buying a calendar - some time between Christmas and the end of January, when the prices get lower and lower and lower.  Sadly, February 29th is way past that date, and now I have to pay as much (or more) for a calendar as I would have in September.  I'm confused as to why I didn't win a calendar; honestly, I did try, but the fates were against me in all things calendar related this year.

Here are my top choices:

• Gig Posters: Rock Art for the 21st Century
• The Princess Bride
• Posh Family Organizer (this one is actually not very cool, however is $6 and qualifies for Prime shipping)

Yes, I admit it, there's really no contest, I'm going to shell out the almost $13 to get the Gig Posters, and I'm going to plot all year long to do something really awesome with the pictures at the end of the year (SPOILER ALERT: that cool thing will be throwing it away in January).

Are there any cooler ones out there - I've definitely found what I want for 2013 - too bad the 2012 ones are going for over $150: 

2013 Friedensreich Hundertwasser Wall Calendar 

Hooray for Neutrogena

I live in Maine - have I mentioned that before? If you'll look at the date on this post, you'll see that it's mid-January - which means, in Maine speak that it's "wicked cold" here.  One unpleasant side-effect of being in the wicked cold is what happens to your skin due to the dry, cold air outside, and the dry, hot air inside - your skin gets dried out.

Now, I'm not a teenager anymore, nor am I even in my twenties anymore - but I swear when I was younger my skin never needed moisture the way that it does at 32.  In my office, we aren't to wear anything scented - that includes perfumes, body sprays, and dun dun dun - scented lotions.  I've tried an assortment of different unscented lotions, and the end result always seems to be that my hands feel nice and greasy for about five minutes, then are back to being dry, tight, and itchy.  Being a determined gal, I just keep on trying.

It appears my determination has paid off.  I received my two pack of Norwegian Formula Neutrogena Hand Cream, and am totally blown away by how amazing it is on my skin.  It has absolutely no scent, AND - you can use it on your lips (of which I have two very dry, chapped ones on the front of my face), elbows, feet, etc.

This isn't an endorsed review or anything - I just know that I desperately needed a good hand cream, and have finally found it - hopefully this experience will help somebody out!

Giveaway: Win a $10 iTunes Gift Card!

Sadly, Christmas is over.  I got a deal on some iTunes gift cards, and thought that one of my lovely blog readers might be interested in winning the extra one.  It's up to you - I can mail you the gift card or send you the code from the back.  Please use the Rafflecopter entry form below!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Flamingo Father Christmas

I work in an office, not the most glamorous place in the world, but I'm not the most glamorous gal in the world, and the benefits are fantastic, so you'll get no complaints from me.  Sometimes the mundanity of an office can start to feel like a cement block tied to your ankle while you're swimming across a river in January, so you have to find ways to keep yourself entertained.

This week, that entertainment was a little project I like to call "Flamingo Father Christmas." Some "wacky" person stuck a plastic lawn flamingo in the lobby potted plant long before I started here (so, at least six years ago), and I was giving it a look last week, and realized that, although we're not allowed to have a "Christmas Tree" (the custodian got in big trouble for that a few years ago because of the possibility that someone might be offended at some point in the future), there's no rule about not having  Christmas Flamingo.

I decided that our Flamingo needed a new look.  I talked to a coworker who got even more into the idea than I was, she took the task of FFC's outfit, and I took on the (minimal) task of his facial hair.  I've posted the final result below.  Isn't he beautiful??

'Tis the Season

This year we bucked tradition and bought a Christmas tree.  I've loved the straggly natural trees we've found the past few years on my parents' land, but the time and opportunity hasn't availed itself to me, so I paid $20.99 for my tree this year.

I know $20.99 is a good deal for a tree around here, I saw at Walmart they're selling them for $24.98 plus tax, and here on campus, they've got them from $15 - $35. My sister Sarah always goes out and cuts down a tree with her family at Piper Mountain (check out a cool article about them), and I think it's somewhere in the $30 range.

When we lived in Anchorage, it was, unsurprisingly, a lot more expensive to buy a tree, we paid over $40 for a tree that was around 4 1/2 feet tall (we set it on a little end table which was quite cute), but nothing beats the facebook post I saw from a friend in California this weekend.  She showed a picture of her wife and son, with the nice, but somewhat skinny 8-foot tree they'd chosen behind them, then stated that when they'd found out the tree cost $175, they decided to look elsewhere.  Seriously - $175 for a tree??? Not a diamond studded tree? Not a tree that produces fossil fuels? Not a living tree, but one that's in a lot dying its slow death? Not cool.

I feel even better about my $20.99 now.  And, I have to say I think it's beautiful.  This is a picture of it fully decorated, it's not actually tilted, nor is it fuzzy, I took this with my old school cell phone (circa a wicked long time ago), but you get the idea.

Merry Christmas!!!!

2011 Brainerd Family Tree

Back from the Woods

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  As it was Veteran's Day, I had three days away from the office, and went with my mother, daughter, and Mom's new dog Mischka (not sure about the spelling - the name is supposed to be Russian for Teddy Bear) out to Mom's cabin way off in the woods.



All dressed up for a walk during hunting season!

 It was a totally gorgeous weekend.  If you live in New England, you're most likely aware that the foliage this year was way less than stellar, so I didn't really have any of those moments when I gasped "oh my gosh, what an amazing view." That is, until I took Mishy (as I like to call her) for a walk along the dirt roads through the barrens (blueberry fields for the lay person).  If you're interested, here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend.  I think the color of the leaves in the Blueberry Barrens are SPECTACULAR - and Mishy is wicked cute, right???

Later on this week, I'll be updating the Netflix Christmas Streaming posts, I'm going to try to consolidate them all into one post, as it feels pretty goofy to be cutting and pasting all over the place.  But - without further ado - here are some weekend in Northfield, ME pictures!