My Husband, My Hero

So the other night, my dear husband turns to me and hands over a section of the newspaper. "Does your spider looks like this?". I had been talking to him earlier that day about my spider - Spidy. I told him that I was worried Spidy was going to die soon as she is supposed to. She had in the fall laid an egg sac and look after it until eggs hatched. She is so much smaller than she was when I first spotted her in the summer. To top things off I found her with another egg sac this morning. Already exhausted from tending to the first egg sac, I do not know how she will fair.

Back to the newspaper article, he handed to me. It was about the Brown Widow Spider. The Brown widow venom is twice as potent as black widow but less is injected. "No, my spider does not look like the brown widow spider. She is a Green Lynx Spider." I left it at that but did continue to read the article.

Today, when I went to take in the trash cans from the curb, I remembered the article and what it said about the spiders favoring the underneath the handles of trash cans. Low and behold, there they were, egg sacs with tiny spikes. I did not touch the handles directly but use something to help me pull the trash can into the yard. I search for the article to see how to best handle it. It says to squish the spiders as they do not die immediately from insecticide. So tomorrow I will do that.

Meanwhile, thank you my husband for looking out for me ( although I suspect he thought I did not know one spider from another!)

All things Spidy

Throughout this summer, it seems like I was always stepping through spider webs in my garden. Overnight,huge net of spider webs would appear. I would walk straight smack into them and have to pull the web off my face. So, awhile back I took my camera out and tried to photograph them. It was not the easiest thing to do! I manage to take a few nice shots. I took that opportunity to check out who Spidy's neighbors were. Remember, Spidy, my gardening friend? I will update you on Spidy later but for now Spidy's friends.


I found this spider web across one of my Lavender bush. I tried identifying it from charts on the web. It is one of the Orb Weaver spider. I think it is the Labyrinth Orb Weaver Spider. It was fairly large, maybe the size of a dime and ugly... like how a spider should be.




Then, I found this spider making a web across a Tomato Cage. Isn't the web beautiful? Like pearls glistening in the sun. It is another member of the orb weaver family, I think. It is very much smaller than the spider on the lavender plant. I had to zoom it a fair bit with my camera to see what it looks like. The silk of the web was finer giving it a ethereal look, especially with the morning sun glistening on the dew drops.















As I wander down the lower garden I see this huge web stretched between two trees. Webs of all sizes from spiders of all sizes. I guess Spidy has quite a cosmopolitan neighborhood.

A message (posting) frrom the past

2009 resolution - tie up all loose ends, finish as many unfinished symphonies as possible! Note, I did not say all - just as many as possible. As previously mentioned there sits many unposted blog posts on my account. So thinking I am off to a great start and will have many new postings this year, I edit and post one of these projects. I looked for it after I posted only to find out it posted to 2008 - i.e. the year I created the posting! So friends and family, check out 2008 for "new posting". Just posted my Black Hokkein Spaghetti (Mee) recipe- find in September 2008.

Cupcakes on my mind (C's fault!)

I was (am still) afflicted with a serious case of cupcake fever at the end of 2008, thanks to my friend C, though she denies it and says I found the knitted cupcake pattern all by myself! Maybe, maybe not! I am not saying either way. It all started when I decided that I would try to take up knitting again.... something that I had done as a teenager and as a young adult but dropped in favor of crochet. I remember making many mistakes, dropping stitches only to discover it far too late. Besides, I found most knitting patterns to be frumpy and what young woman wanted that? Crochet came easy to me. I earned a fair bit of money making fashionable crochet cloches, caps, scarves and pretty tops for my friends and their friends. I even made custom orders for tops and dresses which the yarn shop owner commissioned for me. Hey, when you can crochet and watch tv at the same time and make money, you do not want to struggle with knitting.

I digress but that is the intent of this blog. For me to remember and record my memories and to capture memories in the making. I wanted to take up knitting again to prove to myself I can do it and to spend a bit of time with my friend C and tap into her knitting skills. Besides, I have been feeling cold and yarn in my hand feels good. Also, very important I am hoping to make something for my little nephew M. Simple sweet baby stuff.

Anyway, I cannot shake this desire to make one of these adorable knitted cupcakes. I did explore the crochet ones but have to say that I prefer these knitted ones. They however, involve tricky double ended needles! I will not be defeated. Sadly, my friend C the knitting diva is not so excited about them cupcakes. How are you going to motivate me to knit if you don't help me make them and get me hooked on knitting???

So Mom, if you are reading this please try to make these cupcakes and get sister S to email me pictures! My Mom, of course can knit, crochet, sew, bake, cook, bead,sculpy, batik - you just name it and she can. Martha Stewart has nothing on my mommy! Just a little of it rubbed off on me.

Okay, back to cupcake. It had me spending days on the internet and on blogs. I see that I am not the only person with this obession. I came across many websites selling them, free pattern etc. My favourite are of course the original OneSkein that started this hankering at http://www.oneskein.blogspot.com/

and Mrs. Darcy's cupcake at http://www.darcyscrossing.com/knitted-cupcakes/

It eventually lead me to the most creative knitted cupcake site - actual cupcakes with knitted decorations. Interestingly enough the blogger Lolo was featured on Martha Stewart's show. Catch the episode on her blog at http://veganyumyum.com/2007/06/knit-night-cupcakes/ . Now that is what I like marrying two interest together- knitting and cooking.

So friends and family, this will probably not be the last you hear of cupcakes. See you in the kitchen or the craft room.

Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes

Ingredients

1. 3 cups of flour
2. 2 cups Swan Down Cake Flour
3. 2 cups sugar
4. 2 tablespoon baking powder
5. 3/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter,cut into 1 inch cubes. Essential that the cubes are soft and at room temperature
7. 4 large eggs, room temperature
   
8. 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
9. 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
10. Strawberries hulled and cut into halves
11. Duncan Hines Vanilla Whipped Frosting, 16.2 oz
12. Yellow and Brown coloring
13. Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolate
14. Smuckers low sugar strawberry preserves

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake panes with while paper liners.

Combine wet ingredients 7 through 9 in a large glass measuring cup and whisk to combine.

Combine dry ingredients 1 to 5 in bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix on low speed until combined. Slowly add soften butter cubes, increasing to medium speed as mixture combines. Mix until just coated with flour.

With mixer at medium speed add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scrapping down sides before each addition. Beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat.

Divide batter evenly among liners with cookie or ice cream scoop. Fill liner 1/3 full, top with half a strawberry and top with batter until the liners are 2/3 full. Bake in oven until a cake tester inserted in middle comes out clean, about 17 to 20 minutes depending on oven. Cool.

Cake Assembly
Tint the whipped frosting with tiny bits of yellow and brown food coloring until you get pasta color. Be careful to add color bit by bit or it will be too yellow.

Arrange cupcakes close together in a lasagna pan. Spread a thin layer of frosting for on the cupcakes. Put remainder tinted frosting into a zip lock bag. Press out the excess air and seal the bag. Snip a 1/8 inch corner form the bag. Pipe frosting all over the cupcake to make spaghetti, piling it high and allowing some of the spaghetti to hang over the edges.

Unwrap the chocolate and toss with strawberry preserves. Spoon meatballs over `spaghetti' and drizzle extra sauce over.

Special Birthday Cake

Trying to come up something unique for my daughter L's 18 birthday, I decided to make a Spaghetti and Meatball cake, egged on by my friend C, especially after daughter choose the same cake from the book. However, I was not happy with the cupcake from the box as suggested by my friend. Too sweet and ordinary.That's the last time I listen to you C.... nothing but the best for my daughter!

Of course, I had to have the best so I went to Martha Stewart's website. There I found a recipe for Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla cupcake - a bakery cupcake winner. I watched the video, printed out the recipe and then happily measured out the ingredients, noting that there was some discrepancies between the video and the recipe posted notably the amount of baking powder and the quantities and type of flour. At this point the 2 tablespoon (*) of baking powder had already been added to the 1 3/4 cups of cake flour per video! I am now on the blog ( I know a little late) and noticing that there are numerous posting about the discrepancies and how other handled it. There were equal number of people having success with 1 and 2 tablespoon of baking powder. Some used regular all purpose flour versus the cake flour and all purpose flour combination. All it seems with equal incidence of success and failure.

And so..... because I was already thinking a plain vanilla cupcake would be too boring, I had halved some strawberries to put in the middle of the cupcakes. Heck if I was taking a risk, I thought I might as well go whole hog. I decided to use all cake flour instead of the flour combination suggested....... Well, they turned out beautifully. No, the extra strawberry did not add enough liquid to make a difference... so there C!!!!

Ha, ha, now as I am sitting here and trying to write this post, I am trying to visualize exactly how I made these cupcakes. I am seeing in my mind's eye that maybe I measured 2 teaspoon of baking powder versus 2 TABLESPOONS of baking powder. So is this like a total do over of the Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes????? Okay, I think it was 2 Tablespoon of baking powder as I had to sieve the lumpy baking powder. We will go with 2 tablespoon. Hey, if you are game try MY Spaghetti and Meatball Special.

Happy 18th Birthday Daughter

Yesterday my beloved daughter turned 18 !!( January 6 ) It was a beautiful momentous moment. I have been truly blessed with a loving, caring and intelligent child who has made being a mother a fulfilling experience. I smile when I think of the number of friends who were motivated to start a family because of her as a baby - a happy, interactive and easy to care for and mother. I warned them that not all babies are like my baby but...... Even this week when I spoke to a teacher of hers who is presently pregnant, she commented that if her baby was like daughter L who is an angel she would be really blessed. Ha, ha, I tried to tell the teacher that she is not always angle like! Whatever flaws daughter has, they are eclipsed by her good heart, her strong sense of self and family, and the fact that she is a special part of me.

Happy Birthday Baby! I handed down to her the gold bangle my mother gave me when I was 18. Hopefully one day she will be blessed with a daughter she can hand it down to. Something new was a long strand a green colored freshwater pearls, which she can wear long or loop into multi strands or even wear as choker. Whatever style a fashionable teenager can think up. Green has been her favorite color the past couple of years (and mine too!). Maybe this will be a tradition of passing down family jewelry with an addition of something new.

As stars aligned, she was playing in a soccer match for her high school on her birthday. She was wearing her number 18 jersey. How apt! The school district is making a documentary on the International Baccalaureate Program and choose to film daughter L as she is the only IB candidate that is playing sport this season! So the cameraman was on the field filming her during the soccer game. All this on her birthday!!

At daughter L's request, I made a whole mess of spaghetti and meatballs for her team as a treat. Not! It was a tray of cupcakes disguised as spaghetti and meatballs.(Check out posting for that) She was happy that her team enjoyed them.



After daughter L cleaned up and dressed up as girly girl (versus scruffy soccer player) we headed out to dinner at the new Mr.Dumpling restaurant in Convey. We ordered a hot pot dinner and had noodles for her birthday.

I tucked my baby in bed last night, under her million layers of comforters. Once my baby , always my baby. Happy Birthday MY