Weekend in New Orleans

Tripp and I spent last weekend in New Orleans! We drove in Friday night after work, so we did not arrive until close to 11:30. We chatted with my parents and then headed to bed. Saturday morning, I got a great haircut from my very talented sister Claire. My mom, sister, and I met my dad and Tripp at Parkway Bakery for lunch. We enjoyed awesome ham, shrimp, and roast beef po-boys. I then ran errands with my mom.

After getting back to my parents' house, we got ready for the Light the Night Walk at a nearby park. Just in case you did not read an earlier post about the walk, it is a walk raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. A team was formed in honor of my dad for the walk. When we arrived at the park, we were surprised to see the amount of tents, tables, and food. Soon after we arrived, a group of my dad's co-workers, my mom's co-workers, family friends, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents began arriving. We visited, enjoyed the food, and the live music.

Just before the actual walk began, we were treated to some entertainment from the 610 Stompers. What a way to get the crowds pumped up!! Then the walk began with each of us carrying a lighted balloon.  What a fun and successful night with over $180,000 raised to help find a cure for blood cancers!!!

Claire with her favorite brother-in-law!

Cousins

Tripp and I

Me and my dad

Dad's co-workers

610 Stompers

On the walk

Final Class!

 My cake class came to a close this morning. Our assignment was to design a cake, make the cake, make the icing, frost the cake, make flowers, dry the flowers, and bring it to class to decorate. Since I had a lot to prepare, I worked on little bits throughout the week. I made and tinnted icing on Tuesday, made flowers on Wednesday, make my cake on Thursday, and frosted the cake and gathered all of the materials on Friday. I cam up with a design consisting of a white buttercream frosted cake with orage colored ribbon roses, coral colored swirl drop flowers, coral colored rosette border, and orange colored dots scattrered on the cake. I had a few hiccups during the week, but I was ready to go for today! Here are some pictures of the preparation for today:

With all of my materials in hand, we got a lesson on writing with icing, a few other tips, some houseskeeping items handled, some help on ribbon roses, and we were off to decorate. Here is my final cake and my certificate from the class. I am roud of myself for completing the course and learning so many new things! Here's to baking!!!

Cake Class #3

So the lesson for cake class #3 was about cupcakes!! I was excited to learn how bakeries make their cupcakes look so pretty. We also learned how to make leaves and a few different flowers: drop flowers, swirl drop flowers, shaggy mum,  pompom flower, and a ribbon rose. Wow, flowers are not easy! The ribbon rose looks beautiful, but it not the easiest. I will never complain again about how much a bakery charges for cakes with flowers on them. It takes a lot of time and effort to make those cakes look that beautiful. Here are a few of my attempts!

 

Cake Class #2

So yesterday was my second cake decorating class. I was excited to learn more, but also a little nervous because class number two entails actually decorating a cake!! I had to bring an 8" round cake and prepared homemade buttercream icing to class. Friday night after getting home from work, I began making two batches of icing. The process went well and I ended up with two containers of yummy icing.

My next feat was to make a cake from scratch. I had decided during the week that I would attempt to make a butter cake from scratch, but was nervous to make my first cake from scratch! So I began making the batter, poured the batter into the pan, and put it in the oven. Once I thought the cake was done, I started cooling the cake. Then Tripp and I left to get some dinner. When we returned, the cake was cooled but it was sinking some in the middle of the cake. I didn't think much of it and got it wrapped it up so I could take it in the morning.

What I found out in class was that I had not cooked my cake quite enough. The cake was cooked, but not cooked as much as it should have been in the center. I was so aggravated, but I learned a lesson about the doneness of a cake! In class, we leveled our cakes, iced them, did a piping gel transfer (put a picture onto the cake), tinted icing, and started piping. It was a lot of work, but the cake came out cute!!

Cake Class #1

My friend Alyssa asked me back in August if I wanted to take a cake decorating class with her. I quickly took the offer as I thought it would be something fun to learn. The class is a series of 4 Saturday classes, each class being 3 hours long. Once signing up, I had a huge task to undertake--buying supplies! There is quite an extensive list of supplies needed for the 4 classes. I decided to start buying early and taking adventage of the coupins offered for Hobby Lobby and Michaels. The stores soon became a stop on my drive home from work to pick up another supply.

For the first class, we were required to bring 6 sugar cookies along with a bag of other supplies. I felt strange bringing in store-bought or roll-out dough cookies so I decided to try making homemade cookies. I got Tripp to help and before we knew it we had made a batch of sugar cookies coming out of the oven.

In the class, we learned about: how to bake a great cake, cake pans, making homemade buttercream icing, tinting icing, piping bags, tips, piping stars, piping rosettes, piping shells, and more.

Fun Filled Labor Day Weekend

Tripp and I spent Labor Day weekend in Mentone, Alabama with Tripp's family. We were all gathering to spend time together but to more importantly be there to share in Emmaline's (our niece) baptism. We left Houston early Saturday morning, made it to Birmingham, and then spent a couple of hours driving with Tripp's grandmothers from the airport to the Griffith residence. When we arrived in Mentone, we greeted all of the family and enjoyed a delicious lunch outside. Tripp went on the river with some of the

men while I went with Ms. Kat and Aunt Stacey to the church to help with flowers. Our job was to make two flower arrangements for the altar for the church service on Sunday. I told Ms. Kat and Aunt Stacey that I did not know much about flowers, but they insisted that I would be great at helping. With lots of direction and help, we ended up with two beautiful arrangements.

We spend the rest of the evening visiting with family, especially little Miss Emmaline! We had a delicious family dinner to end the day.

Sunday morning after a quick breakfast, we all bean getting ready for the special church. It was a very nice church service attended by many people there to support and love Emmaline. She was so good throughout the service, but was a little surprised when water was put on her head! After the service, we had lunch with the church congregation.

Once home from church, Tripp and I changed clothes and headed outside. Tripp really wanted me to shoot a gun, so me, Tripp, Collie, and Natalie got a .22 Rifle and the necessary bullets and went to a clear area. Tripp and Collie set up some cans to shoot and demonstrated the way to shoot. I shot twice and I was done! It was soo heavy and hard to aim and scary!

After my shooting lesson, we went to the river for a canoe ride. Tripp rowed and I sat!  

 Next, we went into the woods so that Tripp could try his hand at making a fire from sticks and rocks. Watching "nature" shows on television gave Tripp some ideas. It was a great attempt, but fire was not made :(

That evening we played Apples to Apples and then ate another fabulous meal. Monday morning, Tripp and I cleaned out his old room, ate lunch, visited with family, and left for the airport. It was a great trip!
                                             

Another bithday has come and gone!

I have totally slacked on blogging! With the start of a new school year, work has been keeping me quite busy these days.  So to back-track some, I turned 27 on August 13th. The first of my birthday celebrations took place a few weeks before my birthday when my parents were in Houston. We spent a couple of days by the pool, at the mall, and sharing several meals in between my dad's doctors appointments. The night before my parents headed back to New Orleans, we had a fabulous birthday meal at Pappas Bros Steakhouse. It was a delicious dinner with great company. It ended with delicious creme broulee from the restaurant and a slice of chocolate cake that my mom had made. My parents also surprised me with a fabulous new watch!

The second of my birthday celebrations was on my actual birthday. Shortly after getting home from work, Tripp began preparing a special birthday dinner for me. The meal started with an appetizer of my favorite cheese and crackers...yum! The incredible meal Tripp made consisted of steaks, potatoes au grautin, and salad. The dinner was followed by a sweet "cake" treat made of one of my favorites dessert :) Tripp gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a gift certificate for a spa day!!

Thanks to all of my friends and family who made my birthday a special one!!