Baking Away the Blahs

We've been having a bit of a cold snap, so J and I have been spending most of our time indoors. It doesn't help that our entire building is swaddled in scaffolding and tarps so this is our view when we look out the window:

So J's been happily watching cooking shows on TV...

While I've been doing actual cooking in the kitchen. Baking the same old banana bread and cookies can get pretty boring so I thought I'd experiment a bit, especially since my little brother's getting married this summer and I was thinking of perhaps making the wedding favours if I could come up with something halfway decent.

I've been watching lots of YouTube videos and here's what I've come up with so far:

Stacked cookies that look like mini wedding cakes...

Piped wedding cookies...

Cupcakes with piped two-tone roses...

J's been more than happy to help dispose of the rejects, and we've been gorging on deformed cookies and cakes, which means I've been spending a lot of time on this...

Christmas Recap

It seems as though winter is never going to come to an end. I thought I'd be able to cope with freezing my butt off and pulling on my woolly coat every day after living in Michigan, but it seems as though my thin California blood is telling me this weather is definitely not okay.



I didn't get to enjoy much of what London has to offer during the Christmas season this year, and I was soon flying into a cold and rainy LA to celebrate the holidays with the family. Despite the disappointing weather, it was really nice seeing everyone and celebrating a momentous occasion - my little brother's engagement! I even got to help pick out the ring and plan the surprise proposal!

My mom decided that we should have a traditional Christmas dinner this year, so guess who got stuck with the cooking? Yup, I did. I can't remember the full menu, but there was turkey, cornbread, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce. For dessert, I made some pumpkin pie, cookies, and a Yule log. But first I had to explain what a Yule log was.

I don't think they really understood until they got to eat the finished product. Chocolate definitely makes everything easier to understand.

We also got a chance to see our extended family right before we left. I have so many cousins that I've never tried counting them. This is about half of just my dad's side!



It was wonderful seeing everyone, but I was ready to come back to my own flat in London. In spite of the crap weather.