Reflections

It's that time of the year for reflections. I heard this statement in church today. Everyone thinks about how the year was - good, bad, so-so. Everyone plans ahead for 2010 - resolutions, commitments, new chapters.

I am determined to be more relaxed...starting now (I won't wait until January 1st!). I tend to get worked up about simple things, things that aren't going to make a difference tomorrow. I need to "take a chill pill" more often, so I'm sure not to miss out on the important things - my girls, my husband, my wonderful life. God has given me so much, and here I worry and whine about the little things.

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On a totally unrelated note, I have added a Pies section on the right. I recently baked an apple pie for a friend and worked out the pricing finally for it, so I thought I'd officially add it to my list. :) I also make english toffee and fudge. No pricing yet on those yet...was going to wait and see if anyone was that interested. If not, I won't bother adding them.

I am baking all week, if there are any orders for New Years Eve parties. I have one order so far for the week, and I will have other things for our own get-together. Let me know if there's anything you need!

Have a safe and Happy New Year! See you in 2010!

A Preview of My Pieces

So, the pictures above are just of different breads or pies or cakes that I've done for my family. I have finally taken some photos of my work and thought I'd share. Here's a description of each:

The first is pumpkin bread I made for our family's get-together this Thanksgiving. I can make it with or without walnuts. This one was without.

The second and third are the pies I made for our Thanksgiving - pumpkin and apple, respectively. The apple pie was my first lattice-topped pie. I thought it turned out pretty well. I will be trying to do a woven lattice the next time....it's a little more difficult, so I thought I'd try the easier version first. Both pies' crusts are homemade.

The next is a batch of pumpkin muffins with cinnamon/sugar topping. These I made while fooling around with the pumpkin bread recipe and incorporating a pumpkin muffin recipe I found online. It's actually a recipe for muffins tops, but I made it for the whole muffin and they turn out to be pretty decent size muffins! We took some for snack foods while we attended the Chicago Marathon this October.

The 3 cakes are ones I made for my daughters - a Mickey Mouse 1st Birthday cake, a purse cake for my daughter's 3rd birthday, and a butterfly cake for another daughter's 2nd birthday. All were fairly easy and I used boxed cake mixes. I figured I was spending enough time designing them, that I would take the simple route with the mix. :)

The last photo is of an apple pie with a crumb topping. That is my favorite top for an apple pie; I make it like that almost every time. The bottom crust on this is also homemade.

I'm always trying to take more pictures of my baking creations. Hopefully, I'll have more of my rolls - cinnamon and dinner - soon.