odds and ends II

more random thoughts and observations....

-I decided I would be extra adventurous and cook some Indian food a few weeks ago. Not just curry thrown in with some chicken and rice...oh, no. This was straight-up authentic, go out and buy some garam masala for my spice cabinet, this is the real deal kind of Indian food. The finished product was fairly decent, but I discovered something sneaky about one the spices! Beware if you use turmeric in any of your cooking endeavours - it will turn any white utensils (such as nice spatulas and immersible blenders) bright Easter egg yellow! There could be a fun crafty use for that if it didn't have such a potent smell. :D

-Ever flipped past QVC when watching TV? (I won't ask anyone to admit to watching, or even *gasp* buying something. heh heh) They were selling something (I forget what) for about 20 bucks, and you could use the easy pay plan with four easy payments of 5 bucks if you wanted. Seriously folks - if you need to use the easy pay plan of four easy payments of 5 bucks, you probably shouldn't be buying anything on QVC!

-Sophia's first birthday was yesterday (the official b-day post with pictures is coming soon!), and I decided to make her a 'healthy' cake, as this was her first foray into honest-to-goodness sweets. The recipe called for carrots simmered in juice concentrate pureed to a pulp with some raisins, along with wheat germ, whole wheat flour, eggs, oil, and some other non-sugary ingredients. The batter looked HORRENDOUS (anything with ground raisins cannot be a pleasant color), but the finished mini-cakes and muffins smelled pretty tasty. Sophia gobbled up the little tester crumbles I gave her, so I figured we were set. But as they cooled completely, they definitely developed....crusts. Not bad crusts, just healthy quick bread crusts. Not something cake-like that she could mush her hands in, and definitely not something you would put frosting on. So...into the oven went mini-cakes and cupcakes, round 2. (Fortunately I had bought a back-up box of yellow cake mix in case the nature-baby-all-natural cakes tanked.) Her finished mini-cake was so cute, if I do say so myself, when all was said and done and decorated. And do you know which one she would not eat? Yep, the cake mix one. Four or five licks of frosting for the camera, one or two test nibbles of cake that we broke off for her, and she pushed that sucker away from her. Even after we cleaned her off and offered her a few more bites of plain old cake....nothing. I guess she is a nature baby after all. Or maybe a salt-lover instead? (considering her passion for deli-chicken slices, string cheese, and olives) How the heck a salt-lover came from two die-hard sweet-tooths (sweet teeth?) is beyond me. xD

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