fuzzykitty

I had a great opportunity to work at an amazing bakery so I gave it a try for a couple of days. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like I was a good fit for the position. Plus a few weeks ago I hurt my back and the doctor told me that I had sciatica. So I haven’t been feeling very well and have been in a lot of pain. This week I started physical therapy and am starting to feel better.

I signed up for half of a CSA share at a local farm. I will also receive a basket of assorted citrus each week. The farmer is pretty passionate about growing vegetables and citrus and actually does this as a hobby!  In preparing for this bounty I purchased a new bamboo steamer and am looking for a good wok.

 

Before                                After 

A month or so ago we were put in touch with Rick and Belinda Lloyd from Extreme Craftsman so that we could see about having an entertainment center built for our lonely living room space.  Well, Rick and Belinda finished our piece and installed it late last week.   We now have a beautiful long TV cabinet to hide our DVDs, components and cables.  The top is a stunning solid piece of maple and I couldn’t bear to drill a hole in it for cables so a hole in the wall was drilled instead.  Darrell also installed some thing that allows us to use the remote controls through the wood doors, it’s pretty awesome!  Now if only our new chair would hurry up and arrive so that I can replace the gold one!

Today I made spaghetti & meatball cupcakes from the Hello Cupcake book!  The meatballs are Ferrero Rocher candies and the sauce is seedless strawberry jam.  I also used a buttercream recipe that I actually like instead of buying a can of nasty frosting.  Won’t Darrell’s co-workers be surprised when they see these tomorrow!

Besides baking and eating cupcakes I have been saving quite a bit of money since stumbling upon  two blogs about shopping smart with coupons.  My favorite is Fiddledeedee because I can count on Sarah to tell me about the deals going on at my local Publix grocery store.  I also enjoy Frugonomics 101.  Just today I went to the store and bought over $60 in groceries and paid $36 after saving $25!

I really wanted cupcakes so today we drove far from our home to the Avondale/Riverside area where two great cupcake shops call their home. Well, first we had a super yummy lunch at Biscotti’s. I had the awesome salmon BLT without the B, and Darrell had a tasty chicken pizza!

After lunch we walked a few doors down to Let Them Eat Cake and bought a cappuccino mousse cupcake and a classic yellowcake with buttercream. Oh my gosh, the buttercream frosting was like eating little soft sweet clouds from heaven, it was one of the best buttercreams I have tasted. They sell more than cupcakes here and do make beautiful cakes and cookies. Anita Adams is an amazing pastry chef and owner of Let Them Eat Cake, she is also giving a demonstration at the Publix Aprons cooking school which I am looking forward to attending.

Since we were in the area I twisted Darrell’s arm to stop at Vanilla’s Cupcakery. I was thrilled to purchase the birthday cake cupcake I had been craving for so long and also picked up an Aztec chocolate cupcake because I had read about its yummyness recently. I am going to have to wait until later to sample it though, I am really full.

We had a nice trip to San Antonio. It was great to hang out with Darrell’s family and see some old friends. On one of the days we got to take Darrell’s nieces and nephew to the Alamo Drafthouse for lunch and a movie. After the movie we went to Cupcake Junction, where the youngest enjoyed her cupcake so much she ate the cupcake liner.

I tried to sneak away to a couple of cupcake shops (The Cake Shop, Cupcake Junction, Upper Crust Bakery) but most of them were closed (The Blue Cupcake – out of business, Kate’s Frosting – took a long vacation during my stay, Hello Cupcake – closed Mondays). I am still jonesing for cupcakes and hope we can visit Vanilla’s Cupcakery again soon so I can order up a birthday cake cupcake. I also bought a really neat cupcake book called “Hello, Cupcake!“. I can’t wait to make some cute cupcakes!