use real butter

I love Peabody. She’s got the right attitude about life as far as I’m concerned and that earns my respect (along with the fact that she generally kicks ass). I’ve thought a lot about life and the lemons and how some make lemonade and others just turn into sniveling messes as if a giant lemon has fallen from the sky and pinned them to the ground. In times of crisis, the true nature of an individual emerges. Sometimes it will surprise you for the better, and many times it will disappoint you. I pride myself in rolling with the punches through shitty times, and I do mean shitty times.

I have seen people wallow in self-pity or let their tragedies define who they are and dictate their lives. Not my cuppa, kids. My friend’s mother has a terrific saying: If you look up, there is no limit, and if you look down, there also is no limit. Life always could be better, or worse. Get over yourself and make the best of what you’ve got.

It’s very likely I will be losing my hair in the next several weeks. My surgeon delivered this news with what I detected was a hint of sympathy last month. I neither need nor want pity. It’s just hair and it will grow back. I understand it’s not the hair, but the condition that elicits this response in people. I am a rock and I am so gonna own this. Rather than feel blue, I went and lopped my hair off and dyed it blue.

grab life by the hojos

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Recipe: zebra torte

It’s a battle for time, energy, and daylight hours. I haven’t endeavored on many of the more involved baking projects since I’ve been well enough to ski. After my initial ski whore phase where I was willing to tele any thin veneer barely covering grass and rocks, I have now reached the picky phase – only if there are freshies. We had no such freshies yesterday and so you get the recipe for Zebra Torte.

slice layers from the vanilla chiffon cake

I made this once before in my pastry skills course last spring. Problem with that course was that we crammed as much as we could into each 5.5 hour class and wound up divvying duties between partners which meant I didn’t get my hands on each step of the torte.

folding in the dry ingredients for the chocolate roulade

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Recipe: royal raspberry and almond cake

I trust everyone had a merry Christmas and/or federal holiday! I want to thank those of you who bid on my raffle prize as well as all of the other fabulous raffle prizes at Menu for Hope IV this year. What an awesome turnout. MfH raised 50% more than last year’s effort – over $90,000! That’s a whole lotta raffle tickets, kids!

Ever since I found out that my Aussie friends have lovely cold seafood picnics on the beach for Christmas, I have steadily rejected the traditional roasted animal – be it of feathered or four-legged persuasion – in favor of those animals who gurgle and bubble in the sea. Now *that* is a treat to me. I grew up on the water and spent far too much time in it or at its edge during my youth. This year we had lobster bisque, crawdad phyllo triangles (crawdads = crayfish = yabbies), shrimp cocktail, and king crab legs for our Christmas “meal”. The meal was neither lunch nor dinner, but a long drawn out noshing session. We didn’t have it in us to eat dessert. Who needs dessert after all of those lovely critters?

oh you little beauty

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