Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting *OR* Better late than never

I was supposed to have this posted yesterday, but due to some technical issues with the ridiculous Windows Movie Maker, I couldn't finish until today. (No comments from the "If you wouldn't procrastinate" people, please.)

This month, the Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity, Alex of Blondie and Brownie, and Jenny of Foray into Food. And what was this challenge? Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting bearing from Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater, as published on Bay Area Bites. (whew! total mouthful there...hmmm and yes, I've decided that pun was intended.)

If you know me, you would understand how incredibly excited I was about this one. In the end it was mostly about caramelization of sugar and not so much about caramel, but it was still fun, even though it wasn't this mountain of caramelicious nirvana that I dreamt of.

Instead of a boring write-up, here's a "magical" video of what happened... (and what does caramel cake have to do with Riverdance? Only one thing that I know...they are beloved by me.)

thank God we are a computer-y house

I screwed up. This little bubble popped up in the bottom right corner of my monitor and it demurely asked if I would like to update my bluetooth mouse/keyboard software. Without thought, I responded, "Why yes, little bubble, I would like the newest and best for my computer."

That was last night.

I haven't been able to make the mouse move since. Oh, and the keyboard won't connect either. I manually forced the computer off and then turned it back on (always #1 option in troubleshooting aresenal) and it booted. Then up pops the window explaining to me (again), "Now all we need to do is restart that darn mouse of yours. Just follow these three easy steps..." And that's where it's been for over 24 hours now.

Something is flawed, but wait!!! My husband is one of the greatest computer geniuses alive at this moment. No, I'm not exagerrating. Well, maybe I'm making unsubstantiated claims, but if you know him personally, you'd understand. Anytime I have a problem, and I'm pretty tech-savvy, he just has to walk into the room and all electronics bow to his unspoken will. Sometimes he doesn't even have to touch the trouble-maker and it will snap into shape.

Wellllll, I called Mr. Dug (he's in Pennsylvania this week) and explained my horrifying situation. His response?
"Tricia! Don't you remember when you updated SetPoint last time?! This same thing happened and it took me forever to figure out the problem! Stop updating!"

My response: "Ummm...I think I remember, vaguely. But just think *spoken extra cheerfully* now you know how to fix it and it won't take so long this time...right? he he" *laughter dying slowly away*

So that's where I am right now. I can't access my pictures because I downloaded them all to my hard drive previous to the mouse/keyboard fiasco. Dug takes the USB mouse with him to work on his laptop, so I can't use that one.

That's my cloud. Luckily, there's a few silver linings.

Silver lining #1: Duggy and I both have our own desktops. So I can use his to check email, facebook, and create boring, personal photograph-less blog posts until his return.

Silver lining #2: Duggy comes home tomorrow. He is my Calgon.

Silver lining #3: Before I started the update, I had begun the new Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria download. Even though the mouse and keyboard were disabled, the download finished and when Dug fixes my little "problem" we'll be ready to unleash some terror in the Mines. (The download can take a few hours, so it's awesome that it completed.)

In case you were wondering, I did learn my lesson. Those little bottom-right screen bubbles are not harmless, benevolent creatures. They have an ulterior motive. And when I figure it out, they are all going down!!

PEBKAC...for those who don't know.

an Oregonian can only stand so much sun

It rained today.

All day.

Cats and dogs, the saying goes. The kind of rain that comes with an Oregon winter storm. Rain that is pouring so hard that the gutters are shooting water out like hoses. It was warm enough to wear shorts and t-shirts while the thunder rolled; I was definitely in Texas. But from inside looking out...I was back in Oregon.

I needed that.

I was drying out.

Amigurumi Fun!

When I'm not working on my babette blanket, my crochet lately has taken me to the magical world of crocheted Japanese stuffed animals or Amigurumi. I let the kids all pick an animal since they are such a quick thing to whip up. They picked a monkey, a bear w/honey pot, a sandwich cookie and a jellyfish. Unfortunately the cookie and jellyfish are MIA, so no pictures of my handiwork there. But you can see them at a wonderfully cute blog I found which features the patterns I used. (Click on "patterns" under the labels section on the right to see all her patterns.) The mouse is for a dear now-four-year-old friend and as soon as I whip something up for her sister whose birthday is fast approaching, will be sending them both off.

The monkey came from a pattern book that I bought about 4 years ago. And yes, the pattern has its arms that long. The nose didn't come out right though. Looks a bit cow-ish to me, but Tank doesn't seem to mind.


Scoochy wanted the bear and honey pot. Also she asked if we could add the bow. How could I refuse such a cute addition? And yes, the head is supposed to be that big. :-)


Here's the little mouse. I think it is the cutest amigurumi I've made. Took this picture and then remembered that I wanted to add a bow but the picture turned out so cute I decided to show you anyway.


Miss Cute Mouse with her bow. Now she's ready for the ball.

the shnozberries taste like shnozberries!

I snagged the title banner picture for my kids site, Shnozberry Patch, off the internet a long time ago. (Thank you talented, unknown photographer of beautifulness.) I just found out that the plant that I thought encapsulated what a Shnozberry should look like is really called American Beautyberry. And it grows wild here in Texas!!

We thought it would be fitting to have some of our own, so we sowed some berries that our friends gave us out by our fence. Hopefully, our entire backyard fence will be covered by them in a few years.

Just thought you might like to know that we'll soon (relatively, anyway) have our own Shnozberry patch in our backyard!

Get off yer butts! It's election day!

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -Edmund Burke

Don't take for granted the freedom paid for by hundreds of thousands of soldier's lives throughout the history of our nation.

VOTE!

tour time!

First off, today is the reveal day for Daring Bakers and I'm not ready. Apologies, apologies, but don't worry. I'm not skipping this month, it's just delayed. With the unpacking and cleaning and registering with various governmental agencies and dealing with debris from the hurricane, the only time I could have made it was yesterday and Dug is traveling for work and it is his favorite food(it's pizza!!). So since he returns Thursday night, we'll have it for dinner on Friday and then you'll get a post on it soon after. Okay? I'm sure the magnanimous Powers-That-Be of the Daring Bakers will give me that one concession.

Onward.

While I'm supposed to tell you the many interesting differences between Oregon and Texas, I've decided to just give you a little outside tour of my house instead. I'm not quite happy with my pictorial representation of the differing cultures yet. Soon.

You only get the outside because the inside isn't quite ready to be snapped yet. I won't wait until the decor is perfected (or even hanging on nails that weren't already there) but I do want to at least have the empty boxes dealt with first.

Enough said.

Here is the first view of the front of our house when you turn into our driveway. Isn't it huge?! This is what buying real estate in Texas is. Way under half-priced compared to Oregon's market. We purchased this for a manageable sum. The same house in Portland would be a million or more. (We didn't/couldn't pay anything close to that, believe me.) Please understand I'm not bragging at all. I'm astounded and am only just starting to begin to believe that we actually live here. I still can't believe how cheap houses are in this part of the country.

Looking at the picture above, see the little walkway that my kids are riding their bikes on? This next picture was taken on the right by those little bushes and facing the street. We loved this lot because it had some seriously easy yet nice-looking landscaping and also because it is wooded. It gives us a bit of privacy. You can just see the greyish-white road through the trees

If I continue along the walkway, I come to the garage/driveway side of the house. My very first garage that I can park in! It's so exciting. The windows are black because they have this sun-blocking screen on them. Apparently it helps keep the heat out in the summer. The driveway is nice because it's big enough to turn around in even if someone is parked in it. Our first HOA (Home Owners' Association) no-no is that we keep our garbage in sight from the road. Seriously, though, do they expect me to keep that stinky thing in my garage? I don't think so. They've got some massive cockroaches here. (Mej is my witness.) No way, no how is non-poisonous roach bait going to be inside any part of my house.

Continuing around the house, do you see the electrical boxes in the photo above? Well, there'a little walkway right next to them, leading to the back patio. If we followed it our first sight would be one of our two injured trees, bruised and battered by Hurricane Ike, our bottle-brush bush. It couldn't stand the 100+mph winds and bowed to their strength. Dug and I tried to tie it up to the tree but it was too heavy to get it straight. Our next step is to hook up a strap to the big ol' Dodge and force that baby up. We really want it to be happy. It's rather pretty in bloom.

This is the back of the house. We have a lovely patio that is strewn with pinecones and long pine needles and other such plant debris from Ike. With the moving and slight yard maintenance (with an acre lot we actually need a riding lawn mower) that we are capable of at this moment, sweeping the walks, driveway and patio is not up there on the priorities list.

When we first looked at this house in June, we noticed the outside fan and thought, "That is so awesome!" What we didn't notice was that if you look behind it (I've circled it in red.) there are outdoor speakers wired into the living room! How cool is that?! I called Dug (he was in Pennsylvania at the time) and let him know. Funny, isn't it? We didn't even know about it before we moved in.

These last two pictures are two of the plants in our backyard. They are beautiful and I'm so happy they are so well established. They are huge. I only know that one is an Elephant Ear (the bottom one I think) but I don't know what the other one is. Of all the plants in the yard, these two are by far my favorites.


And that's it. I'm not great at housing or landscape pictures, but it gives you an idea where we landed. Probably the best thing to do is come and visit us. Then you'll get a real "feel" for the place. *hint, hint*