Politicians Suck

I try to keep politics off the blog, but today I am mad. St. Louis city collected money for nine years with the intent of building a new shelter. Last year, the city decided to scrap that idea, close their shelter, and Stray Rescue took over the majority of the city's animal control duties. Soon after that, the mayor promised that the organization would receive the money donated for the new city shelter. Today, a subcommittee of aldermen decided that Stray Rescue couldn't have that money. The ring leader of the naysayers, Dionne Flowers, said that it was because Stray Rescue didn't have a contract and she couldn't be assured that they would continue to provide services.

Here's the thing. For a year, Stray Rescue HAS been providing services! If she wants to say that in order to receive further funding there has to be a contract, fine. But as it stands now, the services have been provided with no financial support. Isn't it time for the city to pay its bills and live up to its promises?

Jilly's Review

Last week I posted about getting Jilly's cupcakes for my friend's BBQ.

I got to at least taste most of the flavors I posted about, so here are my reviews.



From left to right:

Raspberry Fizzion
CAKE: Chocolate-Raspberry
STUFFING: Raspberry Jam
TOPPING: Chocolate-Raspberry Ganache, Raspbery Buttercream, & Raspberry Fizzy Candy
REVIEW: SOOOO RICH! I ate a couple bites, but that was all I could handle. Delicious, but that was A LOT of cupcake.

Space Monkey
CAKE: Banana-Toffee
STUFFING: Toffee Dulce de Leche
TOPPING: Caramel Cream Cheese Swirl & Chocolate Astronaut Ice Cream
REVIEW: Yummy, but a little sweet. Again, I could only handle a few bites. Not as rich as the Rasberry Fizzion, but still....

Meringue-a-Tang
CAKE: Almond-Orange
STUFFING: Tang Gel
TOPPING: Tang Meringue, Tang Gel & Silver Cookie Rocket
REVIEW: Didn't love this one. It was just too tart. The meringue was lovely, but all that Tang was a lot to handle. Let's put some of that meringue on something else, and I'd be happy.



Top Row:

The Reese's

CAKE: Vanilla cake baked with Reese's Pieces
STUFFING: Peanut butter and ganache
TOPPING: Chocolate & peanut butter buttercream swirl with Reese's pieces
REVIEW: I didn't get to try this one. It looked good though, and I assume it was pretty straight forward. I also suspect it is similar to a dessert they served at brunch when I went there. If so, then it is wonderfully peanut buttery and therefore perfect. :)

Bee Sting
CAKE: Vanilla
STUFFING: Honey lemon curd
TOPPING: Lemon cream cheese, toasted almonds and a lemon candy dust
REVIEW: Oh. My. God. Seriously, this is the best cupcake I've ever had. The lemon was perfect. Not too sweet, not too tart. The whole balance was JUST RIGHT. This will be my go-to cupcake unless they add something new to the menu that I want to try.

Island in the Sun
CAKE: Pineapple
STUFFING: Oven-Roasted Pineapple Compote
TOPPING: Freeze-Dried Mango Pieces & White Chocolate Sunray
REVIEW: Good. A loved all the pineappley goodness. Not being a huge pineapple fan, I liked it, but it didn't hold a candle to the Bee Sting for me.

Bottom Row:

24 Karat(Carrot Cake)
CAKE: Carrot
STUFFING: Whipped cream
TOPPING: Vanilla cream cheese, toasted coconut & white chocolate shavings
REVIEW: Didn't taste it and someone else took it home, so I have no idea what they thought either. It was beautiful to look at though.

Twisted Pink Velvet
CAKE: Pink velvet
STUFFING: Caramel
TOPPING: Cream cheese, caramel butter cream and pecan praline
REVIEW: I also didn't try this one, and another person too it home. I don't know how I feel about caramel and red velvet though. I'm kind of a purist when it comes to my cream cheese frosting. I would have been interested to see how the pink velvet tasted as compared to red.

So there you have it. Yummy all around. Now I want to go for lunch again and get another Bee Sting. Any takers?

An Important Weekend

This past weekend marked two important events (three if you count that national holiday.)

First, July 4 was Henry's second birthday! Happy birthday little man!



Now, seeing as last year was his FIRST birthday, we had to get him a big present. And so we come to the second big event! Henry's birthday present!



Last 4th of July weekend I tricked Andy into "dog sitting" for Joline and, well, we just never gave her back. :) Ginger joined our family, and we've all been happier for it.

So Happy Birthday Henry and Happy Gotcha Day Ginger!

(I made the bandannas for a Stray Rescue event, but they looked festive, so those are the pics I chose.)

Jilly's

Cupcake Wars. Do you watch it? I did for a while, and then I stopped. In fact, about two weeks ago I deleted all the recorded episodes on my DVR and took off the scheduled recording. The bakers were just too annoying. Then, seriously, like three days later I heard that the head pastry chef from Jilly's was going to be on an episode! So, I scheduled the DVR to record that one show. Great call on my part.

The show was fun to watch (the theme was space,) and I enjoyed it again after taking a break. The formal is very strict, so it does get old after a while. The first round is always a challenge to use crazy ingredients that have to do with the theme, the second round is 50/50 taste and decoration, and the third round is always making 1000 cupcakes and a show piece. Formulaic.

Well, the chef form Jilly's was fun and after she show, I was dying to try the cupcakes they had made. So when my friend Andrea came in early from Chicago we decided to do lunch. She is also an amazing baker, so she was eager to try the sweets.



The place was packed! But, Chef Casey was there! (Chef Dana was cooking in the back, and let me tell you, his French Onion soup is to DIE for!) I geeked out and took a picture with him.



(I'm wearing the Hawaiian shirt for the last day of school.)

I took a dozen cupcakes to go to Andrea's BBQ tomorrow. They should be amazing.



From left to right:

Raspberry Fizzion
CAKE: Chocolate-Raspberry
STUFFING: Raspberry Jam
TOPPING: Chocolate-Raspberry Ganache, Raspbery Buttercream, & Raspberry Fizzy Candy

Space Monkey
CAKE: Banana-Toffee
STUFFING: Toffee Dulce de Leche
TOPPING: Caramel Cream Cheese Swirl & Chocolate Astronaut Ice Cream

Meringue-a-Tang
CAKE: Almond-Orange
STUFFING: Tang Gel
TOPPING: Tang Meringue, Tang Gel & Silver Cookie Rocket



Top Row:

The Reese's

CAKE: Vanilla cake baked with Reese's Pieces
STUFFING: Peanut butter and ganache
TOPPING: Chocolate & peanut butter buttercream swirl with Reese's pieces

Bee Sting
CAKE: Vanilla
STUFFING: Honey lemon curd
TOPPING: Lemon cream cheese, toasted almonds and a lemon candy dust

Island in the Sun
CAKE: Pineapple
STUFFING: Oven-Roasted Pineapple Compote
TOPPING: Freeze-Dried Mango Pieces & White Chocolate Sunray

Bottom Row:

24 Karat(Carrot Cake)
CAKE: Carrot
STUFFING: Whipped cream
TOPPING: Vanilla cream cheese, toasted coconut & white chocolate shavings

Twisted Pink Velvet
CAKE: Pink velvet
STUFFING: Caramel
TOPPING: Cream cheese, caramel buttercream and pecan praline

Then another Island in the Sun.

Reviews to come.

My New Toy

I did something silly recently. I bought a Nook.



Did I need it? No. Who really needs an electronic reader rather than having real books? However, the reality is that I had almost $100 in gift cards to B&N (the benefits of being a teacher,) but I didn't really want $100 worth of junk fiction that I would only read once. It seemed wasteful and like I would be filling my house with more stuff that would only have to be disposed of later.

I paused before purchase though when I looked at how much the books cost. (Or costed as I have been forced to hear several times lately. ::shudder::) For some reason I assumed books would be less expensive in their electronic format. Nope. In many cases they were MORE expensive. Humph. Then I decided to peek at the County Library website. I can check out e-books! Now they don't have the biggest selection, but it's enough to easily supplement my school library selections. It also means that when I travel later this summer, I won't have to lug around tons of huge hardback books! Woohoo!

I've already ready two books (a free one- Throwaway and a Daniel Silva spy novel) on the Nook and I like it a lot. I can read in the sun and I don't get a crick in my neck when I'm reading in bed because the book is so heavy. I'm sure if I was able to use public transit, I would love it even more.

Now, I chose the Nook 2. It is the smallest and lightest e-reader that B&N sells plus it has a touchscreen. It also has very few features. It does use wireless, but I didn't get 3G. It is a black and white display with no games or anything. The lady tried to upsell me to the Nook Color, but I have an iPhone. Why do I need to browse the internet and play Angry Birds on my Nook too? It seemed like a waste of the extra money.

So there you have it. My summer splurge with the extra money I earned teaching. I'm sure I'll post some actual book reviews soon. :)

Still Here

I admit, I was sad losing Jerry. However, there have been some funny stories in the last couple weeks, and I plan to get back to posting soon. I've certainly been thinking about wanting to share them.

Let's start though with a story of my day. I forgot to bring the DVD's that were due to the library today. Ooops. I just checked the fee schedule. Yeah. $0.25 per DVD per day. I think I can swing $0.75 when I drop them off tomorrow. Thank you County Library.

He was sure a handsome guy

And he made my life better while he was in it.









RIP Jerry. I'll always hold you in my heart. You're in a good place now.