My Fake Family

When I was in my college choir, I sat in the soprano section, and the tenors sat behind us. We would always get in trouble for laughing because of the half-whispered comments that constantly came from one particular smarty-pants tenor behind us. This is how I met my friend Dave. He still cracks me up every time we're together. Dave, being the smart, smart man that he is, married a wonderful woman named Brenna, who is now my best friend. They have three crazy kids who keep them guessing every minute. This is my fake family.

I have played mom to all the kids, and Ben is my godson. Brenna is like a sister to me. And we always say that I am Dave's other wife, without benefits. They've been super busy lately, so we haven't seen each other much. I'm glad I had the chance to get together with them for a dinner/Christmas/birthday extravaganza this week.

Are you commenting on Facebook, Dave?

Brenna, looking at my Christmas present. Give it back already!

My godson, Ben. Now 13 and as tall as me. He's super smart and a voracious reader.

When Ben was around six months old, I was playing with him and pretended to eat his toes. I proceeded to cut my mouth on his super sharp toenails, which for some reason grow out, not up. His toenails could still certify as deadly weapons to this day.

Beware! Do NOT put these in your mouth! (Okay, that sounded weird.)

Matthew actually sat still for five seconds so I could get a picture.

I have always had a special place in my heart for this little one. Maybe it's because he's so funny. Or maybe it's because every time I come over, he full body tackles me and says "I love you, Stine!"

Claire is the youngest, and also the most girly girl you will ever meet.

She also thinks she is a cat. You're not a cat, Claire. Stop purring!

Claire wants to be in on the action. She likes to know what everyone is doing and be a part of it. This little social butterfly started getting phone calls from boys in second grade. I still don't get phone calls from boys. Except telemarketers.

Did you notice that Claire is wearing a ribbon from her presents? So is Brenna. Hooray, I have converted two more members to my decoration wearing cult! Here's my "wrist corsage" from that evening:

Finally, I want to brag on my Christmas present. On the outside of my GORGEOUSLY wrapped gift were these measuring spoons.

Aren't they cute? I've never had to measure a smidgen before.

(Okay, these aren't the actual spoons. But you get the idea.)

Inside was this fabulous and amazing book.

It's a dictionary of food items and terms. It is AWESOME! Who knew they made this thing? I am always annoyed when I look in the dictionary for a food word and it's not there. I love food and I love words and dictionaries. Does my fake family know me, or what? Thanks, guys!

Oh, and you may be wondering why there is a picture of a Twinkie at the start of this post. I can't tell you. I have no idea. "But I must know!" you say. Get used to disappointment.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009 everyone! I hope all five of you had a Dick-Clark-rockin' New Year's Eve and that you haven't broken any of your resolutions yet. My new year was pretty quiet, and included THE BEST CHINESE FOOD EVER, chick flicks, and my good friend Jill and her hubby, Paul.

*picture from www.iowawcc.org

I mention Jill a lot on my blog, usually in passing. But I want to brag about her for a minute. Jill is a "never say die" kind of gal. She hates stagnation and is always looking to mix things up. I think for the first six months of coming to her house, I never saw the furniture in the same place twice. She needs to keep things fresh, I think in an effort to feel she is moving forward with her life. As opposed to me, the Queen of Sameness and happy that way. She is a good influence on me in that respect. Case in point: Jill decided that she wanted to do the Polar Bear dip on New Year's day. She emailed our friend Kathy and I to see if we were interested. I think Kathy summed up our feelings best in an email reply that went a little something like this:

"cricket sounds"

Jill still wanted to do it, so I assumed she would. Then, she broke her foot. Again. Other foot this time. I swear, she has a double bogie hex on her feet. Anyway, I figured that would be the end of the Polar Bear experience this year. Silly me. She never even thought about not going. So this morning we hauled our cookies over to a large LAKE in WASHINGTON (which shall remain nameless) and when they did the countdown, there was Jill, carefully walking out into the freezing cold water as everyone else ran past. While she was just going in, most people were already running out. Because of her injury, she was in the water for twice as long as everyone else. And I was so proud of her.

Here she is, post-dip, and smiling all the way. When I asked her if she'd do it again, I got a resounding YES! She even got me thinking that I might be willing to start next year with a little freezing cold water. If I first get past the whole swimsuit in January thing. See why I love Jill? She makes me want to try new things, experience life and step WAY out of my comfort zone on occasion. Thanks, Jill, for being you! :-)


Okay, enough mushy stuff. On to more important things. FOOD!

We finally cut into my Buche de Noel (that's French for Log of Yule.) It looked so good! Jill had a serving plate that echoed the swirls on my log. I love this shot (minus the reflection of the flash.)

Oooh. Aaaah. Ohhhh. I'm so cool!

Finally, we cut it and I crossed my fingers. Again, it looked really good! I was very proud of my even layers. (Yay for pastry bags!)

Awesome, right? I was pretty proud that it turned out so well. And it actually tasted pretty good, too. I didn't like the dark icing because it was just too dark (bitter) for me. The ganache was also a bit much. Like I said, I'm not a dark chocolate person. But the other layers were all great. I especially liked the coconut crisp layer in the middle. When I ate it alone, it seemed too sweet. But as a part of the dessert it was REALLY good. Jill said she wanted to eat just that part. She mentioned wanting me to make the log for her birthday. I guess that gives me five months to talk her out of that idea.

Mmmmmm!