Cooking Group Last Night

I went to the fourth cooking group activity last night. The theme was Japanese and Korean cuisine. I originally wanted to make Korean BBQ Short Ribs (Gal-Bi) but I wasn't sure how they'd turn out and I didn't have time to experiment. So I decided to make a salad with ginger dressing. Not very authentic but pretty tasty. Below is the recipe for the dressing, it's supposed to taste like Benihana's.

Hailey gave us a demonstration on rolling sushi. Everyone did a great job and it was sooo good.

Benihana Ginger Salad Dressing

10 min 10 min prep SERVES 12 , 1 3/4 cups
1/2 cup onions, minced
1/2 cup peanut oil (I used canola oil instead)
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
2 tablespoons celery, minced (I left this out)
2 tablespoons ketchup
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Combine all ingredients in a blender.

Blend on high speed for about 30 seconds or until all of the ginger is well pureed.

Flower Cake

This little cake is for my boss's birthday. I wanted to make her something sweet and pretty. So I thought flowers would be nice. This is my first attempt at gum paste flowers.

Oh Davey

Today Dave and I have been married for 5 years. We met when I was finishing my degree at U of U and he was studying flight technology at SLCC. The two years we dated were some of the funnest times in my life. We had a great group of friends and always something exciting to do.


After we got married we moved to Logan. I worked while Dave finished school at Utah State. After Dave graduated we moved back to Salt Lake where Dave was a flight instructor and I got my job as a graphic Designer at Cyprus Credit Union.

Dave has been working for Skywest Airlines for the last couple of years.

After five years of marriage we feel very lucky and blessed with all that we have, including each other.

Scrabble Pendants

I'm in love with these Scrabble Pendants I found on Etsy. I bought of few of these to put on a Scrabble rack on my dresser. I'm sure I'll be able to incorporate them into my wardrobe too. Shh, nobody tell Dave. He hates when I buy stuff like this.

My most disturbing cake yet

Tracy and Andre own a production company in New York. Last summer they created ads for Scion. You can view their ad below. They are fans of my cakes so I wanted to make them something unique as a "thank you" for letting us stay with them. I decided to make a Deviant from their film.

I made this cake right before we attempted to catch the red eye on Thursday night. It was a pain carrying in through security twice and on two long flights. Assembling it in the cab was hilarious though. I wanted to have it put together when we met Tracy at her office. I had to put the cake on the platter and attach the horns and ears. Because of the constant stopping hard and speeding up fast the cake was sliding everywhere. The cake miraculously arrived safely.

We met the Mets... barely

After almost 24 hours of trying to get to New York (flying standby isn't as great is it seems), we made it to the Yankees game. Unfortunately the game was rained out. Here's Dave sitting in our seats pouting a bit.

Since we were in the stadium, we thought we'd take a look around anyway.

The Mets and the Yankees played again on Saturday. Dave's Cousin Tracy and her boyfriend Andre decided to come with us. Our seats were even better for this game. We were behind home plate in the bottom box.


It was an exciting game and the Mets won. We witnessed a few fights between Yankees and Mets fans. We didn't start any of them, I promise. Here's a video Dave took. You can see how close we were to the action.



We stayed with Tracy and Andre who have a swanky apartment in Tribeca. They were so nice to take us around on Saturday to their favorite spots. I'm still dreaming about the corn on the cob with queso fresco I had at a little Cuban/Mexican restaurant in Soho.

Step Right Up and Meet the Mets!

Dave and I are heading to New York this weekend to see a Yankees vs. Mets game. Dave wanted to see a game at Yankee Stadium before they build the new stadium. But the only way he wanted to see the Yankees play is if they were playing one of his favorite teams.

Dave's loved the Mets ever since he was a kid. And I love the Met's mascot. Mr. Met is one of my favorites next to the Phillies Fanatic and the Jazz Bear. Too bad he won't be there because I doubt they'd let him into Yankees Stadium. I guess will have to plan another trip to Shea Stadium.

I also think it's pretty cool that they have a theme song. I have this on my iPod.

Shoe Box Cake

I made this cake a couple of years ago for a work friend. She loves shoes and the color pink.

Katie's Mother's Day Gift

I had all of Dave's family over for Mother's Day yesterday. It was a nice afternoon with greek food and good company. I was eating at the table outside when Katie decided to bring me a mother's day present. She was running towards me with a snake in her mouth. I screamed and ran onto the stairs and yelled for her to drop it. I didn't know that cats would even hunt for a snake. I think it's time to make her a strictly inside cat. I can't take all of her little "gifts" that she brings me.

Here's Katie wanting her snake back after we took it away from her.

The snake was pretty large. I had no idea that there were snakes like this in my neighborhood. I will have to be more careful when I do yard work.

Dave told me that I need to stop blogging about my cat. He thinks I'm turning into one of those crazy cat ladies. I promise that I'll keep it to a minimum.

Our Friends Are Back

Every year we have a mallard couple that likes to hang out in our yard during the Spring. I like to assume that it's the same birds each year. Katie goes nuts if she's in the house and can see them through the window. Last year Dave witnessed Katie pounce on the female mallard. The duck went ballistic on Katie, flapping her wings and pecking at her. Those ducks are tougher than you'd think. Katie hasn't tried attacking them again. She just follows them around and watches them.

Louis Vuitton Knock-Off Cake

I made this cake a couple of years ago for my cousin Keri. It was a going away cake/birthday cake for her before she moved to Omaha.

I wanted it to look like a Louis Vuitton bag. I was going to cut out the "LV" symbols but got a little lazy towards the end. So now it looks like a bag you would buy in the open on Time Square instead of from a back room on Canal Street.

Watch Out Pigeons

This weekend my family and I went shotgun shooting at the lava flows outside of Shelley, Idaho. It's my favorite redneck activity. We don't go to a fancy gun club. We head out to a patch of lava in the middle of a farmer's field and launch our own clay pigeons. It's my favorite place to go shooting. Too bad it's also someones favorite place to drop off their trash.

In this picture you can see the setup. Russ launches a pigeon from the mechanical launcher then shortly after Nate uses a hand launcher to throw another pigeon. This makes it a bit more of a challenge for Dave because there is an element of surprise.

I'm pretty proud of this picture I took of my brother in law Nate. Check out the smoke coming from the chamber.



Here's Dave launching a pigeon using the hand launcher.

My dad not giving those pigeons a chance.

Check me out loading the shotgun. It took me awhile to remember how to do it.

Backpack Backpack

My niece Tara loves Dora the Explorer. For her birthday this year I made her Dora's backpack and map. She turns 4 next week, but since all of us were at my parent's house this weekend for Chase's baby blessing we thought we'd celebrate a little early.

As Dave and I were leaving to catch our flight. Sydney, Tara's older sister, gave me a big hug and said "I love you Aunt Ash-e-ly beacuse you make cakes for us." That melted my heart. I'll make a cake every day of the week for a reaction like that.

Southern Cooking Party

Last night's meetup dinner turned out really nice. My friend Hailey offered to bring flowers. She is an amazing florist. She used purple artichokes and peonies in a bed a moss. Absolutely gorgeous. It was pure coincidence that her arrangements matched my place settings perfectly.

Cooking Group Tonight

I have another cooking group meeting tonight. I'm the lucky one who gets to host it tonight. The theme is Southern cooking. We originally wanted to do Cajun but thought we should broaden it. I originaly volunteered to make beignets. They are similar to a donut and are very popular in New Orleans. I couldn't get them to work. I think two factors contributed to this: 1. I've never had a beignet so wasn't sure what they should look like. 2. I'm terrible at using yeast. I think my yeast didn't activate. Because I know nothing about yeast I wasn't aware of this before I continued with my recipe.

What I did come up with was tasty just not pretty. It tasted like a deep fat fried sugar cookie dusted in powdered sugar. Not really what I was going for but Dave and I had no problem finishing the batch throughout the week.

So I decided to make Pralines. This was no cake walk either. I ruined my first two batches. I think the author of the recipe is from the south where it is a lot more humid. I had to adapt the cooking time for our dryer climate.

I'm a little anxious for the party tonight. I tried to limit it to 14 people. I think the final count is 17. Yikes. I hope everyone can fit comfortably in my little house.