Keep It Real

It's pretty sad that acquaintances identify food snobbery as my most dominant characteristic, but I guess I brought that on myself. I shouldn't be so condescending, but I feel that if people only knew how bad/gross/synthetic the food they're ingesting is, they'd soon change their ways.

Take store-bought ice cream for example. There's no excuse for buying most of that stuff. There are some premium brands that are very good, but even those don't compare with homemade.

I recently cleaned out my freezer, and I had peach ice cream left over from my Baked Alaska experiment. The stuff was past its prime (it was never that good anyway) and had to go.



I set the ice cream carton on the counter, thinking that it would be better for me to melt the ice cream and pour it down the drain, instead of tossing the whole thing in the garbage to leak onto my floor. So I set the carton on the counter and waited for it to melt. And waited. And waited.



I don't remember how long I left that carton on the counter. After seeing that it didn't melt after a couple of hours, I probably left it out for at least twenty-four, being fascinated at the non-melting properties of this Franken-ice cream. Yuck! That is not something I would eat again.

I saw this related horrifying 12-day Cool Whip experiment. My friends, Cool Whip is not whipped cream! Nasty, nasty stuff.

This also reminded me of the McDonald's hamburger purchased in 1996 that in 2008 looked exactly the same as the day it was purchased! I can't believe there are adults who regularly eat fast food or at all-you-can eat buffets. I'd suspect most employees who work at those "restaurants" don't know anything about cooking. I'm sure they have other life skills. This winner worked at Lin's Chinese Buffet.

I don't think I'm a food snob. This is a better way to live.

White Wedding

I dreamed that Betty White made a cameo (that woman is everywhere these days) at Wendy's wedding reception. She wore a pink dress suit that was perfectly accessorized. She looked great. Really, a visit from Betty White is the only thing that could have made Wendy's wedding any better.



There was a simple ceremony in the morning and a family dinner in the evening. I made the wedding cake and failed to fully consider the amount of time required to get my hair done, get myself into a fancy dress, and get to the church on time for pictures. The cake didn't get quite enough chill time in the fridge.

I sent one tier of the cake with my dad in Katie and Porter's car, I put one in my trunk, and I held the small tier in my right hand as I drove to the reception site. I drove super super slowly and took an alternate route to avoid a construction zone. Yeah, I know it's probably dangerous, but I transport cakes that way a lot. Guess what, when you live alone and are transporting a cake, sometimes you have to take risks. That's also pretty much the only time I drive at or below the speed limit. Apologies to the drivers behind me -



(That's not my car, but it's a brilliant idea.) The cake arrived safely. It didn't collapse on assembly, which was a relief since the frosting and filling were soft from the heat.



Wendy's Wedding Cake was a yellow cake with lemon curd filling and vanilla buttercream frosting dyed yellow, decorated with gum paste daisies.



Katie, Mom, and I had fun making the daisies. We simplified these instructions for Gum Paste Daisies from the King Arthur Flour Blog. I bought a package of pre-made gum paste. We rolled it out and cut out daisies with a daisy cutter. Then we added yellow paste food coloring to a smaller piece of gum paste and rolled it into small balls. We then flattened the balls and covered them in cornmeal. Voilà - pollen! Then we pasted the yellow centers on the flowers.



Another great cake. Another great brother-in-law joins the family. Another happy wedding!