July the Fifth

For the Fourth of July parade in our neighborhood, I whipped up a "Captain Pugmerica" costume for Pao:

He looked so cute! (BTW that's a benign little growth on his chin; the vet says it will probably go away in a few months.)

Our neighborhood parade is a very home-grown thing. This double-decker bus was waaaay unusual--usually the floats are jeeps and cars decorated with bunting and crepe paper. The teens riding the bus had fun; they threw red, white, and blue necklaces down to the crowd:

Pao put some beads on, to be neighborly:

The parade went on for several blocks. The L.A. police department led the way and stopped traffic so we could safely cross a busy boulevard:

We were a mighty throng, this year:

As usual, the parade ended at the local park, where volunteers handed out red/white/blue cupcakes and watermelon wedges. Pao totally enjoyed his piece of fruit:

We just didn't tell him about the cupcakes.

Stamp Happy

I got a package in the mail a few days ago. It was a gift from a friend. (Thank you, C!)

Don't you love getting stuff in the mail? I do, even if I'm expecting it.

This pretty logo was on the top of the package:

And here's the side. Robin's-egg-blue and brown is a color combination that always looks fresh:

Such a pretty swirl design in the brown, too:

On the inside of the package:

It's a self-inking stamper. I plan to use it when I give home-baked goodies to folks. I can put my stamp on a brown-paper bag, a colorful gift tag, or even on a recipe I've printed out to share:

I love self-inking stampers. No messy stamp pad to open up and fuss with. Fingers stay clean.

What a nice, sharp image it makes!

I need to work a little on my centering skills, however.

(P.S. If you're interested in seeing the many delicious-looking, self-inking stamps this company produces, go to Three Designing Women.)

Chocolate Filigree Cupcakes

Last weekend, Lovely Daughter #2 decided to make cupcakes from scratch. (The ONLY way we do them, around these parts.) I was out doing errands while she baked the cupcakes, and they came out fantastic, if I do say so.

Her Vanilla Cupcake recipe is from Joan's on Third, a notable Los Angeles bakery. They're so simple and easy, even a beginning baker like LD#2 can make them with ease. And they're so delicious, they hardly need frosting.

But LD#2 wanted to make a salted caramel frosting. Who was I to say No?

She found a recipe in a famous cupcake book by a famous author, who shall remain nameless. Her initials are M.S., but that's all I'm sayin'.

That, and the fact that some of her recipes are overly fussy and needlessly complicated.

When I got home, LD#2 had dirtied almost every pot in the house in an attempt to turn out a frosting that required making a butter cream component, a meringue component, and a scorching-hot pan of caramelized sugar. It was all too much for a beginning baker.

I tried to help. But it was no good.

The hot sugar refused to caramelize properly, and the meringue and the buttercream didn't play nice. After attempting to resuscitate the mess, we threw up our hands, poured some Kahlua into the frosting and tossed in some cocoa powder for good measure.

Piping it out through a large-bore pastry tip, the frosting looked like a bunch of turds.

Ack!

But it tasted great, so we smushed the frosting onto the cakes roughshod, and called it a day. Here's how they looked:

Uhhhh, yeah. Not gonna win any awards for looks, here.

But LD#2 wasn't finished yet. She had a third step to the cupcakes, one that took them from "What the heckisthat?" to "Oooh, how cute!"

Chocolate filigree hearts!

The same overly fussy home-making queen whose frosting baffled us had a very pretty, very easy recipe for making these toppers in the February 2010 issue of her magazine.

Just melt chocolate chips, pour the slightly cooled chocolate into a resealable plastic baggie, cut off a tiny bit of the corner, and pipe the heart shapes onto a piece of parchment paper. Chill, then peel the paper off the hearts and stand them up in the frosting:

You can also lie them flat if you're transporting them, or if your cookie tins aren't very deep:

LD#2 mastered the technique in a flash, and it transformed the ugly cupcakes into something really special.

And they tasted deee-vine. Here's another cupcake development that's come along recently:

Reynolds' "StayBrite" cupcake papers. They don't get greasy or lose their vivid colors as the cupcakes bake.

They come in some really cute patterns and colors. Imagine the monkey papers with banana-nut cupcakes and vanilla butter cream, topped with a dried banana chip. Cute!

The secret to the colors lasting is the foil lining in the cups:

I hope they come out with some red-and-pink hearts in time for Valentine's Day.

Because cupcakes this delicious deserve another chance.

Cool Design

For those of you who are fans of Cakewrecks, food photography, cake creativity, or just generally cool design, check out this series of cakes inspired by children's books, courtesy of ohdeehoh.

And while you're at it, check out the rest of this website for some great home decor/children's design ideas, like this cool, colorful kid's room:

Now, I had a pretty cool room growing up, but something about that orange/green/white color combo strikes me as so fresh and fun for kids! I want!

Why I Love My Neighborhood, July 4th Edition

Every July 4, my neighborhood puts on a wonderful, homegrown parade. We've been participating since our children were babies, and we love it.

Folks decorate themselves:

their dogs:

and their many different methods of conveyance in red, white, and blue. There are bicycles and strollers:

Mini motorized vehicles:

Little red wagons:

Cool convertibles:

Trikes:

Scooters:

Lots of scooters:

and a few conveyances that defy description:

Some of our more enterprising neighbors create their own "floats." A Harry Potter float! How cute is that?:

This float held the local elementary school principal. On the back it says, "The more you read, the more you know." Sweet!:

Lucky kids scored a spot on the floats:

and a lucky dog did, too:

We assemble in the parking lot of the elementary school:

The Hubby was there, with our pugs. Years ago, our children loved to decorate their bicycles and trikes. Now, with them all grown up, I take my patriotic fervor out on my pugs:

They had a ball!:

With John Philip Sousa marches blaring from loudspeakers on one of the floats, we set off:

And with the help of the local police, we parade through the streets and across intersections:

Lining the streets, enthusiastic neighbors wave and cheer and add to the merriment:

This clever family turned the parade into part of their party, complete with viewing booths and chairs for their guests and a microphone for the lady-of-the-house/announcer to do color commentary as we passed:

They had their own sound guy, too, to blare out patriotic tunes:

Like an old-fashioned, little town, we made our own fun, and everyone joined in, from the very young:

To the young at heart:

As we walked, we straggled a bit, and the Sousa marches were harder to hear at the back of the parade. This teen helped fill in the musical gap with some sprightly, patriotic fiddlin':

and right behind him, his momma carried his violin case:

This fife-and-drum corps also marched in the parade:

Love the costumes, don't you?:

The parade wound through our streets to end up at the park:

Where the local homeowners' association...

Greeted us with lots of goodies to eat, including corn dogs, watermelon...

and cupcakes!

The cupcakes disappeared faster than you can say "Yankee Doodle Dandy":

One little girl managed to hang onto her cupcakes:

My dogs loooooove watermelon!

After we ate, we had a chance to meet some of the more unusual pets that people brought to the parade. There was "Chris," the chicken:

It's pretty rare to see a pet chicken around these parts. This bird wears a leash!:

Totally calm and composed, Chris tolerated the endless attention like a real lady:

She even kept her cool when Won Ton pushed in for a closer look--and smell:

Another flurry of excitement was going on alongside this van, which was parked near the food tents. These are wolf hybrids:

One of our neighbors has a license to raise them. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, these particular hybrids are more wolf than dog:

And if wolves sticking their noses out of a van wasn't enough to cause a stir, they had seven 5-week old wolf puppies! (I asked the lady; she said they call them puppies, not cubs):

It wasn't easy to get a good shot of the puppies, because there were so many people eager to pet them:

Oh, my freakin' gosh. Is this not the cutest thing ever? Look at those toenails! Those are NOT dog toenails:
I love my neighborhood for many reasons, but one is because of its ethnic mix. We all came together to celebrate a day dear to all our hearts, no matter what our background:

It makes me happy for our future. Grateful I live in a land of freedom and opportunity. Aware of my blessings.

Couldn't have said it better than this.