2 DAYS!!!

We've only TWO DAYS left until the beginning of National Novel Writing month and I have no idea what I'm writing. Now, some folks enjoy the feeling of writing by the seat of their pants. Sadly, I'm not one of them. I need a rough road map of where I want to go and key points I want to visit along the way. I haven't got that yet and it's starting to bug me a bit.

I like to use the month of November to push my boundaries. Test myself and see what I'm made of. My first year, it was simply to write 50,000 words of fiction that didn't completely stink. To take a plot idea and run with it. The next year I settled on a middle/young adult work that my kids could read. Two years ago it was erotica/romance. Just how far could I get myself to go with a sex scene? (And yes, I really did suprise myself with that one!) Last year I tried to tackle a sequel to the young adult story, but didn't get very far. Actually, few of us got very far that year. I'm not sure what happened to the others, but I know what happened in my case. Or at least I think I do. I hadn't finished editing the first book and it seemed silly to go on to the next. That and I got sick half-way through.

All of which brings us to this year. What the heck am I going to write? I thought I'd tackle a non-fiction mythology book. It's something I've been thinking about for a good while now. But then I got this sliver of an idea for a true vampire tale, which is something I've also been thinking would be fun to write. And by true vampire, I mean the revenant vampires of folklore. Something truly horrific as opposed to what Hollywood and lit. have been tossing our way. (THAT was my first novel.) However I didn't have much to go on, until last week that is. One the way back from taking a friend home from our meet n'greet, it started to plot itself in my head. Great, right? Except it stopped and I haven't had the chance to think more on it...So, WHAT am I going to begin writing in a few days? I still have no idea, but something tells me it'll be neither of the above, because that seems to be how it's going this year.

*sigh*

NaNo 2012

Ohmygersh! Only 

 

 more days until 2012's National Novel Writing Month kicks off! Are you ready?

 

 

S'more Birthday Cakes

So, the Monkey Girl turned 13 a week and a half ago. Yep, we've TWO teenage girls in the house now. For her party, she wanted a s'more theme - you know, those melted marshmellow, chocolaty goodness treats. Where she gets her ideas, I don't know, but it was fun. Mr. Incredible made a giant s'more for the pinata. But those pics will have to wait for another post, since my camera batteries died and my sister took pics on her camera instead. I need to get her SD card downloaded to my computer.

Instead, I want to share the cakes we made with you. This is the first time MG's wanted sometime homemade instead of one ordered from the store. Of course, stumbling across these cupcakes from Martha Stewart probably helped with the decision making process. (Yes, I love Martha.)

 

I thought they were so cute and was really, really happy when MG wanted them for her party's cakes. Of course, that then means I had to MAKE them. Checking out the recipe through me for a loop. It uses what germ! What they heck? I've never seen a recipe like this, but it looked healthier than your regular cake. I just wasn't sure how it would taste. So guess what cake Mr. I got for his birthday the weekend before? Sometimes he can be a really great sport. So is our gaming gang, thank goodness. And they were rewared wonderfully. Drama Queen said the cake tasted like snickerdoodles in a pie. I suspect they were going for the graham cracker crust effect and hoped I'd like it better once we got the chocolate sauce and marshmellows on. (I did!)

 

Since we needed A LOT of cakes, I made regular sized and mini-upcakes the day before. They didn't go together quite like Martha's, but that's okay. We used her recipes and the pic as inspiration and made our own thing. Take a look:

 

 

 

Cute, right? Saturday morning, MG and I sat down to assemble them and quickly realized that putting them together like the originals just wouldn't work. The mini cupcakes were too big, so we stacked the minis on the big cupcakes and then added the big marshmellows. After we'd filled one of the cake plates with finished cupcakes, MG decided to add the mini marshmellows around the sides so we got to use them as well. I've got to tell you, sitting at the table putting those together with MG was my best memory of the day. We weren't in a hurry and got to have some fun with it. It was great. She kept looking for ways get the chocolate sauce all over her fingers so she could lick them clean. Yeah, it was that good.

 

If you want the recipe, just click on the image of Martha's mini cakes above and it'll take it to her webpage. I'd post the recipe where, but I honestly didn't change anything in it and so don't feel right copying it verbatim. I'm going to try making it again in a couple of weeks for gaming night, only I think I'll just make it as a regular cake, slather on the chocolate sauce, and toss on some mini marshmellows. One of DQ's friends, who has joined our gaming group, keeps requesting them.

 

For the display, we used my old cake plates and arranged them on our new-to-us teak cabinet in the dining room. They looked lovely and we could sit the rest of the food around them. However, it didn't look nearly as lovely in photographs, so here's a shot of them sitting on the deep freeze, which is our main workspace in the kitchen right now. (New counter/cabinets should be in in the next week or two!)

I love how Pinterest lets me post ideas so I can attempt them later. It was nice to be able to go through web pages and blog posts finding ideas for her party and then have them all nicely organized, with pictures, in one spot to go back over them together.