"I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told. I only claim to know how a story ought to be told." -Mark Twain
I am back at work. Time to hit the....
No more whiling away my time doing something like this..
Or.....
spending my mornings making these
big round cakes for birthdays and such.......
Or even little ones like .....
Instead I have 90+ students waiting to hear about...
how I spent a day in Oxford, Mississippi, home of William Faulkner....and how I had a word (or two) with him while he sat stone silent.
Then climbed the stairs to his special section in one of the Oxford bookstores.
And I also browsed through (and bought one or two) of the books by his friends while I was at it....
Then as my students sit mesmerized by my tales of the day in Oxford, I will explain how I went by Faulkner's house....
before I left town and couldn't help myself....
I just had to knock on William's front door to see if anyone would answer. (They didn't).
Oh and while I have my students spellbound with my tales of the day with literary giants (ghosts), I can't forget to tell them that I heard Walt Whitman speak on the steps of an old church in Oxford.
Or about finding this old guy (he was watching a parade that was also in Oxford). I wasn't sure if this sweetie was (another) Walt, or Billy (William Faulkner), or even Sam (Mark Twain).....maybe even Al (Albert Einstein). But it was clear he recognized me. (See how he responded when I asked if I could take his picture?!)
Truly, his eyes were sparkling as he said, "Whadya want my picture for girly????"
That sounded poetic to me! He had to be one of my famous authors!!!!!
And I could not leave Oxford without visiting one other author that I (and of course therefore my students (hahahhahahaha)
love. Oxford is also the home of....
the one and only John Grisham.
My students read two of his books. By the time I get to this part of my story, I will be prying the students from their desk.
NO!!!!! It won't have anything to do with the fact they have fallen asleep and are snoring...... They will just be transfixed with eagerness to delve once again into some of my favorite literature.
I highly doubt they will be wishing I would have taken the wrong turn as I left Oxford and
never made it back to class......... Oh and one last thing I have to share with the classes. I am pretty sure I found Emily Grierson's house (A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner).
Now that IS one story the students remember and cling to. I might just grab their attention if I open with this info. That story is a must-read. Put it on your Fall Reading List!
Like I said at the beginning. It is school time again and we're hitting the
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(almost all images were from my trip to Oxford, Mississippi, this summer)
What's better on a hot summer day than an ice cream cone?
Well.....maybe...... a cake pop cone!
No ice cream in these cones.....Just a cakeball!
I saw where Bakerella made these with sugar cones. She took the regular size sugar cone and cut it down to miniature. That was way too much work for me, so I found these mini cake cones and decided that they would be fine.
Apparently I was right, as there were none left of the forty some I made! You can see the miniature size of the cone compared to the Mt. Dew can.
You can see the box the cones came in on the left. In the baggies are cake pieces I freeze. These pieces happened to come from the pieces I had to cut out to make my Flag Cake. But I will frequently bake a cake, throw it into a gallon size baggie and put it in the freezer. Then when I go to make cakeballs, the cake is not only ready, but I have found the cakeballs are much easier to make when they are very cold. I don't wait on the cake to 'thaw'. I just use it right from the freezer. (That is my free tip for the day!)
I made the cakeballs slightly larger than the cone opening.
They actually look good enough to eat at this point!
But I add to make them better............
So I dipped the cakeball-cone into the pink candy melts. Obviously you can use any color of candy melts you want.
If you don't want to dip, you can just glob the melts on top I am sure!
Once the pink was set up I did just glob the chocolate on top. I then put a mini M&M on top for the 'cherry'.
These were super easy to make, and so cute to look at. I took them to a family get-together and all my nieces and nephews loved them (as well as my own children). (Don't forget we are talking about 17 years old and up for the most part!!)
My Dad said that he could not understand why someone would go to all that trouble to make something like that. (Really, they were not trouble). AND he said, "Those boys are just eating them so fast they are not appreciating them!" Oh.....I don't think my Dad got it. I was glad the boys loved them!
One of my sons told me that he liked having the cakeballs on the cone, because it helped tone down some of the extreme sweetness of the cakeball.
There were several broken cones in the box. I didn't let those go to waste. Instead I made them look like they were a melting cone! These were big hits too!!!
So with your summer winding down, these are the perfect end-of-summer-treat.
Kids love them....No matter what the age of the 'kid' !!!!!
I have linked this with Foodie Friday. Go by and find something to cook up this weekend.
"In summer, the song sings itself." ...William Carlos Williams
I have linked to Tracey for other weekly quotes. Check it out!
I have no doubt I am in the minority on this one. I have no doubt people think I have lost it....
But given the choices (Kansas--February 2008)
(Christmas Day/Oklahoma 2009).........
I will take..............
Oklahoma sizzling at 104 degrees.............Or
Oklahoma steaming at 107 degrees.
Anytime.
A solid week of over 104 degrees.
And I am not complaining.
Bring it on.
(And for the record. I do not sit inside with the air-conditioning all day! In fact, our a/c never dips below 79 degrees...and it doesn't even work that well in this darn rent house.)
Call me crazy...................
When my daughter turned 27 (way)earlier this summer, she made her 'birthday dinner' request, then added that she wanted something a little different for her cake. (In our house the birthday honoree always gets to pick what the supper menu is, then traditionally, I make a giant chocolate chip cookie-cake with icing.)
Oh, she still wanted the chocolate-chip cookie (with homemade buttercream icing), but in addition, she wanted a giant cupcake. Hmmmmmm. And one other request, which if you know Annie at all, it would not surprise you. She wanted everything in pink. Yes, I did write above that she was turning 27. Some girls are pink from birth and never outgrow it. Annabelle is one of those girls!
So I made the big chocolate chip cookie (I bake it on a big round pizza pan). I then used my giant cupcake pan and baked the cupcake. (I have found when using the pan that it always turns out better if I bake it separately: the bottom, then the top (or vice versa). Otherwise one part is always too done.
I then sat the giant cupcake smack dab in the middle of the giant cupcake. Yes, there is icing holding the bottom of the cupcake to the top of the cupcake. (Sometimes I also put icing into the bottom of the cupcake ala Hostess cupcakes!) This time though, when I mixed up my Buttercream frosting I kept some of it white and added pink (gel) foodcoloring to the rest. I used enough till I knew it was the color of pink that Annie loved. I added the sprinkles to go with the candles and topped the whole giant-cookie-cupcake with a cherry on top.
And because I already had a pink-confection mess going on in my kitchen, what is a few more pink cupcakes?
Which just proves, once again, it is truly the little things in life that we do for one another that makes us happy, isn't it?
It is a new week. What can you do to make someone happy?
I have linked this to Foodie Friday.... Fantabulous recipes!
