Thursday, November 22, 2012

Zumba Anyone?

I have a friend who happens to be a Zumba Dance Instructor.
She's attempted to get me to go to a class....
given me a couple of free passes and all....dangling Zumba water classes
in front of me...ALL TO NO AVAIL!:(
 
I know...I know...I know..I should go try it out at least once, right?!?!
What holds me back, you ask?
Well, a number of things...Firstly, the fact that I dare not try to wear
exercise clothing!  Just not meant to be worn by .........me. 
Secondly, I am not a fan of sore muscles!
I do not look forward to getting up to go pee (sorry, not meant to gross anyone out)
at 2 am only to find I have to "roll" off the bed
 because my thighs refuse to cooperate (a punishment they dish out
for my making them work-out...yes, they have a mind of
their own---don't yours?).  And thirdly, I DON'T DANCE!
To quote Fran (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras) from The Wedding Planner movie
"I look like a retarded string bean" ...or something along
those lines.  Yeah, I am SO NOT coordinated---never have been :(
 
I think I might have a change of mind...if I had a buddy (who's just as bad as me--
if not worse--at all three things noted above) who would go with me.
Unfortunately, we all run off different schedules--so for now, I
will just have to fulfill my friends other request....
which was to make her a batch of Zumba cookies for her class!
 
No problem there...she requested a batch of cookies that had the Zumba
symbol -- Here's the symbol she requested just above the cookie
I made. 
 
 
She prefers the cookie to show as opposed to have the icing go edge-to-edge.
Here they are all individually packaged and bow-tied!
 
Now this kinda Zumba, I can do!  They are sugar cookies with royal icing...simple,
but SOOOOOO good.  I'm sure these will give them something to work off
in class...so it's like I am actually there
with them, no? ;)
 
What do you think?  Close match?  Let me know.
 
Thanx,
 
Cori
 
 


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Green Eggs & Ham

Okay, so my daughter is a big fan of Dr. Seuss...always has been...always will be. 
That's just who she is-----And we love you for that Em!   
So, one day while I was going thru online pictures (for inspiration, of course),
I came across some really cute Green Eggs & Ham cookies and I thought: "Hmm, MAYBE..
(just maybe) I can make these myself...?  What are the odds that I can do this?" 
And of course, there was that surge of anticipation in seeing my daughters
facial expression when she saw them IF I did succeed...<that was motivation
in itself ;)>  You see, I'm so NOT a good artist...so faaaarrrrrr
 from it, actually.   I do remember taking Art in High School....well,
maybe more like Jr High?...IDK, it was so long ago, I really can't
remember...(you can add that to the long list of things I've
 forgotten)  But what I do remember is that it was fun trying to make all those
sketches, paintings, paper mache projects, clay vases/pots, even the pinata...
of course, they were pretty horrible looking.....but it was a fun process.
 
SO I WENT FOR IT!!!!!!!  I pulled out all of my cookie cutters to see
which ones would fit the egg & ham shapes.  I decided to go
with the egg (as in egg that's still in a shell shape--before being cracked open)
as well as a plain round cutter.  I traced those 2 cutters on a
piece of paper & began sketching...
I used the round cutter and traced out what would look like
an over easy egg and I then traced the ham chunk on
the oval egg cutter.
 
After baking the cookies and letting them cool overnight,
I then took a black food coloring marker (edible, of course) and then I
lightly traced out the shapes according to the cutter sketches.  Once I was happy...
(still skeptical about how they would actually turn out) I bit the
bullet and started to outline the shape in black piping icing, like so--
and then I went ahead & piped the ham bone and egg yolk outlines, like so--
I let these dry out for about 30 min to an hour.  As you can see, the shapes
don't (more like shouldn't) have to be perfect.  Actually, they
end up looking more natural if each one is "off" a little bit,
but that's just my opinion.  If you like them to be exactly the same, then
go for it--whatever works for you is fine, too ;)
 
After these outlines were set and dry, I began flooding the cookies.  This is what
they look like after they were flooded--
Not so hot looking, right!  Yeah, I was pretty disappointed and thought "Great...I really do suck at this" :\  But, oh well...what can you do?!?!?
 
Well, I then realized....I wasn't done!!!!!  I let them dry .....
AND THEN...I took my lil black food coloring marker, and
started making all the little details on them!  And my-oh-my...I was once a happy
camper all over again!!!  Here's the final look of them--
Yay!!!   Not bad (if I do say so myself) for my first try, huh!  I know they aren't the
 greatest decorated cookies in the entire universe, but in my little corner
of the world...they are considered perfect---for me & my Em (she totally approved!
& everyone else that hangs around in my lil neck of the woods (there are no neck
 of the woods around here--really)....Bwahahahaha-hahah!
 
I think next time, I'll go thru our collection of Dr. Seuss books
and see what else I can bake up!
 
Thanx for hanging around my blog.  I hope you found it.....interesting?!?!?!
 
See ya next time,
 
Cori