Why Christmas is my favorite time of year

Shots & Fireplaces & Turkey & Friends & Family & Baileys & Snow & Not counting calories...

I'll cheers to that!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Years to all you cake and cupcake and wine lovers :) Thanks for a great 2009, filled with lots of caking support and advice - we're looking forward to and exciting 2010!!


-C&S

A Kobe Dinner Experience

After work, and after a couple of birthday cup fulls of Bailey's....mmmm Bailey's... My boyfriend took me on a surprise dinner, downtown Vancouver!!

Getting ready for the dinner was a bit aggravating, as I wasn't sure where we were headed and therefore couldn't decide on the appropriate outfit. I started with a "Bob's Surplus" t-shirt and black leggings, only to have my boyfriend tell me I 'probably don't want to wear that....'
Once the wardrobe dilemma was sorted out, we hopped on the skytrain and headed downtown.

As we walked out of the station, I was filled with curiosity! Where was he taking me?! Why couldn't I wear my knitted winter hat?!

We crossed the street to Kobe - A Japanese steak and seafood house on Alberni. I was super excited and began to take Blackberry pictures, as we were told to head up to the 3rd floor...




The ambiance was amazing, the waitresses were so friendly and the hostesses were so clevagy. I was beginning to see why this place was so popular! We were seated, and began going through the menu.



Obviously, this was a birthday celebration and beers were in order. They were the first thing ordered, in fact! The plates were heating on the grill top and our table quickly filled up. 3 gentleman, blinged out to the max, had 3 bottles of Sake and excellent tans. There was an older couple across from us who looked as though they had been waiting for sometime. A younger couple was beside us, and both had water to drink. I was starting to wonder if the beer was the right thing to do - what did they know that I didn't?!



I think Danny sensed my awkwardness of not knowing the ways of Kobe, and he said that it didn't matter. It was my birthday, so I could eat this dinner however I liked. Awww.



First came the soup. It was excellent! Sweet fried onion noodles, mushrooms and green onions in a delicious broth. To be honest, I really wanted another bowl but didn't want to mess with the system...

Then our chef came and threw down all of these little bowls. The intrigue was killing me! What was going to happen next?! Why were there so many bowls?!


Each person received 2 bowls, and they had sauces in them. One garlic sauce for steak and chicken, and a ginger sauce for seafood. Refills aplenty on the sauces...much to my delight!

The chef threw a bunch of veggies on the grill, and then carefully took apart an onion. He began to stack the rings of onions, and then poured some oil over them...what was he up too? This whole dinner was so entertaining - they even had a strobe light over the grill for added effect. It was like a dance party, with food!

Then BAM! (thanks Emeril...)

ONION VOLCANO!!

Steak and Chicken Teriyaki was my dinner of choice, and the chef began throwing out lobster tails and shrimp and doing all sorts of flips with the knives and salt and pepper shakers. I couldn't understand a word of what he was saying, but I think I played along quite well. I caught the words "onion" "mushroom" and I think, but am not sure "spaghetti" There clearly was no spaghetti, but whatever.

You can't do this to spaghetti:


This is my favorite photo of the night! The sweat on my forehead when we left, probably made it seem like I had just come from the gym - it was HOT in there! Especially when he lit the room on fire... whoaaaa! I think the 3 tanned men got one or two shades darker, at least!

On the way home, we made a stop for birthday cake substitute:



I love how he kindly paused so I could capture this picture, haha. It deserved the moment though, since I'm pretty sure that this is the most amazing ice cream in the universe.



Overall, I had a fabulous birthday (thanks Hunny!)

And on a sidenote, Kobe would be a great spot for a blind date. The meal was so entertaining, that the conversation is pretty minimal - it would definitely cover all uncomfortable moments!

The Awkwardness of Crappy Christmas Gifts

I pride myself on being a unique, creative and interesting gift giver. In the form of a present, wrapped in some pretty paper with ribbons and bows galore, I try to make each gift reflect the person who is about to receive.
What reaction will it get? What look will appear upon the persons face when they open the (perfectly wrapped) gift. These are all questions that run through my mind while shopping the stores.

I tend to seek one of the following (genuine) responses:
"Ohhhhhh thank youuuuu!!"
"No way! Where'd you get this?!"
"I needed this! I can't believe you remembered!"
"I was looking for one of these!"

and of course the always popular,
"Shut Up! That's friggin' awesome!"


Now here we are, Christmas one week away, and I do not have a confident feeling that anything I purchased will solicit one of those responses. This means having to deal with the awkward moment of gift giving - when the gift receiver does not like what's behind that (still perfect) wrapping paper.

You can tell by the facial reaction and tone of voice if you have gifted successfully. If not, you may hear something like this:
"Wow - that's pretty cool.."
"Oh thanks!"
"Ha ha ha, oh my gosh.."
"Where'd you get that wrapping paper?"

And also be prepared for the worst of all worsts,
"Is there a gift receipt?"

There is almost a need to blurt out "You are so hard to shop for!" before anyone opens their gifts. At least that way, they already know it's going to be bad, and they can better prepare a response that won't make you want to run out of the room crying...

Check out this website on how to receive a bad gift. I highly recommend this, especially if you know me personally....ulz...

So to all who may be on the receiving end this year, my sincere apologies if your gift is not to your liking. I really did put effort and thought into each and every single gift. There is no one to blame except--wait....really? There is someone to blame?! Someone who has been blamed for everything else this year, so why not shitty gifts?!

You guessed it.

For all gifts that fail, just blame the economy.

Happy Shopping!

In A Cookie Face Off, which do you prefer?

So we have been doing some logo sugar cookies for a customer recently, and have presented them with 2 options. Fondant and Royal Icing.

This was the logo that they wanted for the shape, seems simple enough...right?


Problem is, we don't really know which is better?!

Option A: let's just say Option A involved a lot of the following things, none of which made for an enjoyable evening:

creating the shape with only a square cookie cutter (ooooo)
sticky sugar cookie dough vs rolling pin (ahhhh)
lifting 100 of the little bastards onto the cookie sheet (eeeeee)
probably wanting to throw eachother over the balcony out of pure frustration (ohhhhh)

After hours (and hours and hours...etc..) of cutting out shapes, baking, dyeing fondant, cutting out shapes, attaching and boxing, this was the final product:

Not too shabby!


But then came Option B. Ohhhh how we enjoyed Option B.

Some of the best parts were:

we already had the cookie cutting down pat, no guessing games this time (yesssss)
it was absolutely freezing outside and the cookies were cool in no time! (sweeeeet)
the royal icing was like using a magic marker, and check out that red (wooooo)

And after only 2 hours, give or take, we were done over 100 of these sweet treats.
And they are sweet, let me tell you...

ooooo shiny...

SO the question remains, keeping in mind appearance, texture and assumed taste, which icing takes the cake....or in this case...the cookie?

Rudolph Cookie thanks you for your help!

The Reasons Why I Suck At Dieting

Look at this cat...

Man, he sure looks happy...

This cat and I have a lot of similarities....

The only difference I can see is the excess of fur and lack of clothing...

Let's go over some of the reasons why I SUCK at dieting:

I love food.
No self control.
Absolutely no will power.
Pizza is amazing.
Cookies, warm out of the oven, are impossible to resist.
My job is making cakes.
My other job, as far as I can tell, is eating fast food.
When I look down, I can still see my toes.
I like reality tv more then the gym.
Healthy food has no taste when you can't cook.
3oz chicken dinner? Maybe for a cat.
Water. Booooring.
I can still do up my pants.
My coat still zips up.
I can take a picture without a double chin (at the right angle).
My boyfriend still lives here.
And he also thinks pizza is amazing.


With all of these factors combined, I've decided to stop this pointless attempt at being 'Skinny By Christmas', and just go with 'Taking Up Only One Airplane Seat By Christmas'

I think I've got this one in the bag....

Days 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,16: Diet Fail.

I really didn't want this to happen...

Really, really didn't.....

I was 10 days in, I was feelin' good, and I was beginning to not feel like a squeezed sausage whenever I got dressed.


Enter the flu. It kicked my ass, my appetite and got me all frustrated and confused. There were days where my diet consisted of nothing but juice and soup. My appetite completely disappeared and I thought, 'Gee, I hope this continues once I start to feel better'

Yah......

That didn't happen.


When I was off the soup, I was on pretty much everything else. Let's just give a run down of some of the things I inhaled over the past 6 days....

-beer
-wine
-margaritas (I don't regret this one..)
-pizza
-chinese food
-chips
-tacos
-enchilada
-jalapeno poppers
-subway, subway, subway.

I would like to say that I follow Jareds' lead at Subway, but I'm pretty sure his subs didn't include bacon or ranch dressing. Dammit.


It was a good run while it lasted, but this week I have to get back to business. And by business I mean not stuffing my face with anything in my line of sight.

There is only 17 days until we get on that plane and fly back to Ontario, and I'm back at Day One.


Smooth move, Candice....smooth move.....