ISES Restaurant Tour

Thursday was the June meeting of ISES(ises-msp.org). We finally had some sun after days of rain, so to have it be the annual ISES Restaurant Tour was as added bonus. 4 groups of 25 were loaded onto buses and sent out to enjoy old favorites and new discoveries. Each group visited 3 out of 6 restaurants with the start and finish at Red Stag Supperclub in NE Minneapolis. Our group visited Jax, The Social Club, and Elsies. No hassle of parking to contend with, just good company, cocktails and a wide variety of excellent nibbles.

I Wanna Be......

I am going to be on TV! KSTP 5's Twin Cities Live is doing a "I wanna be..." segment and this one happens to be a woman, Lyndsey, who wants to be a cake designer. The episode airs tomorrow, but filming has to be done ahead so there's time for editing and tweaking. That gave me time for some preparation.
Friday was the big day for camera and crew so the shop was scrubbed and primped, dusted and rearranged for it's television debut. I was already working on a couple of new cakes, so those were finished and readied for display. All seemed to be well until, of course, the 5 quart mixer decided to blow it's motor that very morning during a batch of mousse. A quick trip for a replacement, a couple of flowers in a vase, some lip gloss, a deep breath and away we went.
Lyndsey did a great job, Melissa and Seth from KSTP were pleased, the cake was lovely.

So, what do you wanna be?

A Job Well Done

Whew! May has gone by in a blink. A month not known for a large number of weddings in the past, this year's was full of birthdays, anniversaries, congratulations, as well as weddings. I might not be given a trophy for a job well done, but today's birthday boy

Accessories

If you have just gotten some new shoes, it follows that you should now have a new purse. And if the shoes were Jimmy Choos, shouldn't the purse be Louis Vuitton?

Shoes and Sweets

Tony called recently to have me make his wife, Staci, a birthday cake. The usual questions of favorites resulted in a fun response:"she loves shoes, especially high heels and running shoes. Oh, and she LOVES candy." Okay, I can work with that.
We started the candy theme on the inside with coconut cake and bittersweet ganache as a nod to Mound's Bars. For the outside, I hit the internet for Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik, Asics and Nike. Add some fondant Skittles and Hershey's Kisses and it's a hit!

Moveable Feast

Open Arms of Minnesota celebrated it's 5th annual fund raiser, Moveable Feast, at the Golden Valley Country Club on Thursday. Always a sumptuous feast for eyes and palate, I was able to both attend the gala as well as contribute. Nancy Benedict, event director, asked me if I might be interested in contributing when we chatted at TCBA's Love is a Cure in February. Of course I said yes.
Tiffany had planned a mystery table of gifts and I was asked to create 40 "gift boxes". Think cake walk with the signature Tiffany Blue and White Ribbon. 40 cakes, 7 sizes, 7 flavor combinations, 3 days, 40 pounds of fondant. There were cakes everywhere! A couple more square feet of car space would have been nice.
I grabbed a quick photo with Nancy and Kevin Winge, Executive director, but Jennifer Van Wyk, Deputy Director was elusive. Now, what can I do next year?

Triumph and Tragedy

I have a couple of flower beds and some pots I fill every season. My philosophy is survival of the fittest. If the plants really want to thrive, they need to do it in spite of me.
I admit to pushing the planting season a bit this past week. I just needed it to be spring, so I did some splitting and planted my pots.
Well, success is never guaranteed, thus the triumph/ tragedy label for my efforts. So far the pots are committed to living. The same can not be said about my Echinacea. It seems to be a bit unhappy about being moved.
It's a good thing I make my living with frosting!