Rainbow + Cake = Rainbow Cake

Aleta of The Omnomicon came up with an easy method on making a kid's dream cake come true. I just think what a great surprise for everyone when you cut into an ordinary looking cake but you get a rainbow inside. I've seen the checkerboard cake but I think this is more impressive. Checkerboard is so last year.

She made the cake by just adding Sprite to plain white cake mix. No egg or oil. I kind of wonder if it taste good. Maybe I will have to save it for the next potluck lunch at work. (Bakers beware or you will feel the wrath of my rainbow cake at the next potluck party).

It would be pretty cool if it had Valentine color for a Valentine's Day party. Maybe I will surprise Agent Chorizo with my new baking skills on Valentine's Day. *wink*

Baked Goodenss in a Jar

I have to admit, I always loved anything sweet. So when I stumbled upon "cake in a jar" it reminded me of dry cake mix stored in glass jars that make great gifts.


The whole idea of cake in a jar is you take the dry ingredients, add wet ingredients but pour batter back into the jar to use as a baking container. So then you end up with a small 1/2 pint jar of sweet baked goodness.

Lately, my mind has been on business mode. So won't it be great if I had baking/cooking skills so I can bank on the "cake in a jar" idea. I don't think I would want to sell cake in a 1/2 pint jar cause I personally could not just have one little jar of cake. Which means I would have to find something to put in the little jars after. I would love it if I could create dry mix ingredients for healthy breakfast muffins, biscuits, cakes and other delicious baked goods. Then after you can expand that into savory dishes like soups or stews. The soup idea was from a vendor at the farmer's market I saw a couple years ago. Maybe I will visit the market this weekend and see if the vendor is still there.

I know it is basically buying dry cake mix from the supermarket, but can you get mixes like pumpkin spice cake or banana bread, herb biscuits, etc? My mouth is watering just thinking of all the different kinds of baked goodness you can be put in a jar. I would love to give Betty Crocker a run for her money.

Quilt update: Took a little break cause this weekend was required for the mass clean up before Chinese New Year. I did get a new rotary cutter as my last didn't even last me till the quilt was done. But I assure you that I have not stopped thinking about locking myself in the craft room and sew to my heart's content.

Weekend Project

This weekend I armed myself with a cutting mat, ruler, fabric, sewing machine and an iron. I worked all day saturaday and most of sunday but my little quilt project will not be complete until later this week. I'm afraid I have a thing called work that I have to show up for. But I am almost there. 8)


Mme. Chorizo

Baby Quilt

I have only been dabbling into making quilts in the last 2 years. My skills are no where near some of the experienced quilters as I have only been sewing together square or rectangular pieces of fabric. I was originally planning to knit one of my girlfriend's upcoming delivery a simple blanket with sheep on it. But I lost interest and time (February) so I decided to use some scrap fabric and sew a baby quilt.

I only used 2 different color fabric so I tried to give a bit more creativity by sewing a teddy bear pattern into some of the squares. They are really hard to do on a regular sewing machine so I only sewed one on each row.



I realized it is not the best picture of the bear but it is holding onto a large heart with a silly little pout on it's face. I should have used a black thread or a darker thread so the bear would stand out more. I thought the white thread would blend in any mistakes but still show the effort.


I have more left over batting and fabric so I am going to start on another quilt. For some reason I seem to have lots of pink fabric. This next project is going to be a lap blanket as it might be too big for a baby blanket but not big enough for a bed quilt. I will keep you posted on the project.

Mme. Chorizo

Hope You Don't Have A "Dennis the Menace" for a Neighbor

Found this funny picture on the internet. I guess this is one way to reuse your Apple computer tower. I wonder if the front face plate pulls down so you can actually put mail inside.


For some of you youngens, Dennis the Menace was a cartoon about a boy named Dennis who wrecked havoc on his old neighbor Mr. George Wilson. It would be a shame if someone defaced the mailbox. It is such a novel idea. Don't you agree?

Mme. Chorizo (who is lucky to not have any 'Dennis the Menace" in her neighborhood)

Flowers to Warm Your Heart

January is a quiet month at a flower shop but it is also a month of new flowers/foliages to show up. Many people may not know this but spring flower (specifically bulb spring flowers) are at their peak quality during the cold winter months. So all you tulip/hyacinth/daffodils lovers go visit your local florist today.

I apologize for the poor picture quality as these pics were taken with my cellphone (only 2 MP). This green and yellow arrangement consists of yellow spray roses, forsythia, green leucodendron, acacia and ming fern. The forsythia (branches) will bloom with many little delicate blossoms while the acacia will bloom into little yellow fuzz balls that has an intoxicating sweet fragrance.


I was trying to manipulate the flowers in this pink piece in order to emphasize the natural curves of calla lilies. I find arrangements with flowers flowing away from the container makes it more attractive and interesting to look at. The different lines makes the eyes follow so then you are able to see all the different textures of the flowers. This pink arrangement has ti leaves, quince, mini cymbidium orchids, red leucodendrons, and of course mini calla lilies. The branches (Quince) will hopefully start to bloom and show off it's delicate pink/white blossoms, similar to chery blossoms.



I hope these flowers sparked some warmth into this deep freeze weather. And a reminder to you romantics out there. Valentine's Day is coming soon. So maybe this Valentine go get an arrangement that is different then your usual red/pink roses bouquet. Get her an arrangement that will be longer lasting then roses and more unique to show her how special he/she is to you. Just FYI, roses during the winter months are of the worst quality despite them being shipped from South America.

Mme. Chorizo

How Do You Like Your Eggs? Scrambled or Green?

One of my co-workers brought fresh eggs from her mom's farm to sell at work today. I didn't think much of it until she showed me the unique color of this one egg. This is my first time seeing a natural green colored egg. I was so amazed! I am sure many country folks would think this is silly and wonder if I have been hiding under a rock all my life. But PEOPLE! Green eggs do exist. Until this morning, I thought green eggs from Dr. Suess's story was just make belief. So maybe it's not so crazy to have green eggs here, there or anywhere. Now I am on a life mission to find me some green ham.


Mme. Chorizo (who loves her eggs scrambled and a little runny)

Guess How Many Legos

Remember your Lego set back when we were little? My favorite was the house set. Love the little flowers that i can "plant" anywhere on my property. I don't remember why I lost interest in them but I do remember that I was frustrated with them cause some of the bricks were nearly impossible to take apart if they were the same size and stacked on top of each other. I also remember I left a few bite marks on them cause I wasn't allowed to use my dad's tools. Can you imagine what my Legos would have looked like if I was?!

For most people our Lego pieces are buried somewhere in our parent's basement in ice cream pails or shoe boxes. However, one man from New York decided to dust off his colored bricks and built sculptures with them. Nathan Sawaya has his work on exhibit that is touring North America currently. His exhibit is called "The Art of the Brick" and it is currently in Edmonton, AB, at the Odyssium until May 2009. He has created sculptures of all sizes and portraits to boot. I haven't check out all of his creations on his website but these are some of my favorites.


Lots of his work is commissioned from companies that want something unique or to show case big events. This house sculpture was for the Homes for the Homeless 20th anniversary. I think my Lego house set is probably 1/32 of his house sculpture. Love the brick chimney and the climbing vines beside it. All he needs is some lego flowers to spruce up the garden.


It's always fun to read about people who can create a career out of something that most people would consider for child's play only. What would you create next?

Mme. Chorizo

Gourmet Pizza Night

Happy New Year everyone! I hope Santa brought all you wanted for the holidays or at least you got some bargains during Boxing Day sale. It has been too cold to do anything for the last 3 weeks. All I could think about was what food I could have that would warm me up. Your usual soups and stews came to mind but Agent Chorizo was craving for pizza. When is he not craving pizza?!!? So I gave in (since I am not a fan of pizza). We went to Costco and got these whole wheat flat bread and got a few ingredients to make our own gourmet pizzas.

I opted for greens, feta cheese (herb and garlic flavor) and onion on one flat bread. While the other I had artichoke, onions, turkey keilbasa and mozzarella. Agent Chorizo's pizza also had the greens and feta cheese while the rest was turkey keilbassa, onions and mozzarella.



On my pizzas, I put a very tasty spinach and cheese pasta sauce but Agent Chorizo wanted the good old fashion pizza sauce. I must have put too much sauce cause it still seemed to be too moist. Other then that, it turned out well. (I still don't like pizza) but Agent Chorizo was one happy boy.

Maybe this will inspire some gourment cooking while we slowly thaw our way out of this deep frezze. If I am crazy enough again, maybe we will try puting chorizo sausages on our next pizza adventure.