Right on Time

HOLIDAY WONDERMENT: We've been marveling over how beautiful our 'Christmas' cactus has become this week. We thought it an early bloomer, but we thought wrong.

Christian Googled the plant a couple of days ago, and imagine our surprise when we learned it's not a Christmas cactus after all! It's a Thanksgiving cactus, which means it's right on time!

An article on the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach webpage explains it all. ...

"The difference between the three cacti is found in the shape of the leaves. The Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumgera truncata) has very pointed and claw shaped projections on the edges of the leaf. The Christmas cactus (Schlumgera bridgesti) has leaf projections which are more scalloped or tear drop shaped. The Easter cactus (Rhipsalidopsis gaertnerrii) has very rounded edges which are centralized on the leaf."

Illustration from Iowa State University Reiman Garden Pamphlet RG 308Thanksgiving

COOKING UP A STORM: Thanksgiving is just a day away, and we've been busy readying for that holiday.

We're heeding experts' opinions regarding this pandemic era holiday, not mixing households and keeping it home alone, so to speak. What we are doing, however is a cooperative Thanksgiving. Three of us (Kennedy, my parents and our household) will each be making our own turkey, but we divvied up the side dishes. I am making cranberries, Chex mix and wild rice, sausage and shitaike mushroom stuffing. Ken has the potatoes and green beans covered. Judy is making rolls and pies. We're going to swap side dishes outside, masks on, with social distancing. Though unorthodox, it will be a nice way to enjoy dinner with one another without sitting down at a communal table and sharing air. 

NOT THROWING AWAY OUR SHOT: I listed 'exercise' on our list of things to do. "Just Dance" via the Nintendo Switch is an easy go to, but honestly, I don't love most of the very poppy music they use, and the choreography seems pretty random at times.

So, I decided to turn to YouTube for some inpsiration. I had been singing a song from "Hamilton" just moments prior, so I thought, "Well there *has* to be a 'Hamilton' workout."

I'm right. There is. In fact, there are many. We chose the top viewed one, and fired it up without warning for the kids. They were super happy about it. It was well done - great music and good exercise. We'll be back for more!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wE-6cSgrVMk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Takes the Cake

BAKERS AND MAKERS: Another birthday in our household this past week (Christian), so we baked a cake - and donated it to one of our favorite non-profits,

Birthday Dreams

.

The cake request said the recipient loved STEM-y stuff (science, tech, math), and the colors blue and green. So out of that info came the cake pictured above.

As usual, we started with a conceptual drawing of the cake that might be. Some things made the cut, others didn't.

CJ did the baking. The three-layered first tier of the cake is very vanilla, with vanilla buttercream icing and filling. There are some white chocolate pieces in the filling for a little crunch.

The top tier of the cake isn't cake at all, it's a big Rice Krispies treat. We draped that in a batch of homemade marshmallow fondant. It think it's our best drape to date! (We used to be so nervous about this step. Now it's old hat!)

The first tier was crumb coated and then covered in buttercream. Annabelle air brushed that lightly with green and blue, the birthday boys' favorite colors. 

The cake is surrounded by blue and green gumballs. I like the way they look - very festive.

Annabelle transformed the plain white tier into a lab coat. I love the little buttons on it. The photo below is before we added the pocket 'embroidered' with the birthday boy's name. 

A big part of any one of the kids' cakes is the little details. Like melting Jolly Ranchers so that you can shape them into little orbs that will look like bubble so you can put them into the lab flask 

Annabelle cut atoms and equations from sugar sheets.

CJ made the Jell-o to fill the cake topper, an Erlenmeyer flask. When we saw that there are little cups you can buy that look like the flask, we just had to get some for the kid's birthday party. We also bought club soda and some little drink flavoring liquids they could mix and match.

Can you guess how old the birthday boy is turning? The clue is on the front of the cake, the first tier.

By the way, I've completely altered the name on the cake to preserve the anonymity of the recipient.

We hope he liked his cake. :)