Mixed Bag

SKATER CAKE: Last Saturday was all about Teen Feed. Sunday was all about Birthday Dreams, as we had a cake to deliver on Monday. The cake was for an 18-year-old boy who liked to skateboard. We went online to find some inspiration and found a cake we liked that had a silhouette of a skater on a ramp, and graffiti like letters for the name and age, so we went with that. 

We made gumpaste by adding tylose to our homemade marshmallow fondant. Annabelle carefully traced a silhouette I found online, and cut out the skater. The tylose made the fondant dry stiff enough so that it would be able to stand. (There is a post running down the back side of his leading leg into the cake to help hold it upright.)

She used her airbrush to paint the letters. (The birthday boy's name is changed in the photo to protect his anonymity.)

The ramp is a big Rice Krispies treat covered in buttercream and fondant. He requested a vanilla cake with vanilla icing. We did add some blue sprinkles in the filling, though (blue is his favorite color).

We hope he liked his cake!

THE OLD BALL GAME: Tuesday night we took advantage of great ticket offer (only $18 for a seat on the lower level!) and went to the Mariners' game. 

It was a beautiful night at the ballpark.

I couldn't help but notice this couple's jerseys - Griffey and Martinez, the two greatest players in the history of the franchise.

CJ was working the game, of course. He was able to join us for his half hour break, which was nice.

Unfortunately, the Mariners didn't win. The Houston Astros are tough to beat - so much power at the plate from top to bottom in their lineup.

PRODUCING: Our trio of sunflowers continue to impress. This one is our tallest, at about 5 feet. I'm always kind of amazed by sunflowers and how their single, rather spindly stem can support their weight.

Some neighbors gave us some zucchini. Annabelle use a handy tool to turn it into spaghetti noodles for dinner Tuesday night.

PRE LAUNCH: An email from NASA invited us to be their virtual guests for the launch of the 16th Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services Mission Launch.

Northrop Grumman is targeting liftoff of its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft for no earlier than 5:56 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 10. These launches are always a little different to watch, as the rockets rise from Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island.

Onboard Cygnus will be a variety of research experiments, including a demo of 3D printing in space using a material simulating rock and soil found on places such as the Moon. Also on board will be Blob, a European Space Agency investigation, which will allow students to see how slime molds’ behavior is affected by microgravity.

Space fans can participate virtually by registering online. Those who register will receive mission updates, interactive opportunities, and a stamp for your NASA virtual passport following launch. 

Smells like Bacon

FEEDING TEENS: This past weekend included the fourth Saturday of the month, so that meant Teen Feed time for us. 

This month's menu was a first for us:  big, beautiful BLTs (as well as some BELTs and TLTs) - more on that later.  

Various people sponsored the bacon, and one of the team turned tempeh into beautiful bacon-substitute strips for our vegan and vegetarian guests.  

We had beautiful "artisan" Romaine lettuce donated - it was perfect on the sandwiches, and the family did a great job prepping it into individual 'leaflets' ahead of time. Three people donated 10 tomatoes apiece. They were SO big and beautiful and bright red. 

Another friend donated six dozen eggs, which Kennedy fried up like a pro. The eggs boosted the calories and protein of the main entree.  

Another  friend brought some lovely avocado slices that we added to vegan guests' sandwiches. 

Others donated dozens of big sandwich rolls. Those helped make the sandwiches super substantial. 

The sides were something else! An array of astounding pasta salads (and some potato salad to boot)! Kennedy made a great Greek chicken pasta salad. 

We also had some sweet treats. My friend Ana made the prettiest fresh fruit cups. Guests gobbled those up! 

A couple of other people provided ice cream treats for the crowd. 

A mother-daughter team were the evening's sandwich artists. They assembled those things like seasoned pros. The teenaged girl made wrapping the sandwiches look easy. It is not. I tried to wrap a few after they left, and the fillings basically EXPLODED all over the counter. It was humbling.

The meal service was not without its challenges, however. When we 'cooked up' the idea of BLTs for the meal, I thought, "That will be easy! We can just par cook the bacon at home ahead of time, and do a quick heat up on site." The second half of that equation played out perfectly. The pre-cooking part? In case you're wondering, it takes about 6.25 hours to carefully par-bake 30 pounds of bacon two cookie sheets at a time. You can imagine how our house smelled on Saturday, and our neighbors probably think we're (more) nuts. 

That said, it was *totally* worth it! There were rave reviews from dinner guests and Teen Feed staff. My favorite quote of the night from one appreciative diner was, "That sandwich looks hella bomb!" Another teen declared, "That was a great sandwich - restaurant quality!"

All in all, we pumped out 40 sandwiches for the first service, and packed up another 40 for the Roots shelter, plus the abundance of sides and desserts. It was a great team effort!

POST EMAILS GOING AWAY:  Blogger has informed me (and others, I'm sure), that their "FollowByEmail" widget (Feedburner) is going away. This tool allowed people to subscribe to this blog and get email updates when there is a post. 

For whatever reason, they're taking that tool away in August (they didn't say what day). So, if you have been following the blog via reminder emails, sorry. :( You're going to have to come straight to the website to see if there's a new post. Alternatively, you could email me and let me know if you want me to send you an email when there's a new post. I could try to remember to do that. :)