Haunted Cupcakes!

and with hand spun chocolate stems and hand-veined, rolled-out leaves... Good God, these took forever... Even though they may not look it.Each cupcake was hand-made! From the cupcakes out of the oven to saw off any domes that appeared (not peaks! - no 'tunnels' were present :D (that's a good thing)), to the dark chocolate butter cream frosting (I also made) put onto to each of the cupcake tops. Two cupcakes were then placed together (top to top) and flipped onto one of the bottoms. Then the frosting was put on all over the sides and [new] top of their little (now big) cupcake bodies, and the back of a knife was used to make ridges for the pumpkins. I then made some pour-on fondant, dyed orange with food color-gel, and placed my hand-made chocolate concoctions all over to decorate (along with some chocolate vines!) Then, after putting them on the foil-covered double-sandwich cardboard, voila! They are done. :)

However, since I only had 6 mini bundt pans, I could only bake 3 pumpkins (6 cupcakes) at one given time. :(

I was up until 5:30 or 6 am working on these.I took a shortcut. I was so tired I decided to take a shortcut. I wouldn't sift the powdered sugar when added for the fondant.

It lumped.

That's why I got 3rd. No other reason. I talked to the judges - they absolutely loved them "They're gorgeous!" one said, "I chose them for first, honestly." (she adds quietly) "They were really delicious - you were one of them I was going to ask for he recipe" (hands me a card) "Please?" The other judge agreed, then quickly added that the only reason I didn't get a higher place was because of the bubbled fondant.

Wow. Lesson learned, right? Wow... I got so mad at myself. I consciously was aware of doing it, and I decided to cut what, 3 minutes of the process? Dang, I was stupid... Now I understand why some cooks on shows do the same kind of mistake - pressure. It's crazy! Now, I know this competition was "just for fun," and it WAS! It was a lot of fun! My first cooking competition ever! It was awesome! It even had a pastry demo, where I learned how to sculpt bread! (The pictures might help a little with this one). It's not recommended to eat, but it IS edible.

3rd, 2nd and 1st place all get mixers. 1st place gets a red one with a glass bowl (which I think also has a poury spout). 2nd got a red one with a metal bowl. Third got a white with a metal bowl. I went for a mixer (hopin'). I came, I saw, I conquered! :D

The main point here is that I had a crapload of fun - and won a mixer! Along with getting some amazing chef/pastry school contacts that I'm so excited to have! Woo! That was fun. Okay, time to go visit my boyfriend at work now and get a coffee!

Signing off. Will post pictures of competition soon. Until then, this is just text. Thanks for reading!

-Moni

Oh, yeah...

A couple things...
First: I'm back. Sorry the like, HYUGE delay. I actually wrote a really awesome closure blog for returning home... but I don't have the heart to put it up. I always end up in tears. I'll put it up one of these days... but, seriously, the exchange is NEVER over... even when you return... you're always exploring your own culture even more than you thought was imaginable before you left.
:)

Thailand has, does, and will forever affect my everyday life, how I think, how I act, etc. Even when I speak. When I came back, I even was talking to my scholarship interviewer in Thai by accident, and I keep wai-ing [Thai courtesy greet/thank you motion] to everyone. It's built into my system. I can't help it! Ahhh!

I finally checked my lottery ticket tonight.... for January 20th's Mega Millions. I lost. Guess it doesn't really matter, though, does it?
...I think not. :P

I think I'll go back and say that upon return, within a couple months, I was back out of the house, basically living on my own again. I shared an apartment with my cousin... but it didn't work out so well, so now I'm back at home. I think it's better to live at home anyway, even if it is a 15 or 20 minute drive to then from nearly every day; no rent, just gas; I get to see my kitty, Sugar - I love her; I get to see my parents - but I think it's more like my parents get to see ME [ Lol ]; my mother occasionally cooks some RAD meals, as well my dad - and I get to eat them, too!; back to my queen sized bed. :D

Now about the queen bed... while I was at the apartment, I had a twin bed, for room size reasons; well... I didn't know at the time, but my parents bought two then. They kept one, gave me one. Well, now I'm back home. Where's the twin bed going to go? My sister's [old] room already has one!
Solution: stack the two twin sized box springs and matresses!
Yeah........no.
No one would be able to sleep in there, then!
Other solution:
Let's rip Moni's room apart to get to her queen sized bed, take everything off it, and do the same to Vanessa's twin bed; take apart all the bedframes and headboards; put the headboards into auction because they're super ancient and partly broken anyway; move the queen bed to my sister's room, move the twin to mine. Add the other twin bed... add a king-sized bedframe... Badda bing, badda boom:
MONI HAS A KING-SIZED BED!
That Sugar is now grateful for.
...and me, of course.
My giant 4 foot stuffed horse takes up a good chunk of it, but there's still of lot of roll-around-room left. :D

Another update: This is my second semester of student-ing at Carl Sandburg Collge. Ja, it's awesome! I have the coolest teachers evuhr.
...and I made lots of awesome pots in ceramics class. :D
I has a job.
I work dietary at Rosewood Care Center. I do lots of things in that job. - including wearing this AWESOME hat they prefer to call a "hairnet" - it's rad - and they're really useful for summer time - keeps all the hair out of your face and off your neck! :P

Talent show is on Tuesday.
I'm one of like, 5 people in it @ a chance for $100!!! Oh my gosh. =D
Wish me luck! [ I'm dancing... don't laugh!!! :P ]

Weeeelllll, thought I'd update. Now I have.
Oh yeah - and I'm in an auto body class, too, but mostly just for fun, since it doesn't even count as an elective course... :(
...and we're going on a field trip tomorrow! Er... later today, rather!!!! :D

Bye!

Moni

P.S. - forgot to mention: I got a Juror's choice award in the Carl Sandburg College Student Art Show!!! :D
...along with the accommodating $50 Dick Blick dollars! I can't wait to use them at our awesome DICK BLICK OUTLET!!! Heck yeah! Be jealous of our superb locations of outlet stores! :D

Sprummer Fruit Juice

http://picasaweb.google.com/gecko.on.the.wall/SprummerFruitJuice

Sprummer = Spring + Summer combined. Late Spring / Early Summer.

Hi-yo. Sorry I haven't written in awhile! Michelle came to visit me in Udon for 8 days, she left this morning at about 9. [Right now it's 18:22, or 6:22 PM on the 6th of June, with only 25 days left in the exchange, and not WHOLE days, to be exact.]

So, we went around Udon, had a blast, and took a bus about an hour away and explored the land on our own. We succeeded in navigation and translation, not to mention a lot of hefty-good bargaining and chartering.

We even hit up Lotus for the toilets [which failed us as there were none this time around!], but walked just a few feet further into the mall and went there. Then we proceeded to Starbucks, where I tried their new Dark Chocolate Coffee drink, and delved into a toasted blueberry muffin. They even gave Michelle a free duplicate of what I just ordered! How sweet is that? Okay, yeah, it was smaller, about 2 or 3-shot espresso-sized, but hey, that's pretty freaking awesome. We enjoyed ourselves so much, too!

Leaving Nong Khai took some thinking. We had to located what part of the mall we were in, what lot we need to walk out of, and which street to cross. We thought about going all the way down the road [about 100 meters or so], onto the bridge walkway, but fearing we may miss the bus [it picks us up on the road or at the station, either or], we decided to dodge traffic [hey, we're good at that - we live in cities!], cross the median, and dodge just a couple more metal beasts. I thanked the Heavens it wasn't pouring rain... yet. The bus came just seconds after we made it to the other side of the 4-lane + median with ease - barely any cars. We got picked up, we paid our tickets, and got sent to the back of the bus where two open seats were left. We were a little uncomfortable, so we moved back another seat and sat next to some Thai people who were going to the same place! Good, we got on the right bus! Then it started raining, then it started POURING.
I sure missed the rainy season... I'm glad it's back. That's one thing I'm sure going to miss when I get back home, Thailand's rainy season. I love it...

Anyway, I got a lot of gifts and souvenirs and stuff, and now I just have two more people on my list, which won't be hard.

Michelle and I also had a blast in Udon as well! We watched a lot of movies [falling asleep during them as well], ate some popcorn, cookies, and experimented with Mama, while I learned to make a soup along the same lines of Egg Drop Soup, mighty tastey and great with rice.

We did a lot of other stuff, like I took her to my Muay Thai class and she learned a couple basic punches, and a few other things... way too much to mention. We had a lot of fun, though.

25 days of Thailand before I'm homebound... but actually it's more like 23! My host dad is taking me to Bangkok a day before I leave and we're going to the Crocodile Farm, then I'm off the following morning, onto a plane, back into the blue yonder of the sky, and destined for my home country.

It's coming up fast...

Moni

P.S. - Also, there is another album, "May Randoms." Feel free to check those pictures out, as well.
http://picasaweb.google.com/gecko.on.the.wall/MayRandoms