Review: Basic Cake Decorating with Kathy Brodock

Growing up learning Calculus, Advanced Chemistry, and reading Chaucer, I sadly missed out on other skills that I now use every day, namely homemaking skills. As a young wife and mother, beginning my career as a stay home mom (quite different from the training I had received), I tried to catch up on learning things I wish I had learned in the first place. This task of learning was difficult as there were few resources I could find that truly helped me.
That's why I appreciate Mrs. Kathy Brodock and her ministry www.TeachingGoodThings.com, because she is providing resources that will help to teach and disciple other young wives and mothers who also didn't get their training early in life. Even better, you can use her wonderful resources to help you in training your own daughters, as I am doing.
When deciding which of Mrs. Brodock's DVDs to get first, the choice was easy: Cake Decorating. Why? Because that is one thing that I either outsource to others, or do a lousy job at, though I have always wanted to learn. Being an artsy sort of person, I've figured it can't be that hard to learn, but alas every workshop I've taken or book I've read has been of no help to me. I figured the real test here would be whether or not she could teach me (yes, even me) how to decorate a cake that didn't look like I had fallen somewhere in the process. Worst comes to worst, I figured, maybe one of my girls could learn how to do cakes and take that job off of my hands. Up until I watched Kathy Brodock's DVD, my pastry bag and star tip were used almost exclusively for filling taco shells with sour cream.
As soon as Mrs. Brodock's DVD arrived, I popped it into the DVD player and started watching. Even though the video was done on a home video camera and not produced slickly in a studio like other instructional videos, the content is superior, and the quality of both sound and video is well done. In a real-life, practical, down-to-earth way, Kathy Brodock takes you by the hand and shows you how to do it, making no assumptions that you already know things like how to fill a pastry bag with icing, or how to even make your own icing for that matter. For the record, I found out while watching the video that I had been doing both wrong all along. I felt like I had a girlfriend over, showing me how it's done.
I wasn't the only one watching the cake decorating DVD, though. Each of my children were soon digging through the pantry to see if we had some Crisco and powdered sugar so they could whip up some icing to practice with. For the rest of that week, too rainy to work in the garden or play outside, my girls practiced making cake decorations on waxed paper, then scraping it back into the bowls to practice more again tomorrow. They watched the engaging DVD over and over again, and even the neighbor's girls joined in and practiced making roses, leaves, stems, clowns, and more.

Mrs. Kathy Brodock has really hit on something big with these training DVDs that offer practical Titus 2 style training in a style that anyone can understand.

I've included some pictures to show you just how effective her video really is.

~Esther (age 10), ready for action~

~some first samples of piping and stars~



~Anastasia, age 11, did this rose on the first try, thanks to some wonderful instructions!~

~The Girls did this Thank You for Mrs. Braddock after they were done



~Esther, age 10, and Isobel, age 9, designed this cake all by themselves, just from watching the video

And Proof that Kathy Braddock was able to teach this old dog a few new tricks:



Success on the first try!

So, if you are looking for an easy to use video for decorating cakes, I give Basic Cake Decorating with Kathy Brodock 5 stars, and two thumbs up. One of my girls said it should be more like 10 thumbs up because each of them are also giving it two thumbs up too. :-)Look at www.TeachingGoodThings.com for more quality videos and instructional materials to better learn new skills for hearth and home, and to pass those skills onto the next generation.

Joyful Momma at TEACH

I forgot to post...this past Monday, I again posted on the TEACH Magazine Blog about crazy laws...

The irony was that shortly after I posted this another "case in point" happened. My younger children (ages 9-11) were outside playing with the neighbors, riding bikes and such on a quiet side street nearby, and when they saw a car coming they got out of the street. The car it turns out was the policeman in the area, and he gave them each gift certificates to McDonalds that say, "I was caught being safe" because they had the common sense to get out of the road when a car was coming. In some ways, sure, that was pretty nice, but in other ways it was like, "I was caught using my brain!" LOL My kids even thought it was pretty "duh" (one said...if I get out of the way, i get a free ice cream cone, and if I don't, then I am in the hospital ;))...sort of like, in my post over at TEACH, where I mention the announcement over the loudspeakers about not letting your children play on the forklifts at a large lumber warehouse. No, really?

http://www.teachmagazine.net/index.php?mact=Blog,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=95&cntnt01returnid=56

Ravioli

I wasn't sure what I wanted to eat for dinner the other night. Looking in the fridge, I had some wonton wrappers, and I had some ground turkey, but it is too hot for wonton soup. Instead I made some Ravioli with fresh herbs and ground turkey in a marinara sauce.

It goes like this:

Mix a pound of ground turkey with the seasonings of your choice and one egg. My seasonings were fresh basil, fresh marjoram, fresh parsley, fresh chives, a finely minced red onion, and a finely minced clove of elephant garlic. I mixed this all well.

I slowly made my raviolis, one at a time, by adding a rounded tablespoon of mix in the center of a wonton wrapper, and then folding it over, and sealing it with water on the tip of my finger.

I brought a shallow pan of water to boil, and boiled the ravioli for 3-4 minutes each. This is just long enough to cook the noodles and steam the meat inside. Overcooking results in mush.

While I did this I also made a marinara sauce with tomato sauce, basil, oregano, marjoram, onions, garlic, and a dash of worchestershire sauce.

I served these on small plates, with the sauce carefully spooned over, garnished with purple leaf basil from my garden. Perfection!

Around my Garden

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is for pictures of my garden. Whenever I am out there, I often will realize that I didn't bring my camera. LOL Then theres that part of me that is hesitant to do anything but close up shots so that no one can see exactly where I live (I'm paranoid like that sometimes). then there's that fact that with all of that rain and the heat over the last few weeks, I had a miniature replica of the Amazon Rain Forest going on in my backyard. LOL As a result, the pathways are still pretty weedy, but we have managed to clean up the beds (just ignore the paths). I tend to view my garden a success based on my yields, not how perfectly weeded it appears to be on a day to day basis. Obviously, a garden grows better if it is kept weeded, mulched, watered, and well cared for...but there's got to be a balance when you're a busy momma. Thankfully the kids do lots of weeding too. :-)

But, here are some photos anyways...again, most of them are pretty tightly zoomed when anything more would have shown some local landmarks that are visible from my yard...

In the center part of my main garden is a large square, lined with bricks, and full of culinary herbs. I love to cook with fresh herbs.

My favorite is basil...both purple ruffle and the large leaf basil. I grow about 100 plants from seed, and use every bit of it. When you see the price of basil in the grocery store, and the ease with which it grows, it's well worth it. Basil freezes well too.

Chocolate Mint makes great tea, awesome jelly, and even is pretty good when you make a strong tea, add milk, and pour it into the ice cream machine. MMMMM.

Cilantro is the leaves of this plant, and coriander is the seed. Right now, my coriander has gone to seed, but not before I harvested (and froze) lots of cilantro. The cilantro should grow back one more time before fall comes. I use this in all mexican dishes and some middle eastern dishes. Fresh cilantro is a must in making homemade falafel.

Dill, used in pickles and also some German dishes. I mostly grow it for my mother in law.

In the middle of my herb beds is a gazing globe and lavendar. I love the smell of lavender. You can use it in French (Provencal) cooking, make a tea out of it, or use it in bath goodies and sachets.

Marjoram is awesome in Greek and Italian cooking. In the background, I have a section of radishes.

Bergamot/Bee Balm (2 Varieties)

Nasturtiums are an edible flower, and their seeds can be made into "Pickled False Capers". They are also good for pest control in the garden.

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My sage is blooming. I love sage with turkey!

Borage is another edible flower that also keeps the bad beasties out of the garden. I like to freeze them in ice cubes to make things pretty. Some cake decorators sugar them and use them on cakes. They can also be put in salads.

Rosemary. I love it! But, I love herbs. :-). I like to use fresh rosemary in things like Foccachia bread.

Tarragon tastes and smells like licorice. I like to use the leaves, together with dijon mustard, as a marinade on chicken breasts.

I took this picture right after cutting some parsley for my favorite summer time lunch: Tabouleh salad. Only fresh parsley will do, and growing it is so easy (and buying it so expensive) that it's a no brainer.

Some Common Garden Thyme, with blossoms. I like to cut off a big hunk of Thyme, and lay my chicken breasts down on it, and grill them on a cast iron grill in the oven or on the stove top.

Violas...No reason for these other than they're pretty! :-)

In the front of the house, I have some dog roses, which are very strongly scented, and can be used for many things like making rose water, and potpourri. I also use the rose hips (fruit) from them in tea, after they dry out. Rose Hips are very high in vitamin c.

Around this area of herbs, I have different fruits and vegetables growing. This is my first cherry tomato on the vine this year!

My cucumbers (ignore the weeds). We make lots of relish and sweet bread and butter pickles. Can I confess? I hate pickles. LOL but everyone else in the family loves them.

My currants are ripening up. Mostly the kids just eat these fresh off the vine. Sometimes we make mixed berry jelly with the leftovers.

We also grow gooseberries. These Pixwell Variety Gooseberries are just the right level of sweet and tart.

Flanking my garden are some grape vines, growing Concord and White Table Grapes. These are a few months off from being ripe.

I plant onions from sets every year. This helps when I am canning up some salsa and my pickles, as I use lots of onions for that purpose.

Sugar Snap Peas...we train them onto tee pees. My kids like to eat them fresh off the vine.

Zooming out a little bit, you see my peas on the tee pee and my tomatoes. These are roma variety of tomatoes. Again...paths need weeding...so just don't pay attention to those.

I also have a few large beds full of hot peppers, and sweet red bell peppers.

When the weather gets to be a certain level of "too hot", the lettuce starts to super grow...and usually goes to seed very fast. I lost most of my lettuce when we had some super hot weather, and so we had to eat it pretty fast to save what we had left. This is my third batch of lettuce, some red bib lettuce.

Strawberry season is just about over with. We have a bed that is 4 ft. wide by 30 feet long just full of strawberries.

This is a wee little watermelon on my watermelon vines.

The apples on my apple trees are growing...we have a full load on the branches this year.

My husband and I are both unsure as to what this plant is. How sad is that? LOL He thinks we planted a peach, and I think we planted a plum. We are anxiously awaiting what this little guy is going to turn into when he grows up. I think I may be losing this bet, as it is looking more and more peach like every day.

 

Girls' Day Out with Mom

My older kids are away at camp week, down at the Bill Rice Ranch, where they are competing in teen choir competitions, music, softball, and volleyball, as well as having a great time I'm sure. The younger ones can't go to camp this year because of money, so I wanted to do something special with them while the older siblings were away.

Today was our big day when, as promised, we were out and about doing a few things that they've asked to do for a while.

First on the list was pedicures, which we did at home. We had a super-fun salon time at home last night after Wednesday night Bible study, in which we soaked our feet, used some nice foot cream, and painted toe nails. Too fun.

Next, we woke up bright and early to go to the bank, to deposit a check for my husband, and then off to the turtle park, as we call it.



It's actually Rowden Park in Lapeer, near the water tower, but the girls have called it that since they were very young because we always see turtles there. We walked down the trails, and along the ponds, and the girls snapped some pictures of some turtles.



Later they played on the playground, and seeing some younger kids there made me realize my kids aren't little any more, and are almost getting too big for playgrounds. *sigh*

The rock climbing wall thing is not really much of a challenge when you are as tall as Anastasia. LOL

After that, we went to Past Tense Cider Mill Cafe.

This is one of those places that are fun to go to once in a while...and the girls had wanted for a long, long time to get tea-cup sundaes from Past Tense. Basically it's an antique-style tea cup in which an ice cream sundae of your choice is served, and you get to keep the tea cup when you're done.



It's a little hot today so we didn't snap any pictures before digging in.

Later we walked around the beautiful gardens and the country store. We snapped a few pictures in the gardens (pictures are forbidden in the store), and went home.

Now the girls are out helping a neighbor with their garage sale, while i rest my aching feet ;). But, overall, a day well spent.

Joyful Momma At TEACH Magazine Today

Today, as with all Mondays, I posted to the TEACH Magazine Publisher's Blog. I wrote a post on Summer Reading Programs at our local library, and how they helped transform my reluctant readers into passionate readers. Check it out.

Hugging

I was flipping through the radio channels yesterday while running an errand when I got some good advice...I don't even know who said it (apologies if it was YOU!)

When your child or spouse hugs you, don't let go of them until they let go of you first...the person initiating the hug should be the one to decide how long it lasts. When your child, for example, comes up to you, reaches out, and hugs you and you give them a little hug, then let go, that says, "Ok, I hugged you. Are we done yet?"

Ouch. That hit me, because I have a daughter who loves to walk up and hug me, and who I always give a squeeze to, and then let go...and it made me realize that I may be communicating to her (inadvertently) that I don't want to be bothered with hugs. Literally I could be mopping a floor, or covered in garden gunk, and she will still want to hug...and maybe this isn't quite something I am in tune with as physical touch and closeness is my least strong love language. I'm more of an acts of service sort of person, and when I am trying to serve someone (make dinner for example, or mop the floor), I find a hug annoying...it's taken 16 years of marriage and 15 years of parenthood to try to overcome that, and realize even if it's not something that does anything for me, if it's important to someone else, I should also treat it as important.

so, I tried it. I didn't let go until after she did. The first time she held on for what seemed like forever, and then she let go, looking up at me just beaming from ear to ear. :-) She's given me about a dozen hugs today, and each time, I have waited until she let go, and each time she is the happiest little girl in the world...