Ten things I've learned this summer...

I've been working on ideas for the blog recently. Boy has that been eye opening, so without further ado, here are some things I've learned:

1. I take horrible food photos. Seriously, I would consider myself a great cook and baker but my photos do not do my creations justice. They are just plain embarrassing. Just like some socks mysteriously go on vacation, dust bunnies multiply in the dark, and small children can't keep a white shirt clean for more than 5 minutes dirty dishes and spilled flour actually move towards the flash, everything looks messier when you are trying to take beautiful foodie photos.

My darling dog, ie the vacuum

2. The dog, husband, teenage boys and small children do not wait for you to clean the kitchen and get a good photograph when they can smell food.

3. The dog knows you bake her treats, therefore anything that comes out of the oven must be for her, right? That's why she guards the oven and thinks the biscotti is for her. Sounds perfectly logical to me.

4. I was taught to open the cabinets and cook with a little of this and a little of that. It makes for great eats, but not so wonderful reproducible recipes.

5. Not writing down the recipe as I go along, guarantees it will be fantastic and everyone will want me to write it down for them. There is no way I will ever remember what I threw into the pot or that one special thing I added at the last minute, just saying...

Nutella tarts and an almond danish

granola bars

6. Make Nutella poptarts and your kids will never want to eat anything else for breakfast, make peach bourbon poptarts and your husband will eat them before the icing dries, make granola bars and you get to keep them all for yourself, lol


7. Bake shortbread, drizzle it with caramel, dark chocolate and sea salt arrange it beautifully to photograph and your house will suddenly be filled with hungry teenage boys.

8. You need special skills to fill lip balm tubes with hot, did I say HOT?!?!?! homemade lip balm. I know know that I do not possess such skills.

9. Whenever I find a DIY beauty recipe I want to try, I am out of or very close to out of one the ingredients. Does this happen to anyone else? Seriously, who uses up all the essential oils around here????

10. I'm still looking for high quality spray nozzles that won't die after a month to screw into recycled Pelligrino bottles. Brilliant, I know, they are green so no degradation of the essential oils. And cheaper than Bragg vinegar if you want to pick up a 6 pack and make several things at once. Now if I can just find a good sprayer. Suggestions anyone? I'll get some photos of my cool bottles and homemade labels up soon.

So that's what's been happening around here. I'm going to keep working on those photos, but until then I may just add my humor and thoughts alongside some bad ones. Until then I'm off to do some back to school shopping, prep for the upcoming year and sneak the last hurrahs of summer into the schedule!

Amy