Gingerbread Houses

It's Christmas time again and at the Penrod house that means gingerbread houses.

This year, there were mixed feelings. Making houses for our family is a challenge. Period. But we (meaning probably only me) felt the need to really keep the tradition going, plus it is fun to put them together, so seeing as I was the only one who really wanted to do them, I took on the job on Saturday and baked all of the pieces. Luckily mom was out of the house, or she would have been super stressed out. I have learned that I am not a "clean" baker. No matter how careful I am with the flour it always ends up on the counter. For another thing I am definitely not as efficient as my mom. Emma had to make a run to the store because we ran out of molasses (in my defense, we NEVER run out of molasses). And when it comes to rolling out the dough, I can never fit the whole cookie cutter on the edge. But after about four hours of mixing and measuring and rolling and cutting, I finally finished all of the pieces for the houses. 3 batches of gingerbread later (one of which I probably didn't even need seeing as I made two whole extra houses!), I still hadn't even started the icing. 

I quit for the day and took a long, well-deserved nap. :)


I woke up early the next day and began to make the icing. Mom and Dad were on their anniversary/christmas shopping trip and were due back in the late morning. I hoped to finish the actual construction of the houses by the time they were home. Nice idea, right?

My icing came out a little runny, which I figured was a good thing because Mom had told me horror stories of how her hands cramped up because of stiff icing. Even though it hardened fine, the houses took a little bit more patience to keep up. I won't forget the feeling of utter defeat when you have the entire house together and one by one the pieces slide off.

But after an hour and a half, it was all done, and by all I mean I only had to do the pretty icing to cover up the cracks...

Well as it turns out, it takes about twice the amount of icing to make the pretty squiggly lines and a zillion times more artistry, not to mention thicker frosting (learned that one the hard way). But I discovered that if you don't look too closely, they all looked magnificent. And thank goodness for Emma, because right when I was about to die! she came in and finished the last two houses!

So it all ended up okay and my whole family enjoyed (I think) decorating them, or at least I did. Gingerbread houses definitely bring out some unique personality traits in people. There are the quiet methodical gingerbread house decorators like Dad. Once he gets going he sticks to his pattern. Then there is Jeremy who os constantly pushing himself for new "creative" ideas (this year was some Lord of the Rings eye thing and it almost killed me to see him drilling holes in my gingerbread). Then Mom who always complains that it didn't turn out like it should have, where in actuality it looks better than everyone's. Then there is Erin who wildly picks the best candies on the table and sticks them on, in the most "artsy way" possible to ensure that she will make good use of her masterpiece. And then there's me who decides to put an unhealthy ratio of wrapper to candy and shows as much of the plain gingerbread as possible.

At last, the end of the post. So yeah on a 1-10, I would give it a 9. I proved that I can make houses all by myself, and that even if nobody wants to do them, it's still fun. I learned a lot about baking and what it does to some people, like me :)

Oh, and I learned to always count how many people need houses.

Accurately.


Corinne

One Bowl Cake

So after my epic failure at cupcakes the other day (too sad to post about), I decided to try to make something new, again. Definition of insanity right, but I did it anyway. Here are the results:

 It may not look like much, but for ten minutes prep time, I think it turned out pretty well. It kinda has that homemade, semisweet taste, but I think it's fine. Not phenomenal, but definitely a confidence booster :)

Here's the link of the recipe :)

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/chocolate-cakes/one-bowl-chocolate-cake/

I love love love Better Homes and Gardens. Even though I could never see myself as one of those moms, I think they have the cutest ideas, and it is fun to see the pictures. Maybe one day I will have the time to spend on sprucing up the house for the holidays, or to make homemade lemonade (I personally prefer the canned stuff), but for now I am content with playing around with little recipes like this cake.

Until next time,

Corinne

Piano :)

Hello again,
  So I have begun to teach my friend how to play piano. It's only been 3 lessons, but I think we will keep going, but that is not the point of this post. Teaching makes me think of my own teacher and the piano in general. You could call this pointless over-analyzing, but here it comes anyway :)



Judy Jenkins is the only piano teacher I have ever had, and in my opinion is the absolute best. She has total patience when I don't practice, at all. She is one of those people who gets that some stuff is pointless and some is essential to the instrument. She knows when she has to critique and when she has to praise. She understands children as well as adults, and is never ever condescending. Now I don't know about you but I know that not many students could say that about their teachers. She doesn't teach by fear, sometimes by guilt :), but never fear. She has the uncanny ability to make students practice using pure kindness. She deals with theory which other teachers ignore, ignorantly. If I hadn't had that knowledge, I never would have been able to teach piano or use it in my future, college life. I'm grateful for her sacrifice in teaching such lazy students. I don't think anybody else would deal with or craziness :)

okay, now the piano:

I used to think that every piano was the same, but as I have begun to play mine more often, I have learned that each is unique. I will play the Claire de Lune on our piano at home without dropping notes, and then get to my piano lesson and just butcher it. It just goes to show that you really do bond to your piano. You begin to understand just how hard you must push it to make the perfect sound or if you can hit that note in the bass, if the pedal will squeak if you push it that way. It gives me a new appreciation for our grand piano. Even if it is not high class, it is still a grand piano, not a keyboard or an upright. I have learned to love our piano for its little quirks, but it makes me excited for the possibilities of a high class grand piano. If I can learn to produce a good sound on our little samick, then what will that sound become when I play a nicer piano.


Just some thoughts,

Corinne

Cabin Trip!

So we've finally seen it! The Infamous Cabin (a.k.a. Walden)! It is really gorgeous up there and I can't wait till it comes together!

photo creds to emma :)

photo creds to emma :) 

photo creds to emma :)

Cream Cheese Brownies!

Now I know what you're saying, "3 in a day? How tacky," but I guess today was an uber productive day!

Here they are, I think they turned out pretty good :)

Easter Eggs!

So I've always heard about blown out eggs, but never actually tried it so I though t today would be the perfect day to try! I didn't go so far as to actually die them, but coloring with sharpie turned out pretty well.

  

A Blog!

Allow me to introduce myself,

   I am a high school student in sunny southern California and the youngest of six children. I love my family to pieces and could not live without them! I love to play the piano, and even though I don't like to admit it, love school. I am currently enrolled on my high school yearbook staff which is part of what inspired me to create this blog.

   My mother and sisters (3 of them) have created wonderful blogs that I greatly admire. My mom actually turns her blog into a journal, compiling it in one book at the end of the year. I was always told that I should keep a journal, so I thought "Why not start a blog?."

   So here we are, starting a blog. Excuse me if I ramble, I am new at this.

Today is 8 days before Easter and 9 days before my sister Emma's birthday. First off let me tell you about my sister. Emma Elizabeth is an amazing sister. Not like everyone else's though. She somehow manages to do 2 orchestras,outside of school (she plays viola), ASB, church stuff, schoolwork, tennis, and pretty much anything else you can think of. That's not the amazing part though. She manages to be nice to me, her difficult little sister, even though she only got three hours of sleep last night. I love her to pieces and am so blessed to have her in my life.

Anyway, so I want to do something nice for her so I know that she really loves cream cheese brownies. Like really loves them. So today, on this lazy Saturday, I will attempt to create one of my mom's masterpieces.

Wish me luck!

 Corinne