Unhistoric Acts

hot, hot, hot

See it? the grape tomato? More might be a while in coming thanks to one highly efficient and FAT caterpiller that went to town on TWO of my tomato plants. The basil is going crazy. I don't even know what to do with it all. We do thoroughly enjoy a pesto pizza, so I need to get cooking on that. (Also, I need to take out a loan to buy some pine nuts. When are we going to get a decent crop of pine nuts??)

I usually just whip up a batch of Pioneer Woman's pizza dough, slather on a bunch of pesto, top with fresh mozzerella (definitely not the hard, shredded kind), and finish it of with thinly sliced Roma tomatoes. I do the slicing and pesto-ing in the food processor, so the whole process doesn't take too long. And if you can talk a kiddo into washing all of the food processor parts, you will still have ample time to lie on your bed and watch White Collar! New season started last night. I heart Neal.

here's something i've been wondering...

I have a statcounter installed on ye olde blog that counts the visitors and even tells from which parts of the world such visitors harken. I don't look at the statcounter too often, but sometimes when I'm bored I like to check out the geography of visitors. Sometimes they come from strange eastern block countries and I can't imagine, for the life of me, what they might want to read over on Unhistoric Acts. I'm a people pleaser...so I think about these things.

Also, I frequently have a visitor who accesses my blog from the BYU network. And then I start daydreaming that the BYU visitor might be connected and might just get me an interview WHEN I finally finish my dissertation. Can this BYU visitor confirm or deny such connections?...because knowledge of said connections could really lift my spirits on low writing days. Which are often. (And if you are English-connected then be aware that I am fully aware that the last sentence is NOT a complete sentence. I did that for emphasis.)

Love,
Sarah

 

blooming lantana

The lantana I planted in a pot on my front porch is blooming like crazy. The lantana I planted in my flowerbeds is without a single bloom. Go figure. I bought the big, flowerbed lantana from Lowe's, and these smaller, front-porch lantana from a bona fide nursery. I probably paid twice as much for the small ones. I guess you get what you pay for. I'm always bummed when that adage is proven true. I'm bummed a lot, as you might imagine.

I harvested ONE grape tomato from my garden. Yep, we are eating fresh and healthy around here...one grape tomato at a time. (And in between we are eating cupcakes with twinkies on top). Sounds about right. Happy Monday...my brain is starting slowly...

 

happy saturday!

Good stuff on a Saturday:

• The above pictured latte bowls from Anthropologie (sorry for the blurry pic). I picked up 12 (along with my rhino head) with the super, awesome birthday gift card from my sis. I selected a variety of colors and dang if they don't look purty when my kitchen counters are cluttered with dirty dishes. I also get a kick out of making different color combos when I stack them in the cupboard. You've got to make the best of unloading the dishwasher, right?
• BEES. I've been worried about my garden and pollination. My cucumbers keep blooming and blooming with nary a fruit in site. I pollinated by hand the one yellow squash that is currently in production. But this morning, when Parker and I went to survey the back 40, there were about half a dozen bees buzzing around. I was even able to point out one big fat bee buried in the flower...dancing in the pollen. Yay for bees!
• Food for Girls Camp. I'm in charge of the food for the first half of camp. I've been making long lists this morning. I'll have to bring up pots, pans, and everything. So far I have this, this, this, and this on the menu. Working on this (35 sewn so far). Contemplating something like this for deco.
• Think I'll work on painting a small side table for the kids' gameroom today. I'm thinking Tiffany's blue. Better get kickin'.

yes. more sugar.

Yesterday we made CAP'N CRUNCH CUPCAKES  for a friend's graduation party.

I love Cap'n Crunch. Thus, I was quite excited to bake WITH the Cap'n. I happened upon the recipe while working on the minions. I bow to the cupcake genius of Confessions of a Cookbook Queen. Her recipes are worth the calories. (For the record I only ate 1/4 of a Captain Crunch Cupcake and '0' Minion cupcakes). And yes, my life is losing meaning.

The graduate in question has selected a fine university, which I chose to highlight via the Cap'n Crunch cupcake.

Can you imagine my utter fulfillment? Cap'n Crunch AND BYU????

Please bow your heads for a moment of silence.

While Jordan was carefully placing the Cap'n Crunch pieces on each cupcake (but prior to stabbing them with BYU pics), she commented that they looked 'sort of white trash.'

WELL.

Kids these days.

 

 

minions

Jordan and I worked all day on the minions.

They "seemed" so simple. Just a few smarties and some licorice. In actuality they were a bit tedious to construct...but completely adorable and worth it...particularly if you've mentally dedicated your day to cupcake construction. I wouldn't recommend making these on the fly. Set aside a good block of time...from baking to finish it probably took about four hours. Cookbook Queen's instructions are right on the money. She did not lead us astray.

Last day of school cupcakes (for the last day of school party on our street) have become a tradition. This year Jordan helped out. In fact, she did all of the tedious parts (like drawing the eyes). I love it when my offspring rise up to take tedious tasks from me. Makes nine months of vomiting seem, well, far away.

The tradition started in 2008 with sharks. Still one of my favs:

2009 was monsters (admittedly, I wimped out):

But I made a comeback in 2010 with the Koi fish (which some people thought looked like pigs).

And for 2011. Tada!!!


We finished up the cupcakes around two and I hurriedly cleaned up the kitchen knowing Parker would be home close to three. At 3:15 my sweet Madison decided to bike out to meet him. And thank goodness she did since he had totally wiped out on his bike, bloodying both elbows and damaging the bike so that it was unrideable. (On a side note, I've been warning Parker not to ride with no hands. Still, he rides with no hands...ALMOST THE ENTIRE RIDE HOME.) Boys!

To his credit, he was stoic throughout wound cleaning. He was completely focused on getting on his swimsuit and out the door to the year-end party. I bandaged him up as best I could and half-heartedly offered to stay with him while he "rested" for a bit. No way. He limped two houses down to the party on a tweaked knee. Some four hours later, after swimming and sliding nonstop, he told me he'd worked out the kinks.

The nine cupcakes above were saved out for Jordan's high school get together. They are upstairs right now fighting over whose turn it is on Dance Central.

I, for one, managed not to eat a single cupcake. Yep, it's true.

I had to enjoy the minions vicariously. Seems that being an old woman definitely has its downside.

On the up side?? Sleeping in tomorrow!!