Kitchen help

As my regular readers know, I have a lot of help in the kitchen.  For example, my favorite assistant joined me in the kitchen to make chocolate-covered pretzels.  This makes every baking experience a lot faster and a lot more fun.

By "favorite assistant," I am obviously referring to the Little Guy.

And by "a lot faster," I really mean messier.

And by "a lot more fun," I really do mean a lot more fun.

BabyGirl is still too small to "help" but I know she's just itching to get in there:  chocolate-covered pretzels beat rice cereal anyday.

And when she's old enough to join us in the kitchen, she'll be my favorite assistant, too.

Pretzel favors

Several weeks ago I again made favors for a work function.  Last year, I made "thank you" cookies. This year, because it was too hot to turn on the oven, I made chocolate-covered pretzels. 

The process is easy:  melt the chocolate, dip the pretzels, and let it set/cool on waxed paper. Melt the chocolate in the microwave and use disposable icing bags for easy clean-up.

The pretzels can be covered in nuts, sprinkles, candy, whatever you want, but I choose to drizzle white chocolate over the regular chocolate.  Note: I used Wilton candy melts  and Snyder pretzel rods.

Once the chocolate is completely hardened, the pretzels were wrapped individually.  Wilton sells the perfect size bags for these, but you can also find them elsewhere online.

I created over 50 pretzel favors in the course of one day.  This was a cinch.  Consider this project the next time you need treats in the middle of summer and it's too hot to turn on the oven.

One for the road...

I've been making changes big and small in TMI-land.  Last month I was all "Hey, I made some crazy and wild design changes to my blog".

You were all "Changing a font size and color does not qualify as a 'crazy and wild' design change, okay? Call us when you make some real changes!"  Geez Louise, you sure don't mince words, do you?

Then a few weeks later, I got all crazy and spontaneous and changed the blog template to the one you see now. BAM! BIFF! ZOOM! How's that for a big change?

I suppose that's how I work sometimes...I dip my toe in, test the waters, think about it, and leap so suddenly that I surprise myself.  Or maybe I'm the only one who is surprised, and everyone else is thinking "It's about damn time." 

At the end of May, I shared with you my transition of going back to work from maternity leave.  That was a change, but not so big because I was going back to my same job at my same office.  But now, in the span of one week's time, I made a very big change...I got a new job, in a somewhat new field, in a new city. BAM!

This new job has a lot of benefits, one of the biggest being that it is only ten minutes from my house so no longer will the kids and I have to endure a hellish 3-4 hour commute. To celebrate the new job and say goodbye to my friends at the old job, I did one of the things I do best...I made cupcakes.

So that's the new news in the TMI household.  I'll have a lot more time on my hands, which means I can re-commit to being more Martha-like with more quality homecooked meals, more time for crafting, and GASP! maybe even a workout in the morning.

To all my friends I leave behind in downtown Chicago, thanks for a great 5+ years. You've all been the highlight of my workday.  I raise a cupcake to you!

Queen of the hive

With my love for bees and honey, I've aimed for a bee-themed kitchen. For right now, that means that I have bee/hive decorations on my windowsill only, but I have plans for expansion.

Here's what I have:

The candle (far left) was a wedding shower gift, so I can't bring myself to light it up. The beehive votive holders from Crate and Barrel (far right) do see a lot of use, however. 

Please ignore my dirty kitchen window.  And the sand pit in the backyard. We'll be working on that this weekend.  That is all.

Here we have a lovely honey pot from Harry & David, which is part of a tea set that includes mugs and tea bag holders. This was a gift from my friend Shannon.

I keep a toothpick dispenser on the window sill.  This comes in handy when I'm baking cakes/brownies and need to test for doneness.  On the right is some sort of bee hive thing.  I don't know what it is exactly, but I found it at an antiques store and I really liked it. 

Actually, that's how a lot of things end up in my house: I don't know what an item is for, but I like it so I buy it.  I might have an acquisition problem.  Maybe.

Here's something I bought at a craft fair and I do know what it is:  my beehive ring holder (front).  I use it everyday and it's just darling.

Finally, this last decoration (another wedding shower gift) sums up my attitude about my kitchen and my home in general: 

It's good to be Queen. 

Happy 200th

The July issue of Martha Stewart Living is the 200th issue. 

True to the cover, this issue is all about America and it does feature something about every state. 

Check it out!