Daring Bakers June Challenge

It's been a while since I posted, but oh well. Recently I joined The Daring Bakers and my first challenge, the June challenge, was to make Danish Braid. This was my first experience with laminated dough, and I definitely struggled! My most annoying problem was that the dough kept shrinking up as I tried to roll it out, even after I would give it extra breaks to relax in the fridge. But, I managed to turn out a pretty looking braid, if I do say so myself. It was quite depressing that it took me so long to create this braid only to have it gobbled up in less than 15 minutes! But, I suppose I shouldn't complain that my family liked it. :P I made this for Father's Day, so I decided to use the Apple Filling recipe that came with it because my dad is a big fan of apples.

I'm glad I had something special to make for such a special occasion, however I don't think I'll be making any laminated dough again in the near future as the multiple rolling outs practically killed my arms! >_< It was nice to make something outside of my comfort zone and I really loved reading about everyone else's experiences with the recipe! I'm really happy to be a part of Daring Bakers and I can't wait until next month's challenge!

Here are some pictures from this month's recipe:

It's my birfffday ^-^

I meant to get some pictures posted and work on the layout of my blog some this weekend, but so far I just haven't had any time! After work Friday I went shop (got three amazingly cute sun-dresses and an assortment of other pretties), and then came home and baked Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes topped with rose flavored buttercream icing. They turned out very well and I was really pleased with the delicate rose taste of the icing (rose water was used in place of vanilla extract).

Today my sister Laura and I spent most of the day clearing out our dirty and cluttered office room and shredding old mail. We also went grocery shopping for my birthday dinner tomorrow night! Yay! I'm really excited about the menu I picked out:

Greek-esque salads (with green olives and feta cheese)
gyro burgers on homemade pitta bread with tzatziki sauce
homemade seasoned fries
deep, dark chocolate cake with orange marmade filling and tangerine-honey cream cheese
frosting
oranges and cream swirl ice cream

Sounds good, yeah?! ^-^ I'm pretty excited! Oh, and we purchased organic wine and minty Mojito's to drink with our meal! I'm definitely going to take some pictures tomorrow of the lovely foodstuff to post!

I blog? :)

After having experienced blog envy for quite some time now, I have decided to create my own, voile! I'm not 100% sure what this blog will end up containing, probably an odd assortment of baking and knitting stories, rants, confessions, ponders, and life events. I'm considering this one (of many) "summer resolutions" (more about that in a future post). As I procrastinate bed time (and in effect, work in the morning) a little while longer, let me clarify my hopes for the outcome of this blog. I hope to make entries and updates for this blog at least a semi-routine event. I'd like to branch out and make some blogging friends, especially ones with similar hobbies or interests. And finally, I'd like for this to be a place to hold my memories and experiences for me to look back on in the future. Wish me luck!