Best Thing I Ever Ate... this week.

Today I was feeling a little adventurous, so I tried making Alton Brown's pretzel recipe. The dough came together very easily. Alton's measurements were perfect - I didn't have to add any additional water or flour. The whole process was no more difficult than making bagels - actually a little faster, because they boil for less time, and I didn't add fancy stuff like when I make bagels. The stove, however, was much more messy due to the splattering baking soda in the boiling water.
When I was done it was lunch time, so of course I had to involve a pretzel. I made an awesome sandwich that even impressed Lucas. Delish!

Fetish Friday

I think I would enjoy this studded little heel (as long as there's not too much toe cleavage). It's versatile and simple... and it sparkles.
Rivoli-2 by Pierre Dumas. Available at Piperlime for $49.

Promotion Motion

Hello,

Have you ever needed $10,000? Have you ever had the chance to win 10K based on your awesome friends' voting power? Well, now is Ben's chance.
I know we always bug you to vote, but this one is serious. This is huge. This is for 10,000 big ones. Not only is this design pure awesomeness, but took time. And did I mention it was for $10,000? It's in a contest for Design By Human's anniversary, hence the large cash reward.

So, please, PLEASE, go here and vote for Ben's shirt. You need to sign up for an account if you don't have one, but it's easy, and they don't send you all sorts of junk mail.
When you get there, all you have to do is press the "vote" button. Easy as pie. Easy as those gross pies you can buy from the grocery store bakery - only way, way more rewarding.

Another thing that's easy? You could start your own promotion motion! That would be swell - real swell.

(FYI - Ben's Urban Assault shirt will be printed soon. Thanks for voting! The Taking Tree shirt is all sold out. We should have bought more when we had the chance!)
Thanks so much for your support!

Shirts!

In doing his part to make better dressers, Ben has shirts up on Design By Humans - the same site where The Taking Tree was sold.

Ben would really appreciate your votes:

CLICK HERE FOR TRIANGLION
CLICK HERE FOR URBAN ASSAULT

One of his shirts is actually causing quite a stir in the comments.
Ben could use your support! Thank you!

Totaled my Cake

Pretty colors, huh? It's not paint. It's cake batter. I decided I was going to try a cake that my friend, Sara, made (she's famous, you know). She made cute little cupcakes that would have made Rainbow Bright pee her pants from excitement.
I have to make a cake for the kids at church tomorrow night and I thought they would enjoy a colorful cake like Sara's. So, I turned on Dancing with the Stars, colored my batter and layered the colors into my pan.
By the time I took the cake out of the oven it was after 9:00. Ben was at basketball and Lucas was still gallivanting around the house when he should have been in bed. I debated whether or not to take the cake out of the pan before we went upstairs or wait until after Lucas was in bed. I decided to do it before. BAD idea. The cake was way too warm and cracked. I made it worse by trying to fix it and eventually just called it loss and tossed it around.

I have to admit there as a little part of me that was excited because this meant I could eat the cake. But now a big part of me regrets that decision, and there are sad cake pieces waiting for Ben to take them to work in the morning. Poor cake - If only I would have waited for it to cool more... like until I got Lucas to bed.
I'll try again tomorrow. And I'll also try making Sara's frosting recipe. Wish me luck!

Fetish Friday

The girls over at Our Best Bites mentioned these shoes on Twitter.
They are handcrafted in Chicago by Mohop. Basically you order the platform and get different ribbons to make a customizable shoe each day.
Pretty cool, huh?
$136-$148 at mohop.com

oops. I did it again.

Almost pretty, right? I tried making Smitten Kitchen's challah bread last night because I felt up for a challenge. I was so excited to taste it and when I did it was..... bland. I forgot the salt. AGAIN. I've done this a few times when making bread/bagels and it totally ruins the end result. I was looking forward to something resembling one of Jeana's creations and this was nowhere close. This was the plastic vending machine jewelry to Jeana's Tiffany & Co. broach.
Oh well. I think I'll freeze it and make the best french toast ever when Lij and Logan come to visit. All the sugar and fat in that recipe will totally make up for the lack of salt.