Showing posts with label Qatar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Qatar. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Blooming in January

I just wanted to share a few photos from our backyard.  It may be 30 degrees outside back home but it won't get below 60 tonight in Doha.  Also, I love my mint plant.  The kind of love where I'm not really sure what I'd do without it or how I ever lived without fresh mint tea in the mornings.




[caption id="attachment_262" align="alignleft" width="674" caption="Salvia, Fuji Mum, Baby Salvia and Mint."]Maybe I should have wiped the dust off of the mint?[/caption]

I'm considering going to the nursery this weekend to pick up some plants to start setting up and testing out my hydroponic wall. Thoughts?  Recommendations?

Monday, January 16, 2012

Cupcakes & Driving

First, I have another confession to make.  I love Pinterest.  I've been browsing and searching and wondering "should I pin this?" for days now and I can't help myself.  The upside of my obsession is that people pin all kinds of awesome foods and their other culinary projects.  One of them that has caught my eye and kept my attention is these amazing little cupcakes.

[caption id="attachment_250" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Photo courtesy of Pinterest"]Rose-topped Cupcakes[/caption]

They're so delicate and pretty and (like most cupcakes) look almost too good to eat.    But I think I'm obsessed with them because the one time I tried to make roses out of icing they looked a lot more like the doodles you draw with your eyes closed while using your non-dominant hand.

I've been looking for tutorials, instructional videos, anything on how to make them but everything I've found seems to be pretty lacking.  Almost without fail they have three steps.  1 - make the center a tight spiral on a rose pin, 2 - make the petals outside the center spiral overlapping and progressively large, 3 - slide the rose off the pin.

Am I wrong to ask for more than that?  Should I just be continually trying my hand at it instead of looking for more detailed directions?

Please tell me that someone out there has something I can use to learn this skill.  Otherwise, my husband is going to be appalled at the amount of buttercream I can cover the kitchen in while trying to be skillful.

In other news, I love my new Jeep and I hate driving in this country.