Lighthouse and Starfish Cookies

I only decorated three lighthouses ...so I don't have a lot to show.  It was hard to get them cut out and transferred...anything with a small tip tends to be a challenge, especially in a warm kitchen.  Mostly, I was focused on patriotic cookies, however, I managed to get 4 lighthouses cut out successfully, unfortunately breaking one after it was baked.

The starfish tale has already been told.  It's pretty straight forward. 

Pipe the outline, flood, dry for a couple of hours, pipe large dot in the middle, then progressively smaller dots down the legs, add sugar pearls to the center and immediate surrounding slightly larger dots, dry overnight before stacking.  Ta da! 

Simple and I really love them.  This time I did use a different color - I mixed peach and yellow to get a color that could be used for the light in the lighthouse as well as the starfish.  Worked great!

My instructions for decorating this basic lighthouse are below each photo.  The Port Isabel lighthouse is a simple white lighthouse...and it sits on a grassy knoll. That's where the similarity between reality and cookie ends.  I should have checked a photo for details if I wanted it to be accurate, but I didn't...left off little windows, the top should have been black...and there's a staircase by the door I could have added.  Oh well... next time!

I piped and filled the crown, outlined the circles at
top and bottom, and filled the middle .
Left to dry overnight

The intent of the line piped across the top "circle"
was to make it look like the walk-around section
at the top of the lighthouse.
The under color of the dark cookie was to
represent the railing (in my mind).
I filled the base "circle" to give it some
dimension and then I filled in the
area representing the light shining in
the lantern room with the
blend of icing I made for the starfish.

After everything was thoroughly dry I piped some dark gray
vertical lines to create windows in the lantern room area. 
Outlined below the cap, above and below the top railing,
and along the top and bottom of the base. 
I piped a door above the base.
The grass was supposed to look more like grass.  I used a Wilton tip #233
that supposedly was for making grass.
I guess my icing wasn't thick enough because it
ended up looking like fancy stars.  Oh well. 
From a distance it looks like grass.
Sort of.

That's it for phase two of the tropical cookies on chocolate sugar cookie bases.  Remember to check out LilaLoa's blog for that yummy recipe.  I have more dough to bake - both chocolate (just a bit left) and vanilla (an entire recipe).  It may need to be sent to the freezer.  I have more coastal cookie cutters sitting out waiting for my attention as well....  Unfortunately, I have a lot going on for the next 10 days...so I might be disappearing again!  You may be assured, however, I always show up again!

The jellyfish post can be found via this link

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

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Making Jellyfish Cookies

I've had, for a while, this jellyfish cookie cutter that I won (along with several other cutters!) on a Facebook Giveaway from Sweet Art Factory a few months ago.  I haven't really baked and decorated cookies for fun since Easter.  I did make some baby shower cookies, but that was for an event...not just the pure pleasure of it all.  Sooooo, my goal this past week was to make some patriotic cookies to celebrate the July 4th holiday, and, use one or more of my new cookie cutters!  I started with jellyfish, star fish, and a few light houses (since I live near a town with a light house, it seemed the right thing to do)!  The jellyfish cookie cutter was from the Sweet Art Factory Beach and Nautical collection.

Since it was part of my winning bundle, let's start with the jellyfish.  I wanted it to be "sort of" real looking... but not necessarily anatomically correct.  I saw lots of examples of happy jellyfish, plain jellyfish, and fancy jellyfish as I trolled the internet...but, not what I was looking for.

I found a photo that looked pretty - I was looking for the blues that appear almost iridescent.  I don't want to steal any one's work, so I'll link you to the photo I tried to imitate (well, I guess I should say it was the inspiration - because it doesn't really look anything like my cookies look).

I started with a chocolate sugar cookie from fellow-blogger, LilaLoa.  I liked the flavor and the dark color as a background.  I am not posting her recipe because I didn't alter it at all, so please stop by her blog and check it out.  She is a great cookie decorator and her writing style is very entertaining.  You won't be sorry.

Back to the jellyfish.  So, I baked off just 7 of that shape.  Like the patriotic cookies, I had to wait a couple of days to get the right "atmospheric conditions" for using royal icing.  I knew this cookie would require a couple of days of "patience".  I sketched a pencil mock-up of the cookie components and how I would layer it up - laid out a time frame to ensure adequate drying time.  Since I started with these cookies, I was actually able to do the base coats over the course of one day...starting early and finishing late. 

I used a sky blue from Americolor, then a darker mixture of sky blue, royal blue and one drop of black (all Americolor)...and then I took some white and added it to the sky blue - just squeezed it straight into the piping bag and squished it around (kind of wanting it lighter and marbled looking), and then last, white for tentacles.  Sound confusing?  Yep, me too, that's why I wrote it all out in advance.

First, and foremost, I will again state...not anatomically correct - simply wanting to make it look "real" vs "cartoonish" and impeded in that quest by the limitations of this basic cookie cutter shape and my eye's inability to see dimension (or how to create dimension).  I am simply NOT an artist.   I view the cookie decorating more as crafting.  My high school art teacher tried to help me be a better artist...but I think I was pretty much one of those students she just helped get through the class!  So, with those points straightened out.  I began.

I outlined and filled the top of the bell cap (uh, the aboral surface?) and the poor attempt at making it 3-d with icing (really hard) by piping the bottom part of the cap with the same color.  Used the sky blue for that. 

I allowed it to dry several hours then filled in the darker shade of blue to represent the lower under inside of the bell cap.  That's not how it ended up looking...but that was the intention.  Allowed to dry a few hours also. 

Then, I did the marblized blue and white section where the tentacles would go.  It didn't look as marbled as I had expected. 

If you looked at the photograph, you saw there were some big thick things hanging down from the center of the underside of the bell cap ...the manubrium?  Then, white hangy down things...which I call tentacles...but I am not sure what they are called exactly.  I had to fit all that into the little cookie section obviously meant for "tentacles".

The next morning I piped white tentacles on the designated tentacle area.  Several hours later, I mixed up some dark gray icing. 

I piped small dots all over the "top" of the bell cap and drew a line across the bottom of the upper blue section. Then I used a damp paint brush to "shade" down towards the center of the darker blue middle part.  Confused much?  I was.  I found I didn't like the look of the manubrium...and left it off half the cookies.  It just looked sort of ugly to me.  (shrug)

Last, but not least, I very lightly sprinkled some disco dust over the cap to give it the iridescent look I was going for.  Unfortunately, it doesn't show as well in the photos...but "in person" it looks just the right kind of sparkly.

It was a satisfying project...wouldn't want to do a boat load of these cookies, but they did what I wanted them to do.  They looked pretty on the cookie tray I think.  Well, hmmm...now that I look at them, they might be mistaken as aliens.  I'm going to have to make more of these because I already see changes I would make. 

So, next will come the lighthouses...when I get around to writing it up :-)

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

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Happy Birthday U.S.A.

I've been watching all of the cookie decorators I follow making beautiful patriotic themed cookies in preparation for the 4th of July.  I've never decorated cookies for 4th of July because, in the younger years, we were always at the lake, having a picnic, a cook-out, or ... well, heck, I didn't decorate cookies back then unless they were slice 'n' bake with sprinkles on top.  In recent years, it's too darn hot to decorate cookies in July.  However...this year, I felt the lure of the red, white, and blue royal icing.

So, I got the idea that I wanted to find one of the great chocolate sugar cookies I've seen many of the cookie decorators use.  The colors look particularly nice on the dark background and the thought of a chocolate cookie sounded really nice.  I selected the recipe I found on a favorite baker, LilaLoa's blog.  Here's the link.  It is a very, very tasty cookie...such a nice change from regular sugar cookies (although, I do love vanilla sugar cookies).

My inspiration for the star cut-outs were from
Glorious Treats and Sweet Sugarbelle - two of
my favorite cookie decorators!!!

So, I made a batch of chocolate cookie dough and wrapped it in 4 portions and put it in the fridge.  It was too stinking hot to turn on the oven.  I waited another day.  Still hot - but I decided to roll anyway.  It was unbelievably humid to boot...the rolling process was "challenging" to say the least.  I ended up rolling between parchment paper and putting the cut dough in the freezer, on the parchment paper, before removing them to the cookie sheets.  It's the same sort of texture as the gingerbread cookies I made at Christmas, and I found even a few minutes in the kitchen with a pre-heated oven made this dough horribly sticky.  So, I immediately hopped to the process I used in December...and it worked very well.  Once they were baked off, I let them cool on racks and moved them to a container, separated by wax paper, in the hopes of reduced humidity the next day.  Well... no luck...it poured buckets and was 95% humidity even when it wasn't raining.  So, I waited.

I made the base icing on Saturday night, mixed colors and began decorating on Sunday (wishing desparately that I had a food dehydrator, also recommended by LilaLoa's blog) to ensure appropriate drying of the icing.  Since I didn't have one, and the temperature was more manageable...I used Ann Smith's "turn down the a/c" trick - and everything worked out pretty darn well!

I learned I'm not all that good at piping straight lines...for stripes.  I can NOT pipe a star free hand worth beans.  I can pipe a bunch of dots thanks to my PME 1 and 1.5 tips... and I enjoyed playing with colors to obtain two different shades of blue.  I messed up a few (but the beauty of cookies is you get to eat the mistakes!) and only rolled about a dozen for this project.  Pictures below of how it all came together.

Cut out mostly squares and circles and then cut some stars
from the middle of some circles - I was ready to decorate!

The first set the second morning

The second set after layering on some more detail

I tend to enjoy feathering - and these reminded me of fireworks

Happy 4th of July U.S.A.!

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Where in the World is...the SPI FFF???

I know I keep disappearing.  All I can say is it has been quite a couple of months!  Graduation, Spa Day, parties, and now, Run to Hear.

Regular readers will know my youngest son, "the teen", is deaf and hears with cochlear implants and also has Asperger's Syndrome and a few other issues to contend with.  He has a group of friends...friends since they were toddlers... he maintains contact with, despite our moving 350+ miles away from the closest one.  They call themselves The Deaf Club, and all now have cochlear implants to help them hear. 

In 2010, a few of the girls were hanging out together and decided they wanted to pay it forward.  They wanted to give to others who were, perhaps, less fortunate than themselves.  They wanted to help a child receive a cochlear implant who had no other way to get one.

Thus was born the original Run to Hear 5K in June 2011.

Well... we just did it again!  June 23rd, 2012 was the second annual Run to Hear 5K.

I'm not going to go into a ton of detail - but we do have a website and I hope you check it out.
We've even become an incorporated non-profit entity, Run to Hear, Inc. (it's great having an attorney as one of the parents) which allows all of the donations to the organization to be tax deductible.

Just after the race at lovely Lake Pflugerville Park - the teen was
happy another 5K was under his belt!

I wrote a "Morning After" post on our website and hope you might take a moment to read it, and, to read the first page, at least, of our website.  It gives lots of information about our cause and how we use our funds to help "pay it forward".  We are already planning for the 2013 event.  I would love it if any of my running readers...or people interested in deaf individuals having access to sound... would follow our Run to Hear blog posts, either by adding to your RSS feed (upper right side of the Run to Hear main page for that option) or via email (bottom left side of the Run to Hear main page for that option).

My teen coming across the finish line at the
2012 Run to Hear 5K.

Now, while I was in the Austin/Pflugerville/Lago Vista area - I did eat out a lot.  I went to all my favorites while I was around and about for the event and all the preparatory work involved.

We stopped at Schlotzsky's for a sandwich the minute we hit town.  It is one of the things I miss most in the lower Rio Grande Valley.  No Schlotzsky's :-(   We love the location on Brodie Lane in Sunset Valley - our old stomping grounds when we lived in Austin.  I was able to stop at Michael's for a few additions to my Baking and Decorating arsenal while the teen scooted next door to Barnes and Noble for some reading material.  We love that little shopping center!  It's home.

The next day we ran errands and ate at Serrano's at the Lake Line location since we were coming into town from Lago Vista.  Excellent Tex-Mex restaurant.  Another favorite!  I usually try to hit the Texican Cafe at Lake Line...but the teen wanted a burger and the burgers at Serrano's are as good as the Tex-Mex.  It was a win-win.

After packet pick-up we were hot and hungry and thirsty...so we stopped at Pok-e-jo's Arboretum location for some delicious barbeque and big glasses of cold drinks.  I had pork ribs and brisket, green bean casserole, and banana pudding with a huge iced tea.  The teen had a sausage plate with mac and cheese and fries...can you say carb lover?  It was delish...as usual!

After the Saturday morning race, I was so parched all I could think about was getting a Sonic Drive-in Diet Limeade... I love their ice.  After nearly getting lost in Pflugerville (oh my has that town grown!), my friend led me to the closest one.  It was awesome...I REALLY love their ice :-)

We had an after-the-race-party at our friends' home and Sharon made the BEST chicken salad.  I am going to ask her if I can make up a batch and post the recipe on my blog.  It was so fresh and summery tasting.  Keep an eye out for that.  Everyone brought something to share and there was a ton of food - all of it outstanding!

We were so tired that evening, we barely wanted to eat.  My sister and her wife had gone to a party so we opted to eat "locally" at Tug's in Lago Vista.  The teen had an excellent burger and Mr. Flip Flop and I both had barbeque (I think I have mentioned how much I love good barbeque).  He had beef ribs and pork loin with a side of cole slaw and fried okra.  I had a very tasty brisket sandwich with a side of excellent creamy potato salad.  It was a very satisfying meal.  It's attached to a gas station, so one tends to wonder...but, like so many good "local joints".... the locals were, indeed, spot on!  My sister thinks they are some of the best burgers in the lake area...maybe all of Austin. I don't know about that, but the teen said his was very good and we liked the BBQ just fine! 

Our last meal out was in South Austin on our way out of town...we stopped at The Beijing Wok for our regular dose of Crack Chicken.  We've called their Sesame Chicken "crack chicken" since my middle son was a student at Bowie High School.  He and his friends would go off campus for lunch and said Beijing Wok's sesame chicken was as addictive as crack.  It will forever more be called crack chicken in our household.  My middle son joined us there for lunch when he found out we were going to stop on the way out of town.  Everyone except the teen ordered what we expected, and the teen ordered Shrimp LoMein.  He doesn't care for rice, so LoMein is almost always his choice at a Chinese restaurant.

We hit the road for home after 4 days in Austin and it felt so good to sleep in my own bed that night! 

So, THAT is where in the world the SPI Flip Flop Foodie has been.  I can always bring my stories around to food, because no matter where you are, or what you are doing .... you gotta eat!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

The Cafe on the Beach at The Palms Resort

Father's Day 2012... Sunday morning late, we head towards the island on a gloriously sunny beautiful day.  We motored past a few of our favorite restaurants (it was almost 11:00) looking for someplace where breakfast was still being served.  Brunch, breakfast, whatever!  Every place we rolled by was packed to the point of bulging.  I finally turned to Mr. Flip Flop and said "do you have a suggestion?"  He said, "yeah, I'd like to go to the place at the Palms, the one on the beach".  YAY!  We'd never had breakfast there and I hoped they were still serving breakfast.  Considering it was Sunday and Father's Day, I reckoned we had a decent chance.  We knew we'd have a good view even if we were nudged towards the lunch menu.

We went at JUST the right time.  There were a few tables for two left (the teen had snubbed us again) and we were right at the edge where we knew we'd have an exquisite view as soon as the sun screen was raised.  Soon thereafter, the place was packed with nary a chair to spare.  Really good timing!

The waiter everyone is staring at - he balanced 4 plates up his arm
and several drinks (like 4) in one hand...
balanced on the edge of his thumb.
He was quite entertaining and could probably get a job
in the circus if the gig at Palm doesn't work out!!!

It was already getting hot, and the breeze only hit my legs because the sun screen also blocked the breeze from the top of the railing upwards.  It wasn't unbearable, but it was pretty warm - especially after the hubs started drinking coffee.  He eventually asked for ice and poured his coffee on the rocks - iced coffee a much better idea.  I'd already been brilliant and ordered their tropical iced tea.

We were lucky that the menu said breakfast was served until noon on Saturday and Sunday!  Woo hoo!

My breakfast choice was Eggs Benedict.  My better half requested the Breakfast Taco with sausage.  I could have sworn the menu said two, but he didn't remember (and when I double checked, it didn't).  It was fine, because I couldn't eat all of my meal, it was so rich.  He ended up eating half of my meal!

Now - I didn't get to try his Breakfast Taco, but he said it was delicious.  It looked delicious!  Generously filled with scrambled eggs, pork sausage, and cheese.  A side of salsa and a small cocktail pick of fresh fruit made for a pretty plate.

My Eggs Benedict were nicely presented with a side of has browns, crisped just the way I like them, and the same spear of fresh fruit.  I felt the Hollandaise could have had just a squeeze more of lemon, but maybe that was just me.  The Canadian bacon was a generous thick slice and the eggs were perfectly poached.  The English Muffins were more dense than I would expect, but again, might have just been me.  It was a nice celebratory breakfast option that was out of the ordinary for me and I did enjoy every bite.  (I can't say the last time I've ordered Eggs Benedict anywhere!)

The sun was just peaking over the roof when we finished our meal so we never did get to linger to look at the view while dining.  I did snap a photo as we were leaving, which I'll share here.

Hello, ocean!  I love you!

It seemed as if every family was in good spirits and even if the food took a little longer than usual to get served, I don't think a single soul cared.  The staff were very attentive and jovial and it was a lovely South Padre Island Sunday and Father's Day.  The Palms is a quirky little place, with a surprisingly nice beach side cafe.  I'm glad we decided to spend Dad's special day dining at The Cafe on the Beach at the Palms Resort!

From the parking area

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

Longhorn Cattle Company and BBQ - San Benito, TX

Trying to head to the island on Saturday was impossible - we made it less than 4 miles that direction and it took an eternity.  We stopped at Wal-mart and turned around and headed home.  The hubs recommended we take a trip into Harlingen to see a movie since all the traffic was headed in the opposite direction!  Sounded like a plan to me :-)  The teen opted out of joining us (he's anti-parent whenever possible these days) so we had a date night!

We went to see Men in Black III and really enjoyed it.  I even shed a tear or two towards the end.  Since it was a date night, we'd elected to eat dinner in town and Mr. Flip Flop said "why don't we go to that barbeque place you are always wanting to go to?"  I responded "Longhorn?"  He said "yeah, the one off 77".  My face lit up, I'd been wanting to go there for a couple of years now and every time I wanted to stop it was either packed or I missed the exit.  Today, we were in luck!  I didn't have my regular camera, so once again, we just have cell phone photos.  I have GOT to start carrying my camera!

Upon arrival, the parking lot was full but we snagged a spot when someone was leaving.  I snapped a photo of the building and texted it to my Facebook friend, Lisa Turner, and said "guess where we finally got to?"  I knew she would laugh, because she and her husband Bill run this business.  I thought she was out of town so imagine my surprise when she responded "I'm coming over"!

Lisa's a friend I feel like I know well.  She is a friend of a friend from Central Texas and we connected because she lives in the area where I now live and her Dad lives in the same tiny town I live in.  We have a common love for horses and food ...and talking.  When she walked in the door, we were just being served and I recognized her immediately, and she me (thanks to FB photos!) and we greeted and hugged as old friends would. 

My first job in high school was working in a meat market with a pit included off to one side and one of my Saturday duties was being the barbecue girl...so I do know my cue!  Many a week-end, I went dancing after work with my hair smelling of oak wood smoke!  Didn't matter how many times it got washed, I always smelled like a fire pit on Saturday night.

I had lamented online a couple of years ago that there were no good BBQ joints down here in my new home.  She encouraged me to stop by their place.  I surely meant to get there sooner...but better late than never!  WOW...when I walked in, I knew I'd hit the jackpot.  The ambiance, the longhorn head and cattle skulls and horns on the wall, the old photos, the wood, the awesome SMELL of a real pit.  Felt like home!

Lisa and her husband are good people.  They care about their staff and the quality of food as well as service.  It was evident by the many staff stopping by our table to say hello that she is well-liked - and that all flows over to the good atmosphere.

As I said, our food was just arriving when she arrived - and the first thing she did was ask me what kind of brisket I liked.  I said a mixture of moist and lean.  We had a discussion about the cap of the brisket and the excellent marbling which created a mouthful of goodness.  She had our waiter get us a sample of their cap, since my plate had lean beef on it.  It was incredible I will say - you could cut it all with a fork, but that brisket cap was like buttah!

I got ahead of myself here.  The menu is extensive with the standard meats expected at a BBQ joint, but there is also an array of fine steaks available.  I think quite a bit of that night's crowd were there for a pre-Father's Day dinner.  Lots of family groups enjoying steaks as well as traditional brisket and sausage. 

We started off with iced tea for both of us...I LOVED the iced tea glasses!  They were a small pitcher!  It was a good glass of tea, with a lime on it and a straw.  Just the way I like it.  Big enough not to require a refill, which messes with my "mix" of lime and sweetner.  When I have it just the way I like it, I don't want someone topping it off!  This pitcher glass worked great.

They start with their famous "bean soup".  I'd heard people rave about it online, and they weren't making things up!  They were tasty beans, served in a ceramic coffee mug. Tastes just like my Momma makes.  LOVE it. (I loved just about everything you'll find out).

I got the two meat combo, with brisket and baby back pork ribs.  Potato salad, cole slaw, and pickles/onions on the side with a big piece of thick white bread (the kind you make Texas Toast out of).  Since I was yammering with Lisa the entire time, my husband polished off his sausage and brisket plate, and I loaded most of my ribs onto his plate, he finished my beans, and held up his hands to ward me off when I could only eat half of my sides.  I told him when we walked out I was glad I had chatted - if Lisa hadn't been there I would have cleaned my plate and been miserably full for the rest of the evening!

The smoke ring on the brisket was perfect, and even the lean meat was moist.  The pork rib I ate was flavorful but I will say I'm not the biggest fan of the baby back part of the rib...they are lean and meaty, but the bigger, juicier spare rib part has the fat that makes them moist.  The flavor was excellent, but Lisa immediately asked if the ribs were a little dry. She has a good eye. They were, slightly, but not so that I wouldn't absolutely order them again.  I love me some pork ribs, whichever part of the pig they come from!   I enjoyed the potato salad - homemade obviously with skin on potatoes.  The coleslaw was exactly the way I like to make it and they had good BBQ sauce!  Happy, happy girl. 

I felt happy as I fell into bed Saturday night.  I'd seen an entertaining movie, met someone in person I had only known "virtually" and felt like I'd liked and known her forever, and I'd had an awesome real Texas BBQ dinner in a real cattleman's environment.  What more could a Texas girl ask for?  Not much, I tell you, not much.

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!