In the meantime...rennovating the yard

The next day after I got laid off, we got a letter in the mail from an anonymous neighbor.

This neighbor claimed that s/he has lived around here for years and that every year, our yard looks worse.  She asked to make our yard nice.

Which is fine--our yard was indeed turning into a pseudo-meadow and was in need of a major cleanup.  But what really pissed me off was what s/he said next:

 

"I do think you are in reasonably good health and have the money to improve your property.  I am certain that you do not want your fellow neighbors to think that you do not care or that you are lazy or poor."

 

.....WTFudge!!!????

 

Thanks for the advice neighbor, but lemme clarify a few things...

1. By "reasonably good health", are you referring to my father who underwent a partial hepatectomy last year and just got done with his chemo?

2. No, praise the Lord we are not poor, but we do have medical bills to pay.

3. Both my mother and I work hard to take care of the house, my father, and the cat.  Until recently, I had a full-time job and mom did all the housework AND yardwork.  So no, we are by no means lazy.  Other than that, we do not care what our fellow neighbors think about us.

 

I could tell my mother was really discouraged from the letter, on top of me being suddenly laid off over some minor reason. 

I do wish this person came to us directly and asked us nicely about the issue instead of sending an anonymous letter.  But yes, our yard did need a cleanup.

 After I read the letter, I turned to her.

 

"This means war."

 

So now that I don't have a job, I decided to devote my time to helping my mom clean and improve our yard.

We started off by removing clutter.  After purchasing a trimmer, I basically bushwhacked all the weeds growing in our yard, put that and the huge pile of compost under the apple tree into the two new compost bins.  We put the weed-repellant sheet and covered it with bark mulch to make a pathway.



Our backyard for now.  There's an apple tree way in the back and that area still needs cleanup.

Our frontyard...half of it.  This was covered with leaves, pine needles, and old wood chips.  We cleared all that off and covered the path with fresh mulch.  Looks way nicer now!

Of course, major cleanup wasn't limited to our yard.  I still had to get the 75-gallon tank set up for my turtle.  I used the 10-gallon for the basking platform and stacked slates of shale. 

 

This is her previous residence.  With basking area barely big enough to support her, the 30-gallon tank was far too small for her 8" body.
Once everything was set up, I put my turtle in to see how she likes her (somewhat) new, bigger residence.
She loves it.

With ample basking area to stretch out her limbs, and large enough swimming area to get her exercise and dive without bashing her nose against the glass, she was one happy turtle.

I got the 75-gallon tank AND the hefty coffee table stand for only $110!  Thank you classifieds!

In the meantime...wedding cake help

Now that I don't have a job any more, I've got tons of free time to relax and unwind.  At the same time, I'm (kinda-sorta) looking for a job and any work experience.  I asked my friend J, who owns a wedding cake business if he needs any help for the upcoming wedding season...and he said that I can come help him if I want to.  So I went over to his shop to help him decorate a cake.

It was really neat!  He told me some tips and tricks on cake decorating.  He uses marshmallow fondant (instead of the traditional corn syrup, gelatin and powdered sugar mix), which is a lot easier to handle, durable, and keeps well.  He uses cake mix and ready-made frosting, which cuts down on labor cost (he's doing this all by himself) while maintaining quality.

He was finishing an order for a three-tiered wedding cake.  After he made the bottom tier, he told me to line the bottom with a thin line of frosting and silver dragees.  While I was doing that, he made the middle tier, which he quilted.  "Quilting" involves imprinting the fondant with a special tool in a criss-cross pattern to make it look like a quilt blanket.

Before the second tier can be placed, some sort of support needs to be embedded into the bottom tier.  At school, we had to use a wooden dowel (which we SAWED using our serrated edge bread knife).  He uses the thick boba straws, which are lighter, cheaper, easier to cut and just as strong.

Once the second tier is on, I started putting silver dragees on it, while my friend finished the third tier.  When everything's assembled, he told me to start decorating it with freeform flower designs.  He showed me a sample cake.  So I started decorating....

...And voila.

The silver dragees on the second tier is applied by making a little indentation and putting a tiny bit of water (with a tiny brush) to make the dragees stick.  The piped decorations are just frosting dyed black.  Even my friend was impressed with my work :)
Huh. It wasn't as bad/hard as I had anticipated.  It was actually fun, and although labor-intensive (this took me over two hours to decorate) can be done at home.  Thanks J!

Shenanigans at Work The Finale



This will be my last post about shenanigans at work.  I just got fired.

 

You see, the day before, towards the end of the shift, my supervisor, K asked the newly hired girl to bake three cheesecakes.  Right after she put them in the oven, K sent her home, saying that she'll take care of the cheesecakes.  An hour goes by, and I decided to check on them.  They looked done, so I asked K if I should pull them out.  Both of us went to go see, and sure enough, they were ready to be pulled, so I grabbed a pair of oven mitts and pulled them out.  After I put the last one on the cooling rack, I turned around to ask K what I should do with them--and 'poof', she was gone.  I ran out front and saw her leaving out the door.  By this time, I had clocked out--cuz K told me to--and assuming she wanted to send me home, I just left the cakes on the rack and left.

Early the next morning, she called, EXTREMELY angry, asking me why I had put the cakes on the racks (...to cool them down), why didn't I put them away (...cuz they were still really hot), that they were for an order (that I didn't know about), and that I screwed her over.  Well, if those were that important, then why did she have the newbie make them (what if they didn't turn out right?) and why didn't she check to make sure they were put away (which is, as a supervisor, her responsibility)?

Few minutes later, she texted me, saying that I'm fired.

Granted, I had a feeling she didn't like me to begin with, and I was getting sort of worried about working here, with someone who I may not get along with.  At the same time, I was really bummed.

 

My parents felt bad for me, so to help cheer me up (although I really had no appetite) we went out to Kyoto restaurant for sushi...

 Mom and I split this one. I managed to down a few pieces, but my stomach felt a little queasy after.
When we got home, I got a reply from the guy I was trying to contact to buy his 75-gallon tank replied back.  He told me the time and the address.  I recruited my good friend and her (very strong) boyfriend/fiance to help me carry the massive tank into my room. 
After that, we went out to a fusion Asian place, Sapa restaurant.

 Very fancy decor and interior.  They have a patio with three Thai tea houses.  It's a great place to have wedding reception.

 Happy Valley Lamb.  Very tender chunks of lamb marinated and stir fried, on green beans and fried rice.  The lamb was surpringly tender and didn't have that "lamb" taste, just a hint of it towards the end, and seasoned well.

 Baked Dynamite.  Scallop, shrimp, calamari, and mushroom in a spicy broth, served with rice.  This was pretty good too.

 



For sushi, we ordered the ocean trout and the unagi nigiri.  The ocean trout tasted just like salmon, except more delicate and mild.
For myself, I ordered something a little interesting...

Maui Wowie roll.  Filled with crab, shrimp tempura, avocado and cuke, topped with tuna, mango and macadamia nuts.  According to the Flavor Bible, mango and soy sauce are a taboo combo.  And indeed, the soy sauce did overpower the delicate flavors of the mangos and the fish in the rolls.  But it went really well with the sweet teriyaki sauce on the plate.
Other than the service being kinda slow, we had a goot time chatting and enjoying the food.
I certainly felt a lot better.  Sure, I was bummed I had to go find another job, and well, just getting fired over an accidental mistake was stressful.  But I certainly saw a glimmer of hope when I saw this...

Double rainbows.  A sign of covenant from God.  This is not a closure, but more of a door-opener.  I don't know what I'll do, but I'm sure God will lead me the way.  In the meantime, I'm gonna give my hand (which is starting to show signs of arthritis from overuse) a well-deserved rest.

Red Butte Garden and Mom's Birthday/Mother's Day

 Over the weekend, my family went to the Red Butte Garden (local botanic garden) with our family friends who are members there (i.e. discount entry fees).  The warmer weather definitely gave a boost to the garden's flora.  But before we went to go look at the plants, we browsed the gift shop there...

...And spotted these cutest fairy gardens!  It's basically like a fairy-themed terrarium that's set up outdoors I guess.  I have an obsession with houses shaped like mushrooms.



 

 Now I want a terrarium...

Then it was Mother's Day...and also my mom's birthday.  They both fell on the same day this year.  I planned to make a cake and get her something she had always wanted...

A fig tree.  Yep, she wants a fig tree.

A few online searches came up with a nursery in Ogden, which was a good 40-minute drive.
It was HUGE.  I'm talking like a mall-sized nursery.

 This is the trees and shrubs section.  Mind you, this is only a quarter of the actual nursery.
They also had a bunch of greenhouses with more fragile plants, like roses, flowers, vegetables, and Japanese maple.

...Another fairy/gnome garden spotted.
On the day of , upon her request, I made my mom a Japanese-style strawberry shortcake.  In America, a strawberry shortcake consists of biscuit-like shortcakes stacked with whipped cream and strawberries.  In Japan, instead of the shortcakes, a vanilla sponge cake is used, and the entire cake is decorated just like a regular fancy cake with whipped cream.  This results in the melt-in-your-mouth cake accentuated with freshness of strawberries.

I finished it with chocolate decorations and pistachios.  Happy birthday mom!

Shenanigans at Work Part III

My last few posts have been about some stuff I made that didn't turn out well.

The following week, I redeemed myself (somewhat)...

 

Here are the Orange Poundcakes I made and glazed...

The sides definitely arent' as dark as the ones I made last week.  I've been careful to check them by poking them with a knife so make sure they don't overbake.  These turned out perfect.

 

As for the Napoleons, I really wasn't sure what caused the last ones to go berserk.  I ever so carefully made the pastry cream;  I didn't put in as many folds in the puff pastry, so it won't puff too much.  I baked the sheets off, putting extra pans to make sure they're weighed down, and baked them longer than the last time.

After assembling them, I covered the sides in plastic wrap so they won't dry out, stuck it in the freezer...and crossed my fingers.

 

The next day, I sliced them up, and had my boss and supervisor taste test it.

 

...It tasted fine.  He even said it's like "Napoleon ice cream" since it was still frozen.

I'm glad these turned out fine, but that's so bizarre.  I wonder what happened with the last batch?  The only thing I could think of was that with the last batch of pastry cream, I whisked the sugar and the cornstarch together before whisking it into the yolks.  This time, I whisked them in separately.  Hmmm....

 

This week, with the upcoming Mother's Day, I made sugar cookies for the occassion...

"#1 MUM"...you know, the flowers.  Pun intended.

My supervisor, K, still seems kinda cold to me.  Yesterday, I made mini-fruit tarts for an order.  These were super small, 1.5" in diameter tart shells, so I could only put three kinds of fruits (a blueberry, a quarter of a strawberry, and a teeny slice of kiwi) on it.  After I finished, I put them in the fridge....well, sometime later, without saying anything to me, K takes them out, and puts a slice of orange on each of them.  Sure they look more colorful and better, but goodness, if they needed to be fixed, why didn't she just tell me?  It just feels like she's avoiding me, like she's constantly mad at me for some reason...