Seven Quick Takes Friday

1. The Zoomlians are always finding odd ways to amuse themselves. Lately they have been making licenses. License to Chill (permitted to freeze things), License to Ill (permitted to avoid work by faking sick), and so on. My favorite was Mxyl's.

Me: License to Bill?
Mxyl: Yes. That will $2.50.

2. Monday was cold and rainy. It was a good housekeeping day. It occurred to me that this was not the same as a Good Housekeeping day. In my good housekeeping day, I got all the winter coats, boots, etc. put away and found Spring jackets for everyone. In a Good Housekeeping day, my home would be spotless and perfectly decorated. I presume. I don't think I've ever had a Good Housekeeping day, but I was quite pleased with my good housekeeping day. You never see kids (or any people) in Good Housekeeping.

3. I seem to have developed a trick knee. On the whole, I'd rather have a trick pony.

4. Oob has turned hammer crazy. This has been a little loud, but still great fun when he has his toy plastic hammer that does not actually damage anything. Alas, when a child kind enough to build me a gate for the garden, left a real hammer lying around, Oob discovered the wonderful smashing sound that a real hammer can make on, say, Mommy's favorite mug!

Choclo has not been immune to the hammering bug. When I discovered him hammering (with a ball peen hammer) on the brick exterior of the house, he told me, with genuine puzzlement: "But Mom, I'm just trying to break the wall of the house!"

5. The Emperor and I each have Dads that can or could repair cars. Alas, this gene has passed us by. We always have hope for our kids, though. Some people dream of their kids being doctors. We'd love to have an auto mechanic in the family!

White Knight (the minivan, our "sporty" car) started making bad sounds (see how technical we are?) and the Emperor was looking for the power steering fluid reservoir under the hood. Mxyl was hanging around in the interest of all things mechanical and Dad related.

Mxyl: I think we should just follow the steering mechanism backwards until we find a reservoir. Look, this must be it.

I'd say Hallelujah if it weren't Lent!

6. We've decided to go with mudjacking to fill the void under the basement floor. They should be coming next week. Words can not express how excited we are that a real live cement mixer is coming to out house! It occurs to me that some people will think that's a sarcastic comment. It's not.

7. On St. Patrick's day we were able to serve corned beef and cabbage to the homeless for dinner. For dessert, we made our favorite filled cupcakes and a number of the other volunteers wanted to know how we got the filling in the cupcakes.

Here's the recipe.

We make a batch of chocolate cupcakes (we use a mix).

We make the filling by mixing 1/4 c. Shortening and 1/4 c. butter with enough powdered sugar (3 c. ?) and milk (a few tablespoons) to make it really fluffy. It's like twinkie filling except it tastes better. We add whatever flavoring we want. Usually 1 tsp. vanilla, although we used (artificial) Irish Cream flavor this time.

We put the filling into a pastry bag with a metal tip (these are cake decorating bags and tips, you can use any tip with a substantial hole). We stick the tip all the way into the cupcake and squeeze in filling until the top of the cupcake swells and cracks.

After we're done, we make chocolate frosting and cover up the tops.

That's it! The filling "magically" ends up in the middle and the top closes completely around it. The frosting hides any evidence that you came in through the top. Yum!

More with Jen!