February | 2010 | Smith Family Weblog

Archive for February, 2010

13 Feb

10 dozen cupcakes

Posted by Rebecca in In the kitchen. 4 comments

In an effort to lure my coworkers to a 45 minute presentation about my unit’s spring priorities and initiatives last Friday, I promised to provide a cupcake bar. It was really selfish on my part, as I’ve had a number of recipes from the Martha Stewart cupcake cookbook I’ve been wanting try, and this provided a perfect opportunity.

I baked five batches on Thursday night, and I also made the caramel and lemon fillings. That part of the process took about four hours—I was surprised at how quickly it went. I made the frosting recipes the next morning, which took about a hour and a half. I decorated the cupcakes in the office breakroom with the help from my coworkers (“other duties as assigned,” they joked).

We saved back one of each of the cupcakes and split them into four pieces so we could each try a bit of each one. I had two clear favorites–these strawberry cupcakes with strawberry meringue buttercream (possibly the best frosting ever)….

And these salted caramel cupcakes with chocolate buttercream, topped with sea salt:

I also made lemon cupcakes with lemon curd filling:

And the S’mores cupcakes I’ve made before:

These red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting went pretty quickly!

I loved the volume of this project. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately…) there weren’t many leftovers!

12 Feb

Excuse me while I kiss this guy

Posted by Rebecca in Bryan. Leave a comment

Last night, after a rousing rendition of “Queen of Spain” (really Sting’s “King of Pain”), Bryan admitted he thought the words to the disco favorite “Rollercoaster of Love” were actually “I’m a post-doc of love.”

When I questioned this, he said, “You know—you’re highly trained, but you still have something to learn.”

Fitting for the day that just happened to mark 15 years since we started dating, don’t you think?

9 Feb

Olivia Fix

Posted by Rebecca in Olivia. 3 comments

8 Feb

Not everyone dreads Mondays…

Posted by Rebecca in Dagny, Rebecca. 4 comments

We had a hectic week, followed by a semi-productive weekend. Rain and light snow—and a whole lot of mud—kept us inside for the most part. I was about 19 days behind on laundry, which meant that I spent a lot of time with Spray ‘n Wash and basket of clothes Saturday and Sunday. I couldn’t really remember the last time I put much thought into meal planning for the upcoming week, so I devoted a bit of time there, too. For the most part, we are catching up—the fridge is stocked, errands are done and aside of a bit of gift shopping, things are relatively under control at home this week.

Work, however, is another story. Working in higher ed makes you think of the year by semester. You start in the fall, take winter break, resume in the spring, and tie things up over the summer. I do my best to focus my unit’s work in the spring and fall semesters, leaving December and part of January somewhat light. The summers are open for program planning, project work, and of course, a couple of long vacations.

February, March and April are brutal. I know from experience that productivity is of the utmost importance, and yet often, extremely elusive, especially by 4 pm. I keep a task list organized by day, but find that six hours of meetings with only 20 or 30 minutes in between doesn’t lend itself well do doing much more than email. To move a project forward, I seem to require a chunk of time. (A Diet Coke and a quiet office don’t hurt either.) I usually find myself feeling frantically far behind.

It’s stressful, and unfortunately, I am not particularly good at leaving that stress at the office, which probably explains why I am equally far behind at come come most Saturdays.

I don’t know that I would change it, though. I love the pace that comes with working in communications. I love the ever-evolving and expanding priorities. I love the camaraderie that comes from working with a team through the details of major events and initiatives. I love how every day is completely different and often unexpected.

And, like Dagny has Mondays to look forward to, I have July.

I am sure it will be here soon…

7 Feb

Why I prefer to run errands alone

Posted by Rebecca in Ava, Overheard. 1 comment

Ava: Are we done now? Can we go back home?

Mom: Almost, one more stop.

Ava: Ugh, where?

Mom: The liquor store…

Ava: Can we get candy there!?!

Mom: No.

Ava: Why?!

Mom: Because.

Ava: Because is not a reason.

Mom: Because they don’t sell candy.

Ava: Of course they do! They sell LICORICE.

Mom: What?

Ava: It’s a LICORICE STORE.

6 Feb

Olivia Fix, courtesy of Grandpa Smith

Posted by Rebecca in Olivia. 2 comments

Doug took this gorgeous photo last weekend–Liv is looking for the button she stashed in her pocket.

5 Feb

I love Ina Garten recipes because of the simple yet transformational tweaks. Here, for instance, she makes the glaze not with water or milk, but maple syrup. It’s amazing!