Care packages for the troops........

We have our adopted troop.....five members of the Mustang Troop. About four times a year we gather items they have requested plus we make them some homemade goodies. It's important especially this time of year with them being away from home and loved ones. We would like to be able to do more for those in our military and in time I imagine we will be able to. We sent out a number of packages stuffed with socks, underwear, some special coffee mugs and other assorted items plus we made tons of cookies and about 4-5 lbs of fudge. Maybe if you have a military person or know of a military person who could use a little "cheer up" you could e-mail us their information and we will see what we can do for them. Some families just can't afford to send stuff to their family members and this is our way of showing our support.

Nailed it !!!!!!!

Kind of a pun considering the kind of cake I was asked to make. Last week I had a request for two cakes, Winnie the Pooh and a Penis cake? No not together but really a penis cake? I guess in the end it was kind of funny. It was definitely a first and it did get a lot of laughs. In the spirit of the cake I filled the layers with vanilla pudding used cream cheese frosting for a crumb coat before the marshmallow fondant and in the "nut sack" vanilla truffles from Lintz chocolate. I hope you get a good laugh too.
BTW my lettering kinda sucked (no pun intended) because I had surgery on my hand this week so I've been doing everything I normally would do opposite handed. Here goes.......

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD, STAND FOR SOMETHING

I rarely use this forum as a soap box but I am just fed up with the NFL. Allowing violent criminals to be on the field and even more infuriating playing! In my opinion anyone convicted of any violent crime should be banned from the NFL for life.. for that matter any sport .....period.
my case in point, Michael Vick of the Jets, convicted. We all know the story. You can all Google the story of animal abuse, yet the only remorse he has is that he lost millions. Yes that is a quote from him.
I urge everyone who believes the same to DO  SOMETHING ABOUT IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


 National Football League
(Organization)
280 Park Avenue
Suite 12
New York, NY 10017-1216
USA
Phone: (212) 450-2000
Fax: (212) 681-7599MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD. NO MORE VIOLENT CRIMINALS IN THE NFL....

This cake made people smile and......

Surprised the wife with an early birthday gift, and Three people at the Dr's office when I delivered this cake, for no reason.Well I learned something new, again. I made all the decorations ahead of time and left them by the oven (while the oven was on) and discovered this am that most all the decorations had melted. Luckily I had some extra materials and was able to make the most needed ones. Didn't come out as nicely as I had planned but it came out okay in the end.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Brownie Crust .........

Haven't made a cheesecake in awhile and the wife loves Reese's Peanut Butter cups so I decided to do both in one. I'ts a little more work than making a regular cheesecake because you have to make the brownie batter and cut all the candies but it came out pretty good. Very rich.
It has the usual cheesecake ingredients  plus peanut butter and semi-sweet chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and cut up Reese's which are added on top of the crust before pouring in the cheesecake batter.
It's not my favorite flavor as I don't really care for peanut butter but it's a great fall desert. Overall with cooling and chill time about six hours till it's ready to eat.

 Just snapped a few pictures which I'll share and I'll add a few more tomorrow.

Nothing like fall in New England...

It's a beautiful time of year in New England. Lots of places to leaf peep but we decided to stay close to home for a day trip to Killington Vermont Mountain.
We have been up to Franconia Notch in northern New Hampshire in the past and it is just plain crazy up there when everyone is out to look at the leaves. Some come to climb others to hike and some to trail ride with their bikes but overall it's just plain crazy, no finding parking in the service areas, rest areas or in some places the side of the road. I digress, I decided to surprise my wife with a trip to Killington to go on the gondola to the top of the mountain. It was beautiful when we left but started to rain lightly shortly after we arrived and got cold at the top of the mountain, see your breath cold.
Anyways got our tickets for the round trip ride (20** ea.) and started our assent it was a nice ride, great scenery. We decided to have lunch at the restaurant on the top which was very relaxing, not overcrowded and we got to sit, enjoy the views each other for awhile. By the way the restaurant is a bit pricey but that's to be expected, fourteen dollars for Salmon, thirteen for an Angus burger both with appropriate fixings. The food was okay the staff very pleasant and friendly. Many people take the gondola up the mountain and bring their mountain bikes up for the bike path ride down. It's defiantly not like the bike path in Vancouver BC but it seemed like there were plenty of riders and they were enjoying themselves. Took a few pictures from inside the restaurant and the gondola so most of them have rain drops from the windows but I though I'd share anyways. Overall a good day and a nice trip.
Oh we also stopped by Queche Gorge just east of Woodstock Vt. If you ever get out to this area this time of year you won't be disappointed, just have a reservation well in advance if your staying over night.

I was bored and wanted something sweet........

So I made this Almond cake with Raspberry filling, raspberry flavored icing and chocolate roses. Delish!