You may think that my previous entry was the sum total of our evening.  I tell you that the cake-dome-incident happened within the first five minutes!

The rest of the evening was spent with fingers flying and chins wagging (Kathleen’s cool term) with food and chatter.  Joanne was there.  Depsite not posting regularly anymore, I swear to you she is alive and well.  A bit overworked and stressed – but alive nonetheless!  Here are some shots of her subtle new highlights and lovely knitting:

 

Next up are the lovely yet blogless Ricki and Peggy. Ricki has emerge from a knitting funk unscathed and ready to go and Peggy is constantly, mysteriously cranking out the projects (we suspect she may have the means to bend time) …..

You know how Oprah looks way, way different before her beauty crew gets its collective hands on her? How she doesn’t even look like the same person??

Well, here is a step by step guide to performing miracles on a store bought cheesecake.

Although, the cheesecake won’t look as different as Oprah does.

I am just one woman afterall — Oprah has a team.

• Start with a plain cheese cake from Costco.
• Notice how cheap it is.
• Ask yourself, ‘can I make a cheesecake that tastes this good for that much money?’.
• Answer yourself, ‘ no.’
• Notice the helpful little lines etched into the topping as if to connote a serving size. 
• Scoff at these.

The title of this one says it all. Use caution! This is a very very delicate procedure. If for any reason you feel the cake will fall apart during this procedure then don’t transfer it. Simply cut the plastic serving thing that Costo provides as close to the cake as you can get. No one will notice, especially if you are the one to cut and serve the cake. Please also be sure to eat up any bits that get stuck to this plastic serving tray. Leaving them will throw off your cost/benefit analysis.

 

• grate some chocolate on top of the cake
• notice that it looks like pepper
• decide to make chocolate curls
• discover that it will curl better if you zap the chocolate for 6 seconds in the microwave.
• doesn’t it look much better? think it still needs something? 
• melt the extra chocolate in the microwave and drizzle on top of the cake.
• It works better if you use a fork and kind of do a little flicking motion.
• discover that you may want to set the cake in the sink for the ‘flicking’ motion part.

When you offer Kathleen a beverage, she will like to have a beer from the keg that your Boar keeps in the basement.  While you are out of the kitchen, Kathleen will seize this opportunity to fling your cake dome around. 

She is either jealous of your clever way with baked goods or your cake plate collection. 

Thank your lucky stars you didn’t use your ‘good’ cake plate.

Use this as leverage to get her to pose with the cake.

  "Look! She likes it.  She really likes it!!"

You know how Oprah looks way, way different before her beauty crew gets its collective hands on her? How she doesn’t even look like the same person??

Well, here is a step by step guide to performing miracles on a store bought cheesecake.

Although, the cheesecake won’t look as different as Oprah does.

I am just one woman afterall — Oprah has a team.

• Start with a plain cheese cake from Costco.
• Notice how cheap it is.
• Ask yourself, ‘can I make a cheesecake that tastes this good for that much money?’.
• Answer yourself, ‘ no.’
• Notice the helpful little lines etched into the topping as if to connote a serving size. 
• Scoff at these.

The title of this one says it all. Use caution! This is a very very delicate procedure. If for any reason you feel the cake will fall apart during this procedure then don’t transfer it. Simply cut the plastic serving thing that Costo provides as close to the cake as you can get. No one will notice, especially if you are the one to cut and serve the cake. Please also be sure to eat up any bits that get stuck to this plastic serving tray. Leaving them will throw off your cost/benefit analysis.

 

• grate some chocolate on top of the cake
• notice that it looks like pepper
• decide to make chocolate curls
• discover that it will curl better if you zap the chocolate for 6 seconds in the microwave.
• doesn’t it look much better? think it still needs something? 
• melt the extra chocolate in the microwave and drizzle on top of the cake.
• It works better if you use a fork and kind of do a little flicking motion.
• discover that you may want to set the cake in the sink for the ‘flicking’ motion part.

When you offer Kathleen a beverage, she will like to have a beer from the keg that your Boar keeps in the basement.  While you are out of the kitchen, Kathleen will seize this opportunity to fling your cake dome around. 

She is either jealous of your clever way with baked goods or your cake plate collection. 

Thank your lucky stars you didn’t use your ‘good’ cake plate.

Use this as leverage to get her to pose with the cake.

  "Look! She likes it.  She really likes it!!"

Have you been following my SnB saga this week?  Here’s a little synopsis to get you up to date. 

• I invited some local knitters over.
• In the emailing process, I emailed everyone.
• I invited people from out of state.
• Because my email lists are incomplete, I did not invite enough people from far away places. 
• People pouted.

I was speaking to Kathleen today.  I confessed that I did not bake the promised coffee cake for tonight’s soiree.  She bitched and moaned.  I told her that I bought a cheesecake.  She still bitched and moaned.  I tried to persuade her that the cheesecake I bought is just as good as homemade.  I told her about all the yard work I had to do and that I didn’t have time to bake.  She implied that because I am originally from Pennsylvania my tastebuds are impaired.  She said to get a gardener.

For reasons that will soon be obvious, I am setting this entry to post just as Kathleen should be ringing my doorbell.

Me and the digital camera are going undercover.

deep undercover.

Alert the wire services ….