Wha Ha Happened!?

You may have noticed that recently I have been online less and less. Part of this is because I am working on new designs and the other part is because I am trying to prepare for fall.

But yesterday in particular it was because of AT&T.

You see, My neighborhood is in the middle of a service provider price war. When we moved here our only option was Insight. Being people who love options we weren't thrilled but we dealt with it. After a while our television would cut in and out.Eventually during a program the screen would go black and there would be no more television for the rest of the evening. Which in some ways is great - it would keep us from vegetating in front of the idiot box for too long. But again there goes those options we like to have.

Finally AT&T seemed to have found a way to loosen the tight grasp of Insight on our neighborhood and sent people around to get us to switch. Less money and a DVR? Yessir I'm interested in switching!

To remotely protect the man who came to our door to convince us to switch I will not say exactly what practice was used, but I will say he went out of his way to make sure we got our serviced by circumventing requirements to do so. And he also made it clear that if they knew, he would be terminated.

For a lower bill + DVR we switched and it was a magical time filled with me doing my damnedest to catch up on shows I was behind on and new shows just beginning their lives.

Not unlike what happened to use a few years ago with the Ohio State campus area WOW/Time Warner Big10 network wars we began getting lots of mail from our old provider begging us to come back.

Insight sent one of their fella's around last week and I was already fully prepared to have none of whatever he was peddling and send him on his way. Thankfully, instead of giving him an earful (it's not his fault we had the issues we did last time and he was very, very polite), I chose to talk with him about the price war. He asked why we left in the first place. When I explained to him about the all too frequent loss of the use of our televising he was surprised (but I doubt he'd say, "Oh yes, you'll have that when you choose us"). I also made sure to let him know that we were quite fond of the DVR option, to which he quickly told me that if that was what we wanted it was absolutely no
problem.


Now instead of just running off and switching once more we did what we thought was the next best step to make. We called and spoke with AT&T about Insights visit and asked if they were changing any package deals. At no point in time did we say "we are thinking of switching providers" or anything of the sort. We just wanted to know what was going on on AT&T's end.

The very next day our television and Internet was suspended.

So I write this now in Notepad while I wait for the Insight man to set up our television and Internet once again. This time under a "win back" package which will cut our cable/Internet bill in half.

Survival of the Fittest

The winner of tonight's war would have their cupcakes at a gala in L.A.'s Museum of Natural History.

The taste challenge revolved around two of the largest mammals the museum has to offer - the elephant and the giraffe. As always there were tables of ingredients to choose from that fit this challenge. Among the ingredients for the elephant diet were pumpkin, bamboo, and peanuts. And for the giraffe's diet there was wheat grass, alfalfa, and orange blossoms.

Jeff Martin (Smallcakes) chose the elephant diet and chose to make a pumpkin cupcake with white chocolate cardamom butter cream. This sounded like a cupcake I would love to see at (my personal favourite holiday) Thanksgiving. Sadly, some of last weeks bad mojo must have carried over because poor Jeff was so focused on his cardamom butter cream (which was met with rave reviews) that he forgot the pumpkin in the cupcake!

Lisa Cowden (Lulu’s Cupcakes) also chose the elephant diet and came up with the mouth watering idea of a kumquat cupcake with hibiscus puree center topped with kumquat peel infused pastry cream that was lightly caramelized. Did I mention it was also beautifully decorated with a hibiscus flower and just a bit more pastry cream? I didn't? Well I should have. At first I was worried that it sounded like she was planning to top it with a bit too much. My worries and apparently my trust was misplaced. It was as eye catching as it was (or sounded) mouth watering.

MaryAnne Tongko (Cupcakes & Co) chose the road less traveled and picked the giraffe diet. At her mothers insistence she chose to make a lemongrass cupcake topped with an orange blossom whipped cream and gold sanding sugar. Mama was against the sanding sugar and it seems this time she may have been right because the judges didn't seem to feel bling conveyed that earthy natural feel they were looking for this rapidly approaching event.

Wendy Jones (Whodidily Cupcakes) stayed the elephant diet course and made a chocolate cupcake filled with a peanut butter cream cheese center, topped with a peanut butter butter-cream sprinkled with sunflower seeds dipped in ganache.

Next the remaining bakers were supposed to "capture the wonder of the museum" in the taste & presentation challenge.

In case anyone was worried an episode of Cupcake Wars would go by without a red velvet cupcake Wendy Jones insured hers got their day. Her choices to bake red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting as well as yellow cake cupcakes with chocolate butter-cream were uninspired and a bit boring. However, she brought a little interest back when she chose to give her vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butter-cream a pumpkin cream cheese center.

Lisa won me over in the first round which is a rarity. That's right, I am still completely obsessing over Hollis Wilders salmon based cupcakes.



The two cupcake choices from "team Lisa" that won me over were the blackberry margarita cupcake and the apricot cake (complete with apricot seeds for crunch) with Swiss butter-cream topped with a white chocolate poppy. Sorry Lisa, when you're offering those two it's hard for me to notice their mousy friend with the sweet caramel center they've brought along.

MaryAnne chose to make a cream cheese filled black bottom cupcake with chocolate ganache, a blue velvet chocolate cupcake filled with marzipan that was topped with almond whipped cream, and strawberry cupcakes.

That bad mojo was back again and this time for MaryAnne, with only 40 minutes left her blue velvet cupcakes had yet to see the inside of an oven. They didn't come out until there was only 2 minutes left in the challenge to be decorated and plated alongside the others. Her choice to use a layer of marzipan as a buffer for the still rising heat was creative but sadly not enough - all toppers melted down by the wayside. It was no surprise that MaryAnne was next to bite the dusting sugar.

Presentation, the final and deciding challenge is next and I am feeling completely confident with "team Lisa."

When fellow baker and competitor, Wendy, planned to recreate the actual museum it felt very reminiscent of Hollis Wilders choice in the first episode to replicate a golf course. But when I saw her huge, glittery, eye-catchingly whimsical "Museum of Cupcakes" I was once nervous for my top pick.

Lisa chose to have a giant, "gnarly", "prehistoric" tree which once it arrived on scene Wendy likened to "the tree of life." My mind instead connected the choice a bit to the movie Avatar and its "home tree."


Congratulations to tonight's extremely deserving winner, Lisa Cowden.

Last Time On Cupcake Wars . . .

This weeks episode revolved around the 100th episode of Ace of Cakes.

The taste challenge was to make a cupcake that not only would Ace of Cakes, cupcake-hating Duff Goldman like but one that would contain some of his favourite food stuffs: pulled pork, gummy bears, goat cheese, jalapeno jelly, bacon crunchy, and crunchy peanut butter.

It seemed as if for this particular challenge a lot of the contestants had the same idea in mind which reminded me of a previous episode that left me sick of seeing lemon cupcakes and fondant decorations.

Alyssa Magliato's (The Perfect Circle Cupcakery) assistant, Jeff , suggested a pulled pork and jalapeno jelly cupcake that I wouldn't have minded see become a reality but somewhat understandably Alyssa worried this was too far out of the box and wanted to play it safer. Her ultimate choice to make a dark chocolate cake peanut butter chocolate inside was "a little caramel surprise" yielded a very nice looking confection.

Poor Erica Tucker (Sweet E’s Bake Shop) was up next and this woman underwent a real struggle in the kitchen. After overcoming a heating issue while cooking her cupcakes she came to the challenges end and realize she'd forgotten to fill her cupcakes!

Michael Centimore (Cupcake Charlies) made a cinnamon velvet cupcake that contained a goat cheese and jalapeno jelly mousse center which he then iced with a maple butter-cream frosting that he topped with bacon. I must admit when I heard him working up his cupcake idea in the kitchen I wasn't sure how behind it I was but I think his ultimate choice was daring, creative, and inspired.

Taste and presentation brought back more of those familiar red velvet cupcakes and fondant toppers a Cupcake Wars viewer may be getting very used to seeing. However, because Ace of Cakes desserts are always draped in fondant this may be the week to go ahead and make that move.

Everything that Alyssa quite literally brought to the table was beautiful and sounded fantastic but she had me with her banana bomb; which was "a banana, cream cheese, pecan, caramel topped cupcake." Even hard to please Florian Bellanger (formerly) of Fauchon (a favourite of mine) was able to enjoy it. All of this made it a shock to me to see her go.

Mike's choice to utilize his cell phone camera in conjunction with an available edible printer to make Duff toppers was once again, a unique move. I. Loved it. The finished product was a chocolate cupcake filled with chocolate peanut butter ganache, iced with a peanut butter butter-cream with full peanut butter cup adorned with "Duff's mug."

When it came down to the final presentation challenge I was feeling totally on board with team Mike. He'd proven himself to be a creative baker who consistently brought something tasty to the table. But what really seemed unique was how incredibly thoughtful he was in all of his preparations. With every challenge he kept who he was baking for in mind and it always showed through. Apparently his final presentation just did not quite bridge the gap between thoughtful and event appropriate.

In all honesty this is where the show ended for me. Tuesday's winner, Jessica Cuff (The Coffee Shop), was the contestant I had pegged to win from the moment I saw her in the introductions. What bothers me most is that of the four episodes that have aired I have been able to pick the winner this way for the last three. In some cases, the winner was someone who totally deserved it. I just did not feel this was the reason this week. I felt a face that popular opinion considers pretty won with the added help of shameless, open flirting.

Pay Day

Pay day, the day so many of us wait for. Which means I can leave the house to go get a little bit of yarn and notions only to return to the house and not leave again for another two weeks. This also (lately) means - FOOD! WE let ourselves get food from an outside source once every two weeks provided it's very cheap. And thanks to the coupons that came in the mail the place was Steak N' Shake.

Buy one get one free (Limited Time Only) Peppermint Milkshake.

99 cent chili.

I recommend that at the end of the meal if you and who you go with to have a race to see who can get their milkshake in the to-go cup the fastest.

What we saw when we left - priceless.

Then off to the grocery store for some juice and toilet paper. In the toilet paper aisle next to the Kleenex I saw this:

Press the button and these motherly figures tell you that you need to try not to get sick and that you should use some Kleenex.

I think the little tvs are cute.