Attic Adventurs: 2017

It started Tuesday night, with the sound of fire trucks outside the window. It continued for hours, late into the night.

WHY? WHY?! Jackhammering. At 10:30 pm. Outside the window. Strange septic aroma. Pickaxes. Backhoes. An excavator. Flashing lights. Emergency vehicles. Union dudes.
Sleep was going to be challenging. 

Wednesday night. Note on the elevator. No cooking gas that night.

Tonight. Note on the elevator that gas/electric utilities needed to be in Attic on Friday and upcoming Monday - and OH THEN...

THEN the super and his wife presented me with this box and made me sign for it while they said - there will be notes under alllllllllllllllllll of the tenants' doors.
 

Long story short, I will not be cooking with gas for possibly 4-6 weeks. So. Yeah. Or using the dryers in the building.

Hello landlord-provided shiny new kinda hot plate? Where the hell am I plugging you in in the Attic of no kitchen counters?

(Honestly I am relieved. Was beginning to think the smell was a neighbor who... hadn't been seen for a while and was possibly a 'former neighbor'.)

'Tis the Season, to be Baking ... Fa La Laaaa

On the second night of baking, 

my oven hit 

375 degrees. 

Fa La La

La LA LAAAAAAA

There's a office holiday party on tomorrow, so I'm taking treats. Tonight was night 2 of the holiday baking.

Tuesday night, I made dough for these snickdoodles and a Nestle Tollhouse cookie base. I also made a batch of mint brownie bites (with this recipe, scooped into mini-muffin pans and stuffed with a half of an Ande's mint candy) and a new recipe, a pan of the McCormick Cinnamon Caramel Swirl Brownies. 

Tonight I made these snicker-doodles and the Tollhouse cookies, also scooped into the mini-muffin pans, half stuffed with a Hershey Kiss and half with a Reese's Peanut Butter cups.

This last batch of snicker-doodles got a little crisper than I like, because I got distracted watching Mary Berry and the last episode of the U.S. ABC version of the Great Holiday Baking Show. (The UK show is so much better, but I love Mary's style.)

I always go a little overboard, but there is enough for the hostess's kids, guests to take home left-overs, people who drive me to have left-overs, and for me to eat too many.

Total:

2 doz. PB bites;

2 doz. Kiss bites; 

4 doz. choc. mint browning bites; 

3 doz. snicker-doodles; 

and

1 tray caramel bars

Wait. How am I taking all this on the train?

Oh ...

Fudge. 

Still, this is NOwhere near my holiday baking output of days of yore.

~ photos by iPhone

Harvest Season 2015

Harvest Time and everything is coming up RED. It's tomato time in the office garden. And other things.

Last year, the zucchini plants were home to a toad. This year, I found that the garden was home to ... older things.

Little did I realize when I went to harvest the tomatoes that I was actually a fossil hunter as well.

I give myself about 20-30 minutes every other morning or so, OR as fast as I can fill up a bucket or two.

This is what the crop looked like this morning spread out to air ripen and for people to take home. (Some of the larger tomatoes were from yesterday's bucket. And can you spot the dino?)

Yesterday it was: 1 person, 1 pail, 2 spiders, 2 crates, 30 minutes in the office garden for a tableful abudanza of veggies. 1 zucchini=5lbs

 Zucchinis to scale*

 Cucumbers to scale

* I made a LOT of zucchini baked treats for the Box Office kids this summer.
They never did believe me that there was zucchini in the chocolate cakes.

Earlier this summer, we had kale and lettuce, not to mention herbs,

 which we used for garnishes, kale chips, salads, etc.

We've also had beans, peppers, egg plants, and squash.

I would have picked more that day, but I was in a dress, it was hotter than blazes, and those beans STICK to you if you aren't watching. (Harvesting in a Festival dress = not a good idea.)

 There are also pots of things scattered around offices and porches.

FORESTS of Fennel

Plus the wild stuff.

What do you do when someone hands you a cup full of wild backyard raspberries? You make mini lemon raspberry muffins to share.

Pardon me -- it's time for dinner: A BLT with an office grown tomato OR (call me Mistress of the Obvious, why didn't I think of this earlier this summer?) an adult sized, dinner sized Cucumber Sandwich.

Note: Too bad there were no pumpkins planted this year.These were spotted back in 2013.

 

 Outside the HR office. No word on whether there was a Carve your Complaint into this Pumpkin contest.

~photos by iTouch

Retroblogging: Celebration California CEO, March 16, 2015

Mid-March was chock full of celebrations. This was celebration number 2.

For the surprise one in honor of our CEO's birthday, I thought I was SO clever to find a recipe that would pay homage to his California background. I found this recipe for an Earthquake Cake in my new-to-me Cake Mix Doctor cookbook (thank you public library sale for $2) and said to myself -- voila! Perfection.
 

You would think. Wouldn't you?

My first clue should have been that all of the overhead lights in my kitchen chose that weekend to burn out. Both of the large, overhead, florescent circular tubes ... BOTH. Two tubes that are so "vintage" that you have to go to a specialty store to find them. NOT your local CVS or 7Eleven.

LUCKILY, my emergency preparedness kit had a lantern in it for ... emergencies. Earthquakes = emergencies. Baking Earthquake Cakes in the dark = emergencies, right?

I SHOULD have realized that if you are making something and the name of it is something that is used to describe a natural disaster -- well. That should be a CLUE.

Even though the recipe did have directions to adapt it into cupcakes, let's just say ... My Earthquake Cake should have been called Volcano Cupcakes or Tsunami Sticky Cups, because ... oy ... my oven. Those sticky suckers needed some serious time to cool and even then I couldn't get them out of the tray. I think I am still chipping off gooey coconut from the bottom of the stove.

I took the extra batter and poured it into a regular rectangular pan for the remainder of the bake. That was somewhat better.

At least they tasted good. Sweet, but good.

Luckily, my contribution to this party was just a few treats and my space. The CEO's assistant came in and decorated it into a beach party extravaganza. I got to "enjoy" the ambiance for a while - and not being able to see out my windows.

View from my computer out into the room:  

Yes, they wrapped the windows AND the filing cabinets.

 Yes, I had to duck around lanterns all week.

 Yes, all I could smell was chocolate.

It was INCHES FROM MY FACE!

Yes, we dressed up in silly outfits. 

 Yes, we got him good.

 

 Yes, I think we exceeded the Fire Marshall's occupancy rating for my space.

 

 Yes, we like to party.