      
Archive for March, 2010
Saturday, March 27th, 2010
So if you follow us on twitter, you know the news already – we did not win the ISES Minnesota Star Awards. Ah well, kinda figured as much – such an odd category, “best use of food”… a single cake up against entire themed spreads of food was a long shot at best. I digress…
Anyway, photos and video will be coming in the next few days, along with a more proper blog about it all (you know, one I’m not banging out at 12:30 am as my feet feel like they’re gonna fall off!)… but I do want to share something. Well, two things actually. Two little events tonight that MADE MY DAY, and totally eclipsed the whole “losing” thing.
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Posted in News & Events, Random | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
So, to my wedding readers.. a slight apology here. This post isn’t wedding or cake related in even the slightest manner. Deal with it, though – it’s my blog, I can veer waaay off course if I want to! 
Anyway. Lately, the subject of nerd vs geek has come up often. Often, it’s because I get called a geek, and have to gently correct people – I’m not, in fact, a geek. I’m an out-and-proud nerd! That of course raises the question: “What’s the difference?”. Well, there’s a huge difference. Actually, there’s also a huge difference in what is considered the difference, but I’d like to lay out my views on the whole issue.
Nerds are “Literal”. Geeks are more “Fantastical”. I think that sums it up nicely. To elaborate, however..
A nerd is someone who is into information, learning. Curious about the world around them, in a literal sense. We don’t really care too much about Sci Fi (although it can be a fun diversion to watch a movie or whatever), and when we read, it’s usually non fiction. More on this later.
A geek is someone who is into.. well, geekdom. Media. Gadgets. They’re the ones who REALLY get into certain movies / comic books / etc. Someone that can quote entire series, recall a certain issue of a comic, whatever.
Is one “better” than the other? No. Did one “spawn” the other? While nerds were definitely here a long time before geeks… no. I think they’re completely different species! Actually, that’s not completely accurate, as I do believe that there are nerd-geek crossovers. Maybe we’ll refer to these people as “Mules”. Well.. except that nerd-geek crossovers aren’t necessarily infertile. Hrm. Maybe a bad label. Whatever, I digress.
Where was I? Oh yes. Further elaboration!
Nerds have been around *forever*. We get to claim people like Pasteur, Van Leeuwenhoek (my two personal favs), Edison, Galileo, etc. Every old school, bad ass scientist? They’re ours.
Geeks are a fairly new group. I’m guessing they really got their start with the original Star Trek series, but I could be wrong. You see, my status as a nerd kinda inhibits my knowledge of the matter!
When it comes to media, nerds and geeks really verge off in different directions.
Geeks are the ones that are into sci fi and fantasy. As I mentioned earlier, “The Fantastical”. They’re the ones into Harry Potter, Star Trek, Star Wars, and/or anything Joss Whedon’s done, etc. They’re into video and computer games, RPG, and the more fantastical board games.
Nerds… we’ll watch movies, of course. We’ll even be entertained by some of the above mentioned ones. We’re just not THAT into it. We may be more into things like CSI (though we do tend to cringe and mock the horrible “science” involved!), or more realistic shows. We’re far more likely to be reading, and when we read, it’s usually non fiction. When we play board games, we definitely prefer general trivia, or straight-out strategy or thinking games. (Risk). Spare us the trolls and wizards, please!
Growing up, I preferred volunteering in my grade school’s library at lunches and recess, to doing anything social. Even though the books were kinda stupid and way below my reading level at the time (sorry!), I loved it. I loved sorting, I loved the Dewey decimal system.. loved it. Spent my summers at the big public library, reading microbiology textbooks. I knew more about microbiology at age 12 than most university students. Loved it!
As an adult, I’m a learning/linguistics/logistics/culture/science/experimentation nerd. You know why I have so many cake flavors? Because NOT developing new ones is stagnant and boring! I’m always having ideas that need to be tested. This is a huge reason for my upcoming cookbooks – gives me a good outlet for learning, experimenting. It’s cathartic. I need it.
I don’t read fiction at all anymore – mostly because I don’t have time. When I DO read fiction, it’s either a mystery or biology/microbiology related thriller (Love Robin Cook!). I don’t do fairies, spells, trolls, aliens, etc. If I play a computer game, it’s Mah Jongg (although I need to stay away from it, I can easily lose entire days to it. Is there a 12 step program for Mah Jongg?)
Anyway.
The thing is, it’s become “cool” to be a geek – while geek used to be a derogatory term, the geeks have really managed to reclaim it. Kudos to them! There are geeks *everywhere* – Almost everyone I know / consider to be a friend is a geek! My husband is a geek with nerd tendencies, even. I love hanging with geeks, because not only are they fun – I’m always learning something new from them! Where nerds can be more generic, a lot of geeks are almost like .. specialists. If I need a movie recommendation, I know which geek friend to contact (Melissa!). When I needed any info on anything Star Trek related (for our Klingon Cake adventures) – wow, did I EVER have a stable of knowledge to turn to! Music, a new game, whatever. Very specialized pockets of knowledge! Awesome.
“Nerd” is still seen as a derogatory thing, and I think a lot of people tend to be closeted nerds. You just don’t see the proud declarations of nerditude that you do from the geek crowd. (How many people on Twitter declare themselves a nerd on their profile? Not nearly as many as geeks!). Are we more rare? Is it a shame issue? Is it a not-caring thing? Is it because the terms are popularly used as interchangeable for some bizarre reason? I have no idea.
I just know that there is a big difference.. and I’m squarely on the “nerd” side of the fence! Nerd Pride!
Posted in Random | 2 Comments »
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
When hubby and I were setting a date for our wedding, he floated the suggestion of pi day. He was completely serious, by the way.
While his suggestion got vetoed, it did sort of pave the way for how we’d be spending March 14th *every year* thereafter. We host a Pi Day Party… honestly putting way more effort into that, than we do our own wedding anniversary! In hindsight, maybe I shoulda just caved on the date
While I appreciate nerdiness/geeking out in almost any form, I’ve always been confused by his obsession uh.. extremely enthusiastic appreciation.. for pi. But then, irrationality in any form tends to get on my nerves (That was a lame pi joke, for the record.. not *totally* a dig at my husband!)
(A bit of explanation for the less nerdy of my readers. Pi Day is the day that celebrates Pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to it’s diameter. You know, 3.14159265358979323.. etc etc. 3.14… 3/14.. March 14.. get it? It’s also Einstein’s birthday. )
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Pi day in the Porterhouse starts about a week and a half before the actual date, with the construction of our own custom “pi-nata”. Yes, a pinata shaped like the pi symbol! Last year, we posted a tutorial – Click here to check it out.
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While you may not have the time or inclination to take on such a project for yourself at this time, there are many small, fun things you can do to celebrate Pi Day. I find Pi day is an excellent excuse to clean the house and have some friends over, at the very least. You know… and bake pie.
- Have a pie potluck party! I’ll be making a lingonberry-orange zest pie this year, looking forward to see what everyone else brings – even though I’m going low carb at the moment, and actually behaving myself with regards to being allergic to wheat (sob!). Ah well. I’m sure it’ll all smell good anyway
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- At 1:59pm, (again.. 3.14159…), we’ll be toasting pi (and Einstein)… with PInapple punch. Even better yet… this year, we invested in the Pi symbol ice cube tray from ThinkGeek. We’ll have icy little pi symbols floating in the punch, and more used to garnish the glasses. Very Cute.
ThinkGeek actually has a bunch of cute pi themed goodies, check them out
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- Pi Day Trivia! I’d post the link from where I got our questions, but… I know a few of our guests read this blog
- Read off Pi-ku (Haiku with a pi theme!), and then have a pi-ku writing contest. Click here for some examples!).
– Pi Day joke telling. This gets interesting. By “interesting”, I mean the kinds of terrible “punny” jokes that my father in law thrives on. (I’m talking on the order of “What do you get when you cut a jack o’lantern by its diameter? A: Pumpkin Pi!” Groan!).
- Pi Day Sudoku! Click here for the Pi sudoku that managed to fry everyone’s brain at last year’s party!
- Serve pizza. Not only is it ripe for another play on words (PI-zza), it’s round. Perfect. This year, I’ll be repeating my “St Patrick’s Day” pizza recipe that I made last year. This year, I’ll probably get around to actually posting the recipe. Trust me, it’s worth the wait – insanely yummy, and *completely* unlike any pizza you’ve ever tried. Guaranteed.
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– Cookies! I bought this cookie cutter last year. Expensive, but GREAT quality. Love it. May end up using it to cut pie/pizza dough to decorate the other food items, in addition to making pi cookies.
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- Get stuff. I had no idea that other people were as obsessed ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H enthused about pi as my husband is, but there must be quite the pi-cult out there – just found this site, and many others. This one in particular has a ton of cute stuff. Maybe next year!
- Of course, recite pi to whatever insane number of digits you happen to have memorized. I consider myself pretty sane at just 10-12ish digits off the top of my own head.. my husband is quite proud of the fact that he used to know 205 digits. Holy crap. If there was any doubt as to the fact that I married the biggest nerd out there, they’re pretty much quashed at this point. One of the things I love most about him though (the nerd factor, not pi recitation in specific!).*
- I got a bit silly with preparations, and used one of the ice cube trays to make a bunch of melt-and-pour glycerin soaps. Not only will there be a set of 4 pi shaped soaps in each of our bathrooms, each guest will be taking home a little 2 piece set, wrapped in a little pouf of cellophane, and tied of with a green (St Patty’s Day!) ribbon. Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!
So… that’s our pi day suggestion list in a nutshell. Do you have any fun ways to celebrate Pi Day yourself? Be sure to tweet, facebook comment, or email them to us.. or just comment here! We’d love to hear about it!
* Plus, I can’t say much. I used to have the entire periodic table of elements memorized. Not just name/symbol, but location, and most of the atomic weights. Ya. I’d pretty much be a hypocrite if I held his 205 digits of pi thing against him
Posted in Crafts, Inspiration, Interesting, News & Events, Random | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
If you follow us on Twitter, you’ve come to know a few things in the past 24 hours:
1. We’re nominated for an ISES Star award! (Events industry, a BIG deal!)
2. Not only that, the nomination is based on our 4′ long Klingon Bird of Prey cake, which we made back in November for Commedia Beauregard Theatre’s production of A Klingon Christmas Carol.
3. Given that having the opportunity to make such a cake was so ridiculously epic.. actually getting nominated for a big fancy MAINSTREAM industry award for it is completely once-in-a-lifetime!
4. This is a fancypants red carpet kind of event, which means it needs.. Klingons.
Yes, we’ve always been the types of people to live life to it’s absolute fullest, and the idea of having a Klingon entourage at such an event went from “wouldn’t it be awesome if..” to “We HAVE to make this happen!” in a very short amount of time. We don’t have any spare budget for the $300 in tickets that this would require, so we put out a plea to our friends, fans, and followers. To anyone who finds this idea to be full of win, who would be willing to chip in a few bucks to make it so.
The nerd/geek/gaming community has been awesome, and – to date – we’ve raised enough money to buy 2 of the 4 tickets! Thank you SO much to Commedia Beauregard, Kris A Spiesz, Damon Johnson, Margaret Cooper, Shannon Bergeron, & Nik Wachter for their donations! We truly appreciate your generosity, and it tickles us to no end that there are other people out there that agree – this is a great idea!
Well, I’ve got friends in AWESOME places… and I am SO excited to announce that our friends over at the most RIDICULOUSLY awesome company ever (IMHO!*), Thinkgeek.com have offered to lend their support to our quest!
EVERYONE WHO DONATES TO OUR “SPONSOR A KLINGON” EFFORT WILL BE ENTERED IN A RAFFLE FOR ONE OF TWO 2 $75 GIFT CERTIFICATES TO THINKGEEK.COM
Yes, all caps are obnoxious.. but I really think that statement required it. I am BLOWN AWAY by the generosity! Thinkgeek.. man I love you guys. BIG box of goodies coming your way as soon as I have some time to concoct some funky new experiments for ya!
Those who have already donated will also be entered in the draw. Donations must be received prior to March 22, 2010 – OR before we reach our $300 goal, whichever comes first. Click here to visit our sponsor page, which has all of the details, and a link to donate.
Thank you, everyone, so very much for your support! We were thrilled to be nominated in the first place, and now that it looks like we really will be able to have an entourage of Klingons with us.. just wow. I’m blown away by the generosity and support of the community! As a nerd (me!) and a geek (my husband/Chief Engineering Officer), we are thrilled, honored, and humbled. Represent!!
* I’m not being biased. Although ThinkGeek has been a ton of fun not only to shop from and work with, with regards to our Brownie Mix… they also put THIS video out recently. So completely full of win that there really isn’t anything I can – or need to – say about it! Although I will say, it kinda makes me wanna drop everything, drive out east, and show up on their doorstep, begging for a job with them!
Posted in "You know what would be awesome..?", Interesting, News & Events, Random | No Comments »
Monday, March 1st, 2010
As you may know, I’ve been on a writing sabbatical for the past while. It’s been interesting to spend SO much time *out* of my commercial kitchen – either in my home office, banging out my upcoming cookbook… or in my own, home kitchen, working on recipes for the book.
The time hasn’t been completely cake-less.. the Hannibal cake broke up the writing mojo for a bit… and then a friend celebrated a birthday. Such a crazy, unique individual, couldn’t resist crafting something that suited her. I’ll post more write up later, but a bit of background: Melissa – AKA “Queen of the Lizard People” – is an avid photographer. Recently, she’s taken on a few long term projects, photographing fortune cookie papers, and conversation hearts (separately!)
The cake was entirely edible – The camera & lizard bodies were carved from fresh lemon cake (which was brushed with a fresh lemon syrup, and filled with our tangy fresh lemon swiss meringue buttercream! – she wanted “in-your-face” lemon flavor!), with the camera lens and lizard head sculpted from Rice Krispie Treat. The black fondant was chocolate, the orange fondant was lemon flavored. Yum! Additionally, the “conversation hearts” were made from fondant, and the crown / fortunes were made from gum paste.
Check out the photos!
Posted in Cakes | No Comments »
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Dear Wedding Industry…
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010Dear Wedding Industry,
Hi there. I know that you and I have a weird relationship at times, so I think it’s about time to get some things out on the table with you.
First off, know that I’m not 100% against you. There are some beautiful things about you, that I admire. Some great, honest vendors that are a blast to work with – or just hang out with – who love what they do, are great at it, and take pride in making an honest living. That all is great, and I’ve never had an issue with it. So, that aspect of you.. this letter isn’t directed at you.
There’s this other part of you, the part that I don’t get along with. A big part of it is a lack of understanding. I just think we’re on totally different wavelengths. To be honest, it sometimes feels like you’re this inbred, greasy used car salesman cousin that I’m *supposed* to like/get along with, just because of some tangential, distant relationship. I’ve never subscribed to that sort of thinking even with blood relatives, so you’ll have to understand that it’s extra hard for me to relate to you in business.
We have to share the same air – and the same culture, market, contacts, etc – so I’d love to reintroduce myself, lay some ground rules, and hope that we can come to some sort of understanding going forward.
To all businesses, new and old: Realize that I’m my own person, and I do things my way. It may not be the way that anyone / everyone else does things, but that’s just how it is. Specifically:
- Understand that no, I do not exchange links with someone I have not worked with. For that matter, I don’t exchange links with someone I have worked with, unless I’m absolutely confident that they are an awesome vendor. Please realize that this is not up for debate. I really hate being made to feel like a douchebag, but I will say no to any requests from new businesses / anyone I haven’t worked with.
- Referral fees. Oh, this is a never ending source of annoyance. I don’t care how you choose to label it, I will never pay any sort of fee for a referral. I am a staunch believer in only referring the people that I trust / like to work with / do a great job / are honest / etc. As such, I would never accept payment for a referral either. I place a high value on the fact that my brides can trust that anyone I refer is *great*, and that I have no hidden motive for referring. This is something I am not willing to compromise on, period. To be quite honest, when offered the “opportunity” to pay to be on a “preferred vendor list”, I find it not only personally insulting, I see your business in a different light. I like doing business with businesses that have their brides’ best interest in mind when referring, not just “these are the vendors that have given us money”. It just smells really dishonest to me.
- If your email to me contains any “text speak” at all (unless used in a HIGHLY ironic way, intentionally), or is riddled with spelling and eye-gouging errors in basic grammar… I may not even respond to your email. Please show enough professionalism & respect to use spell check software if it’s a weakness of yours. That goes double for your website.
New Wedding Planners: Boy, you can really tell when there is an economic downturn, as the market gets flooded with wedding/event planner upstarts. Please understand this to be the (long standing!) case. You’re going to really need to work to stand out, and to earn the trust of established vendors. If you, yourself, are a newlywed, you’re going to need to work at least 2x as hard as other upstarts – if we had a dime for everytime we heard “I had so much fun planning my wedding, I decided to do it for a living”.. a lot of the wedding vendors out there could retire on the spot.
New Wedding Photographers: You have the same sort of flood working against you that the wedding planners do. Realize that many wedding vendors are totally inundated with emails from upstart photographers. It does get a bit annoying at times. If your website is professional, and your work is good, you’ll catch our eye. If you offer to work at ridiculously discounted rates (or free) to get your foot in the door, I roll my eyes and delete your email. If you want to be a pro, be a pro. If you want to be a volunteer, or to get practice.. weddings are NOT the venue to do it.
New Wedding Shows: First off, I don’t do wedding shows at all, sorry. It’s my own personal idea of hell, and really – it’s never been a good match for us. Most of our brides do not even attend shows. I do know a ton of vendors that are looking for shows to do, and would be pleased to pass your info along, if it looks like a good match. Lately, however, I’ve been getting a *ton* of promotional packages for new shows in the mail. If I’ve never heard of you, and can’t find information online… and if you obviously have very little marketing planned for, I’m not passing your info along. It’s sad, but I’ve seen a bunch of upstart shows as “a quick way to make some $”. Also, if you’re a show I’ve never heard of, and the organizer is an upstart photographer or wedding planner I’ve never heard of.. that goes double for you.
Wedding Websites: Wow, there is a new wedding website cropping up every 30 minutes these days, I’m sure of it. I could rant for days, but let’s keep this short and sweet. I straddle the line between Gen X / Gen Y, I’m a techie.. and I have a great understanding of how SEO works. The vast majority of emails I get from you are for eyesore sites, not at all that google-friendly, and feature GROSSLY inflated pricing. As an upstart, I am well aware of the fact that you need us wedding vendors *far* more than we need you, so please don’t expect us to spend hundreds of dollars on your beginner site, and please stop filling up my inbox. kthnx.
So… that’s just how it is. Those are my ground rules, take em or leave em. Ah, it felt good to get that off my chest, it all had to be said.
Truth be told, dear cousin.. I hope you clean up the aspects of yourself that I don’t like. In the meantime, I’ll be perfectly content to pick and choose, and just deal with the aspects I get along with and can enjoy.
Ciao!
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