Flowers

This week has been a rough one.  I've been duking it out with shingles, or as they call in in Lebanon, "firebelt."  I feel like I've lost, every step of the way.

Some of my friends brought me flowers, beautiful, pink and white flowers, to cheer me up a little.

I love flowers, so these have brightened my day.  I thought I would share some tips on how to keep fresh-cut flowers nice a pretty just a little longer.

1.  Cut the angles at the stem with a sharp knife.  Cutting the stem at an angle allows for more surface area for the flowers to absorb water.  Using a dull knife can mash the base which interferes with the flow of water.

2.  Change the water often, at least every other day, especially whenever it looks murky.

3.  This is an important one.  Prune away any leaves or foliage that're below the water line.  They will start to decay before the flowers, and then the contaminated water will get drawn up into the flowers, speeding up their decay.

4.  This may sound obvious, but make sure all of the stems in the bouquet reach the water.  Sometimes in big bouquets the shorter stems don't make it all the way to the water and they die off first.

5.  Remove flowers that wilt first from the bouquet.  This preserves the life of the healthier flowers.

6.  If your flowers come with one of those packs of flower food, use it.  Flowers in Leb don't come with them, unfortunately. 

You may know all of these already; not sure how common knowledge they are...  Hope they help you, like me, enjoy the flowers that brighten your days just a little longer.

How to Get Your Cake Out of the Bundt Pan

One of the scariest things about using a bundt pan is getting your cake out when it's done.  Bundts are notorious for mauling your cake when you try to take it back.  Over the years, I developed my own little timing, and it seems to work well so I thought I would share it.

1. Grease your pan with oil, butter, or cooking spray.
2. Dust with flour.  I skipped this step for years; it seemed messy and who wants to stop to bother with that when your delightedly and impatiently putting your cake in the oven?  However, this step has proven to be very important.  
3. Don't over or under cook your cake.  I know that seems obvious, and you don't do it on purpose.  However, if your cake is too wet or too dry, there may not be much that can help it.
4. (This was a shocker to me.) Let the cake cool for about 30 minutes before removing it from the pan.  It seems natural to either try to remove it immediately or let it cool completely, but I've found neither succesful.  I always tell people, "Let it cool until you can pick up the pan with your bare hands, and then flip it and take it out."  Again, that usually takes about half an hour.  

Voila!  Hopefully your creation is sitting beautifully on a plate on your counter.  However, if you cake ever does stick, there are a couple of last minute tricks you can turn to:

1. If you have almond bark in the house, heat it up and drizzle that stuff all over.  No one notices anything past that beautiful chocolate shell. 
2. Powdered sugar.  It's like the glitter of the baking world.  You can try dousing it all over, and see where that gets ya. 

Hey, sometimes I like to do these things anyway.  Let me know if this was helpful, or if you have any other handy tricks of your own.

Bad with Dates?

Today I lost my planner.  Life seemed to unravel in those few hours I couldn't find it, as I had no idea where I needed to be or when.  The search for it consumed most of my morning, and I delightedly stumbled across it after staff meeting.

If it weren't for that spiral-bound collection of dates and modern technology, I would never remember anyone's birthday, would be constantly late (if not absent), and wholly unreliable.  Yet, human advancement has saved me, and now I am a mostly-on-time lady of the 21st century.

In honor of this progress, I thought I'd point you to a handy, helpful Facebook feature you might not know about:  the weekly birthday email.

You can have Facebook send you an email every Sunday with a list of all of your friends' birthdays that week.  To get to this setting:

1. Click on the drop-down arrow next to "Home" in the upper right-hand corner and go to "Account Settings"
2. Go to "Notifications"
3. Go to "Facebook" and click "Edit" 
4. Check the box for "Has a birthday coming up (weekly email)"

Sorry, this won't help you for sweet people like your grandma who aren't on Facebook.  But hey, it's a start.