Thinking Outside Of The Box

The cigar box that is...So the other day, I had this great idea to go pick up some of those gum cigars for a happy celebration of the baby coming kind for an old college friend. You know the ones, they are usually pink or blue and sometimes yellow or mint green? Yes, those. Well the only problem...I could not figure out where I would find them. You see we have EVERYTHING in Los Angeles, but the only problem...figuring out where in Los Angeles EVERYTHING is. So this could be an all day mission! Instead of taking this mission, spending a lot of time I didn't have, getting frustrated and road ragey with others and stopping at way too many red lights, I decided well duh! I could make my own cookie version! This option was a jackpot! I went straight home, whipped em up and was done in no time sans road rage & with a lot more gas left in my gas guzzler!

Here is what I came up with. Now I planned to do a quick mini tutorial, but you know, in my time crunch, I sorta forgot to take the tutorial pics...oops! You know the saying...best laid intentions...

So I am sorry no tutorial, but I may be doing them again if someone I know gets a little baby bump and at that time, I promise...TUTORIAL! But for now, feast your eyes on all things pink & blue.

happy baking, happier eating!

Life in 3D

You know what is awesome about this morning? I am sitting at home, drinking my coffee and listening to the sites and sounds of Los Angeles. Okay, maybe that last part is not awesome, but more interesting. As of now, I am hearing the voice of a probably 10-12 year old screaming "Good morning" to every person he sees. What a polite lad!
Actually come to think of it, this little lad screaming "Good Morning" actually helps with some research I have been trying to conduct while living in Los Angeles. My hypothesis: that the mass majority of people in large urban sprawls were not taught proper manners. I came upon this hypothesis because my hubbs and I were both born and raised in small towns. You know the kind of towns with a couple of stop lights surrounded by a lotta fields and filled with people who say "good day" as you walk by? So it appeared odd to me while living in a big ole city that somehow common courtesy was lost in the urban sprawl. So obviously, I assumed, that maybe small town manners are not universal, right?
Well, today I may have been proven wrong. As I sit in the heart of Los Angeles, I have a young boy being courteous to all those who enter his line of sight. Therefore, it is possible that all most people are taught proper manners at some point in their life, but there must be something that happens that diminishes this common courtesy in adult life...hmm...something to ponder right? So I have a challenge for all of you today (including myself), when you are out and about in our all too busy lives. Instead of passing by the people you encounter without a peep, raise up your inner humanitarian and say "good day" to those who come your way! After all, we are living life in 3D aren't we? Sorry for the cheese, I had to transition to what I am posting today ;)
So why am I here today? Well, I need to show some blog love, it's been a while, I know! And what better way to show blog love than to post some pics of the recent 3D cookies I have made. I just love the world of 3D cookies! Whoever invented it, THANK YOU! So here they are folks:
1. Birthday present 3D cookies for a class celebration:

 

 2. Baby theme 3D sugar cookies for a baby shower:

 3. Customized cake topper for a wedding shower (love these BTW):

Happy baking, happier eating, happiest "good-day-ing"

Zen

This is what I need right now, I need some ZEN. So what do I do when I need some zen??? I go to yoga, I get my sweat on, and I get back in balance. It is the most amazing feeling, really it is. So instead of going to yoga today, I am posting some yoga pose cookies I recently made to try to find some zen in this crazy day!Trust me, I am NOT HAPPY about not making it to yoga, but my darn "real job" has prohibited me from going. Why you ask? Well that is because people like to drag their feet and apparently they love to work all day and not actually see anything outside of the stark, sterile hospital ALL DAY LONG! Me, I am not like that AT ALL, I pretty much never actually even want to be at work, much less be there ALL DAY LONG. So if you all don't know yet, now you will, I am an anesthesiologist, so I obviously work with surgeons all day long, and sometimes I want to be a fly on the wall while they are conversating with their loved ones because I swear, surgeons are those people who love to be a the hospital ALL DAY LONG! I mean what do they say to their wives (or husbands because yes, there are female surgeons) "Hi hunny, yeah, another long day at the hospital, you know I just can't get away and truly enjoy spending every minute of my day at the hospital." Doesn't that get old? I would think so! In terms of being a fly on the wall in my phone conversation to my hubby...here is how it goes, "Hi hunny, yes, I. AM. STILL. HERE, just waiting on the surgeon to decide they have worked long enough today and wrap this case up, I hope to see you sometime..." Now don't get me wrong, I love doing what I do, but after 10, 12, 14, 24 hrs straight, it gets a bit tiresome! Because afterall, I am human, and that is a normal feeling to feel, but for some, its just fuel to the fire!


Okay, so now back to ZEN-ing out with my yoga cookies, since right about now I am missing the intense flow phase of my yoga class (not that I am bitter or anything), which is the part that gets my heart pumping, my sweat pouring and my evil humors outta sight & outta mind. I made these cookies for my bff who wanted to bring them to a 30th birthday/slumber party for another friend of ours who loves yoga. The idea was all my bff's, and I LOVE the way they turned out, I may need to consider hiring her in the creative department of my LLC, lol!
Well thank you all for listening to my venting/Zen session, oddly I do feel better! Sometimes you just gotta get it outta your head and onto paper, eh...computer screen I mean. Happy baking, happier eating!

How To Craft Your Own Wine Bottle Cookie When The Mail System Fails You...

Do I win for bloglands longest title evah? I would hope so! Well, I am not even sure there is a competition going on, but if there is (and there should be) I want to win it! I am just competitive like that. It's sort of a condition I have, over-competitive-ness. I do believe I have toned it down a bit since-oh like high school. My HS pals would likely vouch that I was a little tightly wound when it came to being competitive in high school sports, namely volleyball & basketball. It was like I HAD to win, I was possessed! It ruled my every thought on game day, and when we didn't win, it was devastating! I cannot tell you how many times I nearly lost my voice screaming and cheering for my teammates! Man, those were the days, I miss those days! I blame part of my competitive nature on the fact that I played on pretty good teams, (ahem, 1998 Nevada State Volleyball Champs-wow I'm getting old), so that bred my competitive nature. You know nature vs. nurture sorta thing, like maybe I was born at a baseline a bit competitive but then because of my team sport environment, I developed an "overly competitive condition." I'm pretty sure that term will make it on WebMD soon enough! Wow, why did I start talking about this? Oh yes, in defense of winning the longest title award, duh!
Okay, so why such a long post title you ask? Because I wanted to emphasize that although the planning and carrying out of these cookies too a long time, the end product was worth it.
So I got this order for wine bottle cookies (obviously) and I had about a week and a half to turn out 50 of them in time for a 40th birthday party being held on the East Coast. No biggie for the most part except when you don't have the cookie cutter...sooo, I order one thinking if I get it on the sooner end of things, I should have no problemo getting these guys done. Unfortunately, I was on the longer end of the shipping spectrum. It took me a week to get my cutter, yikes, and since I have to leave 3 days before they are due for shipping time, I had to get creative with cutting to finish these cookies. So here is how it all went down.
I used 2 cutters:
2x3" rectangle & 1x1.5" rectangle
Here are my series of cuts...

 smooth all of the seams so that the cookie bakes nicely together

 there you have it, ready to be baked & decorated...

Okay, so although preparing these cookies to be baked and decorated took significantly longer than normal, it was so worth it. I loved the size, look, and the true to real life proportions I achieved by cutting each one individually. But what I liked even more was that when I did receive my wine bottle cutter in the mail, I was SO happy I didn't wait for it! It was TINY! You know, I don't know what kind of ruler people use but the advertised 5.5" cutter was more like 5.5 cm. Yet another reason we should all just be on the metric system, so much easier! So anyway, a little panic, a little creativity & a little extra time to create something I was pretty darn happy with! Happy baking, happier eating!

Owl-lo Kitty

You are stumped, right? You want to know why I am naming this post part owl part kitty. Well duh dolls and dudes, that's because I used a Hello Kitty cutter to make these adorable owl cookies. I got an order for these little owls and thought long and hard about what shape to use. Then unsuspectingly, I was perusing my local cake & candy supply and stumbled upon the Hello Kitty cutter duo. Suddenly it came to me, Hello Kitty's head looms just like an owl! I felt that I was channeling my inner SSB when I had this lightbulb of a moment! I feel that I must admit, I probably would not have bought the HK duo otherwise, I guess I'm one of those weird people who just doesn't love HK!
Okay so there you have it, this is me thinking outside of the box, which doesn't happen much with my type A personality/Capricorn-ism and all. Hope you all enjoy! Happy baking, happier eating!

Disclaimer: my customer sent me a photo of an owl cake that she wanted the cookies modeled after. Although I spent a great deal of time searching for the original source, the only way I could find the image was on google images and then when I clicked on that, it just brought me to another photo upload site, no original source, so I am so sorry that I am not able to give real credit to the original design :( 

short & sweet

Just a quick lil guy I worked up last night as I was finishing up a set of cookies for my favorite little almost 2 year old!

I have been wanting to do a cookie like this for some time, and I thought about a heart one for Valentine's day, but of course, I ran out of time! So I just whipped it up last night and I love it! I was thinking...(scary I know) how perfect would this be to give out as gender announcement favors at a baby shower or as a baby shower favor in general! You could even do pink...that would be adorable!
Well nighty night blog world, happy baking, happier eating!

Tired...

'I'm tired,
tired of playing the game,
ain't it a crying shame?
I'm so tired,
Gosh darnit, I'm tired!'

Sing the above lyrics in your best Lilly Von Shtup voice and then you know exactly how I feel! Every time I tell my husband that I am tired, I picture that I say it just like Lilly does! Now for those of you who don't know the movie I am referencing with this song, let me help. The movie: Blazing Saddles, the song: I'm Tired (you tube it) and despite the fact that Lilly Von Shtup's career (escort) and mine (doctor) couldn't be more opposite, these past couple of weeks I feel like I need to sing her song...well minus all of the "escort/lady of love" lyrics in the song. So really just the final verse (above), I guess. I just want to sing it over and over until I am not so tired!
Who else feels me? Maybe it is the time of year, maybe it is my never ending job, I really have no idea. All I know is I am tired of being tired!

So why do you care you're wondering? Because amongst my being tired-ness, I made some cookies for my grandpa's birthday, and that got me to thinking...my grandpa is now 92, isn't he tired? My grandpa is unlike most 92 year olds. I mean he still drives (not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing) and he still goes wood hunting/chopping every year with his younger buddies (gents in their 70s). Can you picture it, a little old 90 something year old with a chainsaw? Its quite a site and although I haven't seen gramps in action, I have seen the pictures time and again that my grandpa likes to show us when ever we pass through his little town. It is pretty inspiring to think that even at 92, he is still doing something he loves. I mean, I can only hope that when I am 92, I will be baking some chocolate chip cookies for my hubby while we get ready to watch the latest episode of The Price is Right!

 Happy baking, happier eating!

Love Day!

Are you guys totally in LOVE today? I am sure you are just mushie gushie all over the place, right? Did you wear your red, or did you choose pink? Are you soaking in every morsel of divine chocolate given to you by your luva while you smell the long stemmed roses layed out over your bed and try on your new diamond earings...

Wake up people...and look at the simple, comforting romance that surrounds you everyday, not the Hollywood romance that shoots your expectations to the moon on Valentines Day.

My solution...love your luva everyday and eat sweets every chance you get! To entice your sweet tooth, here is a quick tour of my recent Day of Love treats...

the iconic conversation hearts...modern day of course...TEXT ME!

red velvet cupcakes with red heart sprinkles, LOVE THEM!

Combine the two together and you get cute little boxes of confection! I made these sweet treats for a special little guy with a fabulous mom who loves to spoil his classmates with sweet treats!

Chocolate sandwich cookies with vanilla cream filling and of course heart sprinkles, LOVE the HEARTS!

I am pretty sure I HEART these ones, I made them all a little different but equally simplistic. 

And finally, some more HEARTS, the colors are red, pink and deep purple
but they don't look too hot in the pic. 

Well all, I hope your day of love was genuinely happy and as always, happy baking, happier eating!

FIRE!

I know exactly what you are thinking right now...what the HECK does fire have to do with engagement cookies? Then you think to yourself...ohhhh, I know, Linzy is trying to think outside of the box and create the metaphor of FIRE as it relates to the passion and love between a newly engaged couple, that must be it!

Paris Themed Cookies

You guys are shocked, I know, 2 posts in one 24 hour period...crazy! You guys may be about as shocked as my husband was the other night when I actually stayed awake for a whole movie after 3pm! Shocking I know. I used to have a 7pm cut-off for movie watching in my younger years, but now-a-days, seems that cut-off is getting closer and closer to the morning hours. I know what you are thinking...I am pri-tee lame, but let me just tell you, I get some of my best sleep during a movie, its amazing!
Let me just give you a little sample of our pre-movie night conversation...

Merry Christmas II

Amongst the sock cookie craze, I took on a couple other orders. The first were some snowflake cookies I did for a fun group of friends. I wanted to add just a touch of color on each cookie and came up with these:

After these I did two birthday sets that a friend ordered for her two girlfriends. I LOVED these sets because I was given a couple of guidelines as to what the birthday girls liked and was given creative freedom for the design.

Next...some more Holiday cookies

Then there were some Holiday cupcakes in a jar...of course I had to put some cookie additions on them as well...I also planned a little tutorial for these so stay tuned for that...

And finally, my last Christmas order were probably my favorite Christmas cookies thus far. I was going for a modern sophisticated look and I was pretty happy with the end result...sorry about the dark pics again...

Oh wait, there were also some cakepops there at the end :)

 

Okay all, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the love life and laughter of the ones you love! I hope to hear from you all soon and thank you again for following! Happy baking, happier eating!