My Petit Fours (petty fours) Were Piti-Ful

Hey, Y'all,

We had the pleasure of Jennifer's company for a great deal of today. I got up at 7:30 this morning, and worked on quilt squares till about 9:25 and then got online and chatted with daughter, Teresa, till close to 10 a.m. and then went into the kitchen to begin making breakfast for the three of us (Jennifer, Gramps and myself). Jenn arrived about 10:20 or so and by that time, I had the sausage cooking and the biscuits ready to put into the oven. I fried the eggs, made the coffee, got out the sugar-free preserves and the unsalted butter for the biscuits. Then we set the table and after I dragged Gramps out of bed, we sat down and asked a blessing on our meal.

After breakfast, Jenn got out her laptop computer and showed us pictures of her recent trip to Chicago with her friends from Carson Newman College, and told us about the pictures and the buildings and parks that they visited while they were there. It was very interesting! The pictures were marvelous, and the young people in the pictures were very charming.

Then we went into the living room and chatted awhile. I showed her the quilt squares and we planned out a scheme for putting it together. I think it will be pretty.

To make the icing for my petit fours, I had to have a double boiler, so Jenn and I went to Walmart early this afternoon and I purchased said double boiler because I didn't have one, and had been wanting one for a long time. I came home with my double boiler and a few other things that were necessary. I got home and Jenn left to help her friend move, with a promise to return later.

While Jenn was gone, I decided to tackle the petit four cakes for Rachael's wedding shower. By the time I got through with all that powdered sugar, it was all over. My daughters could tell you that I really throw myself into that kind of thing. Teresa is reluctant to let me into her kitchen when I am planning to use flour or sugar (dry stuff that is powdery and can wind up just about anywhere, you know.)

I belong to the Julia Childs method of cooking, and when I accidentally fling a little flour or sugar around, I say, "Oh, well, that won't hurt anything and we'll get it later." By the time I got the powdered sugar, white corn syrup, water, flavoring, into the top of the double boiler and the cake cut into little squares, I was beginning to have a mess that was going to take time to clean up, for sure. As you may know, anything worth doing is going to have a cost, usually of effort, time, and quite often, money.

One is supposed to place the little cake squares on a baking rack, over a pan to catch the drips of icing as it is poured over the squares. My efforts were practically useless. I had powdered sugar on a stove eye, on the kitchen counter, in a bowl (well, I did try to keep it over a bowl to measure it out of the bag into the measuring cups) The measuring went pretty well, until I tried to spoon back into the bag the part that flowed over the edges of the measuring cups into the bowl. That was when it sprinkled onto the stove eye, onto the oven handle and slightly onto the kitchen floor. Well, you get the idea, I am sure.

When I tried to pour the icing over the little cake squares, it wouldn't stick to the little cake square sides and more went into the baking pan (I was using a roasting pan rack) and the cake squares wouldn't stay evenly placed, they kept tipping over. The spoon kept dragging crumbs off of the cake when I tried to drip the icing onto the cake squares. It was literally no use. We ate some of the squares that I did get icing on, and I sent the rest of them home with Jenn. Don't expect I will be doing any of those for the wedding shower for Rachael. My kitchen is clean now, however. I spent a good 40 minutes cleaning it after Jenn left for Jefferson City this evening.

I'll be making mini cupcakes for the shower, I know I can do that.

Jenn and I had a wonderful time sitting on our front porch this afternoon, talking about her hopes and dreams for the future. We also went up to the neighbors so that they could meet each other.

We had a lovely day today, and now it is over and Gramps is headed for bed soon. He and I really enjoyed having our honorary granddaughter, Jennifer, with us today.

This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for tonight. I hope I have brought some fun and humor into your day with my true little story. God bless each of you, my friends,

Love to you all, Bye for now.