Pioneer Woman Picked One Of My Photos!!!!

December 19, 2009Patricia @ ButterYum

Pioneer Woman Black & White Photo Contest Finalist by ButterYum

Whoo-hoo. Pioneer Woman picked one of my photos for her recent photo assignment "Black & White Photography". I feel like I hit the lottery (I guess I did, the blog lottery!). This news definitely made my day, especially since we're in the midst of one of the worst snow storms to hit the greater Washington DC area in 30 years.

Update: It's three days later and I just found out my photo didn't make the latest cut of finalists. I'm a little bummed, but it's really okay. I'm truly happy to have been included to begin with.

The snow has been falling for about 12 hours and is supposed to continue through tomorrow morning (another 24 hours). Here are a few photos from the storm.

December 18, 2009 Snow Storm Virginia ButterYum

As the snow was beginning to fall last night.

December 19, 2009 Snow Storm Virginia ButterYum

Oops, we meant to put the patio furniture away before the storm hit.

I love this shot!

That's all for now. I'll post more photos when the snow stops falling. Thanks for visiting and sharing in my excitement. If you'd like to see more of PW's black and white photo pics, click here.

Okay, time to head into the kitchen. I have beef stew to braise, cookies to make, and cakes to bake. I hope the power doesn't go out!!! See you later!

Day Two:

It's nice to have wonderful neighbors who own heavy machinery.

After 24 hours the snow is still falling, but the driveway is finally clear - let's hop in the car and go on a scouting mission.

(so glad we kept that snow blower from our days in MN)

So pretty.

Cute!

Here we are at a neighbor's house, 4 houses away from ours. The road was not passable beyond this point so we had to turn around. Sorry you can't see the lovely wreath, eagle statue, or lantern, all buried under the snow.

Well that was a fun 1/4 mile drive. Now we're headed back home. Can you see how narrow the path in the road was - just barely wide enough to drive through.

The morning after - hooray, the snow has finally stopped falling.

I think this is more snow than we've had in this part of Virginia for the past 4 winters combined.

The official total accumulation according to a neighbor who has a weather station data recorder thingy in his yard - 18.25 inches.

Last year we never even pulled out the shovel.

Bye for now.

categories misc

A Wedding Cake For My Baby Sister

October 13, 2009Patricia @ ButterYum

I had the pleasure of making my baby sister's wedding cake this past weekend.

I spent one day baking all the layers - 3 tiers, 2 layers each.

Spent another day (and night) making the buttercream, applying the buttercream, making the buttercream look perfect, and finally, stacking the tiers.

I use a bench scraper to get the sides of my cake very straight. Don't say I never shared any secrets with you.

I use drinking straws as internal supports (yet another secret). I stack the cakes with a little buttercream "glue" between the tiers, leaving about 1/4-inch of space between the tiers - the space is covered later. I drove a wooden dowel down the center of the cake to keep the tiers from shifting in the car.

ButterYum Deep Chocolate Passion Wedding Cake

Once the ribbon, flowers, piping, etc are added, the 1/4-inch space is completely hidden.

This Deep Chocolate Cake with Amaretto Italian Buttercream was super yummy! Wish I could have shared it with each and every one of you!!

Btw, did I mention that we had to drive 3 hours to the wedding? Normally I would dread driving a stacked cake that distance, but this past weekend the color of the autumn leaves were at their prime. We had 3 full hours of these stunning views - enjoy!

Happy Fall - 2009!