Pickles n' Tickles by JJ

In a couple of days, I complete and begin another year of my life, officially gravitating towards the late 30s. I don't know what to feel about it. Mostly, I'm not too happy about how time is just eating up my life. In no time, I'll be 40 and then comes the 50s. Not sure what's beyond that if I'm still around! Maybe it's the nightmare I had last night where a swamp of wasp or wasp-like insects washed over me. They didn't sting but they were kind of evil, like they had meant to harm me and they actually did. Soon, I was panicking. My legs swelled up, my face bloated with visible blisters. Mom was rushing my brother to send me to the hospital but he just stood there in his usual lackadaisical way, maybe even taking comfort with what he saw as I became frantic. And then, I woke up.  I have vivid dreams every night and I remember them in detail. During deep sleep, I know that I'm in a dream and some days, the dreams are a continuation of something I'...

The template has been changed since the last post. The red was alarming, I couldn't think straight looking at it. Maybe this will do, for now. Clean, simple and blue. I speak of blue often which may lead people to think that it's my favourite hue but green is more like the colour for me. Blue, I admire from afar. Green, I have it on me. But both make me incredibly happy.  The husband had a job offer coming his way recently. We were excited because that will bring us to Abu Dhabi, by far my most favourite place to live in the Gulf and UAE. However, it did not work out. As much as I like staying put in one place, I realise that I have a secret addiction for moving and starting over. I didn't notice that until recently but I think the older I get, the more governed I am by the need for something new. Not materialistically though. I cannot imagine being calm and content about being stagnant geographically, socially and mentally. Physically too, if I count my need to run it ...

I'M hooked. Like majorly hooked on whipping out buttercream and icing it. So I'm always baking these days. The joy of being able to play with colours and sugar to create pretty, yummy edibles that brighten up my day as much as they make many more happy is awesome. Right now, I'm just experimenting with various buttercream recipes, buttercream roses, perfecting the techniques and trying to establish some semblance of order in the kitchen while I work with butter and cream, sugar and spice. Working with this frosting during summer is quite a challenge as I really dislike having the air-conditioning on. I've no choice though if I want to have a nice, stable batch.  The early roses. You can tell they're messy.  Practice led to these .  ...And then, I ran out of icing.  So I felt like flattening those roses and I did ! Here's a basic buttercream recipe that I love. It's wicked, the kind of #badfood you'd want to keep in your li...