Thanksgiving! And, dare I say... A RECIPE!!! :)

Dear Readers,

I'm going to share something with you.  Something very intimate about Miss Mandi J. Crocker.  A peek into my inner workings, if you will... and that is this:


My worst fear is not 2012 or Swine Flu... it's not a California mudslide while driving over Laurel Canyon or hitting a patch of black ice while driving on my way to Chicago... It's not being eaten alive by red ants a la that crap Indiana Jones movie or a tear in my spacesuit like that awesome movie 'Space Camp.'  And finally, it's not even falling down an elevator shaft like in 'The Big One: The Great Los Angeles Earthquake" starring --God bless her--Joanna Kerns and  --he's doing God's work-- Ed Bagley Junior... Oh no... it is an even worse fear.  My fear is that...

...SOMEONE'S GOING TO HIT UP A MICKEY D'S 

AFTER ONE OF MY DINNER PARTIES.  

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

*shivers, shivers, "It's so cold here", shivers*

I KNOW!!!  TERRIFYING!!!  :(  What if there isn't enough!?  What if everything is too frou frou & they can't get their 'feed' on!?  What if everything tastes like poodely oodely & my guests are like "Well, that was sweet of her to host but next year we're getting a bucket at the KFC!"  That'd be TERRIBLE!!!  :(

And THAT, ladies and germs is my worst fear.

(And that I won't meet Elijah Wood before I move to Chicago).

Thankfully that didn't happen this year, I don't think.  The amount of food I make, the amount that gets eaten, the amount that is left over = TOO MUCH.  I CAN'T HELP IT!!! I'm my father's daughter. Word.

So here is just a taste of what we had to offer this year at Da Crocker's home kitch.  And for even MORE exciting news... One of these pictures is going to be a recipe I've included at the bottom--- oooooh, exciting!!!  Which one, which one!!!??  :)  :)  :)

Nope.  Not my seester, Dingy Dongy's, amaaaaaaaaaaaazing sweet potato casserole.  I'd can my own yams before she ever let me touch that one!  :)

Or is it the super delicious & moist red velvet bread pudding???

Hmmm... hmmm... interesting... interesting.

D'oh!  What about the pumpkin SPICE bread pudding.... Huh?  Huh?  Yup, that's a possibility.

DANG IT!  Why are you sideways, picture!?  Why!!??? Okay, Glen's pie (aka: Glennard) is not the recipe.  Get it off the Libby's can, Lazies!!!

Oooooh, how about Mom's Mac & Cheese!???  The one I used yellow cheddar for & forgot white cheddar altogether and therefore will be disappointed with myself til kingdom come???  Is it THAT one!?  Nah, it hurts too much.

Chicago Chi-Nanigans!

Last week I flew to Chee-cago to visit The Sweet Lovin' Man.  It was a jam PACKED week of fun & productivity.  Only a month & a half til I leave Los Angeles (*sniff, sniff*) and haul all 8,000 lbs (just kidding, honey!) of baking equipment to Chicago.

Because I'm Little Miss Productivity, I tried to make this trip as business-y as possible.  So I had two commercial kitchen meetings, we spent a day going to three different craft fairs to see how MandiCakes might do there and The SLM & I sat down to really discuss the best avenues to take from there, etc.

VERY EXCITING.  :)

But we did make room as best we could for some fun!  First things first:  'Million Dollar Quartet!'

Million Dollar Quartet is a musical based on the true story/recordings of the magical December 4th, 1956  evening when music's most famous rock and roll legends found themselves under the same roof at Sun Records:  Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins

It was AWESOME!  Tappin' my toes from the first chord!

I have no idea if the below link will work.  If it doesn't, go here!

Our family friend, Levi Kreis, plays Jerry Lee Lewis & he is phenomenal!!

(This picture of me, however, is NOT phenomenal).

Lance Guest, the actor/singer that played Johnny Cash was SO SPOT ON I felt like I was getting to hear the real Johnny sing years after his death.  SO COOL!!

Later in the week, the SLM took me to this place:

I've decided I am officially (if I wasn't before) a cupcake snob. 

You've really got to wow my socks off, folks.

And to be even MORE holier than thou-- I just don't like their 'signature flower' frosting design.  I don't know why but it just doesn't appeal to me.

Our favorite was the strawberry.  That was delicious!  It had decent chunks of berry in it and the cupcake was pretty moist.  The others were fairly lackluster.  The flavor choices weren't very exciting either.

 I didn't like how a Smores cupcake was chocolate cake, chocolate frosting and then a marshmallow & piece of graham cracker stuck on the top.  Like the little decoration is what made it a Smores. 

Ummm... Just because I pincurl my hair & wear red on my lips, doesn't mean I live in the 40's.  Pssh-shuh!!! 

That makes no sense.

I'm weird.

But who knows...  Maybe when I have my own place someday I, too, will have dry cupcakes. And I'll whine when MandiHines (see what I did there?) decides to write a blog about me!

On Saturday night we went to the Bulls-Sixers game. 

These are the most horrible photographs!

A)  We had AMAZING seats.  Truly. 

Section 101, Row 2.

Cry me a river!

B)  These pictures don't do it justice.

But here it goes!

The flying bull... looks more like a pig floating off into the middle distance to me but whatever.

"Some dude" (I imagine he's famous & he makes a ton of money) shooting a free throw:

The intense action shot of the game!

Oooh... or maybe this is it!

Nope.  We have a winner. Zzzzz....

I like Benny the Bull, Chicago's mascot.  He's kinda fun. 

Dude- er, I mean Bull can dance!

He's what the french would call a 'real crowd pleaser.'

This was one of those 'Race-As-A-Balloon-Bull' games ticket holders play to win a free donut or something.

And here we have #13.

  I imagine his name is Stefano Federique.

I'm pretty sure I'm wrong.

I'm pretty sure my boyfriend is calling me right now with the correct information.  Not just with his name of course, but with his height, shoe size, blood type and his favorite scent at Yankee Candle!

They look enthralled.

Truly.

+"How much do we make?"

-"A zillion dollars."

+"Oh. We should play hard-- zzzzzzzzz."

Stefano looks like he's text messaging!

Despite not knowing any of the players currently playing on the Chicago Bulls, it was a great time.  I love to go to basketball games! 

Wait... Michael Jordan doesn't play anymore, right? 

IT'S A JOKE, HONEY!!!  :)

And that's it.  We did a ton of other stuff, ate at some great restaurants but I can fill you in further when I'm LIVING in Chicago.  As for now, this yahoo needs to go to bed!!

Goodnight, y'all!  :)

MOVIE REVIEW: 'PRECIOUS'

I went to go see 'Precious' with my seester last night.  The performances were AMAZING.  Here is my movie review as written for a letter to Jesus:

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for my life.  Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life. Thank you for my life.

THANK YOU.

Love,
Mandi

Hollow Weenie Costumes

It's tradition that every year Marie and Chris have a Halloween party and an Oscar Party.  And every year, people come out of the woodwork with hilariously brilliant ideas.  The day after, everyone wants pictures.  So I'm posting them here, dagnabbit!  Easier.  :)

My favoritest Jacoley Poo dressed up as The Ghosts of Costumes Past.  Since we're a creative bunch, it was a lot of fun to relive some of our past costumes.  And she lugged that awkward picture frame around like a trooper!

The Ipod (my roommate Kell) is an Ipod!!!! 

LOVED IT!!!  :)  :)  :)

My friend Candy dressed up as Marie. 

Marie has a thing for penguins & Diet Dr Pepper.

Chris was Jigsaw. 

(By the way, this is Chris' workout bike). 

The illustrious Miss Karen as 'Sign of the Times.'

Karen can do better than this.  You'll see!

And then you'll want to fling yourself off a roof.

*sigh* Marie.

Marie as Susan Boyle.

Marie is the most genuinely fun-spirited person on the planet.

The only thing funnier than Susan Boyle is Susan Boyle playing Led Zepplin.

I was a terribly thrown together Julia Childs so I didn't take any pictures.  It's very sad cause I actually do a pretty decent impression of her if I do say so me-self! Instead I'm going to show you my horribly thrown together pumpkin cake.

"I made this pumpkin cake out of creme fraiche and a deboned duck. BON APPETITE!"

Oh my gosh, my friend Lisa.

She's a Twitter Page.

She updated her board all night.

HILARIOUS!!!!!!

So cute!!

SO FUNNY.

These people are just loveable & wonderful.

Panda Express Bears, Mama & TJ, won first place.

AWESOME!!!

Now because these people are psycho-- I mean incredible, I'm going to show you some previous costumes that have been my favorites.  Enjoy!

Millie as Michaelangelo! 

(We're theme party people).

I'm the black smoke from 'Lost.'

I made 'Ching, ching, ching' noises all night!

A bit of trivia:  Did you know that the sound the Smoke Monster makes from 'Lost' is actually the noise a cab makes when it's tallying up your mileage.

I KNOW!  I was walking in downtown Chicago & almost soiled myself when I heard the noise.  Thankfully, it was just a cab.  But for a couple-a-seconds-there... I was gettin' pretty worried.  I like having skin, thank you!

Patsy & Edina.

"Sweetie, darling, sweetie!"

Chris as Edward Scissorhands.

SINCERIOUSLY.

A rule of the Oscar Party is that you MUST wear a costume from that year's list of movies.

Marie is a stewardess from 'Snakes On a Plane.'  And Chris is Edward Norton from 'The Magician.'

This is quite possibly my favorite costume I've done- EVER!

For an Oscar Party. I'm Adriana Barraza from 'Babel.'

You barely remember the movie, don't you?

*sigh*

A golden moment in my life. So fleeting. So brief.

Freakin' Karen.  Is the Celion Dijonaise of the costume world.

She's INCREDIBLE.

This is Mona Lisa (duh!) from The DaVinci Code.

Lisa as a newscaster during the Los Angeles fires. 

She went around interviewing everyone.

HILAAAAARIOUS!

Marie as What's-Her-Face in 'Planet Terror.'

Again, Miss Karen with the Kill Bill action.

And Miss Karen as freakin' Willie Wonka.

She plans all year for these things, you know?

Brokeback Mountain

The lesbian couple from 'Rent.'  HA!

'Take me, baby... or leave me!"

Goodnight, and Good Luck

Ipod was a SWAT person because she likes costumes that make people bleed.

I'm Clementine from 'Eternal Sunshine.' 

Again, with my .34% of the party knows who the heck I am.

But I do it well.

It's all about excellence, people.

And creativity.

And I'm weird.

Cleve Jones & Harvey Milk

Me as Rita Skeeter from the Harry Potter books.  I had big rhinestone studded glasses & a feather pen.

Not in this picture.

Why not in this picture?

I wish I had them in this picture.

*sigh*

This is pre-Harry Potter movies so this is how I imagined her to be.

 

Chris is The Dude from 'Tropic Thunder' and Marie as Eva in Wall-E.

Awwww.  I LOVE my friends.  :)  :)  :)