Food Critic

As stated earlier, I love food. Love to cook it, bake it, eat it, taste it and smell it. Along those lines, I wanted to share a little treat with you! I made a Red Velvet Cake for Valentines Day. This is not a mix, it is made from scratch. I love the photo that one of our photographers took of it, PROPS to SHANE VANBOXTEL.

So, I also like to critique the food that I make. Here is my breakdown of the above cake. Color and presentation- Beautiful! Fun to look at, fun to serve and brought on the WOW factor from my guests. Frosting- home made cream cheese frosting, when made correctly, you really cant go wrong there. I use this frosting on my pumpkin bars, carrot cake, zuchinni bars- you get the idea. Flavor- pretty good. Certainly not my favorite cake. It has a mild cocoa flavor on the back end. It is NOT a good cake for a chocolate fix. Sweet, a little but not too much (hence the use of the cream cheese frosting), more rich than sweet. What I DIDNT like about the cake is the texture. It was VERY dense. Moist yes, but dense. I prefer a tender, fluffier cake.

Overall, it went over very well. Everyone liked it. I would give it a "B". I would only make it again if it were requested. There are too many other yummy cakes that EASILY get "A's".

Sledding- Not such a big fan today.

I love to sled, ski snowshoe, play in the snow, all of that. I know with complete certainty that I was made for snow. I love the winter and I love snow.

For this year, I am taking some time off from sledding. It "won" this year. That's fine snow, I win every other year. You haven't heard the last of me.

Lemon Flavor- For Real?

Lemon flavor, can you please tell me who invented this and why? Yuck. Doesn't everyone know that RED is the #1 most preferred flavor? Why doesn't lifesaver just make every other color RED? I like red, my kids fight over it, its usually one of the 2 maybe 3 colors I eat.

Sorry yellow, but when I throw you away, I dont even feel bad. You can sit in the trash next to lime. Better luck next time.

"Why are taxes so hard for the Average Person"

This morning that is what a co-worker asked me. I personally do not think they are hard, I like them. I like trying to figure out how to bring my AGI down so that I can pay less taxes! It's a bit of a cat and mouse game. I would never ever lie on my taxes and I dont think you should either, but there are ways that are COMPLETELY LEGAL, that bring your AGI down therefore lowering your tax due for the year. Here are some of them:

Deductions, Deductions, Deductions! Find them, use them, make them! You can deduct a portion of medical expenses, home interest paid, personal property taxes paid, sales state tax paid, financial donations...the list really does go on and on.

Skip the standard deduction and go for the Itemized Deduction- its well worth the effort- if you are crafty enough it could reduce your AGI(Ajusted Gross Income) by a lot of money. For example, if you can find $20,000 in deductions, you lower your taxable income by that amount and can save $1000- $2000 on your taxes. (Depending on your tax bracket!)