Garden Update

It’s growing! The garden is growing!!

Seriously so exciting. It’s so fun to see how much bigger the plants are since we planted them in our nifty homemade boxes :)

The tomato, zucchini and cucumber plants are getting so big! We’re going to have to figure out how to support the tomato plants soon…haven’t quite figured that one out quite yet…
Our strawberry plants are doing great too! We’ve even already picked a few strawberries…and they were sooooooooo tasty :) my cute little flower is doing well too – it used to only have one flower…now it has TWO!
See look! Strawberries!!!
Our carrots have sprouted too! They were hard to see, so I provided you with some helpful arrows ;)
Here’s my little herb pot. You can’t really tell, but they have been growing quite a bit too. I gave my basil a haircut, so that I could make baked parmesan spaghetti. Seriously. So. Good. I found the recipe HERE and I highly recommend that you try it. Mine even turned out just like the picture! That, my friends, is success ;)

I now have to figure out how to harvest my rosemary…Do I just take off the little leaves? Or do I pull a stalk up from the root? If you know, tell me, and save me some googling time ;) Because I really want to make garlic rosemary roasted potatoes. I know. They are as delicious as they sound.

Hopefully our little garden will continue to flourish! So excited for the tomatoes to come!

Fabulous Desserts

…if I do say so myself ;)

So are you all still out there? Somewhere? Sorry I’ve been MIA for so long. When you’re working 12 hour days and you get about 3 hours at home before you have to get to bed so you can function properly (which is NOT a guarantee, by any means) the next morning…the little blog here can get a little neglected. So sorry. I do actually have fun things to tell you, even if I have no life…socially speaking ;)

My internship is going well. When I say well, it’s still one of the hardest things I’ve done job-wise and the hours wear on me (and John) like no other and my Type A personality is going to develop a twitch from the many, many, many times people don’t follow directions. But I’m learning a lot about myself and there’s a lot to work on for sure (namely, controlling said Type A personality), but with that said, it’s going well.

One of the cool things we get to do is work on our own side projects (given that we can get all of our assigned work done). Remember that awesome pralines and cream ice cream I made? That was a side project of mine and it fit in perfectly with my schedule because I was working with students in their ice cream and sorbet class.

Last week I was assisting with the plated desserts class and so, because I’m horrible at it, I decided that I would work on conceptualizing and building my own plated dessert as my side project that week. After hemming and hawing over what the heck I could try to come up with…it hit me. We’ve had some beautifully cool weather within the last week or so and the change in the weather made me think: S’Mores. And that began the endeavor to create a “fancy” dessert based on s’mores. :)

We had some ups and downs for sure. I found an awesome homemade graham cracker recipe online that I wanted to use for a tart shell. First go around I realized I should NOT have used any baking powder. It puffed up sooo much in the tart molds, that there was no way I could get any filling in it. Take 2: better, but the recipe itself might need some modifications, simply because I wasn’t just using it as a graham cracker. So my tart shell graham cracker ended up verrrrry crunchy. When I had a tart shell with a good shape, I filled it with chocolate custard and then topped it with a gooey marshmallow. I torched the marshmallow to give it a “toasted” look and taste (and because I totally love using the blowtorch). Along with modifying the tart shell, I would probably use a recipe for marshmallow fluff. Not marshmallow.

Then came the plating. Take one: Not so pretty (I even only took one picture…)

Not a whole lot happening here. Circle plate. Circle Tart. And my marshmallow was looking a little limp and sad. But isn’t my mini graham crackers ADORABLE? (mini = cute) I made some with leftover dough to use as a garnish. But I did manage to add some texture with some leftover chocolate streusel I snagged from Chef En-Ming after her demo.

Take 2: MUCH better

I have a little more movement on the plate here, but I need to work on proportions. The most common comment was “I’d like more marshmallow”. So then I’d have to figure out where it would go and how I’d present it.

General feedback from my chefs was that it has a lot of potential. I’m moving on to other projects in the next few weeks, but who knows? Maybe I’ll revisit it in a month or so… ;)

But JUST so you all know, I don’t discriminate desserts. We are an equal-opportunity-to-be-eaten establishment. In the last few weeks or so I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of comments like “I’d be afraid to bring you a dessert, you’d just do it so much better”. I’m thinking the only reason I wouldn’t want people to bring us dessert is because we already have so much JUNK FOOD (namely, stuff I make) lying around the apartment and wuite honestly, we don’t need more ;) However, to illustrate my point here, I have to show you what we made as dessert for TWO weekends in a row!

Enter Pizzookies! AKA ice cream/cookie/gooey goodness.

From one of my favorite sites, Our Best Bites! (oh…that totally rhymes, too) Super easy. Cookie dough (I made my own, but you can use store bought). Oven safe ramekins. Bake till golden brown but soft and gooey in the middle. Top with vanilla ice cream. Optional: chocolate drizzle. DONE. Ohhhh sooo rich and gooey. Oh. My. Deliciousness. I totally want one now. No cookie dough in the apartment. dang.

And that would be the deliciousness that has been happening recently. I guess I should also announce that we are MOVING! Don’t freak out or anything, we’re just moving to another city about 15-20mins from here. (though I wish we were moving to Virginia…but that’s another story) It’s happening in about 2 weeks and we are so excited! We’re downsizing a little, but we’ll be saving mucho moola (which we totally need right now) so we’re really looking forward to this change!

And I’m signing off for now. Good night!

Blizzard Boredom

;) I’m diggin’ my alliterations for my blog post titles – JUST do you know ;)

SCHOOL IS BACK ON TOMORROW! Thank goodness!! That first day was really nice, the second day was alright, but today…I just couldn’t handle it anymore! I couldn’t even leave the apartment, because of, you know, the two feet of snow outside. There is NO way I’m driving in that. NOPE. So I’ve been stuck at home for the third day in a row. And I’m ready to go back to school. But I think I’ve mentioned before – I LOVE pastry school :) We just got a notice about make up days…which I admit makes me a little nervous, as I haven’t a clue how we’re going to make up these three days. eek!

Anyway, I did actually do some stuff today. Um. Let me think. I was going to tell you all about it! Uh…

oh yeah! I made cards! Because, you know, LOVE DAY is coming up soon :) For our 1-yr anniversary, John gave me a subscription to a paper crafting magazine and I’ve found some pretty cute ideas!

…And I just went to their website to see if I could find a picture of the card I did a knock off on…so you could compare…but they don’t have one, so you just get to see MINE :)Cute huh? I was so proud of myself too because I managed to cut everything I needed out with my Make the Cut software :) Who needs a scalloped paper punch? NOT ME!! I can have the cricut cut it out FOR ME! Oh yeah.

I also redecorated a storage box so that I could use it for jewelry. My necklaces were kind of taking over my nightstand and it was starting to drive me nuts. I bought like 6 of these little fold up boxes from the BYU Bookstore waaay back when, I think when I moved into my first apartment off campus. Anyway, I just couldn’t bring myself to get rid of this extra one, but the look wasn’t exactly what I was going for anymore. So I found some fabric scraps and grabbed my mod podge and wah-lah!
If I’d had more of the white fabric, I would have had that be the bottom. Ahhh but it totally goes with the black/white/red scheme I’m going for in the bedroom. Yeah. It might be overkill on the color scheme, what with it being my V-day color scheme too. But hey. It’s my favorite. I’m the one decorating. I can do whatever I want :)  

And I made dinner!! This is kind of exciting because I get home so late, that John is the one making dinner. (of course, I still have to go through the excruciating pain annoying task of planning dinner – actually, it’s not so bad…but anyway…) So as planned, I made rice pilaf. Yum!

It’s really good. It has bacon in it. (that’s the selling point, I know) Want the recipe?

I know you do. It has BACON in it! So i’ll be nice and give it to you. Ready?

Rice Pilaf
3/4 C uncooked long grain rice
2 minced cloves garlic
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 14oz can of chicken broth
1/4 C chopped carrots (but I like a LOT of carrots)
1/4 C apple juice
1/4 tsp Italian Seasoning
1/2 C chopped green onion
2 slices (or more, your preference ;) cooked, drained and crumbled bacon

1. In medium saucepan, melt butter and stir in rice and garlic. Cook for about 3-5minutes or until rice is light brown.
2. Stir in chicken broth, carrot, apple juice and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer covered for 15 to 20 minutes, or until rice is tender and liquids are absorbed. Stir in green onion and bacon.

And that’s it!! It only take about 30 minutes max to put it together. It’s good as a side, or we eat it as a main meal with some salad and that fills us right up! nom nom nom…

You know what the funny thing is? I’m actually not that big of a fan of bacon. (I know. I hope we can still be friends) I really like it in the pilaf though… :D

By the way, today is my half birthday. Woo hoo!! 6 months till my next birthday! YES.

And I get to go back to school tomorrow! YAY! And then I will have significantly less free time starting next week, but I’ll fill you in on that later ;) It’s a good thing though, I promise!

Happy Half-Birthday to me!!!

More of this Blizzard Business

;)

Yeah. Twice in one day. I know. It’s a little slow around here, can you tell? John’s working on stuff for work (though he just found out that in 45 minutes, the work email is going down for two hours and he’s freaking out a little bit stressed…) and I’m…well…just hanging out. Let me tell you what I’ve been up to ;)

Just for fun we went outside after lunch (I had to force John to take a break) to see how high the snow had piled up. The sun came out but it was still verrrry blustery. I was also going to see if the Jewel (the grocery store) across the street was open to pick up a few things, but they were most definitely still closed. Good thing I’m not in desperate need of those few things ;)

The street was pretty crazy, snow plows had come through and cleared some of the street, but a fake median of snow had been created in the process. So, naturally, I went out to the middle of the street to play :)
Then a nice man walking by offered to take our picture :) Our building’s parking lot
You like how the snow reaches my thighs on my pants??
This would be why:
The snow drifts by the walkway were HUGE! 

I’m definitely in sweatpants for the rest of the day :) When we got back inside I decided I wanted to make cookies. :) John can’t understand how I can go to school Monday through Friday and bake all day and then when I get a day off, I want to bake more. I don’t get it either, but it’s got to be a good thing, right?? I mean, what on earth can possibly be wrong with making these?MMMMMM Oatmeal Scotchies. Seriously my favorite cookie. Surprisingly, most people have never heard of or tasted such goodness. So to help educate you all, my lovely readers, I will share with you the recipe. As taken off of the back of my package of Nestle Toll House Butterscotch Chips bag ;) And then you must share it with everyone you know. Promise? okay.

1 1/4 C all purpose flour (but when I’m using real butter, I put in 1 1/2 C. With more flour, it doesn’t spread as much and you won’t end up with a really flat cookie)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 C (2 sticks) softened butter or margarine
3/4 C granulated sugar
3/4 C packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 C quick or old fashioned oats (I use old fashioned)
1 11oz pkg Nestle Toll House Butterscotch Chips

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. (don’t forget to do this ;)
2. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Stir in oats and chips. Spoon cookies onto baking sheet.
3. Bake for 7-8 minutes for chewy cookies (you definitely want chewy cookies…TRUST ME) or 9-10 minutes for crisp cookies (although for my oven, it ends up being around 9 minutes…but I still make them chewy!!)

And take my advice, you’ll want to eat them right after they’ve cooled enough to keep their shape when you pick them up, but not before they’ve cooled completely. Ahhhhh warm chewy cookies right outta the oven. I’ve have at least 4 already and just writing this makes my mouth water…

One more time for your viewing pleasure:

AND I also realized I had MORE vinyl to show you! hee hee
I know, I know, I might be totally addicted slightly obsessed with the whole vinyl thing. But seriously, how cute IS THAT?! (and it’s in one of my most favorite fonts too!!!!)

And I think that’s enough from me today, don’t you? ;) I guess I should go find a book to read or something. or you could call me. or facebook me. whatever. I’m easy. ;)

Dinner Guests

And other random nonsense :)

Lately, we’ve have a crowded table. Up to half of our seat space at our dinner table has been taken up! Granted, we can only seat 4 at our table…but we’ve managed to fit quite a few guests in that space. It’s kind of my fault. I keep bringing them home…and they don’t want to leave. Well. I don’t want them to leave. And John is upset that he can’t eat them.

wait. what?

Ha ha. Meet the cake dummies. Well, except for the fruitcake. It’s very real. (and extremely heavy) The entire area smells like sugar. Fondant has a strong smell. But I smile when I see all my little creations all over the table. John is less than thrilled. Mostly because they aren’t real. So he can’t eat them. So sad.

But this week I’ve been bringing home real food! We’re on petit fours this week (mini pastries) and they are SO YUMMY. More on that later once the week has finished and I can show you all the yummyness (We’re making LEMON CREAM THIS WEEK! oh…i’ve already started drooling…)

Speaking of food and drooling, last week I made this recipe and it was soooooo good. Super easy, too. Here, I’ll show you what it looked like (but of course, not as pretty as the photos on the website…but i promise it tasted just as good)
Oh. My. Deliciousness. It’s okay. You can drool. You can bet I was when I was making this on Saturday. Just be sure to wipe up your keyboard ;)

Other news – John just completed the first section of the CPA exam yesterday! But we don’t get the results for another couple of weeks.

MORE news! John’s sister Amy just got her mission call last night!!! She’s going to St. George Utah!!! Yay!! And what is ALSO awesome is that she goes into the MTC only a week before my brother Jason goes in!! He’s going to Spain, did I mention that? Yes. I’m sooooo jealous ;) But they will be there at the same time! Craziness.

Well. I think that’s all for now. We have some fun plans on Saturday, so I’ll be BACK! :)

Wanna Won Ton?

Okay, so they’re pot stickers, but “wanna won ton” is MUCH more fun to say ;) I made these homemade pot stickers using a recipe found here. I was so excited to try these!! I LOVE pot stickers. :) AND it came with a recipe for yummy dipping sauce. Because it’s ALL about the sauce.

So I decided I would go all out and we’d have an awesome Asian themed dinner last night. It was John’s week to plan date night, so I’ll get to that here soon :)

John had a Boy Scout leadership training all day Saturday, so it was fun to plan the surprise. You know me. I love planning surprises!!

So here are my lovely pot stickers all ready to go into the freezer. (If you actually went to the recipe link…you’ll know what I’m talking about, but these are great to make a bunch of and stick in the freezer and pull them out as you need)
And as I was getting everything ready for our yummy dinner, I made the last minute decision to boil them instead of fry them. Healthier, you know. Well…the won ton wrappers don’t stay together THAT well…or maybe my wrapping skills could use some work. Let’s just say we ended up with mushy falling-apart pot stickers. I was a little disappointed.

But John loved the fun set up in the living room!
Praying? Bowing? Not sure… ;)
Yeah, that mush on the plate in the middle there? Next to the stir fry pan? That would be the pot stickers. Forget healthy. Next time I’m frying them. (and I have to be able to work with the remaining 20+ pot stickers still in my freezer…)

After our yummy dinner, John’s plan for date night was a drive in movie!! SO FUN! We figured we’d be freezing, so we bundled up and brought hot water in a thermos for hot chocolate and blankets.

That night they were showing:

Ha ha ha it was really fun. I think watching it at a drive in movie was even MORE fun. They totally had old fashioned advertisements playing beforehand. Too cute. And we ended up being so entertained by the movie, we forgot to break out the hot chocolate! So if you ever do this, get the hot chocolate out first ;)