Surprise!!

So, on Facebook, I announced that I was super excited to share in a surprise with a certain someone.  I wanted to wait till that certain someone actually received their surprise before I posted pictures!  And now that she has, I can share…..

WHO! WHO!  It’s a Birthday surprise for Heather T.!  My dear friend has a new found love of owls.  I have a new found love of cakeballs!  It was a match made in heaven.

(recipe from the oh so fabulous Bakerella!)

First, you gather all of your supplies, including the fabulous Cake Pops book (which I received for Christmas from my fabulous husband!)….

Then, you make a batch of cake balls.  Any cake mix will do.  I used Trader Joe’s Madagascar Vanilla Bean.  Bake the cake, crumble it, and then get your hands dirty!  Mix a can of icing with the cake crumbles, and shape into oblong balls.  Like so:

Then, add lollipop sticks to the bottom, thus evolving these little fellas from cake balls, to cake pops!  Adhere chocolate chips for ears with candy mold.  Then dip the whole body in the candy mold.  Place in a styrofoam block to set.  Like so:

After they have dried, you add little bitty feet!  The book called for little pink stars, but I thought the hearts made for super cute feet, and the rest of the sprinkles will certainly be used later this month!!  See, cute feet:

Then, you attach their little wings  (shhhh, it is really M&Ms).  Just let it be known, I bought one of those mega bags of M&Ms, just for the brown ones to make wings.  This was the grand total brown M&Ms in the whole bag!  And no!  I didn’t eat any!  I only ate the blues, greens, reds and yellows!  But, I found the orange works just fine for wings!  Be sure to use a lot of candy mold, M&Ms are heavy!!

And what makes a owl so cute?  Why, their candy bracelet eyes of course!  The book called for white, but again, I search through many a candy necklace, and didn’t find any white candy pieces!  But my friend Anna assured me that yellow was more authentic anyway, especially if they were British Long-Ear Owls.  Which I guess they are!

Then, add a tiny orange sprinkle for the nose and tada!  You are done!

*side note:  Can I just say that I LOVE my little neighborhood?  There is a store called Cookies that has a whole wall of specialty sprinkles!  So my owl noses?  Really tiny little carrots!

They are ready to be bagged and shipped!

Happy Birthday Heather!!!!

Who needs Pizza Hut?

Yummy, made at home deliciousness.  And cheap too!

First, start by making your own crust.  For a two person sized pizza, I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour, a dash of sugar and salt, 1 pkg of active dry yeast, 1/2 cup hot water, ground spices (I lean towards oregano, garlic powder and basil, but be creative!), and olive oil.  Kneed with your hands (be sure to take off your rings!  this stuff it sticky!!!)  And roll it on out!

Then throw that sucker on the pizza stone (or cookie sheet) and roll up the edges to give you a nice crust.  If you want to be bad, brush the crust with melted butter and sprinkle a little garlic powder.  I didn’t on this one, and it was still good!

Add a layer of sauce.  I cheated and just used Tomato Basil Garlic Prego.

Then add your toppings!  We had diced onion, diced yellow pepper, olives and peperoncinis!

Don’t forget to say cheese!  We used an Italian blend with a little Pepper Jack for a kick!

Then, bake at 375 till the crust is a nice golden color, and all the cheese has melted.

Oh, we also pre-baked some chicken.  Which we sliced up and put on top during the last 5 minutes the pizza was in the oven.

Goes great with beer and football.  Or a movie.

Time: 20 minutes to bake chicken; (prepare crust and toppings while chicken bakes); 17 minutes for the pizza!

Cost: Using veggies you already have, this pizza can cost as low as $8!

Resolutions

I have my own personal resolutions for the New Year, that I may or may not share on here.  But I have some Blog Resolutions for 2011.  So here they are:

*To post more often. But to not feel guilty when I don’t.

*To share recipes.  I have started cooking more, and been branching out to Asian foods.  I’ve made a couple of delicious curry dishes lately.  So I want to start sharing more and gathering more recipes.  So feel free to share your favorites!

*To take and post more pictures.  I live in an unbelievably beautiful city.  I mean, it is stunningly beautiful.  I should show off a little more.

*To talk more about books.  I read.  A lot.  But I don’t always talk about what I’m reading.  So I am going to start posting about the books I read.  I have a goal this year to read 26 books.  That may seem like a random number, but it is 5 more books that last year, so I figure it is a good, achievable goal to work towards.  I am on Goodreads,  and they have this new thing on their site called Goal Setter, where you can type in the number of books you want to read, and every time you finish a new book, it tells you how far you are towards your goal.  I like seeing progress.  I am 15% closer to this year’s goal, having completed 4 books already this year.  Though, to be fair, one of them was The World According to Mister Rogers – so that was a pretty easy read!

So, there are my 2011 Blog Resolutions.  Help me hold to them!

Holiday Baking

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  Time for holiday baking and Christmas parties galore!

The Christmas Party Kris and I were invited to last night encouraged the guests to bring festive baked goods.  So I took a cue from my favorite baking diva and decided to make Reindeer themed cake balls.  While they didn’t look as perfect as the inspiration, I think they came out pretty stinkin’ cute.  What do you think?

It is a crowd of Rudolphs!

Like I said, not perfect, but still super cute!

This is what happens when you ask Kris to help out.  He makes angry reindeer.  Why so angry Rudolph?

My idea of heaven

An afternoon in the yard with the dogs, the sun shining through the trees, a cool breeze.

A delicious home cooked meal prepared by my wonderful husband.  Pan seared talapia, sauteed spinach and roasted paprika potatoes.

Our favorite game, Scrabble.

A glass of wine at dusk.

Browsing through a favorite used book store, in search of treasures.

Ice cream in our favorite flavors to close out the night.

If you give a mouse a cookie…

So, I think there’s a mouse in my house.

Boo.

It has started off small, a nibble in something here.  The sound of a scurry there. I could never catch him, but he never stayed more than a day at a time.

Kris calls him my house pet.  Can I take him to the pound?

Then this morning, about 6am, I heard my little friend loud and clear.  Upon investigation, I found that he had eaten an ENTIRE roll of Lifesavers – wrapper and all!

And, being the polite little rodent he is, kindly moved my package of thank-you notes from the living room, into the middle of the kitchen.   And yes, he left his toothy signature.

Methinks this Lifesaver and thank-you note eating critter is not little mouse after all…

‘Tis the season to hear about Lent.  What people are giving up this Lent.  It becomes a common question, and an easy alibi. 

I realized yesterday why it is that we have Lenten Commitments.  Maybe not the theological reason, but why it is that we commit to giving something up for 40 days.    It’s to discover what we depend on, but shouldn’t; and what we don’t depend on, but should.   When I take a really good, strong look into my life, and what I depend on,  I’m shocked.  Of course I depend on my family and friends, but surely God wouldn’t want me to give them up for 40 days!?  Beyond relationships, what vice do I have that I lean on when days are tough?

I’m not afraid to tell you what I gave up for Lent.  I know the whole “pray in secret” logic, but I will be honest: it would be a lot harder for me to be faithful to this commitment if I didn’t put it all out there.  I’m depending on accountability here!  Because this Lenten season, I have given up chocolate.

I’m not giving up chocolate because I need the diet, but because chocolate is my go-to.  It is my pick me up.  I’m dependant on chocolate, and that is no good.  You would be shocked by how much chocolate is in my home.  And in my office.  And at the day center where I work.  And at every.single.meeting I attend!  It is common in every dessert.  It has become almost comical to notice how much chocolate is around me.  When I’m craving that mid-morning, or mid-afternoon snack, there is nothing to reach for at the day center this isn’t chocolate or a donut! (which I gave up as my New Year’s Resolution!)

So on days like yesterday, when I was seething, and just wanted to pull my hair out; or the night before, when I was worried and frantic, it’s a good thing I had to learn (again) how to depend on something other than chocolate.  Had I not made the very public commitment to give up chocolate, I would have indulged myself yesterday as a form of making myself feel better.  But with the loyalty to that commitment hanging over my head, it helped me to realize what chocolate really is for me.  It isn’t just a delightful little snack.  It is more than I need or even want it to be. 

So this Lenten season, I vow to not only give up my dependency on chocolate, but resolve to try to shift that dependency back to where it should be in the first place.  In myself, and in my God.

Fall

Tell me, is there anything better than having your house smell like fresh laundry and chocolate chip pumpkin muffins?  Cause I really don’t think so.

A cooking post

So I got the wild idea to try and make falafels last night.  Does anyone remember the last time I tried to make falafels?  It was nothing short of a (hilarious) disaster!  So what did I do differently this time?  Well, there was no Joe, and I had a recipe.  And it worked!

<— Joe and I during our failed attempt at making Falafels

I didn’t have my own food processor, and I realized very quickly that a hand mixer wasn’t going to work on chickpeas.  (who know, chickpeas can fly!)  I borrowed my landlords blender (next best thing, though not ideal) and went to work.  It is a pretty simple recipe, that I got from my favorite site, allrecipes.com  You simply puree 2 cups of chickpeas, then add 4 cloves of sliced garlic, 3 tablespoons of peanut butter, 1 chopped green onion, 1 large onion cut in chunks, 1 egg, 1/4 tsp. ground coriander, 1/4 tsp. ground cumin, 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, and 1 tblspn. soy sauce.  Mix all of the ingrediants together.  I also added a large handful of breadcrums, to help the balls stick together while cooking.

<— all blended and ready to cook!

Form the mix into balls and in a hot skillet with 1 tblspn of corn oil cook till brown on all sides.

<—they look nicely formed now, but they didn’t all come out this way

Now, the process of cooking and turning would probably be a little easier with tongs, rather than a spoon.  So they didn’t come out as perfectly shaped balls, but oblong falafels taste just as yummy!

To go with my meal, I decided to also make black bean hummus.  Another real simple recipe from the same website.  Just take 1 cup of black beans, 1 cup of chickpeas, 1 tblspn. olive oil, 2 tblspn. lemon juice, 2 tblspn. greek yogurt, 2 tblspn. water and 2 cloves of roughly chopped garlic.  Puree.  Season with 1 1/2 tspn. curry powder and salt and pepper to taste.  Blend again.  Cover and chill before serving.

<— I don’t have any pictures of the process, but here is this finished product

My only regret was not having a food processor.  While the blender worked, it was difficult, and cost more time than I had wanted.  (I was hungry!)  So I would recommend definitely using a food processor if you have one.  If not, only blend a quarter  of the chickpeas at a time, so they don’t get stuck under the blades.

The final product?  Falfels stuffed in warm pitas with spinach and greek yogurt. I topped the black bean hummus with feta cheese and served with diced red and yellow peppers.  Delicious!

Because I am too incoherent to make a full post, bullet points:

• Next weekend I am flying out to Atlanta to go wedding dress shopping with my mom, my sister and my aunts.  While I am excited about going dress shopping with family, I am exhausted.  You all probably have a vague I idea of how much I’ve been traveling recently.  Pretty much flying somewhere (on the east coast) once a month.  And I love that I am able to do all this traveling, I really am.  But I’m tired.  But yes, dress shopping.  Very good.
• Tomorrow is our big fundraiser for Mary’s Place.  Our 5th Annual Hats and Tea Fashion Show and Silent Auction.  It is going to be a great event, and I am really excited.  But again, tired.  Down to my bones exhausted.  We spent all day setting up, coordinating table clothes, setting tables – you know, all the fun stuff.  I am ready for tomorrow.  It will be a lot of fun, I’m sure, but it will also be nice to be on the back end of this one.
• I drank a coke today.  It was a moment of desperation.   I had not had coffee all day, and there was no prospect of coffee in the near future.  I needed caffeine, otherwise I would be crashing hard with a blinding headache soon.  So I had a coke.  And it tasted like being 12 at my grandmother’s house; drinking coke-a-cola out of a real glass with ice.  Ahhhh.  Until tonight.  When my kidneys starting hurting.  Seriously.  This is why I gave up sodas 6 years ago.  No good.
• Speaking of coffee.  I had a major coffee catastrophe yesterday.   I have dubbed it the Great Coffee Mishap of 2009.  I was making coffee in the office, not an unusual occurrence, when I noticed that the coffee was not going into the pot, but rather, alllll over the shelf and the floor.  So, I turned the maker off and went to empty the filter.  (you should also know that I just wrote “folder” instead of “filter” – like I said, incoherant.)  At that point, the coffee/filter exploded.  All over the wall.  All over the fridge.  Even more all over the floor.  It took me 20 minutes to clean up.  As I started to make a new pot, I stopped myself.  “What the hell am I doing?  I live in Seattle!!”  So I went around the corner and got a lovely cup of coffee.  One of the perks of living in the land o’coffee.
• Have you seen the commercial for the classic, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”?   They have Charlie Brown rapping.  This leaves me slightly confused and sad.  Charlie Brown should not rap.

That’s all for tonight folks.  Goodnight.