Stuffed full of Christmas!

It's been a looonnnng and exhausting month this December. The older we get and the more married couples that have entered our lives, we see ourselves attending more and more couples activities. It doesn't get as event oriented as December.

Ladies of VT-35: Me, Hye Sung, Megan, Andrea

VT-35 Squadron had a mandatory Christmas Party. Mandatory and Christmas together seems uninviting but because all of our good friends would be there it seemed less daunting. It actually turned out to be super fun and Brandon even won two free meals at a Mexican Restaurant.
Christmas morning baby Leben got to sniff the presents and was the first to open a present. He sure loves Christmas but he is still getting the hang of opening up the presents.
This picture of Leben should belong in a movie of some sort, perhaps one about the Mafia. He actually stole my candy cane I had sitting on the table and was shocked when he got caught.



This year I decided to test my craft skills. I really didn't have any craft skills to be honest. I'm not the perfect homemaker and I don't sew nor own a sewing machine but I found the sewing kit my mom gave me like 3 years ago and after a trip to Joanns fabrics, the stockings above popped out after a month.
I also decorated the stems of the wine glasses with frosted cranberries and a tiny ribbon. I didn't know what else to do with the extra cranberries I had.
My other crafty thing that I attempted to do was make a Christmas centerpiece for our dining table. Considering that I've never done this before, it turned out ok even though it was hard to wrap everything around everything else. But with my arms of steel, I managed. :-)
Here is the dinner table with the ham, double baked potatoes with scallions, onions, green peppers and cheese, and green bean casserole. Cye brought over the mac and cheese and a beautifully presented salad.

I made a selection of breads. From left to right I made soy dinner rolls and mini challahs and on the right normal butter dinner rolls.

When all was quite in the Adams household and all their guests had finally left, a baby Rotti fell asleep on the couch, wrapped in his favorite blanket of all.

It's easter already?

It must be the leap year cause Easter came flying around the corner and I waited till this week to buy Ham for Brandon, but they had plenty left, so I must not be the only one that suddenly got smacked in the face by easter.

I never really saw easter as a day for presents, so I totally didn't even get Brandon anything and I felt totally terrible. I had told him the other week that I have never had to find an easter basket. I mean, we got easter eggs but we didn't have to hunt for it. We woke up this morning and he turned over to me and said " You better go find your easter basket before we're late for church." I was SO excited and it took me like 20 minutes to find the thing. He hid it in the air filter place. Who would've thunk. I was excited! He knows that I keep candy for like a year before I touch it, so he got me lots of animal cookies and a box of goldfishes and colbie calliets CD which I have been wanting for the longest time. SO good. :-)


For dinner, I made a salad with avocado, provalone, green peppers, carrots and grape tomatos. It was refreshing for sure!
I also made a St. Joseph wreath from Saveur magazine
I minied it into 6 wreaths instead of one huge one. They were really good and of course I made substitutions. I used soymilk instead of milk, olive oil spread instead of butter. It turned out rather tasty. I didn't think it'd taste that good but it was delicious and filling.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Welcome to Milton, FL

Finally!!!!! Finals are over! Now all I have to do is get through 2 weeks of long weeks of work then we are back to Oregon for the holidays! YIPPEEEE!! My mom and stepdad are in town. They got in last Saturday and I had the weekend off to study for finals, so Saturday night we decided to try 'Global Grill,' a tapas restaurant in downtown Pensacola, FL. I had never heard much of it and quite frankly, historic downtown ain't much unless you really look around, so I never even realised that it was on Palafox street. It's a good thing we ventured there, cause it was DELICIOUS! Yummy for my tummy!

My mom and stepdad at Global Grill
Brandon and I at Global Grill
Mom and I
So sunday morning I got up early before church to fix some muffins for my mom and stepdad and Brandon of course. I made two versions of the batter. I halved the batter and put chocolate chips in half and fresh cranberries in the other. The chocolate chip is above and the cranberries are below.
CHOCOLATE CHIP/CRANBERRY SOUR CREAM STREUSEL MUFFINS

2 Cups flour

3/4 C sugar

1 ts baking powder

1 ts baking soda

1/2 ts salt

1 C sour cream (non-fat)

1/4 C eggbeaters

1 ts vanillia extract

1 1/2 C cranberries (fresh), rolled in flour and sugar (sweetens and suspends fruit in batter)
or chocolate chips

1/4 C vegetable oil

Mix dry ingredients together and mix wet ingredients together. Fold wet ingredients into dry and once incorporated add the cranberries or chocolate chips. Scoop into muffin tin and sprinkle cinnamon streusel on top (mix cinnamon and brown sugar together) and bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Mom cooked us a wonderfully yummy chinese meal Sunday night. Above is a jalopeno, onion and dried fish stirfry in oyster sauce, sweetened by a bit of brown sugar.

Another dish is a pork and vidalia onion dish. I picked out the onions and ate them since I don't eat meat.

And lastly, sweet and sour shrimp. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. That's all I can say. :-D

Last night, I was sick of studying so I made some magic cookie bars but changed it from the usual recipe.

MAGIC COOKIE BARS

BASE:

1 1/2 C ground graham crackers

1/2 C olive oil spread, melted

Mix together and press firmly into an ungreased 13 x 9 in glass pyrex pan

TOPPING:

1 - 14 oz can of condensed milk

1 C chocolate chips

1 C peanut butter chips

1/2 - 3/4 C shredded coconut

pour condensed milk evenly over cracker crumbs then sprinkle chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and shredded coconut over condensed milk. Then press down firmly with a fork and bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.

Beam me up Scottie!

Brandons parents stopped in to see us on their way back to Oregon from their African Safari trip. It was really good to see them again. Just adds that excitement to the boring world of daily life, you know? Thankfully for me I was able to entertain since I don't have exams to study for and I did my homework at school. Knew that would pay off eventually ;-). Not so lucky for Brandon. His studying never ceases, poor guy. Though saturday he took us to see the planes he flies. They are adorable!!!!!

Like father like son. They make a good duo!

Here's mom climbing aboard

Some instrument thingies on what-you-ma-call-it panels.

A view of some of the planes that are tied down for the weekend.

A helicopter for transporting people and equipment. I may be wrong but I believe it can lift a hummer.
The front view of the transport helicopter. Massive thing!
Here's one for transportation of people only.
My attempt at being a "professional" photographer. Okay, you can laugh.
Thought I would surprise Brandon Saturday morning with a chocolate marble loaf. I tried not to be loud but that didn't work. I'm SO noisy in the kitchen.


I made this healthier also, and boy I'm glad I did cause it tastes good.

CHOCOLATE MARBLE LOAF

2 1/2 C flour

2 ts baking powder

1/4 ts salt

3/4 C sugar

1/2 C vege oil

4 squares bakers chocolate

1/2 C soymilk

1/4 C plain yoghurt

1/2 C eggbeaters

1 ts pure vanilla

Melt the chocolate squares with 1/4 C of the soymilk, stirring. When melted, set aside.

Mix together flour, salt, baking powder.

Mix together 1/4 C soymilk and the yogurt.

In mixer, cream oil and sugar. Then add flour mixture and yogurt mixture alternating, starting and ending with flour. When combined, add vanilla.

Pour into greased loaf pan and bake 325 degrees F for 55 minutes to an hour.

Pumpkin BOOcake hero

Things have been going so fast here lately, that halloween kinda spooked up on us literally. Speaking of which, I won't even be at home to hand out candy to the kiddies cause I'll be at school that evening. I couldn't not do anything for halloween, so I thought I'd make some halloween pumpkin cupcakes and enter it into this months Cupcake Hero admissions. The ingredient is Cloves.


I thought I'd use the new black food coloring that is out, to make some cobwebs for the cupcakes and since I had canned pumpkin, I thought what the heck! I LOVE pumpkin. So it's been hard to resist not eating these, and resist I have not. ;-)
And yes, the black does stain your lips a little, so probably not a good idea to eat it right before you meet your date. lol. The texture of the cupcake is wonderful, it almost has a spring to it when you bite into it, and the smoothness of the frosting combines well with the cupcake texture. The crumb is soft but it does not crumble when you take a bite, so no messy crumbs. :-D I am a messy cupcake eater to be honest.

Pumpkin BOOcake

Mix together:

2 2/3 C flour

2 ts baking powder

2 ts baking soda

2 ts cinnamon

1/4 ts ground cloves

1/4 ts ground nutmeg

1 ts salt

In large bowl mix together:

1 can canned pumpkin

1 C sugar

1 C light brown sugar

1 C vegetable oil

1 C eggwhites (1/4 C at a time, mixing after each addition)

Mix dry into wet ingreidents:

In 3 additions and mix well
Pour into lined muffin tins

Bake:

350 degrees F for 25 minutes

Let cool before frosting

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

12 oz white chocolate chips

(melt in a double broiler and add to):

12 oz cream cheese whipped with 1/2 C of earth balance buttery sticks

Add whatever coloring your heart desires ;-)

Back to the world!

Finally, we are back and connected to the internet world. You don't really reaslise how incredibly useful it is until you are in a completely new place, don't know where you are going or where there is to go and most importantly how to get there. So, I apologize for the uneventful past couple of weeks and not being able to respond to comments which I really appreciate by the way. Believe me I've been itching to bake, but moving into a new place kinda prevents that for some time, but now we are all settled in and I wanted to put up some pictures from before our move since I didn't have time before.

June 10th was our 1 year anniversary and in the midst of Brandons masters graduation, leaving work, packing ourselves and cleaning inside out, it was a crazy couple of weeks. I decided to make a replica, as best I could of our wedding cake. Obiviously, not as beautiful and eye googling as the original professionally baked cake, but hey, this will have to do. I am not a cake baker. lol.

This is basically an apple spice cake with a caramel filling and a white chocolate buttercream frosting on the top. It actually turned out quite well, and lets just say the cake did not last long and yes, it was only the two of us in the house...OH! I got a new canon camera and these pictures are taken with that though I must admit, I'm not a manual reader, so I must figure out how to take great close up pictures with this camera...

I also made strawberry topped scones a few days later. I used the recipe from bear necessities because it is THE only true english scone recipe I have come across in many many years.
It turned out great, and yum yum for my tum tum.

Fluffilious easter cupcakes

Easter wouldn't be easter without pastel colors. That includes foods too! Especially dessert. I have been on a rampage to find a vegan dairy-free cupcake. I have never made a cupcake before but I don't think I have ever had a real cupcake before. I think it's been literally 8 years since I had a hostess cupcake and honestly I don't even think that you can classify that as a cupcake. Anyways, I was looking through Vegan Cupcakes take the world and finally found THE perfect cupcake. I wanted one that was moist and one that was white in color because I wanted the frosting to be the attention stealer in this easter cupcake. It had all the elements I wanted and I had ALL the ingredients! Score!

CLASSIC GOLDEN CUPCAKES from 'Vegan Cupcakes take the World'

1 C soy milk

1 ts apple cider vinegar

1 1/4 C flour

2 tbs cornstarch

3/4 ts baking powder

1/4 ts bs

1/2 ts salt

1/2 C canola oil

3/4 C sugar

2 ts vanilla + 1/4 ts extra vanilla (cause I didn't have another extract the recipe called for)

I whisked the soy and vinegar together and let it sit while I combined the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.

Beat the soy mixture, oil, sugar and vanilla together in a mixer and then sift in the flour mixture into the wet mixture.

Then pour batter into lined muffin tins only 3/4 way full at most. Bake at 350 degrees F for 22 minutes.

The frosting was amazing. The recipe came from Cupcake Bakeshop. It was an amazing texture. It's a marshmellow frosting. I could almost just eat the frosting itself. :-D I did a few spoonfuls, that's not cheating right? I separated the frosting into three bowls and colored them teal, yellow and pink. Then I dyed some coconut green for the color of grass and lyed some peanut M&M's on top to resemble the good ole easter eggs.


I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter! We went to early service at 8:30am and it was pretty decently packed for that ealy of a service but it was a good one and the rest of the day I just took it easy while brandon did his thesis. Actually I have started reading Harry Potter, the first book since I absolutely do not like the movies but everyone seems to rave about it, so I decided to give the book a shot. I am actually really enjoying it so far. It is wayyyy different from the movies! Ahh..back to work tomorrow...and so life is back on track again.

Valentines Day

Our first Valentines as a married couple began with a huge snow storm that basically snowed us in for the remainder of the day and the day after that. So, it was definitely a good idea that I had planned to make Valentines dinner at home instead of going out. Earlier that week I had gone to the Commissary to get a 7 lb chicken (obviously, I have never roasted a chicken before because 7 lbs is quite large for just the two of us, but hey we had chicken sandwiches for the rest of the week! ) Thankfully, I was nervous enough to put the chicken in the oven to roast at 3pm, since it didn't get done till 7pm, so sometimes be anxious about something is a good thing. lol. So, basically I just cleaned the chicken, stuffed lemon slices between the breast meat and the breast skin, then sprinkled on salt, pepper , olive oil and lemon zest all over the chicken and roasted it with potatos, carrots and onions. It turned out quite moist actually. It is definitely a must do since the meat really stretches out for the rest of the week.

I also baked a German Chocolate Cake for dessert. I actually used only 2 tablespoons butter, and the rest of the butter required I substituted it with homemade applesauce since with my IBS, I really can't eat butter much. I also added a quater of the yolks required and substituted the rest with just egg whites and you know what, it turned out really rather well. It was moist and very tasty. Still, the filling with condensed milk did make my tummy upset a little but all in all it turned out quite well.
I also decided to try out the chocolate caramel filled cookies I found while browsing on http://www.bakeorbreak.com/category/cookies/
She has such an amazing website. Her food looks delicious always. I just drool - literally.
It turned out quite well and we gave some to our neighbor since they so graciously gave us their extra shovel so we could unbury ourselves from the snow.

CHRISTMAS FOOD CATCH-UP!!!!

So I have to apologize for not updating for over a month, but the holiday season just leaves you so tired that logging on to blog seems like such a chore! Laziness...ahhh. I have not been lazy though and you will see why. This is officially the overload blog entry. Feast your eyes. :-D

GINGERBREAD MEN & SUGAR COOKIES

I just brought a book 'the essential baking cookbook,' and it's more of a british cookbook which is what I was looking for since they have alot of recipes I missed from when I grew up in NZ. Anyways, I got the gingerbread men recipe outta there and it turned out amazing. Not overly powered by the taste of molasses but still distintively there and SO incredibly easily to make.

4 oz unsalted butter, softened

1/3 C soft brown sugar

1/4 C golden syrup

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 1/4 C all purpose flour

1 tbs ground ginger

1 ts baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking trays with parchment.

Cream butter, sugar & syrup in bowl with mixer till light and fluffy. Add egg gradually, beating well after each addition. Transfer to large bowl.

Sift dry ingredients into butter mixture and mix with knife till combined. Then use floured hands to combine further. Turn onto well-floured surgace and kneed 1-2 minutes until smooth. Roll out dough to 1/4 in thick between 2 pieces of parchment and chill for 15 minutes.

Cut dough with gingerbread cookie cutter, reroll scraps and cut also. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely before icing.

*I just used squeezable fondont from Micheals Craft store to decorate*

CHRISTMAS LIP SMACKIN FINGERFOOD AND MORE...

Christmas came by like a flash - literally and with it being just Brandon and I, it was only appropriate not to cook alot. We got up early that day and opened up our pressies and to my surprise I recieved wayyyyy more than I expected or even deserved to say the least. Pictures will follow on Wednesday (fingers crossed if my day off is not filled with other monotamous errands). Just from Brandon alone, I got a pair of prada sunglasses, a cookie wire rack with a cookie pan, a pastry bag and accessories from williams and sonoma that is reuseable, a hair straightener. To the dismay of others and to me personally, Brandon talked me out of not going on a run, which was different and made me quite anxious for some time since it was the official day of food consumption, but I let it go and just tried to not complain. hahahahaha.

I had made mini cinnamon rolls the night before and let them rise overnight in the fridge.

This recipe is definitely a no-fail recipe as I have made it many times and it turns out beautiful no matter what, even if the weather is wayyyyyy too cold to give a good rise to the yeast, since it is given all night to rise. This recipe is from http://www.joyofbaking.com I seriously believe people need to visit this website. Their recipes are so foolproof, it's ridiculous.

Dough:
4 1/2 - 5 cups (630 - 700 grams) all-purpose flour
1 package (1/4 ounce) (7 grams) active dry yeast
1 cup (240 ml) milk
1/3 cup (75 grams) unsalted butter
1/3 cup (66 grams) granulated white sugar
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 grams) salt
3 large eggs
Filling:
3/4 cup (160 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup (35 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, cold (cut into pieces)
1/2 cup light raisins (optional)
1 tablespoon half-and-half (light cream)
Powdered (Confectioners or Icing) Sugar Glaze:
In a medium-sized bowl stir together:
1/2 cup (58 grams) powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar
1 tablespoons half-and-half (light cream)
Make the glaze thin enough to drizzle over cinnamon rolls.

Using the paddle attachment on mixer, combine 2/14 C flour & the yeast.

Heat milk, butter, sugar and salt in saucepan till butter is almost all melted.

Gradually pour milk mixture into flour mixture on low speed adding eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl. Beat for 3 minutes, then using the dough hook knead in between 2 1/4 C - 2 3/4 C flour till a soft dough forms and is smooth and elastic 3-5 minutes. Dough should not be sticky at this point.

Shape into a ball and place in greased bowl, turning dough once and cover and let rise for 1-1 1/2 hours.

When dough has doubled in size, punch down and place on floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Combine filling ingredients, stir to combine. Cut in cold butter with with 2 knives till crumbly.

Roll dough into 12 inch square and sprinkle evenly with filling. Roll up dough into log (I cut the square into two since I wanted to make mini cinn. rolls) and pinch to seal edges. Slice logs into desired size and arrange in greased 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan.

Cover loosely with saran wrap and refrigerate between 2-24 hours. If overnight, let rolls sit in room temp for 30 minutes prior to baking. Brush with milk lightly and baking in 375 degree oven for 25 - 30 minutes or till lightly browned.

We ate that baby up at around 10am or so then by 1pm, we settled down to watch a movie while we snacked on these:

Simply put, we went to Dorothy Lane market, snagged some salami ( emmmm...), herb mixed cheese log, a slab of brie cheese, and a wedge of blue cheese - to die for. For the crackers, I basically put smoked gouda cheese onto of whole wheat ritz crackers and topped it off with sour cream mixed with diced tomatos and cucumbers. The other is just a cheese platter accompanied with sliced pears and these amazing crackers that are light and are especially made for eating with cheese since it doesn't have any strong tastes, it really allows you to taste the cheese you're eating. I also had a platter with sweet pickles, mixed nuts, caramel and apples to dip them in. So it was by no means, a small snack. Tasty, but not small. hahahaha. I'd say we put a dent in our food.

After that I put the ham in the oven and started to heat that, glazing with a honey, brown sugar glaze for around about 3 hours. I tried making "stuffing" but let's just say that did not turn out remotely to even make it on my camera. I also made a green bean casserole.

We finally finished off the Christmas celebration with my new york cheesecake recipe which I also got from Http://www.joyofbaking.com That too, is one of the simplest recipes I have even made. It came out beautiful the first time I made it and even better the second time. It could not be simpler and the aroma of cheesecake baking in the oven, is SOOOOO wonderful. Just remember to make it a day ahead since it needs to chill for it to set.

Gobblin' it up!

I was surprised to see that Neil didn't dispose of the whole turkey. I was rather disappointed at the amount that he ate; I thought I was in for another Margarita night at Jims where Neil ate a 2 pound piece of steak, 3 brats, a bag of chips and goodness knows what else he got his hands on. He did however make a purty good Princeton. Renee and I sipped on that during appetizers.

After that we layed around like a bunch of couch potatos, too full to move. Around 5:30ish we went for a walk up to the hindu temple across the street and then came back and started on desert: Apple pie (made by miss renee), pecan pie (made by Neils mom) and my pumpkin pie and cheesecake:

Sorry for the blurriness

Then it was on to the Turbo Cranium challenge. Girls vs. Boys. How that was even a competition I do not know, since the boys crashed and burned!!!! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEHEE. And that my friends was our thanksgiving.