Whatcha got Cookin'.....

This past week and weekend was very eventful! Josh spent the week in California on a business trip and I worked hard on organizing the closet of disaster! It was a success. We have this office area in our room and it ended up being a place where would throw all our important papers. Even though they were important that never stopped us from just throwing them in there. Eventually the papers were piled high and we weren’t able to find anything when we needed it. But now after buying some office organizing folders and putting some hours into it - everything is organized, filed with labels and put in its own place. I love it.
I was also able to start guitar lessons, which I am really excited about. I have no former musical experience and I wasn’t born with natural musical talent so it’s quite interesting and entertaining when I try to play the only two cords that I know. :)
Well there was no wasting of time, as soon as Josh got in on Friday night we went straight to Lowe’s to pick out paint and we started painting first thing Saturday morning. By the way we love it.


After we got done painting I was free to get in the kitchen. I’ve had my eye on this gorgeous cake that I was determined to replicate. I was pretty fearless going into it but the further along I got the more obstacles that began to pop up. We ended up having to go to the store 4 times because it took me three tries to make the frosting from scratch and by the time I went to try it again I was out of the first ingredient. It was hilarious/frustrating, but Josh was so patient and so willing to help me out! I have to tell you I learned so much in the process of making this. After realizing that I had no idea how to make the garnishes that the cake called for I started to do some research on the internet. By doing this I was able to learn how to make chocolate piping garnishing. I also learned that confectioner’s sugar is just powdered sugar. I wish I would have known that before I wasted 4 cups of regular sugar and a whole batch of frosting, thinking that it served the same purpose. Needless to say that making this cake taught me a lot of little things about cooking. It was a great learning experience. So five hours later I accomplished my mission and made the Chocolate-strawberry Celebration Cake and this is a picture of it!

I also made some very quick and easy rice krispy treats. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
40 marshmellows
1 stick of butter (1/2 a cup)
1 box of rice krispy treats cereal
Directions:
Melt the butter in a non-stick pot. Add the 40 marshmallows and stir until melted. Remove from heat once melted. Then you just eye ball this part where you pour in the rice krispies. I pour a little less than half the box. Press into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Make sure to wet your hands in sink so it won’t stick to you. Let cool, cut and enjoy!


-A

Whatcha' got Cookin'....

I tried a new recipe last week, but it’s not what you think! It wasn’t a recipe with food, it was a recipe with soap!
Amy Thompson, our pastors’ wife, is definitely a woman of many abilities. A few weeks ago I heard her talking about how she makes her own laundry detergent. I was immediately intrigued when she said that 1. It saves a lot of money (it comes out to about 2 cents a load) and 2. The recipe makes a ton so you don’t have to do it often.
So this week, with the help of my husband, we made homemade laundry detergent! Don’t knock it ‘til you try it because it works just as well as major detergent brands and she was right, it makes a ton! It cost about $10 to buy all the supplies - listed below - and the best part is that I still have a ton of the ingredients leftover to make many more batches.


Ingredients:
2 cups washing soda
2 cups Borax
1 bar of soap
Water
5 Gallon bucket with lid

Directions:
Grate bar of soap with cheese grater. In medium saucepan boil 4 cups of water. Gradually add the soap flakes and stir until completely dissolved. Pour into 5 gallon bucket. Add washing soda and Borax. Stir well. Add 3-4 gallons of water and stir well. Let sit overnight. Stir the next day and your ready to go. It might be watery or gel. It doesn't matter it will wash just the same. Use 1 cup with each load.

Enjoy :)

-A

Whatcha got Cookin'.....

I have to say I just love being married and I love having someone to cook for. Josh is such a good sport, he’s never afraid to try anything that I’ve made, even if it doesn’t look too appetizing. :)
I definitely took advantage of the long weekend that we had over the holiday weekend. Besides getting to rest a lot, I was able to get in the kitchen and try a lot of different recipes!!
Before I began working at the YWCA I was volunteering fairly regularly at the Salvation Army. Robert, the main cook, always showed me tricks and gave me cooking tips. He taught me so much every time I went, and the last few times he showed me a little bit of how to make an edible arrangement. So that’s what I did on Saturday night! Talk about a lot of work and a lot of patience. It was a lot harder than I had imagined. You have to prep all the fruit by washing, cutting it into the shaped you want, and then dipping it in chocolate. By the time I had prepared it and had in on the sticks I was already tired! Then I put it into the arrangement, which was very meticulous! Four hours later I had this beautiful, edible creation!!! :)

After church on Sunday I began my other creations in the kitchen. I made a whole assortment of things. The first thing I made was American lasagna. It was basically the same as regular lasagna except, instead of ricotta cheese, it had mozzarella and American cheese. It turned out fabulous. I got this recipe from Cooks.com. This is a picture of the final product.

…..And this is a picture of my husband’s clean plate!

I was looking through another Taste of Home magazine and I came across four recipes for homemade pesto. I don’t know how often you use pesto, but it’s very expensive and Josh and I love it. I was super excited when I came across it because who doesn’t like to save money? So I made Cilantro pesto. It cost us about a third of the cost to make it and it’s fresh. I ended up really liking it, but Josh wasn’t a huge fan (too many walnuts). I think I’m going to try to make the Poblano Pesto next time.

So Josh had been asking me for a couple of weeks now to make a buttermilk pie. I was a little nervous because the only kind he had ever had was made by an older lady in our church who had obviously been cooking for years. He loved it! But I attempted it anyway and it turned out fabulous. I really hadn’t ever had it before so I didn’t know what it was supposed to taste like, but once I took a bite I knew it was good, Ha! :) The recipe was very easy too.



I also made peanut butter thumbprint cookies with the new dark chocolate Hersey’s kisses. I made these so I could take them to movie night with the girls. They were yummy and moist and we enjoyed them! I highly recommend you make them.



Here's the recipe for the Buttermilk Pie:
Buttermilk pie
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 - 5 rounded tablespoons flour
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 unbaked deep dish 9 inch pie shell, or 2 regular unbaked 9 inch pie shells

Cream the sugar and butter together. Add the flour and eggs and beat well.

Add the buttermilk and vanilla; mix well & pour into pie shells.

I find that the filling makes enough for two of the regular 9" pie shells if you buy them frozen (I do sometimes; it's faster). If I use the deep dish version of the frozen pie shells, I can get it all into one shell.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until tests done. Top should be slightly crusty and brown.

If you find this pie a bit on the sweet side; reduce vanilla first and see how you like it. Then, try reducing the sugar. It should be sweet.


Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!

-A

Our First Meeting With Adoption Covenant

Angie and I had our first meeting with Adoption Covenant on Friday. We didn't know a lot about our options or the process, so we scheduled some time with Merinda at AC to help guide us through the basics. Going into the meeting we were heavily considering international adoption for our first child. Merinda asked us a few questions about our preferences: "what gender, age, and race do you want?" I felt a little uncomfortable listing the desired traits of our children rather than letting God guide us to the one he has already chosen for us. Angie and I are very open to whatever little one he brings into our lives.

Merinda explained that if we pursued infant adoption through the Texas CPS system, we would have to foster the child first and we run the risk of losing the child if the state is able to reunite the family. As we considered the posibility of losing our child before they were officially ours, we knew that this was not the best choice for us.

She then told us about a domestic infant adoption program that matches us with a pregnant mother that is looking to find a good home for her child. Merinda explained that we would supplement (or replace) the birthmother's income and pay her medical expenses while she carries the baby. This was more expensive and, again, risky. The birth mother - even after we pay for her medical bills - still has the right to keep her child if she decides to do so within 48 hours of her delivery.

So after an hour-long meeting with Merinda (who is wonderful and has an obvious love for orphaned children), we are right back to where we started - international adoption! She gave us a breakdown of costs, an estimated timeline, and a lot of other great information. Part of that information was regarding our homestudy. We'll explain that in another post soon!

All in all, we are SO excited that God brought us to Adoption Covenant and we can't wait to work with Merinda and her staff. Even though we have yet to begin the waiting, and we are still trusting God to provide financially, we are so grateful that He has given us a heart to adopt. Angie and I believe that there are many couples out there that have the same calling, and we pray that they would be sensitive to what God is asking them to do.

Whatcha got Cookin'.....

Today I decided to blog about what I have been cooking the last few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago, Josh and I decided to have a little party for the first USA World Cup game against England. This was the perfect time for me to try new recipes on others!! This may sounds funny but I only cook for one other person besides myself, so I always love to see what other people think of the recipes too!

I have a ton of recipe Apps on my iPhone but one of my favorite Apps is the Betty Crocker App. That is where I got the soccer ball cupcake recipe that I made for the party. This was the perfect occasion to try out this recipe so that when we have little boys of our own I can make them (because I'm sure if they are anything like Josh they will love soccer. ;)



The other two I made were Calzones and Cheeseburger cups. I have a wonderful and easy recipe for the Calzones. They are so easy to make. All you need is bread dough (flattened) a ton of cheese, salami, and ham (you can substitute any other ingredients you might like). You line up the filling ingredients, roll it up, and fold each end - and that's it! A trick for the dough rolling - Add flour to the cutting board, rolling pin and dough. This will keep it all from sticking to each other.

The cheeseburger cups, on the other hand, are simply the best dish any wife could make for her husband (these are Josh's favorite)! Basically they are just mini cheeseburgers but they are in a biscuit. You can also make them in a wide variety of ways. I decided I was going to start putting sloppy joe mix, mexican taco meat w/ cheese, and eggs and sausage in them. It's an easy, cheap and fun way to change things up!

Josh's grandpa is a lover of cooking as well! He saves me all of his Taste Of Home cooking magazines when he is done. The other day I decided I would cook a recipe from one of the magazines. It was called Rainbow Quiche. It was basically just a lot of veggies and eggs. This recipe turned out fabulous, However being the new and inexperienced cooking enthusiast that I am I decided that after it was cooked I was going to put foil over it and leave it out. Why I thought this was a good idea - I don't know. I guess I thought since it had the breading (pie crust) it was meant to leave out instead of refrigerate. A couple days later Josh and I discovered a very foul smell in our house. I tried to blame it on the dogs, but he wasn't buying it :) It was BAD! Then I discovered it was the quiche that had not been refrigerated. I still have no idea why I thought it didn't need to be refrigerated - so with that being said the quiche was destroyed. Lesson learned!! Ha!



Here are the recipes that I used if you want them.

Cheeseburger cups
Ingredients:
1 pound Ground beef
1/2 cup Ketchup
2 tablespoons Brown sugar
1 tablespoon Prepared mustard
1-1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tube (12 ounces ) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup Cubed process cheese (Velveeta)

Preparation:
In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the ketchup, brown sugar, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Remove from the heat; set aside.

Press each biscuit onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased muffin cup. Spoon beef mixture into cups; top with cheese cubes. Bake at 400° for 14-16 minutes or until golden brown.

Calzones
Ingredients:
2 loaves of bread dough, thawed
1/2 lb sliced ham
1/2 lb sliced hard salami
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup jarred marinara sauce

Directions:
1. Roll each loaf of dough into a rectangle about 8 inches by 12 inches.
2. Layer ham and salami down the center of each rolled loaf lengthwise.
3. Top meats with 1 cup (i put more) shredded mozzarella for each roll.
4. Fold short ends of each loaf in about 1/2 inch and seal. Roll from the long sides and pinch well to seal the entire loaf. You should have 2 long rolls.
5. Bake, seam side down on a greased baking sheet in a 375 degree F over for 20 minutes or until golden brown. (crispy)
6. Cut each roll into 8 slices and serve with marinara for dipping.

Rainbow Quiche
Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup minced onions
1 red bell pepper finely chopped
1 orange bell pepper finely chopped
1 green bell pepper finely chopped
6 jumbo eggs
1 cup spinach (chopped)
1 cup button mushrooms (sliced)
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese mix
2 unbaked deep dish pie shells
10 broccoli florets chopped

Directions:
saute onions, peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli in butter then drain. Add eggs and milk to sauteed veggies and mix well. Sprinkle cheese on bottom of pie crusts. Pour egg mixture over cheese. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes
quiche is done when custard is set and it's all jiggly. Yield: serves 16


Hope you enjoy the recipes as much as we did!

-A

In The Beginning...

Welcome to our blog - and our first post!

The reasons we started this blog are few:

Angie and I wanted to track and document some major life events that we expect to begin soon. For instance, we plan to adopt in the near future and we wanted to share our experience with other couples that are considering the same thing. We thought being open with the things that we will go through would allow others to know our trials as well as our blessings. Our commitment to adoption is based on the gospel of Jesus Christ - that through his death and resurrection we are adopted children of God.

We also started this blog so that we could keep in touch with family and friends without having to get on Facebook! :) So feel free to visit every few days and we'll do our best to keep you up-to-date!

Lastly, we thought it would be fun to tell the entire world (or at least the 5 people actually reading this) what we're reading and what Angie's cooking!

We hope you have as much fun reading as we do writing!

J & A