First Home Barbeque

Last night Trevor and I used his new mini-grill for the first time--thus the beginning of our long life of barbequing at home :)

It took practically an hour to get the coals in and hot. Crazy. But it was mostly because I had no idea what I was doing. Trevor had to stop me from adding starter fluid to the flame... eek. That was really stupid. For some reason when you don't know what you're doing, the common sense you'd normally have goes out the window too... for some reason.

I made corn muffins. So tasty! With way too much butter for anyone's good. We use the Jiffy brand box mixes--and they usually turn out just right.

We at an entire (small) cantelope! Fruit is SOO good on hot nights--and it was still like 80 something last night.

And oh man! We had corn on the cob--grilled :) I wrapped them in foil with butter and salt and pepper, and they turned out so incredibly delicious. Juicy, and hot, and crisp. They were a really great color before AND after cooking too.

My mad grill skills. We need some grill utensils, bad. I used a potato masher to move the coals around and fix the shelves when they were hot.

Le finished product. It makes me want leftovers! Mmmm...

Our steaks were just what was on sale at Maceys, but they were pretty darn delicious.

Steak $6

Corn $0.50

Muffin Mix $1.80

What the...steak dinner for two for under $9! I LOVE IT!

These strawberries are HUGE!!! We had them with Trevor's sugar free pudding dessert.

Celebrity Swine Flu

We all know who gave it to him...

(I got this in my email a few days ago, and I just love it so much!)

Castle Cake

I'm a dork, and I want to link Trevor's cake to the Creative Cats Tuesday on Poppies at Play (it's an awesome blog full of creative things to do!), and I don't want anyone who doesn't know me to be forced to read through all that great biz about Trevor's birthday. So below follows my account of the great cake bake :) It took many hours, so plan ahead!

As I said before, I got the strategy for making the cake by combining a few ideas I'd seen around while googling my face off. It turned out looking a little more silly than I was expecting, but hey! It's a frickin castle! it makes up for any silliness :)

First I baked 4 layers of cake using 2 boxed cake mixes. I used an 8" square pan. I mashed the air out and mashed the big puff that happens when you bake a cake right after each layer came out of the oven. I was hoping to minimize the amount of puff I needed to cut off later, and also I was hoping to make the cakes a little more dense so they'd be easier to manage.

After cooling I cut off the tops to make all the edges flat. I kept 3 of the squares their original size, and cut one of them into 4 more squares, THEN cut one of those squares into 4 more squares. See the picture I drew because that's sort of confusing :)

I got my butter cream frosting recipe from a course book for basic cake decorating--I liked the flavor last time I made it. I doubled the recipe to make 6 cups of frosting--it was BARELY enough. And then I had to add milk so it was thin enough to spread without tearing the cake to shreds.

Frosting (makes 6 cups):

2 cups white shortening

2 pounds powdered sugar

2 tablespoons mirange powder (purchased in the cakse aisle)

2 teaspoons butter flavoring (also purchased in the cake aisle)
1/4 cup milk or water

Cream everything but the sugar, then add the sugar in increments until smooth and thck. Add more milk or sugar to make the consistency you want. Add food coloring or store-bought colored frosting to color your frosting how you want. I went gray by adding some black from a tube of premade frosting I found at the store.

I ended up using our handy cutting board covered in foil for a building surface. Next I layered three of the 8" squares on top of each other, frosting in the middle; two of the 4" squares on top of that; one of the 2" squares on top of that. Pretty simple.

Frosted the outside, be sure to be liberal with your frosting at first so you don't tear up your cake. I was having a hard time not getting a "cookies and cream" look, so I stuck the cake in the fridge after I did my best frosting it, for about 45 minutes. Then I was able to add another layer of slightly thinned frosting over the chilled layer without any problems. It smoothed out pretty well.

Next frost 5 waffle cones and coat them with sprinkles (I ran out by the time my 5th cone was done, so they ended up uneven, so be careful). The rims of waffle cones are slanted, so I broke some of the edges off to make them stand up straight. Then I stuck them down on the 4 corners of my 8" layers to make spires. The 5th cone went on the top.

Next I made the drawbridge, moat, and rock stuff. First I added the greenery around the edge of the castle with a star shaped frosting tip. Then I spread blue frosting around the castle and

textured it to look like water. That gave me the frosting base I needed to stick my drawbridge
down. I drew a really basic doorway and stuck to chocolate wafers down. I used Twizzlers Pull'n'Peel and tooth picks for the "chains." (Stick one toothpick INTO the Twizzler end, then shove the rest INTO the cake at the top of the door frame.) The rocks were the fun part. You can buy candy rocks at pretty much any grocery store that carries bulk candy. Simply give them a frosting layer to stick to, and plop them down in the patterns you like. I used pieces of broken up waffle cone to make the roadway.

I added the Rolos and spots of green frosting throughout the rocks to make it look like grass growing up, and I was pretty much done with the castle! I painted on a layer of black frosting to the edge, traced my "happy birthday Trevor!" with a toothpick, and filled it in with red.

I added the candles last--putting 2 at the front of the castle by the bridge like torches!

This turned out to be one of the funnest projects I've done in a long time! It really brought out the kid in me :) I think every 22 year old should get a castle cake :) Everyone try making some sort of awesome cake, and show me how it goes; I want to make some more!

Trevor's Birthday Weekend!

Trevor is now officially 22 years old! I had so much fun planning for his birthday, and just thinking about who he is and what he likes to do. I wish I could have spent twice as much and done 10 times as many things that he likes :) Trevor is great :) He works so hard and gives so much of himself to our marriage and all of his relationships; I'm so grateful that I found him, and that I'm married to him. You probably won't read this for like 2 months, but when you do, I love you Trevor! And I'm glad you were born, haha :)

On Thursday it was his actual birthday. And since we're grown ups, we no longer get holidays or birthdays off work. LAMEST THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD! So we waited until 7pm that night to see eachother and start our weekend of goodness. Trevor opened the presents I got for him that night before dinner--I was too excited to wait :)

He got a strategy guide for Fable II (it's a video game), but we're going to exchange it for a blue tooth receptor for his ipod so his car cd player can detect it without hooking up. He's such a guy.

We are in love with FoodNetwork. We like watching Good Eats and all those shows about how they do stuff. So I finally got some for us... I mean, for him.

Trevor really liked my mom's gift to him--some iTunes gift cards. He usually gets his music from blogs and random places online where he can find it. But there are a lot of newly released albums and more obscure stuff that he can't find for free online, so yay! More music (to add to his 400+ ablum collection...) He's so weird.

Trevor also got a mini grill for our random barbeque/grill cravings.

And the Lego Batman game. We just played it last night, and it's WAY fun :) There are SO many villains, it's crazy. Batman has this Demolition Suit that you use when you need to plant bombs to blow stuff up--that was pretty sweet.

Here's us, hungry, and excited about all the cool new stuff. There were a few other gifts like an icecream maker (yay!) and some awesome shirts from his mom. Trevor was really happy about all the thoughtfullness of everyone and about all his gifts. He hasn't gotten a big birthday in a few years, so it was worth every penny!

We went to Pier 49 for dinner. We've been wanting to try it for a while but it's always been closed when we've wanted to go (for some reason businesses think they need to close after 11...) It was pretty good, I think we'll go back and try some other kinds soon.

We wandered around Target for a while looking for his blue tooth thing, and then headed off to Jordan Commons to see Star Trek on the IMAX screen. It was HUGE! And since it was 10 at night we got to move up to some better seats that were empty. We both REALLY liked the movie and will probably see it again. We recommend it to everyone! It had awesome graphics (obviously) and the story was pretty believable and well thought out. I liked that they added a little love story :) I thought they did a really good job at making Kirk realistic. A pat on the back to the people who made Star Trek!

Friday after work I spent the day searching for the ingredients for making Trevor's cake. Then after Trevor got off work he had a show while I started baking the layers for the cake. I only had one square pan so I had to make the 4 layers separately. It took 2 hours! bah, I think it might have been worth getting another pan... That night we had a special 10pm dinner out at IHOP. We ate out WAY too much over the weekend. But it made us feel more relaxed and able to enjoy ourselves. Again, totally worth it.

Saturday I made THE CAKE.

I decided on a castle cake because Trevor really likes castles and would LOVE to live in a time and place where it's acceptable to live in one and wear armor and ride your horse over the drawbridge and eat bread and cheese and dried meats from your pack :) It turned out pretty sweet. Not the best in the whole world, but I'm pretty proud of it. It took me like 6 hours to put together. Frosting is ridiculous! And SO bad for you--it had 2 whole cups of shortening and 2 entire bags of powdered sugar!

I used candy rocks to make the stones, and those wafer cookies and twizzler pull'n'peel for the drawbridge. I think that's my favorite part :)

Saturday night we went out for our big fancy dinner at Rodizio Grill with Trevor's family. He LOVES that place! It's like the ultimate man's restaurant but fancy-style. They serve you meat from skewers and you can have as much as you want... Pretty perfect for Trevor. We had a great time and we were both really glad his family could go with us. We don't get to go out too often with them so it was a lot of fun! It was nice to see everyone let loose and gorge themselves, haha :)

I love this picture! Everyone looks so happy and silly :) We always have a good time.

Afterwards we went home and had cake and homemade icecream (from Trevor's new icecream maker), and opened a few gifts from his family.

The castle looked pretty cool all lit up, like it was ON FIRE!

It was SO cool to eat the cake! It was like a gingerbread house but with CAKE :)

Thanks to everyone who wished Trevor a happy birthday! We had such a great weekend! Now it's back to work, and back to Trevor's no-sugar diet...after we finish the cake :)

Jerky

Trevor and I are making beef jerky. We cut up the huge hunk of meat and got it in the marinating juice last night, and we're going to get it dehydrating today sometime. HOLY CRAP! I'm making my own jerky!

I think jerky isn't bad for you, right? I mean, at least when it's homemade you know what's in it...right? We used soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, honey, and spices (oh and liquid smoke). Hope it turns out! Jerky is the best... :)

yay!

Today is Trevor's birthday! FINALLY! I've been waiting FOREVER! I'll post more when we actually have news to post. Both of us work and won't be home till 7 tonight. But then the fun begins!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I'm going to die at work today.

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

A couple people have asked for my recipe for the chicken pot pie. Here it is, but PLEASE don't kill me if the measurements aren't exact. I measure...sort of. Spices--usually not so much. So just spice till you think it's right. The final version I ended up liking best has roots that are similar to the Better Homes and Gardens cook book version. But mine's cooler :) Keep in mind, I never said this recipe is good for you...

Chicken Pot Pie

CHICKEN
2 lbs chicken breast cut into small squares (smaller than you'd think--1/2inch)
salt and pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons butter

Season and cook the cut up chicken over medium high heat in the butter with onions and celery until the chicken is done. Cover it so the moisteness stays in as you cook it.

THICKENING
2-3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour (sifted--or forked, as I do it since sifting is ridiculous)

Lower heat to medium. Add butter to the chicken and add flour to it once it's all melted. It will make a really thick paste (if it's too dry, add more butter). It should be like frying light dough. I think the French call this a roo (phoenetically, that is).

SAUCE
1 cup chicken broth*
1 cup half and half**
1 medium potato cut into 1/2" squares
1/2 tablespoon dried parsley (fresh is awesome if you have it!)
1/4-1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon rosemary
(or intead of rosemary and thyme, you could do oregano, or basil, or any other flavor, depending on the flavor you're in the mood for)
1 cup frozen peas and carrots
salt and pepper

Add chicken broth and half n half to the flour/chicken mixture. (Depending on how much sauce you want, you may want to add more. Stir until flour is completely dissolved. Add potato, spices, and peas and carrots. Simmer over medium heat until the sauce is the consistency you want, stirring occasionally. Salt and pepper to your heart's desire. The potatoes should be maybe half done at this point.

*Side note on the broth. I use canned broth because I'm not a maniac who makes their own chicken stock. I'm sure it'd be amazing if you did. I get one can of broth and use half. That equals 1 cup. Make sure to get the kind with lower salt.

**Side note on the half and half. I tried over and over to make pot pie without spending money on the cream. Seriously, just take my word for it, and go for the half and half. Milk just doesn't cut it when you're looking for that white creamy texture. Whole milk would be the next step down.

CRUST AND PAN
1 box Pilsbury pie crust* (with 2 sheets of dough, for top and bottom)
8" cake or pie pan
pan spray or shortening

Grease your pan (spray or shortening). When I used a cake pan instead of a pie pan, I had more room for all my filling because it's deeper. Lay the first layer of crust down, pour filling in. Be sure to defrost your crust BEFORE you start--in the fridge, not the microwave. It doesn't work. Just trust me. Cut slits or shapes in the top layer of crust, then lay it on top. Fold the top under and pinch up the rim.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees or until it's the color you want.
You may want to lay some foil under your pan or on the rack below to catch any sauce that may decide to boil over.

*Pie crust side note: I am no good at making crust. You can try your own, but don't look at me for guidance :) I think maybe I just don't like homemade crust. At least not any way I've ever tried it.

Good luck! Tell me if you think any other cool things to try!

And SHARE YOUR RECIPES WITH ME! I love trying new ones :)

August Burns Red

I got Trevor a gift certificate to buy tickets for a show of his choice for his birthday, and I ended up giving it to him early so he could buy tickets to a show for one of his favorite bands that was last night, August Burns Red. They played with All That Remains and two other bands that I wasn't incredibly impressed by. I've never been to a show that big before, so it was kind of a new experience for me :) It was 10 times hotter than Trevor's shows, and there were hundreds more people, and it was 10 times louder. We stayed towards the back for the first two bands, and then for August Burns Red, Trevor dragged me down to the front where the pit was. Uh, if you don't know what a pit is, it's where all the people go to hardcore dance (or mosh or something depending on the music style). Anyways. It was pretty crazy. The people who were mashed against my side were smelly and sweaty. Pretty gross. Luckily Trevor found me a good spot on some stairs where I had some space in front of me and a bar to lean on.

It was still fun though. I tried to snap a couple pictures while Trevor was down doing his thing in the pit. Obviously, since I only had my cell phone, they aren't that great. But still good enough for remembering's sake.

(d'jya catch that? total, $21/ticket! HOLY COW! Come on Smithtix!)

I like the power fists.

Haha, I almost forgot. This is SO me. I fell down some of the stairs while we were trying to get to the front, and made a total idiot of myself. Great. I also saw some familiar faces; I saw two chicks I used to go to school with--kind of random that they ended up liking this kind of music--and I also saw a dude from school. Kinda cool to know I'm not alone in the hardcore/metal scene :) Oh, also, the show sold out right when we got there (luckily we'd already purchased our tickets), and there were a ton of really angry kids walking around outside the venue while I was trying to scarf down some Subway dinner. They were SO MAD :)

Triffle and Pot Pie

Last weekend I tried making a triffle. It looked really good, but it sort of failed. It had layers of brownie, chocolate and vanilla pudding, chocolate and vanilla mouse, oreo, whipped cream, and raspberry pie filling. Heaven, right? So you'd think...
Here's what happened when we tried to serve it. It all just meshed together and combined to make one giant bowl of runny pudding. And the rasperry filling was pretty gross. I don't recommend trying it--it was from a can.

At least my serving dish was cool :) $7 at Walmart (I know, Walmart? Becky, really? I had a gift card.)

On the bright side, Monday I made another chicken pot pie and I think I've nearly got it where I want it. I've made one about once a month for probably the last 5 months because I've been trying to get it right. Until now I haven't been able to get the sauce the way I want it. It's supposed to be creamy, white, and thick, you know? In the past it's been thin, runny, and yellow. This time I gave in and used actual half-and-half and added potatoes. And I defrosted the crust properly so it turned out pretty :) Woohoo! Go Pilsbury pie crust! (I am SO not ready to show everyone how horrible I am at making my OWN pie crust.)

Pot pie is SO good :)

Keeping Up the Record

I realized I haven't really been keeping my blog up to date with things that I'm actually doing very much, just sort of random things. So I thought, more for the sake of record keeping, I'd detail a few things that have been happening lately.

I've got my handy calendar ready:

• Trevor and I started saving more each month than we've ever saved before. I hope we don't mess it up :) We're saving up to fix my poor car from the accident on Valentines Day (we're over halfway there), and then, who knows! Maybe something cool--like a house. Just kidding, probably not.


• I think I might have mentioned this in passing, but I did a little song dealy for Relief Society a few weeks ago with Robyn my sister-in-law and a few ladies from the ward. It was cool to sing with people who ... um, can actually sing :) No offense to anyone--it's just really nice to be able to not worry about voices sticking out or something. Some dude from the bishopric or something heard us singing and made us do it in Sacrament meeting the next week. It was cool 'cause I got to try my hand more at directing the chickas in what to do with the song a bit before our pianist came to help.


• That leads me to the next thing. I'm pretty sure I didn't post this. Maybe I did. I got asked to be the ward choir director. Yeesh. We've had 2 practices so far--with like 5 people--isn't that just great. I'm both excited and ...what's the word...ANTI-excited. It will be nice to work on my presence as a director, but ward choirs can be SO frustrating and, let's face it, lame. I've started out with a few songs I have just to see where the "choir" (more like "ensemble") can go, and last week I think I found the best fits. I want to experience something with this choir that I haven't usually been able to experience just in a ward choir. Usually ward choirs are all about being lovey dovey to everyone and inviting EVERYONE to come sing even if they are completely tone deaf--and that's all. They seem to have no plan or direction other than just getting people there and having people sing AS IS. I want to focus on learning a little about music. I would like the people who come to choir to leave knowing something they didn't before--and expand their musical abilities. Sure, everyone will still be welcome, tone-deaf or not (seeing as God won't let me exclude people :) ... ); but I would like everyone who comes to experience what it's actually like to be in a choir. These last 2 weeks have been sort of an initiation period for me, getting to know the feel of what's going on--but I hope to start adding more conceptual ideas next time and as I get more comfortable directing. I've been having a bit of a hard time getting the pianist to do what I want him to. He's a choir director at a school, so I think he's used to doing things his way. He's kind of annoying me, actually. He's the type that will keep playing music even after I say stop. And for some reason we're not on the same wavelength when it comes to where to start from when we go back to a section of music. Bless his heart, but it makes it harder because he has like 20 kids and he's super busy.


• Next! I officially finished my first full month at Curves, and got my first monthly report of my "progress." I lost a whopping pound and a half (maybe I ate less that day), and shrank a half an inch on my abdomen. Those numbers are positive but I won't accept them as real progress until I can prove they aren't just from monthly fluctuations in water or something :) I did earn 20 cents in Curves Cash though :) I can buy cool stuff when I get more. I'm looking forward to next month to see what two months can do. My body isn't sore like it used to be after working out, so I feel like I can push a little harder.


• I've been preparing for Trevor's birthday like a mad-man. Don't ask me why--it's not even for another 9 days and I've been ready for like a week. I got all the stuff I've been wanting to get him, and now I just have to wait. It's kind of made it so I've spent more than I originally planned but oh well, he deserves a break :) He works so hard and has so much ambition, I love to do things for him that make his life easier.


• We got new sheets for our bed :) Kind of a silly thing to mention, but I really LOVE them. They are a really great shade of green that I'm sort of obsessed with. Trevor picked out a new white blanket--it's sort of like a hospital blanket--but it's so perfect. Hospital blankets have this way of keeping you perfectly warm without being huge. I've always been so comfortable every time I've used one in a hospital. We also got new lamps with pull chains for our nightstands because we were SO tired of reaching up under the shade to try and find the switch on our old lamps. We knocked the lamps over way too much trying to do that in the dark. We also organized our closet with some bins for books and blankets, and got a new laundry sorter for darks and lights, and got rid of the giant bookshelf in our bedroom. It's brighter and we have more space :)
• We now have a plethora of furniture that we don't have space for anymore. We have a DVD stand, a computer desk, a side cabinet, and a book shelf. So if anyone's interested... we are sort of just storing them until we have a truck or something to take them to the DI, or someone wants them.
• Trevor and I are going to a show tomorrow--it's an early birthday present because there weren't any good shows playing after his birthday. It's with All That Remains and August Burns Red at the Murray Theater. It's going to be way fun! Trevor really likes August Burns Red. It will be kind of neat to go with just us too. Usually there are a bunch of other people, like from the band or something, whenever we go to a show. Now we'll have to talk to just each other about the bands--forced communication :) haha

I can't think of anything else really worth mentioning. I have some cool pictures I want to share, but I'll wait until I have them to post.