Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. Our plates were complete with delicious and nutritious food. Our table was filled with good friends. And I forgot to reflect on all the things I was thankful for.

Yes. I got too caught up in the taste, the cooking, the baking, the decorations, the sweeping, the dusting, the cleaning, and missed the opportunity to reflect on the things I am thankful for.

Before I put up the Christmas tree and move on to the next holiday, I must stop. I must stop and reflect on the things I am thankful for before another moment passes. So here it goes: I am thankful for a wonderful family who loves and supports us, I am thankful for my husband who loves me despite all (and I mean all) my shortcomings, I am thankful even more for a God who loves me through the eyes of Christ, I am thankful for a job and for good friends at work, I am thankful for a very supportive small group, I am thankful for friends outside of church and work, I am thankful for a kitchen to cook in, I am thankful for the ability to run, I am thankful to live in the very diverse and creative Chicagoland, I am thankful for new experiences, I am thankful for colorful walls to live within, I am thankful for today and the “bright hope for tomorrow” because “great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”

It happens far too often—the not stopping to reflect on the things I am thankful for, i.e. the blessings God generously pours down on us. We can make the choice to see them as blessings, as things to be thankful for, OR we can get too caught up in the taste, the cooking, the baking, the decorations, the sweeping, the dusting, the cleaning. Today, even if it’s a day late, I will choose thankfulness.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

My coworkers and I threw a baby shower this week for our dear friend Kim. She and her husband Dan have a little boy on the way. No offense to all the men out there, but boy baby showers are a lot harder to plan than little girl showers where all you need are different shades of pink, some polka dots, cute girly baby outfits, eww’s & aww’s, cupcakes, and you’re set.Mary, my coworker, came up with the theme for the shower— The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and it turned out excellent! Cupcakes still made their appearance at the shower, there were  plenty of cute little boy outfits, and an abundance of eww’s & aww’s! More pictures are to come.

The idea for the cupcakes came from Coco Cake. It is a lot easier than it looks. In order to create this, make cupcakes (we had 48 total). It has become a staple in my kitchen to use Cake Love’s recipes for the chocolate cupcakes (LaTonya, another coworker, brought in the vanilla cupcakes). To decorate the cupcakes, I use the Wilton Dessert Decorator Pro—it makes icing cupcakes super easy. Drop different shades of green in the dispenser to add some variation in color as you ice. I made a cream cheese buttercream (cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, a dash of salt, and food coloring). After icing, use brown long sprinkles along the outer edge of the cupcakes for his hair. Now, onto the head. It does get a little trickier here. You can buy fondant and color it. Or, you can make it. Can you guess what I did? I had to try it myself, of course, allowing a little too much room for disaster to occur the night before the shower. Thankfully, it worked. To make the fondant, get a jar of marshmallow fluff (7-8 oz.) and add lots and lots, I mean lots, of powdered sugar. The recipe I used called for 2 cups of powdered sugar, but that had to be a lie. I used at least double. You need to get all the sticky out of the fluff so that you can roll it out smoothly without it sticking to your surface.After you have a good consistency, add in your food coloring. When rolling the fondant out, don’t be afraid to dowse your surface with powdered sugar. You can brush it off afterward, or, if you let it sit overnight, it will soak in. Decorate your head as you please, and voila, you now have a Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake!

October Bliss

Fall has fallen. October was full. And I am pooped. October, you treated me well.

First weekend: Siloam Springs, AR. I was able to go visit my sister (thanks Dad) and celebrate homecoming at JBU. I got to watch my sister play soccer. I wish I could watch every game, but that’s one of the downsides of living so far away. I got to catch up with professors who were very influential in my time there. I got to go to “science” lab as I called it. My sister is a pre-med major, but it’s all science to me (I can see Ashleigh shaking her head now). I got to hang out with her boyfriend, Caleb, and his mom, Cheryl. We laughed alot, played games, and drank coffee. It was wonderful.

Second weekend: Work. I am only required to work a couple weekends a year, and Wheaton Homecoming is one of them. I worked 14 hours that Saturday, which was the same Saturday winter decided to sneak in. It was cold. I had purple lips. I drank lots of coffee. Despite the cold, Homecoming is a fun weekend to work. It’s neat to see people come back to a school they loved and reconnect with old friends. On Sunday, we headed downtown for the Chicago Marathon. No, we didn’t run it. I wish I was that hardcore. We hung one of Kev’s friends from Tulsa who ran it and had a little Pizano’s Pizza, an Oprah favorite.

Third weekend: Stace. Stacey and Sean popped into Chicago for a weekend to go to a Notre Dame game, and I was able to spend all day Friday with them. It was great to catch up! We took a Melissa style tour of downtown, a.k.a. a no good tour. I am horrible with directions, so we didn’t hit all the spots I had hoped we would. Oh, how I need GPS everywhere I go. We ate some Chicago style pizza, and they stopped in for a bit to see my home in Oak Park. Friday night, Steve came in town for Kevin’s fall break. Saturday, I went apple picking with Kimi and Fred. We headed up north, close to Wisconsin. I picked a peck of yummy apples and learned what the old nursery rhyme was talking about…pick a peck of pickled peppers. Apple recipe to come! That same weekend Kev and Steve installed a back splash in our kitchen. We went with slate subway tiles. They did an awesome job, especially for their first back splash job. A video is to come. We love it when Steve comes in to town. He and Kev literally go to town on our condo and spruce it up. We ate lots of good food while Steve was here (thanks Steve). I think I gained 5 lbs.

Fourth weekend: Corn Maze. Actually, we went to the largest corn maze in the world with Meghan and Will. We made it all the way through, though not with my directional help. I think I actually got us lost the couple times I spoke up. Meghan was incredible and got us through the end of the maze in the dark. Fall was complete after this little adventure!

Fifth weekend: Halloween. I was a mac. He was a PC.

And with that, fall has fallen. October was full. And I am pooped. October, you treated me well.

Steak’s and Beer Bread

Wheaton had a farmers market at the school on Friday so I picked up some Black Raspberry Jam. OMG—this stuff is awesome. It’s as if you are spreading fresh black raspberries all over the bread. This purchase inspired me to make some beer bread and steaks this weekend.

Where did I get my steak recipe you ask—my dad’s blog. Kevin loved it! My dad calls this recipe “The best steak I’ve ever eaten”. Kevin agreed. I liked it, but I’m not the biggest fan of meat to begin with. I like meat, don’t get me wrong, but rarely do I crave it. If I do ever crave a steak, I like the really lean, which equals expensive, cuts of meat. With our budget, that cut of meat is not going to adorn my dinner plate any time soon. I would recommend trying the recipe. Typically, I wouldn’t think to incorporate all those ingredients together—maple syrup, sage, thyme, cracked black pepper, crushed red peppers, onion, garlic. But, it was fun trying a new recipe and seeing how the flavors play together. So, from the mouth of my dad, “Buy steaks Friday, grill on Saturday, and don’t worry if it rains.”

Now, on to my favorite part of the meal….bread—beer bread to be exact. I can remember as a child hearing Mimi, my Grandma, saying that she could eat bread for dessert. I thought that was the craziest statement. Who in their right mind would prefer bread over ice cream or a cookie? Oh, but now, I have come into the light. I would eat bread for dessert any day. Heck, I would eat bread for a meal. I love it, which brings me back to beer bread. It is a super easy and quick bread to make. After I made it, I said, “That was easy.” So here’s the recipe…

WHOLE WHEAT BEER BREAD
from allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer

1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2. Whisk together dry ingredients.
3. Pour in beer and mix until combined.
4. Pour dough in loaf pan or 4 mini loaf pans.
5. Bake for 4o minutes. Lower the time if you are baking mini loafs.
6. Serve warm.

We ate this bread right out of the oven, smattering it with the Black Raspberry Jam from the farmers market. Oh dear, it was heavenly. This recipe can easily be halved. We did just that and made 2 small loaves. I kinda wish I had made the full recipe. Looks like we will be making this again soon!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m not an ooey gooey flat chocolate chip cookie lover. I like the thick, not too crunchy, still somewhat soft, chocolate chip cookies. My all time favorite cookie is a Carol’s Cookie. If you ever get the chance to try one of her cookies, you have to! They carry these cookies at some Whole Foods. Check her site to find if they carry them near you (hello again, infomercial). So for a year now, I have set out to try and replicate this cookie with many failures along the way. I’m getting close. But, now I am trying to put a little healthy spin on them, which leaves me with this recipe. It’s a 2 bowl no mixer cookie recipe. Who doesn’t like that? Add a spatula, whisk, and a little elbow grease and you’ve got some yummy, somewhat healthy chocolate chip cookies. Yes please!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES RECIPE
5 ounces good-quality semi-sweet chocolate chips (i like trader joe’s semi-sweet)
1 c whole wheat  flour
1/2 c AP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c old-fashioned rolled oats (finely ground)
1/2 c walnuts (finely ground)
1/2 c unsalted butter, melted
1 c natural cane sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup large-grain sugar (for ex: turbinado)
1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Melt butter in preheating oven and let cool for about 15 minutes.
3. Whisk together flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in bowl.
4. In food processor, finely grind oats and add to flour mixture.
5. In food processor, finely grind walnuts and add to flour mixture.
6. Whisk in sugar, honey, egg, and vanilla extract into butter mixture until sugar is dissolved and all ingredients combined.
7. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture, and mix until just combined.
8. Mix in chocolate chips.
9. Scoop cookies with a spring release ice cream scoop or roll in ball by hand. Roll cookies in turbinado and cinnamon mixture and place on silpat or parchment paper lined pan. Do not flatten.
10. Bake for about 10 minutes. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes.

Tip: You can also freeze these cookies before baking. Do everything up to step 9. Instead of placing the cookies in the cookies in the oven, place them in the freezer on the cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes. This process is called flash freezing. Once they are frozen or hard, you can put them in a freezer proof bag and store up to 2 months in freezer. When you are ready for a cookie or two, set the cookie(s) out on your pan while preheating the oven. Bake for the same amount of time. You may have to add 2 minutes or so. Instead of eating a week old tasting cookie, you can have a freshly baked tasting cookie with this method.