Birthday Cake

The excitement is building around our home as the date approaches for our next move.  Since we had to come back to the States early for medical reasons, my parents have so graciously shared their home with us.  We’ve lived in their basement since the end of April as the house we own has been tied up in a lease for the length of time we were supposed to be gone.  The tenant is and has been a big blessing and we are thankful for his taking good care of the house and, of course, always paying the rent!  It’s only a couple more weeks before we have possession again and I have no idea what the state of this blog will be in for a while with the moving, unpacking, trying to keep up my paying day job, etc.  But, as you can see, I am extremely excited to move again (I weirdly love it), open all of the boxes that have been stored for 2 years, and get settled in to our own home. Plus, I bet los padres would like their basement back, too…

Saturday, as I mentioned before, was the big Thirty-One for Husband!  I went with the “theme” from last year, if you want to call it that.  I wanted to make a simple cake but decorate half saying “Go Ducks” for the Rose Bowl that day and the other half “Happy Birthday.”  As soon as I began to write “Go Ducks,” I realized my homemade frosting was too runny.  Call me a bad wife who can’t really decorate cakes but I tried. Heh.  So I just dotted the rest of the cake and took a blurry picture!

This year, I wanted to try using cake decorating tips for the first time ever.  Trust me, I’ve never read an iota on cake decorating so I had no idea how this was going to work!  Well, it ended up better than last year and the final picture was slightly less blurry, so I call it a success.  Oh, and those aren't holes in the frosting - i attempted putting yellow sprinkles on (green and yellow...Oregon...Ducks...) but forgot till the frosting was too hard.  Haha, good grief.

At this rate, next year’s will probably knock your socks off!  J

Happy Monday, everyone!

Wedding Day Eats

I was just doing a little reminiscing of our wedding this afternoon...we are about a month away from our 2-year anniversary and it's gone so fast.  The reception after the ceremony was not very formal or a full meal, but my fabulous caterer friend, Cindi, made some amazing appetizers!  Check these out:

On the right of the platter, please let me point out one of Mike's very few wedding-day requests....sausage bacon wraps.  My first reaction was "no way."  The thought grossed me out a little, but really...why not?  Cindi did a terrific job at making them presentable and everyone loved them!

Here is Mike after his first mouth-watering bite of his dream wedding food. :)

Oh, and we can't forget the cake. :)  Market of Choice made this one.

Photography by Ira Petersen.

Toffee Poke Cake

For all you chocolate/caramel/toffee lovers out there, this is about as simple as you can get...and still be delicious!
It takes only four ingredients:

1 package (18 1/4 oz.) chocolate cake mix

1 jar (17 oz.) butterscotch-caramel ice cream topping [I could only find caramel, but I only looked one place]

1 carton (12 oz.) frozen whipped topping, thawed

3 Heath candy bars (1.4 oz. each), chopped

Bake the cake.  Let it completely cool.  Then, using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes all round the cake.  Fill the holes with the caramel and then pour the rest of the caramel around the top of the cake.  Spread the whipped topping and sprinkle with crumbled Heath bars.  Refrigerate until ready to serve!

Mike's 30th Birthday

Last night, I prepared Mom's Christmas Eggs for the first time ever.  I was planning on making them for Christmas morning, but, alas, ended up forgetting one of the main ingredients: cheddar cheese.  So, I saved it for the next "holiday" of Mike's birthday a week later.  After a few hours of sleep after the most fantastic midnight fireworks show we'd ever seen, I got up and stuck it in the oven after chilling all night in the fridge.  I knew Mike wouldn't be able to sleep in very well and would wake up starving and it ended up being perfect timing.  I even got another hour of sleep before we ate!

The sausage I found wasn't really "breakfast sausage," but life is about substitutes here in Peru.  Mike loved the sausage but it wasn't my favorite.  Cheddar cheese also tastes differently here and is much more expensive than in the States so whenever you use it, you need to be careful and not spoil the dish!  Overall, it tasted yummy and we had more homemade frozen crescent rolls with it, along with a banana and some apple juice.  :)

For lunch, I had 2 firsts.  One, I prepared rice for the first time in my life.  And then I felt silly, because it's ridiculously easy!  I then made fried rice, my other rice.  I included leftover chopped ham from Christmas (which I had frozen so it didn't go bad), chopped green onion, scrambled eggs, and of course soy sauce!  It was simple, extremely easy, and very yummy!

By the way, our main meal of the day has turned Peruvian: Lunch.  We eat a big lunch and tiny, almost non-existent dinner.  We don't go to bed stuffed and really feel a lot healthier.  It's going to be tough if we ever move back to the States when all our friends want to go out to dinner while we prefer lunch, but we'll survive. :)

I made a homemade yellow cake for his birthday cake. I've been a little "goodied" out these last few weeks that I actually gave in for the first time and bought the canned chocolate frosting from the U.S.  But only because.....I had this amazing idea......of splitting the cake with a curly colored frosting line - 1 half for "Happy Birthday!" and the other for "Go Ducks! Rose Bowl!!"  or something like that....Well, I started with green to write Go Ducks when I realized my frosting was way too liquid-y....I still tried to write the word "Ducks" but it spread.  So I added some dots and decorations around the rest of the cake and gave up.  Not a great first picture to post, but it also means I can only go up!  :)  It was still really yummy with ice cream!

2009 Flashback: Christmas Dinner

Dishes I made:
Mashed potatoes (small yellow potatoes) with brown gravy
Sautéed green beans
Sweet potatoes (with marshmallows/brown sugar/cinnamon)
Homemade frozen crescent rolls (with butter/jam)
Turkey ham
Carrots (sliced and cooked)

For Dessert:
Peppermint Cake
Vanilla Ice Cream

We invited Leanne Bennett, Alyssa Klassen, and Rachael Miller over for dinner.  The 5 of us ate a giant yummy feast, if I do say so myself. :)

P.S. This was all prepared on my tiny range with one oven rack! Ha.