A Little "Whovian" Baking

Thursday was my little sister's birthday, and her first birthday away from home. I wanted to do something to make her feel special, so we invited her over for dinner, but I wanted to get her a gift as well. She is a huge Doctor Who fan, so I started looking down that path for ideas. I made her a bookmark that looks like the most recent Doctor, a super cheesy card, and instead of cupcakes, I made her "fish sticks" and custard!

Yes, it sounds disgusting. It's a DW thing. There was one episode where the Doctor eats fish sticks with custard. I'm not sure how they came up with that combination, but they did and now I've re-created it in much yummier fashion!

I made normal vanilla pudding from a box. Cheating, I know. Then I was trying to think of things that might look kind of breaded like fish sticks that would actually taste good with pudding, so I went with snickerdoodle cookies! I rolled the dough into short little logs instead of balls and then rolled those in the cinnamon-sugar. I forgot, as I have almost every time since moving to Utah, that you have to add extra flour here, so they ended up spreading out more than I anticipated, but I just cut them in half and they turned out to be the right dimensions, besides being a bit flat.

They were very tasty, and my sister reacted very well! I'm glad she like my little home-made treat. I have to say, I was a little too proud of myself for coming up with this idea since I haven't watched much Doctor Who, but I had fun making it, and seeing my sister happy on her birthday was all I really wanted.

Thanks to my husband for helping me get this picture onto my computer! Apparently android and macs don't like to work together. :P

Dutch Baby Pancakes

Breakfast anyone?
This is a super simple, totally delicious, and the preparation takes 5 minutes tops. It's really easy to make a small batch for 2 (that's what I make for my little family of 2) or a big batch for 8 (which is what my mom did back home when I was growing up.) I meant to get a picture of what it looks like when you serve it, but Hubby and I were hungry so by the time I pulled the camera back out the plates were empty. Oops :)

What you need: (for a small batch)
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup of milk
1/2 Cup of flour
3 Tablespoons of butter
and
Casserole Dish or Cake Pan (size depending on how much you're making. For a small batch, I use a casserole dish my great grandmother gave me that is about 7''x9''. If you were to use 6 eggs a 9"x13" pan would be appropriate)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425º

2. Put butter in your pan, then place in the oven to melt.

3. Blend eggs, milk, and flour.

4. Pour mixture into the pan of melted butter. Bake for 25 minutes.

5. Take it out of the oven and voila! A fluffy, buttery, suffle-ish breakfast that is ready to EAT! My favorite way to eat this is with syrup and powdered sugar. Some people like it with berries, sour cream, brown sugar, but you can do whatever you like!

Bon Appetit!

My Wonderful Family

I love my family. They are so amazing. We may be a quirky, nerdy, silly, eclectic group, but we know how to laugh and we know how to love. I got to skype with my family today, and it was fantastic. I miss them so much, and really wish I lived closer to home. Or that they lived closer to here.

I love that we all love music and make it together. I love that my little brother is enough of a man to make up for the fact that he's the only boy out of five kids, and that he's willing to put up with the rest of our girly ways.

I love that we're such comedians. I think we inherited it from my dad... actually I'm positive. He's hilarious, and I love it. I don't think we had more than one or two conversations over Christmas break that didn't end with me crying from laughter. I love laughing, and I love being happy, and I'm so grateful for my family's ability to help me stay that way.

I love that we have so many common interests, and also so many different ones. For example, we've all played soccer, all of the girls have taken dance classes, and we all sing or play an instrument. Cameron is a PRO beatboxer. He and my sister Sarah frequently do spontaneous dubstep arrangements, and it's awesome. It drives Mary crazy, who much prefers her classical piano and flute (she's a prodigy--absolutely amazing at everything she tries), and Lizzie just goes crazy dancing and singing to any music being made or played on the computer.

My parents are wonderful. They are such hard workers, and so kind and generous to others. My dad is such an amazing example of patience and love. I've rarely seen a man look at a woman with so much love as I see on my dad's face when he comes home. I want to marry someone who looks at me that way.

Besides always being there for me to talk to, and offer advice, I love how good of a cook my mom is, and how she's taught me her magical ways in the art of perfect baking. Not only does everything that comes out of her kitchen taste good, but it looks amazing as well! She's a wizard. No lie.

I'm so grateful for the examples ALL of the members of my family set for me, and that even though I'm 2,000 miles away, I can stay in contact with them and have the promise of being with them forever.

Nom nom nom: not my usual kind of post

Tonight I was craving Cafe Rio, but lacking a car and having a full refrigerator of food that needs to be used by Thursday before I leave for Christmas break, I decided to stay in and try my hand at recipe inventing. Ok, I didn't completely invent it, I borrowed ideas from this blog. I really quite enjoyed it!

The change I made from my normal tacos that surprised me the most, but also was, in my opinion, one of the best additions, was putting brown sugar on the chicken along with the taco seasoning, to give it that sweet, savory flavor.

The rice was also completely different from how I normally make it (rice, water, done.) I added butter, garlic powder, and lemon juice to the water before I cooked it, and then added lemon juice and sugar after it was done. I added too much of the last two ingredients, and it was a bit too sweet, so I added a pinch of taco seasoning to tone it down, and once it was paired with the chicken and lettuce, it was sublime.

The lettuce actually muted the other flavors a bit, so that's a good thing for me to remember for the future. I also added some crumbled up tortilla chips to give it a little crunch

So, basically I'm really proud of myself and plan to add this to my repertoire. Thank you for listening to my bragging.

here are some pictures :)

My lovely creation... I'm not a food photographer. Just a not-humble-enough, very-pleased-with-herself girl.

My apron that my Grandma and I made together this summer. I quite like this as well :)

oh, ps I plan to make these after I study a little bit more. So excited!