I think I mentioned this before, I am going on a Mission trip to the Czech Republic, this summer.
I am very excited about this, even though it has yet to really sink in.
If you would like to read about my team members and the Chicago team, that we are running the English camp with, click on this link: Czech Mission Teams
P.S.- I hope to make the Strawberry cake from my last post, tomorrow!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Friday, June 15, 2012
Easy Strawberry Cake
Thanks Smitten Kitchen! I cannot wait to try this recipe out!
Easy Strawberry Cake
Update: 6/28/2012- This is in the oven right now and it looks fantastic! I cannot wait to taste it!
Easy Strawberry Cake
Makes a 9-inch cake
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together the sugar and butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and mix until combined. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until incorporated.
Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch cake pan. Place the strawberries, cut side down, on top of the batter. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar on top and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for another 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan.
Source: Smitten Kitchen
Monday, May 28, 2012
The Laundry Mat and the Grocery Store
Today is Memorial Day. I am thankful for those who have given their lives, fighting for our many freedoms. I am also thankful for the many friends that I have, who serve in our military currently. My hats go off to them today!
Even though it is a holiday, I needed to do laundry something fierce!! And I really do not like to grocery shop... the last time I went was about a month and a half ago. Let's just say I have been really hungry the last few days. Granola bars don't carry me for very long... and I have 2 left! Ha ha.
So, naturally I took care of both situations today.
Let me say that I learned something doing my laundry today, and that is, that there are three types of people at the Laundromat.
1. The Normal- You can decide what normal is for yourself, but these people are like me. We want to get in and out. Be done as fast as possible, so that we can get on with the rest of our day.
2. The Crazies- These people are like the man I encountered today. He yelled at a woman for drying her clothes... and then accused her of bringing in wet clothes and then using the dryers.
3. The Pushy- These are the people that put there stuff right up against yours, on the folding table. So, you move over a bit... and then low and behold there stuff is right up against your stuff again. This keeps happening, until you are straddling your laundry cart and are folding your things in 2 inches of space. How did this happen?
If you were previously unaware of these three types of people, like I was, I hope I have encouraged you to look deeper into your surroundings, when next at the laundromat. Ha ha.
At the grocery store today, I was thankful to be there when all of the Stater Brothers, at the same time took a minute of silence for all fallen military personnel. I was surprised by the amount of people who actually stopped everything they were doing to be a part of this. It made me happy to see this type of respect/ patriotism for our country.
What ever you are doing today, think of those you know, and maybe those you see from afar... that give their time (family, personal) for you and me... so we may live the lives we chose to live.
Even though it is a holiday, I needed to do laundry something fierce!! And I really do not like to grocery shop... the last time I went was about a month and a half ago. Let's just say I have been really hungry the last few days. Granola bars don't carry me for very long... and I have 2 left! Ha ha.
So, naturally I took care of both situations today.
Let me say that I learned something doing my laundry today, and that is, that there are three types of people at the Laundromat.
1. The Normal- You can decide what normal is for yourself, but these people are like me. We want to get in and out. Be done as fast as possible, so that we can get on with the rest of our day.
2. The Crazies- These people are like the man I encountered today. He yelled at a woman for drying her clothes... and then accused her of bringing in wet clothes and then using the dryers.
3. The Pushy- These are the people that put there stuff right up against yours, on the folding table. So, you move over a bit... and then low and behold there stuff is right up against your stuff again. This keeps happening, until you are straddling your laundry cart and are folding your things in 2 inches of space. How did this happen?
If you were previously unaware of these three types of people, like I was, I hope I have encouraged you to look deeper into your surroundings, when next at the laundromat. Ha ha.
At the grocery store today, I was thankful to be there when all of the Stater Brothers, at the same time took a minute of silence for all fallen military personnel. I was surprised by the amount of people who actually stopped everything they were doing to be a part of this. It made me happy to see this type of respect/ patriotism for our country.
What ever you are doing today, think of those you know, and maybe those you see from afar... that give their time (family, personal) for you and me... so we may live the lives we chose to live.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Smart Cookies
I found this recipe in Woman's Day recently. They are way fast and easy to make! A perfect title for the cookies I would say... clever Woman's Day, very clever.
Easiest-Ever Peanut Butter Cookies
Active: 25 minutes
Total: 35 minutes
Makes 5 dozen
1 cup chunky or creamy peanut butter (I used creamy)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 tsp baking soda
1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat all ingredients in a large bowl until fully incorporated.
3. Drop level teaspoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are puffed and starting to lightly brown around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Per cookie: 35 calories, 2 g fat ( g sat fat), 3 mg chol, 35 mg sod, 1 g pro, 3 g car, 0 g fiber
I used a tablespoon for my cookies and they turned out small, so I cannot imagine what they would look like as teaspoons. If you like cute little baby cookies, then the teaspoon would be perfect!
These taste like you are eating peanut butter straight from the jar!
Easiest-Ever Peanut Butter Cookies
Active: 25 minutes
Total: 35 minutes
Makes 5 dozen
1 cup chunky or creamy peanut butter (I used creamy)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 tsp baking soda
1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat all ingredients in a large bowl until fully incorporated.
3. Drop level teaspoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are puffed and starting to lightly brown around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Per cookie: 35 calories, 2 g fat ( g sat fat), 3 mg chol, 35 mg sod, 1 g pro, 3 g car, 0 g fiber
I used a tablespoon for my cookies and they turned out small, so I cannot imagine what they would look like as teaspoons. If you like cute little baby cookies, then the teaspoon would be perfect!
These taste like you are eating peanut butter straight from the jar!
Monday, May 14, 2012
Downtown Riverside
On saturday, my mom and I went into Downtown Riverside, to see 'Miss Saigon'. She was really excited about this... I had heard of the show, but didn't know anything about it.
My mom and I are hardcore musical fans and have been lucky enough to see a ton of them as well. With that being said, I think at times we can be a little critical. However, we both went in with open arms, because neither of us had ever seen the show and we didn't know the music either.
More on this in just a moment.
Before the show, we went to dinner. We decided to eat at 'Crescent Jewel'. It has a bunch of stuff in the burger and salad categories, but with a bit of a Cajun twist.
Crescent had a lot of promise... nice staff and fun presentation. That all flew out the door when the nice staff was really slow and our food was brought out lukewarm.
We got 'frickles' (fried pickles) and smoked gouda smothered fries, with bacon as appetizers. They came in cute little cups. The taste on the fries was really good... but they were warm, not hot. The frickles were not crispy and toward the end tasted a little too salty (also warm). And I love salt!
For our main dishes, my mom got a lovely salad with chicken and the chicken was actually a good temperature. I got... a grilled cheese sandwich with smoked gouda, applewood smoked bacon, and green apple slices.
I don't eat stuff like that... ever, so I feel like I really went out on a limb here. It was pretty good, but I would have liked the sandwich to be hot. I just couldn't figure out why it was taking so long to get the food to us, as there were not very many people in the restaurant.
I give Crescent Jewel 3 out of 5 stars. I would try them again, just to make sure our time there wasn't part of a fluke. A bunch of potential here. They have a nice outside dining area and that helped in my grading.
On the way to the Riverside Fox Theater, we stopped by Casey's Cupcakes. They won 'Cupcake Wars' and we were excited to try their cupcakes. They don't close until 9pm, so we figured since it was just after 7pm, that they would have plenty of cupcakes left.
FALSE.
They had zero cupcakes left and none of the staff thought to make any more cupcakes to carry them to closing time. When we walked in a staff member said, "As you can see we are all out of cupcakes." The staff was not very nice and told us to come back at 9am the next morning. That would be all good and well, if we were going to be there at that time.
Casey's Cupcakes... get it together!
Now for Miss Saigon. This production deals with the complexities of war and the lives that are connected to it. They speak of love that is separated by vast oceans... children left behind by their American fathers, like they don't matter at all. These things happened in real life and so there is an emotion that comes along with that.
I wanted to feel something as I watched this musical... but everything felt rushed, pushed along. They didn't give you enough time to form a connection to the faces of the real babies in an orphanage, left behind because their mom's had been forced into prostitution and their dad's went back to America.
They didn't give you enough time to feel the struggles of the women and other people in a war torn country.
There just wasn't enough time...
Not enough thought...
All of this left me wondering, if the production that my mom and I saw was extremely different than the original, that won many awards. And for that, I am not grateful. I am sorry if you love 'Miss Saigon', but it really left me wanting... more of everything.
On a side note, the last time I was at the Fox Theater was around 2006 and they were just about to start the renovation process. It looked horrible. What I saw over the weekend was amazing. The new look is fantastic!
My mom and I are hardcore musical fans and have been lucky enough to see a ton of them as well. With that being said, I think at times we can be a little critical. However, we both went in with open arms, because neither of us had ever seen the show and we didn't know the music either.
More on this in just a moment.
Before the show, we went to dinner. We decided to eat at 'Crescent Jewel'. It has a bunch of stuff in the burger and salad categories, but with a bit of a Cajun twist.
Crescent had a lot of promise... nice staff and fun presentation. That all flew out the door when the nice staff was really slow and our food was brought out lukewarm.
For our main dishes, my mom got a lovely salad with chicken and the chicken was actually a good temperature. I got... a grilled cheese sandwich with smoked gouda, applewood smoked bacon, and green apple slices.
I don't eat stuff like that... ever, so I feel like I really went out on a limb here. It was pretty good, but I would have liked the sandwich to be hot. I just couldn't figure out why it was taking so long to get the food to us, as there were not very many people in the restaurant.
I give Crescent Jewel 3 out of 5 stars. I would try them again, just to make sure our time there wasn't part of a fluke. A bunch of potential here. They have a nice outside dining area and that helped in my grading.
On the way to the Riverside Fox Theater, we stopped by Casey's Cupcakes. They won 'Cupcake Wars' and we were excited to try their cupcakes. They don't close until 9pm, so we figured since it was just after 7pm, that they would have plenty of cupcakes left.
FALSE.
They had zero cupcakes left and none of the staff thought to make any more cupcakes to carry them to closing time. When we walked in a staff member said, "As you can see we are all out of cupcakes." The staff was not very nice and told us to come back at 9am the next morning. That would be all good and well, if we were going to be there at that time.
Casey's Cupcakes... get it together!
I wanted to feel something as I watched this musical... but everything felt rushed, pushed along. They didn't give you enough time to form a connection to the faces of the real babies in an orphanage, left behind because their mom's had been forced into prostitution and their dad's went back to America.
They didn't give you enough time to feel the struggles of the women and other people in a war torn country.
There just wasn't enough time...
Not enough thought...
All of this left me wondering, if the production that my mom and I saw was extremely different than the original, that won many awards. And for that, I am not grateful. I am sorry if you love 'Miss Saigon', but it really left me wanting... more of everything.
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