January's Daring Bakers - Tuiles

So another month with the Daring Bakers has passed and I've attempted the latest challenge, Tuiles. This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. (oh and trust me, their results came out WAAAAYYY prettier than mine!) Thankfully it was a light and easy recipe, since both Jason and I are on a diet and a big rich cake would have completely done us in! ;-)

The tuiles were light and yet savory with a touch of sweetness that satisfied a sweet tooth I've been neglecting for a while now. But I know my end result was still way thicker than they were intended to be.

OK, so on the results!The first tuile I made, I tried dying some of the batter as suggested and then making a pattern on my butterfly, but I wasn't a huge fan of the way it turned out. I curled it over an ice cream scoop so it would cool bent and then added a line of whipped cream down the center. Meh. So-So.Experimenting further, I thought I would do a plain butterfly with the powered sugar sprinkled on top and then make a couple chocolate flowers with whipped cream centers. I liked how these turned out even better. And finally, because it was getting late and I wanted to use up all my chocolate batter, I made these cannoli-inspired tuiles with a whipped cream filling and powdered sugar sprinkled on top. These turned out pretty cute too. But wow, rolling these suckers while they were still hot was a challenge! If you wait till they're cool enough to touch, then they'll crack, so I had to sit there rolling hot cookies as fast as I could without burning myself to bad. Yikes!

As for the overall flavor, it wasn't my favorite and I probably won't be adding this recipe to the box, but it was fun to learn something new and maybe I'll try modifying it in the future.

Thanks Daring Bakers for another great challenge!

Nekked

Peta showed up in front of our office building this morning....

apparently they have an issue with the circus coming to town.

(Notice the whip marks on her back and the chains around her ankles. Somebody feed that girl a steak, she looks hungry.)

3 Years

Happy Anniversary my love!!!

Not a day goes by that I don't realize how blessed I am to have you in my life.
I love all the adventures we've shared,

the places we've traveled

and the nights curled up at home.

You're the one who can makes me laugh the hardest.

and that I can be the silliest with.You never cease to amaze me with how far you'll go...

to make someone smile.
You will always be my needle in a haystack, my one true cowboy, my dreaming buddy, my best friend and the love of my life.

Here's to 70 more :-)

All My Love,

Babydoll

Who Does That??!!!

Someone stole the back side of our fence this morning. Literally, ripped the pickets off the stringers that were screwed in and then stole the stringers too. They also stole all the lumber we had bought and set aside to finish the remaining part of the fence before we get our dogs.

Jason has worked so incredibly hard on that fence. We know that it had to have happened this morning while Jason was asleep and I was at work. The policeman said in all his 30 years he's never seen someone actually rip apart a fence to steal it.

I'm thinking we need to foster a rottweiler just to guard what's left of our fence. Seriously people, I'm so ready to kick someones inconsiderate ass.

Jason's driving around trying to see if he can track down the wood being sold to a lumber yard or a hardware store. The thief better pray Jason doesn't find him.

A Change In Taste

I just finished eating an entire red grapefruit here at my desk. You wouldn't have caught me dead with a grapefruit even a year ago. But for some reason, it seems out of nowhere my tastes completely changed and now I love them!! (NO, I'm not pregnant).

But does that ever happen to you? Before I moved to Tennessee, I didn't like sweet potatoes or yams either, now its a treat to have a baked sweet potatoe for dinner, or sweet potato french fries, sweet mashed potatoes - anyway you want to serve them to me I'll savor every bite!

What about you - anything you noticed you like now that you didn't enjoy before???

To Bring Y'All Up To Speed

Alright, I know I've been neglecting the poor ol' blog over the holidays and that's mainly because I'm regularly on a computer all day every day, so taking a vacation for me literally means from even the computer itself.

But I'm back at it and fully refreshed to overload you with all that's taken place over the holidays!!!!

As I mentioned in my last post, Christmas for Jason and I fell on Monday night of December 22nd. And to be more precise, that would be at like 1AM!!! (So really, early morning the 23rd!)

And its extremely important to keep that specific time in mind as you look through the pictures, because it explains why I look like such a hag. I'm tired and grungy from cleaning the house before our trip :-)
So grab a cup of coffee and curl up for a spell while I take you through the Keith's Christmas...

Jason had to use the extra big stocking for what he got me this year - tons of chocolates, mints and other yummy goodies!

He looks like he's been naughty in this picture, doesn't he?

All my stocking treats.

I put a pair of reindeer ears in Jason's stocking, so of course I had to get a picture of him wearing them.

And then Jason wanted Banks to try them on as well! She doesn't seem very happy about it, does she?

My favorite Afracain Salt Scrub from the Body Shop and an iTrip for my iPod!! Jason got two Brian Regan DVD's - he was pretty excited as you can see. And I got a yoga mat that I'd been wanting!!
Jason got a digital voice recorder for his songwriting.

This was the big gift that was hiding behind the chair cushion. He wouldn't let me open it towards the end (sound familiar Kelly family?)

He had wrapped the gift, then wrapped it again with cardboard and then wrapped it again in paper. What a goober.

Yeah - my massage chair!!!

He got some serious loves for that one!!

Ooohh! Another one??!
The box said Banana Republic and I started getting super excited :-)
A gorgeous brown wool Banana Republic Trench coat! He picked it out all by himself, my man's got shopping skillz y'all! I was so impressed and blessed by him, that there was definitely tears going on.

Ok, so then just a short 4 hours of sleep later, we got up and headed off to the airport to catch a couple flights and then take a 6 hour car ride to Clovis, CA to spend Christmas with the Keith family. Christmas morning comes along and I wake up to this time Jason bouncing up and down on the bed "It's Christmas! It's Christmas!" To which I'm grumbling, "No, go back to sleep." He won and we joined everyone, bed-head and all to open Christmas gifts together.

And the fun began when the guys all received similar shaped gifts to open. If you know Scott & Jason, you know why they're laughing so hard.

Jason & I had bought Jerry a pick-axe while we were in town, nice camouflaged gift-wrapping huh? The other two similar shaped gifts for Jason and Scott are these long-reaching washable lint brush/brooms that Jerry & Sherry bought us. Pretty handy if you ask me! Jason & I bought Sherry this Snowman. Actually, once again, we had to have Kelley pick it up ahead of time for us. These are difficult things to pack or carry on a plane :-)

And Jerry got a couple Lyle Lovett CD's from us as well.

Scott got some bear slippers and he proceeded to wear them all day. Loved it.

Here's a Christmas Sign that Jason picked out for Sherry. Jason flipped out over the three inscribed dog collars he got from my sister Kati. They are brown leather collars with silver dog tags that have each of the dogs names on them and then Jason's cell phone number on the back. Such a great gift!

Jason and I gave Scott & Kelley a new Laundry Room sign for their new house.

And we also got them an old fashioned wood barrel ice cream maker. They LOVE ice cream.

Here's Scott texting Kati a picture of Jason and I on the phone with the Kelly family.

Kati gave me a mechanical pastry set! Yippee!!!

And Jason was super blessed to receive two gifts, one from Lowe's from my parents and one from Home Depot from his parents so he could pick out whatever he needs. He took my parents gift card to Lowe's already and found the circular saw he'd been wanting so badly on sale! Once again, a perfect gift idea!Yeah new American Eagle shoes from Kati! There were many other gifts that I wasn't able to get a picture of, but really Jason and I were truly blessed and spoiled by both our families and I want to thank each of you so much!! Here's Jason...well just being Jason. I think in this one he was thinking Samurai Warrior.

And this one was more Aunt Jemima. Boy do I love that man. And this was me pretty much the entire Christmas vacation, curled up in a blanket in an overstuffed chair with a book and a puzzle.The Kelly/Keith Christmas Puzzle of 2008!

Well there you have it! You're all caught up on Christmas with the Keiths! I trust all your Christmas and New Years celebrations were wonderful as well.

God Bless you all as we embark on 2009!