August's Daring Bakers Challenge - Chocolate Eclairs

I really procrastinated on this one, literally waiting till this afternoon, but I'm excited to say I successfully completed my 2nd Daring Baker's Challenge!

The challenge this month was hosted by MeetaK and Tony Tahhan. They had decided on Chocolate Eclairs taken from a recipe by Pierre Herme from a cookbook written by Dorie Greenspan: Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme.

Again, these were all new things for me to try, from the Pâte à Choux or what's also known as the Cream Puff Pastry dough, the pastry cream filling and the chocolate glaze on top.

They took a bit more time than I expected to make all the components, but once I assembled it all together we couldn't take the pictures fast enough before devouring the bunch! Thankfully I had decided to only make half the recipe since I knew that leaving 20-24 eclairs alone with Jason and I would not be a good idea especially over a three day weekend.

But even then, I ended up with 11 eclairs that I baked more in the shape of cream puffs, cause I thought they were much cuter than the traditionally shaped eclair. We were allowed to modify the recipe a bit, so instead of going with the chocolate pastry cream, I made mine a white chocolate pastry cream and then kept the rest as the recipe directs, except for adding a tad bit of powdered sugar and whipped cream on top of the chocolate glaze for decoration.

To say these were yummy, is an understatement!!!! They were... STUPID yummy!


For instructions on how to make this recipe, you can go click here.

A Great & Relaxing Weekend

This weekend was a rare opportunity where Jason had both days off from work. And because of that, if felt like it stretched on more than a typical weekend, which was awesome.

Saturday morning Jason got up early to head to his championship baseball game out in Franklin. They lost 0-3 and Jason had to step in as catcher from his usual position as shortstop. I would have gone to his game, but at noon I needed to be sure I was at our church for their Grand Opening community event. OF COURSE, even though I brought my camera, I didn't take any pictures, so I lovingly borrowed these from our friend Melanie :-)

This is Melanie Carter, she also is one of the high school youth leaders and attends our small group.

Our head pastor Bobby Harrington, is the man in the bright pink shirt. He had just cut the ribbon for the new building.

Jason and I had both decided to just meet at the church since we had separate shifts volunteering the event - I was to be working the popcorn stand and I had signed Jason up in the dunk tank...ha ha! But unfortunately the dunk tank had plenty of volunteers, so he never actually got wet.

This is JP Robinson, the youth pastor who works with Melanie Carter. You can see he's getting his fair share of dunking!

Advertisements and signs had been posted all around the community weeks in advance, because this was more as an outreach to the community rather than just for Harpeth Community Church itself. 200 church members volunteered and they counted another 2500 guests and visitors participating in the event!!

Even the veggie tale stars made a cameo appearance for the kids!

There were lots of blow up toys, grilled food, free popcorn and snow cones, carnival games, face painting, train rides for the kids and live music. It was really fun and the weather wasn't too hot, so it made for a great time!

Bouncy blow up toys!

Free Snow Cones!

Carnival games - this is the ring toss!

Face Painting!

Here's Melanie Sutton on the kids train ride. She's also the Children's Ministry Director and attends our small group with her husband Ryan.

After the church event we headed home to change and relax a bit before grabbing our books and heading down to our favorite coffee shop Ugly Mugs. When we got home we topped the evening off with cuddling up on the couch and watching Mad About You episodes we rented off Netflix.

Sunday we were up and off again heading out to church and afterwards having lunch at Raffertys (two weeks in a row - yeah me!). Then when we got back home, we watched the Little League World Series (well he did while I cleaned the house and read), finished off the Mad About You dvd and enjoyed a nice long walk through the Shelby Bottoms Park a couple miles from our house.

It was an ideal weekend and I'm glad it lasted so long!!

Interesting little sensory quiz...

I took this fun, little quiz at blogthings.com to find out which of my five senses is most dominant!

And the results are.....

I am the sense of Sight

You are a very observant, detail oriented person.

You are able to take in a lot of information at once.

You often see things that other people never notice.

You have a good eye for design and aesthetics.

You love to be surrounded by beauty - natural or not.

When you imagine how something should look, you see it clearly in your mind.

Click here to take the quiz yourself!

I'll Never Feel The Same About Sweet Tea Again.

SO I was going to wait to write this post till I got a good picture of the souvenir I walked away with (more like crawled away with) from Saturday's escapades of making sweet tea. But first I should say that we are addicted to this Southern nectar known as sweet tea. Back when we first moved to Nashville, Jason's aunt Bettie Walker taught me how to make southern-style sweet tea and since then we have lived off this drink throughout the hot summers.

Back to the story - Saturday morning I got up early (9am, it was early to me ok?) and we left for Jason's baseball game out in Franklin. After they won to a shut out of 15-0 we left after the 5th inning and had lunch at Rafferty's, just the two of us :-) On the way home we stopped at a brand new coffee shop that opened up a couple blocks from our house called the Ugly Mugs and enjoyed a great cup of coffee (the owners are from the Northwest, so they knew what they were doing! LOVE THIS PLACE! Definitely will become mine & Jason's new spot!)

From there we headed back home and Jason thought he might take advantage of this awesome weather we've been having and mow the lawn. Just as he's getting ready to start the weed-wacking, he asks if I'll make a pitcher of sweet tea for him. No problem, I do this ALL the time. So I head into the kitchen and put the kettle on to boil. In a matter of minutes the kettle is whistling and I take out a large glass pitcher and scoop in the sugar, pouring the 2 liters of hot water over it so it would melt. As the last drop of water fills the pitcher, it explodes like a bomb!!! ALL 2 liters of BOILING HOT WATER splashes all over my legs, the counter, oven, floor, cabinets....everywhere. The next thing I know I'm ripping my pants off and grabbing the nearest towel to douse it in cold water from the sink. I wrap the towel across the front of my thighs and head to the back of the house starting to panic at the realization of what just happened. I open the backdoor and step out on the porch, in my underwear, screaming Jason's name, but he had the weed-wacker going in the front of the house so he couldn't hear me.

At this point, the searing pain is setting in and I'm REALLY starting to panic. I can't get to the front of the house because there is shattered glass all over the kitchen floor, laundry and dining rooms and I was barefoot. So I took my wet towel and curled up against the fridge and started banging on the kitchen window till Jason came across to the side of the house. It was probably only 5 minutes, but after what felt like forever he heard the pounding and saw my panicked face and ran into the house. At first he couldn't tell what happened because it was such a mess. And I was at this point sobbing from the pain. He grabs a huge ice pack and we called my mother-in-law Sherry, since she's a former nurse, for what we should do next. She said the best thing would be to get into an ice cold bath and fill it with ice cubes. Ever done that before?? BRRRRR!!!!!! And yes, I was a total baby, it hurt like hell and it was probably 30 minutes before I was numb enough to not feel any pain. After that the weekend was kind of a bust because of my stupid mistake. I guess its good that all I'm doing much these days anyway is watching the Olympics, because I was useless otherwise.

The burn is the size of my hand on my upper right thigh and is healing slowly but surely. There's some blistering, but I'm being careful to keep it from getting infected. So what is the lesson we've all learned here? NEVER pour boiling hot water into ANYTHING glass!!

Not In My House!

Boy do I have a story for y'all!!

Saturday morning Jason left for his baseball game while I slept in and caught up on some much needed sleep. I thought I'd have myself a nice lazy morning and make some coffee and eat a little breakfast. Waiting for the coffee to brew, I headed to the guest room to find Banks for a quick snuggle and kiss. At first I didn't see her, but then saw a quick flick of her tail from the bottom of the guest bed. Now usually seeing a flick like that can only mean she's stalking some sort of prey. So I walk around the room to see what she's after and see that it must have burrowed itself under a plastic tub. Oh how I love when Banks kills any living thing in the house. Eager to assist Banks with the satisfaction of making a kill, I slide the tub out of the way.

The next thing I know this long black slimy looking thing is running in circles around by my feet, Banks is going ballistic trying to catch it and I'm running barefoot in the opposite direction, screaming my head off!!

I grab my phone to find out how close Jason is to getting home. He's like 20 minutes away, which can seem like an eternity when something alive, black and slimy is running through your guest room. SO NOT OKAY! Jason is trying to get me to give a description and I can't think of what to tell him, except long black and ridiculously fast. I run to put my tennis shoes on and sneak in the back room to see if Banks has saved us both. But now she's facing the corner next to the TV stand, making her most intimidating meow sound and flicking her tail. So thankfully, at least I know she can see it and still has it trapped. Thank God.

I go back to the front of the house and wait for Jason, pacing back and forth in the dining room. I realize it's a good thing I've already taken my heart pill, or to my absolute horror I may have passed out cold right there in the guest room.

Finally after what feels like an eternity Jason shows up. He grabs a piece of cabinet trim and heads to the back of the house. At first he doesn't see it, so he asks me to grab the flashlight for him. What and bring it to you???!!! In there??!!! For crying out loud! So I run to get the flashlight and stretching out as far as I can from the door, I hand it over to him. In reality, he's lucky I didn't chuck it at his head as I make a run for the front of the house. I hear him say he sees it and he thinks its a stick bug.
This is what a stick bug is, which is gross, but not what I saw. What I saw was a lot more scary and super fast.

Jason: Ohhhh...I know what it is.

Me: Oh crap, what is it??

Jason: It's a lizard!

Me: WHAT!!!! IN MY HOUSE??!!!!

Jason: Can you bring me a glass?

Me: WHAT??? AND BRING IT TO YOU??? IN THERE WITH THE LIZARD???

Jason: Just bring me a glass!!

Me: Argh!!

SO I grab a glass and plate and give it to Jason who by this point has it moved into another corner of the room, asking me to look at it. No, I don't want to look at it, I've already seen it -just get rid of it or let Banks eat the thing! The second he takes the glass and plate, Banks sees her chance for lunch and lunges at it - in which Jason stops her cold by smooshing her into the floor. She looks up at him and begins to growl because she's completely pissed that she's worked so hard for this treat and he's standing in the way of it. Finally, he captures the thing and takes it outside to free it in the alley. We tried rewarding Banks with treats for all her hard work, but she had no interest in her treats at all and ignored us for a good few hours while she sulked.

And just so you all know the terror I experienced, I found a picture of it online. It's called a blue tailed skink lizard, and don't you dare say its beautiful! It's not, its freaky, scary, fast and does NOT belong in my house!

Baby Fever~!

No, not me!

Quite a few of my friends have recently gotten the baby fever and have been producing some adorable kids!

I had to highlight a few pics of these babies, cause they're just too good not to share!

Karlee Blake with her two daughters Jordyn on the left and Zyan on the right!

Zyan Lily Blake: Born at 9 pounds 10 oz on June 30, 2008

Here's my dear friend Katie Hallstrom with their little one Rocco.

Rocco Hallstrom: Born at 7 pounds 3 oz. on July 3, 2008

And of course a huge blessing from God, the Bradford boys born to Jorian and Morgan Bradford. They were born so little but are such little fighters and are now home with their parents getting bigger every day!

Tristan Barrett & Jameson Cole Bradford: Born at 1 pound 9 oz and 1 pound 15 oz on March 27, 2008

And how can you resist the cheeks on Alissa Grace born to her parents Traci & Steff Pohle?

Alissa Grace Pohle: Born at 7 pounds, 7 oz on October 13, 2007

And of course we have irresistible Aiyers born to Aaron and Heidi Powell.

Aiyers Gideon Powell: Born at 7 pounds 13 oz on February 21, 2008

Oh and one more quick pic, here's the little cutie Ada Victoria and her mom Vanessa Curtis.

Ada Victoria Curtis: Born at 8 pounds 3 oz on April 18, 2008.

There are more babies being born all the time and more on the way, but like I said, I'm only highlighting a few!!! I love and miss you all and can't wait to kiss and squeeze all these munchkins hopefully someday soon!!

3 Years Today!

Three years ago, Jason got down on one knee on the Shelby Street Bridge here in Nashville, looking out over the Cumberland River and asked me to marry him. It was a perfect night, after a perfect dinner, with perfect white roses.

I love you baby and am so glad you asked for my hand three years ago today!!

July's Daring Bakers Challenge - Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream~!

I completed my first Daring Bakers Challenge!!! Whoohoo!!!

This month's assignment was to make a Filbert Gateau. Filbert is a fancy way of saying Hazelnut and Gateau is a fancy way of saying cake. So basically, a hazelnut cake. The challenge was chosen by Mele Cotte of the Daring Bakers. I kid you not, I spent like 12 hours on this baby, over the course of two days! The recipe itself was 8 pages long! But I had reserved a Saturday just for this purpose and took my time getting all the ingredients and going through each step before taking it on.

And let me tell you, I was pretty nervous attempting this, because there was a lot of things I had NEVER done before. Like for example, the cake itself is made completely from scratch (which I have never done before) using hazelnuts that I bought whole, then toasted, then peeled, then grounded up into a fine powder and then sifted into the cake batter!! Yeah, not easy.

After the cakes were baked, I melted up a vanilla syrup to spread over the cakes (though the recipe calls for a rum syrup, I'm allergic to alcohol, so I went with Vanilla instead) and let them cool for a while.

I then attacked my first attempt at Swiss Buttercream. And it turned out beautifully! I'm so excited I know how to make this now! It was too rich for Jason's liking, but the praline paste was up next, which got added to the buttercream and added a nice crunch to it, and also cut the sweetness a bit.

Now at this point, we were supposed to make an apricot glaze for on top of the cake, but Jason and I really can't stand fruit and chocolate mixed, so I substituted the apricot glaze for a melted caramel. After all, why go to all these hours making a cake that we could never enjoy!
AFTER THAT, I also had my first shot at chocolate ganache, which I had decided to use Ghirardelli Chocolate. Divine people. DIVINE.
Assembling the cake took some time and focus, and once it was all put together, I piped the buttercream on top with a bit of hazelnut (aka filbert) for decoration.
There was no way Jason and I were going to be left all alone with this cake, so I brought it our small group dinner. Thing is, it was still so cold that it was hard to slice and eat. I should have thawed it longer, but in this 95 degree heat, I was afraid my ganache would melt.

It was good, but in my opinion not so good that it was worth all the work. I can think of better cakes that take a whole lot less time and effort.

But still, it was a challenge and I'm very proud of myself for not getting too overwhelmed and taking it head on!! I would include the recipe here, but because it really is 8 pages long, just leave a comment if you're interested and I'll email it to you!

Can't wait for this next months challenge!!

Jason's Awesomeness

So I have this thing with Jason's facial hair. I'm a huge fan of when he keeps it all scruffy and Jack-like from Lost. Yummy.

But every time we head off to vacation, he takes the opportunity to shave it all off so his skin can breathe.

I thought you might all enjoy seeing the transformation take place, because truly it is quite a process and we go through this EVERY time we head out on vacation.

Before

Everybody now....."awwwww". In this pic, he's looking all cute, scruffy and lovable - I just want to squeeze him!

During- Phase I:

Ok is it just me or has he morphed into a wanted-man who drives an 18 wheeler? SCARY!

During - Phase II:

Um, do I need words for this one?

After, MUCH After:

Aw yes, back to my hot, scruffy and yet goofball of a husband! Gotta love it!

Yup, its been a week.

Sorry folks but I've just not been up to blogging lately. You see, I started advertising some freelance transcript services on Craigslist a while back and I got a bite. I was hoping to make a little extra cash to satisfy my spending cravings, so I thought what better way than to offer my typing skillz while sitting in the comfort of my own home in my pj's? Easy money right?

Wrong.


Yes, initially it was a great idea and I did land myself an awesome client from it. But at the same time, I WAY over committed myself into a gig where I had to transcribe NINE sermons in two weeknights and a weekend!!! I must have been feeling either incredibly over-confident or incredibly naive, because I was all - "sure, not a problem!". And the next thing I know, I'm not showering for two days with matted hair, swollen fingers, eating an entire box of Mini Nilla Wafers and then drank a bazillion glasses of sweet tea. All for like $5 an hour or something ridiculous like that. My bad.

Jason was all too sweet to offer to help, and without him I wouldn't have made my deadline, so he set to transcribing BY HAND in the living room with a pen and paper, while I was molding my butt into the shape of our office chair. Can I just say I'm still sore?

But I learned a valuable lesson from that weekend and will be now charging by the page, instead by the recorded hour. I am very grateful to have landed a wonderful, regular client where I'll be making some extra moola in the future.

The sermons I transcribed were for a local pastor by the name of Bishop Joseph Walker from Mt. Zion Baptist Church. This church, I kid you not, has over 21,000 members and like 4 locations. The pastor will literally drive from one service to the next doing like 6 services on one Sunday alone and leads two Bible studies during the week. Wow. And it was nothing short of the most entertaining and passionate messages I've ever heard - "CAN I GET A WITNESS UP IN HERE?!!" He embodies a true Sourthern Baptist Bishop pastor like you ever would imagine and I loved every minute of his messages.

Here were some of my favorite lines:

"You look at me when my money gets funny and my change is strange and my credit can't get it.."

and here's another phrase he said that just killed me....

"You will not come out of the wilderness Israel until God’s will is perfected in your life. Somebody needs to receive that word today because you’ve been praying, you’ve been crying, you’ve been kicking, you’ve been screaming, you’ve been saying, "Lord I’m ready to come out of this." But God says, "You’re not coming out until My will is perfected in your life. You can kick and scream under every conference, you can all get slapped on your forehead till you’re like a pig at the county fair, but you aint coming out until God’s will happens in your life."

or how about this one:

"Let’s be clear, God said, "First of all, the wilderness should have taught you that I don’t tolerate pride. That I had to take you through a wilderness to humble your tail because there are times in all of our lives where we get too big for our britches, where we get a big head, where we think we’ve got it going on."

And this is all just from one of the nine messages, it was seriously exhausting to type out, but so awesome to listen to!!

I got my church on!

Work Funnies

I had to share with y'all some hilarious things I've recently heard at work.

This morning I left for work with pillow lines on my face, arms and stomach. After sleeping through my alarm I only had 15 minutes to get ready and kiss Jason goodbye before stumbling out the door. As soon as I got in the office, I beelined to the kitchen to find myself a mug and creamer for the coffee I knew would be waiting at my desk (yes I have a coffee maker in my cubicle - its how I roll). My office manager Mary, who I absolutely love, was sitting at the table reading the morning paper and noticed my sluggishness. This is the conversation that then took place:

Mary: You look a little tired this morning.

Me: I'm so ridiculously exhausted. Once again I didn't get to bed before midnight.

Mary: Here's what you need to do. When you get home, take a nap, then get up to play with your husband and then go back to bed.

Uh-hum... truth is I went to bed late because we were at Jason's baseball game for over 2 hours and didn't get home till past 11pm, but I didn't get the chance to actually tell her that before she put her two cents in. You gotta love the free advice from the office manager - ha!!! Love that woman.

Then yesterday my attorney Paul comes up to my desk to share what his eldest of four boys said on the way to his dreaded baseball practice the other day. I laughed so hard, just try to imagine a 9 year old having this conversation with his mom.

Mom: Once we get to the park, how am I supposed to know what field your playing on?

Son: Just look for the sign that says, "Welcome to my personal hell".

Hope those bring a smile to your face as they did mine!

Oh sweet Rainiers' how I love thee

I finally got my hands on some sweet Rainier cherries and ate an entire pound of them!!!


I'm a lucky, lucky woman....



...but Jason is going to be a sorry, sorry man.

Lincoln City, OR

Well now that I'm back and more settled into my daily routine, I have a few moments to catch everyone up our trip out to Lincoln City, Oregon to meet up with our families for a week at the Oregon coast. Both my entire family and Jason's entire family drove out the beach house, while Kati came to pick up Jason and I in Portland where we had flown into. Thankfully, we were able to get a nice quiet evening alone together the night before and stay in a lovely hotel relaxing and catching up on life. Then the following day, the excitement really began.

It had been 7 months since I had seen my family and a year since Jason had seen his. A long time for both of us. Emotions were running high as we had anticipated every hug and moment we'd get to share together. It was hard to even go to bed the first night, cause you just didn't want to say goodnight. On the whole, it was a great week. But it is family and as everyone can testify, we all have our moments. :-)

The majority of the trip was captured with snapshots of our time together and looking back on these pictures I can't help but smile at how much fun we really did have.

This is the view of the ocean from the beach house we had rented. You could hear the waves crashing at night, which I think was one of my favorite parts about the house.The second day of our week together, we all headed out to the Kite Festival. It was a cold windy day, which I guess is perfect for kite flying! When we weren't out exploring the towns, you could find us either curled up with a good book, working on puzzles (of which 3 were completed within just hours!), playing games

or catching a quick nap.I think one of the most entertaining aspects of the trip was the constant whooping Jerry gave to Jason and my dad in horseshoes. What a competitor!! The man has skillz!
The views of the ocean and all the wildlife was breathtaking!Oops, my sisters are definitely wild, full of life and breathtaking, but not exactly what I was referring to!A few of the family were able to see this seal out lounging in the sun on the rocks - so mad I missed this one! But Scott, Kelley, myself and Jason did see a whale! You can only sit just a tip of it in this picture here. And if this isn't classic Jason and I, I don't know what is. He was always trying to get right up to the edge of the rocks and I was doing my best to stay as clear from the edge as possible!

So it looked like this when we finally sat down to enjoy the view.

Another excursion we all took together was to see the Aquarium in Newport. Jason and I were big fans of the otters. In fact it was the first otters Jason had ever seen in person.
See how mesmerized he was by them?
Jerry's impression of a deep sea diver kills me.
Or how about Jason with the shark teeth!

And no trip to the Aquarium would be complete without our very own cameraman.

Jason did his best to blend in with the wildlife.

Oh and who could forget our attempt at a hike!! Ha! We had no idea what we were really getting ourselves into, so quite a few of us were a bit unprepared. We decided instead to head to the beach for a little sun and Frisbee and attempt the hike the next morning, but the weather had other plans.

Ummm..yummy, Jason doing his best Top Gun Beach scene impression. Ok maybe not exactly, but he was tossing the Frisbee around with Scott and Jerry. I think this was one of my favorite moments captured in a photo - because the times I'll remember most are the ones we all sat around the table eating together or playing games.

Here's to a great family trip together - PEACE OUT!