Evan's First Birthday

This is a couple weeks late, but we had Evan's first birthday celebration recently. I was excited to try out the pirate ship cake pan again! I was experimenting with the cake itself, and tried to make a cake with no eggs and no milk. In other words, a cake that was probably doomed to fail before it began. I wanted him to be able to eat a cake that contained nothing new to his little system. Unfortunately, the recipe I test drove was an utter and complete failure. It smelled great while it was cooking, but then as soon as it came out of the oven, it sank in the middle. By the time we tried flipping it out of the pan, it fell apart, a mushy mess. However, Andy was able to salvage enough to cut the cute number 1 cake you see above.

So the pirate ship you see here is attempt number 2, the good old boxed white cake mix. It turned out just fine! And I had fun decorating it too. It was actually less nerve-wracking to do this at home, rather than in a cake decorating class. Less pressure, I guess.

As you can see, Evan was delighted with his little number 1 cake. He tore it to teeny bits, sampled just a little of it, and then proceeded to throw the rest onto the floor. Oh, and Andy thought it would be fun to put the cake on a ceramic plate, so when Evan tossed the cake onto the floor, he tossed the ceramic plate along with it. Needless to say, it was tons of fun to clean up. I think it was all good, though, considering you only turn 1 once!

He had fun with his gifts, too, although I think it was a bit overwhelming for him at first. So much to open all at once! Then suddenly there were all these new toys, and it seemed like he didn't know what to do with it all. Fortunately, Xander was right there to commandeer half of the toys right away! We've had trouble with the whole sharing thing now that Evan has so much new stuff. All I can say is, I'm glad that Christmas will yield new stuff for the both of them, rather than just one of them. When it was all said and done, Evan recovered from his birthday just fine....then he had an accident involving a toy wheelbarrow, and sustained the injury you see below. The fun never ends! And you'd never know it, judging by the affection he is showering on his big brother in the picture, but Xander may have been the cause of the wheelbarrow incident. Good thing babies are forgiving.

The Year of the Pirate

So this year, we decided to dress the boys up as pirates for Halloween. We didn't jump on the pirate bandwagon last year, when it was really popular, but better late than never, right? It was hard to get a picture of them together, or with their hats, for that matter. But we did manage to sneak a few good ones of them separately!

Xander had a wonderful time trick-or-treating this year. In years past, he has requested to come home early, and last year he had way more fun handing out the candy than actually receiving it. This time, though, the fun of the whole knocking on peoples' doors and getting some candy thing really took over. He was high on life for hours that night! Evan had fun, too, even though he had no idea what was going on. He did enjoy watching the spectacle around him.

I felt bad having Evan receive candy from people, considering he won't be eating any of it. So we just walked along with Xander for the most part, and let him get all the loot. I think we got plenty of candy, even without Evan getting some! And Xander barely eats any of it, so we are better off.

Well, this post felt naked without a food picture and recipe, so here it is. Spiderweb Pumpkin Cheesecake. Now, I don't actually like pumpkin-flavored things, so I did not eat any of it, but I hear it's really good! You can find the recipe here. Enjoy!

Beer Battered Asparagus

So we got it in our heads that it would be a really good idea to make up a batter of flour, salt, pepper, and beer, and toss asparagus in it. From there, we would submerge the battered asparagus in oil and fry it up. With the leftover beer batter, we decided to take a stab at frying chicken thighs and chicken tenders. Well, how did it all turn out? It was beyond our expectations.

As it turns out, frying beer battered asparagus really is a great idea! We were afraid that the batter was a little too simple, that it would have no flavor or just taste really weird. Thankfully, we were wrong. Frying the asparagus actually really brought out the flavor of the vegetable, and they were perfectly cooked inside. They only took about 5 minutes per spear to fry up. Delicious! However, they weren't so good as leftovers, not that I expected them to be. The outside crust turned totally mushy and soggy, not a good combo. We were pleased that we got the chicken to turn out well, too. The first chicken thigh we fried up didn't turn out. We pulled it out of the oil way too early, and it was severely undercooked. A quick internet search taught us that chicken thighs take a much longer time to fry than you would think. I ended up frying each for 15 minutes, and they turned out just perfect. The tenders were good, too.

Before our magical dinner, we had a cupcake decorating party. The ones above were done by me. I figured I would put my new cake decorating skills, as well as all that leftover frosting, to good use and make some cute Halloween-themed designs. Xander found out what I was doing and wanted to do some of his own, so below you will see the ones he decorated all by himself.

It was a splendid mess, but we had a lot of fun, which makes it all worthwhile. Next time I will be better prepared. I need to make sure I cover the whole kitchen table in newspaper so I can just pick up the whole mess of sprinkles and such and dump it right in the trash. A beautiful thing!

Beer Battered Asparagus

adapted from Recipezaar

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1 tbsp lemon zest

1 cup beer

1 lb. asparagus, ends trimmed

vegetable oil, for frying

Directions

1. Heat oil in a heavy saucepan (we used our wok) until it reaches 375 degrees.

2. Whisk together flour, salt, pepper, and lemon zest until combined. Add beer and whisk ingredients until smooth.

3. Dip each asparagus spear in batter to coat. Shake off excess batter, then drop asparagus in oil, a few spears at a time. Stir gently to prevent spears from sticking together. Fry until golden.

4. Transfer spears to a baking sheet lined with paper towels, and keep warm in a 200 degree oven until all the asparagus is done.

Cake Decorating Class

Rather than bore you with excuses as to why I haven't written a blog post in months, I thought I would just jump right in with a cute picture of the boys. If they can't entice people to read on, who can?

Anyway, so I have just finished taking a 4-week Wilton cake decorating class at our local Michael's. I had a blast, and I think that with practice I may be able to become good at this whole decorating thing. Right now I still feel like I have a long way to go before I will be ready to have anyone besides my husband and sons actually see one of my finished products up close and personal. The cakes I completed for class always had help and direction from my teacher, so I don't think they really count.



The first cake was this pirate ship cake. I bought a brand new pirate ship cake pan for the occasion. I figured I could practice in class, and then I could attempt to make another one of these for Evan's first birthday. In the future, I think I will change the color scheme. Overall, I think it turned out all right. If I squint, it looks even better!


The next cake we did was a rainbow cake. I feel like this one turned out pretty badly. The rainbow is much thicker on the right side than on the left, and so are the clouds that underline the bottom of the rainbow on that side. But I was proud of the colors that I mixed up, and I dig the stars on the lower half of the cake!

Then, this past Sunday, we did the final cake where we learned how to do the Wilton rose, a crazy feat of frosting if you ask me. I have to admit, I can't take the credit for two of my roses. The teacher actually used my cake as the teaching cake, so she made a couple to demonstrate and then put them right on my cake for me. Part of me was happy to have such attractive flowers adorn my cake! The other part of me was almost disappointed that I had to put my much inferior roses alongside hers. To me, there's a big difference. If you look at the top flower cake picture, mine are the two roses on the lower half of the cake. I know it's hard to see, because the roses are small in the picture, but the two roses on top are so much prettier!

Oh well. Practice will only help at this point. I have a ton of frosting left over now, so I'll have to find something to do with it. Xander and I are overdue to make cupcakes together, so maybe that'll happen this weekend. If we do make some, I'll have to post them on here. And hopefully, it won't be three months from now!

Evan's Baptism Weekend

We had Evan's baptism this past weekend, which was long overdue. I think it's probably been a while since an 8-month-old baby has been baptized at our church. Usually it's done at a much younger age, but we'd been really lazy about arranging it. I was pretty concerned with how he would behave. There really wasn't a chance that he would just sleep through the whole thing like some younger babies do. I was worried that he would freak out when Father Jim tried to take him from us. Part of the baptism is to have the priest take the baby and walk with him down the aisle to the baptismal font, where the whole thing takes place. Since Evan isn't always so good with strangers, or with other people holding him, we kept our fingers crossed that he would stay calm.



Well, I am happy to report that not only did he stay calm, but he actually seemed to enjoy himself, and enjoy all the eyes that were on him. Even from the moment he got dressed in his little white christening suit, he had this air about him, like he knew that he was special, that it was his day. I know it sounds silly, but he acted excited and eager all the way to church, and all during the service, up until his baptism. Then, when the baptism itself was going on, he kept giving Father Jim these awed stares, like he was really listening to everything and taking it all in. It was pretty cute. He was on his best behavior the whole time, and even when it came time to have holy water poured on his head, he took it very well. He looked a little confused, but he didn't seem bothered by it at all.



When it was over, Father Jim held Evan up high over his head and introduced him to the whole congregation as its newest member. Then, Evan got a huge round of applause. It was so cool to watch, I have to admit. I know I'm biased, being his mom and everything, but I'd like to think that if I had been a mere spectator that day, I still would have thought it was a very beautiful, special christening. I couldn't have asked for everything to go better than it had.

Afterwards, Evan passed out almost immediately in the car. I actually had to drive around for a half hour or so in order for him to have a long enough nap before his party. I was glad I did that, because when we got back home, everybody was already there for lunch, and Evan was well-rested and very happy. He hammed it up for all his guests, and thrived under all the attention he received. I think he really blossomed this weekend, no longer a timid, wary baby when it comes to strangers. In fact, he's actually pretty social! Unfortunately, he came out of the whole experience with a bad cold. I think maybe he caught it when we took him to the children's hospital for some appointments last week. On top of that, he's about to cut some teeth, so it's making him extra miserable. I'm glad he was able to have this past weekend, though. I'm grateful for everyone who was able to come and be a part of his special day. Also important? We survived our first official party in our new (not so new anymore) house!




P.S. Yes, I realize all my pictures are on the left side of the page, and not centered or embedded properly in the text. I plead computer ignorance and exhaustion, and promise to do better next time. Or my husband will do better next time!

Birthday Cupcakes

So I had my 30th birthday. I actually feel pretty good about it, even though my son keeps reminding me that I'm starting to look my age. Long ago are the days when I could pass for a college student. Now I get questions like this from Xander: "Mom, why are there so many lines around your eyes?" Or I get exclamations such as this: "Mom, I can see all your white hair!" Ah, kids. You just have to appreciate their pure honesty, and laugh because it is at your expense.

I had a hard time trying to decide what kind of cake to make myself. Originally, we debated the idea of having Andy make a cake for me, but we decided that it would be fun for me to get a break from the kids and just bake in a quiet house. So he took off with the boys and I holed up in the kitchen with my brand-new cookbook, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. After much consideration, and after finally asking Xander his opinion, I decided on Red Hot Velvet Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream. Because the cake itself is a three-layer cake loaded in between its layers with piles of buttercream frosting, I didn't want to make the whole entire cake for just myself, Xander, and Andy. I had the good fortune of finding an adaptation of this recipe on Recipezaar where it was turned into cupcakes for Oprah's magazine back around Valentine's Day. So I simply used this idea, cut the recipe in half, and ended up with 12 cupcakes. Perfect! Or at least, a perfect amount for our little family.

The cupcakes turned out really good. I was a little bummed because even though the recipe called for dark cocoa powder, I used regular because I was certain I had used all my dark for a different recipe. About a week after I baked the cupcakes, guess what we found in our cupboard? That's right, the dark cocoa powder. I'm sure it would have made the cakes taste richer and even yummier, but they were still good. Next time I will definitely use the dark. It was also fun for me to play around with using a piping bag to get the frosting onto the cupcakes. I think I've been inspired now to take a cake decorating class or something, because I know I'd have a blast. In the meantime, I'm going to have fun at home experimenting with the delicious-sounding recipes in my new cookbook.

Oh, by the way, in the picture of Xander, he is eating a cupcake, not losing a bloody brawl in a dark alley!

Breakfast (and Leftovers) For Dinner

I love eating breakfast for dinner. It's probably one of my favorite things to eat for dinner. So when Xander suggested having pancakes tomorrow night, I responded with, "How about tonight?!" So thanks to my son, we all had pancakes with bacon, sausage, and some seriously delicious hash browns.

Last week, we were given the gift of fresh vegetables from Andy's parents' garden, as well as a new herb garden. We've already made basil pesto, with basil fresh from the overgrown herbs, and Andy made an inspired pesto pasta frittata this morning with the leftovers. It was awesome. Anyway, we used some of the vegetables in the hash browns this evening, and the result was a really scrumptious hash brown concoction. The fresh veggies liven up the frozen hash browns, and gives them a whole flavor makeover. Plus, cooking everything in the leftover bacon fat doesn't hurt either!

But what I really want to talk about is the pancakes. Oh, the pancakes. I love pancakes to begin with, and I am hardly discriminatory. However, these pancakes were truly something special. I don't know what it was about them. Maybe it was the fact that it has been quite a while since I've made pancakes from scratch. Bisquick pancakes are great, don't get me wrong, but there's no real substitute for pancakes from scratch. They're just so much lighter, and moister, and more flavorful. I found the recipe for them on Recipezaar, my favorite recipe website. There are 217 reviews on this particular recipe, and almost all of them give these pancakes five stars out of a possible five. They are seriously, seriously delicious. Seriously. Here is the recipe, with my slight modifications.

Pete's Scratch Pancakes
adapted from Recipezaar
makes about 16-20 pancakes

Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups milk (I used 2%)
2 eggs, beaten in a separate bowl before adding to other ingredients
1/4 cup butter, cooled slightly (I used Smart Balance 50/50 Blend)

Directions
Mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the butter and milk, then whisk in the beaten eggs.
Slowly whisk in the flour, making sure not to overmix.
Let batter sit for at least 10 minutes before forming pancakes.
Drop 1/4 cup-sized batter circles onto a greased griddle, flip once bubbles start to form, then cook another 2-3 minutes on the other side, checking to make sure they do not become overly brown.
Serve with your toppings of choice, and enjoy!