Happy Anniversary!

Well, we've been married one year, and are still crazy about each other, so I recommend this whole marriage thing! Chris is the best husband I ever could have asked for, and we're excited to be starting year two :) On to less mushy things...

So we've moved for the second time, and it was a bit easier. Seems we've figured out even more things we thought we needed, but we really don't. The trip back to LA on July 1st shouldn't be nearly as hard as it could've been. I am thankful, however, that we both feel called to this lifestyle, because we could not have made it without God's help! There have been moments, especially in the last couple of days, where we just look around at all the boxes and laugh out loud to each other at the craziness we've chosen! I am also very grateful for the genes my father donated to me, allowing me to pack tons of things into small spaces! Thanks Poppa!

Other than settling in with some other good friends of ours (generous to allow us to live in their beautiful home), Chris is studying and I'm trying to gear up for the months ahead with my dwindling work schedule. Life is good and we are blessed! Enjoy the couple of pictures of us taking in a beautiful sunset at Fort Lauderdale beach on our anniversary. Looking forward to the more elaborate celebration this weekend!

Memorial Day in Fort Myers

Here are some pics from our recent trip to Fort Myers. I finally got to see a West Coast sunset and explore the gulf! It was a lot of fun, and very nice to finally visit Myles instead of him always coming here! In the last picture, you MIGHT be able to see the dolphin fins on the far right. I know they were super far away, but I was excited nonetheless! We are trying to live it up as much as we can before we leave the beautiful sunshine state. Enjoy and I'll hopefully be posting again soon!

Gumbo and rainstorms...

One thing I will miss about South Florida are the near daily rainstorms during the summer. I suppose if I'm out driving it's not as fun, but on a day off like today, it's fabulous! Especially when the scent of stewing Gumbo is drifting through the apartment. No particular news yet on guaranteed plans for the year, but we are hoping to hear some soon. Until then, we're getting very excited for our Anniversary trip to Key West, Jeff and Jacki's wedding in July, and Franco family vacation in the Tennessee mountains! We're feeling very blessed and ready for the craziness to begin.
Another thing that this storm reminds me of is the beautiful Camp Kahdalea in the Blue Ridge mountains. In honor of Chris and me meeting there 4 years ago, and just for fun, here are some pics from the glorious summer of '06!

Life Update...

Pretty soon, I'll write a more detailed post, but for now, just the reason for the blog. Many people, including much of our family, have blogs these days, and although it pains me a little to jump on the bandwagon, I feel that our life is going to be so busy that this will be an easy way for all of you to keep up with us!

We're currently living with our very close friend Lindsay in my pre-wedding Florida apartment. It was a lot like coming back home! A few weekend's ago we moved all of our stuff into a POD and are now living with very little! Sometimes it is frustrating, but still very exciting!
We have little less than a month to go before leaving our South Florida home for a very busy and fun-filled July in Louisiana!

Until then, we're enjoying the beach and our last few weeks in our humid home. Will post more very soon!

King Cake Season!!

Geaux Saints! In honor of their Super Bowl appearance and Mardi Gras season, I am posting this fabulous King Cake recipe I found in Cooking Up a Storm, edited by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker. I have adjusted it some from the original recipe, but I like it better that way. Here you are:

Dough:
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
1 envelope active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm milk (105 to 115 degrees F)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon (I add it everywhere I can!)
3 to 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs

Cinnamon Filling:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 red bean, pecan half, or plastic baby figurine

Frosting:
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (I think it's optional, or replaceable with vanilla extract, your choice)
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
Purple, green, and yellow paste food coloring (or just add those color sprinkles while icing still wet, or do both!)

For the dough: Pour the warm water into a large warmed bowl. Sprinkle the yeast and stir until dissolved. Stir in the warm milk, butter, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Add 1 cup of the flour and blend well. Stir in the eggs and enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Lightly flour a flat work surface and turn out the dough. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, adding more flour if the dough sticks. Put in a large greased bowl, and turn to grease the top of the dough. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. ***(I turned on the oven to 150 upon beginning the process, and turned it off when it reached 100 degrees. I placed the dough to rise in the oven with a wet towel on top and it rose perfectly for me!)

For the filling: Punch the dough down. Transfer to the lightly floured work surface and use a rolling pin to roll into a 30-by-9-inch rectangle. Brush with melted butter. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture over the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Beginning at the long end, roll up tightly, as for a jelly roll. Pinch the seam to seal.
***Here's where it gets tricky. The second time, I stopped the directions here, and placed it on the pan rolled up to let it rise and bake. It turned out round and moist inside (after also only baking for about 20-25 minutes)
The recipe goes on to tell you to do this, however: With a sharp knife, cut the roll in half lengthwise, and carefully turn the halves so that the cut sides face up. Join the ends, pinching them to form one ring, keeping the cut sides up. Transfer the ring to a large, greased cookie sheet. This method created a wider, less moist cake. However, I also baked it for 30 minutes instead of 20-25 minutes, and I believe it lost moistness because of it. It was cool looking, but a little drier. You could even twist all the cut pieces together for sort of a braid look. I believe it's totally up to the baker on this one...

If using a red bean or pecan half, push it into the underside of the dough to hide it. (A baby sharm will go in after baking.) Cover, and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, 20 to 40 minutes. Preheat over to 350 degrees F.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned (For the second, more moist one, it was only just starting to get a litle color when I decided to take it out, perfect!) Remove cake from baking sheet and let cool on a wire rack. (If using a plastic baby figurine, push it into the underside of the cake.)

For the frosting: In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, almond extract (or vanilla), and milk until smooth. If using food coloring, divide among three smaller bowls. Tint one mixture purple, the second one green, and the third one yellow, mixing each one well. Drizzle each color atop the cake. If using sprinkles, sprinkle each color on a third of the top of the cake.

Next step, eat and enjoy!!

Bake Sales and petits fours

Baking fun with the girls!  The petits fours were just for fun, as I wanted to try something new.  The first icing I made was NOT coming out how I pictured it, so I made another, and that's what you see here.  Call me a perfectionist if you must.  They were quite beautiful, although I still need to figure out how to cover the whole thing...  The chocolate hearts were for a CMDA bake sale.  I used a doctored cake mix and a homemade ganache.  

Operation and Ferrari's

Some more cool cakes!

An "Operation: The Game" cake for Chris' anatomy review.  Half chocolate, half yellow cake with chocolate buttercream and chocolate MM fondant.  The body and letters are a royal icing, hardened and "glued" on top.

The coolest I've made so far!  A white chocolate cake with regular buttercream and MM fondant.  The horse and letters are a different royal icing recipe that did not work as well.  It was very crumbly and hard to work with!  But, it still all came out all right.  Happy Birthday, John!

Birthdays and baby showers

So I finally decided to publicize my baking endeavors.  Who knows what I will wind up adding to the page, but no doubt, it will be tasty!  Enjoy the pics, ideas, etc.  I'm always excited to try new things and put a twist on the old ones. I'll start off the blog by adding pics from my past projects.  Enjoy!

My first "official" cake, made for a friend's baby shower.  It's a white chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream and marshmallow fondant.  Yum! (Photo accredited to Adam and Erin Falgout photography - http://www.erinfalgoutphotography.com)

The inside just makes you want to DIG IN!

A birthday cake for another friend.  This was the white chocolate cake again with a cinnamon buttercream and marshmallow (MM) fondant.  The fondant was a little too thick this time, but you live and you learn!

I like the side view because it looks nice and tall!