TWD: Lots of Ways Banana Cake

This week's pick from Dorie's cookbook was chosen by Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunities. As the recipe's title suggests, Dorie made this recipe really flexible. I chose to go with coconut in my cake with no other dried fruits and used a recipe for marshmallow frosting, also in the cookbook. The frosting came together really easily, as did the cake layers. I think next time I'll make cupcakes with some sort of chocolate frosting as that would be a tasty combination as well! Happy Baking! See you next week for Chewy, Chunky Blondies. I'm already excited to bake those, they sound delicious!

My pictures of the cut cake turned out terribly, so enjoy this nicer one of the whole cake! And please enjoy the kids sleeping and strollering in style:

TWD: Brrr-ownies

I've made brownies with York Peppermint Patties before, but chopping them up was something new with this recipe. The recipe for this week makes a pretty good brownie, but I prefer leaving the patties whole, I've decided. The mint flavor doesn't blend into the batter quite as well that way, but the patty doesn't melt like crazy when it's left whole, which makes for a prettier brownie. But these tasty, minty brownies are a delicious, fudgy concoction, so be sure to check out Karen's blog, Welcome to Our Crazy Blessed Life to get the recipe and give it a try! I think these would be excellent with a side of ice cream, like just about any brownie! The majority of these are coming with me tonight while I go help a friend clean her apartment she just moved out of. I really hope there are several ladies there to share with! Sorry I missed out on Tarte Noir last week. I was out of town through Wednesday and thought I'd get to it after I got back but decided to just play hooky for that week. Stay tuned for next week: Lots of Ways Banana Cake! Yum!

Five Years

So, Stacey and I recently celebrated our five year anniversary. It has been an amazing five year. Between us, we have earned 3.5 degrees, had over 7 jobs, had two kids, lived in five houses, visited four countries, lived in three states (or, I guess more accurately, two states and a commonwealth), and owned six barbecue grills. It has been a great time. In any event, I wanted to get Stacey something made of wood (5 years being the wood anniversary), and I wanted it to have something to do with what we were celebrating--our having been sealed together as a couple for eternity. So, I commissioned my craftsman-brother to do a wood burning on the Washington D.C. temple, where we were married. He was able to burn the temple and ship it to me, and, I was pretty impressed with his handiwork: It has been an amazing five years, and I am so glad to have been sealed to Stacey in the temple, and to have Jacob and Rebecca benefiting from that sealing. I am anxious and excited for what the next ∞ - 5 years with Stacey will bring.

"We are at Ohio!"

The kids and I are in Lakewood, a suburb of Cleveland, spending some time with some friends of ours from Ann Arbor who are here for the summer. We drove down on Thursday morning and are enjoying our time here very much!

Here are a few things we've been up to lately:

Jacob and Timmy taking a stroll at the science center.

Katie and the boys at the beach on Lake Erie.

This is Jacob getting dressed a second time after he got back in the water when I turned my back. He went home dressed just how he is in the chair and wasn't very happy about it at first.

Rebecca and Aaron playing in the sand at the beach.

Jacob's dream activity: "touch the police car!"

This picture shows off Rebecca's walking skills! Here she is mid-step at the AMAZING Librarium in the Lakewood Public Library. Katie and I decided we want one of these in Ann Arbor, maybe in our houses. :) Rebecca is wearing one of my old outfits, so please note that as well.

Jacob and Timmy touching the turtles at the Lake Erie Science Center.

We had a blast here today! The kids enjoyed a star show while we were there but I didn't get any pictures of the planetarium. The kids got to witness their first Vandegraaff generator demonstration today and when they showed a big picture of Venus Rebecca called out "baa!" (her word for ball)

Rebecca getting to know a Sudan plated lizard.

And the bald eagle picture is for Independence Day tomorrow. Sorry it's so blurry, I noticed they had that bird at the science center just as we were heading back inside. They really are such pretty birds. Jacob was fascinated by the dead mice in the owl and hawk cages so we had a very short circle of life lesson. :)

We're having a great time! More pictures and - I'm hoping - videos to come, if blogger is nice to me when I try to upload them (it hasn't been lately)! The one of the boys touching the turtle and of course any of Rebecca walking around are must-sees!

TWD: Vanilla Cakes

These are actually called Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes, but I didn't make any kind of syrup or use any kind of rum, so mine are just Vanilla Cakes. This week's recipe was chosen by Wendy of Pink Stripes. You can get the recipe on her blog if you'd like to give it a try!

Just a quick post today - but these are pretty good little mini bundts. I've read other comments about how good the crumb on the cakes are, and I think I have to agree. Eating a bite of one just now, the day after I made them, it was still very delicious. I also made a small heart shaped cake that we all shared last night after a visit to our growing garden and another one in a loaf pan that I froze for later. I think I need to start keeping better track of the stuff I'm stashing in the freezer...

Next week's recipe will be Tarte Noir! I haven't even looked at it yet to be able to describe what it is, so you'll just have to check back!

TWD: Dressy Chocolate Loafcake and Spaghetti and Meatballs

This week's baked good was chosen by Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes. Visit her site for the recipe and be sure to visit the TWD site to see the Leave Your Link (LYL) post and its comments to find other, most likely better, renditions of this same tasty dessert. This cake turned out pretty well. Having the word "dressy" at the beginning of the recipe made me feel like it was for a special occasion. I'm saving about half for whenever that occasion comes up, but tonight we just had some after dinner. I guess dinner is a special occasion, or the first day of summer. :)

I thought of this brilliant idea long after it was done baking, but I think this cake batter would be really amazing as cupcakes, filled with raspberry jam and frosted with a ganache or the same chocolate/sour cream frosting used on the cake. YUM. I think it would be worth trying again just to give that a whirl. The picture of the slice of cake above makes it look like I only had two layers, but I did the three. I love raspberry + chocolate, it's a great combination.

In other baking news I made Jeff's birthday cake for his birthday on Father's Day. I made it look like spaghetti and meatballs, using a variation of Bakerella's cake ball recipe for the meatballs and jam with orange coloring added to it for the marinara sauce and Wilton tip 234 for the noodles. I loved the coconut on top masquerading as Parmesan cheese. It tasted great and Jacob especially loved telling me about it the next morning: "We had meatball cake for daddy's birthday and Father's Day!" Delish! The picture I took of the side of the cake to show some of the detail better turned out blurry and I didn't realize it until now when I uploaded it. Just imagine that it looks great!

Happy baking, and happy exercising as well, ha!

Short visit with Erin and Grandpa!

Aunt Erin and Grandpa have spent the last few days driving from Idaho to Utah to Wyoming to Nebraska to Iowa to Illinois to Indiana to Michigan to Ohio to Pennsylvania to Maryland to Virginia. Adding Michigan to their trip meant that they got to see us! (And it also meant getting stuck in traffic a few hours from here, but they are patient enough, and maybe we *ahem* the kids are worth it!)

They got in Sunday morning at about 12:45 AM. We went to a special stake conference with them Sunday morning after we slept for a few hours. The conference was on the UM campus in the Hill Auditorium, so we rode the bus there. Elder Bednar was there and it was a great meeting. Jacob was upset there wasn't nursery after we finished the closing song, and he made sure to repeat nearly every time someone said the word "testimony." He had speculated prior to the meeting that Elder Bednar would talk about "make good choices and trying to be like Jesus." We all shook hands with him after the meeting (minus Rebecca who fell asleep in my arms waiting) and I'm excited to tell the kids about it when they are older! Since it was Father's Day AND Jeff's birthday, it was fun to have people around to celebrate with us. Sunday night I drove them around and gave them a short tour of cool things on campus like the law library and The Cube and Erin got her picture by The Big House of course.

Thanks for coming to see us!

So happy after shaking hands with President Monson's friend Elder Bednar!

This one looked less blurry in B+W. :)

I said, "Do a monkey face!"

"At least the kids have the same expression," Erin said. This was the best one out of all the ones of Grandpa & kiddos. :)

TWD: Raisin Swirl Bread

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was chosen by Susan of Food.Baby. I always loved a warm piece of buttered raisin bread growing up - for some reason it stands out as a breakfast comfort food from my teenage years, when my dad was usually downstairs before I was, making me a portable breakfast that I could scarf down while he drove me to the church for early-morning seminary.

Needless to say, I was excited to make this bread. Mine isn't as tightly rolled and as perfectly swirled as well as, say, Pepperidge Farm's cinnamon raisin bread, but it was pretty tasty! Next time I'll roll it tighter and let it rise for a little less time in the second rise (we were enjoying a pool party over at a friend's house) to see if that keeps the crown off the top a bit. I added all the extras to the bread dough and the swirl (orange zest, nutmeg, vanilla and cocoa powder) and couldn't really taste any of them but the cocoa powder. I like how it kind of enhanced the cinnamon just a bit and it wasn't overpowering at all. Great choice, Susan!! Hope all the other TWDers enjoyed this one.

Summery Summary

Okay, so it's not technically summer yet, but we have been enjoying some very summery things.

We've attended a few pool parties hosted by neighbors and friends.

Just taking her tugboat for a quick spin around the pool.

Nothin' like a little dirt on the toes and brownie on the face.

You know the babies' faces look just like the one you can see. They loved the slip 'n slide!

I took J&R to a short parade & service on Memorial Day, where they wouldn't look at the camera because they were too distracted by the fire truck and miniature horse that has just gone by.

We went to an Art Carnival Family Fun Day in a neighboring city today that was fun. Jacob liked the bubbles most of all, and I thought the "Who's on First?" routine was very well done, even the costumes were fun. Jacob just kept telling me "Those are mans. Mommy laughing!" There was free popcorn, sno-cones and lots of great artsy things for kids to do. We had a lot of fun but it was pretty hot. I don't remember Jacob panting in the heat, but the pictures show us otherwise.

Last week we visited the arboretum for the first time, and luckily just in time to see the peonies in bloom. I learned later that they bloomed early this year so we might have missed them!

Winner of Good Earth Giveaway!

Congratulations to #3: Lisa! I'll be contacting you shortly to get your info for getting the prize to you! Thanks for entering, everyone - I hope you'll all give these dinners a try when you see them in your stores soon.

TWD: Tender Shortcakes

This week Cathy of The Tortefeasor picked Dorie's recipe for Tender Shortcakes. I baked half of mine and froze the rest and while the flavor was pretty good I probably overbaked them by just a bit so I'll have to watch that when I bake the rest. And my whipped cream had been sitting while we ate dinner so it looks pretty runny in the picture. But it tasted good! These shortcakes were really easy to make and since I'm a huge fan of strawberry shortcake, I may just make these again! Thanks to Cathy for a great choice this week!

Rebecca's new tricks

On June 1st Rebecca took her first steps. She is still getting the hang of it and wanting lots of encouragement so I think we'll have a full-fledged walker on our hands in only a matter of weeks! Whenever she takes any steps Jacob announces that he would also like to do some walking and he walks over to me just like she does and claps for himself. It is rather hilarious.

Today she did this little headstand in the super short video a few times to many cheers from her brother and two other friends we had over.

Good Earth Boxed Dinners & Giveaway

Thanks to MyBlogSpark, our family got to try a new Good Earth Mediterranean chicken dry dinner kit earlier this week. Instead of using chicken I added shrimp and it was quite tasty. I don't usually buy angel hair pasta but I really liked how fast it cooked. The kit came with the pasta, a creamy sauce, seasoned flour for breading the chicken and a spice pack. These Good Earth dinners will be appearing soon in stores this summer and I recommend finding a sale and a coupon to give on a try when you see them later this month!

One of you will win the same gift pack we received that includes a Good Earth dry dinner kit, two sets of bamboo flatware, two bamboo dishes, a bamboo cutting/utility board and a recyclable grocery tote. Just leave a comment mentioning which flavor of Good Earth dinner you would like to try: Mediterranean Chicken with angel hair pasta, spicy Citrus Glazed Shrimp with angel hair pasta, or Tuscan Chicken with penne pasta. Winner will be posted on Wednesday morning!

Family Home Evening at the Fire Station

Two Mondays ago we had the FHE event of Jacob's life. After a lesson and song at home, we drove by the fire station to see if the doors were open so we could peek at the trucks from the comfort of our van. While we were sitting there in our car, with Jacob sharing all the information he knows about what he could see parked inside, a man began walking towards us and Jacob then exclaimed "A fire man!" The fire man invited us to come in and have a look around and he turned on the lights for us and told us about the hoses and many other things. Jacob declared another car in the garage to be the "chief's car" and the raft in there was dubbed a "fire boat." Rebecca had fun saying "hi" to the two firemen we met. After the tour was over and pictures taken, Jacob proudly returned to the car with his new coloring book and fireman hat.

I'm pleased to report that this excursion to visit the fire truck was a marked improvement over Jacob's first trip there in Fall 2008.

TWD: White Chocolate Brownies

This week's baked good was chosen by Marthe of Culinary Delights. I made these on Tuesday and had a quick taste in before heading to bed last night. Today we'll be handing them out to neighbors before the meringue goes bad!

The flavor combination was an interesting one. These brownies have almond, orange, vanilla, raspberry, white chocolate all contributing to the final outcome. I think the orange zest in mine packed a big flavor punch so that was most of what I could taste, but it is still good. I had to bake these for a little bit more time but they came out pretty good in the end.

Check out Marthe's blog for the recipe and see how she made hers into more of a cupcake!

Up next Tuesday will be Tender Shortcakes.