Father's Day

Although, Joe and I are not parents yet we decided to celebrate our future parenthood this year. On Mother's Day, Joe made me an amazing breakfast for dinner. And boy was it good. However, I was feeling a bit under the weather on Father's Day so we postponed our celebration. The week after Father's Day, I was finally able to make Joe his amazing gift. BACON ROSES! Sounds amazing right?! Well they are, however, they kind of are a pain in the butt trying to make them and keep them standing up on a tray. Also, if you are going to try and make BACON ROSES I suggest to not put three slices of bacon together... the bacon does not cook all the way through with that thick of a rose. Another suggestion, find a fake flower bouquet that had many flowers so you can have more BACON ROSES than I did. Anyway, here is the pictures of the final project.

How yummy do these look?! Also, now you understand when I say
get a bigger bouquet. I should have been more creative with this
But they don't look too bad. Right?

Joe was so excited to eat these. Probably the best flowers he has ever gotten. ;)  

A Cat Named Ted

A while back, I saw a kitten sitting in the hole of a wall in our apartment complex and thought that it looked super cute. Then, as fate would have it, after a fun date night with Joe we saw the same little kitten sitting on the stairs leading to our apartment. Being the mean and scary people we are, the poor little kitty was scared away by our presence. So as Joe watched where the kitten was hiding, I ran upstairs to put milk in a bowl to feed our new friend.

As you can see kitty really liked the milk. After standing outside
for a while watching the kitty eat, Joe decided to name him
Teodoro or Ted for short if it was a boy. I decided to
name her Sophia if it was a girl.

However, Ted was not very good at taking pictures. :)

After that first night of feeding the kitty, I was hooked. I wanted so badly to keep cute little Ted and have him/her be our very first pet. But alas, it was not meant to be. Unfortunately, our apartment complex makes pet owners pay more for rent. :( However, the next few nights we sure had fun feeding our little guy. Although with all the time that we spent caring for Ted we never actually found out if he really was a boy or girl. The world may never know. Funny. Anyway so here are some more pictures of our fun adventures. 

Joe with Ted

Me with Ted

Ted's hole in the wall.

Feeding Ted by his hole.

Cute Ted licking his lips.

Just Ted.

SUPER TED!!!

Zucchini Meals!

Pinterest has been a great source for coming up with new and exciting recipes that have been great additions to the family cookbook. A few of these additions are....

Stuffed Zucchini
recipe found here...
http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/stuffed-zucchini
Although it is good with out meat, it is especially good with ground beef or bacon in it. However, eating the uncooked leftover stuffing is not as good. Not terrible but not as good.

Then there is Zucchini Pizza. I based my recipe off of this recipe...
http://prouditaliancook.blogspot.com/2010/05/tiny-tomatoes-big-taste.html
However, my Zucchini Pizzas are far less healthy. I spread a mixture of minced garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper inside the hollowed out zucchini. Then I created a mixture of mini pepperoni slices, shredded mozzarella cheese, and pizza seasonings. Then I stuffed the zucchini boats with the mixture places them in a buttered dish. The zucchini pizzas were bake at 350 for 30 minutes sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and thoroughly enjoyed.

*Note: One zucchini feeds one person, unless using them as a side dish.

Not a five star meal.

So I have been trying out new recipes recently. Some have been great additions to our family cookbook while other were not good enough. Like...

The Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole was not only frustratingly long to prep, but did not taste as good the next day. Additionally, I think that my dislike for ham did not help in me wanting to make this dish ever again. Also I found out that Joe is not a fan of swiss cheese. So all around, the meal was not really a hit.

The next recipe was Broccoli Quiche and it proved to be extremely yummy. However, I didn't really have a pie pan to bake it in and my pie crust barely stretched enough to fit my Pampered Chef pizza stone. Although this was good I don't think that I will make it very often. Especially if I had to make the crust out of scratch. However, here is the link to the website where I found the recipe....  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-broccoli-quiche/

Stressed bake some Desserts!

I have recently become obsessed with cake decorating. I was always into making desserts because let's face it they are super yummy and eating the leftover batter is the best part. But with the help of Melissa we have become pretty good at decorating, as long as we are working together. So here is a few of our creations.

Melissa's is on the left and mine is on the right.
I have trouble with frosting so that will have to be fixed.

Then, the season finale of The Walking Dead

came and a party was to be had.  So I aspired to make cupcakes with zombies popping out of them as if they were coming out of the ground. Then, that idea became too ambitious so I was going to draw a zombie face on the top of a cake. Well, I did not quite know how to make a good zombie face so I made a chocolate cake from scratch covered it with crushed Oreo's and wrote the TV show name on top. Super creative right? Haha! It was really yummy though. :) 

Side view of the Walking Dead cake.

Melissa's and my next successful adventure in cake decoration was the invention of R2D2

and the Death Star from the movie Star Wars. Melissa was trying out this decoration for

a friend's birthday coming up in the next couple of month. It took forever, but the end result

was amazing! What a fun day!! :)

The most recent adventure in baking has been the favored Death by Chocolate. Look how delicious this is! 

How to make: brownies, chocolate pudding, whipped cream English toffee pieces or crushed up Heath Bars, repeat. Topped with tons of crushed up heath bars and you have a wonderful layered dessert!!! Whooo!! Yay for yummy. :)

*Note: I used this brownie recipe for my Death by Chocolate dessert.
 http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipe-details.aspx?id=5008&name=Best-Brownies

Redemption!!!

My last cooking experience (Sweet Potato Burgers) was an utter failure. However, since then I have made two awesome dinners that are super yummy and fairly healthy. The first, Lemony Asparagus Pasta, was delightfully tasty and a meal I assure will be eaten again and again by my family, especially because Joe's favorite veggie is asparagus. 

So this week I found another recipe on eatingwell.com called Beef & Bean Chile Verde. Even after the unfortunate event of leaving a bag of spices that I specifically needed for this recipe at Albertson's, dinner tasted dang good!!! And here is a picture of my finished product...

With more dinners like this I should be a great cook in no time! :) Yay!

Two Best Friends :)

So this past Saturday, Melissa (my best friend) and I decided to try our hand at decorating cakes. After picking out a cake decorating beginners book, Melissa and I got started on making a mess... I mean decorating cakes. ;)

Melissa and her beautiful cake. :D

Me and my awesome cake with heath bar crunch in the middle! :)

After several hours of mixing, baking, and having a blast, the end product turned out quit nicely... for the first time. However, I will need to work on the icing because my yellow "dots" looked more like runny mustard. HAHA! :) There is always next time right?

So my new life goal is to become an awesome cake decorator and pastry maker along side my best friend. Open a hole in the wall shop (like the guys from Ace of Cakes) with my husband running all of the business aspects. I have even come up with a name for our shop... Two Best Friends! On top of hand crafted cakes, Melissa would make her Molten Lava Cakes, I would make my Cake Mix Cookies, and we might even have ice cream. How perfect would that be?! But before we can open a shop we do need to have more experience under our belt. Therefore, if you feel so inclined to want a cake made by amateurs looking to better perfect their skills we would love to help. :) Oh by the way Melissa does not know I just signed her up for this but it is okay because she loves me. :)

This is exciting!!! Yay for life's fun moments!!

Sweet Potato Burgers

This whole... 'adventure' started because I am at the stage in life where I am a new wife who is trying to hone her cooking skills, but also trying to get healthy/ lose weight. I have to say that I am not doing to bad in both of these areas, however no one is perfect.
This leads me to my Sweet Potato Burger story. So while wasting away my life on Pinterest, the other day, I came across a recipe for Sweet Potato Burgers. Pinterest is a website that shows you a bunch of pictures (from various websites and blogs) that people post with a comment underneath. So while browsing the pins of the people I follow I came across this awesome picture of a Sweet Potato Burger. I am serious this picture made this burger look so good. Being the health conscious person that I am trying to become I repin the post and tell Joe that I want to try this recipe. And here it is... well here are the ingredients on how to completely fail at making Sweet Potato Burgers:

• 1 hour of extra cook time because you didn't know that sweet potatoes take an hour to bake
• leave out 2 tbsp of Tahini because after searching all over you have come to the conclusion that it doesn't exist
• do not form patties because your mixture sticks to your hands when you try, instead drop globs of your mixture into a frying pan
• Use so much oil that it is all over but still doesn't cook the burgers
• Cook on the highest setting possible filling your house with smoke because the burgers are STILL not cooking
• Give up in the middle of cooking because your spatula will no longer flip the burgers and you are frustrated as all get out

Luckily I had the bright idea to make ranch carrots as a side. After taking one bite of the burgers I had slaved over, I almost couldn't keep it down. Somehow Joe liked the burgers, but we decided to throw away all my hard work because it was just not worth it. I am sad to say that this was not a successful endeavor, however I am happy to say that I am absolutely 100% positive that I will never become a vegan. They put way too much effort into making something that tastes like crap. 

So class, let's review what we've learned today. Sweet Potato Burgers are a terrible idea!

10 tips on dating...

I do not claim myself to be a expert on dating now that I am married; I honestly think that I was really blessed to find such a wonderful man that could deal with my craziness and call it 'a breath of fresh air'. :D However, after discussing why people we know are still single and why we dated each other I think I have some good tips and advice on the whole dating scene.

First: If you are not dating anyone or are not going on any dates I would just like to remind you to be patient. Just do the best you can with what you have and Heavenly Father will provide the rest. I think one thing we forget so often is that the plans that we may have for ourselves may not be what God has in mind. And ultimately, Heavenly Father knows us way better than we know ourselves so trust him because you will end up in a better place then where you planned. 

Second: It is okay to be a little choosy. If the person is a total creep, you can say no. Chances are you have some idea of what you are looking for, and a creep is not that person. Now if you think they are a creep, but you think everyone else is a creep too, maybe ask your friends what their opinion is on that person.

Third: Give your friends some credit. I am living proof that my friends know me better than I know myself because the first time I met Joe I did not want to date him, but my friends felt that we would be a good match. 

Fourth: It is okay to let your friends set you up on a date. Be wise about their choices though. If they have brought you failure after failure then maybe say "No" to them next time.

Fifth: Do not be bitter or desperate. When you are bitter and resentful it makes you unattractive. Question: Would you date someone that was angry at the world? Answer: Probably not. In addition, do not come off too desperate. Just like being bitter, desperate is not a good look either. You get this crazy look in your eyes saying "carpool to the Celestial Kingdom with me, RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!" Example... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHmhR5Hsa1g  Kind of scary, is it not? Not only would I be scared but I would be running in the other direction.

Sixth: Boys, the girls are not going to pursue you. To be blunt, that is a dumb thought. Girls want to know that they will be looked after and cared for. Guys, how do you show that? By asking her out on dates and actively pursuing her. The way to know if a girl is telling you that they like you is if she continually texts you or calls you every once in a while. She may even invite you to a party. Take the hint and ask her out again, or if you are not interested do not lead her on so she can move on with her life.

Seventh: If you are not doing anything with your life, you are definitely not a candidate. When a boy does not have a steady job, is not going to school, and does not even have a degree their prospects drop tremendously. Girls want a man that has a job in order to provide for their future family, or at least working on getting a degree to get a proper job to provide for the future. Additionally, girls if you are not doing anything with your life boys are going to see a girl who is going to sit at home and do nothing all day. Not appealing. Additionally if you are actively involved in productive interests and you are not dating currently, you will have something to consume your day with, instead of moping.

Eighth: Do service. It will make you happy and it will get you thinking about something other than yourself. Serving is a good way to build up your self esteem and guys/girls think it is very attractive.

Ninth: Guys can be chumps. The previous statement is something that my husband told to a friend once. If a guy is older and is not actively seeking out girls to date/marry (i.e. asking girls out) then he is a chump. There is hardly anything you can do about it, except nudge them in the right direction.

Tenth: Ugh... well I ran out of advice. Like I said I am not an expert and you certainly do not have to take into consideration anything that I have written. I just thought it would be nice to hear from a newly wed's perspective. 

Hopefully these tips will help lessen the anxiety you may have toward dating, and give you an idea of what you may need to work on. Just have fun in the dating game. It is a long, tedious process, but well worth it in the end. :)

So... how is married life?

Well I am married now to an amazing man, Joe, and things have been great! It is funny though, every time I see 'Single' friends they always ask me the same question. "How is married life?"

Well to all of you that are wondering, married life is great! It is not what I expected, because I expected it to be some BIG change. However, married life was a fairly smooth transition. Given we are still working on how we want to do things and what happens if this event occurs; but being married is very similar to the dating process and being engaged. We are both still getting to know each other, sharing stories, finding out dislikes, likes, learning, growing, and building our lives together. The only major difference is now we live together and do not have to say good bye at night. And that is a much welcomed change. 

There are some adjustments that have needed to be made; such as calling his family mine, realizing I do not have to explain who my brothers are, and the last name is a bit tricky. However, these changes are welcomed, even though they may take time to adjust to. 

Another expectation that I had of marriage was that once you are husband and wife you know everything there is to know about the other person. So after a while husbands and wives had nothing left to learn about the other person. This is completely false. I am still getting to know my husband and just the other day he learned something about me that he did not know. I am glad that I realized that we still needed to learn about each other now, because I feel that this will be beneficial down the road as we continually change. Good communication between husband and wife is a key to keeping a good relationship going; at least that is what I am taught at school and it makes sense.

           So for all of you who were wondering... "How is married life"... life is good, different but good.
:)