Our First Tree!

This is the first tree I've decorated myself... I was really excited about it.

Thanksgiving in California

This year we got to spend Thanksgiving in California with my family! I haven't had Thanksgiving with my family for two years, so I was really excited. My brother Trevor also hadn't been home for Thanksgiving or Christmas in two years. We got to California on Wednesday after a 12-hour drive (usually only takes about 10-11). The roads from Salt Lake to Cedar were still a bit icy from the storm the night before. We had a lot of fun; dinner, movies, bowling, a little bit of shopping, and family pictures (post below). Then Saturday we got to spend some time and babysit my cute little cousins, and then that night we went to Medieval Times. Kevin had never been, and the food is really good : ) The only thing that sucked was the 14-hour drive home. It was bad weather from St. George to Salt Lake. It was kind of a short trip, but my parents and my brother will be coming up to Utah after Christmas, and I am way excited!

Family Pictures 2010

Best Peanut Butter Fudge Recipe

Recently I've been into making fudge. It probably has something to do with the fudge I had at Gardener Village last month (amazing!) So far I've made peanut butter, chocolate, and pumpkin. The peanut butter fudge was definately the best! Most likely because it was so easy, and easy is always better : ) Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

2 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Directions:

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and milk. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, stiring frequently. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Pour over confectioners sugar in large bowl. Beat until smooth; pour into 8x8 dish. Chill until firm and cut into squares.

October

October has gone by way fast, and we've been pretty busy. We went to Gardener Village during Witchfest. It is a cute little village with shops and a restraunt. It was really fun, we've never been there before. Definately want to go back during Christmas! We also celebrated our 6-month aniversary (Nov 1). We spent the night at a hotel in Park City the Friday before, and then we went to Lagoon for a few hours on Saturday. We had free tickets, otherwise we wouldn't have gone. But it was still fun! Makes me miss Disneyland and Knotts back in California though :( It was a nice relaxing weekend. Oh and Kevin had roses sent to my work on Friday, I definately wasn't expecting it... it was a nice suprise! Other than that, we've just been really busy with school and work!

At Gardener Village

Making Rice Crispy Treats

My roses for our aniversary : )

Ollie. He is getting huge.

Kevin found him sleeping in the dryer the other day, ha!

So now we are just waiting until we get to go to California for Thanksgiving! My family is also planning a trip to Utah right after Christmas, which will be super fun. So excited for the holidays!

Vanilla Souffle Recipe

I made a yummy vanilla souffle this weekend! Sundays are my favorite days to cook. Usually I will try and make a homemade desert too. This was the second time I tried to make a souffle, and I liked this recipe I found better.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup granulated sugar for souffle dish
1 1/3 cups whole, 2 percent fat, or 1 percent fat milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs, separated

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush 4 to 6 individual souffle dishes (or a 7-cup souffle dish) well with melted butter.

Put the sugar inside one dish and toss to coat, then tip the excess sugar into the next dish and repeat. Place the dishes in the refrigerator to chill.
Reserving 1/3 cup of the milk, place the remaining 1 cup in a large saucepan.

Add the vanilla bean and heat just to a boil, then turn off the heat and set aside to let the vanilla bean infuse for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the 1/3 cup granulated sugar, the flour, and the reserved 1/3 cup milk. Add a little of the hot milk and whisk to combine, then add the flour mixture to the hot milk mixture in the saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, whisking occasionally. Simmer just until thickened, about 1 minute. Turn off the heat. Add the butter, stir, cover, and set aside 15 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean and whisk in the egg yolks.
In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or using a hand mixer), whip the egg whites in a clean dry bowl until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar and continue whipping until stiff and glossy. Fold into the milk mixture.
Pour the mixture into the prepared dishes, filling them 3/4 full. Run your thumb around the inside rim of each dish, making a shallow "moat" around the edge of the batter. This will help the souffles to rise straight up. Dust the surfaces with confectioners' sugar. (The souffles can stand at this point for up to 30 minutes.) Bake in the center of the oven until puffed and light golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Do not open the oven door unless absolutely necessary.

I substituted 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract instead of using a vanilla bean. The first time I made a souffle we just ate it plain, and it was good. This time though I found a good vanilla sauce to go with it. It was delicious! I even ate some for breakfast this morning : )

I made this!

Alright so Keivn said I didn't technically "make this" but I did put it all together. I already had the vase, and I wanted to do a cute fall decoration. So I went to the floral section at Walmart and got silk leaves, sunflowers, and the yellow berries for only $3 and put them in an arrangement. Then I got some decorative pinecones to fill the vase up with and tied it with a ribbon. I'm pretty proud of myself : ) especially since I am definately not one of those "creative" people.

Oliver

So since we don't have a real baby yet, and our lives aren't super exciting, you get to read a post about our kitty. Sorry everyone!

My brother Trevor came over for Sunday dinner last week, since he lives up in Provo.

Keena brought Hershey over again last night to play. We are hoping they will become friends, they will be pretty much the same size. Oliver will actually be bigger than her when he is full grown though!

Kevin and Oliver

Me & Oliver

(He wanted to play so he was mad I was trying to get him to take a picture)

He is such a good kitten! He can get annoying sometimes, be we love him. He even comes when he's called, and follows us from room to room, always wanting to be by one of us. He gets super hyper at night, so we have to play with him a ton after work so he let's us go to bed later. So far, its been fun having him!

New job!

So Kev and I both already have full time jobs; he works at Zions Bank, and I am the Property Manager at the Hampton Inn. Kevin started school again in August, and is also an assistant scout master at church, so he is pretty busy during the week. The only other activities I have going on during the week is yoga. Before I was married I had two jobs a couple different times, and I've liked it. I really actually like waitressing (sounds weird huh?) and the extra money doesn't hurt either, especially when we will most likely be paying for most of school ourselves. Plus it would give me something to do while Kevin is working on school, going to scouts, and coaching the young men's football team (forgot to mention that one earlier!) Kevin knows the manager at Mikado in Bountiful, which is a Japanese and Sushi restraunt. I LOVE sushi, and eat there all the time. So I went in and talked to her, and she hired me as a server. I started last week, and so far I love it! I work 2-3 nights a week, and the shifts are only about 3-4 hours. Plus, I get 50% off everything, which is awesome.

YUM!

The other nice thing is that they are closed Sundays, and they are only open until 9 during the week, and 10 on weekends. So I still get home in time to hang out with Kevin (and Oliver) before bed. So, we'll see how it goes!

We got a...

Kitten!

Oliver

So I was going to wait until I had a better picture, but neither of our cameras are working, so this picture from my phone will have to do. We got him on Sunday, and LOVE him. We've been talking about getting a kitten for a while, but didn't want to have to put down a pet deposit or make extra payments. Since I just recently picked up a second job (that will be for another post) we decided to get one. We planned on looking at a few shelters and taking our time, and I wanted a kitten that was 10-12 weeks old already. So Sunday night I started innocently looking at ads for kittens on KSL, and found the cutest kittens in North Salt Lake. I showed Kevin and he said "Let's call them" I was like, seriously? We called, they said they had one left and we aksed if we could go see him. Kevin asked if I had my checkbook with me... he is more of a sucker than I am! We knew if we went to see him we would end up taking him home that night... and we did : ) He is SUCH a good kitten though! He is calm, but still playfull. He only cried the first night we put him to bed. He is only 6 weeks old, a bit younger than I wanted, but I am so glad we picked him. He has had a couple accidents, since he is still so young. We've had to wash our comforter and a rug. But since yesterday he has been using his litterbox well. It is like taking care of a baby! He wakes us up around 6 every morning wanting to play, and sleeps in his little cat bed all day while we are at work. We are so in love with him, we are trying to hold him and pet him as much as possible so he will stay cuddly when he gets older. I wanted a male cat specifically because they tend to be calmer than females. Hopefully we will get a camera working so we can get better pictures, he is so cute!

P.S. Don't be mad mom & dad... we will take Penny back with us as soon as we get a little yard for her!

Cooking

I LOVE cooking. I probably make homemade meals at least 4 times a week. I love trying new recipes, and found this amazing website that has TONS. It called foodgawker.com. I will usually try out the recipie, then take away or add other things to make it the way I like it. One thing I made recently was this chocolate cake:

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

The picture from the website looked like this:

So I am not that professional yet, but I think it probably tasted just as good! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup (250 ml) water
125 g unsalted butter, chopped
1/3 cup (35 g) cocoa, sifted
2 cups (300 g) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda, sifted
2 cups (440 g) caster (superfine) sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup (125 ml) buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 160° C (325° F). Lightly grease 2, 18 cm round cake tins and line with parchment paper.
Place the water, butter and cocoa in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until the butter has melted; set aside.
Using a fine-mesh sieve, sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Add sugar and whisk to combine well.
Add the cocoa mixture and whisk to combine. Add the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and whisk to combine.
Divide batter evenly between the 2 cake tins. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in centre of cake comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

100 g unsalted butter, softened
500 g cream cheese
2 cups (320 g) icing (confectioner’s) sugar, sifted
1/2 cup (50 g) cocoa, sifted

Place butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed for 6 to 8 minutes or until pale and creamy.
Meanwhile, using a fine-mesh sieve, sift icing sugar and cocoa into a medium bowl. Repeat an additional 2 times.
Reduce stand mixer to low speed and gradually add the icing sugar, cocoa mixture.
Increase speed to medium-high and continue to beat for a further 6 to 8 minutes or until light and fluffy.

The directions were a little weird (I think the lady was from England) so I had to look up the conversions from grams into tablespoons. Also, the frosting was a little to cream-cheesy. Next time I would probably do less cream cheese. It was delicous though! Definately would make this again.

4th of July Weekend

We had a three day weekend for the 4th of July holiday, so we went down to my grandparent's ranch in New Harmony, UT. My family came up from California and we had tons of fun! We rode 4-wheelers and horses, hiked at Zions Nation Park, and had a BBQ. Oh and saw Eclipse :)

At the 4th of July Parade

Grandparent's backyard

This was Kevin's first time riding a horse

He loved it!

Kevin, Dad, Todd

Hiking in Zions

The whole fam