Turkey Cupcakes

I saw a picture of this in with some coupons and had try them. I was surprised at how well they turned out.

What I used:

White Cake mix (and made it per the instructions on the back of the box)
Chocolate frosting

Candy Corns

Chocolate sprinkles

White and Black Wilton decorating gel
and Cup cake holders

I mixed the cake mix with the required ingredients from the back of the box and poured them into the cupcake holders.

And cooked them for a little too long I guess. They started to smell a little like burnt cake so I took them out.

Once they were cool I decorated them. Generously covering them with Chocolate frosting. And rolling some of the frosting with the knife to make the head

Then I stuck some candy corn in the opposite side of the head for the tail.

Next steps are to put the candy corn in front for his nose and chocolate sprinkles on top for...feathers maybe.

And last but not least the eyes. First the white and then black Decorating gel.

The finished Turkeys: What a great treat for Thanksgiving Dinner with family :O)

Change my focus

In the spirit of relaxing and not focusing on getting pregnant... Jake and I have been making plans for the next few months. They include spending time with a good friend of mine in a few weeks watching New Moon and enjoying her company. Spending time with friends and having a few drinks (which I would not be able to do if I was pregnant.) Going to my Branch's Christmas party in December. Seeing family for an extended Christmas weekend. Along with the holiday season and all the joy it brings. Going to 2A State Basketball. And now, a decision we just made tonight, a long weekend in April to Victoria, BC during spring break.

I know it is going to be hard not to focus on getting pregnant over the next few months. I hope the distractions will work and I will be able to relax a little. I cant wait for these distractions. If anyone has any other ideas I'm all ears.

Continuing Disappointment

**I need to say this up front: This is not a recipe for food or anything related to food. It is something I need to get off my chest. And here was the only place I could think of.**

Goal: Getting Pregnant

Yet again it feels like everything is going wrong. It seems to be that disappointment is a common theme in our house as of late. Actually the last 20 months have had the same outcome and I'm not sure why I even think there will be something else.

It started when Jake and I decided to try to have a family. It was right after basketball season was over the year we got married. We decided to stay in the area, not to move home, and start a family. Seems easy enough, right? Well apparently not.

After 6 months I made an appointment with my doctor and have had almost everything checked (including the little swimmers) and there seems to be no reason why we have not gotten pregnant. I have checked for ovulation every day for months, had sex on the appropriate days, and crossed our fingers. When that didn't work we had sex every other day for an entire month. That didn't work so we had sex every day for a month. Twice a day for the two weeks around the possible ovulation time. And probably every other combination you can think of. We have even tried Clomid for 5 months. Clomid increases the chances of pregnancy by increasing hormones that cause ovulation. There are a long list of side effects, most I'm sure I have experienced. But even that hasn't worked.

To date nothing has worked. A few months ago I decided I wasn't going to 'track' everything and just not let it be a priority. And then we were told about Pre-seed by a friend of mine that had just found out she was pregnant. I was sure that would work...but obviously it hasn't worked, I'm typing this.

Everyone keeps telling me that it 'will happen when it is suppose to' but I don't know if I believe that any more. It has been 20 months of nothing but disappointing month after disappointing month. We have seen most of our friends and family get pregnant, have babies, and even some get pregnant again. I know some people get pregnant really easily and others don't. But what if I never do? What if I can't?

We do have a few options but all require money we don't have. Tens of thousands of dollars that we will probably never have. I want a family, I want children, even if we adopt. But is that even a possibility? We have decided to take a few months off and then try again after the 2009-2010 B-E basketball season ends. It is going to be really hard to not think about it, or the possibility of it at the end of each cycle, or what we are going to do come the middle of March.

I guess only time will tell and I truly hope that everyone is right.

It will happen when its suppose to, right?

Recipe for a good time :O)

What I used:
Munchies (chips, dip, candy, etc)
Beer (I think there were 3 different kinds)
Captain and Smirnoff Apple
Soda (Pepsi, Coke, and 7up)
Saturday Night college football
Pumpkins
and Friends from work.

Directions:
Mix together and enjoy.

So I know this is not an actual recipe but I couldn't help myself: Jake and I had our first Pumpkin Carving Party with most of the people I work with, that happens to be most of the people we know in the Burlington/Mt Vernon area. But they are our friends just the same. I had a lot of fun hanging out with people, having someone over to our house rather then spending another Saturday night in front of the television, carving pumpkins.

Ready....Set....Carve!

Misty and Davis so serious about their Mariners pumpkin

Kurt and Jace making watching Britt

Me drawing my stars on my pumpkin :O)


Sharon (my boss) making sure we keep all our fingers.

Can go to work if you are missing a finger or two.

Misty checkin' out the competition

Carvin' away

All of our pumpkins (minus Misty and David's)

Halloween Cake Balls

Last night I decided I wanted to make cake balls, looked at a few recipes online and I think I can do it.
What I used....
Box of white cake mix
Container of white frosting
Wilton Candy melts (from Michaels)
and Wilton Decorating Gel (also from Michaels)

I follow the directions on the back of the box for the cake. (Oh I love the smell of cake while its baking!) After it was done baking I let it cool a little, about 40 minuets or so. I probably should have let it cool a little longer but I was getting impatient.

Then I took a small amount and put it in a bowl, using a fork I separated it into tiny crumbs. Kept adding cake to the bowl until it was all crumbs.

I did bake the cake a little to long and the edges were a little crusty. They had to be taken out of the bowl because I couldn't get them to cumble right.

After that, I added about 3/4 of the frosting to the bowl of crumbs. There were several different amounts used in the recipes, from 1/2 to 1 1/2. But the most common was 3/4. Mixed the frosting and cake crumbs together.

Once it was all mixed I rolled it into small balls and placed each one on a cooking pan covered with aluminum foil.  I did find it hard somethimes to roll the balls, but one thing I can suggest is to rinse hands often and leave them a little damp.  It helps keep the cake from sticking (for a little while at least.)

After the were all rolled I put them in the freezer to harden. I left them in the freezer for almost and hour so they would be nice and hard.
While the balls were freezing I melted the Wilton Candy Melts in the microwave. I dumped a bunch into a microwave safe bowl and turned it on for 1 minuet. Stirred them and put back in the microwave for 30 seconds. Repeated until completely melted.  It didn't take very long for them to melt.

When the cake balls were hard, I tried to use a toothpick to stick the ball and dip it in the melted candy and completely covered it but I wasn't very successful at that. Turns out that it is easier to just get dirty and use your fingers.Then I placed them back on the cookie pan.  This step was a little harder then I thought it would be.  But it was fun to be plaing in the melted candy.

Once they were all covered in the melted candy I used the Wilton Decorating Gel to decorate them.

I am very excited to serve these at our Pumpkin Carving Party!

My favorite Sweet and Sour Chicken

Cooking from a seasoning packet is not the same as cooking from a box, is it? Tonight I made Sweet and Sour Chicken from Sun.Bird.

What you need:
Sun.Bird Sweet and Sour packet
1 1/2 pounds chicken or pork cut into strips
1/4 and 1tbsp corn starch (seperated)
1/4 and 1 1/2 cup water (seperated)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oil
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 onion, cubed
2 carrots, diagonally sliced
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup atsup
1 can pinneapple chunks, drained
3 cups of cooked rice.

*Mix 1/4 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup of water, and soy sauce. And pork/chicken to mix and let soak for 5 minuets, coating chicken/pork with mix.
*Heat oil in pan. Add pork/chicken and stir-fry until browned, remove from pan.
*Stir-fry veggies, then add pork/chicken in with veggies.
*Mix seasoning, 1 tbsp cornstarch, sugar, catsup and 1 1/2 cups of water. Blend well. Ad to pork/chicken and veggies mixture and simmer for 5 min or until thickened.
*Add pineapple and heat.
*Serve over cooked rice.

I love sweet and sour chicken and pork. One of my favorite things to make. It is so good. And if I could figure out how to get pictures up on here I would...maybe next time. But really, its good. Give it a try.

Here's to cooking!

Several months ago I decided that I was not going to cook from a box again.

For the first year or so of our marriage all we ate was hamburger and tuna helper, mostly because I thought I couldn't cook. Someone I work with challenged me to not cook anything from a box for a week. I made it through the first week, and to my suprise actually liked cooking. For a while there were only a few recipes I would use but now I find myself looking for new and better recipes. I now almost look forward to cooking dinner every night, and for those nights I just don't feel like cooking my wonderful husband does it for me.

I was cooking Chicken Enchiladas tonight and decided I wanted to document my adventrues in the kitchen. I also hope to share the good, the bad and the ugly with everyone.

Here's to cooking!