Quandries

I had a friend tell me that most people should not have a blog. That someone should only have a blog if they really have something to add to the world and not just pictures of baby's first step. That got me thinking about it and I have come to the conclusion and that blatantly disagree. I disagree so much that it has gotten me to write this blog post after a hiatus of 6 months. I feel that freedom of speech and self expression is important. That creativity can be nurtured through activities such as blogging and it can bring new ideas to light and create new friendships. Countless times I have searched others blogs for craft of baking ideas, not that I bake that often, but I always like to see what's out there. So in constant protest I will be blogging more frequently. I have not idea about what, but I will be blogging. Ready of not world, you have a new blogger in town!

Banana Cream Pie

Erik said that he wanted to make something new today instead of our usual cake or cookies, so we settled on pie. We searched the nets to find the perfect recipe that only needed 3 banana's since that's all we had. We stumbled upon a blog post that looked promising but as we looked at ingredients, we were shocked that it called for tofu, yes tofu! Needless to say we quickly moved on. Here is one that we found from the food network that had only a few ingredients and yes only needed 3 banana's!


Ingredients:

Crust:
- 1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1/3 cup butter, melted

Filling:
- 1 (4 serving size) package vanilla pudding, prepared
- 3 medium bananas, sliced
- to serve: whip cream, or whipped topping

Directions

Crust: Mix all ingredients well & press firmly into the bottom and sides of a 9" pie plate. Chill 1 hour.

Filling: Prepare pudding mix. Place sliced bananas over the entire bottom of crust. Pour the pudding over the bananas. Refrigerate for 4 hours or more. When ready to serve, top with whipped topping. Serve chilled.


When we took the picture, the pie was still in the chill for 4 hours stage so we have not added the whipped topping yet. I sure it will be delicious!

Mish-Mash

Yes it has finally happened, on March 4th my niece was born! She was originally due on August 26th, so she kept us waiting but she was definitely worth it! The entire week before I was filled with anticipation, thinking that at any moment my phone could ring, and it would be time to go to the hospital. So I had to keep my phone on my person at all times, which for those of you who know me that is kinda a big deal. But Paige came as babies always inevitably do, just like the water really will come to a boil weather you are looking at it or not. Here is the beyond cute picture of my niece. She is quite a good looking kid if I do say so myself. I know some might think that there is family bias to how cute I think she is, so I will leave it up to the public to see that there is no bias, she is just that cute!



On a different note, I have had a undying love for guitar hero. I just love the feeling of being a rock star while watching the note burst into flames. It is quite intoxicating. For a church activity we had a battle of the bands, rock band but close enough. So I got my band together and we decided to dress up as rock stars. This invitation was open to everyone but we are the only ones that decided to take our band to the max. Yep, we were pretty hip!

Outings in the Life of Erik

Few of you might know that Erik loves to go places. It is understandable, who wants to be home bound? But when Erik goes somewhere it is not exactly simple, it is a production. First we have to load him in the van. This is not a small task as the mere sounds of lowering the ramp would make a pack of pidgins scamper. But it makes Erik laugh, he has a love/hate relationship with loud noises.


You may note the purse on the back of his chair, it seems to be the perfect place for me to put my purse, kind of coat hanger-esk.

Once we get into the van, we have to strap him down. There are four clamps or hooks that we put on his chair so that he won't go whipping around during the ride. Although I think he would love to be whipping around just a little...


We went to Target today, which happens to be one of Eriks very favorite stores of all time. Whenever I get something new, he always asks me where I got it, and being an avid Target shopper myself, if I tell him that I got it from Target he gets a broad smile across his face. Oh Target. This is the inside of Target. We were going to take a picture of the outside as we were going in, but it started to rain a bit, so we decided that this would have to do.


Erik has a deep and profound love for video games. He love talking about games, watching people play games, and looking at new games. So our first stop was to look at what video games Target had. Another one of Eriks loves is Guitar Hero. So we found the Guitar Hero video game!



There are so many wonderful things in Target. One of Hailey's favorite places to go is the toy section. Surprise surprise. We had some fun trying out some of the toys.



Our last stop was in the glorious dollar section. There are so many great finds there, or at least sometimes there are. Because stores are constantly trying to sell holiday paraphernalia there was some Saint Patrick's day and Easter stuff. I guess they didn't think that the Saint Patrick's day holiday could holds it own.




Our next stop was to Sam's Club. Erik drinks an enormous amount of milk every day and is very concerned if they are running low. You could say that it is the main staple of his diet. Also he just loves food, and buying new things.


One of his favorite things about Sam's club is the food court. He loves going there and getting pizza, and sometimes ice cream!



I know this is kind of off subject, but I have finished my charcoal drawing finally. Every time I would look at it I would see 3 new things that I needed to change. It was not conducive to timeliness, but it did make for a better picture.

Diaper Cake

My sister is having a girl at the end of February, so we are having her baby shower next Saturday. I have heard of diaper cakes before and apparently they are all the rage. So I did a little research via youtube and a miscellaneous of websites to find out exactly how to make one. Isn't it so wonderful that they give a few simple instructions and poof magically appears the finished product that looks flawless. What they don't show you is that this is really a two person job, and even then it can get a bit sketchy. Luckily I had my brother there to help construct the cake. And after a few failed attempts we finally got it right.



We choose to do the flat swirled look. It just looks so much better than the other one in my opinion. And daisy's are such a friendly flower, who could resist?

Cake Decorating

Several years ago my sister Katie took cake decorating courses at Michaels and became very good at it. Recently Kiersten, also my sister, purchased a cake decorating kit and wanted to learn how to use them. So we went over to Katie's and decorated some cakes.




This is the cake that I did. It turned out pretty well for my first lesson. But the purple stripe down the middle of a cake haunted me right from the moment I put it on there. But live and learn.

This is the cake that Katie did. Unfortunately I had to leave to go to work before she finished it, but it still looks really good. No wonder she is the master of cakes.




This is the cake that Kiersten made. She put on several bouquets of flowers after I left. It looked really good. Who knows, maybe cake decorating is an inherited trait!

Paula's Design

Erik has had a long time obsession with food networks one and only Paula Deen. It has reached new heights with the addition of cooking magazine. So today we tried out one of her recipes, Strawberry Coffee Cake. We added out own addition to the recipe because I had never heard of a coffee cake without streusel. Isn't that the best part of a coffee cake, the secret reason to make one? I will take a firm stance and say yes I demand streusel!

So this morning when I arrived at work we immediately began baking. It took lots of hard work and help from Erik but we finally got it in the oven.


As I always do, we set the timer for the cake less than directed so that it would not over cook. We checked it when the timer went off (which is Erik's job to tell me when it does) and it was not done. So we put it in for 3 more minutes and checked again. We must have done this at least 5 times because each time it was still not done! But when it finally was cooked we discovered that it was well worth the wait.




Doesn't that look delicious?! Oh yes, streusel definitely makes the cake. Well the strawberries and almonds don't hurt either.

Black and White

Yes, it has been a long time since our last post. We try to post more often, but are at a lost to know what to write about. Then I realized that i have not posted any of my charcoal pictures for a while. This is mostly because my camera has been broken for quite a while, and it seemed like such a hassle to borrow one, transfer the pictures, yatta yatta yatta. But the day has come to where I have run out of excuses, so here they are. This first picture I did of my Great Grandmother Nessie. This is a picture of her soon after she was married.



This is a picture I did of Erik's niece. For my internship, we are having a fundraiser, the biggest one we are hosting for the year. At this fundraiser we are having a silent auction, so I decided to do a charcoal drawing to donate. This is the one that I decided to donate. I'll be excited to see how much my picture will bring in!




This picture was very interesting to do. When I tried to take a picture of my drawing, I didn't want to use the flash because then there would be that rather annoying circle of light centrally in my picture. So just imagine it a bit lighter.

It Only Happens Once a Year

Oh yes it has happened, I have become one year older. Put one more ring around my tree trunk. For this year I did a slew of things spanning over several days. Who says a birthday can't last more than one day? So on Wednesday, my actaul day of birth (August 5), I went out to breakfast with some of my dear friends at Ihop. I was going to go somewhere else, which will remain nameless, but apparently Ihop is the place to go. It is a well known fact that I am a bit camera shy, so only one picture was taken to document it.

So on Friday the I had a little party. Invited to this party was Erik and his family of course. For the past 14 years of my life, whenever I had a Birthday party, it has always been a swim party. So for this year my mother through out having a pinata instead, mostly in a joking manner. But the idea really took flight and yes ended in having an actualy pinata at the party!

My nephew Parker came to the store with us to pick out the pinata. He instantly loved it and even tried to ride it in the store. We were worried that he would be devestated when we started to hit his new found friend until he split open. But there must be something about little boys, put a stick in their hand and their instincts take over. Exibit A:

And of course the night could not end without a little Guitar Hero.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

We have all heard the phrase when you are given lemons make lemonade. Well what if someone doesn't like lemonade, that seems quite exlusionatory. So in lieu of that we have an new avenue to explore, the world of culinary excellence. Oh yes, cupcakes. We have discovered that lemon cream cheese frosted cupcakes are exquisite. Definitely a perfect lightweight summer delight.

Just another day in the life of Erik and Amanda.

The Library

Ever since we are just wee children, our teachers have told us to not waste our summer on trivial things, but to use this time to get ahead. I always scoft at this in my mind. But there is no scofting now when prizes are involved. The local library is doing a summer reading program. Normally this would not be very exciting, but when prizes are involved it always seems to peak peoples interest, young or old. So Erik and I have been making lots of trips to the local library. If they think they can put an age limit on who gets these prizes, I say think again. Erik and I are both planning on getting a very extravagant prize by the end of the summer. Oh ya!

And When We Say One More Time...

Yes we really meant it! An interesting phenomenon has occured. Aparently our blog has been rediscovered. I went to work today and Hailey, Erik's younger sister, was singing a few lines and proclaimed that she wanted a post of her own revealing some of her favorite things. So here we go, again.

Playing with Lola and dancing around

Going on walks and sleepin on the ground

Reading all of her favorite books

These are a few of her favorite things

Sliding down the stairs on only a pillow

Playing the wii with her nephew Andin

Eating grahm crackers until she get sick

These are a few of her favorite things

Playing webkins and mario kart

Watching scooby doo and playing with friends

Making Erik laugh until his nostrols flare

These are a few of her favorite things

When her mom leaves
When there's no cream cheese

When she's feeling sad

She simply remembers her favorite things

And then she doesn't feel so bad

(Repeat)

Now let's try it with some visuals!!!

Playing with Lola and dancing around

Going on walks and sleepin on the ground

Reading all of her favorite books

These are a few of her favorite things

Sliding down the stairs on only a pillow

Playing the wii with her nephew Andin
Eating grahm crackers until she get sick
These are a few of her favorite things

Playing webkins and mario kart
Watching scooby doo and playing with friends
Making Erik laugh until his nostrols flare
These are a few of her favorite things

When her mom leaves

When there's no cream cheese
When she's feeling sad
She simply remembers her favorite things
And then she doesn't feel so bad!

And These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Some may say that rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens are a few of their favorite things, but Erik has an idea of his own. Please read/sing to the tune of my favorite things for full effect.

Waffles on plates and bumps in the pavement

Cars in the way and pretty glass tables

Wearing his brace on just his left leg

These are a few of his favorite things

Walking with the hummer and waiting for summer

Playing Mario kart until my finger is numb-er

Pretending to be on Paulas cooking show

These are a few of his favorite things

Going to the pond and then to the park

Sewing all day and checking the email

Playing hockey and driving in the van

These are a few of his favorite things

When the dog stinks
When the sink screams

When he's feeling sad

He simply remembers his favorite things

Then he doesn't feel so bad

(Repeat)

We have gone around today and taken some pictures of Erik's favorite things for a more dramatic affect. A one more time!

Waffles on plates and bumps in the pavement

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Cars in the way and pretty glass tables

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Wearing his brace on just his left leg
These are a few of his favorite things
Walking with the hummer and waiting for summer
Playing Mario kart until my finger is numb-er

Pretending to be on Paulas cooking show

These are a few of his favorite things
Going to the pond and then to the park

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Sewing all day and checking the email
Playing hockey and driving in the van

These are a few of his favorite things
When the dog stinks When the sink screams
When he's feeling sad
He simply remembers his favorite things
Then he doesn't feel so bad!!!