My First Cake

Well, here is my first decorated cake, in all it's glory. We actually have two round cake pans. Duh, Erin. I bought a few piping tips and some disposable bags after work yesterday so I could just practice some techniques. Then Todd convinced me to make a small cake to practice on. So it's a homemade yellow cake (that was a bit too dense. It tasted like pound cake.) with homemade buttercream frosting. Considering it my first attempt at everything, I thought it turned out pretty well. And my coworkers that got to eat it thought so too.


My fish need a lot of help.


Check out my brown sugar sand. Pretty creative (I saw it on a website.)

Spingform Pans

Question: Can you make a normal cake recipe and bake it in a spring form pan?

The first Wednesday of every month is Supergroup for the Junior High Students and every month has a theme. We've done Pirates vs. Ninjas, Battle of the Sexes, Spy Night, and others. March is Cake Night which is a night where we celebrate everyone's birthday. So, if you can make a cake, you bring a cake. I'm guessing a ratio of 1 cake to every 5 people. It's a lot of cake. So naturally, I'm making two cakes (you know, in case people forget their cake). But, we only have springform pans. Will those still work? And, can I have two different sizes but still make the same amount of cake batter, so we'll just have a tiered cake? Bakers, tell me how it will work with what I have!

And Mom and Corrie, I can hear you now. "Just chuck it in a rectangle pan and be done with it." These are people my age (the small group coaches, not students). I must prove my superior baking skills and get that little victory. Lord knows I can't decorate it, so it better be an awesome shape, right? And who knows, maybe I will be sending something into Cakewrecks myself. But, I'm hoping it comes out looking like this.

Valentine's Day Lesson

Our first Valentine's Day as a married couple was interesting.

9:00-To church for sermon (about sex from a man that could be your father)

11:30-Clean up from Waffle breakfast fundraiser

2:00-Finally leave church

2:05-Eat at Applebee's and grocery shop

4:00-Come home feeling sick and fall asleep

6:30-Wake up and watch tv with your husband

10:00-Feel bad you wasted your first Valentine's Day as a married couple so you decide to go out for dessert. Write a blog post about it.

Lesson learned. Either don't care about the holiday, or actually plan something. And try to keep your pastor's sex sermon series to only one week. (When will it end?!)

Lasagna and Rapping

Last night, I made an okay lasagna. I followed the directions on the back of the no-bake noodles box and it was okay. Todd will be gone tonight for 30 Hour Famine at church, so I'm on my own for dinner. The lasagna was a plan ahead so I wouldn't have to make dinner again just for me.

So I make the lasagna, make some cheesy garlic bread (mozz, garlic butter from before, and an Italian loaf of bread), and a salad (Lettuce, carrot shavings, lemon juice and oil dressing) and we sit down and have a nice dinner. Except, we were both in a bit of a silly mood, so we continued to rap "Bust a Move" by Young MC throughout our nice dinner. It's fun to be married to your best friend.

Side note: I was going to curl up with my dinner and watch the opening ceremonies to the Olympic games tonight. But then I remembered that we don't get any tv channels. I want to know if Gretzky gets to light the torch! But it's a good thing we are not in Chicago this year. There was a channel there, NBC Sports, that is probably just doing Olympic coverage 24/7. Last year, I stayed up watching Iron Man triathlons on several occasions. What can I say, I'm a sap for an overcoming hardships story. (Thinking of mom on that last sentence.) But that channel would be the biggest time waster if I were to watch the Olympics in Chicago. I don't need to stay up and watch Women's Curling between Sweden and China (not that I haven't before. Go Sweden!)

Thin Crust Pizza

While I love a good, chewy crust on my pizza, Todd likes the thin crust. And since I am a good wife, I learned to make it. Here is the recipe.

THIN CRUST PIZZA

I actually really like this recipe. We have used it three times now and it's been better every time.

The only problem is how much it makes. I have not had good luck freezing dough, so I figured I just always had to make 2 pizzas. They always make great leftovers. But this week, we decided to make cheesy garlic bread as a snack to keep around. (It didn't stay for long)

Ingredients
3 cloves of garlic
Dried Oregano
6 Tablespoons of butter
Mozz and cheddar cheese
1/3 of the pizza dough

Directions
Combine garlic, butter, and oregano (to taste) in a food processor
Stretch out the dough to make a small looking pizza
Spread a thin layer of butter over the surface of dough
Sprinkle a layer of mozzarella and a layer of Cheddar on the surface
Bake until cheese browns and bubbles

It is so yummy and makes for great snacks during the week. Also, you can spread a very thin layer of the butter mix on the rim of the pizza to give you a little pop when you come to the end of your slice. It makes a lot of butter, so keep it around. It goes great with French bread and pasta.

Be looking for easy fancy fries coming up. It's a Todd Spieker original. Enjoy!

Roasted Garlic

I keep hearing about roasting a whole garlic bulb. When I googled it, I was directed to this blog. See for yourself how weird it is.

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001712roasted_garlic.php

My initial reaction was vomit in my mouth. I love garlic; we easily go through a bulb a week. But I'm not sure I love garlic enough to roast it and then eat it. But, I'm starting to see the upside or doing this. Here is my list of what I think I could do with it.

Garlic butter spread
Spread on toast with cheese
On cooked veggies
With pasta and bland sauce
Dipping sauce (with olive oil and oregano)
Chip dip (with sour cream)

That's all I have so far, but I think it may be worth trying. I will let you know when I do. Also, let me know if you can think of better uses for it. I feel like mine wouldn't do it justice.

For the Covenanters

For all you who are part of the Covenant Church, you should go to Midwinter. I hope eventually you get the chance to be a part of this week long North Park class reunion. Todd and I have met so many new people and seen so many old friends. It is nice to know that you can go to a congregation of all Covenant Pastors and see people you know the entire time. It really is a big family. The speakers were fantastic, especially John and Nancy Ortberg and the seminars at Midwinter and Connection (the youth pastor part) were amazing. I hope that you can get a change to go sometime in your life (even if just to the evening sessions) you take that opportunity. It gives you a real appreciation for the denomination and for what God is doing.

And I know this is not a part of me becoming a married woman, but it's all I have been doing all week. I miss cooking.