haphazard musings

a cake & deviled egg post.

here is the final session of my day of cooking. : )

fun fact: i have never boiled an egg.

un-fun fact: i am apparently not so good at it.

un-fun fact 2: i don't even like deviled eggs...

so you may ask, "why are you making them?"  well the answer is simple.  my mom told me to. 

now you may ask, "you still do what your mom says even though you are 28?"  

yup - that's what she taught me to do when i was 8.  oh well.

fun fact 2: i found out later that mom wanted me to make deviled eggs because she doesn't like doing it. 

so i followed the recipe exactly like it said...

bring to boil. remove from heat. let sit 10 minutes. drain and rinse in cold water.

 

peel to get the ugliest hard boiled eggs ever.  continue this task for like an hour.  break a couple.  squish out the middles.

 

make what i assume was a yummy filling.  i never tried it.  use a baggie and squirt out the filling in pretty little piles.  sprinkle with paprika so they look pretty.  take them on a car ride so they can all fall over.  ugh.

tell your mom, you are never making deviled eggs again!

then go shopping.

then go to a party with Sheldon - BAZINGA!

then make a cake.

i have a new rule about cakes: they should all include 1 pound of butter, 3 cups of sugar and 6 eggs.  also, add fruit.  then you have a really good, healthy cake.  the fruit cancels out the butter. trust me.

 

now we know why this is a pound cake right - you use a pound of butter...when i don't acutally have a fun fact, i just make one up.

it was getting late and i forgot to take a few pictures...but you know just mix everything together and you get this!

 

fun fact 3: coat the blueberries in flour so they don't sink.  i did it, and they didn't sink, but i can't guarantee that it really helps.  since i didn't try it without. :)

bake it for a while then frost it with a powdered sugar/milk glaze.

cut off the top (or bottom depending on how you look at it) so it sits flat, mine got a little ugly, then eat a bunch of it, then pray a little prayer that it comes out when you turn it upside down.  if it doesn't hit it really hard around the sides, say another prayer, and give it a good hard shake. :)

 
 

fun fact 4: the ratio of powdered sugar to milk is not one to one.  its WAY more sugar than milk. just for your future reference.  so just keep adding sugar til it's nice and drizzley.

add the drizzle and the fruit to make it pretty!

tell everyone who eats it how much butter is in it.  it really makes it better!

 

a day of cooking!

Last Saturday, I spent the day cooking.  And when i say "last Saturday" I really mean the one before Easter.  But who's counting?

I meant to start the day at 7:00 to get everything in, but of course, I didn't make it up at 7.  I clearly remember turning off the alarm at 7:30 and then just not getting up.  

well done.  

So 8:30 rolls around and I decide it's time.  So I made myself a happy cup of coffee (with foam) in my favorite mug, turned on my itunes, and got started.

I had to make a cake, dinner to take to friends, deviled eggs, and passion tea lemonade. I also had to go to a birthday party and go shopping.  

Here are the links to the recipes (but I will share them in stages otherwise this post will take 40 years to read, you know how i tend to ramble):

The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti

 

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake

Rachael Ray's Basic Deviled Eggs

My Passion Tea Lemonade (Starbuck's photo...my version...)

i have now discovered that my food photography skills TOTALLY stink!  my word.

so anyway, i started two big pots of boiling water and got to work.

The chicken spaghetti is one of my new favorites!  It's so creamy and yummy and easy.  Everyone should try it.

I do nothing fancy to it, but I don't follow the recipe exactly, so I will just show my changes. :)

First, I am never into chopping up a hole chicken or dealing with all the bones.  It just takes too much time.  So I boiled and chopped a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and a pound of boneless, skinless thighs.

While that was in the pot working, I chopped all the veggies.  I added carrots and garlic to the recipe this time, so I also sauted them, just to give them a head start (and you may notice I don't use pimentos. I don't even know what they are, but they remind me of olives, so that is a no go.).

While the veggies sauted a few minutes, I barley cooked some linguini, just until it got a tiny bit soft and shredded a giant pile of cheese.

Drain the noodles, and put them back in the same big pot and dump everything together.  I use two things here PW doesn't.  I add a small can of chopped green chiles for smokey-ness and use chicken stock from a box instead of the water I cooked the chicken in (mostly cuz I am lazy).

All that's left is to put it in a casserole dish and sprinkle the extra cheese on top and bake.  I divided it into two smaller dishes and froze one for later. (Just leave the cheese off the top to freeze.)  This makes a TON.

a little country drive

turned out to be a really fun picture taking extravaganza.

ryan took me around his grandparents' "neighborhood" and showed me the sights.  so let me take you on a tour.

i forgot to take a photo of the outside of our vehicle, but this one is kinda funny.

stop 1: a cute little barn that ryan really wanted to explore. and i quote, "sometimes there are owls in here!!!"

upon closer inspection there were no owls to be found, ryan banged on every door and wall he could hoping to scare them out...but we did find some treasures.

just look at all that old barn wood...all dented and scratch and weathered in just the right places...there are so many projects, i can't even stand the excitement!!!

i really wanted that ladder for some reason, but ryan not only informed me that it was attached to the barn, but that it "probably isn't sturdy enough for you..."

seriously, check out my tour guide's beard...it's like a...well i don't know what, but i think i'll keep him anyway.

stop 2: meet & greet.

meet grumpy.  she was not a fan of the paparazzi.

hello gorgeous!  she was totally up for striking the perfect show-ready stance. aren't red cows the best?

greetings from stop 3: another barn.

i love a door that half opens and half stays closed - seems so old fashioned.

whose up for climbing that ladder?  i loved the inside of this barn even though i was a little hesitant to touch anything...

stop 4: me: wait! that's a nice view!  stop!

stop 5: the grain bins.

(sorry for the shadow, move photographer, duh.)

a big sweep auger.  it pulls the grain to the middle so the other auger can get it out and shoot it into the semi. 

ryan was really excited to show me this part, as i have never seen a grain bin, let alone climbed into one.  but we forgot to take pictures of that.  sorry.

stop 6: the junk pile!

cast iron bathtub from 1919, too bad Kelsey has already claimed it.  i thought it would make a cool planter.

a rusty wagon wheel. i didn't bring that home, it was too big. :(  but i also have no idea what to do with it.

(note the grain bin in the photo)

ryan got super excited about the old rusty farm implements.  i called them tractors, but was informed that they were not tractors.  they are actually implements.  and almost all of them were used by his great-grandfather and were pulled by horses.  he thought we should bring one home for a lawn decoration.  i thought maybe we should wait on that one.

and here ends our tour of the country north of sabetha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

on silence...

silence is an interesting thing.

have you ever really thought about it? i did today over lunch.  

i was sitting on a park bench eating a pb&j and wondering if i had ever truly experienced silence because i was so annoyed by all the noise (literal and figruative) around me: trucks, the grain elevator, people walking by, lawn mowers, and so on.  i moved to a couple different picnic tables and benches to find a "quiet" spot.

i thought i had found one, but as i was reading some poetry by Coleridge (for class...don't be impressed.), i was having a hard time hearing my reading over all the noise.  in this case it was a metaphorical noise: what should i do for dinner, what time do i need to leave for class, what should i do about this decision.

they (whoever "they" are...) say that "silence is golden." but why?  

you are in luck, i have a theory.

i can only think of a few times when i have been able to turn it all off and block it all out.  

it seems most of those times, when i have really experienced quiet, has been when i am in a beautiful place.

when i am in the middle of nowhere.  and my friends, the middle of nowhere is hard to find these days - it a much farther drive than it used to be.  

and here is my theory.  

first, there are way too many things in my house, outside, at the office, etc that are constantly whirring or buzzing.  things that are constantly "on" or people that are driving by.  i want to go outside and hear the birds singing, leaves rustling, bull frogs grunting, brooks bubbling, and nothing man made.  when i was a kid, i feel like i could hop on my bike and ride for 5 or 10 minutes and reach a place where i could experience those things.  as an adult, i feel like it would take a 30 minute drive to get far enough away to listen for those things.

so now i just need to learn how to listen for those sounds amdist the noise of the 21st century, and i might be able to have enjoy the quiet.

second, silence, the metaphorical kind, the silence that happens when i shut down all the thoughts in my head, can only happen when i am content.

"silence is golden" because when you can really experience it, you are living in peace, trust, rest, quiet.  i think i experience silence in beautiful places, because all the sudden i am so wrapped up in the Glory of God and the beauty of creation that i am able to ignore all the little thoughts, all the sounds, all of the stuff that makes us human and just "be" in that moment with God.  

Step out of the traffic!  Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above everything.
Psalm 46:10, The Message

that is golden silence, in it's truest form.

the question, however, remains...how do we let ourselves just be amid the noise of everyday?