California!

We’re currently spending our last night in California 😦

I really don’t want to go back to school.

It’s been such a fun weekend full of family, food, sun, and fun.

I am not on my computer, so I don’t have any pics to post, but on Tuesday when we’re back I’ll be sure too!

I’m looking forward to another 15 hours drive tomorrow. Stoked!

Today I’m really thankful for my amazing family who came from Colorado to come to our reception here(minus Justin-we still love you). It was so great to spend some time with them, even though it was short. I’ve missed them! I’m also so thankful that I have such awesome in-laws! My mother and father in law are both amazing and all of my brother and sister in-laws and nieces and nephews are just a blast. They are so fun to be with. I’m also so thankful that we got to go to church today! I love church. I also am thankful for my handsome hubster who is just so great. He is so good. I’m feelin really good today. This weekend was so great and just reminded me of all the wonderful things and people in my life!

Anyways. Sorry I’m being sappy. I just really love my family 🙂

More food posts coming soon!

❤

Roadies

Tomorrow, Woods and I will embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

Tomorrow, we leave at 1pm on a 15 hour drive to California.

Tomorrow, well, I am SO excited for tomorrow.

Tomorrow(actually friday…), I get to see my family, Woody’s family, the ocean, the sun…

Tomorrow is going to be so great.

I’m even excited to spend 15 hours in the car with my hubs–>this means no class, no work, no sports…we can just listen to music and be together. Which we don’t get that often because we’re both so stinkin busy!

Here’s a little look at our busy lives:
Woody
  works 20 hours a week
  taking 14 credits(Mechanical Engineering so really its like 6,000 credits)
  basketball practice Tuesdays and Thursday
  basketball games on Saturday Morning

Erika
  works 15 hours a week
  taking 15 credits
  flag football games on Wednesday
  photographer for boys basketball
  manager for social events on campus
  piano accompanist
  ward choir assistant director
  pianist in Relief Society at church

Yes, we are busy.

But that’s besides the point.

We’re going on vacation and that’s all that matters!

In order to stay awake for 15 hours, we’ve got some good snacks packed.

Take a peek:

Balsamic Sweet Onion Lays-we bought these on a whim and opened them before we even left the grocery store parking lot. oh.my.gosh. so much flavor!

Sour Cream and Onion Lays

Everything Bagel Rold Gold pretzels-I love everything bagels and pretzels, so I’m hoping these are a good combo!

XXX Vitamin Water-this is my favorite vitamin water! 

Tootsie Pops-favorite candy. I LOVE Tootsie Pops. 

Broccoli, Celery, and Cucumber slices-My favorite veggies!!

(this is my favorite knife. I was going to blog about it today but….I will eventually 🙂 )

AND

my absolute FAVORITE blue cheese dressing. I used it here in my wedge salad. It’s divine. 

There is also a 110% of us stopping at Horkleys for Dr. Pepper on the way out of town. 

I’m so stoked about this trip. I’ll be sure to blog about it as soon as we’re back!

Yellow Cake

Marisa’s birthday was on Sunday. Yay!

I made her a yellow cake, because she likes them.

Once before I tried making yellow cupcakes, but they were a fail.

This cake was super moist and delicious!

Four Egg Yellow Cake (from AllRecipes)

1 c shortening
2 c white sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 c flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 c milk

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Cream together shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternatively with milk. Mix well, then pour into a greased and floured pan. The recipe calls for a 9×13, but I used two 8×8’s and layered them.
4. Bake for 45 minutes(for the 9×13) or 30 minutes each(for 8×8’s), or until a toothpick comes out clean.

You can decorate this anyway you like.

I stacked my two cakes with chocolate frosting(from a can 🙂 ) in between, and then chocolate frosting on top. I printed out the letter “M,” (for Marisa) in a cool typeface, placed it on top of the cake, and then dusted the cake with powdered sugar:

Then, I pulled the “M,” off, and fixed a few places.

I was pretty pleased with my work!

phew!

It’s been a crazy week, and although I’m glad its over, this week is only going to be crazier! We are going to California on Thursday though, so that will be nice to have a break.

We haven’t really done much cooking this week, but here’s a few pics to keep you entertained!

I’ll do some better posts later this week because right now I’m too tired.

I recently discovered Pinterest which is AMAZING! I’m obsessed. Check out my boards. If you want an invitation to join Pinterest, just leave a comment with your email and I will add you!

Cinnamon Sugar Whole Wheat Waffles

Before we got married, Woody told me at least seven times that he wouldn’t settle for a circle waffle iron. He needed a square one. One that made four waffles, not two.

When I was growing up, my dad made waffles at least once a week. We had a square waffle iron, and then one year for Christmas, my mom bought him one of those circle ones that you pour the batter in, shut, and then turn over-the kind they have in hotels. We all thought it was the coolest thing ever, and…it kind of was.

I am more fond of circle waffles, but since I’m a nice wife, I settled for square.

This was my “Sorry-for-making-your-birthday-breakfast-suck,” apology breakfast. It was a success. (You can read about my fail here)

Next time you ruin someone’s morning, feel free to use this recipe. It will help. I promise.

Cinnamon Sugar Whole Wheat Waffes

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 c milk
1 Tbs vinegar
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/4 tsp cinnamon*
1/4 tsp sugar*
1/4 tsp vanilla

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Mix the milk and vinegar in a small bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla, and oil. Mix together the wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, milk mixture, and oil. Mix together the wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar in, and stir once more.

Cook the waffles as directed in the instructions that came with your waffle iron.

Top with fresh whipped cream, strawberries, bananas, maple syrup, and more cinnamon and sugar, and bask in the delicious-ness of these fantastic waffles!

*I have a cinnamon and sugar grinder that I got at my bridal shower. It’s amazing! I used that and just did a couple of twists of that instead. It’s amazing!

Adapted from cooks.com

My Favorites: Spatulas

It may appear that I have too many spatulas, but honest to blog(no pun intended), I use all of them.

Probably because I lick it and then can’t stick it back in whatever I’m making.

That’s beside the point though…

Spatulas are so versatile. This week I have used them for frosting, cupcakes, scrambled eggs, salad, baked potatoes, and beef for tacos. AKA they are useful for almost anything.

My favorite is the yellow one above that is sort of scooped. 

It makes it so easy to clean the sides of a bowl or the inside of a container, and then you can easily scoop it up like so:

This yellow one(and most of my others) is from NordicWare. It’s the best.

They are really sturdy too.

I think that’s about all a person can say about Spatulas.

Wait, one more thing: 

What Could Have Been

These had a lot of potential.

Too bad they turned out looking like this:

(Woody was playiing “How many of the cupcakes can I take a bite of?”)

😦

Oh well.

At least I have 10,000 pictures of Blake to look at and keep me happy.

He’s such a stud. 

I bought strawberries the other day, and found this little guy in there:

I thought he was a cute shape, so I had to take a picture. I know, I’m a nerd.

Instead of dragging on this totally random post, I think I’ll save you and stop now 🙂

Waffle recipe coming tomorrow!

Remember how on Sunday I wrote that Woody’s birthday was the next day?

Well on Monday morning, I woke up and forgot. So I made gross eggs for breakfast, and didn’t even say “Happy Birthday!” until we were walking out the door. What a fail.

We went to Red Robin with Lisa, Patrick, Britty, Brian, Blakers, and Marisa though so that was a good time. They are a crazy bunch. (The good crazy)

I attempted Dr Pepper cupcakes, like I said I was going to and they were a failure. Woody says he likes them, but I think he’s just being nice. I need to find a good recipe for those. I think its a must.

Yesterday, I made Woody cinnamon and sugar waffles with strawberries, bananas, and whip cream in hopes to make up for my breakfast birthday fail. I think it did. I will post the recipe for those tomorrow…they are quite divine.

Today I want to bake something. We still have like 15 cupcakes sitting around and we don’t need a sugar rush or calories, but…..I really want to make sugar cookies. Not to eat, just to decorate. Maybe I will bring them to work or something…I’ll keep you updated.

I’m going to start doing posts about my favorite kitchen utensils. I’m thinking this will be a Wednesday thing, so stay tuned for that.

I love my husband. 

Sausage Asparagus Quiche

If you know me well, you know that one of my favorite foods is sausage.

I love it. If its cooked right.

Last summer, I’m not sure what was going on in my life, but somehow, I got it in my head that I wanted to make sausage asparagus quiche. Don’t ask me how, because I have no idea.

At some point, I made it. I used a store bought pie crust, and it was pretty decent. I think I ate it every day for breakfast lunch and dinner until it was gone. It was tasty 🙂

I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and so finally I re-made it. I couldn’t find the original recipe, but I found a few similar and created my own based off of that.

Sausage Aspargus Quiche


For the Crust:(from All Recipes)

1 1/2 c flour
2 tsp white sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 Tbs milk

1. Place all ingredients in 9in pie pan(I don’t have one so i used an 8x8in dish)
2. Stir together with fork.
3. Pat mixture into bottom and up the sides of the pan. Poke holes in the bottom and side of crust.

For the Quiche:

7 eggs
1 1/2 c cooked sausge(separated)
15-20 Asparagus spears(based on personal preference…I used 20)
1/2 c spinach, chopped(optional)
1/2 c nonfat cottage cheese
1 c cheddar cheese, shredded
1/3 c finely chopped onion
1 1/2 Tbs Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp salt
dash of garlic salt
dash of Worcestershire sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Mix all ingredients together
3. Pour the  mixture into your prepared pie crust.
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the center is puffy, and both the crust and egg mixture are golden brown.

I feel like even though this is loaded with cheese and sausage, it is somewhat healthy.

Please enjoy my healthful contribution to the recipe world today!

Somebody has a birthday tomorrow:

He got to “open,” one of his presents early:

(IOU for a Dodger game and Dodger dog when we’re in California in August)

And we got to eat a delicious dinner tonight because tomorrow we are celebrating Woody, Marisa, Patrick, and Lisa’s birthday’s at Red Robin(Yummm)!

I’m pretty excited for more birthday celebration. I’m going to attempt making Dr Pepper cupcakes, which has potential for disaster. If the recipe is good though, I will post!

What’s your favorite kind of birthday cake?