Oh. My. Goodness. I think I will be full for the next week and a half. Justin surprised me with tickets to Christian’s Bistro’s Fat Tuesday celebration this evening, with friends Jim & Jenn. We had such a good time eating, laughing, eating, taking pictures, eating, being silly, and eating again. Servers continually were bringing out plates of New Orleans-inspired wonderfulness. Crab fish pocket pies, jambalaya, etouffee, hush puppies, crab boulettes, smoked sausage meatballs in a parmesan cream sauce, flatbread pizza, plus, my all-time favorite – Parmesan potato chips with truffle oil. Over the top, Off the hook Fantastic. Great food and great friends definitely equal a great birthday gift!

We went up to Wausau this evening to celebrate my mom’s birthday with a quiet dinner and a yummy cake.  I love my mom.  And I have come to realize that she is pretty dang smart (I doubted this for a bit when I was in high school) and pretty dang funny (also didn’t notice that in high school).  Don’t get me wrong, we never had any knock-down, drag-out screaming matches, but she was a pretty strict mom with high expectations and I was a know–it-all kid that thought I wasn’t having enough fun in life (I was).  But there is something about growing up a bit that helps us appreciate our parents a bit more, and how much time, energy, love, and hope that they pour into us childish children.  

I was perusing thisiswhyyourfat today and ran across this:

I am fine with bacon rolls and giant Oreos, but this is a little too much. I think I threw up in my mouth a little.

This is one of my very favorite bread recipes.  I picked it up while taking an artisan bread baking course in school.  The only measurements I have are using a scale, rather than cups, but the recipe is well worth the cost of an inexpensive digital cook’s scale (mine was $20 at Target).  I usually make mini baguettes with the dough, and can get about 12 small loaves from the recipe.  You can go ahead and make larger ones if you like.  We’ve affectionately termed this bread “guppy bread,” as my small loaves will often bulge or bust open.  I’m getting better and this doesn’t happen as much as when I first started, but the name has stuck, even if the loaves no longer resemble the little fish!

Trav is traveling to New Zealand today, and the house feels kind of empty. In the spirit of his love for Dawson’s Creek, I have emulated Dawson’s horrible “cry face”. I just wish I could get my hair to look like it had crab claws gripping my forehead.

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies will always be a favorite of ours.  They’re easy to make, take minimal ingredients, and are always a hit.  Well, while checking some of my favorite blogs, I came across Bakerella’s post for these.  They’re almost identical to our beloved chocolate sandwich cookies, but perfect for Valentine’s Day!  So I stopped at the store to pick up a box of red velvet cake mix (all I could find was Duncan Hines) and threw them together this morning.  Rather than using butter or margarine, as Bakerella suggests, I stuck with the trusty chocolate sandwich cookies recipe – the cake mix, 2 eggs, and 1/3 cup of vegetable/canola oil.  I scooped the dough onto the cookies sheets and smooshed them just a bit, and baked them for 8 minutes.  And I probably could have dropped that back to 7 1/2, or even 7, but the main thing is not to overbake them.  Take them out when they are just cracked, but still very wet-looking on the inside.  Let them cool on the cookie sheets for 1-2 minutes, and then remove to wire racks to cool.  I make my cream cheese frosting the same as Bakerella does, which is delicious.  I scoop my frosting into a zip top bag, snip a corner, and then pipe a mound of frosting on the cookies to make sandwiches.  Verdict – very yummy, perfectly red-tasting, and Valentine-y to boot.  A great holiday version of an old favorite!

While in Texas last year and during a trip to India, Travis developed a taste for Indian cuisine.  Over the past few months, he has worked at cooking dinner about once a week, and this often involves a new curry recipe.  Being his last week with us, and probably the last time he makes dinner, he asked if I would make Naan, an Indian-style flatbread, to go along with the meal.  I found this highly-rated recipe and felt it didn’t look any harder than any other type of bread.  I’m not sure how traditional or authentic it is, but as it turned out great, I don’t really care!  The individual naan(s?) came out smaller than I’ve seen, only about the size of my hand, and I made about 20-25 of them from the recipe.  I’ll definitely make this again, but will roll the balls of dough larger, about the size of racquetballs rather than golfballs, to increase the size of the finished naan.  I’m excited to have a bag full of them in my freezer now.  They reheat in only 2-3 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  Easy!

Since I (Justin) have a thing for over the top food, imagine my surprise when I found out there is a whole website dedicated to that very topic:

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

Here are a couple choice entries:

#1: “Mega Oreo”

#2: “Deep fried Coca Cola”

#3: Self explanatory. Every piece of equipment made should have a button labeled “Push here to dispense gravy”

Other nasty favorites include “The meat ship”, and “60 pound rice crispy treat”

I was looking for a quick and easy recipe yesterday that would cover two bases – a church function and treats for small group.  This “Spreads” recipe seemed to fit the bill, so I thought I’d try it out.  I didn’t have margarine, so I just used good ol’ butter.  The consistency was a bit different than PW’s, as the dough was much thicker, and not really spreadable.  I just patted it into a rectangle shape on my cookie sheet and it worked just fine.  I also put a silicone baking mat on my cookie sheet before the dough, simply to make removing the giant cookie/bar easier.  One other minor variation – I put a combination of semisweet chocolate chips and butterscotch chips on the top, and it came out very tasty.  It really was pretty simple to put together, and I was able to turn two of these puppies out of my kitchen in under an hour.  Nice, simple, yummy.

This past weekend we had a good friend come visit.  Emily flew up from Texas on Friday, ready to experience Wisconsin.  It was a whirlwind of a visit, but we had a fantastic time catching up, laughing, making bread, laughing, visiting a cheese factory, laughing again, playing games and watching movies, and oh yeah, laughing some more.  All of us wished she could have stayed a few more days, though we’ve already talked about heading down to Houston in the fall.  We have too much fun together to stay apart for too long!

Yesterday we drove down to Wisconsin Dells to the Kalahari Resort (link will play music – awful music).  This was set up by John and Sarah as a chance for the immediate family to get together and have some fun.  John, Sarah, Travis, Luke, Niki, Justin and I all shared two rooms (upgrade to suites upon arrival!) and had a blast going between the Indoor Theme Park and the Indoor Water Park.  We rode the go-karts, braved the ropes course, won tickets on “ski-ball” and “Deal or No Deal”, and played many games of laser tag at the Theme Park.  The water park was a blamy 75-80 degrees and we enjoyed our time in the wave pool, floating around the lazy river, and zipping down the water slides.  We are definitely worn out from all the activities, but we had a great time.