Daniel's First Blizzard

Growing up in Colorado I have become accustomed to it's weird weather. One minute it will be sunny and the next... blizzard or down pour or tornado. So when the weather man for casted 2 entire days of snow, freezing temperatures and wind- I got nervous. You know? The sky gets that special 'blizzard grey' color. It almost gets a tiny bit warm and everything is very still. That's when you know something is about to strike. Low and behold, Colorado didn't let us down. We woke up to a blinding blizzard. I automatically worried about the roads. "We'll be fine" - said Daniel. Ha ha, honey have you ever driven in this? I mean like total white out. Don't know which way is up or down, left of right? Sure we'll be fine.

He checked his e-mail. RVU canceled school. His first snow day in 25 years! His FIRST one! I was shocked. It took coming to CO to understand the beauty of a snow day. We watched Elf and made yummy hot chocolate- it was awesome. Of course, Daniel studied the whole time, but what do you expect?

It really did snow constantly. Granted the roads were better Wednesday than they were Thursday and we really actually would have been ok on Wednesday. But when Thursday looked even more gloomy it was a whole different story. Daniel was amazed. Two snow days - in a row!

I have to admit that it wasn't Colorado's finest blizzard. There wasn't feet upon feet (that comes in the spring...). But the roads were a nasty shade of ice. I do love this state.

So here are the pictures Daniel took as he tromped around on his second snow day of his life: Don't you worry honey, there are more to come :-)

And It Was ... !

So after we had our night of total indulgence I was down at my parents while Melinda was visiting, and I made a comment on how wonderful Ben and Jerry's Cake Batter ice cream was. So we all got to talking and decided we were really hungry for ice cream. Thanks to Melinda and Brett they went to the store and brough back probably 5 cartons of ice cream. Naturally we all grabbed spoons and dove in. Who needs bowls?! It was a great night!

Daniel was in Parker studying for a huge test:-( Which he did really well on! But he totally missed out

Its Gunna be a Great Night

This is what happens when Stephanie is too tired to cook and she goes to Wal-Mart for a window scraper.

Yes, it has been snowing all day. Where is the scent of fresh baked bread and homemade chicken soup, you ask? Yeah- it's in someone else's house tonight.

As for Daniel and I? We will be enjoying a fantastic night of pizza, ice cream and Transformers- possibly cuddled up by a fire, but lets be honest gas fires are expensive :-)

Hope you are all having an equally enjoyable night!

Toodles!

I love to cook!

Yesterday my mom and I ventured out into the unknown streets of Denver to fulfill our curiosity and test our rusty baking skills. I found several cooking classes they offer in Denver online and found a class that sounded like a lot of fun. It was a Pies and Tarts class. Pies have never been my forte and I wanted to learn how to make yummy pies. So I asked my mom who was also really excited and the rest is history.

There were 6 recipes this school was going to teach us how to make. Pear and Cranberry Pie with a lattice crust, Eggnog Chiffon Pie with a Ginger Snap crust, Chocolate Silk Pie, Maple Pumpkin Pie with a Walnut crust, Apple Tart with a Carmel Sauce and to keep it a little healthy a Tomato Herb Tart with garlic and olive oil. YUMMY!

When we got there the teacher taught us how to make a flawless crust and then split us up into groups. Each group would make one of the pies and so we could all enjoy eating them at the end. Mom got assigned to the Apple Tart and I was assigned to the Tomato Tart. Here are the results...

The finished uncooked tomato tart!

Mom making her Apple Tart

The tomato tart all finished. You can not even imagine how incredible this was. It was by far my favorite of all the recipes and I don't even care too much for tomatoes.

Moms finished Apple Tart- divine. It was hot and thick with juices and caramels. Lip smacking!

Ours got taken out of the oven at the same time

About to partake of our hard labor

I was excited :-)

This was one of the funnest classes I have ever taken. Everyone was so nice and funny. There were all ages and sexes so it was a nice variety. And I learned a lot! I really had not much experience with Pies so I got my fingers dirty and I feel alright about it. My favorite (and everyone elses) was the tomato tart. My least favorite was the Eggnog pie. It was so gross! Because it had alcohol in it (cooked out, not to worry) and it was nasty. I couldn't even finish it. The Pear Pie was absolutely marvelous! It was a little tart because of the cranberries yet sweet because of the caramel juices that form in the oven. Oh- so yummy.

Then after all of the pies were in the oven the teacher went through each recipe and gave us variations for them! So these were all so versatile and easy. I loved it! I'll bet I have around 25 recipes from this one 3 hour class. Love it.

There are several other classes that we want to take. It was so much fun. I want to take like all of them. And I want to bring my dad, Valerie and Daniel. I'll post the recipes if you want, when I have the desire to go all the way out to the car and get them:-) So thats my update. I can now make a pie!

Time to Vote!

Daniel and I recently went to Utah for his birthday and we got pictures taken. So now its your turn to vote. Which one is your favorite?

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#10 My niece Taylee

Oktober Fest!

This morning we got a call from Daniels friend at medical school inviting us to go to Oktober Fest 2 blocks away from us. I don't think I have ever seen Daniel this happy in my whole life. There are things like this almost every weekend in Parker. We LOVE it! It was so much fun. There was a little band playing traditional German Folk and Polka music. Today was a good Parker day!

He even wore his German shirt :-)

We got an amazing bratwurst with sour kraut and spicy mustard.

Eating, eating- could eat it all day.

SO sad it's all gone! :-(

My Little Experiment

So a week or so ago I ran an experiment and I have to tell you, it was pretty successful. We decided Daniel would make menus, buy the groceries and make dinner for a week. I have to tell you, Daniel is an amazing cook!! He made everything from scratch and it was just awesome. I took pictures to document the successes. He is an amazing husband.

Here is some AWESOME vegetarian chili he made. Oh so yumy

Chick Pea and Sweet Potato Curry- never much cared for curry until I ate his stuff

French Toast and Bacon. We actually had this two nights because they were so good

As long as we are on the subject of cooking, Daniel took these of me making french onion soup. I had to wear goggles because while I was cutting the onions I couldn't see because of the onion fumes. So I put on Daniel's swimming goggles. They actually helped but surprisingly enough, they fogged up! Those are some strong onions!