21!

Happy birthday to me!

My mom sent me a picture of my cake today (along with many other things), and my scanner was being rebellious, so I just took a picture of the picture, and pictures of most of the other things. It was probably around two feet tall, quite the centerpiece, especially on the cake pedestal that my mom had it on.

She sent me a package of wild cherry M&Ms, which are quite delicious (and about half gone).



She also sent me a Japanese bento box cookbook, and a book on meaning of symbols (it was on my wish list, one of those useful for artists kind of books). Also a new pair of pajama pants (the pink plaid thing behind the books). Sorry, I couldn't get the picture to upload turned, so you get it sideways because I have a paper to write. :p

Holy tasty bread batman!

So I made this soda bread posted by Karina at Karina's Kitchen tonight to have with dinner, and it was so good! Other than using egg replacer, I didn't change the recipe at all. I did however, after cooling it enough to remove it from the pan, put it back in the oven (bread strait on the wire shelf style) on warm for maybe forty five minutes.

It was earlier than I thought when I started making it, so it was all baked at four thirty, an hour before Brian was coming over for dinner. I really wanted it to still be warm when dinner was served, so I just kept it in the oven. I don't think that it effected it at all, other than perhaps increasing the crustiness of it, which was amazing. It was nice and crunchy on the outside and soft and yummy on the inside. I took it out about fifteen minutes before so that I could put the tilapia in to broil, and cut it maybe five minutes before Brian got here. The flavor and texture were stupendous. I melted some honey and butter for dipping. Even after it got cold it was still crusty and soft (we sat munching for a while), and it wasn't until the end of the meal that Brian realized that it was made with my "weird" flours. I will definitely be making this again.

In case curiosity abounds, with the bread, we had baked/broiled tilapia (I baked it until it was paled, and then broiled it for just a few minutes to crisp the edges) that I dredged in a mixture of honey-mustard, brown sugar, and lemon juice, and then lightly dusted with rice flour, and a mixture of zucchini, green beans, and carrots in a rosemary-butter sauce.

Here is all that was left to be photographed. (That's a sandwich bag that it's sitting on.)

Right in front of you

You know how sometimes something is right in from of you for months and you just don't notice it. That happened to me today. I was going to get ice out of the freezer to cool my juice that I didn't finish at breakfast, and saw, seemingly for the first time, this magnet on my fridge. It seems appropriate to recent events. Joe, Brian's roommate, had to leave today because his mother is very ill. I will leave out specifics because I don't know how open a topic it is, but prayers would be appreciated for that. Also, Brian's grandmother has been in the hospital with some funky complications. She is doing a bit better, but it's still a bit sobering. Prayers for her and their family. Also, my uncle, due to many things and a very long backstory that perhaps I'll post on one day because if nothing else it is inspiring that he's still with us, is likely going to loose his right leg from the knee down this week. Prayers for him and my aunt (who sounds so worn and still isn't healed from her neck surgery over a year ago).

An Update!

So last weekend my dearest Stephanie got married. It was a beautiful ceremony, and the dessert reception was nice too. I made cookies for that, but didn't get any pictures (I was a co-maid of honor, so I was thinking of many things other than grabbing my camera before we left), so I will leave that to when Sarah sends me pictures. (I stole this picture of them from her blog, http://barefootmorning.livejournal.com/ It was taken honeymooning in Florida I believe.)



This past weekend I went home because my mom had a birthday party for me (my birthday's on Wednesday! Ooo excitement!). My daddy bought me green and yellow and white carnations. He's so sweet. It was a really nice weekend though. I got to see lots of people; there were the usuals, friends of the family, my family, Amanda had to come late because of work, and Brian obviously was there. All of the Mosses came (Ben, one of the sons, is my oldest friend, we played together before kindergarten). My sister Lona came, which was nice to see her, and unexpected because she had said that she had to work. And one of my friends that goes to SUNY Fredonia (about twenty minutes from my house) was able to spare his Saturday to come, which was really neat because I hadn't seen him in a long time. Even some friends from school here drove the two hours to my house to come. My mom made me an awesome cake that was so awesome I'm not even going to try to describe it, but will post a picture when my mom sends me one (again, forgot the camera, I'm getting bad at this).



Before I went home, I tried to made a seed bread based on this recipe with added 2 Tbsp each (to a double batch of dough) of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and millet seeds. I made one loaf and a loaf of rolls to take home to have with the barbeque meat that mom made. It turned out okay. It was really good when it was still warm, but became rather hard after it cooled. It didn't really rise a whole lot, I think because of the seeds (that has happened before with regular seed breads), so I think that I will try a different approach next time (perhaps flattening the dough and rolling it up like cinnamon or raisin bread). It is tasty, but definitely needs to be tightly sealed and warmed before being consumed. This is a fresh out of the oven roll, with honey atop.

I got a blister mopping the stairs in the Cultural Life Center today. Ah, work as a cleaning lady.

This post made me smile. Click for a lovely picture and statement

I'm really tired. That's all for now. Hope that weekends are going well.

How's life for you right now?