Our Married Life

It’s raining again. I wish I can get into my car and not feel like something is going to break. This morning I got a warning message saying my tire pressures are too low again. ARG. This happened last week and I stopped by a gas station after work to add some air which took care of the message, but I guess there must be a nail or something on one of the tires. If it didn’t rain I would’ve done it on the way to work. Oh well, I suppose if it stops raining at lunchtime I can run by and take care of it then. I need to take it to the dealer to have them look at it. Of course that would take an entire day since the dealership works at a snails pace.

After a short hiatus from the baking I decided to put my KitchenAid mixer into good use. I made three different things, all of which were easy peasy recipes. Hopefully my goodies will win my coworkers over :D

Anyway here’s what I made.

I had a can of pumpkin that I wanted to use up. So I decided to make a pumpkin bread. The piece I sampled was a bit dry, but that was the end. It did have that fall pumpkin flavor though and just enough spice. I decided not to put icing on this since the flavor itself was good why ruin it with icing. Anyway, we’ll be having this for breakfast.

Brian’s comments: Not too sweet, but good.

Recipe from Allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

* 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
* 1/4 cup margarine
* 1 1/4 cups white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup canned pumpkin
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I used pumpkin spice)
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted this)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
2. Put softened cheese, butter, and sugar in mixing bowl. Cream together well. Beat in eggs one at a time until blended. Mix in pumpkin.
3. In another bowl combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and walnuts. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour all at once over batter. Stir just enough to moisten. Turn into greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60-70 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Remove to rack to finish cooling.

The other two items I made were fairly simple. One of them is a plain jane Rice Krispie Treat. Brian didn’t think I put enough sugar, but you’re not supposed to put sugar in the recipe. I guess it wasn’t sweet enough. Maybe I should’ve added more marshmallows. Still good nonetheless. Recipe can be found anywhere. Just google it.

Final item, chocolate cupcakes from scratch. Why bother with Duncan Hines or Betty. I made this simple recipe which can be found in the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa box. It’s called the Heshey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake, and perfect it is. Originally, I wanted to make these look like little mummies in honor of the season, but I didn’t make enough icing. And the flowers didn’t turn out too great…

Brian’s comments: It was very good.

Ingredients:

* 2 cups sugar
* 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
* 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup milk
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 cup boiling water

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with “PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Workout to continue the rest of the week!!

They’re turning the Lovely Bones into a movie. The cast seems pretty awesome, so I hope it turns out well. I never finished the book. The whole rape thing just didn’t do it for me. Besides I was on my honeymoon then. I think I need to go back and finish it. Ryan Gosling is going to be in, ahhh so dreamy.

This is rather random or early, but I’m in search of a good Christmas Tree. And yes I’m all for the fake stuff, why chop down real trees that end up being in the trash later on?? Stupid people. Anyway, I’m not sure where we can find the best deal on one. I known we can wait until after Christmas, but I want a good one now! I’m thinking a 9 ft tree would be ok (YIPES, it’s 199 bucks at Home Depot). Maybe that’s too tall? I can settle with a 7.5 foot one. I also need a good tree skirt. Or maybe we just stick to the current one and wait for the after Christmas sale…

So I was thinking of a new vacation, perhaps around New Years. Then I realized, that’s probably the busiest time here at work, so maybe around February. We get Washington’s Bday off which is February 18th. That’s perfect timing since it’s right around Valentine’s day. Hmmm. I’ve always wanted to go skiing. Brian thinks it’s silly because “we don’t ski”. I think there’s an opportunity to do stuff at least once. Who knows, we could be pros (or not). Anyway, I guess we’ll have to think about it a little more.

We just got our bill for our property tax. Damn you Kenneth M! Since we opted not to have an escrow account we’ve been putting money into an ING savings account. Luckily by the time the bill is due, we would’ve saved enough to pay the bill. Yay for good planning.

Oh another failed attempt at homemaking last night. I tried to make a french bread, bread bowl for soup. It didn’t turn out well. I used the breadmachine to process the dough and let it rise in a small mixing bowl. I think the dough may have been too dry. The bread was edible though, just not perfectly round. HMPH. I’ll leave to breadmaking to the machine.

Is it sad that I’m already ready for a vacation? Our trip to Hot Springs didn’t do it justice. As much as I loved spending time with Brian, Hot Sprints was a dead spot. I don’t recommend it unless of course you’ve already been to every spot in the US. Maybe there is a better time to go.

I’ve been heavily researching babies. No we’re not trying, not for a few more years, but I was curious. One website said you’ll have to have at least 30K saved up for the first years. Some of the required costs were a bit ridiculous, but they made sense. On top of that, day care for infants is like 900-1000+ a month. YIPES. So with all that said, I think we need to use up our time traveling. I mean seriously traveling. There’s lots of places Brian and I have never been to together, and now is the time to do it. Considering how lazy we are, I’m sure once we have a family travelling is the last thing we’d want to do.

It was storming like crazy last night. Thunder and lightning all night long. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get to work. Crazy. Why can’t people just drive. On top of that, why can’t street lights not go out during a storm? I hope it doesn’t rain on the way to class tonight. That would suck.

This past weekend, we found the perfect shelving unit for our tv downstairs. It’s not technically made for a TV stand, but it looked like it does the job. Brian unloaded the pieces yesterday and in looking at the manual realized that the weight limit is 10 lbs. UGH. I want to return it, because A. it’s from Walmart. B. We really don’t need it. C. It really doesn’t go anywhere, particularly if we plan on buying matching furniture later on.

Brian doesn’t want to return it simply because we can’t put it back in the box.

I’m not sure what I want this year for Christmas. House stuff of course. Although that seems a bit boring, it’s better than spending my own money in decorating our house. Yesterday on my day off, I drove around trying to figure out what to buy people for Christmas. Of course I couldn’t come up with anything. Alot of the stuff we need for the house is mainly decor items. I have the urge to splurge on Christmas decor, but it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, and I guess I will have to wait until after Christmas to buy any big stuff. However, we need the basics.

I can’t decide what colors to decorate the master bedroom with. I keep going with brown/blue or something with red. But I found this bedding set at JCPenney that I love, and it’s on sale! Along with that, I’ll need to find some coordinating curtains, particularly in chocolate brown. Although, I wonder if I should go with something more rich. Like deep reds??

Another item on my list is this wall shelf which has remained a trend for awhile, I think the previous owner hung theirs in the formal living area. And yes, I am copying their decor ideas! I also want it in black.

What else…
A wine rack, a small one to put on our kitchen counter since it’s so deep. Something that holds less than 6. A wine rack you ask? Well, it’d be nice to keep some handy for guests. Plus we need to build our alcohol palate. Although my momma still thinks I don’t drink and continues to tell me not to drink.

Next item is the CHI hair straightener. I’m not sure if I can justify even owning a 100 dollar hair appliance though. :-)
Yeah my list is pretty slim as I can’t really think of anything.

Alright with all the materialistic stuff aside, I’ve been starting to think that I should live healthier. Brian and I are both still young with no kids, the least we can do is treat our body’s better. We need to be more active. Take more walks together, take the dog to the dog park, have date nights. On top of that, there’s the daily routine of working out, getting a decent night’s sleep, eating healthy/clean food. Use more organic ingredients. Drink less soda and caffeine. Live green. I know we strive for all of that, it’s just that convenience and laziness gets in the way, plus we’re so dang tired. But I think if we move into that direction we’ll feel a whole lot better about ourselves.

2 weeks down, 8 to go. I need to go ahead and schedule my test date which will likely happen around Christmas time. Since we’ve only covered 4 chapters, I figured I’d take a sample test to see where I am. So far my average score is at 62% which is technically passing if you’re looking at percentage. I need to get 107 out of 175 correct. There are 200 questions in the exam. I just need to pass. Grades or percentages don’t really matter as the goal is to get the certificate.