Friday, January 4, 2013

Wedding pictures - Ceremony

Mom walking in
Matt walking his parents in

Luke and Emily

Mikey and Cicely

Best Man and Maid of Honor

My dad and I, trying not to cry


Handing me off
Hug
Exchanging vows
Exchanging rings

Lighting the unity candle

Unity Candle
Signing the marriage license

Blessing

Communion

First Kiss

Mr. and Mrs. Kenitz

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Most popular posts

In case you missed anything this year, here are my five most viewed blog posts since I started this blog, right after getting married in October.


# 5 Christmas Cookie Monster - Candy Canes

#4 Painted Picture Frames

#3 Christmas Cookie Monster - Christmas Trees

#2 Wedding Photos Part 1 - Formal Shots

#1 New Blog



Total page views since starting - 642 - not bad friends!  Thanks for reading!  I hope you and your families all have a fabulous new year!  If you have any suggestions for the blog in the new year, please leave me some comments below!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Looking ahead to 2013

Happy New Year!
Goals for the year (yes I finally broke down and made some goals for the new year.  I never make New Year resolutions, but this year I felt like it was a good idea)

1. Be active everyday - at least do something!  I'm good about being active during the week and hitting the gym - the weekends, not so much.  I'd like to change that.
2. Run 400 miles.  I'm worried this might be too much of a stretch for me, considering I don't go much more than 3 miles ever (three times a week), but I can give it a try!  I ran about 250 in 2012, so maybe I can be a little more consistent and up my mileage in 2013. 
3.  Run my first 5K since high school cross country.
4. Finish my prayer shawl for St. Mary's Hospital
5. Knit 5 Chemo caps
6. Finish one of my other UFO knitting projects
7. Take two masters classes - I am very unmotivated about working towards my master's but I know I should be taking advantage of the tuition reimbursement at Connections Academy
8. Visit one new city or state
9. Be a better wife (I know, it's vague), but somedays I don't feel like I do that well in this area.  Maybe I'm still getting the hang of it since I've only been married 2 1/2 months.
10. Be kinder to myself.  M keeps telling me that I'm too hard on myself and need to relax some and be nicer to myself and everything will be ok.  We both know that being kind to yourself can be tough, but I want to try to make some improvements in this area.
Image from http://www.bidpalnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/fundraising-goals.jpg

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Cookie Monster - DIY oreos

I'm squeezing in a lot of posts here at the end of the year.
I know it's not Wednesday, but I wanted to squeeze in one more cookie recipe before everyone starts their New Year's resolutions.
I made these cookies for my cousin, who was also M's best friend for Christmas.  I wanted to make him an extra special treat, so this is what he got.
The frosting for these cookies is spot on - delicious!  I want to use it to frost some more cookies in the future, not just to use as filling for these oreos.

DIY Oreos
Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 10 Tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 large egg

Directions

Using a mixer, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Mix briefly to combine.  Add the butter to the bowl and mix briefly.  Add in the egg and mix until the dough forms a cohesive mass.

Scoop a Tablespoon of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.  (I used my cookie scooper for this, but I would have liked to use a smaller size as some of my oreos turned out pretty monstrous).

Gently press down on the dough balls to flatten slightly

Bake for 9-11 minutes at 375 degrees, rotating the pans halfway through.  Let cool some before removing cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling.  The cookies must be 100% cooled before filling.

Frosting
Ingredients

  • 4 Tablespoons (1/4 cup) room temperature unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco)
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
*Note, most times I only make half of a recipe for frosting, because usually the full recipe is way to much for the number of cookies that I ended up with.  But make the full recipe for the oreos.  Trust me.

Directions

Combine the butter and shortening and beat on a med/high speed until smooth.  Add the powdered sugar and slowly incorporate it.  Then increase speed and beat until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the Vanilla Extract.

Pair the cookies up by size.  Use a pastry bag fitted with the large pain rough tip to pipe the filling onto one side of the cookie.  Sandwich together and press down/twist to cause the filling to spread out to the edges of the cookie.  If you don't have a pastry bag, you can also use a knife or the back of a spoon to spread the filling onto the cookies.


Recipe from Annies Eats


Thursday, December 27, 2012

New year is coming soon

Wow
I can't believe that it's almost 2013.  Crazy!  Where has this year gone.
I've been throughly enjoying my time off from school/work this past week.  Love me some days off!  They were very much needed to recharge my batteries and give me some time to myself.  I was going a little crazy and stressed right before break, but having more time in the day has certainly helped.
With my extra time, I've been thinking about what I'd like to change in my life, what I'd like to do in the year ahead.
I'm usually not one for New's Year's Resolutions, but just now I'm thinking about a few things that I would like to do.
But I'm always open to suggestions.
What are your New Years Resolution(s)?  Any good ones you'd care to share?

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Cookie Monster - Ginger snaps

Happy week after Christmas.  I couldn't quite give up the Christmas cookies yet, but I wanted to share with you a little more well rounded cookie that can be used more often.
In keeping with my Christmas theme, this recipe is also an old one from a pseudo family member.  My cousin's other grandma, whom I affectionately call Ma Betty made these ginger cookies once and brought them to a holiday get together, so I made them to share with M's dad's family this year.
Pretty simple recipe.  Just make sure that the dough is well chilled.
Happy Baking!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups shortening (I used Crisco)
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cup molasses
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 Tablespoon plus one teaspoon ginger
  • 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 Tablespoon cloves





Directions
Cream shortening, sugar, and molasses till fluffy

Add dry ingredients
Mix well.
Shape into 2 thick rolls, wrap in waxed paper.  Refrigerate several hours or overnight until very firm


Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Slice in 1/4 inch slices.


Bake on a lightly greased sheet (or parchment paper or silicone baking mat) for 12-15 minutes.
Ma Betty sprinkled sugar on the top before baking and I do as well. - Yum!


I have one more cookie recipe to share with you at the end of the year, then I think the cookie monster series may rest for awhile.  I know so many people who do healthy new years resolutions, so I'm going to work on sharing some other cooking and/or bread baking recipes instead of cookies for awhile.  Or at least the month of January.  I love cookies and they are what I make best :)

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!   M and I celebrated our first Christmas as a married couple :)  We are looking forward to starting our own Christmas traditions.
I hope you all had a wonderful day and got to spend lots of time with family and friends. And safe travels to those who are taking to the roads and skies.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Christmas Cookie Monster - Cut Out Cookies

Keeping with the theme of recipes from family members, this week I'm sharing the Christmas cut out recipe that my family has always used.  This recipe came from my Aunt Joyce who used it when she first started baking in the 1960s (so says the note on my recipe card :) ).  Back then, she thought the recipe was for shifted cookies, but I have always called them the cut out cookie recipe.
This recipe can be cut in half, as it is a fairly large batch.  Or you can also double if you want lots and lots of cookies :)

Ingredients

  • 7 cups of flour
  • 2 Tablespoons of baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/3 cups margarine
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 Tablespoon vanilla
  • 1/4 cup milk

Directions
Cream  the margarine  sugar  eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients and mix well.  Chill dough for 3-4 hours (or overnight).
Flour work surface and roll out dough and cut out cookies.  It helps to flour the cookie cutters before cutting cookies.
Bake at 400 degrees for 8-9 minutes.
Sprinkle with colored sugar before baking or leave plain and frost once cookies have cooled completely.

Linking up

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Wedding Photos part 1 - Formal shots

Here's a first look at some of our wedding photos!
More to come soon :)
Our photographer Nicole of Clark Smith Photography did an amazing job!
In the small world that we live in - her sister was my brother's prom date - too funny!

Church where we were married


My new husband and I!
My family

Mom and me

Dad and me
Matt's family + me

Matt's family

My beautiful bridesmaids

All of the wedding party

Wedding party and Ushers

Two kisses

Everyone smooch!
 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...