Cake

 Something you should know about me is I notice nice people. To me, nice people are like little angels walking around on earth sent to make our lives a little easier and our days a little brighter. I especially love anyone who is nice to Ethan. It doesn't matter what they look like, what mistakes they might have made, who likes them, whatever, if they are nice to Ethan none of that matters. My friend Stacy's dad is one of those people. He tries to come across as a big gruff man, but in my eyes he's just a big teddy bear. He is really kind to all of us and doesn't matter that we are all kind of a wreck. So the other day he did yet another kind thing for me and I decided that it was time to do something nice for him. Stacy let me know that he liked German Chocolate Cake, so I decided that's what I needed to do. The only problem? I had never successfully made one before. I have made it a couple of times, but they always turned out dry. So what do you do when you need answers fast? Go to Facebook, of course! But other than "you start by finely grating a dark german..." nothing really helped. But one friend suggested that I look on the Taste of Home website so I did, and I found a regular chocolate cake that sounded pretty good and I mostly stuck with it.

You start with real German's Choclolate, (Fun side note, while I was trying to find the perfect recipe I learned that it isn't actually a cake from Germany, The reason for the name is because it is made with German's sweet chocolate, the recipe was developed by the company and put on the wrapper of the chocolate. Funny, huh? I never knew. Log that away in your useless info file...) and add butter, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla. 

I added buttermilk instead of regular milk. It adds to the flavor and makes the cake much more moist. If you don't have buttermilk in your kitchen (which I'm not sure why you wouldn't:) you should really go out and buy some, it makes all the difference.

And the light fluffiness is achieved by folding in beaten egg whites.

And they turn out beautiful!

Let them rest in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn them out on a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.

While you are doing that you make the coconut pecan filling. I didn't love any of the recipes that I found for this part, so I changed it up a little bit. The most significant addition I made was the use of coconut milk. I have just fallen in love with this stuff, and I thought it would make a beautiful addition. If you don't have any or don't want to use it you can always substitute canned milk. (But don't do that because the coconut milk gives it amazing flavor and a really good consistency.)

You mix all the ingredients in a sauce pan and cook on the stove until it thickens up. Then you add coconut and pecans and let it cool

Once the cake and the filling are cooled start stacking. Cake then filling then cake... as high as you want. This recipe will make three layers, but I was making two cakes, so I made the recipe for one and a half and just did them two layers each. Did that make sense?

Then all of the recipes I found said to just layer them and you were done, but I thought it needed frosting, so I pulled out my favorite fudge buttercream frosting recipe and went to town. This recipe is a product of years of trial and error on my part, so the fact that I'm sharing it with you should be considered a huge gift, and you should all love me forever and name your kids in my honor. It's that good. I use it all the time as my go-to frosting. It's light and fluffy, but you can vary the thickness depending on what you use it for. I have used it on cakes, cupcakes, cookies, graham crackers, eating it out of the bowl by the spoonful... anything I can think of. It's a good one to keep around. Plus it's easy. And it has a secret ingredient, which I think makes it mysterious and special. :)

That's it, the secret ingredient is hot fudge. Sometimes I make my own hot fudge when I'm feeling ambitious, but I use the kind in the jar a lot too, and it turns out fine. (as long as you don't mind feeling like a cheater:)

And there you have it. No, it isn't the most beautiful cake, I'm not a very good decorator, but it tasted wonderful, and that's the point. Would I make this cake again? For any Joe on the street, absolutely not, it takes quite a bit of work, but for super sweet and kind Papa Joe, absolutely! It was divine! It's a great special occasion cake.

So here's the recipe:

CAKE

• 4 ounces German sweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• • Grease three 9-in. round baking pans. In small saucepan, melt chocolate with water over low heat; cool.
• • In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in melted chocolate and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.
  • In a small bowl and with clean beaters, beat the 4 egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the creamed mixture.
  • Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350° for 24-28 minutes or until done. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

FILLING

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup coconut milk (mix well in can before adding)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 1-1/3 cups flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• In a small saucepan, heat the sugar, milk, butter and egg yolks over medium-low heat until mixture is thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Stir in the coconut, pecans and vanilla extract. Cool until thick enough to spread. Spread a third of the frosting over each cake layer and stack the layers.

FROSTING

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk (More or less until reaching desired consistency)
• 1 cup hot fudge topping
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Cream together the butter with the shortening. Sift the cocoa with the confectioners' sugar and add to the creamed mixture. Mix together adding 1 tablespoon at a time of milk to keep mixture smooth. Add the hot fudge topping and the vanilla extract. Blend until smooth and creamy. Spread around sides of cake and pipe around edges for desired look.

A trip

A few weeks ago I had a really amazing opportunity. I was able to attend the temple and watch as one of my favorite families had  their two newest family members sealed to them forever in the the St. George temple. It was a beautiful ceremony, sacred and wonderful with just the right amount of funny thrown in for good measure. I was so honored to be there and witness this special day. It made me so happy for them, as they have been waiting a long time. (Remember Killeen who was a guest poster during adoption awareness month? It was her sweet family.) It also brought me back to the day that my kids were sealed to my family, and made me once again commit to being the best mom I could be. I love that part of ceremonies like that. I wasn't the one who made covenants that day, but in a way I renewed mine anyway. Such a great experience, and I am so happy for the Maxwells. (And lucky that I could be there. I forgot my temple recommend which you absolutely have to have in order to enter the temple. They had to call my bishop and verify that I had a current one, the only problem with that is my bishop in my current ward has never actually talked to me in the 7 months I have lived here, so I wasn't sure he would be able to help. Luckily though, I had enlisted my mom to pray for me, and she's so faithful she pretty much gets what she wants:)

 Also while I was there I was able to visit with some good friends in Cedar City, which is near St. George. I lived there when I first graduated from high school, attended college there and for the first few years of marriage. I loved it there. It is my favorite place I have ever lived, and I hope someday to go back there. You know how there are places that you haven't been to for years and years, and then you go back and even though a few things have changed it feels just the same, like you are coming home? It was like that.

 On the way home there is a beautiful bridge that you go across. I have always thought it would be fun to stop and take a picture, but never did it. Well, guess what? I was all alone, and in no hurry, so I did stop this time! Pretty, right? I want to go back in the spring when everything doesn't look so dead and take some more shots.

 I also took some pictures of the San Rafel Swell. The freeway goes right through it and twists and winds and it's really steep. I have a terrifying story about one Christmas when my sister and I were driving down it and the brakes in her car went out. Yikes! But I'll save that for another post. I rarely have my camera out when I drive down it, but since I had just stopped to take a picture of the bridge I had it on the front seat of my car, and took the opportunity to snap a few pictures. And yes, dear reader, they were taken as I was driving 80mph down the freeway, and yes I know that isn't the smartest idea, but, as I've said many times before, I'm more of a drive by tourist, and I HAD already pulled over to take a picture of the bridge, so I had reached the cap on spontaneous stops for the purpose of photography for the trip. They turned out pretty none the less, and no one was injured in the snapping, so no harm done. :)

Guess what I love?

Kale Chips!

It's true. They are my new favorite snack. I had heard the idea before, but found a recipe for them on Pinterest HERE (one of my favorite time wasters:) so I had to try it. And they are fantastic. They are crispy and tasty and super simple to make. Plus Kale costs pretty much nothing, so its a winner from every angle. The one pictured above are salt and parmesan, but I have also tried olive oil and salt, fresh sage and salt, dill dip mix, smoked mozzerella and sun dried tomato dip mix, garlic infused grapeseed oil, and cheddar popcorn seasoning, (Have you ever tried Wildtree products? If not you should, they are amazing! Those last four were seasoning mixes I got from them.) Pretty much I think you could try anything you wanted. Here is what you do: And of course, like every recipe I have ever tried, I changed it up a bit:)
 Wash a bunch of Kale and trim off the stems. You just want the leaves. Lay them in a single layer on a cookie sheet. The recipe says to drizzle olive oil on top, and for the olive oil/ salt on I did that, and also the garlic infused grapeseed oil was just drizzled as well, but for the rest I just gave them a shot of light pam and sprinkled the seasonings on top, and I actually liked it a little better. Then you bake it at 350. The recipe says for 15 minutes, but I did mine about 6 and they were done. You want them to be all the way cooked and crisp, but not burned. Just touch  them and you will be able to tell. They are really tasty right off the pan, but just as good cold or even a few days after. So give it a try and let me know what you think.

Christmas Catch Up.

Update: It was brought to my attention that I missed an important point in my story. I was in Salt Lake and I didn't call Emily. I'm sorry for leaving out that detail in the original version, the situation has been remedied and will now appear in it's entirety throughout the post. Sorry Emily. :)

Warning, this post should probably be three posts, but it's catch up time so it is what it is. Enjoy, but you might need to save your place and come back to finish a little later.

Well, I did super bad at taking pictures of Christmas this year. I don't know what my problem is, I just forget all about it. Oh, well, it happened whether I caught it on camera or not, so I'll just tell you the story. On Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house and made TONS of snack foods and gorged and watched movies until way too late. My grandma and step grandpa were there, and my sister, brother in law, and niece came for a while, so it was a lot of really low key fun. Finally we convinced the kids to go to bed. It was a big fight until Neldon mentioned that Santa doesn't come until all the kids are asleep, and they quickly set out doughnuts and milk and a note for Santa, put a jar on the porch for the reindeer milk, and went directly to bed, no questions asked. They were pooped too. Adia literally fell asleep sitting up. She slept with me that night, and it's a good thing because she woke up about every hour asking if she could "just go see if Santa came yet, I won't look at what he brought" or " just check and see if he ate all the doughnuts because if he did he might have a belly ache and that's no fun on Christmas" and if she had been in her own room she would have just gone out there instead of asking and by the time the rest of us woke up in the morning all the presents would have been open, played with and put away. Finally it was time to get up and see what they got. They were spoiled rotten, and got pretty much everything they had ever wanted. The best parts were the tank and the makeup from aunt Bobbi and Uncle Jim, the scooters, and Ethan got a lathe/scroll saw/drill press, and Adia got a sewing machine. 

And those are all the pictures I took of the whole day. That's it. When we finished with presents we checked outside for the reindeer milk - Santa had totally delivered- and we sat down to a nice breakfast of sweet breads and muffins. This is our yearly tradition. For those of you who don't know, reindeer milk is special. It doesn't taste like regular milk, it tastes like milk that has sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg and vanilla mixed in. And then when it sits out on the porch all night it gets slushy and delicious. I drank it when I was a little girl, and now my kids drink it. It isn't something you can drink every day, or even later on Christmas day. It's magical only early on Christmas morning. Then we went to church for only one hour. ( As the last speaker was sitting down I told Ethan we were going home after the song and prayer and he -very loudly- said "YES!!!") Then we went back home, changed, and met the kid's dad for the swap. It was the first holiday I have ever had to share the kids in the last year and a half, and I would be lying if I said it didn't make me cranky. Oh, well, I guess I'm lucky I made it this long. And I'm lucky I had them for the morning. And I'm really lucky it only lasted less than 24 hours, and I slept about 22 hours of that time, so in my mind it's almost like it didn't happen.:)

A few days later we had to go try out Ethan's new snowboard, and Adia's new sled. We didn't have any snow in the valley, so we headed up to the mountain in search of somewhere to have out fun. Unfortunately the pickins were pretty slim up there too, but eventually we ran out of road, and had to make due with what we could find. 

We had some successes and some crashes, but all in all it was a pretty fun time. By the end they were getting pretty good. My dad kept giving the kids pointers of what to do on the snow board. (Adia doesn't get that bossy streak from no where. She inherited it from someone...:) He hasn't snowboarded ever in his whole life, but he's super athletic, and sounded like he knew what he was talking about, so they listened. Finally as we were packing up to go he decided he needed to give it a shot...

This is in the process of falling down right before he landed in a spread eagle and his knee bent the wrong way...

This was on the way home. I love it up here (it's a place called the "parking lot". My dad says it's because the snow mobilers and cross country skiers park here and unload. It think it's because it would be a romantic place to "park"...  maybe both are right:)

On a clear day you can see all the way to Colorado (which is this view- the red rocks and mountains beyond them), and in the other direction all the way to Monticello. You can see several different mountain ranges, and you feel like you are on top of the world. This was taken out of the front windshield of the truck because my dad was injured and cranky and wouldn't stop:)

Also, while we were off for a break I decided to take the kids on a little vacation. There was no prior planning or anything, I just woke up one morning and decided today was the day we would go on vacation. When that happens your options are kind of limited, so we went up to Salt Lake, (Near where my friend Emily lives, and by the way, I didn't go visit her) and went where the wind blew us. We started out in Brigham City where we had to drop something off and then we went to see the temple construction. It is looking beautiful and we can't wait to see the open house when it's finally completed. Then we found a motel and checked in, and then decided that a trip to Temple square was in order. (but we didn't call my friend Emily even though she lives nearby) We drove to  the trax station and rode through the free zone. My kids LOVED the "train ride" but I left my camera behind, so there were no pictures of that OR of Temple Square. I thought that after Christmas would be less busy than before Christmas, but I was TOTALLY wrong. It was packed, and gave Ethan anxiety, so we did a little shopping and headed back to the motel. Then we swam - until we got kicked out of the pool and we spent every last quarter I had buying junk from the vending machines and stayed up watching movies. The bad news is that no one went to sleep until I forced the tv off at 3AM but the good news is the kids let me sleep in until 7:30, so that is a huge improvement. 

We hit the pool again for a couple of hours in the morning - funny because we were in our swimming suits in the elevator and everyone else was in their snow suits with skis headed up to spend the day skiing. I felt seriously under dressed. Then we caught a super good breakfast in the motel dining room, and headed off on the next big adventure. Next we met up with a friend (but not Emily) and went to Gardner Village for the Elf Hunt (during which the camera stayed in the motel room) and a little shopping, then some more shopping in Salt Lake (we don't have shopping where we live, and as funny as it sounds, that's one thing my kids really miss about living in the city, so we had to get a little bit in while we were there.) Then for dinner we went to Chuck E Cheese's and didn't take the camera nor did we call Emily. Normally that is NOT my favorite place, (though I'm sure it would have been a blast if I had remembered to call Emily)but this time was better than normal. It was really clean, and not too busy, plus we got a super good deal. Do you subscribe to Groupon? If not you should check it out. It has some great deals in your local area, and I recently got a deal for a large pizza, four large drinks, four trips to the salad bar, and 200 tokens for $20 at Chuck. E Cheese's, so we decided to give it a shot. The kids had a great time and I got a ton of reading done, and even met a really nice single dad who was taking his kids out for a vacation day too. (no we were not on a date that I didn't know was a date like that one time:) When finally all the tokens were used up, tickets were collected and cashed in for prizes and our pizza was boxed up we headed back to the pool for some relaxation and I hoped a nap... The nap didn't happen, but the kids swam and I read some more. (I know that sounds totally lame, but you have no idea how great it is to read something that isn't a text book.) Then after swimming and not taking a nap we got put back together and decided to go to a movie. (Even though it was fairly close to Emily's house we didn't call her) Ethan wanted to watch the Chipmunk movie but Adia is starting to get a little too mature for silly chipmunks (or at least she was that night:) so she wanted to see something else, and the megaplex nearby was showing "we bought a zoo" which I didn't know much about, but figured that if it didn't have singing that sounded like someone had swallowed a helium balloon in it , it had my vote. The megaplex had 20 different theaters, so I was worried it might be too much for Ethan, but they have this super nice option that you can buy tickets in your car at a drive up kiosk and reserve your seat, you can even see what seats have been chosen so you can choose one away from everyone else, which was nice. Then when you go in you don't have to wait in line or fight the crowds, you just walk in and find your seat. SO great for autistic kids. They also have little restaurants (they even had a Mayan Express which reminded me of my friend Emily because once when we were in college she went to the real Mayan and sent me a postcard with a picture of a very hot man jumping into a pool on the front. So I did think of her, but I still didn't call her) where you can order whatever you want for dinner and then take it into the theater with you. The kids got pizza and I had Chinese, and we didn't have to bother with crappy popcorn and junior mints like in most theaters. Though half way through the movie they both got a craving for some cotton candy and sent me out to find some. Another thing I loved is that they clean the theater after every movie. Not like go through and pick up the big trash, but actually vacuum and mop and CLEAN. So our feet didn't stick to the floor and I didn't feel like I had to pull out the Lysol wipes before we sat down. (I mean, I did pull them out, I wasn't out of my mind:) but I did let the kids sit down first.) One thing that wasn't perfect was something that most people would have love, but didn't work for our family. The screen was HUGE and the sound was build into the seats. That's cool mostly... unless you have autism, and then it's super overwhelming. Ethan's autism is mild, but that much going on overstimulates him really easily. But we quickly figured out that you could control the volume from your seat, and turned his completely off - he could still hear from the other seats around him - and he put on my sunglasses, and then it was perfect. The kids LOVED the movie, and it didn't give me a headache, so it turned out pretty great. Then we drove to the Draper temple, which is my new favorite, and where I want to get married some day:) Still no pictures.

Then it was back to the pool until they kicked us out and then movies all night long. The next day - after swimming and breakfast of course- we headed to Nephi (passing right near where my friend Emily lives, but we drove right by without stopping to see her) where our good friends just moved to. On our way we stopped by the Payson temple site - it was announced around the same time the Brigham City temple was announced, so we were expecting it see it as we drove up. But they just recently broke ground, which we didn't know, so it wasn't super cool like I thought it would be. In fact, Ethan called it "LAME!!!" Oh, well, it was worth a shot anyway. Then we visited with the Davis' for a few hours and then headed home. But then we noticed that Manti wasn't too far away, which has our REAL favorite temple and there is a Walmart on the way and we needed some allergy medicine because the Davis family has baby kittens and Adia loves to rub them on her face even though it meant her eyes got swollen and puffy. So we took a detour and stopped by the temple where I FINALLY remembered to get the camera out and take a few shots. By that time the sun was going down and the temple lights were on, so we got some pretty shots. (by the way, I have some really great memories of my friend Emily at this temple, and one time we had a completely crazy time in Manti involving a pizza man that makes me laugh every time I think about it.Gee, I wish I would have called her when I was in Salt Lake.)

 

And the kids had to roll down the temple hill, because that's just what you do when you go there. It doesn't look like it from this shot, but the hill is actually HUGE and steep and long. It's quite a trip to roll down. I decided someone had to be an adult though, so I didn't do it this time. (I showed them how to do it last time we were there, so I figured my job was done.) It made Ethan sick to his stomach, and for a while I was worried he would throw up, but we stopped at a gas station on the way home and he got some chili nachos and it made him all better. :)

Then we had an uneventful ride home which consisted of all of us singing SUPER LOUD to the radio. It was a great vacation.

THE END

(I know this picture doesn't really fit it at this point, but the kids were trying to snowboard together, and I got this funny butt shot of them, and I kind of love it, so I had to include it.)

With weather like this...

I don't know what it's like where you live, but the weather here is Phenomenal! Fantastic! Freakishly Fabulous! (Lame, I know, but ending that portion without using the F sound just seemed wrong) While I do love the snow (I know, I'm crazy) and most of my family, friends and neighbors around here rely on a wet winter to survive the summer, I can't help but enjoy a 50+ degree day in January. With all this warm weather, you know what sounds good?

A FROSTY!

Right?

You know what sounds even better than that?

A FREE FROSTY!

Well, if you live in Utah, Colorado, or Wyoming you should check this out:

Yes, I still have Christmas Vacation to blog about, and yes this is ANOTHER post about adoption, but time is limited, so this is more important, and even Santa would agree with me on that!

Just in case it didn't make sense to you, if you live in those states, go to your closes Wendy's and buy a Frosty key tag for $1. The money from that goes to benefit the Adoption Exchange, which is a great organization for foster adoption, and then, every time you purchase something at Wendy's and show them you key tag you get a free Jr. Frosty! You only have until Feb. 29th to buy the key tags, but they will get you a frosty until the end of the year, so go stock up now. These would be perfect to add as an embellishment to a gift, give them to teachers, neighbors, friends. Kids have a birthday party to go to? This would be a perfect add on to the gift. Buy a bunch and hand out with your pass along card. I'm tellin ya, you better stock up and keep a bunch in your purse! And it all goes to a great cause. See you at the Wendy's, lets meet for a FREE frosty... every day:)

Our Family Goal 2012

One thing that I have been thinking about a lot recently is kindness. Sometimes I look at the world and I think that the absence of kindness is overwhelming and depressing. But other times I see the good that is there and feel the love of people who care about helping without thought of themselves or the glory or what anyone else might think and I am overwhelmed by hope. It seems like the last few years we have been in survival mode. We have been working so hard on living and being happy that we are all we focus on. And our GOALS have reflected that. This year I think we have it under control a little so I want to work on making us better by giving rather than receiving. So our family goal this year is "Be Kind." I want to start thinking outside of myself. I want to watch what I say more and smile more. I want to be more encouraging and build people up. I want to get out of my comfort zone and make others feel special. I want to provide service, and actually DO all those little kind things I THINK about doing and then chicken out of. And I want to teach my children to do that to. It will be easy for them because they have naturally giving hearts, but mine is much harder than theirs, and I don't want theirs to become that way. So, I usually have a theme that goes along with our goal, but as I was searching for one I found too many that I loved. So thanks to pinterest here are a few of them that I am trying out before I decide. Let me know if one stands out to you and why and maybe it will help me decide. And what about your family? Do you have any goals for the year? Share!