Jake's First Deer!

Jakes 1st Deer!

Southern Iowa-Bow Hunting

November 2, 2014

He was so excited, and I have to say, I was pretty proud of him!

Christmas Preview/"Black Friday" Shopping!

 Here is a little sneak peak of our Christmas decorations for this year.  

More to come soon!

The night of Thanksgiving my mom, sister and I braved the crazy crowds and did a little shopping.  We didn't do a whole lot, but went to Wal-Mart for a few things--Craziest place to be on "Black Friday" (aka Thursday night at 8:00 P.M.), and then went to the mall and found some amazing deals at Younkers!  I got an automatic wine bottle opener for $10.00, KitchenAid mixing bowls-also $10.00 and a 10 piece Pyrex set for $20.00 with a $10.00 mail in rebate.  I hate mail-in rebate type deals, but this was too good to pass up! 

I also hit up Bath & Body Works and scored 6 new Christmas candles, a candle cover and a body cream for $50.00!! I had multiple coupons and took advantage of the Buy 3, Get 3 Free deal!  I am set for candles!!    They have some really cute ones this year (See above)!  The name of the candle isn't even on some of them, just silver and red stripes!  So cute, and totally different than normal!

We did all of our decorating on the Friday after Thanksgiving, per usual!  We had such a fun day!  We woke up and went to Menards for the sales there.  We weren't there too early, so a lot of the things that we wanted were already gone, but they weren't things we HAD to have.  Then we went to Hobby Lobby to get some things for my new WINE TREE in the kitchen.  (Pictures to come!)  All the ornaments are things made out of wine corks.  I even got Jake in on "craft time" for that one!  Then we had lunch at Applebees, and went home to decorate!  

That night we watched Christmas movies, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" (Helloooo Jonathan Taylor Thomas! haha)...and "Christmas with the Kranks".  What a fun filled day!!  

Devils Food Layer Cake

Devils Food Layer Cake

Ingredients:

Chocolate cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
4  tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, beaten

White Frosting:

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
1 cup granulated sugar

Ganache:

3 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
24 oz. choclate chips (about 2 bags!)

Extras:

1 jar maraschino cherries

Round cookie cutter--any size you want to make your cakes!! 

Baking spray

1 Gallon ziplok bag

Directions:

Chocolate cake:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Use an 18-by-13-inch sheet.  Cut parchment paper to fit the pan and spray each side with baking spray.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour,  sugar and salt.  

In a pan, melt the butter.

Add the cocoa to the butter and stir together.  

Add 1 cup boiling water to the pan and then allow the mixture to boil for 30 seconds.  

Pour over the flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

Pour the buttermilk into a bowl and add the baking soda, vanilla and beaten eggs.

Stir the buttermilk mixture into the butter/flour mixture.

Pour into the pan and bake for 20 minutes.

Let the cake cool completely. (VERY important!)

Cut the cooled cake into circles with a round cookie cutter, and puts on another sheet pan.  When they are all cut into circles, put them in the fridge to make sure they are as cold as possible.

 *********************************************************************************

White frosting:

In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be extremely thick.

Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

If in a hurry, place the saucepan in the fridge until it is VERY cool!

*CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH THAT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE COLD!*

Stir in the vanilla.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and granulated sugar together until  fluffy. 

Then add milk/flour mixture and beat it for a good 15 minutes! I am not joking!  If you think its been beat enough...it probably hasn't!

 *********************************************************************************

For the ganache: 

Heat the cream until very hot.  Add the vanilla, and then pour over the chocolate chips. Stir until it becomes a smooth chocolatey "Willy Wonka like" soup!

 *********************************************************************************

To assemble: 

Put the white frosting mixture into a one gallon ziplock bag and cut the tip off, and squeeze onto one chocolate cake circle.  You can just spread it with a knife, but I like doing this.  It looks nicer!

Press another circle on top.

Pour ganache over the cake!  I poured lots of it on my cakes!!

Place  cherries on top and you are good to go!! 

Chill the cakes until hungry!

I made the mistake of doing a lot of these steps sooner than I should have, and everything was still pretty warm.  They still tasted really good, but didn't look as pretty as I had hoped because they were falling apart!  When I do this again I will be way more patient, and wait until everything is very cold and my life will be so much easier!

I also ate the first one right after I finished assembling them.  While VERY delicious, I actually enjoyed these a lot more cold out of the fridge!

Moral to the story:  PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE!  One that is desperately needed when baking these beauties!

You could also just make one BIG DELICIOUS cake instead of the mini versions if you have a large group by just using 3-12 inch round pans instead of the sheet cake.

Let me know what you think when you try these!!

27 Days of Thanks

It's November.  The month to be thankful for everything in your life, and life in general.  Granted, you should be thankful for all of these things everyday, every month, all the time, but we all know people make it more public in November.   I am going to list one thing I am thankful for everyday until Thanksgiving and then post this at the end of the month.  Enjoy and be THANKFUL ALWAYS!

I am thankful for...

1. My family.  Cliche'? Yes, but I am.  They are amazing.
2. My pets.  
3. My Home.  
4. Living in a country that we are allowed to have opinions, and are able to choose our own future.  GO VOTE!
5. Big sweatshirts.
6. Fresh flowers.
7. Vacations.  
8. Garth Brooks.  No explanation needed.
9. Getting home to my own bed--even though the one at the hotel was WAY more comfy.
10. My sister.
11. Our Veterans.  Thank you to all of those who have served and fought for us!
12. My winter coat---BRRR
13. My heated blanket---again...BRRR!
14. Fridays!
15. Weekends full of absolutely NO plans.
16. God!
17. Tacos--specifically Lomitas :)
18. Farmers.---- Love you Dad.
19. My new penguin fleece socks. :)
20. Music. 
21. My health, and my family's health.
22. My job.
23. My husband.
24. Christmas trees!
25. COFFEE!!!
26. The simple fact that I live in IOWA aka the BEST state ever! :)
27. Holidays that all my family gets together and enjoying their company!

So much to be thankful for these days!!

Long Weekend in Minnesota!

We went to Minnesota for the Garth Brooks concert and Jake and I decided to make a long weekend out of it and had so much fun!

Here is a few pictures to enjoy!

Friday we went to the Rainforest Cafe' and had so much fun! Such a fun place to eat, and the drinks were delicious!!

Before supper Friday night we walked around the mall a little bit more and found Jake's version of heaven.  A store dedicated to the Green Bay Packers!  

Earlier in the day I visited MY version of heaven...Exhibit A:

Its ALWAYS  a good day when you get the BIG bag from Sephora! 

The only picture we got Friday night.  Jake was so tired, but we still had a lot of fun!

And in case you were wondering, they did have Christmas decorations up and these trees were GORGEOUS!!

Concert of a LIFETIME!

This past weekend Jake and I drove up to Minnesota for a long weekend.  We stayed right next to the Mall of America so we spent a lot of our time there which I enjoyed and Jake tried. :)  The main reason we went up there though was to see GARTH BROOKS. He was amazing and it was the best concert of my life.

My sister and one of her friends met us up there on Saturday, and I am so glad they were able to come because we had a blast.  My sister and I both looked at each other at the end of the concert and said we will definitely spend the money to go to another one if he comes close again!  That is after I sat and said how much I didn't want it to be over yet!

Here are a few of the pictures we took!

This was the only picture I got of the stage before my phone died before the concert even started! :(  

Craziest thing ever trying to get into the concert!

Waiting to get in!

FALL IN IOWA...NO WORDS NECESSARY.