Wordless Wednesday

Blaze...watching TV.

I love rain!!

Card holder/notepad thingy. First complicated sewing project!

Cross stitched picture frame that will hold my new nieces' photos...as soon as she's born!

Helping with laundry. Silly puppy!

Tasty Tuesday - The Case of the Disappearing Strawberry Walnut Torte

I love summer. The awesome fruits and vegetables that are in season. Peaches, cherries, grapes, apricots, and strawberries. Okra and squash, oh my!!

I usually eat several cases of strawberries each year. They are awesome all alone, or with whipped cream. So when I stumbled across a recipe for a torte, I knew the addition of strawberries would make this an awesome experience.

And awesome it was. The heavens opened up and the angels rejoiced.  Until I discovered a pile of dishes to wash. Baking can get so...dirty.



Strawberry Walnut Torte - Awesomeness!

The list of suspects:

Strawberries, Vanilla, Walnuts, Strawberry Preserves, Eggs, Cream Cheese, baking powder, salt, heavy cream, flour and sugar.

Crank up the fire. We want to bake those suspects! 350* should do it. Grab some parchment paper, and line those pans, then spray and lightly flour (or use Baker's Joy) to make the suspects easy to remove. Toast your nuts. Toast them until they are lightly toasted and nutty smelling. Your kitchen should smell like you have stumbled into a walnut farm.

Beat your whipped cream. To make things go faster, freeze your bowl and your beaters before hand, but you can be like me and whip your cream until the cows come home because you forgot this handy dandy time saver.

Make sure you get stiff peaks. Not wimpy peaks. You want to beat in into submission...or you know....stiff peaks.



Wimpy! Wimpy Wimpy!                          Stiff  Stuff!

In another bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar (and attempt to make a face with the eggs and said sugar). Add vanilla and beat. In another bowl add the rest of your dry ingredients. Fold the egg mixture alternately into the dry ingredients with the whipped cream. Pour into the prepared pans. Mixture is fairly thick, don't panic, it will all work out in the end.

For frosting: beat cream until stiff peaks form. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt until all mixed together. Make them become friends. Beat them into submission. Fold in the whipped cream. Using a long knife, or dental floss, or whatever tool you think might cut the cake in half without causing you to weep.

Place a cake layer on a serving plate; spread with 1/2 cup of frosting. Add a layer. Top with whipped cream and half of the preserves. Then wash, rinse, repeat. Without the washing and rinsing.

Frost the rest of the cake. Arrange the strawberries over the top. And if you had way too many like I did, arrange them on the sides, on the bottom, the top, pretty much everywhere they will stick. Then those preserves you saved, well melt them in the microwave and brush them over the top of the strawberries. It makes a glaze and it just adds an extra layer of strawberry yumminess.

Poke the whole thing in the fridge until your ready to serve. Make sure you let everything set up some before you serve it, as the longer it sits out the more....melty it becomes. Then it becomes more like a strawberry pudding with cake. I let it sit out while I took the pictures and taste tested the awesomeness and it wasn't pretty.

Enjoy!



Strawberry Walnut Torte

3/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted and cooled
1/4 cup plus 1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

FROSTING:
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 jar (12 oz) strawberry preserves
4 cups halved fresh strawberries

Crank up the fire to 350*. Line the bottom of two 9 inch round baking pans with parchment paper; grease and flour paper. Add the walnuts and 1/4 cup sugar into a food processor; pulse until nuts are ground and crumb like. In a small bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form. (Hint: For less beating time, place bowl and beaters in freezer and then whip!) Set aside.

In another bowl, beat the eggs and remaining sugar until thick and lemon colored; add vanilla. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and walnut concoction. Fold into egg mixture alternately with whipped cream.

Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pans for about 10 minutes, then remove the paper and place on wire racks. Let the torte's cool completely.

To make the frosting: in a small bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and salt until blended. Fold in the whipped cream.

Using a long serrated knife (or dental floss), cut each cake horizontally in half. Place one layer on a serving plate; spread with 1/2 cup frosting . Top with a second cake layer. Save 2-3 tbsp. preserves for later. Spread half of the preserves on top of cake, but leave a 1/2 inch area around the edge bare. Repeat the layers.

Frost the sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. Arrange the strawberries over the top of the cake. In the microwave, melt the reserved preserves (10 second intervals and stir until glaze like consistency), brush over the strawberries. Refrigerate until serving.

Note: don't leave setting out for too long, as the frosting starts to "melt" and things get interesting.

Enjoy!

Why I love Jesus....and Duck Dynasty

I’ll admit, when my husband started watching Duck Dynasty I was less than thrilled. Seriously? Another hunting show? Give a girl a break. Then I watched an episode with him. And then another, and another and...well you get the point. I’ve seen them all. Heck, I own a calendar and a water bottle with Duck Dynasty on it and quite possibly a t-shirt...or two. They are sarcastic, they are funny, they have great family values, and they still believe in putting God first. I don’t know too many other TV shows that put God anywhere.

So while I was listening to Amanda Carroll on KLove one morning, she was talking about how Uncle Si was doing a voice in an upcoming Veggie Tales movie. I love Veggie Tales. I own a ton of the movies and have no children to watch them, but my husband and I love them. They are funny, they are clean, and they provide great lessons and insights for children…and let’s face it, most adults too.

So as I was listening to the story and Googling (we are like BFF's. get used to it), I was hit right between the eyes with Si’s response to his part in the new Veggie based movie. He enjoyed it – because he could tell people how much he loved Jesus.

He could tell people how much he loved Jesus.

There wasn’t money involved. There wasn’t how this is going to be great for his career. There wasn’t how this will help Duck Dynasty reach a new audience. It was just about telling people about Jesus.

That’s so incredibly selfless. He didn’t want anything out of it, other than to tell people how much he loved Jesus.

What kind of world would we live in if we didn’t want anything out of it?

How different would things be if you went to work because you loved it and the paycheck was just a bonus? How different would your marriage be if you didn’t demand anything from your spouse? You just loved them and supported them without being mad that they didn’t unload the dishwasher? What about your kids? What if you didn’t expect your 9 year old to be perfect and do all his chores based on when you wanted them done? What if you did everything because you wanted to tell everyone how much you loved it? Can you imagine that co-worker not coming to work and complaining about his girlfriend but instead praising her for making dinner last night? Or can you imagine telling your kids how much you appreciate the help that they do offer when they do their chores instead of complaining that they forgot to take out the trash again? Can you imagine how your spouse and kids would begin to treat you when you treated them like you would want to be treated?

It sorta goes back to that golden rule thing. Remember it?

Si is the narrator in a movie simply because he wanted to tell people how much he loved Jesus.

So, my challenge for today is to not complain to anyone about anything. I’m going to work and I’m not going to come home and complain about how much my co-workers got on my nerves, or how much I hated studying. I’m going to remember that I only get out what I put in. I’m going to remember to do something today, simply because I want them to see Jesus in me.

Back to School

Note: I wrote this post last week when I actually started school. Andi is a great friend, who had became family, who decided that she'd had enough of cancer and is spending her days in Heaven.

Dear Andi,

It’s hard to believe that it’s the first day of school, and that your baby, B starts kindergarten today. Time is passing much too quickly. D-boo, well she’s a 3^rd grader. How did that happen? I remember sitting in my house in Midland stitching her baby bibs, just weeks before her early arrival. It seems more like yesterday instead of 7 years ago.

I missed your pictures on Facebook this morning of those sweet smiling faces. Don’t get me wrong, Chris is doing a great job, but pictures of firsts, well that’s certainly more a mommy thing than a daddy thing. He sure loves those kids, and that’s all that really matters in the grand scheme of things anyway.

I dread tomorrow equally. You won’t be there tomorrow night to send me a text and ask me how I like my professors and what I think of the classes I’ve chosen for this semester. You won’t be there to discuss the diving birds and the other weirdness that a college campus offers. I won’t get to tell you how inadequate and old I feel surrounded by 20 year olds. And you won’t be there to remind me that I am old, yet sarcastic, which is way more important anyway.

I know that you would be less than enthused over my sentimental streak today, but I know this semester, like the rest will fly by. I’ll be so swamped with papers, accounting problems, and exams that December will be here before I know it. I’ll look up and this semester will be over. And at the same time, an entire year will have passed since you went home. The world has kept spinning, even though there have been days where I wished it wouldn’t.

I could use a dose of your snark. And in 3 weeks, when Brad will spend his first entire weekend at the lease since November of last year, well, I could really use a night of texting and scary movie watching to get me through it. And there’s a birthday in there to celebrate, and a new blog, which I know you would be excited about too.

I’m only slightly jealous that you get to enjoy the fall weather from Heaven. I can imagine the golden and red leaves, the cooler temperatures, and that fall smell of Friday night football games and gin dust, because what’s West Texas in the fall without gin dust.  Not much is the same without your delightful laugh and sweet smile.

Missing you always.

Much love,