Sick.

Today's been quite the lazy day. I slept in til noon, cleaned some dishes, watched some Olympics, showered, then went to McDonald's for dinner. We were planning on going to see the Lego movie with some free movie passes we have from Christmas, but all the showings were full. Sad day. Christopher cried a little. So all in all it's been pretty uneventful. I do, however have some key events to report on from the past two weeks.

I am still sick. Boo. I feel like I've been sick my whole married life. Probably cuz I have been. I'm so over it. Whine.

We still go out and do things though. Like this! We went to the Shops at the Riverwoods to see these ice sculptures and fire dancers and reindeer and fireworks! It was fun. And cold. And confusing since they played patriotic music during the fireworks show. In February!

We also got together with Ashleigh, Kolby, and Maddy to watch the SuperBowl last Sunday. I don't know how the rest of your SuperBowl parties went, but I know mine was full of chips and dip and CUPCAKES!!

Yeah, be jealous.

My cupcake display; it reminds me of Beauty and the Beast.

I started going crazy printing off baking recipes and putting them in a folder. I finally decided to actually bake the things that I was putting into this folder and Christopher has been totally supportive saying he'll buy whatever ingredients I need. This might be how we go poor.

I also had the opportunity to teach baking tips at the Relief Society Activity. It was really fun. The sisters were great at participating and giving additional advice. They asked me questions too but surprisingly they were all questions I knew the answers to! :)

We made nifty cake displays with DI plates and candlestick holders. There was also a cookie exchange. I'm about sugar'd out! I brought Christopher home a whole box of all the different cookies the women brought, and he still claims he likes mine the best!

Here are some of the tips I shared:

For Cookies - 

• All ingredients should be room temperature before you begin (mostly eggs and butter) but not melted because if your butter is too squishy, your cookies will spread and cakes won't rise enough. 
• If you like cookies chewy, remove them from the tray as soon as they are out of the oven and place on a cooling rack
• If you like cookies crunchy, bake them a bit longer and leave them on a rack to cool.
• 
  Practically all cookies should be slightly underbaked – take them out while they are still a little soft, they'll continue to bake as long as they are in contact with the hot sheet.
• Use shiny baking sheets – dark or burned sheets absorb heat faster and cause cookies to burn.
• Check at minimum time to avoid burning (i.e. 12-15mins)

For Cakes -

• Don't attempt to ice the cake before it is completely cool
• Heat knife first for crumble free slices, run knife under hot water then dry with towel.

For Muffins -

avoid over stirring – do not stir until it's smooth and lump free

• When using berries in a mixture, dust with flour before adding in; this helps prevent bleeding in the batter.
• Don't fill cups too full – 3/4c. is just about right → gives round tops
• Muffins (and cupcakes) are done when golden and spring back slightly when touched.
• Let pan sit on cool, wet towel – helps muffins come lose easier and prevents from sticking to bottom.

Finally, some useful kitchen substitutions:

I made this into a cute little magnet.

• cake flour: 2 cups all purpose flour minus 2T, add 2t baking powder and 2T cornstarch
• buttermilk: 1T fresh squeezed lemon juice to 1 c whole milk and let sit 5 mins
• brown sugar: 1c granulated sugar with 1T molasses
• extra light olive oil in place of butter (¾ c for every cup of butter)
• salted vs unsalted butter. If recipe calls for unsalted; use it! If only have salted, just cut back on amount of salt added to recipe. Reduce by ½ t salt for every stick salted butter used instead of unsalted.

I realize I'm getting a little long winded now, so I'll just finish up this post by talking about our wedding open house that we had here in Utah. We had a handful of people show up and bring a TON of food. 

Brigitte and Seth stopped by and played apples to apples with us and a bunch of our Utah friends. Christopher got to show the slideshow of us that he originally made for the wedding reception too! Katrina got us Monopoly and said it's supposed to help keep our marriage together... I'm still trying to convince myself to be okay with Christopher winning every single game we play. I don't know how he does it!

Larry and Kim brought this HUGE cake. :)

So I have more cake and chips and cookies than I know what to do with! I keep trying to bribe Sean and Ben and Brigitte to come over and eat all the extra cake. I gotta clear out my fridge so I can bake more things for Valentine's Day and my birthday. This month is exciting :)