Thursday, November 24, 2011

Past Few Moments of Life

Just a few photos...
Early morning view of college out the window... very pretty this time of year!

The sunrise Natalya and I saw the morning that she and I helped out in Slavik and Lena's wedding.
He is so cute! Lol

"
"Maze" made of soap at the Memorial Art Gallery... I don't have much pictures of the Art Gallery because no pictures were allowed in certain areas, hence Lesya's facial expression.

My little Coffee House birthday surprise. So sweet!! Those girls are very thoughtful and loving :)

Today's cell group meeting... so "romantic"... lol. I enjoyed having the guys serve us and try to find sugar for our tea and pretty much just take care of everything. Interesting, different.

Pre-Thanksgiving Stuff

What a day... Phew!!
What am I doing right now? Waiting for jello to harden in the fridge. Can we just say... the equivalent of waiting for jello to harden is like watching paint dry ;) Wait, why would I be doing such an absurd thing at this time of the night?(... or shall I say morning?) Long story short, today has been a culinary day of disaster!! Our simple task for thanksgiving was to make 2 desserts. Easy right? Fruit jello and cake. Lesson learned: Call Lesya if you need help, and never try to make jello with kiwi! So here I am... kiwi infested fail of a jello in the trash, starting a new creation over again. Oh what fun! So tomorrow is thanksgiving, huh... that's nice. Lol I guess I have neutral feelings concerning my upcoming family dinner. I'm surely going to eat lots of good food, that's a given. So I hope you all have a lovely thanksgiving! :)   

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Apple Pie in the Apple

I am simply amazed at the cuteness of this. I'm really... I guess at a loss for words. WHY ARE THEY SO CUTE!?

This little blurb made me giggle :D (I'm reposting this from http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2011/11/07/apple-pie-in-the-apple-a-fresh-take-on-classic-apple-pie/ )

"At our house, we’re easily swayed by the charms of a cute dessert. So, needless to say, these apple pies cooked in the apple didn’t last very long after the picture was taken. They’re just too adorable to last very long in this world.
But maybe you’re not like us, maybe your heart is hardened to the sweet and adorable things of this world. You just want a dessert that’s delicious and simple and possibly a little bit healthy. Well, these have you covered on all counts. They’re deceptively simple to make, they have an intense apple pie flavor, and with a tiny crust, just a smidge of honey in the filling, and pleasantly crisp apples, they’re not too bad for you as far as dessert goes."


Word of warning, you have to watch these carefully as they get near the end. It’s a fine line between cooked perfectly and browned, and collapsed and oozing all over your cookie sheet. Keep a close eye.
Crisp apples are a key to the recipe, so look for firm, fresh apples. I used a combination of Honey Crisps and Cortlands straight from the Saturday farmers market. Also note that I used tangerine zest and juice–I love the fragrant sweetness they lend. Oranges will sub in perfectly, though.

Apple Pie in the Apple

for the dough
1/2 recipe pie dough or store-bought puff pastry

for the filling
6 apples, hollowed out, plus 1 – 2 more, cored
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2 tablespoon lemon zest and juice
2 tablespoon tangerine zest and juice

for the crust
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water

Prepare the dough according to recipe. Wrap the dough disc with plastic, and chill for at least a half hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
Set out 8 clean apples. Carefully cut of the tops (roughly 1/4″ of the way down). Next, use a sharp paring knife to remove the core. Scrape out the center so that the wall of the apple bowl is about 1/2″ thick. Reserve the apple innards. Sprinkle the inside of each apple bowl with a few squeezes of lemon. Rough chop the apple tops, innards, and the 2 additional apples. Set in a medium bowl and toss with the honey, flour, salt, spices, zests, and juices, and set aside.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the first dough round into a rough 8 x 12″ rectangle. Using a cookie or biscuit cutter (or a wide-mouth canning rim), cut out six 4″ circles. With a sharp paring knife, cut 3 small teardrops into each round. Place atop the prepared apples. No need to press the dough into place. Whisk together the egg white and water, and quickly brush onto the crust. Sprinkle the top with a bit of sugar.
Bake the apples for 15 – 20 minutes, just until the dough has turned golden brown. Remove from oven, cool for 20 minutes, and serve.

Please, someone make this :) Haha I will try it out, come winter break!

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

I'm SO excited! I just bought a book on Amazon... I have had my eye on it for a while now. And I'm super excited that it costed me under 9 dollars :) Thank you swagbucks for giving me a $5 gift card! Swagbucks is a website that gives you points for doing polls, surveys, searching... other random stuff and you can trade in points for real gift cards. Woohoo! Lol I'm really happy for my new book. And I'll be sure to let y'all know if it's worth the read!



















Saturday, November 5, 2011

Jaeson Ma

Natalya showed me this song! Jaeson Ma also has a powerful testimony that you can watch below:
Be Blessed!

domessticated

Domessticated... the title of a new blog I have discovered. It's awesome!
First of all I love the title because I'm the queen of kitchen messes. They rock, and I don't care about what you think ;) lol
Anyway, check out their recipes and even random tips (for example the trick to keep a pot of water from boiling over)...

http://www.domessticated.com/

I'm gonna try this one day: