This and That...

So I have yet to recieve a disk with pictures from our California Christmas vacation (wanna take bets I get a call from my mom tonight about how she's mailing them tomorrow?) but we really had an awesome holiday vacation.

I'm pretty sure California thinks I've been out of it's life for too long. It cries when I'm not there. (It was raining before we got there, then rained the day we left.) We basically hung out and did... not much... and it was PERFECT. Just what we always wish for when school and work seem to be overtaking our lives.

Dan got quite an array of tools for Christmas. Of course, we used them right away. (He's a real man, yes he is!) See all those shoes in the background? They are all organized very neatly now on the back of our door!

We had another project as well... but more on that later.



I got a sewing machine, which I am WAY excited about. I have always loved sewing. Never been stellar at it, persay, but I love it. My mom bought both my sister and I a pattern and material for a reusable shopping bag and took a day to teach us to read a pattern. It took a little longer than expected...(like I said, it took a day) but it was neat. Spending that time with my mom and sister was awesome. Makes me wish I lived closer...

Dan and I also got to visit only our favorite temple ever! Good old Redlands! We talked a little, thought a little, and made some little new years resolutions.

We have quite an adventure ahead of us, to say the least, but 2011 is looking to be the best year yet!

Making the Candy

(*See post below if you missed it!)

Meringues

I had to get a little creative with the meringues. I was too cheap to by the icing-decorator-tube-dealio with the star shaped tip. Looking around my kitchen, I spotted a water bottle cap. I can't really say how the thought formed, but suddenly I was melting the cap over my stove top. Turns out the plastic goes clear and you can shape it (pic with pliers below). Several caps later, I realized the plastic was just too thin once stretched to hold up to the pressure of icing.

*Aside: Did you know if you melt plastic too much it kind of disintegrates and disappears, leaving a hole? Probably turns into plastic fumes. Don't worry. I opened a window! (I can see my Mom's eyes rolling now).

Anyway, I began scouring my kitchen again. This time, I found a bottle of Sunny-D. Cut the handle, snip triangles out, melt the tips over the stove and curl them in, and VOILA! Poke it through a plastic bag and seal with packing tape, Badda-bing, badda-boom! It's a little rough, but hey, it was my first attempt. Watch out world. I am Rebecca Hanks. I will save money! (At the sacrifice of a few brain cells).

Confession #1... The before is from batch 1. The after is from batch 2. Apparently I've been out of school too long and didn't do the math right for my baking time. Burned the bottoms. Just slightly. But I decided to attempt again, given how easy they are to make. Messy, but easy. I also figured out the coloring better, so success!

Chocolate Creams (Cremes?)

The chocolate creams were always my favorite growing up. I remember rolling the mint creme into little balls and trying to control my anticipation for dipping them in the chocolate. I got a kick out of covering the little toothpick hole with a drop of chocolate!

Confession #2 - Dan is the only reason these turned out. I don't have a double broiler to melt the chocolate in. I attempted the old "pot in a pot of water" trick. Didn't work. Not ideal for chocolate dipping anyway. I had a mini freak out. Fortunately some ingenuity on Dan's part (and some soothing words) we had my fondue pot tipped to the side, and a crisis adverted. I also want to point out the back side of my table in the bottom picture. ALL ingredients, half opened and most-likely spilled. Being a great baker comes at a bit of a cost. This time the sacrifice was my kitchen and table!

Fudge

There really isn't much to say about this one except MMMMMMM!!! So good. My Grandparent's Rocky-Road Fudge, minus the "Rocky". (I'm not a big fan of nuts in chocolate stuff). I threw in a giant scoop or two of caramel instead. No confessions on this one... except that it's sinfully delicious! And... it makes A TON. Though, I'm complaining about that...

And in the end... I'm pretty sure it took me just as long to do all the dishes as it did to make all the candy...

*If you're wondering "what about the peanut brittle?"... It was delicious! Ha, the only picture I have is the one in the last post, in the fridge. Same with the chocolate mint pinwheels. Fun to make, so-so to eat, and not a special recipes, so que-cera!

Christmas Candies

When you're in school, free time is not really free time. There's always a test to be studying for or a paper to be working on. Feeling liberated by my graduated freedom, I decided I finally had time to explore my inner Betty Crocker this Christmas. I called my Grandparents and got the recipes I needed. I figured I would take a Saturday and bust out 5 different Christmas Candies from my childhood to make goody plates for our friends. Little did I realize how much time and effort baking actually takes...

As an aside...I don't claim to be a perfect domestic house-wife by any means. Our blog isn't really a means of showcasing our cute perfect little lives. Don't get me wrong... it's pretty awesome. Just far from perfect. I could have posted the finished pictures only, and maybe fooled a few of you... but if you really know me, you wouldn't have been fooled.

So, despite 3 additional evenings and a kitchen and table covered in ingredients and dishes... The results were miraculous... I was still alive and our apartment hadn't burned down! Oh, and the candies tasted pretty good too.

My favorite may have been the toffee... if it would have turned out. I tried, and failed. With Grandpa on the phone and everything. (I'm gonna need a personal lesson for that one). So instead, Grandpa's peanut brittle took the cake! It turned out a little darker than his... but still sooo good. WAY more peanuts than candy. Mmm... maybe I'll make some more this week.

Here's the poem we attached to our little goody plates:

Next post: The Making of the Candies!

...Miss Us?

I know... our dear little blog has been very neglected. Hopefully there is still someone reading? No excuses this time around though, just a little catching up. But hey! Who wouldn't want another few weeks of Christmas!?

So we showed you our tree -- pre-decor. Now...

...Here it is, in all it's Butterball glory!

Some of our favorite ornaments!

Mr. Penguin, from Germany       --                Our Honeymoon Ornament                        --         Remembering Christ
(I wish I could put Dan on our tree!)

My attempt at being artistic.

. . .

And.... my FAVORITE Christmas Goose of all!

Seriously.... how can you not love him!? I sure do.

~More updates to come sooner rather than later.~

...I've Been Busy?

That's my reason for not posting. Yes, reason. Not excuse.

Just thought I would remind everyone that we are still here, still alive. It's been an abnormally warm, non-snowy December.

Until yesterday... that is. It was raining all weekend, and started snowing last night. Dan and I romped around a bit in the snow-lit midnight streets. We were in our own, white little world. Truly... snow muffles sound, I think. It gets strangely quiet. A soft quiet.

Anyway... today it looks like THIS outside.

No... your link works. It's just white.

I miss you California. We'll be there soon...

Butterball - Part 1!

 This weekend the Hanks Family became a real family when they bought a real Christmas tree!



We started our hunt at the Smith's grocery store across the street. The pickings were slim... all of 4 trees left. Cars were pulling out left and right with trees on their roofs. We asked a lady staking claim on a tree if there was any place else near that sold trees. She pointed us in the direction of Baum's Christmas Trees... a man who apparently chopped down a whole forest and put them in his front yard.

Baum's was hard to miss once you found the right street in the neighborhood. There were trees, flocked and naked, three front-yards wide! We wandered up and down the rows looking through trees that were tall, short, and mostly thin. Then... we found one. A thick, round, ball of a tree. As we pulled it out ol' Baum himself suddenly appears, hands in his pockets, and says "Yup, that's a butterball right there". We were sold. I pretended to look around a little more, to be sure, but we knew Butterball was ours. A few more looks, a little more falling in love, and soon Butterball was up on our car roof coming home.

We were traveling home as a real family, Christmas tree tied to the roof and all. People were pointing and smiling, saying "Look! They got a Christmas tree!" (Well, according to us at least). With Dan's ingenuity and manly strength we got Butterball trimmed and up in the stand. I'm a little OCD when it comes to lights, so I put those up. (Years of following your Father around a Christmas tree for 45 minutes, holding the lights while he entwined them perfectly, will do that to you). But our tree sure looks good...thanks Dad! Dan even let me put up colored lights (he's always had white). We agreed to try those next year.

It was the perfect setting to eat broccolli cheese soup in breadbowls (Dan's wonderful idea) before heading up to the cabin with friends for hot chocolate, s'mores, and a movie.

And in the end...we came home to a twinkling Christmas tree.

Mmmmm!

Haircut!

So Dan's a pretty brave guy, proven by the fact that he let me cut his hair last week. I've cut his hair before...once. It took me two hours. Oh, and I've buzzed it! I was more confident this time, it didn't take me near as long. (I've paid close attention to the stylists the past few times we've gone in to get his hair cut.)

Ta-da!

Not too shabby, eh? I mean, it's probably a good thing he's tall an no one can really see the top part in the back... but I'll get better. Besides, he still looks super cute, either way. Takes a guy as good lookin' as him to make a bad haircut look so good!

Coming soon... pictures of our wonderful, plumpy, Christmas tree! We're a real family and we bought our first real Christmas tree! Till then... nothin but lurve!