Happy Thanksgiving

I have no pictures for you today. Honestly I took my camera and had the best of intentions but realized to just enjoy the moments and time spent with my family. It has been two years since I was able to do this and I just wanted to be in the moment. I am surrounded by so many amazing family members. Family that when you haven't RSVP'd and show up at the door welcome you and feed you yummy home made rolls. (Thank YOU!!!!) Family members who really care about how your life is going and will ask questions about what you are doing even if there is more then 30 years difference in our age. Family members who trust me with their children. Ollie was so cute and all the cuddling did me good. I love when babies fall asleep in my arms. (I just don't love the poopy diapers and the crying and no I am not having kids)

So thank you for letting me have a day of love, warmth, and fun with my family. I know there are tons of pictures out there. My mom probably took the most of them. So eventually I will have pictures to capture the day and the food if I want but for the first time I can honestly say being with my family was way more important to me then eating all the food in the world. The food was good, but family is so much BETTER.

I love you all!

It’s Christmas!

Well Christmas officially arrived today because we got a new washer and dryer. Totally spoiled! I love my new LG washer and dryer. The features rock. I am so excited for steam – no more ironing. Well I never iron anyways but hopefully I look put more together.

We went with white because it was cheaper and I think that in 5 years white will still be popular while any other color (hello RED) may not hold up as well.

I am also able to do a allergen cleaning on the washer that is supposed to help with allergies (for you mom)!

I am off  - I have so much to do before Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and spends a lot of time with those you love.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Memories

So this week has not been the best week for me. In fact I had a bad experience at school and work this week. They are pretty much over now but instead of dwelling on them I would rather blog about something else. The truth is though that we went Christmas shopping yesterday so in order to avoid ruining someone’s surprise I can’t really tell you about the great day yesterday either. So instead I am taking you down memory lane. One of my fellow Provo High graduates posted a video of a school assembly from 1993-1994 and that got me thinking of memories. So I dug up my old pictures and decided to share some with you.

There were many good times at my Grandma Davis’ house. Always fun to ride the bikes and play with the cousins. I just don't remember the whole story of how my brother ended up with the car on his head. But I have a feeling it has to do with Mariah and Kevin …fighting ???? Maybe someone can refresh my memory? Anyways every time I see it I laugh. My brother is always making me laugh. Every one needs someone like that in their life.

The next picture I decided to share is from one of the Memorial days. Every Memorial day we would get together as the Davis clan and go around to the all the cemeteries to visit families graves and look for bird nests (oh and see the ice sculptures). In  this picture is (left to right) my Grandpa Davis, me, Aunt Anita, Cousin John, Grandma Davis and my mom. I picked this picture because my cousin John is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Germany and I was going to share it with him. (One scan =2 uses). Plus I think this is one picture I am not afraid to share of me. Not too crazy hair or wild clothes.

One last pictures of the Davis clan having fun on the porch. We were playing the penny/flour game. So many good times! I won’t name all the cousins because some of them may want to remain unnamed.

I have to also post some good times with the Warnick’s as I spent just as many great times at the farm. I also feel like I have to do my brother justice and post a picture of his face. He is a cutie although he looked so young at 19. This is at the airport with Grandma Warnick before he left to fly to Russia.

The Warnick Christmas parties always included good food and fun games. I totally have a craving for sugar cookies, homemade rolls, and Grandma Warnick’s Chocolate cake. I thought this picture was great especially now that my dad tells me Brianna is at the stage where she wants to hang out with her friends now. See at one point she was fine hanging out with us cool people. She may have been only 2 or 3 but still ….

And to end the memory lane a picture of Christmas. I love Christmas. There is something so magical about all the decorations and trees and parties. I love all of the festivities. I really was lucky growing up because every one made Christmas so special.

Thanks for taking the time to stroll with me. I hope everyone takes the time this season to pull out their old photos and videos and relive the memories.

What is your favorite season/memory?

Windows 7 and Windows Live Writer

My husband updated my computer to Windows 7. I have to say I like the simpler and cleaner aspect of Windows 7 compared to Vista. My laptop also seems to be running faster and smoother so that is exciting. Less time to boot up means more time for me to enjoy reading my favorite blogs and chillin on facebook. Thank you Bruce for ordering Windows 7 for me and for installing it while I was at work.

I made another discovery last week. I discovered Windows Live Writer. It makes blogging especially with pictures so much easier and faster. This will definitely make it less stressful to blog. Now I just have to remember to take more pictures.

In other exciting news, I got a 90 on my test last week in my accounting class. I only have 1 month of classes left and then finals. 2009 is going to be ending before I know it. I even registered for my spring classes yesterday. Now I just have to finish my class presentation, write a 12 page paper, and make it through 2 finals to be able to relax and not stress in a month. Oh and somehow find time to work and fly out to Utah for Thanksgiving. Busy but fun times!

Two-Ingredient Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze

I came across a really easy recipe for a pumpkin cake while browsing blogs and since it was low in fat decided it would a great treat. The only ingredient I was missing was the apple cider which I found at the St. Pete market yesterday. It also gave the perfect opportunity to try my new Kitchen Aid hand mixer. As for the hand mixer, I give it 5 out of 5 stars. I have been using a $5 hand mixer from Wal-Mart that is loud not very powerful. So this is a great change.But back to the cake, there is a glaze as well that only has these three ingredients.

Two-Ingredient Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze

For the Cake:
1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree
For the Glaze:
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons apple cider
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Empty the contents of the boxed cake mix and pumpkin puree into a large bowl.  Using a hand-mixer or stand mixer beat until well incorporated.  The batter will be very thick, but will come together nicely. (Try beating for 2-3 minutes)
Pour batter into a greased  7 x 11 X 2 pan.  This is the small, rectangular-sized pan from your Pyrex set.  You know, the set you had to have when you got married and rarely ever used all the pieces.  Finally, you have a use for it. I used cupcakes because I didn’t have this size of pan. I greased the liners well and filled to 3/4 fill.
Bake at 350 degrees for 28 minutes 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Do not over bake. I under baked mine to make it gooey and moist. If you over bake because there is no oil you are going to end up with dry nasty hockey pucks.
Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan, then flip onto a platter.
Make the glaze while you're waiting.
Combine powdered sugar, apple cider and pumpkin pie spice.  Glaze should be thick but pourable.  Add more sugar or cider if needed.  Pour over the cake while still warm.  Reserve some to pour over each slice when served. To get glaze incorporated into the cupcakes I took a knife and punched a whole into each middle and used all the glaze . This way the glaze flavoring was in the middle of the cupcake and that was the best part.
Serve warm or room temperature.

Above is a picture of the cupcakes after I took them out of the oven. They didn’t rise a lot so I am glad I filled the cupcake liners as much as I did.

The final product. Bruce and I had 2 each. They are really good and I can’t believe how easy they were. Can’t wait to have another one!

As always you can find the recipe here as well as all my other recipes of what I am cooking. Springpadit.com makes it so much easier to keep track of my recipes, search, make weekly meal plans and grocery lists. Plus you can follow people so feel free to create your own account and follow me. You know I will be adding a lot of yummy recipes during December when I get out of school.