rockies game!

We also went to a Rockies game on Saturday and here are a few pictures from that...

Pictures from the Rockies Game

They lost but we still had fun. And I got to eat nachos with extra jalapenos. YUM.
We rode the Light Rail to Denver from Orchard Station which I would definitely recommend doing if you are going to the game. It is so much easier to just park and ride the train than to go downtown and find parking and deal with traffic.

Puppy Party!

Well, we survived the Puppy Party! On Sunday we had 11 dogs at our house, 9 of which were Labs. Charlie and Toby turned 1 so we thought it would be fun to have everybody over. Valeen (Toby's owner mom) and I made a ton of treats for dogs and humans. We had a great time watching all the dogs play. I don't think there is too much else to say. Probably the hit of the party was little miss Belle who is Daron and Rachael's new Golden Retriever puppy!

You can see pictures here…

Puppy Party 2009

Whole wheat Wednesday

So the V is backwards. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to switch it around. I probably will but it will take some time to get that high on my list again. J

I've been doing a lot of baking lately and would you believe I didn't take any pictures to show you. We now have homemade biscuits, pita bread, and hamburger buns in the freezer. I can't believe how cheap it is to make this stuff. A note to any of you who would like to do your baking with whole wheat flour instead of white flour…it is very simple to make this switch you just need to buy yourself a little box of Vital Wheat Gluten. You may have tried using all whole wheat flour (wwf) in a previous recipe and it just didn't taste right nor did it have the correct texture. You may be using half white flour and half whole wheat flour to correct this. This is a fine set up but not my preferred way to work. Well my friends, the answer lies in this cute little box.

When you are baking your goods whether it is cookies, bread, biscuits, etc. and have used all wwf without adding gluten or using a high gluten flour, your goods will probably be bitter and very heavy. Almost like the texture and heaviness is too thick to eat. You will want to add in some gluten to give your product more chewiness and what gluten also does is holds together moisture so your baking will be more moist and fresh. The gluten won't add tons of extra carbs but it does add some. While most traditional recipes are created using All-Purpose Flour you can easily substitute wwf as you see fit when you understand how much gluten to add in. They do sell wwf with higher gluten content as well as ww pastry flour but if you are cheap like me you can do it this way.

From what I have been reading and trying to understand, gluten is the protein that works with yeast and helps it to stretch and rise. When you are making any kind of yeast bread adding some gluten to your wwf will make all the difference. In the hamburger bun recipe it uses 3 cups of flour and ¼ cup of gluten. The directions on the box say about 2-3 tsp of gluten to 1 cup of flour so the ¼ cup could probably be reduced a little bit. As you work with wwf and gluten you will see where you need to adjust. When I bake cookies using all wwf I will add just a little bit of gluten (maybe 1 tsp) because I don't want the cookies to be super airy but I also don't want them to be rock hard and a pain to eat. This seems to work well.

I have not yet tried wwf for things like gravy or cream sauces and I don't know if I will…I just always have some all-purpose flour on hand for those types of things. Maybe I will start with the half and half approach and just see what happens.

Do any of you use wwf? Do you use it only for baked goods or all sorts of stuff?

And because I kept using it...

weekend project

Ok, here is the weekend project I worked on a few weeks ago. I started this project after I went to Hobby Lobby to get yarn for a little baby sweater. I grabbed my yarn and then decided to wander the store for some inspiration since Josh was at work. An hour later I left the store with two bags of goodies. OOPS! =) And I also told Josh he wouldn't be able to eat out for a few days.

So in my bag o' goods I had the following: 2 skeins of yarn (for above mentioned sweater), 2 cans of spray paint, 4 wooden letters, sewing machine thread for hemming my pants. I think that was it although now I can't figure out why it took two bags to carry all that few items.

Anyway, I got home and told Josh I would be knitting all night because I did fully intend to do that but then I got trapped in this fun project.

The 4 letters I grabbed at HL were: E, V, L, and O.

What does that spell?

LOVE!

Our bed is that nice shiny bright red so I decided to first give the letters a coat of red spray. After that dried I had also grabbed some metallic copper spray paint and gave them a light dusting with that. Then I nailed a hole through each letter, 2 holes on the V and strung some leftover hemp string through the holes. I knotted the hemp on each side of the hole so that the letters wouldn't slide all over the place and because I'm anal about things being spaced just so. Then I tied two loops at the end of the string and hung those on the wall with some upholstery tacks. I never asked permission to put these things straight into the wall but I figure they leave smaller holes than nails so, who care? As it turns out the paint job looks almost orange which is fine by me. The end goal is to now surround the letters with pictures representing love—most likely wedding pictures and maybe some with friends but it's our bedroom so it seems kind of weird to hang pictures of friends on the wall across from the bed...if you catch my drift.

Here is the almost finished product.

My only question, is the V backwards? I couldn't figure out if it really mattered what side the thick side was on.

biker boys

Ok I got this picture from my mom today along with a few others and it just about killed me it was so cute. This is my nephews again posing with my dad and his bike. I love how Jackson (on the bike) is all squinty in that huge helment and Tucker (being held) seems to be looking for somewhere else to go. And the typical Dad smile just brings a smile to my face. Also notice the gloves that J is wearing. I bet they had fun trying on all their Grandpa's motorcycle gear. I am also about as excited as Jackson to finally see this motorcycle in person. My dad got it not too long ago so we haven't seen him since he got it. I don't know if he has started riding it to church yet but I know he and my mom have been using it and enjoying it quite a bit. I'm envious!

Happy Friday!

ae

then & now

I haven't had much to blog about lately and finally got some inspiration.

This weekend is Charlie's first birthday. Yeah for all you dog haters we are the kind of dog owners who celebrate these things. We will be having a birthday party the following weekend for Charlie and her brother Toby. So in honor of that I thought I would post some photos of Charlie and Toby when they were just little pups and then some of what they look like now. Obviously Charlie is the black lab. Look how stinking cute she is in that picture by herself. She was so TINY! These pictures were taken about 2 weeks before we got her. Toby is the very light yellow lab.

They have gotten much bigger! Toby is definitely bigger than Charlie now although the pictures don't show it very well.

it's a fiesta!

We had our first dinner guests since receiving our fabulous Fiesta Ware so of course I took some pictures of the set up. I don't know what it is about the Fiesta line but I just love the splash of color it adds to a table. There are some times when I truly enjoy eating off of a plain white plate so that will probably be the next addition to our collection. But, the color combinations are so fun. I had to get flowers because my mom said so. :) She was right, they look nice!
To some of you it might be weird that I am so excited about a colorful dining table but Josh and I both just love hosting people and preparing food. With both of those things it is like 80% based on presentation (I think). SO the table and settings really complete the meal. And that, my friends, is why it excites me! Knowing that you prepared a delicious meal and then serving it on a pretty plate is so much fun.

the weekend

We had a very full weekend but it was very fun.
On Friday night we had dinner and bowling with a bunch of friends. We ate dinner at one of our favorite places, had this TO.DIE.FOR. cake, and then went bowling. I got some nice gift cards too, thanks friends! Then on Saturday Josh had to work so I got up early and went to the balloon launch with Lacey and her roommate. Took lots of pictures. It was fun. But very early.
Then went to the farmer's market and got some smokin' deals on produce. So got busy making salsa and cleaning the house up. After I took a 4 hour nap...
Haven't done that in a very long time.
So Sunday we went to church and heard a great sermon. Then went to Josh's parent's house for some carrot cake and to receive my b-day gift from them. Totally cool gift, can't wait to use it. I got an AeroGarden. It is so cool. Put it together this morning though and pump does not work so have to exchange it.
Also, in other gifts I got 2 more place settings of Fiesta Ware and 1 set of fruit dishes. Also, got the towels I was hoping for and a gift card to Target. WooWOoO!
Never have I received this many gifts for my birthday. It was crazy. I am feeling quite overwhelmed today.
So moving on, Sunday after church and gifts we went and played some baseball with Lacey and then napped. Lots of naps this weekend, I enjoyed it. After the nap, anniversary celebration!! We go out for hot wings each month to celebrate so this time was no different. We went to Rock Bottom and watched the CU vs. CSU game while enjoying some wings and Titan Toothpicks. Good stuff, too much grease though.

All in all it was a great weekend!