July 20, 2010

My Morning Star Burger

A couple weeks ago, the week of my birthday to be exact, I took Thursday off to work on homework. I lead an exciting life people. I took a break and went to Trader Joe’s to get lunch and a couple other things. I decided to try a few new things in the freezer section. One of those things was Morningstar Farms® Tomato & Basil Pizza Burgers.

mspizzaburg
I’d never had a Morningstar burger, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but OMG you guys this is my new favorite dinner. It may have something to do with the toppings I added, but if the burger was gross, the toppings wouldn’t save it, right?

burgertogether
Wanna know what I put on it?
 MStarBUrgers  
I took our left-over heirloom tomatoes and made a relish…

minihertoms

HTomRelish TomatoRelish 
Toppings
Hubs melted the mozzarella on top, while the burgers were still on the grill. Once it was ready we just piled it all on and enjoyed.

burgerbothhalves 
I felt weird not to put ketchup or mustard on my burger, but with the tomato and the cheese it doesn’t need it.

What are your favorite burger toppings?

July 16, 2010

Five for Friday

Previous Fridays

1 - You surprised me for my birthday and took me to a fancy Marriott in Indian Wells for my birthday.

2 - You keep researching houses in Austin, even though we can't move for 1.5 more years.

3 - You're as excited as I am that I'll be done with class for the summer, on Monday night.

4 - You're the best snuggler

5 - You're fun on car trips :)

July 9, 2010

Embracing 30th

Today is my 30th Birthday!


It's weird to say that I'm 30. I remember when I was 9 and 16 seemed like a lifetime away, then 21 to drink, and 24 to rent a car etc. Now, there is not mistaking it - I'm an adult.

Unlike a lot of my friends, I'm actually really excited to be turning 30. Many people my parents age have told me their 30s where the best time of their life and I can feel the next 10 years are going to be exciting. I'm going to graduate college, pursue a career I'm really excited about, explore the world with my husband, try to make that world a better place, get dog, buy a house, have children...

Hubs is taking me on a mini vacay to Indian Wells (Palm Springs) today. I'm hoping to eat yummy food, drink tasty drinks and lay by the pool. I'm also hoping to squeeze in some shopping ;-)

Are/were you excited about turning 30? or does it freak you out?

July 6, 2010

4th of July Flag Cake

I mentioned on the last Five for Friday that Hubs offered to help me make this flag cake.

cake


Last week my friend Laura of Happy Hour With a Housewife, posted this flag cake on her Facebook wall. I showed it to Hubs and there was no 'bringing guacamole instead'. The deal, however, was that I needed him to help me, because, HELLO, this looks involved Kids! (I totally overused commas in that last sentence huh? All my readers with English majors just hit ‘unsubscribe’… although, if you’re still here after all the other messed up sentences I’ve posted before, you must be used to it by now).

So, anywhoodle, Sunday morning (because why not wait until the last minute) I went to the store to buy 2 boxes of white cake mix. If you’ve been following my blog for awhile you know that I like to make things from scratch, when I can, box cake wasn’t my first choice. I just knew it would be easier and make to correct amount of cake I needed. Guess what? I wasn’t the only one who wanted white cake mix for the 4th of July. Crazy huh? That was when I decided to bake the cake from scratch and that was also when I decided to spend the entire morning baking and decorating a cake, that later NO ONE WOULD EAT!* But I’ll get there…

For the best directions on how to construct the cake So Wonderful, So Marvelous and read this post. Here is the diagram she, and her friend Stephanie, made to show how the cake is constructed.

HowToCake

There are also a couple of pictures posted on the process. I, of course, didn’t take any pictures of my process. I should have though because at my house there were many different sized bowl, a scale and math involved… FAR TOO MUCH MATH! and in the end, I didn’t bake enough blue.

HalfCake
See I don’t have 2 layers (1-red, 1-white) next to my blue, because my blue was too small. However, it still looks like a flag and no one at the party knew it was supposed to look better. So, GO US! Also, Hubs, who isn’t a big ‘cake person’ raved about how tasty it was – so I’m pretty proud of that. Take THAT, box cake :)

Which cake recipe did I use? I very very slightly altered this one and made 3 batches, although I would recommend making 4.

Click Recipe to Enlarge


Which frosting recipe did I use? I very very slightly altered this one.
Click Recipe to Enlarge

This was by far the best Cream Cheese Frosting I’ve every made. I credit the Crisco. Since, I can’t use butter because of the Hubs tummy, I had been using margarine. The Crisco makes it much fluffier and tastier.

I added some fresh (local and organic) fruit to make it a bit prettier and more festive.

CakeTop
You can see the mess I made of the counter behind. I loaded the cake onto my Wilton Cake Caddy just in time to change into my Red, White & Blue and head out the door.

CakeSide
* Okay, I mentioned no one ate our cake… which isn’t entirely true, but mostly. Our good friends invited us to their friends party in San Diego. Don’t get me wrong here, we had a lot of fun and the Hosts were awesome to have us and their friends were great. But, really how great can they be if they don’t like a flag cake? The more popular cakes present included a store bought hamburger cake, chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles, and chocolate chip cookies. Someone did cut my cake to show off how awesome the inside was, but didn’t eat the slice they cut out. Jane (my Bestie), me and the girl Jane talked into eating my cake where the only people that had a slice at the party. Hubs had to slices yesterday (1 for breakfast and 1 for dinner). I have half this cake left… I’m thinking of bringing it to work tomorrow.

Did you make anything festive for the 4th of July?

July 2, 2010

Five for Friday

Previous Fridays

1 - You talked me down from the ledge when I thought someone may have stolen the information to steal my identity and helped me notify every agency and send all the letters to save my butt, just in case.

2 - You said you'd help me make this cake for the 4th of July


3 -You bought us Tofurky Italian Sausage, and it was TASTY!

4 - You left me the parking spot last night.

5 - We've changed a lot since we've been married, for the better and it's been together :)

 

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