Give Thanks

Mug Cake to the Rescue!

After indulging in wonderful sugar highs over the Halloween season like little kids, McKay and I gradually returned to healthier diets like good adults.  However, despite our best efforts, we occasionally revert back to Mr. & Mrs. Cookie Monster longing for just one more little cookie, or a few, or just the whole batch, no biggie!  That's when mug cakes came to the rescue!  They are reasonably-sized cakes that cook in just minutes and are oh, so delectable!  They only take 5-10 minutes tops and hit the spot when those waves of chocolate lust hit.

Here's the recipe, in case you want to try it out.  Do it!  You won't regret it.  

...Or maybe you will after you can't stop, but your tastebuds definitely won't. 

I can't take credit for this recipe, it's from Pinterest. 

Chocolate Caramel Mug Cake

Ingredients: {makes 1 mug cake in a regular sized coffee mug}
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg – beaten
3 tablespoons skim milk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2-4 spoonfuls of caramel*

1. Mix all the dry ingredients well in the mug, then add the wet ingredients.
2. Drop the caramel in the middle of the mixture, then cook in the microwave for a minute and a half on high.  If still gooey add increments of 30 seconds until it is cooked all the way.

*You can easily make your own caramel by cooking a can of sweetened condensed milk (still sealed in the can with label removed) for 8 hours in a crock pot on low.  Simply submerge the can completely in water before cooking.

Modern day miracle - I think so!

The first time I made this I doubled it so I could share with McKay, but

I may or may not have eaten it all.

I may have.

I did. 

Don't worry though.

As any good wife should, I made more for McKay as soon as he got home, not that it was hard or anything.  I love how simple and fast it is!

McKay loved it too and gobbled it all up!

Happy Microwaving!

Knott's Merry Farm

For Veterans Day I wanted to find a memorable event that McKay and I could attend in commemoration of those that have served our country.  I was hoping for something like a parade or even a military museum, but remained open to any traditional events of the area.  After hours of research I found the perfect activity and called up McKay to tell him what I had planned.  In discussing the particulars and how wonderful it would be a pause came on McKay's end...  I asked him what was wrong?  "Well...I don't have school off," he hesitantly mumbled.  

-This was a very sad moment for Marielle- 

In my despair, I remembered seeing an offer to military members that I thought might just barely take the sting out of McKay having to work on Veterans Day.  The offer extended until Thanksgiving and the facility may have been so generous as to let us in for free!  

Yeah for Knott's Berry Farm!

Or rather, Knott's Merry Farm now!

We were some of the first people in line.

Here's McKay giving the stink eye to anyone silly enough to try and cut in front of us in line.

...Or maybe that was directed at me for taking so many pictures before we even got into the park.  I was a little overexcited!

This is the opening of the doors...(Oh, it was like Christmas!)

...And then we were off!
We ran, more like skip-ran with joy to the Xcelerator.
Here was the line.

We rode the Xcelerator two times in a row as the only passengers!  It was beautiful! 

 So beautiful in fact, that it brought tears to my eyes!

This roller coaster rockets you to 82 mph in 2.3 seconds, then sends you up this sky-reaching incline.  Now that's fast!  I could have sworn that my skin had peeled right off and that whatever was holding my breakfast, yea, it was gone too.  

Before we got to the park I kind of mentioned to McKay that I might scream a little bit while on the rides.  You know, just a little.  McKay shrugged and said, "cool!"  However, after this ride, McKay looked at me in astonishment and said, "You're THAT girl!"  "What do you mean, I'm THAT girl?" I replied.  "You're the one that everyone can hear no matter where you are in the park!"  So, there you have it folks, I'm THAT girl.  I tried to warn him, didn't I?

We continued to rush to all the best rides in the park, riding 8 of our 10 within the first hour and a half.  After about the 4th ride I could barely walk from all the adrenaline coursing through my body.

My favorite ride was the Silver Bullet.  It's the kind where your feet dangle and you feel like Superman if you hold your arms out in front of you, at least I thought so.

When the lines started getting longer we grabbed lunch at Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant, started by Mrs. Knott's herself, and then moseyed on through the Western-themed part of the park.

We figured we should ride one last roller coaster before heading home.  

It was called the Ghost Rider.

Yeah, sounds fun right?  

False.  

We soon found out that it should have been called Pain Rider!  

Man, those wooden roller coasters jerk you around!

To wind down after all the thrills of the day we enjoyed a wonderful meal with friends at a birthday celebration!

I guess it wasn't all bad that McKay worked on Veterans Day after all.

Dinner and a Show

It's concertizing time!

Following in the footsteps of both our families' musical traditions, McKay and I have magically emerged as the McTrapp Family this holiday season (Minus the fighting, and wailing and gnashing of teeth enjoyed during rehearsals in McKay's household - McKay's mom was a saint to run rehearsals with seven children!)  That's right, besides being a PhD student, aspiring Top Gun, and awesome husband, McKay is a very talented and accomplished cellist.  So, from now until the end of this year, we have been invited to play in a variety of performances, ranging from solos to 45 minute programs.  We couldn't be more honored or excited!  Music is something near and dear to our hearts that lifts our spirits and renews our souls, so bring on the concerts!

 Since I played a solo for this evening's performance, McKay, bless his heart, was so sweet to make dinner while I got ready for the concert.

What a gourmand, eh!  I guess it helps that he lived in Italy for a while.  It was so yummy!  I'm grateful McKay decided to cook again despite his little mishap in the kitchen.

After getting all dolled up we snapped a few shots before the performance...

(Yea, those jackets definitely came off right after these pictures! -- It's still not cold here!)

And then we were off!

...And here's the part where you enjoy the photos from the performance with me up on stage gently resting my hand on the harp preparing to bow...wait a minute...ok, we may have forgotten to take photos at the performance!  Lucky for you, we remembered upon returning home after the performance, so here is the glamorous shot of me wheeling in my harp.  

I guess we were chatting it up a bit too much...No, actually, I think the refreshments afterwards was our real hang up - I love after performance food!  At least the performance went great and all the individual performers were amazing!  Great job everyone!  

Just so you guys know, in case you didn't, McKay really is the best!  As I said, he made me dinner AND helped me move my harp!  What a guy!  I'm so grateful to his sister too for training him to move harps because he is a pro now!  There's nothing more attractive than a harp-movin' husband!

Mmmm...I love this man!

Proud to Be a Military Wife(y)

This Veterans Day is significant, not only because it has a cool date of 11/11/11, but because it is the first that I can celebrate being "in" the military.  I have anticipated this honor for quite some time and couldn't be more delighted to hold the title of Military Wife! (or Military Wifey as McKay would say)  

On this day I want to share my deepest appreciation and respect to all the service men and women who fight for the freedoms I have the privilege of enjoying.  What an honor it is to be an American!  And to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice, I offer my most humble and solemn thank you, for everyone knows that freedom is not free, and you have paid the ultimate price. 

 This picture was taken during McKay's graduation week.

(something that I will have to blog about later)

Below is McKay with his father at USAFA - Two military men I love and am Oh, so proud of!

A few days after we were married, McKay and I headed up to Hill Air Force Base to register me in DEERS, officially making me a military wife.

It was a very happy day!  Can you tell?

I always loved a man in uniform and am grateful that I have one to call my own!  

And a very handsome one at that!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Super Saturday

Once a year my ward holds an ultimate arts and crafts/service day filled with delicious food, treats, classes and service projects, but best of all - its just for ladies!  

As Phyllis from The Office says, "I love girl talk!" and there was most definitely a lot of that goin' on!

We learned how to make Oreo pops!

 I'm totally doing these for one of our kid's birthday parties.  These were so fun to make!

Then, a Scottish lady taught us how to make authentic British scones and quick raspberry jam (We're talking like 20 minutes for both!)
They just melted in your mouth.  Mmmmm... 

The wee Scottish Lass taught us an awesome trick that I want to share with y'all.  So, who here has ever used a pastry cutter.  Yea, that one contraption that seems pretty cool until you start using it, and all the butter gets clumped onto it and makes your arm tired in about 2.5 seconds.  That ridiculous thing is why I never make pastries, until now!  

Here's the trick, and it is so simple!  Freeze the butter, then grate it (while still frozen) on a large setting and store until needed.  That's it!  The little bits of frozen butter will mix in with the dry ingredients as though you had used the abominable pastry cutter.  Try this, I dare you!  You can use it for biscuits, pie crusts, scones or anything that requires butter to be cut into dry ingredients.  Ew, which reminds me of the even worse option of trying to cut the butter in with knives!  When you throw out your pastry cutter for good you can give me a call and we'll celebrate.

My favorite class of the day was learning how to make these monsters of deliciousness!

Let me introduce you to the Monster Caramel Apple!

Why are they called Monster Caramel Apples?  Well, because the apples are huge to begin with, but mostly because they have not two, but 4 layers of deliciousness:

1) Caramel

2) Toffee Bits

3) Chocolate (it must be Ghirardelli Chocolate, darn!)

4) And last but not least, Pecans

I'm already craving one!

This next lady introduced us to the wonderful delight of Mocktails, which are simply cocktails without alcohol.  These drinks are perfect for us since we don't drink alcohol in our faith, but would be great for any family friendly event with kids and pregnant ladies.  I love how she put it, "Just because we are Mormon doesn't mean we can't have fancy and yummy drinks!"

I totally agree sister!  This particular one had ginger, cinnamon and lemon zest in it, but in others she used spices like cardamom, star anise and even black pepper in one!  They were all out of this world good!

By the way, if anyone is interested in any of the recipes from the above classes, I would love to get them to you.

They had many, many other crafts that I didn't have time for, but the last one I did was the...

You start by painting your blocks and picking your decorative paper sides...

then mod podge it all on, remembering to add your letters and numbers and...

 

Voilà!  Fun Advent Calendar!

And remember only...

WOO HOO!