Found in Fishers

Random Thought

When I first moved to Fishers, I was very organized about making nice meals for people coming in town to visit. I would do plenty of shopping ahead of schedule and try new recipes. Having slumber parties was new. It was quite the novelty to have weekend guests. I don't cook quite as much as I use to but I do continue to make my now famous coffee cake.

One of my favorite recipes is a super simple coffee cake. I was watching the food channel and came upon it. You basically take a Rhodes bread loaf and let it thaw in a plastic bag sprayed with non-stick spray. I put mine out the night before and wake up to bread that is already proofed.

 I roll the dough out on my special cutting board that has gutters to hold the dough in a rectangle and put in a filling. My favority flavor is prune. Yup, prune. If you have a strong aversion to prunes, I won't tell you that I used prune filling until you tell me how delicious it is.

I used this trick on my future chef Mark. I made two batches of prune coffee cake with cream cheese icing. I know my sister and mom knew what flavor it was but I decided that I would not tell anyone else. Lots of positive comments about how this was my best coffee cake. Then the reveal. Prune.

Prune filling cannot be found in the Fishers area, at least I cannot find it. I did get a call today from Mom that she picked some up for me at her grocery store. Mark will be quite happy, prune coffee cake later this month.

Just for Fun

When the family came for a visit over the holidays, it was definitely a perfect time to spend the afternoon bowling day. We hoped to go downtown and do some duck pin bowling but those lanes closed earlier than we could get there. Instead we went to the local bowling alley, Pinheads.

Liam got bumpers but no one else. Sad, nobody broke 100. Since the boys were off playing arcade games while we were registering to bowl I decided that I would give the boys "special" bowling names to be placed publicly on the scoreboard. Mark was Smurf and Nick was Pooky.

Mom and I decided to be part of the audience. I am nursing a sciatic nerve pain and did not want to irritate it. Mom, arthritis. We had more fun watching them all bowl. There was no technique. No style. No special moves. Lots of fun.

It is very interesting to spend time with two older boys. There were lots of rude comments; inappropriate jokes and gross discussion. Guess they are not likely to change anytime soon and that is just fine with me. Loved having my oldest nephew Nick on holiday leave from the army. I look forward to seeing him again in the summer. In the meantime I have lots of photographic evidence to mail him in his care packages this year.

You think we really need a reason to buy a cake?

While my holiday guests were in town, we got to talking about cake. That tends to be my sister's favorite food and subject. It did not take long before we decided to go and buy a cake.

I thought it would be nice for us to try a cake from the local establishment, Taylor's Bakery. As we were driving to go and pick one up, we got to laughing that we had to have some kind of reason, no matter how lame, to buy a cake and celebrate. We decided on the fact that Liam recently got his striped yellow belt in Karate.

While in Taylor's Bakery, my sister was beyond excited that they had a large selection of donuts and quickly eyed some with white icing. She inquired about the filling and to her surprise it was her favorite, Frosted Raspberry Jelly donuts. She was delighted and bought a half dozen for the next day's breakfast.

We took in the information about several different cakes and settled on a Lemon Ganache. It only made sense since we were celebrating Liam's yellow belt and the cake was yellow.

For dinner that evening, we each had a piece of cake. It was amazing and delicious. Not only did it have a butter cream filling but also lemon. I am not sure what they use to create the ganache on the outside but we deducted it was likely a white chocolate. OMG was it really good. What a great reason to buy and eat cake.

A Boy, a Sister, a Grandma, and a Soldier

What a great couple of days! My sister, mom, Liam and another nephew Nick came to town to spend some time with me and the kids. Nick has been on a brief leave from the Army where he is stationed in Monterrey, CA. I have not seen him for a while so it was a real treat to have him spend time with us.

I decided that the best way to provide time for all the cousins to hang out with their age differences was to create opportunities for them to be together while at the same time let the "big" kids have time to do things they wanted to do that might not be appropriate for a nine year old.

One such activity was going to the new trampoline park in Fishers. Skyzone recently opened in town. My friend Katie shared the idea with me as her son has been a regular since it opened just a few weeks ago. What a really cool place to go and have fun. I went a few days earlier to buy the tickets to be sure we could get in. That turned out to be a good idea because they are very busy; partially because the place is new but also because all the local kids are on winter break.

Once we got in, we were hoping to leave the kids and go to the mall but Liam jammed his thumb playing dodge ball so we stayed to be sure everything was ok.

The place has several locations the kids could jump. There was a dodge ball area for bigger kids and one for little kids only. Liam wanted to play with the big kids as did some other boys. It was a lot more intense than the other game which is how Liam jammed his thumb. A ball came whizzing by and as he tried to catch it, it caught his thumb. He was not a happy camper and sat out for a bit. However, it was not long before he was back again and in the big kid game. 

There was an area with a large number of different sized trampolines all a part of the "floor". The kids tooks turns bouncing off the walls. Liz liked this area best because she could do flips. There was also a place that you bounced right into a foam pit. That was pretty funny because it was hard to get out.

Sarah, my mom and I did plenty of people watching. Jeeze you should have seen some of the outfits we saw there. I thought knee-hi socks with short shorts went out of style? There were also people of all ages. The people with the most interesting clothing styles were those waiting on their kids. There were a couple woman sitting waiting for their children up on the trampoline deck putting on make-up! These were grown women not teenaged girls. I figured if you were silly enough to do that in front of so many people than you get to have your picture on my blog. You can tell the Skyzone monitor found it a bit odd as well.

The last area was a place where you could jump and dunk a basketball. I don't remember seeing Mark or Nick try it. Liz and Liam however really need some practice. They sure looked silly and basically just tossed the ball while jumping rather than slam dunking.

We had a two hour pass which was long enough. Everyone was exhausted but had an outstanding time. We went home so the kids could shower and we ate lunch. I prepared several meals prior to my guests coming which turned out to be very convenient. It was not long after eating the big boys went off to skeet shoot.

White Christmas Extraordinary Holiday Stocking

My sister sets herself up to be my blogging subject. So she did not disappoint at Christmas.

She loves pandas so finding anything with a panda on it can be the perfect gift. My nephew likes penguins. Anything with penguins. That made things easy for his Christmas stocking as well. I once again am looking for some type of theme that I can live with. She decided on one for my stocking. "White Christmas"

This was a stretch. A real stretch. When she presented me with my stocking. This presentation started with a song that she made up to go along with "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas". Along with the lyrics came some matching gifts. Sarah, stick to your day job :)

White Christmas Extraordinary Holiday Stocking

Gifts given in (). 

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas, Just in time to have a drink. (Got a bottle of wine)

Where the birds are flying. (Angry Birds pencil topper)

and you are lying to hear bubbles in the tube (this is how she spells tub) Gotta know her, she just cannot spell and obviously spellcheck does not always work. Love her! (Soap and bath sponge)

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas. With every cholocate that I lick. (white chocolate)

May your cakes be yummy and removable (not sure what that rhymes with)(spatulas)

And may all your pops have a stick! (cake pop sticks)

In addition to these goodies I did get a Baby Cakes machine. It makes cake pops without having to smash the cake with icing. I am thinking they will be a perfect treat for this week.

I am on vacation this week, taking some time off to prepare for my upcoming guests. In just a couple days I will get one young nephew, a grandmother, a middle aged sister and her husband, a soldier boy, 3 extra dogs, and friends from Michigan City all staying at our house. I can't wait, we will have a blast!

Inaugural Soon to be Annual Ugly Sweater Contest

I work in a wonderful place. We work hard together but also take time out to enjoy and support each other. This month we had a breakfast to celebrate the first semester and the holidays.

I thought that being the newbie I would start a new contest. I asked my colleagues to wear an ugly sweater. Yah, I know that seems to be the in thing to do around the holidays but I wanted in on the fun and asked everyone to wear their favorite ugly sweater.

I have not laughed so hard in a really long time. Actually brought me to tears. One sweater looked like a poodle lost its life to be the accessory. Another as so small that it had to be stretched and pulled just to get on the guy. What was especially funny was he ironed on an image of another colleague and had a bag of fake hair we could glue on the head if we so chose to.

The weird thing about asking school-type people to wear an ugly sweater is that these are the kinds of sweaters that are still being worn in schools across America. Educators have a unique way of dressing, especially those that work with elementary students. What was ugly at the breakfast was likely to be in fashion back at the school. 

Fun was had by all and I look forward to this being a part of our annual event!

Finally the Big Day Arrived

My new arrival is not going to be as exciting to all of you as it was for me and Mark today. We finally got our new gas range!

This has been a project we have been working on since summer. I was a bit distracted with getting school started and then with changing jobs. Fortunately Mark took the lead during the last month to see that this project was finished up and now done.

When we built the house in Fishers, I thought that I wanted a ceramic cooktop electric range. My thought was how much cleaner it looked and how much easier it was to keep clean. Well, that it is. Cleaner looking but quite honestly I have hated it since day one. I just have not been able to get use to the way it cooked and missed a flame. I have not been able to toast tortillas or scald butter. I cannot use iron skillets or griddles. When Mark started culinary school he too found that cooking on electric was just a pain.

We started to look at a new gas range. Went to several locations, did an internet search. Our favorite turned out to be the GE profile with the convection oven and the second lower oven. He was interested in an oven that would help proof his dough and he loved the automatic meat thermometer and the built in griddle. I wanted a gas range and decided I did like the convection feature. After looking around we decided on the stainless version. We liked it because it had a lot of black which would match our other appliances or if one day we updated to all stainless it would be fine too.

Late summer I pulled out the range and to my disappointment I found that we lacked a gas connection. I swore I had it put in as an extra because I was tentative about using electric. Nope. Needed to get a quote and get that installed. It cost twice as much as I expected but I am ok with that. Then, last weekend while looking at the online owner's manual it dawned on me that we also needed an electric outlet.

Mark's suggestion to handle the electric outlet was drill holes through the back of the cabinets to plug under the sink. I explained that was not going to happen so I sat at the kitchen table with my iPad searching for Indianapolis electricians when I came across Service Magic. It is an online resource to look for services.  Not 15 minutes later, I got a call, set up an appointment to get a quote on Monday and had the new outlet installed on Tuesday.

The next problem was dealing with the hilarious paint job. Check out the picture. When I pulled out the range, I noticed that instead of painting behind the range the painter went around the range. Needless to say, Wednesday we painting night.     

Here it is! I am so excited. Merry Christmas to myself! It was worth all the hassle. Check out the middle burner. It has a griddle to add so we are having pancakes this weekend! I love to cook but will love it even more now with my new range. Mark is just as excited. He already has plans for what he will be cooking. I think we are looking at every Thursday. So, mark you calendar and come on over for some of Mark's weekly homework. When you eat homework the calories should not count, right?

Much to be Thankful For

I have so much to be thankful for however I am most thankful for my awesome new job! I love it and the people I work with. I am back doing full time what I love the most, curriculum, curriculum, and curriculum. I am so lucky to go to work and love what I do. This month went by so fast as did all the weekends.

I decided to stay in Fishers for Thanksgiving. Mark had to work at 11:00 PM as Frye's was opening at midnight. John, Mark, and Liz all had to work on Friday. So me, well I relaxed and totally enjoyed my four day weekend. 

Thursday started with me watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in my jammies with a great cup of coffee. I really missed my sister though because we like to watch it together. That part was a bummer. Last year we texted back and forth that entire morning. I also spent the morning preparing dinner. I decided on a 20 lb turkey because I really wanted left overs.

With a culinary arts student in the house you would think I had little cooking to do but I gave him the day off since he had to work that night. I made my version of Mom's cranberries. They were good but her's are so much better. I think anything someone makes tastes better than my own. Made regular and sweet potatoes and of course green bean casserole.

Friday I was having a cleaning frenzy. Lots done including the carpets getting cleaned. I was not going to go out shopping on Black Friday with those crazy crowds looking and potentially buying things I really do not need or were not even on my list. So started with some jammie time, cleaning and a pedi. It was a treat since I was the only one home.

Saturday we drove to Michigan City for Levi's birthday party. He is one! That is always fun. He was not feeling well and turned out has an ear infection. It was great to see our friends from Michigan City and enjoy the day.

I actually went to work feeling very refreshed. I did have a hard time falling asleep Sunday night. That often occurs as I over sleep on long weekends and it messes my sleep pattern and I accumulate too much. Drats December is almost here and so will the snow.

Time for Cake

Over the weekend, my two brothers, sister and I hosted a special dinner to celebrate Mom's and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary. Mark took the weekend off to cook and help us prepare for the meal. My mom's sister, Marilyn, and her husband Dave also joined us in the celebration. They celebrated their 50th Anniversary last year.

The morning started with Mark making his famous homemade rolls. They are so amazing! One sheet came out a bit too brown for his liking so Sarah and I had to have them for lunch. What a pity. We also spent the morning running errands prior to meeting at my parent's home to make dinner. Sometimes we buy the goofiest things when we are together. I bought light and tulip bulbs :)

Mom and Dad posed together for their special day with her wedding veil. It was in great shape for being 50 years old. Everyone took a turn trying it and Grandma's mink stole from the wedding while waiting for the food to cook. 

Sarah's house is a bit too small for the expected company so we went to Mom's. The inspiration for the meal was a pear jello that Sarah had a taste for. Sarah bought a spiral cut ham, we made party potatoes, a relish tray, deviled eggs, and corn. Mark made an amazing red cabbage side dish that he was afraid most would not eat. It was gone! Red cabbage, bacon, braised in wine. As a matter of fact there were not many left overs of any kind.

The highlight of the party was the cake. Of course, the cake. Sarah ordered it from our favorite bakery, Calumet Bakery. She just asked the bakery to use lavender colored flowers and that it was for a 50th wedding anniversary. It was just amazing. It had a beautiful bouquet of icing flowers in the center and sparkling edible glitter. A white cake with raspberry filling. Wow, that is all I can say about the way it looked and tasted. 

My youngest nephew Devin showed up all dressed in his tie. He picked it out to wear to the party. He was adorable. At one point he thought
it was a birthday party for his grandmother. We kept trying to explain it was an anniversary but he is too young to understand and just wished grandma a Happy Birthday asking where the candles were. He was the life of the party because he has such a contagious laugh. To add to it, it is easy to get him to laugh. 

Happy Corn Day

As I have previously posted, my sister is obsessed with pandas. So much so she buys almost anything that has a panda on it. She even had a panda-themed birthday party. We all feed this frenzy by purchasing her just about everything we find that has a panda on it. My last purchase was a panda lunch box I found in Minneapolis.

This week she had a cake at work. I know, you are not surprised. She does indeed find just about any occasion to have a cake. But this cake was a special one because she and her co-workers were celebrating the first birthday of the baby panda at the Atlanta zoo. After all it was this particular panda that started the craze. 

While I often tease her about this obsession, I also shared with her my envy so she decided to have a themed birthday for me too. The problem was it was ridiculous. Corn.

So the story goes on this week and she texts me a picture of this birthday cake for the panda and I am feeling that jealousy again about not having a theme to celebrate. She quickly responds wishing me Happy Corn Day. What?

Well, according to my sister, Christopher Columbus discovered corn in the Americas on November 5th, 1492 and that it is an actual holiday. I of course asked her to get me a cake which she responded I needed to make corn bread with the special iron mold she gave me. I did not but I did go grocery shopping today and got quite a Corn Day surprise.

While at Kroger I filled out a raffle ticket for one of many specialty baskets they had as they were previewing some holiday foods. Tonight I was called and I won the Popcorn Basket! I was quite surprised but laughed out loud because it was a corn themed gift on Corn Day. It is a nice popcorn bucket with all kinds of candy treats, nuts, beef jerky and popcorn along with the new Cars 2 movie. I feel pretty luck to have won on this special holiday. Off to pop some corn.