Randomness

For any of you still hanging in there, checking this blog as if I will keep my promise and write again, I'm back! Thanks for your patience. My Texes PPR test is in two days, hence the reason I'm finally blogging: procrastination. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, not that this will change anytime soon. There were three VERY lovely showers given in honor of Eden's quickly upcoming arrival. Each was unique with very sweet personal touches- we're so blessed by the loving people that are going to be here to greet Eden into this world. The last one was Saturday and it was a Bedtime Story themed shower. They made the dining room table into a bed (sheets, blanket, pillow, teddy bear) and all brought books that were displayed there. Of course the refreshments were milk and cookies :). It was completely adorable and Eden has so many wonderful books now!

The nursery is really starting to come together and I find myself making excuses to spend time in there (reading the books, sifting through her clothes, teaching myself how to use her cloth diapers). My parents picked up the glider and brought it to us yesterday (THANKS!!). Now, the crib is the only furniture we lack. I still have a few more projects to complete involving the decor of the room, but then I promise to post pictures.

Ooohh, one really exciting part of our weekend was that Thomas and my dad went shopping for a firepit while my mother and I attended the shower. S'mores here we come!! We still need to brainstorm a way to get a cooking grill or swinging arm rigged up over it so we can pretend we're not in the middle of the city and cook in our backyard. Just in time for the cooler weather :). If anyone has some delicious chili recipes, I'm all ears.


Cooking again! I've finally gotten into a little bit of a routine being home and dinner time has improved greatly. I made empanadas a year ago that were delicious- slow cooking chicken legs until the meat fell off the bone, combining it with interesting ingredients like cloves and pimento and olives. They were delicious! I've searched for a year for the recipe I used and can't find it, soooo enter empanada trial #2. Thomas thinks these are much better. Although I'm not convinced (mostly because they were much easier and surely all of my previous labor meant something!) they were pretty good. The recipe is a combination of Martha Stewart, recipezaar.com, and Katie tweaks.

I like to serve this with spanish rice and cantaloupe.

ATTENTION:: The below recipe is written for twice as much filling as dough. I froze half of the filling and made dough again a few weeks later. It made dinner really "simple" (this recipe is not a quick one). If you plan to make this just once, half the filling. The dough makes somewhere between 10 - 15 empanadas depending on the size you make them.

• FOR THE FILLING
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 medium onions, finely diced
• 7 oz can dice green chiles
  
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) tomatoes, diced
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 tsp (or more if desired) minced garlic
• diced black olives (optional)
• 
  
• FOR THE DOUGH
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpoBlogger: Baking & Blogging - Create Postse flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup partially frozen butter (cut into small cubes, place the butter cubes in the freezer until ALMOST completely frozen)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup ice water
• 1 tablespoon vinegar

Directions

Dough:

1. In a large bowl sift together flour and salt.
2. Blend in the cold butter cubes using a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal (the mixture should be pea-size).
3. In a small bowl whisk together ONE egg, ice water and vinegar.
4. Add to the flour mixture, stirring with a fork just until incorporated (the mixture will look somewhat lumpy).
5. Transfer the mixture onto a floured surface.
6. Gather the dough together with your hands and gently knead with the heel of your hand once or twice (just enough to bring the dough together, do not overwork the dough or it will be tough!).
7. Form the dough in a semi-flat ball or rectangle.
8. Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour or up to 8 hours.
9. Roll out the dough, then cut into desired size circles.
10. Fill with favorite fillings then close the dough over the filling (see directions below).
11. Brush the ends with an egg wash (one egg beaten with one tablespoon of water) then seal together with a fork.
12. OPTIONAL FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS: If desired, freeze on a baking sheet until firm, 2 hours. Wrap tightly in plastic; freeze in plastic bags.
13. To bake fresh or frozen empanadas, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets. Brush tops with egg wash, avoiding crimped edges. Bake until golden brown, rotating sheets halfway through, 30 to 40 minutes.

Filling:

1. In a large skillet over medium-high, cook meat until no longer pink, breaking it up into small pieces, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Add onion and chiles; cook until soft, 5 minutes. Stir in chili powder, tomatoes, and garlic. Cook over medium until mixture has thickened, 12 to 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool.

Home Sweet Root Beer Covered Home

We're back from our trip to Wheaton- lots of friends, food, and sights. I'll address all of that in a moment, but first, what I know you would rather read about- trip drama! The only mishaps of the trip happened at the end and were seen more as comedy than drama.

Our luggage was included in the 1/5 that did not make it onto the plane from Chicago to Dallas. We were told the luggage would be delivered to our house by a DFW airport employee within 12 hours. 20 hours later I called the info line to find out that the luggage had been flown into Longview and would be delivered to us by that airport- Monday afternoon. Late Monday night I called the info line again to find out that it was sent out Fed-Ex and that it should be delivered today before noon. It's really no big deal; however, all of my casual maternity clothing is in the suitcase! I'm having to dress up for my new job as a stay-at-home-mamma-to-be :).

The more interesting drama happened when we came home on Sunday to discover the Great Root Beer Explosion of 2008. If you hang out with us enough, you may recall hearing about the Great Soy Sauce Spill of 2006, I think we've concluded that this was worse (the only arguing point is that the soy sauce spill ruined fresh baked cookies). A friend recently home-brewed 8 liters of root beer for us (4 2-liter containers). The advice to keep it chilled was not headed as we thought it referred to taste not chemical reactions and 3 of the 4 bottles were left sitting on our bench seat during the duration of our trip. Upon entering the kitchen, I first saw the enormous puddle of semi-dried root beer on the floor. It took me several more minutes to discover that root beer was on the ceiling, 3 of 4 walls, curtains, pictures, bench seat, table, fruit bowl, floor, trashcan, and cabinets. If you're familiar with our kitchen, it basically stopped short of the refrigerator. Once I located several pieces of the bottles it was determined that two of the three had exploded rather violently. Thomas decided the remaining bottle was hazardous, carefully carried it outside, and shot it with his bb gun. The resulting noise sounding like a tire backfiring- drawing neighbors outside of their home at 10pm to inspect what had exploded. Apparently the mushroom cloud of root beer foam was almost as tall as our house.
After two hours of work the next morning the first phase of cleanup was done- but everything is still a little sticky :).

So onto the actual trip- we got to stay with Tommy and Melissa in St Louis: ate breakfast at an awesome greasy spoon and talked to locals who were there when the arch was built, went up in the arch, took a small hike to an excellent view and had a much needed pedicure (both me and Thomas :) ). Next we stopped in on Timus, Nikki, and oh so cute Micah in his little glasses and enjoyed home cooked food (so good on a trip like this) including the BEST homemade ginger snap cookies. The rest of the trip we stayed in a very comfortable B & B close to Wheaton. The first day we took a tour of Wheaton, went to Chapel, and ate at Saga before venturing to the City. In Chicago we went to The Art Institute, ate Giordano's pizza (totally lived up to the hype), and had smores in the Hancock tower at night. The next day was spent at Wheaton- visiting professors and catching up with Thomas' old friends. Sunday, we attended a lecture by a Wheaton Poli-Sci prof on Religion & Politics given at Chris S' church before heading off to the airport, dropping off the minivan (the unmentioned drama of the trip-hehe) and heading back home.

Now that I'm home- it's nose to the grindstone! 9 weeks and counting. I spent most of yesterday addressing the root beer issue and completing an album for my sister. Today I am attempting to sign-up for my Pedagogy test (which is proving more difficult than it should be) and running errands. Depending on how testing sign up goes, I may or may not be spending the next week with my nose in a book studying- I think I'm hoping it doesn't work out well and the test is delayed until November :). Studying 1-2 hours a day instead of 4? I can do that without procrastinating..... (it's nice when writing a blog, you can't hear all of the snickering!)

From glowing to green...

I would be terrible on bed rest, not that I expect to have to ever do that, I'm just saying, I can't sit still. When I wanted Thomas to throw his banana, peel and all, out of the car window at 6 am this morning, I should've known this was coming. Normally, I have all the love for bananas. After vomiting at work three times I decided that I really should just go home. I expected to get home and perk up because I wasn't at work, and then feel guilty for leaving and not really being sick, but that didn't happen. I have been on this couch since 10 am, with my feet up, expecting for my stomach to settle , stop making little growling, gurgling, and popping sounds, and stop hurting. So far this hasn't happened. It's only been 3.5 hours and I'm already tired of entertaining myself in the sitting position. I'm at home, a home full of sewing and cleaning projects that I really want to get done. I know if I got up and worked on them I'd only get sicker, so I'm trying to sit still- Eden is good motivation to behave.

All this time on the couch with the computer did give me a chance to check on the ice cream maker Thomas and I ordered 28 days ago... pregnant women should not have to wait this long for ice cream :). It has not even shipped yet! Should ship between today and, oh, the 18th of September. So much for throwing an ice cream tasting party this month. Tommy and Melissa B. were so sweet last Christmas to get us this amazing ice cream recipe book that I've been dying to try out. What I didn't want to tell them then was that our ice cream maker had just recently broken. It took me a while, but the situation is soon to be corrected and soon yummy pictures of ice cream will be here for oggling.

In less trivial news, Eden's quilt is finished- I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I've already washed it and it didn't fall apart, yay! Pictures will be posted later. I also put in my 4 weeks notice last week at work. Sooo... I have three weeks left. It's a bit surreal- I'm overwhelmed by how God has provided for us so I can be a stay at home mama while Eden is so little. Her nursery is getting painted tomorrow and should be carpeted within the next two weeks.

Ok, time to try to eat P B & J.....

Nursery Details

The quilt top for Eden is now complete. Really, it was complete a week ago, or at least as much as I've now decided I'm going to do. I really meant to take progress pictures when the 192 squares I cut were turned into 384 triangles and then slowly sewn back together... but I was a little obsessed with the triangles and couldn't bear to put them down and grab the camera.

It's wrinkly, but you get the picture. My only complaint is that the purple I chose for the room's main fabric (will be repeated in the bumper and crib skirt) is a little bland for the quilts corner pieces. It'll work well for the skirt and bumper (mixed with green and yellow too) because it won't be overwhelming... but for the quilt... it's just a little blah. All this to say it doesn't bother me enough to rip the entire border off and do it again. I need to take close up pictures of all the fabric- they're such sweet feedsack reproduction prints.

So what else should have been done to the quilt top??

The pattern calls for a feather embroidery stitch to be done all around the edges. I thought "great! I just bought this wonderful book for beginning embroiderers! I can try it out!" 4 days later I finished outlining the first of twelve dutch windmill blocks, the quilt had lost some of it's softness, and I was already snagging it on things (what is a baby/toddler going to do with this??). It adds great color, but I'm all about the comfort and durability, so I ripped it all back out.

In staying with the vintagey theme I'm working into the nursery, I got this fantastic pillow. It's new new- not just mine new- so it doesn't smell or have stains, and will really brighten up the brown glider my parents got us for the nursery.


This is not the actual chair, because of course we're too picky and it has to be special ordered (crossing fingers it's here before Eden :) ). It is in the same fabric as the one above but is a bit smaller with a rounded back instead of square. It is sooooo comfortable and just the perfect size for our little petite family.

More pics to come as things progress, but for now I think I'll go crash!

I want some chocolate cake for breakfast...

So I have decided not to go to Dallas this weekend for many reasons, and I think it was a good decision. The things that we "needed" to do there have changed and no longer need to be done/can probably be done in Tyler instead. Also, I'm just still so exhausted! Don't listen to people when they tell you to get all the sleep you can before the baby comes- because it just adds to the list of things to worry about that aren't getting done. Sleep well before you get pregnant :).

I find out today whether the for-profit-cake (picture above) went over well. It was for a 9 year old's birthday..... yeah... most lucious cake I think any 9 year old might ever get. His mom said that when he saw the cake, he pouted, whining loudly "but mo-om, I said I wanted a homemade cake, not a store bought cake!" Ahhh such a cute un-knowning compliment from the little kid. So, at least it was pretty.

The recipe can be found here. It's a Martha Stewart Recipe for Rich Chocolate Cake with Ganache Frosting. I use 9 inch pans instead of the specialty ones the recipe calls for. Oh, and I didn't even attempt the shaved chocolate. Trying to hold onto chocolate in a Texas kitchen in August without it melting? Please. Being pregnant alone emits enough heat from my hands that would make the task impossible in the winter.

The cute tea towel in the picture was part of a set gifted to me by my mom last Christmas. She always finds the cutest things. Her back procedure yesterday went as expected- painfully but most likely successful. She won't know until a week from now if the procedure stopped the pain it was supposed to, but the doctors are optimistic. Thanks for all the prayers!

Reality Doesn't Bite

I am exhausted and had a really pitiful breakdown yesterday where the 4 year old came out in me and decided it wasn’t fair that I was working so much. Really, God has blessed me with wonderful work, of which I mostly enjoy. Currently, I work “full-time” at Elliott Electric Supply- 32 hours a week. They moved me to a non-stressful position when I got pregnant, lowered my hours, AND let me keep my insurance (how great is that??); unfortunately- it’s just a tad bit boring. I also do album design for my sister’s wedding photography business, which I love! It’s usually not much work, but it’s been a consistent 8 hours a week the last few weeks. My evening last night was dedicated to baking a cake --- for money (it still shocks me what people will pay you to do). Throw in my Tuesday violin lesson- which is so not work, but it felt like it during my tantrum--- and you find me feeling like all I ever do is work (and Thomas agreed).

If you knew much about the Cocklins, you’d know we’re all work a holics- or hobby-a-holics (our hobbies tend to masquerade as work). We just can’t sit still! I usually LOVE the feeling of being productive, of using skills God gave me in a multitude of ways, but lately my train of thought has been shifted—and I realized after my 4 hour tantrum that this is where the clashing feelings are coming from.

Soon I will become a stay at home mom and we’ve been trying to prepare for the transition. I have only been out of a job for 2 months since I was 16 so this is going to be a BIG change. Thomas and I have had a lot of conversations about what each of our expectations are for my new role and how they fit into reality. I’ve thought about it so much that I expect myself to already be fulfilling the roles we discussed. And why not? There are millions of working moms that keep their house running like a well oiled machine. So if they can do it while they have kids, surely I can do it when I don’t have kids right? I sit in my cubicle for 7 hours a day dwelling on all the things I should be doing at home to prepare for Eden and serve my husband, and then when I get home, I either have more work or I’m too tired to do anything.

When I finally uncovered these mostly sub-conscious thoughts yesterday I realized 1) Pregnant women are allowed to let some things slip like consistent housework and cooking, 2) While I’m still working I shouldn’t expect myself to change overnight, and 3) I have an incredibly loving and supportive husband and God.

So what did I learn from my realization? Well, I’m baking another cake tonight and am going to Dallas this weekend to get some necessary baby things taken care of, and am convinced the crib skirt should be finished before I leave to be on schedule…. so maybe realizations are easier than action… but my mental health is much brighter and that laundry can sit in the corner for a few more days :).

Back into the swing of things...

Well there has been a serious lack of baking… and blogging, but I have really good reasons! Pregnancy has thrust me from the camp of people with few food dislikes and a passion for trying new things to the camp of people who eat only safe, bland foods. As a result the joy of cooking for experimentation and tasty results is no longer appealing and the task has joined the ranks of other not so fun household chores. In spite of this development, I’m getting paid to bake soon! How crazy is that? I’m a little nervous that it’ll end in catastrophe but it’s a simple cake that I have made before. But do we need to ask ourselves what could go wrong? Ohhhh plenty :).

Although I’m not baking I’ve found other things to occupy my time (I can hear all the gasps of surprise). Currently I’m throwing myself into some sewing projects which have been really fun. After days of online searching I have gotten all of the fabric to make the bedding for Eden’s nursery, except the sheets which will be bought- I do have my limits even if they are a bit past the crazy line. This project involves making my second quilt, and I’ve once again chosen a pattern with lots of white accented by bright colors. I’ll post progress pictures as I go along. Most of the other projects will be top secret until after Christmas.

I just finished a project for which I was given two pillow shams and asked to make three throw pillows- square, rectangular, and circular. I love challenges and this involved using imagination and learning a lot of new skills. It all went well until the round pillow- adding cording to a round pillow is apparently not for beginners who are making up the pattern as they go along– but I think it’ll go over ok. I really want to make a bunch of comfy pillows for my living room now.

All of this extra time to sew is courtesy of being out of school. I passed my content state board and am now admittedly putting off my second state board because it’s so nice to not study! I’m really getting down the art of relaxing thanks to a sweet husband and some good friends. Thomas gifted me and Anna the best pedicure/manicure and we had a grand time being the only two customers in the salon for 3 hours. That mixed with large doses of pool time, a few out of town trips, and more than normal amounts of shopping has me plump and happy (ok, the plump part is Eden’s fault J ).
I really have a lot more to say but this is long enough already. I guess that’s why people blog every day…. Not every quarter….