Our summer has been surprisingly eventful, particularly toward the end. In July, we went on a vacation to the Washington coast with Stephen's parents and alllllll his siblings, including Mary and Tim and their two little ones, and also Cari's boyfriend, Eric. We just spent a week at a resort town in the process of development, walking on the beach, hanging out and playing games at the house, swimming in the pool and relaxing in the hot tub. We each took turns cooking dinner. We had some very tasty steak-and-veggie kabobs by Cari and Eric, a yummy Mexican meal by Tim and Mary, and Stephen and I made spaghetti. It was a very relaxing, laid-back vacation all together.
Shortly after the family vacation, Stephen shot his first paid wedding gig. There is a lot invested in wedding days, so he was under a lot of stress leading up to the wedding day, and also some in the photo editing phase as well. But he finished it, and the couple was very, very pleased with the photos, for which we are very thankful.
In August, one of my college friends got married, so I flew down to Idaho and stayed with my aunt, uncle, and cousin and attended Mindy's wedding, which was butterfly garden themed--very pretty! They put a lot of humorous personal touches to their ceremony and the reception was one big, fun party, complete with a photo booth and props. :) I got to catch up with some old friends and meet some new ones and had a really good weekend all together. I am really glad I got to go.
My car's A/C stopped working sometime earlier this year, and we finally took it to get checked out in August, and found out we had to get a new part and the whole thing had to be reassembled. God graciously provided the money for us, and we fixed it toward the end of August. In the same month, I had to get a new car key, because the buttons on my remote-entry car key didn't work anymore! And today I got into a rear-end car accident (I was rear-ended by a car who was rear-ended by a car), but I'm not hurt at all and the damage to my car is very minimal. The accident was not my fault at all, so insurance will be taking care of everything.
We've had an Indian summer this September, with temperatures in the high 80s and 90s. I think the weather is trying to make up for the very cold and dark beginning of summer we had! For now I am totally okay with sunshiny weather....I know those cold dark days are coming again!
Our church got a new music pastor, an answer to prayer after 3 years of searching for the right person. Our church is now able to do so much more music-wise than we were before, because our temporary worship leader was doing so much other work in his position as Communications Director. Now at our women's Bible study, Mark (the new worship pastor) comes and leads us in worship with a guitar, and we don't have to sing off a CD! I am especially thankful for that.
Another answer to prayer is that Stephen got a nice raise this year, and we are so grateful for God's provision there! Now it is actually a possibility for us to move into a bigger apartment, although we won't be taking advantage of that just yet. For now it does ease up our budget some, and we'll hopefully be able to start putting more money toward debt repayment.
Overall, I think this year has been an incredible year of growth for us and our marriage. I've grown in my faith in leaps and bounds, and as I've spiritually matured, I'm maturing in other ways. Praise God for His faithfulness! I sense good changes coming up for us. I'm hoping to find my niche in the church we attend, although I'm not sure what that is yet. And Stephen will be leading our regular small group Bible study again. This year we will probably be going through 1 Corinthians to go along with our pastor's sermon series. You can pray for us through that. We want to help our fellow brothers and sisters deepen their faith, as many of them are new Christians or just aren't sure how to grow deeper. So you can be praying especially for Stephen as he bears the responsibility of teacher, and for me as I try to figure out where I fit into the mix.
Those are the biggest pieces of news. Thank you for your prayers and your support! You don't know how much it helps. :)
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Domestically Challenged
This is the story of me attempting a new quiche recipe tonight:
At the grocery store. What is WITH my cart?! It's making sounds like it is grinding rocks into sand!! HOW AWKWARD!! Stupid cart-grinder haunted me the entire 20 minutes I was in the store.
That's just the beginning.
Didn't know the difference between the creams. Recipe called for "light cream"; I picked up whipping cream? (My logic: Well, it doesn't say "light," but it doesn't say "heavy" like the one next to it!) Wasn't sure how much was required so I bought the pint just to be safe.
Bought fully-cooked bacon to save myself some trouble.
At home. Didn't double-check the amount of ingredients to add.
Heat up the oven to 425 degrees.
Minced an entire onion to DEATH, bound and determined to prove to myself that I can MINCE an onion! I still didn't do it to my satisfaction, nonetheless...
Started sprinkling it into the pie pan.
Realized that is WAY THE HECK too much onion!! Shook my head at the insanity of the onion-loving people who write these recipes.
Decided to use the second pie crust (WHY do they sell them only in twos??!?!!) and just make two quiches. I sure hope we like this recipe, because we're going to have a TON of it!
Tried to chop up already-cooked bacon, which was not nearly crisp enough to be chopped. Decided to just tear every piece by hand. Sprinkled half in one pie pan, half in the other. Knew it wasn't enough bacon per quiche, but decided it would just have to do.
Went back to the recipe.
Realized it only called for ONE THIRD OF AN ONION!!!! Not an entire onion!!!
Scooped out as much onion as I could without scooping out all the bacon. Realize the dough is getting way too soft because it's sitting on top of our oven, which is preheated by now.
Decided to start the filling part. Vaguely worry if we have enough eggs for two quiches. Find that we have exactly 8, which is exactly what is needed. Hallelujah! Cracked the eggs in a big bowl.
Went back to the recipe.
Realized it called for TWO CUPS of cream! That's all I had!
Frantic, stressed-out trying to figure out how to substitute because I'm already late and SO do not want to make another trip to Freddy's. Plus, now I had eight eggs not being refrigerated and two crusts threatening to melt on me!
And I wasn't even sure if I had the right cream!
Quick computer research to see if anything substitutes for light cream (thank You, God, for the Internet!). Decided that trying to melt butter was too much work. Quick computer research to see what light cream actually is. Half and half? Whoops! Oh well. I'm sure a little extra creaminess will do no harm to this quiche.
So I have to go back to the store. What to do about the partially-filled melting crusts and the perishing eggs?
Shove things aside in the fridge and put in the bowl of eggs.
Carefully balance two crusts in our over-full freezer. :S
Turn off oven. No fires for my apartment, thank you very much!
Back at the grocery store. Run in, grab a pint of half-and-half, use the self-check, run out.
Back at home. Turn oven back on. Pull out crusts (thank You, God, that they didn't fall out of the freezer onto the floor) and eggs. Pour cream and half and half into bowl of eggs. Add salt, sugar, cayenne pepper. Attempt to whisk. My arm!!
Take a knife to both cheeses, guesstimating how much of a chunk I'm going to need to make 1 c. of each kind. Grate, grate, grate, grate!! Dumped a chunk of swiss cheese on the floor. Used up the rest of the small pack of swiss--just barely enough for a cup!
Sprinkled in cheese.
Used a measuring cup to dole in cream mixture. Didn't use it all because they would've overflowed!!
Carefully. Carefully. Carefully. Place both quiches in oven.
PHEW!!!
Epic conclusion to the story:
I dropped one of the quiches SPLAT on the oven door as I was trying to pull it out.
Sigh.
It had to be coming, right?
At the grocery store. What is WITH my cart?! It's making sounds like it is grinding rocks into sand!! HOW AWKWARD!! Stupid cart-grinder haunted me the entire 20 minutes I was in the store.
That's just the beginning.
Didn't know the difference between the creams. Recipe called for "light cream"; I picked up whipping cream? (My logic: Well, it doesn't say "light," but it doesn't say "heavy" like the one next to it!) Wasn't sure how much was required so I bought the pint just to be safe.
Bought fully-cooked bacon to save myself some trouble.
At home. Didn't double-check the amount of ingredients to add.
Heat up the oven to 425 degrees.
Minced an entire onion to DEATH, bound and determined to prove to myself that I can MINCE an onion! I still didn't do it to my satisfaction, nonetheless...
Started sprinkling it into the pie pan.
Realized that is WAY THE HECK too much onion!! Shook my head at the insanity of the onion-loving people who write these recipes.
Decided to use the second pie crust (WHY do they sell them only in twos??!?!!) and just make two quiches. I sure hope we like this recipe, because we're going to have a TON of it!
Tried to chop up already-cooked bacon, which was not nearly crisp enough to be chopped. Decided to just tear every piece by hand. Sprinkled half in one pie pan, half in the other. Knew it wasn't enough bacon per quiche, but decided it would just have to do.
Went back to the recipe.
Realized it only called for ONE THIRD OF AN ONION!!!! Not an entire onion!!!
Scooped out as much onion as I could without scooping out all the bacon. Realize the dough is getting way too soft because it's sitting on top of our oven, which is preheated by now.
Decided to start the filling part. Vaguely worry if we have enough eggs for two quiches. Find that we have exactly 8, which is exactly what is needed. Hallelujah! Cracked the eggs in a big bowl.
Went back to the recipe.
Realized it called for TWO CUPS of cream! That's all I had!
Frantic, stressed-out trying to figure out how to substitute because I'm already late and SO do not want to make another trip to Freddy's. Plus, now I had eight eggs not being refrigerated and two crusts threatening to melt on me!
And I wasn't even sure if I had the right cream!
Quick computer research to see if anything substitutes for light cream (thank You, God, for the Internet!). Decided that trying to melt butter was too much work. Quick computer research to see what light cream actually is. Half and half? Whoops! Oh well. I'm sure a little extra creaminess will do no harm to this quiche.
So I have to go back to the store. What to do about the partially-filled melting crusts and the perishing eggs?
Shove things aside in the fridge and put in the bowl of eggs.
Carefully balance two crusts in our over-full freezer. :S
Turn off oven. No fires for my apartment, thank you very much!
Back at the grocery store. Run in, grab a pint of half-and-half, use the self-check, run out.
Back at home. Turn oven back on. Pull out crusts (thank You, God, that they didn't fall out of the freezer onto the floor) and eggs. Pour cream and half and half into bowl of eggs. Add salt, sugar, cayenne pepper. Attempt to whisk. My arm!!
Take a knife to both cheeses, guesstimating how much of a chunk I'm going to need to make 1 c. of each kind. Grate, grate, grate, grate!! Dumped a chunk of swiss cheese on the floor. Used up the rest of the small pack of swiss--just barely enough for a cup!
Sprinkled in cheese.
Used a measuring cup to dole in cream mixture. Didn't use it all because they would've overflowed!!
Carefully. Carefully. Carefully. Place both quiches in oven.
PHEW!!!
Epic conclusion to the story:
I dropped one of the quiches SPLAT on the oven door as I was trying to pull it out.
Sigh.
It had to be coming, right?
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| Perfect Quiche |
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| Unlucky Quiche |
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