Mandy and Jace

Unfortunately, the weekend is over and my week is off to a running start with no end in sight. We have so many things going on this week that my head is spinning just thinking about it. It is revival week at church. That means we are having services with the wonderful Mikey Cheshier tonight, tomorrow night and Wednesday starting at 7:00. If you’ve never heard him speak you should make a point to come out and experience a service. God has done miraculous things in this man’s body and life and he has a mindblowing testimony. You can read some of it here but you really need to meet him in person. You definitely won’t walk away the same person after hearing his testimony. Also, on Wednesday night our Quarterlife praise team will be doing praise and worship and we have a great set list planned (I am just a little bit partial). Here is a map of how to get to our church.
On top of that my lovely mom is out of town for the week, so I have to hold down the shop office while she’s gone. Needless to say, this weeks meal plan will all be foods that we can take on-the-go and eat at the church. I absolutely do not want to eat fast food every day of the week, so I am determined to make something good but easily transported for us to eat. The plan is to make most of it Saturday or Sunday and keep it in the fridge at the church. That way I can pop them in the microwave and eat during practice before the service. We’ll see how well it works out.

Here’s the plan.
Tonight: refried bean burritos (made with leftovers from last weeks beans and cornbread) and home made salsa
Tuesday: cowboy soup
Wednesday: Burgers and chips (I’m going to make the burgers the night before and wrap them in foil)
Thursday: take out after practice if we have it
Friday: I am going to proclaim date night to be rest and relaxation night

Happy eating!

Well, I am knocking out my goals one by one. This week I am working on baking breads. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to start on a yummy dessert bread. This one was awesome. It is great for dessert, breakfast or just because you want something to eat.

I have never really been patient enough to bake breads. You have to let them sit and rise for a couple of hours and I tend to get so impatient that I don’t let them rise and they turn out deformed and tough. So the other day I was determined to make this bread exactly like the recipe said, and it turned out beautifully.

This recipe is once again from Pioneer Woman. I haven’t tried a recipe of her’s that I didn’t love and this one didn’t disappoint. If you haven’t started reading her blog daily you must start now. I’m not sure how I cooked without her.

Just a warning. Make sure you have plenty of time to make this before you start baking. You will need about 5 1/2 hours total. And don’t cut corners. It needs all the time that the recipe says.

Cinnamon bread
adapted from Pioneer Woman
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons salted butter
2 1/2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
2 eggs
1/3 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons Cinnamon
egg wash (1 egg and a little water mixed together)
2 tablespoons softened butter for greasing

About 30 min to an hour before you start cooking remove your eggs and butter from the refrigerator so the eggs can get to room temperature and the butter can soften.

In a small pan combine the 6 tbs butter and milk and warm but don’t boil. Let it cool to where it is just warm not hot. Add in the yeast and let it sit for about 10 minutes to wake the yeast up.

In a bowl combine the flour and salt.

In your stand mixer with your paddle attachment mix together the sugar and eggs until combined.

Pour in the yeast mixture and stir. When combine pour in half of the flour mixture and beat on medium until it comes together. Pour the remaining flour in and mix it until combined.

Switch to your dough hook and let it knead for 10 minutes. Mine was fine at this point but if it’s too sticky add a couple of tablespoons of flour until it is easier to handle.

Coat a large bowl with oil, put your dough in it and cover it with a damp towel. Place in a warm, draft free place for 2 hours. In my house this is my oven (not turned on).

Combine your cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

After it has risen turn it out onto your cabinet and roll it out into a rectangle being sure it isn’t wider than your bread pan.

Cover the dough with your softened butter and then pour the cinnamon/sugar mixture on top of the butter. Roll the dough into a log starting from the far end and rolling it in towards yourself.
Pinch the seam to seal.

Use nonstick spray or butter to grease your loaf pan and place the dough into the pan. Cover again with a damp towel, place it in a warm place and let it rise for another 2 hours.

If your not using your oven to house your rising bread preheat your oven to 350. If you are wait until it is done rising, remove the dough and preheat your oven.

Cook the bread for 40 minutes on the lower rack of your oven.

Allow the bread to cool and try not to eat it all at once.

Where: Calvary Assembly of God parking lot

When: Friday September 17, 2010

Time: 6:00 pm

Bring your trucks, grills and food if you have them and come cook out. If you don’t have any of these things, come anyway, I’m sure we’ll have more than enough food. We’ll have food, games and music! If you have any questions you can leave a comment here and I’ll get back to you.

Hope to see everyone there!

Is anyone else ready for fall? I am ready for sweaters, fall decorations, pumpkin everything, leaving the windows open, and orange and brown leaves. I think fall is my favorite season when we actually get one, but most of the time here in crazy Midland we go straight from 100 degree summer to 30 degree winter. Hopefully this year we can find something in-between.

We have a busy couple of weeks coming up so meal plans are going to be a little crazy. On Friday our 18-30 group at church called Quarterlife is having a tailgate party. I don’t know a lot of the information yet but I will do a post tomorrow with all of the details. I do know it will be lots of fun! Here’s the plan.

Tonight: Sauteed chicken with lemon thyme rice
Tuesday: Beans and cornbread
Wednesday: not sure yet
Thursday: pizza at praise and worship practice
Friday: Quarterlife tailgate party

I love…

• Quiet car trips where we don’t have to say anything because we are thinking the same thing
• Loud car trips where we talk about anything and everything
• Cooking dinner together
• Lazy evenings on the couch
• How you still want to hold my hand
• How you have to walk on the outside of the sidewalk so you get hit first if someone tries to run over us
• How you still open the door for me
• Weekends where we do nothing
• That you are ok with me having a “phone pen”
• That you will eat mac and cheese just because I love it
• That we can argue and make up all in the same sentence
• Seeing you when you come home from work
• That no one knows who the bands are that we listen to
• That we feel at home in Dallas even if we just land there for a couple of minutes
• YOU!

Happy 3rd anniversary, love.

Update from Jace:
There are a lot of things that I like about you, too, The Girl:

• I love that you so willingly put up with all my nerdery. Except you reap benefits like having a reliable wifi connection and instant access to a pretty great music and video library that can be streamed to the TV, so maybe that’s why you put up with it.
• I love that you let me listen to bands that no one knows about yet, and get mad with me when people “discover” our really cool bands and ruin them
• I love that you take such great care of me
• I love the way you fit so perfectly in my arms.

You mean the world to me, kiddo. Happy anniversary!