There goes the groom.....

Well, my cousin Eric is officially wed! Honestly, I always knew he would end up getting married, I just never thought he would, if that makes any sense.... Despite my doubt, on July 23 in Plains, MT, Eric Underhill married Tara Mathers.

We left at 11:00 on Saturday to get down there by 2:00. It didn't take us as long as everyone said though, so we were really early. Oh well.

Hannah +Sean, Rachel, Anna, and me. Christian, Matthew (who was in the wedding), and Luke. Jay and Stacia did the sound.I felt bad for the men in the wedding party who were in black because it was sooooo hot out. We were all roasting in the pelting sun though, not just the party. At one point a cloud rolled in front of the sun and everyone gave an appreciative sigh, but just as quick as it came, it moved away. Haha, I got a really funny sandal and sweetheart tan.

Eric waiting for his bride to be.The wedding party.At the reception they had really yummy pulled pork sandwiches, fruit, and variegated salads. I was (along with everyone else) so glad to be in the shade after the ceremony and it took a good while before I was cooled down enough to even move.

Nick, Luke, Regent, and Christian at the table. The wedding was done in Western theme (no duh), and their colors were blue and brown, which is always a really lovely combo.

Eric and Tara cutting the cake.Ridge and Hannah.After the wedding we were all so fried that we stopped at the river on the way home. None of us actually went swimming, but we walked into to water up to our knees and splashed around. *nice* Overall, besides being really sweltering, it was a fantastic wedding. It went (as far as I know), really smoothly, and everyone looked great:)

"Please Fish, for me?"

Yesterday I found out that March is National Peanut Month and because this is the last day of March, I thought I would do a post on peanuts. Most people who get to know me soon find out that I love, love, lub, lub lub, peanut butter. I actually prefer peanut butter to *gasp* chocolate, that is how much I love peanut butter. If I lived on a desert island with only fruit and grass to eat, the food I would miss the most would be peanut butter. I would have to bribe the fish to swim to the nearest inhabited area and bring me a jar before I went the way of most castaways: insane. Come on, I mean seriously peanut butter is like one of the most versatile things out there. You can have it with every single meal of the day without even feeling overly redundant. Like, for example: breakfast you can have pancakes with peanut butter and bananas, a piece of toast with peanut butter and honey on it, or a bowl of oatmeal with a spoonful of peanut butter mixed in with it. For lunch you could have the original peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple or celery dipped in peanut butter, or a peanut butter granola or energy bar. Now you might ask " Megan, your forgetting dinner. You can't have peanut butter with dinner!". Here you would be wrong. First off you could have a chicken wrap with peanut Thai sauce (my personal favorite), a Oriental salad with peanuts on top, an African peanut stew, peanut butter enchiladas, I've even found recipes for peanut butter fried chicken (I'm not sure how good that sounds to be honest though). Now lastly, desert. This is the easy one. you could do cookies, sundaes, smoothies, brownies, cheesecake, the list goes on. So there you go, you could live on a diet of peanut products without going completely mad in a few days. You might gain quite a few pounds, but I know I'd be happy. Lastly, I decided to leave you with one of my favorite peanut recipes. It's quite simple, low mess, and great if your short on time.

Peanut Butter Quick Fix

First make sure you have everything you'll need. It's really disappointing if you find your short on an ingredient after you start.

You will need:

1 Tb Peanut butter

Spoon

optional: sugar

First find the right sized spoon, not too big, not too small. I personally prefer our small spoons, but it really is up to your personal preference. Next find you jar of peanut butter. I like creamy, but crunchy would work just as well too. If you only have almond butter or another kind of peanut butter knock off, that can work too.

After opening the jar slowly scrape the spoon along the sides of the jar. I like to go in a counterclockwise motion, but again it is ultimately up to you.

The next step is the hardest. When you have your desired amount on the spoon you take it out and close the lid without setting the spoon down. It can be tricky to close the jar with one hand holding your spoon in the other without getting any on your hand*, but after some practise you'll have it.

If you really want a sweet treat you can sprinkle some sugar on the peanut butter. I personally don't really like that, but I've heard of some people who do.

No waiting, cooking, freezing or cooling off is necessary, your Peanut Butter Quick Fix is finished. You can slowly lick it, or eat it all at once. However you choose, enjoy!

*If you do get any on your hands, it's OK to lick it off.

79-61

For my birthday I only had one request, I wanted to make myself a cheesecake. So I found two recipes that sounded great. The first one was for a generic cheesecake with a ginger crust with chocolate chips in it and a cream topping. The second was for a pumpkin cheesecake also with a ginger crust. Well, after seeking many opinions and getting mixed answers I finally decided just to make both. Enough people were coming over to need two anyway. So on Tuesday I got the ingredients I needed and went to work. For me cooking and baking isn't a chore, it's how I relax. Like when I got my wisdom teeth out all I wanted to do was make dinner, or if I'm not having a good day the way I calm myself down is through stirring anything over the stove. I could saute or stir forever. Anyhow, I made the first one well, first. It went together pretty easy, I even baked it in the water bath like it said (which I was worried about). Next I made the pumpkin one which came together much more simply than the first. They both cracked down the middle which I was disappointed about. If any of you know how to get a cheesecake not to crack please tell me. So when they were both cooled I stuck them in the fridge for the night.

Yesterday, I had to go to town to register for my next semester classes. When mom and I got to the college we were supposed to meet Brian Bechtold, but he had gone to the cafeteria for lunch. So most of you know my mom, so of course we had to walk over to the cafeteria, not wait. We get there and I see him finishing his lunch, mom said to go over to him. So after the hushed "no" "yes" "but" "just go" that I'm sure everyone has done at some point in their life, I finally lost and walked over.

"Are you Brian Bechtold?" I asked.

"I depends on why you ask, what's your question?"

"Well, um, I don't really have a question, um, you are my advisor, um, and I came to register, um and they said you were here, and um, I'm sorry to bother you, but..."

I think is the first time I got the you have no clue what your doing stare.

He was mostly done eating so we walked over to the AT building. He asked me what my plans were and I think he quickly determined that I had none. I did know what classes I wanted to take so when we sat down at his computer I had a huge shock. I only go into town Monday and Wednesday and so far my schedule has been working out great. So when we saw that sometime between Monday and Wednesday they had switched ASL to T, TH, I was floored. After some mumbling and just being so shocked, mom and I went to find a computer that we could figure out how to make this all work. I absolutely wanted to do ASL so I had to work everything around it, which wasn't easy. Right now I'm signed up for Music Theory II on Monday (which is going to be difficult considering it's my only class on Monday) Intro to Fiction (which sounds horribly dreadful, but I need the credit), ASL, and then Public Speaking (which I'm actually looking forward to, because my speaking skills are lacking:). Later in April, I'm taking a Field botany class that last two weeks. I'm really looking forward to this class, and the class is already completely full.

So after all this, we got home around 4ish, Hannah came over around a half an hour later. I made dinner (Puttanesca sauce, yum..) Grandma and grandpa, James and Stacia, Dad, and Rachel, all got here around 5:30ish and we ate a little bit later.

The Underhills, Ridge, Kathi, and the Vestals came around 6:30 and we had cheesecake. I'm glad I made two because we ate almost all of them, The first one, in my opinion, was better, but not by much, and the pumpkin one was really yummy also.

OK, funny story. Mom couldn't find an eight candle, so being the math brain she is, I was 79-61. I think this was probably a first ever. James, Ridge, and Eric, who graced us with his presence.And how could I not end this post but with a horribly unflattering picture of me at my eighteenth birthday party.

If life gives you lemons, make a lemon chiffon cake!

Today was the first day in what seams like forever, that I didn't have anywhere to go. Life right now jumps from one place to another, one week to the next. Everyday I feel like I have to put thought into what I'm going to wear and do, asking myself "will I get cold? does this even match?". But today I grabbed an old tee shirt, let my hair go wild, and *gasp* didn't put any makeup on.
It wasn't a boring day though. I started off playing piano, doing a face mask, and then making a lemon chiffon cake for my dad's birthday. While it was baking I did my music theory homework *yuck*. After letting the cake cool, it was successfully inverted:) I then made up the lemon frosting (which was sinfully yummy) and overall it turned out great. It had a nice consistency, not heavy, but light, sweat, but not overpoweringly so.

For once I really don't have much more so say. School went pretty well yesterday. I did much better on two tests than I thought I would, and I got an hour and a half of lab time in for ASL (because the teacher was absent). I don't think I did good in Aural P, but oh well, I didn't really practice much anyway, so it's my fault.
For World Music I have to write a contemporary music paper about once a week on a certain country, and I'm getting horribly tired of it. At first it was sort of different, now it's just *blah*. And now I need to start preparing for my midterm presentation. We were given a list of places to chose from and were put on the spot to chose one to do it on. I took Argentina (tango) I hope that was a good choice. But as you can probably tell from my playlist, I like tango music. It's hard to believe that I'm already half way done with the semester. Where does time go? If you find it please bring it back. It's hard to even think of the future. When people ask me what I'm planning on doing I'm like "Um, maybe this, but I'm now thinking that, but I still want to do...." I'm trying to just live day by day. Having a ruff draft for the next year or so, but ultimately leaving it up to God. I'm so glad it's God's decision, because if it was all on my back, I would be so, so lost. Well, I have more homework, and some hooks and eyes to sew, so ta ta. I guess I had more to say after all.

A bride to be and four mummies

To celebrate Hannah's upcoming wedding, I hosted her bridal shower. Because it's after midnight right now, it actually was yesterday evening, but that makes it sound so long ago, when really we didn't get home too long ago.

Mrs. Coverdell did a devotion for Hannah. It was wonderful. Mrs. Coverdell is the lady who taught both Hannah and I how to crochet, and cook some really yummy food. She would have us over to her house and we would always have a great time doing some sort of craft.Caitlin, Amy, and Christen.

I found this picture funny, as it looked like they were intently gossiping. That morning I was making the poppy seed muffins for the shower when 24 of them came out a little bit to burnt. Our oven has been doing funny things lately, and I couldn't make anymore. I called Amy and she was so sweat, and made some from scratch on the spot. I'm so glad she was able to help. I also made brownies and lemon bars. I don't think our kitchen has ever been that messy before. There was powdered sugar everywhere, and mom had a run in with superglue (long story). The first game we did was a quiz on Hannah. I had had Ridge answer the questions a few days earlier and he actually did really great. Some of his answers were so funny. Natalie enjoying herself a little too much. We played the TP bride game. We had four groups and they each had a "bride" to make a wedding dress for.

This is Amy in her very elaborate toilet paper gown. Rachel in a very simple elegant dress. Rachel's veil. Raijoice had an incredible train on her very original dress.Hannah was the judge and she ended up choosing Rachel's dress. Everyone did a great job (sorry I didn't really get a good picture of the other girl's dress) I still think we should go into business making economical wedding dresses only for sunny weather. And to end on a cute note. Isn't Jubilee just the most adorable little girl ever!

The picture is on the left, not in the middle.

These last few days have been pretty uneventful for me. Aural Perception and World Music were canceled for the day, so I only went in for an hour and a half this morning for ASL. The only thing that I can even think of that happened this last week, worthy of note, is that I went to a swing dance last Friday (which was a blast), and I unofficially learned how to parachute (just don't push me out of a plane quite yet).

This afternoon I went to grab a plum, and found them pruning (is that a word?), going the way of all ageing plums. Mom said to give them to our chickens, but I wanted to find a better use for them than momentarily pleasing our feathered friends. I googled "recipe plums" and after a little searching found a recipe for upside down plum cake, and guess what? It took four plums, which happens to be the exact number of those wrinkled things we had.

I was quite happily going along, curdling the milk (weird), grating a clementine (Hey, we didn't have any oranges, and it called for only half an orange anyway), caramelizing the butter and brown sugar, when I hit a kink in the hose of life. I cut my finger on, you'll never guess what, the can of baking powder. I think I was way more shocked than in actual pain, because when I cut myself and my mom walked by, I stated that, well, I had cut myself. My mom commented something about it being little when I exclaimed that it was pretty deep, I still don't understand why, but for some strange reason, my mom cracked up laughing. Anyhow, back to the plum cake.

After it cooled, I has so happy on how easily it inverted. I just love saying that "I inverted the cake" "the cake successfully inverted" "After inversion, the cake was thoroughly enjoyed". Sorry, but seriously try saying it and you will be addicted. Dad and I really liked it, it had kind off a tangy sweetness to it, mom thought it was OK, and Luke refused to try it. So if you are ever around my house in the next day or so, stop by because there is half a delicious (in my opinion) inverted plum cake in our fridge that I don't really want to finish.

Day 25: Banana boy

Today was a Luke day. At noon my brother had his fiddle lesson, then at 1:30 he had his first fitting for his braces which he gets in a few weeks, and later he had soccer practice. So I ran around town with mom getting Luke to where ever he needed to be, while simultaneously shopping for our upcoming camping trip. We should be leaving sometime tomorrow and won't get back until Sunday. I might get a post in early tomorrow, but don't count on it. The challenge will just have to wait a few days.

For a recipe here is a link to my favorite banana cookies. They are so easy, and something new to try with old bananas. I don't put the nuts in, we are just not a nutty family (some may beg to differ). I've made this recipe probably around seven times, and it is one of my never fail, always quick, favorite recipes.

See you all Sunday, ciao!

Day 24: I'm seeing multicolor sugar birds!

I'm supposed to shock you all with a movie none of you would expect me to love. I have a dilemma. Being as sporadic and strange as I am in my tastes, I think it would be impossible to surprise you. I enjoy a good romance, as well as a zombie movie, a disaster movie and a animated cartoon. I tried hard to think of something that any of you who know me personally wouldn't know that I liked, but I failed. So I apologize on my first failed challenge. Do you ever feel like you have a fizzing, gurgling, mass of creativeness trying to escape, but you just don't have the time to let it out? I was feeling it today, only I did have some time and an excuse to try this batch of cookies. I wanted to try something new, something challenging. I love a baking challenge don't you? I found this cookie recipe on the very back page of our mashed up, unorganized, binder of miscellaneous recipes, and we had everything to make them! So I got started. They were pretty labor intensive as cookies go, but overall they were easy. They didn't turn out as perfect as the picture in the book, but I also didn't put a lot of effort into making them flawless either. I thought they tasted bland, but other people seemed to like them, so maybe I'll make them again sometime. Also, something else I've been up to was redoing the cover of my planner. The college gave me a daily planner when I had my orientation. It's really quite nice. It has all the phone numbers in the front, and a quote each day, but I didn't like the cover. It just sat on my desk screaming for me to do something with it. At first I thought I might just tear off the cover, or maybe crochet something, but I never got around to it. So last night I got out my scrap booking supplies and some card stuff and put together a very "me'ish" cover. Front
Back

Day 22: No longer 17

For day 22 I have to give a website. One place I really like to visit is 17 and baking. The girl who does it is a fantastic photographer, expressive writer, and a phenomenal baker. If you ever have some extra time and want a good blog to read, or a new recipe to try, I suggest you go there. I tried making her blackberry jam almond bars a while ago and they turned out wonderful, and Mitch tried her ice cream cake and that was heavenly too. So go give it a try, and tell me if you ever try baking anything from her site!

a froth provoking experience

First I give you all permission to laugh at my ignorance.

Well, today I went to a coffee shop for the first time ever. My grandpa is staying with us for two and a half weeks while my grandma is in New York. He had a dermatologist appointment today because he had skin cancer on his face removed and went to have stitches out. When he was there they said that his glasses were leaking copper into his face and that they needed the nose part to be replaced. We took him over to fix his glasses (which they also sonically cleaned) and they said it would be about 20 minutes. My mom suggested walking over to City Brew across the street, so we went.
We walked in and it looked cool. Very what I would expect a coffee shop to look like. My mom and grandpa ordered just a coffee, but if you know me I'm more of the sweet type. My experience with coffee is limited to Costco Latte' Freeze, those Starbucks cold sweet things you can get at supermarkets, and embarrassingly McDonald's iced coffee. So I look at their board and feel overwhelmed. I know I want something sweet, but what is the difference between a cappuccino or a frappucino, and will it taste anything like what I'm used too?
I'm feeling on the spot, the nice looking girl is starting to look not quite so nice and the person behind me is getting impatient. I suck up my pride and ask her "what is the difference between a Latte' and a cappuccino?" She says something about frothed milk in the cappuccino, so I say I'll take that. She asks what name to call and my mom says "Megan". I ask why. Dumb question, let's just say I get um..... blonde in stressful situations. So we all go sit down and I'm seeing these people walking around with these really yummy looking coffee, whipped cream, very light and sugary looking goodness. I get kind of excited. Maybe it will be really good? The lady calls my name. I don't hear her, she starts walking over to the table, I see her and stand up to get it. Humm, it's in a foam cup not a clear plastic one. First clue. I open it up and see all this frothy stuff, of course being me I dip in my finger and try it. It taste like... nothing. I try again and it barely taste like milk. I put the lid back on and take a sip and burns my tongue. So, I let it cool, wondering about what it might taste like.
My mom asks to try mine and after taking a sip proclaims "It tastes like dirt". At this point I'm feeling protective of my cup of unwonderfullness, and tell mom that it does not taste like dirt and she just has to let it cool. We sit there awhile and then leave. I still really haven't tried it yet. By the time we get grandpa's glasses and head for the car it has finally cooled enough to drink. It tasted like coffee, not really the flavor I was looking for. I drank the cup but I am unimpressed (the flavor did resemble that of dirt).

Overall I went into my first coffee shop, had my first "real" coffee, and next time I think I will just ask for the sweetest thing they've got.

Purple Bananas

I'm sure you all know the feeling when you see that your fresh yellow bananas have gone a little too mushy and brown for human consumption. About that time we all pull out are trusty banana bread recipe. You all know the one; never failing, always perfect, family favorite. Well, I have been so sick of ours for so long I've been experimenting. By now you should all know that my experiments in cooking are always..... interesting. I first tried the banana cookies which were a huge hit. But me no, I can't make the same trusty recipe for a fourth time now can I? So I pulled out an old Rachel Ray mag and found this recipe for caramelized banana loaf cake. It looked gross to begin with in the picture so I was a bit hesitant, but we had all the ingredients so I went ahead. You first have to like saute (fry?) the halved bananas in sugar and butter (umm). Which was an interesting process.

Tip; soak the pan when your done, sugar kinda hardens quickly I found out.

Next you lay the now gushy bananas on the bottom of a pan and dump the rest of the caramel on top. This is when I really started hearing complaints from family members.

"that looks gross, I wont eat that"

You then make a generic banana bread mix and put on top, bake, and walla it looks like every other banana bread! But then after ten minutes of excruciatingly waiting it was time to turn it over on a pan and.......Purple bananas? I have no clue how yellow bananas turn pink and purple (with a mix of yellow and brown) But they did. My brother Luke refused to try it, my mom scraped off the top, but dad and I ate it, and surprisingly we thought it was actually really good!

So the question is "would you eat it?"

Sorry

Hi, I just wanted to thank Nora and Hannah for tagging me! Unfortunately my blog wont let me copy things to post, so it's really hard for me to do tags (I have to retype everything). So it's not that I don't appreciate being tagged, it's just hard for me to find time to get around to it retyping it.

I'll leave you all with (what I think) a really cute pair of flats from ModCloth

Cookie Monsters

Today I woke up alone, in a cold quiet house.

Luke had a shooting sports thing today, and I have a cold so I didn't want to get up early and go. I had a very quiet morning, very peaceful. I sewed, mended, played piano, and sang. Then I found a recipe for vanilla wafers and started making them, that's when the boys came. Luke, Christian, and Matthew came into my state of bliss with yelps, stomping, slamming doors, and Nerf guns. Peace gone. Then they started telling me about how I should make the cookies bigger, Erg. So right now I'm camped out in the den hiding and eating wonderful vanilla wafers.

Kanzashi

I finished sewing my Kimono a few days ago (I will post pictures later) So last night and today I made a Kanzashi* hairpiece to match. I think It turned out really nice. I love making Kanzashi since I got this book Kanzashi in bloom. The instructions are so easy and fun. The projects are kind of strange and unusable, but like I said the flower instructions are simple, quick, infinite, and very doable. *Kanzashi are traditional Japanese hair pieces.

Pounding

I made my first pound cake yesterday. It looked so pretty, but James said it tasted like soap. Oh, well, I like it!

Umm, lemon soap glaze....

sunny, yellow, happy shoes

I don't know about all you, but I get tired of brown, black, and tan shoes. I'm so happy when I find a pair of shoes that are an unusual color but seen to match more then I thought they would. Like when we were camping I got a pair of bright green plaid high heals (I call them my camping shoes) And I love them! And once I got a pair of red flats, they also match quite a bit of my clothing. So here are some adorable (in my opinion) yellow shoes I've found on random sites.

If life gives you snow, build a snow man!

Sorry I've been absent in the blog world lately, our computer wouldn't let me sign in. I finally asked Dad about it and he realized the time date was wrong, so I guess because I didn't even have a blog in 2002, I couldn't log in to a nonexistent blog.

Well, anyhow I haven't done too much lately but here is an recap.

My brother Luke and Matthew, built a snow man. His name is Hieme. Cleo was his protector.

Next I finished my felted Oro hat, and love it! I think I'm going to wear it skiing next week. Finally, I made the best cookies I think I've ever had in my life! They are banana cookies. They taste like angel clouds fallen into a tropical rain forest were a baby monkey would pick them up and be content for life.

Birthday, Deer heads, and Cleo

Well, today is my 17th birthday!

Last night I had a lovely evening with family and the Vestals. My mom and I made a lemon filled coconut cake from scratch, yummy! And I made everyone try an Italian Soda

(I think for the most part they all liked them). Eric shot a deer a few nights before and had to show us it's head.

Sorry the picture is blurry, but you get the point (pun intended)

Today we saw Cleo surrounded by turkeys. It was really cute!