Hello All! So in trying to be the good housewife I have been experimenting in the kitchen a bit. I have discovered that baking from scratch is a lot harder than it looks. Also, it is a good thing I did not have high aspirations to be a gourmet baker over nursing! I really love to cook and love spending time in the kitchen. I love trying new recipes and ideas. I love to cook but I have never really baked. I can make a good pound cake and some pre-packaged cookies but really never really made anything from scratch. so I decided to try my hand at it. A major plus when you get married are the fabulous kitchen gadgets people get you off your registry and lovely gift cards to buy what you want that you didn't get. Well, it has been my dream to own a Kitchen Aid Artisan stand mixer. I mean it was the first thing I registered for at every store. Now granted it is over $300 so naturally I did not get one as a gift. However, those Belk gift cards began to add up especially after some returns of the duplicates we had received! Lo and behold I had money for my mixer. So I waited it went on sale for $299, then at the end of July Belk had a bridal completion sale, which was an additional 20% off, and on top of that Kitchen Aid has a $40 mail in rebate. So I capitalized on the great deal and purchased my new Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Deciding on a color was difficult but in the end we went with black because you never know when you will want to change you kitchen color scheme at some point.
Isn't it beautiful
I was overyjoyed with our purchase, now what do I make. I decided now was time to try my hand a baking from scratch. So I went to Bakerrella's blog (because she is AMAZING) and it just so happened she had a recipe for chocolate cookies in a recent post. So I bought the ingredients during our Wal-Mart run and began to make the dough. It seemed easy enough and tasted good too!
So I spray the cookies sheets and proceed to bake 2 dozen cookies.
Well, umm they came out interesting.
#1 They all squished together so it looked like I made a cookie cake
#2 They were VERY thin
#3 The fell apart into crumbles even when cool
#4 My husbands critique was "They taste like fried dough" but of course he ate the majority of the cookie crumbles
So alas my made from scratch cookie efforts were a bust, but I did love making them so I will try again. In addition to the newly acquired kitchen aid mixer we made a few other gift card purchases. This included a Cuisinart Convection Bread Maker. It is the size of our microwave and came with 80 different recipes for bread and it makes jam.
I have not given this a try but intend to try but intend to soon with my hubby so I will blog about when it is done and I hope it will be a better experience than the cookie crumbles. so keep your fingers crossed :)
A little update on me: My blood results were the same as last week a little low so i go back at the end of this week to recheck it. Other than that I am enjoying not being on bed rest and finally getting to know the area we live in. I can even get around a little without Maggie (our GPS). Through all of this God has been so faithful!! He deserves all honor and glory!!!
I am anxiously preparing for my nursing license exam. I have completed my Bachelor's of Science in Nursing degree, put in hundreds of hours of clinical, taken review courses, and passed the dreaded HESI. It all comes down to this, so many years of preparation and this one test determines if I will become a registered nurse. I am a bundle of nerves as the NCLEX draws near. This Tuesday at 8 A.M. I am scheduled to take my exam. I have been anxiously awaiting my turn to test, most of my classmates have successfully completed the NCLEX (I am so proud of them). As this time draws near for me I ask for your prayers. I ask that you pray specifically for my anxiety, that I feel the peace of Christ as I take the exam. Pray that I would have recall of material learned and a clear mind to make educated decisions. Also, pray that I as study I will be able to be focused. I know that the Lord is in complete control. He has called me into the field of nursing and I desire to do His will.
We are so excited about what is going on in our lives right now. Bob is an official graduate student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He spent today and will be spending most of tomorrow in orientation. He will begin classes on Thursday. Bob is pursing a Master's of Divinity with a the focus of his electives being in church history and languages. We have prayed very fervently over this new chapter of our lives as we seek God's will and to be obedient servants honoring Him in all we do. Bob is ready to get back to school after his year off. This will be challenge for us and we beseech your prayers. Bob will be going to school and working full time. So this will definitely bring new changes to our newlywed life. Especially while we try to juggle time devoted to each other, time devoted to the Lord, and of course studying, writing papers with his 40 hour work week. We know the Lord is sufficient to provide for not only our physical needs but spiritual and mental as well. We also ask that you pray for me I am taking my North Carolina Nursing Boards seeking my R.N. license next Tuesday the 25th. The Lord has been so faithful and we are very encouraged as we begin this new chapter in our lives.
I realized I post a lot about what I cook and so I started a blog devoted to the happenings in the Adam's kitchen. It will be fun as I share with you my love for cooking and joy of learning so check it out! Simply click on the above picture or go to http://theadamskitchen.blogspot.com
I love Sundays. I love waking up with a cup of coffee and my bible eager to spend time with the Lord. I love that time is set apart specifically for us to worship our Savior with other believers. I love that no matter what a Sunday afternoon nap is always in order. I even don't mind doing laundry on Sunday. One of the things I also love about Sundays is the Sunday paper. Now when I was younger it was because the Sunday paper contained the comics, in my teenage years it was the sales papers filled with things I was convinced I needed, in college it was the Wal-mart salespaper to see what deals I could score and of course the wedding and engagements section. Now it is the coupons. I have been intrigued by all the stories I am hearing of cutting your grocery bill in half, paying practically nothing for things by working the coupon system, and even getting things for free. So I have been doing some research, I want to save money too! After reading many blogs and notes I found that truly making this coupon business work for you is going to take a little bit of practice but I am up for the challenge. There is a lot to learn but I am trying. Even last week we saved some money by just having some coupons handy on items we needed. So today I am excited that it is coupon day. A few weeks ago I was really excited it was the paper with the P&G money saver, I use lots of P&G products (gotta support my "Uncle" Matt). Of course don't forget about reading all of the grocery store sales papers because Wal-mart will match any competitors price which save you the hassle of driving around to get the best deal. So do yourselves a favor why not give it a try too, we could all use a little extra money in our pockets.
Lindsey, Bob, me, Heather, and Beck
Jackie, Ashley, Cait, me, Linz, Lys, Beck, Ree, and Heth
I have not given this a try but intend to try but intend to soon with my hubby so I will blog about when it is done and I hope it will be a better experience than the cookie crumbles. so keep your fingers crossed :)
