Easter Food

If you don't already know, holidays in the Rhoads-Bender-LaGuardia household are always full of fantastic food. This weekend will not be an exception as Uncle Rick will be preparing lamb for the family and we will be preparing the sauce.

Another thing that you might not know about the Rhoads-Bender-LaGuardia clan is that there is always some sort of pasta served at every holiday. Typically it is spaghetti and meatballs (with some Italian sausage in there too for good measure) beacuse it helps feed the masses that inevitably show up unannounced (or even uninvited in some cases).

This year is no different and since Dave and I have started to become master sauce makers (and my meatballs are apparently to die for) we were volunteered for this service.

Dave's Grandma taught the both of us how to make sauce. Her's is the sauce that is always compared to and out of everyone in the family, ours has come the closest. This is something I'm quite proud of because I thought that spaghetti sauce (meatballs and sausage excluded) came out of a jar of Prego. I was happy to find out that this is not the case and that my childhood dislike of all things pasta really resided in that gross jar of imposter sauce.

In addition to the sauce, which we will start on Friday and serve on Sunday (yes, a good sauce really does take at least 2 days to cook, 3 is even better), I will be baking a Buttermilk Spice Cake. Last night I finally tried to make butter following this post and I think that it turned out well, but now I have buttermilk and had no idea what to do with it until now.

I'm going to try out this recipie by Emril Lagasse and hopefully it turns out. There have been times when the Food Network has let me down, but let's just pray that this is not one of those times. Luckily, even if it is a flop, we have the perk of Uncle Rick being in the tux business, which means that we always receive a plethora of fancy desserts from a local bakery that makes ridiculous cakes.

Fingers crossed that all goes well with our culinary exploits this weekend...I have no doubt that it will be fine, but sometimes you just never know =)

Denver Bucket List

We've done quite a bit here in Colorado...seen many things, visited many places, driven all over the state...but now it feels like there is a deadline.

We all know that Dave and I are not going to live in Denver forever. There are quite a few things around the city that most natives have never done...so before our time ends here and we begin a new chapter elsewhere, I would like to do as much as we can before we leave.

1) Hot Sulfur Springs

2) Celestial Tea Factory Tour

3) Tea at the Brown Palace

4) Visit Glenwood Springs

5) Heritage Square

6) Visit Aspen

7) Climb Pikes Peak...or take the train up

8) Visit the train museum by our house

9) Visit the Wild Animal Sanctuary

10) Visit Hanging Lake

11) Go on a hot air balloon ride or helicopter ride over the city

12) Visit Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

13) Visit the US Mint

Any other suggestions?

The 30 before 30 list...even though I'm still 28 =)

In honor of Jana and to recap on this post, I thought that I would revisit things that I want to do/see/experience in the next few years. I'm going to pare down the list to something manageable that I think I might be able to handle in the next year and few months before I turn the big 30...

1) Get our dream house in Oregon

2) Move to Oregon

3) Get a fulfilling job

4) Get a crazy cake for my birthday...from an actual bakery and not one that I bake myself

5) Rent a cabin on Mt. Hood

6) Visit San Francisco as an adult

7) Skydive (this is my goal for the day of my 30th birthday)

8) Visit Vancouver, B.C.

9) Admit to those that don't read this blog and have felt the wrath of Amanda regarding babies, that the wrath was really because I have always wanted to be a mom and I want the timing to be right. When you give people that answer, they always fire back with, "the time will never be right"...but I know that for us, when it is time, it will be time. We are getting closer and the detached facade is slowly fading away...but time is still needed for me to admit that to those who push and push and push about us having babies...because we will when we are ready. For us, it is about the future and creating a future for our children that is better than what we had growing up...and before this point in our lives, that wouldn't have been possible.

10) Actually see Jana in person...whether it be in Berlin or the US

11) Learn how to garden with mom and/or dad

12) Learn how to be a handywoman around the house (more so than I already am)

13) Get a hot tub

14) Stay in the hotel we spent our wedding night in for our anniversary

15) Visit Vicki in Kona

16) Start actually writing my book...I don't know what this will look like...I have a ton of ideas in my head, but as soon as I sit down to write, they disappear...so I hope to get that flightiness under control

17) Ax all of the external drama from our lives as much as possible

18) Stop trying to help everyone that I love all of the time. Sometimes you have to let them figure out their own problems because at the end of the day, it is their life and not yours

19) Find the perfect iced tea...we had some at the Thai place by our house a while back, but they wouldn't tell me what type it was

20) Try Dim Sum...how have I not done this? I'm thinking we can try this in the next few weekends =)

21) Give more to charity

22) Participate in the AIDS walk

23) Make a souffle...that doesnt fall

24) Start preparations to go back to school for my masters

25) Introduce my Oregon family to good Italian food...since I do believe that none of them have had anything that we have ever cooked...like our 3 day sauce with homemade meatballs or lasagna with homemade sauce

26) Learn that no matter how many times you proofread something, there will always be mistakes...

27) Create a bucket list of things to do in Denver before our time here comes to an end...and actually do everything that is on there

28) Plant more trees, compost more, and make wherever we are into an oasis/sanctuary in this crazy world

29) Try not to worry about the future so much. Although our decisions and actions today effect days to come, all we can do is try to do our best in every situation we find ourselves in.

30) Start expanding our family...when the time is right for us.

Another Crafty Project

Sorry for all of the crafty posts today, but I've been feeling inspired to make something with my free time...and this project is something that might not really work in my current home, but I think could work in my next...or maybe even in your home!

A fairly simple project...it calls for a miter saw, but I think that if you had a box cutter, that would do the trick as well...although it would be considerably slower.

Have fun crafting!

A homemade butter recipie

I think that I am going to try this the next time we need butter...seems simple enough and is much better for you than the margarine we currently buy...not sure why I buy it though...just out of habit from childhood I suppose??

1) Let the cream first come to room temperature, or right around 72 - 74 degrees F (22-23 C). Simple set the cream in a container on the kitchen counter, put a dairy thermometer into it, and check on it every 30 minutes or so until the temperature rises. This step lets the cream ripen a bit, raising its acidity, thereby making it easier to whip and full of flavor.

2) Put the cream inside of a food processor, secure the lid, and start running the machine.

3) The cream will begin to go through several butter-forming stages: first sloshy, then stiff, then finally dividing ranks and forming separately into butter and buttermilk. Machine times for achieving these stages will vary, but will generally take between 6-9 minutes.

4) Using a spatula, remove the butter from the machine. Place the buttery mass into a sieve that is on top of a medium-sized mixing bowl. Leave for a few minutes, alloing the liquid (which is buttermilk) to drain off.

5) Transfer butter into a medium sized bowl. Star runing cold water into the bowl. Empty the water out, repeating several times until the water is clear in the boal. Strain off any remaining water.

6) If you want to include salt, stir it in now with a metal spoon. Otherwise, put the butter mass on your cutting board.

7) Using either clean hands, a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, begin pressing the butter repeatedly, allowing any liquid inside of it to drain off. Contiune pressing until no liquid is visibly coming out when pressed.

8) Storage depends on when you plan on using your butter. You can either store it at room temperature in a butter crock; chill or freeze it in wax or parchment paper; or store it in a container in the frefrigerator or freezer.

The site provided above also has the recipie via shaking the cream instead of using a food processor...so if you want to know what your ancestors who didnt' have a butter churn did, I guess this is a good way to find out =) I personally tried doing it that way when I was in elemarary school...and I don't care to do it again =)

a pretty cool project

Since I like to be thrifty and also repurpose objects in different ways I wanted to share this indoor greenhouse idea with you...seems simple enough and there are ways to add your own personal flair.

Have fun!