Baking

As mentioned previously, I have started to really get into baking, specifically cookies. I have been bringing in anywhere from 2-4 batches of cookies into work per week for the last 3 and 1/2 months now. It has been getting pretty fun! When I am not able to make cookies for a couple of nights, I even start to go through cookie withdrawal :(

My inspiration has been coming from this book. While not every recipe works exactly as billed (the s'mores cookies were a pain), almost every cookie I have made from here is awesome!

Today, I made cookies called "top-heavy heavenly hash." I have to say, they look pretty impressive! The chocolate cookie on the bottom is crisp and crunchy with marshmallows and walnuts and chocolate chips piled on top. They were surprisingly light!

I made these cookies a couple of weeks ago, entitled "lemon ginger cookie sandwiches." These may be the most impressive cookies I have made so far. Also very yummy.

The other thing I have been baking pretty consistently are biscuits. These are Betty Crocker's biscuits with 1 cup of Tillamook cheddar cheese added in. Oh man are these a great breakfast!


The best part is that Izzie still likes to help me "mak-a coo-kies a-day!"

Making cookies

For the last couple of months, I have been baking cookies and bringing about 75-85% of the batches to work to share with the other doctors and the nurses. One of the best parts about it is that Izzie really really likes helping bake the cookies. She will stand up on our step stool right next to me and help me dump the cups/teaspoons of ingredients into their appropriate containers. She also likes to help stir up the dry ingredients after I have thoroughly mixed them (I guess I wasn't thorough enough). Sometimes I catch her licking her finger and sticking it in the flour (oh well). Her favorite part is, of course, when she gets the beater after the mixer has finished mixing the dough.

After I have cut the cookie dough or spooned it onto sheets, she sits on the ground with me and watches the cookies in the oven - for a little while. Then we play in the kitchen and wait for the cookies to be finished cooking.

It has been a lot of fun to bake with Izzie! At our old place, we really didn't have room to bake, and I very rarely got the mixer our to make anything. Here, our kitchenaid sits in the corner on the counter and I just slide it out to make something. :)

The people at work have really liked my baking prowess as well - usually I try to bake something a couple of times per week and everyone seems to think that the cookies are pretty tasty. I certainly like them.

Anyway, I have really enjoyed my newly-found baking hobby, and Isidora really likes to bake with me :)

Graduation

Apparently I graduated from medical school last Thursday, which means I am a doctor. I can't think of many other things that are more terrifying to me (yet pretty exciting at the same time.) A bunch of my family were able to make the trip from the northwest to see me graduate. And my Saint Louis family was able to make it as well.

Part of our goal with the move was to be moved in by graduation. And, thanks to a lot of help from Becky (taking care of Izzie) and the rest of the family, we were able to be moved in enough to host a brunch at our house. Since Matt and I have been married, we haven't had the opportunity to get out our china and I thought, what better time than graduation!

Here is a shot of everything laid out before we began. We had bagels with gravlacks (cured salmon, made by Grant) and fruit salad, as well as coffee and mimosa (or just orange juice). I had a great time getting out the china and making everything pretty - I hope I can get it out more often!

This is a shot of the gravlacks plated. It was a big hit!

After brunch, we headed over to the Chaifetz Arena for graduation (School of Medicine Precommencement).

Here we are reciting the Hippocratic Oath, which I feel is the moment when we became physicians. It is interesting how the oath has changed over the years, the Wikipedia article I linked to actually gives a good synopsis of what has changed.

Here is Isidora at graduation, proud of her Mommy.

With Mom and Dad outside Chaifetz Arena after graduation.

I thought our hoods looked pretty neat - the green is for medicine and the blue and white inside are the colors of Saint Louis University.

After graduation we headed over to Grant and Juanita's house for some dinner... and more pictures.

The three Whitney girls!

The table set up for dinner - well, three tables set up for dinner. We had my favorite, beef tenderloin!

I am so blessed to have had so much family come visit to share this special day with me! Thanks again to all that made the trip out and to everyone that helped with the house!

Why My Dad's Cooking Is Awesome, Reason #2381

We greatly enjoy the cooking at my parents' house. My dad has become a very good cook over the years and tends to do his best work on Sundays. Every once in a while I also enjoy taking pictures of his cooking because it looks so darn delicious.
Last Sunday provided just such an opportunity as we were hanging out at their house.

This particular meal centered around a roast recipe he knew of that involves bourbon. That alone is enough to get my salivary glands going, but the pictures really drive the point home. Also, he did the roast outside on the grill using a large cast "Dutch oven" type pot, which was just cool.

First we see the twin chuck roasts browning nicely on the grill. Quite aesthetically pleasing, wouldn't you say?

Next we take a gander at the pot situated on the grill. Because the pot has legs and wouldn't sit right on the surface of the grill, Dad just used a simple base for a potted plant pot to rest it on.

There aren't very many ingredients to this recipe. The bowl holds the liquid mixture that the meat will actually sit in while it roasts (the part that contains the bourbon, yum) and some cloves of garlic and lots and lots of onions also go in. Sometimes simple is better.

Everything into the pot. Now it looks like just a bunch of onions. Appearances can be deceiving. Let's check back in a little while...

Now that's more like it.

The roasting being finished, here we see the meat resting. Mmmm.

Finally, the components of the meal; the sliced roast, the bowls of sauce made from reducing the roasting liquid, some mashed potatoes, sauteed peppers (you can't see them, but trust me they're there) and carrots sauteed with butter. Add wine and people to eat it and this makes a heck of a meal.

Easter Triduum

This week has been pretty busy. Most of the week was spent looking at houses and then making an offer on a house. We also went to the Magic House again with Katee and got to explore some new areas! But, as promised, Isidora got to wear some new dresses for the Triduum!

Here is Izzie playing with her letter magnets at Nanny and Papa's before we head out to Holy Thursday mass at the Cathedral Basilica.

On Friday we heard back from our realtor that our offer had been accepted on the house in the Morning, and then later in the afternoon we took Isidora to Good Friday Service. Fortunately, Juanita was able to come with us, because Isidora was quite a handful during the veneration. Nanny was able to take her outside for a while (the veneration lasted 45 minutes with all the people there) during which Matt and I were able to have some quiet prayerful time inside.

Isidora ready for Good Friday (minus shoes), complete with pig tails! Thanks again to Godfather Greg for the beautiful outfit!

On Saturday, we decided that since Easter Vigil mass was not going to start until 8:30 pm, and Izzie is in bed most of the time at 7 pm, we were going to have Grant and Juanita keep her overnight at their house and Matt and I would go to the Vigil alone. But before we left, we were able to participate in Easter egg dying.

We made some pretty neat eggs this year I think.

One of Katee's striped eggs.

One of the speckled eggs made with food coloring with all of the eggs in the background.

Matt and I had a wonderful time at Easter Vigil, and we were both very glad we left Isidora with his parents since we didn't even get home until 11:45 pm. But, we felt that Isidora really should go to Easter Mass, so we decided to go with her again at the 8 am service Easter morning. Unfortunately Izzie was kind of on a funky schedule secondary to sleeping somewhere different and waking up 2 hours earlier than normal and so she was pretty tired - which meant that she was a wiggle worm during the whole Mass. Oh well.

After mass we headed back over to Grant and Juanita's to celebrate Easter.

Here is Izzie's Easter basket, complete with Libs chocolate - a family tradition from my mom's side of the family.

After Izzie took a nap (she fell asleep on the 10 minute drive back to Grant and Juanita's), Isidora got to go Easter egg hunting! She loved it! She was a natural. She already likes picking things up and putting them in a basket or something of that sort, so this was a breeze for her. She had such a great time.

Isidora finding Easter eggs in the grass wearing her Easter dress and hat. (Thanks Grandma!)

Thank you Mr. Gnome!

Are there any more eggs over here?

Here is one!

Check out all of my eggs!

Let me show you, Nanny.

We got Isidora a baby carrier for her baby doll.

And we went for a walk after brunch (breakfast tacos and mimosa!) and Izzie got to try out her new carrier.

Auntie Katee got Isidora some bubbles for Easter and we had lots of fun blowing and popping bubbles.

After opening baskets and hunting for eggs, we spent some time on the deck. Isidora that these potted evergreens (Uncle Ben's bonzai trees) needed more dirt in them, so she took dirt from some failed tomato seedlings on the other side of the deck and put them in the pot. This occupied her for about 20 minutes or so! It was a blast to watch.

Too much moss, not enough dirt!

Getting more dirt.

Hmm, a bit more dirt, I think.

I wonder what this tastes like. (She did try it eventually, and she didn't like it.)

I think I will just eat some worms instead. (More Easter candy from Auntie Katee.)

As always, we also had a very lovely Easter dinner made by Matt's dad, Grant. For the last couple of days, he has been soaking a country ham to rehydrate it and decrease some of the salt content. I have ever only had a country ham at the Colvin house. They are very salty, but pretty tasty. The ham he was able to get was huge, I think he said it was about 20 lbs to begin with, but he had to cut it into 3 sections because it was simply too big. He ended up cooking about 13 lbs of it today (the main 10 lb portion and a 3 lb shank).

Grant cooked the ham outside on the grill so that the oven could be used for other things, and so that the house would not get so warm.

Here is the complete meal set up buffet-style. We had the ham with an apple cider reduction raisin sauce, some pan fried okra, dinosaur kale, and sweet potato fries. We also had home made buttermilk biscuits and home made pickles, pickled onions and pickled okra. For dessert we had bread pudding with a whiskey sauce. It was great!

Izzie got to have a chocolate lollipop from Auntie Katee for dessert. Spoiled rotten.


Happy Easter! He is risen!