Help Me Walk to End Alzheimer's!

I’m joining the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, the nation's sixth-leading cause of death, by participating in Walk to End Alzheimer’s in less than two weeks on October 27, and I need your support.


Help me reach my goal by making a donation to my fundraising page.  I'm participating along with other members of the Young Emerging Professionals of Williamsburg (YEP).

I hope to make a big contribution in the fight against Alzheimer’s by reaching my personal fundraising goal of $100.00, and I’d be so grateful if you could sponsor me.

Your support of Walk to End Alzheimer’s will help the Alzheimer’s Association to enhance Alzheimer’s care and support and advance critical research for all those affected by this devastating disease.

Thanks so much for your support of Food Ramblings and my effort to help the Alzheimer's Association.  Click here to sponsor my walk.

THANK YOU!

xoxo,
Elizabeth

Care Packages

This week is devoted to baked goods and care packages!!  I participated in My Love for Cooking's online bakesale, and my sister-in-law (a freshman in college) indicated that she wanted me to send her some goodies after she saw the peanut butter nutella cookies.  So I had a lot of baking to do!!

Here's what I made:
-Strawberry shortcake cookies
-Strawberry banana muffins

I love this picture and my new, amazing camera :)

-Chocolate, peanut butter, and strawberry baked oatmeal cups (I know, crazy long name!)
-Applesauce oatmeal cookies with maple glaze

The last two recipes I haven't made before on the blog, so they will appear this week.

While I made packages for the bakesale and my sister-in-law, I also decided to send my sister a package in California (she is also a college freshman).  I, of course, waited to bake until mid afternoon, so I was waiting on cookies in the oven well into the evening.  But it was worth it, especially when I get I get tagged on facebook with this picture:

Here's a line-up of the pictures of my packing-- I loved sending out the care packages.  Only problem- I was left with way too many cookies and muffins that I had to eat :)

The boxes ready to get packed

My awesome cards for the sisters!

Package for one sister

Package for another :)

Zebra Bundt Cake

Happy Birthday to Me :)  For my birthday, I sent the hubby a list of cake and cupcake recipes that I wanted, and it was up to him to select the one he wanted to pick.  My birthday cake list included some easy and hard recipes, and, of course, Austin picked the hardest one.  The zebra bundt cake from Tales of an Overtime Cook.

Words don't do this recipe justice.  Let's just take a look at the pictures!

The final product!!

At the beginning- yes, three bowls are required.

Starting to swirl

Ready for the oven.

Just out of the oven :)

So, only half the cake came out.  Guess someone forgot to grease and flour the pan :)

The half that came out!

And it doesn't even look like we had to piece it together!

Look at that zebra swirl :)

Zebra Bundt Cake

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup cocoa powder
6 Tbs water
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 eggs
1/2 cup skim milk

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease AND flour a bundt pan well. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.  In another bowl, mix together 1/2 cup sugar, the cocoa powder and the water. Stir until a smooth paste forms. Set aside.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the cooled melted butter and the remaining 2 cups sugar. Add vanilla and beat until combined.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

With the mixer on low, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then half of the milk, then repeat until all the milk and flour have been incorporated.  Measure out two heaping cups of the mixture and mix into the bowl with the chocolate mixture. Stir to combine.

To make the zebra look- use two medium cookie scoops:

Spoon a heaping tablespoon of the white batter into the bundt pan. Spoon an equal amount of the chocolate mixture directly in the middle of the white. Next, spoon some white into the center of the chocolate. Repeat until all of the batter has been used.


Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Chocolate Glaze
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 Tbs oil
1-3 Tbs water

Instructions
Mix all ingredients for the glaze together to form a drizzling consistency. Drizzle glaze over cooled cake.

Foodie Penpal Reveal

It's reveal day-- yay!!  My package came from Marie, an avid food blog reader.  Her package arrived to me at the PERFECT time. I have been unbelievably stressed recently, and I haven't had time to really eat properly.  Her package came, I opened it, and I took out a couple things for dinner and lunch the next day almost immediately.  

I forgot to take a picture of the package when it first arrived, but here it everything except the already cooked quinoa (excellent lunch!).

Here's a picture of the other goodies that I already ate :)  Notice the half empty cookie bag and empty cracker box... (at least I remembered to keep the box to take a picture)

I have never tried wasabi puffs, but I'm really excited.

Thanks Marie for this AMAZING Foodie Penpal box!

Jerk Chicken

What is better than cooking over an open flame?  Nothing.  Seriously, if we could grill out everyday, I would.  Actually, we should.

Growing up in Buffalo, NY, my mom still had the grill going in the dead of winter when she was making steaks :) Rule #78:  No excuses, play like a champion.

My mom doesn't mess around.  I get that trait from her, but then make Austin grill in crazy weather.  We're still newlyweds, so he'll do that kind of stuff for me...at least for now :)

About a month ago, we went tubing for the day and camped.  The idea was to go tent camping, but after a day on the river in the rain and arriving to a flooded campsite, we opted for a cabin.

The cabin was heaven, and it's so cute looking too!! 

It was dry in the cabin, but we still cooked an epic meal in the rain.  Grilled chicken, corn, and vegetable packets.  The chicken marinated overnight in a great recipe I found and adapted from Epicurous.

Jerk Chicken Marinade

 

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (4-5 pepper rings)
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tbs dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground allspice
5-6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions
In a food processor or blender, combine the onion, jalapeno pepper, soy sauce, vinegar, vegetable oil, brown sugar, thyme, cloves, nutmeg and allspice. Marinate overnight in gallon-sized ziploc bags.

Cook chicken on the prepared grill, until juices run clear.  We had a grilling basket that made it easy to cook the chicken on the camp grill.

Thanks to the most amazing grill masters, who took on the rain for to cook this great meal! 

Wedding Surprise

Two days ago, Austin and I celebrated our one-month anniversary.  To celebrate, we ate at our favorite lunch place (with a gift certificate we received as a wedding gift), and I made asparagus lasagna (recipe to come next week on the blog-- get ready!).  It was a great way to spend time together and touch base since our world has been a whirlwind since our wedding day.

As I got ready to write this post, I realized I never even posted about our AMAZING wedding day.  It was perfect; well, everything didn't go as planned (cough...hottest day of the year....cough....no air conditioning in the church or trolley....cough).  Regardless, the day was everything I wanted it to be.  It was a day filled with love, happiness, and fun!

Our first professional photo-- our photographer  is the best ever!

Austin, being the best new husband ever, surprised me with a song right after our first dance.  A guitar magically appeared, and Austin sang me a beautiful song.  Check out the video below, and brownies points for those who know this song :)

I held myself together for the entire wedding and through our first song, but when Austin sat down with his guitar, I lost it.  Completely.

Want to see more of our wedding photos?  Like Food Ramblings on Facebook to see the rest of our wedding sneak peaks.

Foodie Penpal-- Package from the Barefoot Baker

It's my second Foodie Penpal reveal, and this month, I was excited to get a box of goodies from Emma at the Barefoot Baker!  Emma just came back from a six-week internship in Spain and shared lots of goodies from her European adventures.

Her letter details each piece of the package and why she included it.  I received loose tea with rooibos, chocolate, and orange flavors- yum!!  Mini-nutella (she said that Italians were obsessed with it) could be my favorite part-- we have a jumbo size nutella in our pantry :)  There was also instant espresso from Italy, and her favorite granola bars, teas, and other great healthy snack food.

I can't wait to try all these new things.  Thanks Emma for the great package!!!!

My package went to Sarah, so check out her blog for more details!  Want to be a foodie penpal??  Click on the picture above for more information!

Dinner Fail

Here's the end result of this dinner:

Yup, it was that bad :(  Weight Watchers has a recipe of the day, and a recipe for a mushroom and spinach lasagna was featured.  Sounds great to me!  I substituted kale (and cooked it more since it's a little tougher than spinach), but then followed the recipe to a T.

And look at the pictures...the recipe looks good:

pre-oven

post baking

individual piece

We took a bite and then another; I even finished my plate, but it hurt me to swallow each bite :(  Austin said nothing about the meal (he's a good fiance-- now HUBBY!) and asked what to do with the leftovers.  When I said the trash, he just smiled and agreed.  Sad face, but it happens.  I'm just glad it doesn't happen too often when I cook. 

I tried to go on Weight Watchers to review/destroy the recipe, but they took it down...guess others ran into the same problem that I did-- the recipe was terrible!! :(

Wedding Day!

Today is the day!  Austin and I are getting married!!!!!!!!!!!!  I don't think enough exclamation points can let you know how excited I am.  Pictures will be up soon enough (well, after the honeymoon), but I thought this post would be a good one to show what gifts we gave our parents as a big THANK YOU for getting us to this point.

I knitted our parents blankets.  I have been working on these blankets for more than a year, and I was thrilled when I finished them (granted that only happened 6 days ago).  Three blankets was a little bit too much to put on my plate, but they are done- and BEAUTIFUL (if I do say so myself...lol).

Here's the blanket I made for my parents.  This is it over my bed, so it was a pretty big blanket.

I made the blanket in three different strips and then stitched them all together.

The first stitch was the easier with slip stitches pulled over, the second a cable (I taught myself cabling with the help of youtube), and then another fancy stitch (I can't remember what it's called since I made these strips over a year ago...).

my parents were married 30 years ago, someone made them a cream blanket that they still have today.  I thought it was appropriate to make them one for the start of my marriage too!

Blanket for Austin's mom:

This blanket was done in a different orientation.  I cast on hundreds of stitches, so when the blanket was done, the strips were vertical instead of the traditional horizontal stripe.

Blanket for Austin's dad:

I did Austin's dad blanket in a modified rib in the manly colors of tan and brown :)

I hope that our parents really appreciate the gifts since there were made with lots of love!

DID I MENTION TODAY IS MY WEDDING DAY?!?!?!

Foodie Penpal Reveal

Today's the day- time for the foodie pen pal reveal!  This was my first month doing the foodie pan pal exchange, so I should probably explain what it is.  There are 1,000+ people involved, and it's sharing food and recipes all over the country and even into Canada.  Lindsay at the Lean Green Bean organizes it all- she is amazing!  On the 5th day of the month, you are mentioned with a blogger.  On the 15th, you send a package to your matched blogger (spending limit of $15), and after enjoying the goodies for over a week, you reveal who you were matched with and share what you received in your package :)  

Sounds fun, right?  If you're interested, visit The Lean Green Bean.  

Now, time for my package.  I was lucky enough to start off the foodie pen pal exchange with Lindsay herself.  I received so many goodies from her; I am very impressed with how much fit in her $15 budget (I didn't do as good of a job with my package....there's always next time!).  

Look at this amazing spread!!  4 magazines, homemade treats, supplies
to make my own no-bakes, and many of Lindsay's favorite things!

There were full when I got them.  Candied nuts on the right and cookie
crumbs on the left.  Lindsay said this wasn't her best baking attempt, but
I thought they were delicous and ate them all in less than 3 days :)

Here's all the stuff in my box that I have never tried before...I can't wait :)

I sent a package to Jessica at the Enlightened Kitchen.  Check out her blog and how she enjoyed her first foodie pen pal exchange too!  

Spoiled Bride- Final Edition

What makes me so the most spoiled bride?  It's because I'm marrying Austin.  I know, uber sappy-- but at the end of the day, the most important thing about being a bride is that I get to be Austin's wife :)

Austin and I have been together for almost five years, and I cannot imagine my life without him.  We met freshman year in he cafeteria but did not start dating until we were seniors in college.  After graduation, we spent three years in a very long distance relationship (six hour drive).  Finally, once we became engaged, I got a dream job in the same town he is in.  Hurray!!

In less than one week, we will finally be married and be husband and wife.  I CANNOT WAIT!!  I am incredibly lucky to be able to share my life with Austin!

One of our first pictures in Fall 2008

Sorority formals Spring 2008

I found this picture lying around- how cute is he?

Senior Week at Hilton Head

Engagement- Thanksgiving 2010. A neighboring table snapped this with their cell phone

Cannon Beach, OR- Summer 2011

2009 at my cousin's wedding.  This Saturday, we will be the ones getting married at this chapel!!