No Sugar Here

Someone recently commented that I make a lot of sweets...which I do and I know is not great for me but I do make other stuff too. So I thought I would show you some un-sweet things. I have a lot of time on my hands since school ended so this week I have made two different items. Last night we had some Turkish food so I made homemade pitas- they were delicious!

The unrolled out balls of pita - then a little rolling pin and baking and voila...

Then tonight we had pork tacos from this recipe- they were amazing nectarines and all. So I made fresh flour tortillas to go with our tacos- also very yummy. It is amazing how easy tortillas are to make- I may try more of these in the future.

Later this week- some more bread. So I can make things without sugar. Though I did make a huge batch of blueberry muffins the last week of school for our students breakfast and for Jason's belly.

And we have liftoff!

After months of speculation, worry and annoyance- our moving process has begun. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of unanswered questions and lots of worry left but at least it has started. We now have a date when the packing should begin (drumroll......) August 25th. We still need to have a move survey completed to determine how long it will take and that will in turn determine when we can fly out but we think we will be in the US the week of August 30th at some point. We are slightly concerned with how the Norwegian movers will do but in the end it will all be insured, right? As I said there are still lots of questions, such as, where we will live in Houston, how long we will be there etc etc but hopefully some of those will be determined in the next month or so.

Other then that there is not much new to report. I had a lazy week of not working last week and another one coming up. Jason had a colleague in town last week so we did do some entertaining but nothing too exciting. The weather has continued to be crappy but it is nice today. I was going to write a whole post on how crappy the weather has been this summer but it made me too sad so I stopped. I will just say the warmest it has been was one day back in mid-May when it was 21C or 69F- and that was one day- it hasn't gotten that warm since :( And just so you know, hearing how miserable you are in the heat of the summer is not very comforting....:)

Last Day!

Today was my last day of school! It may very well be my last day of "educating" children ever and it will be my last day of being employed for at least a few months. We had a nice lunch for the kids and then a graduation ceremony for our oldest students. I got a few sweet presents and lots of hugs which was really nice. I am sure once I am removed from it I will be sad but today was pretty great! It has been a busy week of musical performances, picnics, events, dinners with colleagues and the such. Glad the weekend is here and I can relax. Unfortunately for us the weather is crap- it even sleeted this morning :(

Because all good blog posts need a picture...

I think our dogs have decided they are in love. They are always laying right next to each other nowadays - which is a huge change from the first year. I swear that Dopler moves his bed to be touching Stretch's bed every day :)

Caramelized Apple Skillet Cake

Today was a lazy Sunday- Jason was working from home and I didn't have much to do, so I decided to bake. After searching my cookbooks for something I had all the ingredients for I decided on Caramelized Apple Skillet Cake from the Craft of Baking book- here is the recipe from another person's blog.

I did have a bit of trouble with this recipe. First off I don't have a cast iron skillet or an oven proof skillet so I needed to make it in a cake pan. You make the caramel on the stove top in the pan but I didn't think my cake pan was stove top proof so I made the caramel in a regular pan then poured it into the cake pan. First mistake- hot caramel into a cold cake pan doesn't work. So I tried again - this time warming the cake pan in the oven first but I wanted to get the apples cut up before I transferred the caramel to the cake pan- well that was a mistake as well. The caramel cooled and couldn't be reheated to the correct consistency. So third time was a charm- warm cake pan and apples that were ready to be placed in the caramel. Looking back I also should have had the batter ready before I started the caramel and apple phase but it still worked just fine.

Hot out of the oven

Inverted

Finished product is heavenly! Jason could barely wait for me to let it cool and invert it so he could eat it. This will be something I make again and again!

Rhubarb

As I previously posted we have two large rhubarb bushes in our yard. Last year we didn't do anything with it but this year I made it my mission to use it- even though Jason is not a fan. I also made it my mission to try to find a way that Jason might actually like it. Thankfully, I have been able to give some away so less of it goes to waste. My first attempt was Rhubarb Jam- here is the recipe for it - I didn't make the biscuits with it though. It was really simple and pretty good.

Freshly picked - FYI the leaves are deadly poison

All cut up ready for jam

Jam in progress

Finished product

My second attempt was Lemon Buttermilk Rhubarb Bundt Cake. Here is the recipe. I think it was delicious!! I took some to school and Jason took some to work - overall it went over well. And my mission was complete- Jason liked it!!

Hot out of the oven

After an icing bath

Pizza and Chocolate

I tried my hand at homemade pizza dough last week and it turned out really great. I made Homemade Deep Dish Pepperoni Pizza from this recipe.

It was also our anniversary last week so I made Molten Chocolate Cakes for dessert. Here is the recipe. They tasted really good but I am not quite sure they were cooked enough. I blame my crappy oven- but they were fun to make and eat.

Hage Tur (Garden Tour)

Spring has sprung - in the garden at least. I thought I would show what is currently blooming since it is so pretty this time of year:

First up - Tulips which I love! They are starting to die off but they also were late blooming this year

Love the multi-colored ones

One of our few (and last) daffodils

Random flower

Random Flower

More pink tulips in the front yard

Grape Hyacinth I think- just one pretty little flower though

I hate this bush because it has vicious thorns but it does have pretty buds

The start of red currants

The monstrous rhubarb bushes - stay tuned for jam...

The pretty flowing tree

Flowering bushes

Yellowing flowering bush

Our garden guest- Marshmallow! It is the neighbors cat and likes to come in our yard. Today it was so friendly and wanted to be petted. At one point I thought it was going to follow me inside.