Category Archives: School

Breaking the Silence

WOW that was a long time of no communication, and for that, I really must apologize. I can only speak for myself here, I totally  got absorbed in the craziness of last semester, and then decided to be lazy during Christmas break. And then continued being lazy about the blog, so I’m really sorry. That’s the last time I will apologize, however, because my next story will make you wonder how I got this far in school, let alone in making desserts. I’m breaking the silence with a K-Shaming post.

In my internship, my unit was responsible for hosting a potluck this month and I chose to do dessert! Mainly because I force myself to do something from scratch, desserts are easier than making lasagna (my other option), and- honestly?- I thought I might be able to convince my hubby to make it for me. No go on that last one though, so I asked for suggestions  and chose Famous Wafer Dessert. It’s so delightfully delicious, as well as low in ingredients so it was a perfect solution.

Here’s the recipe quick, so you can understand my mistake later:

Famous Wafer Dessert:

-Two boxes Famous Wafers (a chocolatey wafer)

-One Quart of Heavy Whipping Cream

– Your choice of fruit as a garnish (I recommend berries of any kind, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries)

That’s it.

Whip the heavy cream in the blender until it turns to whipped cream, and then one by one using a knife, gently spread about a quarter inch of the whip on the wafers.  Put them together on a platter so they are standing up, perpendicular to the platter. The way I prefer to do it is in a circular shape around the edge of a round plate, and then I serve the fruit in the middle of the dessert. Don’t use all the whipped cream for this! Once you’ve got all the cookies ‘glued’ together by the whipped cream, use what’s left to do a final coat all over the wafers, completely covering them. Once you’ve done this, cover it with Saran Wrap (use toothpicks to hold up the Saran Wrap and protect the frosting) and let it set in the fridge for a minimum of two hours, adding the fruit right before you serve it. The way it works is the hard wafer absorbs some of the moisture in the whipped cream and expands into a cake-like texture by the time it’s ready to serve, and just melts in your mouth. It’s light, fresh, and a huuuuuge crowd pleaser.

My problem happened when I realized I had no toothpicks to stick in the cake to keep the saran wrap off the whipped cream- I searched high and low and found none, even though I swear we had a whole jar in the cabinet. Since I was sure I had some somewhere, I decided not to go to the store because, well, that’s just silly! I knew I’d find them as soon as I get home from the store anyways, so I decided to use uncooked spaghetti instead. Genius! Who needs toothpicks when you have uncooked spaghetti? Perfect. Let’s do that.

In the morning, when I got up (late, I might add), I went to put my dessert in the car only to discover that the moisture in the cake had also done its work on the spaghetti. Every piece was totally limp and the saran wrap was resting nicely over every inch of my gorgeous cake.

Curtis got a kick out of my muttering while I started yanking out the spaghetti thinking I’d just have to re-frost the top of the cake before serving. But that was before the spaghetti broke apart in my hands, leaving pieces of noodle in the stupid cake. By this point, I was hyperventilating with frustration, and started cutting the cake into slices to try and neatly dig out each individual noodle left in it.

After ten minutes, I was pretty sure I had it spaghetti-free, but it was no longer my pretty masterpiece….nevertheless I brought it to the potluck, and decided to be grateful that it was an Italian themed potluck. That way, if anyone found spaghetti in their dessert they’d assume that it somehow found its way from another plate, not that the baker had spent twenty minutes playing ‘Operation’ that morning.
And…….everyone loved it! Thank goodness. It was not the relaxing potluck I thought it would be, as I was peering at everyone’s plate hoping to not see a noodle sticking out.
Success….?
Maybe, maybe not. But I bought some toothpicks and started blogging again, so maybe it wasn’t all bad 🙂
-K

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Filed under Baking, Dessert, School, Work

The Non-Vegetarian Sister

Major thanks to my wonderful sister for keeping you all going with reading material the last few months. Im sorry for having been away so long, I take a break and she goes vegetarian on me!? Although these meals look delicious and I truly do trust M’s talent in the kitchen, I’m not sure I could do tofu.
I really like meat.
Now that school is back in session and my internship has started, I plan on being much more diligent in my efforts to share my goings-on with you all. Because I am having some truly awesome experiences!
Because the nature of my job has a huge element of confidentiality, I hope my shortened version of experiences will still be able to show how much I am loving social work.
I’ve got a great group of supervisors both at school and my agency, but so far my relationship and dependency on God has blossomed in a way I didn’t expect. I wrestle a lot with being a follower of Jesus and being a person who advocates for others especially when the two vocations don’t mix. Or cant mix.

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(From A Voice in the Wind, by Francine Rivers)
It’s an awesome learning thing for me, and I am repeating to myself daily that God’s plan for me is greater than my plan for myself. Self-care has been underlined from the beginning as something that is necessary to my health and ability to do my job, so posts like M’s last week (even though I have no moppets yet!) made a big impact on my day.
Did anyone else gain from M’s post last week? I love how God uses so many different people with so many different talents to reveal Himself to us.

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~K

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Filed under Family, Food Stuffs., God, School, Work

School is OUT!

It’s FINALLY OVER! Finals have all been taken, papers turned in, books returned, and barely 24 hours have passed!
I celebrated this wonderful end of the semester by driving up to Ripon so I can babysit my beautiful niece, and it turned into a lovely afternoon! I got to visit with my friend Jess who just returned from a six week mission trip to Africa!! It was so wonderful to hear how God used her there, and some of the stories she had made me want to go! Maybe in the next few years 🙂
After catching up with Jess, I literally dragged M shopping. She whined almost the whole way until we got into the dressing room and she remembered that she does, in fact, enjoy it. 😉
THEN my momma and I had a mother/daughter date night! M already had plans for the night, so she thanked me ever so much for making her go shopping and headed home.

Mom and I grabbed some Chinese food from New China (hands down best chicken chow mein, deep fried green beans and BBQ pork ever), some redbox movies (Pitch Perfect was awesome!!!) and some candy before settling down to relax. It was delightful.
And now, as I lay down, I find myself at a loss…before I fall asleep I am so used to blocking out my schedule for homework and work and school and housecleaning that I can’t get out of the habit!
I think I might sketch a bit….maybe read something good…..come up with some ideas on dating my hubby…..or just do nothing for one hot minute.
FINALLY!!!!!
So happy to be back.
~K

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Filed under Family, School, Vacation

Mexican Rice: Spiced up!

Mmmmm!

Mmmmm!

At a total loss as to what to make for dinner Tuesday night, I had completely forgotten about some Mexican rice a co-worker had made for me the night before. I don’t know what exactly he puts in it, but it’s magical. He’s explained it to me before, but I’m usually too busy cramming the rice in my mouth to pay attention to his directions. My bad. 🙂

Tossed some steak (or chicken, if that’s what you’re feelin) in a saute pan with a little S&P, added some green chiles from a can, some pico de gallo, taco seasoning and some Tapatio. Once that was all done, I threw the rice in there and kept it on medium low heat, stirring all the while, til it was all hot! A little shredded cheddar topped it off beautifully….

Use chips as utensils, eat nacho style, or as a regular stir-fry….Curtis scarfed it down like I hadn’t fed him in days.

Which, to be honest, I probably haven’t made a sit down dinner in about a week. Thank goodness God blessed me with a man who can cook for himself if he has to!

The end is in sight, guys- exams next week and then……..FREEDOM! Never thought I’d look forward to ‘just work’ so much…..

~K

 

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Filed under Food Stuffs., School

Burning Lights Tour!!

I’ve actually really been suffering from withdrawals, I think, from not being on here! It makes me sad. I miss you people. 🙂

So I’m just gonna give y’all a little picture of the last few weeks….

1. My friends Adrienne and James’ wedding two weekends ago….

IMG_1696Gorgeous aren’t they? The wedding was beautiful, and we had a BLAST 🙂

2. My friends Janna and John’s wedding this past weekend….

My apologies for the lighting....:(

My apologies for the lighting….She looked like a princess!! Beautiful!

Another wonderful time with friends and family! Congrats Janna and John 🙂

3. The Chris Tomlin and Kari Jobe concert Curtis and I went to with my mom and stepdad- AMAZING!!!!! Holy cows, guys. I have been to plenty of concerts before but this one kicks all those other concerts little butts.

We were SO CLOSE! Props Dave for the awesome seats :)

We were SO CLOSE! Props to Dave for the awesome seats 🙂

IMG_1802IMG_1803It was so cool to be in a huge room with tons of other people all worshiping God through music. It’s one of those things that kind of renews your faith a little, just by being around others who believe in the same God you do.

Plus, Chris Tomlin was HI-larious! It was a pretty high-energy concert so of course everyone is standing and being enthusiastic until Chris sets up for an acoustic guitar song that seemed like it was gonna be more low-key. So everyone starts sitting down (not us though!! I promise!!!) and Chris stops doing the intro to the song mid-chord and calls everyone out, ‘Why is everyone sitting down? Stand up! Let’s get this going!’ and everyone jumped right back up! He starts laughing, the crowd all starts laughing, and the music starts up again.  Hehe I don’t think anyone sat down again for 40 minutes until he brought his piano down for a solo and started laughing again and ‘gave us permission’ to sit 😉

Not sure how much longer the Burning Lights tour is out and about, but you need  to go. Kari Jobe is amazing also- I didn’t recognize her name but she sang several songs I was familiar with so she must be on K-Love a lot. If you can’t make it to a concert, download these songs…

1. Love Came Down by Kari Jobe

2. White Flag by Chris Tomlin

3. We Are by Kari Jobe

4. Whom Shall I Fear by Chris Tomlin

5. Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) by Chris Tomlin

So that’s the last of the fun stuff til May 25th, when Ashley gets married!

This girl was the first friend I made when I moved to California, and she is the one who introduced me to my husband, who happens to be her cousin, so now we're stuck together forever :)

This wonderful girl was the first friend I made when I moved to California, and she is the one who introduced me to my husband, who happens to be her cousin, so now we’re stuck together forever 🙂

So, til then….

hittin’ the books 😉

~K

P.S. I tried M’s Kettlebell exercise. If I can move my body tomorrow, I may try it again. If it makes me sore like this, that means it’s working, right??!?!

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Filed under Family, Favorite Things, fitness, God, School, Wedding

Quick K Update

I have to extend a huge thank you to my co-blogger, M, for keeping this blog going lately. I have been absent far more than I want to be, and far busier than I want to be as well.

I just thought I’d give ya’ll a little run-down of what I’ve been up to lately and I’ll tell ya right now- cooking is not it. Haha, sorry, I wish it was, but our meals have been downright boring lately!

I am very nearly finished with my ‘Junior’ year of my major, which is social work in the Child Welfare department. I can hardly describe how much I am loving it! Finally discovering my passion in life and deciding what I want to do with that passion has been quite a journey for me. I mean, come on- I’m almost 26 years old and I’ll be starting my ‘senior’ year of college soon. All the ‘ thingies are because I have enough college credits to be a junior for the second time. And none of them add up to a major that I can graduate with!

Anyways. Here’s what’s going on.

Senior year I only have to take 2 classes on campus and I am also doing an internship. All social work majors must do an internship, and for those of us who work and attend school, we now have to find a way to squeeze in 16 hours a week of an internship at a social services agency. I was extremely blessed to have been selected (after a rigorous application process,an interview by five social work professors and possible employers, and a two week waiting period) for a Title IV-E Stipend Program! What this program means is I will receive a $15,000 scholarship to pay for school and living expenses during my internship and then am required to work for Child Welfare Services for a year after I graduate. Basically, school is paid for, I don’t have to work quite as much, I don’t need a second job, and I will most likely have a job when I graduate, because the rate of agencies hiring on Stipend interns is about 98%. God is so good!!!! Seriously people, when I got my acceptance letter I literally jumped around the living room screaming and crying for like five minutes before curling up into a ball on the floor with my letter crumpled in my hand. I think there may have been some shock. And I think I scared poor Jasper.

Now that the shock has worn off a little, I have started an interview process with a few different agencies to see where I fit best for my internship next year! Along with this exciting and busy time of deciding internships there is the normal amount of homework still needing to be done for all my classes….let’s just say I’m pooped, and can’t wait for summer! So, for now, I am going to continue to rely on my wonderful sister to entertain you all and squeeze myself in whenever I can!!

~K

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Filed under School, Work