Halloween: The New Happy Holiday

This Halloween holiday keeps growing on me more every year.

(Let's think about that statement literally for a second . . . Great Halloween costume? Possibly.)

I don't do scary, but I'm finding ways of making this season my own. Last Saturday, we threw my idea of a perfect Halloween party. The elements? Good food and great television. Yes, folks. We watched all the scary episodes of Psych and, as tradition demands, my favorite scary episode of Boy Meets World. It's a winning combination.

In case you need your own lineup for tonight, here are the Psych episodes that made my list. (You might notice the absence of "Scary Sherry" and "Tuesday the 17th." Confession: they're too scary for me. Don't judge.)

• 2:16 Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead
• 3:1 Ghosts
• 4:8 Let's Get Hairy
• 5:11 In Plain Fright
• 6:3 This Episode Sucks
• 6:11 Heeeeere's Lassie
• 6:14 Autopsy Turvy

And as for the good food, I made these caramel apples after I sanded the apples down with actual sandpaper. Turns out, this is key to a great caramel apple.

If there's time tonight, we'll also be celebrating with a batch of these soft pretzels.

And since it's also Throwback Thursday, here we are two years ago. Beauty and the Banana.

Ice Cream Wrapped in Sugar and Love: Your Perfect Korra Party Food

Remember when I did my hair like this?

I also made mochi ice cream to celebrate the release of Legend of Korra Book 2. And it turned out very well.

We inadvertently discovered the perfect ice cream for mochi. BYU catering makes this weird lemonade-like drink called "Y Sparkle." In the same odd tradition, the creamery has sparkle sherbet. It's tangy and intense, and when you get to about the third lick it reaches out and whips itself around your tongue and squeezes like a python. In a good way. And I'm not actually kidding at all. That's what it feels like.

Snakes aside, it is the perfect tangy complement to the sweet mochi dough. The mochi also tones down the strangling action.

I've also finally found a good recipe for mochi. Check out these two links. The first is for the converted measurements, and the second is for the actual recipe.

Making mochi ice cream was much easier than I thought, and it's a satisfying process involving gooey sticky dough.

And of course, you can use any ice cream you like. (But really, trust me on the sparkle sherbet.) The other ingredients are mostly easy to come by. They sell sweet rice flour/powder in most speciality food stores AND usually in the Asian section of your local grocery store. I found it at Macey's the other day. I don't remember it being particularly expensive, and one box is enough to make mochi forever. Almost. Look for a box like this.

It is the perfect treat for celebrating today's Legend of Korra episode. Flameo, Hotman. Flameo.

My Grandfather's Garden: Tomato Soup

The latest additions to my grandfather's garden are the two mourning doves. The funny part is they've always been around. At my parent's home, I've been woken up by their soft but unmistakable coo for as long as I can remember.

But now my grandfather has trained them with food. He calls out and shakes the box of seed. They land on the stand he built to keep them safe from my mother's cats. If he's late for dinner, they scope the neighborhood looking for him and gently swoop over his bald head when they find him across the street helping with someone's yard work.

The garden has changed but the tomatoes are just the same. Nothing makes better soup than the tomatoes my grandfather grows.

Christmas in August: Chocolate-Covered Raspberries

Here's what we did with the spoils from our day of raspberry picking.

Yes. Those are chocolate-covered raspberries, and they are by far the superior chocolate-dipped fruit. I first saw such a thing done by the Chocolate Cottage in Sandy, Utah. They are located just across the street from the Living Planet Aquarium. I highly recommend both. A visit to one is not complete without a visit to the other. But you'll have to hurry up if you want to hit both. The aquarium will close on September 10 and reopen at their new Draper location in December. Here's the info.

Now that I've been distracted by pretty fish, back to chocolate. These are quite simple to do.

Step 1: Convince your sister-in-law to give up sugar and then give you all her nice melting chocolate.

(Actually, I didn't have to do any convincing on this one. My sister-in-law is just this awesome all around.)

Step 2: Pick lots of raspberries. McBride Briar Patch and this berry patch still have some. One great tip I learned was that the best way to store your berries as you pick is to take an empty, clean gallon milk jug, cut off the top (leaving the handle), and tie it around your waist.

Step 3: Melt your chocolate, and drizzle it over raspberries on wax paper.

Step 4: Wait for the chocolate to harden. Then enjoy.

In our house, we didn't melt down the chocolate and drizzle it until about 11 p.m. and went to bed soon after. Super said that when I woke up with bad dreams in the middle of the night (which happens way too often) that I could wake him up and we'd eat the berries. So at 2 a.m. I woke up, woke him up, and said, "It's Christmas!"

Turns out you don't have to be completely awake to fully enjoy these berries. And eating them early in the morning truly made everything feel like Christmas.

Berry Farms of Payson

Yesterday got away from me. But thanks to unemployment, this was no problem. I had plans for job applications, cleaning, and other noble pursuits. But then we realized it was raspberry season.

I whisked a very tired husband off to Payson. (P.S. Payson, your rodeo billboards need some design help and some editing. Call me.) When we picked cherries a few weeks ago, they passed along the number for another farm nearby. This farm turned out to be the best deal.

We walked the path along the grape vines to the wind break and started on the north raspberry bushes. I never realized how raspberries can be kind of hidden. You have to check underneath and below to find them sometimes. We gathered four pounds of raspberries and then two pounds of black berries, which were gigantic, beautiful, and squishy.

Six rows down a father and a son split the singing parts. One calling out: Ba ba black sheep. And the other answering: Yes sir. Yes sir.

Dark clouds rolled in and sprinkled a bit of rain. And the wind changed and suddenly farm life smelled less lovely. A rooster kept crying though it was way past noon. We met an old dog named Cam, and I found a black cat who was napping/hiding.  Fresh flowers for the table stopped with my internship, so we picked sunflowers off the side of the road and brought them home. We started freezing the berries and napped.

And though my usual habits say, "Why don't you get more done?" I think this day was fairly perfect.

If you're interested in picking raspberries and blackberries at $2.50 a pound, give the Phelps family a call. They also have peaches and other good things. 

Late But Tasty: Cherry Almond Cake

I finally finished Super's midterm cake! It was well received despite it's lateness.

True to my own musing, I ended up making the Cake Blog's Fresh Cherry Cake. They use goose berries, which are yellow to add some lovely colors. I originally intended on using bing and rainer cherries to get my reds and yellows in, but we only had red ones by the time I made it. Lovely nonetheless.

The almond whipping cream was truly delicious. I would double it. It looks nice put on sparingly, but when actually eating the cake, it was more tasty and less dry if you dump on an extra serving of whipping cream. Don't feel guilty. Do it for cake everywhere.

Now a confession: the cake fell over as soon as we finished taking pictures. I put it back together like this, and I actually liked that look for serving better.

I don't think you need to fear it falling over if you're using a more normal size of cake pan. I used little springform pans: a wedding gift from my Ever-Lovin' Bethany. They are so cute. I want to make everything in them. I cooked them at 350, as instructed, and they took about 15 minutes. My only trouble with them was that I didn't push them far enough into the oven on the second batch, which led to one side cooking a bit faster. So watch out for that. But truly, they are lovely.

I also now love to grease and flour cake pans. The railing outside our apartment is often coated in a light dusting of flour. I'm just waiting for the day when I drop my cake pans three stories. That will be both tragic and funny, and it's just the kind of mistake I'd make.

I'm glad this post is finally up. Lately I've been loving writing about deeper things, like my unemployment, and I have several posts I'm eager to share with you all next week. Feel free to like, pin, and share any of them.

Awesome Easy Pasta Recipe

Allow me to suggest something for your meal planner: this creamy artichoke pasta.

No matter what the prep time says, every meal takes me at least an hour to make. However, this one was really quick, and I actually had everything on hand for the most part. And it was surprisingly delicious.

You'll need artichokes. (All the cool kids love artichokes.) And I'm newly committed to using purple onions in everything. They are lovely.

I didn't have quite enough cottage cheese, and I had no sour cream. So I threw in some heavy cream, which never hurts. If you make it, let me know how the texture comes out with the cottage cheese and the sour cream.

Finally! The Blueberry Cake and an End to Cake Week

This Cake Week has turned out to be the longest week of my life—sort of. Many good and time-consuming things have happened to delay this final cake post, but here it is.

Super's cake for spring finals was a Blueberry Breakfast cake, from the Cake Blog.

Sadly, our verdict on this cake was that it was good, but it turns out that what we really wanted was a blueberry cake, not a breakfast cake.

The maple flavor, the cinnamon, and the browned butter really overpower the cake. So if you're really committed to those flavors, this is the cake for you. If not, maybe reconsider.

I didn't make any alterations to the recipe, except we added a lot of fresh blueberries to the finished cake. Turns out this is what it really needed. With the extra blueberries, it was considerably more tasty. To cut down on cost, I used a tiny bit of maple extract with normal syrup in the cake, since pure maple syrup was much more expensive.

If you're looking to make the same cake, I recommend this site on how to brown butter. The butter didn't behave like I expected, and this was really helpful. The recipe says it takes about ten minutes to turn an amber color. On my stove, it took three minutes. So, be aware of the cues.

I'm already very excited to make the next cake. Super has definitely earned it: yesterday his first midterm lasted four hours and forty-five minutes. Any suggestions?

Unfortunate Cake Delay

In great news, this Cake Week will not end yet! (Why yes, I have all kinds of power when it comes to extending weeks. Seven days is highly relative.)

The sad news is that the delay on making the cake is happening because our car broke down (that makes three times since our engagement, if you don't count the flat tire). So, alas, I have not yet made it to the store for ingredients.

I think this waiting is making me more pumped though to get started. I've got cake pans anxiously anticipating their next huggable friend.

Anyone want to guess what kind of a cake it will be?

I'll give you a hint: it involves Super's favorite kind of berry. Feel free to guess away in the comments.

In other news: in addition to the car dying, there was another demise in our household—Devin, the stormtrooper spatula, who melted to my mom's pan (so three demises if we count the pan; we must like the number three).

Don't worry though. We've replaced him with a clone spatula from Williams Sonoma. It's like Devin was never even gone. Honestly, he is a great spatula. He's even a better spatula than he is a stormtrooper.

Next to Devin, these people are my favorite stormtroopers.

Gooey Butter Cake and Caramel Cake

In the newlywed chaos, two cakes have emerged since my last cake event. They were nothing as complicated as the 108 Oreo Cake or the infamous Cookie Dough Cake, but they were certainly delicious.

For winter finals: Paula Deen’s gooey butter cake with sliced strawberries on top.

For spring midterms: Caramel Cake from Our Best Bites, which I also added sliced strawberries to.

Of the two, the Caramel Cake was definitely the more delicious of the two. I’m finding that if you let yellow cake sit for a day before eating it, the flavors mingle in a wonderful way. Such was true with this cake, and the Cookie Dough Cake as well. And I wouldn’t recommend omitting the strawberries on top with the caramel cake. They’re a must-have, per usual.

These are both great cakes to make if you're looking for something awesome, but less time consuming than the 108 or the Cookie Dough.  Sadly, I didn't take pictures of either of these cakes. But here's a picture I'm quite fond of. 

I don't know what exactly it says about our relationship, but I'm pretty sure it says good things. 

Cake Week! Cake Week!

Though posting has been sporadic, the cake events have continued!

Cake event, noun: the over-the-top cakes, Ellis makes Super to celebrate the commencement of midterms and finals.

You’ll notice that “midterms and finals” means a cake event every two months during fall and winter semester, and a cake every three weeks during spring and summer terms. That’s some intense cake making for the summer months.

And it’s time to get baking again. So on that note, I declare this Cake Week. Cake Week means I put up some pictures of us and fancy cakes, culminating in pictures of the newest Cake Event, which will happen sometime before next Tuesday.

I now declare this Cake Week—open.

Have you made any awesome cakes in the last few months? Send me a picture at ellisemdashes@gmail.com, and I'll post the best ones here. 

The Best Things from My Birthday Month

1. Snow on the orchards, not on the roads. Sun everywhere.

2. I took a trip to JoAnn by myself. All the things I needed were on sale and in stock. But the best thing? Three very happy ladies surrounding me in line as well as two very happy children. Their kindness and smiles were infectious and warm. May their new years be blessed.

3. My mom made me buttermilk syrup and pancakes. I told her we're not allowed to worry about the effects of corn syrup on my birthday.

4. My brother and I laughed at Mormon memes and the Hey Girl tumbler.

5. Getting wished happy birthday by Super twice—once on New York time and once on Utah time. Super and I share the same birthday! Wild, I know. It's pretty much worked wonders for making my birthday a much more enjoyable day.

6. My grandpa giving me "hamburger money."

7. Getting a birthday text from my cousin Nan in the middle of the night.

8. Having our sink filled with pink water from the red velvet cake my mom made.

9. Watching Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs with my family.

10. My dad's perfect hexagonal wrapping job.

11. My brother coming to say good night when he got home in the middle of the night.

12. Hearing Super remind me how much he loves me and truly feeling loved by a wonderful man. 

13. Lunch with Elisabeth and her gift of a dinosaur sandwich maker.

14. Dinner with my good friend Jamie. If you ever think, gee I want to go to Tucanos, but I don't want to come back with a zero balance in my bank account, try Braza Express! Slightly more authentic Brazilian food for nearly a third of the price. It is very, very yummy, and there's a great atmosphere about the place with really nice people putting your food together.

15. A party with my friends! Sitting around chatting was a truly sweet moment for me. There was also lots of great food. I invented something that worked out for once! Well, first I tried to make brownies in muffin top pans, which is possible but didn't work that well for me. So then I crushed those brownies into chunks, added sliced strawberries, and a dollop of this great buttercream frosting (the best buttercream frosting ever). It was lovely.

We also made Brazilian lemonade using a bottle of Minute Maid strawberry lemonade and a can of sweetened condensed milk. It was a bit too sweet, but the color was gorgeous.

Stowaway Magazine in Video!

Remember how I worked on Stowaway magazine? You've seen it in full color spreads, but now you can see it in moving pictures! Check out this video on us. Feel free to eat a tootsie roll for every time you find me in it.

This Cookie Dough Cake Is An Event

Perhaps you'll remember how I made Super a 108 Oreo Cake to celebrate his successful completion of midterms?

I knew I needed to top myself for finals, so I made what Brother Joseph said is "not really a cake, but an event." It combines all of my favorite things: cookies, cookie dough, chocolate chips, and good frosting. If you're wondering where the no-egg cookie dough goes, it constitutes the filling between the cake layers. And yes, it's as lovely as you'd hope it could be.

If you'd like to make your own, check out the tutorial from Tip Junkie. Her buttercream frosting recipe with the cake has become my new favorite. It's far superior to any other I've tried. Beyond that though, here are a few suggested changes to the tutorial though.

1) The cookie recipe she gives is not my fave. You could easily substitute whatever cookie recipe you love most, which I recommend. We did however use walnuts in the cookies, which were graciously grown and donated by Super's cousin. Super contributed to his own cake by cracking walnuts with his bare hands. Here he is modeling his red hands. The pictures don't really show the new texture of his palms, so you'll have to just trust me that this cake resulted in battle wounds.

2) I often skip out on the mini chips, but they really do work best in the cookie dough. Big chips tend to make my teeth hurt. So if you're like me—cheap with over-sugared teeth—spring for the minis.

3) This cake tastes much better once when given a few days to sit. So plan ahead and let the flavors percolate to perfection.

Flinging chips on the cake. YES.

This cake took at least 8 hours to make, but I think it was worth it. It probably wouldn't have taken as much time if it weren't for the fact that Super's house is too cold for butter to soften. I doubt you'll have this problem though.

Saturday to-do list

1. Lay in bed. Check.
2. Clean. Check.
3. Attempt to save the world by perfecting blueberry muffins. Check.
4. Get back in bed. Check.

My day is done.

Want to try saving the world via muffin too? Here is the number one secret: get a muffin top pan. Give into the fact that the top of the muffin is the best part, and grab one of these pans. I got my mom two for Christmas last year, and then I took one back from her this year. I'm so good at math; it's remarkable.


I just used the WinCo blueberry muffin mix; added random amounts of lemon juice, nutmeg, and vanilla; and then made a little crumble by microwaving a few tablespoons each of butter, quick oats, and brown sugar. You can't really have too much crumble on here though.

Have I perfected the muffin? Not at all. But man, that was easy and pleasing.

108 for Jake

***Pardon the delay. Midterms ended weeks ago. How embarrassing!***
This semester, my filmmaker has turned into a economic-theory-wielding scholar as well. Three mid-level economics classes means a nightmare of a midterm week in any country's currency. But he handled it with grace and fortitude. He even walked out happy, albeit hungry, from the test that took him (and most of his classmates) four and a half hours.

To celebrate, I took nearly 108 oreos, crunched some into a chocolate cake, whipped another third into a no-bake cheesecake, rolled the rest into truffles, and coated the whole sha-bang in chocolate ganache (a fine ending to any party in your mouth, I believe).

When I first saw the recipe for this cake, I thought no one should ever make it. But then I found myself searching for an event that would justify such a cake. Luckily, Super's midterm marathon was just that.

Once grades came back, we found out he definitely deserved this cake too. All A grades, including the top score in his entire class.

He documented the cake making with these photos. Credit for my genie pants goes to Jenny and her Jerusalem trip; credit for my fantastic Fictionist shirt goes to Fictionist and to James.

Want to make your own 108 oreo cake? Here it is.

When I see WinCo ads...

I worry and worry about how to cook for my children someday. I'm terrified I won't be able to keep making meal after meal after meal forever. I've done it before for my parents and siblings before, but still it scares me.

Moreover, I'm really afraid of being able to pay for meal after meal after meal. Today though, I saw the ad for WinCo this week. I took one look . . .  Read more

Two recipes I want to eat all the time

First, make the gnocchi from this, (not the sauce part).

And then make this pesto.

I crave this combination all the time. The gnocchi is even better if you fry it in just a bit of butter after boiling, but it's actually not necessary. 

Skip It: The definitive word that "Alvin & the Chipmunks" is a wreck of a movie

I'll confess that I get a kick out of pop songs I hate being sung in Chipmunk voices. Some of you may share this guilty pleasure. If you are one of those people, please don't let yourself be deceived like I was into thinking that this pleasure can last for more than three minutes.

I was warned that "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" would not be a fun movie. But the fact that it has had the most show times at the dollar theater out of all the other holiday movies made me think it would be great.

The first five minutes are enjoyable, but even while I was enjoying it, I wondered what else six chipmunks and poor Dave could be doing for the next hour and a half. It's really all about the same, with one funny moment (a man dressed in a pelican mascot suit puts his head on backward and says, "I'm always watching you."), lots of references to other movies that are rarely clever and usually creepy (the cutest of the chipettes climbs atop a mango and snarls, "Precious!"), and a few cute moments in which Theodore truly is lovely.

That's all you need to know. If you're still hankering for some chipmunks, just youtube the chipmunk version of your favorite song.

Now, here's something you may not know. Does Sonic sell hamburgers for a dollar on Tuesdays? Yes, they do. Can those hamburgers fit into my coat pockets? Yes, they can. Do they taste great in an empty movie theater? Yes, they do. Do they make me look funny when walking in? Why yes. They do that too. 

Enjoy my favorite bad pop song taken to new heights of awesomeness.

An unexpectedly divine dining establishment in Provo

When the server brings out your "Goat Burger" at the Black Sheep Cafe in Provo, Utah, your first concern maybe: how can I get this massive burger—filled with goat cheese, mushrooms, and goodness and wrapped in Navajo fry bread—into my mouth while still looking attractive? My answer: 1) take small bites so you can better savor the different flavors coming at you, and 2) don't worry about it. Anyone who knows how the burger tastes will find the thought of your recently goat-burger-graced lips very, very attractive.

This new cafe serves up a delightful host of Navajo influenced items. From the Navajo tacos to the burgers, this menu provides a new take on something which was already great to begin with.

I'll confess that from its name I expected the place to be a coffee spot trying to attract the 1% of Provo. (I don't mind coffee places. I just don't like when they try to be "oh so different.") This is not that place. It's a great restaurant, and I highly recommend it. You can expect to pay about 8-12 dollars for each main dish. Totally reasonable? Why yes, goat burger. You are worth every cent.

Pardon the fact that my burger is falling open in the pictures. I was a little too over eager to give it some camera love before I dove into it.

This pretty lady who payed for my burger is my mom.