Happy Easter!

Easter wasn't very eventful here since Joshua worked today and we don't really have anyone to host. In my opinion our apartment isn't ready for hosting yet since we've done a lot to it lately. I want it more complete before anyone sees it again. So Easter for us meant making a more elaborate dinner tonight.



I decided on a German theme because on a recent half price books run I found a book about Russian, German, Polish cooking. I was hoping for a pierogies or pel meni recipe but they didn't have one. I did see a recipe for Spaetzl that I decided I would try to reproduce. Besides family and friends, I think one of the things Joshua and I miss the most about Appleton is the Old Bavarian. We try to make our home versions but they will never be as good. So then to round out the Easter menu I decided on Joshua's pan fried Schnitzl and mom's Cheesy potatoes.

The Spaetzl was a lot harder than I thought it would be. First of all, the directions said to use a mixer and I really need to learn my lesson that if I'm making dough, I DO NOT USE THE MIXER. My hand mixers suck dough straight up the beaters. So the next time I'm feeling ambitious enough to try this recipe I will use the food processor. Also, it is really hard to make the spaetzl as small as the restaurant kind I'm used to. They ended up the size of chicken fingers and it really creeped me out. They looked like some type of sea creature the way they curled, like albino shrimp or something. I ended up cutting them into smaller pieces and then seasoning and the results were sufficient. Since no one in my family makes Spaetzl yet, I think I should probably work on perfecting it and then it can be my thing. :)

We also had a dessert of Black Forest Cake. I got in the baking mood last Sunday but only got as far as the cake layers because the grocery store I ran to after church did not have the right pitted cherries. I didn't have time to run elsewhere so I decided to wrap the cake layers up and stick them in the freezer until I could get back to them. Well, they fit the menu perfectly for today so I finished them up. Unfortunately, the cake layers did not freeze well. They are pretty dry. Live and learn. It did turn out better looking than it tasted at least.

This picture shows how level the cake turned out. I was expecting that to be a hassle but I think this is the first time I used these pans for a layer cake since I got them for Christmas a couple of years ago. I am very impressed by how evenly they bake.

And the final results! The recipe I followed did a piping of frosting around the top and bottom but I thought it looked nice enough like this with out the added work. Also, this recipe did not contain the traditional kirschwasser because I did not want to hunt down a bottle to only use a little bit of it. Since Joshua really liked the cake I think I may get a bottle since this will probably be made more frequently. Also, we decided we will probably get ice cream to eat the rest of it because then it's harder to tell how dry it is. The cherries and frosting helped that problem as well.

This Ain't My First Time at the Rodeo

... oh wait it was! Well, technically, I could say it wasn't because we didn't go to the Rodeo part of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. We just purchased tickets for the livestock part since we didn't plan to be there very long.

Now, this is one of the few craftless posts I get to share since we don't get out much and mostly just hang out with this guy:

Early last March, Joshua and I decide on sort of a whim to go to the show. One of the reasons we went to the rodeo was to eat dinner, seriously. Joshua got a Cowboy Burrito which consisted of potatoes, shredded beef, cheese and jalapeños.

I just got a shredded beef sandwich. Also - I was not very thrilled to have my picture taken while eating but I'm going to post it to the blog since we don't get out all that much. You don't get to see many action shots.

Following dinner sitting on a curb, we went into the stadium. The first thing we saw was a Texas Heritage Quilt exhibit. So I got a few shots to show mom.

How is this for a cowboy quilt?

The livestock portion of the show was much like the county fairs in Wisconsin. I have never been to the State Fair so I don't know how it compares but that is basically the point to the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show. It operates just about the same as a fair.

Our first stop was the petting zoo. Working for my dad and having access to a petting zoo almost every Tuesday afternoon for several summers, I wasn't jumping to get in. I thought for sure Joshua would skip right past it as well since, well, he works at a zoo. However, he had as much enthusiasm as all the children that surrounded us.

I decided to be a good sport and thought, well I can't think of when I might have pet a deer so I (humanely) chased this little fella down.

We walked through the cow exhibits which I thought was really neat to see the huge longhorns that are more or less a symbol of our state. (I know my stream of consciousness blogging probably bugs some but I want to take a side note here. I'm loving the Texas Longhorns emblems that people put on the back of their car here. It is just a little silver longhorn head, very subtle. When I'm not driving, I'll try to get a picture of one). Anyways, with the cows they had births scheduled almost every day. Does that happen at State Fair? It was crazy! We didn't see any births but got to see the new little calves. It was also neat to read about the farming done in Texas. I didn't realize just how similar it would be to Wisconsin farming. So Agronomics students, can you guess the main difference between the two states? More growing seasons for wheat! There was also cases filled with hatching chicks.

So after we looked at the livestock exhibits we headed over to the shopping part. This was what differed from Wisconsin festivals/fairs I've been to. There was a lot more cowboy paraphernalia here than anywhere I've yet seen, including my time in Houston. On the way over to shopping we wound up going through all the different pens of the cows and pigs that were going to be shown at some point. These were some glammed up pens. I really wish I would've taken a picture.

Joshua and I decided we may end up slowly collecting a complete cowboy outfit. So I drooled over the boots and the belts and just took a few pictures.

A cow skin quilted rug. Mom - will this be the next quilting medium you get into?

As an early birthday present, Joshua picked up this nice Australian hat. It is a great water proof hat so we justified the purchase that it will be useful for hiking and camping trips.

So most of the show was similar to what I have experienced in Wisconsin but with a palpable Texas atmosphere.

And to prove that everywhere is as gluttonous as Wisconsin.... a variety of deep fried foods!

We had planned on going back and getting Rodeo tickets but between our work schedules and my classes it just never materialized. I really hope to get the Rodeo tickets next year and then buy a fancy belt and some fashionable boots.

What I did today instead of cleaning

So a few blog posts down is the picture of the Christmas wreath I made. Well it's about time to do something with it. I'm sort of proud I did something about it before August or Thanksgiving. Let's be honest though, I did it to procrastinate cleaning today.

So, I found a necklace tutorial (and I do want to make this necklace soon). http://lollyjaneboutique.blogspot.com/2011/03/interchangeable-felt-necklace.html

I ended up taking the flower part of the tutorial to use on the wreath. I cut up 4 sheets of felt. The instructions said to use 1/4 of 8 1/2" x 11" felt sheets. So since I wanted to try 4 different colors on the wreath I made 16 spirals.

Then I started gluing with the hot glue gun. The hot glue really intimidates me because of how much can come out and because I always burn my finger pads.

I glued as i went then flooded the bottom with hot glue just to make sure they wouldn't unravel.

I thought the roses on the necklace were going to turn out a lot larger than mine did. I like how the roses look lined up on the table but then it was hard to figure out how to arrange them on the wreath.

So I pinned the roses onto the wreath using sewing pins. I put the wreath on top of our new bookshelf. The bookshelf isn't really organized yet like it will be. I'm going to paint some of the photo frames to match and make the books more aligned. So don't judge me for this. Also, the photo is off center to avoid the bright sun that was coming in the window on the right. I didn't crop it because all of these pictures were badly taken with my camera phone. Gives me a chance to show off a little of Taylor's painting that was her wedding gift to us.

So what do you think? I think it would look nicer if the roses were a larger size. Luckily it isn't permanent. After I arranged the flowers I took Bernie out and thought that I would leave it like this until I could get more felt sheets. Then replace them with larger flowers and use these to make necklaces or as an embellishment for almost any other craft. Once I got back inside the wreath was already growing on me. I think I'll leave it this way.

Photoless Blogging*

My lack of blogging lately has been more frustrating to me than anyone. It is not for lack of trying or for lack of content. It is because of my ongoing struggle with technology! Some fun things are coming together at the Vandenbergs' lately and I really want to share it with you all but I took nice photos on Joshua's camera and I refuse to go back and use my cellphone just to share that with you. I'm going to look through the camera and my cell phone and see if there are pictures that only made it onto my phone. Then I won't have to feel bad that there are better pictures!

So why is everything so difficult? I don't know. For awhile it was an issue of not having a sufficiently functioning computer that I felt comfortable uploading pictures to. Then I broke my camera. The lens is stuck halfway open so when I turn it on I get a fun lens error screen. So I switched over to using Joshua's camera which was much nicer anyways. I thought I was lucky to have an excuse to use it. However, my computer refuses to recognize his camera. I have no idea why. Actually, most of our electronics are refusing to communicate with either of our computers. For example, the printer does not want to be bothered with having to talk to our computers. Frustratingly, a printer is an extremely useful tool in crafting (hello, tons of cool templates on the blogs I read).

On another note: I have a question to ask those who are reading the blog. Joshua and I intended to share what was going on with us in Houston, and for me that has mostly been crafting. So, I'm wondering if I should separate out the crafts to a separate blog. Is it weird that a blog called "The Yodeling Goat Brewery" has a satin sleep mask on it? Yes, it sort of is. I asked Joshua and he seemed to agree so I created the account "Crafting without supervision" which came to me in a rare moment of creative genius (and the name isn't really that good). It was at that point Joshua asked me what I was doing (4 minutes after I told him what I was doing). I realized that although I think I'm holding a conversation with him while he plays MLB 2K11; it is in fact a one sided conversation. But I'm not going to complain about that. As far as the male gender goes for my generation, plus or minus 10 years, I have it pretty lucky it isn't worse. So, turns out Joshua doesn't like the idea of me moving the blog posts over. I think I just need to do a better job of capturing all aspects of what we do. I like the name though so I'm going to hold onto that blog for awhile. Let me know your thoughts and if no one responds I can safely assume this blog isn't read anyway, so it doesn't matter!

*This picture illustrates two points. One, my camera phone does not take good quality pictures and two, Bernie is showing how bored you would be if all of my blog posts did not have photos.