Baking with Beer

I hate cooking. I am not good at it. Nothing ever turns out. I seriously got shafted on that Cormack gene. It's not that I don't want to cook or mind so much, but I get so upset when I work so hard and it doesn't go the way it's supposed to.

Well, this weekend is Fun Day at the lake, which means cake-walk, which means: I gotta bake.

I went to Pinterest and got some relatively simple recipes, and then I got a case of beer.

Here are my mis-adventures....

Strawberry Cream-Cheese Crescents
You will need:

1 pkg	pillsbury crescent rolls
8 tsp	strawberry jam
4 oz	cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 c	sugar
1/2 tsp	lemon juice
1/2 tsp	pure vanilla extract
1	egg white
1 tsp	water

 And one other important ingredient:

Good music.

Ok, ready?

Preheat oven to 375 and crack a beer. After a coupe sips you won't care that you are supposed to use tin foil on your cookie sheet and will then grease it with butter instead.

I made a double order so, next step was unroll the crescents on the cookie sheet - this is easier if they are cold and haven't been sitting in your car for two hours, lesson learned.

Mix together cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla until creamy.

Don't forget to keep drinking.

Next, I decided to cleverly spread my mixture over the un rolled rolls and then added and indiscriminate size spoonful of strawberry jam in the middle.

Rolling didn't go well the first time around, but the more I drank the better it got.

Anyway, before you plop them in the oven, mix your egg white and water and drizzle it on top of them. maybe it holds them together or something I don't know. 

All I know is that it is exceedingly fun to extract an egg white from an egg white once you are a couple deep.

First batch....

drunk batch!

Cooked them for about 9 minutes - until they turned golden and then they came off the sheet much easier once I let them cool about half an hour.

Next up- Lemon Cream-Cheese Bars

What you will need:

Ingredients

• 1 box lemon cake mix
• 1/3 cup butter or margarine - softened
• 1 egg
• 8 ounces cream cheese - softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 lemon - grated
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice or 1/2 fresh squeezed lemon
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

This is the lemon cake I used, and because this recipe is a bit more difficult, I chose something a little stronger to drink too.

Ok, here we go...

In a bowl, mix the cake mix, one egg, and butter. If you are the drunk person who put the beaters in the dishwasher you will have to put this bowl of stuff in the fridge until the dishwasher has finished.

Once the dishwasher is done and you mix your stuff, you get the joy of pressing it into a cake pan

Required some muscle...

Ok in a new bowl (or the same dirty bowl) blend your cream-cheese til it's creamy, and gradually add the powdered sugar. Stir in lemon peel and lemon juice - eat left over lemon:

Recipe says to save half a cup of the goo you just made in the fridge, I just eye-balled it.

Ok with whats left in the bowl, add your last two eggs, and vanilla then pour it on top of the cake mixture in the pan.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Let it cool completely, I let it cool all night cuz I passed out.

Then take the left over cream cheese mix form the fridge, spread it on top and let it set.

I am so curious to see how this all tastes! I was too hungover this morning to try any...

We're From the Country and We Like It That Way

That's what we tell everyone who comes to visit us anyway. Especially on weekends like this last one.

We were in Eagle all weekend. Partly because I booked a 3 day job in Vail but mostly because my Aunt and Cousins from California were in town. Lucky them and lucky Aiden, this weekend was the Eagle County Fair and Rodeo. Other than Flight Daze, this is one of my favorite weekends home all year.

I can remember the very first year we went with Chris, it was late late at night, they were all but shutting down, everyone left, it was just the four of us and we went around and around and around on the same damn roller coaster as much as we wanted.

Every year growing up the fair was one of our favorite things - I've even volunteered to work at the Rodeo on occasion. 

This was Aiden's first year, so we did everything.

Petting the bunnies in the breeding competition 

And the baby cows.

He wasn't too sure about the goats, thinking they would definitely bite him.

Everyone thought the big ol pigs were awesome.

I didn't pet any animals because really - they aren't that cute and they kind of smell, and really if we are being totally honest -- the best part of the food is the fair and no way am I putting fair food in my mouth after touching those pigs.

Aiden also went on his very first roller coaster -- and he loved it!!

So he went on as many as he could:

And of course we had to do the bouncy castle

We were having a blast! After some silly pictures, a misunderstanding about the lucky duck game and painting a t - shirt, we went on more rides!

My cousin Garret - who Aiden followed around all weekend, was exceptionally great and took Aiden to play in the fun house.

It was such a busy weekend, I am STILL tired! But on top of all the playing around I had to work too.

Natalie and I had a lot of fun hanging out with the kiddos at the Kick It Soccer Tournament.

And we even made some new friends --

Mickey the GoGo Mouse!! Yes we continued to feed it all weekend so that it would keep coming back....But at least we didn't try to scoop it up like my cousin did to a mouse, who there after bit him, while we were fishing!!

These boys have a little something to learn about country living -- only bunny foo foo picks up field mice.

Speaking of fishing...

I caught my first fish!!!

Of course I proceeded to freak out once it was in the canoe with me! I screamed louder when I caught the damn fish that I did when I stepped on a snake!!

Poor guy was bleeding and he couldn't breathe. When I thought I caught another one, my initial response was, "oh no I did it again!"

Some Silly Happenings

The last couple weeks have been full of priceless little moments that I haven't had a chance to share...for instance, Grandpa setting his juice down on the dinner table last night and Aiden methodically waiting til his back was turned to take off with it.

Or his insistence on going to the park even at 9:00 at night, and my giving in so that he might sleep a little longer in the morning.

And finally watching all of "Monster House" - even though some of us did it mostly from the kitchen...

And dancing around in Mommy's slippers...

And Mommy has been wrangled in some major afternoon construction projects:

Most importantly, we have been doing all-out-evening dance sessions together every evening.

Aiden's moves are pretty sweet.