The Ever Swelling Pavlova!

My dear friend, Eileen, just celebrated a birthday. She was sooo excited to go to Matilda's restaurant because they serve Australian food. Eileen was especially looking forward to Pavlova. It's an Australain dessert named after the Russian prima ballerina, Anna Matveyevna Pavlova.

The next Monday Eileen told me she was so dissapointed because they tried to find the restaurant and apparently it has been out of business for a while. They ended up at Ruby River, which was good, but not what she was expecting.

So I decided to look up this dessert she said she liked so much and see how hard it was to make. It's basically a meringue crust with whipped cream and fruit. Here is a picture of what my recipe said it was supposed to look like.

It didn't look that hard to make so I decided to do a dry run on my family for Sunday dinner. It looks kind of like a fruit pizza so I smeared the meringue to about two inches from the edge of my pan. The recipe stated that it would swell while cooking. To me that meant that it would rise. Little did I know that it would not rise too much but it would almost double it's size in diameter! I hadn't planned on blogging this so I don't have a before picture to show you, but here are a few pics of the cooking pavlova in the oven.

You can't even see the pizza pan in the first picture! Luckily when it was taken out of the oven, all of the overhang came with it.

I couldn't believe how big it had gotten. I used a whole container of whipped cream and added blueberries, strawberries, bananas, and kiwi to the top.

I thought it turned out pretty cool, but had no idea how it was going to taste. My dad was the first one to take a bite. Now he isn't the type to eat lots of cool whip or fruit so I was a little scared of his reaction. This pic is right before his first bite....you can see the fear in his eyes!

He ended up really liking it. I think he even had another piece. Here is Stevie trying it out.

It wasn't ten minutes later and the pan looked like this:

It was a success! I decided next time to not spread the meringue out so much. When I made it for Eileen this is how it looked before the oven.

Here is how that one turned out:

And here is how I decorated it:

This time I put kiwi, bananas, and peaches. I surprised Eileen this morning with it and she was astounded. Here are some of her candid shots, scooping up the remains...Happy Birthday Eileen!

Our New Fish Tank Episode 1

OK, so it's really MY fish tank. I bought it a while ago and it has been sitting in my house empty ever since. Steve and I are trying to find all the ways to save a buck these days so we are going to downsize his ginormous 155 gallon salt water fish tank into my 28 gallon one. That means we will have to get rid of (sell) a lot of rock, but otherwise everything else can be moved over.

To make sure my tank was working correctly, we lugged it downstairs and tried to fill it with water from the washer hose. Unfortunately it was too far away, so Steve had to bring out the big guns...or I guess I mean hose. We filled it up, turned on the pump, lights, and wavemaker! Isn't it cool?

Steve's cat Dammitt wanted to join in on the fun. You can see her peeking out the vent on the bottom of the stand. Duh duh duhsHere is what it will look like at night with the moon lights on. Just imagine a bunch of little fish swimming sleepily around.

Stay tuned to find out more in the fish tank saga. On next week's episode "Sarah and Steve get crabs!"

Engagement Pictures

A couple Saturday's ago Steve and I went and got our Engagement Pictures done. It was really quick and easy. Plus there was lots of kissing involved...and you know how much I like that! If you would like to look at them follow the link and type "Sarah Adams" into the login. When the next page comes up, click on View Engagements. http://www.mpiweddings.com/weddings/weddings.php

Here are a few of our favorites:

This is Steve trying to give me a piggy back ride. Apparently I need to practice my jumping skills... I finally made it, granted we are bent waaaay over...look at my muscle man!

I told the photographer that I'm usually the one giving him piggy back rides. Then he insisted on seeing that...Don't mistake that picture for Steve choking me with piano wire. His hands were in fists for fear of accidentally grabbing me inappropriately...heheheee. And he looks kinda goofy because he is actually still in the air. He is the best jumper ever! I should take lessons.
Isn't he the sweetest looking guy ever!

Harlem Globetrotters

Last night Steve and I went to the Harlem Globetrotters. I didn't know what to expect, but it was definitely not that! It was still a lot of fun. Forgive me for the pictures since they were taken illegally with my cell phone. ;-)
The Globetrotters were playing against the Generals. The Generals looked like a lot of short old men compared to the young, very tall Globetrotters. There were lots of audience involvement from those down at courtside. Kids were pulled out on to the court to try to mimic the players, make shots, or try to get the ball away from the players.

One of the funniest parts was when this weird globe mascot came out and ate a player....I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Another time, "Big Easy", (one of the players) stole a woman's purse. She had to come out and get it, but before she could get it back, she had to kiss him on the cheek. He had a towel and wiped away his sweat and waited for a kiss and she wiped his cheek some more with the towel. He told her something to the effect of "Wipe all you want, but that's not coming off. I was born with that!" He was referring to his brown skin. It was hilarious. She did end up kissing him and got her purse back. Then Big Easy went over to her husband and said "I was told you were jealous, well you can have one too." And he kissed the husband right on the lips!! (At least it appeared that he did)

Between one of the quarters they had a big piece of bacon, an egg, and a pancake mascot come out and race. It was pretty funny. Here are two pictures from that. And for those of you who are dying to know who won...it was the egg!

The White Throne and the Wii

Steve noticed the other day when the upstairs toilet was flushed, the ceiling would drip in the downstairs bathroom. To us, that spelled trouble! Since I am going to be living in this house in a couple short months, I wanted it fixed sooner rather than later. So I called up my dad, who is very handy, and asked him if he could come check it out.
He came the next day, tools and bucket in hand to take a look. My mom also came with him and hung out with me while the boys fixed the most precious piece of furniture in the house. I forgot to take a picture of their handy work, but you all know what a toilet looks like...right?
To keep my mom and me busy, I brought out the Wii Fit! Can you guess what my mom is doing in this picture? If you guessed the Half-Moon yoga pose, you are correct! Look at her form! She is a Yoga Master! Luckily I didn't think to take pictures until we were almost done playing or there might be some very embarrassing pictures of me doing the Sun Salutation pose! Nobody wants to see me from that angle!
Well, after taking a good look and making a big mess in the bathroom, my dad went home to sleep on it. He called the next day with an epiphany and came back to finish fixing the problematic throne.
All is well in the Cutler house and the soon-to-be Mrs. Cutler is once again content.