Happy Fasnacht Day

Happy Fasnacht Day

Today was Fasnacht Day...the day all the Amish Dutch peeps clean out their cupboards of their white flour, sugar and lard to make donuts. They do this the Tuesday before lent. While I was at work people brought in donuts to celebrate. It's a dutch thing I guess.

Huh, now what?

Most of you remember when I was training for my marathon in October, then I broke my wrist and stopped training. The marathon came and went...it was a bummer but I survived the disappointment of not running 26.2 miles for fun. Well for the past little while I have been training for a 13 hour mountain bike race that will happen in the middle of April. S came home today and told me all the race slots filled within one hour of registration opening...and now I am 50th on the waiting list...huh, now what?

I'm looking at races, but I'm sad...this was going to be a great race. I have to continue my research but I think I will be able to find a race soon. I'll keep you posted.

The Dutch Life

Okay I'm not very good at scanning, but I want you to click on the above picture. this is a local magazine that did me a favor and found all the great restaurants in the area. Now do me a favor and tell me the top 5 Mexican restaurants rated in the Lancaster area, I'll wait.

Yeah did you see that!!! Taco Bell! Sweet Heaven where on earth am I? As soon as I told my Mom that, she sent me 2 cases of refried beans from California, she figured I was starved for Mexican food. The 4 other restaurants that somehow made it above Taco Bell don't have great reputations either...food poisoning, fake cheese, and the name Charlie in one of them. I knew moving to the other side of the country would have it's challenges...but I thought that no matter what - Mexican food would be there for me...like a good friend. But no, those damn immigration laws!!! Open the boarders for crying out loud, I'm starving for chips and salsa!!!

Okay, okay okay I need to keep my cool...it's not the end of the world...I can just try a different type of food...you know I love good Italian food...who would they suggest?............................Olive Garden! Gasp! What about seafood, we are close to the eastern seaboard...RED LOBSTER!!! NOOOOO!!!!! (eugie takes a deep breath, drops her head and shakes it side to side slowly)

Okay then, I get it...I will just eat Dutch Country food I hear the Scrapple here is delicious! If you are wondering what Scrapple is, here is what wise old Wiki has to say about it:

Scrapple is typically made of hog offal, such as the head, heart, liver, and other scraps, which are boiled with any bones attached (often the entire head). Fans of scrapple sometimes boast that scrapple contains everything from a pig except the "squeal."

I hear the Dutch cooking here is Yummy...I think I'm going to vomit...I just want chips and salsa.

Family and Friends

This is Uncle Fabulous, that's his real name. You ask Fisher were Uncle Fabulous is and he will go straight for him. They are the best of friends always getting in trouble hunting for rocks and trying to tame great beasts.

Fisher's BFF invited him over for a lobster dinner with live lobsters...Fisher had a blast playing with his food before it was cooked. Once it was cooked he didn't want anything to do with it. I think he just got too attached to the lobster while it was alive. Sad.

One thing I find completely heartwarming is how Fisher loves both sets of his Grandparents. It makes me so happy that they all care and love our child as one of their own and as many of them had said, maybe a little more. However I am worried that Seth's dad will be a negative influence...he's always getting Fisher into trouble, trying to sneak him out of nursery on Sunday to take him to 7-11 for a Slurpee and hot dog, or teaching him to run with scissors. I have to watch those two...always up to no good. That is why Fisher adores him.

Wedding Cake

This last weekend Seth's older brother got married to an amazing woman. Anna, she is fabulous and is a great addition to the family. However she is a little nuts because she asked me if I would make the wedding cake, and of course I have never made wedding cake, needless to say I accepted and was so excited to make the cake. I called my friend Webber to help me with this project. Webber is good with all things regarding food.

A week or so before the wedding Webber and I got together and did the test cakes. Then 3 days before the wedding we got together to make the cakes...it did not go so well. We made cakes without salt, other cakes did not bake evenly then collapsed, cake batter spilled in the oven when we put it in, and it goes on and on like this...but 6 and half hours later we had a 6", 9", and 12" lemon wedding cake ready to be transported.

Wow, you know I was going to blog about how when we got down to Zion everything went wrong and it did for the first day...we forgot the whisk attachment to the Kitchen aid, we had to go to a restaurant and ask for theirs, which they lent it to us for 2 days. Equally surprising and awesome. Then the chocolate frosting was becoming a nightmare...blah blah, but I am realizing people won't really care. The important thing is that the wedding cake and grooms cake turned out splendidly. Most importantly they tasted really well...lemon cake with a whipped frosting. It was a lot of fun to do and I glad someone finally let me do their wedding cake. Jannasen (the couples Hollywood name) were really good sports about it.

Side note, Fisher was their ring bearer and did a good job with that, but when the Martinellis started flowing with the music blaring Fisher got crazy!!! He was a dancing machine, he was such a trooper, it was such a long day with him and no naps...poor guy...but he was great...just keep him dancing and you will keep him happy.