Rolo Pretzel Turtles

I'm starting to prepare food for Drew's PH. D. defense party that we are having this Friday... Tonight I made the first item: Rolo Pretzel Turtles.
I will definably be making these again in the future! They are quick and simple to make and are yummy (I recommend trying a couple hot!). :)

Here's how you make them:
-Preheat oven to 350 F
-Stack 1 rolo candy on top of each mini pretzel and place on cookie sheet
-Bake about 3 minutes until candies are soft, but not completely melted
-Immediately move pretzels to a piece of parchment or wax paper, then push a pecan half (or other nut or candy) on top of each turtle to squish candy so it fills the pretzel.
-Let cool (or steal a couple hot!)
-Enjoy!

Celebrations!

These past several days have been full of celebrations! We started with Drew's birthday last Thursday which was followed by my birthday on Sunday, and wrapped up with Drew's Ph.D. defense just yesterday. Fun times!

Drew's birthday cake- Basic chocolate cake from the Betty Crocker Cookbook with white frosting and chocolate sprinkles. Nothing fancy (other than the premium coca coca powder I used- gotta splurge somewhere!) but darn good- and super moist. No real recipe for the frosting- In order to use random stuff up, I combined a basic buttercream frosting recipe with the cream cheese frosting recipe that I used in the red velvet cupcakes earlier this month.

Dressing to defend his thesis...

Drew pre-defense and looking nervous...

Dr. Drew Keppel and Maxwell's Equation

Dr. and Mrs. Keppel :)
(and Maxwell- who looks like he was in his own world when this picture was taken)

Red Velvet Cupcakes with (low fat) Cream Cheese Icing

Last night we hosted our church small group at our apartment. Seeing that our friend Robert's birthday fell on the following day (today!) we thought it was appropriate (and a good excuse) to bake. We decided on red velvet cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and ended up combining a couple recipes. They turned out great!
We got the recipe for the cupcakes themselves from the website Paula Deen of the Food Network (although I increased the cocoa to 3 heaping teaspoons for more of a predominant chocolate flavor- a good choice I think). We decided on a lighter version of the frosting though and went with the recipe here for the icing.
I learned a new lesson in this process! You can make your own buttermilk with normal milk and vinegar for baking purposes! No more tossing the left over buttermilk (or being forced to make pancakes). It's simple, easy, and it works! Check it out: here!

Fruity Rice Salad and a Hike

This past weekend we went to a potluck with the other Resident Associates at Caltech. We brought along a batch of the oatmeal bananna bread I wrote about a while back (Drew added walnuts and chocolate chips this time so it was more of a dessert). We also wanted to try something new so we whipped out our trusty Cook's Encyclopedia of Vegetarian Cooking (by Linda Fraser) and made a batch of the Fruity Rice Salad found on Page 74. It combined yellow bell pepper, tomato, apricots, raisins, green apples, scallions, wild and brown rice for the salad and topped it with a sherry / apple juice / soy sauce / spice (light) dressing. It was good. Drew's critique was that it was "nice and fresh" and we both thought it would make for a nice light lunch or dinner (and as we had leftovers- it did!).
Leave a comment if you would like me to send you the recipe and I would be glad to do so.

Sunday (Easter) after church, Drew, Maxwell and I took a nice hike in Silver Lake. Here are some pictures from our adventure:

This past weekend in Pictures

This past weekend can be summed up in two words: crazy and fun... Here's a recap in pictures:

The crazy part came in because this was the final weekend Drew had to put the finishing touches on his thesis before it was due. After weeks of hard work and long nights (and even an all-nighter Sunday night), he was able to turn it in Monday afternoon and is now preparing to defend on April 20th!
The fun part was becuase my Dad was in town visiting for the weekend! His birthday was this past Wednesday and he was here to celebrate with us...

My Dad and Drew kicked off the weekend, while I was at a class, with a hot dog tasting tour of Los Angeles. Pink's was the winner overall...

Sunday started off with an Eggs Benedict breakfast and ended by taking in a Lakers game- good times...