The Big 37, My First As a New Father

I had the opportunity to celebrate my birthday this year while my mother-in-law was in town helping Holly and I out with Oscar in his first few weeks. My birthday is the 3rd, and my mother-in-law's birthday is the 4th. It was nice having her in Seattle and being able to celebrate together. We've never had the opportunity before to do that.



Our birthday sign that we enjoy getting out for each other's birthdays.



I of course decided to make my own birthday cake. I wanted homemade devil's food with lemon curd, cream cheese frosting. Cupcakes were easier this year with all the company in town, and all the baby garb spread out all over our living room.



Holly, as always, ensures I get a nice spread of gifts each year. She spoils me rotten.



Cupcake close-ups



Color coordinated sprinkles.



A homemade birthday card from my niece Olivia. She knows I like Cookie Monster, and she did a fantastic job drawing this by hand for me to enjoy. I feel honored that my nieces love me so much on Holly's side of the family.



Close up of said Cookie Monster birthday card.



Opening up my loot. I wanted a food dehydrator. This way I can dehydrate my own fruits and vegetables at home and ensure that I control everything in the process. So many of the dried fruits at the stores still have cane sugar in them, even if organic. It's hard to fine just 100% dried fruit with nothing else added.



A candid shot Holly took of me enjoying my evening with family around. It's always good to celebrate with those that I love. This year was extra special cause I had Oscar around for my first birthday as a new father. Looking forward to many more celebrations together with our little family.

Chocolate Cake with Peppermint Buttercream

This past weekend was Holly's Birthday. I really wanted to make her a diner style birthday cake. Big flavor, with multiple layers. And on an impressive cake stand. I had fun perusing a few recipes and came up with with something that I felt was moist and not overly dry for the cake after some adjusting. And some tasty peppermint buttercream with the addition of cream cheese. It turned out well.



Dan's Moist Chocolate Cake

3 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp salt
¾ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
2 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup + 2 Tbsp water
1 cup + 2 Tbsp canola oil
5 large or 4 extra large/jumbo eggs
¾ cup water
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp espresso powder

Directions for cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cocoa & espresso powder. Next, add 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of water and 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of canola oil. Mix for 1 minute. Then add eggs, 3/4 cup of water, vanilla. Mix 5-6 minutes with a whisk, 3-4 minutes with a hand mixer, or 2 minutes with a KitchenAid mixer.

Pour into three prepared 10" cake pans, bake at 350°F for 25-35 minutes (adjust for convection); test by placing and removing a toothpick through the center at 25 minutes. When toothpick comes out clean, loosen from and invert onto a wire cooling rack. Let cakes cool completely on the racks. Wrap in foil, and put in the freezer until firm. I find it easiest to frost a frozen cake.

Dan's Peppermint Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

1 pound (4 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 8oz packages cream cheese, room temperature
3 boxes (1 pound each) powdered sugar
1 TBS pure peppermint extract
Pink or Red food coloring

Directions for frosting:

This part is a little harder as it is really done to taste. Cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add 2.5 to three boxes of powdered sugar until you get desire consistency. Thin with milk as necessary or add more powdered sugar. Add food coloring to get to desired shade of pink. Add extract to desired flavor. Frost frozen cakes. Once frosted, allow frozen cake to that to room temperate for a few hours.

Bacony-Chocolate Yumminess...!

For my birthday I took a much needed "comp" day at stayed home and cooked up a bunch of savory and sweet treats to share with my friends. For one of the desserts, I made these Cooks Illustrated devils food cupcakes. I then made a batch of my salted caramel butter cream frosting. That recipe is also on our blog under a separate "Recipes-Desserts" post, and topped them all off with some crispy bacon. They were pretty tasty if I do say so myself...



Cook's Illustrated Devils Food Cupcakes

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
1/3 cup (1 ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa
¾ cup hot coffee
¾ cup (4 1/8 ounces) bread flour
¾ cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup sour cream
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-size muffin pan (cups have ½-cup capacity) with baking-cup liners. Place chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in refrigerator to cool completely, about 20 minutes. Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar, sour cream and vanilla into cooled chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

3. Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until cupcakes are set and just firm to touch, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 1 hour.

B-Day Bash!

Last week was Dan's birthday which we celebrated over 3 days. On his actual birthday morning while Dan was getting ready I put up this great little banner I found to surprise him when he came downstairs. They are letter pressed circles with a fun ribbon linking them all together. I picked this up because it reminded me of birthday's growing up in my family, we always had a "Happy Birthday" banner hanging on the window and balloons swirling from the ceiling fan.




That night we stuck to our regular routine with working out at the gym since we planned to celebrate on the weekend instead. Friday night we had friends over for an appetizer party. Dan took the day off work and cooked up a storm. He made hand pies from a Williamsburg recipe which are virginia ham, ground sirloin and traditional spices in a pie dough. They are super yummy!



He also made mediterranean shrimp salad, stuffed in endive on a tray with other chopped veggies and pastry cups filled with a moroccan couscous salad.




The best part of all the food though were the cupcakes, Dan made devil's food with salted caramel frosting topped with bacon and banana-walnut cupcakes with maple cream cheese, butter cream frosting topped with walnuts. YUMMERS!




I wanted to color coordinate the drinks and straws, with flowers etc. Orange being Dan's favorite color was the obvious choice.



Dan got lots of fun cards from family and friends.



All our friends brought appetizers to share, which were equally as yummy. We have amazingly thoughtful and talented friends.

Saturday Dan and I went out to Bick's Broadview Grill for dinner and to see a movie, Unknown. It was a great flick and a fun evening. Our big birthday celebration for this year though is going to be seeing Mary Poppins in May which is why we didn't do gifts this year.

It was a fun way to celebrate the birth of my amazing sweet husband.
Love you babe!

36 Things I Love About Holly On Her 36th Birthday!

Holly's 36th Birthday is this upcoming weekend, and I thought it would be fun to share 36 reasons why "my girl" still is the love of my life, and puts a smile on my face on a daily basis! Happy 36th Honey...!

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1) I love that Holly BLASTS the horn at people in front of us while stopped at a stop light, just one second after the light turns green. To make sure that they hurry up and get moving! It always startles people, and makes me totally crack up every time.

2) I love that Holly microwaves her plain M&M’s to the point of almost being melted, but still barely hold their shape.

3) I love that Holly is a people pleaser. Sometimes to her detriment. Like her Mom, she really does want the best for everyone.

4) I love that Holly tolerates Christmas music before Thanksgiving, because I’m insistent and push it to the point where I’d be fine listening to it year round.

5) I love that Holly is quick to remind me to think about other people, and not always get caught up in what is most convenient for me, or most convenient for just the two of us.

6) I love that Holly is a total hair band Rocker Chic. She brought all the Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC and others to the relationship.

7) I love that Holly can still laugh and joke about the time we were totally making out on the couch in her Northgate apartment and her roommate walked in on us. We just froze on the couch and pretended like Michele didn’t even see us. Which she totally did. We both have rebel edges, and are not as innocent as people think.

8) I love that Holly has a bad girl edge when needed.

9) I love that Holly likes going to church, and helps me see the value of it, when I totally think church is lame 90% of the time, and NOT for me.

10) I love that Holly keeps in touch with her siblings the way they do. At first I thought it was crazy that they talked to each other as much as they do. They are a close knit family.

11) I love that Holly tries all my food concoctions. Even if it’s only a rice grain size of seafood. She’ll at least try it. Smile, tell me she likes it. Then quickly qualify that she never needs to try it again, or I never need to make that dish again.

12) I love that Holly loves Cookie Monsters as much as I do.

13) I love Holly’s design sense and style. She has produced many beautiful things that family, friends and companies all over the globe have enjoyed. She is a very talented and gifted graphic designer.

14) I love that Holly loves mid-century design and that we’ve developed a tradition of buying a nice piece of furniture of something for the house every year for our anniversary.

15) I love that Holly snores and talks in her sleep.

16) I love that Holly loves purchasing shoes almost as much as I do. We both are pretty spoiled [in a good way], and like to look our best.

17) I love that Holly loves it when I buy all my high maintenance Clinique for Men products at Nordstrom, and she gets to get and extra free gift in addition to the purchases and free gifts she gets for herself at the same counter.

18) I love that Holly loves to design our yearly Christmas cards, and packing for our yearly hand dipped chocolates every year. The collaboration we both make on the product and product packaging makes for a nice end result every year. Many friends and family have benefited from this over the year.

19) I love that Holly can flip shit to me when needed, as much as I flip shit in return. We have a fun time bantering, without pushing each others buttons too hard.

20) I love that Holly likes it when I sing.

21) I love that Holly smiles at me every morning when I wake up. She puts a smile on my face the moment I see her every morning as well.

22) I love that Holly likes being a home body at times with me, and is good to remind me to not double or triple book our social calendar each weekend night and just enjoy being at home and our limited down time.

23) I love that Holly loves international travel as much as I do, and loves to explore new foods, cultures, experiences and sites as often as we can.

24) I love that Holly longs to be a Mother. She will be an excellent one, once our adoption process finally is through.

25) I love that Holly is not afraid to get mad at me, when my faucet of profanity opens up and I have a fit. She’s good to remind me that it’s not necessary, nor is it very mature. And she does this without laughing.

26) I love that Holly goes out of her way to make every holiday extra special for the two of us.

27) I love that Holly supports me in taking food to the widows that we know, and visiting with these amazing senior citizens.

28) I love that Holly rolls her eyes at things and people, and “huffs” under her breath at people’s stupidity. It always cracks me up.

29) I love that Holly smacks me subconsciously in her sleep, out of love, to make sure that I’m still breathing and not a dead lifeless body lying next to her.

30) I love that Holly always laughs at my jokes, even when I’ve recanted the same joke over and over and OVER again.

31) I love that Holly reminds me to make a better effort with my siblings and to ensure that I keep the lines of communication open with all of my family, both immediate and extended.

32) I love that Holly loves getting in “jammies,” watching re-runs, and just enjoying each others company.

33) I love that Holly has turned into a gym nazi and calorie cop, just as much as I have. And that we’ve finally figured out that a healthier lifestyle is a happier lifestyle all around.

34) I love that Holly loves the colors orange and green equally.

35) I love that Holly loves being happy and optimistic.

36) I love that Holly and I both love each other more and more as the years go by.

Birthday Time

We both had a fabulous and busy weekend. This past Saturday, we celebrated Holly's Birthday. I decided to make her a yellow butter cake. I'm still experimenting with from scratch cake recipes. This one was from Cook's Illustrated. It tasted good, but was a tad dry. Next time I'll probably add sour cream to the batter before I bake it. Also, this chocolate fudge frosting is a great recipe.

I decided I wanted to make a chocolate cookie monster cake topper. So I got out my food dies, white chocolate, milk chocolate and made a 5" cookie monster face, to go on the 6" cake. I thought it turned out super cute! We had fun munching on it yesterday as we decided to do Birthday festivities over two days.



We had a lovely dinner at Saltoro. We both LOVE that restaurant up on 143rd and Greenwood Avenue. We had amazing risotto cheese balls with tomato jam for an appetizer. We both followed that with salads. Holly had a caesar with house caesar dressing. I had the Saltoro salad with blue cheese, dates, candied walnuts and sun dried tomatoes with orange vinaigrette. We both rounded out our meals with pasta dishes. Holly had some spicy chicken sausages in a fettuccine cream with spinach pasta. I had smoked salmon in white wine cream sauce with capers, tomatoes and roasted veggies. It was a perfect meal.

Happy Birthday to the cutest girl in the world!

Hello Miss Dolly-Gallagher-Levi

For a birthday surprise, Holly took me to see Hello Dolly in the unexpected March snow storm. I thought Jennifer Lewis did a great job in this. Pat Cashman was OK. You can typically expect a few mishaps on opening night. I felt it made it all that more entertaining. The costumes had the most amazing colors. Traditional, period detail, but modern colors and fabric choices. I loved it! The sets were very cool too. One thing Holly and I love doing together is attending the performing arts. I'm pretty excited for the 2009-2010 5th Ave Theatre season. South Pacific is coming to Seattle, and we've never seen that. Also, Irving Berlin's White Christmas is coming back to Seattle this December. WE LOVED THAT IN 2006! We will be seeing that show again this holiday season. Thanks for the nice birthday experience honey.

The Big 34...!

I had a wonderful birthday celebration this past Tuesday evening. Holly really spoiled me again. We both had a hectic day at work, but were able to finally leave and go enjoy a meal eating out. I was craving PF Changs Asian Bistro, particularly the pork lettuce cups and the crispy tempura green beans with wasabi. We had great food and plenty of left overs for lunch the next day.


The full spread on the dining room table. I decided I wanted a sampling of good cupcakes this year, since I had my traditional favorite German Chocolate Cake the night before at our weekly dinner group.


The loot prior to unwrapping. Holly coordinated all the blue and brown packaging and ribbon.


Cupcake Royale sampling. We had the best White Coconut, Red Velvet, Double Chocolate and Carrot Cream Cheese. All four of these did not fit on the plate.





Holly is treating me to Hello Dolly. It opens soon at Paramount Theatre. Look at her designed ticket.


Besides tickets to Hello Dolly, and a few things for the kitchen, I got an engraved iPod Shuffle. My older, bigger iPod is on the fritz. Being picky, I hate having the larger one at the gym. I just want to have something clipped to my neck line or sleeve line. I had a crash a burn a few weeks ago at the gym and the iPod came flying off the treadmill and smacked me in the head leaving a mark. If you are asking, yes I'm very graceful at multitasking on the treadmill.

A Month of Birthdays

Some of the best people I know are born in March. My husband, of course, quite a few friends, two nieces and today my mom. My mom is the greatest mom ever. She is caring, loving all the things you want in a mom. And she is the best example in my life of a person that is selfless, positive and strong. When we did our homestudy and had to describe our relationship with our parents our social worker kind of laughed at me saying I'd used an impressive amount of adjectives. But it got my point across. It's kind of hard to know how to describe a woman that makes friends in the bathroom on not one but many occasions with random strangers, or the woman who constantly sings 'you've gotta accentuate the positive' and the same woman who is not afraid to push people out of her way at Disneyland. I love her and think I'll keep her. Happy birthday mom!

DAN IS WRITING NOW:

Instead of making another post, I wanted to chime in about "Mom2" as she so often refers to herself as. My Mother in law has been an amazing friend, confident and source for advice the entire time I've been a part of Holly's family. Her laugh is infectious and makes you want to laugh with her. She loves playing games as much as I do. Words can't even describe the comfort and care she gave to me in the days, weeks and months after my Mother's death right along side Holly. I feel so very lucky to have two wonderful mothers in my life, and I owe to world to her and her husband who has also passed on, for an amazing daughter to share my life with. WE LOVE NANA!

Celebrating Dan

Today is March 3rd. It is a special day because it is the day my sweetheart was born. I am indebted to his mother for choosing to have this 6th child, for raising him in the gospel, for teaching him how to cook and truly love it and for his sisters and brother who helped him to become a sensitive and understanding person. To his Dad for helping him understand the importance of family, hard work and living on a budget. I am very thankful for his mission call to Seattle where he came and fell in love with the trees which led him back to this beautiful place to live his life. I am most thankful to the Lord for leading us both to this area, for the miracles that transpired to lead us back to church activity and into each others lives. So honey, thanks for your laugh, your corny jokes, your cooking, your love, and for lighting up my life. Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday To Me!

I had a wonderful birthday on Friday! I got to talk to my super cute niece on the phone who told me it's no fun I have to work on my birthday (I totally agree with her). I had an excellent dinner with my sweet husband and our good friends followed by cake and, my favorite, peppermint ice cream. Dan spoiled me rotten by giving me an iPod Nano which I am having tons of fun loading music onto. Plus a fun crafty holiday stamp, great cards from family and friends and a gift card from my mom to go shopping. All in all I couldn't ask for anything better.

Happy Birthday Holly Honey

Today is Holly's Birthday. So I want the whole world to know that I am the luckiest man alive, and have the coolest girl in the world as my best friend and wife. Here's wishing you a fantastic day, and many more years of fun filled memories together. It is an extreme blessing in my life, to be able to live life together with you. I love you! Happy Birthday!