Chocolate Cake w/ Peanut Butter Frosting..

WARNING: HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH lol :) BECAUSE, YOU EAT THIS ONCE YOU WANT IT AGAIN!!!

Well, I've been craving this for a while again but didn't want to make it because who ends up eating almost the whole cake?.. Alise.. LOL :) Anyway Cynthia found the recipe in a magazine and tried it first.. then I got the recipe and made it as well, but with just regular Cream Cheese frosting (I eliminated the P. Butter). Loved it.. anyway tonight I asked John.. so p. butter frosting or not? he voted yes.. ummm why did I ask him :( I much prefer regular frosting.. Anyway so here is some pictures and then the recipe for this yummy, moist chocolate cake with frosting!

Peanut Buttery Chocolate Cake

Cooking spray

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup oil

2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup brewed coffee, room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting 1 (8 ounce) pkg cream cheese, softened

1/4 creamy p. butter

2 cups icing sugar

2 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

miniture chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9x13 with oil

  Mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Combine oil and sugar in large mixing bowl using a mixer beat at medium speed until well mixed add eggs beat well, add flour mixture alternately with milk beginning and ending with four mixture, beat well after each addition and scrap down sides of bowl, then stir in coffee and vanilla (batter will be thin)

Pour bater into pan and bake for 35-40 min, or until toothpick comes out clean, cool completely

Icing

combine cream cheese and p butter. beat until smooth. add sugar milk and vanilla

spread over cake and sprinkle chocolate chips for garnish, store in refridgerator.

 

Eet Smakelijk! :)

Wedding Day: Shannon & Stefan

Well on Thursday morning I could get up bright and early and head over to Shannon's house to take pictures of her getting her hair done and getting dressed etc. As well as some other pictures. I posted several on my photography blog and will try post a few on here as well! So that you can enjoy some more of them...

They did the typical Dutch style wedding where you have all your close friends as "day guests". For those of you who aren't familiar with this, it simply means that you get to spend the whole day with the bride and groom. They don't have a bridal party, so their friends kinda hang out and have the fun with them, just like a bridal party would. It was a very neat experience and if I had to pick I would almost do it this way instead. That way you don't feel like you have to pick and then possibly leave someone out!

Anyway so church was in the afternoon just after lunch, in the morning after her hair was done I took a few pictures of them, and then off they went to Lethbridge for professional pictures. Then we saw them again at church, in the basement of the church before the service where all the "day guests" and family received the corsage/boutineer. Then we all got to sit right behind the family.. yup special people or what LOL :)

After church we went to the seniors home from our church Bethesda, which is right next door, and took family pictures and then several pictures with friends/group pics with them. Definitely a ton of fun! Anyway after pictures were all taken we needed something to do for about an hour or so, since we had some time before the reception, so we headed over to Gert & Dicky's place to relax for a while, and then off to Lethbridge for the reception in the Coast Hotel.

There was a dinner reception for the brothers and sisters as well as the "day guests". After which they had a regular reception for the rest of their relatives and friends. I actually hardly spent any time sitting, since being the offical photographer for the reception I definitely needed to make sure that I was kinda up and about taking pictures of things that were going on. Stefan's friends from Holland also did a skit with ballons numbered 1-10 and each one had a piece of paper with a note written on it about Shannon or Stefan.. all the odd's were Stefan's and all the even's Shannon's. They had to hand the ballons out to people in the room and then that person had to come to the front to read what the paper said.

Anyway so that was that.. home late because I kinda like to stay till they leave so that they have some pictures of themselves leaving and then that is that! My feet were super sore after wearing high heels all day and being up on them.. my toes felt like they couldn't handle me taking another step.. I really started to notice that as we were walking to the car :( Anyway I was a tired lady after all that work that day! But completely worth it.. I totally enjoyed myself!!

Alberta: Trip too and then the first day there!

Well since I haven't posted anything on my Alberta trip yet I figured I should probably start at the beginning of it all!!

So we had decided that if we left on Tuesday night after work that would get us in AB around 2:00 am technically 1:00 am PST for us. Which wasn't to bad. Granted that we could leave Sunnyside at about 3:30-4:00ish. In the end both John and I took off of work early and we were on the road slightly after 3:30 which was faster than we had expected, but both of us without telling eachother decided that we would like to be done work at 2:45 instead of 3:00 that day, which worked out well! Driving at night isn't always the coolest thing, especially not after you've both worked a good day and are kinda tired from that, but at least that saved the cost of a hotel and/or not arriving as soon! We got to Cranbrook and I told John was had to stop at Tim Horton's which he already knew, I stocked up on and Ice Cap and Medium 1/2 French Vanilla 1/2 Coffee. Ice Cap to wake me up right then and the coffee for later so I would get nice and cozy and warm when I quit driving!

Over the trip.. well John drove for the first 3 hours, then I drove over the border, and into Fernie. From Fernie to "home" John took over again. The other thing you find out about driving in the dark after having special headlights in "my car" the ones that John had are so dim it isn't even funny :( So I told him that we needed to get that changed LOL :) Which we did btw..Anyway.. so we got there at like 2:30 in the morning dropped in bed slept till 8:30 or so.. and then it was up at at 'er!

Wednesday was a pretty easy slack day in itself.. I don't think we did to much other than swing by Oma and say hi and visit there for a bit. Then in the afternoon I ran into Lethbridge with Janita to go buy a wedding gift and get John a suit from Moores.. At night it was family night at the Home and Garden Show.... and afterwards Evert treated us all to GREEN Dairy Queen Ice Cream Sundaes because he fooled us and showed up at the Home and Garden show after he made us think he wasn't coming! So Dad talked him into doing that for us! :)  So I guess I thought it was a slack day but after typing about it and thinking more it probably wasn't so slack after all.. LOL..  because the shopping trip in itself was a ton of fun.. it was Janita, Brittany and me because we sent John home as soon as he was done with his suit LOL :) Girls time or what eh?!

So I guess details on the shopping trip coming up LOL :) So after we did John's suit.. which didn't take to long anyway since we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted.. black pin strip and in the $200 range, that eliminates a lot right away.. and we found one that we really like so hey why ever not! So that taken care of then "well where shall we go now". It became a matter of well what is closest that we need to be at, and that was Walmart.. since I forgot my deodorant, what's new :( Then it turned into running around the store looking at the home decor stuff just because that is a ton of fun!! I found some pillows that I liked and decided maybe I would buy them, but nah figured I better not because I didnt' know if they were the right colors to match with the quilt that I have to make for the couch in the living room, and since that is what they were for I had better put them back.. then it was looking at cool pots and sticks that go into them for decor... nah better leave them there too.. and from there picture frames.. and mirrors etc etc... oh the joys! It was  a ton of fun forsure.. then we remembered.. oh ja it is Joel's bday next week maybe we should see if we can find him a present.. so off to the toys we went. But nope nothing cool enough for Joel there anyway.. so that was that.. enough of Walmart shopping! probably and hour later but hey it was fun, not every day I get to hang out with my sisters and do that!

Next it was off to the mall after all that was the misson for the day.. a wedding gift from Stokes! So of course you can't go to the mall just for a gift.. you have to check out the other stores that you love right?!! So into Ricki's first! :) I found something I really liked but hey since it is on the way out of the mall lets see what else I can find.. so then to Stokes.. bought our gifts! http://www.stokesstores.com/en/index.php . Then off to Smart Set.. nah nothing cool there.. hmm where else.. oh ja better hit Timmie's in the mall! LOL :) On the way back out I had to stop in Ricki's again since I hadn't found anything else. http://www.rickis.com/by-category/final-clearance/argyle-vest/prod9310ED58438R2.html and then the blouse http://www.rickis.com/by-category/sale/essential-button-up-blouse/prod9169ED214919w.html All for a very good deal! :) Whoot!! I love sale time! Then time to quick run to Micheals and then home we go!

New Link

So in case you haven't noticed I just wanted to point out that I have a new link in the sidebar of my blog. Namely one for my latest blog: Photography by Alise :) This is something that I wanted to start for a while already and finally decided that maybe I should, so it is going to be a working progress, and it will only include my pictures of nature, candid's, sessions like Engagement, wedding etc. Mainly anything that can get put under the tab "Photography" freeing up the space on this blog for remaining my random thoughts, as well as other things that I enjoy! :)

The Mom Song..

The Mom Song from Julia mei on Vimeo.

Working on my tan/burn already..

LOL :) Yuppers Albertans time to start getting jealous.. actually after spending 6 hours in the sun yesterday and having a slight burn I decided that I had better wear a cap today so that at least some of my face wouldn't burn up really bad..  This way at least I will get a nice tan.. whoot!!

Definitely have got a bit of a red nose though.. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer ring a bell??! LOL! ;)  Oh well good times.. cause I don't think I've every started on my tan this early in the year.. I think my arms have got a good start as well!

I'm officially employed!

Well, I started working last week Wednesday.. officially I had a job that Monday. Since I've started working, well life seems pretty hectic, get up in the morning, pack my lunch, eat breakfast as I do so.. and run out the door.. sit at John's parents' for 1/2 hour drink a cup of coffee there and then off to the greenhouse to work.

I got a job working for Sunwest Growers which is John's aunt and uncles greenhouse which is a few houses down from his parents so that works out well for us since we have only one vehicle. John drops me off in the morning and goes to work and then I can wait for him at the end of the day at his parents' place. I end up eating my lunch and stuff there as well since most of their employees are Hispanics and they speak Spanish, the little english they do know is pretty difficult to understand.. so that works for me.. it also give me a chance to relax for a bit! ;)

Most days my job is clipping mint and then replanting the clippings after dipping it into "kelpac" (it is made from kelp and helps the clippings grow roots, btw I have no idea if that is how it is spelled but that is how it sounds!) and then planting it into plug trays.. oh yeah that joys. Not the greatest job but it is a job so I'm not complaining. Today I actually was working in Uncle Bill's field pruning some of his grape plants...

So last week my complaints were.. sore feet, back/neck, and being super tired.. so far this week.. well I've got a really sore hand and got more than enough blisters on it from holding a clipper for 6 hours of the day. Yuppers the joys.. hehe.. other than that well I've started working on my tan.. hehe.. it was gorgeous weather out today.. 15 celcius and so yup my forehead is slightly red..