Christmas Part 2: CHRISTMAS!

The Curtis Family celebrates Christmas a lot like the Larsen family. Everyone goes to my grandparents on Christmas Eve, we eat dinner, exchange some gifts and some people will show off a talent if they want to (except we were forced).

On Christmas day, Jacob and I slept in pretty late. In fact, we were woken up by the parents this year... and fair enough because it was 9:45 and they couldn't wait any longer. We opened stockings and presents and had a big breakfast. Jacob spoiled me this year and I tried to spoil him. I gave him a camel back backpack, a dutch oven which he always has thought about getting but never has, a book and a few dress clothes to wear. Jacob pretty much blew my attempt to spoil him out of the water. He gave me the DVD Despicable Me, a new eye mask for sleeping, a sewing machine, bread maker, wallet and purse.

I tried my best to make up for his spoiling by making him a purse with my new sewing machine. I don't know what happened to it... but trust me... he LOVED it.

The next few days were very relaxed. I took a nap every single day!

Now we are back in Rexburg, all rejuvenated for our move to Arizona!

Christmas Part 1: The Interview

Jacob and I went to Boise this year for Christmas. Boise is much much warmer than Rexburg. :) We went a few days early so Jacob could go to an interview at AXA Advisors. A financial advisory firm that deals mostly with life insurance from what I can tell. 35 minutes before the interview we realized that Jacob could not find his belt, he forgot his dress shoes and he didn't bring a tie because he knew he was getting a couple for Christmas. So, he borrowed a tie from his dad, put on his everyday shoes with his black pants and his mom offered a brown woven belt that he thought about wearing until he thankfully found his belt in the car. But that still didn't solve the shoes. I was not about to let him go into an interview like that so we found shoes at Famous Footwear that were the right size and looked pretty good, except they were so stiff that Jacob couldn't bend his feet and on top of that the tongue was grinding in to the top of his feet. It didn't matter. We had 15 minutes to get there and he wanted to be early so he wore the shoes out of the store.

We didn't make it. We were 5 minutes late, Jacob couldn't remember the name of the person who was supposed to interview him, he had a big tie, no suit jacket and he was hunched over to help him limp faster. But the interview went as well as it could have gone, even though the guy was looking for more sales experience. Door to door type sales experience, so I don't think Jacob was very disappointed and neither was I.

We brought the shoes back the next day. Thanks for letting us borrow the shoes, Famous Footwear.

Clean Up Surprises and A Christmas Gift

Jacob and I like bananas. They are cheap, there is no cutting involved, no juice squirting on your face or making your hands sticky, and they go great in smoothies. Sometimes I buy more than we can eat before they go brown so we throw them in the freezer and save them for banana bread.

Now that we are migrating south for the winter we are trying to eat what is in your refrigerator and freezer instead of buying more food.

Well, I guess we hadn't made banana bread in a while... or gone through our freezer.We found 19 bananas! Thats a lot of banana bread. We did throw away the questionable very black, bumpy bananas. Jacob peeled and mashed the rest of them and I measured the mashed bananas in to baggies. We had enough to make 10 loaves of banana bread! Our freezer definitely has much more room now.

Last week we went to Jacob's work party. Every year they give away a gift to every employee. In the past, Jacob has received a drill and a suitcase. This year they gave away track suits....My little asparagus, Jacob.

If you think Jacob looks funny, imagine men running around in circles and doing stretches on stage to model the track suits.

They make really great pajama pants, so thanks Melaleuca.

If you need us....

We'll be in Arizona!

We are escaping Rexburg for the winter and taking off. Jacob landed an internship at a place called Waterstone Mortgage in Gilbert Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. He had a first interview that he felt pretty good about and he said he felt relaxed during the interview. On Friday he got a call saying they were going to interview him a second time and they were accepting two people and interviewing four. So today the guy he interviewed with called again and said that a second interview wouldn't be necessary. Jacob's heart dropped for a second, but only a second, because they offered him the internship!!

We are so thrilled. I for one am ready for a new adventure. I have only been to the Phoenix area once with my friends when we were teenagers... supervised. All I know is there is swimming pools galore and that will make for one happy, happy, hopefully soon to be TAN (and well sun-screened), blond. And this may sound weird, but I really really like the cactus plant. Jacob and I plan to cut one open and find the water.

Jacob is excited for our new adventure too. He is excited to learn what he can about loans, mortgages and what not and for the change of scenery.

Now all we have to do is find somewhere to live and we're outta here. Easier said than done.

A Cookie Contest Emergency

So, I know my last post was about food and this one is going to be a post about food too. Some people eat to live and some people live to eat. I live to eat. (And thank heavens I am a self proclaimed distance runner too or else who knows what I would look like!) But this one is more interesting. I promise.

Jacob has a drawing for an iPad at work this week and you have to earn the tickets for the drawing. Today they had a cookie making contest. If you brought in cookies you got a few tickets and if you won, you got more tickets for drawing, plus some kind of gift card.

Jacob forgot to make cookies. He called me a little after four and asked me to bring him winning cookies by five. Okay, he didn't say winning, but I know he wants that iPad. I said I would bring him what ever I could find, probably chocolate chip cookies. But I just didn't feel like doing that. I just opened my cupboards and let inspiration take the lead.

We had a Betty Crocker Cake mix so I thought CAKEYS! (Cake cookies. I am not sure how to spell it but Cakie looks wrong to me so I am sticking with my way.)

I knew just a cakey wasn't going to cut it so I decided to make frosting while the cakeys were in the oven. I opened the lazy susan for some frosting inspiration and found lemon extract so lemon frosting it was. Then I found my old decorating kit and piped one huge drop flower on all the cookies.

The cakey was satisfactory, but definitely NOT a winner... So I dropped them off, glad that I had made Jacob feel better about forgetting to make cookies.

AND WE WERE 2nd PLACE!

Can you believe my silly cakey made second place? No gift certificate, but I will take second place out of 14 people. Jacob said the cakeys received lots of compliments though. He also said the winner made some kind of chocolate meringue. Well maybe... this is how he described it in his text. "They were made with chocolate and egg whites. They looked funny but they were super moist on the inside." Does that sound like a chocolate meringue type thing to any one else? Maybe not the part about being super moist inside.

So, for the next time you realize at the last minute that you said you'd make a treat for your next ward activity, or you need a quick dessert any occasion I left the recipe below.

I think the trick here is to make them as fast as you can.

On your mark. Get set. Go.

I'm pretty sure everyone can make a cakey, but here is what I did.

1 box Betty Crocker white cake mix.
1 egg
1/2 c. vegetable oil

Mix it up. It might seem a little on the dry side but that is okay. The dough didn't look smooth when I used beaters so I switch to a spoon. Make cookie dough balls as big as you'd like. Put them in the oven at 350 for 9 minutes. Around 7 minutes the cakeys still looked like balls so I opened the oven door and patted them down with a spatula. A little more liquid in the mix probably would have helped, but whatever works, right? :) At 9 minutes I turned the oven off and let them sit in there for one more minute. I don't know why I did that. Then I took them out and put the cookies on a cooling rack.

Frosting:
1 tsp. lemon extract or grated lemon rind.
cream that in with 1 1/2 T. room temp. butter.
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 T. lemon juice mixed with 1 T. water

Add 1/2 a cup of the powered sugar to the butter and beat it until its all mixed in. It will be very very dry.
Add a teaspoon of the lemon-water mixture and beat it in.
Keep adding the powdered sugar and the lemon- water mixture one at a time until you get the consistency you want to frost your cookies.
I didn't use anywhere close to the amount of lemon-water mixture I mixed together, so scale it down if you want to. And if you want it extra lemony add more grated lemon!

Sorry that there is no picture. But I had to be out the door.

I also have had cakeys with a strawberry cake mix and vanilla frosting that were really good So use what you have and remember the trick is to do it as fast as you can and not think too much. In fact, don't measure anything.

Best of luck in your next cookie emergency!

Pie and Ice Cream

This weekend I tried my hand at making my grandmother, Sharyn's ice cream. I have never made it before, and I even impressed myself with my final product! It starts with a stirred custard, "creme anglaise" if you want fancy about it. It does taste more like a custard when it is all done too. When I was little I couldn't figure out if I liked it or not, but now I love it. And the guinea pig Jacob liked it too! I was really worried he wouldn't.

We got out or fun ice cream dishes and put some famous Fenton's caramel on top.


















Since I was having good kitchen luck this weekend, I decided to make pumpkin pie today. It wasn't my mom's tried and true recipe. I found it in my baking text book. But I think I should have gone with my mom's pumpkin pie. It was good, just doesn't beat my mom's. Go Mom! We ate it warm with left over ice cream!It was a yummy Sunday dessert. And if you are in the Rexburg area and have a sweet tooth, please invite yourself over. Jacob and I can't eat all this dessert by ourselves.

A More Serious Post (a little on the venting side)

I, Kate Curtis, am a free woman. Still happily hitched to Jacob. :)

Winter in the fencing industry is really slow. Especially this year. The laborers were all done with their fences a week before Thanksgiving and when I got back from my Californiacation, work was deadly slow. I went a week with out doing a lick of work. So my bosses came to me and said they just didn't have anything more for me to do and told me I looked extremely bored, gave me a check in the sum of what they would have paid me for the winter (two or two and a half months...) and I am out of there!

I have been loving the last two days. I have applied for part time work here and there and only one of them was for a secretarial position. In all honesty though, I am done being a secretary. I've been someone's secretary since I was 16. And I'll prove it. Here's working past, starting from the beginning. (Its boring, this is for my venting purposes.)

Junior Clerk - City Manager and Mayor's Office
File Clerk - Berg Injury Lawyers
File Clerk - Sarrail Lynch and Hall (Now Sarrail, Castillo and Hall)
Receptionist - Movers International Group
Administrative Assistant - City of Alameda
Sales and Marketing Intern - Volterra Semiconductor
Student Secretary - BYU - Idaho
Office Manager - Western Fence

And that is not including the time I worked at Curves or as a math tutor. YIKES!

So I have decided, I am done being someones secretary. Unless I have to support my family in the future. I would rather sell baked goods door to door or at a farmers market right now.

I have been so happy the last few days and so much more relaxed. So I feel really comfortable right now being more adventurous in my money making endeavors and I am excited to see what I can do on my own!