Mini-Cheesecakes... Oh, and Kyle's Birthday

 For Kyle's birthday I asked him what kind of cake he wanted with the restrictions that it couldn't be a standard cakey cake because I don't like cakey cake.  It is too crumbly and makes a huge mess. 

 So Kyle opted for cheesecake.  I was so excited because I found a cheesecake site with all these recipes I wanted to try.  No, Kyle just wanted a plain one.  Ok, that's still great because I have always wanted to try making one and a plain recipe is a good place to start practicing. 

On his birthday, I went to make the cheesecake and discovered I didn't have enough cream cheese to make him a full cheesecake. I had just gone shopping and I didn't want to do it again.  Frustrated I did some googling and found I did have enough to make mini-ones.  Apparently you can make mini cheesecakes with any cheesecake recipe.  You just cook them for less time.  These took like 20-25 minutes at 350 I believe.

Mini Cheesecakes
Some crushed graham crackers, about 1 Tbsp melted butter and little bit of sugar (yeah I totally winged it. So I don't have the exact amounts.  Sorry.)

2 8-oz packages cream cheese

3/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Toppings

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin tins with paper liners.

2. Mixed graham crackers and butter and the little bit of sugar to make the crust.  Press it into the bottom of each muffin cup.

3. Cream together cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Fill each cup with this until it's almost to the top.

4. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Apparently, it's OK if the middle falls, according to Kyle.

5. Cool.

6. Top with a flavor.

 Here are what we topped our cheesecakes with:

Oreos

Homemade Blackberry Sauce

Homemade Blackberry Sauce

Put some blackberries, a Tbsp or two of flour and some sugar in a pot.  Cook on the stove-top until the berry juice has thickened. (Sorry, more winging it. I'm practically an aerial chef.)

 So, happy birthday Kyle! 

Surface mount soldering practice.

 Last night I was practicing surface mount soldering of fine pitch chips. I learned quite a bit, got some experience, and managed to not kill anything (that I could see.) The things that I can pass on are: Flux! Clean well tinned tip, and knowing that you will create solder bridges, and knowing how to remove them. (Clean tip and lots of flux with a downward motion.) Don't try to use de-solder braid with anything this small.

Lazy Sunday Morning

Ahh. Relaxing Pre-Church Nap...

What the?

Huh?

"Hi Mom! Getting Dad ready."

Oh. Carry on then.

Noogler

Here is Kyle the Noogler (New Google Employee).

Meghan loves his hat. She got a big kick out of spinning the propeller.

Dancing Like The Stars

Kyle has an exercise video of Dancing with the Stars and convinced the boys to try it out with him. I don't know why, but watching the boys do exercise videos is pretty hilarious. I do have a video of it and once I figure out how I want to do uploaded videos (since Blogger doesn't do videos anymore) I'll put it up.

Tie Warriors

"I have mastered the seven forms of Tie Fu"


"I can Tie Fu you with my eyes closed!"

"Why yes, I am thinking Tie Fu thoughts."

"Tie Fu leads the way to inner smugness."


"The ultimate Tie Fu battle is about to begin."




"Me? I'm just cute."

December 2009

Wagon Ride

Sorry it's not flash video. I guess I'm not part of the 21st century yet.
Watch Meghan and Adelaide Play in their wagon!
Firefox users on Windows might need the windows media player plugin found here

Playing Outside With Daddy

We went outside for a good romp in the grass before dinner.


Wrestle match!

The instant Adelaide was set down she would bolt straight for the road. Daddy would run after her and then field her like a football player blocking the goalpost.


On Daddy's shoulders anyone can be the tallest!


It's a good thing we keep the front door locked. Here he is blocking her again.

Thank heavens large eyes are genetic. Look how gorgeous they are.

Here is Daddy playing Daddy type games. Mom just laughs.


I LOVE Meghan's face in this picture.


And I love Kyle's face in this one. Kyle thinks he looks drugged in this picture. I think he looks way handsome and in need of a kiss. I guess you can't agree on everything.

Face.... Book?

So Kyle came out of his office one day and asked me to take his picture. I assumed it was for some application regarding his attempts to start his own programming business. So I took a few shots.

Happy, he retreated back to his office. Curious, I followed. Imagine my surprise when I saw him uploading his picture to FACEBOOK!!! Not that social networking site that sucks your time and your soul and leaves nothing but a gibbering shell with 200 friends and the results of fifty personality quizzes!!!
But I'm okay with that now.

Happy Birthday, Kyle!

We had Kyle's birthday party recently. At the tender age of 26, he is still a young feller.

Just kidding. That's Silas, happy and healthy!


Make a wish...


Blow them out...


Solemn victory dance.


Meghan's Turn!


What's in here?


Ooh?


A BOX!!!!!!!


He got some orchids (earlier that week), Set, a snake puzzle and Gordian's Knot. We had quite a party with movies, cake, ice cream and a rambunctious game of Bandits (which ended with the eviction of the non-resident party goers due to noise restrictions).