Summer desserts: Orange Pineapple Cream Cake and Peach Blueberry Cobbler

August 1st, 2010

I made 2 desserts for a family picnic at Jeff’s uncle’s house yesterday. They are both summer favorites in our family! Here are the recipes below:

Orange Pineapple Cream Cake
This recipe is from Nanny (my dad’s mom). I’m sure she found it in a magazine or something. It has become a family favorite in the last couple years. Keep it cold, and it’s sure to be a light and refreshing dessert for summer! You can make it in a long rectangular cake pan, or 2 round pans with icing between layers (shown below).

Orange Pineapple Cream Cake

Orange Pineapple Cream Cake

Cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 c. vegetable oil
4 eggs
11 oz. can mandarin oranges (with juice…I drained it and then I had to add extra water)

Icing:
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 lb. 4 oz. can crushed pineapple (drain some of the juice if possible)
8 oz. cool whip
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix the cake ingredients until smooth (in a mixer if you like, I usually just use a whisk or spatula). Bake in greased cake pan (or 2 round pans) at 325˚ for 25-30 minutes until golden. Cool completely before icing. Tip: if you are using round cake pans, they will round at the top when baking. Use a serrated knife to make the bottom layer flat and level before topping with icing and the 2nd layer of cake.

While the cake is baking, fold the icing ingredients together in a large bowl and keep in the refrigerator until ready to ice the cake. When the cakes are cool, put icing between layers, on the top, and around the sides (just on top if you are baking in a rectangular cake pan). It will look kind of lumpy, but it will taste perfect! Keep the whole cake in the fridge until ready to serve. Enjoy!!


Peach Blueberry Cobbler
The recipe comes from Beulah Heintzelman, who I never met, but she was my great-grandmother (my dad’s dad’s mom). This cobbler originally only had peaches, but Nanny added blueberries. You can make it either way, depending on what fruit is in season, or what you have on hand.

Peach Blueberry Cobbler

Peach Blueberry Cobbler

Fruit:
2 fresh peaches or 1 can sliced peaches (if using canned peaches, slice them in half length-wise to make the slices thinner)
1 c. blueberries
3/4 c. sugar

Cobbler:
1/2 c. butter or margarine, melted
1 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
dash cinnamon
3/4 c. milk

Mix the fruit and 3/4 c. sugar, and set aside. Pour melted butter into an 8″ square baking pan, sprayed with cooking spray. In a bowl, combine the “cobbler” ingredients and blend just until ingredients are combined. Pour the cobbler mix over butter in the pan. Top with fruit and bake at 375˚ for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Thanks for reading, come back soon!

Lauren Haines

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Posted in Baking, Recipes | 2 Comments »

Buying Our First Home: Part 2-House Hunting

July 28th, 2010

I love to shop…and as far as I was concerned, this was the ultimate shopping trip.

House-hunting Online
We started by “shopping” for homes online, just like I normally shop for anything else. Before hooking up with a realtor, we used www.redfin.com or www.homes.com, but Stephanie (our realtor, mentioned in the last post) told us that the best site to use is www.homesdatabase.com. Take a look at the homes and the specifications carefully before visiting so you know what to look for. For example, find out ahead of time if there’s only one bathroom, or no AC, or if it’s in a bad neighborhood. This way, you won’t get wrapped up in the bells and whistles of new carpeting and upscale decor, only to find later that the cellar is full of water damage (or something similarly upsetting).

My mortgage expertise has a longstanding reputation of…hmm…2 weeks. But in my opinion, the internet has completely changed the house hunting process. Within one day of telling Stephanie our personal preferences, she sent us an email with 26 listings that were in our price range and in the area that we wanted to live in. Plus, every listing had at least 2 photos (some, up to 30 images). I just can’t imagine looking for a home without the help of the world wide web. (Interesting…9 months ago I said the same thing about planning a wedding).

Narrowing it Down
After considering all the listings, we emailed our realtor 6 addresses of homes that we wanted to tour. She called the sellers’ agents and set up times for us to see the homes. The adventure begins!!

Some of the homes were really lovely. Some were not. At some places we stayed 20+ minutes, thinking of how we would arrange our furniture, and picturing summer evenings on the deck. Then at other houses, we walked in, became overwhelmed with the smell of mold, and swiftly turned around. I guess house hunting is like a box of chocolates….

Finding “the one”
We saw our new home for the first time on our first day out. Here are some reasons why we considered it. It is located in Cape St. Claire (a great neighborhood close to where Jeff grew up). It has 2 levels (split foyer) and the main level is very open, which we liked because we can watch TV, cook in the kitchen, hang out in the living/dining room, all without yelling around walls…more “together” time! It has space for an eat-in kitchen and a dining room, a deck, and a large basement (part finished, part unfinished). Oh! and the laundry room is right next to the bedrooms! (I hope others out there appreciate how awesome that is).

We saw it on a Sunday, and all week as we were touring other homes, we kept coming back to it in our minds, thinking that it could really be the perfect place for us. That Friday, we asked to see the place again. It was definitely a blessing that we saw it that night because the next day, we put an offer on it, and it was accepted!

More to come…thanks for reading, come back soon!

Lauren Haines

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Buying Our First Home: Part 1-Getting Started

July 27th, 2010

There is no doubt about it, this year has been a bundle of life changes for the Haines family. Getting married, moving, then moving again (after the first place flooded), Jeff getting promoted, Netcordia merging with Infoblox in California, me getting a brand new job, and now we bought a house! What’s next–a baby?? whoa! let’s not get crazy….

To be fair, buying a house was not a spur-of-the-moment decision at all. Ever since I began dating Jeff, I knew owning a home was important to him. I have never met anyone who likes to do yardwork so much! Some weekends he will just say “I wish we had a lawn to mow.” Really? That was one of my favorite things about living in an apartment! But I totally agree that I would rather be putting our money toward owning a home rather than throwing our money away on rent every month. And I’m so excited to PAINT! I’ve never gotten to paint walls in any of my apartments! And believe me, if you see the walls in our new house, you’ll see that painting is a MUST.

Even before we were married, we have been saving up for a house. We weren’t sure if it would happen this year or next year, but the generous wedding gifts from our friends and family (combined with some masterful bargain shopping) made it possible for us to start house-hunting this summer.

What we did:
Step-by-step for those of you who are looking to buy a home too!

Our first step was contacting our friends Stephanie and James. They are one of the couples in our church small group bible study and, fortunately for us, very talented real estate agents! Stephanie set us up with a mortgage broker who took our financial information over the phone, ran a credit report for both of us, and issued a pre-approval letter via email. This letter told us how much we were pre-approved to spend on a home (but that figure was not necessarily what we could afford!).

Next, we met with Stephanie and James to talk about what features we wanted in our home. Since living in Millersville has proved to be a little too far from Annapolis for us, we narrowed our search to the Arnold, Cape St. Claire, and Edgewater areas. We wanted 2-3 bedrooms, and at least 1.5 baths. We were not afraid of a fixer-upper, but did not want to consider a place that had structural issues or mold (Jeff is allergic).

The next day, Stephanie went on her super duper realtor database and emailed us about 45 listings of places that met our criteria. I will save the “house hunting” portion of our saga for next time, since this post is already getting a little long. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about our journey to homeownership or if you want more info about the people we are working with.

Thanks for reading, come back soon!

Lauren Haines

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Is it ok for a Christian to practice Yoga?

June 19th, 2010

Disclaimer: I admit that I do not have an extensive knowledge of yoga, so the following blog may include errors. Also, this blog entry is not meant to judge anyone who does or does not practice yoga, or who is or is not a Christian.

It is undeniable that, over the past several years, yoga has become a part of American culture. It seems like everyone’s doing it…celebrities, stay-at-home moms, senior citizens, young adults, children…people living in cities, suburbs, rural areas….it is even part of the video game “Wii Fit”.


What does YOGA really mean?
On handy dandy wikipedia, the page on Yoga explains that “yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings, and is derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj”, meaning “to unite”.

“Outside India, the term yoga is typically associated with Hatha Yoga and its asanas (postures) or as a form of exercise.” I tried researching online about the meaning of the postures. For instance, why is the downward dog called a downward dog? Why is the Warrior II position called the Warrior II? Are there some ancient Indian proverbs that inspired these poses, or are they just named in order to refer to a certain position easily? As of this moment…I haven’t found an answer.


Why do most people practice yoga?
Without doing any official research, I have heard friends and acquaintances list their reasons for doing yoga as: stress relief, fitness (stretching, lengthening muscles, strength training), time/peace and quiet to meditate, improved self confidence, circulation, and flexibility.

On The Yoga Site, John Tunney says these reasons are just the tip of the iceberg. He mentions that originally, yoga was created in response to India’s Vedic religion which emphasized rituals. Yoga’s objective is to establish a direct one-on-one spiritual experience. He goes on to explain how you can use yoga to achieve enlightenment and to get in touch with your true self.


So…is it ok for a Christian to practice yoga? Is there a Christian alternative to yoga?
I have to be honest…I had no idea that anyone had a problem with anyone doing yoga until I saw a facebook page that said “JESUS, NOT YOGA.” I had always thought of yoga as a way to improve fitness/flexibilty and for stress relief/meditation, not a Hindu or Buddhist practice. I had even thought that the meditation part of yoga could be a useful time to be in conversation with God.

The “Jesus, Not Yoga” facebook page led me to a site called www.praisemoves.com where I read an extensive explanation by Laurette Willis, creator of PraiseMoves, about why Christians should under no circumstances practice yoga. As I kept looking through the PraiseMoves site, I saw many yoga-like postures, and some that even matched exactly with their yoga counterpart. For example, yoga’s “warrior II” looks exactly like PraiseMove’s “Prayer Warrior.”

This confused me even more! They are similar poses, but with different names. I did see that the PraiseMoves postures are based on scriptures. See for yourself. I can definitely see how PraiseMoves has the same physical effects as yoga, but in addition it offers scriptures to reflect on, hymns as background music, and poses that have Christian-friendly names. Also, I get the inkling that PraiseMoves might just be a creative way of repackaging yoga to reach a new audience, and therefore, make some cash.

So, my opinion is that I don’t think practicing yoga will pull you away from God. However, I don’t think it is going to bring you closer to God either, and therein lies the problem. If you are a Christian, the Bible states you should always be striving to build a closer relationship with Christ, so whatever exercises you choose to do, make THAT your goal, not enlightenment.

I would love to hear your comments on this blog! Thanks for reading, and come back soon! Happy posing ; )

Lauren Haines

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Posted in Christianity, Fitness | 2 Comments »

Cottage Cheese Snack

June 17th, 2010

Am I seriously eating cottage cheese? Really?

I am just as surprised as you are…but apparently, in my greek yogurt frenzy, the whey fairy took control of my body at the grocery store, and a big ol’ tub of cottage cheese ended up in my cart. (maybe a post-traumatic symptom of my violent run-in with a dairy case when I was three? that one ended with me getting stitches…)

The real reason is:  I heard that cottage cheese was low in calories and fat, but high in protein. But even then, I knew I wasn’t planning on eating cottage cheese all by its lonesome. I saw Breakstone’s Cottage Doubles at the store, but it seemed like I would be paying for a lot of packaging just to get a small amount of cottage cheese with a little strawberry jelly. I figured I could make that myself! I looked at the other flavors: pineapple, peach, apple, (and strawberry) and decided to pick up some canned crushed pineapple to mix with the cottage cheese at home.

At home I mixed up 1/2 cup cottage cheese and 1/4 cup crushed pineapple and sprinkled the mix with cinnamon (you could also add a packet of Splenda or a bit of vanilla extract). I put the mix in the freezer for a few minutes because, as a general rule, I usually like dairy foods super cold! Over the last couple days I have tried this concoction 3 different ways. First, I ate it plain with a spoon. Then, I tried it on triscuits. Last, I actually put it on a piece of bread and warmed it up in the microwave to make an impromptu danish (I broke my cold dairy rule).

So there you have it….3 different ways to eat cottage cheese–from a humble cottage cheese novice. Please comment if you have more ideas! Thanks for reading, come back soon : )

Lauren Haines

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Greek Yogurt: Dairy’s newest ‘culture’ becomes a trend

June 11th, 2010

As summer vacation quickly approaches I often think about my summers off as a kid. With two working parents, summer vacation became a great opportunity for my brother and I to spend a lot of time with our grandparents. Whenever we went to my grandma’s house, she would make us whatever we wanted to eat for lunch (usually followed by some ice cream which she kept in tupperware). While we were busy gobbling down macaroni and cheese on a plate, she would eat her lunch too– which was usually a plastic container of lemon yogurt and a cup of tea.

I was always baffled by her “lunch” and wondered how she could possibly be full from eating just yogurt. Yogurt has come in many forms for me throughout my short life. I remember eating Trix yogurt as a kid which came in swirly flavors, then I graduated to Yoplait Custard Style which tasted awesome but was terrible for you (this was before I learned to read nutrition facts). Later I wisened up and went to Yoplait Light, then Dannon Light & Fit, and yes, of course Activia. I’ve never tried portable yogurt, but check out what Ellen has to say about Go-gurt.

I thought I had seen yogurt in all its forms until I heard some co-workers talking about Greek Yogurt (you can learn this and a lot more when you hang out in the teachers’ lounge). They talked about how it is high in protein and low in fat, so I thought I would try it out.

At the grocery store, I was surprised to see that there was quite a variety of greek yogurt in several brands and flavors. Our local Shoppers (a Maryland grocery store) had Stonyfield Farm Oikos yogurt in Caramel and Chocolate flavors, Dannon Greek in Strawberry, Vanilla, and Honey flavors, and Chobani Greek Yogurt in Strawberry-Banana and Vanilla. I’m sure you would find an even larger selection at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods.

Chobani Greek Yogurt

Chobani Greek Yogurt

As you can see, I chose Chobani Strawberry and Banana (it was my favorite flavor out of the ones available). It was a little over $1 for one serving, so I was skeptical that it would be worth the money, but I had to see what all the fuss was about. The fruit was on the bottom so I had to mix it up, but was surprised when I realized how thick the yogurt was. It was almost the consistency of softened cream cheese. Once thoroughly mixed, I took my first spoonful and was not disappointed! It was thick, and sweet because of the fruit, but definitely more sour than regular “fruit” yogurt. See this article from the New York Times about how we have become accustomed to pudding/candy yogurt.

By the bottom of the cup, I was feeling full. I don’t know if my grandma had been eating greek yogurt all along, but I have now been convinced that yogurt really can be a filling, tasty snack or meal! But don’t take my word for it…pick up a cup of greek yogurt on your next grocery trip and see what you think!

Thanks for reading, come back soon!

Lauren Haines

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Baking Coconut Macaroons: Not all cookie sheets are created equal

June 6th, 2010

I spent my Sunday afternoon in a pretty typical fashion- watching a random documentary on Netflix with my husband while looking through my cookbooks for new recipes to try. I came across a recipe for Coconut Macaroons, and since I just happened to have fresh coconut in my fridge, it was perfect. Why did I have coconut meat in my refridgerator, you ask? My husband, Jeff, LOVES anything with coconut (and I like them too), so when we were grocery shopping last weekend he decided to get a whole coconut just as sort of a fun experiment. I don’t think I’ve ever had a real one before (not out of a bag!). It turned out to be a pain in the rear to drain the juice, crack it open, and scoop out all the meat…and it involved an array of screwdrivers, hammers, and knives.

So the mission: coconut macaroons. My cookbook, Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, showed that the recipe was low fat and according to the nutrition information, only 30 calories per cookie. I started out whipping up the egg whites and vanilla which I definitely don’t think I have the hang of yet. I won’t be attempting a lemon meringue pie anytime soon! Then I added sugar, and folded in the coconut. I always follow recipes very precisely, and this time was no different. I did everything by the book, including setting the oven to 325º and baking the rounded teaspoons for 20 minutes. IMAGINE MY SURPRISE when 10 minutes later I could smell burnt cookies! ARRGHH!

My husband can surely attest to the fact that nothing makes me angrier than a recipe not turning out right. So I did my fair share of yelling and whining, and then went to make the 2nd batch…the same exact way. Now, I know perfectly well that it is irrational to perform the same actions and expect different results, but sometimes I just need someone else to point it out to me : )  So my genius husband helped me realize that this was just going to get me another batch of burnt cookies.

AirBake cookie sheet (left), Calphalon non-stick jelly roll pan (right)

AirBake cookie sheet (left), Calphalon non-stick jelly roll pan (right)

The first batch was cooked on a dark non-stick Calphalon jelly roll pan. Since the cookies mostly burnt on the bottom, we tried another type of cookie sheet. This one was AirBake and had air pockets in the bottom (by the way, I have been “burnt” by this particular cookie sheet before…but that is another blog). Would you believe it? Voila! The macaroons turned out wonderful (and were able to cook 5 minutes longer than the first batch).

Check them out for yourself!

Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons

Thanks for reading, come back soon!

Lauren Haines

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Chicken Spinach Pasta and Frozen Bananas

June 5th, 2010

Since I’m on a health kick these days, I thought I would update this blog with some healthy recipes that I used this weekend.

In college, my dear friend Mila and I had a date to see Anything Goes at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theater. If my memory serves me correctly, I think we were too cheap/poor to buy the dinner tickets, so we made our own meal and then headed to the theater for the show. Mila masterfully threw together some spinach, tomatoes, and pine nuts in some olive oil and cooked them up. We ate it over pasta..(penne maybe? I don’t remember).  I still make that meal to this day! Over the years I’ve added mushrooms to the mix, taken out the pine nuts (because Jeff hates them–I still sneak them into my dish though) and sometimes I eat it over chicken instead of pasta.

Chicken Spinach Pasta
I don’t have a specific recipe, but here are the ingredients and instructions:

  • grape tomatoes, cut in half
  • mushrooms
  • olive oil
  • 2 or 3 handfuls of spinach
  • pine nuts
  • grilled chicken breast, or pasta–or both
  • parmesan cheese

Cook your pasta or chicken first, the rest of the ingredients will heat up quickly. Saute the tomatoes and mushrooms in a small amount of olive oil, then add the spinach and cook until it wilts. Add some pine nuts (if desired) and after everything is heated up, pour it over your pasta or chicken. You can also cut up the chicken into pieces and put it in the mix if you like.

Chicken Spinach Pasta

Chicken Spinach Pasta

The meal pictured above proved to be a HUGE portion! I just finished eating the leftovers for lunch today.

Now for dessert… : )

Frozen Bananas
There is definitely no recipe for this, but it happens to be the Haines family’s favorite evening snack. I don’t know about you readers out there, but I always need something a little sweet after dinner. My inclination is to reach for ice cream, but when we don’t have it in the freezer (on purpose) then we have to be creative!

Mark my words…it is just as good as ice cream and 100 times better for you! Some people just freeze a whole banana but we like to make it in little bites. I just cut up a whole banana in slices and lay them out on a piece of foil. Put them in the freezer for an hour or 2, and enjoy! It will be cold, refreshing, sweet, and guilt-free : )

Frozen Banana

Frozen Banana

Thanks for reading, come back soon!

Lauren

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My Biggest Loser

June 2nd, 2010

I’m interrupting my “Adventures in Substitute Teaching” saga to bring you some new things I experienced today!

Unfortunately I did not get a sub assignment today (this has only happened about 4 times this year) but I decided to take advantage of the day off and make it a dry run for my summer vacation which is quickly approaching! A couple days ago (I cannot lie, I was inspired by the Biggest Loser, and quite possibly, Jillian Michaels) I decided that I am going to make this summer MY biggest loser. My gym will become the ranch, my kitchen will be filled with ziploc-steam bags, cupboards stocked with Extra sugarfree gum, and I’ll somehow convince Jeff to wear a pink t-shirt that matches mine- maybe by the end of the season we can trade them in for spanx-shirts like they give the contestants!

Today included a lot of preparation such as thinking of meals to make this summer which then translated into making grocery lists. I found a great article at Runner’s World about foods for weight loss.

Today I tried:

Alternatives to Salad Dressing
I’ve grown to love Diet Coke, I’ve learned to tolerate light yogurt, but I don’t think I could ever enjoy a salad with light/fat free salad dressing. It’s a crime against nature. So I was excited when I saw that I might be able to just eliminate salad dressing altogether! See the article for the exact wording, but the gist is that you can replace salad dressing with beans, fruit, or croutons. For lunch today, I tried a salad with lettuce, carrots, and topped with black beans….it was wonderful, and I didn’t miss the dressing at all! I was going to add grape tomatoes but decided to save them for dinner on Friday. Some other salad ideas that I’m going to try are garbanzo beans, tuna, craisins, and maybe grapes or blueberries later this summer. I will learn to love salad if it kills me!!

Bulgur
Bulgur – what an awful name for such an incredible food! I was introduced to this grain when I was doing Weight Watchers 2 years ago (core program) and I happened to have a bag of it in the cupboard still. Jeff was away at an office party so I made one of my favorite meals which he doesn’t always love…chicken and cooked carrots over rice. I had already started my health kick, so not wanting to load up on white rice, I reached for the bulgur. Not only does it have less calories than rice, but also 5g of protein and 7g of fiber!

Those are my pearls of wisdom for the day, hopefully there will be many more to come this summer! Thanks for reading, come back soon!

Lauren

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Adventures in Substitute Teaching: Part 1

June 1st, 2010

Around this time last year I had just made the decision to move to Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and be closer to my then-fiance Jeff. This meant leaving my first job, my first apartment, and the humble life I had made for myself in Harford County. My friends and co-workers thought I was nuts for leaving a perfectly good job in the midst of a recession and the beginning of a rumored hiring freeze–and I have to admit, at the time, I was scared to death that I would not find a new teaching job.

I tried to seem the eternal optimist and replied “If it doesn’t work out this year, I can always sub.” As I repeated this response again and again, in the back of my mind I kept thinking of my consistently superior evaluations and my stellar personal references and had convinced myself that there was no way I would be sentenced to the perceived hell that was substitute teaching.

Well it turns out that just because you are qualified for a position, or even if you are the BEST candidate for a position, you might not get it. You might not even get an interview! I had earned my first position in Harford County mere weeks after obtaining my college degree, and I learned the hard way that I had been spoiled when it came to job-hunting.

This is not meant to be a blog post of woe and despair, but instead a reflection on how my unanswered prayers were actually a blessing in disguise. I have been a substitute teacher for the last 10 months, and I can truly say that since September, I have become a better teacher and a more well-rounded educator…not just a sub.

Of course my bonds with students are brief, and I have left behind more water bottles/coffee mugs than I care to mention, but I have perfected my stern and succinct ”HEY!”, I have a newfound respect for all teachers of different levels and subject areas, and I’ve learned that no matter how nice you treat them, some teachers are just going to be mean.  (that last one goes for students too)

Funny anecdotes and maybe even some pictures are on the way.

Stay tuned for part deux…

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