Vanilla Train Cake Recipe

Claudia and Ed visited the Cleve' on Saturday. We tried to go out to eat at Melt, a gourmet grilled cheese establishment, but with an hour and a half wait, we opted to eat at Aladdin's.

In the afternoon, we went to the Science Museum. We tried to go to an IMAX movie with Nora, but since we traumatized her during our first outing to the IMAX movie, she was having none of it. The first IMAX movie we tried to take her to was one about prehistoric sea creatures. She likes dinosaurs, so we thought it would be a good fit. Nope, she hated it. On Saturday, we went see an IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon. As soon as we walked into the theatre, she was scared and wanted to leave. Poor Richard didn't get to see the movie.

Nora and Grandma Claudia spent the evening making Vanilla Train Cake. Grandma bought Nora a train cake pan for Christmas. The cake was delicious and Claudia and Ed wanted the recipe, so I thought I would post it here for you all to enjoy.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/4 C all-purpose flour

1 3/4 C sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 sticks of butter, melted

1 C sour cream

4 eggs

1 Tbs. Vanilla extract

Have all ingredients at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour cake pan (I think a 13 X 9 pan would be great)

Sift the flour, sugar baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sour cream, eggs and vanilla until combined. Fit the mixer with the flat beater. Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture and beat on the lowest speed until the dry ingredients are moistened, 15 to 20 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds.

It recommends baking for 18-22 minutes when you are using the train cupcakes. But, that is only half of the batter. I think that if you use a 13 X 9 pan and all the batter, it would be more like 35-40 minutes, but that is simply a guess. Just bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy! It really was a delicious and easy cake!

We love Karl!!!!!!11!!!!1

my only picture of karl on my work computer.

A QUARTER OF A CENTURY!

Poor Karl had to spend his whole birthday re-tiling the bathroom :(

Earlier in the week his Falling Water Lego's arrived and he had lots of fun putting it together.

I got a 10 minute demonstration this morning of how it comes apart to show the different rooms. AWESOME!

We did of course have donuts for breakfast, and now we're going to see Sherlock Holmes.

Feels like we're really getting old now that he's 25... all the kids on the Real World are younger than that. It's sad to know your Real World Eligible days are over...

But all in all it was a Happy Birthday Day here in Bloomington: that working shower is just around the corner!

Hard Luck!

My goodness you Gimbels are good-looking. That's definitely the main reason why I married in... good looking babies. Anyway, Jay and Josh (Edward's friends) found some Grandpa Ed L. stuff online and I thought it was pretty interesting. I have to say I'm pretty fascinated with his WWII experience. I, however, don't know how entirely accurate this bio is since it stated that Edward Lester was born in London. (I thought he was born in Chicago). Anyway, I've attached some links if any of you are interested.

Hi-res: https://www.box.net/shared/inizntv54i

Super-duper-hi-res: https://www.box.net/shared/inizntv54i

Happy New Year (in 25 minutes)

No pictures, no links to fun you-tube videos, no graphics whatsoever. Just an end-of-the-year post from Claudia.

Right now we are in Bloomington with Karl and Emily. We were going to go home and have dinner with friends, but we ended up staying here because Ed is helping Karl put new tile around the shower in his bathroom, and the project is taking a long time. As a matter of fact, poor Karl and Emily will be without a shower for about another two weeks (maybe one week--we'll see).

We got back on Sunday from seeing Edward, Meridth and Uschi in Monterey over Christmas. We had Christmas twice this year, once with Betsey, Richard, Nora, Karl and Emily on December 20th, and again with Edward, Meridth and Uschi on the real Christmas. For those we didn't see, (Ryan, Casey and the girls, Margie and Brandon, Stacey and Dave and the kids, and Teressa and Tom and their two boys) we hope to see you soon in 2010!

Rusty, I'm reminding you to post pictures of our California adventures. The Monterey area is incredibly beautiful, but watching sweet baby Uschi's personality grow before our eyes was spectacular! The rest of the family needs to see more of her. Of course, we know right now that you are in Pasadena to see the Rose Bowl Parade tomorrow, so we'll wait until you get back home.

Anyway, to all my family, I love you beyond measure! How can I ever describe the joy you give to me and to Ed. You are all great! Have a happy celebration where ever you are!

Chloe lost her first tooth today!!!

Nora's Two!!

Dear Nora,

Happy happy happiest belated birthday. I had the best time when I saw you in San Francisco. I think you're pretty neat, and really fun.

Love Uschi ps. Sorry guys for the belated post I've had internet problems here in down under and being that I'm not using my computer I had to snag a pic from your video. (I loved the grandparents singing Nora happy birthday. You two really are the cutest parents).

For Emily...

Nora and me in San Francisco, outside the Urban.

The second rule of Fight Club? Figure out how to post two videos in one post.

Knuckle Sandwich on Rye

A few months ago, I started training in the Army hand-to-hand fighting system. That's right, as a part of my training out here, I've elected to come to work a 5am thrice a week to roll around on a mat with sweaty dudes.

It's a blend of Brazilian ju-jitsu and wrestling and focuses on ground fighting as opposed to the punches and kicks you see in the movies. It's pretty basic at this level and it emphasizes three basics. First you have to close the distance between you and your enemy, meaning you have to aggressively engage him and get as close as you can to him thus nullifying his punches and kicks, and ideally, taking him to the ground. Then you have to fight for position, meaning you have to be in a dominate body position and you get there by using you strength and technique and using his weight and imbalance against him. Once in a dominant position you can proceed to finish the fight using chokes and submissions (at least at this level.) Anyway, as a part of our certification process and to test our mettle, we were required to be choked into unconsciousness. It's important for us to recognize how our bodies (indeed, how we ourselves) react in such a situation. Anyway, here's me getting choked out:

I was also required to close in on one of the instructors who would punch us full-force. My job was to avoid/absorb the blows and put him in a standing position where he's off balance.

Anyway, the whole thing was actually a lot of fun and the workout was great. I thought I had endurance before, but seven minutes of fighting drills and "ll be sweating like I just got out of the shower.

Anyway, on that note...

Miss you guys.

Thanksgiving @ Karl's

Thought I'd share a picture of the Whole Foods Feast on the makeshift table in the garage. It was a good time.
















you can't see Nora in the first one, but I'm pretty sure she was probably eating olives.

Lebron

I went to a Pacers v. Cavs game on Friday and got to see Lebron up close. It was pretty fun. At one point he told a fan that was trash talking that if he had one free pass to come in the stands (to presumably beat someone up) he'd use that pass on him.

Reminder: Christmas swap

Hi People, just a reminder about the Christmas exchange this year. Here it is, for your reference.

Ryan/Casey give to Margie/Brandon

Margie/Brandon give to Betsey/Richard

Betsey/Richard give to Edward/Meridth

Edward/Meridth give to Karl/Emily

Karl/Emily give to Ryan/Casey

XOXOXOX

My Buddy

Accountant? How about a cop...

Less Than Two Miles from our house

YIKES!