Rum Cake Recipe

When Jonathan and I got married in the Cayman Islands, we discovered Tortuga Rum Cakes. They are delicious! As a matter of fact, since we couldn't bring home the top layer of our wedding cake, we ordered a Tortuga rum cake for our first anniversary! This past weekend, I decided to try a recipe for rum cake. It tastes just like the Tortuga ones and it is so easy to make! I thought I would post the recipe in case any of you guys wanted to try it. Let me know if you bake it and what you think!

Golden Rum Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 cup chopped walnuts
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark rum
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark rum

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over the bottom of the pan.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix. Mix in the eggs, 1/2 cup water, oil and 1/2 cup rum. Blend well. Pour batter over chopped nuts in the pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let sit for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto serving plate. Brush glaze over top and sides. Allow cake to absorb glaze and repeat until all glaze is used.
To make the glaze: in a saucepan, combine butter, 1/4 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat and continue to boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup rum.

**You can add any flavor of rum you would like. I used the regular spiced rum. **

**When I pulled the cake out of the pan, I poured half or the glaze into the bundt pan and set the cake back in the pan. Then I poured the rest of the rum glaze on top of the cake. I let the cake absorb the rum glaze before removing it to serve.**

**This cake is especially good after a day or sitting**

MVB! (Most Valuable Bulldog!)

Why is Eistein smiling?! BECAUSE, he caught the 5th member in the Wetherington house....a rat! We have been trying to catch this rat for weeks now! We have bought several traps and the rat was somehow able to get the food out of the trap, set the trap off, but never got caught!

This morning, while I was at the gym, Jonathan said he came into the kitchen and Einstein had the rat in between his paws, not sure what to do next. Jonathan was able to scoop the rat into an empty dog food bag (which is ironic because that is what the rat has been after all these weeks..dog food!)

Way to go Einstein!! :)

p.s. if you are wondering what Chubbs was doing during all of this, just take a look at the picture below. :)

House Update #2

Here are the newest house updates. They have added the windows, front and back doors and have started on the brick. They should finish the brick this week (as long as the weather is nice) and the dry wall is not far behind! It is getting very excited now!! Jonathan designed the house and I had very little imput (mostly because I have no clue about anything). I can honestly say that he has done an amazing job and I am in love with this house! I cannot wait to decorate this house.....cleaning is another story :)

Bloom- Triple Coupons

So, my newest hobby has become saving money. There was a time when I would wear nothing but Abercrombie and Fitch Jeans and would never dare look at buying things off the clearance racks. Times have changed. I consider it my job to find the best deals on everything.....and make Jonathan's pay checks spread as far as they can! It has been so rewarding to see the amounts of money that I have been able to save over the past couple of months. I take advantage of triple coupon promotions at grocery stores, double coupons at K Mart, we eat at restaurants when we have coupons (the Entertainment book has come in handy!), I shop for clothes at the outlets on the clearance racks, I have started grooming our dogs by myself (which saves about $50/month), I am beginning to make my own laundry detergent and household cleaners. These little things have made a HUGE difference!!

Anyway, here is how I did at Bloom this morning. They are having their triple coupon promotion this weekend, Friday-Sunday. They will triple any coupon up to and including $.99. You are limited to 20 coupons per day.

My final grocery bill BEFORE coupons was $65.00.

My final grocery bill AFTER coupons was $30.24.

Conclusion--I got all of these things for $30, and saved a total of $34.76!

Sewing Projects

I just finished a 6 week sewing class. I am always interested in learning new things. A few months ago, I took a knitting class. I just finished the sewing class. Still on my list of things to learn are: cake decorating, cooking, and crocheting.

Anyway, here are some projects that I have sewed since taking my first class. Along with these, I have also made cloth diapers. This is something that Jonathan and I will consider using once we have a baby. Learning how to sew them will definitely cut down on the cost of starting with cloth diapers. I plan on sewing all of the curtains and pillows for our new house, I just have not decided on what colors I am going to use yet.

Chubbs

Need any computer work done? Chubbs is your man! :)

Snow Day...kind of!

Monday morning, we woke up to some snow on the ground. I was excited to let the dogs outside. Einstein has never seen snow before and he is such a comical dog I figured he would enjoy it!

I let them outside and Einstein took off down the steps...sliding the whole way. He did not like his paws touching the snow at first, so he was kind of doing a high step walk (like a pony) and he would not pee on the snow until it was all gone. Here are just a few pictures from the morning.

Brisket update..

So I just have to post that I made the brisket again tonight. For those of you who know me very well, know that I am very competitive person and it bothers me when I can't do something. Therefore this morning I went out and purchased a real brisket this time to cook for dinner tonight. It turned out MUCH better than that corned beef crap!
They only sold large briskets at the meat place, so we have a lot in our freezer. The one that I made tonight could have been a little more tender. I will try some different recipes with the extra meat that we have and will post the best recipe!

Valentines Day Dinner Disaster!

I can laugh about the situation now...however that was not the case an hour ago! I spent most of the afternoon/evening preparing this dinner for Jonathan and I. BBQ brisket, greenbean/bacon/tomato side dish, bread, strawberry trifle for dessert. Everything smelled delicious!! I pulled the meat out of the oven and realized that it looks pink...very strange! It was cooked all the way through....Hmm.

Well I decide to cut it up and serve it anyway. We sit down to eat and I take a bite and it is disgusting!! I pull the wrapper the meat came in out of the trash and realized that it was corn hashed beef...it was GROSS!! Poor Jonathan kept eating until I said something. He wasn't going to dare say anything first. I said "You don't have to eat anymore, this is disgusting!" He stopped eating right away.

We just ordered a heart shaped pizza from Papa Johns. Oh well, at least it is still festive...Happy Valentine's Day.

p.s. the dessert was good......next week I am going to be on the looking for some local cooking classes!!

Pre-Valentine's Day

For those of you that don't know, Jonathan and my relationship began four years ago on the night before Valentines Day. We had been friends for about a year at this point. He has just gotten out of a serious relationship not too long before I met him, so he was never interested in jumping into another. I, on the other hand, was ready to date him and marry him 5 minutes after seeing him! :) We met at Atlantic Shores Baptist Church.
One of my friends, Josh, needed a babysitter. Him and his wife were going to celebrate Valentine's Day the night before since he had to work on Valentines Day night. I offered to watch their baby while they went out. They lived in an apartment complex. Apparently their complex was incredibly strict about their parking lots and wouldn't let you park there unless you had a visitors tag on your car....which I did not. So when they got hom around 10:30 or so, I walked out to find my car was not in the parking lot and had obviously been towed.
It's 10:30 at night (and a Sunday night, so people had to work in the morning), my parents are asleep. I decided to call my sister since I knew she would be up. I called her and told her my problem and asked her if she could come give me a ride to pick up my car from the towing company. Little did I know that she had a bunch of people over at her house, including Jonathan. When Jonathan heard that I was in a bind, he offered to come pick me up. I had no idea that he was going to be the one to pick me up, but I got VERY EXCITED when I saw his white truck pull into the apartment complex!
We called the towing company and went to pick up my car. We figured it would be a relatively quick process. It was not! We had to wait for somebody to come to the building and they said it would be at least 2 hours. Well 3 hours later, at 2 in the morning, somebody finally came to give me my car. Those 3 hours that Jonathan and I had to wait for my car were AMAZING. We talked about a lot of stuff and that was the first night that our friendship changed to something deeper...on both of our ends. It was also the first night that we held hands. I can still remember being on cloud 9 the next morning at work! We dated from that time on.

Our second year together we spend the night before Valentines Day eating at Steinhilbers restaurant in Virginia Beach. We highly recommend this restaurant by the way. It is, hands down, our favorite! Our second Valentines Day together was spent in. I was just learning how to cook and so I decided that I would make Jonathan dinner at my house. I made lasagna. It was delicious! We just ate and rented a movie. I also made homemade cheesecake in the shape of hearts (He probably doesn't remember any of this by the way haha ) This was also our one year dating anniversary!

On our second year dating anniversary, we went to eat at the Vintage Tavern in Suffolk. The food was great!! After dinner Jonathan told me that he had fondu set up at his house for us. When we pulled in the driveway he told me that he had a gift for me, but he had to get it together before I could walk in the house. I sat out in the truck for about 5 minutes and he finally flipped on the porch light, which was my cue that I could go inside. When I walked inside he had luggage for me and the luggage was full of towels (all of this stuff I had picked out). It was a great gift and the fondu looked WONDERFUL!

At this time, we also had a bulldog puppy. His name was Chubbs. He was (and still is) our life!! We were crate training him and kept him in the back bedroom. Jonathan went back to let Chubbs out and he came running down the hall with a red ribbon tied about his neck. When I looked closer, I could see that he had a ring! Jonathan then took the ring off chubbs and proposed to me. We were both crying..one of the best nights of my life!! The next day we had deteremined that we were getting married in the Cayman Islands on May 17th!

Our third year together, we celebrated the night before Valentines Day. This was our first Valentine's day since being married. We decided to eat at Steinhilbers again. It was delicous. If I remember correctly, we went to a movie afterwards.

This year, Jonathan and I have been together for 4 years! We went out the night before Valentine's Day to McCormick and Schmicks in Town Center. It was wonderful food..highly recommend going there. If you do go there, save room for the apple pie. It was the best pie that I have ever had!! Jonathan got salmon for dinner and I got crab cakes. afterward we went to see He's Just Not That Into You. Funny movie..it was a great night!!

I am so thankful for my husband. He is such an incredible man and he is the best husband anybody could ask for. He is so supportive of me and he is an awesome provider. I could not ask for anything more! The past 4 years have been wonderful!!

Tonight I am cooking him a special dinner. I will have another blog about our Valentines Day...happy valentines day to you all! :)

Our New House...

Here are a few pictures of our new house being built. I am a little behind on them, so it's a lot further along now, than what you see in the pictures. I will update the pics this weekend!

We're Back....

I have not blogged in forever.  I am going to try to do a better job with this!  Before, I felt like I had a lack of things to blog about.  This time around I am going to do a better job of keeping you guys updated on Jonathan and I's life, share recipes, and money saving tips that I have learned!

To give you a quick update on Jonathan and I.  Our new house is coming along great!  They have it completely framed, the electrical stuff is finished, as well as the plumbing.  They have started laying the brick this week and it is looking WONDERFUL!  I am so excited about moving into this house.  I am already starting to get decorating ideas and trying to get some idea of what style we are going to use.  

I am still training for my marathon.  I cannot believe that my race is just a little over a month away!!  Some days I feel ready, and others I don't.  It will be interesting.  I will say that I don't have a goal time that I want to finish in.....I just want to finish :)  I am ready for it to be over.  Training takes up so much time, and while I will continue to run when I finish the marathon, I will not be going out for 20 mile runs!  If all goes well with the marathon, I would like to train for a triathlon.  There is a new Golds Gym opening up in Western Branch in the spring and they are supposed to have a swimming pool.  I would love to get back into swimming and taking on new challenges of swimming, biking, and running.  I have already started looking at triathlon training schedules!

Chubbs and Einstein are well.  We took Chubbs into the vet several weeks ago because he had really bad itchy skin.  Bulldogs are prone to numerous health problems, allergies being one of them.  We had tried antibiotics, but nothing seemed to be helping him.  Well, the vet decided that she wanted to change his food completely.  He is not eating venison and rice.  He can no longer have anything with any other meat flavor in the ingredients.  Since we have switched his food, his skin has cleared up and he seems much happier.  However, since he can't have any other meat flavor, this means that I have to make all of their dog treats.  It can be time consuming because they go through so many treats...but at least I know everything that is going on their bodies.  During that same vet visit, we also discovered that Chubbs had gained 10 pounds in 1 month.  Needless to say, the vet put him on a diet.  We had to start measuring out his food and started giving him 4 cups a day.  The poor dog kept bringing us his bowl throughout the day.  Dieting is tough...I can sympathize with him :(   After 2 weeks on his diet, we took him back into the vet and he GAINED .5lbs!  I couldn't believe it.  The vet said to cut his food down to 3.5 cups a day now.  We take him to get weighed again this Thursday.  Poor guy!

That is pretty much all of our news....you have been updated!  I will post updated pictures of the house later.  Thanks for reading! :)