Let Them Eat Cake!

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind. Somewhere between grading assignments, calculating midterm grades, and trying to keep all of my students on track as we began delving into more complex grammar, I forgot(!) to read my favorite blogs and write in my own! Good thing next week is our fall break! A whole uninterrupted five days to read, reflect, and write. 

I can't really complain though, because I got to spend most of this last week with my hunny. This was a bit of a longer visit, so we were able to balance the fun outings with down time. And then there was the eating fest. It kicked off with our favorite take-out Chinese on Thursday night, followed by Thai on Friday, hibachi on Saturday, authentic Chinese on Sunday, and Middle Eastern and Indian on Monday. It was truly impressive. Good thing we walked to a few of the restaurants and took a tour around DePauw's campus. There was also the shopping we did at the mall...that counts as walking, right? I mean, I was exhausted after...

It was all so good. So, so good. But, if I had to pick a favorite meal, it'd have to be the hibachi. It's been kind of a special date-night meal for us. But, the real reason I love hibachi? THE LOBSTA'! I love me some lobster. Even without butter, it still tastes like butter! And it's tender and just the right amount of chewy, and...(sigh), it's just so so good. Mike likes to tease me about my lobster indulgence, but it's okay, because he finds it charming. I can tell. So I go along with it (except I really do love it that much). Once, when we were on vacation, I declared that we had to return to the same restaurant the next day for lunch so that I could order the lobster pasta with lemon cream sauce. It was just a sandwich place, so I humbly ordered a tuna salad plate on the first day (it would have been too extreme to get lobster pasta on a whim), but once I pointed it out to Mike and having adequately prepared him, I felt like I could order it the next time around. And return the next day we did! My lunch cost $17; his cost $9. 

At Panini, Panini in Michigan City, Indiana

But the best lobster happens at hibachi restaurants. Served sizzling in butter, soy sauce, and garlic, it is the most tender and tasty lobster you will ever have. I portion out my bites of lobster so that I can have bites of utter happiness throughout the entire meal. 

And the gluttony didn't end there, no sir! On Sunday evening, after a meal of eggplant with potato and green pepper and potato and a stew of kimchi and tofu, we had a dessert party with Misti and Eddy. Our contribution was a delicious chocolate cake that I'd been eyeing on Pinterest. As much as I love cake, I've never been a huge fan of homemade chocolate cake because I've often found that it lacks richness and true chocolatey goodness. But this recipe promised to be different because it contained a secret ingredient: espresso powder! And it was totally delicious! I ate a piece, Sunday, Monday, yesterday and will likely have the last piece today. I mean, I'm leaving town on Friday and can't let a good piece of cake go to waste...

The Best Chocolate Cake {Ever}

From Robyn Stone / Add a Pinch

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp espresso powder (in the coffee aisle at the supermarket)

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Frosting

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

1 cup cocoa powder

5 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp espresso powder 

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two 9-inch cake pans with baking spray or with butter and flour. Add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder in a large bowl and whisk to combine and remove any lumps. Add milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix on medium speed until combined well. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to batter. Beat on high for about a minute to add air to the batter. Distribute batter evenly between cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes (I think my oven runs hot; I pulled them out after 27 minutes) until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool before removing from the pans. Cool completely on rack before frosting. 

To make the frosting:

Add cocoa to a large bowl and whisk to remove lumps. Cream together the butter and cocoa powder. Add sugar and milk to cocoa mixture by adding 1 cup of sugar followed by about a tablespoon of milk. Repeat until all sugar and milk have been added. Add vanilla extract and espresso powder and combine well.

(I like to store the cake in the fridge and let it warm up a bit on the counter before I serve it. The frosting softens quite quickly but you still get the benefit of having chilled cake. I also make sure to have lots of milk on hand. Or red wine...)

Deconstructed Stuffed Tomato

Remember when I posted about the delicious lasagna I was inspired to make from the contents of my fridge? Well, something similar happened this afternoon! It's been a gray, rainy weekend here so when I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was get to baking some breakfast. I had minimal milk and eggs that are past their expiration date (how long do you guys keep your eggs around?), so I decided to make scones. The first recipe I had pinned was in German, and the translation included all of the measurements in grams, liters, and Celsius (what?!), so I moved on to another one. Only it included raisins, and unless they're covered in chocolate, I don't eat them. (You know, I used to think I wasn't a picky eater, but the more I write, the more I'm aware of my quirky food habits.) So I decided to chop up a mango and mix that into the dough instead. I ended up having to add more flour than the recipe called to get the dough to come together, and the scones, although tasty, turned out to be more like slightly sweetened biscuits. And while I'll happily eat them every day this week for breakfast, let's move on to what I'm really excited to talk about: the tuna salad I had for lunch!

There's a late-night dinner in Maryland that has closed a number of times, temporarily breaking our hearts until it reopens under a new name but with the same loved menu. My first experience there was for a friend's birthday party in high school where her mom took all of us girls and allowed us to order two (two!) desserts each from the menu! I believe I went for Oreo cheesecake and a milkshake. Over the years, it became one of my families go-to restaurants if it was late at night, we weren't in the mood for anything particular, or the weather was ridiculously hot and we couldn't bring ourselves to cook in the kitchen. My aunt, grandma, and I were hooked on their stuffed tomatoes. Served on a bed of lettuce, surrounded by slices of hard-boiled egg and slices of green pepper, cucumber, and red onion, these big plump tomatoes were sliced into wedges and served as the vessel for fresh, cold tuna salad. 

Yesterday, after a morning of antique shopping with Andrea, we stopped by the local market just down the street to pick up some lunch. I picked up a container of tuna salad with feta cheese, dill, and almonds and a penne pasta salad with thick-cut bacon, tomato, and basil. I had the pasta salad for lunch and saved the tuna salad for today. I had a tomato and some mixed greens left over from last week when I made the turkey tomato panini served with salad. And on Friday, my colleague gifted me with some 滷蛋, or hard-boiled eggs braised in soy sauce and spices. It was perfect! I spread out my greens on a plate, sliced the tomato and hard-boiled eggs and laid them on top, the covered the salad with the tuna and a generous sprinkle of pepper. The result was delicious! It was the perfect light late lunch. 

Deconstructed Stuffed Tomato

1 cup of tuna salad (you could also use chicken or egg salad)
   *My tuna salad was already made, but when I make it myself, I add mayo, diced onion, dill, salt and pepper. The sliced almonds in this salad provided a nice crunch, and the feta provided a nice salty component. My first job was at Subway and I am in love with their tuna salad...you know what's in it? Mayo and tuna! That's it! So add what you like and make it as simple or complex as you'd like!
1 heirloom tomato
3 cups mixed greens
2 sliced hard-boiled eggs 
assorted sliced veggies (I like cucumber, green pepper, and red onion)

Arrange your greens on the plate and layer the tomato slices on top. Scoop your tuna salad on top and surround with veggies and slices of egg. Season with pepper to taste. 

Turkey and Tomato Panini

With an hour commute, the earliest I ever arrive home is 5 pm, and this happens on Mondays. Which is a good thing. Because I'm always a little extra sleepy on Mondays. And it's a perfect time to go grocery shopping for the week or start preparing whatever I'll be taking to school for lunch. 

Except this past Monday, my fellow carpoolers forgot to tell me we would be staying until 5 pm until after we had arrived on campus. Admittedly, I was a little grumpy that I'd have to wait an extra hour (which turned out to be two) to get home, go grocery shopping, and watch my DVR recordings while cooking. But I did get a lot of recipe browsing and pinning done while I sat outside (the weather was pretty amazing on Monday) waiting for my ride. And since I was already quite hungry and knew I had at least another hour and a half ahead of me before I could get to cooking, I decided to go for something quick. 

I've been craving good, hearty sandwiches lately. I hardly ever make a regular sandwich at home because I just don't think it tastes that good. My lettuce isn't crunchy enough, my tomatoes are too mealy, or I can't find the right condiment. But I've come across the pin for this turkey and tomato panini quite a few times recently, and it just looked so creamy and tasty. So I gave it a whirl. And it was delicious! Super delicious!

They key to this sandwich is the creamy Parmesan basil mayo. Make it. Even if you think you don't like mayo, make it. You will want to put it on everything! I already have big plans to make it a star in an upcoming grilled veggie sandwich...

Turkey and Tomato Panini
slightly adapted from EatingWell

• 3 Tbsp mayo 
• 2 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt
• 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil 
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• pepper to taste
• whole-wheat bread
• oven-roasted deli turkey
• sliced heriloom tomato
• spreadable butter

To make the spread, combine mayo, yogurt, Parmesan, basil, and lemon juice in a small bowl and mix well. Season with pepper to taste. 

Preheat your panini press (I used my Griddler, but you could make this in a regular pan by using a plate to weigh down your sandwich as it toasts on each side). Butter the outsides of your bread. Spread a few teaspoons of the "jacked up" mayo on the inside of each slice of bread. Layer on the tomato and turkey. Place the sandwich in the press and grill until golden and crispy on both sides. 

I served my sandwiches with a salad of mixed greens lightly dressed in lime olive oil and cranberry pear balsamic vinegar. 

Apple Dumplings

This past weekend was pretty phenomenal. It was so nice to have uninterrupted time with Mike. We had meals with friends, got started on season nine of The Office, and even took a nap together! It was the perfect balance of fun plans and quiet alone time. Here's a picture we snapped before heading to Finch's for dinner!

On Saturday we headed to Apple Works for some famous apple dumplings and pumpkin picking. I just read Janssen's post today that includes a recipe for double chocolate pumpkin cookies (I'll be making those this week!), and had to laugh at her comment that "admitting to not loving pumpkin in probably blog suicide." I, myself, enjoy pumpkin, but do you know what I do not enjoy? Apple desserts. I am sure you either just gasped or yelled "whuaaat?!" in the way that I do when I hear something that is completely incomprehensible. Don't get me wrong,  I love the gooey texture of baked apples and the spice added by cinnamon and clove, but I do not like the crust that seems to accompany most apple desserts. It's the crust! I don't like the crust! So now you're really going to be shocked. I don't like pie. I'll have you know, however, that I have never once turned down a piece of cake. I love cake. Love it. Need an extra bridesmaid? Invite me along to your cake tasting and I'm in! I'm now thinking about Cate's wedding cake. It was so delicious. Best. cake. ever. Which is why it makes me sad that so many people think pie is superior to cake. My wedding will be all about the cake. And the love that Mike and I share, of course. (But the cake will be the star!)

So back to these famous apple dumplings. I wanted to like them, but they were encased in crust and swimming in some sort of thin sugary sauce. I knew I wouldn't love it. I tried a bit of Mike's and the apple filling was good. I just wished that it was tender, soft dough wrapped around the apple instead of that gluey crust. For those of you who know exactly what I'm talking about, who love the way yeast donuts and fritters compress when you sink your teeth in them and can't get enough of that chewiness each divine bite brings, these are apple dumplings made for you. They are light and fluffy and tender. And although no cake, they are an ideal dessert for a crisp fall day. 

Country Apple Dumplings
(slightly adapted from Allrecipes.com)

4  Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
2 packages of crescent roll dough
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 (12 oz) can of Mountain Dew

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

Cut each apple into quarters and set aside (the original recipe suggests cutting them into 8 wedges, but I like having extra apple in my dumplings). Roll each apple wedge in crescent roll dough starting at the smallest end and then tuck the sides around. It may not seal completely, but make sure you have pinched as much of the dough together as possible. 

Melt butter in a small saucepan and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Pour evenly over the apple dumpling. Pour Mountain Dew over the dumplings. 

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes in preheated oven until golden brown. 

Serve with vanilla ice cream and homemade whipped cream. 

Best Week of My Life and Chicken 'n Dumplings

My friends on Facebook and my carpool crew know that I have already deemed this week the best week of my life! It's been a crazy, exciting, joyous week, and although I'm running low on sleep, I can't complain. Even this past weekend was especially good.

I started off Saturday morning by picking up Mike's anniversary present and then heading to Starbucks for my first pumpkin spice latte of the season and some serious grading. Having made a good amount of headway with my grading and feeling elated by the beautiful Saturday we were having, I pulled out my laptop to type up the post about my amazing students. I was feeling really good, happy about my job and all of the the things that I had to look forward to this week. I headed to the animal shelter to play with the kitties and pups, and met a very handsome pitbull/hound mix named Farley. He had the best snout ever and was super calm and loving. Lucky for me, my apartment in the size of a shoebox and I have a cat that has made it very clear that he prefers being the sole receiver of human attention, so I'm never really tempted to bring home other animals. But I do like to stop by and give them all a little love.

Back at home I continued with my grading, and then, something amazing happened! I took a cleaning break! I cleaned my apartment on a Saturday night. FIVE whole days before Mike's visit! And I did laundry! It felt splendid! The next morning I took a little walk over to Sweet Claire's for a delicious breakfast with Andrea and Dimitar, got a bit more work done, snuck in an afternoon nap, and even did some data collecting. I was just getting ready to call it a night when Grant called me to say Trisha would be having her baby in about an hour! And since I had another hour to kill, I washed dishes! You guys, it was a SUPER productive weekend!

I arrived at the hospital around midnight, where I stayed for the next 3 hours until Trisha gave birth to her darling baby boy, Jackson. I actually ended up staying in the room for the delivery and it was the most incredible thing I've ever experienced. Trisha was such a trooper and I just couldn't wait to meet her little one. Trish and Grant opted to keep the gender a surprise, so when the nurse yelled, "It's a boy!" we all just burst into tears. It was such a joyous moment. Jackson arrived with the fullest head of hair you've ever seen and his mommy and daddy just love him to pieces. And now I'm Aunt Nicki!

I didn't get home until around 3:30 and I knew I'd have to be up by around 6:15, but witnessing such a special moment made the severe lack of sleep totally worth it. And that afternoon I got a letter from the university approving my second class for next semester! Which made the day even better! But between driving carpool, teaching two classes, holding individual conferences with students, and data collection, I was exhausted. I made dinner (I'll get to the recipe in a bit), cleaned up (had to keep my kitchen clean after the weekend's cleaning escapades), and went to bed.

Yesterday was another busy day filled with a teaching evaluation from a fellow colleague, more conferences, and grading. I walked to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner to get my veggie fix and the owner gifted me with a package of mooncakes! I thought it was super sweet because when I looked into buying them for my students, they were about $20 for a package of 4! I brought them to class today and most of the students were brave enough to try them. Although many of my students asked if there was a chocolate option (no, no there is not), I was happy that they were willing to try it; before I left for China, one of my professors wrote me a note saying "remember, try everything once," and those words always stuck with me.

Today is my long day on campus since we have Chinese Table on Wednesdays. But once I'm home, I have the rest of the evening and all day Thursday off. And tomorrow is an especially momentous occasion, because Mike is coming to visit! It's been over a month since we last saw each other, and it's not been easy. I didn't realize how much I'd miss the little things, and it took me a while to adjust. Things have been looking up though, and I've been focusing on staying positive and happy. Our one-year anniversary was September 12, so we've got fancy plans to celebrate. Friday evening we're having dinner with friends and then on Saturday it's off to Apple Works for what, I have heard, are the best apply dumplings ever! Saturday also marks the start of their u-pick pumpkin season, so it should be a perfect day (although it may be in the 80s, and that is not my idea of fall). We'll end the day at Finch's, a local farm to table restaurant with a very romantic ambiance. We went there to celebrate Mike's dissertation defense, so it holds happy memories for us too. And there will be gifts! I love gifts! I'm the kind of person that likes to tell people I'm giving them a gift so that they can be excited for as long as possible. An anticipated surprise, if you will. I'm super excited about the gift I got Mike, and I really hope he likes it! I'll post a picture later, but since he reads my posts (he's the best!), I can't ruin the surprise!

AND on top of all that, tomorrow I have a play date with Trisha and baby Jackson! I'm sure we won't be doing much playing, but there will be elephant ear bread, and maybe some movie watching, and lots of cuteness! And Grey's Anatomy is back tomorrow! It's almost too much (almost!).

So in honor of the best week ever, I'm sharing with you one of my favorite recipes! I made this Monday night when it was 8:30 and I was starving, because it takes less than 30 minutes and you get four generous helpings out of it! Also, I almost always have all of the ingredients on hand except the chicken, so a quick run to the grocery store and a $5 for a rotisserie chicken is all I need for one of the most comforting meals I've ever tasted.

Chicken 'n Dumplings
From Tasty Kitchen Blog

2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cold butter
about 1 cup of milk (you will probably use a little less)
a pinch of salt
2 qt chicken broth
1 rotisserie chicken, meat shredded
black pepper to taste

Combine all of the dry ingredients and cut in the butter to the mixture using a pastry cutter or two forks. Add the milk until the dough forms a cohesive ball. Meanwhile, place broth in a large pot and bring to a boil. Generously flour your worktop and roll out the dough to about 1/8" thickness. Cut dumplings into 2x2 inch squares and drop a few at a time into the boiling broth, stirring after each addition. Cook for about 15-20 minutes until dumplings have puffed up and the broth has thickened into a gravy (add a bit of the extra flour for thicker gravy). Stir in the chicken and add black pepper to taste. Lick the bowl. Have seconds. I do.

My Rockstar Students

I began my position as a lecturer at DePauw University this past August. It's the first time I've had a class all to myself, and it's both very exciting and an awesome responsibility. For many students, I'm the first Chinese instructor they've had. For others, I'm the first instructor who has required them to mind their tones and pay attention to stroke order. The great thing about these students? They are so eager! They have lots of questions and they absorb cultural knowledge like sponges. We're still working on the language basics, but it takes time, and already they've made a ton of progress! They even self correct!

This past Thursday was Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture. In many ways it is much like our Thanksgiving -- families gather together and enjoy moon cakes and fruit while gazing at the moon, which symbolizes togetherness. It's a difficult time for those who can't reunite with their families, but there's still some comfort to be sought in knowing that wherever you and your loved ones are, the harvest moon shines bright and full for all of us.

I taught my students about the holiday on Wednesday since we don't have class on Thursday, and on Friday, the ASIA club hosted a celebration in honor of the holiday, which is also celebrated around various countries in southeast Asia. The news of the celebration didn't reach me until a week before the festival, when I was informed that they'd like to have our students participate. I was skeptical that my students would want to organize a performance on such short notice, but when I presented the idea to them on Monday, their overall reaction was "yeah, let's sing a song! It'll be awesome!" I suggested the classic song "The Moon Represents My Heart" since it was very fitting for this particular event, but I soon realized that if we were going to do this, it would have to be something that the students felt comfortable with and were excited about. So what did they choose? 對不起，我的中文不好 or "Sorry, My Chinese Isn't So Good". 

I tweaked the lyrics a bit so they better described my students. The song is originally performed by the British band Transition as they travel around the streets of Taiwan poking fun at their own Chinese skills. They joke about the stereotype that all foreigners are assumed to be American and identify themselves as "English gentleman". My students are certainly not English gentleman, so we changed it to say that they are DePauw students. And in the last verse, the band sings about how their Chinese ability has improved. Well, we're only in week 5 of the semester and we've got a long way to go, so I had them sing:

no worries, my Chinese will improve

no worries, no worries

 I'm taking Chinese class now

no worries, my Chinese will improve

no worries, no worries,

Deng Laoshi will teach us how to speak Chinese!

They loved this. One of my students volunteered to learn the song on the guitar in just two days and after only 20 minutes of practice in class on Wednesday, we were ready to take the stage. We were told to arrive at 7, although the performances didn't end up starting until 8:45, but they were troopers, laughing and chatting with their fellow classmates (I teach two sections of first-year Chinese). They almost had a heart attack when the emcees announced a surprise performance by the second-year students and wrongly announced that they would be singing our song. They all turned around and looked at me yell-whispering "Deng Laoshi (Teacher Deng), they stole our song!" I told them just to remain calm, we'd figure it out, but my stomach dropped as well; I knew how excited they were to perform the song. Thankfully, the emcee had just made a mistake, and the second-year students were actually performing "The Moon Represents My Heart"! Phew!

Backstage, the kids were abuzz with excitement. They made their own little chant "一二三，非常好!" (1, 2, 3, excellent!). It was so heartwarming to see them come up with this on their own; it comes from something I say in class often. I always give feedback to students after they respond to a question, and they know that there's a scale. First comes 好 (good). Then 很好 ( very good). And if they really blow me away with their response, they get a 非常好 (excellent). Many students answer me very deliberately and carefully in hopes of getting a 非常好.

We took the stage and set up our guitarist and the mics. We started singing and things were going very smoothly until our guitarist got a little excited and skipped the second verse. There was a bit of a fumble, but we recovered acapella and he came back in a couple of bars later. We finished strong! The crowd went wild! It was 9:30 when we got off stage and the kids were so excited about how much fun it had been. The group disbanded quickly as they ran off to go meet parents and friends for dinner (it's parents' weekend at DePauw), but not before receiving praise from the other language teachers. They were rockstars!

"Can You Make a Pinata?"

Mike and I were at my family's home in Maryland, sitting around the table after a delicious meal of blackened chicken and pesto pasta with roasted tomatoes and eggplant, chatting and drinking some wine, when I received this message from Amanda. Since I had had a bit of wine and wasn't wearing my glasses, I held my phone away and squinted at it to confirm that she had, in fact, asked me to make a pinata. Now, I'm the first to volunteer to help with a project, and as a bridesmaid, it was my duty, but a pinata? I was a little intimidated. I took a look at the pictures that Amanda had sent from pinatas that she found and fell in love with on Pinterest but were just too expensive to purchase.

Crystal Pinata-Gold, Confetti System

geometric pinata, of paper and things

And as beautiful as these babies are, $150 does seem like a lot to pay for something that will only make a brief appearance before being smashed to pieces. I loved the shape and shine of the gold diamond pinata from Confetti System pictured above, so I wanted to use that as my inspiration. Mer and I had made a dodecahedron in our freshman geometry class -- we spent the whole weekend stamping paper for the 20 faces we thought it had (only to find out that we only needed 12 of them) before heading to the HFStival with Papi (Mer's dad, we were totally cool)-- so I actually felt pretty good about being able to assemble a geometric shape. 

So I headed to Michael's and started looking for supplies. Since Amanda's wedding colors were cherry red and turquoise blue, I had my heart set on using a combination of reds and metallics, and Amanda had requested that the pinata be filled with confetti and glitter. I did find silver and gold tissue paper, as well as a wonderful package of ombre tissue paper that included shades of yellow, orange, pink, and red. I also came across some origami paper that contained pops of gold and silver along with some really cool floral patterns, so I picked up two packages of those. Those turned out to be a bit of a splurge; each pack contained only five small square sheets and was about four dollars. I purchased two bags of crinkle colored paper, one in pink and one in white. I also purchased 8 or so small packages of various wedding-themed and colorful confetti. These were also a bit more expensive, so I purchased what I hoped would be enough and began brainstorming how I might be able to fill any remaining space. I had asked one of the employees about metallic paper, and she was very patient and helpful, so I thought it was worth asking if they had any scrap cardboard I could use to create the shell of the pinata. I scored two medium-sized cardboard boxes and checked out with all of my other purchases that totaled around $60. Amanda had offered to cover all of the costs of the pinata but I had still wanted to keep it reasonably priced. $60 seemed like a lot for what I had purchased, but by the time it had all come together, I was impressed that I had cut the cost by over half and still managed to create a totally gorgeous pinata.  

paper materials (purchased at Michael's)

Simple pinatas can be constructed by paper macheing around a large blown-up balloon; when the paper mache is dry, you simply pop the balloon and the structure remains intact. But since I wanted a geometric pinata, I had to start by creating the structure. I had originally thought that I would construct two pyramids and then attach them, but the triangle faces I cut were actually large enough that I only needed three for each half. I left about a 1-in edge on each side as a means to connect the faces. I used packaging tape to connect the faces, but I think I could have used fewer, smaller pieces. Once all but one of the faces had been connected, I began layering the shredded paper and confetti in the pinata. This was important to ensure that all of the confetti wouldn't simply just drop to the bottom. It looked like I would need a bit more filler, so I took some colored scrapbooking paper and ran in through my shredder. I only had a few sheets on hand, so I supplemented that with shredded documents I had in my waste basket. The bits of black type on the paper actually looked really cool, and it was mixed with enough color that it managed to add a nice visual element without looking cheap. I sealed up my last face and then recruited Andrea for help with paper macheing!

Paper mache paste is just flour mixed with water to create a think, soup-like liquid that hardens when it dries. We discovered that it was best to have the liquid a bit runnier than we originally thought; this helps eliminate clumps of flour and ensures that the layers dry quickly. Newspaper is traditionally used as the vehicle for the paste, but it can get messy as the print begins to run. I didn't have access to large stack of newspapers anyway, so Andrea and I called around and discovered that The Herald Times sells the leftover reams of unprinted newspaper for super cheap! I purchased a large roll for four dollars, and Mike was able to use what was leftover to pack up his dishes and things for the move! I cut 1-2 inch thick strips of the paper and we got to work dipping them in the paste, running them between two fingers to get off any excess paste, and gradually layering them on the structure, overlapping them where we could. It's really important that you place the pinata in a well-ventilated area where it will be able to dry quickly. Wet, warm flour paste = mold! 

It took a few days for the paper mache to fully dry, and then we began decorating. I cut the tissue paper into 1.5 inch strips and added fringe to the ends, making sure there was enough of an edge to stick to the surface. We applied a small amount of Mod Podge using sponge brushes and then laid the edge of the tissue paper on top. We chose the colors as we went and integrated a few of the origami strips after every few rows. We discovered that it was key to apply the Mod Podge to the area just above the last strip of tissue paper to ensure that the fringes would not stick. We cut the strips long enough so that we could overlap the edges and tidy up the seams of the pinata. 

The end result was this:

  

   

I was pretty happy with how it all turned out. In order to hang it, we simply drilled a whole through two of the top sides and then looped a fairly heavy wire,which we then attached to the tree, through it. Kyle did have a heck of a time busting it open (guess I went a little heavy on the packaging tape!). It actually looked really pretty when it finally did come open, and if nothing else, it made for some great photo opportunities! Amanda and Kyle's wedding was such a wonderful representation of who they are as a couple and I can't wait to share more of their wedding with you all. For now, their wonderful photographer Nick Goodin  has provided a sneak peek of their wedding photos!