This weekend...

Long post ahead!

Chad and I had a fun-filled weekend...it was truly a wonderful summer weekend! On Friday we went to see the long-awaited 6th Harry Potter movie and it was awesome! If you haven't read the Harry Potter books you really need to. They are genius and the movies are certainly right behind the books. I personally felt this movie was the best out of all of them. Of course there were parts that I didn't care for and important parts I wished were in the movie, but overall it was really good and funny. I definitely laughed more in this one than I did in any of the others.

After the movie:


Pre-movie we went to Panda Express which is becoming one of my favorite places to eat out. Most of you know that I don't really care for Chinese food but I do like Panda Express. And I know that most of you are thinking 'but Panda Express isn't real Chinese Food' and I think that is exactly why I like it. So we ate there before the movie and did a little window shopping at the Gateway.


We also got new tires that day for our Jeep. I've had the Jeep for 4 or 5 years now (well I drove it when we first got it and then it was in Cali with my dad for the last couple years). Anyways it was in desperate need of new tires and we wanted to get them before we left for California.


Saturday morning we got up somewhat early and went to the Farmers Market. It was huge and there were so many people there but I loved it. I probably could have stayed for hours if it wasn't so hot. But Chad and I had lots of fun and we bought some yummy raspberries for much cheaper than the store.

And I decided to make a yummy lemon-merengue raspberry cake.
Pre-cake:
Finished product:

Here is the recipe if anyone is interested, it was really good!

Ingredients:

• Cooking Spray
• Flour for dusting
• 1 (1/2 pint) raspberries
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Cake:

• 2 1/3 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg white
• 1 1/4 cups sugar

Frosting:

• 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Click here to see how it's made.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray. Dust lightly with flour and shake out the excess.

Reserve half of the raspberries, and combine the other half with 1 tablespoon sugar and crush with a fork. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, stir with a fork to evenly combine the ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

Whisk together eggs, egg whites and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until it holds ribbons, about 2 minutes. Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the buttermilk mixture in 2 parts, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir together by hand until evenly combined and no lumps remain.

Pour the batter evenly into the pans. Bake in the center of the oven until a cake tester comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool on a baking rack for 10 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto a baking rack to cool completely.

Frosting: Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a saucepan that can hold an electric mixer bowl above the water. Whisk the sugar, egg whites, water, cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl by hand. Set the bowl above the boiling water and beat with an electric hand mixer at medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 7 minutes. Remove from the heat; beat in the lemon zest and vanilla.

To assemble the cake: Place 1 layer on a flat serving or cake plate, top side down, and spread with crushed raspberries. Top with 3/4 cup frosting, spreading gently on top of the raspberries. Place the second cake layer on top, top side up, and frost the top and sides. Decorate with the reserved raspberries.

Then later that night Chad and I went to a Fray concert in USANA amphitheater with my sister Nichole and her husband Chase.

Pre-concert getting ready to leave:

Chad being silly... he does this a lot.

So we headed to the concert about 5 and got to the amphitheater about 5:30. It was really hot for about the first hour and we bought $5 smoothies...of course they are ridiculously overpriced but they were pretty good. Some clouds rolled in after about an hour and made in considerably cooler after that. So we hung out on the grass for a couple hours before any music even started. We had fun just hanging out with Nichole and Chase.

This was our view from our seats. We had a pretty good view. There were a lot of people there!

Jack's Mannequin opened for the Fray and they were awesome! I hadn't listened to a lot of their music but now I really want to buy their CD's because they were so good live.
Here's the lead singer at the piano. He had so much energy!

Nichole got up and danced with some of the people around us!

This is us right before the Fray came on. We were a little worried that it might get rained out because it started getting a little stormy right when the Fray came on but it didn't and we were so happy!

Here are some pics of the Fray! They aren't the best pics but thats ok.



And here are the Fray playing "Heartless" by Kayne West. They sang a different version that was way better!

This was the second Fray concert we went to. We saw them almost exactly two years ago at the shoreline ampitheater in Mountain View, CA when Chad and I were still dating.



I know we look a little different! It has been two years since this pic was taken.


It was fun to keep the tradition going and I am sure we will see them again sometime because they are one of our favorite bands!