CUL 104

So last semester as i was registering for classes, I realized that I only had 11 credit hours planned. In order to receive my scholarship from the tribe, I have to be a full time student. That means I need 12 credit hours. Eleven credit hours may not seem like a lot, but I was planning to take two science classes, with labs, and trigonometry. That to me seemed like a lot. I decided that what I needed to do was to take an elective class, something that would be fun, and most importantly easy!! I didn't want another class that would add to the stress of this semester. As i perused my options, I couldn't find anything that seemed really fun. Finally I found a listing in the online course catalog. CUL 104- an introduction to baking, pastries, pies and doughs. I thought, "hey, I can bake!"

Then my mind said, "That can't be too hard!"

Another voice, "My oven doesn't work very well."

"I can always use my in-laws kitchen."

"I have a class!"

So I looked closer. 4 credit hours. My mind says, " 4 credit hours!!! and all I have to do is bake??"

I was practically doing backflips:)

This was so exciting, a fun easy class that would not only be less stressful than the rest of my classes, it would allow me some delicious stress relief type goodies.

I read on in the description. This is an online course. "An online baking class?? That's a little odd."

"Well, who cares, it's 4 credit hours!"

So it was decided, I would be enrolling in CUL 104, an online baking class that would kick me over the 12 credit hour hurdle.

My semester started, but my baking class lagged behind a little, it didn't start until two weeks after the rest of my classes. Finally that wonderful day arrived, my first baking class. I read through the course syllabus and began to feel my heart pounding. This class wasn't going to be easy. I had been lied to!! By myself!!!! Alas, I would be baking multiple items every week over the course of eight weeks. Plus I would be earning 4 credits. This course was going to be intense!!

Okay, I can handle this...

Week one, you will be preparing irish soda bread, muffins, and scones.

So I set about my task first item. Irish soda bread. "What the heck is that??" Well, I had the recipe and I was determined to make the best Irish soda bread possible as part of the class, they have videos of someone preparing what you will make. I must say that my soda bread looked.. absolutely nothing like the video. I was assured by my mother-in-law, "Those people are professionals, they have spent years making these products."

Here is my irish soda bread. It actually tasted quite good. However I made a large loaf, pictured, and a much smaller loaf. The small loaf disappeared almost instantly. When we cut into the large loaf, it was still quite doughy. One of the advantages of the online baking class, no one can see the inside...

I also got to make muffins, I was given recipes for a handful of different types of muffins, and finally decided on the old standby, blueberry.

Here is a picture of my blueberry muffins. These were actually quite delicious when eaten the next day. Not so good straight out of the oven.

The last thing I got to make during week one was scones. I have always found scones to taste a little bland, so I decided to spruce mine up a little bit with chocolate chips. Who doesn't love a little addition of chocolate?

They still tasted a little bland, according to Christy. However they looked nice.

Week 2- you will be preparing lavosh, and hard rolls.

Lavosh is kinda like a giant cracker, and it kinda tastes like a very old giant cracker. However, this was very fun to make because the dough is very elastic-y and it stretches and stretches and stretches.

Christy and I quickly decided that lavosh is not so tasty. We decided to experiment, and added cinnamon-sugar on top of the next sheet of lavosh. Much, much better. unfortunately I don't have a picture of that one.

The hard rolls were quite fun to make, but still didn't really taste as good as I had hoped. Although, they were served with dinner at the in-law's and they were pronounced, "amazing".

Week 3- you will be preparing zucchini bread and 2 different pizzas using boboli dough.

Ah zucchini bread. At the time I made this, it was my favorite item I had made. I used mini chocolate chips and this stuff was fantastic.

I made two different pizzas, pepperoni and cheese. Boring I know, but thats what people wanted. These pizzas were quite possibly my second least favorite thing I made all semester, right behind those old crackers...

Week 4- You will be preparing cheesecake and a layered fudge icing chocolate cake.

"Cheesecake and chocolate cake?? There is no way I can screw this up!!"

I figured I would be loved by the masses, people would be pounding down my in-law's door to get to my amazing cake and cheesecake. Then something horrible, no tragic occurred. My cake was a flop or is that a plop??

That's right, it is "The Cow Patty Cake". My cake didn't rise when I cooked it, and I insisted on making three layers just like in the video of the professionals. Alas my layers as thin as they were could not support the entire cake and it died.

The cheesecake was bound to be better than the lovely cake had turned out, and for all intents and purposes, it probably was. I, however, now know why many online recipes say to refrigerate a cheesecake overnight. It tastes better. After about four hours of refrigeration, the cheesecake tasted like eggs.

Luckily the next day the cheesecake tasted a lot better.

Week 5- you will be preparing one half batch of blueberry muffins, drop cookies, coconut macaroons, and spritz cookies.

Well, apparently I choose the wrong kind of muffins to make the first week, because now there was no option. I got to make blueberry muffins again. I wonder, do they look better the second time around?

They actually tasted better, the first time through, but I like the way they look a lot more this time.

Drop cookies, are cookies that you drop onto the pan prior to baking such as chocolate chip cookies. I made reduced sugar chocolate chip cookies with splenda substitute sugar and brown sugar. This was done at the request of my father-in-law who is diabetic and wanted to taste the chocolate chip cookies.

According to people with experience, the puffiness of the cookies is the result of using the splenda.

Apparently, I should have used the splenda for my coconut macaroons. Macaroons are supposed to puff up however, mine were a bit more humble.

They actually tasted quite good, but as my mom put it, "not like any macaroon I've ever had before." It was decided that these were actually more like coconut cookies rather than macaroons.

Spritz cookies were a lot of fun to make. In order to make them, you use a piping bag to create the little decorative flourishes. I could not figure out why my star tip in my piping bag was creating straight cookies, however on my last batch, the yellow ones, I realized that my piping bag extended around the tip and was covering the actual shape of the tip.

My father-in-law commented, "Looks like something that came out of my dog."

Week 6- you will be preparing apple phyllo crisp with vanilla sauce, one half batch of blueberry sauce and fruit tarts.

Apple phyllo crisp, my recommendation, don't eat it. Make a real apple crisp and enjoy that.

Not much else to say about that.

Blueberry sauce...

Not much to look at, but it can be exciting given the proper motivation...

This was one plate presentation I made, and then below is the official presentation with one of the tarts on it.

This just makes my mouth water.

Fruit tarts, by far the best tasting thing I made all semester. I had so much fun decorating them.

It was a lot of fun trying to be creative with the fruit and still make these look appealing.

Week 7- You will be preparing creme caramel and a napoleon.

I didn't know what a napoleon was before this class. So just a little detail. It is a layered dessert made with puff pastry dough, pastry cream, and icing. We also added strawberry jam for flavor between the layers. For this dessert, our puff pastry was not supposed to puff, so we but beans on top of it while it was cooking, to weigh it down and prevent it from puffing up. Unfortunately, it also prevented the pastry from cooking as well. It took about an hour and forty five minutes before I finally gave up and said "I'm working with slightly undercooked dough, try it at your own risk."

It looks good, but it tasted gross thanks to the undercooked dough. Apparently the edges, where it was actually cooked, tasted really good.

Creme caramel, a custard dessert served with caramel.

Unfortunately the guy who made this caramel, me, used a little too much lemon juice in the caramel, so it is more like a custard dessert with a nasty lemon topping. Also, I found out that this too is a dessert that should be refrigerated overnight to enhance the taste, warm it just tastes bland and eggy. (and lemony).

Week 8- you will be preparing cream puffs, chocolate mousse and fruit mousse.

Ah, delight of my soul, cream puffs or as a certain friend calls them, "Ecstasy puffs". I have never met a cream puff I didn't like and that still holds true. This right behind the fruit tarts was my second favorite thing to make.

Who wouldn't want to pop one of these in their mouth??

Fruit mousse, this mousse was good, but it had little chunks of gelatin floating about in it, making it slightly chewy. Not really the mousse like texture we desire.

Last but not least, a chocolate lover's heaven in a glass, chocolate mousse.

It made me so happy that this tasted as good as it did! My mom however noted, that she almost went into a sugar coma after eating some.

So, that was it. Eight weeks of pure relaxation. Straight from my kitchen (or my in-law's), to your computer screen. Leave a message, which were you most tempted by?

Gila Valley Temple

So a couple of a weeks ago, my mom asked me if I would be willing to ditch work to go to the Gila Valley Temple open house with her. I told her that it sounded like fun but that I couldn't ditch work that week. Well we never got all the schedules of everyone who wanted to go aligned... So I figured that we wouldn't get to go. Well on Tuesday of this past week, I found out that Christy was getting out of the hospital, so i decided that it would be fun to try and go with her, but I didn't know when it ended. So the next night I went to the Mesa temple because my aunt was gettting her endowments. I mentioned to someone that Christy was getting out on Thursday and my mom asked if that meant I was ditching work on Friday to take her to the open house and I said sure. From there it grew, and Christy, Sandy, my mom, Jayce, Karley, and I all ended up going to the open house on Friday. It was awesome, I was so glad that I was able to go with Christy. My mom has more pictures that I am sure she will put up on her blog, but here are a few.

The Love of My Life

I do not know how so much time always seems to go by between posts. Something that bothers me is when people don't update their blogs often enough, yet I seem to do a fine job of not updating. I frequently blame my lack of bloggage on the fact that I don't have anything to write about, I am often jealous that my mom seems to have so much fodder for her blog. Well, people have been requesting a new post, especially my mother who is sick of seeing the lovely picture of herself... So I thought that I would attempt to comply. One of the things that has been on my mind recently, rather the thing that is always on my mind, is a certain young lady.

I am very much in love with Christy, for many reasons, and so I thought that I would list some of those reasons here.

This is from a journal entry dated July 23, 2008 although some of these have been added since that time.

Why do I love Her?

She is the most caring person I know.

She is funny, and seems to think that I am too at times.

I feel lost when I don't get to see her.

She is the most beautiful girl I have ever met.

When she touches me I feel tingly.

When I am with her no matter what we are doing I am happy.

She lets me hold her hand.

She worries about other people.

She is always optimistic.

She is smart.

She will make a wonderful mother.

She loves kids.

She is fun to tickle.

She loves the gospel.

She makes me want to be better.

She loves her family.

She loves my family.

She makes me feel like I am special.

She loves the temple.

She likes baseball.

She likes watching movies.

She enjoys reading.

I can talk to her about anything.

Despite trials she stays true to what she believes.

She is strong and faithful.

She has never asked me to stop singing.

Even amid trials I know I want to spend eternity with her.

She loves the Scriptures.

She is patient with me.

She isn't afraid to point out my faults such as a lack of four wheeler driving skills.

She can cheer me up when I am sad.

She is the person I can turn to with any problems I have.

Lastly, I love her because she is her.

I'm Alive!!!!

Contrary to what, by now, must be popular belief, I am alive. It has indeed been awhile since I have posted a blog. However, I am still here.

The other day I came home, and only my mother was at home. She was in her room reading, so when I opened the front door, I yelled "Hello, are you alive?" To which I received no response. As I neared her room, I could see her feet at the end of her bed. At which point I again questioned, "Are you alive." This time she answered, "Of course I am alive. Can't you tell by my alive face?" This is what I saw.

After a short deliberation, we decided that she was indeed alive. She also went through other poses to convince me of this.

Basketball Fun

So today Jayce and I decided to go play basketball at the church. As is customary on our basketball trips to this locale, Jayce tried to shoot the ball backwards from half-court. and
wouldn't you know it...

Woo-hoo. Jayce was excited, but making this shot has become quite usual for him, so he tried to shake it up a little bit in this tribute to Christy.

Yes indeedy, from the knees.

After that we picked up Janaya and Christy and went to Dennys for lunch. While we were there, someone had the brilliant idea to have everybody order for someone else. So we did. Then we all traded food once it came. The waitress seemed a little confused, but hid it well for the most part. During lunch, Steven texted Jayce and asked him if he wanted to go to the church to play basketball, so Jayce, Steven Janaya, Christy, and I went to the church to play basketball. We played bank for a little while, and then the men decided it was time to play 21. For those of you who don't know 21 is basically a game where everyone plays everyone else. Also, most rules are abandoned during this game. What started out as a friendly competition, quickly escalated into mayhem as people attempted to drive to the hoop and were met violently by other competitors.

We followed that up with a quick trip to Sonic for drinks, and then it was back home.

Bishopric Barbeque

So ever since I have been in young mens, there has been a traditional BBQ in the month of December for the youth of the ward. When I was a deacon, this BBQ consisted of having hamburgers at Kiwanis Park. This was fun, and we had good times enjoying various activities at the park and eating lots of food. This is how I remember the bishopric BBQ. It was always one of my favorite events of the year.

Now, I am a teacher's quorum advisor, and I got the privilege of attending the BBQ again for the first time in four or five years. Well since my last BBQ, the bishopric has made a lot of changes, to improve this event. First of all, the food. They have gone from low quality (hamburgers), to high quality (carne asada). Secondly the locale, upgraded from Kiwanis Park to Brother Jones' farm. Last big difference, there is now a hay ride.

So here is how things went. The young men, young women, and their leaders met at the church to carpool to the farm. I happily opened my truck, which has become known as the fun-vee, to Jayce and Steven. Bishop then asked if I would pick up Scott and James. So the fun-vee set out in search of some new passengers. We picked up Scott, and the dropped Jayce off at a store to pick up some snacks, while the fun-vee went to pick up James. Sadly, James was not at home so it was back to pick up Jayce and hit the open road.

Fully supplied with oreos, chocolate covered pretzels, starbursts, and gummy worms, we began the approximately 45 minute trip to the farm. As we cruised down the freeway, we joyfully rocked out to the music pumping from steven's i-pod. As we neared our destination, it became apparent to us that the fun-vee had to arrive in style, so we rolled down the windows, cranked up the bass, augmented the volume, and let everyone know that the fun-vee had arrived.

It was then time to hit the hay, and cruise around the farm. This hayride, is a trailer loaded with hay attached to a tractor which then takes us on a trip around the farm. The adults decided to enhance the ride with a little Christmas music to really allow the joy to fully penetrate the hearts of those in attendance. However I am pretty sure that it wasn't joy the persuaded Jayce to tell me to stop singing or die. Then came the time to return to where the food was, this was accomplished by driving on a main road. Needless to say the cars stuck behind the tractor were not all full of the Christmas spirit.

When we returned, the food was pretty much ready. So we had soft tacos with Carne Asada. Along with chips and salsa, and beans. The food was delicious! After we ate, we cleaned up, and it was back to the open road. As the fun-vee began to pull out, bishop stopped us and queried if we had room for Trevin. Of course we did, so the fun-vee was back at it with an extra passenger.

As we neared the freeway, we were faced with an interesting dilemma. Should we return on the I-10, the way we had come, or should we be a little crazy and follow the loop 101 all the way around? As with any fun-vee, ours was a democracy, and so it was put to a vote. 10 or 101? Well the 101 won unanimously, and we were headed home. A little while later, we pulled into the church parking lot to help unload tables and chairs, and found that we were, regrettably, a little too late. The bishopric had already finished unloading. I guess, we made the right decision during that vote after all;)

Now I will be the first one to say, that I had a good time during the evening, but it is my humble opinion, that this upgraded BBQ left a lot to be desired. Most noticeably, a park, and a good old fashioned american hamburger. The way things should be.

Someone has stolen your heart!

Tempe- A young resident was shocked to find a ransom note taped to her door early Saturday evening.

Upon arrival at the specified location, she was met by a small and sinister man clearly associated with the plot. He told her that he could guide her on with a clue but that she would first have to complete a task for him. She was given a balloon, and told to blow it up. After that she was instructed to draw the face of her boyfriend on the balloon. She was then supposed to demonstrate her first kiss. After her first attempt, the mean man popped her balloon claiming that it did not accurately portray her boyfriend. He did however redeem himself in a small way by blowing up the second balloon for her. She then proceeded to demonstrate her first kiss. She received her next clue, which led to the home of a neighbor, and a monkey from build a bear.

At the new location, the young woman was met by a jolly sort clad in an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform. This man informed her that she would be hitting five baseballs to receive her next clue, however, if the man caught one of the balls that she hit, she would be forced to start over, and if she were to strike out, the game would end and she would have to wait a week to try again. After a handful of pitches the girl eagerly awaited what would be her fifth and final hit. She hit the ball and it gently glided straight into the hands of the jovial pitcher. Who proceeded to give her the clue anyway, along with a stuffed dog dressed in a diamondbacks uniform.This clue guided her to the church where she had been baptized.

As the chauffeur pulled up to the church, a very nice young couple was waiting. They eagerly described the girls next task. She would fill in all the information to her baptismal program. Upon completion of the task, the girl was informed that she had indeed finished properly and that her next destination would be the temple. She also received a bear in a baptism dress.

The girl suspected that her journey was about to come to an end, and was shocked to find not the man that she expected but rather a cheerful man with yet another clue. To obtain this clue, the young lady had to arrange sentence strips containing the plan of slavation, in the proper order. After a short while, she was done. Although she was not as confident as she had been with other tasks, she had indeed properly placed each step. The clue she gained led her to Taco Bell.

At Taco Bell, the girl was met by the same young couple that had met her earlier at the church. They sat near two cups full of mild sauce packets. She was asked to search through the cups to find the three packets with a special message, each was marked with a star. As she sifted endlessly through what seemed like hundreds of packets of mild sauce, she thought that she would never find the special sauces. Close to giving up hope, the girl finally found one star, and then another, and then the final star. The packets said, make a wish, ta-dah, and the feeling is mutual. The girl was then given a clue leading her back to the temple. She also got a veil, that would transform her baptism bear into a bride bear.

As the chauffeur approached the temple, she pulled up to the curb and instructed the girl to get out. The girl was a little unsure, but complied anyway. After walking around the temple grounds, she finally saw standing in a ray of light, the cruel man who had stolen her heart. He was dressed nicely, and his demeanor did not seem as cruel as the ransom note had depicted him. As she approached, he spoke.

"You went through a lot of trouble to get your heart back."

"Yes I did."

"Unfortunately you can't have it back. I plan on keeping it for eternity. However I am willing to make a compromise, and you can have my heart for eternity as well."

With that the man dropped to his knee, swept the hat off his magic bear, revealing a ring and queried,

"Will you marry me?"

The girl quickly responded in the affirmative.

The man then escorted her to his truck. There was a dozen roses waiting with taco bell mild sauce packets, that said will you marry me, decoratively placed among the roses.

The girl has declined to press charges according to one authority close to the case.

That is right folks, she said yes, and I am now officially engaged!!