Choices, Choices

I signed up last year for the rewards program at a local theater. The reward benefits include free upgrades on certain concessions, and $10.00 in rewards for every $100 you spend. So I let my dad use my rewards card also, and between the two of us and our significant others, we finally earned the $10.00 reward. Well, I then received an e-mail notifying me that my reward was going to expire on April 13. So Christy and I decided that we needed to go to the movies so that we could use our reward money. Unfortunately, we didn't know what movie we wanted to go see. Nothing that was showing jumped out to us as something that we had to see. I would like to eventually see the Hunger Games, however, I feel like Christy should read the book before we see the movie. We finally decided that we would just go see Mirror, Mirror. This as a movie based on the story of Snow White. I wasn't sure what I expected of it, but decided that it would be worth seeing.

I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I thought it was entertaining. I really enjoyed the dwarves, I thought they were quite funny. I also enjoyed watching Julia Roberts play the evil queen. For a quick afternoon out at the movies, I thought that it was a good choice. Christy also enjoyed the movie. I was however, quite worried when one of the characters was turned into a cockroach, I thought I might find my wife hiding in terror under her chair. Apparently one cockroach is not as frightening on the big screen as it is in your own bathroom.

The Easter Bunny

This morning, I got a text at about 7:00. The number was not one I recognized and I figured it probably wasn't important. I looked at the message and it said, "I think the Easter bunny came. Check you patio!!!" I told Christy it was a wrong number and we didn't need to worry about it.

Once I was up and about I figured I would glance at the patio so I could laugh at how there was nothing there. I looked out the window and there were easter eggs and ziploc bags full of candy. So Christy and I went out and collected all the candy. After that I became a little obsessed with trying to figure out who easter bunnied our patio. I never found out, but this experience made Christy and I so happy. We were thrilled to feel like little kids collecting eggs, and to know that somebody cared so much about us.

So wherever you are Easter bunny, thank you!!

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.