Kelly Carter

New Year

2012-01-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

Goals:

*Post more frequently (five months between posts is pretty embarrassing).

*Take more pictures with Bryan (trying to find a picture for a Christmas card was not so easy this year...)

Happy New Years/Christmas/every-other-holiday-I-skipped!

Baby Snatchers

2011-08-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

Last week after Bryan left for work, he called to say there was a baby bird that fell out of its nest, and he was worried it was going to die in the rain since it couldn't fly. I hurried over with an empty box lined with newspaper, and Bryan brought out the smallest little fluff ball of a bird. It was smaller than a ping pong ball! He told me (this is not an exaggeration) to take it home and find some worms for it to eat. And he was totally serious. I didn't do that. Instead I put a lamp nearby to keep him warm, and just let him hangout while I tried to figure out what to do with him.

so cute!

After a little bit of research we both realized that the bird was probably fine on it's own, and most likely his parents had been keeping an eye on him. So it turns out we weren't heroes, we were baby snatchers. Bryan took him back and let him go back to his family, so it all worked out. Can you really blame us for snatching him, though? Look at that face:

We found out he was a baby quail. I can't get over how cute he was. I think we're going to need to get a pet sometime soon...

Homemade Sourdough Bread

2011-06-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

(does this not look delicious?)

Warning: This will be a long post (but it's worth it!)
I have recently developed a sourdough bread addiction. For a while we were buying a loaf a week and I would make tons of sourdough grilled cheese sandwiches, sourdough turkey sandwiches, and sourdough toast. Bryan asked if we could make our own sourdough bread, but I didn't think we could because... I don't know, it seems like it would be too hard to do and sourdough bread is kind of a mystery to me. It was like when Bryan suggested we make homemade flour tortillas, and I thought it would a.) require random ingredients we didn't have b.) be super hard to do and c.) not be worth the time and energy. In the end it was really quick and easy, and on top of that it tasted amazing. And sure enough, we found out that making sourdough bread is not that hard to do, and there is a lot of information online on how to do it.

The part that intimidated me about sourdough bread is you have to make a starter, which is a mixture of flour and water that you allow to ferment until it develops natural yeast. This is what makes the bread rise, and what gives the bread its "sour" taste. I wasn't totally convinced it would work, but I mixed up some bread flour and water and waited for the magic to happen. After two or three days I was excited to find that the starter was frothy and smelled a little sour. It worked! I wasn't sure which recipe to use, but the first one I tried turned out great (see picture above). It may not look pretty, but it tasted amazing! The crust was crispy and the inside was chewy, moist, and full of big bubbly holes. It tasted better than any homemade bread I'd ever had. And the best part is that it's a no knead bread, so it is super easy to make.

Here is a picture of the second loaf we made. We used the same recipe but used the rising time and bread shaping techniques from Breadtopia. The main difference is you let the bread rise in a floured towel instead of an oiled bowl, because we notice that the oil made the bottom of the bread sizzle/fry and get a little overcooked

This is our third loaf where we did everything the same as the second loaf, but slit the top.

(Isn't it pretty?)

Our third loaf was an experiment to get a more sour taste, and we also tried using one cup whole wheat flour (the Breadtopia recipe does this), which made a pretty good loaf, though it was not as light as the other loaves we'd made (we didn't get pictures because we were in St. George). I think the longer rising time did improve the taste, but next time I would skip the whole wheat flour or use less.

If you are interested in the recipe I've posted it below. I got it here, but I changed a few things and scaled the recipe down quite a bit. I cooked my bread in an enameled dutch oven with a lid because that is supposed to make the crust crispy, but I've also heard that spraying your oven walls with some water can produce the same effect if your planning to cook your bread on a pizza stone or cookie sheet. If you want to make your own starter I think this is the recipe I used.

Sourdough Bread Recipe

½ c. sourdough starter*
3 c. bread flour (or all purpose if you don’t have bread flour)
1 ½ c. water
1 t. salt

*Keep starter in the fridge and feed it once a week. When it’s time to feed the starter, first remove ½ cup starter and use it to bake bread. If you aren’t planning to make bread, give the ½ cup starter to someone else, or simply through it away. Now you can feed your remaining starter. You want to feed the starter 1 part water to 2 parts flour (I sometimes do equal parts). I usually feed mine ½ - ¾ cups all-purpose flour and ½ cup water because I like to keep my starter at a thick, batter-like consistency. If the starter gets too thick or too thin, you can adjust accordingly. I've also heard it's a good idea to feed your starter the day before you bake bread because that makes the starter more active when you actually use it.

1. Start by pouring one cup of room temperature tap water (not warm) into a large bowl. Scoop out ½ c. of sourdough starter and stir it in. The starter likes being stirred up and aerated, so stir or whisk it together vigorously. (Take a moment to replenish/feed your starter right now)

2. Stir in 1 ½ c. bread flour. Mix until smooth.

3. Stir in ½ cup of water. Add the salt and mix thoroughly. The salt will slow down the fermentation. This is a good thing. The longer the sourdough takes to rise, the more sour the bread will be.

4. Stir in the remaining 1 ½ c. bread flour. Stir until completely mixed. You do NOT need to knead this bread. The sourdough starter will actually do that for you. All those little yeasts get rowdy and over time inspire gluten fibers to form. This gives the bread its unique sourdough texture.

5. Cover the bowl of dough with a towel and set aside in a draft-free place. Don't jiggle the dough while it's doing its thing. Leave it alone. The bread dough needs to just sit and do its thing for 12-15 hours. When it's done, the dough will be bubbly and BIGGER than it was at the start. If the bubbles start to pop, then it's gone too long. It doesn't hurt to peek at it from time to time. If your kitchen is particularly warm or it is the middle of the summer, you might need to shorten this first rise time. If you notice the bubbles popping, then the dough is ready for the next step. You CAN slow things down by refrigerating the dough at any point. (And putting the bread in the fridge to rise for even longer will give the bread a more sour taste)

6. Now it's time for the step that we call "turning out the dough." Start by sprinkling some more flour across the top of the dough. Then plunge your hands into the flour bin and get thoroughly floured up. Start by sweeping your hand around and under the dough in the bowl. Go stick your hand in the flour bin again. Scoop the dough up and over. Get a little more flour on your hands. Scoop and roll the dough over. It shouldn't take too many scoops and sweeps before the dough starts feeling elastic. The dough is ready for its second rise.

7. Oil the inside of another bowl so that the dough will roll out easily when it's time to put it in the oven. The sourdough still has not finished creating gluten fibers, so it needs a few more hours. Cover the bowl with a towel and set in a draft-free area. How long the dough rests will depend a lot on the room temperature. If your kitchen is fairly cool, you should let the dough rest another 4-5 hours. If your kitchen is warm, you'll want to keep an eye on things and consider baking the bread after only 2-3 hours.
***Pay attention to the dough during this stage. The thing that you do NOT want is for the starter to consume all the available fuel (flour) in the dough. If that happens, the dough will collapse in on itself after rising. If you see signs of the dough starting to collapse--that means the bubbles are bursting and the center of the dough begins to sag a little--it's time to hustle that bread into the oven.

8. Turn your oven on to 450 degrees and stick the pan and cover in to preheat for 30 minutes. The type of pan you use is actually very important. The very best option is a heavy cast iron Dutch oven with a cover. I also use a covered roasting pan. The key is the cover. You'll need a cover to create a miniature steam oven for the first 30 minutes of baking (You might even be able to just cover a deep stoneware or pyrex pan with foil, but I haven’t tried it). I use pans that are 4 - 6 quarts in size. The pan should be at least 4 quarts in size.

9. Pull the pan out of the oven, being very careful not to burn yourself. Sprinkle corn grits, cornmeal, or oatmeal on the bottom of the pan. This will keep the bread from sticking. Gently roll the dough out of the bowl and into the pan. Pop the cover back on and put it in the oven. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.

10. Remove the cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes. This will brown up the top of the bread. (It might only need 5-10 minutes)

11. When bread is golden brown and cooked through, take it out of the oven and tip it out onto a cooling rack.

If you want to use the Breadtopia rising instructions, follow this recipe up to step 5, and then use the proofing basket method (Breadtopia has a video, but basically you fold the dough up a little, wrap it in a floured towel, and set it in a bowl so it has a nice round shape when it bakes) and let the bread rise again for about 2 hours before baking.

Here's to Marriage

2011-05-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

Bryan and I got married on May 14th, 2010, so as of a few weeks ago we have officially been married over a year. We didn't make any huge plans for the weekend, so we kind of just played it all by ear. We thought it would be fun to stay in Sundance or Park City, and we found an awesome deal on a suite with a full kitchen, free internet, and a private hot tub on the balcony in Park City. On Friday the 13th (yikes!) we drove up to Park City, and the drive was beautiful! It was a partly cloudy day and the sky was gorgeous.

We were expecting the room to be nice, but it was even better than we thought. Here's a picture of the bed and fireplace (the window above the bed actually looks into the bathroom)

The kitchen was fully stocked with dishes and cookware, so we bought stuff to make our own breakfast in the morning. It was the prefect set up.

The bath room was huge (not that you can really tell by the picture).

We were thinking it would be to eat somewhere fancy, but we decided to get Cafe Rio take out instead so we could eat dinner while we watched a movie in our room.

(I loved all the pretty tulips)

Saturday morning we made a delicious breakfast, and then went to the the Mount Timpanogos Temple to do sealings. The grounds were beautiful with all the spring flowers. I've always loved the stain glass windows on this temple, but I've never been inside, so it was cool to finally get to go in. I loved being reminded of our wedding day a year ago. It was definitely the highlight of the weekend.

It was a really pretty day even though the weather was pretty temperamental. (We took the picture above before we went in, and the picture below about an hour later as it started drizzling)

After the temple we had dinner at the Chef's Table. Somehow I forgot to take pictures there, but the food was amazing. Bryan and I always think scallops look delicious, but neither one of us had tried them before, so we got bacon-wrapped scallops as our appetizer. They were my favorite part of the meal! We both had butternut squash soup, I ordered the rack of lamb, and Bryan ordered the steak. It was really good, and even though we were totally stuffed, we still ordered creme brulee for dessert. Yum!

We had a lot of fun celebrating our first year being married. I still feel like we've only been married a few months. I am extremely grateful to be married to Bryan and that we are able to have so much fun together. So one year down, a whole bunch more to go.

some Valentine's details

2011-03-11T15:50:00.000-08:00

After we took down our Christmas decorations, I knew we had to decorate for Valentine's Day because our house looked so empty. I found a bunch of craft/decorating ideas (mostly from Martha Stewart) and had some friends over to make them. I made wax paper and crayon hearts (they're meant to go in windows to look like stained glass, but I just put them on the wall), heart doilies (like paper snowflakes), and some paper hearts to hang above our kitchen table. They all turned out pretty good, and it was a lot of fun getting together to do something crafty with friends

Bryan and I got tickets to see Ballet West perform Sleeping Beauty at the Capitol Theatre on Friday. It was the perfect ballet to see for non-ballet-goers (i.e. us) because we knew the story and we both really like the music.

Bryan also got me roses and See's candy (which is the key to my heart. The See's, not the roses. Flowers are just an added bonus)

Saturday we went bowling with Bryan's cousin Erick and his fiancée Sam. Some days I'm okay at bowling, but the last few times we've gone I've done horribly. I was totally expecting to get a million gutter balls (and I did get some), but I actually got some strikes (as in, more than 3 per game). You may also notice I got three strikes in a row on our last game, meaning I got a turkey. We celebrated this accomplishment by getting a turkey sandwich and fries from the Creamery.

For Valentine's Day we decided to make dinner so we won't have to go to an overcrowded restaurant. We made a caramelized fennel and pancetta salad, bacon-wrapped filet mignon, and homemade rolls (which are not pictured because I took pictures before they were cooked). It all turned out really good, and we got to use our meat thermometer (which made me feel better about having bought one a little while ago).

The finished product:

The empty space on the plate is were the roll should go

We had a fun Valentine's ~~Day~~ Week

Happy V-Day

2011-02-14T08:54:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Valentine's Day and I'll probably post more details later about some of the things we did. We got to celebrate Valentine's and our nine month anniversary (has it been that long?) on the same day. I really am glad to have someone to share this holiday with. I already liked it before, but being married just makes it better. I love Bryan so much and I am grateful for all the time, energy, and thought he puts into my happiness.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T20:15:00.000-08:00

We had fun with my family in California, and we're excited to spend time with (most of) Bryan's family when we get back to Utah.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Christmas time is here again

2010-12-24T10:44:00.000-08:00

I thought I should do a Christmas post sometime before Christmas, so here is a little recap of our Christmas season:

-It snowed, but luckily not very much. This was when it snowed on a really sunny day

-We saw the Carl Bloch exhibit at the MOA. It was pretty cool, and this painting was amazing up close.

-We went to Disneyland over Thanksgiving break for free and it was freezing cold

-We got a little tree, and our house smelled great (and we're hopeful that the tree will still be alive when we get back to Utah on Sunday)

-We made snowflakes (notice the window)

all decorated

decorated, lit up, and lights dimmed

-We found Christmasland again

We even saw the gate open up and a car go in. We were this close to running inside.

-We had a second Thanksgiving dinner with Justin and Marissa, and I made a pretty pecan cheesecake

-I got to visit Sandi, Matt, and baby Ruby Rose since they moved to Utah

-We went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert... but we were too late to get seats even though we had tickets. Salt Lake traffic/parking is the worst. We watched it in the Conference Center theater, so it was still fun to see. David Archuleta was pretty good. After we got to see the lights on temple square, so it was still a fun night.

We're in California for Christmas, and the rain has finally stopped, so it looks like it's going to be a pretty weekend.

Merry Christmas!

Home Improvement

2010-12-08T21:54:00.000-08:00

I've been saving a lot of pictures of gallery walls to my desktop, and when we moved into our current house I thought this might be a nice remedy to the white walls staring me in the face at every turn.

It was kind of tricky putting it up, and it was hard to tell if it looked how I wanted it to until it was all pretty much in place. I think I would have spaced them a little further apart if I'd had the motivation to fix it after the fact, but it will do for now. Maybe I'll add to it to make it fill the space a little better.

The other area of our house that needed some work was the kitchen. Ours is teeny tiny. I had a feeling I'd end up scratching our pots and pans if we kept them in a cupboard (and to be perfectly honest, I hate having to dig through a million pots and pans to get to the one that I actually want), so we took a leaf out Julia Child's book and put up some pegboard (this should have been pretty easy, but we ended up having to go back to Lowe's to get different screws three separate times. Apparently our walls are abnormal). We painted it blue, and hung everything up. I have really loved it because everything is so easy to find and we didn't have to sacrifice any storage space.

Disclaimer: the stains on the kitchen floor are permanent. We really have tried to clean them.

Upon moving in, we quickly realized that we didn't have a microwave, so we got one on sale at Target (thanks Dad). The problem was that we didn't have anywhere to put it. Our kitchen has minimal counter space to begin with, so we weren't going to take it all up with a microwave. We realized that we could just barely squeeze the microwave in between the oven and refrigerator if we squished the dryer, oven, and fridge a little more. Then we picked up some 2x2s, 2x4s, and a piece of plywood to make a very basic table for the microwave to stand on. It was a tight squeeze, but it fit perfectly, and the table even gave us a place to put our trash can.

We had fun making the house feel more like our own (when I wasn't pulling my hair out about the pegboard situation) and it was nice to have a chance to break in some of our tools (including our power drill!)

How we became Jesse and Woody

2010-11-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

In case you wanted to know how we made our costumes, here is a little breakdown:

Woody's pants (not pictured because they're pretty self-explanatory): any pair of jeans

Jesse's pants and chaps: I got a pair of white flannel pajamas from DI, and then cut them up. I used a black paint sharpie to make them look like cow hide (the spots ended up getting kind of smeared from when I crossed my legs, so maybe there is a better tool to use for this). I sewed them to a pair of jeans I owned (though not too securely, since I planned on wearing the jeans again post-Halloween. I sewed a seam across the tops, and then just did a few ties down each side of the leg.)

Woody's shirt and vest: I got a plain yellow shirt from DI and then drew stripes on it with a red sharpie (I used a broom handle as a ruler to keep the lines straight, and I put a trash bag inside the shirt to make sure the lines didn't bleed through). The vest started out as a fleece sweater from DI. I cut off the sleeves, shortened the length, and then cut it to look more like a vest. After folding under all the raw edges, I held them in place with a blanket stitch using black yarn. I used a regular black sharpie to make the spots (my paint sharpie had run out after doing Jesse's chaps. Note that this type of sharpie also smeared a little after wearing them for a while). I got the sheriff's badge at Savers and painted it gold (it had been silver, originally)

The pull string was literally made ten minutes before we left for our ward Halloween party. We used some leftover cord from Jesse's hat for the string, and tape (yes, we are ghetto) to make the ring. Then we sewed it on with some white thread.

Jesse's shirt: I started with a white shirt I bought at DI a few years ago (I had planned on hemming it a little and then wearing it in real life, but that obviously never happened). For the yoke, I bought a sleeveless, yellow button-up shirt from DI. I cut off the collar and then matched it up with where I wanted it to sit on the white shirt, trimmed it so it was the right length, folded under the raw edges, and sewed it on. Since I only used the top few inches of the front and back of the shirt, I had enough fabric left over to make cuffs for the sleeves. Keep in mind that I don't have a sewing machine. They looked somewhat Frankenstein-esque, but they worked well enough. To finish it off, I sewed on two large buttons, and got red cord from Joann's to add a little detail. I pinned it how I wanted and then sewed it on with red thread.

The hats: Both hats were DI purchases. Woody's hat was pretty easy. I just added a brown cord trim. For Jesse's hat I spray painted it red, added a white cord trim, and the put a little white ribbon around it (sewed in place with a few stitches).

Belt Buckles: I cut out two cardboard belt buckle shapes, and two bull head shapes. I glued them together, filling in the open edges of the card board bull with gluestick glue so it looked a little more smooth, and then I painted them gold once they dried. Bryan had a belt that worked, and I borrowed mine from Marissa.

Woody's Bandana: I found this one at DI for 50¢

Boots: I already owned my boots. They were DI purchase for my Robin Hood costume a few years ago (I actually wear them a lot for a costume purchase). Luck was with me when I went costume shopping because there was only one pair of cowboy-type boots at DI when I went, and they just happened to be Bryan's size. Seriously, sheer Luck. The spurs are just four strips of card board (one to go around each ankle, and one to go under each foot), and two spur shaped pieces of card board. I painted them gold and then stapled them together.

And that is how we made our costumes.

Halloween

2010-11-03T12:43:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. We carved some pretty nice jack-o-lanterns with Justin and Marissa. Bryan and I both carved something from the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Justin and Marissa carved R2D2 and Darth Vader.

Marissa's sister Amanda and her boyfriend Michael carved the pumpkin on the far left.

Bryan came up with the idea for our costume this year. Our costumes only took a trip to DI, some sewing, a a little paint (well, and a lot of time).

We had fun adding details to Bryan's costume (like the spurs, pull string, and "Andy" written on the bottom of his shoe)

It can be kind of depressing to make a costume and then not have anywhere to wear it, especially since we're too old to go trick-o-treating on our own. We ended up trick-or-treating with Justin and Marissa's nephews in Kaysville, which was really fun, even if it was rainy and cold.

I loved seeing how little kids reacted to our costumes. We had tons of kids point at us and tell their parents, "It's Woody and Jesse!". Our favorite was when we were handing out candy, and a little boy dressed as Buzz Lightyear came to the door. He saw us, did a double take, and then said, "Wow!" He got really excited and introduced us to his little sister. It was adorable.

We had fun dressing up.

Speaking of Winter...

2010-10-29T12:59:00.000-07:00

This is our new house. It's pretty small, but so far we really like it. And it's only a few houses away from where we lived this summer (making the move very easy)

Our view of the mountains is pretty nice too.

This was our house earlier this week. Yeah, it snowed. It all melted in the afternoon sun, but still.

This is not supposed to happen before Halloween. Really, it's not allowed.

End of Summer/Beginning of Fall Picnic

2010-10-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

I don't remember where the idea came from, but Bryan and I decided to have a picnic in the canyon this September. We had been given a picnic basket set (complete with plates, glasses, and utensils) by my mom as a wedding present, so we wanted to try it out.

We found a pretty spot that had a nice view of the fall colors, and the weather was pretty much perfect.

Here you can see the whole spread. We had bread, cheese, salami, grapes and grape juice. It made me miss eating really cheap (but delicious) cheese all the time, like I did in France.

Yum!

(using our camera timer)

I made mini pear tarts for dessert, which added a perfect fall taste to the picnic. Pretty much, every "smitten kitchen" recipe I try turns out amazing. She knows what she's doing.

After our picnic we drove up past Sundance to see the pretty fall colors.

I'm excited for fall to finally be here (winter, not so much)

Since we got married:

2010-10-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't been keeping up on my blog, so I thought I'd quickly sum up our summer:

We went to San Francisco for our honeymoon since neither one of us had ever been (I actually had always thought I'd been there before as a kid. Apparently what I remembered as a childhood trip to San Francisco was actually a trip to Park City)

We got to see the beautiful Oakland Temple while we were there as well.

On our drive from California back to Utah, we stopped in Vegas to see the Lion King, which was great. Once we were back in Utah we got to see Bryan's sister Carolyn get married to her husband Lon.

We moved into this house (we pretty much just house sat for the summer while a the family left for an internship)

We planted a garden (this is just the herb garden. We also had two large planters and some tomato plants)

We spent some time on the east coast for the Weed Family Reunion, Jared (Bryan's brother) and Tabitha's wedding, and a tri-open house for all of us newlyweds. If you can't tell from the above picture (i.e. my sweaty hair and rolled up pants) we were there during a major heat wave.

A few days after coming home from Pennsylvania, we went back out east for a company trip to Disney World.

It was pretty magical, but Disneyland will always hold a special place in my heart.

I went on every ride (I think? Minus Tower of Terror, but I've been on that one at California Adventure). This is me experiencing my first loop. It wasn't too bad either, though my face might make you think otherwise.

Here is our (somewhat) flourishing garden. I had to battle snails like you wouldn't believe, but we did get some pretty good zucchini and yellow squash.

It was a very busy summer, but we really enjoyed it.

That one time we got married...

2010-09-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

We have been married over four months, and I still haven't posted about our wedding, so I thought I would fix that.

We were married on May 14th, 2010 in the Los Angeles Temple.

It was a beautiful day and we were so happy that so many family members were able to make it to the ceremony (especially Bryan's family coming in from Pennsylvania, Colorado, Texas, and Utah among other places).

Our photographer was Christine Olson. We loved her and highly recommend her.

After the temple, we had a little while to relax before heading up to Palos Verdes for our reception.

The reception was held at the Point Vincente Interpretive Center which is a marine museum overlooking the ocean (that just happens to have a little reception hall). The weather couldn't have been better, and the view was amazing.

We had Lindt chocolate as favors (you can see them on the table) and I found myself eating these for weeks after the wedding because I took some, Bryan took some, and my Mom gave us some. I can't complain.

We could not have asked for a better wedding. I had heard so many wedding horror stories, that I fully expected to be stressed all day. But I felt fine the whole time. When the only notable things that go wrong are that your cake falls over and your forget to do your first dance and bouquet toss before your guests leave, I'd say it's a pretty successful wedding (especially when you have a dessert bar so the cake isn't your only hope for dessert).

Happy four months and four days to us!

Nathan Jay

2010-05-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

I've been having fun spending time with my almost-three-year-old nephew since I've been home.

Because he's such a talker now, he never fails to say something amusing when I see him. Recently when I was visiting he asked if he could wear my belt for a little while. When he was done playing with it, he gave it back to me, and I started putting it around my waist. Nathan immediately corrected me. "No, put it on your jeans, Kelly." My sister told him I like to wear my belt on my waist because that's the style. Nathan looked at me for a second and then told me, "That's not the style." He's a funny kid.

shoes

2010-04-30T16:52:00.000-07:00

I'm back in California, and with less than two weeks until the wedding, I've decided to try to wear in my wedding shoes. Yesterday I thought I'd go for a walk outside to begin the process. I ended up taking my dog with me because he is starved for attention and exercise. Almost immediately I realized I had made a mistake. It only took one neighbor staring at me for me to realize how I looked: I was a girl in four inch heels, walking a chihuahua, in southern California. I made a quick loop, and called it a day.

Countdown

2010-04-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

I was just updating our wedding registry and saw that there are only 23 days left until we get married. I can't believe how quickly the last five months have gone! I only have one week left in Utah, and then I'll be back home in California for my bridal shower and all the last minute wedding planning.

We are happy that we have a place to live lined up for spring and summer (we're renting a friend's home while they are on an internship). We also found out that the company Bryan will start working for in May is hosting a company retreat in July, meaning we get to go to Disney World for a week. And we don't have to pay for our flights, hotel, or park passes. If we weren't glad he got this job before, we definitely are now.

Life is pretty good.

Celebrate!

2010-01-28T10:43:00.000-08:00

Bryan and I got engaged on December 15th. That night Bryan came over to take me to dinner at Los Hermanos. I was having some difficulty putting my shoes on because I had just painted my nails (something I never do). I got one shoe on fine, but asked him to help me with the other one. He kneeled down and put my shoe on, and then he pulled out the ring.

This picture is not from the night we got engaged. It just makes me laugh.

Even though I knew he was going to propose soon, I was still kind of surprised because I didn't realize he had the ring yet or that he had already talked to my dad (he was sneaky). He asked me to marry him and I said yes (Bryan would point out that I actually said, "I think I will").

We're getting married on May 14th in the LA Temple. I can't believe it's in three and a half months. Time flies when you are engaged! We're both really excited.

ice skating

2009-12-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

For Alyx's 21st birthday we went to the Gallivan Center in Salt Lake to ice skate. We had a lot of fun and very few falls. In fact, I think Justin was the only one who fell (although it should be noted that he was the best skater in the group. He just happened to want to try a lot of tricks, which led to falls)

They have a Goblet of Fire at the Gallivan Center, so we all threw our names in. I think we even had a champion or two.

This picture may look like we were just standing there, but we were actually doing some synchronized skating.

Happy Birthday Alyx!

Christmasland

2009-12-14T15:59:00.000-08:00

Last week we decided we wanted to go look at some Christmas lights. When Marissa googled "Christmas lights" and "Utah" the first website that came up was for the Holdman house. We didn't think one house could really be that impressive, but it as free so we decided to check it out. We ended up having so much fun watching the show. I took videos but they aren't that good (you can watch all of their displays on their website anyway).

After the Holdman house we drove around the neighborhood looking at all the houses and lights. On our way down the hill back to Orem we noticed a huge area of colorful lights. We decided to try to find it and when we did we were amazed to realize it was only one house (that took up at least two blocks!).

Every tree was covered in lights, and the lights were in every color imaginable.

The pictures don't really do it justice. It was just so big that I could not capture it all in one picture.

All in all, we had a very fun (and cold!) night.

welcome to winter

2009-12-14T11:27:00.000-08:00

Somehow this...

...became this overnight

things to be thankful for

2009-11-26T19:28:00.000-08:00

before...

...after

I am thankful that my first Thanksgiving dinner cooking experience was not a total disaster.

Fall and a Halloween Sneak Peek

2009-10-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

Provo is full of color right now (I need to get some better pictures of all the reds and oranges)
I also found a tree that has heart shaped leaves near my house.

Can you figure out what I'm going to be for Halloween from these two clues?

wings made from some wire hangers and white tightsshoes I already had with pompoms made from the leftover tights.

UPDATE:

I just realized I never posted pictures of our completed costumes

Sometimes I go hiking

2009-10-25T13:56:00.000-07:00

Stewart Falls

I really liked this hike because it was relatively easy, it was pretty, and it wasn't too long or too short. The weather was perfect when we went, so that also influenced my opinion.

Bridal Veil Falls

This was a failed hiking attempt. We were never quite sure we were on a real trail, and then there were a bunch of rock slides across the path... so we turned back even though we were really close to the top.

Mount Timpanogos

It should be noted that we started this hike at 2 in the morning and didn't finish until sunrise (and by "finish," I mean we reached the lake near the top. Then I gave up and we sat by a fire until sunrise)I hated this hike the whole way up, but it was cool once we got to the top. The way down was much more enjoyable.
In conclusion: Utah can actually be a cool place to live.

Happy Birthday to me

2009-10-25T13:44:00.001-07:00

This post is a little belated, but I thought I should briefly pay tribute to my 22nd birthday (which was over a month ago...)
Thank you to my family for all the letters and presents

Thank you to Bryan for getting me my favorite movie and chocolate

(celebrating 3 birthdays in St. George)

It was a good birthday.

Butternut Squash: a new favorite

2009-09-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love reading food blogs. Recently I've become obsessed with smitten kitchen and it's author, Deb. I want to try every recipe she posts. When I saw her recipe for Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette, I knew I needed to try it out as soon as possible. I've only cooked butternut squash one other time so I kind of expected this recipe to turn into a disaster (and it almost did when I rolled out the dough). Luckily, it all turned out fine in the end. It was the perfect meal to get me in the mood for fall. I'm pretty sure I need to make this again. Soon.

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette

For the pastry:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into
pieces
1/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup ice water

For the filling:
1 small butternut squash (about one pound)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoons butter (if you have only non-stick, the smaller amount will do)
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced in half-moons
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch of sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
3/4 cup fontina cheese (about 2 1/2 ounces), grated or cut into small bits (I used Havarti because my grocery store was out of Fontina. The joys of living in Utah...)
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves (I used dried sage because I was too cheap to buy a whole package of fresh sage.)

1. Make pastry: In a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Place the butter in another bowl. Place both bowls in the freezer for 1 hour. Remove the bowls from the freezer and make a well in the center of the flour. Add the butter to the well and, using a pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make another well in the center. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water and add half of this mixture to the well. With your fingertips, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Remove the large lumps and repeat with the remaining liquid and flour-butter mixture. (this part was kind of tricky. In the future I would just mix it all together in one bowl) Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

2. Prepare squash: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Peel squash, then halve and scoop out seeds. Cut into a 1/2-inch dice. Toss pieces with olive oil and a half-teaspoon of the salt and roast on foil lined (for neatness sake) sheet for 30 minutes or until pieces are tender, turning it midway if your oven bakes unevenly. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Caramelize onions: While squash is roasting, melt butter in a heavy skillet and cook onion over low heat with the remaining half-teaspoon of salt and pinch of sugar, stirring occasionally, until soft and lightly golden brown, about 20 minutes. Stir in cayenne.

4. Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Mix squash, caramelized onions, cheese and herbs together in a bowl.

5. Assemble galette: On a floured work surface, roll the dough out into a 12-inch round. Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet. Spread squash, onions, cheese and herb mixture over the dough, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border. Fold the border over the squash, onion and cheese mixture, pleating the edge to make it fit. The center will be open.

6. Bake until golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, let stand for 5 minutes, then slide the galette onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve hot, warm or at room temperature. Serves 6.

I already miss spring

2009-06-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

and here's why:Also, we don't have air conditioning and it looks like it's going to be a hot summer. I could use some rain right about now.

Welcome to Summer

2009-06-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was sunny and beautiful, so Brittney and I went to the park.

We sat under a tree and let our legs get some sun. Later on we checked out an antique store on Center Street that Sandi told me about. I found a necklace I'm in love with and I might need to go back for it.

Bryan and I picked cherries from his Grandpa's cherry tree which is completely loaded with fruit. We picked two big bags and I even climbed the tree to get some of the high up ones. They taste amazing and I'm excited to try out some cherry-related recipes.

breakfast

the most important meal of the day

2009-06-14T23:54:00.000-07:00

When you don't have church until 1:00 pm, it leaves a lot of free time in the morning. This usually results in me sleeping in late, but this particular Sunday morning Brittney and I decided to make breakfast together. I had recently discovered an amazing recipe for French Toast, and Brittney had her Grandmother's recipe for homemade maple syrup, so it was a great collaboration.

Even though the two of us typically photo-document everything we do, we somehow forgot to take pictures of the whole cooking process, so unfortunately I only have pictures of the end result.

French Toast

Ingredients

1 cup half-and-half (we used milk)
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons honey, warmed in the microwave for 20 seconds
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 (1/2-inch) slices day-old or stale bread
4 tables spoons butter

Directions

In medium size mixing bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, honey, and salt. Pour custard mixture into a pie pan and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Dip bread into mixture, allow to soak for 30 seconds on each side, and then remove to a cooling rack that is sitting in a sheet pan, and allow to sit for 1 to 2 minutes.

Over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a 10-inch nonstick saute pan. Place 2 slices of bread at a time into the pan and cook until golden brown, approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove from pan and place on rack in oven for 5 minutes (we put it back on the cooling rack and sheet pan to avoid getting the oven dirty). Repeat with all 8 slices. Serve immediately with maple syrup, whipped cream, or fruit.

Homemade maple syrup and orange juice completed our perfect meal. It was a great way to start the day.

Take-Out Photo Monthly Special: Foreground

2009-03-31T19:25:00.000-07:00

My French professor, Marc Olivier, has a photography blog that dedicates each month to a different aspect of photography. This month was all about foreground, so I found a few pictures from my Paris trip that fit the bill

Andrew Bird comes to Salt Lake

2009-02-27T10:10:00.000-08:00

Andrew Bird is a classically-trained-violinist-turned-folk-singer who I started listening to this year. When I found out he was coming to Salt Lake, I was worried I wouldn't be able to find anyone who would want to go with me... meaning I was worried I wouldn't have a ride to Salt Lake. But randomly enough I found out Leilani likes him too and she wanted to come with me. So Wednesday night we trekked over to Salt Lake.

I was so impressed by his versatility: he sang, whistled, and played the violin, guitar, and glockenspiel (sometimes all in the same song.)

this is the best picture I got of Andrew playing the glockenspiel

Martin Dosh. His drum kit was really sparkly

We got pretty close to the stage (maybe three people back) so we had a really good view (once this giant guy with a fro moved out of our way). I took tons of videos, so here's a little sample of the concert:

Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left

Oh No

I loved when Andrew would just talk to the audience and joke around. I'm still amazed by how good he is live.

how I survived winter

2009-02-23T01:26:00.000-08:00

When you grow up in a place as beautiful as California, is can be difficult to spend upwards of four months with no sun and tons of snow. The only way to counteract the depressing effects of a Utah winter is to constantly do fun things. I can't say I always succeed in this, but I try, so I thought I'd show a few of my recent attempts to survive winter

My friend RT helped me make Crème Brûlée. The best part was when we got to use a cooking torch to caramelize the sugar on top. They turned out surprisingly good (considering my last attempt at making crème brûlée tasted like pure egg yolk)

The MOA (Museum of Art) typically has some cool exhibits. Currently there is an exhibit by Dan Steinhilber. I went to the reception with Alyx and Allison, and we got to meet the artist. The artist had some BYU students (mainly art majors) help him set up all his pieces, so Alyx and I both helped work on this one which is made up of balloons

This piece is made up of hundreds of packets of duck sauce. I thought it looked like a tile mosaic. The color was amazing.
When Ryan went to California for his volleyball tournament, I had the car for a week, and we definitely tried to make the most of our time with the car. We went thrift shopping in Salt Lake and then had lunch at the Bakery (which has the most amazing food). I got a turkey and avocado sandwich with French onion soup.
...which I devoured.

And of course we got dessert: you can't skip dessert at a French bakery.

We found an old phone booth near the bakery and had fun taking tons of pictures in it.
Allison brought me Valentine's Day cookies. I thought the cupid one was hilarious. Alyssa and I made tons of sugar cookies, and had a semi-party with people from my ward.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2009-01-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

Provo has been receiving ridiculous amounts of snow this week. Is this pay back for enjoying such good weather in California over break?

Bounce House Birthday

2008-12-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

This post is a little late, but I really like all the pictures we took, so I thought I'd post about it. For Allison's birthday we rented a bounce house, and it ended up being a completely worthwhile expenditure. We had at least 10 people in it at all times, which meant it was in a constant state of collapse.I love that I am trying not to sit on Allison's face. This picture kind of sums up the whole night: someone was being squished at all times.
Trying to balanceAfter we finished bouncing, Allison, Alyx, and I decided to sleep in the bounce house. Here is a depiction of all five layers I wore to keep warm.It was FREEZING cold and everyone said we wouldn't be able to do it. Alyx ended up getting too cold, but Allison and I were champions.Happy Birthday Allison!! (a month late)

'Tis the Season... almost

2008-11-19T16:02:00.000-08:00

My roommate Marissa is probably the biggest advocate of Christmas spirit that I have ever met. We've been talking about how excited we are for the Christmas season since... September. Being Christmas connoisseurs, we decided that this past weekend was the perfect time to put up our temporary Christmas Tree (after talking Alyssa into it, of course. She didn't want Thanksgiving to get overlooked but we assured her that Thanksgiving is a very friendly holiday and wouldn't mind sharing its space with Christmas). Our apartment was already in the process of its Christmas transformation (garland, a wreath, and lights had mysteriously appeared above our fireplace. I won't name names), and then Sunday, after ward prayer, we pulled out the tree and stockings.Overall, we're pretty satisfied with the results.After Thanksgiving break we're planning on getting a real Christmas Tree.

Pre-Halloween Halloween Party

2008-10-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

While I was at JoAnn's I found a sewing pattern for a little boy's Robin Hood Halloween costume, and I decided I could make it work for me (even though I am definitely not a little boy). I used the BYU sewing lab, which was convenient, and I think it actually turned out decently. I added ears and a tail so I could be Disney's Robin Hood (the fox), which was probably my favorite part.
I went with Allison, Alyx, and Luke to a ward Halloween party, which ended up being a lot of fun. Allison was Hermione and Alyx was Ron.
Their Bishop lives a half hour up the canyon in the middle of nowhere. After the party we were amazed by how bright the stars were, so the Bishop let us lay on his trampoline which made it a lot easier to look at the stars. We saw a bunch of shooting stars, but no satellites.
Here are some pictures of my full costume so you can see my cape and tail.

Alice in Wonderland and the Getty

2008-08-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

Allison and Alyx decided to throw a surprise Alice in Wonderland party for Alisha's birthday so I helped them plan and make costumes/food/decorations.

It turned out really amazing, mainly because everyone went all out on the costumes. I was the white rabbit, Allison was the caterpillar, Sean was the Ace of Hearts, Tim was Tweedle Dum, Carly was Tweedle Dee, Tom was the King of Hearts, Bryce was the Mad Hatter, Alyx was the Cheshire Cat, and Alisha was Alice.

We started off with a tea party.
Lemonade, Sandwiches, and a Doormouse
Alisha was completely surprised. After she came out and saw the set up, we had her change into the costume we had for her, complete with dress, apron, bloomers, and petticoat (I made everything but the dress)
After tea we played Croquet. I think Carly or Alisha won. Mainly I just remember that I did the worst.

Allison, Alisha, and Alyx
Saturday I met up with my roommate Sarah at the Getty. The Bernini statues and the Women in Art and Science exhibits were my favorite (this time). The Art and Science exhibit made us wish we were good at ink drawing and painting so we could draw pictures of insects and flowers.
We sat in the shade of the garden for a while

The garden was in full bloom.
The Art and Science exhibit had an art area where we got to color some pictures of bugs

We enjoyed it a little too much. We were also the oldest people coloring. After the Getty we got food at the Ye Olde King's Head near Third Street Promenade, were we ate Treacle Sponge Cake in honor of Harry Potter. It was fun hanging out with Sarah since I haven't seen her in months. We've decided we need to have art days when we get back to BYU since we won't be roommates anymore.

Long Time, No Post

2008-07-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

I've had numerous complaints that my blog is boring, which is understandable since I haven't posted in months.

I went to see Wall-E at midnight. I'm pretty sure the idea started as a joke, but we all made robot costumes in honor of the occasion. We expected to be the only ones in the theatre, but it ended up being packed. It was kind of embarrassing, but mostly it was hilarious

My robot costume was made at the last minute

Amber and Kevin took Rachel, Rebecca, and me to the Santa Ana Zoo.

It was a smaller zoo, so there weren't that many animals (we never did find the sloth), but Nathan was cute enough to make up for it.

We got to feed goats at the farmRachel made this too easyOn the way home we tried to keep Nathan's head from falling forward, so we tied a scarf around the seat, strapping his head in. It looked pretty funny.

I'll attempt to do a better job of updating my blog in the future!

Art Projects

2008-02-24T21:27:00.000-08:00

Allison and I made pinatas because we were bored and there isn't that much to do in Provo.

Just making the newspaper base took five hours (during which we watched Barbie's Princess and the Pauper and a bunch of episodes of pokemon). Painting them took much less time.

Drying on the bookshelf

Jigglypuff and Squirtle

For a date we made spray paint planet pictures
Me and Taylor
My picture was voted best by an unbiased judge

Winter Semester so far

2008-02-19T09:54:00.001-08:00

I haven't put anything up for a while so I thought I'd do a recap

P.F. Chang's with the family
We tried to do the gallon challenge
But no one finished
Brett left a bowl in our oven and it melted later when someone went to preheat the oven
We made lemon chicken for dinner on Valentine's Day

Saturday we drove out and looked for Ghost Towns

Holding up everyone else

Eureka is a town that they kept how it looked in the 1800's. It was pretty cool

They had an old train car too

Finals

2007-12-16T20:47:00.000-08:00

It's finals week and I'm going crazy because I have so much to do. It is nice to be finished with classes though. On the last day of class, my biology teacher brought a llama and two alpacas to class for no reason which was interesting.

Friday was a reading day, and after spending four hours studying, we took a break and went to visit Jule's Dad's puppies

They were adorable. This is me holding Comet, my favorite one. I realize I look gross, but it's finals week so I feel justified
Tara and Jules holding Belle and Lil' Griz

They had the sweetest faces! This is Beauty who was adorable.

Tara holding three of the puppies

Comet is adorable. I thought about putting him in my purse and stealing him.

I know what I want for Christmas.

When the weather outside is frightful...

2007-12-08T23:24:00.000-08:00

Right before I came home for Thanksgiving, Allison and I decided to finally follow through on our plan to go to Red Lobster for lobster fest, and we brought Lauren with us. It was good, but, like anticipated, we all just remembered that we don't like lobster as much as we think we do. We still ate almost everything though.

On December 1st we woke up to Provo covered in snow, so we did the only thing we could do: We built a snowman. Well, it ended up being a snow woman... and she ended up being really crooked.On Saturday Allison, Tara, and I ended up seeing two plays in one day: A Christmas Carol in the morning and Little Woman at night. This is us right before we went to see Christmas Carol.
Allison Cobabe came with us to see Little Women. We sat in the front row and Jo accidentally flung a pencil off the stage and right into my leg. It was pretty funny.

Halloween

2007-10-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

I've had a blog for forever (since my sophomore year in high school), but I feel like is it's time to start one that isn't too embarrassing to be public. I'm a little wary of blogspot, mainly because I tried to make my account when I was in Germany, so all the instructions were in German (I language I can't read). But now things appear to be back to normal, so we'll see how this goes.

Halloween is just around the corner and I am in love with my costume. We had a ward party on Friday so I already got to wear it once. I was a bee.

Jules and I were bugs (bee and butterfly)

Our apartment and some of the girls across the hall (Jules, Brittney, Casey, Lauren, Allison, Meg, Madison, and Me)

Me and Jules at the ward party

There was a block of wood with an ax in it, so we did a photo shoot

Bugs squished on the windshield