Hour Long Blonde Moment

Yesterday was the last day of mid-terms so I'm on the down hill slope for the rest of the semester. You could say I am pretty relaxed right now. So relaxed that my head just is not thinking at all anymore.

This morning when I woke up it was awfully bright considering my alarm hadn't gone off yet and I usually wake up in the dark. So after a few minutes I checked my cell phone to see what time it was. Sure enough it was 7:15 and my class started at 7:45. I could have sworn that I set my alarm last night, but apparently I did not. Needless to say I didn't make it on time. This was only a foreshadow for the rest of the morning.

The 7:45 class gets out at 9:45 and my next class is at 11:00. So I went to the library thinking, "Great! Two hours till my next class." Wrong. Very wrong. I did some homework and checked my emails, browsed the Internet, bought a granola bar because my stomach was rumbly, thought I'd walk to class early and read the school newspaper before class started. Well, I did end up there around 11:00. Usually there are always culinary students around waiting for class to start so there is always quite a bit of socializing going on. Well, no one was there! Go figure! Class had started! But me being me, knowing that class started at 11:00, just sat there thinking I got there earlier than I had thought. So I sprawled out on a soft bench, got my flipped through the newspaper and started doing a Sudoku puzzle. Well, I guess what would have been about 45 minutes later I started thinking to myself, I've been here a really long time. I must be earlier than I thought. But a few minutes after that people started walking out of my class room asking me why I wasn't in class. I was SO confused!! I sat there for an hour with no idea what time it was and no idea how much time had passed.

I left the building very embarrassed.

Welcoming Fall and Presidents Club

I love when the leaves change colors. Its my favorite part of fall. And being able to wear all of my sweaters again. Jacob and I have been decorating our apartment to welcome the new season. We bought leaves at the Family Dollar and put them above our living room window. We also got a fall wreath for the door and a pumpkin napkin holder.






We aren't allowed to put anything outside of our doors because its a fire hazard so we decided not to carve a pumpkin. Whats the point if you can't put it outside? So we made a haunted gingerbread house instead.









Here is Jacob blowing a bubble inside of a bubble. Impressive.









And whats a blog post with out mentioning a cooking adventure? This weekend all of the people who donate a lot of money to the school came for what is called Presidents day club weekend. The culinary program was assigned to put together some hors d'oeuvres while President Clark greeted people through a reception line. So, we were put into partners and assigned to come up with a hors d'oeuvres to be served. Everything was so delicious! There were dates and cheese wrapped in bacon and baked, skewers with tortelinni and cherry tomatoes marinated in a dill vinagiarette, open face egg rolls with shrimp, mini pastry puff sandwhiches with chicken and spinach dip inside. I cant remember the rest but it was all really good. Here is a picture of some of the other things we served. I am so happy I got to take some left overs home!The boat looking thing is a cookie with chocolate mousse with a vanilla wafer. Next to boat are mini apple turnovers. In the next row on the right there are pumpkin rolls and next to those on the left are yellow cakes with a vanilla glaze. The pumkin rolls and the cakes were my favorite. Then there are chocolate covered brownies. Those aren't very good. I must say I was a little annoyed when students who were asked to mingle came to eat our food! There were no left overs of the savory items we had made. People came up to us wanting the recipes and the flattering thing is that Sister Clark (the "first lady" of BYU-I) said she had no idea that these hors d'oeuvres were made by students until someone told her.

People have been asking Jacob if I make him big delicious meals all the time. The truth is what I make at home is quick and easy or on Sundays it is something I can throw in the crock pot and forget about because it takes a lot of time to prepare the food we make in class. Not that the crock pot doesn't make delicious meals. The are really good! But he does get fresh french bread, bagels, doughnuts and soon he will get a pie and blueberry muffins! Yum!

Mid-terms...

are rough. This is mostly just for my memory book, but if you actually read the whole thing then kudos to you.

I just finished one of the most stressful tests of my life. The disappointing thing is, its not going to matter a year from now. Or even 2 months. It wasn't the bar exam or anything of the sort. It was a mid term test for a cooking class. We had to be prepared for anything everything we learned in the class so far and ANYTHING from the pre-requisite class. You had to prepare a vegetable with a type of cut (small dice, medium dice large dice and believe it or not there are actual dimensions all the different dices and there are a lot more cuts than just the dices), a starch, a cooking method for meat and a type of sauce to prepare in 1 hour and a 1/2. Sounds easy right? Wrong. We didn't know what kind of meat or vegetables or sauce we'd be making before hand, so we had to study EVERYTHING. We also weren't allowed to talk to anyone except for safety reasons.

I just kept praying please no fish, please let this not be so bad, please no fish, please let this not be so bad, please no Asian sauces, please no fish. So when I got my assignment, I didn't have any fish or Asian sauces and it wasn't so bad. I had to make pan fried chicken, roasted potatoes, parsnips with a batonnet cut (1/4 x 1/4 x 2 inches see the picture of the carrots) spinach and a puree. I definitely wasn't expecting a puree. So I found the easiest one that would go with a potato. Two ingredients, garlic and olive oil. Didn't really turn out. The garlic was burned and it needed more olive oil. But its okay, some people didn't even present their sauce because it just didn't turn out right at all.

I sauteed the chicken instead of pan frying it. Sautee... pan fry? Who can really tell the difference? Well, the teacher did. I didn't even know that I had sauteed it until afterwards when he told me I did it wrong. Whoops.

The potatoes on the other hand were perfect. 10 out of 10. I had to roast them. So I did it like my mom does! (THANKS MOM! The best thing I made wasn't even learned in class!) I put some olive oil in a pan, cut red potatoes into fourths and sprinkled them with salt and pepper and cooked them in the oven for 45 minutes. They were delicious and people even stayed after class to try some. Extra virgin olive oil can make such a nice flavor on the skins of the red potatoes.

I steamed the parsnips and spinach. I wasn't sure how to go about cutting the parsnips and the teacher is really picky about cutting. He'll pick up the vegetable and look and the ends to make sure they're exactly square. There was definitely some divine guidance because I kind of just kept cutting and all of sudden I caught the vision and before I knew it I was cutting batonnet parsnips. They turned out okay. I've never even eaten parsnips before so I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with them. I figured steaming was my best bet for any vegetable.

So we had to have two matching plates with all of the assigned food on it and they had to look pretty. No three point landing type of presentations. (You know the plates that kids eat off of with the little dividers in them?)If you were missing one thing, you'd loose a lot of points. I was so grateful to be done early because a couple of people who had taken the test before had not even finished. They had nothing on their plates when the teacher called times up. Everyone had something wrong with their plate so I don't feel too bad about my very dry, extremely strong, burned garlic puree.

AND! This is the best part. Guess who was there to grade with the teacher. The cooking teachers new best friend, the French pastry chef. He gave me a nod of a approval on the roasted potatoes.

A Run in and Chocolate Chip Cookies

This evening I took my friend Annalise to the grocery store. When I was parking back at home in our parking lot I gave the fence that divides the property a good nudge. The fence is no longer standing straight up where it was hit and the car has nice scratches on the passenger side corner of the front bumper. I sheepishly told Jacob what happened when he came home from work and I made it sound really bad so when he saw the scratches he wouldn't think they were so bad. And it worked!

Thankfully Jacob is a good sport and just laughed it off. He was more concerned about getting spider guts off his shoe after he stepped on a hobo spider in the parking lot.

And while I fully support Jacob in his P90x workouts, I do think it would be easier to watch if Tony, the instructor, had a tan and the girl in the ab video needs longer shorts.

Now for the cookies! In my nutrition class we made low fat cookies and these are the best low fat cookies I have ever had. EVER. I personally can't tell the difference. I shared them with the other secretary at work and she asked for the recipe. So, if you ever get the urge to make cookies with out the guilt, make these ones. (Well maybe a little guilt, no matter how healthy you try to make a cookie, it still wont be all that great for you.) I promise they are amazing and stay soft for days! I cut the recipe in half. You'd have cookies for a year with the original recipe.

Cream Together:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup apple sauce

Add:
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup ground flax
6 ounces mini chocolate chips

Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 9 minutes at 350 degrees.

Photo Shoots and the Gem State

My roommates/best friends and I have taken pictures just about every semester. So, even though we aren't roommates anymore, we decided to keep up the tradition. They are just about the best friends a person could ask for. Annalise isn't afraid to put me in my place and she is always ready to listen to any problem. Amy is always full of smiles no matter what is happening. Plus, we laugh a lot. I just love them!
Here is one of me and Jacob.
With the recent weather changes from Summer to Fall, I have really been down on eastern Idaho. Considering I am stuck here for a while, I decided to make a list of eastern Idaho gems that I can come back to and look at when its negative 10 and windy to remind myself of the good things that are here.

1. Florence's Exquisite Candy and Sarah's Candy Cottage. I love candy and I have a great appreciation for any fine confection. It's not easy! Plus Sarah's Candy Cottage has the best gelato I've found in eastern Idaho.

2. Five Guys Burgers and Fries. This reminded me a lot of In-N-Out. It has a really simple menu and a GREAT hamburger and the french fries were really good too. Jacob and I went for the first time yesterday and I do plan on going back. The burger wasn't too messy and tasted fresh.

3. Sand dunes. Whats so good about huge piles of sand? Not much. But if you're out there at night and look up, you can see the milky way and every inch of the sky is filled with stars. Really beautiful. Plus, there have been many roasted marshmallows and smores made there. You just have to watch out for the four wheelers.

4. Taco Bus. It is a school bus that has been pitted and half of it is a kitchen and the other half is for sitting and eating. This is hands down the most authentic Mexican food you'll find around here and it is amazing. The best part is that it is right around the corner from our house so on our way home from school we can get a nice big whiff of it and it makes our mouths water every time.

5. Yellowstone. Not exactly in eastern Idaho, but we are close. It is just so relaxing there and spotting all the animals is fun too.

6. Lava Hot Springs. A nice place to warm up in the winter. The town is so cute and quaint too. Jacob and I plan on going down there for a weekend during the winter to really find out the value of this gem.

7. Rigby Lake. The closest thing you'll get to a beach during the hot summer.

8. Rutabagas. This restaurant gave me hope for Idaho Falls. This is fine American dining that could have came straight out of San Francisco. Its way too expensive for me and Jacob, but I am pretty sure we'll be there any time my parents come to town. The desserts are to die for too.

9. Good ol' redneck demolition derby's. Cars crashing into each other until their radiators explode. Need I say more?

And when I'll all else fails I'll always have my best friends with me!