Date Night!

We dyed easter eggs:


And made homemade snickers:


This was one of my favorite dates. Why? Because we didn't even have to leave the house! And it was relatively inexpensive. $1.97 for the egg dye and about $10.00 for the ingredients for the snickers bars. And they were divine! Seriously. If you like Snickers, you would love these!

We also watched this:


It wasn't a terribly uplifting movie (okay, it was down right depressing) but it was still an excellent movie. And we borrowed it from my sister so it didn't cost a thing either!

Total date: ~$12.00
Memories it created: priceless.

I'm Perplexed...

• I'm perplexed by the massive amount of equipment that is being brought into the University Stadium to set up for the U2 concert. The concert is two weeks away and they are already setting up for it? But not only that, they have approximately 15 semi trucks, 5 flatbed trucks, 5 or more forklifts, 3 other trucks (the type that has the lift a person can stand in), a ginormous tent and several building type trailers. They have practically taken over the entire parking lot. I'm perplexed by this situation because when I looked at the U2 tour dates online, they perform every 2-3 days. If it takes two weeks to set up for one concert then exactly how many of these sets do they have? They obviously have to be setting up for more than one concert at a time. And how much is all of this costing? It's no wonder they charge $200/ticket.
  
  
• I'm perplexed by people who go to a choir concert and bring their dinner with them in giant styrofoam containers and somehow expect the people sitting around them to not be annoyed by the smell of it for the next 1 1/2 hours. Is it not possible for people to eat before entering the auditorium? This isn't a sporting event/movie theatre people! I don't care if it was only a high school choir performance, what happened to concert ettiquette? The choir teacher (my sister) already had to remind the audience that cat-calling isn't appropriate for concert performances and should be saved for sporting events. Perhaps next time dinner entrees should also be included in that reminder.
  
  
• I'm perplexed by California. Where do they get off thinking they can control this country? They wanted to boycott Utah over prop 8 (even though Californians passed the bill, not Utahns) and now they want to boycott Arizona over their new immigration bill? Seriously? Don't individual states still have rights? Why does California even get a say in this? I say they better start being a little nicer to their neighboring states - especially those that supply them with water and electricity. Otherwise, someone just might flip the switch on them and it will be Goodnight, California!

The Filet-o-Fish

I hate seafood. Whenever my mom would cook some kind of seafood for dinner I would make sure I had plenty of milk in my glass in order to wash the nasty crap down my throat. I couldn't eat it without the milk or I would gag. Sometimes I gagged anyway. To this day I still hate seafood.

But at the same time, whenever my family bought McDonald's for dinner, I always ordered the Fish Filet sandwich. I don't know why, but I loved it! It was the only thing I ever wanted to eat. They eventually discontinued it and I was so sad. I don't think I have been back to McDonald's since!

Okay, that's a lie. I've been back. But everytime I go back I always remember that sandwich and wish, just once, I could order it again for old time sake.

Well, I just found out that it's back!


It's probably been back for a long time, but since I don't eat there anymore, I never realized it until now. Just looking at that picture brings back a flood of memories. I remember when my mom or an older sibling would pull that blue styrofoam container out of the sack and I immediately knew that it was mine! I could hardly wait!

I really, really want to go get one! But at the same time, I'm afraid that my tastes have probably changed in the past 22 years and I'll end up gagging on it. I don't want to gag on it. I want to always remember it as one of my very favorite things to eat. I'm afraid that if I try it again it just won't taste how I remember and my memory will forever be tarnished.

So what do I do?

My Lunch...

I took a Lean Cuisine swedish meatball meal to work today, heated it up in the microwave, sat down, took a bite of one of the meatballs and immediately thought of this.


My friend blogged about this show and I decided to check it out. One of the episodes was Jamie Oliver showing elementary aged children how chicken nuggets are made by taking the bone/other unused parts and blending them up in a blender, then making them into a patty and frying them. Sounds delicious, right? He did say they aren't made like that here in America but still...

...I sat there looking at my meatballs for about 2 minutes, feeling my stomach churn inside as I thought of the ground up beef/pork bits they used to make them. I literally wanted to vomit.

So, my lunch got thrown in the garbage today and instead I ate some of this:


I'm hungry.

Dropping Hints...

Are you guys familiar with the "they have something on their face/teeth/nose but I don't want to be rude and point it out to them so I'll just brush my face/teeth/nose and hope they get the hint" routine? Well, I'm not sure what to call that, so for the purpose of this post I'm just going to refer to it as "dropping hints"

What is the point of dropping hints? I mean, I understand that we, as a society, want to be polite and not make anyone look foolish for having a piece of their lunch stuck to their face, but how many times does it actually work compared to how many times it doesn't? And how many times does someone assume a hint is being dropped when, in reality, it's not?

Let me give you a couple examples:

Example one:

Last week I had gone to dinner with a few friends of mine and after we finished eating we sat around the table talking for awhile. One of my friends kept picking at her teeth. I could tell there wasn't anything in there and couldn't figure out what she was doing. When I got home that night I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and noticed MY teeth full of spices from the dinner we ate. So apparently my friend was dropping hints at me and I wasn't picking up on them. Couldn't she just say, "Yo! You have crap in your teeth!"? Seems easy enough to me.

Example two:

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine. We were sitting there talking and my nose was itchy, so I reached up and rubbed it. A few seconds later I noticed my friend do the exact same thing; therefore, a few seconds later I rubbed my nose again, and a few seconds after that she rubbed hers. This routine went on for about 5 minutes before I finally looked at her and said,

"I'm sorry. Do I have something on my nose?"

She replied, "No. Do I?"

So here I was just trying to scratch my itchy nose and there she was thinking I was dropping hints that she had something on hers. Because she rubbed hers I therefore thought I had something on mine and the cycle just kept repeating itself.

Does this sound familiar? This happens to me all the time and it drives me crazy. Can't we just tell people there is something on their face or in their teeth? I say yes! So from now on, if I pick at my teeth, rub my nose or brush at any other part of my face, please assume I am doing just that and not trying to drop a hint that you have a giant booger dangling from your nose, or a piece of lunch either stuck to your teeth or your face. Trust me, if that were truly the case, I would tell you.

I'd also appreciate the same courtesy because apparently, I don't respond well to hints.

2009 Recap...

Well another year has come and gone but I actually feel like I can say another year didn't just pass me by. This was quite a fun year for me and I did a lot of new things. Here's a picture recap of just some of my amazing 2009 adventures:

I went to 10 rodeos in one year:


I attended the St. George, Salt Lake and Mt. Timpanogos Temples for the first time. I also attended the two new temples that were built in Utah this year: Draper and Oquirrh Mtn.


I got stitches for the first time:


I went four wheeling for the first time:


I went on a zipline for the first time:


I went shooting for the first time (and did better than all those experienced boys!):


I ate sushi for the first (and last) time:


I went to Bear Lake:


And while there I went horseback riding in the mountains for the first time!


I rode the Heber Creeper for the first time:


And in the process of all this I made a bunch of amazing friends!


Oh, and I increased my number of nieces and nephews by 2 bringing the total to 20:



Here's hoping that 2010 is just as full of adventure as 2009 was!

Making Mints...

Last night my family was reminicing about our growing up years, such as how I used to always be the "garbage girl" when we'd have the treat basket at grandma B's house. This was my claim, but my younger sister quickly disagreed with me, letting me know she had been the "garbage girl" since the day she learned to scoot. But either way, according to my dad, that's what kids are for! So now we make our neices and nephews be the "garbage girls/boys" when they have the treat basket at our house. It's only fair.

But that story has nothing to do with the point of this blog post. Back to reminicing about our growing up years.

We were talking about baking and how everyone in our family had a "specialty" that they made growing up. One sister always made the chocolate chip cookies. Another always made the orange julius. I always made the banana bread. And on and on it went. Apparently, according to my brother, nothing has ever compared to the brownies he and our other brother made once (but which the rest of us have no recollection of). Nor does anything compare to the mint patties that my sister and I once attempted to make.

That is the story that will most likely go down in our family history as the best baking story ever. Here's how the story goes:

Several years ago, the two of us decided that we wanted to make some mint patties. They are fairly simple to make. They consist of four ingredients: butter, karo syrup, mint extract and powdered sugar. So this particular day, we got out the recipe, all the ingredients and went to work. My sister told me how much karo syrup we needed and we started pouring it into the bowl. Well, we ended up running out of karo syrup so the two of us stopped what we were doing and ran to the store. We bought a few more jars of the sticky stuff and headed back home. After adding about the 9th cup of karo syrup, my sister mentioned that it was looking rather sticky. I picked up the recipe and double checked the ingredients. We needed 1/2 cup!! My sister didn't see the {/} between the 1 and the 2 and thought we needed 12 cups!

What two geniuses don't know that there isn't a recipe in the world that calls for 12 cups of anything!?!

When our brother asked us if we threw it away, of course we said yes! But that got us all laughing once again when I asked how many pounds of powdered sugar it would have taken to fix that big of a mistake!

I'll spare you all the arithmetic, but if I figured it correctly, it would have taken 24 pounds.

I'm sure nobody would have stopped and stared at us for hauling four jars of karo syrup out of the store, but 24 pounds of powdered sugar?

I'm pretty sure we'd still be eating those mint patties today!

Thursday Night Confessions...

Some of my friends do this thing on their blogs called "Friday Night Confessions"...or Sunday, or whatever day it may happen to be. I love reading their confessions and so I decided to give this a go. Not that my confessions will be nearly as earth shattering (or hilarious) as theirs but here goes...

• I throw away more food than I eat. I like to buy fresh produce but I never manage to eat it before it goes bad.
  
  
• I never answer the door if I'm not expecting anyone.
  
  
• I never answer my phone if I don't recognize the number.
  
  
• I have a certain spot where I stand everyday while waiting for TRAX.
  
  
• It bothers me when someone else stands in my spot.
  
  
• There's this girl that tries to stand in my spot everyday.
  
  
• My blood starts to boil the instant I see her pull into the parking lot.
  
  
• Yes, I know what car she drives.
  
  
• When I see her, I will sometimes speed walk to my spot just to beat her.
  
  
• I love my new TV. Sometimes I don't go to activities just so I can sit home and watch it.
  
  
• I'm watching it right now.
  
  
• I called my friend earlier and left her a message that said she can call me back but if I don't answer it's because I'm watching TV.
  
  
• My TV addiction may or may not be resurfacing.

What Am I Eating?

Last night my sister and I went to get haircuts. When we finished we decided to stop for a bite to eat at the nearby Carl's Jr. I don't eat at Carl's Jr. that often. The reason for this has always been because I can't stand their commercials. I mean who actually tries to sell food by making it look completely unappetizing? Oh, that's right. Carl's Jr.

Before last night, I could count the number of times I've eaten at Carl's Jr. on two fingers. Though perhaps slightly overpriced, I didn't feel either experience was horrible. But it's just not a place where I think to myself "I really want to eat there. I am craving Carl's Jr."

Nonetheless, my sister and I were hungry last night. It was 9:30pm and I didn't want a big greasy hamburger sitting in my stomach all night clogging my arteries. The closest place that had chicken strips (which I thought would be a little healthier) was Carl's Jr. So that's where we went.

In a word: disgusting.

That might will be the last time I ever eat chicken strips at Carl's Jr. I'm not even sure what I ate were chicken strips. I knew from the first bite that they were disgusting but not wanting to waste the food, I kept eating bite after bite. Something about them didn't taste right. While eating the first strip I chalked it up to the chicken being processed instead of real. But while eating the second one I was beginning to realize that it didn't really taste like chicken.

I turned to my sister and said "These don't really taste like chicken. They taste like...fish?" (note I said it like a question rather than a statement)

"Like fish?"

"I think so. I can't really tell but it tastes fishy to me."

I then stuck the last one up in her face and said, "Take a bite and tell me what you think"

She gave me a disgusted look and said, "Uh, I don't really want to."

"Just a tiny bite..."

So she took a tiny bite and chewed. As she did her face became slightly distorted.

"Does it taste like fish?" I asked.

"I can't really tell" she said. "But it's disgusting!"

I still have no idea what I ate for dinner last night but quite honestly, I'm not sure I want to know. My sister wondered if they fried the chicken strips in the same grease they used to make fish tacos. I honestly don't know.

But what I do know is that I now have a more valid reason as to why I don't want to eat at Carl's Jr.

Cucumbers, Cucumbers and More Cucumbers...

I went to my garden this morning to check on it and I ended up picking an ear of corn, a few tomatoes, a squash, two peppers and 18 cucumbers.

Yes, you read that right. EIGHTEEN cucumbers.

I took seven of them to two of my friends. I threw two of them away (they were way too big and over grown to eat) and I still have nine more.

I've been eating a cucumber a day for about three weeks. I love them. But I'm not sure how many more of them I can eat. So if any of you out there like cucumbers I am begging you to please take some off my hands!!

The Garden*...

After my original post exclaiming how excited I was to plant a garden, it looked like things weren't going to pan out. Marc was very willing to let me use his backyard and he even agreed to till the dirt and water the garden for me. But after talking to my two friends about it, I didn't get the feeling they had as much time to spend on it as we originally thought. I didn't want to care for a garden by myself so I told Marc everything was off. There would be no garden after all.

A few days later I was talking to another friend who jumped at the chance to help me plant it, along with her roommate. So last Tuesday we purchased our plants and seeds and then on Thursday we headed over to Marc's to plant it.


Marc warned us before hand that he wanted nothing to do with the garden (aside from watering it). But I guess he still wanted to be outside with us while we planted it, so he took a little spin around his lawn on his riding mower.


Once we finished we turned the water on and then the four of us decided to go get snowcones. We were gone maybe 30 minutes and then we sat in the car for another 15-20 minutes eating and chatting when we realized the water was still on!


Only planted for an hour and already drowned. What a great start.

*I need to give a big thanks to Marc for the use of his garden and for watering it for us (although due to the unprecedented amount of rain we've been getting, his job has been pretty easy this week), and to April for providing us with some great fertilizer and for taking the above pictures, and to Jason for killing all the snails we ran across last night while weeding. This really has become a little community garden!

My Green Thumb...

About a month ago I was walking around Wheeler Farm with a friend of mine and we were discussing the concept of gardening. He mentioned that he has a huge space in his backyard for a garden. I suggested he plant it. He said no. His reasoning was that the garden is just too much for one person (I guess he never figured on sharing with his two roommates). I said that he could always share his garden with me...I'd be happy to eat the veggies anytime. He then suggested that I just use the space for my own garden. My response: "Yeah right! I don't want to do the work, I just want to eat it!"

Isn't that the way life is? We never seem to want to work for anything. Why plant a garden when we can just drive the two minutes to the store to buy everything we need? Gardening is a huge committment and takes time and effort to see it through. I've never really been committed to anything in my life. Even my quilt projects take years to finish. I always seem to have good intentions about starting something but then I get bored, lazy or just too busy and I quit. It's kind of hard to quit on a garden, unless I want a dead one. So when my friend offered to let me plant one in his yard, I kind of brushed it off as being too much work.

My parent's had a garden growing up and I always dreaded those hot summer mornings when I'd have to go out and weed, water and pick it. I hated it. And each time I was out there slaving away I always thought to myself, "I am never going to have a garden!" So imagine my surprise the other day when I thought to myself, "I really want to plant a garden!" Crazy, I know.

So last night as I was talking to my friend I said to him, "Do you remember that conversation we had awhile back where you said I could plant a garden in your backyard and you'd take care of it for me?"

"That's not what I said!" was his reply.

I was kind of hoping he wouldn't have even remembered the conversation.

"Well, do you still want to plant one?"

"I never wanted to plant one. But I will let you plant one"

"I can't plant it by myself!"

"Well, I don't want to plant one."

"Okay, if I plant it will you at least water it so I don't have to go to your house everyday?"

"Yes, I can water it. But you have to weed it and pick it."

"Great! I can do that once or twice a week...no problem"

Ta-dah! I'm planting a garden! My friend said he would till the ground for me and I recruited two of my girlfriends to help me plant it next week. I'm kind of excited about it, but pretty freaked out as well. I'm worried that I will kill it. So if any of you have ever planted and taken care of a garden before then feel free to help me out!

Happy Planting!

The Truth About Lines...

Today was commencement day at the University of Utah. This meant that my co-workers and I had to be to work well before our usual hour of 8am to help line students up for their big "walk". It blows my mind at how students don't seem to understand what a line is. We ask them to stand in line and they crowd around in groups.

This is a process we go through every year on commencement day and because of all our hard work in trying to make it run smoothly, it has become a yearly tradition for our boss to buy us lunch! And every year we get pizza delivered fresh from the Pie Pizzeria. It is unbelievably good and since the only time I generally eat it is every year on commencement day, I was looking forward to it.

At noon we received the much anticipated email "The pizza has arrived!" and so I immediately rushed up the stairs to get some before everyone else started digging their dirty hands through it. Much to my dismay, there was already a line forming out the break room and down the hall (the disadvantage to working in the basement instead of the actual office everyone else is in). I stood there thinking to myself "I don't want to wait in this line!" and then I noticed something...

Everyone was waiting in line behind one guy who was dishing up his slice of pizza, but there were three other kinds of pizza there that nobody was touching! So, I walked into the room, grabbed a plate, and said something to the effect of "I'm assuming you are all waiting for the same pizza so I'm just going to get a slice of this kind". I grabbed my pizza and walked back out past the 20 people who had been patiently waiting in line.

Just call me a student. I don't like lines either.

Adventures in Cooking...

My sister called me on Sunday to ask me this question:

"If my bag of rice has little worm sized puncture marks all over it, do you think it's okay to cook?"

I asked her if there were any worms in it, she didn't know because she didn't open the bag. After a few minutes of discussion, she ultimately decided to not cook that rice but instead to open another can of rice and cook that.

In the meantime, we started chatting a little about life, but I could tell she wasn't really focused on the conversation because every five minutes she interjected with something like:

"Oh gross! This rice stinks so bad!"

"What in the world? This cauliflower has rotting brown stuff all over it...and a worm."

"This chicken has a little frostbite. Will it taste bad if I cook it?"

I couldn't help but laugh.

I should call and see if she is alive today after eating that meal.

FTC: Vietnam

Monday was our monthly FTC meeting and once again we decided to take a field trip to a nearby Vietnamese restuarant, Indochine, to try out some new food. I had never eaten Vietnamese food before but I was up for it. After all, I've been to China. It couldn't be that different, could it?

I have to admit, however, that even though I was up for eating Vietnamese food, I did pass on the spring roll that Mike bought and shared. It had shrimp in it. I hate shrimp. I didn't want to go through another gagging fest in front of my friends.

Here we are, enjoying our fabulous feast! Yes, I even ate with chopsticks though I am not very good at it.



My meal: I bought a chicken pineapple stir fry and it was so delicious! I already want to go back for more!


I have to say that it was another successful club meeting. Next month we aren't traveling anywhere. We have decided to do FTC: Favorites. So be sure to stay tuned for some of our favorite dishes of all time!

Pulling Taffy...

I had nothing to do on Saturday. Nothing. In the past, this never used to bother me. I often enjoyed having a nice quiet weekend at home. But since I have pretty much had something to do every weekend since February, this unexpected day of having nothing to do about drove me crazy. I had a lot of projects I could have worked on, but I just had this need to be with friends.

So I sent a text to a few friends to see if anyone would be interested in pulling taffy. Three of my friends and my roommate decided to join in.


So it seems my boring saturday turned out pretty fun after all!

FTC: Ireland

Our FTC meeting this month was originally scheduled for the 9th. Due to my moving on the 6th and feeling like I wouldn't have enough time to plan and prepare for it, my club members graciously offered to postpone it until the following week. However, another club member decided to take a trip to the Caribbean that week and so we had to postpone it again until the 23rd.

Due to my crazy busy social life and making myself chronically exhausted because I never sleep anymore, I completely spaced our meeting on Monday. I showed up with a frozen pot pie while everyone else was feasting on real Irish Cuisine.

Everyone also wore green. Everyone except for me, that is. Therefore, I refused to have my picture taken. But here are the others enjoying everything Irish!



I promised them I would get with the program next month. Hopefully I can. We will be traveling to Vietnam so be sure to join us again!

Creating Food...

My friend Marquelle had a birthday in February and so a few of us got together yesterday at the Cheesecake Factory for a little birthday celebration. We all got something different to eat and then passed it around and tasted each others. It was all amazing, but I have to say that I am in love with their orange chicken!

Anyway, my roommate got this plate of potatoes that was heaping over. There was no way she was going to eat them all so she decided to make her own dish. She smeared the potatoes across her plate then added a little garnish. Doesn't it just look so appetizing?


She then decided that it needed a little salad dressing "gravy". You tell me which one looks tastier?


Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the version she created when taking the carrots off my plate (with her fingers) and adding them to her creation. By that point I'm pretty sure everyone else at the table thought she was psycho. I just thought she was Mindy.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!

I have to say that there is nothing better in this world than Old Fashioned Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream! Have any of you ever had it? You know, the kind with flour, eggs, 4 cups of whipping cream and enough sugar to feed a small army? It is the BEST STUFF EVER! Aside from having a wretched smell of eggs permeating through the house for a few minutes it was very fun to make.

I got together with some friends last night and we made us a can full of this deliciousness. We had so much left over, in fact, that everyone is coming back to my place today for some more! I wish I could share with you all...it really is that good!

Here is Jason and Jackie watching the ice cream freeze. Who would have thought that would be so entertaining!


Nearing completion:


All ready to go!


After the ice cream was done we went to my place to share with my roommate who was stuck at home doing homework.


It was so much fun. Thanks Jason for the idea!

FTC: Greece

Yesterday our Finer Things Club took a field trip! We decided to head down the hill from our office and dine out at the fabulous Aristo's restaurant. Since I had never eaten there before (or eaten Greek food for that matter) it was a fabulous adventure!

Here are some snap shots:


Mike treated us all to the hummus appetizers. This platter cost $17.95!


My lunch. I ordered the Cypriot.

It sure was fun for the club to venture out of the office this month. The atmosphere was so inviting that all I wanted to do was break a plate and yell "Opa!" But I refrained.

Join us again next month when we travel to Ireland!