humble pie.

My room mate came home very late last night, like 2am, while I was making scones. I had already tried one and was surprised they were so good even though I was making them half awake so I bragged a bit and she said "yeah, you're a good cook and humble too!"

Okay, okay. Give me a break, it was 2 am.

Just so I can deflate my ego a little I decided I would think of some culinary failures Ive had - I can only remember a few but there are tons!

*This Christmas I cooked the entire meal - appetizers to dessert. I forgot the sugar in both apple pies, talk about tart!!

*I was making a soup recipe of Sis Dransfields but adding some other stuff in there as well. I put a can of corn in it and left it over night which made it taste... weird. I eventually fixed it but not without turning my potato chunks into potato bits.

*I cant count how many times I have burned pancakes

*I made macaroni and cheese recently and somehow it ended up way too salty :(

*I attempted some pasta, Parmesan cheese and tuna dish - fail. It was gross.


better? :)

Its just not fair!

I am "cursed" with a talent that increases certain numbers I do not want to increase, i.e. the ones on the scale.

Im a cook,
and a dang good one.

Tomorrow is one of my housemates birthdays. I just so happened to have been wanting to make scones since I thawed a jar of my homemade lemon curd during the week. Tomorrow morning we are having a B.Y.O.C. party on the main floor of the house.

B.Y.O.C. = Bring Your Own Cereal

Just so we can keep it simple :)

I told everyone I would make scones though,
and it is 1:47am (why am I up?!)
and I have finished two batches of scones...
and tried one,
or two.

Im giving you the recipe so you can make them and then tell me how good they are.
Also - if Lemon Curd seems daunting, its totally not. Look up a recipe on foodgawker and try it out. It was pretty fun and i made three jars of it from one batch. Finished one in DC with my roomates and just thawed one of the remaining two for the scones.



2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
4 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 egg slightly beaten
1 tsp. of vanilla
2 Tbl. of sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and butter in a food processor. Pulsate everything in 3-second intervals until everything resembles course meal. If doing this by hand, use 2 knives, a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture resembles course meal.

Transfer everything to a large bowl. Stir in heavy cream, egg, and vanilla mixing the dough by hand until it forms into a uniformed and slightly moistened dough. *You can also use your Kitchenaid with the dough hook on the slowest speed for a few minutes.

On a floured surface, grab enough dough to fit into your hand about the size of a baseball and gently roll it in a ball.

Flatten the ball and until your disk is approx. 3/4″ in height. Press down the outside of the dough circle so the center is slightly taller. Evenly sprinkle sugar on top of each circle.

Cut each circle in quarters. You should have enough dough to make 4 circles and 16 scones.

Bake on a ungreased cookie sheet, or line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown. Remove scones from baking sheet and cool on a wire rack.

(I added a little more vanilla, but thats just me)

Paints, Prints and Presents - Oh my!

So I've recently started following a great little blog {Young People in Love} .
Its fun to follow blogs of really adorable, young lds wives.
Unsure about that? - Read this

I am a not-so-closet follower of these blogs. Check the side bar, I read NieNie.

Well Amanda (1/2 of these young people in love) is doing a really fun giveaway.
Why?
Her and her husband were robbed, while at church, and she needs a little "happy" and by giving away a print, I think thats lots of "happy" vibes being sent her way!
(I speak about these people like I know them, I hope that doesnt come off creepy... back to the point)

So for my 4th entry in to the giveaway I need to blog about it.
Easy.

I love art.
See my header? Thats my painting.
I love prints!
Look at Amanda's Etsy Shop
And I could totally live with getting one of these and calling it a nice early graduation present just for me :)


So - Cross your fingers and visit her blog!

i had a date!

...with my best friend and her boyfriend on skype :)

was that a bit of a let down for you?

oh well, it was lots of fun for me.

she answered my questions about my upcoming flight,

we discussed all the things that they have planned for me in utah,

and we exchanged a lot of silly faces.

i really love those two people.

(yes, boomer, im including you in this)

its nearly 2:00am and i am still awake....

and i dont really have a good excuse.

i have updated my profile on ldsjobs,

updated my resume,

and refilled my cup of white grape peach mango juice though.

tomorrow is going to be pretty busy.

as is wednesday.

and friday.

and then all of next week - getting ready for my trip and all,

so maybe ill go to bed,

now.

p.s. i would apologize for the lack of capital letters and appropriate grammar and usage of punctuations but i dont really care all that much. i will apologize to Katie Randall Jensen in case she reads this just because i know how she is about stuff like that.

:)

events of the day.

Currently: Drinking this juice while doing oodles of Spanish 4 homework,

A mi me gusta :)

Prior to juice-age and tarea-doing...

I ordered my new sneaks for Body Attack. During the plyo track of attack on Friday I landed and quickly felt what no support left in my shoes meant. Ouch. Being that Luna (my car) is acting up I figured I would try out Zappo's and order them online. We have Gel-Kanbarra by Asics and the Ryka Revives. Cross your fingers that A - they come before launch this coming Friday and B- that one pair fits and that I actually like said pair.

What lead me up to the juice drinking, homework doing, shoe ordering night I've had?

I scared my FHE group leaders in to e-mailing me their lists of plans for the next two weeks. By scared I mean I texted them saying we would have to meet before church today and then I received emails with plans so no meeting!

I went to church. Megs and I were discussing what to do for Bones night because there is not a new episode this week and I said "How about we finally watch The Importance of being Earnest?" to which she replied "Ooh! Tonight?!?".

I had dinner with the girls upstairs (I live in a house with 3 apartments - 1st floor, basement and top floor - a total of 9 girls but most were out of town this weekend). I asked what I could bring and they said dessert so I cranked out a Chocolate Pudding Cake. so totally not a diet friendly snack but hecka good, and super easy.

Then I got a text from Megs saying the parents were at BYC but Mother gave us permission to watch the movie without her. I gave Megs a call and her hubs-dubs answered and answered every question I asked in German until I heard the lady in the background say "tell her to come over!!". He relayed the message and asked me to bring goodies.

I took a half-pan full of Chocolate Pudding Cake over to the parents (the dransfields). Gavin came upstairs and announced that while we were watching our movie, he was going to watch his movie Despicable Me. (I LOVE THAT MOVIE) Megs and I started the movie and then I ventured downstairs for a little to catch some Gavin's movie (he apparently was hoping I would want to watch that movie over Importance of Being Earnest - I'm pretty happy to share a birthday with this kid). The parents came home, we finished the movie with Mother, Gavin and I talked possible celebration plans for our half birthday (I like to celebrate them and Ill be here for our half birthday... Dude, why not?!), Megs fell asleep, Mother and I talked Senior Paper Topics and Classes, Scott played Lazy Eye, Mother had homework and so did I - exit from Dransfield home and...

here I am.

Did I mention I also have a crock pot full of Potato Soup going? Its a friends recipe but I doctored it a bit so its more like a loaded potato soup, or baked potato soup, or ...yummy stuff :)

Okay - Its now probably time I get back to homework.

Blah.

all you need is love...

On the Soap Box - Happy Valentine's Day

I don't remember when it started, but somewhere in the last 21.5 years I have fallen in love with love. For all intents and purposes I will blame one, Samantha Kealoha, and you know why. I think out of the trio she was the one most set on never letting us forget Valentine's Day. February 14th never passed without us celebrating in properly. Thanks, dear.

However, on the SVU campus we have a disease called "Im-going-to-celebrate-singles-awareness-day-and-not-Valentines-Day-because-Im-single". Personally, I want to know where this came from. I never heard of Singles Awareness Day until my freshman year at SVU when girls ran around on 2.14 with "SAD" shirts on. Really? This year, in our schools newspaper publication (for which I manage the finances) had our Valentines Issue come out without me really... looking at it before hand. Since some of you do not go to SVU or are not close enough to campus to check it out, I'll sum it up for you - One article was "A Single Girls Guide to an Anti-Valentines Day Celebration".

What?!

Since when is being single a reason to not like Valentine's Day? Since when are women now so controlled by their relationship status that if they are not with someone they automatically feel the desire... nay, right to wallow in self-pity for 24 hours. I do have a friend with a great excuse for preferring SAD to Valentine's but the rest of you have no excuse, sorry.

Valentine's Day may be a holiday that is highly commercialized. It may be a day that kind of makes you sick from all the excessive pda couples feel they can show because its Valentine's Day but you know what? Its a great day!

It is a day to remember love. All kinds of love. Love from your parents, and to them. Love for the rest of your family. Love for the best friends that are so fantastic you just spent nearly $500 for a plane ticket (and you hate flying) just so you can see them. Is it wrong if I say this is even a day to remember the greatest gift of love, ever, The Atonement. No.

It is a day to love.

To remember love, to share love, to be obnoxious about love with construction paper hearts and thickly iced cookies, to dance around with your best friend at the last Valentine's dance you'll be in the same state for.

Off the soapbox.

:)

Now for some pictures of my last few Valentine's celebrations in Virginia.

Freshman Year - Sadie Hawkins Dance

Sophomore Year - Brayden & I broke up and then got back together on Valentines Day
Looking back, especially at this photo, Im not suprised we broke up two weeks later
:)

Senior Year - At the SVU Valentines Day Rave with Mal

Senior Year - Valentines Day
Celebrating National Creeper Day (take 2) with some of my FHE "Kids"

All in all, some really fun times have been had.

Spring Break 2011 - Update

See this map?
The red heart is where I am currently located.
The green stars are my destinations.
The orange stars are my trip back.
The red star is to represent my many "favorites" in that location.

I bought my plane ticket on Monday night and have been semi-freaking out ever since.
Round trip it was close to $500,
but so worth it.



I leave March 3rd from VA, change planes in PA and then its a straight shot to Las Vegas, NV.

Ill be in Vegas for 3 days and then its up to Provo, Utah.

Ill get to see my (yes, note the possession) Sam, Boomer, Tommy, Brandon, Diana, Amber, Geoff, Jordan, Bekah, and more!

**These people are enough of a reason to get me to move out west**

Ill be in Provo for a full week, and leave from Salt Lake on March 14th.
Ill stop in Denver and Chicago to change planes and then be back in Roanoke.
Cross your fingers and I might get lucky enough to see Kenny in Denver.


This is going to be EPIC!

My first trip out West. Serious.
Unless you count Ohio as being in the West.
Nope? Didn't think so.


So far on my checklist of things to do are:

VEGAS:
The Strip
The Old Strip (Freemont Street)
Water Show at the Bellagio
In N Out
Las Vegas Temple


UTAH:
As many Temples as possible!! (Definitely Mount Timp and Salt Lake)
J Dawgs
Hang out on BYU Campus
Go to class with Sam
If its not too cold, Hike to the Y
See a local show (band)




Question: What else do I need to see and do while I am here? My layover in Chicago is 3hrs long, any ideas for that one? How about some good books to read on all of these planes I'm taking?