Predicting the future

I was going through a box of old cards and letters and came across a letter I wrote myself about a month into my second semester in college. When I was younger I liked to do that a lot. I would write my future self every so often and this was one of those letters. It was to the 24 year old me (5 years from the time I was writing).

In the letter I wrote about what I thought I'd be doing in 5 years and where I thought I'd be. This is a little insert from my "day-dreaming". "In five years from now, well, let's just say five years and 50 days! (My 24th birthday) I hope to be a mother of at least one. I will have been married for about 3 years. My wedding was on a beautiful summer day in August. I married someone not anything like I would have dreamed back in high school. He wasn't tall, but he was fun and he was easy to talk to and most importantly, he was my best friend. We were married in the Bountiful temple and shortly after, I was able to follow him across the country to the great state of Washington in order to see him chase his dream at med school. I'd like to say those days were easy and fun loving but they weren't. I was homesick and we were poor (med school is expensive) yet through it all I knew that I had found a man that would do anything to see me happy. You can't find someone like that everyday."

I say I was about 50% right. I was a little off on the timing of things. I was only married 2 years before I was 24 and it was on a beautiful (and very rainy) day in August and we are just starting our journey in the great state of Washington and it happens to be in Pharmacy school (which thankfully is giving me a bit more time with my husband then I would otherwise have right now). I also was off on the temple I was going to be married in but the fact I got the State we would be going to school in was pretty astonishing to me. I had absolutely no ties to WA back then. I would say it was a perfect guess. As for my future husband, I think I hit him and his wonderfulness right on the nose - thank goodness for that.

Anyway, just thought I'd share a little bit of me from almost 6 years ago.

Wonder what I'll be up to in another 5 years from now ...

Call for Meat Recipes

I was wondering if anyone has any good recipes for meat ... i.e. Marinades/slow cooker/etc. I know once you've been making meals for awhile you find some that are just really yummy and I could use any advice or help you might have. We are talking about Steak seasonings, pot roasts, chicken, pork, etc.

Thanks in advance for anything you might have.

Documenting Pain

I'm pretty good at documenting my most painful moments on our blog. I don't know exactly why I feel so inclined but I think it's mostly because I don't have many battle scars to show off so I have to show off some things before they heal and go away.

Today I will be showing you my very painful mistake.

I was making dinner, while trying to dump bread out of the bread pan and since I don't have a whole lot of counter top space I dumped the bread out on a wire rack but when I did this my elbow hit the hot bread maker so I reacted by pulling my arm away which meant that my forearm went right into the super hot bread pan and then I reacted to that and bounced back and hit my wrist again on the hot bread maker. Luckily, only the bread pan was hot enough to leave a mark. Unfortunately, it left a HUGE mark. It hurt A LOT. But it did get me a night of being pampered by Ben so I think it just might have been worth it.

Successful Baking

I was reading the October and November issue of Taste of Home magazine and I came across a short article titled "Blast from the past". It talks about traveling back to a simpler time by visiting Kings Landing Historical Settlement in Kings Landing, NB (New Brunswick in Canada).

This settlement is especially enjoyed during the Thanksgiving festival in October "(Canada celebrates the holiday on the second Monday of October)." The staff at King's Head Inn dress up and serve a traditional 19th-century Thanksgiving meal plus Old-Fashioned Brown Bread.

My whole reason for this post is the Old-Fashioned Brown Bread. They included the recipe for the bread in the magazine and it sounded so good I had to try it out.

As far as I can tell it was a huge success. I made it last night and it was still just as good this morning.

Because of how much I liked it I think I'll share the recipe with all of you - (I think this is my second favorite white bread recipe).


Old-Fashioned Brown Bread

2-1/3 cups boiling water
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/3 cup molasses
5-1/2 to 6-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
5 tsp. active dry yeast
2 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, pour boiling water over oats. Stir in butter and molasses. Let stand until mixture cools to 120 - 130 degrees, stirring occasionally.

In another bowl, combine 3-1/2 cups flour, yeast and salt. Beat in oat mixture until blended. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape into loaves. Place in two greased 9-in. x 5 in. loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

Hope you enjoy it as much as i did!

I'm Crafty!

I decided to try out an easy craft and look what I did:


This (It's a barrette, for those who may not have girls) will be going to a certain sister of mine who started Kindergarten this year (hence the little no. 2 pencil).

Pretty good for the first try ... things can only get better from here, right?

Oh and then I tried another type and this is how it turned out:

I probably needed to add more ribbon to this last one because it's a little sad looking at some angles but for the most part I am pleased with my first tries.

Pizza Delivery Tips

Assuming everyone is like me, everyone orders pizza to be delivered. So what do you do when the dreaded moment comes and you have to tip the delivery person.

I asked a pizza deliverer once (not someone who was delivery to my house at the time) what was considered good etiquette as far as tipping a delivery driver. She said that you should tip 15% of the order or $3 - whichever is more.

So I had that dilemma out of the way and then I came across delivery fees. So, here is my question for the blogosphere:

I order a pizza for $15.00 and then I am charged a $2.00 delivery fee. Does that fee go towards the tip I will end up paying the delivery driver (so maybe an $1 tip after the fee?) or do I include that into total amount and get my tip from 15% of $17? Or none of the above?

Help. I have decided until I know this answer I will just be picking up my pizzas from the pizza place.

Pumpkin Fun

I finally convinced Ben to carve some pumpkins so we went to the store last night and picked out our pumpkins and then hollowed them out and set to work to make them beautiful.

Here are our works of are in the light:


And the much better picture of them in the dark:
And then I started playing with the color settings and got this:


I don't think I'll ever be too old for carving pumpkins! I love getting my hands dirty in the pumpkin guts and then carving out some sort of face on the front. My favorite pumpkin I ever carved was a mummy. Too bad I don't have any pictures of that. It was quite awesome!