2013 - Week 8

Hi all. How was your week? I would have to say that mine went pretty well, but was super busy. I managed to keep up with my dream journal, daily memory journal, and Bible reading, and for exercise, I did 30 minutes of Wii Fit and 30 minutes of fitsugar.com workouts (this was one of them: Full Body Workout). I liked the 10 minute workout videos . . . for some reason that makes it seem like it's not so long. I would start a video, and would you look at that, it's almost over :) I did a ten minute arm workout though and I think I went a little crazy with my three pound weights . . . my right elbow is sore now . . . oops.

For new things, I tried something that I found on Pinterest, a gelatin face mask It was touted as a full-face "pore strip". Unfortunately, it didn't really clear my pores or get rid of larger hairs but did get rid of some smaller ones and made my skin a little smoother. I took some pictures, but then I decided that no one needed to see my face that close up, so I'm not putting them on here. I wouldn't recommend the face mask . . . it smelled (but not as bad as some commenters claimed) and really hurt on sensitive places where I might have left it on too long. Oh well, it was worth a try.

On a more fun note, the coolest new thing I did this week was to make my own edible arrangements :) So much fun, and so tasty too. When it comes to giving gifts to people, I tend to go for the cake / dessert route, but when the recipients are watching their sugar intake, I'm pretty much at a loss of what to do. I decided fruit was healthier than cake, and give these a try. I perused a few web sites:
http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com and http://www.ediblearrangements.com
before deciding what I wanted to do. Luckily, all of the fruit I wanted just happened to be on sale this week . . . awesome :) I already had the skewers, so all I had to buy extra was the vase and the florist's foam, and I was all set.

My initial set up

Taking some tips from the website, I surrounded the foam with the kale to make it pretty (I was going to halve the head of lettuce to make it rounder on the top, but didn't end up using it).

The base

 I wanted to make pineapple flowers, blueberry skewers, cantaloupe wavelets, and of course, chocolate dipped strawberries. Unfortunately, I've never tempered chocolate, so that was a new experience too. I don't know if I did it exactly right, but I followed these two sites: http://www.instructables.com and http://sweets.seriouseats.com and it seemed to work fine. It looked like it was supposed to on the strawberries too, which was a plus. I picked the prettiest ones and then washed and blotted them dry on paper towels before dipping them in the chocolate.

My mid-bouquet mess. You can see my chocolate covered strawberry drying stand in the back (the blue glasses with the foam resting on them . . . I just stuck the skewers through the foam and let the chocolate dry for about 15 minutes)

The beautiful finished product

I got all of the materials needed to make this (minus the skewers and the small amount of chocolate I used) for $15.50, it might not be 100% as perfect as the Edible Arrangements, but considering it's less than half the price (a comparable one from Edible Arrangements was about $60), I think it's worth it :)

 PLUS, not only did I get the arrangement, I had lots of fruit left over, so I made this cute smaller arrangement for a friend, just because she's awesome:

 Then I still had more left, and my husband LOVES fruit, so I made him the "fruit lovers" edition where the vase was filled with layers of fruit (the pieces that weren't perfect enough to go on the skewers).

 Needless to say, he was very pleased with his fruit sticks :) I told him not to eat it all in one sitting . . . he ate in it two.

 Not too bad for ~$15 and a couple hours of my time . . . it was tons of fun and I think the recipients all enjoyed them. I said a big prayer of thanks that all the fruit I bought was perfectly ripe . . . it could have turned out poorly if that wasn't the case, but I think they all turned out just wonderfully :)

Until next week . . . :)

2013 - Week 7

Hello from Week 7 :) I hope you all had fantastic weeks. Here is how mine went:

I convinced my husband to come rock climbing with me and I think we did pretty well. He's been working out so he did much better than last time we went, and we worked really well together on finding the routes. I did a little bouldering as well as rope climbing, so that was a nice change. Also, he spotted me a difficult boulder problem that I was too scared to do alone. I got it :) We climbed for about two hours . . . I didn't end up getting to all of the V1s in this month of climbing, but I did almost all of them, got all the V0s, and even a V2, so I still think it was a successful climbing endeavor.

I had only sporadic dreams to record, but Bible reading and daily memory recording has gone well. We're reading about Joseph right now and these songs are just so entertaining (pardon the weird nature of the videos): Jacob & Sons and Joseph's Coat, from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat".

As for my new things this week, I have a few again:

First, I made these adorable heart-glazed cornmeal cookies for my Bible study group on Sunday (as Valentine's Day is this week). Aren't they cute? They really hit the spot too, they were exactly what I was hungry for. They tasted kind of like a cross between shortbread, cornbread, and a sugar cookie . . . so tasty :)

Cornmeal cookies

I don't mean to brag, but I think mine are prettier than Martha Stewart's ;)

My Valentine's Day present from my valentine :) 

Secondly, I made a tomato-peanut soup. I had high hopes for it because it sounded so interesting (peanut butter, tomatoes, and curry powder), but unfortunately, it wasn't as good as the black bean soup from last week. It might be just because I'm not the biggest fan of hot peanut butter, but I didn't end up keeping the recipe.

Tomato-Peanut Soup

Also, I made a Mexican chicken pizza with cornmeal crust that was really tasty. The green onion flavor left me with bad breath all evening, but other than that, it was very good and really easy to make too. I just used the plain diced tomatoes (actually I used whole canned tomatoes and chopped them up), but I think the fire-roasted would make it taste even better. I will definitely make this again.

Mexican chicken pizza with cornmeal crust

Finally, I tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe that I found on Pinterest. Supposedly, it was a copycat recipe of Mrs. Field's cookies, but I don't think I've ever had one of those, so I couldn't tell you whether it tasted like one or not. I thought they were a little overly sweet, but I blame myself for trying a new recipe. My lovely friend Kerry's mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies in the world, in my humble opinion. I was lucky enough to get her recipe and that is the one I always go to . . . I should have known better than to try anything else. Oh well, now I know for next time.

So, have any of you tried any of these recipes yet? Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, I used a Keurig for the first time this week too, that counts as learning something new, right? It was fun. Anyways, I hope you are all enjoying reading about my adventures every week. Stay tuned for more fun next week :)

2013 - Week 6

Hello from Week 6 :) How are you all doing?

My week went pretty well I think. Rock climbing is still going okay, I've finished almost all of the V1s, but then of course they put up more, so I don't think I'll get them all done. One of the days that I went to the climbing gym, the youth competitive climbing team was there, and I got totally schooled. I watched in amazement as these young kids scaled V3s with ease. Granted, they weigh next to nothing and have quite a bit of prior climbing experience, but it was still neat to see.

My journal writing and Bible reading has been going well. I guess I never realized how many dreams I actually have. I always seem to have something to write in my dream journal, even if it's short. One day, I didn't have anything though, but then I took a nap in the afternoon. I have to say, that was the craziest dream I've had all year. It was so vivid with crisp details and a fun story (the highlight was living in a eco-dome in the center of the Mall of America in preparation for moving to a similar dome on the moon) . . . fun stuff :) Do any of you record your dreams? I think it will be really entertaining to look back on some of these later on.

My new things this week were recipes again. One of my wonderful brothers bought me some truffle oil for Christmas, and if you read my 2013 - Week 1 post, you will have seen my previous attempt at truffle fries. This time I went for small cubed potatoes baked with olive oil, garlic salt, and plain breadcrumbs on them, and then I sprinkled them with more bread crumbs and the truffle oil after they were done baking. I baked them at 450 F for 35 minutes, stirring about halfway through. They were so good and truffle-y . . . yum. I don't know what it is about truffle oil, but the flavor just gets in my head and I can still taste it days later, it's so good :) Along with the potatoes, I used this recipe from Penzey's Spices for the chicken tenders and added some green beans so there was something healthy in the meal. I love Penzey's :)

Truffle potatoes with green beans and chicken tenders

My other new recipe came from another recipe magazine, but I don't remember which one. On Googling the recipe, I found the exact one from Martha Stewart, so maybe it was her "Everyday Living", I'm not sure. At any rate, I'm glad I found it because now I don't have to type  it all out . . . here is the recipe: Spicy Black Bean Soup. I am a huge fan of this recipe. I don't really like beans, and amazingly, I loved it. It tasted creamy and exotic . . . not something I thought could have come from my kitchen, that's for sure. I used the canned beans and toasted some corn tortillas to put on top. I just love cilantro and avocado, so that could be one of the reasons that I liked this so much, but I would definitely recommend trying it. I took most of the seeds out of the jalapenos, but I think next time I'll leave one of them with the seeds in because it could have been a little spicier, I just didn't want to overdo it on the first try. So, if you have a few cans of beans in your cupboard that you don't know what to do with, definitely make this recipe . . . it's so good.

Black bean soup

Until next week then . . . see you soon :)

2013 - Week 5

So, how was Week 5 for everyone? I slacked a little bit on my rock climbing and only went once, but I made up the rest of the time getting almost all done with my recipes. I even took a completely relaxing bath while finishing the rest of my "Breaking Dawn" on CD and working on my recipes . . . now that's the way to get a task done :) I did 30 minutes of Wii fit to finish out my hour of exercise for the week, and the strength training challenges (push ups, planks, and those V sit up things) kicked my butt . . . I was sore for two days. Other than that, all of my reading & writing stuff (dream journal, daily memory, Bible reading) is still going well, nothing too exciting to report. As for my "new thing", I actually had three new recipes that I tried this week:
#1 - Cheesy Chicken & Salsa Skillet

It was pretty tasty. I used a frozen pepper and generic brand salsa but it was still good. The chicken was moist and the flavor good with the salsa. I turned on the broiler and put the pan under that to get the cheese to melt since the heat from the dish alone was not doing it. It's a keeper I think.

#2 - Chocolate Yummies

Graham crackers with marshmallows melted on top

Chocolate / Peanut butter / Rice Krispie mixture spread over that

Mmm . . . 

Now, something called "Chocolate Yummies" really can't be bad, but I have to say, these weren't as good as I was hoping. Perhaps it is because they were up against a lot of other amazing treats at the party I took them to, but I wasn't as in love with them as I thought I would be (for how much I like s'mores). They are okay, but the inspiration they gave me (to attempt a similar dessert, but with a few changes, to try to recreate my favorite candy bar, the Nestle Lion Bar) was worth it. They are tasty, but I probably won't make them again unless specifically requested. Stay tuned for my Lion Bar creation one of these days :)

#3 - Velveeta Spicy Cheeseburger Dip

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this one, but it was by far the biggest hit of the week. Everyone at the party loved it and the recipe was requested by all. One girl loved it so much she said she felt jealous every time anyone else took some because it meant there was less left for her to eat. It was especially good with tortilla chips, I thought, but I also had Ritz type crackers, carrots, celery, yellow pepper, and pizza crust with it :) I doubled the recipe and kept it warm in a crock pot during the party. Afterwards, there was a bit left (only because I made a double batch) so I used some to make homemade "Crunch Wrap Supremes". I also took some and diluted it with milk, thickened it back up with cornstarch + water and served it with shell pasta . . . it was like spicy, tex-mex Velveeta shells and cheese . . . highly recommended.

I hope you enjoy all of those recipes, and have another great week :)

2013 - Week 4

Well, hello, and welcome to Week 4 :) How has your year been going so far? Here is how my week went:

To start out with, my dream journal has not been going so well this week, not because I've forgotten to write things down, but because I haven't had any long, fun dreams. Most of them have just been short snippets or a theme of the dream, and usually they just relate to the movie or TV show that we happened to watch that night. Nothing too fun or exciting.

My daily journal and nightly Bible reading has been going very well though. I can't wait to have multiple years written in the journal and be able to look back on what I did each year on that date . . . I think that will be fun. I bought a little 200 page (400 side) notebook and at the top of each page I've written the date and then along the left column, I'm writing the year and then just a short blurb about something that happened that day, usually whatever was most notable  or my favorite thing. (I was going to use a page-a-day calendar, but the notebook was cheaper). Then next year, I'll go through the same notebook again and continue for how ever many years my little pages last :) Fun huh?

As for my five hours of task, I went rock climbing two days and made up the rest of my time organizing my recipes. I am slowly but surely making my way through the giant pile of cooking/recipe magazines that I have accumulated on my side table. I think I'm going to need some more page protectors though, my binder is getting rather full. At least I won't be at a loss for recipes any time in the near future :) The rock climbing is going pretty well too. I have conquered all of the V0 routes, and almost all of the V1s. The biggest accomplishment though was completing a V2 on the free-standing boulder on the first try. I think those routes tend to be a little harder, so I was very proud of myself :) My one-month climbing pass will be over before I know it unfortunately, but it has been nice to get back in the gym again.

Since I've been going through so many recipes lately, my new thing for the week was a new casserole, well two new casseroles actually, because I was afraid one might not be good and as I was taking them to a friends house, I wanted to make sure we had something to eat for dinner :) I tried to pick recipes that I already had the ingredients for, so all I needed to buy were some frozen veggies and a can of cream of chicken soup. The two recipes I picked were: Updated Shepherd's Pie and Cranberry-Orange Chicken Bake (thank goodness for online recipes . . . I was not looking forward to typing those all out :)). The Cranberry-Orange chicken was my first pick, but that's the one I was worried about being weird, so I made the Shepherd's Pie as well. Since I was testing out the recipes, I tried to stick as close to them as possible which was really difficult when there were no onions or spices in either recipe (gasp), and who measures cheese? ;) I did have to add a little bit of salt and pepper to the mashed potatoes on top of the Shepherd's Pie . . . I just couldn't bring myself to make mashed potatoes without salt and pepper.

While I'm learning new things this year, I thought I would take this opportunity to try and teach you something new as well. Okay, so maybe it's not really new, it's basically just common sense, but did you know the term for it . . . mise en place? Mise en place is a French phrase that refers to having everything in place before you start, especially concerning cooking and baking. I find it much more useful in baking and felt it actually kind of got in the way of my cooking, but it's a good habit to get into for a couple of reasons. 1) It ensures that you have all the ingredients and utensils you need before you get halfway through the recipe and realize you are missing a key ingredient and the pan you need is holding leftovers in the fridge, and 2) Once you get cooking/baking, it's amazing how quickly it goes when you have everything prepared like this . . . it makes me feel like I'm on a cooking show :)

All of my ingredients out and ready . . . mise en place? I don't think so.

That is my general set up for cooking . . . I get all of my ingredients out, but they are definitely not ready to go into the dish.

Now that's mise en place, or at least very close to it

A better mise en place set up . . . almost everything is thawed, rinsed, chopped, measured and I have my utensils ready over near the stove. I find that I can never trust the time on a recipe because they tend to ignore the time it takes to get from picture one to picture two, and that's where most of my time goes it seems. However, once I got this all ready, I think the recipe making was pretty true to how long it said it would take. Try this method next time you cook or bake (like I said, it is especially helpful in baking where exact measurement are more important than in cooking where sometimes it's easier to just eyeball the measurements and save yourself the pain of washing the measuring spoons and cups).

Almost done (just needed the oven baking)

I baked these at my friend's house, and we were so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of them after they were baked, but they didn't look too different, and looked very close to the pictures in the recipes. I was pleasantly surprised that they were both edible and pretty tasty although the Shepherd's Pie could definitely have used the onions and extra seasonings. The stuffing mix in the Cranberry-Orange recipe had enough seasonings to make it pretty tasty. Once the mise en place was done too, these recipes came together so quickly and easily I felt kind of down-hearted about how much time I sometimes spend making fancy meals . . . oh well :) One more week of 2013 has flown by . . . talk to you all again next week :)

2013 - Week 3

I think he is happy with his new scarf :) 

I finished my scarf :) :) :) That is really the big news for this week. I worked on it for a long time on Sunday, and didn't stop until I was finished. Then I gave it to my husband (his belated Christmas present) . . . I think he is pleased with it :) It's huge . . . it ended up being 7 feet 8 inches long by 8 inches wide. I really enjoyed knitting it, and I can't wait until I finish all of my other projects so I can start a new knitting project . . . I think I have two more picked out already :) I am just amazed that I made it through that whole pattern without dropping a single stitch, or having it end up all different widths . . . it is actually pretty even throughout, I love it, and I think he does too :)

Seven feet eight inches long, by eight inches wide

I put the CD next to it for a size comparison

All that was left of my 2 skeins of yarn

A closeup of the texture

If you are interested in recreating this scarf, here is the pattern that I started with: RedHeart Basketweave Scarf. Then I changed it a bit . . . I didn't think that twenty stitches was wide enough, so I doubled it to 40. I did four rows of knitting and then began the pattern. It went something like this:

Row 1: K2 (K4P4)x4 K6 

Row 2: K2 (P4K4)x4 P4 K2

Rows 3-6: Repeat Rows 1 and 2 alternately

Rows 7-12: Repeat Rows 1 and 2 alternately, starting with Row 2. 

Continue alternating Rows 1-6 and Rows 7-12 blocks until the scarf is long enough for you. 

(I've never written a knitting pattern before, so I'm sorry if this is confusing. Please correct my format if it is wrong and feel free to comment if you have any questions about it). 

At the end I finished up with four more rows of knitting and then did a simple bind off, tucked in the ends, and voila, it was done :) 

So that's that . . . as for everything else (dream journal, Bible reading, daily highlight journal), that's all going well too. Since my scarf didn't take me five hours to finish this week, I have incorporated my weekly exercise into my weekly task. As if I didn't get enough of it during Rock Climbing Month last year, I am back at it. I got another month-long membership and went three times this week. I'm a bit out of climbing shape, and I was a little discouraged when the V1s weren't as easy as they were a year ago, but I'm getting back into it. I think I've gotten all the V0s already, and most of the V1s. Since I'm not going to be going every day this month, I doubt I'll get in as good of shape as last year, but it is fun to get back in the gym. Maybe this year I can convince some friends to go with me :)

For my new thing this week, I learned how to make danishes. I've had this recipe bookmarked in my Betty Crocker cookbook for years and never got around to it (mostly because it requires an overnight rest period), but I think it turned out pretty well . . . not that I didn't have my scares during the process ;) 

My first scare

 After I "cut in" the butter, I was expecting it to look like a strudel topping, which it definitely didn't, and then after I added the milk and egg yolks, it was much more runny and clumpy (from the cold bits of butter) than the smooth bread dough that I'm used to.

Filled in with jam

 I went forward with them anyways and even used a good amount of my homemade black raspberry jam (thanks again to my friend who let us pick tons of his black raspberries and blackberries last summer) to fill in the ends. They took much longer to rise than I thought they should have, but again, I just hoped for the best (while not expecting much).

The finished product

Surprise, surprise . . . they actually turned out pretty good :) The hard, lumpy butter turned into a really nice, croissant-like dough and the jam was really tasty. It was a learning experience, that's for sure, but I think they were a success.

In other news, after ten years, I finally decided to update my iPod (since I couldn't load any new music on my old one because it ran on firewire cable). Kind of fun how technology has evolved in ten years huh? (Thanks Mom and Dad for the Christmas present ;))

I decided it was time to update my iPod :) 

What have you been up to this week? Did you learn anything new? 

2013 - Week 2

Well, here is my weekly update for Week 2:

Unfortunately, I did not finish my scarf, but I am getting close. I did keep up with my at least five hours of project work (knitting) and I did two hours of exercise to make up for not doing any during week one. My Wii fit experience was rather funny actually. It seems it had been 1020 days since my last time playing it . . . oops. It was good to get back into it again I think. I kept up my dream journal, daily event tracking, and my Bible reading as well. I am enjoying the chronological, archaeological Bible reading that we are doing. We read part of Genesis and now we are reading through Job . . . it's going well so far.

As for my new thing this week, I tried my hand at making chicken-fried steak. I have never had this and enjoyed it before (because I'd always had it in a cafeteria setting), so I was a little hesitant to try it. However, I saw a recipe for it using corn flakes in the latest Food Network magazine, so I thought I'd give it a go (Chicken-Fried Steak). It was actually pretty good . . . I liked the steak and the breading, but it was a little too salty, and I would have liked a bit more gravy. I didn't make the whole seasoning mix the recipe calls for, but scaled it back by ratio to account for the amount needed in the recipe (1 1/3 tsp. salt, 1/3 tsp. pepper, 1/3 tsp. garlic powder . . . I know, I don't have a 1/3 tsp. measuring spoon either, I just eyeballed it using a 1/2 tsp. one). I think in the future, I would use 3/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1/4. garlic powder, and double the gravy recipe. Other than that though, everything else in this recipe was very exact and the meat cooked well.

Chicken-fried steak with cream gravy

In other news . . . remember the Peanut Butter Cup Cake that I made last February? It looked amazing, but I was so disappointed with the cake and frosting themselves. So, for a friend's birthday, I decided to try and redeem myself using my favorite chocolate cake and frosting recipes, but turning the frosting into a peanut butter version of Swiss meringue buttercream. This was the result, and oh was it tasty :)

Here are the links to the recipes that I used, in case you want to recreate this masterpiece (which I believe weighed about seven pounds :)) - Sandy's Chocolate Cake, Frosting (I cut the recipe in half and added a bit less than one cup of peanut butter I think), and this is the design inspiration (originally from Annie's Eats, a blog I enjoy, but she doesn't have it posted anymore) Peanut Butter Cup Cake image. It even looked good on the inside, always a plus. I think everyone enjoyed it, including the birthday boy. 

I hope you all had a great week, stay tuned to see what next week brings :) Can I finish my scarf before my library books are due???

2013 - Week 1

So my first week of the new 2013 is over, and what have I done? Well, after 365 days of non-stop working, on January first, I rested. Not that I wasn't busy, I just didn't do any specific tasks. Since then, I have kept up on recording my dreams every morning, memorable moment of the day every night, and Bible reading (at least one chapter per night) successfully. Since it was only a four day week, I "pro-rated" the task and exercise, so I did four hours of knitting (instead of five) and skipped the exercise (however, I will do an extra hour next week to make up for it). The knitting is going very well, the scarf is now 5'8" long, and growing :) It's still looking good as far as being even and not dropping any stitches. I'm going to try and get to the end of the second skein by the 16th (my knitting book is due back at the library on the 17th and I need to know how to finish it off, so the pressure is on), so I will need to really do a lot of knitting in the next few days. As for my "something new" for the week, it was a new recipe, as promised. I got some truffle oil for Christmas, so I made truffle fries (which were not as crispy or "truffle-y" as I was hoping for) and also tried a new recipe for pretzel buns (these turned out very good). My husband grilled some pineapple and turkey burgers and I made homemade honey mustard sauce (not bad, despite being made of things that I don't like) to create this lovely meal:

Yum :)

How has your first week been? Stay tuned for more goings-on next week :)

Welcome to 2013

Hi again everyone, and Happy New Year :) I hope you all enjoyed my 2012 posts and I'm hoping you're still looking for more fun challenges. I will try not to disappoint you, although the set up for this year will be a bit easier on me and not quite as challenging.

Here is the plan:

Essentially, I am looking to complete the challenges that I began in 2012 but never finished. These include: knitting a scarf for my husband, making a scrapbook, and finishing my children's book. Additional tasks will be added such as: continuing to work on my Duolingo (Spanish), new knitting projects, organizing/cleaning up my iTunes library, and organizing my myriad of recipes. To accomplish all of these tasks, I'm setting aside at least five hours a week to devote to a task. This format gives me much more flexibility for which days I need to work on my tasks and if I'm sick, or really busy one day, I can have a much needed rest day (that I never had last year). Each task will be worked on until it is completed, but I am allowed to switch if I really need to.

Also, there are smaller tasks that I will be doing every day for the whole year (and you'll have to keep me accountable to these all year long . . . I hope I can keep something up for that long). These include: reading at least one chapter of the Bible every day, recording my dreams from the previous night in a dream journal, writing down a short summary (or the most memorable thing that happened that day) every night, trying at least one new thing per week (this will probably be in the form of trying a new recipe though ;)), and exercising at least once a week. My job is more sedentary now and if I don't force myself to do it with this, I will probably get really out of shape (or just become a slightly more squishy shape ;)).
So, that's the plan. My husband has agreed to join me this year, but his tasks include: practicing guitar, working on house designs, writing a novel, starting Duolingo, exercising, and others yet to be determined. I'm pretty excited about this plan, and looking forward to a productive, but hopefully less stressful year.

Anyone else want to join in the challenge? I would love to hear about things you'll be working on. Regardless of what you are up to, have a safe and blessed new year, and I'll keep you updated (probably about once a week) on how all of my tasks are going :)

The End of 2012 Summary

Well, that’s it . . . 2012 is over, and I made it. J I did my challenge every day for an entire year. And I’m not dead, I’m not crazy (that is open for debate of course), and I definitely feel like my year has not been wasted. Although some of my initial inspiration came from "Julie and Julia", I think they should make this year into a movie instead . . . all she did was cook ;) What a crazy time it has been, let’s take a look back and what’s happened over the past year:

January – I climbed some serious rocks. I got calluses and big muscles and accomplished more on a fitness level than I think I ever have before. I did buy another one month Groupon to go again soon, I don’t think I’ll do it every day, but January was just so fun, I’m looking forward to going again.

February – Wow that was a lot of cakes. This was probably the most stressful and time-consuming month, but the most fun at the same time because so many people were talking about it. The blog got by far the most page views that month and I really liked how much the people that ate the cakes seemed to enjoy them. I definitely took my baking up a level and I have learned many new techniques and recipes. Many waistlines suffered, but it was so much fun. J

March – Many books were devoured: “A Tale of Two Cities”, “The Help”, and “Sisterhood Everlasting”, all good reads from slightly different genres. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy reading, and it is something I hope to continue to do more of, I just need to remember to set aside time to do it . . . perhaps at lunch time now that I’ve lost my crossword puzzle group. I think everyone needs to take the time to get lost in a good book as often as possible.

April – I ran . . . a lot. No, no marathons or anything, but way more running than I have ever done, and way more than I intend to do again (seventy-six miles in one month). I really did not enjoy this month at all. It was nice to be able to talk about it with many of my friends who love running, but I never got that “runner’s high” that keeps so many people running, and I didn’t really see any physical benefits from it either. I think it improved my cardio system, but my other exercise months were so much more fun. I’ll leave running to the runners and keep trying other activities to stay moving.

May – I learned how to play a beautiful instrument, the cello. I am still no expert at it and I need much more practice, but in order to really learn how to play an instrument, that half-an-hour a day really is necessary. I think I would have made more progress if I would have had a teacher to be accountable to, but I still think I did pretty well and I hope I continue this in the future.

June – Ha, I learned how to juggle . . . who would have thought? I can’t do anything fancy, but for how uncoordinated I usually am, just learning the basic 3-bean bag juggle was a pretty amazing feat. I hope that I made my friend who tried to teach me how to juggle proud, and now I have a fun party trick. If I want to be really consistent at it, it would require more practice as well, but with the Klutz book on juggling and some motivation, I think pretty much anyone could learn how to do it.

July – I spent way too much time staring at my computer screen trying to organize all of my digital pictures. It was my intention to work on my scrapbook and get my pile of “scraps” that is growing out of control tamed a bit, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I spent all the time working on the pictures, and never got away from the computer to work on the fun, crafty side of scrapbooking that I was looking forward to. That will definitely have to be tackled in the new year.

August – Ah, August, I enjoyed hot yoga so much. I am always so cold, so it was nice having a whole hour to focus on stretching/strengthening, de-stressing, and being warm . . . lovely. J It was so wonderful spending the time with good friends too. I truly wish that the memberships at the yoga places around here weren’t so expensive because this was something that I could really see myself doing very frequently. Ah well, I enjoyed it while it lasted, and some friends got me a gift certificate to the studio for Christmas, so I’ll get to attend a few more classes sometime soon, hooray. J

September – I attempted to become an author and an artist. My story is still not where I want it to be, and as my hand didn’t really figure out how to put what was in my brain onto the paper until the last few days, the illustrations are obviously not where I want them to be either. This is really one project that I would like to finish. I don’t think I’ll necessarily publish it, but just make a few copies to give to my friends with kids . . . I think that will be nice. Hopefully whenever I get to it I still remember how to draw.

October – I explored a fun, new website called Duolingo. I brushed up on my Spanish and learned a little more. I have a long way to go to be anywhere near fluent, but it was nice to tap into a different part of my brain and keep it open and learning. I think everyone should give this a try, it’s almost set up as a game so it much more worthwhile to do the next time you sit down to play a game of Spider Solitaire or something. They have a variety of languages you can learn too: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. Plus, you are helping to translate the internet into another language and sharing knowledge with the world . . . a pretty worthy cause if you ask me.

November – I taught myself how to knit, and I managed to almost complete a project and it stayed a consistent size throughout . . . a big accomplishment, if I do say so myself. I’ve found that I really enjoy this and would like to keep up the hobby and keep learning in the future. I highly intend to, and I can’t wait to see what fun projects I can start working on next. J

December – I tackled a different challenge every day of the month. Some were very simple, some were not, but they were all small projects, life skills if you will, that I figured I should know how to do; from changing the oil in my car to changing a diaper, French braiding my hair, making marshmallows, or folding a fitted sheet. This was a rather stressful month full of uncertainty of not knowing exactly what I would be doing each day, but I think it was really good for me to learn these things and I think they will benefit me in the future.

And that’s just with my challenges. Personally, there have been changes as well. New friends have been made and old friends have moved away. I switched jobs twice this year (once within a company, and now to a completely different job). I will always miss aspects of my old job, mostly the good friends that I left there (you know who you are), but I am excited about the new directions my current job is taking me, and am l moving forward with hope. I saw one brother married and the other engaged, and am grateful for the time that I got to spend with my family, it is truly a blessing.

To all of you that have been faithfully reading my blog all year, thank you so much for your support and encouragement, it means a lot to me. And to my husband, without whom I never would have made it; who stood by me when I was up to my elbows in cake icing at 1 am, when I needed someone to go running with me 30 days in a row, or when I was stressing out like crazy over what the challenge would be for that day. Without all of this support, I truly wouldn’t be where I am today, so I am so very, very grateful to all of you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and may you all live 2013 with the same passion and dedication to life and learning that I tried to encompass this year. I hope some of you have been inspired, and if so, I’d love to hear about what you’re up to J God’s blessings, and I’ll talk to you in 2013 J

Life Skills - Day 31

How to Make Coffee

Capturing the whole beans

It probably shouldn't surprise you anymore that I haven't done some pretty common things, but this might be the most common of them all. I don't drink coffee, and I don't own a coffee maker, so I never saw the need to learn how to make it. But as so many people do, I figured it couldn't be that difficult and that I should learn. Luckily, my lovely friend (the Ganache Queen), has a coffee maker, and as we were going over to her house tonight for some New Year's Eve festivities, she told me I could use her maker to make my first pot of coffee. In preparation I went to the store and tried to figure out how to grind my own coffee (as I decided that should be part of this experience). Before I even got to that though, I had to figure out what kind to get. This is my issue with coffee . . . there are so many flavors and they all smell so good . . . why don't they taste like that? I wanted to give coffee a chance though, so I picked a flavor that I thought would be an especially good end to this year: "Icing on the Cake". 

Figuring out the grinding machine

With my coffee in hand (after I figured out how to use the grinder . . . it's pretty simple actually), I headed over to my friends house to brew my first pot of coffee. As most of you know, this is a simple task, and I'm glad I had something easy to end the year on. Just put a coffee filter in the machine, add the coffee (we made weaker coffee than the package suggested, only ~4 Tbsp. of ground coffee for 5 cups of coffee), put the correct amount of water in, and press the start button. It worked wonderfully and the coffee making was a success. The coffee drinking on the other hand . . . not so much. I tried it black = gross, I put some milk in it = still gross, then I added some sugar = better but still bitter, and then we made it into pumpkin spice lattes. It was some recipe she found to make in the crock pot . . . interesting, and definitely an improvement, but I still couldn't get over the bitter flavor. Sorry coffee, this is not your year. I became a fan of Chai tea this year though, so I think that's good enough. To all of you who love coffee, it's all yours. I think I'm too much of a fan of hot chocolate (especially minty stuff with marshmallows in it) to switch :) 

Hooray, ground coffee

The set up

Success :)

Life Skills - Day 30

How to Change an Electrical Outlet

I will say that I do think this is an actual life skill, and it wasn't that difficult either. All it really took, was finding and turning off the correct breaker (a very important step), and then using a screwdriver to remove the cover plate and entire outlet, and unscrewing the screws that connected the three wires into the outlet, and that's it. This is a useful skill when the outlet (or a light switch for that matter) needs to be replaced or if a switch needs to be added to the outlet (usually during new construction . . . we couldn't do that here because we'd have to take the wall apart . . . I don't think our landlord would like that too much). So I kept it simple and just took off and then replaced the outlet, and then check the power with a multimeter . . . it all looks good now. 

I'm glad we took it apart just so we could vacuum it out . . . so nasty in there.

Removing the wires (green (or unshielded) = ground, black = power, white = "drain"/neutral/common side)

Tada . . . I thought the top one looked a little like Mickey Mouse, so that made the project more fun :) 

Just a note of caution, be careful when doing this, because it can be dangerous if you don't get the right breaker turned off, and I don't want anyone electrocuting themselves, so make sure you ask for help from someone who knows what they are doing!

Life Skills - Day 29

How to Make Macarons

Haha, and here you thought you were done reading the baking blogs . . . not so fast, I have another one :) To be clear, I have never actually had a macaron before, and I had no idea what they were supposed to taste like, so these are my variation, I don't know if they are close, but they were sure tasty :) 

I followed two blogs (that complement each other nicely as they use almost the same recipe and one has tons of pictures while the other has many descriptions and helpful instructional pages): Eat. Live. Travel. Write. macarons and Brave Tart macarons. I also found this recipe from a blog I used quite frequently during cake month, Annie's Eats macarons, which uses a slightly different technique that I would like to try sometime, but not today. I have to apologize for not taking more pictures of the process, but I was a little worried these wouldn't turn out so I was concentrating too much to remember to take pictures, plus, the eat.live.travel.write. blog has more than enough pictures for the both of us. Below, you can see what I did:

What my batter looked like when I piped it. I think it was a little too runny, and that might have something to do with the vanilla I used (extract instead of a whole bean). The egg whites looked good until I put the vanilla in, then they got a bit too runny. I didn't think it was a good idea to leave it out though, so I just dealt with it. 

The piped cookies. As you can see, they are a  little runny, but not too bad. 

The uglier of the finished trays, this tray had some that cracked, but not all of them. Perhaps because it was on the lower oven rack so the pan on top was blocking the heat? I don't know. Also, I didn't know what they were supposed to be like when they were done, so I baked these for about 6 minutes longer than recommended (which could be why they are so crunchy). Oh well, live and learn, and for all I know, this is how they are supposed to be. If anyone out there has had macarons, please describe them to me :) 

Although they are a little flat, at least they look close to being correct, with the cute little "feet". 

Finished macarons. I made this amazing chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream:  Martha Stewart Buttercream, I cut the recipe in half and cooked the egg whites and sugar to 160 F before whipping. It was so good, that has got to be my favorite frosting. I made a strawberry version of it for a Neapolitan cake in February, and that was amazing too. I think Swiss meringue buttercream will be my "go to" frosting from now on, as long as the people I'm serving it to don't mind a bit of butter ;) I put the frosting on using a small cookie scoop because I didn't want to wash another pastry bag . . . it seemed to work pretty well. 

They are kind of cute :) (and very tasty too). Everyone who tried them liked them, and I've saved some to try a few days from now to see how the texture and flavor is then. So while these aren't perfect, or full of fun colors or flavors, I did enjoy these, and I don't think I'd mind making them again. I want one now, but I should probably go to bed instead. Good night :)