"Eat This, Not That"

As I watched the Today show, they had a guy who wrote a book called "Eat This, Not That". This guy is not an author, he's a professional label reader. DUR. They were comparing different frozen foods and saying which frozen pasta dish was better from the other and so on. He should have just been saying, "read the labels, and you'll be on a show like this one day trying to sound smart," or "Don't eat any of this. If you're smart, you'll not be lazy and make your own food that you know what's in it!"

Muffins

I've never made muffins, but I'd say this recipe went well. They are yummy and super easy to make. I love finding websites like these on the internet. I made the chocolate-banana muffins.

Ingredients
1 egg
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 C milk
3/4 C chocolate chips
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C pureed banana
1/4 C vegetable oil (I substituted with applesauce)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions
Blend all of the ingredients together thoroughly. Pour the mixture into greased muffin tins, about two-thirds full. Bake at 400* for 20 minutes. (here in Idaho I baked 350 for 17 minutes)

Doplegangers

You be the judge!

Another lovely weekend

Friday night Scott and I went to the school where they had pond skimming. They are crazy, here's the video to prove it all.


Saturday after helping people move, we went with our friends Nate and Sally Jardine to Hariman state park. It's out towards Island Park and Yellowstone. We snowshoed for about 3.5 miles along the lake that was frozen over. We had fun with the cat tails. Beautiful!

Honestly

I've been tagged by my lovely friend Rebekah to do this, so here it goes! Lori's 10 confessions.

1. I love getting dressed up and putting make up on. I also love leaving the house in my sweats and baseball hat.
2. I like taking pictures, and taking pictures of myself.
3. I'm usually awake by 8 am. But I am really good at going back to sleep or laying in bed for another hour or so.
4. I love perfume and candles. Not to mention my husband's cologne.
5. I am a summer person, but I love the feeling you have around Christmas time.
6. I like to get my groove on.
7. I am a Mexican, Italian, Oriental, seafood, ice cream, burger and fries kind of girl.
8. I spend way too much time on my computer.
9. Weddings, TLC A Baby Story, movies, love songs, happy life stories, elderly happy couples, sweet tender pictures, fathers and their child, candid moments...are just a few things that practically guarantee a tear or two from me.
10. I'm a homebody. I love hanging out with family and friends and I am addicted to games.

Blogging about blogging

I love blogging! I noticed in my blog on the archives that I have 25 posts (26 after this) for the 2010 year. Then I only have 37 for the entire 2009 year. In two months I have almost matched what I've blogged in 2009. I will most definitely surpass that number once school starts, since right now I'm just hanging out at home thinking of things to do with my time. Blogging just happens to be one of those things.
Another thing I love about blogging is reading your blogs! I have a list of blogs that I read and I enjoy finding more. And as a side note for those who don't know, where I live, we have school controlled internet. That means we can't use Facebook until after 5pm. Blogger is allowed all day! And it is much better anyway.
And as I've discovered, blogs are much more fun when pictures are involved. Here are a couple for your enjoyment.
Here is at my high school grad picture.
Here is Jenna and I when we sang at the Mariners game. It's a cell phone pic.
This was after we just landed from skydiving! I'm in middle in blue.Me and Katrina in high school playing dress up. I think we were juniors.Seattle Japanese gardens, we went on a field trip there our senior. From right to left: Emily Marriott, Katrina Mills, Megan Gottwald, me.
I got hypnotized at our local Stanwood Camano Fair. We were modeling, and this was my "best pose"

Sledding

Monday I went with my brother and his wife and their neighbor sledding out at the sand dunes! We had a lot of fun. It was super sunny and the snow was powdery, except for where people had been sledding a lot. There were some crazy jumps. One of which Brian went down and went straight up and down and most likely bruised a couple ribs.

Snow shoeing!

Scott and I went snowshoeing along the ridge above Rexburg. We originally wanted to go the back way to Kelly Canyon, but the road was blocked. So we just drove a little bit until we found a spot where there was some bushes. We saw a couple deer running down a crevice and tons of bunny and mice foot prints in the snow. We also found stinky remains of a deer. But we had fun! We got as far as we wanted and snacked and made a snow woman! And I was not the only one who face planted it, Scott had the camera with him when he did it!

Valentines

To all my Valentines!
♥♥♥

Silly Girl Photo shoot idea

Flowy bohemian skirts
colorful fabrics all aroundflowy natural hairabove looking down shot

A Winner!!

I have found the recipe of all time! It was the first one that I tried today, and it was so good I made a second batch right away. Oh it was delish, and here it is! It is made from the Aunt Annie's recipe.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
3-4 cups flour
2 cups Warm water
2 tablespoons baking soda
to taste coarse salt
4 tablespoons butter (melted)

Directions
Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 Tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often. After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope* (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in 450 oven for about 10 minutes or until golden. (here in Idaho I do 400* for 7 minutes) Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

Toppings: after you brush with butter try sprinkling with coarse salt. or for Auntie Anne's famous Cinnamon Sugar, try melting a stick of butter in a shallow bowl (big enough to fit the entire pretzel) and in another shallow bowl make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Dip the pretzel into the butter, coating both sides generously. Then dip again into the cinnamon mixture. Enjoy!

The longer and thinner you can make the dough rope, the more like Auntie Anne's they will be. (Of course I don't have the counter space!)

Sweet butter, not regular butter, is one of her secrets! (I didn't have sweet butter, so I sprinkled sugar on top before putting coarse salt on top)

Mills Wedding

I'm super late for this, but I wanted to say a few words and post a video clip from my best friend's wedding! I really only took video, since their photographer Rachelle was doing the pictures. Katrina and Mark got married in the Seattle Washington temple December 29th, 2009. It was extremely cold! From this video you might note Katrina's purple hands :) She was brave and wore no coat. It was so much fun waiting on her hand and foot, carrying her dress and bouquet, and doing whatever else she needed. I wanted to return the favor from what she did at my wedding, and make hers the best as possible! They had their reception on Camano Island and had a party for friends in Provo that we went to. Isn't she stunning?!

18 months today!

2 years ago was the night I fell in love with my wonderful husband. We went to a dance in Bellingham, and it was amazing. That night we watched a movie with the other couple we went with and cuddled on the couch. He borrowed my pajamas and a shirt because he was in his suit.

Saturday Afternoon

After a rough start on Saturday morning, (we went to sleep at 3 AM) we had a great Saturday afternoon date! We started at the Wolf to Woof exhibit at the Idaho Falls Museum.
They also had other exhibits.
And then Scott took me walking around the downtown park in Idaho Falls that was nearby. I had never seen the actual Idaho Falls. They have a power plant there that powers all of Idaho Falls.
The light was beautiful, and it was chilly!We were so cold and craving hot chocolate we stopped at Smitty's for my first time. When we got in there, I convinced Scott to eat dinner there. Their hot chocolate was insanely good. Theee best hot chocolate Scott and I have ever had. Plus their whip cream was uberly thick and addicting.
For more pretty pictures from our date, go to my photography blog.