Baking

I've been saving this one, debating on if it really does brighten my day to bake and how I should write about this... Needless to say, I really do love to bake. Cookies, bread, even just cooking dinner. I love it. It's become something that is really important for me to do (maybe because I'm a newly-wed and that "house wife mode" is starting to kick in) and something that I have come to enjoy. I've found I love finding recipes to try and making them to see if Boy likes them or not.

In all honesty, before I went to Japan (2010), my cooking and baking skills were at a minimum. (No lie, I totally made the fire alarm go off at college while cooking macaroni and cheese...) It was boxed mixes all the time. Sure! I could cook! Little did I know that I would be going somewhere that did NOT have box mixes and did NOT have convection ovens. Uhm, so I guess you could say Japan taught me how to cook for reals and not just from a Macaroni and Cheese box. When I came home however, I had to re-teach myself again how to cook because of the different measurement systems and other things. But! Through trial and error, I did it!!! Last night, I finally made bread!

And doesn't it look yummy?!!

Ok ok ok, so I did have help. The first time I made this, it was with my friend Joanna who is minoring in culinary arts and wants to open her own bakery... So, she taught me what to do and what not to do and a few tips, because everytime I have ever made bread before, it's never risen, it's burnt, exploded in the oven, it's hard as a rock.... BUT this time I did it myself!!!

I've been on a baking/cooking spree while I've been out here. It started with desserts and sweet stuff, but now I'm learning how to really cook dinner and bake all sorts of things! It sometimes is frustrating, but it's so exciting when things turn out right and delicious! Right now I'm working on some English Muffins. Mmmm. Also, this week I had a whole bushel of apples and so I finally got the courage to use my crockpot for the first time and I made some Applesauce and Applebutter! (Which tastes delicious on the bread...)

(Isn't he cute? *twitter-patted*)

With this whole new baking spree, I decided to start up a new blog and got Joanna in on it too! It's a recipe blog! I know there are a TON of recipe's out there and a MILLION blogs on cooking, but it would be nice to have all my recipes that I'm gathering in one spot. Maybe one day I can make a cookbook! :D That would be exciting to have my very own cookbook. Maybe.

Halloween

It's over, but I love to dress up. I love carving Pumpkins and baking pumpkin goodies. I love the little kids dressing up and all going Trick or Treating. I love watching the traditional movies like, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Coraline. It is fun! I don't understand those people who are so against the holiday as to say that it is "evil" and a "dark tradition that has no meaning"...research people... I mean, if you really dumb it down to what it's really become, all you have to do is dress up and go tell your neighbors "Trick or Treat!" and they give you free candy!! And don't forget to hit up the rich neighborhoods where they actually give away the HUGE candy bars and the good treats. :)

 

Good Friends

Sunday, it started to get cold...

Monday was miserable. It was dark, cloudy, cold and then it snowed/slushed/rained thing....

Today and the rest of this week will be the same; No higher than the 40's and chance of more snow all week along with piercing winds, no sunlight and cloudy skies. It's so cold, I'm wearing a coat inside the house even though the heat is on.... I haven't gotten much sleep either, but that's another story/rant for another time.

I've tried to find something positive to say. I've tried to find something positive to think about, but whenever I do, it either makes me hate this place even more or gets me even more depressed. I'm tired a lot more than usual and I'm starting to lack motivation to do anything again. No motivation for art, cooking, archery, music or even working out. I think I'm burnt out.

The only thing I can really say I'm looking forward to this week is leaving Thursday to go to Utah. I have responsibilities to church and so I'm stressed out trying to finish things before Sunday, but then again another half of me just wants to say "who cares, they can deal with it"... I know...

I can't wait to see my friends who are in Utah. Especially if I can visit with "Alasse". I miss her a lot. I miss being able to talk to her a lot too. I miss going to the Jones' Clan every so often and going hiking about 2-3 times a month. I miss their parties and their camp outs, jeeping and the obnoxiousness of their fun family. I can't wait to see them again and be able to party this weekend with them and to go there for Thanksgiving too. I'll get to see my old Japan Mission companions this weekend too, which will be nice because I so miss speaking Japanese more than anything. 

Color

Things have been busy since I started taking a class at school and now I've found my way into being a teacher's assistant for Boy's archery class. I haven't forgotten about this though! I'm still trying to find new things to love and do here in this small small town of no where. 

In fact, it's getting colder and colder everyday and it makes me sad that soon, I will not be able to ride my bike as often as I could be due to the weather, but as I walk around campus, to and from my classes, I've noticed the leaves start to change and the beautiful leaves springing up here and there, falling all over the ground, etc. It's beautiful. I love the colors fall (and spring!) bring to the world. (Not to mention the delicious flavors of pumpkin, cinnamon and apples!!) I think that they both equally have amazing color splashes everywhere and it just makes the earth a more pretty place. 

It's VERY cold and SUPER windy here, but if the sun is out, I love to ride or walk to wherever I am going because I can see more of the town, more of nature and I get to hear/feel the crunch of leaves as I go places. As I walked to school today, the tree outside the church building was finally ALL bright red! So pretty. 

I guess that's it for today. :) Enjoy your lemon-aide!

Learning

I feel like I haven't written for weeks, but it's only been one...

I've been having a very difficult time with the environment around me. Mostly the people honestly. It's just all apart of the culture shock and it just amazes me how people can be so inconsiderate, ignorant and unbelievably hypocritical. I've been so upset with people not keeping their word, having respect for authoritative figures and not following the commandments/dress code of the school/prophets council, that I've just have had a total crash on even having hope for humanity.

FOR THE RECORD (before someone else goes off on me) I am NOT saying that I'm perfect. In fact I am far from it! Everyone has issues, but I DO keep the church standards and the dress code at this school (which I signed and agreed to follow), even though I do not agree with many of the silly rules here that have no real relation to the standards of the church. I will try to end my rant here before I go on for an hour.....

So, after heckling the school, gathering funds, running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I finally got back into school. I'm a non-matriculated student (meaning I am not a degree-seeking student) and am taking less than 9 credit hours. I got into a sewing class and have already made my first pillowcase. I actually made two it was "sew" easy. (ha ha...) And although this next project of making pajama pants is a little harder, requiring that we alter the pattern we have (ugh! suugaku ga meccha nigate desu!) I am learning! which is what I need. I miss learning. I want to learn so many different things; gardening, sewing, watercolors, photoshop, etc.

For now, I am a student here, but when Bryan is done, I will just continue my "education" from craftsy.com so that we don't have to stay in this state any longer than we have to. (yeah yeah) So I'm excited to learn what I can while I am here regardless of the annoying hipster girl with an attitude in front of me in class and others around me who clearly do not follow the school dress code. (Why the heck you would want to wear that anyways when it's freaking snowing/sleeting/hailing/raining all at once outside beats me... crazies)

I'll try to keep my other posts less..... rant....
I probably have already said too much and have my foot way deep in my mouth. I tend to do that a lot.... Until next time, LOOK WHAT I DID!!!! It has foxes on it.... Squee~!