on why i will never be a food blogger.

This morning early afternoon I was making muffins. Delicious orange juice/oatmeal/blueberry muffins. Because some nights I think to myself, "It sounds really nice to get up tomorrow, go to a coffee shop, relax, and enjoy a baked good and an Americano." But then I think, "I should just make baked goods myself and enjoy them hot and fresh with a good cup of coffee."

Funny thing about coffee shops here (not so funny): There are a TON of coffee shops. Most with really delicious coffee! Which is great because I moved from a town where I could buy coffee at like three places, one of which was a dedicated coffee shop and, I thought, had terrible coffee. Espresso drinks? Pretty good. But awful, burnt-tasting brewed coffee. Which is ok because I rarely ever get brewed coffee if I am buying a cup; I can usually be found buying an Americano. This, however, is the result of my experiences with the aforementioned (and now out of business) coffee shop's coffee. Anyway. A TON of coffee shops here, most with good coffee, but they ALL seem to have ALL the same baked goods. Which is disappointing because there is no variety and it tells me none of them are baking their own and the choices aren't all that fresh. There really aren't any that I get excited about, which I guess is probably a good thing.

So I was making muffins. I thought, "I could blog these muffins." But to me that meant I would have to get out my camera and photograph the process. Quickly, I felt the calm feeling I had from knowing I was about to make muffins slipping away. Cooking/baking is my hobby. It is almost nearly my only hobby. I didn't check the official hobby guidelines, but I'm guessing watching 16 and Pregnant isn't a real hobby. Cooking/baking is my release and relaxation. (Except for sometimes like last week when it was Brian's birthday and I was making Knepp and pretty much had two meltdowns: 1. when I couldn't find the Crisco; and 2. when I was positive I was screwing up the dough part of the Knepp and would never be able to do it.) I find that photographing the process breaks my rhythm and my relaxation. Sometimes I want to do it and like it, but most often I don't. And it seems that visually documenting the process is an important part of being a food blogger. Without it, you're pretty much just posting recipes. Come to think of it, my lack of taking pictures in general could very well be my blogging downfall.

boller.

After missing the last two months because of conflicts, we made it back to Cooking Club last week. On the menu: Boller (Norwegian cardamom rolls). We learned that these rolls are a common Norway staple: plain, which can be used to make sandwiches; with a custard baked into it; as cinnamon rolls (no frosting). They are very similar to other rolls except that they have cardamom in them. The cardamom provides a unique and interesting taste that I liked, but I don't know that I would make them very often or even again, especially an entire batch. I did really like the custard baked into them and would be interested in trying that with one of my roll recipes.

Boller with custard, in the flesh (in the dough?). Not the best picture ever: These are probably not even ones that we made...all the rolls everyone made were baked together, and these are day-old because I was lazy about photographing them that night, and they had been squished up in tin foil all night. But I hear people like photos on blogs, so here you go.

I really like going to Cooking Club because most of the people there are super nice, and it's a neat way to get to know people a little bit. We basically know no one who lives near us (although, the Cooking Club folks actually do not live near us). There were some very humorous happenings at this meeting, but this public space is not the space for retelling.

a birthday first

Having a May birthday and growing up in Kansas, you don't expect snow for your birthday, but that is what Brian got this year for his 30th. Crazy times. I expected it to be gone by the time I woke up in the morning, but it was still there and snowed a bit more during the day too. This cold weather is making me wimp out on picking up my bike from the shop. Even today at 40*, it doesn't sound like much fun. I am afraid we will miss out on spring all together this year because it is still pretty consistently cold and then we will go to KS, where I am sure June will not feel like spring.
Photo credit goes to Brian

research, end of the semester, guilty pleasures

The Friday before last, my wonderful research partner and I presented our research at a poster presentation (not one we had to submit a proposal for, simply one put on by our class that the public was invited to). Here we are.

I was nervous about the poster presentation mostly because our department faculty were all invited, and they know way more about (A) the topic; and (B) researching. Also, our professor informed us that they would ask us really hard questions, especially about the validity of our study. Even though a lot of people came (and it was really hot and loud in that room!), I don't remember getting any really tough questions. Whew. I was pretty glad when it was finished.

That poster (plus an accompanying proposal) was one of two big semester projects. Those wrapped up last week. They are already graded and both were successes. I had my first final exam last Saturday afternoon, one this afternoon, and I have my last one Thursday morning. I already have my grade from my first final -- crazy! That was the class I cared the most about, so I am pleased to know that I did well.

But certainly a procrastinator such as myself hasn't been all work and no play?! Why, of course not! My most recent legitimate source of entertainment has been Dexter. My friends lent the first three seasons to me. I wasn't sure it was for me at first, but I got hooked after watching the second episode. BUT. That kicked off some really bad habits. Habits of watching episode after episode and staying up until 2am. Yikes. So a couple of weeks ago, I promised myself not to start the third season until AT LEAST my projects were finished and possibly finals were done. Now, I did watch one episode last week -- after projects -- but that was only because the internet was down and I couldn't watch ***guilty pleasure alert! admitting it is the first step!*** 16 and Pregnant. Oh man. What am I doing? For some reason one evening I flipped through channels and stopped on the season finale that recaps the stories and gives updates on all the girls and babies. Then, just out of curiosity, I checked mtv.com to see if the episodes were available. They are. I watched one and got hooked. So it has been my guilty pleasure. And since the episodes are not connected to each other and don't leave cliffhangers, I can stop at just one.

Speaking of...

rain

Yesterday we got completely soaked. Here is some of the aftermath. Other clothes were sent upstairs to dry. It started raining mid-afternoon. There was some hail. A bit of lightning and thunder, but nothing like an awesome Kansas thunderstorm. In the evening Brian asked if I would pick him up from campus. Between our front door and the car WITH an umbrella, I got soaked. It was difficult to see or hear anything while driving yesterday. "Downpour" definitely characterizes our rain yesterday. Unfortunately, my picking him up did not prevent him from getting soaked or hailed on, but at least he didn't have to be out in it as long. Today oscillates between gray/cloudy/rainy and clear/sunny/bright just-after-a-rain lighting. I guess the earth is getting all varieties of presents for her day.

spring break: up'n down and seven-toe

One great thing happened over spring break: Mark and Brian got the Commodore 64 going. Oh, it was sweet. It had been many years since I had played these games. I loved hearing the old music. So fun! Barbie Goes on a Date, World Games, Winter Olympics, Summer Olympics, Harrier Attack, Up'n Down (the best of all!). I don't remember which other ones we got working. The only disappointment was that Donald Duck's Playground didn't work. But the important thing is that Up'n Down did. Enjoy a picture.

Mark playing Up'n Down

Enjoy it well because you may never see it again. Because I might have ruined the whole system when I dropped it on the concrete floor of the storage room when we were putting it away. :(

A second great thing. We had been encouraging Seven-Toe (actual name Cleo), seen below, all week to have her kittens while we were home.

Seven-Toe from when she was a little tyke back in November. She has seven toes on each front paw and six toes on each back paw (if you don't know, most cats have five on each front and four on each back).

Seven-Toe is a sweetface.

Finally, the day before we left, this little cat (who was huge with pregnancy) had eight tiny kittens! They were so, so sweet. Seven-Toe is a small cat, but has been able to keep eight kittens fed! What a good mother. We were curious to see if the extra toes was a dominant or recessive trait (assuming that it was quite unlikely she bred with a male cat who has extra toes). We guessed recessive, but three of the kittens are also seven-toes! Cute!

spring break: the pre-home portion

Spring Break was a few weeks ago. At the beginning of our spring break, Brian's family came to visit. They also did us the wonderful favor of driving our belongings here in a moving truck (and this nice gesture was after the nice gesture of, together with my parents, packing it up for us!). We got to move into a larger place and finally have our own furniture again. We are loving our new space. I had forgotten just how comfortable our bed is. I think still, weeks later, in a half sleep state every now and then I will say to Brian, "This mattress is just so comfortable!"

After the weekend was over and our visitors had returned home, we finally had a chance to make it back up into the mountains for some skiing, which is always a fun time. The second day we were going to go, it started sprinkling while we were still in town. Partway up the mountain, it turned to snow and the roads were already getting snow-packed. We made the disappointing but oh-so-wise decision not to continue in our little car. However, I called the bus route and found out there would be a bus leaving in 30 minutes; we decided to go anyway, even though by this time it was mid-afternoon. On the mountain, it was snowing, snowing, snowing. Riding the lift we would get covered in snow. They had gotten 8-10" of fresh powder just that day, so skiing was fun and difficult, and the snow was really stinging on the exposed skin of my face. Fun times, though. We got in 3 or 4 runs before the lifts closed. We boarded our return bus. We headed out. The bus driver stopped in the parking lot to wipe off his windshield. And then we were stuck. After 30 minutes and the application of tire chains and even then still being stuck for a while, our driver was able to get us going and down the mountain we went. What is normally a 20-30 minute drive took us 2 hours total (including the time we were stuck). The roads were quite awful. I slept most of the way home, but I did see at least one small car stuck on the side of the road. We were so, so thankful we had not driven. It's likely we would have gotten stuck or at least had a really tough drive home, and our phone does not get service up there. Good thing we are not very good at getting going early in the day because had we left for skiing in the morning, we certainly would have driven and had no idea how terrible things were going to get.

Brian's brother was actually still in town for a conference, so we got to meet up with him in the evenings. One evening we went to his hotel to swim and hot tub. The hotel has a sweet, monstrous hot tub outside, which was torture getting to and getting back to the building (because of the freezing outside temperature), but was so sweet while we were in it. I love outdoor hot tubbing in the winter. It was fun to grab snow from the ground nearby and see how quickly it would melt in the hot water. :) I can't imagine their electric bill, though.