February

It is the shortest month, so it's okay that I feel like I have been in whirlwind the whole time... right?

A few highlights of the month:

1. My AWESOME Valentine's Day dinner party. Everything turned out well (miracle) and I think everyone had a good time.
It's a miracle what a few hours in the oven can do.






2. My mom is the best mom in the whole world and even though her Valentine's Day package didn't get to me until 10 days after the fact, I still think she's great.

... which leads me to number 3...

3. I am sorely disappointed with Dove. I have already been let down by Martha Stewart, but it has gone too far.

I LOVE Dove dark chocolates and when I eat them I want a love related fortune, not this:

4. To counteract all the chocolate I rediscovered cross-country skiing and had a blast. (and the soreness that I felt helped me appreciate those Olympians who literally fly across the snow.)

So, overall a short, but fun-filled month. I am hoping that March will bring some slightly (or not so slightly) warmer temperatures.

At a loss for... food?

The Superbowl is on Sunday, and I happened to be invited to a party which, oddly enough, led me to a predicament that I did not expect- What kind of food do you bring to a Superbowl party? Not only do I have to admit that I have never attended a Superbowl party, but I cannot remember ever even watching the game.

Help!

Only 18 more days!

I want to make another cake, so if you have any suggestions I'm open to new ideas.

Pink Lemonade

A friend asked me a question recently that I thought I could address here: "Where does pink lemonade come from, because I have never seen a pink lemon?"

Well, Bryan, first off let me inform you that pink lemons do exist. The Eureka lemon has yellow skin, pink flesh, but clear juice- so no luck with the pink lemonade there.

After some quick (and might I mention, not so scientific) research, I have discovered that Native Americans first made "pink lemonade" from the Sumac plant. Now a days pink lemonade is made with red juices, grenadine, or just good old food coloring.

I hope that answers your question.

I found an interesting article in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition this past week, so if I remember to bring it home from work I will enlighten you all! Happy eating.

A really cool gift

One gift that I received this holiday season that I love is "The Panera Bread Cookbook." before it gets into any recipes there is a very interesting foreword and then 2 chapters all about the art of making bread. I still haven't found 3 hours to try out the recipes, but I read through the text on the plane, here's my favorite part:

"Dietitians know that people in this country are not obese because they eat bread.... Americans aren't obese because they eat too many burger buns with their shakes and fries at fast-food restaurants, or too many bagels with their cream cheese schmears."

True story.

If you're pregnant....

Check this out. I think some of the food options that they chose are rather interesting. I would have never thought to compare the size of a fetus to say a turnip, rutabaga, or Chinese cabbage.

I spent the last 2 weeks in Florida and for once, food did not predominate my vacation, but I'll post more about that later. For now I am working on regaining my routine and getting back to the gym.

December Has Been Crazy...

... and then last week when time started freeing up I got sick and all I have wanted to do is sleep and watch ridiculous made for TV movies on lifetime.
But before all of that I took a trip down to Utah to see some friends and we went to see the lights at Temple Square, very fun, insanely cold. I always enjoy just relaxing with friends and making up new rules to make games funnier :)

I also was introduced to a new method for making gingerbread houses that is really cool. All you do is melt white sugar in a saute pan on the stove and then dip one edge of the graham cracker in the molten sugar and then add the other wall, within 30 seconds the sugar has hardened and you do not have to worry about your
little house falling down. I also got to make up some new ways to make trees- some of my gingerbread house making friends did not bring their creativity with them- I won't mention names.

My branch had a service auction and I had a lot of fun making caramel & candy covered apples, and I ate so much chocolate making them that it was probably better that someone else have the finished product.