baking

Let me be honest. I am begininning to really like cooking, but I love baking. I've currently committed to making all of our bread from scratch. No more preservatives for us!

Anyway, I use the william's sonoma baking cookbook for some fun bread recipes, but I can NOT seem to get the dinner roll recipe to proof very well. I try forcing it with warmer air, I try giving it more time, I try letting the yeast dissolve a bit longer, but they still always come out more dense than I'd like. My next try will be a bit less flour than called for and possibly more yeast.

Does anyone have any other ideas? I can get wheat sandwhich bread to proof like nobody's business, but all white dinner rolls, no luck. I don't sift my flour, is that maybe it? Arrrrg.

Thanks!

Bloomington Chophouse - Two Thumbs Down

We went to the ChopHouse for restaurant week, excited to try a new location for dinner. If i could rate just the host, I would give four of five stars, however the rest of the experience was miserable.

To start, we ordered a bottle of wine, and were told, thirty minutes later, that they've never carried it!!! The host suggested a different bottle it's place (which was very good), but we would have prefered to know WAY before half an hour had passed. We weren't asked for our order until after they figured out the wine.

The evening went down from there:

• Our first course arrived an hour after we sat down
• Main course arrived about 30 minutes after our first course was cleared, and was cold. Not lukewarm, but "30 minutes sitting after cooking" COLD. We sent them back and the new steaks arrived in 5 minutes - even still, they were average.
• Dessert arrived 30 minutes after our main course plates were cleared. We had to wait an extra 15 minutes before our server came back for us to be able to order coffee.

Because it was restaurant week, we ordered all three courses at once, so there was no delay in ordering from us - it was just terrible service. The food wasn't anything special (in fact, sub-par might be a better description).

coffee = nicotine

no, seriously. i'm addicted.

headache, sore throat, tense shoulders....they all disappear after that first sip.

one more in june

Getting one more entry in June...

Last night, I had a date with myself. It was fantastic. And it wasn't until I was leaving that I noticed.
First, I went to the driving range and hit a basket of balls. After quite a few tries, I think my arms started to remember how it all works. It's been over a year. That just doesn't seem like it can be true.
Then, I tried that Dino's Gyro place? Pretty okay....althrough what a mess to eat it. And i didn't realize until too late that they sell baklava. I would have just ordered that. Mmm.

In other news, summer goes too quickly. I know it's just the end of June, but July is entirely booked, half of August is as well, and I have this feeling I'll be traveling for work in there too. Makes me wish...

I've had a lot of topics to blog about....rant about...but at the moment I'm not remembering them.
blah.

phew

I think I could like sales....!!! seriously! :-D

Okay. So the trip is going well. I've missed the Minneapolis snow, which in and of itself is amazing. It is, however, pouring buckets here. And it's freezing. And i'm already always cold...so when the two guys I'm traveling with blast the air conditioning the two hour drive to the facility tours....i'm pretty much a solid ice cube when we arrive. And I forgot my sweatpants for the hotel so i've been cold pretty much the entire time so far. But i've been eating like a king! (translation, GUY) Ribs and beer last night....steak and wine tonight...I'm going to need to go running for SURE after this! Anyway, I'm learning a ton. Seriously, a TON. Oh my goodness though I feel a bit outside of my league. I've never even known anything about sales and now I'm on a call. OY!

Anyway. I'm super into trying to predict company moves....as far as marketing stuff. And so when Applebees announced last week they were closing 10 stores, I immediately began guessing which ones they would be. The funny thing was I'd been wondering lately if they would be closing any stores because they had really saturated the market. I mean, there were at least three stores withing two miles of my house. That seemed a little excessive to me. I also don't live in the nicest part of the Minneapolis, so I was wondering if they were seeing a drop in same store sales growth because of the demographics of their locations. I'd seen a recent article covering their recent menu additions (the special chef ones - i highly recommend the bruchetta burger with parmesan fries) and how their current typical customer had kept them from introducing something like this earlier. Well, bottom line, I'd decided this one applebees by my house, right off the highway, was probably going to be the one to close due to it's extremely small size, awkward location, and general "city location".....and sure enough, not more than two days later, it was vacant. We're talking signs are down and you wouldn't even know that an Applebee's used to be there. Go me! :-D

In other news, what are thoughts on this recent Imus radio station issue. I read a comment in the USA today that said that everyone who heard Imus' comments was offended. Perhaps I spent too much time in the overly sensitive and highly charged politically correct environment of housing and residential life at the university of minnesota - but I thought tolerance means we're supposed to put up with stuff that we would typically take offense to.....isn't that the whole line that the left is pushing? Okay, I'll admit I've put a right-type slant on the view...but seriously. I thought we weren't supposed to censor anyone anymore. Or are we just not supposed to censor people who agree with the left's views? I'm not saying that racial comments are good or that we should support them....but personally I feel like I've been beaten down to the point where I'm only allowed to say "well, it's interesting you feel that way, i'm not sure that I entirely agree" and leave it at that. I thought we weren't allowed to say anymore that people are wrong.....right? Anyway. I just get pissed. If you want to get down to it....I get offended when you take Christ's name in vain....it's horribly terribly offensive - but you don't see me going on national tv every time some says that on the radio. And I'm also super offended when people begin to attack republicans ascrazy religious nazi's. Or when I get ridiculed as having little to zero intelligence because of my Christian faith. And even the fact that because I've now stated that i'm right-leaning and religious (and not just any religious thankyouverymuch but christian) that now I have to state that by no means am I advocating or supporting this radio guy's comments, okay? Basically, bottom line, if you're really truly supporting freedom of speech (in all the insane ways that are occurring) then you've gotta swallow the whole pill my friend. You don't have to support what the speech is - you've just gotta give them the right to speak.

And off my soapbox. (and again, just to state, i don't support his comments. thanks.)

Alright, is it wednesday? I'm beat people. I fly home tomorrow night, gotta bake something for this weekend, AC quote friday morning, work, and then straight out of town for church retreat. AH!
Love.
-R

Friday worked!

I love my church and I love my pastor. :o) As he says, Happy Easter.....SO great because it proves that GOOD FRIDAY WORKED! I don't remember if I've been to one of our Good Friday services before, but this year's was really thought provoking. To sit and feel the weight of nailing your sin into the cross...as though directly nailing Christ to the cross...is immense. But then to pause and realize what my world would be like if that's all it was? If there was no Sunday. No resurrection. No washing clean as snow. I almost walked out onto 7th to get hit by a bus. I know that most of the time I suck at remembering the weight of that sacrifice. But to stop and think about how my life would be different if it was all a lie? I don't even wow. I think the most significant thing I took away was how much I take this saving for granted. It's just a part of my life. We're in a continuous cycle where I screw up, feel like crap, ask for forgiveness, feel grateful for his acceptance, smile, move on, and then start all over. And how amazing is it that I can have a cycle like that? (okay, obviously it would be great if it wasn't so frequent, but the opportunity to continually start over? To know you're loved beyond anything you do? Or think? Or whatever? It's unconditional.) And so Friday was Good. Both because it worked, and because it was one of those infrequent moments in life when it all came together to hit me between the eyes.

You've got to read my friend Erinn's blog - I've linked it to the right. She's hysterical.

The monday night coffee girls and I went to Fridays on Saturday to visit Becca while she was working. Her parents happened to be there and chatted with us for awhile. Her mom commented how great it was that we had such a strong support network. We agreed. She said it was great because most people don't realize until they're much older that they need support like that. We said we're fully aware we're in need of a lot of support - which is why coffee will continue for hopefully many more years.

I was driving through the Lowry Tunnel the other day and noticed there were HUGE icicles hanging in the middle of the tunnel from a crack going from one side to the other! I do not this this is good. In fact, I believe it to be downright dangerous! One of those icicles could fall, pierce the top of my car, and KILL me. Luckily today on the way to church I noticed they were gone - now a bumpy pile of ice to the left of the lane. Hm.

At the end of service on Friday, the guy in front of me turned around and told me I had a good voice. I told him it was the girl next to me. He was unconvinced. I was baffled. This is the third time in a month someone (randomly) has said I've had a good voice. Perhaps constantly singing along to the radio CAN teach one to sing??

Yesterday I made a curtain for my kitchen door window. Today I bought a lamp with a shade that matches the curtain. It's very exciting. Welcome to my life.

Tomorow is the first day of power yoga! Hopefully this will be the perfect combination of the wonderful yoga class and the terrible pilates class. Cross your fingers. Una is apparently VERY good. YAY! :o) Downward facing dog, here we go!

Well, a few more things to get done around the house before kicking off this week of work.
Happy Easter to you all. I wish you could have joined my family for our wonderful Easter brunch. That's right, quiche, french toast bake, fruit salad, and lots of laughter. MMM. I hope your afternoon was good as well.
Love.
-me

ps. i owe lots of people calls (nicole, mariah, megan, aaron....i think there are more.) i'm sorry, they're coming...

tuna melts

Welcome home. Phew. I slept from 4:30pm yesterday to 7:00am this morning. Let's talk about that trip/conference kicking my butt. I also somehow picked up some type of illness. Getting drugs today.

You know how tuna melts always seemed kinda gross....except then somewhere along in the line in Iowa I discovered how amazing they are? Well, today was a tuna melt day. Do you ever get on those kicks where something like a tuna melt is all you want to eat for weeks on end? What does that say about your personality....something about bordering on OCD? Whatever. At least it's not jellybeans like last month.

In other news, my parents are fabulous. They did so much around my house while I was gone. AND left me daffodils! So cute!! :o)

That is all for the moment. News flash - March 30 is National Cleavage Day. :o)