Kya the TERROR...

So last night I knew I wouldn’t be home until late because I was going straight from work to a bridal shower. Adam was out of town for a business trip and I knew I needed someone to at least feed the puppy and let her outside – perhaps play with her a bit too. My mom and dad did all of that and were nice enough to bring her over to their place for a couple of hours to chill with them in the back yard, be outside for a while, and play with Maddie.

All was going well until my they noticed that Kya was somehow over in the neighbor’s yard… There is a fence between their yards. Apparently Kya CLIMBED over the fence as though it were a ladder in order to play with the kids in their kiddie pool next door. I am still trying to picture Kya climbing like that and am amazed that if she is indeed able to do that why she hasn’t attempted before at home?!?!

The neighbors didn’t mind Kya’s company too much because they too have a wild, obnoxious dog so they are used to large, hyper fur balls jumping all over them. I’m sure she had a riot. Their little girl, Ellie, on the other hand, did not. Kya ended up somehow jumping up on Ellie and chin making her jaw slam shut. I guess one of her teeth was knocked sideways and her mom had to reach in and straighten it for her while she was screaming. (I would have been screaming too if my tooth bent over sideways and someone was trying to turn it back! Ow!) Poor girl!

When my mom called me she explained the whole situation and said that the mom next door was really good about it and totally understood. I am glad it wasn’t more serious, but am still mortified that she hurt Ellie. I need to call her mom and make sure she is doing ok today.

So anyways, Kya didn’t kill anyone, but there was blood. My little terror. Sheesh. (P.S. The picture is very old, but that is how we view her...still our little puppy, sweet as ever. Now she is almost 45 pounds and looks like a teenager. Hehe.)

A lesson learned...

I learned a very important lesson about yeast this past weekend. I learned how to KILL yeast. Who knew that you could kill yeast? I certainly did not!

I signed up to bring bread to the Easter meal on Sunday and was excited to try out a new recipe I found in my Cooking Light magazine for “No-Knead Overnight Parmesan and Thyme Rolls”. I loved the idea of making the bread the day before and getting the dirty work out of the way ahead of time. Perfect.

The rolls would have turned out beautifully too, had I not killed the yeast.

I followed the directions exactly as instructed, because with bread you can’t really experiment. (Well not the first time at least) This is a rare occurrence for me to actually follow a recipe. I typically look at the recipe, get a couple ideas about what to include, and then wing it from there. Not for this recipe. Not for Easter dinner. I wanted it to be perfect.

So I followed the directions and did everything just as the recipe said and when it came time to set the rolls out to let them rise – they simply would NOT rise. ??? I put them on top of the oven, near other warmed dishes, on the porch in the sunlight with the heater on… I tried everything to get them to rise. After leaving them out for a good two hours, I figured I had given my double batch a fair opportunity to rise and it was time to put them in the oven. I thought that perhaps they would rise once in the oven. Maybe? No, they didn’t. After baking the appropriate amount of time, I took my rolls out of the oven and stared at the pitiful looking centimeter tall blobs. They did not rise at all. I had failed. How frustrating.

I really had no idea what I had done wrong until chatting with my grandma at the dinner table that evening. I was explaining what I had done and the first thing she says is “did you kill the yeast?” I really didn’t even know how to respond, being that I did not know you could murder an ingredient. She went on to inform me that if you put the yeast in water that is hot versus warm, you will literally kill the yeast and the bread will not rise. I should have used just barely warmer than lukewarm water apparently, not water that had been heated to the point of boiling in the microwave. Oops. My thought process at the time was “the hotter the water is the better and the faster the yeast will dissolve”. I was wrong.

Well, there you go. I murdered my bread. Lesson learned. I suppose I should be thankful that I learned it so early on in life. I learned the hard way. May this be a lesson to you all – WHEN DISOLVING YEAST, USE WARM WATER AND NOT HOT WATER.

(Oh and I whipped up a batch of corn bread muffins quickly to bring to the dinner just in case the rolls did not turn out. Good thing too!)

No-Knead Overnight Parmesan and Thyme Rolls

Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm water (100° to 110°)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/3 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1.1 ounces whole-wheat white flour (about 1/4 cup)
5.6 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/4 cups), divided
Cooking spray
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Preparation
1. Dissolve yeast in 2 tablespoons warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes or until bubbly.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add thyme to pan; cook 1 minute or until bubbly and fragrant. Add thyme mixture and milk to yeast mixture, stirring with a whisk; add 1/4 cup cheese, sugar, salt, and egg, stirring well.
3. Weigh or lightly spoon whole-wheat white flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Using a wooden spoon, stir whole-wheat white flour into yeast mixture. Weigh or lightly spoon 4.5 ounces (about 1 cup) all-purpose flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Add all-purpose flour to yeast mixture, stirring well. Add enough of remaining all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to form a smooth but very sticky dough. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and refrigerate overnight. (Dough will not double in size.)
4. Remove dough from refrigerator. Do not punch dough down. Turn dough out onto a floured surface; sprinkle dough lightly with flour. Roll dough into a 12 x 7–inch rectangle. Brush dough with remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup cheese evenly over dough; sprinkle with pepper. Beginning with a long side, roll up dough jelly-roll fashion. Pinch seam to seal (do not seal ends of roll). Cut roll into 8 (1 1/2-inch) slices. Place slices, cut sides up, on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until rolls have risen slightly.
5. Preheat oven to 400°.
6. Place pan in oven, and immediately reduce heat to 375°. Bake rolls at 375° for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

The beginning of my Modeling Career?

So yesterday the girl who works at the front desk in my building for the management company, Sarah, asked me if I wanted to model for some of their brochures and promotional materials. She made it sound like I’d be in the background with 30 or so people AND told me that free lunch would be provided to those who agreed to model… Free lunch? I’m in. So I agreed. Little did I know that I would be one of 5 people modeling!

I kept thinking that more people would show up, but as we were waiting in the chairs the camera guy started snapping shots of me and the other guy waiting. Then he’d take one of me and the older guy chatting. He just kept on snapping pictures. I began to understand that we were it as far as models went. No one else was coming. I convinced myself that it was ok by reassuring myself that I was getting free lunch for chatting with people – someone just happened to be taking pictures of me at the same time.

I was also sitting next to a large plate of about 2 dozen warm chocolate chip cookies. They were real cookies too – not just fake cookies sitting there to look good. These were steaming hot and the smell was just tantalizing. I finally grabbed a cookie when the “photo shoot” seemed to be nearing an end, but I think the photographer got a couple shots of me munching away. Oh, well. It really does fit me quite well.

This will have been my 3rd time modeling for some type of fee: Bethel University when I was 17, a parking company last year, and the 701 yesterday! Maybe I should put together a portfolio???

Tea Latte Fusions?

So this morning I tried Caribou's new "tea latte fusions"... I just can't seem to make up my mind though. I don't know if I like it or not. I tried the Caramel Earl Grey tea fusion and at first I thought it was bitter and had too much milk, but I warmed up to it after a couple sips. I think what was most difficult was how confused my brain was that a new flavor was coming out of this well-known, beloved Caribou coffee cup. I have trained my mind to anticipate the smooth white chocolate liquid that just glides down my throat. When I see that medium sized paper cup wrapped in a brown card-board sleeve, I know the taste that is soon to follow… only today, that taste was absent. Perhaps this just takes some getting used to? So, what are your thoughts on Caribou’s new tea latte fusions?

Promoted to Wedding Coordinator!

So this past weekend Adam and I were helping out with a couple’s wedding at the Millennium Hotel in Downtown Minneapolis. Adam was an Usher and I was helping out as needed, lighting candles before the ceremony, and various set up tasks.

At the rehearsal the night before the wedding, the Pastor, Clark, spotted me sitting watching and asked if I was doing anything. At the moment I was really just sitting back and observer, being careful not to overstep my bounds and take over accidently. He then asked me to “make this happen”, meaning the order of the ceremony. No one was in charge of telling people when to start walking or what order to go down the aisle in. I was happy to oblige.

So I wrote down the order of who walked who down the aisle and then we ran through it with me telling them when to start walking. How fun is that!?! I got to be a wedding coordinator! It was actually quite nerve-racking, which I didn’t expect. I forgot what it was like to be nervous. I guess I felt a lot of pressure because I was partially responsible for someone else’s “big day”.

When Saturday came around, Adam and I arrived around 1:00, as instructed and helped with the set up. Everything looked perfect! The ceremony was about to begin and a couple of those in the wedding began panicking – the mother of the groom and the groom himself both got a bit uneasy wondering if things were ready. I was happy to calm them down and assure them that everything was under control. I had everyone starting to line up and ready to go and queued the pianist to begin the processional music. The groom seated everyone in the correct order, the brothers of the bride got all the aunts in the right places, and everyone was ready for me to give them the sign to start walking. It was so fun to see everything fall into place.

From this experience, I realized how fun it is to be behind the scenes. I have been a bridesmaid before, but never before part of making everything happen in this way. I enjoyed the rush of adrenaline just prior to the ceremony. I enjoyed calming family members down. I enjoyed the whole process. Who knows, maybe wedding coordinating/planning could blossom into a hobby…or a job… Who knows?

Cadaver Bones!?!

So lately I am discovering how much I despise doctors and dentists in general. Just this past week, I had a rather eventful and yet horrible appointment at a Periodontist. I went on Tuesday to discuss getting some work done on my gums behind my molars. My dentist told me that there is a spot in the very back of my mouth where the gums need to be “trimmed” basically. They slice them and then make it so they fit nicely around the tooth. Sounds simple enough – as long as I cannot feel it. So going into this Periodontist I expected “gum work” to be the topic of discussion, but instead it turns out I have to have the bone under my gums grafted??!?!?! He told me that he uses human cadaver bones and goes in to replace the bone that is deteriorating. Is it ok to freak out yet? Ick! It came as quite a shock to me being that I am rather anal about my brushing and flossing habits. I’m not moving on anything as of yet though. He still has to look through my x-rays and make a treatment plan up. Then I get to decide if I like it or not and what I want to act on exactly. He mentioned that this is probably due to my wisdom teeth being impacted before I got them removed back in 2006. That may have been what messed up the gums and ultimately the bone too. Not happy. I am too young for Periodontal Disease. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what he says and try not to freak out in the meantime. Oh how I despise waiting. I’ll keep you posted!

While on a walk the other night...

So Adam and I were on a walk with the puppy the other night, when we saw some sort of machine at the end of a neighbors driveway about a block and a half away from our house. As we got closer we realized it was a snowblower - a not so bad looking snowblower - with a laminated sign attached to it that read "FREE". We looked at each other and proceeded to carry it home together with Kya pulling us along. It required lifting because one of the tires was flat. Once we got it into the driveway, Adam tried it and it actually started. He figures it just needs gas and a new tire. Holy cow!!! A snowblower!!!


I went online to go look up the make and model number. Turns out, it is a $500 YardMachine! Wow. Yeah, pretty excited. And who better to get it to work if we DO run into a problem than my very own Mechanical Engineer. Hehehe...