"Do we support the Lesbian club too?"

So yesterday at the institute building the Jewish club was using the gym for some event.  Cool! We support the Jewish people!

Anyway, we went to the kitchen area/rec room to eat dinner before our class and there was a big group of girls that were apparently speed dating. What? Yeah.   I pointed this out to Micah and he whispered urgently, "Wait. Do  we support the Lesbian club too?"  Haha.  I have a funny husband.

By the way, they were just Relief Society girls who were speed meeting.

My new favorite pastime

Is BAKING.  I love it.  Especially since we got all of our baking stuff back from Tropic. 

Micah especially loves this pastime of mine. 

Saturday morning I made french toast with an apple cinnamon topping and homemade whipped cream.  No pictures, but I thought it was pretty awesome. 

Last night I made these:

Delicious, right?

My favorite thing I made was this: 

It's banana chocolate chip bread with a chocolate glaze. I found the recipe in a food network magazine and I think it is my new favorite treat.

Here's the recipe for anyone who's interested:

1) Choose a flavor-- prepare one cup of any of the following

          Pear, shredded and squeezed dry

          Apple, shredded and squeezed dry

          Banana, mashed

          Carrot, shredded

          Zucchini, shredded and squeezed dry

2) Pick your mix-ins-- Choose up to 1 3/4 cups total of the following ingredients (no more than 3/4 cups nuts). Toast and chop any nuts; chop any large dried fruit.

        Walnuts, Pecans, Almonds, Hazelnuts, Pistachios

        Dried cherries, dried cranberries, dried currants, raisins, dried figs, dried apricots, dried dates

        Rolled oats

       Chocolate chips

       Sweetened shredded coconut

3) Prepare the pan-- Preheat oven to 350. Lightly butter one 9x5 inch loaf pan or three 6x3 inch mini pans.

4) Make the batter-- Mix 1 1/4 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon each baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl;  add your dry mix-ins (from step 2).  In a medium bowl, whisk 2 eggs, 1/2 cup cooled melted butter or vegetable oil, 1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 teaspoon citrus zest (optional).  Stir your fruit or vegetables (from step 1) into the egg mixture, then fold into the dry mixture until just combined.

5) Bake the loaf-- Spread the batter in the prepared pan(s). Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 55 minutes for a standard loaf, 35-40 minutes for mini loaves. Cool 30 minutes in the pan(s) on a rack, then turn out onto the rack to cool completely.

6) Make a glaze-- Prepare a glaze, pour on cooled bread and let set 15-20 minutes.

       Chocolate - whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons milk, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

       Vanilla Bean - whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and the seeds from 1 vanilla bean.

      Brown Butter - Brown 3 tablespoons butter over low heat; cool slightly. Whisk with 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar and 1 tablespoon milk. Use immediately.

      Citrus - whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, 1 tablespoon citrus juice, and 1 teaspoon citrus zest.

     Cream Cheese - whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons softened cream cheese, 2 tablespoons milk and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla.

There you go folks.  You could make SO many different yummy breads.  If anyone attempts to make the pear bread, let me know how it turns out.  Micah is REALLY skeptical about it, but we have a bunch of pears I want to use up. 

Institute

Institute has a special place in my heart.

I started going to institute the day I started going to UVU's dental hygiene program.  I figured I would need that spiritual time to get away from the busy, hectic, CRAZY 2 years I had ahead of me.  Oh buddy, was I right. 

Anyone who knows me also knows that I'm a stresser.  When I was in class with the other 13 Type A(++++++) personalities, I stressed.  When I was working with a patient and didn't know what was going on, I stressed.  BUT, when I was in institute I could just relax.  I could just have a great, uplifting time.  I felt at home.  I liked institute better than BYU classes.  BYU classes are focused on tests and papers and (at least the ones I took) took a very scholarly approach to the Gospel-- not my style.

Due to the intense nature of my program, I couldn't always go to institute.  In fact, near the end, I had no time for it at all (what with being on a different campus and studying for boards and doing community projects). 

Well I had almost forgot about institute after moving to Tucson, but my new friend Kelsey told me about the institute at U of A.  "It's the best!  Everybody goes there. $1 lunch on Fridays! Free parking!" 

So Micah and I went.  It lives up to its reputation.  We go to a marriage class on Wednesdays and I go to the devotional on Fridays.  After devotional, Micah meets up with me to go to the lunch.  Oh, the lunch! $1= Lasagna, salad, garlic bread, ice cream with toppings, lemonade.  Micah and I agreed that it is probably cheaper than making our own lunch.

In conclusion, GO TO INSTITUTE!  It's the bomb.

R.S. Broadcast = AWESOME!

So the Relief Society Broadcast tonight was totally the best.  I needed that.  Especially Pres. Uchdorf's talk.  I tend to get hung up on the small, unimportant things in life and forget the big things.  It was a great way for me to re-focus. 

And it was a great way for some legit girl time, which I haven't had since moving to Tucson.  I went to the broadcast with a girl, Sarina, from our ward.  We mostly see eachother at institute and we chat.  She offered to drive me to the broadcast seeing as I didn't know where to go.  It was great to just talk to another girl and feel like I was making a friend.

God Bless America

So I know I'm 2 days late, but the lessons we learned on 9/11 shouldn't be shared just once a year. We should remember them always. My mom told me about the MoTab's Music and the Spoken Word program this past Sunday. It's great.  Here is a link to it.

Deadly Dishwasher

Most dishwashers do a good job of cleaning dishes so that you can use them again, unless you are a college student, then most of them just get your dishes wet.  Our dishwasher is very mean, it destroys things we put in it.  Yesterday it decided to torch our measuring cup.  Maybe it just doesn't like to be used.  But we tried to wash dishes again today and it must have been offended because it burned our tupperware lid clean in half and made our apartment smell like burning plastic.  What an adventure!

Red Robin...Yummm

In honor of my lovely mother's birthday, we all went to Red Robin for dinner.

Some things:

*Look at Matt's girlfriend!  Her name is Carly, but spelled something like Karleigh23xyj.  She's made it past his "3 week rule." I wonder if it means something.  I like her.

*The Barney men have a hard time looking normal in pictures.  And sometimes my mom.

* I love my family!