Random...

It's been a little while, but I haven't really had anything to write about. I guess life is pretty boring for us right now. I did buy a candy thermometer so I can finally make marshmallows! Woohoo! I am very excited, I will take pictures and let you all know if they are any good. 

Jason and I haven't had the best luck with home teachers since we've been married, and living in this apartment. We got a home teacher for the first month we were here, and then had a dry spell for probably about 9(ish) months, got a great home teacher, for probably 4(ish) months, and then had another dry spell until this month! We finally have home teachers again! Woohoo! 

Also, I had a get-together with some of my friends from high school, and had so much fun! I wish I would have taken pictures, we will do it again, and I will take pictures then. 

And another thing, I have gotten back into reading! I don't know what it was, but I took a little break and now I am back to my normal ways of reading a book or two a week. Oh how I have missed reading. Anyone have any good suggestions?

Halloween/Murder mystery

I still haven't posted about halloween. We had a great time! We went to the Louder's for a party. they had a lot of great treats and we even carved pumpkins! (I will post that picture later). 

The day after Halloween we went to a MURDER MYSTERY! Our friends Seth and Mariah hosted it. It was great trying to figure out who was the murderer! Anyways, Here is a picture of Jason and me at the party. We got really into the costumes and tried to get as close to what we thought our characters would wear. 

(I also made ecalirs for the party! Also, Jason's fake cigar actually puffed smoke!)

General Conference Ensign November 2008

My brother has recently had a dream (goal) to make it into the ensign. At the October general conference he got to go with one of his friends from South Africa and his girlfriend. As they were walking past the ensign photographers taking pictures of other people, my brother- quite loudly- commented to his friend that the photographer should take a picture of them. The photographer heard and asked my brother and his friends if he could take a picture of them. 

Flash forward a month, I got a phone call while I was at Walmart I got a phone call from Tanner. He doesn't normally call me, he usually sends me a text message. He asked me if I had seen the ensign yet, I hadn't, and neither had he. He then told me one of his friends saw his picture in the ensign! 

We finally got our ensign and sure enough, on page 40, there was my brother! (He's the light gray one)

eclairs...

Here is the recipe. 

boil 1 cup of water with 6 Tablespoons of butter, a pinch of salt, and 1 Tablespoon of sugar.

Once it gets to a rapid boil, dump in 5 3/4 ounces of bread flour. (Pour all of the flour in at once, it says to weigh the flour, but I just measure a little less than a cup) Stir vigorously. Once the mixture starts to come together turn the heat to low and continue to mix until it is a paste and no longer sticky to the touch. (It should also produce a film on the bottom and sides of the pan, that's when it's ready) dump mixture into mixing bowl (kitchenaid). 

When you can put your finger in the mixture and not get burned, add 4 whole eggs and 2 egg whites one at a time, mixing very well (on low speed) after each egg. When it is finished it should be a smooth paste. 

 

Put paste in a pastry bag with a large circle attachment. 

Line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper and squirt out the paste into a messy S (make sure all the sides touch) you can also just squirt out a thick line (which would probably be better). They should be around 2 1/2 inches long and leave about 2 inches in between each paste line.

 

Put in oven at 425 degrees (F) for 10 minutes, after 10 minutes change temperature to 350 degrees (F) until they are brown and a little bit crispy (about 6 ish minutes)

Pull out of oven and stab a hole into the side of the eclair to let the moisture escape. 

FILLING:

Vanilla instant pudding. Follow instructions, but only use 3/4 of the milk. 

Put vanilla pudding in a pastry bag with a small attachment and fill the eclair with the pudding (go slow so it doesn't burst). 

Topping:

Get 1 cup of chocolate chips and about a 1 tsp of oil and melt them together. Only melt halfway and then mix together until smooth.

Dip the eclair into the topping and you're done!

Pate de choux

A couple of days ago Jason asked me to make some treats for his "work" party. (His research group is having a little halloween party) We both thought I was going to make sugar cookies with orange frosting, but yesterday as I was watching "Good Eats" we both decided I should make eclairs. I ran to the store before work to grab some bread flour, and pastry bags. 

          Later last night, at around 10:30, I started to make the eclairs. The first one- the tester- turned out a little off, because our oven sucks. I had to adjust the temperature so they wouldn't burn, but would still cook thoroughly. I finally got it and they turned out great! Here are some pictures. If you want the recipe let me know and I'll think about posting it. ;)

P.S. Watch pushing daisies. You can check it out at abc.com. Fantastic show!

The Piemaker

TV show of the week:

Pushing Daisies!

The other day I was checking out Yahoo's homepage and found a list of shows that are in trouble of going off the air. Arrested development went off the air after only 3 seasons, so I figured I should check out the shows and see if there were any worth saving. I only saw one that looked interesting, Pushing Daisies, so I looked it up online and started watching. I am in love with this show now! It is great! If you haven't seen it, check it out. It is on tonight at 7 on abc (check your local listings just in case the time is different). The show is about a piemaker who can bring things back to life for one minute if he touches them. He has to touch them within the one minute so they will die again, or something else nearby will die. The show is fantastic and I recommend it! Penny and Kate even like it! If you get the chance, you should check it out and tell me what you think of it. 

Prop 8?

Mostly all I hear these days is about proposition 8. When I get on the internet my computer automatically goes to the apple homepage. Today I actually took a little bit of a look at their page and lo and behold, there was apple's opinion on proposition 8. I probably shouldn't have been surprised, because apple is supposed to the "young and hip" company, but it still shocked me. Apple is proud to oppose proposition 8, and if I had the chance, I would vote YES on proposition 8. 

This is my two cents on the matter. I will post something new later on.