A mess in the kitchen...

After my introspective rambling post about ongoing learning, etc., I decided that one thing I needed to become better at was cooking/baking. So, I set out to make a chocolate pie tonight. Clark's grandma used to make chocolate pie and he says it's his favorite, so I figured I had better be the good wife and figure this out. And it was an adventure. A little.

First, I played it safe and used a frozen pie crust. I took that out of the freezer to thaw and started on the filling. Separating yolks from eggs? Got that down. :) Mixing in the milk slowly? I'm all over that. Everything was going well and I was feeling pretty good, until....

I used google to figure out how much chocolate there was in 2 oz., roughly. The forum I landed on had lots of answers - they all said 1 cup or maybe a bit more. For 8 oz. And I merrily dumped a cup and a half of chocolate in. So, I QUADRUPLED the amount of chocolate the recipe called for, in case you didn't want to do the math. I mean, it's pretty hard. ;) Seriously. Sheesh!

But it gets better.

So I decided to just go with it, and I made plans to water (?) it down with vanilla pudding or a lot of creamy something. Form what I could taste, it wasn't the worst mistake I'd ever made, and I figured it was rescue-able.

I finished the filling, feeling amazing about myself since I didn't scorch the bottom, and poured it into the pie shell. The RAW pie shell. Yes, I do continually amaze myself. So I scraped it back out, and luckily had another frozen pie shell. I baked that one and filled it up and voila! Chocolate pie in my fridge. The filling was actually really good - rich, of course, but good. :)

And that is the story of The Chocolate Pie.

This is a picture of somebody else's chocolate pie, but it was the closest to my pie I could find, and I wish I had this person's countertop:

Clark's Birthday Pics...20 days later!

::Update:: new pics added at the bottom

Sorry hon! I blogged about Clark's birthday but never put pictures up, so here is the birthday boy on the morning of:

 

 

And here are some of the little birthday party we had that weekend (we waited for his parents to come home to do the cake thing)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention - I was only the photographer for a few of these - our nephews took the rest!

Some introspective rambling....etc.

Random Post! 

It's been six months since I got married, started a new job, graduated, left BYU, and moved to this crazy little town. So, things have settled down a bit. Lately I've been getting all thoughtful and deep :), and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I used to want to graduate (single) and get a good job, and I worked toward that, and it was kind of the big thing I was working on in life. Now I don't have such a big thing. I love my photography but now that winter is kind of here (hello way nice weather today) that's not so busy. I'm still working on that and reading in forums and blogs and learning and making big plans for next year, but I've always done that, so I need another 'big thing.' :) I've been going over my 101 in 1001 list, and there are some changes I want to make, but I haven't figured it all out yet. What the heck do I want to do now? I feel like I need to be doing something; setting goals and accomplishing them, and continuing to learn even though I'm done school, but I'm not sure where to start or what to do. And, it can't cost anything, because we're saving for our house. Or I would have been to three or four photography workshops already. :D

I'm trying to get running again, but I realized this week how hard it's going to be for the next few months. By the time I got home from work, had a quick snack, changed and was out the door it was dark already. Yuck! And it's dark until about the time I go to work, too, so getting up early isn't really an option. Luckily Clark's dad fixed our lovely elliptical so I've been using that. Thanks Doug! I have a 5K this Saturday, and then another one in 2 weeks, so I'm excited.

I've started reading more, which is part of the continual learning thing. I've just started Corrie Ten Boom's "The Hiding Place" which is really good so far. I just finished off "The Sunflower" which is one of my favorite books (that I own). Any good book suggestions?

I got a few of my wedding pictures printed, and I got some samples from the printer, so I have a bunch of different paper samples - metallic, linen textured, pebble textured, glossy, lustre - how to pick?!? I wish I could show them on here, but it's hard to show texture. And I can't take any pictures in the apartment because some short in the light fixture keeps burning through all the lightbulbs we're putting in it, and now we're out. :) I guess we'll just consider it mood lighting. Anyway, I love my pictures!!


Update:

The Town just posted the new position I've been hoping for - I've put in my resume and I'm crossing my fingers!

Love my job

I have such an awesome job. I've been working on learning and configuring some new software so we can promote it to the community in the spring, and with that comes developing promotional items. I downloaded the trial of Illustrator (adobe.com)and started to learn, but with only 30 days to use it, I wasn't sure what I was going to do when the trial ran out.

Well, the guy across the hall had the whole creative suite! So, I did some investigating, and finally talked to the CAO, and he had it installed on his former laptop, so he gave it to me to use! (And, he's the coolest boss ever because he knows how to use these programs) Okay, so if you know anything about me, Photoshop, Lightroom, and anything Adobe is pretty much the coolest thing ever, and now I get to use these programs FOR MY JOB. It can't get much better than that!

Hair

I finally had my hair done! My roots had been growing for months and were like 3 inches long. Seriously. My hair was sooo blah. You'd think that I'd get my hair done more often, considering I notice such a drastic change every time I do. What a different color and a little trim can make. :)

I made an appointment the day before, so I wasn't sure who the Catherine girl I got was, or how good she was. I told her I wanted to go darker, so she pulled out the color book. Now usually I'm pretty good with a color book - I know what I want and it's not a problem. This time, however, I messed up. I picked a darker shade, but then let her do a lightener, and my hair as a third color. Oh boy. When she started drying my hair, I started having a mini panic attack inside. My hair was the same shade, if not lighter, than it was before she started. And I really wanted it darker, as did Clark (He LOVES it dark - the darker the better - hence my goth wedding hair). For my poor husband, spending over a hundred dollars on hair is unbelievable - I was wondering what he'd think when I paid to get it done twice. In a row. I debated saying anything, because I hate speaking up, but I knew I'd have to face Clark when I got home, too, so after a few minutes I finally told her it wasn't as dark as I had been hoping, and asked her how soon I could dye it again. She was super nice about it, and had another stylist cover one of her appointments so she could dye my hair over again. We ended up doing one color all over. I have some kind of interesting lighter chunks subtly showing through, but it's darker! And it didn't cost me $200. Phew!

I finally figured out my hair in Utah, but I haven't found 'my' stylist here yet. Suggestions??

Getting back into running

To force myself to get out in the cold and run, I've signed up for two races coming up! Clark's Aunt Dixie told me she was running them and invited me to join, so she gave me the push I needed. :) One is a 4K, and the other's a 5K. I'm sure Dixie is running the 10K, but I don't think that's gonna happen for me this soon. She also reminded me that the marathon club in Lethbridge starts in January - I've always wanted to try it out but haven't ever lived up here while it was running. So, I'm thinking about doing that, too.

I kind of have a love-hate relationship with running. I hate when I haven't been running and have to start again, because it's hard and it sucks (so why did I stop, you ask?....not sure). But there's nothing better than going for that run when it isn't quite so hard, because you've been running regularly, and you just get to be outside in the sun and the fresh air, and you feel alive, and then when you push yourself to go a little farther than you thought you could, and you're sweating and tired at the end and it feels so good - yeah I'm sounding like a dork, but it's a good feeling. And it's addicting. So, I'm excited!

Thinnerware

I just had to share this - check out thinnerware.com.

Thinnerware is dishware that has strategically placed designs to show you how much you're eating/drinking. Get this - a bowl has three flowers on the inside, three different sizes, and each one is a different serving size, like 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup etc. They have bowls and cups with stripes inside that indicate measurements, too, but I don't think you'd ever guess.

This is from their site:

Who can use Thinnerware?
 

People who...

...want to eat healthier portion sizes

...use powdered drinks or soups (ie "mix 2 scoops in 8 oz. water")

...count calories

...are dieting

...attend Weight Watchers or other weight-loss programs

...like to pretend they are on a cooking show and want to display their ingredients in pretty bowls and cups

...just like the designs

Just thought it was interesting!