Anna

here's the annoyed puppy look. sorry the bottom of the pic is messed up

About a year ago, my wife and I woke up one morning and drove an hour and a half to the middle of nowhere looking for a special puppy. We were broke then as we are now but we wanted a dog. We didn't know what the puppies looked like but they were the breed we wanted and they were the closest ones around. We drove from our house (then in draper) to Evanston, Wyoming. On the way, we discussed names and as I remember it, it was a blast. We new we wanted a female dog. I'm not really sure why. I've just always grown up around female dogs so that's what I loved. We thought about names and actually settled on Anna pretty quick. We couldn't name her Annie because of a good friend : ) So we drove to evanston...actually about 15 miles outside of Evanston to a little double wide. We knocked and immediately heard a million dogs barking! A really nice young woman opened the door and greeted us and let us in. Inside, there were about twenty chihuahua's in cages and gated into the front room of the house barking like mad. We saw the little Border- Aussie pups behind another gate in the hall. We talked a bit about what we wanted and we met the doggy parents. We wanted a quiet more mellow female so they took out two of the cutest puppies I've ever seen, one with black spots and a crooked tail that was dead asleep in our arms, and a little white with almost pink spots around her eyes and ears with one faint one on her back. We held them both and talked for a minute, then switched. The black and white puppy just hung there sleepily and the white and brown/pink puppy gave us the look that said "Why the hell did you pick me up? I was napping...." after seeing that look I was hooked and Brooke was too. We paid $45 dollars to the lady, took our new doggy and got in the car, and the rest is history. She's been a huge part of our small family and has brought some irritating moments and far more happy moments. She kept Brooke company while I was rafting all summer, and she keeps me on my toes and entertained while Brooke is at work until late. She's always home waiting to happily give you a big kiss on a bad day, and annoy the heck out of you on a good day. She's always there to share her slimy dog bone, or dog drool rope toy. I'm excited for our future children to grow up with a lovable dog to play with and to help take care of. I never thought I'd be such a trippy pet owner to actually write a post about her but I couldn't help it. Maybe it was out of boredom but I think it was how happy I am to have the little lady in our lives. If you don't like this post....Screw you! I don't care, I love my dog and that's all there is to it. Happy Birthday Anna!

My favorite Anna picture. She had one droopy ear for a month or so : )

Valentines Day

Well, Valentines day has come and gone once again. Last year was nothing memorable, cause I don't remember what we even did. I remember Brooke worked which meant I sat at home doing heaven knows what, probably cooking something. This year I feel like I redeemed myself a bit and it made me feel pretty good. I'm not gonna go into details about what I did because this is not a post to brag. What was really nice about last night for me was doing something unexpected and fun for my beautiful wife who takes such wonderful care of me. I had a blast making a simple idea become a reality and it all came together beautifully! I don't feel like anything really went wrong, or tasted bad, or didn't work. The look on her face was worth every minute of time spent making it all come together. That's what Valentines should be about. making someone you love happy. It doesn't have to be a boy or girlfriend, just someone you love. It also doesn't have to be big and expensive..last night the bill was $49.10 and there's enough ingredients in the fridge leftover for the rest of the week. The thought counts! show someone that you love them. A friend said to me yesterday that she didn't celebrate valentines day cause it's a big scam and that "you should act like everyday is valentines day." I agree with her that companies make a bunch of money off the day of love, and that yeah you should treat your significant other like every day is valentines day. My one thought that doesn't really go along with her is the fact that it's one day a year when you actually are given the time and the reminder to do something nice for someone else, so why not celebrate : ) I hope everyone's Valentines day was as good as mine turned out to be, and if it wasn't there's always next year ; ) 

Sunday Morning

It's been awhile since my last post about movies and what not. It's been a great couple of weeks full of working, cooking, and school with the occasional time off to just relax. Sunday morning has to be the best morning ever. You wake up and have nothing to do so you lay around till you get hungry. :) Then you get up and make some food. Today I made crepes with whipped cream, fresh blackberries and a blackberry purée to top it off. Here's a couple pics I snapped.

Mmmm! Tasty!

Then I went back to bed! I'm currently horizontal and it's wonderful! To all the poor people out there working today I want you to know that I'll relax extra hard for you today and I'll make and eat potato leek soup tonight just for you! I'll post the recipe for crepes on damnthelemonade and the potato leek soup is already there, only tonight I'm gonna add a little bacon to the guest list and maybe some cheese like gruyere. Happy Sunday everyone!!

Movies, Ice Cream and a Blanket

One of my favorite things to do in the whole world is watch a movie, eat ice cream, and hang out with a blanket. It's something so simple but it really does make me a super happy guy. And I can't forget that it's not complete without my wonderful wife, Brooke, sitting right next to me. It doesn't matter what movie it is, it makes me super happy. Now, the ice cream does kinda matter. The most recent was a homemade peach ice cream, that really hit the spot. I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com. It's simple and pretty tasty. I did change it because the recipe makes a gallon of ice cream and I only wanted a quart. I also tweaked it a bit because I wanted it to be a touch sweeter. So if you try it, taste the mix before you freeze it and adjust to your liking. Other nights, if I'm not making ice cream, my personal favorite has been any of the Häagen-Dazs sorbet's because I've always been a sucker for fruit flavored ice-cream. While Brooke usually favors Häagen-Dazs new flavors like ammaretto-almond crunch, or bananas foster, or chai tea. I do, of course, have to have a bite of any of those flavors because they are incredible! The point is to get an ice cream you love and sit down with it and who cares if you eat the whole pint.... : ) (I usually only stop after the spoon is starting to taste like paper from scraping all the ice cream dregs out of the carton.)

On the subject of movies. Everyone has their favorites. No, I never really want to watch a chick flick but I gotta let my wife have a turn and honestly I usually end up kinda enjoying it. HOWEVER, some of the films are complete wastes of time and energy and I wish that whoever created that film had a heart attack and died instead of made that horror. I am positive that Brooke would say the same about some of my favorite movies too. Either way we usually end up enjoying what we watch and it's a great way to end the work day and relax before bed.

To end this post I would just add this last thought. I'm saying all this simply because you don't have to spend a lot of money or real energy to have a good evening. Enjoy the simple things in life like ice cream, a movie, and a blanket. I love going out as much as the next guy but at the same time I couldn't be happier to live life at it's simplest.

To the New Year

Well, it's 2012. I spent my first day of this year spending time with the woman I love and relaxing from the chaos we've had to deal with at work this holiday season. 2011 was a good year. It had it's ups and downs with the biggest down happening through the beginning of October, with many ups throughout the rest of the year. But that's all history. What's gonna happen this year? Well a few things are already going on. I'll finish culinary school this year and me and Brooke are deciding what to do and where to go next. On the list of possibilities there's been London, back home to Utah, Portland or Arizona for more schooling, and a few more. We'll just see what happens. I've been thinking recently about new years resolutions. Basically they are things that we hope to achieve to make our lives easier, happier, healthier, and...well...better. Some try to make life better for others. Others just wanna get by. As for me I want to make this year better than the last. I want to see myself and my family progress and move up and forward. I'm a little nervous to make some of the decisions that will need to be made this year but I know I won't have to make them alone. I'm excited for all the adventures I'm going to have this year and the new experiences that will hopefully help me and my family grow. When you really think about it, it's nice to not know what's going to happen ahead. We can hope and plan a few things along the way but life will happen as it's supposed to happen. All we can really do is be the absolute best we can, working hard and doing what we know is right, then leaving the rest to God. I don't know exactly the purpose for writing this particular post other than to get some thoughts and feelings out of my head and into the world. To close I just wanna say I love you, to all of you that should know I love you, particularly my wife and all of my family and friends both here and at home. You all have made me who I am today and I'm thankful to have you all in my life. I wish you all the best and hope that everything you would like to accomplish this year can happen for you. To a happy new year!

The Day Off

We all love a good day off, whether it be a day off from school, work, or being stressed out about life. There's something about not having anything to do or really worry about for a day that's refreshing and rejuvenating. A few things that I like to on my day off include

• Being horizontal for as long as possible. You don't necessarily have to be laying down but sitting and relaxing is key.
• Munchies. Hang out with your favorite snack and/or beverage while being horizontal. 
• Cooking. This is a personal one. I love to cook when I'm at home hanging out. Usually Brooke is working when I have a day off so it's nice to cook something good for her to come home to.
• Watch something good. It's been awesome to catch up on my shows and hang out with a good movie.

Here's a couple links to some old school disney cartoons about days off for your enjoyment : )

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78_3VBST-4w This one is a goofy cartoon and is the exact opposite of what I enjoy doing on my day off. In fact it's a nightmare day off but entertaining none the less.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdEwNOz-P50 A classic donald duck cartoon. Gotta love it!

Well this is a short post. I mean, it is my day off  : ) Take it easy everybody!

Culinary Chronicles #3

Well, another week has gone by and life in culinary school is as good as ever! We are learning the basic cooking methods like roast, braise, fry, grill, saute, poach. We did some great recipes that I'll post on damnthelemonade so you can check them out. They were super easy and delicious! I'm still in my safety and sanitation class and it's going good. We finished parasites so here's a link to a video we watched about cryptosporidium. It was pretty gnarly to see how tough some bugs are! We also learned about cockroaches and other creepy crawlies that can infect a kitchen and how to get rid of them. Pretty mellow week, and culinary foundations 1 is almost over! Then a 3 week break and I start foundations 2 where we actually get to start doing some cooking! Sorry this post is so short. NOW this up coming week is going to be a little crazy! I have almost nothing but tests everyday! Thank goodness it's on knife cuts, recipes, herbs, spices, and who wrote the first cookbook instead of useless imaginary math questions. Thank goodness for easy math questions in the form of cooking measurements! We learned a bit about lobsters this week when we made lobster bisque and I thought this clip of Julia Child talking about lobsters was kinda funny but actually really informative.
Here's the link Julia Child and Lobster! Have a good week everybody!