What does $3400 buy?

The answer is: some new car parts. On Thursday a girl hit me and my car is in the shop. I was parked on the side of the road and checked all my mirrors. No one was in the street - she came whipping around the corner just I pulled away. She clipped the side of my car and I got the $75 ticket for an unsafe lane entrance. Rexburg requires that the police give a ticket to someone when there is an accident on a city street. Fortunately I can go to driving school to get it off my record, but I was NOT happy that I was the one who got it. (my car was unsafe to drive because of the damage to the wheel and the door, she had a busted headlight and that was all the damage to her car)

What grade do you think Brian wants?

On Friday in Baking half of the class made items for their finals. Brian made cinnamon rolls and when he presented these to me you can see how he was trying to influence my decision on his grade. They were really good!

Chicken, Lime, and Orzo Soup

Last Friday I had a group of students make this for their broth based soup assignment. We sold it in the little cafe (Emma's) that is right next to the kitchen in the Clark. It was good enough that I made it for company that night. This is a winner.

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions - thinly sliced
10 cloves of garlic - thinly sliced (actually I chopped mine fine)
2 jalapeno chilies - thinly sliced (depending how hot you want the soup will determine whether you leave any or all of the seeds in)
1 1/2 pounds chicken breast - cut into matchstick like strips
2 1/2 quarts chicken broth
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
2 large tomatoes - seeded and chopped
1/2 cup cilantro - chopped
1 1/2 cups orzo - cooked in boiling, salted water until just tender

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and chilies and saute until onion begins to brown (about 4 minutes).
Add chicken and saute 1 minute, add broth, lime juice and tomato. Simmer until chicken is cooked through (about 3 minutes)
Mix in orzo, then chopped cinaltro. Season with salt and pepper.
Garnish with cilantro sprigs.

This makes 10-12 servings. I served some yummy bread and a simple green salad. I finished it off with some homemade ice cream and it was a great meal, at least that is what my company said (please keep in mind however they were boys here is school so anything that didn't begin with top ramen would be an improvement).

Hobart to the rescue

Okay - today the baking class was decorating the cakes that they baked last week. I gave them some specific instructions for making the butter cream icing including the fact that if 2 students wanted to work together and make a double batch (times 2 of the original recipe) of icing it would fit in one of the kitchen aid mixers. I said that only TWO batches would fit however.

Some students came to get me a bit later to have a look at their icing, and ask how they were going to fit all of the rest of the confectioners' sugar (they had 4 pounds left to add) into the bowl. When I got to the bakery part of the kitchen I saw that their icing was mounded up over the top of the kitchen aid bowl and was about to spill out onto the table. I asked them how many batches they were trying to squeeze into this one mixer. Their answer - FOUR!

I had them scrape out all of what they had in the kitchen aid and move it to the big Hobart mixer. They added the rest of the sugar and the water they had calculated and turned on the mixer. After they mixed it some they had a big dry glob of icing. I asked them about the quantities they had measured and found out that they used an old scale that was not good for precise measurements. They should have had 8 pounds of powdered sugar and I am sure they had at least one if not two extra pounds. I added some more water and managed to get it to a consistency where they could use it.

It's always an adventure - I love it!

A Red Breasted Harbinger

When I opened the blinds in our bedroom, I saw this red-breasted little robin just sitting on a branch of the apple tree just outside the window. The wind was blowing his little feathers but he just sat very still.


Spring begins officially on Friday - this little bird is definitely a harbinger of the coming season!
I can't wait for capris and flip flops.

60 Eggs for ONE cake!

I did NOT kill anyone in the lab yesterday although I was tempted.

I had a group of 3 students who were having some trouble separating eggs for an angel food cake they were supposed to make. They got some yolk in their whites and I told them that they needed to try again because they would not be able to beat the whites to the right consistency to have a successful cake. I was helping some other students get started with their projects when I turned around to see them with 3 large containers full of a mixture of yolks and whites. I asked what they were doing and they told me that they had a lot of trouble with the eggs (they blamed the eggs saying there was something wrong with them and they would NOT separate). There were 4 eggs left on the second flat of eggs that I had gotten out for all 24 students to use, which meant they used somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 eggs to get 10 ounces of whites (that should have taken approximately 10 eggs). There were no other eggs in the kitchen because I had calculated what we would need and that is what was purchased. I had 8 students left that had not even begun their angel food cakes and obviously they were not going to be successful in any way if I couldn't lay my hands on some other eggs. One student turned to me and said (in a slightly sarcastic tone) that she was sorry and did I want her to go and buy eggs. No I told her, what I wanted was for them to ask me when (after 20 eggs) they needed help and I would have come right over.

I borrowed another 5 dozen from another department and we replaced them that afternoon. This incident followed another from the fundamentals lab earlier where a student took a rather large roast (about 4 pounrds) that was needed in another class and used it for braising instead of the 6 ounce one I had defrosted for her and showed her where it was. Her reply when I asked her about it was this one looked more like the ones she had seen her mother used so she picked it to use. I didn't kill her either - it was not that great of a day at BYU-Idaho.

The Five Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

This is a great recipe for a fun teat for the kids (young or old). You mix this up in a mug and microwave it. You can watch through the window and you will be amazed.

4 tablespoons all purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips
a small splash of vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients together in the mug. Add the egg, milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla and mix again. Microwave for 2 minutes on high. The cake will rise above the rim of the mug (it is very cool to watch as it bubbles and cooks) but won't boil over. You can eat this right out of the mug or you can let it cool a bit and slide it out onto a plate.

Feel the Love and Share It!

Jen posted this on her blog and I participated with the promise that I would keep the chain going.

So Here it goes...The first five people to comment on this post will get something in the mail from me. I make you the promise that it will be something homemade but I can't guarantee that it will be edible.

Here's the catch....If you are one of the five commenters, you have to put a similar post on your blog. This keeps us all busy and thinking of others for a while. I think it's a great way to compensate for the "I'm really tired of the winter blues." In fact the snow plow is at this very moment cruising down the street (it hasn't snowed for days so I can see this is a great use of the cities' resources).

"Not Lovin' It"

This was our paper on Monday morning:
At a McDonald's in Springfield, Ill., police were called after a motorist, later charged with drunken driving, sat in a drive-through lane and screamed at the window for several minutes about not getting fast service, apparently unaware that the restaurant had been closed for two hours and there was no one there. (reprinted from the Portland Oregonian's "The Edge")
That's a good one!

Will steriods make me agressive?

Okay - I finally broke down and went to the doctor. Good thing too - I have severe bronchitis and he gave me an antibiotic, cough syrup with codeine and a steroid. I was awake most of last night and the night before but today my cough seems a little bit better. The steroid makes me hyper and the codeine makes me sleepy so I guess in the long run I'm neither. I'm grateful for cough drops!

I want to stop coughing

I received an assignment to visit a ward relief society. Seems easy, right? I just got home after coughing myself right out of the meeting. I got up once and left, all the while sucking hard on my cough drop, but going outside didn't help. It seemed to subside, I went back in thinking I might make it through the rest of the meeting, but no I could NOT stop coughing (like the I'm-going-to-throw-up kind of cough). So I just gathered my things and came home. If passed experience holds true, I could do this for another couple of weeks. I hate it!