Semester's end

Being out of school is weird. I no longer live my life in semester time. And, now that I'm working full-time, I don't get to enjoy the benefits of semester breaks. For some reason though, I'm so ready for this semester to be over. I think it's because I can see the stress for Ethan and I wish I could help, but I can't. I'm ready for him to get fresh new classes that are more geared to what he's actually interested in. And who knows, maybe we'll get to sneak home for a couple days. Heaven knows I need a break from here too! Although, the weather has been beautiful and I enjoyed the sun coming through  my windows as I drive to and from work. Spring is coming, I can feel it!

Noodles and breadsticks

Let's be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of cooking. Well, I like it, but I don't like the time it takes and the cleanup. Because of that, Ethan and I tend to grab whatever it is we can find for dinner and we're good to go. I've been feeling guilty that I haven't lived up to my wife duties (well.. kind of, not completely) so I decided we would try a new meal that said was 30 minutes or less.

I was searching through my sister-in-law's cooking blog here and found the perfect recipe. She called it "Spicy Garlic Noodles & The Fastest Breadsticks in the World" and by golly it was good! No, I don't have pictures big surprise. I just have to insert here that I've never been one to think, "Wow, this looks awesome, I should take a picture!" No. I'm too busy getting the food on my plate and shoveling it in. I'll try better to take food pictures if I'm going to post about food. 

The recipe:

Spicy Garlic Noodles

7 oz of whole wheat spaghetti noodles

3 garlic cloves, minced (or jarred garlic)

1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/3 cup Olive Oil (next time I'll cut that down a bit)

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Parmesan cheese

Boil the noodles to al dente and drain. Add the garlic, red pepper, olive oil and top it off with the Parmesan cheese as you'd like. If you still think it needs a bit more, add some more salt to taste.

The Fastest Breadsticks In The World (no yeast, no rise, no knead- Delicious!)

1 1/4 cup flour

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup milk

rosemary or italian seasoning

garlic powder (I left this out just because of the garlic in the pasta)

Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Throw everything into a bowl and mix together (if the dough is too sticky, add more flour, it shouldn't be sticky at all)

Once mixed, flour your counter and roll the dough into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. With a pizza cutter, slice the breadsticks as thick or thin as you'd like. Set the breadsticks on a parchment lined baking pan, then drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with rosemary or italian seasoning, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese. Pop in the oven for about 7-9 minutes, or until they are light golden

This is seriously going to happen again, it was delicious. Thanks again for the help Shannon!

Quilt progress

Like I mentioned back here, one of my projects was to make a quilt. I got inspiration from a quilt on Pinterest, but she actually sells her quilts so she didn't have a tutorial on how to make it. I started looking up how to make a herringbone quilt and finally came up with pattern and a way to do it. I realized a little too late that I should probably create a tutorial for it, but I got into and didn't think twice and now I'm at the point where I don't want to go back. But, if I ever make another one, I'll try to remember to write down how I do it. Here is the sketch that I started out with (the paper is a little wrinkled). This drawing alone gave me hope that it would turn out decent!

Right now I have all of the squares cut out and most of them are pressed. The next step is trimming the little tips on either end of the seam.

Those squares were a little more time consuming than I realized.

I'm excited to finish it though! For some people, the project is all about the process. Not so much for me. For me, it's all about the finished product.

Little gem

I was on the BYU-Idaho website a week ago and I decided to look at the picture galleries they have online. It's kind of limited but there are some good ones. I came across the Spring graduation '12 and I had to see if there were any pictures of people I knew. Lo and behold toward the last few pictures, I came across this one:

It actually took me a second to realize who it was. It's me at graduation. Seeing this picture made me smile a little bit because it brought back all of the feelings and memories of that day and how I felt I could do anything. My friend Laura (on the left) and Scott (to the left of her) also made the picture! It's amazing how one single picture can bring back so much.