Domestic Goddess

Hello world!

Here is the new blog that my friend Emily and I are putting together. It's called In Pursuit of Domestic Goddessness. You will now be seeing more of my cooking/baking tips, tricks, and recipes there versus my personal blog. She is the most amazing girl and is always posting the best recipes, etc. When I grow up, I want to be Emily :)

Take a look: Emandrachdg.blogspot.com

Update on Wrestling

Now I know I have not put anything on this blog ever but for some reason I feel the urge to do that now.  as some of you may already know I am the Head coach for Park City High School Wrestling.  Last year was my first year here and to be honest it was a good year probably the best year PCHS has ever had.  But this year is turning into the worst year PCHS has ever had.  We started out with 25 wrestlers on the team and through injuries and grades oh and people just quitting we now have 9 kids remaining!!  Out of those 9 we have 3 kids that have ever wrestled before.  I have am very competitive and hate losing, some people try to just brush off a loss as lack of experience for the team but me, I get tired of losing every dual.  So why am I blogging this????  I feel it is important to show you all that  Rachel has had to deal with a husband that is more grumpy than happy lately so I will be trying to, as my father says, Keep a stiff upper lip, and be more happy.  Hey things could be worse though I can't see how.

Brenan 

Why teenagers are stupid

Coming home last night I was disgraced to see what my younger brother was doing in the kitchen. To him, he thought it was no big  deal; to me, it was awful. I immediately told him to turn down the heat and de-glaze his pan. "What's that?" he asked. Oh my, what was I going to do with this boy.

Teenagers, you can't put fully frozen chicken breast in a pan, on high, with a little olive oil, and expect it to cook properly (it will burn the outside and the inside will be raw). Our house wreaked of burning oil and spices and I saw that chicken, it was...sad. He would probably defend himself by saying it tasted good, but that's just because he spiced and re-spiced it.

Is it socially acceptable to smack a teenager?

Secret to honey butter

Since having moved to Utah I have found that I love honey butter. I bought some at the farmer's market in Park City last summer and fell in love. Local honey is fantastic for you and let's be real about how you can't go wrong with anything that includes butter. I told our pastry chef how excited I was about getting this, only to learn that the kind I bought was made wrong. Made wrong? Yes, made wrong. The incorrect way of making honey butter is to melt the butter and honey together, mix it, and let it firm up. It's just all wrong.

Here is the right way:
I like my honey butter extra sweet, so I portion mine with about 60% honey to 40% butter. Then, and this is crucial, when mixing the honey and butter, do not melt/heat it. It kills all of the great properties in the honey. Mix them together with the butter at room temperature using a flat paddle attachment (which causes a fluffier, yummier end result) instead of using a typical whisk-like attachment. By attachment, I mean if you're using a Kitchenaid or similar appliance. A flat paddle attachment causes more air to be beaten in to the butter and it makes it fluffier, though a standard hand mixer or whisk can be used.

 

Wire whisk (above) vs. flat paddle (below)

It's a girl!

Last month the doctor told me I would find out in January what sex the baby was. Not so true. Last week at my appointment she said it would be 3 more weeks. I am not that patient. Especially after thinking I would know now. So, I opted to go to fetal photos and here is our little girl!

Basically this picture is showing between her legs. The lack of a weiny and that flat white line means she is a she :)

Here is her profile shot. You can mostly make out her eyes, nose, and mouth. She is definitely looking more human and less like a peanut. The first dark gray cavity in her chest is her heart. The entire ultrasound she was moving all around. She would turn from front to back and she also flipped from one end to the other. She originally had her head on the right side of the screen. Me thinks she'll be active.

Cereal Phenomenon

Maybe it's just me, and maybe it's because we had 6 kids in our house, but right now I feel like for the first time ever we have a lot of cereal in our house. We weren't "poor" growing up, but buying bulk cereal is usually what happened when you had to feed 6 kids. And it usually was not name brand. But look at this pantry (not literally, I can't find my phone/camera):

1. Apple Jacks
2. Kashi Go Lean
3. Great Grains
4. Wheat Chex
5. Frosted Mini Wheats
6. Cocoa Krispies (4 boxes)
7. Honey Bunches of Oats with Peaches
8. Corn Flakes
9. Multi Grain Cheerios
10. Cheerios
11. Rice Chex
12. Corn Chex (2 boxes)
13. Captain Crunch Berries
14. Frosted Flakes (5 boxes) --it's all Brenan eats
15. Rice Krispies (2  boxes)
16. Kix
17. Peanut Butter Captain Crunch
18. Cocoa Puffs
19. Honey Bunches of Oats

Who has this much cereal?! Luckily for me I rather enjoy it since I'm pregnant and never know what I'm in the mood for. Lately I've been mixing Captain Crunch Berries with Kix. 

Our condo :)

Great news- last night our offer got accepted for our condo!! It's 3 bedroom 2.5 bathrooms and we LOVE it. We probably won't close for a few weeks, but I'm too excited to hold in the news.

 

It's an end unit so it has a lot of windows and it's move in ready! We might re-paint some of the walls to our taste, but they are all neutral and will do for now.

That weird flower border is gone and they re-painted all of the walls to a little bit lighter of a color. Above the fireplace we're taking down that wood thing (since it looks dumb) and our tv will go up there. Plus, it's wired for surround sound!!

That ugly border is gone and the kitchen has fresh paint. If those cabinets weren't real wood I would replace them, but I like them well enough. We're going to do a tile backsplash and put in nicer counter tops (someday). White appliances don't really bother me that much, so we'll leave them.

Hello 2011

Dear 2011, so far you have been excellent.
As per tradition, I give to you my 2011 goals (not resolutions which I don't believe in):

1. Try a new food
2. Eat less empty calories i.e. donuts. I swear everytime I go to the store these days I'm picking up a twisted glazed donut. This never happened until I was pregnant. My 1-2 donuts a year has turned into 1-2 donuts a week. Oh gosh. Sorry baby.
3. Meet 1 new person
4. Stand up for myself more at work and be more respected as an employee instead of letting them walk all over me and ruin my life.
5. Finish my on campus classes
6. Beat Mario Brothers Wii
7. Buy a house
8. Spiritually center my home
9. Teach Annie one new obedient trick, like lay down, stay, down, or no
10. Get Annie fixed
11. Blog more, but actually make more time to blog since I like to do it.
12. Do a time consuming something that I enjoy at least once a month, like scrapbooking
13. Read something for fun besides gossip magazines, maybe a book (and not one that is assigned reading).
14. Pay off a credit card
15. Do laundry once a week (we have a lot of clothes and they last us a pretty long time)
16. Put my dirty clothes in a hamper
17. Put away my clean clothes
18. Walk the dogs more. I keep copping out by putting them in the back yard for exercise, which is good, but they enjoy walks a lot more.
19. Take more pictures