Year Seven

Jake and I celebrated our seven year anniversary a couple of weeks early. So we headed down to Utah. We took the back roads through Montpelier and Bear Lake. It was a beautiful drive down. We loved the little town of Montpelier. And neither one of us had ever been to Bear Lake, so we wanted to go sneak a peak.

Unfortunately, all the gates were still closed, so this is as close as we got. It was the prettiest blue green color I've ever seen!

We went through the Logan Canyon, and it was really cool. Except for the windy roads, they made me a little car sick. We got stuck in a traffic jam for about an hour. We finally made it through as we were both about to lose it. We got to our hotel and checked in. We splurged, and actually with our online deal, we got a decent deal at the Hampton for one night. It was a step or two (or six) above the Super 8 we'd been staying in in Jackson. After freshening up at the hotel, we went to the the Tulip Gardens at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi where we were staying. They were my choice, and I thought they were pretty cool. Huge! Not very many of the tulips were open yet, but here are a few of the ones that were:



A staircase with a fountain down it, lined with tulips.



A view from the top, or the back?



More flowers. There were tons of waterfalls and rocks and little gardens everywhere.


We left there and went to dinner at Ruby River. Have I mentioned that it is my favorite restaurant? So good! They gave us a free dessert because it was our anniversary. Oh my, the best steak ever! We stopped at Target for a couple things then called it a night!

The next day we got up and had the best waffle for breakfast. It was yummy! Then we headed to Cabela's. We mostly just go to go and say we went. I think the giant fish there are disgusting, and I hate it when they feed them, because it's live bait. Jake did find a cool hat, and I found the fruit rollup trays for our dehydrator. Then we hit the Dinosaur Museum there at Thanksgiving Point, Jake's choice. It was pretty impressive. The skeletons were huge. Plus, we got there right as it opened so there was NOBODY there! Nice to have it pretty much to ourselves. We didn't have to worry about disturbing others with our smart allecky comments. Here is Jake standing in front of Megaladon, the giant prehistoric shark.


For lunch we hit In N Out for the best burger ever. I don't know what they do to their burgers, but I could eat them every day for pretty much forever! We rounded out our trip with another traffic jam, and a stop at Bear River Bird Refuge.

The biggest thing that came from this weekend is that, I decided I still don't like Utah. There were far too many people, and it was hot, 80 degrees. I was pretty sweaty a few times. I don't like that. And there's so many people! When we got home to Alpine, I realized exactly how much I like it here and how much I appreciate the ruralness where we are! Today, the high is in the mid 50's, and I'm loving it. The snow is just about gone, and the ice at Palisades is really starting to melt and break up. I'm so excited for summer!

New Blog

I've decided to start a new blog updated with birds as we see them. I realize that people who read our other blog, probably don't care in the same way as we do. So I hope that you will come back and share in our excitement of the birds we see!

PS- The blog is www.welovebirdsinwyoming.blogspot.com

Homemade Yogurt

This month the "theme" for our cooking club was homemade, out of our realm and something a little challenging. I had found a yogurt recipe on this blog and wanted to try it. She gives really good instructions, so if you want to make it, you should follow hers, I just wanted to show how easy it was. The original recipe is based off a gallon of whole milk. I don't need a gallon, and I couldn't do whole milk. So I did a quart of whole milk, and a quart of 2%. Here is what else I used:
Again, her recipe called for a cup of plain/vanilla yogurt for a gallon of milk. She said to use the name brand yogurt and steer away from the generic. Well, we don't have name brand yogurt in Alpine. So sad, huh? Anyway, so I used the entire cup of yogurt in my half gallon and it worked out fine. My bottles (with the birdseed in the background, in case you wondered):
So start out bringing your milk to 190 degrees.
This took about ten minutes. I didn't know how fast it was going to go, and I didn't want to burn it, so I just put it on medium/lowish. Then you put your pot in cold water to bring it down to 120 degrees. I'm paranoid about everything and worried about cracking the sink. So I put a towel underneath to insulate against the heat.
When its cooled, add your yogurt. If you're making the vanilla yogurt (with sugar and vanilla), then add those now as well. Pour it into your sterilized bottles and cap them.
Put your bottles into a cooler with one gallon of 120 degree water. I had a little that wouldn't fit in my bottles, so I put it in tupperware, then I couldn't find the lid. So I just used plastic wrap. It still turned out just fine. Close it and let it sit in a warm, draft free space for three hours. After, put it in the fridge overnight.
While it was doing its thing, I also made granola. I found the recipe here. The recipe called for chocolate, craisins, and nuts. I didn't know if the extras would make the yogurt better or worse. But I decided to leave them out. Combine, blah, blah. This was such an easy recipe.
I think it took five minutes to do. It says to heat everything in a pot then pour over the oats. Since I wasn't doing chocolate, I just zapped the honey and poured it over everything. I didn't want to have to wash another pot. It turned out really, really good!

I tasted the yogurt by itself, and I actually thought it tasted nasty. Too strong of a flavor for me. But I added fruit (strawberries and blueberries chopped in the processor, just what I had. Any fruit would be good), and the granola, and it was so good. Very light, and fresh, almost springy! I highly recommend it!

Yogurt Recipe:

Ingredients

1 gallon of milk
1 cup yogurt starter(you can use a small cup of plain Dannon or Yoplait yogurt, or you can use a cup from your previous batch.)

1. Place four quart glass canning jars, four lids, and four screw-tops in a large pot. Fill with an inch of water; cover with lid and heat to boiling. Boil for ten minutes. Leave the lid on the pot and move it off the heat until you are ready to use the jars.

2. Pour one gallon of milk into a large, heavy bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven. Heat the milk to 185-195 degrees Farenheit(90-90 Celcius).

3. Place the pot in a sink filled with cold water and let the milk cool to 120-130 degrees farenheit(50-55 degrees celsius)

4. Stir one cup of yogurt starter into the cooled milk, using a whisk. Stir well to ensure that the starter is thoroughly incorporated into the milk.

5. Pour the milk into jars, and put the lids and bands on. Place them into a cooler.

6. Heat one gallon of water to 120-130 degrees F(50-55 degrees C) and pour into cooler.

7. Shut cooler lid and leave in a warm place for three hours. When the three hours are up, place the yogurt in the refrigerator.

To make a delicious vanilla version of this yogurt, add 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar to the four quarts of milk when it’s cooling in the sink. Then stir in 1-2 tablespoons of vanilla, depending on your preference, and proceed as usual with the recipe.

Granola Recipe:

This granola is satisfying on its own or sprinkled over yogurt, fresh fruit, or ice cream. Store in an airtight container for up to one week, or freeze for up to one month.

Yield: About 8 cups (serving size: 1/2 cup)

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 3 cups regular oats
• 1 cup oven-toasted rice cereal (such as Rice Krispies)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (60 to 70 percent cocoa), finely chopped
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300°.

Cover a jelly-roll pan with parchment paper. Coat parchment paper with cooking spray.

Combine oats, rice cereal, brown sugar, chopped pecans, salt, and ground cinnamon in a large bowl.

Combine honey and canola oil in a small saucepan over low heat; cook 2 minutes or until warm. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and chocolate; stir with a whisk until smooth. Pour chocolate mixture over oat mixture. Lightly coat hands with cooking spray. Gently mix chocolate mixture and oat mixture until combined. Spread oat mixture onto prepared jelly-roll pan. Bake at 300° for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes. Cool completely on pan; stir in cranberries.

I need an override!

So I went to Kmart today. As I went to the registers, there was a female, lady checker, and a male, manly checker. I chose the lady even though she had one more person in line. As the man was finishing up, he said, "Mam, I can help you over here." I said, "No thanks, she's almost done." As the lady finished up and I put my things down, she started to ring them up. I wasn't buying anything bad, but there were a few items that may be considered, we'll say- of a feminine nature. As she rang them up, it rang up the wrong price. I knew they were the wrong price, because it was on the super duper reduced rack. Still good, but discontinued items, so I knew how much they were. She had already messed up, so she called to her male supervisor. "I need an override!" Oh my. This is why I went to the lady checkout. So here comes the dude with his manly beard, his key and his magical button sequence, all the time staring at what I was buying. I admit it. I am 27 years old and am embarrassed to be caught in possession of said items. Am I the only one?