This is another cooking project I did in 2009

Mom, Steven, Michaela and I were picking the cherries off the cherry tree at Mom's and were trying to figure out what to do with them. I said I would make a pie out of it. So I did. It was difficult work, but I pulled it off. I say it was difficult because I pitted the cherries by hand and had no rolling pin. I didn't think of these things when I left mom's. The things we do to make something we are craving.

Here are the pictures! I made this on July 3rd, 2009. I made it for me and for my BF, Jesse, but he didn't really care that I cooked for him. Yeah, I felt stupid trying to show him my cooking skills. Although he polished off half the pie...

The cherries all pitted and ready to boil down. 

The cherries all boiled down and ready to be put in the crust

The crust before I put it in the pie tin

My rolling pin and the dough that I was trying to roll out

The complete, uncooked pie. It crust is all broken and pieced together because
I didn't have a rolling pin and the dough stuck to my make shift rolling pin, so I pieced it together. 

This is me. I was a mess! 

The finished pie! I didn't pay attention to the oven actually being
HOTTER than it says it was...Still tasted good!

The hat is done!

I have finished the hat that I posted about in the 'Some projects I am going to attempt to make' post. Here are the pictures!

The somewhat beginning...Row 3 to be exact. 

Row 5

Row 7

Row 9

The 2nd to last row. 

The end of the hat!

The first rose I made and I didn't like it, so I made another one after
combining 2 patterns to make the final rose I LOVE!

The rose that I designed, well, by combining 2 patterns...

The rose attached to the hat...

My lovely model wearing my newly made hat, that is too big for me...

The finished hat and my lovely model!!

Thanksgiving Dinner 2010

Mom, Sarah and I decided to not do turkey and the trimmings this year. We decided on cordon bleu, scalloped potatoes, orange cranberry-nut bread and homemade butter. I have never made butter or cordon bleu so this was going to be fun! I was completely thrilled to be doing something new! I love to cook! I took pictures as usual.

Here are the pictures of my endeavors...

The Chicken Cordon Bleu.

The Chicken Cordon Bleu, breaded.

The Chicken Cordon Bleu, cooked. I didn't want to check the temp
with a thermometer so I just cut it up instead. 

I wasn't sure how much butter I would get, so I went with 3 pints. 

The cream.

The Champ mixer! I LOVE this machine!

The cream being whipped

Add caption

The cream whipped really thick. 

The butter starting to clump together and the buttermilk. 

Switched to the bread beater to avoid removing the butter from the
previous beaters. Yes, I was being lazy. 

The BUTTER! It is now BUTTER!

A close-up of the butter! 

This is how much butter the 3 pints made. And the buttermilk.
We all tasted the buttermilk just to see what it was all about.
It was sooooo yummy. My nephew wanted to drink it all!
I dumped the rest of the buttermilk into the scalloped potatoes. 

A close-up of the butter in the dishes. I salted one of the dishes to see what the
difference was. Honestly, I liked both, the salted and the unsalted. 

My 1st attempt at Cherry Plum Jam

 We have these 2 trees that we had yet to identify. Until now. We have eaten them before and the had the inside like a plum and the skin of a cherry. For many years we thought that it was a cherry tree but at times we thought it was a mini plum tree.

In Oct, I was trying to figure out what jam recipe to use for this fruit. I googled plum recipes and it brought up in it's search - Cherry Plum Jam Recipes! I thought, could it be?, and I did some more research on cherry plums. They showed the fruit and the trees. I yelled to Mom, that I had found out, after 17 yrs of wondering, the name of the fruit! We have Cherry Plum trees! WOOHOO!!! I found the recipe that I wanted to try and here are the pics of it, I made two separate batches really late on Oct 18th and finished about 3am on the 19th and then late again on Oct 29 and finished about 2am on the 30th.

Here are the pics of my endeavors...

The cherries and sugar in the pot. With a spoon even!

The cherries get nice and hot

The cherries and sugar melting all over each other. 

I know that my spoon is privy to what is going on in there but obviously
the cherries and sugar don't want to be caught on film...

Man, did they go to pieces over each other! Now I have to permanently
separate them (remove the pits and skins)!

My 1st batch of Cherry Plum Jam. It was pretty thick. 

A close-up of my 1st batch. 

The newest addition to my mom's kitchen - the steam canner!

The 2nd batch since I forgot to get pics of the 1st batch in the steam canner. 

The finished batches!


After the 2d batch was done, I realized that I am going to measure the water exactly next time. I ended up with syrup on the 2nd batch. I will also NOT spoon out the pits and skins. I am going to do it like I did on the 1st batch - dump out the whole mess into a cheese cloth and press out the fluid that way. It has sweet tang to it, like, sweet and sour sauce but much better. Next year, I will be making TONS more! 
So, if you want some, let me know...

Some new projects that I am going to attempt

I have decided that it has been too long since I have made myself a hat for winter. I have searched online and found a pattern that I want to make and attempt to make...

Then I got to thinking about scarves. I have several from Europe that I use all the time but I haven't made a scarf since Steven and Michaela were toddlers, so I searched for a pattern that I would LOVE to wear. I found one...

Aren't they pretty?? I am waaaaaaaaaay exciiiiiiiiiiiiiited!! (now imagine me clapping my hands fast and jumping up and down and acting all silly while saying "I am waaaaaaaay exciiiited". Got the image yet? You are very welcome! Muwahahahahahaha!!!) I will make a picture diary of my progress and post it.

It wasn't me this time

Went to the ER with Sarah. She said that she couldn't breath. She was coughing up phlegm and stuff. Didn't sound very good. We went and spent several hours there. They asked her tons of questions but not once did they ever say anything about bronchitis. They took x-rays and they found nothing. She doesn't have pneumonia, that is great but they didn't do anything else for her. Drives me nuts. She is still coughing pretty badly and hopefully, it won't get worse and we discover what is causing her to cough.

I swear, the moment the ER finds out that you don't insurance, they just forget about you. Or they take FOREVER to get to you. How can you not think about Bronchitis, if it wasn't Pneumonia?! You hear her coughing and it isn't a tiny cough. It's a full cough. Like she is trying to get something up that won't come easily without the whole lung, ya know?! Gah!

They let her go and we go home. What a waste of time and her money!!

Graduation!!

Today has finally come. I am walking tonight. I want to get pictures of  me in my gown in front of school so my mom and sister take the pictures just for fun...

Trying to be cool. Very windy!

Head on picture of  me in front of the school

It was so windy

Hahaha, my family is weird! 

Just me playing with my hair in the wind.

I just can't be serious. 

Yep, that's me!

Take that for a graduation picture!

I seeeeeee you!

Me at school

Just another pic of me and the school

I believe I can FLY!

People were staring at me while I was having my pictures taken but who cares?! It was my day. The funny thing is that I am wearing my work clothes underneath the gown. LOL.We are laughing and having a grand ole time. It's getting late and I need to get to work.

Work was ok, I was more worried about getting off in time to get freshened up, changed and get to dinner in time. I got off work and went home to get dressed and go to dinner with Mom and Sarah. The kids were up at Bear Lake. It really hurt that they were gone and not here for this momentous day but oh well, what could I do? Mom took Sarah and I to a pub downtown and we had some pretty good grub. The waitress was a friend of one of my classmates and gave me a sundae in congratulations of my graduation. It was yummy. At this point, I was regretting wearing the heels that I chose but I looked GOOD in them so I suffered. I took them off whenever I could. I was able to get into one of my skirts I haven't worn since early 2006. I was looking slick. I even straightened my hair!

I got to Capitol Theater, parked and grabbed all my stuff. I got in and it was chaos! I can't believe it.They hadn't even started the whole run-through nothing. We sat there for like another 20 minutes waiting. Finally they started and told us that we would go through a run-through but even changed that due to the time restraints. I'm sorry but you have us there at a certain time for a reason then start on time! It was horrible how chaotic and unorganized it all was. We had like 15 minutes to go to freshen up and get backstage before our families arrives. So really none of the women were able to get to the bathroom. This is what we did instead...

Sabreena's hiding...

Us girls - Me, Rylie, Sabreena and Holly

I don't think I need the flash on. Do you???

Rylie being cute as ever!

Rylie again...

Donna and I

Holly being kissed by Rylie

Not sure what they are doing here...

Rylie, Donna and I

Us girls again...

Us girls - Rylie, Sabrina, Holly, Donna and I got backstage and we waited...and waited...and waited...we ended up spending over 45 mins back stage while our families were scrambling for seats and to see us. Why couldn't we have spent that time out with our families and then be backstage like 15 mins before the ceremony??? It was so hot back there. And we weren't allowed to talk either, yeah right. Rylie, Donna and I were right in line together so we sat on the stage despite them telling us we couldn't. Right.

The ceremony started and we were paraded out to our seats. C'mon, really? Did we really have to waste all that time backstage to just leave and go sit in our seats in the auditorium??? Luckily, my family and friends were just a couple rows behind us.

Sorry, the lighting was horrible, but that is me...

Little did we know what we were about to witness... The introductions were made. Mark Shurtleff was the guests speaker. Really?? I hate the man. He is so arrogant and takes all credit for himself. He offended everyone of us that I was around. He went on and on about his stupid book. What does that have to do with us? It was bad enough that he was racist in his comments on history but he said that if it weren't for our teachers, we would not be graduating. WTH? How dare he! It was because of ME that I graduated NOT my instructors. They gave me my grades and tests but I did the work not them! Oh, how we all were livid at this point. Shurtleff just went on and on. Seriously, we had our shoes off and were threatening to throw them up on stage and stage a walkout but sadly we were stuck in the middle of the rows so we couldn't leave. Luckily, he finally shut up and we listened to another speaker. Gag me. I was so done by now. Now we have to sit through each row to get called up. By this time, I am sore from all this. Our row finally goes up to wait in line... Then they start out degree program - Medical Specialties! I so want to take off my heels and carry them across the stage with me. Well here are the pics of graduation...

I don't remember who I am shaking hands with...

Me right after dealing with that woman not letting me out of the building so I was putting on my gown again. 

Mom, Sarah and I

Me acting excitedly stupid...

Ralph, Marissa, Me, Amanda and Jennifer.

Me "kissing" the camera, yeah it's looks more like the duck thing going around in pictures...

Mom and I

Amanda and I

Amanda and I. Classmates!

Mom and I

Sarah, Mom and I

Getting a little slap happy...

I believe that I hit Rissa in the head...

Mom and I

Close up!

This "man" ruined my graduation picture. Mark Shurtleff. Jerk. 

After we walked and headed outside, we all went to meet family and friends. All of us wanted pictures outside. I start to head outside with my gown on and this big woman, gets in my way and says "Have you paid for the gown?" I look at her and said, "No." "Well, you can't go outside with it on outside unless you have paid for it." and she blocks me from leaving. I said, "That is not how it works, we were told that if we didn't return it by the time we left, we would be charged for the stupid gown." "No, that is wrong. You have to pay for it first." "No, you are wrong." She is still blocking my way. I yell over her head to my mom outside and over everyone else in the hallway and say "I can't get out the F*!$%^N building without paying for the F*!#$&N gown!" I was so livid! Then this guy  let me out saying, "It's your day, go enjoy it." I went out for pictures with my family and you know what? They sent out a "bodyguard" to watch over me so that I returned the gown!!! He kept telling us to hurry up and getting in the way of my pictures. Then Shurtleff ruins one of my pictures. When we are done, I take off my gown, I walk in and throw the gown on the table and give them my name and leave. I am so GLAD to be done with this school!! I really hated this day. The stupid school ruined my day and no one apologized. Luckily, Amanda, Sarah, Ralph, Rissa and I go out for food and clubbing. I really enjoyed dancing that night. I haven't done that in a LOOOOONG time. Ah, such sweet release for a horrible experience at graduation ceremony.

And I still have yet to write to the school about ruining my day...