Bosch Baking

I got a Bosch from my parents for Christmas/late wedding present. I love love love it so much. I've been making cookies by hand - like literally using my bare hands to mix the dough. And don't get me started on kneading dough "for 5-8 minutes" as most recipes call for. So today was the day I busted it out to have some fun.

Of course the inaugural recipe had to be my grandma's bun recipe.

But instead of making buns, I made bread first.

My bread pans are bigger than regular ones,

so it was hard to judge how much dough

and it came out kind of a monster...

That I didn't get quite smooth enough.

But the second one came out beautiful.

With the remaining dough, I decided to try a recipe I found on Pinterest. Gotta love pinterest.

Monkey Bread Muffins.

Behold the glory -

Three beautiful pull apart cinnamon pieces with sweet and condensed milk. mmmmmm

Let's just say, today was a good day. And I got all of the other things (like 6 things) on my to do list done, too! I love productivity.





Saga 2

The Furniture Saga:
- In Leth, we decide to buy a new sectional
- Because we desperately need new furniture
- We found one that is SO comfy
- While at the Brick, we also decide to impulse buy a wonderful massage chair
- The lady, Carol, tells us that if we order tonight, the chair will be in by Thursday morning
- Perfect. Then we can enjoy the chair over Christmas AND avoid PST
- Kanzi and I borrow their dad's truck and drive in Thursday afternoon to pick up the chair
- Chair's not there
- Carol sees us and says oh no, I wasn't sure if I told you Thurs or Fri, I told you Thurs, but a truck isn't even coming in today, it won't be here until tomorrow, I was going to call you...
- You should have called me
- You also told us repeatedly that it would be in by Thurs
- Not happy
- Carol gives us $50 off for our inconvenience
- Friday morning, just as I'm about to call her, Carol calls me
- Chair came in
- Damaged
- Super
- Carol pays for PST to send it to Sask with our sectional, all to be there by the 3rd
- Kanzi's husband Colt gets a special deal with the Brick through work and goes in to see if she can get the sectional for less.
- She can
- So she orders one for us to Saskatoon to be there by the 3rd
- We'll just cancel our sectional order
- We get back from Arizona and Trent goes to pick up everything the next day, the 3rd
- Guy at the Brick can't find Kanzi's order, and our order won't be in until the 5th
- He tries to convince Trent that that's when they were ordered for
- No. It's not.
- Then guy admits that our order was only just put in on Monday, the day before
- Well that's just retarded
- They had 2 weeks
- Oh and the massage chair is delayed and they don't know when one will come in
- Tentatively, maybe, hopefully by the 16th
- This impulse buy is not working out
- Kanzi calls and talks to Leth Brick to find her order
- She has a difficult conversation with the lady until they finally figure it out
- Our sectional is, in fact, already in - at United Furniture Warehouse
- Was no one going to tell us that's where it was getting shipped, or why, or when?
- Looks like no
- Kanzi gets us $100 more off the sectional for all this inconvenience
- And by the way the chair should be there by the 5th
- Weird, we were told otherwise
- I call UFW to double check
- Couch there
- Chair won't be until tentatively, maybe, hopefully the 18th
- Weird, we were told otherwise
- We pick up sectional
- Takes a while for them to find it in the warehouse, but we finally get it loaded
- 2 truck loads
- Thank goodness Robbie brought his truck too
- Sectional is as awesome as I remember
- But our living room is packed with it
- It's worth it
- Yesterday we stop by the Brick to cancel the other sectional (that should have arrived by now)
- Lady says it's already been cancelled
- Seriously?
- Not by us
- That's weird
- What about the chair?
- It will be here by next Tuesday - the 10th
- Weird, we were told otherwise
- Poor lady has to straighten out everything for our warranty and refunding our down payment on the sectional plus the money off the chair for all this inconvenience
- She also struggles to find our second order for the sectional
- Finally, we think we have things straightened out and as they should be
- Will our chair be here on Tuesday?

Sagas

And not genesis.

Saga 1: The Camera Saga
- September, I lose my camera
- I go 3 painful months without it
- My wonderful husband surprises me with a camera for our anniversary in November
- I bring my new camera home for Christmas and take great pics at a party on my first night home
- I go to take pics the next night and they all come out way too dark
- No matter what I do, my new camera won't take great pics anymore
- Sadly I borrow a camera from Trent's dad for the rest of Christmas holidays
- Upon returning to Saskatoon, Trent tries to find the receipt for the camera and can't
- We try to plan and scheme and decide what we can do to replace/exchange my camera
- In the end, I decide to just go to Future Shop and tell them the truth and see what happens
- If only that were the end
- I'll try to make the actual end come quick
- Initially it looked like it might be quick
- Return guy acts like it's okay that I don't have the receipt and one of the camera guys will just check out the camera to make sure it's really not working before they exchange/return it
- Then THREE camera guys come over and each has to inspect and try the camera to make sure it really isn't working
- Then I have to go over to the camera section with one of the three and stand there for 20 minutes while he exhausts the camera's options - really, camera guy, it's broken.
- At one point he shows me the latest pic he took and says, "A little better, right?" No, camera guy. No it's not better. I should be able to turn my camera on and take a great pic, not an okay pic, and def not a "little better" pic after having to play with a hundred settings.
- Finally, after more playing and comparing with the display model. The three camera guys decide the camera really is defective and send me back to the return desk.
- New return guy proceeds to try to find Trent's transaction in the system from every angle possible
- No phone number works
- Names don't work
- Trent paid by cash so can't track debit or visa
- Conclude that Trent didn't get the extended care coverage (which would allow them to send the camera in to get fixed for me)
- I ask him what that means, is there nothing that can be done
- He decides that he can search manually through the system for the transaction if I knew exactly what day it was bought
- I do
- He's surprised
- So he starts looking
- Finally he says, "I think I found your receipt, I hope I found your receipt, because if it's not, I could get in a lot of trouble."
- And after all that - here's the real Christmas miracle - only because my camera was purchased before Christmas, is it allowed to be returned/exchanged after the regular 30 days - because all pre-Christmas purchases are given until Jan 8th to be returned/exchanged.
- but they don't have any more of my camera model in stock right now
- so I get a gift card for the cost of my camera
- Now I know you're probably bored out of your mind - I was until the last 4 points happened
- But there's a punch line
- I go find Trent in the store (who had stayed in the truck until I was in there forever)
- He tells me he got bored just sitting in the truck so he decided to clean it out
- He pulls my lost camera out of his pocket
- Oh the irony

One year older and wiser, too!

First year of marriage - check.
That's right, we've passed the year mark. CRAZY RIGHT?!
Maybe because Trent and I have known each other - and been "together" - for almost 4 years, this last year has flown by in some ways, yet at the same time, it feels like we've been married forever in other ways. I wouldn't trade my life for anyones.

If the first year is the worst, then we are in for a wonderful life.

One of Trent's cousins and his wife put it best I think: it's not that the first year is terrible, but everything is new and exciting - the highs are higher and the lows are lower. I like that concept. I can see it in my marriage for sure. The whole, first year of marriage is the hardest - I don't buy into it. You can't tell me that your first child doesn't take you right back to square one again - or each kid after that; or that having a teenager doesn't throw a wrench into things; or that any sort of financial, physical, or frustrating trial doesn't stress a marriage. I think there must be a year or two later down the road for most couples that prove harder. I mean, I'm not hoping so, life will be great if this is it. But I'll stick with the rollercoaster theory.

So anniversary... If you know Trent, you know he's not romantic. At all. He claims romantic thinking completely evades him. He's much too logical to be a helpless romantic. What a shame right? Well logic comes in handy most of the time and I love him for it. But knowing this, I knew - and had been warned by every female in his family - that I would have to prompt Trent when I'm hoping for a little romance. So for the past month I've talked to Trent about wanting to do something for our anniversary, and that I wanted him to plan something - anything. I reminded him last Sunday and he said we probably wouldn't celebrate our anniversary this month (hunting season), I don't mind but told him to decide and let me know BEFORE our anniversary weekend WHEN we were going to celebrate. I just wanted a specific time for celebrating.

I have to admit - I was afraid nothing was going to happen. I kept trying to reason with myself so I wouldn't be disappointed. Trent didn't say anything about our anniversary all week so I just went with it.

But our anniversary weekend was wonderful and I don't know if everything that made it wonderful was even part of the plan or not, but it was perfect. Saturday we just hung out, went for sushi for lunch, then a movie in the afternoon, and just hung out the rest of the evening. It was nice to just have a day to ourselves. I was a little bit upset when at 9pm Trent got up and announced he was going to go buy a book. You don't understand. When Trent buys a new book, that's the last I see of him until that book is read. Even while I write this, he's in the bedroom reading. It would ruin our anniversary (the next day) for sure.

When we got home from church, Trent said exasperatedly, "Ok, well you're the hardest person to surprise, so go to your room." What? I sat on our bed until he told me I could come out, and what has my wonderful husband done? The table is covered with a nice blanket (we have no tablecoths), there are candles lit, and a red gift bag with a white envelope that says, "For my darling wife". I could have cried, but instead I couldn't stop smiling. He tried. He really tried.

The fact that the card said beautiful things, and the bag contained a new camera to replace my long lost one, was just icing on the cake. I'm so happy. Thrilled. Maybe other people need big romantic acts, but I just need little ones; maybe because coming from a non-romantic person, a little thing is really quite big.

Trent was exasperated because it was hard for him to secretly buy the camera last week, and when he had slipped out to buy his book, he picked up the card and came home to me saying that sometimes when he goes out I secretly wish he was planning something for us (I'm a jerk, I know); then Sunday he had tried to leave his Priesthood lesson material at home so he'd have an excuse to run home (and set up my surprise), but I noticed he didn't have it and reminded him on the way out the door; he tried to get me to get a ride home after church (since I had choir), but I quickly told him not to leave because I didn't think choir was going to happen, so we waited a couple minutes - choir wasn't going to happen - and we went home together. Plan foiled x2. He just couldn't get home before me to set up his surprise. My bad. But it was still a surprise because I wasn't expecting anything, and it made me so happy anyways! So happy. Like I think I've been smiling ever since. I love him so much.

PS. How great is that stache?? And by great I mean...

I still love him so much.

I need a job.

Last week was my first week of reduced hours. Which means I had Thursday and Friday off. You know what happens when I have spare time? Baking.

I love baking. But that means I then eat baking. Which is soon going to be detrimental to my goal that I'm only finally beginning to see results from. I almost died doing cardio today just trying to burn enough calories to make up for the following...

What do you get when you put these two things together?

Only the most delicious, gooey cookies you've ever eaten!

For real, these cookies are just so dang good. My mouth is watering just thinking about the second batch I just pulled out of the oven. I forgot how big of batch this recipe makes... which means I still have more batter left even after cooking a couple dozen Friday AND today. I'm going to have to send the last dozen's worth of batter to my freezer. I just can't have any more of these scrumptious devils sitting on my counter.

And that's not even where I stopped.

Ever since Trent and I made scones with the Wests a couple weeks ago, it got me wanting to make proper scones. You see, "scones" as most of us know them, are deep-fried to golden perfection and my favourite when served with honey butter melting over them. I grew up making these with my mom, shaking them in paper bags filled with cinnamon and sugar. When we decided to make scones, I decided to google to see how other recipes look. I'm pretty sure we just used bread dough for our scone parties in Edmonton (which we epic and I miss them), but I wanted to see what the world of google had to say. As it turns out, deep-fried scones are better known to google as "mormon" or "Utah" scones. Funny right? Figures.

But upon my googling, I innitially discovered a lot of good looking "Real" scone recipes. You know, the more British type - proper. Baked. So once I made a bunch of cookies, I decided I'd switch gears to something that felt a little - a little - more healthy. And I am so happy I did, check out my first real scones!

Mmmmm. Sorry, I ate two before I stopped to take a pic.

They're that good.

They're pretty straightforward, too. Pretty much my mom's biscuits, but sweeter. I'm excited to start throwing in raisins or craisins or orange zest now. I wanted to find a good base recipe before I started goofing around, but now the skies the limit!

Oh love handles... how I thought we were going to say goodbye... I need a job.