A Croissant of My Own

For some reason that I am having trouble recalling at the moment my cousin and I decided that we needed to try making croissants from scratch this past weekend. The 24+ hour ordeal started about 5pm on Saturday and involved A LOT of butter and what seemed like more rolling of dough than is humanly conceivable.

This is what the dough looked like after about 20 hours. Lots of buttery layers. After all was said and done were they better than Pillsbury crescent rolls? Yes! Have I purchased better croissants? Probably. Nonetheless, there is a certain awe factor to serving someone a croissant you made from scratch. They were very flaky, but not as light as I thought they should be, and their appearance was more biscuit-like in color in some spots than we would have preferred. At least they weren't an unqualified disaster.

The three best looking creations of the batch.

Hmmph...

Seems like have had a few posts in mind over the last month, but true to form I can't seem to remember what they were about. It's time for a few updates though (possibly some opinions).

Back in September I bought another house.

It's currently being renovated.... by me, and I'll be honest nothing is "currently" happening. It's on the terrace directly across the street from my grandparents. Pictures of renovation to follow (if I ever get started).

I survived the holidays. I spent Thanksgiving in Oregon at my sisters. It was fun. We did a few things including the food trucks in Portland, a bookstore, the zoo and the Evergreen Air Museum.

This is the Spruce Goose. It was a cool museum. We left Oregon by way of the Columbia River Gorge. Everything was beautiful,.. and moldy. Thanksgiving dinner turned out great, and my pie crusts were flaky as hell!

After a couple of weeks of freezing weather I then went to my brother's house in LA for Christmas. The weather there was AMAZING! For Christmas eve we went to the beach and ate pizza where we spent our time playing in the surf and poking hermit crabs. Not traditional, but great all the same. We saw a few movies, visited the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center and ate a lot of great food.

For New Years I was at my other sister's house in Orem. All in all I figure I spent around 42 hours riding in the back of my parents station wagon with my 14 year old brother over the holiday. I may not sign up for that again.

This picture is my parents' new TDI Sportwagen in Ash Springs with my Wagon. Recently I went to Scottsdale, AZ for car auction week. I spent Friday and Saturday at the Gooding & Company auction and it was riot!

This a Ferrari that went for about $6 Million at the auction. After they finished selling their lots on Friday and everybody kind of left there were a few people still hanging around and really giving the remaining cars a good once over. Nobody seemed to be minding much so I TOUCHED EVERYTHING! So much better than any car museum I've been to. Really fun.

New Years Resolutions - So far I've committed to eat more bacon cheeseburgers this year.

I've managed about three a week. So I'd say that's going pretty well so far.


In other news - my stake organized a YSA branch a few weeks ago. I really wasn't planning on going, but I was asked to be the Elders Quorum President so I officially joined the island of misfit toys. It could be worse and even if it gets worse I'm only in it for another year before I graduate the YSA program without honors. Its been an experience so far.

Great movies in the last month (probably in this order):

• Saving Mr. Banks
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• Captain Philips

Frozen was stupid. The only purpose that guys have in Disney movies is to kiss the girl and in this movie they aren't even good for that. In the mean time I'm still spending my time collecting quarters at the laundromat and driving around rural Nevada watching contractors work. Here's to the New Year!