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!

When Nature Attacks

I was just checking the weather before I went to bed tonight and the forecast read as follows:

...LIFE-THREATENING COLD EXPECTED ACROSS ALL OF NORTHERN NEVADA...

Another Sunny Nevada Day

HAPPY NEVADA DAY!

This Nevada Day I'd like to post some information on the Nevada Constitution.

Our Preamble:

We the people of the State of Nevada Grateful to Almighty God for our freedom in order to secure its blessings, insure domestic tranquility, and form a more perfect Government, do establish this Constitution.

In order to have the constitution approved by congress prior to the presidential election the entire constitution was telegraphed to Washington D.C.

At the time it was the longest telegraph ever sent and cost $4,303.27. It took the telegraph operators 12 hours to send the document.

The first constitutional convention was actually held in 1863, with most of the delegates actually coming from California. Despite voters having been overwhelmingly in support of statehood, the voters soundly rejected the constitution submitted by this convention. The second convention was held during the month of July in 1864. After approval by election the constitution was sent to Washington D.C. and President Lincoln signed the State of Nevada into the Union on October 31, 1864.

 

Croissants and Pay Toilets (Part 3)

Sooner or later I was bound to get back around to this. So, after we left the most magical place on earth (the VW Factory in Wolfsburg, incase you needed a refresher) we headed to central Germany for our over night stop. As we approached the town we were staying at that night the woods got think and foggy and honestly I felt like a witch living in a candy house was going to be popping out at any minute.

We got to our hotel really late, but luckily our host was awake and came to the door (after we woke up everyone on the street). The town was a small medieval town with cobble stone streets and the whole bit. My friends had secured a nice little apartment for the night. After we woke up everyone else in the building having packed ourselves and our bags all the way up to the top floor of the creaky staircase we got a great nights rest. After repeating our morning bakery routine were off through the Germany countryside.

......Ok...... I'm bored of telling this story and I'm sure you're all bored of hearing it..... so..... here are some pictures of the rest of the trip.

Dachau Concentration Camp. Glad I went but very depressing. Ask me about it sometime.

Some gay guy's really fancy house. The surrounding area is AMAZING and he really does have the best views in the neighborhood; however, the only things this "castle" kept out was restraint and some good sense. Neat place to visit though. We ate the best German food of the trip out in the valley here with some cows.

Then we went to Venice! I was much happier after I kicked a couple pigeons in the egg door and had a panini. According to my bank account I ate A LOT of gelato in Italy. Can you blame me?

That's us center  frame eating pizza in a venetian square.

I can't remember at what point in the trip this was, but we were somewhat lost in the Italian Alps and I happened to wake up and look down this canyon and saw this obscure hermitage. It's actually pictured in my first VW book in a black and white frame with a bug down by it (of course). What are the odds?! (I know no one cares but me.)

Then we went to Rome. It was great. We went to the Vatican and saw all the Pope's stuff and then we wandered around Rome that evening eating things and throwing coins in fountains. The Italian night life is a lot of fun. Rome was hot and had too many Harley Davidsons, but it was one of my favorite cities. 

The Colosseum was VERY old and it was all very hot. You had to wear pants to the Vatican. Apparently shorts are not church attire. 

On our way out of Italy we stopped in Pisa and saw the leaning tower and bought some additional tchotckes (as if we didn't have enough by this point) and then went on to our little town in the Alps where we had a delicious meal and stayed at a vineyard. 

 Our waitress was a peach and didn't speak any english, but she was so helpful

After this it was onto Switzerland. 

 We road a tram to the top of the mountains.

And did a hike. It is beautiful-just like the sound of music, but it was very humid.  (and please no comments on how the sound of music was set in Austria, I know)

This was view from the last hotel we stayed at in northern Switzerland. Very nice. 

In summation, we drove A LOT, we saw MANY things, and ate MUCH all in 10 days. I was glad I went. Thanks for inviting me along guys!

That's me, on the boat going to the VW factory (just one more picture). This was really too cool.

Spontaneous Overeating

I was going to be in Reno anyway for some work stuff and then my schedule changed suddenly so that I would be in Reno with nothing to do for the better part of a day. I was due for a sudden road trip plus I had yet to visit my friends who married and moved to the Bay Area last year so I gave them a heads up and headed out. Due to the fires near Yosemite, Reno to almost Sacramento was think smoke but it was clear after that. The Oakland Bay Bridge was closed for construction over the weekend so I had to take the long way around the top of the bay and come into the city over the Golden Gate Bridge but that wasn't bad. I love the 101 highway North of San Francisco. I got into SF that night and meant my friend at the restaurant where her husband is a chef. I ate and ate and ate and it was all FANTASTIC!!! This is the restaurant, and sure there may have been more gays than I'm normally use to but the food was totally worth it! They even sent some off-menu stuff out from the kitchen for us to try. I crashed on their floor that night and then we got up and ate some MORE! About noon I rolled myself back into the car and headed back to Reno. There are things I do miss about living in the Bay Area: the food is a big one and the weather. I just cannot get enough of that sunshine with the cool breeze off of the Pacific. Not to mention the magic what happens to internal combustion engines at sea level. (now if I could just get rid of the traffic and the people I'd be set)

Summer Updates

So to start, I few weeks ago I hiked Mount Timpanogos. It was hard and I smelled bad afterwards but it was totally worth it.

I went with a friend of mine and a group from his ward there in Provo. We hiked up from the Aspen Grove side. The weather was looking rather unfavorable but as soon as it cleared we headed up leaving the trail head parking lot about 7pm. We hiked about 6 miles that evening and camped at a glacial lake that night arriving there about 10:30pm as I recall. After a very cold and rocky night we got up early to be on the summit before sunrise. We were back at the car by 11am.

It was a great experience.

In other news scorpion season is apparently open. The other day I came down stairs to find this on top of my washer.

I'm not sure how he got up there, but if these things start dropping from the ceiling I will be freaking out. Yes, this one is quite small, but I'm sure his crusty compadres are lurking around somewhere.

By now you may or may not have heard that I am the Reserve Grand Champion of the White Pine County Fair.

Myself, my cousin who teaches culinary arts at the high school, and my grandmother entered some baked goods in the county fair and we did quite well if I do say so. The lemon poppy seed cake on the far left is the one I made and received the reserve grand champion ribbon.  The chocolate chip cookies I also made and they received a 1st place ribbon. The chocolate bunt cake my cousin made and it also received a 1st place ribbon (we all think it actually should have one, I mean it's chocolate after all). The loaf of wheat bread on the right my grandma put in and she received the grand champion ribbon. When confronted regarding the win my grandmother's response was, "well, how could it not have won." We're already gearing up for next year!

Now to some car updates:

I'm not sure if this has been brought up yet, but most of you have probably seen it.

This ended up in my garage this last spring and it has been a blast this summer. It was purchased from the original owner, and had been sitting for a number of years unused. I did the minimum amount of work to get it back on the road for the summer, but this winter it will get a more thorough going through.

I don't know how many of you knew that I purchased this 1980 Chevy LUV about a year ago. It was a great idea when I purchased it, but after several months of just not being able to get excited about working on it I decided to donate it to the high school auto shop. Hopefully it will serve better as a tax write-off.

You may remember the silver bug. Yesterday I got the bug out of its barn. (I actually had to remove a good deal of foliage from in front of the door to get it open). With the help of my car commiserator and his son we got the engine removed last night in only about 2 hours start to finish. It was a productive Saturday.