Hot Cross Buns

I made these for Easter but forgot to post them in my Easter update this year.

This is the second time I have made yeast breads of any kind...in my entire life. Unless of course you count the time we made bread in Girl Scouts, which I don't. That and camp were the highlights of Girl Scouts for me, the only other part I remember was paying my dues. I was only 7 but I got the impression the women running our chapter were sticklers for dues and pretty unimaginative in educating your girls. Which is why I was glad when my mom pulled me out after a year.

Anyway, back to the bread. I am really proud of myself for giving it a try AND for them turning out. Everyone loved these things. I learned my lesson the first time I made yeast dough (at Christmas I made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls, divine!). So I made sure to make a full big batch.

My frosting did not turn out as nice as hers; it was too watery. But they sure were tasty all the same. I worried they might get tough after a day since I made them a day ahead and then brought them up to Dallas, but they stayed delicious and chewy. If you want the recipe you can find it here

I have so many plans for this fall and winter now with yeast breads! The torturous part is that I have to wait because there is NO WAY I am turning my oven on in 100 degree weather when I am already paying to cool our little apartment down. :)

April Adventures with students

Sadly, it has been a while since I posted much of anything about my work with InterVarsity at Baylor University. The spring is an especially busy time for us - we have two regional conferences to prepare for, evangelism & outreach activities, and leadership selection on top of all the usual things we do. So I just didn't get to it like I had planned.

I have been going through my old photos and thought you might enjoy seeing some of the fun we had together back in April. Every year Baylor students get one day off from classes called Diadeloso or "Day of the Bear" for those of you non-Spanish speakers. It "started in 1934 as a way to 'bring smiles to the faces of students' by giving them a break from classes." 


We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and chance to hang out with the whole Baylor community as a fellowship. We met up and had lunch together and then walked around to see the sights. Here are a few pics:

The favorite activity of the day seemed to be the rock wall at the Army tent. :) 

Healthy Meals

I love having healthy meals that are filling and full of flavor. Here is one we had this week that made me happy just looking at it.

Okay, I wasn't satisfied just looking at it, but you know what I mean.

On this menu:
Chipotle marinated and grilled chicken breast
Caribbean spiced black beans
Corn on the cob with chipotle yogurt dip (instead of butter)
Fresh fruit salad

Yum!

Old Jody's

Its a local place. While I would love local to include organic and local produce (there is in fact one place like this in Temple, but I will talk about that one some other time), this particular jewel is all southern fare. And its tasty! Have you ever seen Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives on the Food Network. I dont know if this place has been on there or not, but it should be.

We heard about Old Jody's from Drew's cousin who lives near Temple. They serve hamburgers, chicken fingers, chicken fried steak, fries, onion rings, and fried sweet things that you usually can only find at the Texas state fair. Like fried Oreos, cheesecake, ice cream, and Nutterbutters. Oh my!

The decor is about what you would expect for a place like this. Its not high-end or super clean, but its quaint, comforting, and a salute to Western culture. I like it.

Drew and I went a while back, before I departed for Recweek (say mid-May), but I am just getting the pictures off my phone now. I think we went to celebrate the end of Drew's family medicine rotation. Drew makes the burger he ate look really tasty. :)

Are there any indulgent dives that you love in your neighborhood?

Water for Elephants review

My book review of the bestseller, for any who care...
I have not done book reviews on our blog before because I usually just enjoy reading on my own and keeping my opinions to myself. However, I started a Goodreads account, this book is really popular (to the point that a motion picture was made), and I realized that its probably a good exercise for me to take some time to reflect on what I read. This one did not take much time to reflect on, but I had some strong opinions about it. If you dont want to read it obviously you dont have to...this is more for me.

This book was way over hyped. It opens in a Notebook-esqe manner with a very old man in a nursing home recalling his past. It seemed like a convenient way to get the reader interested in this man and his story but ends up falling flat. It was entertaining and fairly well written. However, the characters really did not grab me and I felt like the story was missing parts. I was just starting to get invested and interested when things started to come to a close. I couldn't tell what the author was trying to say about life or love (if anything). I guess part of it was that I expected this to be a romance, but it was more a story about the depression era circus from a first person point of view. In that respect it was interesting.

*A few spoilers included in descriptions below*

The "heroine" of the tale is not very gripping and I didn't really feel any chemistry between her and the main character, Jacob. She probably has all of 10 lines in the whole book. Its sweet that she likes animals and he likes animals, but I cant really see that being enough to take the risks he does in the plot.

The villain (August) is mentally ill and pitiful. However, it was hard to tell that he was the villain or why until half way through the book when he starts to beat the elephant (this scene actually just made me dislike Jacob all the more because he doesn't do anything about it despite being unhappy because he doesn't want to get kicked off the circus and ruin his chances to be with Marlena, love interest). Up until that point it just seemed like the main character didn't like him because he had an inexplicable attraction to August's wife.

3rd Anniversary!!!

We celebrated our 3rd Anniversary last week.

In the past three years we have usually celebrated by boxing everything up, sweating, moving apartments or even cities and then collapsing in a new place with chaos still around us.

But not this year! This year we will not be moving at all!!! Woohoo! It is the longest we have been in one place since getting hitched and its awesome. It seems indicative of the rest of our marriage relationship too.

We have found a great groove. We love each other. We are each others best friends. And all the other mushy stuff you can think of to say...it really is all true.

I am so thankful that the Lord brought us together. I cannot imagine going through life without my partner. He makes me a better person, woman, staff worker, and friend.

So I thought he deserved a little gift to attempt to express in some small way how much I care about him. I asked him what he wanted (he usually gets me gifts, but doesn't want anything) a good 3 months in advance so he would think about it. He said he wanted...



A gun. :)

We also celebrated our anniversary by going to a big party...for our friends wedding. Its nice when other people throw parties and you get to enjoy them too. :) Their wedding was beautiful and we are really happy for them. I didn't take my camera because I always forget it in the car or forget to take pics anyway.

My parents did snap a pic of us looking spiffy in our formal attire before the wedding though.

Oh, and in case you wondered - I also am getting a gift this year (not unusual as I stated before; Drew is good at spoiling me in this way). I will be getting a nice haircut at a salon and a pedicure, just in time for pool & sandal weather.