Inspire me? I couldn't have been more right on naming this blog...

WOW!  I cannot get myself to blog.  Ever.  Brady tries to help me with motivation, but I have none!  What should I blog about?  He gives me plenty of ideas, but I am lacking some serious motivation.  So maybe one day some inspiration will come to me and I will start blogging.  Until then, you probably won't be hearing from me much.

Okay I promise to work on it.

Cupcake Class

For my Valentines Day gift, Brady found a lady who taught cake classes and convinced her to do a cupcake class.  It took her a while to set it up, but because Brady is so wonderfully persistent, we finally had our cupcake class last weekend!

We went to the Provo Bakery where she held the class and it was so much fun!  There were probably 10 people in the class and we learned different techniques for filling cupcakes, frosting cupcakes, using ganache as well as those cute chocolate garnishes you see on top.  We had a blast!!  Okay I added in the pictures and they are tiny!  I would make them bigger, but the pictures are blurry.  I debated on taking them off, but its okay, hopefully you guys can see our masterpieces!!

                                             Brady's chocolate garnishes

                                               Brady's cupcakes

                                               My cupcakes

All Things Valentines

Oh Valentines Day.  What a day.  For Brady and I it started 2 days early.  We decided to make sugar cookies on Sunday, print off these awesome Harry Potter Valentines that we found on a blog (http://yenniper.blogspot.com/) and then deliver them to some of our friends. 

 

Baking

                                                                        About to deliver

                                                                The final product
Sugar cookie recipe and icing recipe to come!  They were divine.

Okay so that was Sunday and Monday.  Finally, Tuesday, Valentines Day!  Brady and I went to Macaroni Grill in Salt Lake for dinner (Thank you Pinnacle Security for my Christmas present and providing us a delicious meal.   For free!) And after dinner the surprise came....LADY ANTEBELLUM!!  Brady and I went to Lady Antebellum at the Energy Solutions Arena.  Thompson Square and Darius Rucker opened for them.  It was PHENOMENAL! 

                                                                  Waiting for Lady A!

                   It took a while, so anyone who knows Brady and I, of course mustaches came out...

       They asked everyone to get out their phones, it was really cool to see the whole arena with them out

Ahhhh.  What a great day.  BUT.  I am not done.  Even though Valentines day is over, I get into work this afternoon and have a valentine sitting on my desk.  On Tuesdays I leave early so I missed when they handed them out.  Great joy came of this....

My bosses son, Romeo.  How adorable?  If you can't read it from the glare it says "I 'mustache' you a question...will you be my valentine?  Gracias, Romeo.
Ahh I just love this little guy.

A Bad Case of the Giggles

I don't know what it is, but this week I have been uncontrollably giggly.  But typically it is only in my school classes (perfect, now I haven't learned anything all week).  Anyway I love the girls that I go to school with and I decided that we just feed off of each other all of the time.  When one of us gets giggly, so does the next and so on until the whole class is that way.  Yesterday happened to be one of those days (this whole week has been really, but for some reason yesterday was the worst).  Everyone had been so giggly, then all of the sudden my teacher posts on the power point "Babies are cute, adults are not!!" (it has to do with it being cute when babies make mistakes when learning to speak, but how adults aren't cute when they mess up on their speech learning a second language).  Oh wow I just had a giggle fit AGAIN thinking about it!  Geez it really isn't that funny, but for some reason it was-and apparently still is, funny to me.  So for this post I am going to put up a bunch of pictures that make me laugh out loud.  Enjoy :)

Long Lost BFF

Last night I finally went up to SLC to see one of my best friends Abby Simmons.  I met her when I committed to go to the University of Utah to play volleyball, she committed to come in the same year as me and have been BFF's ever since! We lived together in the dorms and in the plex, always hung out, and of course played volleyball together and traveled together.  After my second year at the U, I decided to be done playing volleyball and moved down south.  One of the things I miss most about leaving SLC is this girl!  So after a long time of not doing a very good job of catching up we planned a date night and went to sushi.

It was SO great to get caught up with her!  We both have had so many things to tell each other we spent a solid 2 hrs (maybe more) hanging out at the Tsunami not realizing that other people could overhear us until the waiter commented on what we were talking about ha ha it was awesome.  Anyway I am so mad that we didn't take any pictures last night, so I am just going to have to post old ones of us! (Okay this is going to seem like a lot of pictures, but  when you realize how many pictures I actually have, this is only a small  fraction.  So get over it :))

Dinner after skiing-Thai Honey Peanut Chicken and Benihana Fried Rice

On MLK day Brady took his little sister skiing for the day (of course I still had to work) so I made dinner for them when they got back from skiing at Alta.

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken:    http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/thai-honey-peanut-chicken/

• 2 pounds Chicken, In Chunks (there were 5 of us and I used 5 chicken breasts)
• ½ cups Soy Sauce
• ¼ cups Honey
• ⅛ cups Lime Juice
• 2 teaspoons Minced Garlic (approximately 1 Large Clove)
• ⅛ cups Natural Peanut Butter (I just used Skippy and it worked great!)
• 1 teaspoon Curry Powder
• 2 teaspoons Sriracha (optional)---I did not use this.  I don't even know what this is

1. Mix ingredients and marinate chicken for 2-3 hours.
2. Cook chicken in the sauce over medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes or until chicken is done. Reduce heat to medium-low and add precooked veggies if desired. Serve topped with sesame seeds.
3. To thicken sauce if needed: reduce heat to medium-low and add a cornstarch slurry (1 teaspoon cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water).

This website is great because you can add in the size of servings you want and it will calculate it for you, and it gives you substitute options like:

• Substitutions: replace chicken with tofu; replace peanut butter with tahini or another nut butter; if using regular peanut butter (i.e. Skippy) instead of natural peanut butter, reduce honey by 1 tablespoon
  
  
  
  Benihana Fried  Rice:  http://www.food.com/recipe/benihana-fried-rice-71469 This rice is absolutely DELICIOUS!!  Seriously it was phenomenal and so easy to make.  The only thing that takes a while is cooking it in a rice cooker, so be sure to give yourself plenty of time for that.
  • 1 cup rice , uncooked
  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup onion, chopped
  • 1 cup carrot , chopped
  • 2/3 cup green onion , chopped
  • 3 tablespoons sesame seeds (I forgot to get them at the store, so these aren't necessary, but I am sure would be great still)
  • 5 eggs
  • 5 tablespoons soy sauce (We actually used 6, but I wouldn't do any more than that)
  • Salt and pepper
  
  Instructions:
  
  1. Cook rice according to package directions
  2. In a large skillet melt butter.
  3. Add onions and carrots
  4. Saute until carrots are transluscent-set aside
  5. Heat oven to 350
  6. Place sesame seeds in a shallow pan
  7. Bake until golden brown (10-15 minutes), shaking pan occasionally for even color
  8. Lightly grease another skillet
  9. Scramble eggs
  10. Combine rice, vegetables, sesame seeds and eggs
  11. Add soy sauce and stir
  12. Salt and pepper to taste
  
  Enjoy!  P.S. Has anyone else been loving that blogger lets you know when something is spelled wrong now?  Awesome.