Farmers' Market 2011!

Other than being frigid the Farmer's Market was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures I took of the stands in the market. Elizabeth and I shared a bratwurst to fill out hunger. We also bought a mis-fit bar of soap for $2.50. We cut it in half with plans to share it since we both liked the scent it had.

          Bratwurst, apple drizzle stand, and French Fry/Onion Ring guy.

                                                     Flower Headband lady.

                                                              Cotton Candy!!

                          Bachelor pad-hehe The roasted Corn on the Cob!

                                Chinese food and BYU-I students pottery.

                        Madison county Ambulance & Fire Department.

                                               Me! Trying to keep warm!

                              Local honey and BYU-I Horticulture stand.

                 Soap stand and homemade cheese from their local dairy.

                    Just playing with the fabric and my camera!

Easter Egg Hunt & Egg Dyeing

This morning Antonio and I joined Elizabeth at Perkins dorm for her dorm egg hunt. It started at 11:00am. They had a small talent show after the egg hunt. There were plenty of rice krispy treats and cookies available. 

                          We enjoyed baked potatoes for dinner together.

Elizabeth says the green egg is barfing on the head of the white egg. The white egg feels left out that he is the only non-colored egg. 

This egg was dried out completely and the egg shell was cracked open. It was definitely a weird glassy look to the outside of the yolk.

More pictures will come when the uploading process cooperates!

BYU-Idaho Campus Construction

An amphi-theatre is in the future for the quad space between the library and Manwaring Center. It will even be equipped with wireless internet. I took pictures while we were crossing the sky bridge on Friday. I'm curious to know where the statue is going to be moved to.

The statue is temporarily sitting on the sidewalk in the center of the picture. 

                                        Making progress with the digging!

                                        One side of the new BYU-I Center.

                                                    I counted about 14 stalls!

             The bathrooms in the Manwaring Center are huge now!

 Somebody wrote in chalk on the newly constructed stairs comments like "You can do it!" "Just one more stair up!" 

This is the evening before I took the shuttle down to SLC for my appt. at The University of Utah Hospital. I spent the night at Elizabeth's dorm, so she could help me get me and my luggage down to the shuttle on time.  

Yellow Cake Cookies

I made cookies using yellow cake mix. I added chocolate chips and sprinkles to the dough. They turned out nicely, but made a much stickier dough than the chocolate cake mix made. 

                                                 Yum!

Day 1: Outdoor Cooking

Today was my first day for the outdoor cooking class! It began as a tiring morning, but fun! I went with my sister to the bookstore at 8am for an Egg hunt. That is a miracle for me to be out of bed at that hour, let alone not leave grounds for a seizure later in the day. Nonetheless, with Excedrin in hand I headed out. I only found 3 eggs. No prizes, but some candy.

Today is day 12 from my last seizure!!! I've had a busy week and been out everyday minus yesterday. So I count it a blessing that I survived my class.

So I thought I'd give you some snippets from the 3 hours today. We got out 1 hour early which I was well ready by that time. For not being up and actively doing anything, it was beginning to be one of those death by powerpoint, my mind has become mush first day of class. I learned a TON about gross bacteria, fungi, germs, sanitation, and have to wonder how I've survived my life thus far from all the things I've done with ward activities and food prep.

So here are the highlights!!!!!!
1 charcoal is equivalent to about 40 degrees Farenheit. It is important to have a good guesstimation (Not spelled right-brain freeze!) for cooking cakes ect. that need to be at a particular cooking temperature.
Cast Iron:
If dutch oven is 12 inches. Subtract 2 for the bottom and add 2 for the top. So 14 charcoals on top of the lid, and 10 underneath the dutch oven. If it is colder outside, then you may need 16 on top and 8 on the bottom. This is the best method, but another that some people use is to do 3 times the # of charcoal--but that seems on the excessive side. So I'll do a delete method for my brain.

If seasoning a dutch oven: Never use soap & water to wash out. Use shortening, vegetable or canola oil because they have a high smoke point. That is the point before it bursts into flames. Don't use Olive oil because it has a low smoke point. Re-coat w/oil 2 times throughout cook process of 300 degrees farenheit for 6 hours. It doesn't need to be cooled down in between re-coating with the oil, just pull it out, coat, and put back in oven. Also, it is optional to coat the outside of the dutch oven, just make sure the inside is done. This process is called the seasoning process.

How to Clean: It is called De-Glazing. Cook the dutch oven and add hot water. Scrape a little and pour out. Another alternative is to rub salt on it, and dump out. The salt absorbs and is an abrasive. A tiny bit of oil on the inside can help too. Not too much or it goes rancid and leaves a smell or odor permanently in the pot.

Coals should appear gray or white in the light, and glow red in the dark when they are ready to be cooked upon.

Braising=small amounts of liquid.
Crockpot=enough water to cover the food.

Kerosene=cheap, efficient, large heavy containers not handy when hiking.
White Fuel=available @ ORC. Light weight smaller containers.

Alternative methods of cooking:
Pit Cooking and Burdock cooking-we won't get to these during this class.
Convection cooking- Baklava in a few weeks.
Conduction cooking
Solar Cooking-can get up to 200-300 degrees farenheit for cooking from the sun.
Mud baking
Vagabond Stove-Tuna can, cardboard, paraffin wax.
Buddy Burner
Reflector Box-Cinnamon rolls
Rocket Stove
Popcorn in a soda can over the fire. Use soda pop to create a syrup glaze to drizzle over popcorn.
Cheesecake in a dutch oven!

Effects of Heat!
Proteins coagulate
Starches gelatinize
Sugars caramalize @ 300-305 degrees farenheit
Water evaporates
Fat melts

Kind of Gross, but I still like my JELLO! Jello is the best protein source and is made primarily from the hides of pigs, and other animals.

70% of meat is water.

With water NO caramelization can occur. Develop caramel coloring then take off the heat.

THAWING!

1. Best is the let thaw in refrigerator.
2. Submerged in a clean pot of temperate water.
3. While cooking.
4. Microwave.
1 Great, 4 worst, but okay.

Every 20 min. 1 bacteria splits. Eventually you get a Squaring affect. 8 bacteria in 1 hour. Math concept! yikes!

Use hand sanitizer after you wash you hands. I now know why they have those containers in the bathrooms on campus.

Pasta can't cook at high altitudes. It is better to cook it, dehydrate it, and then take it to re-moisten. Water boils hotter @ higher temperatures.

Tomato sauce dehydrates and re-hydrates easily.
Dairy-not as easy to deal with.
Potatoes, soups, soup bases are really great!

Hail!!

Today we received HAIL! It all started when a dark blue and black coloring covered the sky above the campus. Our side of atmosphere seemed like an overcast snow looking variety of clouds. The weather online said we were supposed to have strong winds from 2pm into the night. I have to say I haven't seen this monstrous wind yet...I'm sure it will still make its presence. Just then the heavens opened and we received the glorious hail! Here are some pictures and video clips that I took while thoroughly enjoyed myself!

Some video clips will appear when I can figure out why the videos aren't loading!

These are pictures from our evening or 2nd Hail storm! Also, ironically, a couple was moving in earlier when it started hailing the first time. And they pulled up with a couch just as this 2nd storm began! haha Probably a bit evil of me to laugh. But timing was everything!

Hail Icee!! Cherry Flavored. Whatever is blown around in our atmosphere...I just consumed it! And it was GOOD!

Vitamin D 50,000 units!

I got my lab results back and my vitamin D is still low coming in on the score charts as 23. The range is 30-100. Now this is after I've been taking the 1,000 mcg of D-3 (the more easily absorbed) kind for the past 1 and 1/2 year! I thought for sure that would have made a difference--boy was I wrong! My parathyroid is working overtime, and my vitamin D is low. From what I gather online--that equates to a Hyper Parathyroid issue. Before I had the blood work done, the endrocrinologist said that if my calcium was high as well that it could mean I have Celiacs disease. That would mean that I would have to go on a Gluten Free diet--AKA No wheat stuff! That would stink! For the past year, I've been making the transition to better my health by eating brown rice, using wheat flour--things like that. 


Gluten free diet was my 3rd alternate option for eliminating seizures. I placed it in #3, since I thought it would be the hardest to follow. #2 was dairy free, and #1 was herbalistic remedies. I of course, haven't disciplined myself to go beyond successfully completing my first option of herbal remedies. 


So I'm a bit peeved that I've been the one pushing the doctors and pointing them in the right direction. I feel like they are the specialists and should be doing their job when I come to them. The endocrinologist said, "we'll of course everything points to the fact that you have Hashimotos' disease just by the fact that your antibodies are elevated." We'll, golly gee...I had that figured out weeks ago, but why did it take going to a specialist to verbalize that! So I have to get my Thyroid levels checked every 6 months now. Also, I have to keep an eye out on my parathyroid. The doctor said that he has seen #'s up in the 1,000's for people who have parathyroid issues, and that I should keep in mind that my level of 32 could jump up to a higher number without me even realizing it. 


So only because I kept on top of things and called about my labs, did the Dr. put in a prescription for me to take the 50,000 units of vitamin D for an entire YEAR! I've taken that dosage before but only for 1 month during my 7 week break. Compliments of the health clinic doctors. It didn't help much then, so my bets aren't too high that it will work this time. I probably shouldn't be so pessimistic, but if my levels are still low in 1 year, I think perhaps the doctors will be a bit more believing of what I have to say!

So here is the green liquid-filled magical capsule. Apparently so potent, that one pill is for an entire week. So now I just need to remember to take the blasted little bugger every FHE day on Monday. The pharmacy gave me a bottle with 4 little pills in it. It cost me $6.50. I will have to go back every month to get my next bottle. Thankfully, my prescription was put in at a Walgreens, so most likely anywhere I go...Walgreens will be there as well. I won't have to worry about transferring my prescription anywhere else. 

Mom's Visit to Idaho!

The return of Elizabeth!! Mom arrived last Wednesday to bring Elizabeth back up to school for the start of Spring semester. It has been a lot of fun having Mom around. Elizabeth has a nice roommate named Chelsea. Funny part is they are the only two so far in their apartment. Each is anxiously hoping that it stays that way! I've seen it happen before. My first semester I moved part-way through the semester into a new apartment where there had previously only been 2 girls in that apartment. 


Anywho...we have kept ourselves busy in a number of ways! Shopping, making egg rolls, enjoying stir-fry!! The egg rolls were made in a double batch so that Elizabeth had some individually wrapped in saran wrap for quick meals on the go for those busy days. Here are a few pictures of our adventures! I guess I could've taken pictures of all the busy students in the various stores we went to, but hey we had to scout out our path through the store. In and out of clusters of roomies and ridiculously high stacked plastic 3 drawer units that filled in the inside aisles of Walmart! I have to say--not the smartest planning for allowing the influx of customers to navigate the aisle ways safely! Speaking of which...it was all done by accident, but I nearly lost my arm between the edge of the wheelchair and a shelving unit. I was trying to hang a frying pan back up that we didn't want, so I used my right arm to grip the wheelchair while placing it up on the hook. Meanwhile, my sister grabbed the back of the chair and proceeded to push it forward. As I was yelping in pain, and she was wondering why the chair wasn't going forward---she proceeded to push harder! I had visions of this being the first time in my life to have a broken arm--And especially how horrid it would be to have done it the day before school started! We'll, I survived....I had quite the red mark to prove my sustained injury though. 


This weekend we had hopeful plans of going up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was free admission day for the opening of Yellowstone. However, I was feeling really rotten on Friday, and Antonio had a nasty cold for the weekend...so we didn't go. :( Hopefully, we'll have another opportunity to go in the future! 


Due to Antonio's sickness, and my feeling rotten...I re-located my bed to the couch in the living room. I turned into a bear when I already felt cruddy and then on top of it hardly got any sleep. Even though today is only Monday, I probably owe a lot of apologies and have some repenting to do for my irritable snappy self these last few days. 

                                                          The egg rolls!

                                                   My bed on the couch!

   Mom's air mattress plus my mattress memory foam topper bed!

Squirrel!

Mr. Squirrel must have looked us up in his phone book because he was back on our porch peering through our window at us in request for some almonds. We haven't seen him since last Fall! I really thought he'd be a bit skinnier, so either he is actually a "she" and possibly pregnant or he has been eating a lot during this past winter!


The first day he arrived back we managed to feed him 9 almonds--what a little oinker!!
The next day we gave him only 8. We figured that we better give him smaller portions if he had plans of returning on a daily basis.

A future video will be here when the uploading process starts working again!