The Newest MoHos in Town

Bread

2011-12-19T10:42:00.004-07:00

A couple of months ago I wanted to try making some homemade bread. My mom makes amazing bread and rolls, but I've never had the courage to take on the yeast and make my own bread. One day, while at the grocery store I took the first step and bought some yeast. About a week or two later I decided I wanted some homemade bread so I pulled out the yeast. I found a recipe in cookbook and started making bread! I was pretty proud of myself, but looking back on it, it was a disaster! First off, we only had white flour and we all know homemade wheat bread is the best. Secondly, there was some major poor time management on my part. The recipe made two loaves, but I only had one loaf pan, so the second hunk of dough was just going to sit on the counter while the first loaf was baking. I guess that's not too bad, but I didn't have time to bake the second loaf before we went over to a friend's house for dinner, so the second hunk of dough just sat on the counter for 4 hours until we came back home and I popped it in the oven. The first loaf was okay, but the second loaf was just a flat dense piece of bread.

Fast forward to yesterday. While at church I was sitting next to my friend who was feeding her little girl a piece of bread and I kept thinking "mmm... I really want some homemade wheat bread." So we came home and told Dave my plans. It took a couple of hours for me to muster up the gumption to take another stab at making bread. However, this time we had whole wheat flour, I found a supposedly wonderful recipe online, and I altered the recipe to just make one loaf (for our one loaf pan). The entire time I was making it I kept telling Dave that it just didn't look right and that it was going to turn out horribly. And this is what came out of the oven!
This bread is perfection!!! We each had a slice last night and I had a couple of pieces of toast this morning. YUM!

If I Ran the Zoo

2011-11-18T09:41:00.006-07:00

If I ran the zoo it would be free... wait the Henry Vilas Zoo is free!
One Saturday Dave and I wanted to go to the zoo. The zoo isn't very big, but they do have a quite a few animals.

We also saw giraffes, rhinos, monkeys, apes, tigers, lions, polar bears, giant turtles, and more! Not bad for a free zoo!

A Day Downtown

2011-09-05T10:29:00.011-07:00

On Saturday we decided to go to the Farmer's Market and the Taste of Madison. Every Saturday from April through November there is a huge farmer's market that happens around Capitol Square. It's a lot of fun walking around and seeing everything there is to buy. This time we bought some scones, maple suckers, and some tomatoes.

After the Farmer's Market we had an hour to kill before we ate lunch at the Taste of Madison. We decided to go give ourselves a little tour of the Capitol building.
We had fun exploring all the nooks and crannies and looking at the details. It's a very beautiful building with a very ornate dome.
If you are able to make your way through the maze of hallways there is an observation deck that we went out on and were able to see all around Madison.
It was probably because it was a rainy day, but there were tons of people in the Capitol.
We still had some time to kill so we went across the street to the Veterans Museum. Madison is really nice because many of their museums have free admission.

After we went through the museum we made our way outside for the main event. We walked around checking out all the vendors and deciding on what we wanted to get. Everything ranged from $1-$4. On our first stop we bought some Arancinette which are little fried risotto balls. They were quite tasty. Then we tried some crab rangoons. They were delicious as well.
Then we tried some eggplant fries with a garlic paprika sauce. These were so good. Okay, everything we had was really good.
We also had a sweet plantain and roasted garlic empanada, a jerk pork slider, and sweet potato pie. I meant to take a picture of each of these, but our stomachs beat the camera.

We had a lot of fun spending the day downtown. Don't you want to come visit us now and spend the day downtown?

Graduation

2009-07-24T07:51:00.009-07:00

I know graduation happened about three months ago, but I always forget to put pictures on here so here are some pictures from the day!

Dave can now where his BYU Alum shirt, except he's not quite done with BYU yet

WooHoo!

2009-05-27T14:39:00.001-07:00

So today is our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!

Happy Birthday

2009-04-16T09:36:00.005-07:00

Happy Birthday Jasper!

I found this picture on my computer and it gave me a good laugh...

...that's the real pirate eye.

Phew...

2009-04-14T21:42:00.004-07:00

FINALLY... the last day of class! Dave and I are both extremely happy that this semester is over. For Dave it is the end of his undergrad and he will be moving on to bigger and better (and might I add smarter) things. For me it is the end of one class, and one professor, that I was not too fond of. I shall no longer complain about that class/professor, but I'm almost positive that I will find something to complain about during spring term. Let's face it, it's just what I do.

Anyways, during our long hiatus from our blog, Dave and I have just been going to classes and working hard. I must say, since I have moved on to 300-level classes, school is quite a bit harder, but also somewhat more enjoyable. Dave also attended a Richard Wright Symposium up at the University of Utah. He presented a paper he wrote and received some helpful feedback from several professors. Hopefully, he will be able to work a little more on it and be able to publish.

On Sunday, we went over to Becca's house and had Easter dinner with her a Rob. We had some delicious food and had fun just talking and laughing. And I must say, I have never seen Rob be so domestic... he loves to cook with his crockpot!

Cloud Gazing

2009-02-26T21:07:00.004-07:00

I would like to say that we saw this the other day, but really we saw it all the way back in August. We were driving up to Bear Lake for the Fife family reunion when all of a sudden Dave and I saw this crazy looking cloud. Usually when people see something in a cloud it is very abstract, but this was completely opposite from that. This cloud looks exactly like one of those cartoon devils, you know the one with horns, hooked nose, and a pointy beard? Yeah, this is exactly like that. Can you see it?

2009-02-05T13:51:00.003-07:00

Just thought I would let everyone know that the last comment about having a baby was just for laughs, so no need to worry. I guess Dave was right when he said that everyone would think that we were serious!

what you've all been waiting for... sort of

2009-02-01T23:00:00.006-07:00

So I thought I better post something on here to let you all know that we are still alive, even though school may be draining our energy. Everything is going really well this semester. School was getting busy so we decided to take a break and go to Virginia to visit family. Even though we took a break, school didn't so we are busier than before, but it was worth all the fun we had while we were gone.

I swear that I will write more frequently (my goal is to not wait two months to write another post) to tell you all what is going on in our lives!

Oh yeah, so there are at least twelve couples in our ward that are pregnant... kind of feel the pressure to make it thirteen :)

Maren

What's a Hootenanny?

2008-12-01T20:48:00.002-07:00

Welcome to our blog. Don't expect too much. A hootenanny at most. What's a hootenanny, you may ask? I'm afraid there is no concrete answer, for this is a quandary that has vexed academia for decades. Hootenannies first came on the scene in the early 19th century, mostly for economic reasons. Families struggled to make ends meet, and Alexander Hamilton vigorously lobbied the fledgling government of Papua New Guinea for a secret fertilizer that would make American crops grow taller than trees. Instead, the Papuans gave him nothing but a hootenanny. Though disappointing at first, the hootenanny soon gained a place in many an American heart. A little known scholar has recently discovered that Melville toyed with the title Ishmael, the White Whale, and the Hootenanny Crew. History suggests that perhaps America wasn't quite ready for such a groundbreaking novel. The majority of Americans today know hootenanny from their childhood during the Baby Boom era. Their fond memories of hootenanny accompanying the first television programming, even the first man on the moon, cause their hearts to burn bright despite their professional and emotional disappointments in later years. In our attempt to blog in the proper patriotic spirit, Maren and I have decided to add our own strand to the already rich and vibrant history of hootenanny. We hope your time will be well spent within these pages.
Dave and Maren