Dark Rye Bread

I decided to do something productive with my day off so I baked some bread and carrot spice muffins. I couldn't find the recipe I wanted online so I looked through my cookbooks. I finally found one in Better Homes and Gardens that I liked. It looked a little complicated, but I had 4 days off this week so I tried it out.

First of all I ended up destroying the (tiny) kitchen!

This is almost all the space I had to work with...I got a little claustrophobic.

The Recipe:

2 to 2 1/2 C all purpose flour (I used whole wheat)

1 package active dry yeast

1 TBSP instant coffee crystals

1 TBSP caraway seed

1/2 tsp fennel seed, crushed (I forgot to add this...)

1 1/4 C water (I needed more since it's so dry here)

3 TBSP molases

2 TBSP butter or margarine

1/2 square (1/2 oz) unsweetened chocolate, cup

1 TBSP vinegar

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 C rye flour

1 slightly beaten egg white

Combine 1 1/2 C al purpose flour, yeast, coffee crystals, caraway seeds and fennel seeds. In a saucepan, heat and stir water, molasses, margarine, unsweetened chocolate, vinegar, sugar, and salt until warm and margarine and chocolate are slightly melted. Add to flour mixture and beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a spoon, stir in rye flour and as much of the remaining all purpose flour as you can.

Knead in enough remaining all purpose flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6-8 minutes). Shape into a ball. Place in a greased bowl, turn once to grease the surface. Cover; let rise in a warm place till double, about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch dough down. Divide in half, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Shape into two round loaves. Place on a greased aking sheet. Flatten each slightly to a 5-inch diameter. Cover and let rise in a warm place till nearly double (30 to 45 min). Combine the egg white with 1 tbsp water, brush over loaves.

Bake in a 375 oven for 30-45 min. If desired, brush again with egg white mixture about 5 min before removing from oven. REmove from baking sheet immediately and cool on wire racks. Makes 2 loaves, or about 24 servings.

I liked it a lot, but Dave didn't. He wanted something "fluffier" so I'm going to look up more recipes today and experiment with my remaining days off! I gave the 2nd loaf to my friend Arran, but we ended up cutting it up and dipping it in olive oil, garlic and basil and eating it at her house after a hike.

At the end of the day, I had lots of muffins (3 batches) and two loaves of bread made:

Carrot-spice muffin recipe

Disneyland Trip Part 1: Finding Nemo and Ariel's Adventure

I'm finally getting around to posting some Disneyland pictures! I have the rest on my computer at home but these are the only ones I had with me here (in the entrance station!). Dave and I decided we needed to get away from Moab and for work so we took two weeks off at the beginning of the month. He is from Carson City/Reno area and used to always go to California on vacations. I'd only been to Disneyland once, last September with Dave!

We knew which rides we wanted to go to first, since a lot of them were closed last time. The first ride we did was Space Mountain, and I was nervous about a roller coaster because my ribs were still hurting. I was worried it would knock something loose again! It wasn't rough, but to me it was scary! I don't like not being able to see what's coming at me and most of the ride was in the dark. The picture they take during the ride was not flattering....

The ride Finding Nemo was open this time so it's also one of the first we hit. That ride was great--nice and gentle and a good way to get started on our adventure!

We were loaded into a yellow submarine and told by the "skipper" to take a seat in front of a portal. The ride signs caution users not to go if they don't like close, cramped, dark spaces.

This is my portal to look through. I thought it was going to be a little strange if that was all I'd be able to see, so I started out by cheating and looking through Dave's too. We submurged partially, then began the ride into Nemo's world! They showed characters and snippets of the movie.

The coral reef. That's pretty much all I got pictures of because a lot of the ride was too dark, in the caves, to take good pictures. But I love how these turned out!

More pretty under water pictures. I like the light in this one. 

The thing that struck me about Disneyland was that everything is fake! I know that's a "duh" but it's also funny how they make everything seem so real! From their 4-D movies (beyond 3-D) to their "areas"--for example, New Orleans Square looks just like a block in a Southern town (not that I've ever been to one) and Frontierland is full of historic references--Tom Sawyer's Island, the steamboat, and Davey Crockett's canoes (the only self-powered ride in the park).

They also take you inside Disney movies, which is awesome. One of my favorites growing up was The Little Mermaid. I looked it up and it actually came out in 1989! Can  you believe it's been that long? I was shocked when I saw that date. If you look up youtube, you can see a McDonald's commercial to go along with it. (Sleeping Beauty is an older one too....1959!!) 

Under the sea!

Ariel's Adventure is also a new ride that we hadn't seen before so of course I dragged Dave along on the ride. He's a good sport. He's an even better sport if he watches The Little Mermaid with me--I ordered it on Netflix as soon as we got back and it arrived yesterday :)

A whole post about...Dave!

My mom likes Dave. At least she keeps saying so!

Dave at Anticline Overlook across from Dead Horse Point.

View from Dead Horse Point State Park, where we met!

We met when he got a seasonal job at Dead Horse Point State Park last spring (2010). It was busy and we all had our own stuff going on so I didn't really start getting to know him until later that summer. We just started talking more and more, but it was still pretty much a work relationship but we were getting to be friends. Then, I needed someone to go with me to Vernal and drive home my Jeep that my brother-in-law had worked on for me.

I asked Dave to go with me because 1) we had the same days off and 2) I was starting to really like him and thought it would be fun. I found out he likes museums so we spent a couple hours at the Utah Field House in Vernal. On the way back, he drove my Jeep while I drove my "new" car. He called me and said he needed gas, so we stopped at Crescent Junction. (Now, I had bought a locking gas cap because I was always out hiking, camping and backpacking and didn't want my gas being stolen...) We found out I didn't have the key to the gas cap! The gas light was on, telling him he had low fuel...so we decided to get it as far as it would go before it actually ran out of gas, then I would deal with it. The Jeep made it all the way back to my house! ...but it made him sweat a little bit and I felt bad and really dumb...especially when I got inside my house and found the key hanging on my wall!!!

He started texting me later that evening and from there we kept texting and talking, and then we started hanging out watching movies and drinking wine...and then I left for 2 weeks to go to CA with my family! A bad time to leave...but I was really looking forward to going with them so I went. We texted and talked pretty much the whole time and decided the date we started dating was August 7, 2010...so now it's been almost a year! Wow...I can't believe it's been that long...

We went to Disneyland last August because we had four days off together and had a great time! I hadn't been around anyone I could really spend 12 hours with at a time in the same vehicle...and we got along great! We're going to CA again to spend MORE time at Disneyland, California Adventure and then a day sightseeing and maybe a little time at the beach. We leave Monday...and I am excited!

Dave's family. We wanted to see them for Thanksgiving but it snowed us in. We ended up going between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Ouch! ....and my birthday!

I caught a cold that lasted for a couple weeks early in June. I ended up coughing a LOT and tensing up all my back muscles. The cold went away and so did most of the pain associated with it, except for one spot under my left arm that would not go away! So I made an appointment with my doctor, which happened to be on my 30th birthday! She thinks it is a dislocated rib...

Now I am on an anti-inflamatory painkiller and a muscle relaxer which I can only take at night so it doesn't make me fall asleep! I hope it doesn't last too long--I've never had even a broken bone! Plus I hate taking any kind of drug, unless it's caffine or wine-related!

On my birthday after the doctor visit, I took my car in to have the windshield replaced--it had a large crack that started growing in the winter and I knew it wouldn't have passed inspection. I got a short nap in before it was time for me and Dave to go to my friend's house for dinner.

She made pizza while we all broke into the box of wine, chips and dip. We decided we needed exercise so we had ridden our bikes over...and it ended up being a great evening and a great way to turn 30! The pizza was awesome! She made the crust, added tomato sauce, sweet potatoes, cheese, chicken and a bunch of veggies. It made me want to start making homemade pizza again...which I used to do all the time but somehow got out of the habit.