Christmas 2008

This year we had Christmas in Arizona with my side of the family. We figured this could be our last chance for a while due to our fuzzy future. Since we graduate this year, we have absolutely no idea where we will be the next five or so years. We have aspirations to move back east, but have also toyed with visiting Saipan for a few months or living in Salt Lake after we graduate. Lots of possibilities! Anyways, we had a great time in Arizona. Thanks again family for partying with us while we were there. These pictures are all from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. 

  

Our Niece Lexi acting goofy, Christmas Eve. 

So this is a funny story. We decided to go Christmas Caroling to some of my parent's neighbors. We had this pineapple we wanted to give away to someone, the question is, will anyone open up their door and accept the fruit? We went to four different doors, I think two weren't home, but the other two blatantly rejected us! I'm not just talking about neglecting the sound of Christmas Carolers on your doorstep, I'm talking about coming to the door and seeing us through the window and closing the blinds, turning off the lights, and leaving us hanging! Yes, this truly happened. We had a good laugh. We just wanted to give someone this blasted pineapple!

Kylie and Lexi were pretty scared of this illuminated bear. I think they are paranoid of bears because everyone reminds them that there are wild bears up at my parent's cabin. 

Mallory, Tiff holding Said, and Shannon, having a good laugh caroling.

Sam, a little unsure about the illuminated bear.

Sadie playing with toys at my parent's house. I used to play with those very toys!

Mal playing piano with Sadie. 

Christmas morning and matching pajamas. 

Christmas morning. 

Mal explaining something. 

Mike & nieces and nephews

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Confessions of a Cookie Fan

An article Mallory wrote for a magazine in her English 450 class, sans works cited.

What makes cookies comfort food?
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines the term "comfort food" as "food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being, typically any with a high sugar or other carbohydrate content and associated with childhood or home cooking." Other definitions bring up nostalgic and sentimental significance, along with a sense of familiarity. According to these definitions, cookies of all sorts - particularly those that are more traditional - are the epitome of comfort foods.

Let's take a classic comfort cookie: chocolate chip. One of my personal favorites. The cookie recipe I use, which I consider fairly typical, is choc-full of carbohydrates: flour, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and of course, chocolate chips. The only other ingredients are baking soda, salt, butter, and eggs! All these carbs add significantly to the virtual high we get from gorging ourselves on these delightful little sweets. Working alongside familiarity and nostalgia, carbohydrates give us a subconscious, very temporary emotional comfort from our woes.

In a study run by Judith Wurtman, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, women especially are comforted by the effects of carbohydrates. This is probably because of the fact that carbs boost levels of serotonin - a neurotransmitter found extensively in the human body. Serotonin has been shown to have a calming effect on the brain and to restore mental energy. So, we are in fact justified physically for our love affair with cookies. All those carbs just brighten our day! At least when that day is more of a mad dash...

So, I'm like, a college student. What's this have to do with me?
Definition of a mad dash: Wake up at 7:50; late, of course. There's no possible way for me to get from point A to point B in time for my 8 a.m. class ten minutes away and be dressed decently. Then, classes from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., promptly followed by work, then gym, then home with family/roommates. Did I eat lunch? When is lunch again? What is it? Nevermind that. I've got to move on. Dinner. It's already six. What is there that I can take to the couch and will be relatively time-efficient, tasty, and make me feel like I can push through the last few hours of this never-ending day? (Scrounge through the rather pathetic-looking cabinets); EUREKA! Oreos.

Yeah? So? What's wrong with that?
Look, I like cookies and their 72-hour-kit-worthy stash of carbs just as much as the next girl. But let's face it: they're not exactly what should pop into mind simultaneous with "dinner." What exactly goes into a balanced meal? According to FamilyEducation.com, a site dedicated to providing relevant resources to parents, teachers, and kids, a balanced day in terms of food for a 19-30 year-old female should include 1 cup of grains, 3 cups of beggies, 2 cups of fruit, 3 cups of milk product, 4/5 cup of meat, nuts, and beans, and only 7 teaspoons of oil. Let us reminisce about our beloved chocolate chip cookies again. According to allrecipes.com, the nutritional information for a typical chocolate chip cookies - one serving - is the following: 122 calories, 6.2 grams of fat, 19 miligrams of cholesterol, 70 miligrams of sodium, 16.4 grams of carbohydrates, and 1.3 grams of protein.

What about that information looks scary? Could it possibly be the whopping calorie count? Or maybe the ridiculous amount of sodium and carbohydrates (most of which are simple, by the way)? To me, it's the fact that this is all contained in one cookie. ONE COOKIE! In one cookie, I have already thrown one of my daily meals off balance. I have way too many oils, way too many simple carbs, and no where near the amount of protein or complex carbs I need.

Okay, point taken. So, what am I supposed to do?
There are a few options for lowering a comfort food dependency. Limit how much you eat of it for starters. That is definitely one of the harder ones for me, just because once I get the taste of cookie/dough in my mouth, I really have no interest in stopping. Ergo, I try to seek out something that has a little less effect in my death-by-way-of-blocked-arteries but still gives me the necessary feel-good serotonin high I'm craving.

According to Wurtman, fruits don't give me that boost. To that I must say I agree to an extent. Fruit do have carbohydrates; the problem is that they have complex carbs rather than simple. Complex carbs are healthier but take longer to go through your system, and therefore take longer to work. I need something and I need it NOW! So, combine a nutritional, quickly-filling fruit (pick your favorite - I use apples) with a small amount of fast-acting simple carbs, like sweetened condensed milk, or cool whip. Personally, I like to alternate dipping apple slices in peanut butter and a sweet element. Other combinations:

Straberries and chocolate
Bananas and chocolate
Topping a (as in one) scoop of ice cream with your favorite fruit.

If you've just got to stay with the cookie, choose one that is higher in nutritional value, such as oatmeal raisin. Just try to avoid cookies with names like "death by chocolate." They're only half-joking.

A Piece of Watkins History

My ancestor John Watkins, who immigrated from England to Midway, Utah in the 1850's, was recognized at a gingerbread-house display. He was an architect, and built this amazing house back in the 1800's. This house is still in great condition and is still inhabited today. The gingerbread house was so close to the real thing thing! Anyways...just something interesting to share. 

Dorm Fire

If that headline doesn't catch your eye, I don't know what will! I'm actually reporting on something that happened a couple of weeks ago. As I have mentioned before, I work at the BYU-Idaho Safety Office. We work on the preventative side of things, and decided to promote fire safety. It's kind of funny, because we had a grease fire this last Summer in one of the girls dorms on campus. Surprisingly, not too many people evacuated the area during the episode. There were actually videos on YouTube before the newspapers could print out the next days newspaper covering the event! So, with those ideas in mind, we decided to build a mock dorm room. The room was 8'x4'x8', with one side of dry wall missing for demonstration purposes. The small room was equipped with a desk, fabric chair, blankets, clothes on the floor, empty pizza boxes, computer, etc (sound familiar to anyone?). We promoted this thing with posters, booths, and word of mouth. One of the more effective methods was spray painting the outside walls of the dorm room "Watch me burn at 12:30", that really gets people curious. I mean, who doesn't want to see something get lit on fire?? We had it set up to start burning right when people got out of classes, and it was strategically located in a high-traffic area for maximum exposure. There were about 200 people in attendance, and many others just watching from a distance. Everyone really enjoyed the blazing flames! Considering how cold it was outside, the huge flames actually were quite warm and refreshing even though we were about 50+ feet away. We got the fire department to attend as well, just in-case. The smoke detector stopped working after two minutes, and the whole thing was fully engulfed within three minutes (despite missing an entire wall). Anyways, enough babbling. Here are the pictures.

We simulated a candle fire, candle falling into the trash can.

If you look at the top portion of the dorm room, you can see a sheet of plastic entrapping the smoke. That thing actually melted and splattered all over the asphalt in-front of the dorm room. In the next picture, you can see the asphalt on-fire.

Those flames were so intense!

The smoke eventually began to funnel...

Then the fire fighters put it out. I was actually disappointed, along with everyone else, about how soon they put it out. It would have been cool if they let it burn to the ground. It certainly would have been easier to clean up.

Rammifications of a four and a half minute fire

In this picture is what's left of the computer, and the smoke alarm.

A Couple Pictures

So, I had my final project in pastry last Monday. My project did not go AT ALL how I wanted - the chocolate garnishes kept crumbling - but luckily he scored me more on effort. Besides, he saw that my garnishes were good, the kitchen was just too hot to let them harden.

Here's a pate a choux swan with white chocolate mousse sitting on a glassy blue simple syrup. You can see my broken Boston on the back of the plate. I also had a chocolate tree garnish - again, they kept breaking.

This picture was sent to me by my Eng. 450 teacher, Bro. Keller. He took it Saturday evening and just wanted to share it with his students. I was pretty impressed.

Mike's Birthday!

I know I'm a week late. I know I didn't post any small little "Happy Birthday Michael!" on his birthday, which I didn't know I was supposed to do. Let's move on.

Mike is 24 now, which means one more year until rental cars are much cheaper! (Hey, after 21, which Mormons don't even get to really celebrate, what is there to look forward to?)

Mike asked about a week ahead for chicken curry on his birthday. He loves it! In fact, the night before we got together with some friends for dinner and he requested Hawaiian haystacks, which are pretty much the same thing. I reminded him that's what he wanted on his birthday also, and he said, "Yeah, I know." I looked at him and said, "That means that's what we're eating tomorrow." He stared back at me for a second and replied, "Look, I like it, okay?! I just really like it!" I was like, okay, whatever. As long as you know, that's okay with me. So, that's what our friends made. His other food request was french toast for breakfast. (Which I was so happy about! He usually requests omelets or crepes, so this was really easy!)

Mike only asked for one present: a chin-up bar. I found one for $99 and asked the manager if they had anything else. This one wasn't the cheapest, but it certainly wasn't $99, and I actually like it better. It doesn't screw into the door frame, it just hooks on, so when we move, we don't have any screw-holes we have to cover up.

He knew he was getting it, so I asked him if he just wanted to open it a day early. He replied, "No, I want something to open on my birthday." Look, I may not be the best wife - late on pictures and such - but I got him more than one gift. So, he opened it.

Now he can get a bit of a work out even if he doesn't have time to go to the gym.

This is the only gift I have picture of, but he also got a harmonica, which we will put a video up of as soon as he learns a song, he says. I also got him a cd by Ray LaMontagne. Levi introduced me to him in May and as I was listening I thought, "wow, this is exactly the kind of music Mike loves!"

Later Monday night, we had some friends over. We listened to music, chatted, and ate cheesecake with blueberry topping - his last food request.