Paddle Surfing Lessons Learned

11 foot foam board

The fast Epoxy board

Tonight I went paddle surfing under the moon with a whole lake practically to myself! I was extremely excited about the chance to surf in Utah since we have no ocean! Stand up paddle boarding is a little bit like surfing except for you have a different board, and obviously, a paddle. My friend Amber and I went with the awesome company www.utahpaddlesurfing.com . They really took care of us and we had a great time trying out different boards and surfing around the Great Salt Lake by Saltair on this full moon paddle.

It really is quite and exhilarating and empowering experience. Being out on the water and being able to overlook the entire area was really neat. It is really hard to explain how paddle surfing empowers you, but it does. I guess that you will just have to try it to get what I mean. :]

Towards the end of our boarding session I was thinking pretty deeply. I had started out on a "medium skilled" beginner foam board that was 11'. It went pretty fast and pretty straight but half way through I switched to the "advanced skilled" beginner 10' C4 epoxy board which is made for the ocean- so to go fast and to move.

I loved the feel of the the epoxy board on the water but I was getting frustrated that it wouldn't go straight! I kept on trying to change paddling from one side to the other and was just getting annoyed that I was going slower then before (on a faster board) and not straight!

It took me until about the end of the session to remember that our teacher told us that we weren't going to be going straight on the 10' foot board but that if we paddled on both sides, deviating both ways that we'd get to our destination. That is a lot like life I think. We may get frustrated because we get pulled one way and then another and never seem to be heading straight to our destination, but if we concentrate on what we want to be the end result we make it! This takes a lot of focus and determination though (in life and surfing). Example: One girl in our group wasn't concentrating on her end goal but was looking around to see where she was on the "course" and she ended up falling in the smelly Great Salt Lake. In life we need to have "constant vigilance" as Mad-Eye Moody from Harry Potter would say and always focus on our main goal instead of worrying if we seemed "off course" at the moment.

So yeah, go surfing, change your life. I'm definitely planning on going again.

craft:: marble magnets

Merry Christmas! So I may have gotten my Christmas presents done before Halloween, but in my defense I actually started this project before I left for France. I put the magnets together in sets of seven and packaged them up all ready for gifts!

These are really fun and easy to make. I made some with my wonderful sister-in-law when she came out for a vacation. You just need some magnets, clear marbles (like the kind that go in fish bowls or vases), magazines, and glue!
Cut pictures that you like out of the magazines and place them with the side you want to see visible. Put a drop or two of glue on the flat side of the clear marble/bead and place it on the picture. Let this dry and then cut the excess picture off from the sides of the marble. Take your magnet and glue it to the back and voila!

craft:: autumn cards

So I thought of something really clever for Kirstin's birthday...cards! These are homemade and pretty earthy, so she should like them. I got the idea whilst we were on a hiking escapade with Erik and my dad.
It was really simple to make the cards. I just went to the local crafts store and found some paper that I liked, cut out cards, and then glued on the leaves! I first had to dry the leaves and I actually used a good old fashioned type writer on some of the cards before the leaves got glued on them, but otherwise it is easy-squeezy! You are normally supposed to put contact paper on dried leaves, but I prefer it without- I don't know how it will hold up in the mail though!

recipe:: pear almond cake

Kirstin was wanting to do something with the over-ripe pears we had in the house last week and so I was looking up an oat-y pear cobbler. Kirstin wanted a cake and I happened to stumble upon this AMAZING recipe from New York Times. Most NY Times recipes you can count on, and seeing that this one was from a 1983 THE SUCCESSFUL DINNER PARTY: A GAME PLAN, we knew it was golden, and it was. The lemon-almond flavor in this cake leaves your taste buds guessing what the wonderful thing is that you are eating. As Nate Schroader said, "I don't know what to think of it!"
I will definitely be making this cake again, I only got one slice because it didn't even last twenty-four hours. I even won't be changing the recipe.

Pear Almond Cake

Ingredients

2 pounds ripe pears, peeled, cored and sliced

1 lemon

10 tablespoons butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup sliced almonds (we used slivered almonds)

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Butter and flour 9-inch springform cake pan.

3. Toss pears with juice of half a lemon and set aside.

4. Cream 8 tablespoons of butter with 3/4 cup of sugar. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together and add to batter, stirring lightly. Add remaining lemon juice and almond extract.

5. Spread batter in prepared pan and cover with sliced pears, arranging decoratively if you wish. Dot with 1 tablespoon of remaining butter. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar and scatter almonds on top. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and dot with remaining butter. Bake for 1 hour (we baked it for about 48 minutes until we saw that the sides were getting rather dark). Allow to cool slightly before removing sides of pan. Serve at room temperature with whipped cream.

YIELD 6 - 8 servings

Emma

Emma: A True Masterpiece Classic

“People – their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations – there I am the expert.” -Emma Woodhouse in Emma

Now I have always been a fan of Jane Austen classics. When the latest version of Pride and Prejudice came out (the one with Kiera Knightley) I fell in love with the story and then was finally able to get through Austen’s novel. This was followed by watching the mini-series Sense and Sensibility and then reading the book, finishing it on my flight to France in the summer of 2009.

The Jane Austen bug has hit me again, and I may have a new favorite Austen novel. Kirstin and I were looking for Fantastic Mr. Fox the other day at the locally awesome Cosmos Videos and stumbled upon the BBC mini-series Emma that neither of us had seen. We decided to get it and loved every minute of it.

From PBS: Emma Woodhouse (Romola Garai, Atonement) was born with the sun shining down on her. The radiant, privileged girl grows into a remarkable talent for matchmaking, as observed by her loving but disapproving father (Michael Gambon, Cranford) and childhood friend Mr. Knightley (Jonny Lee Miller, Endgame). When the decidedly less privileged Harriet Smith arrives, Emma meddles with fate to find her a match, until her flawless intuition is called into question. Dissuaded from more matrimonial predictions, Emma nonetheless continues to cheerfully contemplate superior men — and meets one of her own in the handsome, gleaming Frank Churchill. But after being so busy managing everyone else's heart, does Emma know her own? A fiercely funny new version of the Jane Austen novel, Emma was adapted by Sandy Welch (Jane Eyre).

The music was fantastic, the scenes were charming, the story line enthralling, and the cast was endearing: Romola Garai played the adorable Emma who reminded us of a softer Drew Barrymore in Ever After and of course the charming father figure, our favorite wizard, Michael Gambon as Mr. Woodhouse. Several other studs are included in this mini-series that will keep you envying their wardrobe and wishing your life had a soundtrack such as theirs.

I started reading the novel this week and am enjoying it, but not as much as I enjoyed this charming film that is a must-see for anyone who likes Austen, romance, or period films. This Emma was much better than the 1996 film with Gwyneth Paltrow.

Emma just might be my new favorite Jane Austen character, seeing as we share some of the same feelings as of late. I must say, it may be a bad thing that I enjoy meddling in my friends’ love lives. Move over Mr. Darcy, Mr. Knightley is my man now! Oh, and if I ever have a child named Emma, you’ll now know why.

recipe:: vegetarian cassoulet

Kirstin and I were at home hungry one night and we decided to make this recipe for cassoulet that I had been wanting to try for a month or so. It turned out amazing even though it was vegetarian style. It took some coaxing to get Mark to try it since it didn't have meat, but I convinced him it was for athletes since the recipe was from Runner's World and he loved it once he tried it. He even had the left-overs the next day.
Cassoulet (French), noun: meat and bean stew

Vegetarian Cassoulet

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic, chopped

1 onion, sliced

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch lengths

3 celery stalks, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

2 medium yellow squash, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon Kirkland Organic no-salt seasoning

1/4 teaspoon crushed red peppers

4 cups canned tomatoes (and juice), chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped

2 bay leaves

1 can garbanzo beans

1 can black beans

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, onions, carrots, celery, and squash; season with salt and pepper and other seasoning. Cook five minutes, or until softened. Add tomatoes and juice, meat, and herbs. Bring to a boil. Add beans and boil again, stirring occasionally; reduce heat so mixture bubbles gently. Cook for 20 minutes, and then enjoy with some hearty bread.

Here is the link to the original recipe from Runner's World, a non-herbivore friendly version.