Ski-cation

No school, no work, fresh snow, lovely weather, opening day at Jackson Hole,

and a birthday to celebrate...

Why not go ski Targhee and Jackson for a couple of days??

Great skiing, Jazz win over the Lakers, Utes win over the cougs...

Aside from a busted ski, it was an epic weekend.

A City So Nice...

On a whim, I bought a plane ticket to New York City during a "one day deal" through Jet Blue. Very spontaneous. Very unlike me.

The trip was amazing.

I was lucky enough to stay with my good friend Rachel Price, and we had a great time catching up and hanging out! I spent quite a bit of time on my own (behind the camera), exploring the city and seeing a few cool places.

Central Park. The colors were all almost gone, but the city was still beautiful.

"It would be a shame to miss New York in the fall..."

MoMA with Rachel.

More Van Gough at the Metropolitan.

Museum of Natural History.

They had the most fantastic gem exhibit including a 31 carat diamond!

Walked the Brooklyn Bridge.

Temple session at the Manhattan Temple.

(The whole session was conducted in Mandarin. Awesome)

Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine -

what an incredible cathedral.

Something I would never have seen if Rachel didn't live just around the corner.

The real drive behind purchasing the tickets to the city was to make a day trip to Philly to see my cousin Stewart play football. I loved the city, but the game was probably the highlight of the entire trip. The best part was being in the stadium and seeing how many fans had the #55 jersey on with Bradley across the back. It was seriously cool, and Stewart had a great game!

Snuck in the Liberty Bell before the game.

I was able to talk some friends into going with me. So fun!

Yep. Also just a couple of blocks from where I stayed.

Not pictured: Magnolia Bakery, Pinkberry, Harry Potter 7 midnight showing, Lunch with my good friend Lizzie (Hinckley) Davis, Trader Joe's (Yes, it deserves being mentioned!), church in Harlem, Christmas Spectacular with the real Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, and a few other odds and ends.

I love New York, and would love to find a reason to move out there some day.

I'm working on it.

Waffle Night With The Engar Cousins

We made waffles.

Lots and lots of waffles.

Whole wheat ones.

For dinner.

And they were delicious.

Quarter of a Century

I know I'm not "old"...but 25 feels kind of old.

It was a great birthday, all things considered.

I am relieved to put 24 behind me.

No birthday is complete without one...
Went with the half chocolate, half vanilla variety this year.

Glause "baby" cakes....best baking invention ever.

The four of us polished this baby off in one sitting. Beautiful.

Writer's Block

Yeah, it feels kinda like this....

Especially when you have a second draft of your thesis proposal due tomorrow.

Hike

Last year on this Saturday of general conference, it was 40 degrees colder in Utah. Today, a lovely, sunny 90. To take advantage, I hiked to the top of Mt. Aire from the Milcreek side with my friend Kim. The fall leaves were spectacular. What a great way to take advantage of the weather!

Truffle Night

Since I saw these on Bakerella, I have been completely fascinated and really wanted to try them out. Oreo truffles. They seemed kind of yuck, but who doesn't love Oreos? So I had a few of my fellow dietitian/foodie friends come over and help me out. Becuase what's better than a bunch of dietitians eating quality food like Oreos?

Good Old, regular Oreos. Yum.

I went with the Fat Free, which, for the record, I usually don't do just on principle. However, by using the FF cream cheese, I cut the calories down by 460. Not bad.

I really wanted to spice these up a bit by putting a center in them. I didn't know how to do it using actual ingredients, and since I was already using Oreo cookies for the truffle part for crying out loud, why not just use another pre-made product. So, I used both Junior Mints and Junior Caramels. Just tucked one or the other inside each truffle.

Mixed, and mixed, and mixed the Oreos and cream cheese...It really looked kind of gross in this form. I almost threw it all away at this point. That was an entire package of cookies!

I wanted plenty of minty goodness inside, so I put two Jr. Mints in each one. That ended up being a good move.

I had read that it was important to use good coating chocolate instead of chocolate chips. I obeyed.

I did a few with white chocolate, just to mix it up a bit.

My partners in crime.

This terrible picture was meant to show the inside of a truffle with caramel. It was delicious.
In fact, they were all delicious. I am so surprised. Definitely rich, so it is important to make them small. But all very good. By far, the mint-filled truffles were the winners.

Also, Kim brought the ingredients for Ghirardelli truffles, with almonds and coconut. They were outstanding, but if you can believe it, the Oreo truffles filled with Jr. Mints were the favorite. Almost doesn't seem right.

All in all, it was a successful cooking adventure.