Lemme just start with, I love the people I work with. Honestly. They are the greatest. Anyway, we got together the other day to learn how to become masters of bread from LaRene Tinney. She has mastered the art bread (but apparently not cookies. She makes cookie quilts instead of individual cookies. Maybe she needs my help.....) and taught us her ways.
We learned how to to the 6 strand Challah bread braid which looks super impressive, but is actually fairly easy. Here is a YouTube video to help you out!
But I think my favorite thing we learned, was how to make the most effing delicious artisan bread that ever was. Get ready to have your life changed!
Artisan Crack Bread
Ingredients:
1/4 t yeast
1 1/2 C warm water
3 C white flour
1 1/2 t salt
In a large bowl dissolve yeast in water. Stir in flour and salt until mixed. The dough should be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and let dough sit at room temp for at least 8 hours, but it's better to let it rest for 12-18 hours (The easiest thing to do, it make the dough the night before you wanna bake it). The dough is ready when the surface has little bubbles.
Use a spoon to lightly pull dough away from the bowl. Sprinkle dough with a bit of flour and fold it over once or twice.
Using just enough flour on your hands to keep the dough from sticking to you, gently shape the dough into a ball. Place the dough back in the bowl seam side down.
Cover with plastic wrap again and let it sit for 1 1/2-2 hours more.
During the last 20 min, place a 6-8 qt pot (cast iron, pyrex, enamel, ceramic) in oven and preheat to 475 degrees.
When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the fiery pits of your oven (it will be so freaking hot), remove the lid.
Plop the dough into your scalding pot seam side up.
Replace the lid and put your death pot back in the oven.
Bake for 18 min.
Remove lid and bake for 10 more min.
Remove your lovely little loaf and cool on cooling rack.
OR, remove your lovely little loaf and put on cooling rack and burn your fingers while trying to eat it as soon as possible.
That is the basic recipe!
There are multiple variations you could do:
Asiago cheese
Garlic
Parmesan cheese
etc.
One that LaRene showed us was bomb.com. It's the Carrabba's Herb Mix with butter and it makes for an amazing crust.
Carrabba's Herb Mix
Ingredients:
1 t crushed pepper
1 t ground black pepper
1 t dried oregano
1 t dried rosemary
1 t dried basil
1 t dried parsley
1 t granulated garlic
1 t minced garlic
1 t kosher salt
Combine all in whatever dish you find appropriate. I used a sandwich baggy.
Melt 1/4 C butter.
Add about half of the herb mix to melted butter.
When you take your hot pot outta the oven to put the dough in it, add a little of the butter/herb mix to the bottom of the pot before putting your dough in. Once you have the dough in the pot, pour the rest of the butter/herb mix over it. Then bake according to the directions.
There you go! I never really got fancy pictures, because we devoured it so quickly, but it had to be shared.
Lately, I've been feeling like I need to give myself more direction and I found inspiration from a rich lady.
Mr. G and I were filming a commercial last Saturday for Persnickety Clothing at this giant house in Highland. We had to change in the mansion-sized master bathroom into our wardrobe for the shoot. As I was changing, I noticed this small little paper taped to one of the mirrors. Being a snoop, I read it. It was a little list of goals for 2013 split up between three categories: personal, spiritual, and temporal. I thought it was such a great idea to split them up like that and put them in a spot to remind you every day (rocket science, right). So, I after I invaded this woman's privacy, I decided to steal her idea too (horrible person alert). For now, I'm keeping my goals to myself. I'm shy. But, I'm crossing my fingers that I can stick to them (I kinda suck at goals). I'll let you know.
So, thanks, rich stranger lady! Here's hoping for some sense of accomplishment (I can only feel accomplished about being The Lord of Catan for so long since I win against the computer 98% of the time).
PS. Any book recommendations? I'm wanting to read instead of dominate Catan before bed.
I guess the early bird gets the worm! Congrats to entry #1, Melanie! I'll get going on your necklace. For those of you that didn't win, you can still get your very own necklace at my etsy shop, little pretties by rach. Thanks for humoring me with this little giveaway. Happy Tuesday to you!
Hey, Melanie, email me where you would like it sent at littleprettiesbyrach@gmail.com. Thanks!
I guess my Macey's commercial has started airing. I've only watched it muted, because I don't like to watch/listen to myself (even though I probably seem totally vain). If you would like to watch it however, Macey's posted it to YouTube and here it is!
(For some reason I can't get the video to upload here so click the link above).
PS. I'm gonna pick a winner from my giveaway tomorrow.
So, I've reached a small little milestone on this here blog. Now, it prolly isn't that cool for big time bloggers, but for me it was kinda fun. I reached 20,000 views! (See, not that big of a deal). To celebrate, I'm gonna do a giveaway! Leave a comment by Monday Sept 16th and one lucky person will win one of the cute little necklaces I make (I think they're cute, anyway). Sound good? Just tell me in your comment what letter you would like.
I've decided acting is weird. I've always kinda thought that, but it is really is. Especially for commercials. Mr. G and I had a few commercial auditions together last week and we talked about how we kinda felt like trained monkeys afterwards. At the auditions we had to:
1.) Lay in a new hammock/tent thing and have a conversation while being flirty with some dude standing above us creepily watching.
2.) React to a grown woman wearing a feather boa and tiara who was representing a little girl we were supposed to be parents of. The "little girl" was putting on a fashion show for us and we had to respond accordingly.
3.) Pretend to shop all flirty-like in a hardware store which was actually a small little room with one guy in it. Then he said, "hey look up here!" and there was "mistletoe" which was actually a black spot on the ceiling and we had to flirt some more and then kiss.
Even though it's all quite strange, we booked 2 outta the 3. Boom!
For the past few months, some of the ladies I work with have been talking about this foot lady they go to. Her name is Geri and she rubs your feet and basically tells you all the things wrong with you. OK, there's some good stuff too. They all said how accurate she was, so I had to give it a go myself.
My appointment was this afternoon and it was incredible! She explained a little about how it works and that it might be painful at times. Indeed it was. She started with my right foot and the second she touched me, she said I was extremely hard on myself. The tears began to flow. How did she know that?!?! Immediately I thought of my Urinetown experience. Yep, she got it. She told me I was fired and that I need to let up, not only for myself, but for my husband. Her advice was to create a mantra for myself and say it aloud when I was beating myself up. Working on it. She continued on and said:
I worry a lot. Check.
I hate confrontation. Check.
I've felt really alone at times. Cry.
I genuinely deeply love. Check.
I don't hold on to anger. Check.
I drink enough water. Good.
I clench my jaw. Check.
I need more calcium. Check.
My liver is awesome. Sweet.
God has given me incredible strength. Tears.
Geri got chills when she was talking about my strength. She said God sent me to my family because of that strength. Maybe I bawled like crazy. Then she looked me right in my eyes and said, "You are so awesome. Truly." Perhaps that'll be my mantra....
Anyway, she talked about how much she loved her job, because she got to meet so many cool people. I'm glad she does what she does, because I never knew my feet gave so much away and gave me so much to work on. I already have my next appointment scheduled, because I think it's pretty fantastic and is going to be healing for me. Plus, it's cheaper than tradition therapy. Boom!
If you're interested in going to Geri (which I highly recommend) let me know and I'll pass along her info to you.
Working a job where I primarily interact with the public over the phone, I have learned a few things that can make that interaction more enjoyable and efficient for both parties. They are as follows:
1.) LISTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously. When you call a business and they ask you a question or reply to your question, clean out your hears and PAY ATTENTION! You will get off the phone faster and not annoy the crap outta the person helping you. For example, if you ask, "What rows have seats available?" and the person on the phone says, "All rows still have seating available." DO NOT respond with, "So would there be any seats on like row one or two?" They will want to respond with, "Um.....what did I just say, you idiot?!?!" Instead, the polite customer service rep will say, ".....yes...." If you had LISTENED to the person helping you, you would know that they said ALL rows have seats available and that includes rows one and two. You sound like a moron.
2.) BE PREPARED
You are calling a business. Not the other way around. Know what you want them to help you with. Again, you called them. It's understandable that questions come up, but you should at least know why your main purpose in calling. If you aren't prepared, you may be classified as a moron....again. Once you get off the phone, you will be talked about.
3.) DON'T BE RUDE
How do you expect to get quality customer service when you are not behaving in a quality way? When you're rude, no one is inclined to help you. Especially if you're unreasonably rude right outta the gate. If a problem has occurred, it can be frustrating. We get it. Just don't be a jerk and you're more likely to have a positive outcome. Most of the time, it's your fault something has gone wrong, because you didn't do #1. Being a turd bag does nothing except bringing you back to moron status!
4.)DON'T GIVE UNRELATED INFO
Unless you feel like you've bonded with the person helping you, just don't do it. They talk to so many people every day. When they ask, "Can I have your last name?" don't go into your life story. Just tell the sad sap your last name. They truly don't care about your neighbor's scout calling and why they can't go to the show on Thursdees due to their husband's ritual of deep cleaning his toenails that night. Also, when giving your name, you don't need to tell them where you live. Example: "This is Sherrie Oltson (Olsen) from La-un (Layton)." Where you live has nothing to do with anything!!! Unless they ask you, you don't need to spout off info left and right!
Hopefully, we can all implement these in the future and look less moronic. Myself included.
Now back to your regular blog reading program.
When I woke up that morning around 8, I wasn't nervous......yet. We had celebrated the night before at our pre-ception with friends and family. It was an incredible night (I'll blog about it soon) and I went to bed feeling so grateful for the people I've known in my life and excited for the next phase of life. I actually slept over at my soon to be home (Mr. G's place) on the couch with my soon to be sister-in-law snoring on the floor next to me. I decided to get ready over there, because most of my stuff was already there from moving in, but mostly because there was a bigger bathroom. Anyway, as I was getting ready (I did my own hair and make-up, because I'm a control freak over stuff like that), there was so much talking and commotion happening around me that I was starting to get anxious. I was questioning my decision to get ready around people. So, I shut and locked the bathroom door (it sounds more dramatic than it was) to insure that I could have some alone time to decompress before this major life step that I was gonna take in T-3 hours. After a few minutes Mr. G softly knocked on the door and asked if I was OK. I was. Really, I was. I just explained that I needed to be by myself for a minute. He got it. I had zero nerves until that moment. The day I had been waiting for was finally here and I started to feel the greatness of what we were about to do. Bring on the nervous gas.....
Once I had shaken off the nerves and gas (for the time being) I put on the dress I was traveling to the temple in, grabbed my wedding dress, and we were off. We stopped by to pick up my sister who was my escort in the temple and headed up to GET MARRIED!!!! Since our ceremony was at 1:00 pm, right during lunch time, we knew we needed to get a little something to eat so we didn't collapse on the alter from low blood sugar. Where did we go? McDonald's. Yep, just a few blocks away from the SLC temple, we stopped for some McNuggets, Fries, McDouble and a Coke. We didn't want to be hangry while we were committing ourselves to each other for time and all eternity. Really, no one wants to see a hangry bride. Disaster!
When we arrived to the temple, we had some paparazzi waiting for us (aka his aunt and cousin).
You'll notice Mr. G has a scowl on his face. What you don't know is that there was a crazy anti-Mormon guy to the right of the picture that was yelling something like, "How can you commit to your temple marriage when you don't even follow God's commandments!?!?" Mr. G responded with, "KISS IT!!!" HA! Oh, the little charmer. It was also record-breaking boiling hot that day, so the scowl could be from melting in the 104 degree heat....
When we got inside the temple, we took care of all the business side of getting married (checking our marriage license and such) and then went our separate ways to get ready. We met up after we changed and sat on a little bench to wait for the sealer to give us some info. Our sealer was a funny little man. What we didn't know, is how freaking long he was gonna talk in the sealing room before he actually married us.
Now, I don't remember all that he said, I just know that he took time and all eternity to get to the point of what he was saying. Once he got there, he had some great stuff to say. Mr. G and I almost started laughing a couple of times and were squeezing our hands together, because he was going on and on. I know there about something with the pioneers and the SLC temple and then something about how we'll be able to conquer the trend of divorce. Pretty sure I knew where he was going with his words before he did. I was appreciative of his thoughts....once he got to them.
He finally decided it was time to marry us and had us come to the alter and Mr. G exclaimed, "Let's do this!" You guys, when we were kneeling across from each other at the alter, I had to do some major deep breathing to keep from having a meltdown and ugly crying my fake lashes off (those that were there can vouch for the crazy breathing). Seriously, I couldn't believe that this was actually happening. There we were, about to effing get married!!!! The emotions were so intense: excited, scared outta my mind, elation, relief, disbelief, happiness etc. I knew we were doing the right thing. I also felt those that had passed on before that day, were right there with us. They had been waiting for us to make it there too! We both answered, yes (obviously), when he asked us if we would commit to each other. We had done it. We were married!!! When I put Mr. G's ring on his finger, I told him, "You're mine!" It's true. He was mine and I was his from that moment on.
Marilyn moment
Doing a little robot
Most of the day was a blur (prolly due to heat stroke), but it was the greatest blur I've ever had.
PS. Photos done by Pete Widtfeldt
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