Dinner at the Temple

Yesterday, prior to attending a temple session, Amanda and I had dinner in the cafeteria of the Provo Utah LDS temple--a new experience for the both of us. As many of our Mormon readers know, the temple is probably the pinnacle of Mormon experience, the place where it is easiest to feel spiritual enlightenment and to learn more about our existence in mortal life as well as the life before and the life after. Which made the temple cafeteria experience interesting.

While the rest of the temple may be inspired by God, to say that its cafeteria is also would be a serious trial of faith for me. The two beef enchiladas that Manda and I shared (the other choice was brautwerste, yes brautwerste not bratwurst) were mushy from grease. It was hard to tell where the tortilla ended and the beef began. The side of mixed vegetables was sorta tasteless and the Cajun red beans and rice only tasted of Cajun. Excessive Cajun.

This is funny because I have such high expectations about temple experience that are often rewarded. I just assumed that the would be true of all aspects of the temple. Of course, it is good that the temple is trying to save church tithing funds and feed hungry (perhaps desperately hungry?) temple patrons for a good price. I guess that must mean bad, unhealthy food.

is this one still kicking?

The fate of this blog is hanging in the balance. Nothing has really taken shape yet. I have my own personal blog, but the married person blog is floundering. What now? Tim feels like he doesn't have ownership and therefore never thinks to post? He believes it is because his friends do not follow the blog.

And nothing comes to mind for me. It's not like there are tons of marital exploits going on or anything. BUT there is some cooking. So should I morph this thing into some sort of recipe trial and error thing?

I don't know what to do! HELP!

timanda and baby-face rowan. and a secret surprise.

Timanda

Baby-face Rowan (OH CUTE!)Golltim or perhaps Gollimmy-boy (Gollum/Tim/Timmy boy)

I'm so domestic.

Yesterday, I
cooked
cleaned
baked bread
mended clothes

Beyond my wildest dreams, that's what this is.

new blender. again.

Folks, here's the blender we got this time. We've used it once so far, and it seems promising. Although it would be nice to buy something much more expensive and much more nice, we are poor. Even though we're obsessed.

But in other news, I found an excellent muffin recipe using whole wheat flour and yogurt. It ended up being bread because we don't have a muffin pan, but I felt like it was healthy because it contained only 1/4 c. butter and 1/2 c. sugar. Also delicious. There seem to be a bunch of good recipes on this website . . . let's get started cooking with yogurt, I guess. Who knew? I wonder who gets these ideas, anyway. I'd like to know.

Blender

Tim and I are obsessed with smoothies. We go to Costco and buy bags of mixed frozen fruit and then Odwalla orange juice for specifically this purpose. So amazing. And definitely lots of fruit. Pure fruit. Frozen fruit + banana+ orange juice = amazing smoothie.

But we are having problems with blenders.

First, we bought this one:

Which was good. In fact, it was great! . . . for a while. THEN I tried to blend mashed potatoes in it on Wednesday night, and it died. Completely.

So sad. I think Tim was crying in fact.

Then, the next day, our smoothie withdrawals got so terrible that we went out and bought this one with the help of a gift card (wedding present):

Unfortunately . . .

Well, let's just say we're taking it back. I even taped up the box so it looks like we NEVER used it. I can't deal with a new blender working like this?

Where can I find a decent smoothie blender?!?!?! Blenders are just notorious for not lasting very long. And I don't appreciate it. I also don't appreciate how lots of times when you get smoothies at Jamba Juice, they have little fruit chunks in them. Obviously their blenders aren't that great either. I also don't appreciate that they cost so freaking ridiculously much. AND how they add sugar. Not that either.

OUR SMOOTHIES ARE BETTER. But we need a better blender.

Bathroom, bedroom. Etc.