Lee and I have been watching a lot of the US Olympic Trials lately. Since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, I have loved the Olympics. I don't remember watching the Olympics, but I do remember a VHS my parents had purchased with the highlights of those games and watching that tape a lot.
It's so inspirational and hopeful--those athletes and those supporting them are so impressive. I love the Olympic Spirit!
I volunteered in the Olympic Spirit Band (left) playing my clarinet during the Olympics inn Salt Lake City in 2002.
There have been a couple other things that have gotten me into the Olympic spirit, like this commercial by P&G. I can't help get teary eyed watching it.
I also love this rocking anthem by Muse that is the official track for the 2012 Games.
Anyway, we can't wait to see
The Michael Phelps/Ryan Lochte rivalry in swimming. I feel like records will be broken.
Ashton Eaton in the decathlon. The guy set a world record at the Olympic Trials.
The Women's soccer team--that Abby Wombach is fierce!
Anything gymnastics related. USA vs Russia is always fun to watch.
Diving, especially the high platform. I kind of like watching people doing something I am too chicken to do.
Is anyone else stoked for the Olympics like I am? What events are you looking forward to watching?
1. The opening cartoon, La Luna, is brilliant. I want to take my nephew to see this short--he's obsessed with the moon. Plus, there is a lot of Italian hand gesturing.
Pixar shorts are always marvelous!
2. The accents were amazing, especially Merida's. That was one of the main reasons we wanted to watch it. And Emma Thompson is always great--she's Merida's mum.
Merida's hair is something else!
3. After the movie, Lee said, "Honey, if you were turned into a bear, I'd
keep you around. Panda bears aren't mean--they're cute."
I have been out of the school scene for about 5 years now and I can honestly say I don't miss the homework, the exams, the attendance and the fact that my grades, my degree, and ultimately my livelihood depended on those things.
But, I have always been a school person. I love school. I'm that kid who gets excited in the fall to buy new pencils and notebooks and can't wait to meet new people in my classes. In fact, when Lee and I were first married and I found out Lee didn't like school, I was incredulous. How can someone NOT like school?!?
So I have found myself trying to be in school after having finished school.
Isn't that SO cool! I have been wanting to learn how to grow my own mushrooms after I saw this TED talk. If you have about 15 minutes, it's totally worth a look-see.
Isn't that SO cool!
So I headed to Red Butte Garden for this class. This was our classroom off of the greenhouse and our teacher, Jennifer Nixon. She's into mushrooms!
Jennifer answering a question about mushroom care
These supplies were sitting at our work tables. A mallet? A hot plate? Paint brushes? What the heck?!?
Our equipment
We'd be inoculating a log with shitake mushroom mycelia--mycellia is like the root system of mushrooms. Jennifer taught us that this type mycelium is a decomposer, that's why we need a log--it's like food for the fungus. The log is self sustainable--this one log can be used for years and continue producing mushrooms!
Our future pet logs!
Jennifer had already drilled 20 different holes into each log in a diamond shaped pattern around the circumference of the log.
You can only see a couple holes at this angle
We were each given a bag of wooden pegs that had been turned and inoculated with mycelia. You can see in the bag that they're already starting to grow--fuzzy!
The inoculated pegs
With clean hands, we could handle the pegs as well as our logs. Then on to our mallets--we pounded each peg into a hole along the log.
After we pounded the pegs in, we had to seal off the pegs (and the ends and any scars) with some beeswax or soy wax. The wax is to keep anything out, so that the fungus "has a fighting chance".
Covered up in wax
I learned that it takes 6 months to a year to get your first flush (or crop) of mushrooms. That's a long time--longer than I was expecting! But, log-grown shitake mushrooms are more dense and meaty, thus more expensive in Japan than those that are grown on sawdust or coffee grounds.
Learning about proper care and maintenance of our logs
The last couple of things Jennifer talked about was care and maintenance. I am supposed to keep my log in the shade or indoors and water it one to three times a week for about 5 to 10 minutes.
Water my log?!?
So, I water my log. It's so weird.
It's SO weird.
Watering my log--I love my toenail polish right now.
So, Lee and I have a pet log now. His name is "Miyazaki the Shitake." He's cute, huh?
Lee with our cute little log, Miyazaki the Shitake
We will keep you updated on how things go and when we get our first flush. Here is what it's supposed to look like eventually (from www.fungi.com where Jennifer had purchased the inoculated pegs):
www.fungi.com
On one last note, who remembers Ren and Stimpy's "It's Log by Blammo"?
Come on, raise your hands!
For those of you who don't know remember or even know what it is, watch this--you'll love it!
My friend, Melonade, volunteered to host our next Creative Girls Night Out, but she couldn't quite decide on what she wanted to do.
At first, she wanted to make a collage card like this one. Then she thought about trying this on our hair. But then she finally settled on this super fun and super easy activity: Single Serving Pie-in-a-Jar.
I heart pie!
First of all, get together with your friends and have treats.
Fruit and lemon bars! Delish!
Then you start prepping your fruit. We made an apple pie filling and a raspberry filling. Someone can start working on a pie crust too.
The Smiling P's--mom and daughter!
Someone else can start working on a crumble topping if that's what you want.
You need half pint mason jars--push your pie crust onto the bottom and sides of your jar.
Getting the jars ready
Put in your fillings.
Spoon in your topping
And top off with your crumble or a lattice work--whatever floats your boat!
Then cut out a cute square of fabric, place it over your top and twist your rings on. I love all the fabric choices we had.
Cutify your jars!
According to Our Best Bites, these can be kept in the freezer till they're ready to be baked up and eaten. These would be a fun gift for neighbors or friends.
It was the perfect activity--we were busy doing different things, but it was easy to sit and talk and catch up with each other.
Thanks to Melonade for hosting and to my crafty friends for a great night out!
She mentioned to me a few weeks before that she was thinking about bringing in a cake from Tulie for her turn of PW; apparently, it's more cost effective to get an entire cake than several slices.
She mentioned to me the following week that she was thinking about bringing in the Orange Poppy Seed Cake from Tulie. My fingers were crossed.
She mentioned to me the week before that she had changed her mind about bringing in the Orange Poppy Seed Cake. I was devastated. She and her husband ended up bringing it to a party and loved it naturally. It's understandable--she had already tried it and wanted to try something new for PW.
She brought this beauty instead--Le Bete Noire.
If you know French, you'll know that it means "The Black Beast".
The Black Beast!
Le Bete Noire is a flourless chocolate cake. I was impressed at this beautiful fruit display!
This particular cake from Tulie is dense and rich and chocolate all the way. And I was seriously impressed that they were able to make the cake "light enough" to stack two-layers! I have only seen other bakeries make it in a single layer because of it's weight and density.
Adnohr trying not to make a mess
It was difficult cutting also--the fudge-y goodness got everywhere!
We still got a mess with bits of chocolate fudge everywhere.
The cake is topped by a bittersweet ganache--it was creamy and thick, but once again, not too sweet. We each had a piece of this decadent cake and most of us were able to eat it pretty easily because it wasn't tooth-achingly sugary.
It was heavenly, in fact.
Look how dense that is!
Colonel Mustard, the chocolate afficianado of PW, was quite pleased he got one of the big pieces and loved the taste and how much chocolate was in this cake. He reiterated that it wasn't too over the top sweet and nicely featured the chocolate.
That is a HUGE piece of cake!
I say that if you are ever having a chocolate craving, this cake is your man.
But calling it The Black Beast...? I wouldn't say that it deserves the name beast.
Maybe we can change it to The Black Beauty! I vote yes!
Tulie Bakery 863 East 700 South Salt Lake City, UT
And thanks to the ladies, Joy and Tracy, at the Joy the Baker podcast, I was reminded that I gotta get going on my list of things I want to do this summer or it's going to be gone before I know it!
So here's my List for a Summer of Progress and Fun! (Yes, both Lee and I want to do loads of fun things AND get some stuff done on our to-do list while we have lots of daylight!)
1) Garden: Specifically, not kill my garden and actually work on it so that it's pretty and does well throughout the summer and fall. Yes, I have killed my garden every July the last few years.
Early summer garden--I've got a lot of hope!
2) Watch a cool show: Road trip to Las Vegas to watch a Cirque du Soleil show with Lee. They really know how to do it there! We're leaning toward The Beatles Love show. Plus, it will be a nice, quick getaway.
3) Finish up a project: Lee wants to reupholster these two chairs we picked up along the way that have been an eyesore in our living room. They've been waiting for our attention.
Not cute now, but will be after this summer!
4) Visit family: Go visit my sister and her family before they move to Iowa. Iowa is so far away from Utah. Boo!
5) Style our home: Finally decorate our entertainment room and bedroom. We've lived in our place for over 3 years now and we may or may not have all our photos and pictures still propped up against our wall, not on it.
Why yes, that is an eye, a heart, and a ewe on that letterpress card.
6) Rough it: Go camping with Lee. It's been a while since we've been able to get away and be at one with nature.
7) Learn a new cooking skill: Learn how to to make homemade gyoza skins. Yeah, this Asian is finally going to learn how to roll it out!
Hoping to get more Asian points this summer
8) Make a useful space: Re-do our office/workroom. It's a catchall room and is totally not functional. We want to make it into a place where we can hang out and relax, but also get some projects done.
9) Party!: Host our 9th Annual Cheese and Italian Soda Party (read about our past parties here and here). It's our 9th year! I think our theme this year will be "Dressed to the Nines" and we'll require that everyone be dressed up fancy pants!
Part of the spread of cheese at the 8th Annual Cheese Party
10) Get organized: Purge and organize our storage shed. I think this will make me happy. Lee is cringing a little about this one, but it will be good.
11) Get out and bike: Specifically, ride our bikes around Bear Lake. It's a 50 mile ride, and Lee did it as a boy scout for a merit badge when he was a kid. I think it will be fun to do on good bikes.
I like to ride bicycle, I like to ride my bike!
12) Get a goal: Sign up for the Dirty Dash and train for it. It's not till September, but I want to fit some running in this summer!
13) Play a tune: Get my clarinet tuned up and practice it once a week. I love playing and it's been a while.
I love my clarinet!
14) Be with family: Have a couple of summer dinner parties with my siblings and Lee's side of the family. We all get busy, so we're trying to make a point to spend time with them all at some point in time.
15) Read books: Read these books specifically. Some I've read before and want to re-read. Others, I've had on my list for a while.
My summer reading list
15) Learn something new: Take a couple of fun classes like cooking or gardening classes. I already crossed off one gardening class--Growing Gourmet Mushrooms. I'll be writing a little bit more about this later. Here's my inoculated shitake mushroom log! How exciting!
Our pet shitake log
16) Relax: Lastly, relax and enjoy this summer. I always feel obligated to go to everything that we're invited to and I end up feeling like I don't have a minute to myself. This year, I hope I won't feel so stressed and we can enjoy ourselves.
Lee is taking a Herb Horticulture class this semester.
(Herb Horticulture--say that 5 times fast!)
At the Salt Lake Community College Miller Campus, there is a half acre plot of land that they use for this class. The members of the class prepare the soil, and plant, cultivate, and harvest the herbs.
How cool is that? It's cool, I say.
Lee does have homework for this class though.
He brought home this little guy the other day.
Lee's starter basil plant
Sweet, sweet basil! It smells divine!
Anyway, his homework with this basil plant is to 1) not kill it, 2) help it flourish, and 3) at the end of the semester, make a dish featuring the herb.
Planting materials
Items 1 and 2 kind of go hand in hand. Lee re-potted his herbie last night.
Adding rocks to the bottom of the pot
He learned a few things about the proper care of basil plants that he shared with me.
First, the soil must be well-drained and allowed to dry out between each watering. That is probably why my previous basil plants have all suffered an untimely death at my hands.
Next the soil
Second, in order to keep it happy between watering, the professor recommended to Lee that he should spritz the leaves of the basil plant every day with a spray bottle.
Removing the temp pot
Third, basil likes warmer temperatures and needs about 6 hours of sunlight during the day.
Digging a hole for the basil
Lastly, if you want to encourage growth, pinch off the center leaves before it flowers.
Smoothing down the soil
Easy peasy! (By the way, I took Lee's notes and planted my own basil plants: an Italian Basil, Sweet Basil, and a Globe Basil. They have been doing smashingly!)
My herbie pots. The basil plants are in the left container.
Lee told me that someone asked in the class, "What if I kill my plant?"
The professor told him that he'd have to buy a new seedling on his own and start over if he had "killed it early enough". If it died too close to the potluck, he'd have to find the whole, mature herb somewhere.
New home!
The cool thing about this class is the potluck--each person must bring a dish that features his/her herb they have been growing all summer and they get graded on the dish!
The professor warned them that they better get creative with their dishes and told a story about a student who received a basil plant and only made an unimaginative pesto with it.
Naturally, Lee has been thinking about how he can incorporate the basil into his final dish creatively. He could make my Lemon Basil Layer Cake, but I think the basil takes a back seat to the lemon cream. He mentioned a basil-stuffed chicken breast, which sounded yummy. He also tossed around the idea of making a basil gelato! Oooh! That would be fancy!
Does anyone have any fun ideas for Lee to do with his basil?
