Fall..

Semesters keep marching on.. doing good so far, Simon is doing a tad bit better than me He is on the Deans list. He did not have trouble with a couple of his teachers like I did though. My GPA is still past 3.0 ( 3.38) so I am happy and I am working to get it better and better. Here are a couple nice recipes for Fall. From my very favorite mag Real Simple

Garlicky Mashed Potatoes with thyme.

Ingredients

• 4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes (about 8), peeled and halved
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
• 1 head garlic, halved horizontally
• 12 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• Serves 8

Directions

1. Place the potatoes in a large pot and add cold water to cover. Bring to a boil and add 2 teaspoons salt. Reduce heat and simmer until tender, 16 to 18 minutes. Drain the potatoes and return them to the pot.
2. Meanwhile, place the milk, cream, butter, garlic, and thyme in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Set aside until the potatoes are cooked.
3. Strain the milk mixture into the pot with the potatoes. Add ¾ teaspoon salt and 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper and mash. Sprinkle with the nutmeg before serving.

By Kate Merker, November 2009


Maple Pumpkin pie
1 pie crust
2 large eggs
1 15 oz of pumpkin puree
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup of maple syrup
1/2 tsp of ground cinnimon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 ground cloves

Set oven rack in lowest position, heat oven to 350 degrees
In a large bowl pour mixture into crust, bake 60-70 minutes
Let cool before serving.
Serves 8

In the Fall

Another semester has come and gone, this time it was online, an alright class but nothing I did was really worth posting as it wasn't as nifty as other stuff in the other classes I have had. My parents came back for a little bit, mainly for my Uncle Orlando's funeral, which was a shock to everyone I think. He had his troubles but no one was predicting his passing so soon. I am so proud of his daughter Mckell who has coped so amazingly and keeps carrying on, doing great things. I know her Dad is proud of her, especially now. Simon finally got back into work after a bit of a space of not working, school helped fill the space but church mice we have been for awhile getting the little state help we can plus my parents have been amazing and have sent us bits every week to keep us going. Simon hopes to secure a better job soon as Macdonalds isnt giving him the hours he needs and he has the skills to do more than flip burgers and stuff.
Lets hope that happens soon. He has started working in the temple. something I think which will be good for him. I am pondering wither I should join him, I am not sure. I have been recently diagnosed with asthma after coughing for over 3 months, I am still trying to get it under control.
I will have to take the route one should take when making a decision like that. I plan on going to the temple still, but I am thinking for now, I might like the option to stay home if I would like, largely do to health reasons and I wouldnt want to let anyone down. I havent finalized that decision though. My parents are heading back tmw or Sat. I hope they wont have to be gone so long this time. I hope I am not too unique in saying I like my parents around, and yes sometimes right on top of each other is not so bad sometimes. I have no clue as to how long we get to stay in this place I call home now- it is no secret it will be sold at some point. Where to next and when? I try to to think about it too much as what will be will be alright but it crops up in my mind though all the same. Fall is approaching. officially a little ways off still but its on the horizon, nighttime already getting cooler. I am ready for it- really for the cool- not exactly ready for the cold though.

Another semester gone by

This semester I was given alot more choicei n what work I decided to do- These are my final three projects for one of my classes. Yes I know there are 4 pieces that is because I changed my mind and did two for Movement- one of the elements of design. Another semester ends, I think I did pretty well in these two classes- I would put the work from the other class but is in a different format that this site doesnt seem to like...

My Art

Well I have done 3 design classes now so I thought it would be a good idea to show off some of the things I have done. Click on them if they seem to be cut off and you will see the whole picture.

This is Kevin Whately, he has been in a few things but is most noted for being Inspector Morse's right hand man which then led him to have his own series, Lewis which is the the name of his character. I did this in my Illustrator class as my final project.

This is Wedge and he is my creation and has
been for many years. Years ago, my father had
a hernia and had to sleep on a wedge. I was
about 14 and had never heard of anyone sleeping
on a wedge, and thought it was funny and so I
began drawing wedge as if he were a person often
drawing my Dad in too. My parents love my
Wedge cartoons.











This is my very latest project I didnt take the photos, but I arranged them and the text.
This was done in my Photoshop class.





This is another one of my designs done in Photoshop class I drew the kitty and made it into a brush.

You guessed it..another semester gone by

This semester was not as easy as the last few have been, not so much the assignments but the teacher I had. I had done the first of 2 assignments and posted it on the student network as I have done for everything else, when my teacher came back and said he could see them. OK maybe something was wrong. I changed my browser to Firefox ( on my Mac) and after that I was able to see my work fine. However he could not. back and forth went emails- he always saying it must be my fault, I must be doing something wrong and he wasnt that nice about it. I had to go to the school and have my school counselors intervene I tell you in all my school years I have never had this problem before. Well miraculously he suddenly could see my work and graded it- what I was mainly concerned about. But an apology? I-am-sorry-it-was-my-fault? No, no sign of that. He played it off as if I finally got it right even though I knew I had all along. Next semester we are going back to school, nights. No more with dealing with online teachers. We tried it when we had to fit in with Simon's schedule but we dont have to do that anymore. In other news we have been getting sooooooo much rain. Our crops love it and we are so proud of our little garden.
Simon and I celebrate our birthdays this month. We went to the Oqiuirrh Mountain Temple.which was very nice despite the rain.

New Semester another one gone by

Well another semester has come and gone. I tell you I have never done school so fast. I had Logic and Illustrator this time and I think the grades will be a B + and and A-, the A being in Logic. Pretty happy with that. I learned alot about Illustrator and feel more comfortable with it now, considering I never used it before. Simon did well too I think he scored a couple of A's this semseter in his classes so things are going well in that direction. Our garden is starting to show promise. I am starting to see the things I planted and the tomatoes seem to be doing well also.
Simons plants are just starting to breach the surface. I hope they will do well also. Overall things are going ok. Money is rather tight but I know if we budget and budget well we will be ok.
Simon is going to start his business up again soon and hopefully he can get some added income from that, which would be nice.

Spring!

Its finally spring here! At least all signs seem to point to it. Lovely sunny days we have been having the past few days. Another module at school is coming to end and boy am I glad. OK I am not great at math- really not great. Its never been one of my strong subjects. I just dont "get" it.
But to ad insult to injury we have had a rather unhelpful teacher. Its all online, so I cant really get help - if there has been any I haven't known where to get it. I will be happy if I get a C- good news is next time I dont have to take any math. No more math for me. Yeay! I am getting an A in Marketing though which I am very happy about. The flowers are coming up so nicely in the yard, they are so pretty to see.

Here is a simple recipe for a drink I have come to love. Raspberry Lemonade

Combine 10 lemons
2 cups raspberries
1/1/2 cups of sugar in a large pot
Pound mixture firmly with the end of a rolling pin,extracting as much juice as possible for 10 mins,
stir in 6 cups of water. Pour through a sieve into a large bowl. Press lemons and raspberries till all juice is extracted. Discard all solid material. Serve over ice. Makes 9 cups.