[1783] Sunday Evening
I have just discovered that it is possible to take photos with my Macbook's Facetime HD camera. It is entirely likely that I will now use this power for great evil.
It's been a good weekend! Yesterday was a lot of fun. I arrived at Rosalind and Chris's place in Provo about 1 p.m. and we hung out for half an hour or so before Sgt. Hill ("Josh") arrived. The day was cold and rainy but we ended up having a lot of fun with our Chopped Cooking Contest...even if the results weren't always edible.
We decided to have each person buy 2 copies of 1 item. Rosalind got cranberries, I got goat brie (...it looked weird and interesting!), Josh got cream cheese, and Chris got the nastiest cheap frozen chicken nuggets he could find. Once we met at the front of the store to show off our items, we then got 10 minutes in teams to decide on what we were going to cook and to buy any additional items we needed.
Rosalind and I decided on baked brie wrapped in crescent roll dough, with a cranberry compote baked over the brie, and on a stir-fry with chow mein noodles and sliced chicken nuggets. The brie turned out to be very strongly flavored, so we sliced it in half and added cream cheese between the layers, in hopes of taming it. I made the cranberry compote with half a bag of cranberries, the zest of two clementines, a chunk of brown sugar, and a little water. We then wrapped it in the dough from 1 can of crescent rolls. It actually turned out pretty well; by the end of the day, we'd eaten about 1/3 to 1/2 of the dish. But the brie was expensive and not as good as cow's milk brie; I think I'd repeat the idea but not the execution.
The stir-fry might have been okay if we'd had fresh vegetables instead of frozen, if we'd had a good sauce instead of improvising soy sauce + Trader Joe's sweet chili dipping sauce, and if we'd had actual chicken instead of grey...disgustingness. The boys both finished their (tiny) servings, and Chris went back for more, but Rosalind and I had only a few bites each. At least the noodles were good!
Chris and Josh did a "shepherd's pie" where they made mashed potatoes with goat brie (which was actually surprisingly good!) and then ruined everything by adding raspberry chipotle sauce to the mashed potatoes and then layering them in a pan with chicken nuggets and adding cheese on top, before briefly baking it again. No one ate more than a testing bite, although I did catch Chris later plucking the nuggets out of the mess and eating them while he tipped the rest into the trash.
Their final dish, however, was really tasty. They made a cranberry cream cheese frosting and then fried rounds of Pillsbury biscuit dough into donuts, which they spread with the frosting. These were delicious. Everyone ate at least one (and Rosalind later ate a spoonful of frosting just by itself). It's a definitely an idea worth repeating, perhaps with actual donut dough...
So basically we had brie-baked-in-crescent-rolls and donuts for lunch. And we all felt terrible afterwards, but Chris did ALL the dishes while Rosalind and Josh and I worked on the chair she's upholstering. We got the left side (under the arm) completely done. It's surprisingly difficult, but she's doing a fantastic job; the chair looks amazing already. I'm so proud of her for tackling this huge project and doing so well!
We played a round of Munchkin afterwards, which I totally would have won if Chris hadn't gotten everyone to gang up on me, and then Elise and Paxton came over and Josh left. We went to Asian Fusion Grill for dinner, where I continued to defy my eating plan by ordering stone bowl bibimbop (but not finishing it). Everyone else got bulgogi, except for Chris, who had a fried egg. He said he was full from lunch. On further thought, I wonder if the chicken nuggets weren't to blame...
Dinner was really great. We had a wonderful time talking and laughing and teasing each other, along with a perhaps 30-minute discussion of our Book of Mormon heroes. Afterwards we went to The Riverwoods to see the lights and browse the shops, and then we parted ways and I headed home.
Today Hazel woke me up at 6:00, but I alternately drowsed and petted him until 8, when I got up to start working on my Sunday School lesson. I also spent an hour reading this fantastic article by Edward Kimball on President Spencer W. Kimball and the 1978 revelation that extended the priesthood to all worthy male members of the LDS church. If you've ever wondered about the historic Mormon prohibition on black men receiving the priesthood, please read this article.
Mom told me a really interesting story about it this weekend. When her father, my Papa, was investigating the church in the early 1970s, he wanted to believe but felt he couldn't join a church that prohibited blacks from receiving the priesthood or participating in temple ordinances. He prayed and received a direct revelation that the priesthood would be extended to black men in his lifetime. Acting on that revelation, he joined the church. Only a few years later, on June 8, 1978, the First Presidency of the Church announced the revelation now canonized as Official Declaration 2.
I talked a little bit more about the article with Mom and Dad when they Facetimed me this afternoon. Technology is so incredible! I downloaded a clip with Elder L. Tom Perry on missionary work this morning and took my computer to play it in Sunday School. Only a few years ago we would've been hauling in giant TVs on carts and playing a videotape from the limited resources of the church library (the manual I'm teaching from still recommends which video to play).
And on a tangential note, I'm fascinated with these colorized historical photos. The world's an amazing place, with amazing people in it.
Heading back to church tonight for tithing settlement. I paid this month's tithing this morning, with an additional donation to the humanitarian fund. The Philippines are still suffering so badly from the effects of Super Typhoon Haiyan. I've already donated to the Philippines Red Cross; I hope governments and charitable organizations will work together to swiftly bring the relief that these devastated people need.
It's been a good weekend! Yesterday was a lot of fun. I arrived at Rosalind and Chris's place in Provo about 1 p.m. and we hung out for half an hour or so before Sgt. Hill ("Josh") arrived. The day was cold and rainy but we ended up having a lot of fun with our Chopped Cooking Contest...even if the results weren't always edible.
We decided to have each person buy 2 copies of 1 item. Rosalind got cranberries, I got goat brie (...it looked weird and interesting!), Josh got cream cheese, and Chris got the nastiest cheap frozen chicken nuggets he could find. Once we met at the front of the store to show off our items, we then got 10 minutes in teams to decide on what we were going to cook and to buy any additional items we needed.
Rosalind and I decided on baked brie wrapped in crescent roll dough, with a cranberry compote baked over the brie, and on a stir-fry with chow mein noodles and sliced chicken nuggets. The brie turned out to be very strongly flavored, so we sliced it in half and added cream cheese between the layers, in hopes of taming it. I made the cranberry compote with half a bag of cranberries, the zest of two clementines, a chunk of brown sugar, and a little water. We then wrapped it in the dough from 1 can of crescent rolls. It actually turned out pretty well; by the end of the day, we'd eaten about 1/3 to 1/2 of the dish. But the brie was expensive and not as good as cow's milk brie; I think I'd repeat the idea but not the execution.
The stir-fry might have been okay if we'd had fresh vegetables instead of frozen, if we'd had a good sauce instead of improvising soy sauce + Trader Joe's sweet chili dipping sauce, and if we'd had actual chicken instead of grey...disgustingness. The boys both finished their (tiny) servings, and Chris went back for more, but Rosalind and I had only a few bites each. At least the noodles were good!
Chris and Josh did a "shepherd's pie" where they made mashed potatoes with goat brie (which was actually surprisingly good!) and then ruined everything by adding raspberry chipotle sauce to the mashed potatoes and then layering them in a pan with chicken nuggets and adding cheese on top, before briefly baking it again. No one ate more than a testing bite, although I did catch Chris later plucking the nuggets out of the mess and eating them while he tipped the rest into the trash.
Their final dish, however, was really tasty. They made a cranberry cream cheese frosting and then fried rounds of Pillsbury biscuit dough into donuts, which they spread with the frosting. These were delicious. Everyone ate at least one (and Rosalind later ate a spoonful of frosting just by itself). It's a definitely an idea worth repeating, perhaps with actual donut dough...
So basically we had brie-baked-in-crescent-rolls and donuts for lunch. And we all felt terrible afterwards, but Chris did ALL the dishes while Rosalind and Josh and I worked on the chair she's upholstering. We got the left side (under the arm) completely done. It's surprisingly difficult, but she's doing a fantastic job; the chair looks amazing already. I'm so proud of her for tackling this huge project and doing so well!
We played a round of Munchkin afterwards, which I totally would have won if Chris hadn't gotten everyone to gang up on me, and then Elise and Paxton came over and Josh left. We went to Asian Fusion Grill for dinner, where I continued to defy my eating plan by ordering stone bowl bibimbop (but not finishing it). Everyone else got bulgogi, except for Chris, who had a fried egg. He said he was full from lunch. On further thought, I wonder if the chicken nuggets weren't to blame...
Dinner was really great. We had a wonderful time talking and laughing and teasing each other, along with a perhaps 30-minute discussion of our Book of Mormon heroes. Afterwards we went to The Riverwoods to see the lights and browse the shops, and then we parted ways and I headed home.
Today Hazel woke me up at 6:00, but I alternately drowsed and petted him until 8, when I got up to start working on my Sunday School lesson. I also spent an hour reading this fantastic article by Edward Kimball on President Spencer W. Kimball and the 1978 revelation that extended the priesthood to all worthy male members of the LDS church. If you've ever wondered about the historic Mormon prohibition on black men receiving the priesthood, please read this article.
Mom told me a really interesting story about it this weekend. When her father, my Papa, was investigating the church in the early 1970s, he wanted to believe but felt he couldn't join a church that prohibited blacks from receiving the priesthood or participating in temple ordinances. He prayed and received a direct revelation that the priesthood would be extended to black men in his lifetime. Acting on that revelation, he joined the church. Only a few years later, on June 8, 1978, the First Presidency of the Church announced the revelation now canonized as Official Declaration 2.
I talked a little bit more about the article with Mom and Dad when they Facetimed me this afternoon. Technology is so incredible! I downloaded a clip with Elder L. Tom Perry on missionary work this morning and took my computer to play it in Sunday School. Only a few years ago we would've been hauling in giant TVs on carts and playing a videotape from the limited resources of the church library (the manual I'm teaching from still recommends which video to play).
And on a tangential note, I'm fascinated with these colorized historical photos. The world's an amazing place, with amazing people in it.
Heading back to church tonight for tithing settlement. I paid this month's tithing this morning, with an additional donation to the humanitarian fund. The Philippines are still suffering so badly from the effects of Super Typhoon Haiyan. I've already donated to the Philippines Red Cross; I hope governments and charitable organizations will work together to swiftly bring the relief that these devastated people need.