Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas

I got home from church today and was really feeling like eating a burrito was what needed to happen. Unfortunately, we didn't have any tortillas! As Evan and I sat there discussing what we were going to eat, I just couldn't get over wanting a big, fat bean burrito. Then, the thought came to me... didn't Evan get a grain mill this week? Can't we make our OWN flour and therefore our OWN whole wheat tortillas?! Genius.

So, we made them with wheat we ground ourselves. I think that makes us hard core or at least on our way to hard core. I've only had a few bites of the tortillas, but they tasted pretty good and will taste even better all filled up! I found the recipe here. This was the easiest one that required the least amount of time. This blog actually looks delightful! Here is the recipe according to how I did it:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 olive oil
1 cup warm water

Mix first 3 ingredients. Slowly mix in water as you stir. Make dough into a roll. Divide the roll into 12 equal pieces. Roll out 12 dough balls. Flatten slightly and let sit for 15 minutes covered with plastic wrap. Flatten out each ball. Heat cast iron skillet to medium (we ended up using 4 because medium-high as suggested just burned for us) and use a paper towel to spread avocado oil onto the skillet. Cook on one side until it seems dried out. Turn over and cook briefly on the second side. Makes 12 tortillas.

We used this beautiful little bowl from Poland for avocado oil. The blog above suggested using avocado oil to cook with instead of olive oil, because avocado oil doesn't break down like olive oil does. Love this little bowl from Poland! I bought 4 of them last summer as little dessert bowls. I eat yogurt with them all the time. It's the little things that makes me happy! :)

 

The cooking tortillas!

I thought this HUGE bubble was hilarious.

Evan popped it and so much steam came out...

These pictures are making me hungry and my burrito is done! Happy Sabbath Day to all! And Guten Appetit to Evan and I :)

Thinking about Thankful

Usually I don't drink hot chocolate, but sometimes on a cold day in November, hot chocolate becomes the right thing to do. Love this picture I found when I searched for "heisse Schokolade" (German for hot chocolate)>

via here

Tonight, I am alone. Evan is working from 2-10pm. I have some time to do laundry, clean, organize, and think. I've enjoyed the past few hours I've been able to spend going through saved tutorials, finding treasures and gaining ideas of what I can make for family for Christmas. You see, I'm one of those crazy people who decided last year (and is sticking with it these year) to hand make every Christmas gift (Evan and) I give. It is a lofty goal. It means trying to be more meaningful about the gifts I choose to give. It also means preparing at least a month in advance so I have enough time to finish everything! Last year, I LOVED hand-making the gifts I gave. I hope the recipients of the gifts similarly enjoyed them. If you want to see some of the gifts I made, revisit this post.

Besides gifts for family to celebrate our dear Savior's birth, life, and atonement, I am also thinking about gratitude. This week I can't help but be grateful for Evan. He is such a wonderful husband to me! He serves me without asking for anything in return. This week alone, he cooked many meals for me, he grocery-shopped for me, he dealt with my emotional state and just laughed and kissed me instead of taking offense. He drove twice over an hour out of his way to pick up 5 cases of advent calendars for my students and bring them to me. He does so much to serve me and doesn't complain about all that he does to help me in my busy life. He jokingly says his motto is, "Happy wife, happy life." While that may or may not be true, I believe his deeper motivation is that he loves me. He wants to do what he can to help me amid my stresses and trials. I am so grateful for a husband who is my best friend, who is so willing to help uplift and strengthen me. I'm grateful for a man who goes to the temple with me as often as possible. I'm grateful for a righteous priesthood holder who is able to give me priesthood blessings during my struggles. I love this man and thank God daily for the opportunity and blessing it is to be his wife.

Evan's Text

Evan was trying to get me to come home instead of staying at work late. This text is how he enticed me: "This is waiting for you at home. No tomato sause, but lots of burnt cheese! Not to mention my hot body." I love me some burnt cheese! His hot body doesn't hurt either.

Phlebotomy

I had some blood work done today. I normally am okay when getting blood work done (I just can't look at the needle), but have had some crazy phlebotomists in the past who have left severe bruising and pain.

Today, the phlebotomist walked in and she was wearing a "student in training" shirt. Immediately, I thought, "It's a bad sign when your phlebotomist is wearing a student in training shirt!" I do have a bruise and the needle did hurt. I feel like she tore my vein. Oh blood work!

Graysen's Birthday

Nearly every Sunday, we have a family dinner at Evan's parents. Because there are so many people in the family, it seems about once a month, we are celebrating someone's birthday! Our nephew, Xander, told a family friend one time who came to Sunday dinner, "Thanks for coming to my pretty cool party." When he was little, he thought all of these people were coming to his "pretty cool party" because we almost always have dessert and so often we are singing "Happy Birthday!" to someone.

Well, today was a "pretty cool party" for Graysen (pictured above). He turned 4 this week! He and his brothers are 3 of the most adorable little boys in the world. And, their mom had a baby girl in July so now they have 3 adorable little boys and 1 little princess. I didn't think it could get cuter until she was born. WOW, she is adorable! Evan keeps talking about if we have a girl someday that he hopes she so cute. We love being an aunt and uncle to all of our nieces and nephews!

Here are some fun pictures. Holly, Evan's sister, made the most adorable cupcakes for the kids. I haven't seen the movie, but I guess they're "minions." They were adorable and the kids loved them!

 Evan snuck this picture in there. I brought our computer with me because we got there early and I wanted to blog. He snapped this while I was blogging.

The token pinata for a Peck birthday... this one was a pirate ship! WARNING: We had a nephew (not pictured) who participated at the last birthday party and ended up bashing in his family's TV because he thought candy would come out of it. Although Evan's brother was happy to get a brand new TV, don't say I didn't warn you.

Look at this little cutie! She isn't quite one, but she wanted to participate too! Look at how happy that makes her. :)

Eventually, Evan got a knife and started cutting into the ship so it would break open. Holly had already drilled holes into it, but I swear these pinatas are reinforced! It broke up finally and the kids enjoyed the candy!

Lieblingsperson & 11.11.11

This is my Oma. She is pretty much the best person I've ever known. I love her so much. To say that I am grateful for her in my life is an understatement. Looking at this picture makes me want to cry. She is the most beautiful person in the world to me. She loves unconditionally, she serves without asking for anything in return. She has such great faith and is so talented at anything she tries. She is so logical about everything and seems to always make me feel better about the things that are going on in my life.

Because my parents died when I was a child, my Oma has been there for me through everything. I know that she will never stop loving me. I am so grateful for her kindness, her example, her beauty. I hope someday I can be a quarter of the person that she is! I love her so much!

Oma was born on 11/11/1919 and today she turned 92 on 11/11/11. We had a family dinner and get-together in the evening, but we started the celebrations by taking her to the most beautiful little tea and brunch house called "The Secret Garden." The restaurant is in a house that is over a hundred years old and has such character! The food is divine and the presentation is amazing.

Pumpkin Soup... Delicious!

 Love the label on the personal tea pot!

They brought Oma her own cake!

The group (my sister, Oma, niece, me)

Views of the house:

Loved this staircase!

New Hair

I am nearly 30 years old and, before today, I had never before dyed my hair! I found my first gray hair when I was in my early teens and the gray hair count has ONLY gone up since then! I have a relatively "young" face, but with all of the gray hair, I felt like I was aging fast.

On Tuesday, my coworker told me she was going to get her hair done. All of a sudden, I decided to tag along to get my hair done too! The lady mixed red and dark brown, slathered it on my hair, washed, dried, and straightened.... and we ended up with this:

NO MORE GRAYS!

Evan was so shocked when I got home and my hair was straight AND red-brown. I've since received many compliments about said hair color. I need to buy a new straightener (minimum $130 for one that will work well on my hair) so no more straight for a while!

I'm not sure how the grow out is going to work (one of the reasons I didn't color it before... on top of HOW EXPENSIVE it is). ANY IDEAS about how to deal with grow out? HELP!

Evan's interpretation of my hair:

Homemade Currywurst

I tried out for a play tonight before realizing I wasn't able to do it. For this reason, I got home super late and super hungry. Tired and hungry don't mix because then it's hard to actually want to cook anything!
Evan got asparagus so I cooked that up and then remembered the leftover sausage from Oktoberfest sitting in my freezer! I sauted it on up and ate it with ketchup mixed with a little curry powder. Delightful! People who have been to Berlin or eaten Currywurst will appreciate this homemade variety!

Wedding, Baptism, Baby Blessing

This weekend, we had a family celebration EXTRAVAGANZA! First, some of our good friends got married in the temple. Evan and I had the opportunity to be at the first live sealing since our own. What a wonderful blessing it was to be a part of that!

After the sealing, we drove to my brother's wedding. It was neat to see him and his wife, Elspeth, so happy! (Pictured above)

The next morning, we all got up to go to my niece's baptism and my nephew's baby blessing. It was so cool to be there for both of those things. I was the first family member at the baptism. When my little Annie saw me, she ran down the aisle at church yelling, "SARSIE!" and gave me a big hug. It made me want to cry seeing her all dressed in white and ready to get baptized. I'm so proud of her and her commitment to be a better person. She is awesome.

My little nephew Benjamin's baby blessing was also so neat to be a part of! I'm so glad that my sister and her husband made the decision to travel up to Washington for the blessing rather than do the blessing in Utah. Love that little guy!

Here is our first family picture with all four siblings and their kids after the wedding and baptism! So neat to have all of us together for the first time! 

92 and going strong

My Oma is awesome. Her 92nd birthday is on Friday and she's still alive and kicking! Because my mom died, Oma has been not only a grandmother, but a mother, and a wonderful example and friend to me. Love her positivity, strength through hard times, how intelligent she is and how logical she is.
This picture was taken tonight at her house. We all were gathering for a final time before my sister and her family head back to Utah. My Oma decided the cuckoo clock needed to be changed because of daylight savings time and she instantly climbed up on her own to do it. Love that lady!

Hobbit Thanksgiving

As mentioned yesterday, today was the day of my niece's baptism and my nephew's baby blessing. Needless to say, the day was awesome AND I ate a lot of food. In fact, I pretty much felt like I was consistenly grazing in between meals for a good nine hours of the day. The food was delicious, especially a glorious pumpkin cheesecake leftover from my brother's wedding last night.

Pretty much I feel like today was a holiday because the whole family was together and we all ate a lot. Okay, so we had Thanksgiving two weeks early. I'd like to think we were just stretching out our stomachs ahead of time so that by the time Turkey Day comes around, we can really pack it in. Food is an important part of our family. We'd die without it. Maybe we're all just hobbits and we have Thanksgiving and second Thanksgiving. You all know I'm short enough to be a hobbit. Too bad I don't have the hairy feet to prove it.

I've digressed to talking about hobbits. It must be time for bed!

2 Weddings

The two weddings were a success today... and I gained a new sister to boot! So happy for my friends and family. Also grateful for a day away from work responsibilities! Tomorrow my niece is getting baptized and my nephew is getting blessed. Busy weekend for family. Pictures to come...

NaBloPoMo & Life

I think you all know, but October was one of the most busy, stressful months of my life. I'm slowly easing back into society. I started out with a rockin' Halloween party in our ward where I copmpeted in my first (not last!) pie eating contest. Thinking about practicing slurping up vanilla pudding before I try again.

Tuesday, I visited my Oma who is almost 92 and still ticking. Wednesday, parent meeting, dinner with my work friend, and a presidency meeting. Today ended with a dinner with friends to celebrate our friends' wedding tomorrow. Because our friends have a wedding and my brother is getting married, no school tomorrow! For some odd reason, I am wilingly choosing to go out to breakfast with friends at 6am.

Hm... maybe this whole life slowing down after October dream isn't going to happen. Well, here's to a busy weekend with family and friends!

P.S. I'm participating in NaBloPoMo, which is why all the November posts!

Student Gift

I have so many talented students! One of my students is in a floral design class and made me this pumpkin arrangement. She gave it to me last week on the day of Oktoberfest when I was super stressed. It made my day. I'm so grateful for thoughtful students!

P.S. Sorry for the poor picture quality! It was taken from my phone.

Oddly Busy October

Honestly, October 2011 was one of the busiest months in my nearly 30 years! I'm so glad I survived. There are a lot of things I gave to make Oktober successful for my students and myself. Most importantly- sleep! I also inadvertently gave up exercise, reading for pleasure, blogging, etc. due to time constraints.

I'm happy to say, however, that I left school before dark today and even ended up getting a twenty minute walk in when I was at my Oma's house! Nice. More to come and I'll even include pictures.