Provolone Chicken

New recipe!

For Christmas, my friend, Jenifer and her sister, Heidi, bought me a cookbook. This cookbook is very special. Heidi lives near Port Angeles, Washington, and bought me a cookbook from the bookstore that Bella Swan tried to find while visiting there with her friends in the book, Twilight.

But besides that, there are some GREAT recipes. And I had to share my new favorite dish with everyone. It's called Provolone Chicken. I'll put the recipe down and then explain some changes I had to make:

6 to 8 chicken breast halves, skinned and boned
6 to 8 slices Provolone cheese (1 slice per piece of chicken)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/3 c. milk
1 (4 oz.) can chopped green chilies
2 c. Pepperidge Farm cornbread dressing mix
1/2 c. melted butter

Lightly butter 9x13 inch casserole dish. Place chicken in pan. Top each with piece of cheese. In bow, stir together soup, milk and chilies, and spoon over cheese. In separate bowl, mix butter and dressing. Sprinkle over soup mixture. Bake, uncovered for 50 to 60 minutes in 350˚ oven.

So, first off, I left out the chilies. I had some in my cupboard, I just didn't want to use them. And then I had no success in finding the cornbread dressing mix so I used a dry Ranch dressing package and a Zesty Italian Dressing package. And let me tell you--it was SOOO good.

Explanation

You may be wondering why the picture at the top of this blog was recently changed... from a pretty picture of a tulip to this loud obnoxious picture of a birthday cake that says "Happy Birthday".

When January comes around, I always think of it as birthday month. Not only because my birthday occurs during this month, but also because four of my brothers have their birthdays during this month. My mom always talks about how it's so hard to get birthday presents off to each of the five of us. I bless her for even remembering!¹

As I've already neglected to highlight two of my brothers for their birthdays (Nathan on the 14th and Kevin on the 21st), I'll just leave the birthday banner up through the rest of the month. That should cover Eric and Brian, right?

To my brothers: I hope you have a very Happy Birthday. And...uh...sorry if my cards are late getting to you. It's been quite the month!

¹Seriously though. She forgot to write me 4 times on my mission. 4 weeks I went without e-mails. And it happened in a row! What mother forgets to write her daughter on a mission? So if she remembers my birthday, I'm always grateful.

Grand Junction, CO

One of the best things about being single is that you are free to take a trip whenever it pleases you. I discovered this during the weekend, when I took my first official solo road trip. Some things I also learned:

1. While the scenery may look like mountains of sand in the dark, on the way back during the day you discover it was actually a lot of snow.
2. It's so much fun to belt out songs from Wicked without bothering anyone.
3. Audiobooks are your friends.
4. It is so nice to arrive to a house (or apartment) where people actually expect you.
5. There is nothing to the east of Spanish Fork. The Mormons colonized Salt Lake valley and Utah valley, and while people think they may have gone east...I saw about 3 towns in that four hour stretch.
6. Semi trucks suck.
7. 75 mph speed limit is the best.
8. Ironman is such a good movie.
9. Even though the wait time at Olive Garden is said to be 35-40 minutes, wait five minutes--because by then it should back down to 20-25, and then five minutes later you're back up to 35-40.
10. There's nothing like waking up to this in the morning:
11. Friends are the best thing ever

Thank you again, Derry and Nate, for letting me stay for the weekend. It was one of the best weekends yet. I definitely owe you!

The question is now: Where do I go for another vacation?

Note: I know some of you have been concerned for the ankle. Have no fear. Grand Junction (or Zach aka the little guy whose picture is prominently posted above) seemed to have magically healed it. It is now the normal size and I can walk on it without being annoyed or whatever. So yeah!

Friends, Brunches, and Possible Sprained Ankles...

So, on Saturday the gang got back together. And when I say "the gang" I mean my friends: Becky, Meagan, and Marianne. As pictured here, with myself, on Saturday:Becky, Meagan and Marianne were the interns last semester at the Church Magazines and we became friends. We go to institute together and we had lunch together--and to be honest, I'm a little lost these days without them. It's been a long time since I've had single female friends to surround myself with--and these three are the greatest.
I so should've edited myself out of that picture... but I didn't. And I look horrible. My apologies. Anyways, that face full of sunshine is Marianne.

So, on Saturday they came over to my house and we had brunch. I tried a new recipe: Overnight caramel French Toast. I'll post the recipe at the end of this posting. But unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the food. But it was delicious. And so much fun to be around these girls.

In other news, on Friday as I was running to catch my train to get back home, I tripped over myself and fell on my left ankle. It hurt pretty bad, but since I was on Temple Square and right next to the window of President Monson's office, I refrained from using the swear words that I would have shouted out in my pain. No one would've blamed me, I'm sure. Well, after a few minutes, the pain subsided and I went home.

Saturday, I woke up and my ankle was still pretty tender, but I figured it was like the other twisted ankles I've had before--just work through the pain and it will be better. While there was some pain--I became numbed to it and completed my exercise. However, as Saturday progressed, the ankle still gave me trouble until that night when I was getting ready to go to Stake Conference when I noticed that my ankle looked like this:

Instead of this (this is my right ankle--the way an ankle should look):Yes. The left one's bruised... notice the discoloring. So after Stake Conference today, I've been icing it and keeping it elevated. I'm going to have to figure something out for work. It doesn't hurt to stand on it--it just is uncomfortable because... well, It's swollen and I pretty much don't have an ankle. Hopefully it gets better soon. I don't want crutches. That would just be embarrassing.

I'll keep you posted.

Overnight Caramel French Toast¹


1 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. margarine
2 Tbsp. light syrup
12 slices bread
1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
6 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring to a boil the brown sugar, margarine and syrup; stir constantly. Remove from heat and pour into a greased 9x13 inch pan.
Top with 6 slices of bread. Combine sugar and cinnamon and put half over the bread. Place the remaining bread over. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon and sugar over bread and set aside.
In a bowl, beat eggs, milk, vanilla, and a dash or more of cinnamon. Pour over bread. Refrigerate overnight. Take out 30 minutes before baking. Bake uncovered for 30 to 35 minutes at 350˚.


¹Definitely should not be eaten if you are on a diet.

What's in a name?

Have you ever wondered what your name meant? You can go to this website and find out. Here's what came up for my name:

Your First Name of: Laurel

• Your name of Laurel contains many fine qualities: musical and artistic ability, good business judgment, and a sense of responsibility for the welfare of others.
  
• This makes you warm-hearted and understanding in your response to the needs and interests of those around you.
  
• You are always ready to help those in less fortunate circumstances.
  
• Your insistence on becoming involved in the affairs of others can cause them to regard you as interfering, even though you are only trying to help.
  
• A weakness lies in the fact that you are deeply affected through your feeling for others and could suffer through worry and disturbed thoughts over matters that you can do nothing about.
• Although the name Laurel creates idealism and the urge to help others, we emphasize that it causes a superior, interfering expression whose favorite expression is "I know." This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the nervous system, worry, and mental tension.

Just something I found to pass away the time.

Sadly...

I have to take down the list of books read this year because... well, it's a new year. So, I'm going to list them right here!

Books I read during 2008:

• Ender's Game
  
• A Thousand Splendid Suns
• The Thirteenth Tale
• Life of Pi
• River Secrets
• The Christmas Sweater
• City of Ashes
• City of Bones
• Specials
• Rapunzel's Revenge
• Pretties
• Uglies
• Ballet Shoes
• Eclipse
• Battle of the Labryinth
• Princeton Review: Cracking the GRE
• Master the GRE 2006
• The Titan's Curse
• New Moon
• The Sea of Monsters
• The Lightning Thief
• Rose in Bloom
• Eight Cousins
• Twilight
• Breaking Dawn
• El Libro de Mormón
• The Phantom Tollbooth
• The Host
• Rebekah
• An Inconvenient Book
• Sense and Sensibility
• Pride and Prejudice

It's been two weeks since you looked at me...

I got back from San Diego yesterday and I've been busy trying to put my house back in order! I left it in such a mess!

Christmas was great this year! Probably the best Christmas I've had in awhile! First, Christmas day seemed to last forever! Eric (my twin brother) and his wife Emily had a flight from New York to arrive around 1 PM or so in San Diego. Mom said we couldn't open presents until they arrived. Unfortunately, they met some pretty nasty head win and were sent to Denver to refuel. We didn't open presents until 5:30 PM. It was such a long day!

The day after Christmas was the shopping expedition with Dawn (my sister), Emily, and Heather (another sister-in-law). I scored some nice shirts for work and Church.¹

On the 29th, the six of us (Jamie, Heather, Eric, Emily, Dawn, and myself) headed to Disneyland. It was perfect! Except for the crowds. We ate at Club 33 and I had a REALLY good lamb chop. Yum!This is Dawn and me!

After that we took in the parks--both California Adventure and Disneyland. The last time I was at Disneyland was in 2000 for a choir competition. I definitely need to go back sometime this year!²
Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that on Saturday, the 27th, Dawn, Jamie, Eric, Emily, Heather, and myself (for only part of the time...I'm sorry that I was being lazy!) helped my Dad clear some brush that has been deemed a fire hazard. It took nearly all day, but a good portion got cleared. Here's a picture of what it looked like before:And I can't find any after pictures. Sorry!

New Years' was spent with trying to help Dawn to figure out my Mac computer to be able to make the Family Year in Review DVD. I decided that I need to take more pictures this year! I always seem to be on the end of 5 pictures instead of 25! So, if you see me with a camera around--I hope that you either ask to take a picture with me, or simply take a picture of me!

I also started a running program, while I was in San Diego. It's called Couch to 5K. I hope that it will help me to 1) lose weight, and 2) to be able to run 3 miles without completely dying. You're supposed to run 3 days a week with different intervals of running/walking according to the week. I did 2 days of week 1, so I decided to start over once I got home. I went running this morning and it felt good! We'll see what I can do!

Well, I hope all of your Christmases were fantastic! I'm sad that I had to leave California, but such is life. Next on my list of things to do is complete my grad school applications!
¹ Even though I make the distinction, I really shouldn't as whatever I wear to Church is acceptable at work and vice versa.
² So that was my not so subtle pleading for someone to go with me! I don't need to take trips by myself! I'm thinking end of April? Labor Day? (well... that one is contingent upon my plans for grad school. It may not be feasible.) Seriously, people! Someone has to want to go with me!