Evan's Pie

Quite a few weeks back, Evan and I went to a picnic to say goodbye to our friends who were leaving because of podiatry school. Evan had been craving pie for the past two weeks, so he decided to make one to share. All the wives were impressed by Evan's ability to bake a pie. I'm glad he isn't against public displays of affection and that he isn't ashamed to share his feelings for me via pie crust!

CSPM Class of 2009 Junior Dinner

One more year until he's a doctor!

Evan's class at the California School of Podiatric Medicine had it's Junior Dinner a few nights ago. It was held at Fandorin Restaurant near the San Francisco Airport. The restaurant is right on the water with a great view.

Sorry you can't see the beautiful waterfront view behind us!




We went with our friends and ex-apartment managers (pictured below). You can read her account of the event here.

Here's Evan with one of the favors the students got - a shoe horn!
It's shaped like a foot and says, "CSPM Class of 2009."
Wow! 2009 used to seem so far away when we moved here from Washington three years ago! I can't believe that time has flown by so fast! (I don't think Evan thinks the time has gone fast enough, though. Medical school must be harder than teaching!)

It was a very nice restaurant. It was fun to go somewhere fancy. Fandorin is a Russian restaurant that the class president's wife picked. (They are both Russian.) There were a lot of appetizers and I thought they were the highlight of the meal. We really didn't need a main dish after we ate our salads, bread, and all the wonderful appetizers. I thought I was quite adventurous trying new things, especially since I didn't know what most of the foods were until I came home and read the menu online. Some of the appetizers were crepes filled with duck comfit with raspberry sauce, pirozhki, pelmeni, pierogies, shrimp with caviar, and smoked eel. (I didn't try the caviar or eel; I'm just taking baby steps at this adventurous food thing.) The entree was a little weird. I'm not sure what it was - chicken and beef cooked in a strange way. It was served with gnocchi in cheese sauce, which I really liked. Here I am trying to get Evan to eat the mystery meat that was served as the main dish.
Our friend, Toni, wasn't a big fan of the food. She was hoping they would serve macaroni and cheese.

They had a dance floor and a DJ. Evan and I enjoyed dancing to the one slow song they played the entire night. I couldn't get Evan out on the dance floor during any of the fast songs, though.


We sat with the sober crowd. (This really only included 4 of the LDS students and their dates, plus 1 other classmate and his girlfriend.) After a fellow classmate of Evan's shouted out, "Here's to drinking!" our friend, Karson, held up the water pitcher and shouted back the same thing. Karson also entertained everyone with his impressive dance moves. (Sorry no pictures of that. You might check YouTube later, though.)

Here's some other random pictures from the event:

60 Hour Rolls - I love my KitchenAid mixer!

Let me apologize in advance to my sister, Kathy, for this post. I know she hates blogs that just document day-to-day events in a person's life. However, I feel that 60 hour rolls are a big part of who I am.



My birthday was about a month ago and Evan got me what I've been wanting for 6 years - a KitchenAid mixer. He has actually offered to get it for me several times before, but I always wanted a lot of smaller presents, rather than one big one. After Christmas, I told Evan to go for it and get me the mixer for my birthday and not to ask me again what I wanted, because I was sure I would change my mind. On April 9th this year, my mixer dreams came true!

Here's the man of my dreams with the mixer of my dreams!!

My love affair with Kitchen-Aid mixers has been going on for a long time. I can't ever remember a time in my childhood when we didn't have one. My mom actually made us homemade bread at least 3 times a week when I was in elementary school. Back then I was embarrassed to take homemade bread in my lunches, because everyone else had Wonderbread with the crusts cut off. Now I realize my mom was granola-y before it was cool. (She even made homemade yogurt!) I loved sitting by the mixer helping her make the bread dough. She would give me some of the left over dough to create whatever baking surprise I wanted to with it. (Butter and cinnamon sugar was a favorite to add.) I really liked eating the raw dough and whenever I taste a little bread dough now, it reminds me of my childhood.

I started making "60 minute rolls" when I was about 10 years old. It has become a tradition in my family that I always make these rolls for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and basically any other dinner that I like to make special for my family. Somehow, throughout the years, the name "60 minute rolls" has jokingly evolved into "60 hour rolls." I think it's because I like the dough to get so puffy that I often let the dough rise a lot longer than the recipe calls for.

To me, having a good sturdy mixer to make these rolls is almost a necessity. I've made them by hand before, but all the kneading required often discourages me from making them often. Evan got me a cheaper mixer when we were first married, but I have a bad habit of breaking our appliances. That mixer didn't last through too many batches of 60 hour rolls.

So, it had been almost a month since I got the mixer and I still hadn't made anything in it. I was feeling guilty and didn't want to discourage Evan from giving me even more awesome presents. I had been wanting to make my 60 hour rolls, but I don't like to have too many delicious carbs hanging around our kitchen and 2 dozen rolls are just too many for just Evan and I to eat. I decided that since I was going Visiting Teaching that day I could make some rolls to share with the family I visit and then I wouldn't have so many rolls left over for Evan and I. I also shared some of the rolls with our awesome friends and apartment managers.

Here's a photo-story of the roll making process:

I forgot to take a picture of us eating the rolls.

Here's the recipe:

60 Hour Rolls

• 4 -5 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine

In mixer, combine dry ingredients, using only 3 and 1/2 cups of the flour, and stir. In a saucepan, combine milk, water, and butter. Heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture is hot. (The butter does not have to be completely melted; mixture should not boil.) Slowly pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture while mixer is running at a slow speed. After all the liquid mixture has been added, change to using a dough hook. Begin to add the remaining flour 1/2 a cup at a time to the batter. Have mixer knead mixture until it has formed a nice, elastic dough. Let dough rise for 15 minutes (at least). Form dough into rolls and let rise 20 minutes (at least). Bake for 8 minutes (or until rolls are as brown as desired) at 425 degrees. Brush rolls with melted butter or margarine to make them nice and shiny. Enjoy!!
This recipe makes 2 dozen rolls.