EOTW (End of the Week)

Ah, you guys, it has been quite a weird week so I don't even want to rehash all of that.  But it wasn't all bad, either.  Here are some of the highlights of the week and what I'm looking forward to for the weekend.




1.  I made some kick ass bread.  BF and I have always tried to buy the best quality bread we can, but sometimes it's expensive and sometimes you find that good ingredients are hard to come by so we decided we should try making our own.  A couple weeks ago I made my first batch and followed the directions to a T and my bread was heavy and didn't have the best flavor.  It didn't taste awful, but it definitely didn't meet my standards.  I tried again 2 weeks ago using a different recipe and then modifying it slightly to what I thought I should do and it turned out great!  I had to stick it back in the oven because the recipe called for a baking time of 20 minutes (How about it's more like 35-40 minutes, but whatever, recipe) but other than that it was pretty tasty and much lighter than the first batch.  This week I did it again and man am I really getting the hang of this bread thing.  It was even lighter and fluffier and tastier than the previous batch and it came out golden and awesome.  I will post my modified recipe soon if you want to try it for yourself.  See my lovely loaves in all of their glory:

Dough!

The finished product.

2.  Continuing my domestic streak, I successfully made yogurt.  For real.  I didn't realize how easy it was, especially with an awesome yogurt maker that my mom found at Goodwill for $4.  All you have to do is boil your milk, add the yogurt cultures, pour them into the jars and let them sit in the heated yogurt maker overnight and boom! Yogurt.  We priced it out and making a batch of yogurt costs less than 50 cents per serving container.  That's WAY more cost effective than buying our favorite yogurts for $1.25-$2.00 a serving.  I'm going to keep my eye out for a second yogurt maker so we can do double batches because BF and I like yogurt pretty much everyday for a snack.  Sorry, no pictures but maybe next time.

3.  I read the last book in "The Immortal Nicholas Flamel" series by Michael Scott calle The Enchantress.  This is a young adult series and I absolutely love it.  The entire series takes place over about a week and a half, but boy is it action packed.  I would highly recommend it for some summer reading.  A friend of mine just gave me the 50 Shades of Gray books, but I'm not sure if I'll like them.  I'll start the first one this weekend and we'll see.

4.  Zumba- When I first started this class with my friend Stancy I thought, "Eh, it's good cardio so I guess I'll do it, " but now that I am getting a hang of the moves and know the songs I freaking love it!  Well, to be more accurate I love SOME of the songs and I love that I'm getting an hour of cardio in without running.  I'm really committing to running, however I'm starting to develop shin splints in my left leg so I'm trying to add in other cardio to increase my stamina and that way my running can be less frequent but I'm still making progress.  The downside is I think I'm going to have to break down and buy a pair of dance sneakers because I've tried several different kinds of footwear for this class and everything causes some sort of discomfort.  I'm pretty sure it's because they aren't made to support jumping around and lateral movement, just forward running movement.  

5.  Tonight will kick off our first official wedding related event! The teachers at BF's school decided to throw us a garden themed wedding shower which is awesome!  They thought it was a good idea since we pretty much have most of the house things we need but we really wanted to focus on getting the backyard cleaned up and in a usable state.  This afternoon after school one of the teachers is hosting the party at her house and I cannot wait!  Because the weather is kind of iffy I cannot wear any of the cute floral skirts or dresses I had planned to wear to a wedding related event, but if that's the downside of this whole party I'm living well.  I will definitely be posting pictures!  Also, I LOVE BF's coworkers and spending and evening with them is sure to be entertaining and fun.

So that's what is going on with us!  Here's to a great weekend.