Baking

Mike signed me up for a baking boot camp on campus.  I am not a baker.  I really haven't been that interested in baking, honestly.  I like sweets and desserts, I just don't really eat a lot of them and bake even less of them.  I have a big, full board labeled "Sweet Treats" on Pinterest with all sorts of yummy dessert recipes to try but I've only made a couple of them.  Baking is just exact and if you read my last post then you know how I feel about exactness.  Anyway, Mike is always excited for me to try new things and when he saw this class he told me to take it.  I was kind of nervous, honestly.  First of all, as a non-baker, the title "Baking Bootcamp" was a bit intimidating.  What if I was the only non-baker there?  He called up my friend who I served with in the Relief Society Presidency and told her he wanted me to take this class and would she help him talk me into it.  Ha, ha.  She called and we had a nice chat and she encouraged me to take the class and then she called her daughter-in-law and told her to take the class with me.  So, I signed up for the class!  It is a six-week class on Saturdays from 9:30 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon.  We show up and we cook all day with a lunch break (provided by one of the school's chef's) and then we get to take home some of the stuff we cooked.  We've done two weeks so far.  Last week was rolls and cookies.  I haven't been able to figure out the cookies.  I have a cookie recipe that I have used in the past and it has worked pretty consistently but I really wanted to make the chef's recipe work but I've made it probably five times and they are always flat.  Everyone in the class who made them in the week had flat cookies too so the chef thinks he wrote the recipe wrong for us and gave us some tweaks to make.  I will have to try again but I am all cookied out for now.  

The rolls on the other hand were awesome.  I made them once and didn't put in enough sugar.  I made them again and they were prefect!  So good.   

 Yesterday was the second class and it was all about pies and cake.  We made about eight different recipes and got to take home two full pies each.  It was such a fun and interesting class and I texted Mike during the class to tell him thank you for making me try new things and get out of my comfort zone.  My only disappointment is that I'm trying to lose weight and this won't help me too much!!

I've had a couple of doctors appointments lately.  One appointment was a check up to see how my hives are doing.  They are gone.  I am itchy but not rashy.  I had to take the medicine on a double dosage and then had to start taking it again because the rash came back.  So, this was to see if the rash had finally gone away.  The fact that I'm still itchy could possibly mean that I have an autoimmune disease.  The doctor ordered some blood work and the results should be in this week.  Probably if it's an autoimmune disease it is a thyroid issue since I have a lot of the symptoms but I've been tested for it before and always been in the normal range.

The other appointment was for my ankle, which has hurt for months.  The doctor thinks I sprained my ankle and I'm supposed to wear a brace for a couple of weeks.  I also have to get an x-ray just in the off chance that I broke something.  I don't think it's broken.

The rest of the week has been filled with friends and swimming.  It's been a good summer so far with a lot of fun and the boys have been awesome.  Piper loves having them home and the boys are so good about playing with her.  The other day Mike said, "You need to go see what is going on in the dining room."  I sneaked around the corner to find all three boys sitting in a circle around Piper pretending to have a tea party with her.  She was pouring water for them and handing them plates with pretend food.  It was adorable.  They are such good brothers to her.