first day of school

I think O wanted to follow me to school like Mary's lamb even though I keep trying to tell him that he's got the awesome end of this particular stick.

we finally made it to the mountains

Ever since getting a tent from my parents for my birthday waaaay back in December, I have been eagerly anticipating taking it out for a spin.  Then when JP's birthday came in May I surprised him with a sweet new camping grill so we could not only have cover over our heads but also a means of heating some delicious camping food.  Our first attempt at camping was rained (or maybe snowed) out, and then I think GREland took over and we had no weekend time to spare.  I think I've spent over 75% of my summer indoors so far, working on all my important trying to be an adult things, and SUCH a small amount of time enjoying the summer weather and all that that entails!  What a shame!  With school starting next Monday (yipes!), I have been doing my best to pack in as much summer as possible in these few short days.  Mason (of the nerdiest study group ever) brought me out to Boulder Creek with his friend Scott to participate in an essential summer staple: tubing.  Wooo...umm hooo?  We maaaybe got in the freezing cold river a little too high up and rode some rough rapids through sharp pointy unforgiving rocks just as the sun was going behind the clouds and it was starting to sprinkle... but after that whole thing it was really fun!  A little bit terrifying, but all together some damn good fun.  I think next time I will make certain that the sun will be blazing, and I won't follow Mason without scouting the area for impending disaster.  Fun though, it really was fun.  Especially the surviving part.  In any case, camping was obviously on the super-short-packed-in-summer-list-of-awesomeness, and since I didn't have to work this weekend we seized the opportunity!  It turns out that everyone who lives in an around colorado likes to go camping on beautiful sunny weekend days too.  It just so happens that those other people plan on seizing the opportunity a few weeks in advance, which just isn't our style  We headed towards Estes Park with the assumption that something would work out, and we came up short.  It was a bleak outlook, pay $35 to camp on gravel sandwiched between two giant RV's while still in town?  Sandwich yourself between two RV's in the middle of a field?  Guh, our prospects weren't looking good, and such were our desires to make it work that we almost plunked down at one of those places.   We heard at the visitor's center that you could camp anywhere you wanted to on land that wasn't in Rocky Mountain National Park, so we just turned our car towards the mountains and drove with the intention of just finding a nice spot and clearing some brush.  We randomly happened upon a campground just 10 miles outside of Estes, and there was also one last little spot that we snagged up right quick!  We set up camp, and then took the pups walking around the area where we spotted the best site ever, and it happened to be kind of empty!  I asked the family next to it if there was anyone staying there, and they told us their friends had reserved it but couldn't come, so they offered it to us!!  We burritoed up the tent and moved right on over!  It was great, the furthest from neighbors, and with a little hiking trail in the back that O and I explored while foraging for kindling.  The tent was easy to set up and fit all four of us nice and snug, and the new grill was just perfect for our steak and corn on the cob dinner.  Mmmm camping.  What a great treat to get away from the hustle of real life. 

Cream Cheese Wontons

Wedding weekend? Resounding successful check. Gre forever?  Check.  Applications?  Almost semi-check.  Now what's a girl to do to while away these summer days!?  I was talking with my sister yesterday and she said it took her about a week after the craziness had subsided in which she was a bit dazed about what to do with her time, but then she realized that she could do whatever she wants to do! For her that means artsy creations and fiddle time and crafts.  For me, yesterday, it meant making something that I have been craving for far too long: GF cream cheese wontons.  Ohh yum, I know they aren't remotely healthy, or anything nutritionally anything for you, but dear god are they good and in life I can't even tell you how many years it has been since I have eaten one.  Years guys, years.  If you scour the internet for recipes it is a seriously dire situation.  I mean, they are vaguely referenced in a few places, and the one thing I found that was actually helpful was an entire page into comments on how to make regular cream cheese wontons and was posted four years ago!  Yikes!  I knew I would need some rice paper and rice flour, so I set off towards Denver's version of United Noodle (Minneapolis's awesome asian market..swoon!), also known as H Mart.  It was quite glorious, and to be honest I can't believe I haven't been there yet!  It's only six miles from my house, and it is a gigantic catch-all of asian anything you could possibly want and more.  They've got a huge produce section with both exotic and indigenous fruits and vegetables, sea food, meats, two aisles of noodles,  frozen dumplings, all different kinds of rice and flours.  It was pretty much asian market heaven.   In any case, I picked up some rice flour, rice paper, green onions, vegetable oil and of course some mochi.  I stopped by the regular store to pick up cream cheese, eggs and milk and I was all set!

Gluten Free Cream Cheese Wontons

Wrapper:
Rice paper sheets
2 cups rice flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs

Filling:
Cream cheese
Green onions (chopped)

First mix the filling ingredients together and set aside.  I just used cream cheese and green onions, but add whatever you like to yours! Beat the eggs. Brush the beaten egg onto the rice paper until the paper gets somewhat flexible. At that point cut the paper into 4 sections if you have large sheets, or just use one per wonton if you find the smaller ones like I did.  Put a  dab of the filling in the center of each paper section. Pull the 3 or 4 sides of the paper up and pinch at the top, being careful to make a good seal.  Some of mine felt like they had too much wrapping so I trimmed them a little with my kitchen scissors. The egg helps to set the seal, but be careful where you put it once your finished with this step because I had one or two stick to the cutting board!

Next mix together rice flour, and milk.  I made way too much batter (1 C flour and 1/2 C milk), so I think a guesstimate of less should do just fine.  Next time I think I will just add a little of each until the consistency is a pretty thin batter. Heat your oil on the stovetop, dip the prepared wontons in the batter and then drop in the oil. They take about 2-3 min. to cook, or just until they are golden.

 

What a tasty treat we had for dinner last night!  Well, that's not all we had for dinner of course.  We saved room for mochi too! Mmmmm healthy..

it's wedding time already?!

Oh man, I think this blog is slowly morphing itself into a dog blog, or a complain about the GRE blog.  I need more things in my life!  SO, in honor of my best friend Annie's wedding which is coming up so quickly, I thought I would finally post about the second bachelorette party I have ever helped throw!  Did you think that maybe you would have heard about this in the month that the party occurred?  Maybe, if I was really lazy, the month after?  Well folks, it is indeed rounding up onto two months post party, but the wedding isn't for another FOUR WHOLE DAYS so technically I am still ahead of schedule, right? 

 Here is our bride-to-in-four-days-be...

(ARGH, side note to tell you that blogger deleted my whole post...I will cobble it back together)

 As you can see, Annie was dressed to the nines with her pink sash, glittery cowboy hat, and a lai acquired from the taxi driver!

Aly and I put together a  non-traditional party that was a combination of bridal shower, yummy snacks, games of course and the main event: a pedal pub!!  Basically a giant bicycle/boat/moving bar that we pedaled ever so slowly around St. Paul. See?

It was a lot heavier than you might think..or perhaps it looks heavy enough already to you.  Powered only by the strength in our legs, and not even all of our legs because some people were too short to reach, we meandered our way through the streets (two streets) of St Paul, stopping to wet our parched throats at a few bars a long the way.  Let me assure you, even though it was a chilly rainy evening, we were sweating upon arrival to every bar!  If it had been sunny I'm not sure if we would have made it very far! That rhymed.  In any case, it was a ridiculous fun celebration, topped off with music and dancing to end the night in style.    

 

The beautiful bride, Annie, and her two lovely bridesmaids/party planners!

evolution of a car cuddle

We spent the 4th in Utah visiting JP's family, and with my little haitian stomach bug in tow I didn't have the energy to take pictures.  Shocking, I know. We left the morning after I worked a night shift, and so I slept most of the morning in the front seat with my face mask and ear plugs in.  Obie likes to cuddle, and he slowly worked his way up to the front seat while I was snoozing:

 

don't think I am forgetting

all the things I have been doing, and all the pictures I have been taking of those things that I have been doing! I am going for round two of the GRE on the 19th, in hopes that I can boost my score for the last time before they change the whole darn thing! Considering I will be free of sickness that causes me to cough and threaten to be kicked out of the place, and I will have banished my gutteral companion that hopped a ride home from Haiti with me, I think I will be in top form this time around. Woot. That said, I have to go get ready for night shift, and night studying, but here are some pictures of out little bayou a few blocks from our house where Oliver is learning to love the water...

I won't bore you with details on how proud I am of my little man and how big he is getting!

Dear gre,

Let's just agree to disagree on the effectiveness of standardized tests as an indication of the level of knowledge a person possesses. In life, I really need to focus on some other things. Please play fairly on Thursday.

Love,

Elise