I almost forgot

I also made my own applesauce!  A couple weekends ago, I went with my family to pick apples at this cute little farm in Draper.  We brought home 3 bushels of red and golden delicious apples for a really reasonable price, and the best part is that the farm doesn't spray with pesticide, so the applesauce is totally safe for my baby to eat (what's that you say?  I still haven't blogged about the baby?  Patience, little ones).  We decided that last Saturday during conference would be the perfect time to cook, process, and bottle our creation.  Bad idea, by the way.  Never plan a large scale cooking or craft project during conference if you had planned on listening to it.  Don't even worry, we also made that mistake during the Relief Society general meeting.  Anyway, back to the story.  So my mom and my sister and I gathered together and what we made was pure magic.  It was so easy, you just have to have the right equipment- like a special strainer that separates the stem, seeds, and peel from the flesh of the apple.  It was a bit messy, so hopefully my mom won't remember that next year when it's time to bottle applesauce again!  I feel so domestic these days.

I battled the pot roast...

...And I won!  I've been wanting to branch out and try new methods of cooking for a while, but have been a little skiddish.  Until now.  Matt bought this awesome cookbook for me that's all about braising, so I thought I'd give the pot roast recipe a try.  Nothing like a 4 pound slab of slow-cooked beef to usher in the fall, right?  Yummy!  I didn't have all of the fancy cookware the recipe specified, like a Le Creuset enameled dutch oven, but I figured my good old stock pot would do the trick.  I also had to make lots of substitutions, because I didn't have some of the ingredients (like beer), so by the time I put it in the oven I was pretty nervous about how it would turn out (especially since we were serving it to company).  I spent the whole afternoon session of conference fretting about whether or not I should turn over the meat halfway through cooking, if I should baste it, and if it was going to be cooked all the way through in time for our guests' arrival.  Well, worry no more my friends!  That was the best hunk of meat I've had in a long time. It had a tomato based sauce, which was kind of different for a pot roast, but it was seriously so delicious.  Perfectly tender and flavorful, not too much fat.  If anybody wants a killer pot roast recipe, let me know.  I'd make it for everybody if I could, but that sucker was expensive.  It's going to have to be a special occasion thing, I think.

New Job

So, I got a job running cameras and prompter at ABC4 for the news. It's a lot of fun, and a great learning opportunity.

Book review

Some of you may know that I am an avid reader and I keep a list of books that I want to read. Once I complete a book, I write down the date I finished it and my thoughts about it.  Today I thought I would share some feelings with you about my latest reads.

The first book I want to talk about is Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.  This book was chosen by my book club, but it was not one that I wanted to read at all.  A true story of Sir  Ernest Shackleton's expedition to cross Antarctica by land in 1914, it was written by Alfred Lansing, who got his material from diaries and interviews of the men on the ship. It quickly became a book I couldn't put down. I was so addicted, I would bring it to work with me every day (which was no small feat, as it's closer to the size of an encyclopedia than a normal paperback), read during my breaks and any downtime I had during the day.  If people tried to talk to me while I was reading at lunch, I would shush them.  Seriously! The action starts on page one, and doesn't end until page 288.  It tells a tale of courage, heroism, forgiveness, and most of all endurance.  I would say this is one of my top three favorites.  Highly recommended!

Coming down off the high I got from reading Endurance, I decided to pick up Atonement by Ian McEwan.  Atonement is a book that's been on my list for over a year, and probably the one out of 130-something titles that I was most looking forward to.  I was so excited after reading all of the reviews of the book that I went ahead and bought it, assuming I would want a copy to keep.  Wrongo!  My first issue with this book is the language.  There are a couple incredibly risque scenes in the beginning, and I should have known that it wouldn't be getting any better.  All of that could have been made up for by a good ending, but I'm sorry to say that didn't happen.  Maybe if I had stopped 40 pages from the end, I would have read a story of redemption and forgiveness, of the resilient human spirit triumphing over all.  Instead, because I was foolish enough to actually finish the book, I read a story of cowardice and hate.  Sorry if this is a spoiler, but I had to warn you all: DO NOT read this book, even if your life depends on it.   If you don't heed my warning, at least do one thing for me- put it down before you get to the epilogue!  Just trust me on this one.

Finally, we come to C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters.  Oft quoted by prophets and general authorities, I have always wanted to read this book.  I actually tried once before, when I was about 15.  It was a little over my head then, so I dropped it after about 10 pages.  Now that I'm in charge of the book club, I thought I should give this one a try again.  As long as you understand what the story is about before you start, it is a lot of fun to read.  The narrator of the book is Screwtape, a senior tempter who is writing letters to his nephew Wormwood, instructing him on how to properly manipulate humans into turning away from "The Enemy" (God).  It's almost like reverse psychology; everything Screwtape suggests to Wormwood, you want to do the very opposite thing.  I'm not quite finished, but so far it's fabulous.  It's easy to get so caught up in it, that you don't even realize how much you've read.  It helps that the letters are only a few pages each, so even if you don't have much time you can still get through at a nice clip.

Phew!  If you actually read this whole post, congratulations!  If you have read or plan to read any of these books, let me know what you think.  If you disagree with me, don't be afraid- I welcome dissent!