Bread of the French variety

I like bread. Probably too much. As explained in a previous post involving bread, I also love baking bread.

A couple of weeks ago, I tried my hand at homemade French bread, as I was making some sort of Italian dish for dinner, but really didn't want to BUY a loaf of French bread. I found a recipe for it in my bread maker "cookbook", but still did not feel satisfied at the effort it would involve.

A little over a month ago my grandparents drove through town to drop off some furniture for us grandkids. My grandma knows how I love to cook, and offered me a few old cookbooks that had been owned by my great-grandma. One of them was a Betty Crocker cookbook, which was whipped open during my need for French bread, in hopes that it would offer a recipe. It had a great one, and Ryan and I both loved the results!

For Father's Day I am making my "brain food" lasagna and homemade French bread for dinner for my whole family. The second time around with the bread (which I just finished baking) turned out just as beautifully. I think I will probably use this recipe for a long time, and I love that it makes two loaves, so we can eat one and freeze one for another day!

Here is the before-it-was-baked shot of the bread:

And here is the after-it-was-baked shot:

I love its beautiful golden-ness! And the inside is wonderfully tender and moist. You can find the recipe here. A few notes:

1. This is time consuming. Make sure you have plenty of time to do it - I started the process at noon and took it out of the oven at 4:30. It rises longer to get the whole French bread consistency.

2. There are two baking stages. The first lasts for 20 minutes, after which you brush on an egg white wash. It says to bake it for an additional 30 minutes. Maybe it's just my oven, but I only needed to bake it for 10 more minutes before I got that lovely hollow sound when I knocked on it. I am very glad that I checked it or else all of that time would have gone to waste! Just a heads-up.

3. I did not use any cornmeal. I'm just a rebel like that.

I hope that you try this bread and enjoy it as much as we did! Bon appetit!

He's Back!!

Ryan was sent to Neenah, Wisconsin for about 8 days for work. It felt super duper long (although I know I have no room to talk - I suppose it is all relative).

I did get to do some fun things while he was gone though:

I rode my bike to school everyday. I LOVED it. It was good exercise, I got to be outside, saved gas, AND tanned my arms. I did wear shorts, but apparently legs don't tan while riding a bike.

I finished summer school! Which means that I am completely and totally done with school. Now on to that whole getting a job thing...

I watched Gilmore Girls with my mom. Pretty much daily. In addition to that, I got to spend lots of time with my family.

I went shopping and to a concert with my sister, Holly. That was quite fun!!

I picked Ryan's car up from the good folks at Auto Collision Experts. Stellar fix-up job.

Last but not least, I did not hit a deer taking Ryan to the airport OR picking him up!

All of those things might sound amazing, but I missed Ryan. We did get to spend a little time together though - Skype is great! And now that Ryan is back, I am very excited to do summertime things with him. Last summer was really fun, and I hope that we can have as much fun this year!

Memorial Weekend: Deer, Family, and Puppies

Ryan and I decided to take a last minute trip to Phoenix this past weekend. We were joined by Ryan's sister, Lisa, and her family.

The drive to the airport on Friday night was nice. Until this happened:

Such damage! Such horror! The culprit?

**not the actual deer**

Just seconds before Bambi smashed itself into our car (yes, it hit us, we didn't hit it), we watched a deer get hit by the car in front of us. Poor thing was split in half, flailing all over the road. Needless to say, it was a distraction. Before we knew it, Bambi's face and eyes were scarred into our memories as it tried to obliterate our car. It sure didn't go down without a fight!

After Ryan called the insurance company and we did our best to clean the deer hair and blood off of ourselves, as well as pick glass out of our clothes (I ended up going to the restroom 3 times later just to get pieces out of my pants), we decided to still try to make our flight. The car was left in a secure valet covered parking for the weekend, and we got to the gate as they were boarding. We felt blessed for making the flight, but not as much as we were for not being injured at all in the accident! We were pretty on edge for the rest of the evening.

After we arrived in Phoenix, we were able to spend time with Ryan's family. My mother-in-law recently got a Great Dane puppy, and everybody fell in love with her pretty quickly. She charmed Ryan, and he was really hoping that she could charm me too. No dogs for me yet. Maybe when I'm actually home long enough during the day to care for one.

The weather in Phoenix greatly trumped that of Fort Collins at the time. We were having lots of clouds and rain, but there was not a wisp of white in the sky in Phoenix! I loved the hot sun!

We also got to spend time with Ryan's grandparents. Ryan has many fond memories of spending time with them growing up. We got to hear about his grandfather's career in the Air Force and look at pictures of him as a young man. It was fun to see him reminiscing.

Love you all, Arizona dwellers!

Pomp and Circumstance

Friday, May 13th, 2011, marked a momentous day in my life:

It is a little blurry, but that is me. Diploma (holder) in possession, about to shake the hand of the president of Colorado State University.

This semester was perfect, as far as last semesters go. Since Ryan graduated in December and got a job in Louisville, I figured it would be best if I did the same as soon as possible so that he wouldn't have to commute for too long. After all, gas is like, what, a million dollars per gallon now?

At the end of the fall semester, I met with my advisor and told him that I needed to complete 26 credits, and quickly. Even though he advised me against it, I registered for 20 credits with the plan to take the last 6 in the summer. His reaction: "These are all hard classes, Chantal. Don't hesitate to drop one or two if you feel overwhelmed."

At the beginning of this semester, I found out that all of the classes I was taking had a fair amount of homework and tests. This had never happened before; it was usually always just tests. One professor even warned us: "This class is hard. I failed 40 students last semester." Sweet! Bring it on!

With time management, memorization, and a desire to do well, I completed all of my 20 credits without feeling overwhelmed even once. It may be boasting, but I am very proud to say that I got 5 A's and 2 B's this semester.

I am very grateful for the support and help that I had from my family and husband all through college. I never thought I would get a bachelor's degree, but I know that I will always be thankful that I took the time to get a good education. I have loved learning. I think I will miss it... but from now on I will probably fill that void with reading and starting new hobbies.

At Macaroni Grill before the ceremony

A couple of friends and me during the ceremony

This is me and my good friend, Lauren. I met her during my first semester at CSU, and we have been having lunch together weekly since then. She's great!

This might be a little premature, seeing as I still have those 6 credits (which will commence tomorrow morning), but I am officially done with college!!

Climb every mountain, ford every stream

The weather was ah-mazing this past weekend. Additionally, Friday was the last day of official classes this semester, and I wanted to celebrate! I told Ryan that I wanted to go on a bike day-trip on Saturday.

We headed out in the morning to a place called Hewlett Gulch up in the Poudre Canyon. The ride was really pretty - felt more like mountain biking than Coyote Ridge because we were pretty much in a forest. It was fun to smell the pine trees as we whizzed past them on our bikes. It was a 3-hour ride, and I came away with more courage, better technique, a better understanding of how to adjust my gears on my new bike, muddy shoes, a sunburn, and fun memories.

Poor Ryan had to deal with my scared-ness sometimes. For whatever reason, seeing an oncoming creek that I had to ride through got me more nervous than having to go over/down/up big rocks. I'm embarrassed when I think back to it, actually. But Ryan always knows what to say to me: "It's just like the trail." OOHH, ok! It seemed less daunting after that. Hopefully someday (soon) I won't have to be cheered on by myself in my head or Ryan out loud, but just do it. I imagine that will make the experience for my sweet man better.

Here's some pictures from our adventure!!

my sweet bike

Everybody was kung-fu fighting!

I fell. But only once! I appreciate signs of a good time. Does my pointing hand look weird to anyone else?

A few of my bruises. It's a smiley face!

I like the white grape variety

I am currently taking a break from writing a paper that is due tomorrow and I am getting tired of feeling like I am making stuff up. So I hope to get the writing juices flowing a little bit better by expressing unimportant, not-being-graded thoughts.

Yesterday I went for a run and it was fabulous. I love running outside as the weather starts to get nicer. I love Jillian Michaels too, but it is likely that I will never do her workouts outside.

I bought produce from Sunflower Market today. There is something very wifey and grown-up about placing tomatoes, bananas, apples, and avocados in my fruit baskets. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I almost literally never ever bought produce when I was single because it went bad before I ate it.

I skipped my last class today because I do not feel it is necessary to walk 2-miles round trip in the stupid wind. Nothing is worth that, and should be avoided at all costs. So I came home to work on my paper...

There are some things in this world that inexplicably bother me: an unmade bed, people "loving each other" or ranting about some ill-fated relationship on Facebook (of which I have been guilty, but that was some time ago and I have since realized that not everybody needs to hear the nitty gritty of somebody's life, no matter how good or bad), food spoiling, being cold, waiting for the next best thing to happen, the wind...

Ryan really wants to have a dog, but I am afraid that I will not give it the love it needs because I don't like touching animals due to my allergies.

I miss getting to watch The Food Network.

What am I going to do this summer if I don't get a job? Today I received my first rejection email. They obviously have not met me and are simply judging me by a piece of a paper that says "resume". Honestly, I feel unqualified for the jobs I'm "supposed" to be able to get after having graduated with a degree in Restaurant and Resort Management. And I am. Most jobs require years of experience in a full-service restaurant or what-have-you as a manager. I do not have this. I am dreading having to start at the bottom of the chain.

Juices are flowin', I should probably get back to that graded stuff.

The fastest way to a piece of Greece

I got to hear this guy play the keyboard on Friday!

Just in case you aren't a die-hard New Age fan, this man with such voluptuous hair is Yanni - a very talented musician hailing from Greece. His music reminds me of my childhood, mostly of going on family road trips to Utah. His music is great, but for some unknown reason, is not equally appreciated by everyone. But trust me, if you're feeling like relaxing or doing homework or taking a bath or simply wanting to enjoy peaceful (mostly) music, program yourself a Yanni station on Pandora.

This past Christmas, my dad got the whole family [that resides in Colorado] tickets to Yanni's concert on April 29th. When the night finally came, we started it off with dinner at Cinzetti's. That food is delicious! It is an Italian buffet, but a style of buffet that much exceeds the ambiance and enjoyableness of Golden Corral or #1 Asian Buffet (yes, we have one of those here in Fort Collins).

Next came the concert! It was in a pretty intimate theater, which was great. Yanni was super interactive with the audience, and I love when artists make an effort to do that.

He played a lot of his older songs, despite having just released a new CD. Kind of weird, but it was really fun to hear my childhood songs being played live. I also liked being able to share something that I love with Ryan, even if it isn't his usual genre of music.

Thanks, Dad, for raising us on such fantastic music and later taking us to watch the man who plays it! Love you!