Training

Matt and I have been pretty good about keeping up with our training, but I have only one word to describe my transition: exhaustion. I guess it should have been expected. I haven't been swimming this regularly for years. Plus, I am definitely not used to swimming, biking, and running all at the same time. Even though Matt and I have been really good about getting 7-8 hours every night, I wake up so tired every day. It doesn't help that I have a desk job. Research definitely doesn't get the blood flowing. We figure that we've only been training for a week and half, so we'll get used to it soon, right?

The biking has definitely been the biggest adventure. Matt and I bike to school/work every day. It's pretty fun to bring my helmet around campus and have people comment. And it has been SNOWING in APRIL. I am not enjoying that so much. The weather is always colder on a bike! The wind is twice as chilling when you are moving twice as fast! I will be SO excited when spring is finally here to stay. Then I will be much more ready for long bike rides!

This is us just after we biked home in the pouring rain. Notice the joy on our faces :)

Hot Cross Buns: The Verdict

These were soooo good! Definitely my favorite part of our easter dinner. The dough is super soft and fluffy. The buns are not too sweet and go perfectly with the icing. We made them Sunday morning, then ran them over to some of our friends before church. They all loved them too. We decided to make them a second time for a ward party on Monday (it's still Easter-time, right?). We got some great compliments and I was asked for the recipe a couple of times. Not bad! This is definitely going to be a continuing tradition.

Here is another link to the recipe. And here are some of our notes: We didn't add dried fruit. Matt wanted to, but he didn't know when to add them in the cycle so it didn't happen. I just "forgot" to put them in the second time. Although I love raisins, the buns were so good the first time, why add anything else? Besides, we like to save our raisins for granola :)

Also, we didn't have cardamom by itself, so we used Penzey's Baking Spice, which is a mix of cinnamon, cardamom, mace, and anise. I'm pretty sure just cinnamon would taste great too. We also split the dough into more than 12 buns. The dough rises a LOT and we wanted to be able to share. We made 16 the first time and 24 the second. Finally, we didn't really follow the instructions for the frosting since the recipe makes a lot. We just mixed powdered sugar and milk until we got the consistency we wanted. Happy baking!

Easter Planning

So we are busy planning our first Easter together. We want to make Easter a really special holiday for our family. Christmas always comes with so much anticipation--but shouldn't Easter be just as exciting? It's springtime, school is finished, and we can celebrate our Savior's resurrection. What a wonderful holiday. Since we can't leave out the egg hunt, I've bought some bright plastic eggs and filled them with mini Cadbury eggs. What else?

We are also really excited to plan our Easter menu. Since this is our first major holiday together (aside from Christmas, which we spent with our families), it has been really fun to decide what we want to cook together. Here's what we've decided on so far:

--Ham with an Apricot Glaze

--Potato Latkes

--Flatbread (unleavened bread)

--Asparagus

--Hot Cross Buns

I'm especially excited for the hot cross buns. This recipe has all sorts of yummy spices! It will be our first time using the dough cycle on our bread machine--we'll let you know how it works out! What are some other recipes and traditions that your family loves on Easter?

Homemade Tortillas

This is our favorite recipe to give to friends. It is tasty and basically fool-proof. Matt learned this while he was on his mission. The biggest thing to remember for this recipe is consistency. Although we've made up a recipe for 12 tortillas, you could probably just throw all these ingredients in a bowl until you get the amount of dough you want.

What you need:

2 cups flour

3 Tbs oil (we like olive)

1 tsp salt

1 cup boiling water

What to do:

While the water is boiling, mix the first three ingredients. Add the boiling water. The dough will be a little sticky. Lightly dust it with flour and knead it until it no longer clings to your hands. Form the dough into balls about the size of an egg. Use a flour-dusted rolling pin to flatten the dough - the thinner the better! Place the flat tortillas into a pan on the stovetop and cook until bubbly and browned. Don't cook too long or they get hard. To keep the finished tortillas warm and soft, cover them with a damp towel.

Aqua Triathlon

We are finishing up our semester and starting to look towards the summer. There are so many great things to do! We are especially excited to go camping. The weather has finally started to warm up and the mountains look so inviting! We're hoping to plan a few trips with our outdoorsy friends. On a related note, we are both planning on the Aqua Triathlon in September. We are starting training this week. Matt reads his favorite triathlete beginner's book (Triathlon 101) every night and has come up with a great training program. We are starting small--walking, 50 yard swims, and short bike rides--but by the end of the summer we should build up enough endurance. We'll give updates on our training as we go along.

In between all the recipes, vacations, camping, and triathlons, we will be working, taking summer classes (gack), and studying for the GRE which we scheduled to take in July. This year involves a lot of sprinting to finish lines!

About Us

Welcome to our blog! We've been married four months and finally caved in to the pressure to start a newlywed blog. So here we go! We're especially excited to share recipes, stories and other fun things with our friends and family. We are both students and met at school. We got married last year in the Washington DC Temple. We love enjoying the outdoors, reading, watching movies, and cooking together. Our favorite kitchen tools have to be our KitchenAid Mixer, our bread machine, and our Crock Pot. More on those in future posts!

Here are a few things about us!

Matt: I like to play soccer, eat, watch Star Trek and X-Files, and go fishing. I'm a bioinformatics student due to graduate next year. I'm currently part of a synthetic biology team that will compete in the iGEM competition this fall. I served a two-year mission in Cape Verde, West Africa from 2007-2009 and would love to go back some day.

Jessica: I like to find new recipes online, play the violin, and watch Psych. I am also addicted to making projects on Shutterfly. I'm a political science student with a minor in editing. I am a student research fellow at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy (hooray for democracy!). I am also very good at finger bowling.

Dream Bigg,

Matt and Jessica