Ode to a Can Opener

So, I have this pet peeve about can openers...

A can opener should be simple and easy to use. Stick it on a can, squeeze, and turn. And it should have a bottle opener on it.

For the last few years I have gone through ~6 different can openers. I had those awful barely useful can openers that you find in the Church kitchen drawers sometimes, those tiny silver ones that hurt your hands and don't work. I've had the dollar store ones that are worth less than the dollar paid for them. I've had the Kitchen Aid ones...heaven forbid you come across a dent in your can. Cans NEVER have dents in them. You go back and forth about 5 million (exaggerated only slightly) times to try and get it to open and end up using a butter knife or a carving knife to open the stupid thing the rest of the way.

They are awful things.

So I decided one fine day to finally invest in a good can opener.

Where did I go?

Williams-Sonoma of course!! :) I love that store. I NEVER buy anything in there except as wedding gifts for others, but they really do have the best kitchen wares.

I talked with the two lovely ladies working there that day (it was a slow day apparently) and they both swore by this can opener they have. One said she's had it for 5 years and hadn't found a can it didn't work on and that it STILL worked like the first day she bought it. And she has kids.

So, I bit. I bought it. I even had to wait for it for 6 weeks because they were backordered. BUT I got free shipping out of the deal!

When they finally arrived, it was a glorious day. It was almost as easy as putting a butter knife through room temperature butter...tuna can, check! Soup cans, check! Food storage cans, check! I started opening cans for the heck of it...which of course caused totally separate problems...

So, go HERE. Buy one. Promise, you will thank me later. $10 plus shipping. If you go in store and they are out, they will give you free shipping if you purchase it that day in the store btw. Same goes with any other purchases in the store where they don't have it available for immediate purchase.

(NO, I am not getting paid by them for this lauding advertisement, although if they would like to pay me for it I wouldn't say no...:) )

The Potential of a Good Dream

I dreamt that this man:

(photo found HERE)


...was interested in me and asked a friend of mine here to introduce him. Friend walked over, told me he was interested, he was walking towards me...and the dream ended when I unfortunately woke up with my back killing me...stupid weird sleeping positions killing potentially super good dreams.

It was loverly...

I went home for the Easter weekend. Barely made it to New Mexico, being that I was thoroughly exhausted. Miracle I made it out, being that apparently Utah got a bunch of snow dumped on it as I was leaving town. I ended up stopping at pretty much every place I have ever stopped along that route because I had to get up and wake myself up.

Got home, said hello to the parents, gave my Dad his (late) birthday gift (crocheted slippers I made myself) which he loved, weeded with my Dad for a bit, did shopping with Mom and then went to Gardunos for dinner.

Saturday morning I went to breakfast with Dad at Golden Corral, which was nice. Then we got ready to go to a gathering. My nephew showed up (oh yeah, so did my sister and bro-in-law) and as soon as he got in my arms he laid his head on my shoulder and cuddled for quite a while...totally made up for lost time over the Christmas holiday where he was scared of me. Thus began us playing, laughing, gabbing, learning bad habits and cute fun ones...(I think the bad habit is way cute and hilarious, but his Mom doesn't think so). Loved loved loved it. Miss him terribly.

We gathered. We ate. We played. Bathed the baby, and then my sister and I met up with our Mom and we watched Mirror Mirror, which is an interesting take on Snow White. Not my favorite movie, but still, it had it's moments.

Sunday, Church at my parents ward, which is always lovely. I love that my Young Women's president is still there. We went home, rested, and then went to my sisters for Easter dinner and an early birthday celebration for me. 30 years old this year. The cake was absolutely amazing.

Monday, my sister joined Mom and I for birthday shopping, then we ate at the Standard in Albuquerque...LOVE that place. It was fun, it was like an old family dinner with the four of us, except Ike (my nephew) was an addition to the party. Of course, a welcome addition. He charmed all the waiters and waitresses, along with many customers. He showed his great ability to do 'Sooooo Big!'. The food was amazing.

I said my goodbyes to Emily, Ike and Dad, then headed to the house to load up the gifts along with other things I keep meaning to bring with me. For my birthday, I got a filtering water bottle from Emily, a teapot from Dad and an ice cream maker from Mom. Going to have a lot of fun with that last one!

The drive home was remarkably better, except for the last hour was very trying. I got pulled over in Monticello because I was speeding, but the officer totally cut me a break since I was honest and nice...he was SUUUUPER nice. He really was trying to get everyone to slow down anyways because this huge herd of deer were going through the town. It was stupid of me, I'd been watching my speed closely the whole trip.

And I made it home. Today was a looooong day. Tomorrow will be a little better I think.

Well, off to bed. Night.

Cookie Making

If you follow me on Pinterest, you would know that I REALLY like Pinterest. I mean, I post pins pretty much EVERY day. If I don't post pins, it means my laptop is down or the internet is down...both of which are extremely unfortunate circumstances, as I can't feed my Pinterest obsession.

ANYWAYS, there was this fantastic pin that went through the popularity contest on the boards that shows you a picture with a bunch of different chocolate chip cookies. The first one is perfect. The rest are not. Each of the non-perfect cookies come with an explanation of what went wrong. Brilliant!!

So, I tested the theory out.

Behold, the first batch:

 They spread too much. My initial thought was they were too wet, which in fact my lovely pinned guide agreed with. The dough didn't have enough flour to hold the shape. So I added flour to what was left of the dough, and here is batch numero two:

 

 AMAZING the difference. I again consulted the oh so great and wise Pinterest, and discovered that refrigerated dough produces better cookies. Stuck the bowl begrudgingly (I LOVE cookie dough...) into the fridge for a bit, then shaped the cookies, and the results were:

Incredible, right?! Not a terrible difference between 2nd and 3rd visually, but these were perfect, chewy with the right amount of crispiness...yum!!

Also, I gave in and bought Ghirardelli chocolate chips...TOTALLY worth the extra $1.50...

And...that's a wrap!