Harry Potter

Kristin and I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.  It was awesome, and definitely my favorite of all the movies so far (although that dance scene was really awkward...).  I liked that it was more closely related to the book.  Guess I'm just a purist.

Anyways, we also dressed up.  Kristin had an awesome Hermione costume and I went as the Whomping Willow.  No, you didn't read that incorrectly.  I was a tree.  See the photographic evidence below :)

On my boot I put a bran flake (for the knot at the base of the WW) and Crookshanks (who opens the passageway)

On my stomach there was a picture of Harry, Ron, and Hedwig in the flying Ford Anglia.

A broken Nimbus 2000 on my back.

Leaf earrings, cut out from a green folder.

"Bark" eyebrows, crazy hair, and dark lipstain.  Mostly just because it looked dangerous.

Andrea (on the left, Luna Lovegood) is a former roommate of Kristin's (on the right, in the Hermione costume).  No, I wasn't really grabbing her hair.

Megan helped me to cut out all the leaves, tape the on, and get all ready.  We went, had a great time, and came home to sleep.  Yay!  Also, we took a picture with a guy wearing an awesome Voldemort costume.  Unfortunately, we'll have to wait for Andrea to put those up on facebook before I can post them here.

Hope everyone else enjoyed the movie as much as I did!

<3
Eliza

P.S. While we were waiting for the movie to begin, there were several wizard's duels.  It made me laugh.

Water Polo

I think I mentioned a few posts back that I have been playing water polo with the BYU water polo club.  About three weeks ago, we went to a game in Park City against the University of Utah.  We had never played together before, so that was exciting...  There were 5 girls who showed up on our team, and so we had guys sub in during our game.  U of U had about 3 guys show up, so they subbed girls and some of our guys.  We lost, but it was very fun.  Here are some pictures:

I thought this was the intense picture, when really it was just the smiling picture.  Oh well.

There were no action shots of me, but I guess the person in charge of the camera thought that I was very funny as I sat at the side of the pool.  

There are several more, but I won't post them.  How embarrassing.

At the top left, you can see my new friend Nicole and I, being water polo groupies during the boys' game.

So, that was water polo.  It was fun, and I'm sad that I only have one more practice this semester, on Saturday.  But it will start again next semester!

<3

Eliza

Sanity Check... just to make sure

Am I crazy for thinking these are way cute?



What about these?



How do you feel about red boots?




Just wondering :)

<3
Eliza

P.S. Check out my new food blog, procrastinatingcollegecook.blogspot.com!  I decided not to lambast you with all of my recipes on this site, so now they have a new home.  Hope you enjoy it!

Halloween part-ay!

For Halloween, I decided to honor the family tradition of pumpkin soup.  I made some, invited Heidi over, and the rest of the gang invited an apartment full of friends from their freshman ward.

Margarine.  Yum.

Leeks and onions.  I paid almost $6 for the leeks.  Dang.  Luckily, I only needed one, so I have one in the freezer!

Who doesn't like this stuff??

Everything stewing together... 

After a bout with the immersion blender :)  SO delicious.

Pumpkin cream cheese swirl bread.  I would post a recipe, but it was kinda gross.  Mom, could you send me the recipe for Lori's pumpkin roll, pretty please?

Our festive Halloween spread.  We had salad (thank you, Kristin :), rolls and green beans from the Sparks girls,  and then rye bread,  pumpkin cream cheese bread, and the onion tart that I made.  The pumpkin soup and Kristin's amazing apple dumplings were over on the stove.

I would tell you everybody's names, but I don't really know most of them, and the pictures are blurry for the rest :)  However, in the last picture, the two on the right are Kristin and Heidi.  

I will post the recipes for pumpkin soup and onion tart later, but now I have to study!  Love you all!

<3

Eliza

P.S. Mom, is it, like, blasphemy for me to post the pumpkin soup recipe?  Everyone at the party loved it and wanted the recipe, so I thought it might be happy to put it here for future (present?) generations. 

The run

Two Saturdays ago, I ran a half-marathon.  I had been training for 3-4 weeks (maybe a total of 25 miles of running), and I went and did this.  Crazy!  Surprisingly, it went okay.  I walked about a mile or a mile and a half total, split up between sections of running, and it was fun. Here is a short picture documentary of the experience...

Kristin and I after a run in the rain one week before the half-marathon.

This is the only picture I have of us training.  I know it's weird, but I'm not really into taking pictures of myself when I'm sweaty and gross.

The morning of the race, we got up at 5 so we could be on the road by 6.  I made banana bread waffles for breakfast, and we were off!  However, before we left, we saw this on the door, drawn by Stacey:

For your visual pleasure, here are some close-up shots of each of us three runners in that picture:

Here's Megan, at the water station.  She has two different colored eyes, and so the guy at the station is excited about that.

This is Kristin, with someone yelling "Awesome!" behind her.

And this is me.  I didn't have a fanny pack or any other handy place to put my snacks, so....  Just kidding.  I did stuff granola bars down my leggings, but they were definitely on the sides of my legs.  No need to accentuate what's already there, right? :)

Anyways, we rode a bus to the beginning of the race and sat in the tent up at Sundance, which is a ski resort about 30 minutes from BYU.  It was pretty chilly, but we huddled together by the heaters and were fine.  The race started at 9, and we lined up with about 2700 other runners, many of them in costume (this was Halloween Eve, after all, and we were running the Provo Halloween Half Marathon).  Here is a map of the race we ran:

As you can see, it has a fairly steep downhill slope on the first five miles, but after that it evens out.  I felt like kind of a wimp beforehand, running a half-marathon all downhill, but afterwards I was impressed with myself. It hurts to run downhill!  After the first five miles, we crossed the highway and ran down the Provo River Canyon Trail, which was beautiful.  We ended at the Riverwoods Mall, right next to Borders.  So you know what I did after the race... :)

Anyways, once we passed the 4-mile marker, I was excited - I'd run further than I'd ever run before!  Our pacers looked at each other nervously.  At about mile 6, although I'd eaten two granola bars, I was getting low and Kristin was having some blood pressure issues, so we slowed down for a while, alternating walking and jogging.  I can't get my blog to load this picture, probably because it's copyrighted, but if you click on this link, you can see me at mile 6.5, checking my blood sugar (I only checked once during the entire race, crazy!).

At mile 7, I sped up again, and pushed on running through mile 9 before I walked.  I ran to mile eleven, and I had started to lose hope of ever catching up with my pace group (set to finish at 2 hours 20 minutes) before the end.  I was down to my last bag of fruit snacks after eating 3 granola bars and another bag of fruit snacks.  Finally, I caught back up to Megan!  She's a little bit crazy, and she'd decided to run the entire thing without stopping.  And you know what's even crazier?  She did it.  Whoa.  Anyways, we ran together till about 12.5, and we caught up to our pacing group at 12.  At mile 12, I started to push it.  I alternated running and walking, and I was very tired.  

I had just entered the civilized section of the trail, and I could see buildings of the mall.  People were lining the pathway cheering us on, when one guy stepped out, ever so helpfully, and said, "You can do it!  Only 200 yards to the finish line!"  Well, at the thought of 200 more yards, I had to walk.  So I did.  I managed to get back into a jog for the final push, but it was a struggle.  I walked as soon as I hit the finish line.  

Here are the results:

As you can see, I didn't come in the first half of the runners... but I'm okay with that.  Fish out of water anyone?  I got 95th in my division, and I'm even more okay with that.  Next time I want to get under 2:10, but I'm just happy that I beat my goal time of 2:20.  

Overall, it was a fun and exciting experience, and I'm glad I did it.  I plan to do it again next year, with maybe a little bit more training beforehand.  The race itself was perfect - I didn't start to feel overheated until the last half-mile, when the sun finally peeked out from behind some clouds.  It also wasn't so cold that I wasn't comfortable the whole time.  

One surprising thing: when I'd finished the race and was sitting drinking some water, I reached up to wipe some sweat away, and my face was grainy.  Hmm.  I couldn't figure out what it was until I licked my lips.  I had salt all over my face from sweat.  Gross.  But very interesting.  

Luckily, after a long nap that afternoon, I was only a little bit sore.  I even wore heels to church the next day!  I won't tell you how it felt to stand up after sitting in one place for sacrament meeting, though.  

Anyways, that was the run.  I feel like a beast for even contemplating running it, but it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be.  I highly recommend running a half-marathon; it's a great self-esteem booster - even if you look a little lumpy around the hips.

<3

Eliza

P.S. Happy 100th post!!!  

I know you're still waiting for the running post, but...

So, I have been working on the running post, but as I don't have any pictures of us all in our running outfits, I couldn't really finish it off.  Don't worry; it's coming!  I also have a Halloween post in the works.  I'll get to it.  In the meantime, I made something so easy, so divine, so wonderful tonight, that I had to share it:

Honey-Glazed Pear Upside-Down Cake

If that name doesn't appeal to you, I don't know what will.  And also, I'm not sure we can be friends anymore.  (Sorry the picture's blurry; it smelled so delightful I had a hard time holding myself back to take pictures while I could have been eating it!)

I first read this recipe about three weeks ago, and I've been dreaming about it ever since.  Two weeks ago, the grocery store was having a sale on all kinds of pears - Bosc, D'Anjou, Bartlett - so I picked up a couple of each, in anticipation of the recipe, which I hadn't read thoroughly enough to know that it called for 3-4 Bosc pears.  By the time I finally got to actually cooking the recipe this evening, there were only four pears still edible: two Bartletts, a Bosc, and a D'Anjou.  So I ran with it.  It was delicious.

First, you caramelize some honey in a pan.  Add pears and cook.  Then you roast them in the oven, pour batter over the top, sprinkle some sliced almonds on top of that, and bake.

Upside down, just out of the oven.  It smelled sooo good I can't even tell you.  Pears + honey + vanilla + lemon + almond??  Duh it smelled delicious.

Wait as long as you can after it comes out of the oven (I didn't wait long enough, and my cake had a large hole in the middle), and flip upside down on a plate.  Eat.  So easy, and so sinfully delectable.

The big hole in the middle of my cake, quickly fixed by stuffing it with the cake that remained in the pan.

I had Heidi over to help eat the cake, along with Stacey and Kristin.  We saved about 1/5 of the cake for Megan, who was at work, but we devoured the rest of it.  The recipe is supposed to yield 6-8 servings; we got 5.

Recipe (originally from here, and many of the instructions are quoted word-for-word):
Honey-Glazed Pear Upside-Down Cake

My modifications are mostly marked with asterisks, with references down at the bottom, so I wouldn't clog up the recipe itself!

1/4 c. honey*
4 small or 3 large Bosc pears, peeled,* quartered lengthwise, and cored
3 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)*
1 cup sugar
Finely grated zest of one lemon (not optional!)
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 c. flour (would half whole-wheat give this more depth?  I don't know... maybe I'll try next time)
1/4 t salt
6 Tablespoons butter, melted and cooled, plus 1 tablespoon melted and cooled separately*
1/4 c. sliced almonds (buy these at the store, don't try to slice them yourself.  The structure helps hold the cake crust together)

1. Preheat oven to 350.  In a 9-inch skillet,* simmer honey until it begins to reduce, caramelize, and darken, 6-10 minutes.  Do not let honey burn; if it starts to smell burned, turn off heat.

2. Arrange pears, close together and cut-side down, in a circular pattern in skillet, stem ends pointing toward center (I didn't bother, as my pears were all assorted and different sizes). Simmer over medium heat, turning them from one cut side to the other, until they begin to turn golden, about 10 minutes.

3. Pour pears and juices into a 9-inch cake pan.  Flip pears over to their curved side and scatter with thyme sprigs (or sprinkle with ground thyme) if using. Transfer pan to oven and roast, uncovered, until very tender, about 25 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together sugar and lemon zest. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Fold in flour and salt; stir in 1/2 cup butter.

5. When pears are soft, remove pan from oven, discard thyme sprigs and brush edges of pears with remaining 1 tablespoon melted butter. Pour batter on roasted pears* and scatter almonds over batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cake cool for 30 minutes in pan. Run an offset spatula along edges of pan to loosen cake; carefully invert cake onto a serving platter. Serve warm or cooled.

My changes to the recipe:
1. The recipe calls for chestnut honey.  I used regular clover honey.  It was still good.
2. I didn't peel the pears.  Mostly because I was so eager to bake the cake that I didn't read the instructions very well.  but still... yummy.  And also it adds more fiber, even if it's not as pretty.
3. I didn't have fresh thyme, so I sprinkled a tiny bit of ground thyme on top of the pears before I put them in the oven.  It was good, and added another flavor dimension.  I think if I have the chance, though, I'll try it with fresh thyme sprigs.
4. The recipe called for 1/2 cup plus 1 T, but I didn't feel like I needed quite so much.  I used maybe 6 tablespoons plus the tablespoon to melt over the pears.
5. The recipe says not to use a non-stick skillet, as they apparently don't go in the oven (?).  I just cooked my pears over the stovetop in a non-stick skillet and then dumped them into a 9-inch cake pan for the roasting.  The recipe reflects my changes :)
6. It won't seem like there's enough batter, but just pour/spread/spoon it evenly over, and it will turn out.


Enjoy!

<3
Eliza