Happy Break?

So, it's kind of my first day of break between quarters and to celebrate, I went to the dentist.  I swear they fought a war in my mouth and I was the loser!!  My mouth hurts soo bad right now!  Anyway, my dreaded biology exam is behind me and I'm hoping for a decent score, psych is complete and my required Philosophy/Logic requirement is fulfilled!  Here's to some pleasure reading, baking, cooking and relaxation before summer quarter and nutrition start up!

Sunny Day at Play

Tiana's out of town, so Kent and I decided to do somethings that she may or may not be interested in.  First stop was to be the tulip fields in Mount Vernon.  Um...Or not!  The traffic was horrendous because EVERYONE had that idea!  It was the actual festival day, there was a street fair in town to celebrate and it was a warm sunny Saturday.  So, we moseyed on up to the former Northern State Mental Hospital grounds to take some pictures.  A classmate of mine had gone there to do some AP Photography shooting, so I thought would be fun to take a look around.  Unfortunately, the hospital itself is off limits, although I've seen some  photos from inside the building.  I think it would be SOO cool to explore it!  I think we were up there at least 2 if not 3 hours just walking around the grounds, peeking in the buildings, walking through them, conjecturing what they were used for.   A few of the buildings had signs that explained what they were, but the rest we had to pretty much just guess at.  We did "sneak" onto the main grounds and took an external hospital picture or two, but without "official" business there, we decided not to risk sticking around.  Then we had  a little Dairy Queen pick me up and decided that we weren't so far from the Canadian border so we might as well head on up for dinner.  We ate at our favorite Fish and Chips place, grabbed a bag of Ketchup flavored potato chips as well as a bag of Dill Pickle flavored, stopped at Starbucks and headed back home!  We were in Canada all of about 2 or 3 hours! ☺ The weather was fantastic and the day relaxing.  I even managed to read two of my three chapters for biology!  Feel free to take a look at the photos I took.  A lot of them were playing with depth of field and light!

Sunny days

Sunny Days in Seattle are a wonderful time to live here!  We thoroughly enjoyed the sun as we wandered around downtown and took in the rays, the views, the experience of downtown!  It's spring break so there were A LOT of people around, many holding bouquets from the Market.  There was the Trayvon Martin demonstration and blue trees, the "characters" for Sakura-Con - an anime and Asian cartoon/culture convention.  Not something I really understand! For more pictures, click the flowers.

This is a recipe I ran across one day and have loved forever since then!!  It was in the New York Times and it's fabulous!
Crispy Onions
Start with at least a medium onion per person; slice it. Put a splash of oil – doesn’t have to be olive – in a pan. Turn heat medium-high so the onions sizzle when they get in there; salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown. Lower the heat a bit, but not much. Cook, stirring more frequently, until they are really quite shriveled and dry. Then cook a little more — until black spots begin to appear. Then stop. Total time, around 15 minutes, maybe 20.
Salt them a little more if you like and serve on top of anything

Super Duper Yumminess!!

Found here and HERE!
OREO TRUFFLES
1 package Oreos (NOT double stuf!)
1 8oz. package cream cheese
2 8oz. packages semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted

Keep out about 6 Oreos to crush and sprinkle on top of the finished truffles.  Beat the cream cheese until fluffy.  Add finely crushed Oreo cookies, mixing well.  Form into 1" balls and dip into melted chocolate.  Sprinkle with leftover crumbs.  Refrigerate for 1 hour before enjoying.  Store leftovers in the refrigerator.  
Some people in their reviews on the website said that their truffle balls crumbled when they dipped them.  I used two forks to lift the truffles out of the chocolate and I had no problems! I also used a double boiler so my chocolate could continue to stay very liquid-y.  Another reviewer suggested using other sandwich creme cookies, including Nutter Butter!  Now, honestly, how bad could THAT be?!?!  Well, other than what it would do to my scale!!
Oh, and I also sprinkled them with my Chocolate/Coffee/Sugar from Trader Joe's -- it comes in a grinder!! 

Low-Fat Chocolate Mousse

So, this just sounds too good to be true! I'll have to make this sometime soon! Who knows, with Valentine's Day tomorrow it might happen. We'll see! If nothing else, I didn't want to lose the recipe since it was in our Spry Living magazine in yesterday's newspaper!
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
8 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. plus 2 Tbs. confectioner's sugar
Preheat the oven to 350º. Coat an 8½" springform pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment or wax paper. Set aside.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave, a double boiler or a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Meanwhile, separate the egg yolks from the whites and transfer the yolks to a bowl. Beat the yolks until thick and pale. Gradually beat in the chocolate until blended. Fold in the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, beat the whites with ¼ c. of the sugar until soft peaks form. Fold ¼ of the whites into the chocolate mixture and then fold in the remaining whites.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until almost set but still slightly jiggly in the center. Cool in the pan to room temperature before cooling completely (still in the pan) in the refrigerator. Removed from pan; dust with remaining sugar before serving.
Serves 12
Per serving: 156 cal., 9 g fat, 5 g protein, 16 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 145 mg cholesterol, 44 mg sodium

Beautiful...True...Inspiring