#4 - Join a Bible Study/small group
Done. Through the church I attend, a group of young women started meeting in mid-February. We meet every-other Monday night and are working through Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit, a study by Beth Moore. Meeting every other week provides some additional time to complete the homework assignments (Beth Moore studies are intense!) and cuts down on my drive time! Better yet, I'm getting to know some people in the church!
#74 - Start a wine journal
Sister-in-law 1 gave me a wine journal for Valentine's Day (how sweet is that?!)--so far I have two entries and am looking forward to adding more!
#88 - Get my ring cleaned
Completed earlier this month when I remembered to take my ring warranty with me to JCPenney's on a recent shopping trip with my mom and aunt. All is well and it shines like a star again!
#93 - Make scones from scratch
Accomplished last weekend during a baking extravaganza with my sister-in-law 1 (do we see a pattern here with SIL1? She's been super-helpful in helping me crank through my list!). I browsed the internet for a recipe that I thought looked manageable. I used the Cranberry Orange Scones recipe found on the Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea blog. It sounded simple enough, I liked that they included pictures with the recipe, and that I got to use my hands for part of the mixing process. My family agreed that the scones were super yummy. I couldn't find "orange-flavored cranberries" (so I just used regular craisins) and the orange juice I used wasn't "high pulp." I don't like dry scones and these had just the right touch of moistness, and did I mention they were yummy?
Cranberry Orange Scones
3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp grated orange peel
3/4 cup chilled unsalted butter
1 cup dried orange-flavored cranberries (I couldn't find the flavored kind, so regular works too)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup orange juice - high pulp
3 tsp orange creme yogurt
Preheat the oven to 400°. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Mix in orange peel. Cut the butter into 1/2 inch pieces, and mix into the flour using your fingers. Rub and mix and mash (with your fingertips) until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Add the dried cranberries. Combine the wet ingredients in a small bowl - orange juice, buttermilk, and yogurt. Slowly add the liquid to the flour/butter, mixing with a fork until you get moist clumpy dough.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Knead about 4-6 times, just enough to bind the dough together, then roll/shape it for cutting. Form the dough into a large log, about an inch and a half thick, then cut a slice about every 3 inches. Then cut the pieces diagonally to form the triangular scone shape. Lay the cut scones, about 2 inches apart, on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400°.
#95 - Do a Girls' Nite Out with my sister-in-laws and cousin(s)This took a lot of planning but was finally accomplished one cloudy weekend in February. We all live in different corners of the valley (Mesa, Awahtukee, west Phoenix, and Peoria) so we decided to meet in a central location near downtown. I meant to take a picture (to document the event), but my pomegranate margarita must have clouded my memory. The food was yummy, the conversation divine, all in all, a great evening!
Everytime I check something off the list, I'm continually reevaluating the things I have on there. For example, try 100 new recipes--what was I thinking?? Really, trying 50 or 40 recipes would be a tremendous stretch given how often I cook (almost never). And, all the trips I think I'll be taking? Certainly I love to travel, but I most often find myself using my vacation time to visit the same places (Colorado, Omaha, South Dakota). Why? Because that's where my friends/family are and if I can take time away from the office, I'd rather spend it with them than soaking up rays by myself on a beach somewhere!
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