Poor, poor Petra.

So, apparently when the city decides to build a new roundabout out of concrete they are forgetting that we get ice in the winter and concrete has no texture to help provide traction. Drive to work Monday morning was cold and there was a bit of frost on the ground here and there, but the roads were dry. Until entering this  poorly designed roundabout with two lanes to enter from one side, but only single lanes the rest of the way around, very faint lines to designate these lanes, confusing and little signage to explain it and a sudden change from normal, dry asphalt to slick concrete.

I was happily about to exit this roundabout, when a fellow entering from another street hit the concrete and although he was on his brakes, they weren't doing anything for him and the front left corner of his Bronco invaded the personal space of Petra's front passenger door. My first thought was "Yay, Volvo!" as one of the reasons we selected it was for it's safety ratings and I have a simple bruise on my knee and no other injuries. I also drove away from the scene (after given permission from the officer of course) and got myself to work while the owner of the Bronco had to wait for a tow truck.

Arranged to have it towed to a body shop while at work (because I wasn't really keen on driving it around more in the state it was in.) and worked out the rental car details, had Enterprise pick me up from work and drove home a beauty of 2013 Mini Cooper. I am already attached to the little thing, named it Petri, and pretty sad that I have to give it back. (I keep telling Ed that we're going to trade Mini's with other owners around town, so that we get to keep one and they have to return one.) It makes the cutest little sounds at me, has a Start Engine button push, two sun roofs, and more storage space in the back than I expected (although it's still not a lot). Ed has a swim meet out of town next weekend and I am trying to convince him to take the Petri for a road trip but he's pretty set on taking Hans.

In less fun news, we found out Wednesday that the damage to Petra is over half of what she's worth (by just $70) so the insurance has decided she's totaled. Ed and I are going to get my stuff out of her tomorrow, try to pull out the new CD player, and the new tires, and the new battery, and hopefully be able to siphon out some of the $60 of gas I had just put in not 5 minutes prior.

We've been doing a bit of car shopping, mostly just browsing to see what I like and such. Can't buy anything anything we settle with the insurance company and get the loan taken care of. I've been trying not to think too hard about it because I don't want to get attached to car but not be able to buy for a week or two and have it gone by then.

Besides being in my first car accident ever in my life, and getting to drive my dream car around for a while, the week has been uneventful. Nothing remarkable happened at work. I finally bought my own pair of goggles to swim with, so I'm not using Ed's any more. Still swimming at least twice a week. I'd like to go up to four nights a week, but currently around two or three. KD and I have started "Pedometer Races" each day since I did a fancy pedometer a week ago at work. She usually wins.. but after a month of these races, she's going to swimming in the evenings as well.

Also in the swimming world, I told the head coach that Ed works with that I'd be willing to maintain the team website for her. Since it hasn't been updated in over a year. Apparently they are about half way though a contract with Go Daddy which is fairly cheap and not so great so I don't know exactly what all I'll be able to accomplish with it, but mostly I just want to find a way to be involved and help out with the team so I thought that would be something I could work on.

Now that Ed has the coaching and lifeguard tests and such behind him, he's working on training for a lifeguard supervisor position. There are a couple of lifeguards who have given their notice and leaving soon so there are spaces opening up, but I also  happen to know that the supervisor position isn't usually offered until after life guarding for a year. March will be Ed's 6th month working there so it's pretty exciting. Swim team practice is amping up with an extra hour in the afternoons for all the meets coming up, also many of the older kids were at State competitions last weekend and sectionals last month. He's also going to have some morning lessons start up again in a week or two. Things are continuing to move along nicely for him at work.

As I type, I'm in the middle of crafting (waiting for paint to try). Trying to make some cute picture frames to take to work. My inspiration comes from a "frame" I found on Etsy that looks simple enough to recreate. The wood plaques I got are, not as fancy. Just cheap little things from Walmart. I've painted up the edges and will soon be adding scrapbook paper. A few weeks ago I ordered 4 x 4 prints of some of my favorite Instagram pictures that I plan on using. All I need to do is put it all together, and get some of those metal clips to attach. And looks up how to make some Mod-Podge at home. Which I think I know how to already but should double check.

Well.. I suppose that's all. I have more I could ramble on about, but I think this is long and rambly as it is.. so I'll save it for the next update. :) Perhaps the next one will be a little more focused and organized.

diy part 2

Today we did a number of things wedding related, even though it was Austin's birthday. He even was a dear and sort of told me it was fun (he said I wasn't dragging him around.) We went to the party rental place and placed our orders for chairs/tables/linens, etc. And then we went to 3, yes 3, Dollar Trees for stuff for serving ware & centerpieces.

Here is what I got:


These little 3" high vases and tea candles.



I'm going to wrap around lavender to mimic the thing I found on Pinterest:


The lavender bunches are only $10.50 for five, and I LOVE the smell of lavender, I'm just worried that since they are dried they won't be as vibrantly purple as I want them to be.

So I'm going to be on the look out for lilac bushes in the area. I think it is sort of early for lilacs, but I love them and they would act similarly. Alternatively, I might look at Michaels and go the fake flower route. Either way, I'm not "wedded" to anything.

I've been making that same bad pun for weeks.

The other centerpiece I'm going to use is with taller vases (that I also got at the dollar store) with some green rock/marbles/whatever they're called, and then some green candles. Keeping it exceedingly simple, but I think it looks nice enough.


When we were renting our supplies, we got these long white plates to put little munchies on. But it's white on white on white, and so the green beads will add some necessary color.


That's about it. We ended up getting some plastic cutlery, plastic cups, and napkins too. All in all we spent about $40 and that's for all the centerpiece stuff (except flowers) and all serveware, so I'm feeling pretty awesome about that!

Week in Review.

This week has been most noticeable for learning a new trick at work, which included giving me permission electronically to do it. As I am receiving faxes and putting those documents in the charts next to everything should have a physician signature on it. If I received it and it doesn't, I now have the ability to mark it as deficient and electronically let the physician know it needs to be signed. As opposed to the nurses printing out the documents, getting a signature and re-scanning it into the chart. The process isn't all that impressive, but it does have a fairly large effect on efficiency and the completeness of the chart. So that's kinda of exciting... makes me feel important when I do it. (Which, I've only had to like, 4 times this week..)

Everything else is going well. I'm running for help much less often with the phone, usually now it's either a new problem I haven't encountered yet or I'm just double checking before I do something. I am now starting to keep track of what I do each day. How many phone calls, how many faxes, how many people walk in, how many QA's I do, etc. I'm also supposed to keep track of how long it takes me to do those things..but that's kinda hard to keep track of my day minute by minute. So I've come up with an excel chart with each of my job duties and I've divided it up from 7:30-10 10-12:30 and 1-4. While that's not exactly minute by minute, it still shows what I'm focusing on most during those hours, I may not have done a lot of QA in the afternoon, but their were a lot of phone calls and faxes, etc. I was asked to do this so the manager can justify keeping my position a position. I'm not worried about my status as an employee so much as I'm sure I could easily change to a new position, but this is for the position itself.

Valentine's Day was fun this year, Ed came to surprised me at work with flowers and chocolate. It was the first time he'd been in and seen my office at work since I started so it was fun having him there. He got to meet a couple of coworkers who were very impressed with him. After he left I was sitting there thinking "I should at least get him a card or something..." and came up with getting him a card and one of his favorite big bags of jerky and grabbed a soda for him too. Jerky is to guys as chocolate is to women, right? Nothing fancy, but still fun. I took it to him at work as well.

Speaking of his work, I've started going in to swim in the evenings and Ed is attempting to teach me proper strokes. I've only gotten the chance to go in twice so far, but hopefully this coming week I will be able to get in the pool more. I'm not so great at it. I can't breath and perform a some-what proper stroke at the same time. I can get the strokes but loose it when I move my head to breathe. Or if I focus on breathing properly, I lose the stroke. I've got a lot of breathing exercise to focus on, such as actually exhaling while underwater, and inhaling quicker when I do come up for air. My instinct is to take a deep breath when I come up but that's not really the goal. I think at this point it would help if I focus on one stroke too, probably the free style. I was trying the butterfly out on Wednesday which was getting really frustrating. I was hard on myself already from feeling like I was making a lot of mistakes at work (which I wasn't really..just dwelling on a few I did make) and then trying one of the hardest strokes I just felt like a failure all day in general. So.. hopefully I can keep this up and will should eventually start improving.

Ed is currently in Springfield at a swim meet. He's on his own with just two kids from the swim team to keep track of. The head coach, Heather, is with some of the older kids at a meet in Eugene. I stayed home to go dress shopping with Connie and the other girls. I got a dress for their wedding.. but I was the only one who got a dress and I guess we are all going to Portland next weekend to shop. I do still need another dress for Amy's wedding, so I'm glad we're going again, but I wish I had gone to the swim meet with Ed.
I do have the rest of the spring & summer meet schedule, there are 11 more meets, 6 of them are local, 2 of the remaining out of area are 3 days which I am going to try and get Friday off so I can go. Most of the out of area ones, and a few of the local ones Ed is on his own at those as well with the younger kids while Heather at different meets with the older kids. The last one is a camping trip meet on the coast. I'm really looking forward to that one, there is a big BBQ planned and it sounds like a lot of fun.

Not a whole lot else going on. Last month I took advantage of a photography special and booked Ed & I another session for this month. Still waiting for picture to drift in but here is one of my favorites so far.

I booked our session at the elementary school where we first met. Our photographer is another young high school student, truly has the cheapest prices in town. She was super fun and cute, and I actually got Dan & Connie to book her for their wedding after the other photographer moved and canceled on them. At the same time the person I found to do their cake told me she was unavailable that weekend and at least she recommend me to someone else who was available. Wedding planning chaos! They are so close it's getting a little stressful, but it also means they are nearly here and I'm super excited for them both.

diy Wedding Part 1

If one thing is true, it is that I am not a crafter. I do not sew (though I'd love to), I do not knit (also like to), I don't know the difference between craft paint and gorilla glue. The closest I come to being crafty is when I cook... and that's a stretch.

But I wanted to save money on my wedding AND add character to our party. I didn't want to have to buy candy jars and cake stands and centerpieces. So I decided to make them.

I'm happy to say this is the first time I've actually used Pinterest. I pinned a few things over the past few months and finally got around to making them!

I've been saving jars and whatnot for a few months now (against Austin's wishes, certainly). And I was finally ready to get to work a few weeks ago. 

I started by going to the Dollar Tree for candlesticks, Home Depot for terra cotta pots, and Michael's for craft spray paint and glue and paper for the cake stand. 

I got to work - I was VERY impressed with the way THIS SPRAYPAINT worked, particularly on glass. I originally bought acrylic paint because I'd heard it was very difficult to paint glass. But then it wasn't the right color (no picture EDIT: the very first picture has the first type of paint i used -- it was more of a forest green), and you could see the brush strokes, so instead I bought lime green spraypaint, which I like much better. 

The finish on it is GREAT! 

Once the paint was dry I glued on the jars I wanted to use. They are smaller than the ones in the Pinterest photo, but I figure the candy station won't be the draw & I can always refill the jars as the night goes on if necessary, plus they were the jars I had. 

They look great, yeah!?

The cake stand was MUCH simpler because I used the spray paint the first time around and terra cotta is pretty much the easiest thing to spray paint.

I did try and add the paper to the bottom like in the tutorial, but I couldn't get it on there smooth, and I couldn't cut a nice round circle. So instead, I'm going to get white paper doilies and cut them around to fit the base and we can put the dough-nuts on that. I'm feeling quite proud of myself.

Part 2 will be centerpieces. I think that's all there is left to do!!! :D

Happy Thoughts

Sometimes life is poopy. Like the last week. No reason to feel differently this week than last, and yet... I do. So I'm going to find 10 5 things to make me smile. :D (I wanted to post it and it already took me a few weeks to compile my list sooooo....)

#5

Dory. I was going to do just the "I will call him Squishy, and he will be mine..." bit, and then I was going to do the "Just keep swimming..." but then I forgot about the whale speak and so I watched this video and all was right with the world.

#4

 Shit like this makes me cry EVERY SINGLE TIME. I basically broke down at work today reading the dumb Yahoo! article, and then again just now posting it here & thinking about what a great kid her parents raised & that they were totally freaking awesome in response --> stupid awesomeness that makes me cry  [I know I'm only supposed to add happy things, but I have to juxtapose ^^ with >>this<<, which I also read today, because it made me sad & angry]

#3 

cats in suits. obviously. 

obviously. if not sliiiightly frightening. moving on.

#2

Chappelle Show - on netflix.

#1

And this. Whee! 57 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Probably going to do Hawaii for our honeymoon (in September). We were thinking Mexico, but for the time of year, Hawaii will probably be nicer. I know, first-world problem.

Workin' Girl

 As I hinted in my last post, I do have good news! I've spent the last two weeks WORKING at the hospital here. I was the last of the new hires to squeeze into the paperwork session on the 18th and was able to start working on the 21st. Even after all the paperwork was done and I had worked my first 8..16 hours I was afraid to say I finally got a job in fear that it would be like a dream and suddenly disappear. But by the end of the first week I was feeling a little better as I ended up with my own desk (which is essentially the front desk of the office) and was given a phone with the main office extension so.. those are signs that they don't intend to change their mind about me right?

My desk. (It's L shaped, with my screens in the curve of the L)

I'd say the phone is the most challenging part of my current job duties. I am able to handle about 50% of the calls with no problems, but the other 50% send me running for help. I've got a phone list of extensions and such, and while I know the common ones and such there are still situations were it's faster for me to go ask someone was a persons extension is than to look it up. On the plus side of the phones, I do get to transfer most of the calls to another department, which was the first extension number I memorized. And really... I get less than 30 calls a day, so I can't complain too much.

My other main job duty is to take care of the fax queue for surgery pre-admissions. Which really is just checking to see if the patient has an account already or not, and if so properly indexing the faxed over documents into their account. Sorting out the titles and types of documents was a little challenging the first week, but it was a lot easier the second week. That doesn't take a whole lot of time either plus, I know I'm not the only one checking the fax throughout the day. Which is nice for when something comes over and I can't for the life of me read the physician's handwriting of the patient's name. I just leave it in there for someone to interpret.

I've also been learning the office mail. Most of it goes to one of two places and is fairly easy. But usually at least once a day I have to open it up to find out what it is, or look up where an outside physician works so I know what mailbox to put it in.

Besides all that, which really only takes up minutes at a time of my day, I spend my day doing quality assurance. Checking hard copy documents,  one at a time to make sure they are in the electronic records before destroying the hard copy. It's mind numbingly dull for the most part, but besides the necessary need of these QA checks, the whole point is for me to learn my way though the electronic chart and know what kind of documents are in it and where to find information when I am doing other jobs in the future.

My end-of-the-week paperclip collection.

I have what I'm sure is an unobtainable goal for this...getting caught up as I'm currently working on discharges from November, but I really hope I get to move on to something more interesting soon. I also HATE the fact that in the fax queue are "pre-admits" from December. I want those documents out of there! (that's my OCD speaking.) But overall, it's all still very exciting, to actually be working and in the field I went to school for. I wasn't sure it was going to happen for a while there.

I've got some great perks of being a hospital employee. We have the cafeteria with a pasta and pizza area, usually a burrito and grill area, and the daily specials, a salad bar and deli, with side options such as fruit, yogurt, desserts, frozen yogurt, etc. Oh, and two soup options. PLUS we have a cafe downstairs that also serves soups and sandwiches, coffees, smoothies, breakfast sandwiches, muffins, doughnuts, etc. And I get an employee discount that is close to half off. I actually ate three meals a day all week for the first time in who knows how long.

My new favorite thing in life is oatmeal. Most days the cafeteria has "artisan oatmeal" full of bran, quiona, dried bananas  and other good for you things. I paid a dollar something for it, took me 45 minutes to eat it all, and I wasn't hungry at lunch time. So I had a small salad for lunch, and paid like two bucks. I think on Friday's, the main breakfast option is an oatmeal bar, with various toppings. (They also have eggs and sausage, bacon, etc.) The cafe has the oatmeal bar every day, but also a parfait bar every morning. (hellooo summer breakfast!) I've never had a job that fed me so well! So yeah... hospital food. Can't complain!

We get a bunch of other discounts around town too, some local coffee places, car dealerships, even an apartment complex around here. Haven't had a chance to look into all those options. Also, one day a week in the summer the Farmers Market parks itself on the hospital lawn so it should be easier for me start exploring that each week.

I work with one of my classmates, another who was recently hired has been training in our office but doesn't regularly work there. A few others we see periodically as their work in other nearby hospitals brings them into ours for training and meetings. It's kinda fun to see all of us out of the classroom and in the field! I know almost everyone in the office now, and where they sit (the mail sorting helps with that..) just need to figure out their extensions now. And the people who work from home... I've had a few calls for them and they don't have an extension nor am I allowed to give out their number so that's interesting.

The only downside (so far) is that my hours are 7:30-4, which is actually great, since there were considering me for a graveyard shift (and while I would have taken it, I'm glad to not have that one!) But that means I get up at 6 am in order to get ready and drive into town (although the early morning drive is pretty pleasant.. not like it's rush hour in Sacramento or anything! :P) and when I get home around 4:45 Ed has been at work for about an hour already. He doesn't get home until about 7 pm or so. And then I try to be in bed around 9 so I can get up the next morning. Which means I see Ed for about 2 hours a day during the week. Weekends are precious time together now.

And we spent last weekend in Vancouver at a swim meet.. which was time together, but it was time together in a very crowed swimming pool while Ed was working for 8-9 hours. It was chaotic, but still a fun weekend out of the house doing something different. I got to get to know a few of the other kids on the swim team, and realized one of the younger ones Ed teaches is one I know from the preschool I worked in 4 years ago.

My swim meet view.

So anyway, that's what I've been up to. Ed has been trying to get me to go to lap swim with him the evenings, and I've been thinking about it, I want to, but haven't actually gone yet. (I also have access to a gym at the hospital, which I can use anytime, any day.) So now that I'm finally eating better, time to add in the daily activity. (ESPECIALLY now that I sit at desk all day. Which is different than sitting in bed or on the couch all day...) We did get to run around yesterday and spent a bit of time together. Got haircuts (I just cut my bangs), had lunch, did a little bit of shopping and then took a nap. Yay sleep!

Blarg.

No promises for how long this will be. I'm sorry I'm such a debbie-downer. I don't know what's come over me.

I've been kind of unhappy lately. Stressed about finding a permanent job, stressed about money, stressed about wedding and stressed about more superficial things. I've been having really good weekends - but they're the kind of weekends that make me feel guilty! Too much money spent, too much junk food, etc.

I need to find something that's fun to do - that is healthy and cheap. It's been pretty cold here and Austin and I have stopped walking. We used to take nightly walks around midtown, but with the weather falling below freezing it's harder to get out.

Blarg. This is wayy too depressing and I should just cut it out. I'll just leave this here and call it a day.



I'll try to be better next time.

And I'll try to make sure that there really is a next time.

Belated Resoultions

Happy late New Year! I haven't had anything interesting to say lately.. but life has been picking up a little bit and I may actually have something to share.

Apple Banana Cinnamon Smoothie

The most common New Year's resolution is to lose weight/work out. I'll go ahead and say while I intend to get in shape, I probably won't. But am always looking to improve my health, and I think one of my goals for the year is going to be changing my eating habits. I don't have a problem with buying junk food, cookies, ice cream, chips, etc. is rarely on my shopping list and they don't end up buying impulse buys either. However, I don't necessarily buy healthy food either. I'd like to jump on the smoothie bandwagon this year, and boost my fruit and veggie intake and nutrition in that way. I also have a goal of eating breakfast, and lunch. I have trouble convincing myself to COOK lunch, but there is only so much you can not cook. I need to start my days right, with food and actually eat lunch some days. And snacks too, need to come up with snacks. Dinner has been my main meal of the day for years and I'd like to break that habit. All the working out I could do wouldn't do much if I'm not eating right. (In fact, I'm actually rather low on the scale these days and rather concerned about exercising with my lack of nutrition at the moment.)

I did promise yarn in my last post (a month ago...) so here is the yarn I bought to make Christmas presents with. I made four headband/ear warmers and one pain-in-the-butt hat. I was so excited when Christmas was over so I could stop crocheting! I did, just this week, make a hat for myself with the remaining white yarn.. but it's either too long, or the yarn was thicker than in the pattern because it's not quite right. But I love the stitch I used and am thinking about making a baby blanket with it. I've also come across a "crown" pattern I need to get yarn for and make for the new Royal in our family. I believe I promised flowers as well.. but never got around to creating those. I did try.. and wasn't happy with them so I quit. :)

For those who don't know, it's full on wedding season in my brain with two wedding events planned, 6 days in apart, in the very beginning of spring. There has been lots of chatter about dresses, and decorations, flowers, hair and photography. It's getting very close and very exciting.
I feel like I am finally getting somewhere in my job search, which I won't elaborate on at the moment in fear of jinxing it but, thank goodness for that, with these two upcoming weddings! These weddings also equal vacation time so... here's hoping for lots of hours and a good tax refund!

Ed's work is still going very well. He's been working on getting his lifeguard certification, and his coaching certification. He's been coming home with fun goodies a lot lately. Most recently with shirts embroidered with "Coach Ed" and a few days later, his badge and pricey stopwatch. He's also came home with the "lifeguard" shorts and shirt.

 I am very proud of him.

For now, that's all. I hope to have news later this week. And maybe more yarn.

Unremarkable December.

Summer at the Dry Canyon, in December.

It's been two weeks since my last post and I have not done much of anything with that time. I did manage to get my hair trimmed and dyed, and schedule some photo shoots for current pictures, as you may have noticed on Facebook. In fact, waiting to see what pictures she'll have ready next are pretty much the only thing I look forward to lately.

I've cooked a bit, but nothing I've been thrilled with. I'm making a new Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe in the slow-cooker soon and I'm not even sure I'm looking forward to that. I made Cheddar Broccoli Soup last week that I wasn't impressed with, and Chicken Bacon Panini's to go with it. I wasn't thrilled with those either, which was depressing. I do have some turkey meat, I want to make a Turkey & Swiss panini inspired by the one and only Pioneer Woman.

Rigged with bells, to hear troublesome cats.

We did go out in the woods and steal a Christmas tree. It was the puppy Bo's first trip away from the house and into the woods.

This past weekend Ed's brother, Ron, came to visit with his new girlfriend and we had "Christmas" early. They didn't come for Thanksgiving this year, and Ed's parents will be gone for Christmas so this was our big weekend together. We took family pictures with the same photographer, as I came across a fantastic Holiday Package on CraigsList. (it included the pictures of Ed & I, which we took on Wednesday.) Afterward we had a turkey dinner (again. 16 days after Thanksgiving...) and watched Love Actually. Sunday before they left we decorated the tree and put up lights (which the puppy has chewed though two strands of outdoor lights already).

Terrible quality, hard to see. Sorry.

I was inspired to crochet again last night, sat down with an audio book of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (one of Ed's favorite books, and Ron's, and Kirk's. He's been waiting for me to read it forever.) and made myself a headband style ear warmer  In one sitting. (Did stay up until 3 am..) Without pulling it apart even once. So pleased with myself. I even made a bow on it. The perfectionist I am, I'm not 100% pleased with it.. but I am pretty close to 95% please with it. (A Christmas miracle!) I do find it too wide, so it doesn't sit around my head well. And I would like to change the dimensions of the bow, but besides that.. I've decided to make a handful of them for Christmas gifts this year. They only take a few hours, and the more I do it the quicker I get. (I've already made another basic wrap..I need more yarn for trim and decorations.) So I hope to sit down with all 51 discs of Les Misérables, crochet away, and maybe get though most of the book before the movie comes out. If I'm lucky. I want to practice making some flowers instead of bows for some, and I've been working on a new stitch I'd like to use on one of them, except now my hands are cramped up and sore, add Benadryl in the mix and I've decided to stop for the night. Sorry the picture is terrible. Taking a picture of something dark, on dark hair, in poor lighting doesn't turn out well.

The only other bit of interest is that I've recently began actually studying for my RHIT exam. Not terribly seriously at the moment, but I do now have access to mock quizzes and tests. I've been told by a classmate who just passed his exam over the weekend, that it wasn't worse than anything we had in class. That the program I am using is pretty much all he used to study, and working in the field as a coder he felt gave him no advantage when it came to the coding section of the exam. That is the area I am most concerned about, as it wasn't one of my strongest areas, or something I am particularly interested in pursuing. So.. while the questions are obviously not exact, they are covering the same material. There are some things I've found already that I need to go back and study in more detail, so that when the question is reworded, I still know they are talking about. (I have found it really easy to memorized the questions in the resource already, which is a bit of a problem.)

I shall have yarn and yarn flowers to share with you soon.. Pinkie Pie promise.

Squash & Cardamom Cinnamon Rolls

Trial got dismissed. It's good for the client, but I was getting excited. Oh well, I'm sure another one will come up again, tis the nature of the business, afterall.

It was nice to get to regroup at home this weekend. This was my first week working nearly full time and it wiped me out, I will definitely need my weekends in the future. Today Austin and I went out to Roseville (the 'burbs) and went to the behemoth mall they have out there just to look around. We didn't buy anything, but it was nice to get out of the city for a bit. After we got our fill of the holiday-mall craziness we meandered home and I continued to make these cinnamon rolls I'd started this morning.

Sure, it's not the prettiest roll on the block...

A few years ago on Christmas I made these cinnamon rolls, and we loved them. They're pretty cardamom-y, and after round two my inclination is to 1/2 the amount she used in the dough, and then omit it from the filling (which I will tell you about down yonder).  Still, I love the unique, almost anise flavor cardamom has.

For the filling, I wanted to use up a mostly whole butternut squash I had sitting on the fridge. I thought fall flavored cinnamon rolls would be awesome on Christmas morning, and since the recipe makes two batches we'll have some to bring over to our friends' house tomorrow morning.

le process

I diced, then roasted, a nearly whole butternut squash in the oven after coating it with brown sugar (maybe 2 tbs), cinnamon (1 tbsp), nutmeg (1 tsp), cardamom (1 tsp) and a small pinch of cloves.

When it was soft (20-30 minutes), I pureed the squash with a little soymilk (2 tbsp), maple syrup (1 tsp), and honey (1 tsp). I added extra cinnamon and one or two drops of almond extract.

The mixture made enough to spread on both batches of dough. Before we head over in the morning I'm going to make a simple glaze to pour over the top after I bake them. The one above is a lone-roll I baked just to make sure they were good (they are).

The butternut squash is a pretty subtle flavor and I think the cardamom flavored dough from the recipe kind of overwhelms it, so while I would highly recommend the recipe, I will certainly half the cardamom the next time I bake these. Also, it is not a typical super-sweet cinnamon roll recipe. It would be good with a nice glaze, since the rolls themselves are moderately sweetened.

Alright, now that I've made breakfast, I better run and whip up dinner!

UPDATE: I set the cinnamon rolls in a well buttered baking dish in the refrigerator overnight. Then I baked them at 400° for 15-20 Min. They were great. The cardamom had settled down a bit anf he filling tasted like pumpkin pie. YUM. <3 <3 <3