The Pains of Putting it Out There.

Today I entered my first cooking competition I have done in over two years. I called my old teacher a few months ago to ask if I could get into some kind of competition since I missed them so much. He mentioned the cold food salon, which I had done a few years ago and done petit fours, where I earned a silver medal. I was excited to enter again, this time doing a wedding cake.

I'm in a rush to blog before Derek needs to use the computer for his class. Long story short, I worked day in and day out on an over-ambitious cake for this competition. My weakness is piping, and stupidly, this cake had a LOT of piping. My mom came over to drop something off last night in the midst of my misery, and was one of the few witnesses to see the huge bags under my eyes.

This morning I had Derek take of work to help me deliver the cake that I was already feeling if-y about. Everyone was happy with the results, but me, as usual. I have high expectations for myself, and more than anything, I know what these judges are looking for: perfection.

As Derek and I were trying to lift the four tiered cake onto the stand, a catastrophe unfolded. My wedding ring got caught under the cake, on of the brooches fell onto the floor, and the fondant on the bottom layer buckled on the edge of the stand. With about twenty people watching us set it up, the nerves weren't helping. The most helpful part were the people saying in clear loud voices "wow that cake is going to just crumble to pieces, I feel bad for that girl. She's screwed."

However, after being completely discouraged, I managed to recieve a bronze medal and some strict critizism from the judges. I'll never cease to love competing, no matter how hard it hits me. Here are the pictures of the cake. Luckily after the damages we were able to make it look fairly presentable:

The Celeb Five.

I am always asking Derek who he thinks is the hottest celebrity.... I don't know why I find this intriguing, but most of my friends do the same thing to their husbands. The funny thing is, I think I want to make sure he picks good looking girls, because if he has bad taste and he's married to me...that's a horrible sign.

Last night I decided we really needed to get to the bottom of things and make Derek's final list of top 5 celeb beauties. After I named off just about every star I could think of, we finally came to these final five:

1. Keri Russell

2. Rachel McAdams

3. Tea Leoni

4. Zooey Deschanel

5. Mila Kunis

Here is mine for kicks:

1. Jason Schwartzman

2. David Beckham

3. Brad Pitt

4. Jimmy Fallon

5. Stephen Moyer

Moral of the story is I'm dying to hear what everyone else's is... so I want to hear your post.

Tasty Reminder.

For a very belated celebration of Derek and I being together for 3 years, we decided we wanted to go eat at UVU's culinary arts restaurant. (That is where I went to school, for your last semester you work in the restaurant that is open to the public). We took my friend Toni and her boyfriend along with us. The theme was Japanese, which of course is mine and Derek's favorite kind of food. Some of it was oober authentic, which made it a little unique on the taste buds, but overall I thought the kids did a phenomenal job and I loved all of my food. I brought pictures, since the food was awe-inspiring.

The sushi appetizer:

My Daikon fettucine salad:

Cucumber salad with sweet vinaigrette:

Teryaki salmon with potato crouqette:

Suprisingly good tofu cheesecake:

Chocolate tart: (So pretty!)

Donuts with maple ice cream: (Again, so pretty!)

It's $20 a meal, but you get five courses and its a really fun experience to watch the kids cook/serve, etc. You should make a trip sometime!

Pick up the Change.

The past few weeks have been monumental in my life. I don't know why it had to happen now, and what inspired it. I would love to ramble on about every little thing that has changed for me.  In short, I am starting to discover that I have always been a somewhat close-minded person, and I never realized it until recently. I have to say I am very grateful for the people in my life that have the guts to stand up to me and let me know when I need to make a change. There are some really important things I believe in now....

1. You can absolutely let your guard down sometimes. I have trouble trusting people, but sometimes it is perfectly fine to take the risk.

2. Be open-minded. Just because people have different beliefs or desires as you, doesn't mean they are wrong. The majority of people are trying their best to find happiness, and everyone is dealing with some kind of struggle. No matter how many times I judge someone, I always find out I'm the one in the wrong.

3. Forgiveness is one of the most important things to learn. Everyone makes mistakes, even big ones. It may take time, but there is always room to forgive eventually.

4. The grass is ALWAYS going to look greener on the other side, but take a closer glance. What you've got is pretty damn great. And if it's not, I hope you'll take the steps to make it great.

5. This is the hardest one for me, but when it seems like the whole world is caving in around you, it usually means that you are the one that needs to make a change. It's much harder, and inevitably impossible to change everyone else's perspective.

Please don't take this like I'm implying anything going on in my life. There are SO many events that have made me realize these things. I know this is all oober sentimental, and I don't mean to sound preachy, heaven forbid. This is mainly for me. Thanks to you all for being in my life, it's truly fabulous. 

This is Halloveen.

Halloween was great as usual. Hope you all had a fantastic time!