Happy Birthday Marilyn!

My roommate Jacob and I got our hair but by Marilyn, one of our mutual friends. So, in return, we decided to bake her a cake for her birthday that was a couple days later. I like making interesting cakes, and this time we made a cake in the shape of an "M", for Marilyn. We couldn't give it to her until like 1:30 am on her birthday, because she was kidnapped and spent the entire day down in Provo. So, Jacob and I faithfully stayed up until she got back home, so we could give her the cake. She will probably kill me if she knew I posted this picture, because it's what she looks like at 1:30 in the morning.

I also made a cake for another friend that had a birthday today as well with the leftovers. His name is Israel, which is good, because that's all the cake I had to make that letter.

Cooking Practice

For the last few weeks, I have been practicing cooking meals with my camping stove that I have inside my house. I've been trying different combinations of foods to see what's easiest and fastest to make.

I have made Thai food (which is actually really easy), spaghetti, rice dishes, oatmeal, and the pasta dish I have showing in the pictures.

It's fun to try different combinations of foods to come up with good mixtures. The pasta dish here is simply 2 cut-up hot dogs, pasta, a can of peas, and a can of tomato sauce. Really easy, most things just get thrown in. It actually tasted pretty good too. It will be really fun to see what other combinations I can come up with before I leave on my trip. I'm trying to come up with healthy dishes too so I'm not killing my body from the inside out on this trip, as is the habit of most touring cyclists.


People who go on these trips say that you will probably eat between 3-4 times what you normally eat. I hope I don't eat that much, I actually want to lose some weight on this trip.

Friday Night Jambalaya

Good-ole' southern food! Yeayah! There ain't nothin' better than a meal stocked full of meat. We made Jambalaya tonite for some of our friends, and this might be one of my favorite dishes I have mad so far. This was my first time attempting to make Jambalaya. It was also my first time eating it. It had bacon, ham, chicken, sausage, rice, and a few vegetables in it. we also had some cornbread. It was a perfect meal.

I love cooking for my friends. These dinner parties are always a lot of fun. We had about 20 or so people over this time. Vince and I cooked the Jambalaya, Josh made some amazing peach cobbler using a dutch oven, and various other people we invited brought some dessert items.

The way these dinner parties work is I normally pick a food item or meal type that I want to cook with, and then find a recipe online. Then I go to the store and buy all the food that is required for the dinner, then come home and cook it. Then everyone that we invite comes with $4.00 to pay me back for the food that I purchased, and we always come out about even. It works out really well.

I really believe in developing strong relationships with the people that I care the most about, and that's what these dinners represent to me. They aren't just an opportunity to socialize. They are the most important people in my life, either because I have had some type of impact on them, or they have influenced me in some way. Life is all about building relationships, and keeping them strong. That's what makes people happy.

My First Try at Sushi

I love sushi so much, but it's so expensive that I don't get it very much. So, I decided to learn how to make it myself. It's not as hard as people think it is, they just have-to go to the Oriental food mart and hold the Oriental lady's hand for a few minutes while she translates to you what Katsuo-bushi, mirin, nori, and shoyu is, and how it's used in sushi.

The best way to learn how, is just to go to Barnes and Noble, and pick up one of those "learn how to make sushi" book/CD packets. The guy on that CD is very helpful.

I was really excited to make it, and it tasted great! I used raw tuna as my fish, and added a little bit of roasted sesame seeds and spinach leaves.

Next time I will include a lot more ingredients, and do a little bit better at making the rice, so it doesn't have the consistency of toothpaste like this one almost did.