How to use butter and sugar

Dear Reader,

All I can say is I'm sorry you weren't at my ward's potluck this afternoon, mainly because it means you didn't get to eat this:

"Oh! Tell me more about this creation!" you're saying. Well, OK.

It's a salted caramel chocolate shortbread bar. Uhh...yup. It's like I combined everything good in this world into one dessert. And it was amazing.





















So, because you missed out on eating it today, here's the recipe so you can make it on your own. I hope you're not afraid of butter and sugar...they're kind of key ingredients.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Bars

Yield: about 5 dozen small bars

INGREDIENTS

For the shortbread layer:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup sugar

For the caramel layer:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp. light corn syrup
2 (14 oz.) cans sweetened condensed milk

For the chocolate layer:
8 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tsp. light corn syrup
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Fleur de sel or sea salt, for sprinkling

DIRECTIONS

• To make the shortbread layer, preheat the oven to 325° F.  Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper.  In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir with a fork to blend, and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until well blended, about 1-2 minutes.  With the mixer on low speed blend in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.  Transfer the dough to the prepared baking pan and press in an even layer over the bottom of the pan.  Bake 15-18 minutes or until golden.  (If the crust puffs up a bit while baking, just gently press it down while it is cooling.)  Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.
• To make the caramel layer, combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup and condensed milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted.  Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer, stirring constantly.  Continue simmering and stirring until the mixture turns an amber color and thickens slightly.  Pour the mixture over the shortbread layer, smooth the top, and allow to cool completely and set.  (I chilled at this stage to ensure that the caramel layer would not melt when the warm chocolate was added.)
• To make the chocolate glaze, combine the chocolate, corn syrup, and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.  Heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth.  Pour evenly over the caramel layer and use an offset spatula to smooth the top.  Allow to cool for a minute or two and then sprinkle with fleur de sel.  Chill, covered, until ready to slice and serve.
  
  
  (I got the recipe from the blog Annie's Eats. It's like it was made for me!)

Books, books, books. Have I mentioned I love them?

Dear Reader,

We now come to the final installment of my adventures in Portland. And I've just got one word.

POWELL'S.

Oh, heavenly beauty that is an entire city block and four floors of books. The largest independently owned bookstore in the country.

This is the picture book section. Well, part of it. It was just SO BIG. This is a picture book called "My First Batman Book." It's an interactive board book. 100% magic? Why yes.

And this was its companion book: "My First Superman Book." One with Natalie's favorite superhero, one with mine. It was perfect!

After spending a few hours in the morning looking through the children's section, Natalie and I went to get food from some of the many, many food stands of Portland. We ate in Pioneer square, said hi to this guy,

and talked to a group of missionaries passing through on their P-day. I love missionaries! One of the sisters had the same coat as me, so that was also cool.

Natalie and I walked a bit around Portland, passing through a toy store (have I mentioned that we have the maturity of ten-year-olds?) and the place where her dad works. Then--we returned to the most beautiful place on earth. 

For many more hours. We were so tired.

See?

I believe we spent about 7 hours or so in Powell's that day. It was a long time coming.

Aaaaand....I may have bought like six books. I had to. I promise.

For dinner we went to a haunted pizza restaurant. It used to be a hotel where a girl was murdered, but now they serve amazing pizza there. Yes it was creepy, no I would never want to work there, and maybe I would like to spend the rest of my life eating that pizza.

Afterwards, because it's not like we'd eaten enough food that day, we went to Voo Doo Doughnuts. It's this doughnut store where they put crazy things on doughnuts, like cereal and bacon. But not both on the same doughnut, don't worry. They have some boundaries. 

I took the cereal route. I figured, when would I be able to get a doughnut covered in frosting and fruit loops ever again? Probably never.

I didn't actually eat it until I got back to Honesdale. My flight left at like 10 or 11 or something at night. I slept on every airplane I was on (3) for the entire time I was on the airplane. That's how I like to travel. :)

The doughnut was absolutely amazing, though. Next time you find yourself with a doughnut, some frosting, and a box of fruit loops, I recommend you take the plunge.

So, in conclusion, I absolutely love Portland. And Natalie is the best tour guide! The city lived up to every grandiose expectation she's drilled into my head throughout our entire friendship.

Which is good. Otherwise things could have gotten awkward.

"Stay young. Go dancing."

Dear Reader,

This weekend Death Cab for Cutie was playing down in Philadelphia. Woo! I love me a good concert.

Please, enjoy this song by Death Cab as you read this post:

Lehi and I headed down to Philly Friday afternoon.

We hit up the Love sculpture (which I've already seen other versions of in England and at BYU, but it's the city of brotherly love, so why not see it again? There's no such thing as too much love.).

And of course we got a Philly cheesesteak. Go big or go home, right?

After the concert--which was pure magic, in case you were wondering (And not just because of Death Cab, but also cause the opening band was Frightened Rabbit, from Scotland. Enough said.)--Lehi and I went down to DC to visit Natalie!

And to go to the temple. It had been a little while. Isn't the DC temple so beautiful? I love it.

After the temple we hit up the Natural History museum and the American History museum. Of course, seeing C-3PO was pretty much a highlight of my day.

But this was probably THE highlight. Picture this: Natalie in a space suit and me in a one-size-fits-all nightgown of the first lady dresses, walking down the mall. I mean, tell me that's not one of the greatest images of your life. Wouldn't it make you love DC that much more if you saw two people doing that?

Well, I would love it.

It was an awesome weekend of escapism, but I'm pretty sure we were all thoroughly wasted by the end of it. I may or may not have passed out for several hours after church today.

Worth it!

Attempting adventure.

Dear Reader,

Because there was no school yesterday Natalie and I wanted an adventure. It was, after all, our last vacation whilst in college.

But then we remembered we live in Provo.

And it's winter.

And nothing was going on because it was President's Day.

So we asked ourselves: What does one do in Provo? Eat and go to the dollar theatre.

Next question: Are there dollar theatres and restaurants elsewhere in Utah?

Answer: Sandy.

So we went to Sandy. And we took our Provo experience with us.

We ate at Five Guys (which they have in Provo, but I had never been to before) and it was good. Like way good. And even if I didn't believe that the food was good myself, I had dozens of signs and newspaper clippings all over the wall to convince me it was true.

We saw The Tourist at the dollar theatre. It was funny (and not playing at the Provo dollar theatre, so that totally justifies a 45 minute trip to Sandy, right?...). I recommend it if you're looking to suspend reality for a few hours. Or if you just want to look at beautiful scenes of Venice, Paris, and London. And wish that you were there.

A highlight of the night was that Natalie and I stopped by Petsmart on the off-chance that there just might be dogs there that we could see. As luck would have it there were several dogs with owners and a little girl even let us pet her puppy (which came bounding towards us, by the way. It clearly loved us. Or it wanted our leftover french fries. Whichever.).

Oh, and if you're wondering what it feels like to have a puppy running towards you, this will give you an idea:

I believe "pure joy" are the words you're looking for.

If you couldn't tell, I want a dog reals bad. (If you want more evidence, go here to Natalie's blog. She expounds on the topic further.)