Cinderella's Glass Slipper

So, Caleb and I did a little preliminary competition at a local High School this weekend to get some floor time before Nationals in two weeks. We danced Amateur Ballroom which means it was a 5 dance event: Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep in a row. The first two dances ran smoothly. As we were dancing VW, the clock struck midnight, one of my good friends on team and fellow competitors accidentally stepped on my foot as I was in motion completely ripping my shoe open exposing my whole foot, like so-

Immediately following this tragic event I stood there and stared at it for about a second which is a long time when the music is still running, kicked off the ripped shoe, thought another second and kicked off the other. I danced the rest of VW and the whole foxtrot barefoot. The MC finally asked if anyone had a pair of 7 1/2 pumps I could borrow for the last dance, QS. Someone did but they were huge on me. I hobbled through the last dance and ran to my car to grab an older pair of pumps I thankfully had handy. Maybe the judges simply felt bad for me, but we made it to the final.

I learned two important lessons from this experience:
1. I am hardcore
2. My shoes were cheaply made. How embarrassing.

My All-Time Favorite Cookie

Peanut Blossoms

I honestly can't think of another cookie I like better than this one. My mom always made these growing up and for the past few years I've been trying to make them as good as she does. This weekend I think I got pretty close. I made a few very slight adjustments to the recipe since I'm in a high altitude area. Here's the recipe:

2 3/4 c flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
3/4 c butter (I don't believe in margerine but you can use that too)
1/2 c peanut butter
3/4 c white sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 pkg Hershey Kisses (This time around I used the caramel-filled ones, pretty delish.) Make sure to unwrap these before you put the cookies in the oven because the baking process happens quickly.

Preheat oven to 350, (I adjusted this from 375 because it just was too hot for my oven) Mix wet ingredients, add sifted dry ingredients. Mix well.

Shape dough into one-inch balls, then roll balls in a bowl of granulated sugar to coat. Cook on ungreased cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes (I lean toward 6 minutes).

When cookies are done baking, quickly (and gently) press a kiss into the middle of each cookie. You can return to the oven for 1-2 more minutes to warm the kiss. Be careful, its easy to eat about ten of these in one sitting. Enjoy!

Be My Valentine

This is the first time Jer and I have been together on Valentine's Day in 4 years. We decided to go low key on actual Valentine's Day since we knew it would be too busy to try and go out that night. I packed Jer's lunch for that day a little differently- I cut his sandwich into a heart, put a heart shaped peanut butter cup and wrote reasons why I love him on each baggy, I also made some banana muffins in heart shapes.

During my Latin ballroom class, Jer brought me a rose and balloons (as pictured below) Very sweet. When I got home I set the table nicely for our dinner at home.

 This is our meal, I got Jer his favorite drink and made artichokes, steak, mashed potatoes and gravy and delicious french bread.

 The night after, we went to PF Chang's for dinner. It was delicious. Afterward, Jer surprised me with a couples massage! We went to a place called Solase. I have never had a massage before. It was so awesome, I felt so relaxed. I may become addicted.

Below is a little something I left for Jer when he got home from work. It is a trail of candy kisses, leading to a Nerds rope and sign that says, "Now that I've roped you in by kissing the ground you walk on, will you be my Valentine?" He said yes. :o)

Recipes

OK, I admit it, I have become somewhat of a blog stalker, but not just any blog. This is a blog completely devoted to listing delicious recipes! It is cjaneinthekitchen.blogspot.com and I frequent it daily for new ideas for meals and treats. I found out about this blog only about a week and a half ago and guess how many of the recipes I have made?! Six. That's right people, six recipes in about 10 days. This is how obsessed I am with it. I have ABSOLUTELY loved every single one so far except one which I found to be average. Here are the names of the recipes so you can look them up on her blog. The best part is, she has a google powered search so you can quickly find the recipes you want.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes (To Die For)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Pure Evil Cookie Bars (Really, you feel like you're sinning when you eat them)

Winter Salad With Lemon Poppyseed Dressing (LOVE this dressing and the combo of fruits and veggies in this salad is phenomenal)

Sugar Cookie Truffles (I made these for Valentine's Day to give to Visiting Teachers etc. and I made my own variation on them, I wrapped the sugar cookie in brownie before I dipped them in chocolate. Very time consuming but worth it. I bought some cute treat bags and ribbon at Michael's for like a dollar and wrapped them up.)

And finally, the Chicken Pasta Salad (like I said, kind of average for me but that may be because I have had some other really good and different pasta salads, I will post these recipes asap)

Anyway, I hope you can find as much joy from this blog as I have and continue to find. Let me know what you think if you happen to check it out!

Why I Love Teaching Dance

On Wednesdays at 4:30 I teach the Tiny Tots, most of them are 3 or 4 years old. One of my students that I have had for the whole year named Kyla handed me the cutest "Valentime" she had cut out and wrote "Love Kyla" in her cute 3 year old handwriting. I often get little drawings and tokens from my 3 year olds. They are so sweet.

My BYU ballroom students had their waltz critiques due today. One critique particularly stuck out to me. This student is one of my "class clowns" I guess you could say, but I love how he truly wants to be a better dancer and wants to learn. Here is what he wrote:

My response to my dance performance filmed in class is really positive. I just have to start off saying how amazed I am that I danced the waltz. At the same time I know that it was not perfect.

             Three things you pointed out that I should work on is keeping my head up while I am dancing. This is kind of hard for me because I really like to see where I am stepping before I step somewhere. The next improvement is with the fluidity of the dance. “Your dance moves are clunky,” Christina.  This is something I really want to practice. I thought I looked like a robot out there on the dance floor. I am going to improve by bending my knees and raising to my toes. The third thing is keeping my should relaxed and at the same time in dance position.

            Things that I saw I should work on include being a leader. When I dance I need to have confidence so that I can keep my head up and lead smoothly. The other thing is I have to listen to the music. By letting the music into my heart I will be able to better express my Waltz skills. The last thing I saw was that when I come to bring my feet all the way together in between the different moves.

            What I saw that I liked was that I danced the whole Waltz. I never would have thought that one day I would dance.