12 hours

I spent most of my waking hours in the Fine Arts Center here at my college yesterday.

12 hours, to be precise.

Yes, on a Saturday.

But it's worth it when I see the progress that "A Wrinkle in Time" is making, and see the awesome choreography they're learning in "Seussical the Musical".

This is a small "experimental theatre" that we do student-directed projects in.

And the picture's a bit blurry, but the guy in the center is lifting a girl over his head and spinning.

Oh, so exciting.

They're all having so much fun, and half of them are just as tired, if not more tired than me.

Theatre does that to ya.

A Wrinkle in Time opens in less than two weeks! We start tech rehearsals in the De Jong Concert Hall on Tuesday. It will be over before I know it, I'm sure.

Happy Sunday to everyone!

Baby Dutch Babies

Behold... the result of my latest mini kitchen experiment.

The "full-sized" version of these bites are known by many names: puffed pancakes, dutch babies, dutch oven pancakes, German pancakes... the list goes on. I grew up calling them German pancakes, but I've really grown to like the sound of "Dutch Babies".

So, I suppose that you could call these Baby Dutch Babies. They're teeny-tiny! And they still taste pretty similar to their full-sized counterparts.

I saw the recipe in a book and thought it would make a fun Monday evening project. They were very fast to make, although I did panic a little bit when I was only able to fill up 12 muffin tins instead of 24. I suppose my mini-muffin tin is not the smallest you can get. This recipe calls for tiny muffin tins, folks. That way, these Baby Dutch Babies will literally be bite-sized. Mine are twice as big as they should be (apparantly) but they still taste pretty good.

Note to self: I need to get a powdered sugar shaker. It will make life easier, food prettier, and my kitchen less messy.

For those of you who are curious and want to try this recipe yourselves, here ya go!

Baby Dutch Babies (Makes either 12 or 24, depending on the size of the mini-muffin tin you use)

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup milk

2 large eggs

1/8 tsp salt

Place your muffin tin in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees. While the oven is heating, mix the four ingredients in a blender until smooth. When the oven is done heating, take the muffin tin out (careful, it's hot!) and quickly spray it with cooking spray. Fill the tins 3/4 full with batter and then stick it in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the baby dutch babies look puffy and slightly golden.

Melt 2 tbsp butter, and when you take the bites out of the pan, drizzle the butter over them. Then you can either dip the baby dutch babies in syrup or do what I did: take some strawberries (5-6, frozen or fresh) and blend them up. Pour them over the dutch babies and sprinkle some powdered sugar. I think these also taste good with yogurt, and I daresay that Nutella would taste pretty awesome on them as well. Dang it, I should have tried that... I have a big, fat container of Nutella sitting in my cupboard...

Enjoy!

To dance... to express... to live.

Every time I go to a dance concert, I remember.
I remember how beautiful the human body looks when it twists, turns, leaps, and reaches. I remember how it touches my soul. And I remember how badly I wish I could dance like those people.

I dance 18 hours a week, but that's so small compared to the years that people spend on their technique, form, flexibility, and expression. And it shows. Every movement has meaning - a meaning that touches me and moves me. I went to a ballroom concert last night, and they performed a waltz number dedicated to men who are in service; I was in tears. They did a Disney medley and I felt like a little girl again. The flowing dresses, the graceful lifts and twirls - it is all so beautiful.

A picture from the BYU Ballroom Company's European Pre-Tour Showcase that I saw last night (source)

Expression. Emotion. That is what I love about lyrical dances and contemporary numbers. I went to a Contemporary Dance Theatre concert a couple months ago, and they showed this animated video part-way through the concert. I've always really liked this video, and it's a great example of the passion and emotion that goes into dancing.

Human movement is a beautiful thing. I'm obsessed with it.

The good thing about going to dance concerts = they inspire me to keep trying and to work harder. Someday, I'll feel ready to truly call myself a dancer.

On a different note... for those of you who might not come here often enough to notice... I have a new blog design! I got on a random "re-design" kick yesterday, and I even (finally) made a facebook page for my blog and changed my twitter handle so it's less random and actually relates to this blog!

I finally feel excited about blogging again!