Cottage Cheese Pancakes - First Attempt

This is my first attempt at making the "Cottage Cheese Pancakes" recipe posted by 'erp7e' on one of my favorite fitness forums. The recipe might seem a bit unusual, but these are tastier than you might expect. I added about tsp or so of Flax Oil about half way through my batter, and it seemed to add a bit of firmness to the pancakes. They are thinner than standard pancakes, but they will also keep you "thinner" than standard pancakes. Don't use more than 1/4 cup of batter for each one, cook over low heat, and I recommend adding the Flax Oil and about a scoop of Whey Protein. Here is the original recipe as posted by erp7e:

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Cottage cheese pancakes

Have gotten several requests for this one. These taste pretty good and are fairly high in protein, at least as far as pancakes go.

3 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons flour or cornmeal
Optional: powdered milk or whey protein.

Beat eggs with a small mixer (or blender). Add cottage cheese and mix until fairly smooth. Add powdered milk or whey, if desired, and mix again until smooth. Add butter and flour. Bake as usual for pancakes.
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These really are pretty great, especially if you are looking for a higher protein, lower carb version of pancakes. Top them with some Sugar Free Syrup or Jelly, or combine the Syrup and Jelly with some Cottage Cheese/Sour Cream/Cream Cheese for more of a Blintz style crepe. These give 'em a try, and don't eat too many if you are really watching the carbs and calories. Great treat for the muscle bulkers and low carbers! -Ben

The Dreaded Group Email - Q1 Update

Hello All!

Well, it has been quite some time since I've written to many of you, so I thought is was roughly time again to send out the dreaded mass email (they feel so impersonal and selfish). Seems like forever since I've written one of these and it is difficult to know what to include.

First Year of Marriage
Tiffany and I had our one year anniversary this past summer on May 29th and are now approaching our second (no kids yet, just in case you're wondering). Marriage and living together is definitely much different than simply dating. You learn so much about yourself and your spouse, both good and bad, and have to learn how to cope and compromise on various habits, nuances, opinions (like convincing Tiff that Walmart is not the Devil), and annoyances. For example, one of the first and rare blow-ups Tiffany and I had was over pancakes. Now, I know you're thinking,"Really Ben, c'mon--pancakes?" But what I took as simply expressing how I like my pancakes to be cooked (thickness of the batter, done in the middle etc.), Tiffany took as my unwillingness to appreciate her effort to cook for me. We laugh about it now, but at the time it was quite the little spat. Certainly that situation is comparable to some things that happen during dating, but really, pancakes? Despite that, the first year was great and I'm sure life will only get better in many respects. Marriage is the most wonderful and rewarding choice I have ever made in my life. Tiffany is absolutely amazing, and the fact the she puts up with me now, and has agreed to put up with me for eternity is the most humbling blessing I could have received. I love my life and the person that I am in a large part because of the inspiration and motivation that she is to me (and hopefully she can say the same although I suspect she's better for me than I am for her).

First Year of Ph.D Program
The next major thing is of course school and I am proud to say that I survived my first year, and nearly my second of graduate school (not without a few scars). For those of you that may not know, I had originally planned on getting a Master's Degree in Regulatory Economics and then getting a job doing consulting - to speed up the process I took the first semester of Advanced (graduate level) Macroeconomics during my last semester as an undergrad. By some miracle, along with simultaneously being engaged, I managed to get one of 3 A's in that course. My prof. for that course, Rob Godby, also happened to be the Grad Program Chair and when he sent me my acceptance letter for Grad. School he asked that I enroll as a Ph.D student. After much thought and prayer I felt it was the right decision and the next thing I knew I was newly married and starting the Ph.D program in Economics here at UW. Tiffany got into Ohio State for her Master's and I was told not to expect acceptance (at least not with funding) - the decision was made much easier by the fact that we both got assistantships at UW that fully pay for tuition, fees, plus living stipends. I'm a bit jealous of Tiffany as she will be finishing her Master's in School Counseling in May and I'm still looking at 3 years, but I can't complain too much.

Many of you are now in or finishing some kind graduate school of some kind or another. Ronda and her Medical School, Steve and Hillary in Law School etc. so you are probably aware that graduate school has an entirely different level of expectation and difficulty, and rightly so ( I don't know, maybe it isn't that big of deal for some of you, but for me it has been challenging). In my program, after the first year we have to take two major exams called Comprehensive Exams or Comps (some schools call them Qualifiers or Pre-lims). The Comps are two 5 hour written exams that cover Macroeconomic and Microeconomic theory respectively and are taken two weeks after finals. Even though you get two at each they are still the most stressful and challenging academic process that I personally have been through. For most schools, along with GPA, they are the first round of weeding out (we had two Ph.d students switch to Masters).

On the first try I didn't pass either of the exams, but was given a chance to reverse the decision on the Microeconomics exam through an oral examination from the three Prof. on the Micro committee, so after a few more days of studying I had the privilege of being grilled for roughly 30 minutes (can take up to 2 hours if you are really struggling) on microeconomics by the committee. I happily passed the oral examination and so I only had to worry about retaking the macroeconomics exam at the end of the summer.

Summer 2005
Apart from working full time with Tiffany at WYSAC (WY Survey and Analysis Center) the summer was quite relaxed. Toward the end of the summer Tiffany went off to Guatemala to do an internship as a school counselor and was there for about 5 weeks which became the foundation for her Master's B Paper. While she was gone I kept myself busy by going to a conference in Auburn, AL regarding Austrian Economics which is kind of the libertarian (read free markets) branch of economic schools of thought; it was quite interesting trying to debate pollution regulation with an anarchist.

After that I took another two weeks to prepare for my 2nd try at the macroeconomics comp exam the week before school started. I was the only one retaking the macro comp (I believe 5 retook the micro). I felt pretty good about how I wrote the test, but a few days latter I got the letter telling me that I had once again failed the macro comp, but this time they were going to give me chance to do an oral to try and reverse the decision. The professors here really try and evaluate you bassed on your strengths and I think they knew I has good on my feet explaining things, and knew more than I was able to show them on the written exam. I think it took about 45 minutes to work through the problem and in the end they decided to pass me on the Macro comp. Hooray!!!

Second Year of Ph.D Program...So Far
This second year of school has been equally challenging, but more fun as we have more freedom to explore our own interests and get started on various research projects. I was also able to go to Boston in January to the American Economic Associations conference and rub shoulders with some of the rock-stars of economics such as Robert Solow who won a Nobel Prize for his work on Economic Growth. Currently I am working on a side project with a Prof. Kunce on applying Spatial Econometrics to his work on Environmental Regulation and Drilling Costs. No one here at UW has much experience with Spatial Econometrics so I am sort of teaching myself and my professors as I go along. I'm hoping to extend the work into the literature on Central Bank Independence and Inflation given that I've already spent 10's of hours writing a program in GAUSS to do some of the diagnostic work. It's great fun actually!

Let's see. I recently relieved word that I was one of the top 2 candidates for a fairly prestigious internship through Cheyenne Capital Fund which is the first Private Equity venture the State of Wyoming has tried. CCF is trying to place me (and Tiff) with one of their Venture Capital partners in either Chicago or Washington, D.C. for the summer which should be a nice adventure for us before kids and my dissertation enter the picture.

Church Responsibilities
I know I've talked a lot about school, but that is essentially my whole life at this point. I guess on a more personal note, in September I was asked to fill a local leadership position for my Church by serving in one of the University Single Student Wards. I spend a lot of time in meetings, find people to speak in church, oversee the Ward clerks and the Ward finances etc. It is quite humbling and rewarding and I've grown a lot spiritually because of it. I'm not sure that it has been as positive for Tiffany since it is sort of odd to be one of only three married girls in the Ward, but she gets to play the organ on Sundays which keeps her in practice.

In Conclusion
I'm sure there is tons I'm forgetting but this email is far too long already so I will leave it at that. I am including all of my contact information below should any of you feel the urge to write back or get in touch. It seems like the ability to keep in touch is inversely proportional to the time since high school (the more time passes, the harder it gets).

I hope you all are well, and please look me up if you are ever in the vicinity of Laramie.

Verbosely yours,

Benjamin R. Cook
University of Wyoming
Economics & Finance
Ross Hall #11

Deanna and Josh looked so good and the wedding was beautiful. It was also neat that Deanna's dad was able to perform the ceremony. 

This is I think the second largest drag line in the world, costing around $50 million dollars and thousands a day in electricity. It is used to move the over-burden off the coal. Notice the worker standing next to the orange box! 

This a haul truck out at the Black Thunder Coal Mine. Tiffany used to drive these as a summer job. Each one carries about 2 1/2 train cars full of coal per load. 

FW: Escribo de Guatemala!

Hi all! I wanted to send a quick email and let you all know that Iarrived in Guatemala, safe and sound. There were absolutely noproblems getting here. It was quite exhasting though. I took a redeye from Denver to Atlanta. Two hours to Denver, three to Atlanta, fivehour lay-over in Atlanta, 4 hours to Guatemala City, and then another 2 to Santa Lucia. We then got lost on the way to my host family's house....so in all, I was in a car, airplane, or airport for 24 hours. Yuck.

Guatemala, so far, has a lot of similarities to Nepal. Bad pollution, lots of people, bad roads, and open markets. It´s a lot more"American" than Nepal however. I even saw a Wendy's in GuatemalaCity (made me think of Mom) and my first taste of Guatemalan food was a McDonald's ice cream cone. Funny, huh? My first meal was at a fastfood place, Pollo Comparro, similar to KFC. Most of the food is similar to what we eat at home, which was suprising.

I went to the school yesterday and spent the day. It´s a very niceschool. I worry that I won´t have enough to do. The one person thatcould be my mentor speaks no English and I speak almost no Spanish.Hard combination. I´ll have to create my own work. But the kids are excited and I´m excited to be there. I hope I can help in some way.

The language barriar is so difficult. Oh, how I wish I knew Spanish!I´ll walk down the street and people talk to me and I have no ideawhat they say. I just have to say, "¡No hablo español!" or "¡No comprendo!" It´s frustrating.

I already miss Ben like crazy. The first day I was extremelyemotional. I couldn´t even think about Ben without crying. I musthave been going through some kind of culture shock. It´s gotten better. Nodoubt I´m defintiely excited about the day when I can see him again!

Things are good. I like Guatemala. It´s not nearly as hot as Ithought it would be. Very tolerable. From what Ben says, it might even behotter in Wyoming right now. It´s ´winter´ here....rains every day.

I send my love. I would love to hear back from you all!

Tiffany

The Story Behind "Date-Twenty"

I've had a few people ask how we came up with the title for our blog, Date-Twenty, so I thought it made sense to go ahead and post the story, the story of our first kiss. When Tiffany and I first started dating, I believe on our first or second date, I made the half-joking comment that kissing wasn't an option until at least "date twenty." Obviously that wasn't entirely true, because depending on what you consider a date we were engaged long before we had twenty dates. Anyway, on date three I believe, we had gone to a Murder Mystery dinner in Cheyenne, and got back to Laramie fairly late. While saying goodnight, Tiffany asked me what I was thinking about, and I remarked, "Skipping to date twenty." So that's how our first kiss came about, and thus the blog title. I hope that clears up the confusion, and that this post isn't too sappy for you, I think of it as an example how smooth I am (not to boast or anything), as opposed to all mush - but it's that too. --Ben

Fwd: Family Letter

Hi all! It's been a LONG time since we've written a family letter. First of all, CONGRATULATIONS Denise! That is incredibly exciting!

We had a nice weekend. Saturday, we went to Cheyenne to look for a dress for D's wedding (with no luck). It's hard to shop for something so specific. I finally found a shirt at Wal-mart I can wear with a black skirt if I can't find anything else. Time is running out! We traveled back to Cheyenne on Monday to spend the 4th with Ben's family. We had a really nice day. Ben's Dad recently bought a canoe and we tried to take it out on the lake, but it was raining and, out of fear of lightening, not many people got to ride. That's alright, we had fun throwing the frisbee around. We played a game and then set off fireworks and watched the Cheyenne show from the front yard. It was nice to have the day off.

This summer is going by too quickly. In May, Ben had to take two comprehensive exams for his degree. He didn't pass Macro and passed the Micro test after an oral exam in front of three professors. Needless to say, he was incredibly nervous going into the oral exam, but once he got going, he realized he knew a lot more than he thought. He passed with flying colors. He has to re-take the written Macro in August. There may be some consequences if he doesn't pass (like lower funding for his GA), but he talked with his professors who gave him a lot of hope. They said it's evident from his first test that he understands that material, he just needs to use more technical, equation-like answers. The poor kid has been through a lot. We think he has an ulcer from being so stressed and worried. I'm so glad I'm not in a program like that :-) Ben is planning on attending an Economics conference in Auburn, Alabama this summer for a week. He was awarded a scholarship to attend, so we just have to scoop out the costof the airline ticket. He's really excited about it.

I am leave for Guatemala July 21st. I have mixed feelings about it. It's going to stink being away from Ben for 5 weeks, but he seems to think it won't be that bad :-) I'm feeling fairly overwhelmed. From what I hear, there's not a solid counseling program in place at the school where I will be interning, so I have to create work for myself. My advisor has given me some great ideas. I'm planning on going into the classrooms and teaching about leadership, conflict resolution, etc. I would also like to implement a peer mediation program for some of the grades (it's a K-12 school). I would also like to conduct some small counseling groups. But I've never done this before and I'm a bit nervous that I will have no idea how to help these kids. And I hope I'm not totally bored. I'm also nervous about the crime down there. Public announcements say that thieves target Americans. They say the robberies can be violent and can occur when you're in a car. The police are probably involved because the bandits are often in police uniform and/or in a police car. Scary. We shall see. It should be a good experience and I hope to do some traveling when I'm not working. I would LOVE to visit the temple there (even though I'll be a couple hour drive away from it).

Ben and I have been working full time this summer, both at WYSAC. I've been here for a year and a half and this summer, we needed some help transcribing interviews and Ben was willing to do it. It's a tedious job, but he's a hard worker. He'll only work here through July. I'm liking my job. I have a lot of work to do and it keeps me busy. I have the best boss in the world who trusts me with a lot of the semi-important work. We're both making good money and we've been VERY blessed to have good jobs. It's kind of fun to go to work together and eat lunch together most days. At first, I thought it would be weird, but it's not bad at all.

I suppose that's all. I'm REALLY looking forward to Deanna's wedding. It'll be a blast to hang out with everyone. See you all soon!

--Tiffany

Joining the Blogosphere

At long last I've decided to jump into the blogging world, primarily because blogging seems like a great alternative to the those mass emails I find myself writing to keep friends and family posted on my life. I'm sure you are all familiar with those mass emails that you end up furiously cranking out upon the realization that you have completely disregarded all of those people you promised to stay in touch with. Certainly the promises are not one sided, one friend in particular, Hillary, we always committ to doing a better job, and before we know it six months have gone by with no contact whatsoever. Such is life I suppose. I find that as I get older, and even more so as my circle of friends discover that institution known as marriage, the motivation to keep in touch seems to fade. My hope is that by keeping a blog up-to-date I can alleviate some of that, and make it a lot easier to stay in touch...we shall see I suppose. --Ben