Fiesta night.

A few old friends came over last weekend for a Mexican-style potluck (you know those are my fave) and 'ritas with seriously salted rims. We had the best time catching up, laughing, telling old stories and new stories.

Ashley eloped to Manhattan with her long-time lover.

Brooke, cutie on the far left, just moved back to Utah after eight years. Oh how we've missed her!

Brit (in blue) still lives here in Utah, but I don't see her nearly enough. Same with Joni.

Merlin and Sam, as you can see, are just as cute as ever.

Girl's nights on occasion are a must. This was a blast. P.S. Thanks for the photos, Jones!

Eating healthy: update.

The last couple months, Chris and I have opted for a healthier lifestyle. This includes (but is not limited to) running more, lifting free weights, dancing via the Kinect, reading more books, making more goals, traveling, and of course the most unfortunate of them all: eating better.

I like food. A lot. Sweet, salty, bitter, rich...really anything delicious. A salad is something you will seldom see me order in a restaurant (by seldom I mean never). It's so unsatisfying. Even with lots of stuff on top, it's still just rabbit food. Flavorless, gritty leaves.

BUT. With this new-found life we'd decided to gallantly adopt, I thought I'd try to recover from my hate of salad by making one topped with seasoned grilled chicken, pickled beets, baby corn and other favorite yummies. If I can dress it up enough maybe I will forget its true identity?

Wide-eyed and optimistic, I waltzed into the store and plucked all the ingredients for a salad that was bound to be life changing. I went through the self checkout, grabbed my bags, put my cart away and headed out to the car. A woman chased after me, arms in the air, yelling "Ma'am! Maaaa'aaam!" (Sidenote: I hate being a ma'am.) She was an employee (a seriously dedicated one) at the store--she noticed I left my lettuce in the cart. I checked my receipt and sure enough, I didn't even pay for it.

Subconscious slip? Maybe somewhere deep in my soul I thought that if I "forgot" the lettuce Chris would be as relieved as I was and would offer to get (greasy, delicious, salad-less) takeout from the Mexican restaurant down the street. But the leafy green medley found its pompous way into my grasp once again. So I went inside, paid for it and headed home.

I got to the house, took off my coat and boots, set down my bags and greeted my husband and hyper dog. I started grilling the chicken and compiling the salad toppings. I couldn't find the lettuce. WHERE IS THE DAMN LETTUCE THIS TIME I shouted. Chris came in the room, saw that I was pissed, and helped me look for the lettuce. "Here it is! You put it in the fridge already!"

"Uh, no. That's the salad that we never ate from TWO WEEKS AGO."

The lettuce that was already in the fridge had been my attempt at making amends with rabbit food weeks ago. Clearly it went well.

I examined it and tried to decide if it was okay enough for human consumption. It looked soggy, the edges were already browned. No-go. I went to the garage and frantically checked inside, outside and underneath my car. No salad to be found.

"HOLY $&*@%$ I left the ___&*^$ at the store. AGAIN."

Chris offered to go back and get it. Not to get Mexican food or some sort of drive-through supper in a sack. This guy is stronger than I thought.

I got in the car, slammed my door and headed back to the store. I was pissed. Just so angry with myself for being so absent-minded (or subliminally stupid, thinking I could avoid this salad saga). I found the woman who rang up my lettuce the last time I left it. I tapped her shoulder and said with humility "Did I leave my salad here again?"

"Yeeesss..you sure did. You must not want it that bad."

That woman knows me so well.

Garlic lime pork chops. Yum.

Okay, this recipe is delicious. I'm not a huge pork eater, but I got on board with these. We baked them on 350 for an hour instead of broiling or BBQing. Also used a lot, like A LOT, more cilantro and lime than what it called for. Use fresh lime juice and cilantro. It makes all the difference.

Stuffed mushrooms.

First and foremost, we're nowhere near the goal for Strut You Mutt, so if you haven't taken a look yet, please go here to read a bit about it. Even the smallest of donations will be appreciated.

Secondly, my gal pal Jessica made these shrooms for us once and they blew my mind. I insisted on trying it myself. Not as good as when she made them (isn't that how it always is?) but delicious nonetheless. Enjoy!

• 24 mushrooms -- stems removed
• 1 pound spicy ground sausage (or go vegetarian and use fake meat. I actually prefer it without the sausage but Chris adored the sausage)
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1/2 bunch fresh parsley -- chopped
• Grated parmesan
• Bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375.
Brown the sausage. While it cools mix all other ingredients together.
Mix in browned sausage.
Spoon mixture into mushroom caps.
Cook on top rack at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

Mrs. Fields cookies on sale today.

Support a Utah business and grab a treat for a lover. Mrs. Fields cookie baskets are on sale today on eziba.

Use this link to sign up if you haven't.
https://www.eziba.com/invite?personalLink=cross

I sent a pack to my mom when she was in Iraq. The delivery was smooth and cookies....divine.

A delicious pie.

I made a pecan pie. When people hear this, they nearly tip over. I'm sloppy. Unorganized. Clumsy. Not the baking type. BUT I DID IT. Thanks to this awesome recipe I found here.

Tip: I added milk chocolate chips (about a 1/4 cup). Heat it and serve with vanilla bean ice cream. *drool*

Ingredients

• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy, and stir in melted butter. Stir in the brown sugar, white sugar and the flour; mix well. Last add the milk, vanilla and nuts (and optional chocolate chips).
3. Pour into an unbaked 9-in pie shell. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until done. 

My bella bug turned two.

My niece turned two on Saturday. The princess BBQ party was a blast. Just look at her big smile. Ooh it melts me.

(fancy shmancy photo editing done here.)

Of course I made relevant cake pops, too.

Newman O's vs Oreos

Have you ever had Newman O's?

Oh. My.

They are unlike anything I've ever experienced. They are like creme-filled cocoa heavens that sing songs of love in my mouth. Seriously.

I'm not sure exactly what it is, but the plain, organic goodness is PERFECTION. I'm sort of over the highly processed uber sugary tastes. They are like clean Oreos, but a trillion times cleaner and crunchier. Plus, Newman O's are guiltless (well, almost). See the nutritional comparison here.



As far as cost goes: yeah, Newman O's are a bit pricier. But that's because they cost more to make (due to the use of organic sought-after ingredients like unbleached flour). To me, it's totally worth diggin' a bit deeper in my pocket for the extra change. Besides that, all proceeds go to various charities. So loosen the purse strings and enjoy a snack.

Homemade Applesauce

My sister-in-law gave me a bunch of apples from her mom's backyard. So I made homemade applesauce. Are they beautiful, or what? Thanks for the idea, Breanna. It turned out very delicious!

Chris was very proud of his peel job

 

If you wanna try this, it's SUPER easy and totally worth it. Peel and cut the apples, boil in about an inch or two of water (to your desired softness) then just add sugar and cinnamon throughout the process. It tastes great hot or cold.

Engagement donuts

we have high creative standards for sharing news with each other at work. here was my little last-minute idea:

delicious!

my birthday: part 1

Friday, October 30, I turned 25. I woke up to a picture text of the pups from my mom, a happy birthday hug from Chris , song from Grandma and Kloe and a bunch of sweet texts and emails from friends and family. At work, there was a halloween potluck with themed foods, picture taking, costumes and a music power hour (thanks joel!) dedicated to me (and halloween). It was amazing.

Thanks to my awesome coworkers for bringing so much delicious food.

Parts 2 and 3 coming soon (oh, and they're GOOD).

nothing sweeter

Have you ever taken a tour of the Sweet's Candy Company? It's a factory tour in Salt Lake complete with hair nets candy  maker  hats, knowledgeable tour guide, chocolate pipes and 75,000 pounds of sugar. No kidding.  Set up an appointment here. With or without kids (or even with a rambunctious crowd of people from your work) it's amazing.

So, I love taffy--especially the blue raspberry kind. During the tour, they pass out all sorts of candy samples from jelly bean centers to raspberry sticks. At the end, they give you your own lil pack of salt water taffy (it's their #1 seller, and with good reason). You'll also get to watch many of the candy making processes, including the famous chocolate enrobing.

So, once the tour is over, the guide will make sure you know that there's a store right there in the warehouse where you can buy ANYTHING & EVERYTHING that Sweet's has to offer. I made sure to bring my debit card. (I knew the free samples wouldn't be enough to satisfy my sweet tooth.) I couldn't resist the packaging of this Happy Hour taffy (and besides that, it's ALCOHOL FLAVORED CANDY). Does it get any better?

I purchased a big ol box of Swedish Fish to leave at work, and last (but definitely not least) chocolate sticks. But these aren't ordinary chocolate sticks, or even raspberry or orange...they are CHAMPAGNE chocolate sticks.  Click here to buy some RIGHT NOW. You should. Oh you really really should.

Natural Peanut Butter

Best.

Peanut.

Butter.

EVER.

Really, you should try it.

My new thing

Sautéing veggies. Yum. I mean, mmmmmmm YUM. I've been making asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers and anything else I can think up. Just a little olive oil, vinegar, garlic, butter, lemon juice, salt, pepper and oregano...and VOILA!





This is probably old news to some, but i'm JUST NOW learning about the wonders of pan-frying. And, thanks to Andrea, I recently discovered the deliciousness of patty pan squash.









If you have simple (I mean, really pretty basic) vegetable ideas and/or recipes, please share. This new healthy lifestyle gig is doing wonders for Chris and me both.

Baby shower!

This is kind of late...but I still wanted to post some adorable pictures from Winter's baby shower a couple weeks ago. I hosted the family shower with her mom and it turned out awesome.

Here are the oreo truffles I made. SO EASY and no baking required (which means it would have been very difficult for me to screw up!). That's my kind of treat! Want the recipe? Here you go...

Working diligently :

These are the nutter butter balls (I covered mine in pink coconut):



I did it all by myself!


These matching display plates may be a little overboard, but Judy didn't give me very many tasks...so I had to go above and beyond with my duties.


Over-the-top index cards for the advice game (like I said, she didn't give me enough to do!):


Diabetes Fest '09

TONS of people came--she went away with a lot of sweet gifts.


She's writing parent advice to herself


She only has 3.5 months left.


One day maybe (far far far far from now) she will host my shower.


Mother/daughter moment = sweetness

What? I'm not accident prone.

So last night was curry night. We'd both been looking forward to some delicious homemade Indian food. Chris left to go get a car part and I started slaving away at the stove. It was a quiet, pleasant little evening. Little did I know, the night was about to take a nasty turn, then crash, then burn.
Things that went wrong:

1. I started to boil some water for the basmati rice—but something smelled funny. I noticed there was crap from the night before, smoking beneath the burner. I turned the stove off (mind you, it had only been on for about 15 seconds) and took out the burner and silver thingy (with oven mitts). It took me a couple minutes to get it clean, so I assumed the burner would have cooled off. I grabbed it with all five fingers on my left hand, realized it was burning me, then threw it (slow but hard reflexes) into the sink. Oh and it siiiizzzzllllleeedd when it landed; it was HOTT. My hand was stinging to the point of tears.

2. I wrapped a wet paper towel on my hand and continued cooking. The naan in the oven wasn't baking fast enough, so I turned the temp up to 450. A minute later it was black.
3. The smoke alarm went off and I had no clue how to turn it off—plus wasn't tall enough to reach it anyway. I took the bread outside to let it finish smoking.

4. The basmati rice overcooked because I was taking care of burnt naan. So it turned out moist and mushy.

5. Once the naan cooled enough to be thrown away, I brought it inside and threw it in the garbage. But then the garbage tipped over. Crumbs everywhere.

6. When I bent down to pick up the spilled garbage, I set my 7UP on the counter and it magically jumped right back off…landing hard at my feet, spraying pop all over the walls, my rug, into the living room and on the tile. My rug was drenched. My pajama pants, drenched. My slippers, sticky and wet.

Chris came home to a disastrous house, the smell of burning skin and naan, and a broken gf. After all that, the curry didn't even taste right. What a waste! Anyway, after I calmed down, regained my composure and figured out what I did wrong with the curry, we were able to laugh about the night. He promised he'd make the curry for me next time. It was obviously too big of a task for me.
He got out the camera because he thought it was funny we used all the band aids in the house bandaging up my hand. Today my hand feels better…although I am missing fingerprints on all five fingers. Coworkers tried to encourage me to commit a crime, but I don't usually give in to peer pressure.

He kept following me around with the camera...he wanted several pictures to remember this happy day.