MOXI: Defining the Oxborrows

And It Just Gets Busier...

2012-02-15T13:55:00.000-08:00

So you know when you complain about how you don't have enough time... or when you suggest that you will do (fill in the blank) after (fill in the blank) is done... and how older people usually say, "Well, it only gets busier, so good luck with that..." WELL that's pretty much how I am with blogging... and it makes me sad in my heart. I love blogging, and I would love blogging even more if I had time to spend writing about more than just a play-by-play of our life and recipes (although those will not disappear anytime soon). BUT I have a caveat: I really do think once I'm not in the MBA programs I actually WILL have more time to do things. Why? Because I won't be stuck at the lame Tanner Building wishing that I had remembered to upload my pictures so I could actually blog about them. AND I won't forget, while doing my homework, to actually upload my pictures, only to be extremely sad the next day when I have a few minutes, and I'm sick of reading my five millionth page of business text for the day. And that is all.

Pumpkin Day and Halloween

2011-12-27T23:21:00.000-08:00

So we have an October tradition: Pumpkin Day. We carve our pumpkin, eat pumpkin pancakes, eat pumpkin seeds (bake them first, obviously), and watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Here are some pictures:

Pumpkin Pancakes (see recipe at the bottom)

Charlie! Pre-cut.

Me with Charlie.

Linus (aka Ian) with Charlie.

With Charlie all cut!

Charlie all lit up!

Pumpkin seeds!

Then we dressed up for our ward Halloween party. Do you know who we are?

Dilbert and Dogbert! Yay! We thought we were funny anyway. And we got matching glasses... what up. So October was fun! We even had a few trick-or-treaters this year! Huzzah!

Pumpkin Pancakes with a Cinnamon Roll Twist!
(adapted from www.recipegirl.com)

Cinnamon Filling:
1 stick butter, melted
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 T. (or more) cinnamon
Salt if butter is unsalted

Cream Cheese Icing:
4 T. butter
2 oz. cream cheese
3/4 powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 t. vanilla
salt

Pancakes:
1 c. milk (bring to 1 1/2 with sour cream)
1 c. pumpkin
2 large eggs
2 T. oil
2 c. flour
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
nutmeg
cinnamon
allspice
ginger
cloves
pinch salt
2 T. packed light brown sugar

1. Prepared the cinnamon filling. Whisk all ingredients together and pour into a zip baggie. Let it rest on the counter.

2. Prepare the icing: heat butter, cream cheese, just until butter has melted and cheese is softened. Whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla and combine until smooth. Set aside.

3. Prepare the pancake batter: whisk together milk (with sour cream), pumpkin, eggs, oil, and vinegar. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and brown sugar. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin and stir just until all is moistened.

4. Make sure that the cinnamon filling is mixed together, but make sure that the filling is thickened (refrigerate for a few minutes if you need to). Snip off the corner of the bag once the filling is thick.

5. Preheat a skillet. Spray with nonstick. Ladle the batter and create a nice circle. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Starting at the center of the pancake, squeeze the cinnamon filling onto the batter in a swirl (like a cinnamon roll). Cook 3-4 minutes, or until bubble start popping. One the pancake is browned, flip gently but quickly. Cook an additional 2-3 minutes. Wipe out the pan and repeat. Serve with a drizzle of icing.

These are SO good, but REALLY rich. So I could never eat these for breakfast, but for a fun (once-a-year) dessert, they are fantastic!

Fall Means Football and ... Funny?

2011-12-27T22:51:00.000-08:00

So here are a couple of Fall things. Most of our Fall fun means football... of course. So here are some pics...

Wearing the jerseys that I personalized for us last Valentine's Day.

Ian's awesome BYU hair-do, and Caleb's photo-bomb.

Ashlee when she came to the game with us one night.

The line of forlorn little people up in the corner are the Oxborrows and Andersons... haha. We went to visit my cousin on the cool, shady side and I thought I'd snap this picture.

So to add one more photo. We were in a parking lot, and we saw this in the cab of a big truck:

And we thought it was hilarious. A dog and his mini-me. Buahaha.

A Few Moments of Home Improvement and Decorating

2011-12-27T22:32:00.000-08:00

So Ian and I had a lot of home improvement goals (remember how we bought a house once? Did I ever tell you that? Well we did... in July... after about a year of fighting with a short sale. It was awesome. Never do it). We wanted to do a bunch before school started, but we really didn't get a lot done... at least not nearly as much as we wanted to before school. But here are a few pictures of some things that we did get done:

Ian put in a microwave! It took forever and Ian hated it, but he did it! (With a little help from me, of course.)

Here's what I was more involved in: some decorating.

This is the big wall in our living room.

This is the wall above our piano with the cabinet.

This is obviously over our kitchen table. Right now, sporting Christmas plates, but will have family pictures at some point. More to come, I would assume. At least you'll see our Christmas decorating :)

That One Other Wedding...

2011-12-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time in August there was another wedding... at the beginning! This one wasn't nearly as crazy as the other August wedding... but it was much more enjoyable (for obvious reasons if you read the post about Marissa's wedding...)

So Seth and Marie got married at the beginning of August and we decorated their car awesomely. Graham apparently was out to get him due to the ridiculous amount of rice that was found in Graham and Heather's car post-wedding thanks to Seth. We weren't nearly as mean as all that... but we did make him work for it. We tied up the door so that he had to cut all of the string to get into the driver's seat... and we silly stringed him (technically Ian did...) and it was awesome.

Yay! Seth and Marie are married. The end. Sorry I don't have any pictures... if you want to see them check out their blog! :)

Marissa's Wedding From...

2011-12-27T21:58:00.000-08:00

So you know those stories that you hear where someone's wedding is a mess... but you just laugh because it was pretty much their fault, or the bride was a beast, or whatever... well I experienced one of those wedding days in August... except the fact that my cousin wasn't a beast, nothing was her fault, and it was really just tragic. Luckily, it seems that she found quite the awesome guy and that made all of the problems worth it, I hope!

We went to the temple that morning and found that my grandma wasn't there. We found that my grandpa had gone to the hospital early that morning due to chest pain. To make a long story short, we were in the dark for most of the morning, but found out that my grandpa had to go in for open-heart surgery. We had planned to go home after the luncheon, but obviously our plans changed and we headed up to Ogden where my grandpa was having surgery. After spending a few hours there (and luckily having most of my Dad's family there as well), we went to Marissa's reception.

The reception was in a backyard and was really nice. We went back to the hospital to see Grandpa post-surgery. Everything had gone well. While we were waiting, Marissa and Taylor showed up at the hospital... full garb (as can be seen in the picture).

Now one would think that what should be the best day ever couldn't really get much worse right? Yeah, we thought so too. Marissa and Taylor went back first and headed out afterward, then we went back. We ended up leaving 20-30 minutes after they did. As we were walking to our car, we see Marissa and Taylor sitting on the outside of their car. We went over there to see what was going on... they locked their keys into the car. Yeah. We felt so bad for them.

We were hoping that they had a great time at Disneyland... but we heard that Marissa ended up getting sick and they had to come home early. The good news: Grandpa is doing well! Marissa and Taylor appear to be having a much happier marriage than their first few days... which is lovely!

But the end result: Congrats to Marissa and Taylor! Hope your marriage is tons of fun and full of happiness!

Other IFN Coming...

2011-12-27T21:41:00.000-08:00

So we didn't have a whole lot of IFNs this semester, we just seemed like we were busy all the time... hopefully we will be better this semester. But... upcoming we have empanadas and fried plantains (a new technique that makes them so much better!) and coconut chicken and a jicama salad (so fresh and lime-y!) Anyway, just letting you know...

Serbian Stuff

2011-12-27T21:34:00.000-08:00

So there are a few IFNs that we were able to pull off during our busy semester, but I don't have all of my recipes with me at the moment... but I do have a few... so you get Serbian! We made three different things: tzatziki sauce (for the cevapcici), pasulj (a kind of stew), and cevapcici. It was pretty tasty, very hearty, and could be eaten separately as their own meal.

My pictures didn't turn out fantastically, so you only get to see the pasulj.

Pasulj
1 lb. canned white beans
2 T. olive oil
1/4 lb. bacon
1 lg. onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bell pepper (red or green) chopped
3 bay leaves
1 T. chopped parsley

2 t. sweet paprika
1 t. hot paprika
3 T. tomato paste
2 potatoes, chopped
1 lb. kielbasa (optional)
salt
fresh pepper

In a large stock pot, cook bacon in olive oil. Add onions and fry until translucent. Add garlic, bay leaves, parsley, and pepper (do not add the salt). Add the paprika (I only had regular paprika, so I added that and some cayenne pepper for the heat). Fry gently for about five minutes. Add water, potato, and beans. Stir well, add tomato paste. Cover and simmer for at least an hour. Add kielbasa if desired about 30 minutes in (and an hour before eating). Add salt about 15 minutes before serving. Do not over salt. If a thicker soup is desired, smash some of the beans to thicken.

Cevapcici
1/2 lb. ground pork
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 egg white
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
2 t. ground black pepper
1 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. paprika

Combine pork, beef, and egg white in a large bowl. Add the garlic, salt, baking soda, peppers, and paprika. Mix well and form into finger-length sausages (about 1/2 inch thick). Fry in a bit of oil until done. Eat with tzatziki.

Tzatziki
(I've made this before for other countries)
1 c. finely chopped (seeded and peeled) cucumber
1 c. plain yogurt
1 T. lime juice
1/2 t. salt
1 clove garlic, finely minced
pinch of sugar

Mix all ingredients until well combine. Add cayenne pepper for heat if desired. I used a food processor to chop the cucumber and garlic (together).

When I make these again, I will make the soup by itself (with the meat this time) and perhaps serve with a hearty dark bread (like rye). I would serve the sausages and tzatziki with some potatoes and maybe a green salad. Enjoy! Happy cooking.

So I Lied

2011-10-24T06:59:00.000-07:00

Remember how I said I was going to post? I didn't. But in good news... I have like 5 posts to do, so eventually when I get around to it, there will be plenty to read! Sorry. I am lame... but I am in B-School, so I totally blame that for my blog neglect.

I Am a Blogging Slacker

2011-10-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

I am a blogging slacker. I acknowledge this. Ever since orientation for school I haven't even thought about posting, let alone actually done it. But there is some good news: at 5:30pm today I start my Fall Business Trip break, which means, since I am not taking a trip, that I will have time to catch up and post about all of the craziness of the last two and a half months. Get ready. It's coming.

French Fare

2011-08-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

So we finally picked France out of the bag. I wasn't sure what to make for this one, since I use a lot of general French ideas in my cooking anyway. And I don't know how reputable this particular recipe is in terms of its French origin, but it was amazing either way! (At least the site I looked at mentioned it as French... so if the internet says it, it must be true, right?)

We had amazing French Onion Soup (with made up wine flavor since I didn't have any on hand), Rosemary Lemon Chicken, New Potatoes with Butter and Parsley, and Honey Baked Brie for dessert. TASTY!!!

French Onion Soup
serves 2

1/2 c. unsalted butter
2 large onions, sliced
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 bay leaf, crushed
Thyme
Salt
Pepper
1/2 c. red wine (or 1/2 c. grape juice, short 1 T. + 1 T. red wine vinegar)
1 1/2 T. flour
2 cans beef broth
1 baguette, sliced (3 slices per serving)
1/4 pound grated Gruyere (or mozzarella)

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, and seasonings. Cook until onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25-30 minutes. Add the wine (or wine substitute), bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry. (If using the substitute and after 10 minutes there is still liquid, drain the extra liquid off.) Dust the onions with the flour, stir, and turn the heat to medium low so the flour doesn't burn. Cook for 10 minutes. Add the beef broth and simmer for 10 minutes or more. Add additional seasonings if desired.

There are two methods for finishing it off. If you don't have cups or bowls (to serve individual servings in) that can go in the oven, then place the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer, sprinke with cheese, and broil until golden and bubbly (3-5 minutes).

Ladle the soup and float the cheese croutons on top.

If you have stoneware to go in the oven either under the broiler or oven, broil the baguette slices until golden brown on each side (2-3 minutes - browner is better if you don't like soggy bread). Place a crouton at the bottom, ladle the soup into the serving bowl or cup. Cover the top of the soup and croutons with soup and place in the oven or under the broiler. Heat until cheese is melted and browned.

The Gruyere is really good, and some chefs will swear by it for their soup. I didn't think it was worth the extra cost. I will stick with mozzarella next time.

Rosemary Lemon Chicken
1/2 - 1 chicken breast per serving
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 c. lemon juice
1 t. lemon zest (I like to use more)
1/4 c. dry white wine (cooking)
3 T. fresh chopped rosemary
1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped
3/4 t. salt
Rosemary sprigs for garnish if desired.

Stir the olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, white wine, rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper until thoroughly combined. Pour the marinade into a bag or glass dish. Add the chicken and turn to make sure all is coated. Turn throughout the marinating process. I marinated my chicken about 8 hours. It was delicious. I'm sure overnight would be fine.

Grill or fry in a skillet with a little oil and serve with rosemary garnish.

Parsleyed New Potatoes
3/4 lb. baby Yukon Gold potatoes, halved or quartered
1 T. butter
2 T. chopped parsley (Italian)
1/3 t. salt
1/3 t. pepper

Combine potatoes and 2 t. water in a microwave-safe bowl and cover with vented plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 6 minutes. Test with a fork. Microwave more if needed. Stir in butter, parsley, salt, and pepper. Cover.

Baked Honey Brie
1 roud of Brie
3 T. honey
Bread (I used the same baguette as with the soup)

Preheat the oven to 375F. Place Brie on ovenproof serving plate and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cheese is hot throughout. Garnish the baked Brie with honey and serve with bread.

Cheers!

Sweet Summer Salads

2011-08-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this has nothing to do with IFN. A couple weeks ago, we just wanted to try out some new salads and dressings... thus... we did! Due to our Egyptian night, we recently decided that we REALLY like lentils, and they are really good for you! So we added a lentil salad that is fantastic as well. Enjoy!

Raspberry, Avocado, and Mango Salad
1 carton fresh raspberries (or about 1 1/2 c.)
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1 small clove garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
1/2 t. sugar
8 c. salad greens (we just used 1 head green leaf lettuce)
1 ripe mango, diced
1 small avocado, diced
1/2 thinly sliced red onion
1/4 c. favorite nuts (optional)

Puree 1/2 c. raspberries with olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, and sugar. (The dressing was a little too tart for Ian, hence I added sugar, but you can definitely take it out or add more depending on your tastes). Chill.

Prepare lettuce, mango, avocado, and onion and place in separate bowls. Allow each person to build their own salad. Tasty!

Super Awesome Lentil Salad
serves 4
One of the great things about this recipe is its versatility!

1 c. lentils
1 T. red wine vinegar
salt
pepper
1 T. olive oil (if necessary)
Mix ins (see bottoms of recipe)

Sort and rinse lentils. Place them in a large sauce pan and cover with water (3 in. above lentils). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tender (about 30 minutes). Drain, reserve 1/2 c. cooking liquid.

Transfer lentils to a large bowl. Toss with vinegar, salt, and pepper. Let stand for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Add mix-ins.

Add cooking water or olive oil if the salad is too dry.

Our version: tomato, cilantro, green onions

Other options: Italian parsley, cucumber, carrot, celery, onion, cheese (goat cheese, feta, or parmesan), peppers, or whatever you want! It is tasty, filling, and good for you!

We had lettuce left over after the salad, so later in the week we made southwestern salads with corn, black beans, tomatoes, and onions as the toppings (and cilantro and green onion for garnish) with a super good cilantro lime vinaigrette. I also put this vinaigrette on hot pasta, and it tasted awesome!

Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
1/2 c. cilantro, chopped
1/4 c. olive or canola oil
1-2 T. lime juice (fresh is best, but whatever you have works)
1 T. red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1 clove garlic, minced

Blend together. If you want a more green dressing, add green food coloring.

Some Island Flava'

2011-08-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

Well folks, only a few more posts and I'll be caught up again. It has just been a little crazy this summer! So back mid-July we did Samoa, which was pretty interesting and awesome. I always try to make things that aren't typical in our everyday fare. Though sometimes that is difficult seeing as I often make international foods as everyday meals :)

We ended up with Eso Fafao and Fa'alifu Fa'i as our main meal. The Eso Fafao is essentially papaya with meat loaf baked in the middle, and the other is raw onions, coconut milk, and bananas. I know, I was a little skeptical even as I was cooking it... but it was seriously good! Then we had Pani Popo for dessert! Yum!

Eso Fafao
serves four (unless you're really hungry)

1 green papaya
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 onion, diced
1/4 c. breadcrumbs
1 egg
2 T. milk
salt
pepper
oil

Preheat oven to 350F. Halve papaya, cut off hard stem ends. Scoop out and discard seeds. Combine beef with remaining ingredients except salt, pepper, and oil. Stuff papaya with beef mixture. Rub papaya with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange stuffed side up in a baking pan. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes. Remove foil. Increase temperature to 425 and bake for 15-20 minutes until meat is crusty and browned.

Fa'alifu Fa'i
5 green bananas
1 c. coconut milk
4 c. water
1 onion, diced
2 t. salt

Peel bananas (we cut them to fit in the pan we were using) and boil for 8-10 minutes. Drain. Mix coconut milk, onions, and salt. Pour over dried bananas and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Cover and let set.

Pani Popo

Frozen dinner rolls
1 can coconut milk
1 can water
1 c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch

Follow the directions for rolls. Allow to rise in a baking dish (number and size your choice. This also makes a lot of sauce, so you can cut it down if you don't want as many sweet rolls).

In a quart sauce pan, mix coconut milk, water, and sugar. In a small bowl mix cornstarch and a few tablespoons of cold water until the clumps are gone. Bring the coconut mixture to a boil and add cornstarch mixture. Simmer for about 3 minutes, then remove from heat.

Bake rolls. After 10 minutes, take out the rolls and pout the coconut sauce over the rolls until 1/2 - 3/4 of each is covered in sauce. Continue baking until the rolls are done and golden brown.

You can also use the sauce to smother the rolls when they come out of the oven!

The Egyptian Fast Food

2011-08-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

Now let me just say that the title is somewhat a misnomer... this dish isn't particularly fast... mainly because it uses a whole bunch of different ingredients that have to be cooked separately. Koshari is fast food in Egypt, I guess because the actual assembly of said meal takes all of a minute. Thus, if the food is already cooked and ready to be assembled, it really is a fast food. (Which is why it is such on the streets of Egypt.)

Honestly, I was pretty excited to try this carb fest, as I pretty much love all of the elements of this dish. And it turned out to be incredibly tasty! Try it out! (If you can balance cooking multiple things on the stove at once, you can get this dish ready in about 45 minutes.)

Koshari
2 large onions, sliced into rings and halved
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 c. vegetable oil
3/4 c. uncooked long grain rice
1/4 t. red pepper
1 t. cumin
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
3/4 c. lentils
4 c. water
1 c. salad macaroni
1/2 c. vinegar
1 can chickpeas

Boil lentils for 25 minutes. Drain. Add new water and add rice. Simmer for 20 minutes until rice is tender.

Cook macaroni according to directions.

Add oil to saucepan and brown garlic. Add vinegar and bring to a coil. Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, cumin, and red pepper. Bring to a boil and lower heat. Simmer. (You can add more red pepper and make it as spicy as you want. I'm pretty sure I added more than 1/4 t.... like way more...)

Cover onions in oil and fry.

After everything is prepared, serve in separate bowls.

Layer as follows:
lentils and rice
macaroni
sauce
chickpeas
fried onions

A Taste of Thai

2011-07-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

Thai food is one of my favorites (obviously, if you saw our engagement story, we went out to eat at Spicy Thai the night of our engagement... and it was our official first date place). These recipes are tried and true and two of my favorite Thai dishes! We had Pad Woon Sen and Gaeng Khiew Waan Gai (Green Curry). Both are awesome!

Plated and scrumptious!

Green Curry
Green Curry Paste (to taste)
1 can coconut milk
1 chicken breast
green bell pepper
red bell pepper
onion, sliced
1 carrot
1/2 c. bamboo shoots
2 c. water
1 T. sugar
1 t. salt
1/2 c. fresh basil (preferably Thai)

Cut the chicken in to 1/4" slices. Chop peppers, carrots, and bamboo shoots.

Pour half can of coconut milk into a pot and turn on the stove to medium. When it begins to boil, add the green curry paste. Stir together for 2 minutes. Add water. Turn burner to high heat. When it boils, add chicken and simmer until the chicken is cooked.

Add veggies, bring to a boil. Add the remaining coconut milk, sugar, and salt. Simmer for two minutes. Add fresh basil. Serve hot over rice.

Pad Woon Sen
9 oz. (1 pkg) cellophane noodles (rice)
1/2 c. sliced carrots
1/2 c. sliced cabbage
1/2 c. bean sprouts
1/2 c. green onions, thinly sliced
1 chicken breast, thinly sliced
1 egg
2 T. soy sauce
1 T. fish sauce
4 T. oyster sauce
1 T. minced garlic
2 T. oil
cilantro if desired

Soak noodles in water. Set aside. Scramble the eggs and set aside. Add oil to hot pan. Fry garlic until brown, be careful not to burn it. Add chicken to pan, stir fry until cooked. Add carrots, cabbage, and bean sprouts. Stir fry for 1 minute. Add egg. Cook until done. Add noodles to pan. Add soy sauce, fish sauce, and oyster sauce. Toss well and cook until heated. Add more sauce if needed to taste. Serve hot with cilantro if desired.

Dutch (Non-Oven) Cooking...

2011-07-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

Yo. So I know I've been quite behind, so there are going to be a bunch of IFN meals and recipes and hopefully an update about our lives at the end. We shall see...

So a few weeks ago (being like a month) we did the Netherlands. I tried looking for something authentically Dutch, but there didn't seem to be an abundance of meal-type recipes that were specifically from the Netherlands... or maybe my searching skills were just having an off day? At any rate, we ended up going with Stamppot, considered to be Dutch homestyle comfort food. It was pretty good. I tried a more gourmet-type stamppot recipe, and I think next time I would stick to a more simple version because I think it would actually taste better. This one was good, and a great way to get a bunch of veggies into one meal though!

Stamppot
3 medium potatoes
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 large carrots
1 large parsnip
1 large turnip
1 bunch kale
1 onion
butter
salt and pepper
fresh parsley
Dutch (or other spicy) sausage

Prepare the veggies. Roughly chop the potatoes. Peel and chop the carrots, parsnip, and turnips. Finely chop the onion. Wash the cabbage and slice fairly finely. Place all veggies in a stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer until veggies are tender (20-30 minutes).

Meanwhile, cook/saute/fry the sausage as desired. Slice and keep warm.

Drain the veggies well and mash (but not too smoothly, some lumps are good). Season with salt, pepper, and butter to taste. Stir in the chopped parsley. Top the stamppot with the sausage.

A Month in the Making

2011-06-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Well, a few things have happened since my last "about our life" post.

I joined a community choir. It's called the Orem Chorale, and it is a lot of fun. If you're around Orem/Provo and would like to join a choir... you should join us! Although we are letting out for the summer as of next week, but come in September!

I also started working at Karen Foster Design as the webmaster. It is so awesome. I get to work from home and the work is something I really enjoy doing (most of the time, as with all technology, things can get tedious).

We also had the Oxborrow clan get together over Memorial Day. On Saturday we went out to Camp Floyd (which is out past Eagle Mountain) and walked around their Civil War celebration. It was fun and a good break from the norm. I honestly had no idea it was even out there, and I've lived in Utah for a long time. It has quite an interesting history, and a lot of famous Civil War veterans were stationed here (both Union and Confederate). Here are some pics:

Pony Express monument outside of Camp Floyd.

The Civil War tent fields with reenactment, learning areas, and other activities.

Caleb, Livvi, and Seth walking into the Stagecoach Inn (at least I think that was the name of it.. Hmmm..). And more pictures from the Inn:

Here's the schoolhouse where you could make candles and play games. It was a short walk and fun to see the old building.

Here's Graham, Heather, and Jack trying on the Civil War uniforms.

Jack... isn't he cute?

Here we are inside the schoolhouse. Family picture. Yay!

Here is the LARGE family picture. Good thing we're not in school. We pretty much took up half of the desks.

We also had a BBQ and I made my amazing homemade mac and cheese. It is delicioso!

The next weekend my family came over to spend the day, celebrate Mother's Day (in June, yes I know), and help us fix our poor fence.

Cutting the wood.

Halfway there... kind of.

The men folk cutting more wood.

The ladies standing on the wood so Nate can cut it.

We also went to the Scottish Festival again this year. We enjoyed it a lot, but Ian's allergies were going crazy on him.

Like our cool volunteer t-shirts? I also decided that I'm going to learn to play the pipes and join a pipe band. And no, I'm not joking. So any leads/help on achieving that goal would be appreciated.

We had a Rhodes family reunion (my Mom's Dad's immediate/extended family). We were able to hang out and eat a lot of good food. On Saturday we went on a picnic to Nunn's Park and then we rode the chairlift up to the top of the mountains at Sundance. It was really beautiful. Too bad I forgot my camera and the only picture you get is of me and Ashlee at the park...

Yay for sisters. Not yay for missing sisters.

But, the true highlight of this month occurred last week with our trip to California and Disneyland! We were headed down to Las Vegas for Olivia's high school graduation anyway, so we decided to drive another four hours and do Disneyland. And it was awesome. Here are some pictures:

Splash Mountain. Slightly dampish. The poor people in front of us got is BAD. I think it was because Ian was sitting in the back... haha.

Tarzan's treehouse! Though... I miss Swiss Family Robinson.

In front of the teacups... one of Ian's favorite rides. He knows how to smile, I promise.

Wow... he's so strong. Hah.

Help!

The lanterns at the tea cup ride.

Before the fireworks! Love this part of the night!

The duck family we saw while waiting for the Mark Twain steamboat to come along.

Oh and there it is...

Riding the Mark Twain.

Um, I found this sign really funny on the Monsters Inc. ride in Disney CA.

It's Tough to be a Bug... with our bug eyes.

Paradise Pier in Disney CA.

Huntington Beach!

So basically it was awesome. We stayed at the Clarion and it was really funny when we walked in a our room there were two twin beds. Ian doesn't even fit on a twin bed, so he went downstairs and asked the guy if there were any rooms with bigger beds. The guy upgraded us to a King suite for free! (Although we had asked for a King before... but not a suite). We also got hot breakfast every day. Basically it was just an awesome trip. Although the drive home was not my favorite ever. :)

Happy June!

Filipino Flava' and Grenadian Goodness

2011-06-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

So I know I'm a bit behind, June was a bit of a crazy month! So, I'll catch up on IFN first, then tell you all that has been going on around here in the last month!

On the 1st of June we celebrated IFN with Graham, Heather, and Jack and went out to eat at a Peruvian restaurant in honor of Graham's birthday (and the fact that he served his mission in Peru). It was called Las Tinajas and is located at 279 E. 300 S. in Provo. The food was really good, but Ian and I both felt it was a bit pricey. And Graham said the cerviche was really good... so... if you have a few bucks sitting around, go try it! I had the Lomo Saltado and I really liked it a lot.

On to more IFN...

Filipino Flava'... yeah, so the Filipino food was awesome. Can I suggest that if you do not typically enjoy the texture of pork (because sometimes it can be a little tough), you should try this recipe! And you should try it if you love pork, because it was amazing! The Philippines had some great food, so we kind of tried out two main dishes - Humba (sweet pork) and Pancit Bihon Guisado (rice noodles with veggies).

So here it is...

Tasty, no?

Humba (Sweet Pork)

serves 4

1 lb. pork, cut into bite size pieces

1 c. water

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 c. vinegar

1/4 c. packed brown sugar

1/3 c. soy sauce

1 bay leaf

1/4 t. pepper or peppercorns

1 t. oil

salt to taste

3 potatoes, quartered

Hard boiled eggs (optional)

Combine all ingredients except potatoes and eggs in large pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer about an hour until pork is tender.

Add potatoes to pot 15-20 minutes before serving (cook until tender). Add hard boiled egg for 1-2 minutes (we didn't, Ian just ate it plain due to my not particularly liking eggs...).

Remove bay leaf and peppercorns and serve hot.

Pancit Bihon Guisado (Rice Noodles with Veggies)
Serves 4

1 T. oil
1/2 lb. pork (or any meat... I bought one roast and used it for both recipes)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
1 large carrot, julienne
1 red bell pepper, julienne
Soy Sauce to taste
2 c. chicken broth or water
1 c. cabbage, cut into thin strips
1 pkg. rice noodle sticks

Rinse noodles with cold water, drain, set aside.

Heat oil in large pan. Stir-fry meat until done. Add garlic and onions. Saute until soft. Season with salt, pepper, and soy sauce to taste (you can also add fish sauce if you want to). Add carrots and bell pepper and cook until somewhat tender.

Add broth (or water). Add more seasoning to taste. Heat until boiling and add the drained noodles. Let it simmer, but continually loosen the noodles and separate with a fork. Add a little more water if the pot is dry and the noodles are not done. Add more soy sauce if there is not enough flavor.

Add cabbage, but do not overcook. Mix well and serve with lemon wedges if desired.

*****

The week after we did Grenada. And I wanted to try something completely different (well, I mean, it was still normal ingredients, just a kind of recipe I had never tried before). I was a little skeptical of finding anything since Grenada is a Caribbean island, and it seems that we've done a lot of those and most have similar recipes, but I had success.

Okay, so maybe it doesn't look like a gourmet meal... mainly because our society equates mashed sweet potatoes with baby food, but can I just tell you that these were awesome?! Yes I can. Because it's true. The difference with this meal was nutmeg! Nutmeg chicken, nutmeg whipped sweet potatoes. I've never used nutmeg in meals before, it's always been cider, egg nog, or cookies and cakes. But it was good. Seriously good.

Spicy Nutmeg Chicken
serves 4

4 chicken breasts
1/2 t. pepper sauce (this can be tabasco, hot sauce, etc.)
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. minced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. nutmeg syrup (see below)
1/4 t. ground fresh ginger

Season chicken with salt, pepper, garlic, and onions. Bake for 15 minutes at 400. Remove and baste with mixture of syrup, soy sauce, and ginger. Lower oven temp to 300 and continue baking for 45 minutes, basting frequently.

Nutmeg Syrup (this would be good on pancakes too!)
4 T. sugar
4 T. water
2 T. molasses
3 t. nutmeg
1 t. vanilla

Bring sugar and water to a boil. Cook and stir until sugar dissolves. Add remaining ingredients.

Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Nutmeg and Lemon
serves 4

5-6 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 in. cubes
1/4 c. butter. room temperature
1 1/2 T. molasses
2 t. grated lemon peel
1 1/2 T. minced fresh parsley
2 t. nutmeg
salt
pepper

Garnish:
Whole fresh parsely
Lemon slices
Nutmeg

Cook sweet potatoes in large pot of boiling, salted water until tender (15 min). Drain well. Transfer to a large bowl and whip with mixer (or by hand). Mix in butter, molasses, lemon peel, parsley, and nutmeg while hot. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish and serve hot.

So seriously. These recipes are good and really easy. Try them!!

South African Monkeys

2011-05-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

International Food Night strikes again! South Africa was the destination location. I will admit, I was a little wary... mainly because meatloaf is not my favorite food ever, but this recipe is truly fantastic!

Unfortunately... it looks kind of yellow and brown generally, but pair it up with a green salad, and you'll have a fantastic meal! A note, we cut all these recipes in half and they worked out wonderfully, so if you double it, you'll have enough to feed a much larger crowd. With us we had more than enough for both of us to take for lunch the next day.

Bobotie
3-4 servings

1 T. oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 lb. ground beef
2 slices bread (the recipe calls for white, we used wheat), crust removed and cubed
1/2 c. milk
1/8 c. lemon juice (can substitute vinegar)
1/4 c. raisins (we used golden)
1 T. sugar
2 T. curry powder (we used spicy)
1/2 t. tumeric
salt and pepper to taste
5 bay or lemon leaves (opt)
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Heat the oil in a large pan or skillet over medium. Add onion and saute until translucent and just starting to brown. Add beef and cook until crumbly. Remove from heat, drain of any excess fat and place in a large bowl.

Put the bread and milk in a bowl and soak for 5-10 minutes. Remove bread and squeeze it dry, adding the excess milk back into the bowl.

Add the soaked bread, lemon juice, raisins, sugar, curry powder, tumeric, salt, and peppter to the bowl with the cooked meat and onions. Mix well.

Pour the meat mixture into a greased casserole dish and smooth out the top. If using the leaves, arrange them in a decorative fashion on the top of the dish. Press them down slightly to make them stick. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

Beat the eggs with the reserved milk. After the meat has baked for 30 minutes, pour the egg mixture over the top of the meat and bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until the custard is set and lightly browned.

Remove from oven and serve hot with geelrys and mango chutney.

Geelrys
serves 3-4

2 1/4 c. water or stock
1 1/4 c. long-grain rice
1/2 t. tumeric
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. sugar
salt and pepper
1/4 c. raisins (we used golden)

Add the water or stick to a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the remaining ingredients and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly, and simmer for 15 minutes (or until water is absorbed). You might need to add a little more water that noted (since ours was a little crunchy).

Remove from heat and set aside, covered, for 5-10 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick, fluff with a fork and serve hot.

Mango Chutney (Aam ki Chatni)
serves 3
I made mine the night before so it could cool

1 T. oil
1/2 t. ginger, minced
1/2 t. ground coriander
1/4 t. tumeric
1 green or ripe mango, peeled and chopped
1/4 c. lime juice (can substitute vinegar)
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. mint, chopped
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1/4 t. salt

Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium. Add the ginger, coriander, and tumeric and saute lightly to cook ginger and toast the spices (about 30 seconds).

Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the mango softens and the chutney becomes glossy.

Remove from heat and cool completely. Put into a clean glass jar (it will stain plastic) and store refrigerated. (Good for weeks).

Try these out! Seriously they are awesome!

Major Catch Up

2011-05-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

So I am a horrible person and have not updated the blog in... forever pretty much. BUT I have resolved to be better and thus... hopefully you will get a new post at least once a week... why? Because we reinstated International Food Night! HOORAY! But more on that at the bottom of the post...

So, I think we were last at my birthday... yeah, that was only 4 months ago. Not big deal. So Ian took me to Spicy Thai, why? Because it's my favorite. And because it's kind of special to us... see blog on engagement story. At any rate, we had a great time! Then we got frozen yogurt, another favorite of mine. After that Ian gave me my birthday presents! He bought the most beautiful jewelry box! He also gave me a matching necklace to the silver rose earrings he gave me for my birthday last year. It was a fantastic night.

In the early part of February Ian went with his club to the EERI university tower competition in San Diego. They did really well! They placed 6th! (They probably would have done better had one of the teammates not damaged their tower with his hiney getting out of the van... but that's a story for another day...)

I know there are pictures of his tower somewhere online, and he was famous and in a news article and such... but here is a picture of him in San Diego while I suffered in the frigid cold of Utah ALL ALONE!

I'm not jealous or anything. It's fine. He got home the day before Valentine's Day.

Thus, we just spent a quiet Valentine's Day at home. It gets kind of crazy here with all of the holidays and then all of our birthdays. I made us a nice dinner...

Happy Valentine's Day to us!

But really, the best part was the present for Valentine's Day. I told Ian that I got us both Valentine's presents, so luckily for him he as off the hook for finding something this year!

AND THIS IS WHAT WE GOT...

Yes, we got BYU jerseys for games. But it gets better...

Yup, I found a really cheap place to get the letters, then while Ian was in San Diego, my Mom and I sewed them on. Quite the project. Thanks Mom! You're the best!

Ian is taking pictures...

My husband has huge arms. And I like it. Does that make people feel awkward? Too Bad.

I'm pretty cool too, eh?

So one day as I was walking along the river pathway for work, I took this picture. Because it was snowing and really pretty.

Once upon a time for Ian's birthday I gave us tickets to Linkin Park. So we went at the end of February. They were really good. The opening band - The Prodigy - stunk royal. People were angry that I posted that on Facebook. I don't care. They stunk. Period. But the rest of the concert was fun. We went to Applebee's before hand, and then went into the Planetarium and played around for a while.

But one of the coolest things we did this winter was go to the Ice Castles in Midway. So awesome! We went the first part of March, and it was fairly warm so we didn't hate our lives after 5 seconds. We went with Graham, Heather, Jack, and Seth. Here are some of the pictures. You should go next year if you can.

In answer to your question... no, we have no idea what's going on with these two...

At this point... we were kind of cold.

So soon after this expedition came Pi Day... you know, 3.14. Thus, I decided to be adventurous and make my first from-scratch homemade apple pie. Yes, it is true. And not only make the apple pie, but make a lattice top. I think it turned out remarkably well, and we both enjoyed it quite a bit!

And no, I have no idea why my hand is on my face...

After Pi Day comes St. Paddy's Day. Unfortunately we forgot the brewskies, but we did have our traditional once-yearly corned beef and cabbage meal! We used the crockpot this year since we were both working, and it turned out wonderfully.

We took no pictures in April, although we did have Easter. Yay! And that's about it. Hehe.

The first part of May we went to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival with Graham, Heather, and Jack. It was so much fun, and the gardens are beautiful! I suggest going there, even if it's not for the Tulip Festival. The only downer of the trip was at the very end when Jack took a header into the pavement. Good thing two-year olds aren't too far from the ground, but the kid had a really nice goose-egg on his forehead!

Here are some pictures of the Festival!

Aww... aren't they cute?

Look at the babies!

This is the Italian Garden... a little lopsided. Apparently the shady side of the garden forgot to grow...

On our way home we stopped at Walmart, but this was the sky in the parking lot! Nice, eh?

Soon after this outing came Cinco de Mayo (we are counting this and St. Paddy's Day as interim International Food Nights, by the way). We made real street tacos... at least as real as a Whasian girl in America can make real Mexican street tacos. (Ian says they were real, they just lacked the dirt and germs from the Mexican road/street taco cart.)

Here are the pictures from that Mexican celebration:

These are Mexican Wedding Cookies. They are so easy to make, and SO delicious!

So if you want to make your own street tacos...

Mexican Street Tacos

Chicken

Mexican spices (variety)

Limes

Onion

Cilantro

Green Onions

Corn Tortillas

So basically you take the chicken (if it were REALLY authentic, it would be beef), season, and cook it in a frying pan until you can chop/shred it. Then you do so, and put it in a bowl.

Everything else except the tortillas and limes you dice. Then you quarter the limes. Use an electric skillet to heat up your corn tortillas so they are pliable, and then you EAT! (Construct in any order you choose, but we did chicken, onions, cilantro, squeeze of lime.)

You can garnish with hot sauces if you choose to.

Mexican Wedding Cookies

makes 4 dozen (we cut this in half)

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 c. powdered sugar, divided

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. flour

1 c. finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F. Beat butter, 1/2 c. sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add flour and pecans, beating on low speed after each addition until well blended.

Shape dough into 1-in. balls. Place 1 1/2 in. apart on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 14-15 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are slightly browned. Cool 5 min. on baking sheets. Roll warm cookies in remaining sugar until evenly coated. Cool completely on wire rack. Roll again before placing in air-tight container. Store at room temperature.

The next weekend we headed to Las Vegas to see Elder Caleb home from his mission! He served in Brazil, and it was the first time I had met my brother-in-law. It was a lot of fun. He did a great job on his talk, and we had fun hanging out together!

Last, but not least, we again have started International Food Night again! HOORAY! This week we did St. Vincent & the Grenadines. If you don't know, these are islands in the Caribbean. We chose to do Callaloo Soup, unfortunately, we had no idea where to find Callaloo (which is actually the leaves of the Taro plant... go figure), so we substituted Collard Greens, and I think we pretty much got the same effect. (And there were no poisonous toxins to wait out, hehe.) It was REALLY good. Hearty and not too expensive. So here are the pics...

Callaloo (Collard Green) Soup

(fyi: Caribbean recipes are often less than specific, so use your best judgment!)

1 bunch collard greens (or callaloo)
1 pkg. stew beef
1 T garlic
1/2 c. chives
1 tsp season salt
salt and pepper to taste
1 small onion, diced
2 potatoes, chopped (we used white, but we will try sweet next time)
1 can coconut milk (we used light)
water
dumplings (see recipe below)
*next time we make it, we're going to add some more veggies like carrots, etc.

Add a little oil to large pot. Brown beef, garlic, and onion. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add water to 3/4 of full, add season salt, chives, and potatoes. Bring to a boil.

Chop up the greens, toss them in the pot. Cook until everything is soft. 10 minutes before serving, add coconut milk and dumplings to cook.

Dumplings
2 c. flour
3/4 t. salt
1/4 c. cornmeal
1 T sugar
1/2 t. baking powder
nutmeg
water

Combine flour, salt, sugar, powder, and cornmeal. Add water slowly and mix until you have a stiff dough. Shape dough into spheres. Drop in boiling soup.

Anyhoo... that is the last 4 months in a nutshell! It's kind of crazy! We're definitely going to try to update everything more often so we don't have any more monster posts :)

Diciembre!

2011-01-19T20:16:00.000-08:00

Yo! So let's move to the month of December. It seriously flew by. This isn't everything we did last month, but the highlights :)

On the 4th of December we went to Energy Solutions Arena up in Salt Lake to see BYU play! The refs were HORRIBLE. Seriously! Like one of the worst games I've seen EVER! And I've seen a lot. At least it didn't change the outcome TOO much... we won :) We also celebrated Seth's birthday by going out to eat at Red Rock.

On Sunday we did the Rhodes tradition of building gingerbread houses. We went over to my grandparents' home and had dinner and then made gingerbread houses! My aunts and uncles and cousins all come and join the festivities as well, and each family makes their own house. (My parents and siblings did theirs up in Ogden.) Here's the finished product:

PS: We had a lot of fun smashing it in January! MUAHAHAHA!

So we also cleared enough space in our living room of boxes to put up our tree and Christmas Village! Here's Ian decorating the tree. Yes. He is taller than our 6 foot tree.

Here we are after the decorating is all done!

And here are the finished products! Christmas Village (from a bird's view) and the tree all lit up and beautiful!

We tried to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert, but unfortunately we didn't make it in time. We were stuck in traffic FOREVER! (It was lame. Who came up with the brilliant idea of giving away thousands of more tickets than you have seats for? Someone dumb. Seriously. Dumbest thing ever. They should assign seats and then if they have people not show up, they can let people in from a waiting line. SHEESH!) But we did stop by Temple Square. The lights were beautiful!

We celebrated my siblings birthdays. Yes, all of them. (Well, except Kimi's, that was after Christmas.) We went to SLC and went to a session in the temple. Very interesting! And a lot of fun. And then we drove down to Vegas to celebrate Christmas. Probably the most memorable moments was Ian playing three parts in the Christmas nativity.

As the Innkeeper (and Mary):

As Joseph and Mary (and baby glowworm... yeah, slightly sacrilegious...):

As shepherd (and sheep):

Here is the ... um ... Angel who was packing heat and the shepherd who was going to attack him with a rake? Yeah... I remember that being in the scriptures...

Then Christmas morning! Here are our matching stockings. Mom and Dad Ox made mine for me! (Well, they made Ian's too, but a long time ago.) Isn't it the cutest ever?!

And here we are on Christmas morning... Yeah, it was early. Like really early. But Christmas was wonderful. The girls collaborated and made a great Christmas dinner. We tried out a new pork loin recipe! The pork came out moist and delicious!

The next day was Ian's birthday. So we had taco salad and Texas sheet cake (and I burned the frosting... grr...). But it was a good birthday. I gave him Linkin Park tickets, so we'll be going to that concert in February.

Here's Ian blowing out the candles:

The next day we drove home. It was fairly uneventful except for the RIDICULOUS fog! And this doesn't even really capture how bad it really was!

I thought this was funny.... it's the ice that accumulated on our antennae!

Then we drove up to Ogden to celebrate Kimi's birthday (at Golden Dynasty) and to see her setting apart! The next day we came down to Provo and ate at Mimi's before we shipped her off to the MTC! She's now in Kentucky! CRAZY!

Loves Kimi!

For New Years we stayed in Ogden. We ate mochi... only the best invention for New Years since ... um ... well, everything. It's a Japanese tradition. They're rice cakes and we cook them in a shoyu (soy sauce) and pork sauce. YUM! We also saw Tron, which was awesome. Seriously. Thoroughly enjoyable!

Next post: My birthday! And how Ian is the best husband in the world :)

Catch Up!!!

2011-01-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

SO... um, we're married. Hooray! :)

Let's see, basically a ton has happened in the last couple months. So, let's just get started.

So we went up to Park City after the wedding and had a lovely time hanging with bears...

And we came home to a wonderful surprise:

Which later turned to this:

YAY! We love water damage. This was the product of a leftover tube from when the previous owner took out the swamp cooler and put in central air. Apparently my face was quite the spectacle. Essentially, I first saw the fluff, then my gaze went up to the ceiling and my mouth was about as big as the hole, according to Ian.

The hole turned into this when Ian did the temporary fix:

Hooray. At any rate... we went to Vegas for the Open House. I didn't take many pictures myself, so here's one of my cousin and her daughter and me!

Um... so that takes us through November minus Thanksgiving! So we spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house. And it was quite lovely. I tried this new dressing (as in bread) and it was delectable! Stay tuned for December, house, and more recipes! Huzzah!

More than a Month, and Less than 10 days!

2010-11-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

So... I haven't really posted... well... anything for the last however long. Gratefully I got Kimi's mission call up! So we have just been really busy getting everything ready for next week. We also ALMOST have a house! We're moving in early, because our realtor Jim Cannon is pretty much the most awesome realtor ever. Hopefully we'll close before Christmas! I'll post pictures as soon as the house is in working order... right now we're just happy to have the power on. Seriously, because the main breaker was totally blown out.

ANYWAY...

So, besides buying stuff and spending WAY too much money, we've been up to a few things... like football games. Even in the freezing, pouring rain. (It was a blast!)

Oh, I had some amazing bridal showers. I had one for all of our neighbors and friends up in Ogden. Leanne Milne was kind enough to host! It was a lot of fun seeing everyone and catching up with them.

Here's me... on the couch... waiting for the party to get started :)

This is the food table! Pretty huh?!

This was at my friend shower down in Provo. Cami and I were roommates all through college, and she hosted it at her house! We had a lot of fun. I have 5 billion more pictures of all of my friends, but alas, time is short, so you will have to check later!

I also had a family shower and it was so much fun. I have such an amazing family (and soon-to-be family) and wonderful friends!

On the 23rd we went on a really fun group date! I made chili for everyone. Then we went and picked out pumpkins and carved them. Luckily I'm allergic to pumpkin on my skin... so pretty much Ian did most of it. But isn't our pumpkin awesome?! We wanted to stick with a theme...

Yin and Yang.

Ohm punpkin. And then came Halloween where we were... Yin and Yang! Do you know which one is which?

Aren't we awesome? I think it's hilarious. Since I chose what we were last year, Ian chose this year. Genius! The Dunns were kind enough to invite us over for a Halloween party. Part of it was the mummy wrap. Livvi and I did Ian up... aren't we talented?! We totally should have been born in Egypt! (Not, I think it would have been really gross.)

Ian as a mummy.

Mom and Dad Oxborrow and Seth... with his beer. Okay, not really, but it's almost beer. :)

Olivia as a kid and Graham as an "Ugly American" tourist in France.

Graham and Heather as happy American tourists in Hawaii.

Mom O. and Jack Jack as Cracker Jack!

When I post the new house, I'll put up some pictures of our new car Lucy (new as in really old, but new to us). Only 9 days until we get married! Woot!

Kimi's Mission Call!

2010-09-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

48 days and counting!

So the rest of this month has been exciting! The invitations are being printed... they should be done any day now! I bought my dress, the cake is ordered, decorations almost there, wedding party outfits are close to complete... it's all coming together!

Unfortunately, the football season is falling apart. (But I'd trade that for our wedding coming together any day!)

Probably the most important thing that has happened.... Kimi got her mission call! YIPPEEEEE!!

Here is a picture of her before the big moment:

And here is a video of her opening it!

Here is post-mission call opening. She looks exactly the same. Haha.

And the Kentucky Louisville Mission it is :)

She reports to the MTC on Wednesday, December 29th. We're so excited! Congrats Sister Mikami!

Septiembre!

2010-09-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

SO... we've passed the two month mark. We're down into the 50s for the count! Yippee!

Let's see, what has happened this month since I posted last...

Ian's family came up over Labor Day weekend. We got a ton of stuff done, including suits for the men! We also went to Red Robin (the family restaurant of choice for the Oxborrows) and the first football game of the season!!!

This is us before the game. It was FREAKING hot. But neither of us really got sunburned! Huzzah! We won though, which makes it all worth it. And by the end of the game it was pretty nice and there was a beautiful sunset... as seen in the next picture!

See... pretty...

The next day (Sunday), the Oxborrow clan met the Mikami clan and it was ruckus and good times all around. And we fitted Livvi with her dress, and it is going to look amazing on her! (And hopefully all of the other girls.)

Here are a couple of random pictures of Ian.

Ian and our "pet" Crockett. He's super cool. (The dog, not the crazed man next to him...)

Ian and his other woman. Should I be worried? Hah... I think not...

O is for Oxborrow.

As you can see, Ian's having a lot of fun shopping for wedding decorations. :) MUAHAHAHA. And that's pretty much what we've been up to the last couple of weeks. More to come soon.

The Last International Food Night Before We're Married....

2010-09-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

SO... a long time ago... like a month or more... we had our last international food night before we start them again in December (sorry about the hiatus.... it kind of takes a place that you actually call your own... and besides, we get to enjoy my Grandma's amazing cooking for a couple months! Who can pass that up?!)

BUT, we did the Netherlands Antilles which is another Caribbean island. We have decided that we definitely love Caribbean food! We had cilantro lime marinated chicken, brown rice, cooked carrots (with butter and chives), and fried plantains (we just used the kosher salt to season this time). YUM!

Cilantro-Lime Chicken
serves 4-6

3/4 c. vegetable oil
3 limes (juice)
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 t. black pepper
3 jalapeno (or 1-2 habanero) peppers, minced
2 t. oregano
1 1/2 T. cilantro
4-6 chicken breasts

Combine oil, juice, and seasonings. Place chicken in glass or ceramic bowl. Pour marinade over chicken and cover. Let sit at least 2-3 hours (we left ours about 24). Grill or bake the chicken. (I liked to bake it because then you can use the sauce!)

Making it Official

2010-09-02T21:37:00.001-07:00

And the big happenings of August...

The Engagement Story:

So I'm sitting in my living room, watching tv... Ian comes in and not only has my favorite shirt (of his) on, but is also carrying a drink cooler. "Huh," I think to myself, "When's the last time Ian planned a date?" Seriously... ask him... he'll say never :)

He immediately goes to the freezer and after some rummaging around says, "Where's the ice." I shrug, see the ice tray on the counter, and say, "There apparently." He grunts or does some other man thing and grabs an ice pack. That, of course, is not enough, so he throws in some of my frozen vegetables and says, "Let's go." So we do.

We get down to the car, open the door, and this is on my chair:

It was so pretty... and I loved it.

We continued to Spicy Thai (which is where we went on our first unplanned, paired-off, and paid-for date). And we ate delicious food. :)

I love the awkward pictures we take ourselves. Then we headed back to my apartment and watched An American Tail (yes, the animated one...)

This was the movie we were watching when we had our first kiss. It was definitely better than the movie :)

After we finished that we headed down the interstate to Exit 202... which holds absolutely no significance to anyone except us (well, maybe it does, but... yeah, whatever).

We stopped here once on our way back from Vegas to look at the stars and talk, and it was one of our most memorable moments while we were dating, thus Ian had the good sense to make it official here too! He's amazing, because honestly, this was the place I wanted him to do it. Here are some pictures, but not from that night, they're from when we were driving back from Vegas the weekend after...

This is what you see looking out at the desert from where we stopped. (Although you really didn't see any of this either time, because it was night... haha).

Yay! And my hair is awesome.

And, of course, you must enjoy a picture of the following...

And so it's officially official. We're getting married on November 13! Come and join the festivities!

August Happenings

2010-09-02T21:18:00.001-07:00

So this post is to cover (almost) all things August...

We went up to Sundance with my family to see Big River. I really love this show.. like for real. And I have no real idea why, except the fact that I like folksy music and Huck Finn is the free spirit that I never really allowed myself to be as a kid... that could be it. It was really good. Ashlee's friend Nate Waite played Huck and it was most excellent.


Here is the stage for Big River. Admittedly, I liked Hale's a lot more... they had real water, but this one was good for an amphitheater.

Aww.

We also hit Chuck-a-rama that night. I ate so much food. And Ian ate more.

A few weekends later we went up to Logan with the family again and went to the American West Heritage Center (I think that's what it's called anyway). We all tried to throw tomahawks. My dad was actually the only one who hit the wood correctly to get it to stick... rock on. But here are pictures... I like them.


Kimi tried more times than anyone... And it was funny.

Oh yeah...

Ian the Apache Warrior. Michelle the worried bystander.

We saw a westernized version of Shakespeare, had dinner, and rode the most awesome train ever. Okay, not really. It was lame and went in a circle. But I liked it nonetheless.

The padres on the train. Go Coke.

My oh-so-attractive sisters.

I have no words...

The family down on the farm...

We also strolled around a secret pond in the middle of Ogden... seriously. I grew up there and had no idea it existed! Welcome to Glassman Pond... (I think that was what it was called).

Isn't it cool? Lily pads and boats... well, sunken boats.

Ian's sister Livvi came and visited us and we took her to get the promised King Kong Kone.

so... much... ice cream...

And here are some other random pictures. Like us with turbans...

Ian looks kind of Arab.

I look ...

Green socks!

Those are the minor highlights of August :)

Cambodia... Yum...

2010-08-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

I found it fitting that while one of my best friends is doing humanitarian work in Cambodia that we try a recipe or two from there! The meal was delectable! We had Cambodian Marinated Beef with Lime Sauce and Nhuem (Cambodian Cabbage Salad) and Jasmine rice. SO GOOD!

So I actually marinated everything the night before, so... yeah, the longer you can marinate, the better!

:)

Anyhoo, here are the recipes. They are SUPER easy!

Cambodian Marinated Beef with Lime Sauce
serves 2-4

1 T. sugar
2 T. lime juice
1 1/2 t. fresh ground pepper
1 t. water
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. canola oil
7 garlic cloves, crushed
1 1/2 lb. sirloin

Combine sugar, 1 t. pepper, soy sauce, and garlic. Stir well. Add beef. Mix to coat. Marinate for at least 1 hour.

Combine remaining pepper with lime juice and water. Place in small serving bowl.

Saute beef in oil, three to four minutes until medium rare. Serve over jasmine rice (or any kind of rice) with sauce.

Nhuem (Cambodian Cabbage Salad)
serves 4-6

1 small-medium cabbage
1 sm. package glass noodles (rice noodles), cooked
1/3 lb. (or 1 can) chicken, shredded
1 bunch green onions
1 c. peanuts, crushed

Sauce:

3/4 c. soy sauce
3/4 c. vinegar
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. water
4-5 cloves garlic, minced

Combine salad ingredients, chill. Blend sauce ingredients, pour over salad right before serving. Toss to blend.

Try these, even if you're not the best cook. They're super easy recipes and amazingly good!

Smashing British Fare...

2010-08-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hallo...

We picked Great Britain out for this last week. And let's be honest, Britain isn't exactly known for its exotic fare... it's typically roast beef and other hearty, yet fairly bland, foods that smatter the plates of the Brits. So I went searching for some kind of recipe that would give a little twist on typical British food...

And I found this AMAZING braised pork recipe (adapted a little, of course, as most of my recipes are)! I paired that with green beans and roasted potatoes and classic Yorkshire puddings and we had an amazing, tasty British meal! This pork is particularly good for those of you who are not huge fans of pork because it gets dry. This pork was incredibly moist!

Braised Spicy Pork
serves 4

2 lb. pork shoulder roast
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2" fresh ginger, peeled
3 T. soy sauce
3 T. honey
1 t. freshly ground pepper
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
4 red chilies
2 cinnamon sticks
4 star anise
500 ml (or so) chicken stock
1 t. butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Put garlic, ginger, soy, honey, pepper, and olive oil into a blender or food processor (it will make a paste). Place pork into a large roasting pan/tray and smear the paste all over the pork.

Snap the chilies and throw them in the roasting tray with the cinnamon, star anise, and chicken stock. Cover (if desired) and roast about 30 minutes for every pound.

For the last 20 minutes of cooking, uncover and baste with juices. Increase temperature to 400 degrees F. Test that the internal temperature is 160F and remove from oven.

Allow pork to rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Strain the juices from the pan into a small saucepan. Place over high heat and drop butter into sauce. If a thicker sauce is desired, thicken with cornstarch or flour. Serve over pork.

Yorkshire Pudding
serves 6

3 medium eggs (or 2 large)
Milk
Flour
Salt
Vegetable Oil

Heat oven to 425 F.

Pour the eggs into a liquid measuring cup. Note the amount of eggs. Pour into a large mixing bowl. Measure out the same amount of milk (as the eggs) and pour into the mix. Whisk and add a pinch of salt. Let stand for at least 10 minutes.

Measure the same amount of flour (as the eggs) and whisk into the mixture to create a lump-free batter resembling thick cream. Leave the batter to rest for AT LEAST 30 minutes (longer is better).

Take muffin tin and place about 1/2 t. of oil in the bottom of each cup. Give the batter another good whisk adding 2 T. of cold water. Fill a third of each in and return quickly o the oven.

Leave to cook until golden brown (15-20 minutes). Repeat if you have additional batter.

*we ate them the next morning cold with jam and honey and they were delicious! They don't reheat well due to their makeup, so don't reheat them :)*

Roasted Thyme Potatoes
serves 4 (I cooked these at the same time as the pork)

6 potatoes, cubed
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Rosemary
Thyme

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix cubed potatoes with remaining ingredients. Place in baking dish and cook for about 1.5 hours. Increase temperature to 425 and cook for 10 minutes to get a nice browning.

It was all delicious! And the fresh green beans with butter and salt and pepper were so good!

Mauritania!

2010-07-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

Not to be confused with the island Mauritia... Mauritania is a country in the west of Africa (doing this international food night has made me realize that I really have no idea about African geography!). At any rate. Originally we were going to make pepper steak with coconut... but we couldn't find any coconut, so we combined this recipe with a recipe for lamb couscous and came up with Pepper Steak Couscous!

Try this! It's really good. It's a cross between Asian and Middle Eastern food to create this Mauritanian awesomeness! On a side note, I used two habanero peppers. I've chopped them before and never had a problem, but apparently these were really potent, because about 30 minutes after I chopped them, my hands burned like whoa! Chemical burns are fun. The end. Moral of the story: use gloves even if they usually aren't that bad. Luckily it only lasted a couple of hours.

Pepper Steak Couscous
serves 4

1-2 lbs beef, cubed into bite-size
1 onion
2 green peppers
1-2 habaneros (or hot chili of your choice. If you use habaneros, use gloves!)
3 small potatoes, chopped
2-3 T. oil
1 t. salt
2 t. black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
8-10 drops of Tabasco
2 T. soy sauce
2 beef bullion cube
4 T. cornstarch

Add oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and Tabasco. Fry onions, peppers, and habanero. Add steak cubes. Brown. Add potatoes. Add soy sauce, beef bullion, and 1 c. (or so) of water. Cook until potatoes are soft. Mix cornstarch with water. Add to sauce. Bring to a boil. Cook until thickened.

Cook couscous according to package directions. Serve over couscous.

It's spicy!

Llama Fest!

2010-07-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday was pretty fantastic! We ate Thai food... which is a favorite of mine... and then we went to Llama Fest, which, of course, is always an experience. Here are a couple pics from the fest!

So all of the other llamas were over in a corral across the way as part of the petting zoo... so we came to visit the outcast llama...

So the llama didn't want to take a picture with us... but Ian got one!

Yeah, if we got any closer he would run...

The end.

Slovakian... kinda Italian...

2010-07-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

So we had Solvakian food on Wednesday. It was really good, but my technique needs a bit of improvement :) I made Bryndzove Halusky (potato dumplings with cheese). Yum!

Here's the recipe for ya! (We were going to make apple dessert pancakes, but this more than filled us up!)

Bryndzove Halusky
serves 4

4 potatoes, peeled
Flour (approx 8 T)
Salt
2 eggs

Bryndza (sheep's cheese)
OR
milk
1 pkg. cream cheese
1 pkg. feta cheese

Finely shred the potatoes.
Add egg and flour. Make a dough that's not too touch, but not too watery. Use a bit of water if it's too tough, or add more flour.
Add 1 t. salt
Boil water with 2 t. salt
Use 1/2 t. to drop a litte bit of dough into the boiling water (be sure the water is always boiling).
When halusky are done they will float on the top of the water. Pick them out with a strainer.
If you can't find bryndza (which more than likely you won't be able to), mix the cheeses and milk together over the stove and stir until boiling. Remove from heat.
Fry bacon to crispy, break into little pieces.
Add strained halusky to bacon grease and fry for a moment.
Serve with cheese sauce and bacon on top.

Good, cheap, and REALLY filling!

Spicy Belizean!

2010-07-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

So I had success... we hit a 7/10 on Ian's food "hotness" scale. WOOT! That's what two habanero peppers will do for you :) The food was pretty durn good! The chicken had a citrus kick, but it was awesomely spicy. (BTW, it was my first time ever cooking a whole chicken... yeah, preparing it, not my favorite thing ever... for real). It all turned out quite excellently though!

Here's a picture to document my first attempt at cooking a whole chicken:

Looks good, no? It was spicy deliciousness!

Here's the meal in its entirety. We had the chicken, Belizean rice and beans, and oranges. Yum!

Try out the recipes! You won't be disappointed!

Belizean Spicy Chicken
serves 2-4

1 whole fryer chicken (could use chicken breasts or whatever you wanted to)
3/4 c. chili sauce
2/3 c. chicken stock
1 lemon (juice)
1 lime (juice)
1/3 c. brown sugar
3 T. soy sauce
1 garlic clove
2 habanero chilies, minced
2 T. ground mustard
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 chipotle chilies, minced
Zest of 2 oranges
salt and pepper

Place all ingredients except chicken, salt, and pepper into a pan and simmer for 20 minutes. Let cool.

If using a whole chicken, butterfly the chicken-not for the faint of heart. (If you don't know how, I included the instructions, since I had no idea really what to do the first time either...)

Place the whole chicken breast side down with the drumsticks pointing toward you. The backbone is now on top. (You can feel it running down the center of the chicken)
Hold the tail (or flap of skin) that is pointing toward you and cut along each side of the backbone with a pair of kitchen shears or a sharp knife. Remove the backbone. (You'll cut through the ribs, which is the crunching sound.)
Turn the chicken 180 degrees so the drumsticks are pointing away from you.
Using a small knife, cut through the piece of white cartilage (or gristle) covering the breastbone. It's located in the cavity of the chicken on the end facing you.
Grasp each side of the chicken and bend the carcass backwards at the line of the cut you just made. Bend until you hear a crack, this exposes the breastbone.
Run a finger along each side of the breastbone to separate the bone from the meat. Once separated, remove the entire breastbone.
Push flat to butterfly the chicken, and remove any excess fat.

Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper. Generously apply sauce to both sides of the chicken (or chicken pieces if you decided not to fight with it). Continue to baste every 15 minutes or so of cooking.

Cook slowly at 275 degrees for 1.5 hours. Increase heat to 400 degrees for the last 15-20 minutes. Tent with tinfoil for ten minutes. Serve immediately.

(If using chicken pieces, cook accordingly. If using a whole chicken, use a meat thermometer to check the thigh temperature has reached 160-165.)

Belizean Rice and Beans
serves 4

1 can red kidney beans
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 t. salt
1 can coconut milk
1/2 t. black pepper
1/2 t. thyme
1 1/2 c. rice
1/2 onion, minced

Brown garlic and onion in a small amount of oil or butter in a saucepan with a lid. Add beans. Use the can of coconut milk and add water to make it two cups. Add to saucepan. Add spices to taste. Mix in rice. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the rice is done and the liquid has been absorbed.

Enjoy!

Independence Day!

2010-07-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

I must admit, the 4th of July is a pretty fantastic holiday... always great BBQ food, fireworks, summer weather... it's just plain ol' awesome!

We had a really busy weekend! Ian and I both had family in town and so it was a little crazy, but it was a lot of fun! On Friday we finally were able to see Graham and Heather's townhouse finished! The last time we were there they were painting everything and the inside of our noses looked like winter pine forests. It was kind of funny, not going to lie. Their townhouse is awesome though! It feels really spacious (I think because it has really high ceilings). I like it a lot.

That evening we went with the Oxborrow clan to the family restaurant: Red Robin. I hadn't ever been to the one out by Daybreak. It's a really cool little shopping/entertainment area out there! While we were waiting there were a bunch of balloons, Livvi, Seth, Ian, and I proceeded to play with them. Livvi was hit in the face a few times... we all took stupid pictures, it rocked. After the meal, we headed back to Graham and Heather's. We picked up a Redbox movie: Planet 51. I had head that it wasn't very good, but I was thoroughly entertained. Definitely not one to watch over and over again, but entertaining nonetheless.

Saturday we all got breakfast at a really neat little bakery in American Fork called Flour Girls and Dough Boys. Then we went and bought Ian some much needed new shoes. Then we headed back to Provo to go to my Mom's family's BBQ. We had some delicious food and smoked turkey (YUM!), and celebrated my Uncle Ken's 50th birthday. Then we headed back to Thanksgiving Point to watch the fireworks. It was actually a little chilly! The Vegas natives were freezing! :)

Here we see the lovely Oxborrow clan. Hehe.

This is Ian "sleeping" before the fireworks.

Happy 4th of July! We both are looking a little sleepy in this picture...

Sunday we spent the day at Graham and Heather's playing games and hanging out. We had a really great BBQ. It was delicious!

Monday we had an adventure trying to get out of Provo while the parade was going on. Bad idea. It took us 30 minutes to get out of our neighborhood! But we eventually made it to Lehi and we watched The Last Airbender. It was a pretty sweet little movie. I'll be excited when the actors become a bit more seasoned and hopefully they won't try to smash as much into the next movie... but we shall see!

Then after eating a quick lunch we went up to Temple Square to look at the new model of the Salt Lake Temple. It's pretty cool! You should go look at it in the south visitor's center if you have the opportunity.

Following that we headed up to Bountiful to the Muhlestein's home for another great 4th of July BBQ. Ian and I played foozball... there were some amazing shots. I'm not going to lie. We're actually pretty evenly matched in it... which is a rarity in sports (usually he pretty much kills me). Not that foozball is really a sport... but it kind of is... right?

ANYWAY

We evenually ended up back at Graham and Heather's and chatted for a bit longer until we headed home!

It was a crazy busy weekend, but it was a ton of fun!

New Caledonian ... weird? Yes.

2010-07-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

This week's culinary adventure took us to the South Pacific nation of New Caledonia. And yes, the food was a bit weird.

We had coconut chicken and sweet potato and pineapple casserole. Weird. I know. I really actually liked both of them, but I thought the coconut chicken could have used a bit of spice for flavor.

At any rate, here they are in all of their glory (PS, the casserole sounds gross, but really, I liked it.) Try it. I dare you.

New Caledonian Coconut Chicken
serves 4

1/2 head cabbage, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, peeled, cubed
2 potatoes, peeled, cubed
2 c. coconut cream
2 chicken breasts, cubed
2 onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced

Wash and chop veggies.
Pour 1 c. of coconut cream into the bottom of baking dish. Layer cabbage on the bottom and spread remaining ingredients on top. Cover with remaining coconut cream. (I added salt, pepper, cayenne, and a little thyme).
Cover and bake at 350 F for 1.5 hours.

New Caledonian Sweet Potato and Pineapple Casserole
serves 6

2 large sweet potatoes, cooked and sliced
2 c. cheese sauce
1 T. grated coconut
1 fresh pineapple, cored and sliced
2 T chopped green onions
2 T butter
Salt

Arrange in layers: pineapple, sweet potatoes, coconut, onion, cheese sauce. Repeat.
Bake in oven at 350 F for 30 minutes.

Cheese Sauce:
1 T. butter
1 T. (heaping) flour
1 1/2 c. milk
3 T cheese
salt and pepper

Melt butter. Mix in flour. Remove from heat.
Add half of milk.
Return to heat.
Slowly add remaining milk.
Add cheese and spice.
Stir until cheese melts.

Last Week's Adventures

2010-07-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

So last week was pretty crazy. We got back from Vegas, took a trip up to Ogden to celebrate Father's Day (and to see Ashlee in Footloose). Then we spent two days at home and drove up to Ogden again for my cousin's wedding.

Aaron is actually my Dad's cousin, but he's exactly my age... so it really feels like we're actually cousins (well we are... but I mean first cousins) ANYWAY... the day before we went to Ali's bridal shower which was really nice, and on the way Kimi and I saw this awesome tree:

Kimi thought it looked like the tree was giving us the bird... and it does.

So the wedding was at the Bountiful temple. It was beautiful! My cousin Nate has a relatively new baby and the kid is a tank! He is HUGE! It's awesome. At any rate... here are a few pics...

Aaron and Ali coming out of the temple.

AWWW. :)

We went and saw Toy Story 3 on Friday evening... and it was awesome! We got to spend a bit of quality time with the fam. Saturday morning Ian and I got up at 4am (that's right, 4am) to watch the lunar eclipse. It was almost a complete eclipse... and it was beautiful... and we were eaten alive by mosquitoes. Rock on.

This week has been pretty low-key thus far, which we've enjoyed. It's been nice to have some down time. But this weekend is the holiday and it's chock full of family and fun, so you'll be getting a full report soon...

What Happens in Vegas... Again

2010-06-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

Since we spent Mother's Day up in Oregon with my family, Ian and I decided to drive down to Vegas and spend some time with his family over Father's Day. The drive wasn't too bad, though gas was pretty durn expensive. Ian was sick the night before, so he slept (or tried to) while I drove most of the way. He was nice and drove into Vegas. For some reason I just really don't like driving into cities that I don't know well... then end. ANYWAY...

Friday night we went out to eat with some of the Oxborrow family friends. We went to Memphis BBQ and it was splendid... I had a blackberry lemonade with my delectable dinner and it was delish! We had some good conversation. Ian and I sat in the very back of the SUV... and it was funny. Ian is so tall he can't even sit in the back, he had to have his head sideways the entire time... poor man. The rest of the night was spent chatting! It was great.

On Saturday Ian helped his dad move one of the ward members and then we headed out to Pahrump, NV where Ian's grandparent's live. It was fun to see the old haunts of Ian's childhood where he and his siblings spent a bit of time each summer. We also happened to be there the same time as his aunt and uncle, so I was able to meet them too! It was a lot of fun.

We picked up food for dinner and whatnot, then we headed home and watched The Princess and the Frog and When in Rome. Ian and I saw The Princess and the Frog over Valentine's weekend (as I know I've mentioned before) and we NEVER get sick of it! It's one of our favorite Disney shows! So, if you haven't seen it, DO IT! Ian's mom and sister loved When in Rome and wanted us to share the bliss... and it was hilarious indeed! :)

Sunday we went to church. Ian's mom gave this amazing lesson on the Atonement. I know her words really touched many class members and made them really think and ask questions, which is exactly what a great teacher does! After church Ian's dad grilled up some steak (which was divine), Livvi made biscuits and helped me with the pressure cooker and the carrots, and with the potatoes it the perfect Father's Day meal!

We drove home after dinner and made a pit-stop out in the desert to look at the stars. It was perfect! Ian called to some of the desert critters and they called back! It was so cool!

Monday we went up to Ogden to celebrate Father's Day with my family. We gave my dad a ninja hamster. It's hilarious. We also went and saw Ashlee's play Footloose. She did a great job dancing and singing her heart out!

Now on to the wedding weekend. Congrats to my cousin Aaron and his awesome fiance (soon to be wife!).

Courtesy of Espana...

2010-06-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

International food night... So because Ian has been so lucky at picking out random countries that we've never heard of, we decided to let me try my luck, and I pulled out Spain. HAHA! It was all pretty simple with just two dishes - gazpacho and paella.

First we had gazpacho. It's a cold vegetable soup that supposedly started in the Andalusian region of Spain. So... funny moment... I was trying to push the power off on the blender... and I pushed the "start" button. Gazpacho everywhere. Good times... It's pretty simple, just cut up the veggies, blend, chill. The garnish is optional, but I thought it really added a lot.

I didn't really follow a strict recipe, I just gathered a bunch and made it, so I'll tell you what I did, but you can change it to suit your tastes.

Gazpacho
Serves 4

8 Roma tomatoes, cut into chunks
1 cucumber, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 green pepper, in large pieces
1 onion, minced
2 green onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 T. red wine vinegar
3 T. lemon juice (fresh is best)
1 t. dried basil
1/4 c. chopped Italian parsley
1 t. white sugar
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Crushed croutons
5 chives, chopped

In a blender or food processor combine most of tomato, half cucumber, green pepper, half onion, green onions, garlic, vinegar, lemon juice, basil, parsley, sugar, salt, and pepper. Blend until well-combined, but slightly chunky. Add olive oil. Blend. Remove to pitcher and chill for at least an hour.

Garnish:
Use remaining tomato, onion, and cucumber as garnish. Sprinkle sea salt on the tomatoes, drizzle olive oil on onion, and add vinegar to cucumbers. Arrange garnishes on top. Sprinkle croutons and chives on top.

Chicken Paella
serves 6

Olive oil
4 chicken breasts, cut into 2-3 pieces
2 1/2 c. long grain rice
32 oz. chicken stock
1 green pepper, chopped into small pieces
1 red pepper, julienned
1 yellow pepper, julienned
1 onion, minced
2 tomatoes, chopped (peeled if you would like)
1/2 bag of frozen peas
Saffron
1 clove garlic
Italian Parsley, chopped
salt
lemon wedges

Heat oil. Brown chicken. Remove. Set aside.

In same pan, add onion and tomato. Mash. Strain and throw it back into the pan.

Add more oil (3 T). Add green pepper and meat. Stir. Add salt, stock, and rice. Shake pan to be sure entire contents is covered.

Mash saffron, garlic, parsley, and salt together. Sprinkle over rice. Shake pan again.

When broth reduces to half, add the yellow and red peppers and the peas. Cook until broth is absorbed and rice is done (may have to add more water if necessary). Let rest for 5 minutes.

Spain! Try it!

Serve with lemon.

A Lad an' a Lassie

2010-06-17T17:29:00.000-07:00

So, as has been my tradition for many a year, we went to the Scottish Festival at Thanksgiving point. I tend to volunteer for the various festivals that I want to attend, mainly because you get free entrance, usually a t-shirt, and other cool perks. We were assigned gate duty and basically I sat there for three hours and watched Ian be the gatekeeper. It rocked, hehe.

Yay for us during our downtime before it started pouring...

Ian's head. Haha.

At any rate, we saw a bunch of interesting people... like a girl with a fake tail, many people dressed up like medieval peeps (... I thought it was a Scottish Festival?), and more than enough kilts. I love Scotland :)

Anyway, after our shift we were starving, but didn't feel like shelling out $10/plate for a meal at the festival, so we ran into Lehi and grabbed some food. At which time it decided to start POURING. We went back to the festival, and the weather actually wasn't too bad once we got there, but a lot of the patrons and many of the vendors and booth owners had packed up.

We looked at cool swords, thought about getting a printout of the Oxborrow family history/crest/etc., but in the end didn't get anything. I wish the weather had been nicer. We were going to stay for the concert as well, but in the end it was just to dampish, so we went over to my aunt and uncles to visit.

We watched highlights of the USA v. England World Cup match (they recorded it for us) ... and got a major kick out of their little Yorkie Mysti. She was staring at the tv, following the little white soccer ball across the screen. It was hilarious.

Anyway, I thoroughly suggest attending the Scottish Fest if you have the time next summer! And volunteer ... it seriously saves you a bunch and the shifts aren't that bad :)

On Tuesday we decided to brave the crowd and drove to Pleasant Grove to their Strawberry Days concert in the park. It was a local band doing soft rock from mostly the 70s. It was fun... and watching people was even more fun. :)

Yay for summer!

Y Mount is Conquered

2010-06-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

So yeah, I almost didn't make it this morning. I don't know if it was a lack of food, water, a combination, or simply the fact that my cardio exercise has been severely lacking of late... either way, it was ridiculous and I pretty much felt sick the entire way up. Ian kept offering to go back, but, being the stubborn person that I am, I refused and kept moving forward... albeit at a VERY slow pace. (I am reminded of the time that I walked the entire distance of the pioneer trek when I was fifteen... despite being incredibly ill and dehydrated. I would have been one of the first pioneers to the valley... or else one of the ones who died because I didn't know when to quit...) ANYWAY... the point is, we made it!

This was Ian's first time up the mountain, so we decided to take most excellent conquering pictures.

It is amazingly green right now, and I love it! This is looking up the mountain from the trailhead.

Up at the top! I made it. Just barely.

My victory picture... which was seriously more of a relief picture.

Ian's victory picture, which looks much more victorious than mine.

Our view of the valley, sitting on the Y.

The valley's view of us. Haha.

It was an early morning this morning, but I was glad we made it. One more thing to check off the list of things to do before leaving Provo...

PS We saw the cutest little bunny on the way down... AWWW....

Where in the World is Benin?!

2010-06-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

So we originally pulled out Iran from the bag of countries this week, but we cheated and put it back. We figured since we just had Middle Eastern food, we'd give ourselves at least a week's respite. And out came Benin! Originally we thought it was a country in the Caribbean. Not so much. It's a tiny county in West Africa on the southern coast. Yeah. Who knew? Probably some of you, but not us.

The food was excellent. We made two dishes. Beninese Beef Stew (which was a curry... and so delicious!) and Couscous Azindessi.

This is the couscous azinedessi (couscous with peanut sauce!)

Here's the couscous with the Beninese Beef Stew over rice. Both delectable! Also really simple to make. (Though it does take a couple hours of simmering to make the beef tender.)

Here are the recipes! Enjoy!

Beninese Beef Stew
serves 4

1-1 1/2 lbs. beef stew meat
2 medium onions, chopped
3 T. Spicy Curry
2 t. salt
ground Cayenne Pepper (to taste)
ground Chipotle Pepper (to taste)
1 can coconut milk
1 c. water
1 sweet potato, cut into chunks, and deep fried
4 T. butter
1 T. flour
4 T. smooth peanut butter
5 garlic cloves, minced
several whole okra with tops removed (we couldn't find any, so we didn't use them)

Melt butter. Brown beef. Remove beef and use the remaining oil to fry onions and garlic until golden brown.

Add flour, curry, salt, peppers, and peanut butter. Heat for a minute, then slowly add coconut milk, then add the water. Heat for a minute. Simmer until thickened. Add beef and simmer until meat is tender (can take up to two hours)

About 20 minutes before serving add sweet potatoes and okra.

Serve over rice.

Couscous Azindessi
serves 4

1 package couscous
2 cans chicken stock
1 garlic clove, minced
1 slice gingerroot, minced
1/4 t. freshly ground pepper
1 large tomato, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 T. oil (peanut, preferably)
1 T. tomato paste
4 T. peanut butter
1/2 c. peanuts, crushed
green onions, sliced for garnish

Cook couscous according to package directions, substituting chicken broth for water. (We had 2 c. broth and a package of couscous, about 1 1/2 c. dry).

Brown garlic, ginger, and onion in oil in a separate pan. Transfer to blender with 1 c. chicken stock and tomato. Puree. Return to pan. Add peanut butter and paste. Heat through.

Mix peanuts with couscous. Top with peanut sauce and garnish with green onion.

Summer Comes

2010-06-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

So we had quite an eventful weekend! It was a ton of fun.

On Friday night we joined Seth and his friends for a night out launching potatoes. It was awesome. Ian had the record for the potato that shot the farthest. Fantastic!

That's a really big potato...

Aww... how cute.

Our "serious" picture. Haha. We're awesome.

We also watched The Princess and the Frog. Ian and I first saw that on Valentine's Day. And we still love it. It is so hilarious. If you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you do. It was Seth's first time seeing it, and he really liked it as well. So... you know, it has a pretty good track record.

On Saturday we spent some time with our friend Lori... we went over to Macey's and got ice cream cones. Ian got the King Kong Cone... which seriously is like a medium-size soft drink cup full of ice cream plus a half and a cone. Sick! We'll take a picture next time.

That evening we went up to the Bee's game with Seth and his date Mary. We met up with Graham, Heather, and Jack. It was so much fun, and there were fireworks at the end, which made it five million times better.

Haha. I think this picture is hilarious.

Post-game getting ready to watch the fireworks out on the field!

And this... this is just funny. So we had a ward FHE on Monday and we went over to the Burgess' home. They had a pinata for the activity... and Ian found the broomstick that they used to hit it with... and this is what happened:

He's my favorite. :)

Bahrain

2010-06-10T11:14:00.000-07:00

Okay. So either I'm not looking in the right place... or Arabian/Middle Eastern food is pretty similar. They all use pretty much the same spices, and a lot of rice and some tomatoes. But at any rate, it tasted pretty good, and we especially liked the sweet rice.

So... Bahrain is a little island country off the coast of Saudi Arabia. We looked it up. Haha.

We essentially had two things, and they pretty much looked the same. Though they were very different in taste. Machboos and Muhammar.

This is the Chicken Machboos. It's a savory dish with a lot of spices in it.

This is the sweet rice Muhammar. Yum!

Essentially we ate rice with a bit of chicken and veggies for this meal, but it was incredibly filling and we had a ton of leftovers. (They're also pretty much one-pot-wonders, which is a plus.)

Enjoy!

Chicken Machboos
serves 4

2 c. water
1 1/2 c. basmati rice
2 tomatoes, chopped
4 chicken breasts
2 onions, finely chopped
coriander (fresh chopped, or powdered)
hot pepper
cinnamon
paprika
tumeric
cloves
cayenne
cardamom powder
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 slice gingerroot, minced
2 T. butter
1/8 c. lemon juice
3 T. oil
3 t. salt

Heat the water. While heating, mix together paprika, tumeric, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, cayenne. salt, and pepper. Rub onto chicken.

Heat oil and fry onions, garlic, and ginger until golden brown. Add your favorite hot pepper. Add chicken and brown. Sprinkle more cinnamon and the remaining mixed spices. Cook on medium for about 3 minutes, turning often.

Add tomatoes, turn ingredients, and cook for 3 more minutes. Sprinkle additional salt on top of everything and pour water on top while it is still hot.

Cover the pan and let it cook for about 1 hour on medium-low heat until the chicken is cooked. Add coriander about 5 minutes before you remove chicken from the stock pan. While the chicken is cooking, wash the rice in cold water and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Remove chicken from pot, place in pan, brush with oil, and sprinkle more cinnamon on top. Place in oven at 325 degrees and allow chicken to become golden brown.

Add rice to the stock pot. Stir and cook at low heat until the rice absorbs the stock and is almost done. Sprinkle the lemon juice on top, and place butter pieces. Cover and cook on low heat for 30 more minutes.

Heap rice in serving dish and top with chicken.

Sweet Rice Muhammar
serves 4

2 c. basmati rice
1/4 t. saffron
1/4 t. cloves
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. water

Soak together saffron, cloves, and cinnamon in water.

Boil 6 c. of water and add rice. Boil to half cooked (about 8 minutes) and drain.

Stir sugar throughout. Add butter and stir. Pour spices on top and stir.

Cook on very low heat for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to serving platter. Top with more melted butter.

Enjoy!

Malagasy Dining Extraordinaire...

2010-05-31T12:12:00.000-07:00

So for international food night on the 19th we pulled out Madagascar and both looked at each other like... wha? But it turned out amazingly well! (On a side note, we didn't do an international food night this last week because we had so many leftovers... but we will do a new one on Wednesday!)

So the menu was really awesome, and was as follows:

Lasopy (beef veggie puree soup), Varenga (roasted shredded beef), Vary Amin Anana (rice and greens), Lasary Voatabia (tomato and scallion salad), with Sakay (red pepper sauce), and Salady Voankazo for dessert (vanilla fruit).

Traditionally Malagasy meals are served on a mat on the floor. We didn't have a mat, but Ian insisted we eat on the floor ...

This was the best photo of us sitting on the floor we could get. We tried doing it actually sitting up... yeah, that didn't work.

So the first course was Lasopy:

Does it look gross? Kind of. But it was a really good, thick vegetable soup with a whole lot of vitamins and nutrition, and it was super easy to make!

Then the main course:

It was really quite good! Our favorite was the rice. (And we forgot to take a picture of the dessert...)

At any rate, try it out. It's all pretty simple to make and makes a great meal together, or you could piece and pair with some other favorites.

Lasopy

Vegetable Puree Soup

serves 4

Beef stock (for base)

1 qt. water

salt

pepper

3 carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces

1 turnip, peeled and cut into chunks

1 bunch scallions, cut into large pieces

2 c. fresh green beans

2 tomatoes, quartered

In a large pot, simmer for about an hour until veggies are tender.

Puree in blender or food processors.

Serve thick soup hot.

Varenga

Roasted Beef

serves 4

2 lbs. boneless chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 qt. water

2 T. salt

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 c. onion, slices

In a large pot, cover and bring to a boil.

Simmer gently for about 2 hours or until meat can be shredded easily with a fork.

Add water if necessary to keep meat at simmering point.

Shred the meat and transfer to a 9x12 in baking pan. Pour sauce on top.

Roast at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes until meat is nicely browned across the top.

Vary Amin Anana

Rice and Greens

serves 6

1/2 lb. boneless chuck, cut into small cubes

2 T. oil

1 tomato, cut into pieces

1 bunch scallions, cut into 1 in. pieces

3/4 lb. spinach, cut into small pieces

1 bunch watercress, cut into small pieces

1 c. rice

salt

pepper

Brown meat in oil.

Add all except rice

Saute, stirring occasionally until veggies soften and volume is lowered.

Add 2 c. water (or enough to cover veggies)

Add rice.

Cover tightly and simmer until rice is thoroughly cooked and water is gone.

(Serve with Sakay sauce)

Sakay

Hot Red Pepper Sauce

Combine

1/2 c. crushed red pepper

1 T. ground ginger

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Add 4 T. oil to make a mush.

Lasary Voatabia

Tomato and Scallion Salad

serves 4

1 bunch scallions, finely diced

2 c. tomatoes, finely diced

2 T. water

1 t. salt

Tabasco sauce to taste

Combine all, stir lightly, and chill.

Salady Voankazo

Vanilla Fruit

1 fresh pineapple cut into 1 in. dice

1 small cantaloupe, cut into 1 in. dice

1 mango, diced

1 c. strawberries, sliced

(you could add whatever fruit you wanted)

Mix fruit so it is well blended.

In saucepan combine:

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. water

1/4 t. salt

2 T. fresh lemon juice

Bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute.

Add 2 T. vanilla extract.

Pour over fruit, chill.

Can serve with additional vanilla extract on top.

Ore-Ida

2010-05-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

So last weekend we went up to Hermiston, Oregon to visit my grandparents. It was a lot of fun (a lot of driving... but a lot of fun). We didn't take a whole lot of pictures, because the majority of the vacation was spent watching my cousins' baseball games, playing video games, eating, and just relaxing... not particularly picture-worthy occasions (although maybe a Mikami food-fest is.... hmmm....)

In the car for the 8 hours of bliss. Huzzah.

At a random rest stop. So funny note: we were walking around and all of the sudden this motorcycle shoot out of the parking lot blaring "Highway to the Dangerzone." And we laughed. A lot.

Superman? Yes. Absolutely! (We had to take advantage of the phone booth... there are so few these days...)

So we got to Oregon, hit up a few Little League baseball games. And Ian sprained his ankle. It was great. Really. We had a Japanese food fest that night (which was amazing).

Saturday we went shopping (and got Ian a one-size-fits-all-except-Ian ankle brace). We also went and saw Iron Man 2 which I thoroughly enjoyed! The plot was a bit all-inclusive, but I liked it. We also went to Jack-in-the-Box (which I don't think I've eaten at for like a million years... well, maybe not quite that long). That night we had pizza and watched some of the Jazz game, but the majority of the remainder of Saturday was spent playing Super Mario Bros., some Wii games, and a few PS3 games, but ultimately what took the cake was playing Halo on X-Box until like 2 am... yeah, we're sometimes really big nerds and something like video game losers... but it was awesome. We got to a point in Halo where we couldn't figure out how to get out and our brains weren't really functioning. At that point, we threw in the towel and quit for the night.

Sunday we went to church and celebrated Mother's Day. My Dad cooked us steak for dinner and we had fresh rolls and all kinds of goodness.

We left early Monday morning and made the long drive home. And the reason this post is called Ore-Ida... well, Ian saw the Ore-Ida plant as we were around the border of the two states... and he says, "AHHH! I get it! Oregon-Idaho." HAHA, I love him. He makes me laugh all the time. And thus we have Ian's first venture north of Ogden!

Czech

2010-05-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

So Ian picked for this week... and it was Czech. Yeah, never really had Czech food before. So... the menu ended up as follows:

Moravský Guláš (Morovian Goulash), Bramborák (potato pancakes), and Sopsky salad.

And the photo:

Yeah. It was really delicious. Surprisingly to me, the potato pancakes were my least favorite part of the meal! And I love potatoes. I really liked the goulash, but the winner was the salad... and it was by far the easiest dish (and really, one of the easiest salads ever!)

This is us before we ate. We're happy to be eating at last.

This is us post-eating. Eating makes us sleepy... We call it Czech Zen...

Here are the recipes! The Goulash is a one-pot wonder, the salad is amazing and can really be used with any meal!

Moravian Goulash ~ Moravský Guláš

(4 servings)

2 large onions chopped
1 lb. pork, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
2 T. oil
pinch salt
dash freshly ground pepper
1 c HOT water to cover
1 t vinegar
1 can tomato paste

1 T flour dissolved in 1/4 c [60 ml] COLD water
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped

2 T. fresh Italian parsley

Cayenne Pepper

Thyme

Heat oil in stew pot. Chop onions and add; stir constantly until golden. Do not let onions scorch. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper; toss well and place into pot. Mix thoroughly and cook uncovered until meat is no longer red.

Cover pot and simmer 15 minutes, add enough HOT water to cover meat and simmer another 30-45 minutes until meat is very tender (depends upon toughness of meat). Add vinegar and tomato paste. Add spices (can add others to taste) blend well, stir in flour/water mixture and bring to boil 3-5 minutes while stirring to thicken. Lastly add chopped tomatoes, parsley, and green pepper stirring in well, but don't cook any longer.

Potato Pancakes ~ Bramborák

(serves 4)

1 lb. potatoes (I used frozen hashbrowns)
1 eggs
pinch salt
grinding of pepper
1 T marjoram
4 cloves garlic, pressed
3 T parsley, freshly chopped
1 large onion, diced very fine
1 c flour
2-3 T oil (for frying)

Put potatoes in cold water to thaw. When ready, squeeze excess moisture out of potatoes and put in bowl. Add egg. Mix well. Add spices. Mix. Bleand in flour. The dough should be sticky.

Heat 1-2 T. of oil in a non-stick pan. Put a ladle full of batter in the center of the pan. Spread to form a pancake about 7 inches across. (Pat the dough down and out). Fry for about 5 minutes until browned, flip and repeat.

If the pancake breaks apart, add more flour before making the rest of the pancakes.

Sopsky (pronounced "shopsky")

Serves 4-6

2 tomatoes

1 English cucumber (I really like these better than normal cucumbers)

1 green pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 red pepper

1 sweet onion (yellow or white)

Feta cheese

Salt and Pepper

Chop all veggies and combine. Add salt and pepper. Mix. Shred or crumble feta on top. Serve chilled if possible. (Easy, right? But DELICIOUS!)

Mongolian

2010-05-04T20:51:00.000-07:00

So the Mongols are mainly nomadic... and this food looked a bit weird, but it tasted really good and was really filling. Best part? One dish wonder.

This is Mongolian Zuivan. It's a noodle stew (not juicy though).

The noodles portion of the recipe didn't work out great, so I would use a different one next time or if you're in a crunch you could probably substitute something like egg noodles.

Zuivan
(serves 5-6)

2 lb. Stew Meat (beef, lamb, etc. we used beef)
Green cabbage, sliced
Radishes, sliced
Carrots, sliced
Onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
Green onions, cut into rings
Salt
Pepper
Oil

Prepare homemade noodles (find a good recipe online)
Cut veggies into strips and the stew meat into chunks (if not already cut)
Saute half of the onion rings in oil
Add carrots, radishes (can also add other veggies as desired)
Add meat and saute
Add water as necessary
Season with garlic, salt, and pepper
Add cabbage, cover and cook so it reduces
Add water to 2/3 the height of veggies
Add onion rings
Add uncooked homemade noodles (you'll probably want to cook regular pasta)
Close the lid and cook for about 15 minutes (water should be boiling)
Reduce heat, air the noodles to allow them to become less sticky
Cook until everything is heated through and the noodles are done

A good everyday meal, looks a little iffy, but we all agreed it tasted really good and was incredibly filling.

Here's the noodle dough... and why it didn't work...

What Happens in Vegas...

2010-05-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

...Is pretty much going in this post.

So last weekend (April 23-26) we went down to Las Vegas to hang with the Oxborrow fam. It was a blast! Ian had to work until about 1 on Friday, so when he finished, we pretty much just booked it out of here, picked up Seth, and drove down to Vegas.

When we got into town Ian's parents took us to Claim Jumper... talk about huge meals! It was awesome! We tried to take a bunch of pictures... here are some...

I think I have more pictures of Ian's tongue than anything else *wink*

"The back of your head is ridiculous!"

My favorite picture of the trip I think... there might be one or two more...

The next day we went to Valley of Fire, the state park northeast of Vegas.

Being gangtsa' on the way there.

Boys will be boys... HAHAHA

Our first stop in the park.

The dead snake that Livvi found while we were exploring the canyon.

Wha' happened? We took a couple of pictures here. This was just the funny one. Oh, see the shoes? They're Ian's brother's shoes. He's on his mission... Thanks Caleb!

This doesn't look that high up... but it was.

Livvi posing. She's awesome!

Ian climbing the rocks... again.

A cool shot of the desert rocks and the moon.

Cactus flowers and the sun beams!

One of the many family pics. I must admit that I liked taking the one where Graham had to run to get in the picture :) Isn't the background awesome! Ian's Mom picked it on the way in... pretty sweet.

Huzzah! Day of conquering at Valley of Fire!

Sunday we went to church and spent the day relaxing and I learned how to play Mexican Train dominoes. Seth kept beating me, and Ian's dad had the worst luck ever. Really. It was funny, I'm not going to lie.

We headed back on Monday and stopped in St. George to see Jill and her kids. (I grew up with Jill in Vegas). That was a lot of fun. They have a really cute house! And the boys are simply adorable!

It was definitely too short, but it was a fantastic weekend.

You can probably see the rest of the pictures on Facebook when I get around to actually posting them....

Jamaican Me Crazy!

2010-05-04T20:24:00.000-07:00

So I'm a bit behind, so here are a couple of posts to catch up!

Jamaican night was fantabulous! (April 21). The night before we made this fantastic jerk chicken marinade... I had two habanero peppers and a couple jalepenos... Ian threw in another habanero... it was intense.

So, we had Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Cabbage Salad, Rice and Peas (beans), and Fried Plantains.

It was fantastic! Here a photo of us relaxing... Jamaican style haha.

Here are the recipes. The jerk chicken and plantains were the best!

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

1 big bunch of green onions
2 T soy sauce
2 T oil
1 T salt
Juice of 1 lime
1 T fresh thyme
1 T allspice
3 Habanero peppers (to taste for you)
2 Jalepeno peppers
1 thumb sized knuckle of ginger (don't bother peeling)
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 a small onion
2-3 T of brown sugar

Cooking Instructions:
Mix all ingredients in a mixer until pureed. Don't add extra water, it will be plenty juicy.

Dump over chicken and marinate over night.

We baked our chicken, but grilling or smoking it would do just as well. You can also baste it while cooking with sauce you set aside before marinating.

Jamaican Rice and Peas
(this makes a ton)

3 cups of rice
1 cup or can of fresh red peas (beans)
5 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
1 uncut habanero or jalepeno pepper
3 Scallions
1 tin (or one cup) of coconut milk
1 t of salt
1 t of black pepper
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
7 c. water

Add garlic to boiling water (7 cups).
Add milk, rice, salt, pepper, and thyme.
Add beans.
Crust scallions and add. Also add pepper.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and place lid on pan.
Cook about 40 minutes or until rice is done.

Cabbage Salad
(also makes a lot)

1 Green cabbage
4 medium Carrot
6 Stalks Celery
1 Cucumber
½ Cup Sugar
½ Cup Vinegar
½ Cup Oil
1 Cup boiling water

Slice cabbage into thin strips
Slice carrot into thin slices
Slice celery in to thin strips crossway
Slice cucumber into thin strips
Place all ingredients in to a container
Pour the boiling water in the container
Cover the container for 20 minutes
Drain the liquid
Serve at room temperature

Fried Plantains
(these taste pretty much like fries)

Plantains
Oil for frying

Cut plantains into slices (you will have to cut the peel, they don't peel like bananas)
Place about 1/2 in of oil in pan and heat
Fry plantains well
Remove to paper towel covered cookie pan

We sprinkled half with brown sugar and half with salt. They were both really good.

Allow to cool.

This was a great meal! Try it!

Mexican Mania

2010-04-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

So this week's international adventure was Mexican food, and since that's Ian's forte and realm he took the lead on this one. We went to this internet cafe (Cybergate) over by ShopKo and Olive Garden and had Mexican tortas. They were scrumptious! And we forgot to take pictures of them... sorry...

Later that evening, Ian made Mexican smoothies...

Don't they look scrumptious?! The cantaloupe really adds a great dimension, I suggest throwing a melon in there next time you make a smoothie!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful (save for the fact that in the last two days Ian and I have been enjoying the bliss of either a virus or food poisoning together... huzzah...)

Last Saturday we went to our ward's closing social. It was a Brazilian BBQ and sports. It was a lot of fun...

Kimi and me enjoying the bliss that was the weather on Saturday.

Me, Ian, and Ian's tongue. A frequently seen element in our photos ;) hehe.

The rest of the week has been spent getting ready for finals, taking finals, relaxing from finals (not that I have finals... but...)

And there ya have it. A week in review.

Dragons!

2010-04-09T17:19:00.000-07:00

So a couple weeks ago Ian, Seth, and I went to see How to Train Your Dragon. It's a new animated flick by DreamWorks. AMAZING! It's seriously one of the best and most-enjoyable animated movies I've seen in a long time.

The character development is great, and although you know how it's going to end, the getting there is pretty durn exciting! It had enough surprises in it to keep me interested and enough real-ness to it to make it worth watching. Just wanted to throw that out there.

Go see it!

It's awesome!

Saudi Arabia

2010-04-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

Arabian food! Woot!

So the Arabian food was a lot like the Moroccan food... no curry though, saffron instead, but the premise is very similar (tomato base, veggies, etc.)

I made Al Kabsa, Fattoush, and Falafel (I think I didn't put enough bread crumbs in the falafel because they didn't fry up right, so that recipe is going to be excluded until I figure out what works...)

Enjoy!

Al Kabsa
serves A TON

1/4 c. butter
Chicken breast pieces (how every many people you're planning on serving - 8-10)
1 lg. onion, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c. tomato sauce
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 c. grated carrots
4 whole cloves
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch cumin
1 pinch coriander
1 pinch saffron
6 whole allspice berries
1/2 t. cinnamon
(Other spice suggestions are white pepper, dried limes, and green cardamoms, which we didn't have)
salt
pepper
4 c. hot water
1 chicken stock cube
2 1/4 c. basmati rice
1/2 c. raisins
1/2 c. slivered almonds, toasted

Melt butter in large pot. Add chicken pieces, onion, and garlic and saute until onion is tender.

Stir in tomato sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes, carrots, and spices. Cook for a few minutes. Add water and stock cube.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover.
Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Add rice and stir carefully.
Re-cover and simmer for 45 minutes until rice is tender.
(Can remove chicken and brown it in the oven at low temperature instead of boiling it)
Serve rice on platter with chicken and garnished with almonds.

Fattoush (bread salad)

*This is a great fresh salad that is a bit tangy, but has a lot of different flavors to it

4 c. lettuce
1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 T. fresh cilantro, chopped
4 T fresh parsley, chopped
2 T. fresh mint, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
3 T. olive oil
1 T. lemon juice
2 c. well-toasted pita bread, broken into small pieces

Mix all except pita.
Add pita bread. Mix again.
Serve.

Enjoy!

Greekalicious

2010-04-02T20:01:00.000-07:00

So this week was Greek. YUM. We had souvlaki kebabs, Greek salad, tzatziki dip, and then we added pitas to the mix when we ate leftovers on Wednesday!

Here's the Greek food in its glory. Ian was a terrific slicer, dicer, and skewer-er... haha.

And here are the recipes! Enjoy!

Souvlaki (Meat and Veggie Kebabs)
makes 15 or so kebabs of the above nature

1 lamb chop
1 lb. beef (of some kind)
(or whatever mixture of meat you'd prefer)

2 lemons
1/4 c. wine (red or white)
2 t. dried oregano
2 t. dried thyme
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small onion, chopped
Salt and pepper

2 red peppers
2 green peppers
2 onions
1 red onion
1 container grape or cherry tomatoes

Whisk together lemon juice (from 2 lemons) and wine. Add herbs, garlic, and chopped onion. Put some marinade aside for cooking later (if desired). Add meat, cubed, and mix together. Make sure meat is evenly coated and allow to sit for at least two hours (overnight is better).

Use either metal or wood skewers. (If using wood, make sure to soak at least 30 minutes before assembling kebabs). Chop peppers and onion into large pieces. Assemble kebabs.

Grill, BBQ, or bake in oven at 375 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes. Serve with tzatziki (also good as pita filler)

Tzatziki Dip
(this was great for Ian, because he doesn't like mayonnaise, and so this will be a great substitute)

32 oz. plain or greek yogurt
1/2 English cucumber, grated
5 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and Pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate.

Greek Salad (Horiatiki)

3 T extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon (juice)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1/2 red onion, sliced into rings
1/2 English cucumber, sliced into half moons
1 green pepper, julienned
4 oz. (or so) feta cheese, crumbled or cut into cubes
1 small can kalamata olives (about 15-20)

Whisk olive oil and lemon juice together. Add garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano. Mix. Place salad ingredients in a large bowl. Pour dressing over just before serving. Garnish with fresh black pepper.

Legally Blonde and Illegally Praked

2010-03-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

So we went and saw Legally Blonde in Salt Lake on Wednesday Night. Picture to prove it (kind of...)

The show was quite entertaining (as it was the last time I saw it). Ian told some of his engineering buddies about it and they called it bubble gum for the mind... good, but pretty pointless. It's true. But Legally Blonde is thoroughly entertaining!

Thursday we went to see Kimi's dance recital. They did a waltz and a Latin Medley... both of which were awesome... and both of which Kimi had solos in. She's an amazing dancer!

On Friday we went Cooleroo hunting with Seth and bunch of people from his ward. That was a lot of fun. Then we met up with Kimi, Nate, and Robyn after they went to Kimi's dance recital. We went and got frozen yogurt at YoZone. Good stuff.

On Saturday we went to HOLI - The Festival of Colors down at the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. We went with Travis (my cuz) and his wife Jenessa. And the reason the title is "Illegally Praked" is because we saw this...

And we hope it's because someone sent their four-year old out to paint the sign...

Anyway, here is our "before" picture:

Aren't we beautiful? And here is the scene as we were walking up...

So after buying our bags of color, chilling for a bit, then making our way through the throng on the hill, we planted ourselves about midway up the hill. Ian gave me a blue Braveheart handprint on my face... I made him a red-head. (More like flaming orange, but...)

Good times all around. So after some pushing and shoving, preaching by the temples priest that no one heard, the countdown began... at 20. ? Seriously, who starts a countdown at 20?! Yeah, we got to about 13, then everyone just went nuts and started throwing the colors around. And after the sun darkened for a minute, you couldn't breathe for about two, this is what we looked like:

(Ian obviously had his sunglasses on during the whole thing... which was funny...)

So we walked the miles back to the car, dusted ourselves off, and came home.

Then Ian took me out for Mexican food, which was muy delicioso!

Sunday was a day of rest, which we desperately needed. We made Teriyaki burgers and sweet potato fries, and Seth brought over some delicious pork chops.

This week was crazy busy, but awesomely amazing!

Japanese Food Night!

2010-03-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

When we drew this one out, I knew it was going to be pretty durn easy... So here's our absolutely necessary Asian picture....

Haha. We're funny. At any rate, Japanese night was a hit. We had Teriyaki chicken, Asian Slaw (not necessarily Japanese, but we needed some kind of vegetable...), Asparagus Tempura, and Miso Soup!

It was really great! So here are the recipes...

Teriyaki Chicken
serves 4

1 T. cornstarch
1 T. cold water
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. shoyu (soy sauce)
1/4 c. cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 t. ground ginger
Freshly ground black pepper
4 chicken breasts

Combine cornstarch and water in a saucepan. Mix together. Add all remaining ingredients except chicken. Simmer until sauce thickens and bubbles. Set aside 1/8 c. of sauce.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place chicken in a lightly greased pan. Brush with sauce. Turn pieces and brush again. Bake for 30 minutes or until done and brush every 5-10 minutes with sauce.

Garnish with extra sauce, sesame seeds, and orange (if desired).

Asian Slaw

6 T. rice wine vinegar
6 T. vegetable oil
5 T. creamy peanut butter
3 T. soy sauce
3 T. brown sugar
2 T. ginger root
1 1/2 T. fresh garlic, minced
5 c. thinly sliced green cabbage
2 c. thinly sliced red cabbage
2 carrots julienned
6 green onions, chopped
1/2 c. chopped cilantro
(can also add napa cabbage and red bell peppers)

Whisk together rice vinegar, oil, peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and garlic.

Combine remaining ingredients in separate bowl. Toss with sauce mixture just before serving. Garnish with sesame seeds.

Tempura Batter

1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cornstarch
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 egg
2/3 c. ice water

Stir together dry ingredients and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat egg slightly and mix with ice water.

Stir in the dry ingredients. Stir only until mixed. Will be slightly lumpy.

Dip whatever you would like (we used asparagus) into the batter and deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Miso Soup

4 c. water
4 T. Miso
Green onions
Tofu

Mix together water and miso until miso is dissolved. Add green onions and tofu (firm), simmer until warmed through and ready to eat.

Tomorrow is Greek Night. I'm pretty excited about it!

St. Paddy's Day Leftovers

2010-03-29T17:13:00.000-07:00

So if you had leftover corned beef and cabbage... grab some puff pastry, fry up the leftovers, wrap them up in squares of the pastry and cook until golden brown. Serve with horseradish sauce and you're good to go :) Just a word to the wise for using up those leftovers...

Les Miserables

2010-03-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

So this is our family's final year at Bonneville High School and the theatre program. The current production is one of my favorites! Les Miserables is a fantastic operetta filled with great music and fantastic artistry. Bonneville's productions is really spectacular. The costumes are amazing (shameless plug for my amazing mother who designed and made them!) and the set is beautiful. The kids do an amazing job singing, and the acting is pretty fantastic as well.

Ashlee is playing Fantine (Cosette's mother). Here is the program cover with her on it:

I really suggest that you go if you have a chance. It's running tonight (22), Thursday-Saturday (25-27), and Monday (29)... and I believe there's also a matinee on Saturday. It starts at 7pm in the BHS auditorium.

Click here to see the facebook event.

Call 801-452-4081 for discounted tickets.

All ticket are $8.00 at the door the night of the performance.

Here are a couple post-performance pictures :)

The Luck of the Irish

2010-03-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

So Ian discovered the morning of March 17, 2010 that he owns absolutely nothing green. It's true. He wears blue, grey, black... yeah, no green. So I took it upon myself to remedy that and bought us some lucky wrist/sweat bands? Whatever you would call them...

Here's a picture of us trying to take a picture of our wristbands. Haha...

And here is a not-as-good photo of us actually getting our wristbands in the picture...

And of course, the St. Patrick's Day drinking picture. Cream Soda... yeah, haven't had that much carbonation in a LONG time....

And our Irish feast! (We moved "international food night" to Wednesday and didn't pick it out of a hat... yeah, we did Irish, for obvious reasons. I was a little wary of making corned beef and cabbage since I had head a lot of negative things about it, but this turned out great! And the Irish soda bread... as Ian said, it has the "same density as granite." I also made a green coconut cream pie. Mighty scrumptious.

We also went looking for the movie "Waking Ned Devine." That worked not so well. The only place that had it only had one copy and they sold it a couple hours before we got there. *sigh* So I ordered it on Amazon, and we're going to have a post-St. Paddy's Day movie watching special.

Here are the recipes!

Corned Beef & Cabbage
serves 6-8

1 3lb. corned beef brisket (uncooked), in brine
16 c. cold water
5 bay leaves
1 T. black peppercorns
2 t. whole allspice berries
4 whole cloves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small head cabbage, cut into wedges
8 potatoes cut into eighths
1 large onion, cut into large pieces
2 c. baby carrots
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F

Rinse corned beef thoroughly in a colander with cold water

Place corned beef in a large dutch oven with a lid. Add water, bay leaves, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, and garlic. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Skim off any scum that comes to the surface. Cover and transfer pan to oven. Braise until fork tender. (About 3 hours and 45 minutes)

Transfer corned beef to cutting board and cover tightly with foil to keep warm. Add potatoes, carrots, and onions to cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cook until almost done. Add cabbage and cook until all veggies are done.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cabbage to a large platter. Slice the corned beef across the grain (after trimming fat) and lay across the cabbage. Surround with potatoes, carrots, and onion. Spoon some of the hot cooking liquid over all and season with salt and pepper.

Irish Soda Bread

*Can add raisins, cinnamon, sugar, etc. to this
3 c. flour
1 t. sugar
1 t. salt
1 t. soda
8-10 oz buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
Mix all together, do not overmix. (Dough will not be smooth and elastic like normal bread)
Form into a round loaf. Score an X in the top to allow proper flowering.
Place on baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Reduce heat to 400 degrees F and bake for 35 minutes.
Cool.

Coconut Cream Pie

1 can coconut milk
1 c. half-and-half
3 egg yolks
1/3 c. cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pkg. frozen coconut, thawed
1/4 cup toasted coconut
1 t. coconut extract
1 pie shell, baked

In a medium saucepan combine first five ingredients. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in frozen coconut and coconut extract. Pour into pie shell and chill 2-4 hours until firm.

Top with homemade whipped cream

Whipped Cream

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. coconut extract

Mix together and whip until proper consistency.

Try it! Enjoy!

Food and Family Gatherings

2010-03-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

So I have determined that food seems to be the single most unifying factor in human existence. This past weekend Ian's family was in town, so we spent a good chunk of it having a blast with his family. And, as with most family events not dependent upon whose family you are are with, I was incredibly full the entire time.

Livvi stayed with me at my apartment. It was a ton of fun. We had our pizza night, as usual, on Thursday night. And we ate A TON of pizza. Well, mostly Ian ate a ton. Livvi and I just ate a lot. On Friday I took the afternoon off work and took Livvi to my favorite cafe down in Springville (Art City Trolley). The food there is so fantastic. Then we went and bowled with Cheryl and Tom (Ian's parents), Heather, Graham, and Jack. (Ian was taking a test... lucky man, haha). And we were all equally bad. Graham won with a grand total of 85... it's true. Heather came in second with 68... and Tom and I tied for third with a grand awesome total of 67. Yes. We're that good. On an awesome note, we ate chocolate covered cinnamon bears...which always make life better.

Then Seth joined us and we went to Red Robin, the restaurant of choice for Oxborrow family gatherings. (A choice I don't mind!). We had burgers and endless steak fries. Mmm Mmm good!

That night Livvi, Ian, and I hung out and eventually we ended up watching Terminator Salvation. I slept through the end. I stayed awake through the rest... and slept through the battle. Figures.

Saturday we spent most of the day up in Bluffdale at Graham and Heather's for Jack's first birthday! It was snowing on Saturday, but despite that fact, the men still wanted to go out and play some ball. So we were out throwing the football... and Ian and Graham went up for a ball that I threw... and Graham came down with a majorly dislocated finger... yeah, as in poking out in directions it is not meant to. Tom just grabbed it and put it back, but Graham's playing was done for the day... Nice, eh?

We also played Scene It, and Livvi, Ian, and I won with a come-from-behind victory. Livvi got "Breakfast Club" and we ended up moving twelve spaces on the roll... got the all play challenge... and won off of Whoopi Goldberg guessed by yours truly. It was a lot of fun.

Jack's party was great. My salsa was a hit, which is always appreciated. And the rest of the food was fantastic (again... really full...). And then we watched Brian Regan... hilarious, plus Graham was dying from laughing, which made it that much more hilarious.

Sunday we went to church and then Ian's parents and Livvi headed home to Vegas.

And thus ended the weekend of awesomeness.

Although we did go over to my grandparents' house for dinner on Sunday (which was marvelous) and filling again. :)

Look for the St. Paddy's Day post upcoming. It will have photos of our kind-of traditional Irish fare and our non-alcoholic celebration. Haha...

Something Like International Food Night

2010-03-10T23:03:00.000-08:00

So our weekly tradition (which has yet only been once... I know...) of international dinner from a hat was somewhat different this week.

My friend Tara and her husband are driving from South Carolina up to Alaska (he's being stationed there in the Air Force) and they happened to pass through Ogden! (*Note: Tara moved into my elementary school in 3rd grade and then moved to Washington state at the end of 4th grade. Amazingly enough we wrote letters fairly religiously and saw each other every few years. I went to DC last year and stayed at her parents house while she was visiting them. It was awesome! I'm so glad we were able to remain friends even though it wasn't exactly easy!)

Anyhoo, so Ian and I drove up to Ogden, stopped at my parents' house, then went to Olive Garden (like I said... internationalish...). Reason: Olive Garden is one of Chris and Tara's favorite restaurants and there isn't one in Anchorage. Sad day for them. So we went to Olive Garden. It was a lot of fun! I hadn't ever met Chris before (when we were together in DC he was overseas on a mission), so that was awesome.

Look! Picture...

Huzzah!

Next week we'll be back to our usual...

Ian's family is coming up this weekend and his sister Livvi is going to stay here and have her first taste of college life. It should be a blast! We're also celebrating his nephew's first birthday (cutest baby boy EVER!), and I'm really excited to see everyone. It was a lot of fun last time, and I expect this time to be no different! A full report to come...

Dinner From a Hat

2010-03-03T16:39:00.000-08:00

So Ian and I decided to launch a new weekly food moment. We already have our Thursday Night Pizza Nights (which are muy delicioso), but we decided to start doing an international cuisine night. Basically we put about 50 different countries into a bag (which was then placed in Ian's hat, hence the "dinner from a hat") and we randomly drew one out.

Last night we pulled out Moroccan. Yep. I have never cooked Moroccan before, so it was exciting. We pulled up a few recipes online and then went shopping. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the couscous at Smith's, so we settled for putting the dish over rice.

So I'll post about our adventures in cooking every week...well, I'll try to (and next week I'll remember to take pictures).

So Moroccan. We decided on two dishes. Moroccan Couscous (err... rice) and Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives. So incredibly delicious! Especially the chicken. I'm posting the recipes below...

So this first one is kind of a curry. It is most excellent!

Moroccan Couscous (or rice)
serves 5-6

1 c. couscous (or 3 c. rice cooked)
1 lb. tofu
1 c. sliced carrots
1 c. sliced celery
1 c. sliced mushrooms
1 med onion chopped
1/2 c. walnuts chopped
1 can chickpeas
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 c. water
curry powder
cayenne pepper
paprika
salt

Brown tofu, veggies, and nuts. Add remaining ingredients except couscous (spices to taste). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 40 minutes.

Boil 1 1/2 c. water with 2 T. oil. Add couscous, stir, cover. Reduce heat. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve veggies over couscous or rice.
___________________________

This chicken recipe is absolutely delicious. Even more so if you love green olives!

Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives
serves 4

4 chicken breasts
1 T. olive oil
1 onion sliced
1 onion chopped
salt
pepper
paprika
ginger
1/4 c. green olives
1 lemon

Heat oil. Add 1/2 c. water slowly. Layer onion rings. Sprinkle with spices. Lay chicken on top. Add more salt and pepper to the top of chicken. Cook over low heat, covered, for one hour.

After an hour, add chopped onions and sprinkle more spices (lightly) and parsley (if desired) on top.

Place olives in a pan of cold water. Bring to a boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes. Add to chicken. Cook together for 5 minutes. Take off heat and squeeze juice from one lemon over the entire dish. Serve with rice or couscous (or we just ate it with the above recipe and rice).
_______________________

Seriously good. Pictures next week.

As for anything else going on... the remainder of February was pretty tame. I am going to make an effort to post more often... really. With pictures... :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-15T15:44:00.000-08:00

So this weekend was incredibly fantastic! We started out the weekend going on a triple date. Ian and me, his brother Seth and his date, and Seth's roommate and his date. We went to eat at Red Robin, but while we were waiting, we ran over to a used bookstore in the mall and found all kinds of hidden treasures like "Bad Girls of the Bible," and that Hitler's biography was the largest one there, and the Persian Version of the Bible (say it our loud, and you'll find out why it's funny). Additionally we found "The World's Guide to Beer" written by a certain Michael Jackson (although it is probably not the Michael Jackson we all know and love). Seth thought it was so awesome that he bought it. Other bookstore treasures include a 3D experience of the universe and more! Check it out. It's tons of fun. Especially when you find the same book in the UFO and Aliens sections as the Religion section!

After we ate we went to Smiths and bought some coloring books and crayons. We bought a superhero one, of course. (There weren't exactly a plethora of options). Then we blindfolded each other, and the one who didn't have thee blindfold helped the other color their picture. I determined that we are awesome at coloring, haha. But in addition, I decided that it's pretty stupid that we try to teach our kids fine motor skills with crayons. I mean, I feel like my motor skills are pretty well-developed and I still colored outside the lines! Blasted crayons!

Then we watched "The Sandlot," one of the best movies of all time. It's brilliant!

On Saturday we went to the BYU Basketball game where we killed Air Force. It was sad. Really sad. For Air Force anyway. Then we went up to Pleasant Grove to try out this fifties diner called Spanky's Express, but it was closed. So Ian suggested we go to my favorite Mom & Pops down in Springville - Art City Trolley. Seriously, if you live in Utah Valley, you should try it out. It is AMAZING! Then we went and saw "The Princess and the Frog." If you haven't seen this movie, you should! It is definitely the best Disney movie in a LONG time. We were laughing the whole time.

Sunday we went to Church, of course. Then we spent the afternoon watching Lawrence of Arabia. Wonderful movie... SO LONG! We decided to never watch the whole thing in one sitting again... Then I made a three course meal. Pear, bleu cheese, and balsamic salad, fresh tomato and basil soup, and a bacon-wrapped filet mignon with onions and mushrooms, parmesan asparagus, and roasted red potatoes. Then my favorite two layer cheesecake with berries for dessert! I should have taken pictures... oh well! Then we exchanged gifts... Ian was going to get me a bouquet of Japanese cherry blossoms, unfortunately it's the wrong time of year and the wrong geographic location, because apparently there was no way to get them here. BUT, in his infinite amazingness, he found these Japanese cherry blossom candles:

He also gave me a movie (yes... I love movies... I know... no one knew that...) and See's peppermint patties. As some of you know, I'm not the biggest chocolate fan (more like, I'm not a chocolate fanatic), but peppermint patties are probably one of my favorite chocolate treats. He done good!

I made Ian a quilt over Christmas break. I made it huge (since he's kind of big...) It's 6' x 5' ish. If I'm under it with my arms above my head... it still covers me. Ridonkulous. But I had to make it that tall to fit his 6'4" body!

Here's our Happy Valentine's Day picture. It was getting a little late, we look a little tired. But it's all good!

Today we went up to SLC and visited the Planetarium and the Church History Library (there are a lot of cool books in there!) and we walked around the Gateway a bit, taking the classic pit stop in the LuvSac Store to chill on their sacs. It was fun!

A short update:

So my birthday was last month. I did a really good job and I didn't take any pictures. Go me. But I can tell you about it!

So my family came down and took me out to lunch at Art City Trolley. Ian gave me this adorable dog...

His name is Crockett. And these earrings (again, photos don't do them justice). They are my favorite earrings. I wear them all the time.

We also go to basketball games. Here's the picture after much screaming and escalated blood pressure following our win over Utah...

That about does it for the catching up since January!

And I Never Catch Up...

2010-01-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

So another update blog. I'm really horrible at posting. Let's see. We'll go way, way back to Thanksgiving...

So the Asian family gathered down in Las Vegas for a weekend of craziness. We had two baptisms and a baby blessing in the cousins, so that was pretty exciting.

I was kind of lame and didn't really take any pictures except this one. Funny, I know. This was our first night in Vegas. Kimi, Ashlee, and I went down to the Bellagio with Ian and some of his family...and this was in the Bellagio. I know... But I did take some videos!

So that was pretty much Thanksgiving. It was a good time.

The Saturday after we got back was the BYU - Utah football game. And, of course, I was there! How can you doubt my integrity?!

It was an amazing game. We barely won, but we did! And it was fantastic. Ian was pretty much having a heart attack for the last 45 minutes of the game. Haha. Afterward, we rushed onto the field and partied. Thus, the picture... on the field. I was trying to get the scoreboard... yet another difficult thing to do when you take the picture yourself...

A week or so after that we went over to the grandparents' house for the annual building of the Christmas gingerbread houses.

We all went and ate dinner and built our fer-realz-made-out-of-gingerbread-and-put-together-with-royal-icing gingerbread houses. We made the roof out of Good 'n' Plenty's. Which was good, because I think they're gross. And Ian had the brilliant idea of the sugar cone tree out front. It worked out pretty well!

The next few weeks were spent wrapping things up with our calling in the ward (we did Sunday School) and getting new callings (I'm the publicity person, which means all the notifications, the ward directory, program, you know... and Ian was put in the Elders Quorum Presidency, which is nice for him because it means he doesn't have to go to Ward Council!). Then finals week, which, as you know, is always awesome. I was not sad to have yet another finals week where I did not have to take tests. Yeah, you never miss it.

After that we headed home for Christmas break. We had a lot of fun, though I got somewhat bored and started a super-secret project for Ian for Valentine's Day. It is awesome. For Christmas Ian gave me this beautiful necklace! This picture does not do it justice, because it is so sparkly! I get compliments on it all the time! He's the best boyfriend ever! :)

We celebrated birthdays and Christmas and we went and saw Sherlock Holmes, which was amazing! I was not disappointed!

Cami also got married over the Christmas break. I actually was attacked by the bouquet. Yeah, first time I've even come close to catching it at any kind of wedding. It ricochets hard off the ceiling and hits me in the face. Yeah. Good times....

Here are a couple pictures:

Let's see, on New Year's morning we ate mochi, as is the norm. It was Robyn's first experience. Nate thought for sure she would hate it just like him, but nope. She liked it. Haha. So Nate is still the only one that hates mochi in the family. And it made me laugh!

So I decided to start working in the web industry again. I'm designing websites and writing content. It's all pretty exciting. I'm working with some new software from the company (HIT Web Design) and I must admit, it is pretty great. So if you're looking for a website that is quick, easy, designed for you, and super easy to manage by you, get a HIT Designer site from HIT Web Design. It really is great. I'll post some links to my sites as soon as some of them go live. So it's kind of exciting doing something new. And getting paid quite well for it doesn't hurt either...

So that's pretty much the news. We've been attending some basketball games. I would show you pictures, except Ian has banned the ones we took at the UNLV game from the internet because he refused to actually smile in any of them, so he doesn't like them... ANYWAY... Oh, I do have a picture of Ian's sister-in-law, Heather, and his nephew, Jack. SO adorable! Plus Cosmo's in there, so that's always a plus...

But we've gone to a few...OH and Kimi and I went and saw Avatar in 3D. Um, wow. Definitely the best movie I've ever seen. (Not necessarily the best acting or story, but definitely the best movie). And I've seen a lot of movies. It was really just mind-blowing.

Oh, and you have to see the ring that I had made for Ian for his birthday. I rocks my socks off... Sorry it's blurry. It was really little in the picture I took it from. But you get the idea...

So, looking forward to another year of awesomeness.

:)

And looking forward to this weekend. It is sure to be full of surprises, fun times, and great experiences!

A Corn Maze and Other Things

2009-11-24T17:18:00.000-08:00

So I did another movie. And it was insane. Just like every other movie. It was a little horror flick we filmed in Tremonton, Utah in 6 days. Yes folks, a feature in 6 days. I was the 1st AD. Quite exciting again :) It was great working with my friends again. I always enjoy that, although I do recall telling myself to avoid freezing cold shoots after I did the Snowmen movie last winter. So much for listening to myself. Oh well.

We shot pretty much all nights... some day stuff included. We had a small cast, which was awesome. And a small, but great, crew pretty much comprised of my college buddies. And we shall see how the whole thing turns out come next Halloween!

The fam is heading down to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. We have some baptisms and a baby blessing to participate in, so that should be chock-full o' fun!

I guess another important event occurred in October... Nate got married. He and Robyn tied the knot on October 17. It was beautiful weather and generally great!
They went to Cancun for a week. Lucky.

Beyond that, life's been full of football, filming, fun...alliterations... just kidding. I'm sure I'll have some great stories from this week. More to come from the Asian Occasion. Hehe...

Halloween

2009-11-01T14:38:00.000-08:00

SO, Ian and I dressed up as Belle and Gaston. And we looked fab. HAHA!

Halloween was great. We party hopped up and down the place. I think we hit four. That's kind of a lot. But it was great.... and I pretty much looked exactly like Belle (well as close as a half-Asian can look like a French provincial girl). Kimi's hairdo was awesome... and, of course, having the perfect Gaston helped a bit too :)

Mourning

2009-09-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

I am mourning the loss of multiple things. My fish for one. He lived for so long! And he was doing so well! And then he just DIED! Well, okay, he was sick on Saturday and then he died, but generally he was doing so well... *sigh*

I am also mourning the loss of our top ten ranking for football. It was a sad, sad, day on Saturday. (altogether a bad day in terms of loss!) But alas, there is still hope. Kind of. We can still have a stellar remainder of the season. And it will be awesome.

On a happier note: I got a free fuf chair from the trade show I worked down in Vegas last week! It was rockin'. I mean, I won it playing guitar hero. How much cooler could it get?! And I'd never played guitar hero. I'd played rock band a total of once. And that's about it! And the guy said that if I beat him I could take whatever I wanted that wasn't sold out of the display room! Woot! And thus, the ugly colored, but highly comfortable camo fuf chair in my living room.

The end. For now.

Football

2009-09-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

I'm so incredibly excited. Yesterday I scored a press pass to all of the home games for BYU (and probably whatever bowl game they go to!). I get to go into the press box, eat Tucanos...really, this is the life!

I love football.

I think that's pretty much going to be the gist of this post.

I love football.

And did I say I love football?

And the fact that the BYU v. Oklahoma game is tomorrow pretty much thrills me.

Star Trek

2009-08-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

So, I don't know if you remember or not, but a while ago I posted about working on "UFO Hunters." Within that post I talked about how I was something of a nerd and obsessed with Star Trek growing up. Well, I think that phase has been reintroduced into my life. I saw Star Trek last night for the fourth time in theaters. It's true. And it is still awesome. You know that it's a good flick when you can watch it four times in a matter of months and still laugh at the funny parts and cry at the sad parts and be thoroughly engaged throughout.

J.J. Abrams is amazing, I really don't know how he did it. He stayed incredibly true to the Star Trek ideals and yet created this amazingly enthralling drama with completely different actors! I was talking to Kimi and we were discussing the difference in quality of the summer blockbusters, specifically Michael Bay's "Transformers" and "Star Trek." Both had equally great effects and action-packed adventures, but there was a seriously important element missing in Bay's film: humans and depth of character. That is my favorite part of Star Trek! I love it when a Hollywood blockbuster can not only use non-A-list (hah that's a lot of hypens) actors and make bank because the movie is so terrific AND have a meaningful film where there are stories within stories because of the characters, direction, and acting. I love it!

Star Trek rules. I'm a sci-fi nerd and a movie geek. And I'm cool with it...

Begin Again

2009-08-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

So the school year officially started again in the Provo School District today, which means I could potentially begin substitute teaching again any day now (minus the fact that I'm working on a BYU Athletics video). Which is exciting in some ways. And not in some others.

I'm working on this BYU Athletics video, and I think we're going to be in need of some BYU student extras...so, you know, if you're interested, you can let me know!

Beyond that, one of the things I'm most excited for upcoming... FOOTBALL! Woot! Too bad I was lame and didn't get myself any tickets, I suppose I'll have to con them off someone or be okay watching on tv. *sigh*

Also something exciting: the fact that my little bro is getting married. Yup. On October 17. It's a little crazy. But it's fun.

Another something not quite so exciting: The fact that my cousin's wedding reception is on the 5th of September...yes, it's true. The opening game of BYU football and against Oklahoma no less! But alas...

That's about all the good news I can scrounge today. Maybe it will be better later. HAH!

SO JK

2009-08-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

So just kidding about the whole posting in order... apparently the blogger extraordinaire didn't like my idea, and posted them backwards anyway... SO um... scroll down and read from the bottom up. I'm lame. I might fix it. I might not.

Enjoy anyway...

Tokyo and Nikko

2009-08-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

So we headed to Shinjuku, got on the subway and went to the Hiro-o station where we promptly got off, got lost, and had no idea where we were going. Ah yes, it's like a metaphor, because where were we trying to get to? The temple of course.

So we felt fairly lost, because we didn't really get stellar directions. And we started walking and there! There beside us was the Church HQ in Japan... but alas it was 5:15 and all was locked up. Still at square one. Eventually we figured out where the park was that was supposed to be near, and lo and behold, there was Moroni. Yes. It's true.

So we went to the temple that evening. We met a couple who was actually from Ogden serving there. Weird. The Ito family. They actually knew my math teacher from high school... the wife was actually her cousin... and my PE teacher. Yeah it was all really too weird.

But it was really cool to do baptisms in Japan and hear it all done in Japanese.

We met up with the Kuwaharas there, Doraina's mission comp Tomoko and her family. We stayed with them for the next few days. They were AWESOME! Love them so much!

So we ended up staying in Saitma which is a suburb of Tokyo.

The next day Doraina and I went into Tokyo and went to the Tokyo National Museum.

Oh look...one of the buildings at the Tokyo National Museum. Imagine that. It was really cool with a bunch of neat artifacts.

After that we had an adventure in Kabuki. So we waited at the theater for about two hours to get $10 tickets...

But it was worth it. It was SO awesome. Especially the end murder scene... grisly I know, but awesome nonetheless.

The big gate in Tokyo. We went there late, so everything was closed in Asakusa.

The entrance into Edo Wonderland... the theme park of ancient Tokyo in the city of Nikko.

More Edo...

This was the water show... this is mild... water was coming out of everything by the end.

This is the ninja show. Bad picture. Cool show.

Geisha show. It was a comedy, but had a lot of dialogue, so it was a little hard to follow.

Streets of an ancient village... just kidding. It's still the theme park. But it looks real, eh?

More streets. This is where The Last Samurai was filmed. Tom Cruise walked here. Wash your feet haha.

Me killing this dude. He asked for it. Really and literally.

Cool trees!

So the last couple days we spent with the Kuwahara family. We went to the ward there and it was great! They were so kind and the RS President was actually from Utah, so she translated the entire three hours. It was so nice of her!

We drove to Narita the next day and ate Japanese style Ramen (so good) and flew home. Woot!

The end. Finally. It was long. I know.

Hakone

2009-08-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

So on our way from Hiroshima to Tokyo we stopped at a little resort/spa town called Hakone. This is where we stayed at a Japanese Ryokan (traditional inn) and ate a beautiful spread of amazing food... most of which I didn't like because I'm not the biggest fan of seafood. But Doraina liked it enough for both of us, so it was great.

Being Japanese in our yukatas. Quite comfortable!

Our shoes. Cute eh?

Me in the full garb in our room.

To preface this: we went to the Hakone Open Air Art Museum the next day as we headed to Tokyo. So the next group of pictures are some of the things we saw there. This was really cool, as you can see from the picture. But the thing you can't see is the stream of water that trickles from her lower eye into the pool. Really neat.

This was on a hill, and looked really cool.

Some statues.

The koi in the pond that thought we were going to feed them or something. Just like my fish flick...huh...it must be a goldfish thing.

This is the outside of the building. Kind of ugly, no?

This is the inside of that ugly building! So beautiful!

Japanese Maple tree.

Haha. So we ran across this statue in the grass kind of by mistake. I walked past it, and then I stopped, took a glance back and started laughing my head off. Yeah. It's that funny.

This was an homage to dance. It was pretty cool. The black are males, the red females.

There was this Chinese family in the ropeway car with us. The kid has on a Monsters Inc. hard hat. I thought it was the funniest, but cutest, thing ever!

The hot pots/sulfur springs we flew over on the ropeway.

The European-style Man of War ships that we rode across Lake Ashi. Yeah. All the pirate statues were European. It was funny. But the boats were really cool!

Me with the "Japanese" pirate captain.

This dude always looked like he was shooting people. We spent most of the time up here with him on the top deck.

Us!

The other ship. I thought this was a pretty neat shot.

A group of cute school kids. We saw a TON of these groups while we were there!

Beautiful Mt. Fuji! Too bad that dumb cloud wouldn't move EVER!

After that we headed back to Hakone and got on a train to Shinjuku station, Tokyo!

Miyajima

2009-08-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

So Miyajima was a day trip from our little hostel in Hiroshima. It was really neat! It's an island about 30 min (by train) south of the heart of Hiroshima. The island itself was regarded as sacred and is home to a huge shrine that is built so that during high tide it looks like the whole thing is floating on the water! It's really neat. And during low tide, you can walk out to it on the beach.

This lovely man in gold is what greeted us as we went to the dock to ride the ferry to Miyajima.

I though these old-timey boat men in contrast with the huge hotel behind them was pretty neat.

The O-Torii or Grand Gate. It looks like it's floating on the water, but there's actually a wooden path just below the surface and you can walk out to it during the low tide.

Me and the O-Torii.

Another amazing five-story pagoda. This one in stunning red.

The view from the middle of the mountain tops. We rode a cable car (ropeway) up to this point, but don't worry, we hiked a good way to get to the summit of Mt. Misen. Yeah. It was a hike.

More of the beautiful mountains.

Monkeys! They were everywhere at the top of the mountains. This baby was just so cute!

This monkey was not as nice. He gave me a stern talking to after I took the picture. But he's still cute.

Some of the bazillion stairs we climbed to get to the summit of Mt. Misen.

A great view from ALMOST the top.

This is me at the top of Mt. Misen. Yes. It was far!

Waterfalls on the way down...

Almost to the bottom!

Miyajima was a great escape to the great outdoors. We climbed to the top of the mountain! Definitely not something I was planning on, as was evidenced by my lack of good shoes... but alas. It was a great hike! And we saw monkeys!