picking

One of my most favorite things to do in the summer in Minnesota is go strawberry picking.

We picked over 27 pounds! Oh baby!

another food post! hurray!

I had so much fun last year writing about food, I thought I would do a post on some of our favorite things we've made this year. I highly recommend any of the following items to everybody and anybody.

Homemade Tortillas: My world brightened a little bit when these came into my life. Sure, they take more time than buying a bag at the store, but they are totally worth the extra effort.

Roasted Butternut Baked Penne: After making butternut soup last year and not loving it, I was hesitant to make this, but I’m so glad I did. The butternut flavor was not overpowering, but the combination of flavors absolutely rocked my world.

Roasted Red Pepper and Fontina Pizza: Pizza dough + olive oil + roasted red peppers + carmelized shallots + bacon + fontina cheese+balsamic reduction=perhaps the best pizza we’ve made so far, imho.

Pretzel Rolls: Basically pretzels in a form that you can eat for dinner. Win.

Sesame Chicken: Easy, sesamey, not too sweet and still feels like Chinese take out.

Glazed Carrots with Orange and Cranberries: I would even decrease or omit the sugar in this, as the OJ gave plenty of sweetness. It was a delicious, easy, healthy, and rather fancy dish.

Chocolate Macarons: I was so excited to make these, and they turned out amazingly. I have to admit, this is something I was pretty dang proud of, and if you have a kitchen scale, they really aren’t too difficult.

Cheesy Penne with Tomatoes and Spinach: Here’s the thing. I never liked the Kraft macaroni and cheese growing up. I still don’t. So, seeing homemade macaroni and cheese recipes never looked appealing to me, until I realized you didn’t have to use macaroni, and you are making a cheese sauce. Hello. I have to say, this meal was off the charts. Seriously, truly fantastic.

Fudgy Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars: I jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon in February, and this is the first thing that I made from the site. Imagine: Graham cracker toffee crust, fudgey chocolate middle, chocolate cookie dough top, sprinkled with toffee bits. Delish. Oh, the thing is that it is a pillsbury recipe, so they tell you to use a roll of refrigerated Pillsbury dough--I just used my favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake: I made this for my half-birthday. Imagine a brownie-ish cake layer on bottom, a chocolate mousse layer in the middle and a white chocolate mousse layer on top. So good.

Quinoa Chicken Salad: This one was one of Matthew's favorites. It was healthy, and had a lot of flavor. And came from Pinterest. ha.

Meditteranean Grilled Vegetable Tartine: A tartine is an open-faced sandwich, and I think the marinade on this, combined with the hummus flavor was what made it unforgettable. 

Sourdough Bread: Very good. Nothing more to say.

Homemade Yogurt: This is so easy, and so fun. I will say, I have deviated from the directions in the link quite a bit in order to get it to work better and more consistently, but now that we have a good method down, it works like a charm. 

Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing: I got this recipe from my sister-in-law, and I think we ate it 3 times that month. 

Strawberry Butter: This is simply pureed, simmered strawberries beaten with butter and honey. And all I'm saying is that it is definitely not disgusting.

Chiang Mai Noodles: I like expanding my Asian cooking repertoire. This one is definitely in the long term rotation

Veggie Fried Rice: Again, expanding Asian repertoire. This turned out very similar to our favorite take-out place.

Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce Chicken: Probably in my top two favorite meals this year. Our old bishop's wife made this for a get together thing. The flavor is absolutely amazing.

Whelp, that is it! I'm super hungry now thinking about all this stuff. A couple of these thingers don't have links--I know I should either write in the recipe or not include them here, but I don't really feel like typing it in right now, plus it will make this post even that much longer, so maybe I'll just say if you are interested in any of the three or four things that don't have links, let me know and I'll either send it to you or just do a separate post later. 

natalie's latest living arrangements

I've actually gotten several requests for pictures of Natalie's room. First though, I want to point out that she likes her room. I feel the need to make that clarification because yes, her room is technically a closet/laundry room:

 And that is my hand.

The choices for her bedroom were either this room, or the front room which is right by the door to the outside. Personally, I didn't want my baby sleeping by the front door, both because I would stay up worrying about her safety, and because then when she's sleeping it is a lot harder to go in and out without waking her. Plus, her little room is all cozy. And she totally is okay with it. Look at that last picture, she's about to unload a cupboard full of diapers. What's not to love??

its the little things

Do you notice anything different about me?

I'm blogging from a new apartment! Huzzah! We are living in the downstairs apartment at Matthew's sister's house (hey guys!) and it is great, and I'm not just saying that because I'm pretty sure she reads this now and again. Besides the obvious reasons why we are really enjoying living here--you know, much more spacious living arrangements, nice kitchen, beautiful backyard, close to family--there are several other things that are enormous improvements over our last place.

1. When I stand on my tiptoes, my head doesn't hit the ceiling. Yes, I could do this at my last apartment.

2. There is a thermostat that we can control for the lower level. At our last place, the upstairs people controlled the temperature, and I WAS ALWAYS FREEZING. It was so cold, so often. Part of that was due to it being winter, and we are in the basement, so it is naturally going to be colder, but when it finally was in the 70s for a day, what did they do? THEY TURNED ON THE AIR CONDITIONING. FOR 5 HOURS! Ask me how I feel about that. ha.

3. There is a normal countertop here. At our old apartment, the countertop was tiled. So there was grout and grooves. And food got stuck in it, and it was hard to get it out, and you had to scrub to get the thing clean. Who wants to scrub counters on a near daily basis, or, have them full of crumbs and grossness? Not me. So glad to be done with that.

Anyway, we are pretty stoked to be moved and here. And that is my story.

life update

So, here's the news.

1. I got an internship. Yay me! I feel like this is no small miracle that I was accepted somewhere. Anyway, it is with Utah State, I'll still be in utah valley, and I start in August.

2. As soon as we can sell our contract, we are moving to the apartment at Matthew's sister's house, which is going to be a fantastic upgrade. We're excited.

3.  Matthew graduates in a few weeks, and he is looking for a real job.

4. Natalie has almost completely transitioned to walking, instead of crawling. This is big news, people!

the one where germaphobes freak out

A few Sundays ago, during Sunday School we were feeding Natalie some Cheerios. 

I would put one in the palm of my hand, she would grab it and put it in her mouth. 

After doing this for a while, she held it out like she was offering it to Matthew. 

He opened his mouth, and she put the Cheerio in. 

He closed his mouth, Natalie turned and looked at me and smiled, and then put her hand back to Matthew's mouth, like she wanted the Cheerio back. 

He opened his mouth, she looked inside, put her little fingers in, and found the Cheerio. 

She took it out, put it in her mouth, gave us a big grin and ate it all. 

It is a good thing we were sitting in the back because I was laughing so hard. 

Hilarious.

a year in photos

Okay, this is the last post about Natalie being one, I promise. I can't help it, its just so exciting. Anyway, the other day Matthew and I were looking at all of her pictures from this year, and this is what came of it. I know it is probably really cliche, but honestly, I can't believe how she has changed. It just seems unreal.

How has this happened??????

biiirrrtththhddayyayayayayay

Will you indulge me a few minutes to talk about my baby's birthday? Okay? Okay.

Matthew and I were pretty dang excited about it all. It is so crazy that we have a one year old now. It makes us feel really old. Anyway, we had a little party for her, just the three of us, although Jonathan was there for part of it, too.

Birthday dinner: Assorted stuff dipped in chocolate for us, assorted stuff not dipped in chocolate for Natalie. Also, I love what Natalie's doing here. Totally cracks me up.

We played Pin the Diaper on the Baby...

Since Jonathan won, we gave him the diaper, which he promptly 

turned into a hat and put on his head. 

Yup, that's my brother.

Then we blew noise maker things 

(I know you all wish you could have been there. ha)

Natalie opened her present

 A new car seat! Yay!

 Time for cupcakes

More mommy more! (In her defense, they were really good, if I do say so myself. 

I made these homemade funfetti cupcakes).

And that was her birthday. We had a good time, she had a good time, and we took some fun pictures (and that's the most important part, right dad? :) )

its in the eyes

No, she's not blinking. This is what happens Natalie gets really happy, or thinks that she is being funny or something. She gets a big grin on her face, and then squints her eyes. Adorable.