My Corner of the Sky

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2010-09-02T22:43:00.004-06:00

visit our new blog: MOXI: Defining the Oxborrows

http://iamanox.blogspot.com

Happy Reading!

Cambodia... Yum...

2010-08-05T20:06:00.000-06:00

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...

2010-08-03T19:10:00.000-06:00

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!

2010-07-22T19:20:00.000-06:00

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!

2010-07-22T18:44:00.000-06:00

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...

2010-07-16T16:55:00.000-06:00

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!

2010-07-10T13:27:00.000-06:00

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!

2010-07-06T18:34:00.000-06:00

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.

2010-07-01T19:13:00.000-06:00

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

2010-07-01T19:01:00.000-06:00

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

2010-06-24T21:17:00.001-06:00

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...

2010-06-17T18:47:00.000-06:00

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

2010-06-17T18:29:00.001-06:00

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

2010-06-10T12:54:00.001-06:00

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?!

2010-06-10T12:47:00.000-06:00

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

2010-06-10T12:27:00.000-06:00

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

2010-06-10T12:14:00.001-06:00

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...

2010-05-31T13:12:00.000-06:00

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

2010-05-16T14:18:00.000-06:00

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

2010-05-16T14:04:00.001-06:00

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

2010-05-04T21:51:00.000-06:00

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...

2010-05-04T21:42:00.000-06:00

...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!

2010-05-04T21:24:00.001-06:00

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

2010-04-17T12:15:00.000-06:00

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!

2010-04-09T18:19:00.000-06:00

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

2010-04-09T18:15:00.001-06:00

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

2010-04-02T21:01:00.003-06:00

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

2010-03-29T18:45:00.001-06:00

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!

2010-03-29T18:29:00.001-06:00

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

2010-03-29T18:13:00.001-06:00

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

2010-03-22T18:18:00.002-06:00

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

2010-03-18T19:14:00.005-06:00

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

2010-03-16T19:49:00.003-06:00

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

2010-03-11T00:03:00.003-07:00

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

2010-03-03T17:39:00.003-07:00

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!

2010-02-15T16:44:00.005-07:00

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...

2010-01-13T18:52:00.017-07:00

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

2009-11-24T18:18:00.006-07:00

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

2009-11-01T15:38:00.004-07:00

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

2009-09-22T16:25:00.002-06:00

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

2009-09-04T11:09:00.002-06:00

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

2009-08-29T11:10:00.005-06:00

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

2009-08-19T16:32:00.003-06:00

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

2009-08-02T23:05:00.001-06:00

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

2009-08-02T21:20:00.005-06:00

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

2009-08-02T19:57:00.009-06:00

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

2009-08-02T19:35:00.007-06:00

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!

Hiroshima

2009-08-02T19:01:00.008-06:00

Hiroshima was one of my favorite places in Japan. In addition to the history, and the fact that my family is from there, and the ocean, I just really loved Hiroshima as a city!

So here are some pics from our day there:

This is the A-Bomb Dome. It's the only building left from the atomic bomb. (There were a few others, but they were torn down to make way for new buildings.) There was this huge debate as to whether or not to tear this building down as well, but historical significance and remembrance won the day, and it's a great reminder to everyone.

This is one of the many cool memorials at the Peace Park in Hiroshima. This is the Children's Peace Memorial. It's made specifically in remembrance of one little girl who was in the city when the bomb dropped and had no symptoms of it until she contracted lukemia twelve years later. She thought that if she could make 1,000 paper cranes, she would somehow be save, hence the symbolism of the crane in association with the Children's memorial.

The boxes you can see in the background are filled with cranes (mostly paper). The three pictures below are some of the cranes that are in the boxes.

Our tour guide at the museum said that Hiroshima receives 10 billion paper cranes each year. That's a lot of cranes!

This is the peace bell. Anyone can go and ring it. It had a beautiful inscription next to it, and it's great to hear it ringing consistently while you walk through the park.

This picture is sideways, but you get the idea. Some lily pads near the peace bell.

This is a mound made of cremated remains of the victims of the atomic bomb. Weird, but moving. It's quite the large mound.

The eternal flame of peace. They say it won't be extinguished until every nuclear weapon is gone from the face of the earth. I think they may be waiting a while...

This is Hirosima castle. It's not in the Peace Park. It's really cool to see the difference in style from the European castles...and yet there is still a moat...

The actual castle itself.

This is Hiroshima's version of Central Park. It's so beautiful! I saw flying fish and a crane here!

This is an ugly picture, but here is one of the five bazillion crabs that were everywhere in this park! One was the size of my hand and was sitting right in the middle of the path when I turned a corner. Scared me. For real.

A mini-rice paddy.

This last picture is obviously not in the park. We thought it was hilarious. It's a day care bus, and nothing like a naked baby with a mohawk stuck to the front of a huge orange van to tell people that this is a day care bus...

We headed home relatively early and ate the Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. SO good!

Nara

2009-08-02T18:42:00.005-06:00

Nara was the capital of Japan in the period before Edo (Tokyo). This place was seriously cool. We just came on a day trip here after attending Doraina's sister's International Christian Church. (We tried to find a ward there, but yeah, we couldn't figure out the address system at all...ever...so we went with her sister).

Here are some pics and explanation:

So in Nara the park there is a huge deer reserve and these wild (though I would call them domestic) deer just walk and run around wherever they please. Most of them stay on the reserve, but you'll see a few of them wandering the streets of Nara. They're free to roam wherever they please! This was one of the few deer that paused long enough to get a picture with me. Their big dark eyes are so adorable!

This was our favorite baby deer. We loved him.

A beautiful "gate" out by the pond at the temple complex.

One of the gate guards. These things were huge...seriously 30-40 feet tall.

Here is the temple that houses giant Buddha. You can kind of get a sense of how large it is by looking at the people in comparison to it.

Unfortunately this picture does not do Giant Buddha justice. You can't tell how huge he is! But, if you think about it. That temple (compare it to the size of the people) is pretty much the height of Giant Buddha. He's about 60 ft. tall in his seated position. Seriously huge people.

This is me posing between the two scary head guys. Doraina and I thought it would have been funny if we had been doing the peace sign... why? Well... just look at the picture and think about it for a minute... haha

This is one of the five story pagodas. They are amazingly beautiful buildings we saw three in our travels. They're pretty rare nowadays.

A cool picture that I liked of the sand garden.

Anyway, the day in Nara was awesome. We saw a lot of cool things... and we got to play with deer! Yeah!

Osaka and Kyoto

2009-08-02T18:19:00.008-06:00

So we went from Nagoya to Osaka and met up with Doraina's sister Liz. Her apartment was posh! It was really huge for Japan, especially for someone single. It was really a nice place with a great view. We got in fairly late and had a bit of confusion regarding trains... (We thought we were at Osaka station, she also was at Osaka station, we couldn't find her, she couldn't find us... then we realized that we were at SHIN-Osaka station... a very different station from Osaka. Go figure...) But we made it and basically fell into bed that evening and slept.

The next day we went to Kyoto with some of Liz's friends. It was great fun! We started out the day walking up to one of the huge Buddhist temples. Here are some cool pictures:

This is one of the fountains. No, not for drinking. At least I didn't see anyone drink out of it. Although a lot of people probably wanted to since there are no drinking fountains ANYWHERE! You have to buy bottled water out of random vending machines all over the streets. But I digress... Anyway, we were told that these were used to cleanse yourself before entering the temples.

This is just part of the temple. But I thought it looked really cool. There was this cute little kid standing underneath it putting incense in a big pot. I tried to get a picture of the kid too, but he didn't stay still long enough!

These are wishes, not prayers, wishes. I found it really interesting. I also enjoyed watching the people come and do ceremonial worship, meaning they rang a bell, clapped their hands, repeated some phrases, and threw some money in. I'm glad I don't have to pay to have my prayers answered... And I digress again...

On the left we see some stone statues with napkin/aprons. No one we asked could tell us why they had those on (they were all over in all different kinds of temples, not just this one). So if you know why, let me know!

On the right we see Buddha. One of many we saw. But none compared with Giant Buddha, which you will see in the next post :)

On the streets in Kyoto, heading toward the Ginza district. In Kyoto there are TONS of samples of mochi (rice cake...not the crispy kind we have in America, the chewy, gooey kind that I love!). Specifically the kinds that are filled with all different kinds of flavors! I loved the blueberry and lemon kinds. We also had ice cream covered with mochi, they looked like little snowballs. SO GOOD!

Some cool tapestries that were hanging in the temple in Ginza. (This is the district where the old school stuff still prevails... it's the one place you might see Geisha or Meiko. I think we saw one, but that is unconfirmed. We saw plenty of fake ones though!)

The day in Kyoto was awesomely awesome. That night we were back in Osaka and had some okonomiyaki (cabbage pancake) and it was super good, though not as good as the kind we had in Hiroshima with noodles in it!

The Old Country...aka Land of the Rising Sun... aka Japan... aka BEAUTIFUL... aka HOT AND HUMID!

2009-08-02T17:54:00.010-06:00

Well folks, I'm getting to it a day early!

So Japan was amazing. Seriously amazing. And since I was something of a lame head and let Doraina take all of the pictures of the small things, I guess I'll have to post an addendum later...if I get around to it. The posts are either daily adventures or specific places we visited, so there should be quite a few posts by the time I finish, but I posted them backward so they'd be in order for you to read!

So here's the travelogue with a few of the choicest pictures!

So I flew down to Dallas to spend the day and the night at Doraina's house. Luckily for me I spent the night there, hence I can color in one more state on my map of the US that should, with any luck, be all filled in before I'm thirty! Technically her house was in Mesquite. (I think that's how the spelled it down there...) I met her mom and her cute dog!

The next morning we got up at literally the crack of dawn to be at the airport at 6:30am (an hour away from her house). But all was well and we got on the flight to SLC (yes, the cruel irony was that I had to fly to Dallas to get on a plane to come to SLC...) Lucky for us, a lady on the plane decided to pass out about two minutes before we were going to get to the runway. Yup. It's true. So we taxied back to the gate and had paramedics show up in a neon green (I'm not joking!) paramedic SUV. It was brilliant. In more ways than one.

At any rate, the captain decided to have a maintenance "issue" looked at while we were back at the gate. So we sat there. And sat there. And sat there. The woman came back on with the "all-clear, I'm not going to die mid-flight," and still we sat. After a while the captain got on the intercom to tell us that the maintenance "issue" was taking a little longer to fix. (I would say it was more of a problem than an issue...) At any rate, there we sat. And then we began to fret about missing our flight to Tokyo out of Seattle. Yes, there was still one more plane to catch.

Eventually we got on our way, but we literally ran off of one plane and onto another. It was wonderful because the flight was barely half full, so there was plenty of space for our luggage, and Doraina and I both got entire side sections to ourselves. Not to mention we got the nifty little individual screens where you could choose whatever you wanted to watch/listen to/do. It was a lovely ten hours...well, as lovely as ten hours on a plane could be.

Eventually we landed, and after getting business taken care of, we hopped on an express train to Tokyo, and from there to Nagoya. After an amusing little interlude with our taxi driver, we found our hotel and were settled for the night.

The next day took us on an amazing two hour train ride out of Nagoya Station to a little folk village called Takayama. As I was telling Eric the other day, you know those pictures where you see the mist rising off of the river with the lush green vegetation all around it up the surrounding mountains...I lived that picture for two hours there and two hours back. It was spectacular!

Takayama was a fun little old-timey area. We walked around a lot and saw some cool temples. Here are some pictures from Takayama...

This was pretty funny. There were about eight of these up and down the streets...so of course we took pictures with most of them :)

That evening we walked around Nagoya a bit, then boarded the Shinkansen bullet train to head to Osaka...

Going Home

2009-08-01T17:20:00.002-06:00

So, after not being home for pretty much a month, I'm going home this evening with the hope of somehow being there for longer than a week. Not going to happen. Life is too ridiculously busy! But at least I'll be there for most of a week!

Upcoming blog posts to look forward to: Japan, my trips from last year (NYC, DC, and Chicago), family craziness...and probably some other things.

Hopefully on Monday I'll have some time to post some pictures and give you a travelogue. Until then...

Oquirrh Mountain Open House

2009-07-03T17:40:00.005-06:00

Hey peeps. So today the fam and I went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house in South Jordan. It was incredibly beautiful! I appreciated the fact that, not only did the film that they showed at the beginning of the tour talk about the purpose of temples, but it clarified why in the world the Oquirrh Mountain Range is called the Oquirrh Mountain Range! A fact which has been a mystery to me since the fourth grade when we learned about the Oquirrh Mountains in Utah History. And luckily, the knowledge has now come with little to no effort on my part. I kind of like it when that happens occasionally!

So, just a suggestion, if you live in Utah, or you're coming here before August 1, go to the open house! Take a couple of hours and go. There is beautiful artwork and architecture! Do it.

Traveling

2009-07-01T14:22:00.003-06:00

So I'm leaving in a few days for "The Old Country," as my father calls it. I'm heading off to Japan for a crazy exciting twelve-day adventure.

Yes, I realize that I still haven't posted pictures or anything about my trips to NYC or DC...but I have concluded that I will...along with Japan...when I return.

So, look forward to that, y'all! And Happy Canada Day!

Atlas Shrugged

2009-06-26T15:59:00.006-06:00

It's one of those moments for me. But I'm going to do my best to keep my academic exuberance from bursting forth and simply tell you that the book Atlas Shrugged is most definitely my favorite book. It has taken me my entire life to find a book that I can actually say is my favorite. And a whole lot of books.

In the last ten years, I've read over 500 books. That doesn't even count the newspapers, magazines, short stories, plays, etc. And yes folks, Atlas Shrugged is most definitely my favorite piece of literature (I should probably put in the disclaimer piece of secular literature) ever written. That I've encountered thus far anyway.

Now, I don't want you all to pick up the book, read it, and decide that I've given up on morality. I do have a few major differences of opinion and philosophy than Ayn Rand (the author). But, as it applies to most things secular, political, economical...she hit what I believe as dead on as someone who is not me could. And her theory (objectivism) is stated with such a convincing argument and fervor that I found myself thinking for a moment that what she was saying made complete and utter sense. Funny enough, the thing that convinced me otherwise was her 50 page discourse given by her (well, it's the character that "comes up with" this theory in the book) about objectivism and laying out all of its tenets that finally convinced me that it most definitely was not the right way to go in things personal, but in things public, most definitely.

And I also don't want you thinking that I don't believe in sacrifice. I do. Or that I don't believe in the necessity of giving of one's self, talents, and treasure. I do. But she makes quite the case against it... but the final action sequence of the book itself punches some serious holes in her theory as a whole. Why save one man? Because I want to. Why do you want to? Ah, and that is the question. Because if it's because that one man made their lives more worth living, that's fine. But what if helping someone who is struggling succeed makes mine more worth living? I say that's fine too.

I'm not one to spoil spectacular events, so I won't tell you all about the book or its philosophical contents. And it is a big book. 1079 pages, with very, very small print. But if it were me, I'd take the month, year, or years it takes to get through a book of this magnitude, because it's worth it. Really.

Read it. Even if it doesn't fit in with your world view, at least it will make you think. And thinking is something that's so underrated these days. Hah... the irony...

But hey, who is John Galt?

The Awesome Nature of Siblings

2009-06-01T13:06:00.004-06:00

So it's like this. I'm seriously shocked and awed by how well my siblings get along, and yet, since we've reached a relatively mature age, it hasn't really been any other way.

I love my siblings! We are all so different, and yet we are so much the same. It's pretty amazing. I thought I'd just give everyone a little update on my amazing siblings, since they are such an important part of my life.

So Nate got back from his mission about three months ago. He served a great mission in Guadalajara, Mexico and can now speak Spanish. Something that definitely never occurred in all of the years that he took Spanish classes! He's currently attending Weber State University up in Ogden and has plans to transfer elsewhere in the relatively near future. A couple of weeks ago he sang at a benefit concert for Ashlee's (and all of our) high school's theater program. He was amazing! He sang three solos and two duets and he sounds even more amazing that he did two years ago! That time off did his voice good! He's also auditioning for various roles at some different theaters, so we'll hopefully see him back performing on the stage soon!

Kimi is living with me down in Provo. She finished up her first year at UVU and is doing ballroom dance and studying psychology! She's had a busy year of change and adjustments, but she is doing pretty fantastically. She is crazy fun to live with, even if she sometimes eats my food. It's okay, because I eat hers... but I did buy her a new bag of Marshmallow Mateys today! She's currently rehearsing for West Side Story. She's playing the part of Rosalia, Anita's friend. So she gets to put her Latin groove on and do some dancing. The show starts on July 3rd and runs at the Scera Amphitheater until... the 20? Something like that. So you should go if you can!

Ashlee finished up her Junior year of high school. She played the lead role of Sarah in Guys and Dolls this last spring, and next year she has some awesome parts! In November the school is doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Ashlee is playing the Narrator! Then, in the spring they're doing Les Miserables and Ashlee is playing Fantine, Cosette's mother. She'll be great! You should try to come if you can! She's also the President of the school's madrigal choir Tapestry, so that should keep her busy all year!

Basically I just wanted to say what a great blessing it is to have some of your best friends as your siblings. To know that they're always going to be there. Nate came down to visit Kimi and me this weekend, and we spent an hour just laughing together over ridiculous things. But that's just how we are. And I love it.

Hunting UFOs

2009-05-08T16:58:00.002-06:00

So when I was in elementary school... fifth or sixth grade... I became a nerd, geek, whatever you want to call me. I fell in love with Star Wars and Star Trek. Like for real. Hah. If you're ever lucky enough to see my room at my parent's, which, I might add, is fully intact, you will notice two center calendar spreads of the starship Enterprise and that a full fourth of my book collection in that room is Star Wars books.

It all began innocently enough with watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with my parents at 10 on weeknights. Re-runs, of course. I guess it really began earlier than that. See, my school had this program called "Pegasus" where a group of about 15 students from the 5th and 6th grades in elementary were asked to essentially leave school for two days and become the crew and mission control of our very own space shuttle simulator Pegasus. It was awesome. We got to do science experiments and activities, and then conclude the adventure with an actual simulation of the space shuttle launch, mission, and landing. Fantastic, right?!

The instigator of this program was a third grade teacher named Mrs. Hanebut. She was amazing. And I blame my obsession with science fact and fiction on her. So anyway, I digress...

So I would watch with my parents and I felt pretty cool because I was able to stay up late. One of the perks of being the oldest, I suppose.

That led to my fascination with Sci-fi in general, and led me one day a book rack at Albertsons and specifically to a book for young adults about the children of Han and Leia. I was intrigued. And thus began my collection of a ridiculous number of Star Wars books.

And yet, I have fallen far from where I was going with this whole blog post in the first place. Being that it is opening weekend for the Star Trek movie, you may think you know where this is going, but, no indeed, you do not.

See folks, apparently I'm going to be working next week on the History Channel show UFO Hunters. Not even joking. It's going to be awesome, and I think that the 6th grade geek in me is going to come out with a vengeance. I'll let you know how it goes...

Soccer

2009-05-02T12:33:00.001-06:00

So I played soccer again today for the first time in about a year and a half or two... Pretty ridiculous. My skills are lagging, not to mention the fact that it always takes me about two or three games to re-learn to account for playing on turf instead of grass... Whoops! There goes the ball...

Yeah. At any rate though, I've determined that I really love playing soccer, and I wish that I played more often. More than that though, as Kamie and I were discussing on the way home from the game, I miss playing on a field with real grass, lines that are for soccer instead of football (welcome to the indoor practice facility at BYU), with nets that are actually stuck in the ground, and of course the little flags marking the corners--that really signifies that you have arrived... in terms of playing on a real soccer field.

Soccer rocks.

Humanity at its Finest

2009-04-28T23:53:00.003-06:00

This week has been incredibly weird.

Kimi (my sister) and I got a phone call early Thursday morning from our youngest sister Ashlee telling us that a young man Kimi's age had been killed in a car accident on Wednesday night. I am good friends with his older brother, and their family had lived in my parents' ward until about six months ago, so the news was hard and quite a shock.

It didn't really help that the story was plastered all over the news: two young men killed in a car accident when two young criminals ran from police, and subsequently ran a red light, T-boning the car with Derek and his friend in it. It was a rough day.

Today was the funeral. It was amazing, really. The family was holding up as well as, if not better than, can be expected. But I guess that's one of the great blessings of knowing that God lives and is in control of our lives. And knowing that when people are taken from this earth, we can see them again. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a miraculous thing.

I was taken today, as my sisters got up with this year's and last year's Tapestry choir and sang the song "For Good" from Wicked, to a place of deep reflection on my gratitude for the people who have blessed my life. Whether they brushed past in mere moments, came for a few years, or have stuck (and continue to stick) with me for the long haul, each and every person regardless of whether their appearance in my life was happy, sad, momentous, or momentary has made me into the person I am today. And for that, I am deeply grateful.

I also realized that the people I love need to know it. And hopefully they do.

Ode to Kamie

2009-04-20T16:07:00.001-06:00

So one of my favorite people in the world came over last night and shared with me a song she wrote. It was along the lines of what's popular right now... folky, acoustic, tells an actual story instead of a gush of angry/romantic/"insert your particular strong emotion here" lyrics. And it was really good!

It made me think that I should probably pick up my guitar more often. Not that I'm an aspiring singer/songwriter like Kamie, but I do enjoy it; and singing, playing, and composing give me immense personal satisfaction.

So I'm revamping my goal of playing the guitar... and actually getting back into it. Although it may only stick until my next film gig comes along :)

Technology!

2009-04-15T17:24:00.001-06:00

Hey! So I'm becoming really high tech, and I can now post to my blog from my phone. Rock on! Here are a couple photos I took on the set of "Snowmen."

The Things We Call "Children's Movies"

2009-04-06T14:15:00.003-06:00

Well folks, I guess this is the moment that I make the world-wide, and rather loud declaration regarding the farce that is the Disney movie. Now, don't get me wrong, I've known for a long time that there are a lot of truly...well I was going to use the word heinous, but I think that's a little strong... There are a lot of undesirable things in Disney movies, as is the case with most media in general, but Disney somehow managed to convince the general population that they were the last word in children's and family entertainment.

Last night I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

NOTE TO PEEPS: NOT A CHILDREN'S MOVIE!!!

Yeah, the little gargoyles are funny, and there are definitely moments where it's aimed at kids... like when the old guy gets released from his current incarcerated state and he wobbles around saying, "I'm free! I'm free!" until moments later when he somehow finds himself entrapped again and yells, "Dang it!" It's slapstick, and it's funny... but the rest of the movie! Not so much!

I could go on and rant for a good portion of this page, but I will refrain :)

On another note, I really like Hunchback, despite the less-than-stellar character animation. (Though the backgrounds are spectacular!)

So don't let the fools at Disney kid you... haha... There's still monitoring and censoring to be had despite... or maybe in spite of... a brand name!

How to...Feel Like You've Been in a Car Accident Without Really Being in One

2009-04-01T17:42:00.005-06:00

Snowboard. Seriously. For the first time. And fall down. A lot. And go down runs that are harder than anything you've done that day at the end of the day, because the guy who got you into the whole craziness in the first place and helped you purchase your snowboard pushed you to do it, despite my cries that I was going to die pretty much the whole way down. (Thanks, Brendan! You're a sport, and yes, it was the best run of the day!)

On Monday I went snowboarding for the first time, and it was insane! I loved it! I face planted a good number of times, fell down twenty times more than that. Though the best one was when I tumbled over my snowboard twice, heard some kind of bone creak, and I thought crack, and laughed as I realized that there's nothing to do except get up again and get down the mountain!

It was a rush. You know, I'm not a huge dare-devil when it comes to thrill-seeking sports, but this one, I think I can definitely get into. And it will be awesome.

Now, on the downside...I woke up on Tuesday morning and couldn't lift my head off my pillow. It was funny. Really funny. And then once I finally got my head up, I realized that my shoulders, abs, and back were quite opposed to getting up. So I laid there for a while until I finally got over it and made myself get out of bed. Man it hurt so good.

And I didn't even take any pictures. How lame am I?

Maybe I'll get some next time I go during the day...

Instant Gratification

2009-03-25T00:22:00.003-06:00

So last week I had a plan. Then I had a new plan on Saturday. And a new one on Sunday. And a new one on Monday. And today I came to the grand conclusion that plans are ridiculous! Well, sometimes, in some cases. But I have definitely determined that I have essentially no control over most things in my life, and that I should accept that and move on to the next surprise. Because it's all pretty much a surprise. Really.

Now that the show is over, and I have something that resembles a life again, I will attempt to renew my commitment to writing weekly.

I got a new snowboard. It is pretty much awesome. And with said snowboard came a free lesson/lift ticket package. Unfortunately, I scratched a little to hard and the redemption code is now illegible. Hopefully the nice folks at Burton will cut me a break...

And now for more exciting news...

Well, that's about it.

As For Resolutions...

2009-03-16T14:10:00.003-06:00

As for my resolution regarding posting weekly, may I add an addendum? I want to post at least weekly when not absolutely going out of my mind spending every waking moment on a film set...minus my day or two off, which I spend sleeping, doing laundry, and catching up on my week of life.

Thus, I am resolved to tell you of the excitement, or perhaps lack thereof, on set. Mostly it's pretty slow on this show. But, on a happier note, I have met some really cool people: like Matty Props (for those of you who don't know, you don't have last names in the film industry, it's a first name and then your department...yeah, it's weird). Anyway, Matty smashed his middle finger in a garage door the other day and now, since it's broken and in a splint, he finds it quite amusing to walk around flipping people off. Not going to lie, it is pretty funny!

And there's my fellow PA buddies, they're awesome. We have fun, probably too much. The rest of the AD department are pretty much rockin'. We have parties in the production hole every night. It rocks.

The whole camera department are rock stars. Seriously. The art department are kind of enigmatic, especially when Chris (the production designer) cuts off his luscious locks, and no one even recognized him at first! And, strangely enough, the same thing happened when Andy from the grip department cut his hair...hmm...

The grip and electric department definitely provide the comic relief during the down times. They're pretty amazing.

Darcy is crafty (the person who provides all the snackage), and she is super. She's giving me soup recipes, which I rather enjoy! And, speaking of food, our catering boys are way too much fun, and always provide a smile and a plate of food, which is definitely appreciated.

Then there's Telly Wardrobe, who provides us with enjoyment by writing down all of the random quotes from set. It's funny. Seriously funny. All of the hair/makeup/wardrobe ladies are lovely.

And the above the line peeps: like MB, the UPM, she's always fun. Especially when her walkie starts keying and everyone can hear her conversations... Stephen, the line producer, has been giving me much needed advice regarding my newest hobby that I have yet to actually do: snowboarding. And you know, the director Rob, and DP Geno... I've learned great things from them... like how I shouldn't eat sea urchins and how to smell steak from a mile away.

At any rate, many cool people. Oh, and did I mention Christopher Lloyd? Yeah, the one and only Doc came and was in our film. He was super nice, but quite shy and quiet! Ray Liotta is also here, but my favorite is definitely Doug E. Doug. You know, from Cool Runnings! He's the nicest, most chill guy ever! It's awesome!

So, I finish up this show on Friday... and I'll have a life again. Imagine...

Sheesh! Why?!

2009-02-16T23:13:00.003-07:00

So, just so you know. I'm working on a feature Wednesday through Sunday. Yeah, not even kidding. It's brutal, but oh so much fun!

Like, for example, yesterday we worked halvsies... you know a half day, half night. WELL... it was the most NOT awesome day ever! We had probably 30 kids on ice skates on this little pond outdoors in single digits. YEAH! Plus the cast kids were just goofing off (what did they expect with 9 year olds on ice skates?!). It was a messy day, but you live and learn. At least the food is good :)

On a happier note. I now have really warm winter wear. Like the serious snowboarder type. I have this great down hooded jacket and super warm amazing snowpants...but my favorite are my Salomon "girlie" boots, as my coworker Julie calls them. I guess they're girlie because they have an abundance of fur on the top. I think it's awesome. And warm.

Anyway, so if you don't hear from me on a regular basis, that is the reason. But I'm sure I'll be able to throw you a set anecdote every once in a while!

And She's Back (with premiered movies!)

2009-02-06T17:37:00.011-07:00

So I'm setting a resolution to write on this thing at least weekly. Hopefully more. I have a lot to blog about! All of my crazy trips, my working adventures, and all that jazz! It's exciting stuff!

So some news:
A bunch of my films premiered at the LDS Film Festival mid-January. We won the audience choice award for my last student film that I produced entitled The Teller's Tale. (pictured below and to the left)

The feature I worked on summer 2007 also premiered! Dragon Hunter was actually pretty sweet, if I do say so myself! I had a couple other student films that I worked on show up at the festival as well, so it was pretty successful!

So that was sweet. (see the awesome dragon poster? Yeah...)

Let's see what else...

Well here's a list of things you have to look forward to coming soon:

A bunch of photos from a bunch of things including, but not limited to, all of my east coast trips, holidays, birthdays, random moments. And, of course, stories to go with them. And my next blog will actually be philosophical. Brace yourself. Hah.

I Really Will Get Better at This

2009-01-04T23:52:00.001-07:00

Maybe.

I really will try.

A lot went on this fall, and I haven't really written about any of it. But I will! Soon! I'm starting to be ambitious again after spending pretty much all of my free waking hours working on Christmas presents, which aren't finished, by the way, but will be amazing when they are!

Best, and updates soon...

Look! Es mi hermano!

2008-10-13T19:38:00.002-06:00

Look here folks! It's my brother singing "Abide with me, 'tis Eventide" in Mexico on his mission! HOORAY! He gets home on March 2! AND basically he's amazing! AND that's all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXt4a2Wpbjk

WATCH IT!

PS I will write about my East Coast trips soon!

On the Road Again

2008-09-30T12:36:00.001-06:00

Or, more correctly, in the air again. After an amazing trip to D.C., (which I will write about and post about eventually), I am heading off on another trip, this time for work! I'm leaving on the 1st and heading to Chicago, NYC, and D.C.! Crazy ain't it? So expect an awesome travelogue for two trips when I get back!

Teach-a-WHAT?!

2008-09-03T22:27:00.004-06:00

So, it's official. I started substitute teaching on Tuesday. IT WAS A BLAST! I absolutely loved it! I was able to go to a charter school down in Springville and teach third grade. We had some hilarious moments.

One of the boys had a birthday, and he was character! He had these big glasses that he had to constantly push onto his face to keep them on, and he loves, as he said, "ancient rocks." On their birthdays they get to do show and tell and so he brought a trilobite fossil. He cracked me up!

Then there was the girl who apparently every day around eleven has a stomach ache.

And the boy who after adamantly refusing to do anything all morning, decided to fall asleep on his desk, and when that wasn't comfortable, moved to the floor.

The kids are all so willing to please, and I can't imagine what I must have been like in third grade...no, I pretty much know...I was probably the most annoying, precocious kid ever. But I think I turned out all right.

After a few mishaps and many adventures (including getting there late because of ridiculous traffic and arriving right before the bell rang...meaning I was winging the entire day. Yeah. It was awesome.) I made it through my first day without too much trouble!

Did I mention that I love teaching?

Road Warriors

2008-09-01T02:00:00.003-06:00

So I don't think that I've been in the car so much in my life... but it was SO worth it!

I got back on Monday August 18 from a 16 day road trip across the Southwest mostly with Eric, but with other random people along the way. It was crizazy! We started out on August 2 from Utah and headed down to Las Vegas where we spent the night and enjoyed some fantastic hospitality from my Aunt and Uncle there.

The next morning we went to church and hopped back in the car and headed to Fresno...and six hours later we arrived at the somewhat, kind of, pretty campus of Fresno State. I dropped Eric and Cory (I think that was his name...) off. And to explain...Cory was another EFY counselor and needed a ride from Provo to Fresno, and we were the winners :) Anyway, it was kind of funny. When I dropped them off, we went in and one of the head counselor people was telling us that we needed to go over to this building and check "him" in and then "he'd" check into EFY "tomorrow," and it was at this point that Eric and I realized that the head counselor man thought that we were dropping Cory off to ATTEND EFY...and it was really funny.

At this point I was gearing up to get in the car and drive another three hours to Santa Clarita down in North LA...but as I started driving I just decided there was no way, so I stayed in a hotel. Yeah, it was a blast, let me tell ya.

So the next day I drove down to Santa Clarita to visit my friend Lacey. We had some interesting experiences helping her relatives move into their huge and extremely fancy schmancy new house. The family hadn't moved in yet, so Lacey and I were the only ones staying there, which, let's be honest, made it a little freaky at night, but what can I say? We also randomly ran into Kirby Heyborne (you know, of Mormon movie fame...and beer commercials hah). Which was the point I realized that Jared (the director of the film I produced this spring) must live close by since Kirby is in his ward...

Thus, the next evening Jared was able to come over for a bit and hang. It was fun.

At this point I headed up to Visalia to visit my long lost cousin Geoff (who is really my Mom's cousin, which makes him something like my first cousin once removed, I believe) and his wife Lorile, whom I've never met...and his three extraordinarily cute kids! Kolby (whom I met when he was about four months old...and I am so sorry if I spelled them wrong...!), Eliza, and Carson. They are SO great! We had a lot of fun just chilling and catching up.

Here's a cute picture of me and Kolby when we built the most stellar railroad track EVER!

By the time I left, it was Friday and I drove up to Clovis to spend some time with Danielle before picking Eric up on Saturday morning. We watched some of the opening ceremonies that night! But unfortunately I missed the amazing part (lucky for us, Geoff recorded it, and when we went to stay with him on Saturday we were able to watch it!).

The next morning I went to pick up Eric and we headed up to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. They are SO beautiful and the trees are HUGE! They're the largest living creatures in the world! Oh and speaking of which...a few pictures to share

Here we are inside a tree trunk. It's true. Those little people in the light are at the complete other end...and we're in the middle of the trunk...yeah. They're huge. It's ridiculous.

This is the General Grant tree, named the nation's Christmas Tree. You can't really get an idea of how huge this thing is. You'll just have to trust me. It is HUGE!

Here's a lovely picture of me fixing my hair...hah. But the view was remarkable!

Tree Huggers! And this was a small one...Seriously!

So after this we headed to Visalia, watched the mind-blowing opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics...and I had my first Chipotle burrito experience :)

The next day we headed to Tehachapi and visited with Eric's cousin and her husband and brand new baby Emilia! She was a beautiful little girl! We also went to church with them...and the baby actually made it through sacrament meeting! Hooray!

Later that day we headed down to San Diego to stay with Eric's friend Nicole. She was so nice to let us all crash at her house! Another car-load of Eric's EFY counselor buddies showed up later that night and we basically all crashed pretty quickly. Apparently we were blessed because the next day was the only truly sunny day San Diego had seen in a week and it was the only one we had while we were there...and we just happened to choose to go to the beach that day!

Here's the gang at the little Mexican place we ate at.

Soaking wet at the beach! Notice the nice hair-in-the-face look!

The next day was Disneyland! Yeah, yeah! Kimi called while we were on the way there, and we promised her that we would ride on Peter Pan...hence the only pictures we really took...

Yes, Peter Pan! Never Grow Up...

The next day we went down to La Jolla Cove. Eric and I went into a "Native Australian Art" shop. It was so cool! They do this amazing dot art...you should check it out if you've never seen it! We also went down into the caves they have there. It was really cool. Eric loved it so much that he's now more than convinced he'd be happy to go to grad school there! Admittedly...it is a pretty cool place. And the beach, well, you can never go wrong with the beach...

Another San Diego treat was going to Golden Spoon (frozen yogurt) twice. It was amazing. Oh yeah, baby!

The next day we left and headed for Mesa, AZ. Yeah yeah! So...funny story...we were stopped by the border patrol, right? And we rolled down the window, the guy asked us if we were both US citizens, we said yes...he said okay and waved us through... RIGHT?! What kind of border patrol is that?!?!?! We laughed about that for a good while, that's fo' sho'.

In Mesa we met up with Eric's friend Ricki and then we went on a double to Aida. Yeah...I thought that maybe I just saw a bad production of it...yeah, not so much. I really just don't like that show. The songs just go on FOREVER! But I had a good time. I went out with Eric's buddy from the mish Bradford. He's pretty amazing! He's traveled all over (he's going to the Air Force Academy) and has some great ambitions. I was thoroughly impressed...although it started out a big rocky with a slight mis-communcation about who was on a date with whom...It was pretty durn hilarious.

The next day I spend with John, Reva, and Marshall (Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin, respectively). We went to see Clone Wars for Marshall's birthday and then to a Mongolian BBQ which I LOVE! Too bad I was so full from all of the popcorn!!!

The next day Eric and I headed out of Phoenix and headed up to Flagstaff and visited my cousin Brieann, her husband Mark, and their baby girl Emily! Then went to the Grand Canyon...it was rainy and stormy and amazingly beautiful...

Some pics of the Grand Canyon!

After the Grand Canyon we took an amazing drive through the desert and saw the most beautiful sunset ever! Really. And luckily for you I took pictures. Unfortunately they're nothing like what it looked like in real life!

This is only one picture...but you get the idea...right?

Anyway, we made it to Ponderosa Ranch next to Zion around 10:30pm. Wahoo! The next day we went to church in a little podunky town called Orderville. Yeah. We talked about loincloths and politics in Gospel Doctrine. It was kind of hilarious.

That afternoon we played on the rock climbing wall. Then we went into Zion and hiked Angel's Landing. It got dark and I wasn't going to go up the chains in the dark, so I stayed behind, but Eric got all the way up with a couple of others. Here are some pics!

The first one is a picture of Angel's Landing. The next one is a sign where it starts to get steep, and the last the view from the topish...

The next morning we headed home and after 16 amazing days the Road Warriors finally slept in their own beds :) It was seriously one of the most fun trips ever! I highly recommend it...if you can stand all of the driving!

PS Sorry about any formatting issues and grammar problems...it's late and I don't care enough to re-read it :)

An Apology...

2008-08-27T23:38:00.001-06:00

So I'm really sorry y'all that I've been lame and unable to post anything about my life. BUT that will be remedied! I'm working on a post about my roadtrip and all that jazz.... to include pictures!!! It's true! So...check back in a couple of days and it will be here in all of its glory! MUAH!

And Now Folks...

2008-07-18T14:16:00.003-06:00

So I finished the job. And I was happy.

Now I'm trying to finish my student film so I can be rid of BYU and most things associated with it forever.

And I'm doing some other stuff.

To all you kids out there: Go to college, it's great. But do you know what's greater? Being done with college and having a degree. Yup, it's true. Don't blast through your undergraduate career, but don't hang around forever either.

And one other thing: does anyone know a good violin teacher in Provo?

Lame Choices

2008-06-11T23:09:00.002-06:00

So today some of my coworkers invited me to go with them to the Salt Lake Bees (Is that what they are these days?) baseball game vs. the Tacoma Raniers. See, Nick Lachey is a partial owner of the Raniers, thus he gets a sweet suite (hah, I think I'm funny), and some of the peeps on the show were going to the game to support our lovely hosting cast member. (And I'm not saying that facetiously. Nick really is a great guy.)

Instead of going, I decided to head home since it's about a 45-minute commute and my call is relatively early for tomorrow. That was dumb. Well, maybe not dumb, but pointless. There was a HUGE accident today on the road right before the Highland/Alpine exit and, luckily for me, the slowing started right after the last exit before the Highland/Alpine exit. Yeah. So I made a grand total of 2 miles in 30 minutes. Apparently the accident was blocking all four lanes...

So, really? How much time did I save coming straight home instead of going to the game? A little bit, I'm sure. But not enough to make a difference.

Thus, today I made a lame choice; neither bad, nor good, simply LAME.

But Nick's team lost anyway...

Who Thinks Making Films is FUN?!

2008-06-08T23:03:00.003-06:00

Today was a seriously long day.

Honestly? The commute is killing me. I have to leave here more than an hour before I have to be to work, which means, add thirty minutes of getting ready time to that, and a 7:00 call time turns into 5:30 really quickly. That was pretty much what today was. Oh, and to add to the bliss? Yeah, we were the only group that didn't get called and told that call times were pushed two hours and that we REALLY didn't have to be there until 9. Go figure...

Now, I'm sure that some of you get up as early as I do, and are thinking, "That's nothing...," and I'm not suggesting that it is. But see, then you add on the fact that I tend to work 12-13 hours a day, not including lunch (or dinner...). Thus, after 13-14 hours on set, I still have an hour drive home, which makes the day about 16 hours. By my calculations, that leaves pretty much no time to have a life.

But, really, I'm not complaining. I love what I do. I'm just trying to point out to all y'all who think that making films is glamorous. HAH, it's not. It's some of the hardest work and longest hours EVER. But it is fun. Really.

So, I'm pretty sure that this post isn't groundbreaking or anything, but I figured that I should write something, and the only thing I could think of was work. Basically it rules my life at the moment.

Look forward to something better next time. Maybe.

P.S. I really don't like working on Sundays. Just so you know.

It's Time

2008-06-02T01:14:00.004-06:00

So folks, I decided that it was high time I joined the minions online and began posting on my own blog, you know, since facebook is only so useful when it comes to actually keeping people updated on your true life...

It's a little after 1 AM on Monday morning. I was thinking about what to name my blog, and for some reason my mind returned to my freshman year of high school. It was the school play. Pippin is one of those super awesome 70s shows that makes you wonder why in the world we ever changed our ways and ditched the sweet dancing and amazing music. (That is said somewhat sarcastically...but sarcastically with love.)

Thus, for your enjoyment, and as a landmark first post, I figured I would throw up the lyrics to the song Corner of the Sky. For your enjoyment and understanding:

Everything has its season,
Everything has its time,
Show me a reason and I'll soon show you a rhyme.
Cats fit on the windowsill,
Children fit in the snow,
Why do I feel I don't fit in anywhere I go?

Rivers belong where they can ramble,
Eagles belong where they can fly,
I've got to be where my spirit can run free,
Got to find my corner of the sky.

Every man has his daydreams,
Every man has his goal,
People like the way dreams have
Of sticking to the soul.
Thunderclouds have their lightning,
Nightingales have their song,
And don't you see I want my life to be
Something more than long.

Rivers belong where they can ramble,
Eagles belong where they can fly,
I've got to be where my spirit can run free,
Got to find my corner of the sky.

So many men seem destined
To settle for something small,
But I won't rest until I know I'll have it all
So don't ask where I'm going
Just listen when I'm gone,
And far away you'll hear me singing
Softly to the dawn:

Rivers belong where they can ramble,
Eagles belong where they can fly,
I've got to be where my spirit can run free,
Got to find my corner of the sky.

Now, admittedly, it's not Whitman, Eliot, or Dickinson, but while I was sitting in that auditorium and beginning the adventure that was called high school, the song meant a lot. And while the lyrics (yes, some of them ridiculous...cats fit on the windowsill, children fit in the snow what?!) may not receive national acclaim (although the Jackson 5 did a version, I believe, as did Diana Ross... weird) the message resonates.

I've been thinking a lot about this idea--about being your own person and about how finding your "corner of the sky" isn't as easy as the five minute song segue that Pippin sings. Which often leads me to thinking that my "corner" changes each and every day as I change, but the one thing that doesn't change is the fact that it is my corner and I'm happy with it.

So it's now a little after 1:30AM, and I'm wondering if this will make any kind of sense when I read it in the morning. If not, chalk it up to early morning delusions following a 12 hour work day and wait until July when I get my brain back from ABC and Derby Productions...

But a thought to end on: Do you know when it is that your spirit can really fly free? Well, I'm not 100% sure on this, but I'm thinking it has something to do with being completely comfortable, but not complacent, in your own skin. Then, shedding that comfortable skin for a bunch of feathers and wings, taking a leap of faith, and learning to soar.