The Luck of the Irish

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

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

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

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.
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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).
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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!

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...

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

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

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

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

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.