#LIGHTtheWORLD

Just yesterday I started hearing about a campaign running on mormon.org to #LIGHTtheWORLD by serving in 25 ways for 25 days this December.  I am just starting to dive into everything, but there are some fabulous resources - with lots of SIMPLE ways! - to serve every day this month.  Let's bring more light to this holiday season, our family, and those we love by serving this season.

Go to mormon.org and watch their beautifully made video - touched my heart.

There you can also find a pdf with ideas for each day.

LOVE this.  Hope it sparks some ideas for you!

Merry Christmas, everyone.

New Zealand - A Few Quick Pictures

Hamilton temple

Lake Taupo - just outside our condo.  This region has lots of geothermal activity, with hot water being marked by signs that say things like "CAUTION: scalding hot water."  You can see the steam as it flows into the lake.

Huka Falls.  You don't get a great grasp of scale here, but it was massive and beautiful.

That should provide scale.  In the middle towards the top you can see people standing on the other side of the falls - that should help with size.

About an hour in on our 6 hour hike.  That's a volcano.  Mt. Ng.... (not sure the rest of it).  Note the scenery - looks like we were on Mars.  Felt that way for about 4.5 hours of the hike.  We've never seen anything like it.

Same volcano - look how much we've ascended.  (Our FitBits showed that we went did 373 flights of stairs on the hike.  This picture is shortly after the devil's staircase which did, indeed, feel like Hades.  Today - day after - does too.)

After even more of an ascent.  This was crazy windy and cold.  They added "arctic" to the hike name, and this section of the hike is why.  Cool views but crazy desolate.

Emerald pools.  Their colors were striking.  They are sulphur pools so smelled terrible.

Just before doing the descent, where we held hands with a nice lady named Jo from the UK that was shaking with fear.  It was a long ways down.

Our car is parked WAY at the bottom of this.  Loved the view of trees and lakes after so much brown, red, black and empty.

And then - surprise - the last 90 minutes was through a jungle.  My cheeks are rosy: the sun had come out and I was down to only 3 layers at this point.  :)

More of the jungle on our hike.  Huge difference in setting.

Our breakfast this morning!  TJ made strawberry jam using the sugar packets for the coffee.  :)  We had french toast and scrambled eggs, made in that tiny kitchen in the background.

New Zealand is gorgeous.  This is Lake Taupo - our condo is on the other side of the lake.

We've been trying to figure these forests out.  We've come to the conclusion that they are planted for lumber.  We call them "The Forbidden Forest" because they are incredibly dense and dark.

Just an idea of how stunning New Zealand is.  We thought this looked a lot like Toon Town.  :)  Rolling green like we've never seen.  I've never enjoyed driving so much.  We truly went from our lake front property to complete jungle within 12 minutes yesterday.

Redwood Forest today - this is my favorite thing we've done so far.  Walked for about an hour.  It was so peaceful.  I absolutely loved it.

Can you see T?

We were trying hard to show how BIG these trees are.

Holy gorgeous.

Rode a gondola up to the top of the mountain to ride the luge.  That view was great.  The water was super blue.  Loved it.

TJ riding up the chairlift after taking the "Advanced" luge track down.  He caught air, which delighted him.  :)  I, of course, was reading in the sunshine while he went.  Perfect for both of us.

Before we rode the luge together.  I screamed with delight on the way down.  :)

The luge -

:) Well, we had a few minutes to burn.  Where would you choose?

The Rotorua Library is now TJ's favorite library ever.

TJ looked for a great restaurant in Rotorua and we went here for lunch.  I fell so deeply in love that we also went here for dinner.  And two desserts.  It was fabulous.

Can't get over that treeline.  The cows make it pretty picturesque too.

Sunset on Lake Taupo, just as we arrived home for the day.  Note the black goose in the foreground - they are everywhere.  We still haven't gotten over all the beautiful bird sounds.

Girls' Getaway

I've found a new blog I adore - 71toes.com - and in it she talks about getaways with her sisters.  Their sisters getaways (more here) are MFME: Mothers and Future Mothers of Eyrealm (their family).  I adore this idea.  Getting together to laugh, eat delicious food, enjoy sunshine (ideally) and discuss how to improve ourselves.  I know we are all very busy, so it would be difficult to orchestrate, but who would really be up for a weekend away?  Maybe St. George or California or Bear Lake?  I could do the planning (at some point Events Planning became part of my job title...) if everyone is up for it.  I know that means arranging husbands' work schedules, your own work schedules, extracurricular activities, etc.  Work, but worth it?

Thoughts?

Cruise Pictures

I bought these gems from the cruiseline.  They cost a mint, but really - how could I not?  What fun girls we have in our family.  I love how much fun they make life and how often they crack me up.  I can't look at these without grinning (especially picture #1). 

:)

Special Dates

So!  Check out what I added right over in that sidebar.  -->  A quick little list of all birthdays and anniversaries, as they are hard to track!  I am missing a few anniversaries, so if you can let me know yours if it's missing that would be grand!  Also, let me know if you see any errors.  :)

-Rachel

Favorite Movies

Continuing with favorites!

Since we've been married, TJ and I have built our little collection of favorite movies.  I have found that I am getting more and more picky about what I watch, so we have chosen movies carefully, trying hard to avoiding swearing, violence, immorality and looking for movies that are generally positive.

Here are some of our favorites:

A Cinderella Story
Akeelah and the Bee
Blind Side
Despicable Me
Epic
Father of the Bride
Freaky Friday
High School Musical
Monsters University
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
National Treasure
Pirates of the Caribbean
Ramona and Beezus
Tangled
The Cosby Show
The Music Man
We Bought a Zoo
You've Got Mail

It's pretty rare that we watch a movie start to finish, so when we take time to do it, I want it to be good!  What are some of your family favorites?

Christmas Books: A Countdown

I love Christmas.

When I think of my favorite holidays, I definitely think of Christmas.  I also think of summer.  I’m not honestly sure which one I love more.

Last year TJ and I started a new tradition, inspired by this blog post I read.  Every day in December we read a new Christmas book, most of them checked out from the library.  You’re probably thinking, “It’s October.  Now is not the time to think about Christmas.”  But!  If you want the good Christmas books, you have to be strategic about getting them!  Let me try to give a brief explanation before getting to the good stuff: the list of books!

The trick about having library Christmas books in December is getting them early enough and then extending how long you have them.  Sometimes I feel medium bad about this, but there are so many Christmas books out there that I think people surely find others to love.  SO, I will look these books up on the library site early/mid-November.  I will put in a hold request for them, and because it is November they will likely not have a very long wait.  When they come in they will sit in the hold area for up to a week, and I will wait until the last day to pick them up, then I have three weeks until I have to return them!  So, that gets me to the middle of December.  I try to watch for which books I can renew (if someone else puts a request in you can’t renew them) and those books I save for closer to Christmas.  The last books before Christmas are our personal copies that we own, since I have to return the library copies before then!  Last year it worked like a charm, and I'm hoping this year will go the same way.  :)

Here is a list of some of the ones we liked best last year:
Christmas in the Country
A Creature Was Stirring
Millie in the Snow - probably our favorite last year!
Mortimer’s Christmas Manger
Mr. Willoby’s Christmas Tree
Room for a Little One
Toot and Puddle I'll Be Home for Christmas - we bought this one too!
The Nutcracker
Toot and Puddle Let It Snow
My Pen Pal, Santa
The Tailor of Gloucester
The Missing Christmas Treasure
The Polar Express
The Watchmaker Who Saved Christmas

I got this idea from Janssen, and you can see some of her past lists here and here.

As you can see, our list is not long enough for December this year.  Please - I'd love to have you leave comments of some of your Christmas favorites so I can get us to 25!

A Wednesday

At 7:03 I finally turned off my alarm, got out of bed and headed to the bathroom.  I flipped my iPhone to my Book of Mormon - I've taken to reading for 15 minutes first thing (really, first thing) each morning so I make sure not to miss it, and today I treated myself to my feet in a sink of warm water while I read.  After getting dressed and ready for work, I grabbed my bowl of cereal at 8:15 and walked out the door.

I have about a 30 minute commute to work and listened to John Bytheway on the drive: "Farm Wisdom for City Folk."  I arrived to work just before 9:00 and began a full work day.

I started with 14 new emails, so I began the day reading through them.  I followed up on a few critical things: we just had 126,000 labels for our number one product deliver, and they are all unacceptable.  Reached out to the vendor to have them rerun, on their dime, while trying not to delay the production run.  Additionally, I finally found some information about our current AT&T contract, as our founders are starting to demand iPhone 6's, so I need to negotiate those.

After a quick management meeting at 9:30, I switched my focus to our new building: we are targeting a move-in date the week of November 10, which is just two days after our Philadelphia event.  Our most critical tasks at this point are having a company run our IT wiring before the hard walls are complete (running the cable that allows phone and computer connectivity) and purchasing blinds (who knew that when I went to work today I would be negotiating the color, size and cost of blinds for a new office building?)  I also spent an hour or two on "other" things: rugs, dishes, doorbells, vending machines, lockers, projectors, etc.  So many things go into a new building! 

My other top priority right now is our event in Philadelphia for 500 people in about 4 weeks (November 8): I'm responsible for the entire execution of the event.  I started by jumping on the phone with my site manager in Philadelphia to discuss payment and slipped in a few questions about room set-up, set-up timing, storage locations, stage sizes, etc.  Then I reached out to my AV (audio-visual) contact to let them know the bid of $32,000 for a 6 hour event is unacceptable, and they need to come down substantially.  I've got them down to $25,000 and will push again tomorrow.

I had a meeting at noon with my boss (Kale) to discuss the Philadelphia event: which of our staff members will be attending, what they'll be responsible for, which customers we need to arrange accommodations for, the schedule/timing of each event, the menu for the breakfast, how we'll handle security, etc.  I also tricked him into answering a few questions about the new building, which was very helpful for me.  :)

At 1:15 I sneaked to my car with my leftover soup for a quick lunch - while I ate I read "Creativity, Inc.", a book about Pixar's evolution and lessons they've learned that could be applied to other businesses.  All the managers at Yoli have a weekly book club that meets Thursdays, so I have 25 more pages to read by tomorrow.

At 1:30 I had a vendor arrive from a copackaging plant in Idaho - his company does the packaging for powders and pills, which means we could ship them bulk powder and they'd put them into stick packs (like Crystal Lite) or into larger packets (like tuna packets).  We discussed their machine capabilities, their machine cleaning fees, different materials they can/'t package in, and how their quote is looking.  I gave him a few samples of additional products we'll have him quote on and we both left with full to-do lists.

I jumped back on email for 30 minutes before my next vendor arrived at 2:30 - this one is a copy machine vendor for the new building.  We spent about 20 minutes discussing leasing options, how exactly they could match colors, how quickly their machines work, etc.  I pushed him for a few additional payment options, and will touch base with him tomorrow. 

I was back working on new building purchases when Kale contacted me at 3:25, saying that the person responsible for planning a company-wide, hour long activity had just told him they couldn't come up with anything.  The meeting - with all employees - was set for 4:00, so we had 35 minutes to come up with something.  I found a few Minute to Win It games and gathered the materials for them from around the office - I finished explaining them to Kale at 3:58.  The meeting went smoothly, and we finished at 4:50.

I read through the 4 new emails in my Inbox before leaving at 5:15.  I emailed TJ the recipe we wanted for dinner (stuffed peppers) and left the office.  I swung by the pharmacy just before it closed to grab some new prescriptions and got home at 6:30, just as TJ put dinner into the oven.

We'll eat at 7:00 and try to do our couple Book of Mormon study before I head to my Primary meeting at 7:30: tonight we are meeting at the church to decide where the children will sit for the program (we are planning on about 140-160 kids for the program) as well as discussing a new group of teachers for 2015.  Our meeting usually ends at 10, when I will come home and read in bed with TJ until we are ready to call it a night!


I think my life right now looks different from most my sisters' in some ways: I spend a lot of time and effort in my profession, which is simply a different phase than most of you.  I like what I do (I have so many opportunities I couldn't have dreamed of) and I know it may not last forever, so I try to enjoy the ride.  My biggest struggle is balance - work, personal development, spiritual growth, my calling, being a spouse, exercising, and setting up the Harry Potter Party ;).  All of those are priorities for me (as I know they are for you) and in that regard, I bet we are not so different as this might make it seem.

Love you all!

-Rachel

What I've Been Reading Lately

With a trip to St. George two weeks ago, Lake Powell today (wahoo!), a quick jaunt to Vegas next week, and Philadelphia in a few weeks, I am trying to pull together a list of fabulous books for flights, drives and laying in the sun.  I love reading and it seems the best vacations are measured in books for me!

What's I've been reading lately:


Kensuke's Kingdom - a boy that goes traveling with his parents is unknowingly thrown overboard but survives, alone, on an island.  One of the best I've read in a while.

Delancey - Molly Wizenberg's story of opening a pizza restaurant with her husband in Seattle.  I read Molly's first book (A Homemade Life) last year and it was pretty good - Delancey has gotten a lot of buzz and it was pretty good.  I had no idea how long you could spend playing with pizza dough recipes (I also didn't know you could effectively make dough with 1 teaspoon of yeast for 8 pounds of flour).  I liked this fine, but wouldn't reread it.  As fair warning, it had the f word maybe 4-5 times.

Fair Weather - I fell in love with Richard Peck through A Long Way to Chicago and A Year Down Yonder.  This book was about a country family that takes the long train ride (their first ever) to the Chicago World Fair.  I knew very little about the Chicago World Fair before reading this and was blown away by some of the details!  It was a great read.

Hattie Big Sky - This was a reread, but it was the audiobook we picked for the drive.  It's still a good one.


I grabbed the following for Lake Powell and am hoping some of them are great!
Pride and Prejudice
Jefferson's Sons
Here Lies the Librarian
The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail
Emma
A Family of Readers
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Provence, 1970
Banner in the Sky


I am also looking out for new books - what have you read lately?  Was it bad, good or fabulous? 

Wish you were all coming to Lake Powell.  HAPPY ST. CONFERENCE! 

Caramel Bars

Caramel Bars

Mary Peterson

 

1 cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup oats

½ cup softened butter

Use your pastry cutter to combine all the above.  Set aside 1 cup.  Press the rest into an 8 x 8 pan lined with parchment paper.  Bake at 350 for 7 minutes.

On stove, melt together:

1 (11 oz.) package caramel bits

2 tablespoons milk

Once melted, add:

2 tablespoons flour

Pour caramel onto cooked crust.  Sprinkle the reserved 1 cup on top.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

The Long Way Home

I think we were coming home from Disneyland.

Emma was a baby, so it must have been about 10 years ago.  We arrived to a stifling John Wayne Airport: the air conditioning was not working and the entire west side of the airport was floor to ceiling windows, the heat beating in.  That should've been the first indication that it would be a rough return.  :)

The whole gang arrived, car seats, strollers, suitcases, and souvenirs in tow: everyone except for Jeffrey, who must have returned early.  I remember that once we all realized how hot it was, we were very accepting of Matt's offers to treat everyone to McDonald's ice cream cones.  It was the first time we'd ever been early for a flight - in the history of all Milar travel - so we counted down until takeoff and licked away.

And then, the tragedy: there was a problem with the airplane and it would be several hours before it would be fixed.  We waited some more until we received word that the plane wouldn't be fixed in time and we'd be put up at the local hotel.

I remember that two people were particularly upset by this event: Mary wanted very much to be home with Jeffrey and Danny was love struck with Mindy-Anne Davis and couldn't wait to get back.  While everyone else left the airport to go to the hotel, Danny stayed at the airport, determined to get home.

We rode the shuttle about a mile to the hotel and were put into various rooms.  Because of the size of our party, our rooms were nowhere near each other.  Everyone was tired, probably dehydrated, and grumpy.  We went to our rooms and there was no air conditioning!  Ha.  I am laughing remembering but it wasn't funny at the time, least of all to Dad.  He called a few of us to see if it was just his room and, finding out that it was across the board, went to make it known (to the hotel?  the airline?  I'm not sure) that this simply wasn't going to work.

At some point  Danny called Papa and told him that he'd found a way to get us home but that we had to get to the airport immediately.  I don't remember if there wasn't a shuttle or if it just couldn't come fast enough, but we left the hotel in a rush, walk/jogging back to the airport. Ben was balancing things on his head and carrying a child.  Others were pulling suitcases while holding hands with the younger ones.  I can only imagine the scene we provided: 14 people walking down the street with luggage, babies, strollers, and the like.  We rushed back as quickly as possible.

Danny, through some sleuth/stalker work, had found a flight leaving.  He knew which specific agent would help us and he got us approval to get on the flight.  There was a very big catch: the airport had a curfew and the flight had to leave within the next half hour or so.  We rushed in and found that the security we had been through earlier was closed, as the airport was shutting down, so we hurried back to the other end of the airport to use the Southwest security.  We threw our tickets at the agents (having been trying to get home now for probably 5-6 hours) and they let most of us through.  They would not let Mary through with Emma because Emma didn't have a ticket and Southwest required one for infants (Delta didn't).  Eventually I think the agents got so frazzled Mary just walked through.  :)

We ran back to the other end of the airport to our airplane.  This is my favorite memory of the story but also demonstrates an epic sibling failure!  Holly had asked Mom if she could throw away her boarding pass when we left the airport originally.  Because the flight was cancelled, Mom said yes. Well, we were using our same boarding passes and Holly didn't have one.  We arrived to the gate and Holly did not have a pass.  She took a small piece of paper and wrote her name on it and when it was her turn to board she handed her pass to the agent and smiled.  That's all.  Just smiled.  The agent told her it was a no go and I boarded without her!  My parting words?  "Don't worry - Dad won't leave you."

Eventually we all made it onto the plane.  We pulled out very quickly, as required by curfew.  As we looked out the windows, pulling away from the gate, someone pointed out, "Oh look - there's all our luggage."  The perfect end to the long way home: it was all still sitting on the tarmac.


I remember I wrote this story down shortly after it happened (I haven't yet found that record...) and, a few months later, read it to the family.  Nobody laughed.  It must have been too recent.

I can't help but chuckle every time I remember this story: it was not our happiest moment, but it was certainly memorable, and demonstrates so many things about our family that have stayed consistent.  It was totally expected that Matt was the one to buy the ice cream, Danny the one fixated on finding a way home, and Dad the one that wouldn't tolerate a hotel without air conditioning.  It is also humorous to imagine the caravan that I was so oblivious to growing up but that I'm sure turned heads.  Traveling was so fundamental to our growing up years: both for the struggles and for the laughs.

10 Days and Counting!

For our fourth anniversary TJ and I decided to take a week away from work and head to Hawaii.  He has never been and it's been ten years for me: I am delighted to be going back.  We leave next Friday afternoon (10 days!) and will be gone for a full week. 

AND NOW, the conundrum: what books do I take?!  I would bet several of us define vacations the same way: lots of sun, water, and hours and hours of reading.  I can hardly wait.  But I need help - can I get suggestions of what to read?  I find I best like happy books or books that are uplifting.  I do not like rough books: not a fan of lots of swearing, violence, war, intense situations, abusive relationships, murders, etc.  I read for enjoyment, and far prefer to be smiling about the character I'm reading about.

Books I Really Love
The whole Anne of Green Gables
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Hattie Big Sky
Cheaper by the Dozen
Miracles on Maple Hill
Wonder
Out of My Mind
Little House on the Prairie series
I, Juan de Pareja
Dinner: A Love Story
Anything by Marjorie Pay Hinckley :)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
French Kids Eat Everything
I think I love books about food... :)
The Five Love Languages
Heart of a Samurai
Miracle on Maple Hill 

Please send me suggestions!

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

"Don't think of introversion as something that needs to be cured."

 Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

I heard about this book some months ago and thought, "As introverted as I am, I probably ought to read that."  I have come to generally accept that I'm introverted but feel mostly inconvenienced by it, especially at work, where I need to be a team player and negotiator.  I hoped this would be an insightful read, and it was.  This was a great book.  Perhaps more than anything else it made me feel empowered as an introvert: reassuring me that there are many others that are also introverts that are highly effective and successful.

The book climbs through different themes, including how we came to be a nation that so highly prizes extroversion, what introverts are naturally good at and how introverts can be more effective at extroverted tasks.

There were a number of times throughout the book that I felt like shouting, "That's me!  That is me!"  One example:

"Introverts, in contrast, may have strong social skills and enjoy parties and business meetings, but after a while wish they were home in their pajamas. They prefer to devote their social energies to close friends, colleagues, and family. They listen more than they talk, think before they speak, and often feel as if they express themselves better in writing than in conversation. They tend to dislike conflict. Many have a horror of small talk, but enjoy deep discussions."

I also found a great definition for one of my key characteristics, which Cain describes as "high sensitivity."  This is me to a T:

“The highly sensitive [introverted] tend to be philosophical or spiritual in their orientation, rather than materialistic or hedonistic. They dislike small talk. They often describe themselves as creative or intuitive. They dream vividly, and can often recall their dreams the next day. They love music, nature, art, physical beauty. They feel exceptionally strong emotions--sometimes acute bouts of joy, but also sorrow, melancholy, and fear. Highly sensitive people also process information about their environments--both physical and emotional--unusually deeply. They tend to notice subtleties that others miss--another person's shift in mood, say, or a lightbulb burning a touch too brightly.”

 I just felt so empowered by the whole thing.  As soon as I finished I handed the book to TJ and said, "Read this.  It will teach you all about me."  Overall, it was full of great insight and helpful tips.  I really strongly recommend this to anyone that is an introvert or married to, living with, or raising one.

Favorite Utah Eats

TJ and I really love spending time cooking and eating.  Like several of you, we often go out on the weekend.  Over time, we have come to simply enjoy eating out as our activity: taking our time to sit and savor the food and talk.  We've tried a number of restaurants and have found we typically prefer standalone restaurants that focus on fresh foods, as opposed to large chains (but we are still devoted to Cafe Rio!).  Here are a few of our favorites - if you're looking for somewhere new, try one of these!

1. Red Iguana  - this authentic Mexican restaurant is downtown, on 600 N. and west of I-15.  I would not go there alone after dark.  :)  The food, however, is fantastic.  They specialize in a number of different moles (pronounced mo-lay), which are traditional Mexican sauces.  (M-er, they do contain chocolate).  My favorite dish is enchiladas suizas.  TJ loves their carnitas.  You will always have a wait, so just plan to enjoy the time!  There is a Taste of Red Iguana at City Creek, which is good, but I like the restaurant better.
2. Settebello - this is an authentic Italian pizzeria in the heart of Salt Lake.  They have a big brick oven that takes up a whole corner of the restaurant and their pizzas have extremely thin crusts.  We always get the margherita, which is tomatoes, basil and mozzarella.  Sometimes we get the appetizer "mixta" that is meats and cheeses - it's pretty European, which we love.  Delicious food.
3. The Dodo - this is a bustling restaurant in Sugarhouse.  If you are looking for a quiet, romantic evening this is not your place.  If you are looking for great food and a changing menu, this is a fun option.  They do have their standard dishes, but they also have a number of specials on any given day (ie a half dozen).  We have had everything from pasta to fish to curry here and have really enjoyed it!  For those that are up for it, their desserts are great: their tollhouse pie would be over the top for me if it just didn't have those darn walnuts.  :)
4. Porcupine Pub and Grille - this delicious restaurant is at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, which means it's a zoo in the winter and much slower in the summer.  They also have a very diverse menu: their house salad is always worth getting (the dressing is fantastic) and we really enjoy their food.  I ordered my first restaurant hamburger here - the Big Cottonwood - and ate the entire thing.  It was unreal.  Burritos are also good.
5. New Thai Cafe - this hole-in-the-wall restaurant is right off 2700 W. and 7800 S.  While I do not love all Asian food (definitely not a fan of Chinese), I LOVE Thai food.  It is so fresh!  (Shout out to Chuckie - Thai food is gluten free!)  I love the combination of flavors that I've never experienced before - so fun to enjoy a new kind of food.  I always get the chicken pad thai (it is enough for dinner and lunch the next day for less than $10 - does contain peanuts) and TJ almost always gets the yellow curry (also large and cheap).  When we feel like splurging we get the coconut chicken soup that is a wild combination of great flavors.
6. The Painted Pony - a great place to stop down south, this one is in St. George.  We only ever eat there for lunch due to the prices.  It is a southwestern restaurant with a relatively high end menu.  Their appetizer bread is delicious and when I asked TJ what he loves most he said their house salad.  :)  It's that memorable.  Their food is very seasonal (a great sign if you're looking for the freshest flavors!) and we've had a few different menus.  I did have a great sandwich with red peppers last time we went.  And if it's warm enough, I suggest the balcony: it's a beautiful, quaint spot to sit.


Where do you like to eat?  We love finding new places!

Crazy Tuesday

I'm starting to help with events planning at work and today I'm doing a site visit in Des Moines, Iowa.  I went to bed at 8:30 last night so I could get up at 3:30 today.  It's now 4:15 and we're about to head to the airport (sweet TJ is dropping me off).  My flight leaves at 6 - I have a 45 minute layover in Minnesota and land in Des Moines at 11:30.  I'm hoping everything goes very smoothly and very quickly, as I take off to come back at 2:30 (3 hours later!)

I land back at home at 7:15 tonight.  Here's hoping everything goes well!

-Rachel

March 14

TJ and I are an odd couple in one very key way: one of us really loves math and one of us really loves dessert.  I bet you can all guess, first try, who's who.  

ENTER MARCH 14

Also know as 3/14

Or, with a stretch, 3.14 - PI DAY!

∏ (Dear Sasso, please can you insert a pi symbol here?  I can't figure it out).

Behold, a day where we both can have our pi and eat it too.  

This year to celebrate we've invited about ten couples over (Pi Day is conveniently on a Friday this year) and have asked them all to bring whatever kind of pie they'd like!  We'll eat dessert and chat and enjoy good company.  Maybe one of you would like to plan a pi party too!

Anybody have good recipes for pies they'd like to share?  I've only made one, and it was an epic failure, so I'm all ears.

A Variety of Foods

At the Royal Palace in Madrid with Emily

It was almost ten years ago now (!) that I spent a semester in Spain on a study abroad trip.  I was there with about 30 other kids from BYU and we all lived with a family during our 100 day stay.  Each morning we had classes at the local university and each afternoon we were free.  We traveled frequently, sometimes for a week, sometimes just for a day trip, so we stayed busy during our stay.  There were a number of students on the trip that would jump on the train to Madrid every day after class, spending hours exploring restaurants, theaters, museums, palaces and cobblestone streets in the heart of Spain.  I can think of once that I joined them: the rest of the time I walked back home and spent my time with my familia.  My hope in spending time in Spain was to find out what it was like to live there, not just sight see.

A huge part of the Spanish life, and probably European life at that, is eating.  Each day after class I walked the 20-30 minutes home and would help my madre prepare our lunch.  Everyone sat at the table together for a three course lunch each day.  It typically lasted about 90 minutes and was such an enjoyable part of my time there.  Meals are such an integral part of daily life in Spain; it was really neat to watch how food helped form the backbone of their daily life.  

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COURSE ONE

We always had fresh bread and typically started with a vegetable soup.  "Vegetable soup" is not what you're thinking: my madre would simply take whatever vegetables needed to be used, boil them until soft and blend them with her immersion blender.  Every day was different: bright orange with carrots, lime green with peas and cabbage, brown from lentils, white from cauliflower.  She always put in some olive oil and seasonings and some days were fantastic while others were...not.  While here in the US we often start with a salad, that was very rare in Spain (I can think of one or two times).  We may have also just had fresh vegetables: sliced cucumbers with some olive oil (are you seeing a theme here?), salt and pepper, for example.

The emphasis for the first course was always lots of vegetables.  I went to Spain thinking I hated vegetables but after having them so well seasoned, cooked so many ways (boiled, pureed, steamed, sauteed, baked, in main dishes, etc.) I found I really love vegetables.  I still shy from raw vegetables, so thank heavens I can cook!

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COURSE TWO

After soup we jumped into the main course, which was sculpted by foods I still dream of!  Garbanzo beans with tomatoes and chicken, fish with rice, rice with potatoes and ham, a warm salsa mixture with poached eggs.  It was all so different for me, but always fresh (based on what was at the market that day), always different, filled with vegetables and seasoned beautifully.  I wrote down many recipes there and have sadly not been able to get many to turn out.  I look forward to the day I go back and join my familia at the lunch table again.  

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COURSE THREE

The third course was dessert, but so different from our dessert I hesitate to call it that!  Cookies and cakes are usually for breakfast in Spain (my kind of breakfast!), so dessert was often fresh fruit, a cheese platter (which was actually a foot-long tupperware filled with cheese - some of which was there when I arrived and still aging when I left!) or yogurt.  We would sometimes have a plain yogurt cake, which is a simple combination of a few ingredients (called yogurt cake because you use the yogurt container to measure everything).

Over the past few years I've spent a lot of time reading about French eating, a very trendy topic, and have found that the Spanish have very close ties to the French.  Both cultures highly prize their culinary habits and both derive deep satisfaction out of their time eating.  It is a fascinating lifestyle, very different from our own in many ways (they would never eat standing up or in the car, never eat alone, don't really snack, and don't feel guilty for indulging in foods they enjoy).

I don't think it's possible for me to mimic their lifestyle, but I do think variety is realistic.  The French have an unwritten rule of not serving the same meat twice in a week, for example.  The focus is on always changing things, modifying recipes, adjusting seasonings, and focusing on what is fresh.  Fruit is enjoyed in the spring, summer and fall, when it is growing locally and full of flavor.  Winter is for stews, meats and roots.  Vegetables are eaten in season, at their peak, enhancing their phenomenal richness.

Like several of you, I sometimes find myself stuck in the same dozen recipes, making them over and over until I am sick of them.  I want to shift my cooking focus to be on novelty and change, so I want to go one full month without cooking the same recipe twice!  Would anyone care to join me?  I'm just going to focus on dinner, which will likely be just a main dish and a side (no three courses here for us.  Yet.)

A few of my online favorites, to kick you off:

Poached Eggs with Cheese and Chickpeas - we are not often vegetarian, so you can be sure anything vegetarian on this list is fantastic.  This is great with crusty bread.

Balsamic Chicken Noodle Bowl - this is pretty unreal and, I timed it, took me 23 minutes from start to finish.

Carrot Soup - we made this with fresh carrots and were quite surprised at how great it was!

World's Best Lasagna - more than 8,000 reviews and five stars should definitely mean something.

Chicken and Avocado Enchiladas in Creamy Avocado Sauce - a great excuse to eat even more avocados.

Jalapeno Popper Chili - we just made this two weekends in a row and loved it both times.  We have done two jalapenos (no seeds) and it has not been spicy enough for our liking yet.

Asian Slaw with Ginger Peanut Dressing - this is so fresh and a great combination of flavors and crunchiness.  We don't put the dress on ours until we serve: it keeps great in a bowl in the fridge for several days of lunch!  Mary, I bet you could change this to be peanut free easily.

Lemon Lentil Soup - another vegetarian recipe.  This one is also great with fresh bread.


Do you have suggestions of some great dishes?  I'd love to see comments below!

Bon appetit!

-Rachel

Roasted Vegetables

Harmon’s grocery store offers fantastic cooking classes that I love to consider attending.  To date, I have been to two:  TJ and I attended a knife skills class that we loved and for a friend’s birthday last year, she and I attended a class on herbs and oils.  It was enjoyable (though I stink at tasting spices and naming them blindly) and we made roasted vegetables, which has become one of our regular recipes.  This is a great way to enjoy fresh vegetables and roasting makes them extra flavorful.  Feel free to mix up which vegetables you use (we have never used zucchini because…I just don’t adore it).

Roasted Vegetables

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

½ yam, cubed (*I usually just use the whole thing)

1 zucchini, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 parsnip, diced

½ red onion, quartered

1½ teaspoons chopped fresh thyme (worth getting fresh, but if you don’t have it, just use dried)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (worth getting fresh, but if you don’t have it, just use dried)

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

On a half sheet tray combine all ingredients and cook in a 375 degree oven.  Cook until vegetables are fork tender, but still have a snap.  Cooking time should be around 25-30 minutes depending on how the vegetables are cut.

*Note on cutting these: peppers and onions will cook fastest, so cut them largest.  Also, we typically use a parsnip in this.  Have you ever had a parsnip?  They look like big white carrots.  They are great (disclaimer: we have only had parsnips roasted, so can't attest to their flavor raw or otherwise).

*Another note: I thought that the longer these marinated in balsamic vinegar (which I could drink) the better they would be.  Wrong.  They get mushy, so don’t do that.  

*A final note: we don't peel our carrots anymore.  We wash them well and save ourselves a lot of time and peels by just eating them as they come.  It's terribly liberating.

Enjoy! And HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY (here's hoping Holly gets a ring!)