Most Requested Recipes

Here are 3 of my favorite recipes that other people love too.  I would normally include a photo with each one, because I'm all about the photos, right?  But I've feeling lazy about picture taking lately, and taking food photos means cleaning up my kitchen, making the food, and well... it's just too hot right now to care that much!

Salsa
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 small can diced green chilies
1 small can El Pato (found in mex food isle)
1 bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
juice of one lime
1 large scoop of garlic (from the jar)
1/4-1/3 c sugar
a pinch of salt
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.  I like my salsa less chunky, so I generally take half the bowl, dump it into my blender and liquify it.  Then I mix it back in with the chunky stuff for the perfect consistancy.  Sugar is my secret ingredient in salsa.  El Pato is Sheri's. (I hope she doesn't mind me sharing her secret ingredient.)   She makes amazing salsa too, and mentioned that she adds this stuff, so we gave it a try, and we love how it made our salsa taste!  :)

Broccoli Tortellini Salad
20 ounces cheese filled tortellini (I use the kind you find in the refrigerator section)
3 heads of broccoli, cut into florets (don't use the stems)
6 slices of bacon (I like the precooked kind... just nuke and crumble)
1 c sunflower seeds
1 c craisins
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sugar
2 t cider vinegar
Cook and crumble the bacon.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and cook tortellini, al dente.  (1-2 minutes less than package indicates.)  Remove tortellini from boiling water, rinse with cold water and set aside to cool.  Bring the pot back to a boil and dump in the broccoli.  Boil for one minute, just until tender, drain.  Mix mayo, sugar and vinegar to create the dressing.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss the dressing over the top.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 sticks butter or margarine
1 egg
2 1/4 flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 cups chocolate chips
Cream together sugars, butter and egg.  Add dry ingredients, mix well.  Add chocolate chips.  Bake at 375 for 7-8 minutes.

Random Homemade Awesomeness

I'm not a person to go to a lot of trouble to make things from scratch.  I would rather buy ice cream than go to the expense and trouble of making it.  Compounded by the fact that I can no longer eat ice cream (thank you lactose intolerance), my ice cream maker sits on a shelf in the garage and collects dust.  Since Eric became gluten intolerant, I've tried several times to make gluten free bread.  A store bought loaf of gluten free bread is $5.50 and yields about six very small sandwiches.  The slices are the size of a baguette.  However, I've come to the conclusion that making it is almost as expensive (the specialty flours cost $3-4 alone for one loaf of bread) and it's a crap shoot at best.  Sometimes it comes out great, sometimes it doesn't.  I hate wasting an entire afternoon and $4 of flour for a crappy loaf of bread.

But, I love a good bargain.  And I'm not an extreme couponer.  I don't see myself ever going that crazy.      Having said all that, here are recipes for 3 products I LOVE and we use a lot!  And, the homemade equivalent is super cheap to the store bought equivalent... not to mention easy to make!

Homemade Gatorade
2 qts water
1 package of unsweetened Kool-aid
1/2 t. table salt
1/2 t. morton's lite salt
10 T sugar

The best way to do this that we've found is to buy a 64 oz bottle of gatorade at Walmart for a buck-fifty.  Then after you've drunk it, you can make your own and refill the bottle over and over again.  We fill the bottle half way, put the ingredients in, screw the lid on, shake well, fill the rest of the bottle up with water and shake again.  Voila... 64 oz of Gatorade for about fifty cents!  :)

Brown Sugar Body Scrub
2 C brown sugar
1 C white sugar
1 C oil
1 T vanilla

Mix the sugars in a bowl until there are no lumps.  Add oil and vanilla, mix well.  Put in a plastic container and store in the shower so you can rub it all over your heels in the shower.  Since I started using this stuff, I haven't had one cracked heel.  That says a lot, since it's a chronic problem I've had living in the desert.

Granite Cleaner
Take an old windex bottle and fill it 1/8 full with rubbing alcohol.  Then add one drop of dish soap.  (Really, one drop is more than enough.)  You can add a drop or two of essential oils if you have them for scent, but I don't.  Then fill the bottle up the rest of the way with water and you have a super cheap, great granite cleaner!

My Own Version of Paradise

I have a secret love affair with the Pacific Northwest.  I always have... it started when I was a kid and we would road trip up to Canada... I loved driving through Portland and Seattle.  I love greenery.  I love seasons.  I love cool temperatures.  I love rain!

March marked a big milestone for our family.  We have officially lived in Arizona longer than we've lived anywhere else.  Quite honestly, I thought by now, I'd like here more than I do.  I still loathe summer.  I still dislike winter.  It's too hot in the summer, and not cold enough in the winter.  I can't even wear a turtleneck sweater without having to peel it off after lunch because it's pushing 80 degrees outside.  I love winter clothing, but it sits and collects dust in my closet.  I refuse to get rid of my faves though, because someday I'll live somewhere better.  Someday....

Eric and I are approaching a big anniversary.  This December will be 20 years for us.  Getting married over Christmas break has it's drawbacks.  Not being able to sneak away on your anniversary without kids is one of them.  The holidays make it really tough to get babysitters, etc.  We found ourselves with some Southwest Airlines tickets to use up before mid July, so we planned a short 3 day trip to Portland.  Eric goes to Portland all the time for work, so he didn't see the adventure in this, but I've never actually stayed in Portland and I've been dying to hike the Columbia River Gorge, and I pushed him until he caved.  I wanted to pick out just 10 of my favorite pictures from our trip, but I couldn't narrow it down... so if greenery, waterfalls and nature, aren't your thing, you might want to stop reading now.  :)

Day One

After we flew in,we had about six hours to kill before we could check into the hotel.  We decided to drive out to the coast.  Thank goodness for a rental car that got good gas mileage!  We drove to Tillamook, the legendary home of the delicious cheese factory and had lunch at a Rodeo themed cafe.  Then we followed the coastal road up towards Astoria.  (Remember that city from Goonies?)  En route, we stopped at this State Beach.  The parking lot was next to the highway, and you walked along this path to get to the beach.  I was pretty sure I'd died and gone to heaven.  The only thing missing were my kids.  

Oswald West State Beach:  Did you know Oregonians LOVE to surf?  Oh yeah, they were out in full force on the waves!

Confession:  I love to photograph fences.  Don't ask me why.  

 We drove all the way up the coast to Astoria and then cut east again back to Portland.  It was a lot of driving, but gorgeous all the way.  I still can't understand why you aren't allowed to pump your own gas in Oregon.  Weirdos...

Day Two

We had breakfast next to David Robinson in the hotel.  Only one person in the room approached him while he ate.  I don't know if that's good or bad.  I'm sure celeb's love it when no one recognizes them, and they can eat a meal in peace, but this hotel was full of teenagers in town for basketball camp.  Sad that none of them even knew they were in the presence of one of the greatest basketball players ever! 

We spent the whole day exploring the Columbia River Gorge.  We started off going to Bonneville Dam where we knew we could buy a parking pass for the various parking lots along our route.  The dam was impressive, as was the fish hatchery next door.  Look at these gorgeous hydrangeas!  You can't find these in the desert! 

 I spoke to an older lady who sold me the parking pass and asked her what she thought the best waterfall hike was, and she gave us excellent advice.  She recommended Wahclella Falls.  It's a two mile loop of gorgeous scenery with a beautiful waterfall at the end.  She was right... and it wasn't nearly as crowded as some of the other waterfalls we visited.

Confession:  I hope this is where I get to live in heaven.

This is Horsetail Falls.  Not the most picturesque waterfall we saw, but I absolutely loved this photo.  I'm super thankful I was even able to get some decent shots of any of the waterfalls... because who flew to Portland without her tripod?  Yep, I did.  :(  I substituted all kinds of rocks and ledges for my lack of equipment.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

Who wears jeans in Portland on a gorgeous July day?  People visiting from Phoenix!

The last waterfall we visited was Multnomah Falls.  This has got to be the biggest tourist trap EVER!  We decided to do the one mile hike to the top of the falls to escape some of the crazy crowds, but it was crowded up there too.  It was an awesome and challenging hike.  Eric made me promise not to post the picture a stranger took of us at the top.  There's a lot of unsightly sweat stains involved.  

 Looking down over 600 feet to the bottom... the people look very small down there!

One more fence photo!  :)

The next day we slept late and wandered around the area a bit in the car before we headed to the airport.  If it wasn't 1350 miles each way, we would be making a Portland area camping trip every summer from here on out.  That's how badly I want to go back.  After seeing the pictures, the kids are on board with that plan.  Hmmm... summer of 2013... I need to start scheming now!

You May Officially Disregard the Last Post

We have less than 3 weeks of summer break left to go and I don't know if I've accomplished ANYTHING on my list from the last post.  But who cares... it's summer vacation right?  Here's a recap so far:
Week 1:  Girls Camp

It was amazing and exhausting, all at the same time.  I LOVE Girls Camp.  I LOVE doing the 4th year hike... I LOVE doing it with my partner, Danielle.  I LOVED having Megan on the hike this year.  I LOVED my YCL's.  I LOVED how Eric puts up with me all for this amazing 3 days with a bunch of teenage girls.  (He LOVES it too... and I think he loves that going to Girls Camp gets him out of Scout Camp now!)

Week 2:  Recover from Girls Camp (Daily Routine:  Sleep in, decide it's too hot to exercise, sit in chair in my PJ's until close to dinner time, shower, get dressed and make dinner, pretend like I've done something other than watching Robin Hood episodes with the kids all day, hang out with Eric, watch some more TV, wish I was back at Camp, and go to bed.... repeated 5 times!)

Week 3:  Road trip with my besties...
These girls are seriously awesome.  We got invited to go hang out at Karen's house (aka Lambson Lodge) for a couple days without kids or hubbies.  It was sooo much fun... we were the biggest kids up there.  We sat around Karen's house talking, eating caramel corn and chocolate chip cookie dough, while watching Season 2 of Downton Abbey.  We did get out of the house to eat some mediocre mexican food (and I was mad because I forgot my milk pills!), shop for soda and junk food at the local Safeway,  and get ice cream in Greer.  (Again... still no milk pills....)  Most of these photos were taken when we parked to walk along the creek in Greer.  This little tourist trap town has got to be the prettiest mountain town in Arizona I have EVER seen.  Next time I get a Groupon offer for a cabin in Greer, I might just buy it.    Many thanks to Karen and Sheri for making this visit happen.  It was WONDERFUL!

Two days after coming home from the White Mountains, we took Sheri's family out on the boat with us. It was super fun.  All the kids had a great time, including Megan, even though their family has all boys.  Megan is such a good sport.  She puts up with a lot of boys in her life.

Week 4:  Recover from road trip with my besties and an exhausting boat day... I'm not 13 anymore... it was almost like Ragnar all over again... except that Adrienne and I got to share a double bed instead of cramming into a van for middle of the night naps!   Also this week, appointments galore.... Visiting Teaching, Chiro, Ortho, Dermatology and 2 of the kids got physicals.  Whew... I felt like I was LIVING in my car!

Week 5:  Which brings us to today.  The only thing I've accomplished today so far is about 6 loads of laundry... whether or not said laundry will get folded and put away is anyone's guess.  I've also cleaned out my 2 email inboxes and read blogs that I've ignored for the last six weeks.  Luckily, I'm not the only lazy blogger out there... so there weren't too many to sift through.  I do have a "to do" list of things I want to accomplish before wednesday afternoon.  It includes cleaning the fridge, sweeping and vacuuming the house, pulling the weeds in the backyard, and the usual stuff that has to be done all the time.  Wednesday evening we are having friends over for a BBQ/swim party, and Thursday, Eric and I head to Portland for a short but sweet getaway.

Week 6 will involve lots of cleaning and back to school shopping.

Week 7 we will have family come!  Yay!  I always feel bad when the grandparents come in the hottest summer months, but Ian will be turning 12 and getting the priesthood, so it's a big occasion that warrants the presence of both sets of grandparents.

Week 8 will be the first day of school... and summer vacation will officially be over.  Booo.... Hisss.... sad face!  Summer itself will last for 2 more months after school starts, so at least the school routine will help distract us from the heat.  Maybe...

Summer Vacation

We are just 5 days away from summer vacation this year.  Last year, my summer was filled with camps, road trips and boating.  We didn't have 5 minutes to sit and rest.  This summer is going to be quite the opposite.  There will be lots of sitting and vegging.  My kids are all old enough to help me clean up the house and we have a lot of things to do that we never seem to have time for during school.  Here's my list of things I want to accomplish over summer break.

• Study the scriptures EVERY DAY with the kids.  Might seem like an odd thing to some of you, but it's been years since we've been able to have regular scripture study together as a family, due to crazy work/school schedules.  Usually summer is when we slack off, but I'm hoping this summer will be the opposite.  I really enjoy hearing the insights my kids have about the scriptures.  They are so much smarter than I was at their age.
•  Watch at least the first 3 seasons of Monk.  We've seen every Psych episode ever made at least 3 times, so we will have to get our money's worth from Netflix watching something else that's both family friendly and entertaining for adults.  I've heard Monk fills both of those requirements.  There's 125 episodes on Netflix, so we shouldn't run out of fresh material.  And the best part about Netflix is NO COMMERCIALS!
• Splurge on movie theater popcorn at least once a week.  The weekly kids movie at Harkins should take care of that.  :)  Other movies we might splurge on this summer:  Snow White and the Huntsman, Brave, The Dark Knight Rises (can't wait for this one!), and The Bourne Legacy.  Movies I will be avoiding, even though the kids may think they are must see's:  Madagascar 3 and G.I. Joe (the sequel).  
• De-clutter my house.  We have officially lived in this house longer than any other location since getting married... and it shows.  My plan is to break the house down into several "zones" and tackle one zone each week.  
• Exercise 4 times a week.  I've been sporadic in my routine since Ragnar in February, but I'm all healed up and it's time to get back into Triathlon training mode.  Hoping to do the Mesa Sprint Tri again in the fall.  That was a great race last year and I'm looking forward to doing it again!  Any local peeps want to sign up with me?
• Play catch up with the kids church stuff.  Taylor is behind on Duty to God, Megan is behind on Personal Progress, and Ian is just barely going to get his Faith in God done before he turns 12.  Definitely need to spend some time catching up on all this fun stuff!
• Read The Fountainhead.  It's our book club book for August and the audiobook is 30 hours long.  May be the longest book I've ever tried to read.  Definitely not one I should procrastinate starting!
• Do some fun projects with my kids... we might tie dye t-shirts, Megan wants to do some sewing projects, and I've got some half finished projects I really need to finish and clean up.  And if I'm ever bored I can scrapbook.  I can digital scrap or I can work on some half finished paper scrap pages.  There's never a shortage of projects to catch up on!  Maybe I'll scrapbook while we watch Monk.... I love multitasking!

So there you have it... one more week and we'll be officially into summer vacation.  Even though I'm not going to be leaving town too much, I plan on staying super busy!

Growing Up

Have you heard of garage lighting?  It's a new fad in the photography world... and yesterday I tried my hand at it.  I'm officially in LOVE with this technique.  All you need is a garage (minus the car) and a big sheet.  I used clamps to hang it from the back of the garage.  The idea behind it is that if you time it just right... you can used a shaded garage for a studio and get amazing light.  To get the amazing light, you have to open the garage door when the sun is shining on the driveway.  The light from the driveway will bounce into the garage and give your subject amazing, soft, balanced light.  All it took was the shade white balance setting to give these portraits a warm glow that I love!

After we did the garage experiment, we went outside and did these shots in the front yard just after the sun had gone behind the house across the street.  I can't believe my luck.  It's rare that I get a cooperative child, and even rarer that I get this many good photos to show off at school.  And yes, I did show them off today!

This last one isn't as focused as I would like, but it shows off his new toothless grin.  It makes me sad to see my baby growing up... and losing those baby teeth  is a painful reminder that it's happening all too fast! 

Count Your Blessings

The other day I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone.  She lives in Idaho and is job hunting.  She saw a job a opening that she is qualified for right here in my town, here in the desert.  She's never been to visit us here, so I was describing what it's like.  (Probably not the best idea if I'm ever going to talk family into moving closer to me!)  The conversation jumped back and forth between the pros and cons of here and there and where our dream locations to live would be.  Anyway, after I got off the phone, Megan asked, "Are we moving?" I assured her that although I fantasize about moving to the Pacific Northwest (Portland or Seattle), it's not going to happen anytime soon.  She visibly relaxed, grateful that I wouldn't uproot her during High School and make her  leave all her friends behind.

This really made me think. I've done a lot of pining of late for places that are more north and more green than my current locale.  I've never been a fan of the heat, and after seven years, I still don't find the desert beautiful.  And the minute I find a scorpion or snake on our property, I'm going to lose it for sure.  Megan told me that she doesn't think the desert is pretty either.  But she loves it here because of the friends she has.  It's the people that make her love our little patch of dirt here, not the cactus.  (She has adapted to the heat very well, though, and hates being cold.)

Every time I test the waters with Eric and suggest that he apply for a transfer to Portland, he bristles.  If I mention moving in front of everyone, the kids all panic and are sure to have a night of bad dreams as a result.   We'd all love to go back to California, especially to our favorite town, Dublin, but by leaving the Bay Area, we've pretty much locked ourselves out of ever being able to return... at least until we can downsize our household and Eric no longer needs to commute to Santa Clara.

The bottom line is that I'm probably going to be living here in the Phoenix area for quite a while longer.  I need to quit complaining about the things that bug me, like the never ending summer about to begin, and just be happy with the blessings we have here.  We have a large, beautiful house.  (I do LOVE my house... and it would be so hard to leave it behind if we ever moved again.)  We have amazing friends.  I have awesome callings in the church right now.  (My favorite one is being the leader for the 4th  year hike at Girls Camp.  It took me a while work my way through the social chain to get considered for that assignment!)  The kids go to wonderful schools.  They have good friends.  We have access to everything we could possibly need... good shopping, great medical care, two airports within 20 minutes, soon we'll have 2 temples within 20 minutes... the lake is 45 minutes away and the mountains are only 90 minutes away.

Eric has talked about buying property up in the mountains and building a cabin.  I love that idea, except that it means we are 100% committed to staying in Arizona for life.  I'm not ready to make that kind of commitment.  I do love the mountains, though.  I could retire in the mountains, I think.  I just need to be patient and wait and see what the Lord has in store for us.  And maybe by the time I can move away, I won't want to anymore.  You never know... stranger things have happened!