a little of everything

Here are some things I've done this week:

No, I didn't have a baby. ;) A while back, I offered to take pictures of one of my friend's kids because I wanted to practice my photography skills and learn how to use my camera better. We haven't done it until now because of busy schedules, but she thought this would be a good time because I could help take pictures of the new(ish) baby, Amy (sort of named after me!). This is an edited version of one of the pictures (hopefully it's ok that I'm putting it here, I didn't ask permission...but I'm not identifying her other than by first name). I liked it even with the pacifier.

Brian and I went to Hayden Run Falls yesterday. It was much prettier than the last time we went (a lot more water). Not a great picture, but I couldn't really get far enough back to get everything in. Meh. At least Brian's in it to make it look good. ;)

These are some ducks we saw at the falls. I thought they were cute, so of course I had to take pictures of them with my zoom lens.

I've become crafty lately. Or at least, I've decided lately that I like doing crafty things. I think I found the idea for these cute little magnets on Pinterest, though I'm not a member. I just glued scrapbook paper on the back of large-sized mermaid tears (I'm not sure what they're actually called, that's just what I call them). I think the original idea used Mod Podge, but I wasn't about to buy a bottle just for one project - though I'm sure I could find more things to do with it - so I just used white Elmer's glue, which I already had. Once the glue was mostly dry, I used a stronger glue to attach round magnets to the back. Voila!

More crafty things. I've discovered that I love making cards. These ones just use scrapbook paper and blank cards left over from our wedding thank you notes. I liked the first one so well that I had to make more of the same kind until I ran out of brown paper. I do similar things with other ones using blank white cards. Sometimes I use cute stickers as well.

My mom gave me this yummy recipe when I was up in Michigan for Spring Break this week. My sister-in-law had given me a bunch of chocolate chips (and other kinds of chips), so my mom figured this was a good way to use them. I made them tonight and we just tried some a minute ago. Very rich, but oh so good.

save me

...from myself. I made cinnamon rolls even though I knew I shouldn't. They may not look that pretty, but they smell incredible. The recipe I use is called "The Cinnabon Rolls." Last time I made them, Brian agreed that they were about as good as Cinnabon's. Yum!

Fortunately, I haven't succumbed to the temptation to eat any yet. That may be because it's 11:30 PM and I'm still extremely full from dinner. We had friends over and made BBQ pulled pork, sweet potato fries, and artichoke dip. Our friends (2 separate families, a total of 4 adults and 3 kids) brought baked beans, homemade macaroni and cheese, and a delicious dessert bread.

For those of you who don't know, Brian "finished" our basement - covered the walls and ceiling and put down carpet - basically so that we could have large groups of people over for dinner/parties. The largest group we've had so far is 14, including ourselves (2 of those were kids, but that's still a big group). Every time Brian suggests that we have people over - which happens every week now - I have this urge to resist because I think of how much work it will be to prepare all the food and everything. We've had potlucks every time, so that takes some of the stress off of us, but we always provide the main part of the meal (thus far, grilled chicken the first two weeks and rice and chicken gravy for Hawaiian haystacks the third week). The funny thing is, once we've actually invited everyone over, I get really excited about cooking and usually end up overdoing it on the food prep (as in, I make more than we originally planned on providing). I suppose that's not a bad thing, it's just funny that I resist even though I know from experience that I'm going to enjoy the cooking and the company.

yummies

Tonight I decided to finally make a couple recipes I've been wanting to try.

First was granola - I've made it before but wanted to try another recipe I found. I added sunflower seeds, almonds, and some mixed dried fruit we had, since Brian doesn't like raisins. I'll probably add cashews next time too (we didn't have any at the time), and use the huge bag of craisins I got at Sam's. It turned out wonderfully! I've been munching on it all night (which you can tell from the picture - bad news). Update: I told Brian that the only bad thing about that recipe is that it didn't last very long. Don't get me wrong, it made a lot of granola. It was just so I good I couldn't stop eating it.

After that, I worked on some naan. At our house, we're completely addicted to hummus (I suppose there are worse things). Usually we eat it with tortilla chips, but I've really been craving the naan/pita bread they serve with it at Mediterranean restaurants. I found a really simple recipe online and figured it was worth a shot. It turned out to be incredibly easy and delicious! :) Update: The naan was tasty but got pretty hard by the next day. Brian said we'd just have to make more and eat it all. ;) The recipe did say you can wrap them in tin foil and put them in the oven for a little bit to warm them up, which actually did soften them up a little, so it worked out ok after all.

Of course, I had to have some homemade hummus to go with the naan. (We have some I bought, but I don't like it as much as the kind I normally get...whoops.) I've never made it before, but I knew it wasn't that hard. My sister-in-law had told me recently that she uses plain low-fat yogurt in place of tahini when she makes hummus, so I just substituted that into my recipe. Definitely a handy trick, since tahini is about $8 for 16 oz, and I got the yogurt for $2 for 32 oz. The recipe made a lot, and it tasted really good. I probably won't use as much lemon juice next time (it's a little strong), and I will add more garlic, but I'm happy with it for now. Update: I've been taking the hummus to work as part of my lunch/dinner. I don't usually like hummus with veggies (weird, I know), but this has been really good with my carrots, cucumbers, and green bell peppers.

Brian and I snacked on the naan and hummus for a while tonight once the naan was done. I'm very full now. :)

goodies

I'm not sure why, but last week I had this overwhelming need to bake. I was looking through some of our cook books for dinner ideas (meal planning is not my favorite) but ended up turning to desserts. Seeing Mom's recipe for lemon squares (her mom's recipe) set off my cravings. Then I noticed a peanut butter brownie recipe right above that on the page and couldn't resist. I also knew we had some apples that were pretty bruised, and I didn't want to give them to Brian in his lunch...so I decided on apple crisp too.

I made the lemon squares on Saturday, brownies on Sunday, and apple crisp on Monday. On Sunday, we decided to make friends by delivering some of the goodies to neighbors. We hadn't met the Stansburys and thought that was a good way to do it. We also made up "plates" - I had forgotten to get paper plates, so we improvised with tin foil - for the Beans and Patrick and BreAnne (they took us under their wings when we first rolled into town and had no place to stay and no food). It was so fun to see the Beans again! They had their baby a few weeks ago, and we just visited for a little while. The best part was that they had made cinnamon rolls for General Conference and told us it was perfect timing for us to stop by since they didn't have our address and wouldn't have been able to trade goodies with us otherwise. Not only that, but their neighbors knocked while we were there and handed them a plate of chocolate flan. Boy, was that good!

Needless to say, I should probably go running now. ;)