friday love

Is it just me, or are the weeks going by much too quickly???

I LOVE Whitney of Rookie Cookie, and love her even more for doing a little guest post for me today! I LOVE curry, but have no idea where to start when it comes to making it....so she did all the dirty work for me! I cannot WAIT to try it out!

Make sure to check out her blog....this girl knows her food (and she is a crack-up!)

Much too long ago, Sheena asked if I would be willing to search for a good Thai curry recipe for her. And it took me way to long to get back to her. Blame it on having a new baby. Once I got serious about finding a good recipe, I remembered I had the most perfect resource. My husband Ethan has a cousin named Julia. Julia is all sorts of wonderful. She is beautiful, kind and smart and is also the talented wardrobe and makeup artist for “Yo Gabba Gabba”. I know, here I am, name dropping. Above all, Julia spent a year and a half living in Thailand. Once I remembered that, I e-mailed her and asked for some of her favorite Thai recipes. And the girl didn’t disappoint.

This dish is just like what you would get in a Thai restaurant. Tender potatoes, carrots and chicken simmered in a rich coconut curry broth. Admittedly, I had a difficult time finding the ingredients. Nothing is less fun than hauling your three children around to three different stores looking for things like palm sugar and tamarind paste. So I ended up doing what I should have done in the beginning, buying them online. Amazon had exactly what I needed and it wasn’t expensive. I have provided links below of the ingredients I used in case you don’t feel like hunting them down.

Massaman Curry Paste

Tamarind Paste

Palm Sugar

1/3 cup peanuts

2 cups coconut milk

2 Tbsp massaman curry paste

1 lb chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch chunks

1 large carrot, peeled and chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks

1 Tbsp fish sauce

1 heaping Tbsp tamarind paste

1 tsp grated palm sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp granulated chicken bullion

1/2 cup water

In a small skillet over medium heat, add peanuts and saute until lightly toasted and fragrant. Pour peanut into a small bowl and set aside.

In a large pot over medium high heat, add coconut milk. Simmer for 5 minutes, or until the coconut milk is slightly reduced. Add curry paste and stir until paste is dissolved. Add peanuts, chicken, carrots, potatoes, fish sauce, tamarind paste, palm sugar, salt, chicken bullion and water. Stir well and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring often. Serve with or without jasmine rice and garnish with additional peanuts and cilantro.

Yields 4 servings.

Rookie’s Notes: I don’t think that cilantro is traditional in this dish, but I did it anyways. I really like the way cilantro balances out the flavors of a curry, whether it’s India or Thai.

I am drooling. Thank you Whitney for sharing your recipe!

We LOVE fresh tomatoes.....every single day!

I love that our neighbors let us pick apricots off their tree! (I think they are trying to repay us for being so creepy and peeking in our windows) recipes coming soon!

I have been LOVING (and craving) POM Wonderful's Pomegranate and Blueberry juice (86% Pomegranate juice and 14% blueberry--that's it, nothing else!) I'm still running alot and it's been soooooo hot. I love coming home to an icy cold POM (and the bottles are ridiculously adorable). Try it!! You will fall in love!

I am in love with this shop. Her earrings are so tiny and cute, and won't get tangled in my mop of a hairdo.....they're perfect!

I love ALL of her music--this song is off her old album but it was floating through my head as we picked apricots the other night.

Happy Weekend!!!

What did you love about this week?

summer.

loooong summer afternoons.

stacks of pbj's out in the grass.

sticky fingers, from popsicle juice.

making sprinkler "soup"

and mud pies.

water balloons.

warm towels.

if I squint my eyes,

and listen really closely,

It's like I never grew up.

note: if you don't see me around here every day...it' s because I'm too busy playing outside:)

browned butter brownies

(or browndies? just doesn't sound right)

It's still reeeeally hot.

But I also reeeeally needed some brownies.

(and you know I like them fancy)

Browned Butter Brownies

10 TBS butter

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used Mexican vanilla)

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 325°

To brown butter:
Heat pan on medium heat.
Cut butter in to pieces and melt in pan.
Stir continuously. Butter will foam up.
After foam subsides, small brown flecks will start to appear in bottom of pan.
Continue stirring, until butter has reached a nice brown color, and nutty aroma.
When you want to lick the spoon, you know it's ready.
Turn the heat all the way down.

Add sugar to browned butter and stir until well combined.

taste this. it is insane.

Add the cocoa and stir until well combined.

Remove from heat and let it cool down a bit (not cold, not hot, just warm:)

Add the vanilla.

Add the eggs, one at a time.

Continue to stir--the mixture will be thick and shiny.

Add flour and salt and stir until just combined.

Pour batter into a 10" tart pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (You can also bake them in an 8x8 and bake for a few minutes more)

Top with vanilla bean ice cream and fresh berries!

enjoy!

over the weekend....

We celebrated Pioneer Day!
An afternoon at Heritage Park.
Pioneer games. Pony rides.
The parade!
Good food.
Playing with grandma and grapndpa J.
And.... after hating running his whole life.....finally convincing him to run a race....and he LOVED it! Vegas here we come!

the end.

Liesl Made Winner!

Annie!!

email Liesl at liesl52 at gmail with your choice of apron.

Be sure to check out Liesl Made--she's always adding cute new stuff!

Friday Love

Crazy week!! But so happy to be back as a family again!

And happy to have another fun filled weekend with Grandma and Grandpa who are up from California! This weekend will be filled with good old-fashioned (literally) fun as we celebrate Pioneer Day here in Utah!

We LOVE Mango and Black Bean Salsa!

1 Mango, diced

1 can of black beans, rinsed

1 handful of bell pepper, diced

1 handful of red onion, diced

1 handful of chopped cilantro

Juice of a lime

s&p

Eat it with a spoon.

Perfect with chips (the Archer Frams black corn and flax seed are the best chips in the WORLD)

Yummy on grilled chicken

Insanely good on grilled salmon!

We LOVED seeing Ben Folds with the Utah Symphony!! Such a good show! He is so talented and just flat out weird, and I don't know anyone else who can sing about absolutely nothing like he can! And of course Deer Valley is soooooooo pretty.

all photos taken with the shake-it app.

We love the summer. And parks. And red stained lips from our favorite Sno Shack.

WHAT?!!! Have you seen Inception??? SEE IT. SEE IT!! Does it sound like I am screaming? I am! It is so.....just.....uh....I don't know what to say. I am still thinking about it and wish I could see it again right now. It's crazy. I get so excited and/or frightened to dream now.

I love this entry way. I would love to have an entry way. I love the frames, the door, the windows, the floor, the furnace, the floor, the floor, and the number 33. I love homes, and home projects. In the past few weeks we have painted, spray painted, moved in, moved out, raided my grandmas basement, acquired an organ(an organ!), realized I need to sell some junk, hung up and taken down many-a-thing. Maybe someday I'll take a picture....

But until then let's dream of having an entryway.

{photo from you are my fav jr}

A few months ago I was lucky enough to take photos of the (now famous) Lauren and Ben (here).

Here is their film that Ryan made as part of their Iris and Light photo + film package.

They are the cutest and I LOVE this song!

Happy Weekend!!!

What did you love about this week??

ps. don't forget to enter Liesl's super cute giveaway!

mandy and kevin

blogged over here

"eeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt....."

(she said, in her most gluttonous sounding voice)


Oh where to start. How about with unbuttoning my pants to make room for all the wonderful things we've been eating.

So yeah, we like to eat. And when the kids were gone last week--it's basically all we did.
I'm still dreaming about it.

Here's a little peak at our menu (and please excuse the phone photos....my big camera is like our third child and gets really heavy)

Let's first go back two weeks back to when I was in Montana (too good not to share!) If you ever find yourself there, and hungry, PLEASE run to your nearest Wheat Montana. We found ourselves there twice!

what I got: a greek salad and the BEST mini loaf of bread ever
a veggie and cheese sandwich (on the best bread ever!)
price: under $10 for lunch! (kids meals come with milk:)
skip: don't skip out on anything....and pick up some flour on your way out!

Bakeries are my all time favorite places to go.
So we HAD to go to Windy Ridge Cafe (and bakery!) up in Park City!
what I had: southwest salad with grilled chicken ( I reeeaaalllly wanted to get something besides a salad here but it was like 100° and I couldn't bring myself to eat anything above room temp)
what he had: grilled chicken panini (uh, best panini ever)
price: around $25 for lunch for two
skip: I will go back here over and over again.....don't skip anything except for the grumpy waitress named Melissa.
bonus: the bakery is right across the parking lot!! It is my FAVORITE place! We have had their cakes, breads, tarts, tortes--we LOVE it! We got some coconut macaroons to go!

While you're in Park City, also be sure to swing by Yellow Snow. I know! Yellow Snow!! But super good icecream and open until Midnight!

Up next lets head up to Sugarhouse where you'll find Luganos
Italian....mmm...
This kind of place is not usually our pick.....it's not super fancy, but it feels fancy to us..... we prefer the more local/divey feel. But we had a gift card so why not!
What I had: they have a daily ravioli....I can't remember what exactly mine was, but it was filled with veggies and ricotta and it also had swiss on top. It was excellent!
What he had: Halibut with lobster sauce over risotto.
Price: between$20-30 for an entree.
Skip: Dessert. It looks fancy.....and that's about it.
Bonus: they have a daily bruschetta! yum!
but: again, we usually don't pay this much for dinner...if you do, GO! It will not disappoint. If we are feeling like a "fancy" dinner (once every 5 years,) THIS is our favorite

Of course we ate at our very favorite pizza place ever.
And we also had Red Mango.
Twice. (it's hot here!)

Can we talk about sushi? Sushi is new to me.
My brand new love that I cannot stop thinking about. I have attempted to love sushi over the years, with no success.
This spring we went to Happy Sumo for the first time.
My life hasn't been the same since.

Now I know that Happy Sumo is very much "Americanized" sushi, but I am in love, and you can't stop me.

What we had: Szechwan Chicken, a firecracker roll, and a sweetheart roll.
price: $10-20 entrees, $10 rolls
skip: skip the crowds and go on a Wednesday night!

Next up: Lonestar Taqueria!
Why have I never been here!! It's so so good and I LOVE the atmosphere (it's super friendly and loud so I would have no problem bringing my children next time:)
what I had: fish tacos!
what he had: a giant burrito
price: under $3 for a taco!
skip: the chips. you have to pay extra and I'm not the biggest fan of flour tortilla chips.

That's it! Are you hungry......or disgusted?
Thank you grandma and grandpa for playing with the kiddos so we could spend the week eating!
Thank you to my pants for being so forgiving.
Thank you to Robby for loving food as much as you love me.

May we grow old and round together.