work party

We had my work party last night. My boss invited EVERYONE (anyone and everyone who had worked at his two restaurants from the past 12 years) and their kids to dinner and a Jazz game. Dinner was at the restaurant Settebelos downtown. Anyone I told that we were going there replied with "Oh my Gawsh, that place is A-MA-ZING!" But that was not my reaction.

I think part of my problem with it is that I am just a fan of good old American style pizza. I like a lot of cheese and the thick, buttery crusts. When I want pizza, I am not thinking of 'health'. I am thinking of greasy, cheesy food. The pizza at Settebelos is supposed to be authentic Italian pizza. And it did remind me of the pizza we had in Italy exactly; thin crusts, few toppings, & light on the flavor. So I guess I will say that it is a great place to get 'healthy' pizza or a dose of Italy if your are Italian and homesick.


We then went to a Jazz game after dinner. We had not been to a Jazz game for a good few years. I of course got stuck right in front of the most obnoxious zoobie kid who thought it was hilarious to cheer for Portland after every shot and clap the most obnoxious loud clap right in my ear. I was this close to turning around and saying:

"Give it up kid, I know you go to BYU and your just trying to be rebellious but save it for later because for now, if you keep doing this, I will sock my husband on you and he will not be forgiving."

And then I would have added:

"P.S. buddy, your date is not impressed with your ability to yell and clap and be rebellious. She actually thinks your really annoying right now, as does everyone around you."

And I think that would have done it.

But of course I didn't say that because I hate confrontation, so we just ended up leaving early with headaches. We tried to be good sports. You ruined our fun kid.
But not really because we realized that we are home-bodies. We were just as happy coming home, popping popcorn and watching Top Gear (which I recommend) on Netflix. Why are the British so funny?

I also recommend Downton Abbey. I am in love with that show right now.

life lately - according to the iPhone

I got glasses. I will only really need them for reading and driving at night, but I am supposed to wear them one week straight and I am not doing so well. Need to work on that.


Late night pizza date.


Date night to Pei Wei and dollar movie outing to Out of Time. We both really liked it. Parts reminded me of Hunger Games.


I made yummy cookies for my snowed-in Grandpa. He's been staying up in his cabin in Heber and wasn't ready for the one big snowfall that happened a few weeks ago. He called my mom and told her lightly he didn't really have any food other than canned stew. So me and Kevin decided to go on a rescue mission! What a great excuse to miss church on sunday (kidding...we went to Sacrament meeting) and take our snowmobiles up which had yet to see any action this season. We were so happy to see that once we got up there, we would have to ride our snowmobiles up to his cabin. We stuffed all sorts of food in backpacks and rode on up. Kevin built a fire to warm him up a bit (it was 46 degrees in his cabin when we got there) and we hung out with Grandpa for a while.



Kevin was so excited to get that machine of his out.


I made pillows! My MIL kindly offered me and my SIL sewing lessons since she is a Pro. So far I have learned a ton. I have really enjoyed the weekly lessons.




Kevin went to SIA (a ski show) in Denver over the weekend. It was a full three days sans husband. Not fun. You know whats not going to be any funner? When Kevin leaves for 10 DAYS. Heaven help me. SIA was very successful for him- he got invited by POWDER magazine to be one of the skiers for a big magazine article on "How to" skiing in Alaska. So he is going to Alaska. One of his dreams. I am sooo excited for him, but also extremely sad that he has to be gone for 10 days. I am also extremely scared and nervous about his safety but lets not think about that ok? A lot of people ask me how I handle being married to an extreme skier. Well that's the answer: I just don't think about it.


At SIA he saw spreads of himself all over his sponsor's booths.


He took a picture of a cool car.


FUEL TV came to Snogression and did a segment on it. Kevin was interviewed and asked what it was like to own a dreamland basically. The segment will be aired on FUEL TV during the Dew Tour in Salt Lake, and also on FUEL TVs website.

This is important.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little..
The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.
Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation

kombucha round 2

My SCOBY made it out alive with my round 1 of kombucha making! I am so proud.
Mom I did it.
And it made a baby! I past the "lets see if Malorie can take care of this before she has kids of her own" test.

I know everyone is going to think the top picture is super gross; but hey, I am so proud of these two beauty's. They grew and stayed alive. They are my ugly babies that I think are so darn cute.

My first batch enabled me to make:

Two whole bottles of kombucha that I flavored with ginger and mango nectar.
Two new batches of kombucha
1- for my mother SCOBY
2- for my baby

kevin caught a fish

I came home the other night to a dead, gutted, rainbow trout in my sink. Yum. I swear I always come home to the weirdest things.

Kevin and his brother had gone down to our local pond to see how thick the ice was for a hockey game. They came upon an ice-fishing hole that had froze over with a stick and line frozen in it. With a hatchet already in hand they chipped out the hole and Kevin pulled on the fishing line. There was a fish on it! They pulled it out and Daniel gladly let Kevin take the fish home. Kevin looked up how to gut a fish on YouTube and wallah! you got fresh rainbow trout in the sink.

I made a quick herb mayonnaise to spread and flavor the fish, broiled it for a few minutes and bam! yummy fish. For being so small there was a good size of meat on that bad boy. Thanks Kevin for catching our dinner :)

and now I look like a complete and total nerd

So I've noticed that my eyes have gotten a little blurry when I read, and that just in general my left eye has gotten more blurry. I thought back to when I had my last eye check-up. The only time that came to mind was when I went with my brother when he was seven or so. So that was a good ten years ago. And then I remembered the eye exams and hearing exams they gave in elementary school; vividly. I was terrified of them. I remember being scared and sweaty all day for those. I thought ever year I would fail. And I thought, crap, I'm going to have to go to resource. Or something equally horrible like that. And we all know I did not like those resource kids.

My fear was turned into a reality when I went to my recent eye exam.

"You have an astigmatism"
"I have what!!??" and I started to cry.
Kidding.
I knew what that was. Not a big deal!
"You also have Myopia"
"What!!!??" Then I really started to cry.
Kidding.
Thats just nearsightedness.
But It was amazing the difference my prescription made. I could read!

When I later told my husband I have a stigmatism, he replied back with "Everyone has those." That is the perfect Kevin reply. I could tell him that I have a rare gene disorder and he would reply with "Everyone has those." Nothing is a big deal in this household. But this time it really wasn't a big deal. I just wanted to pretend it was.

Well now that I have to get glasses, I had to pick out my frames. Boy is that hard. Anything at Costco made me look like a mom. So I found this website, which is hip and cool, and lets you pick five frames (for free!) to try on at home. So order I did. And here are all the five I ordered. Yes, darn it, they all look the same.








Which one makes me look the least nerdy?
I know my faces don't help.

kevin & mitchell

This is what Kevin and his brother Mitchell have been up to lately. Pretty impressive since there is no snow up there, right?

Kevin and Mitchell Brower from snogression. on Vimeo.

Recipe: Basil Pesto Chicken & Cranberry Pasta

Basil Pesto Chicken & Cranberry Bowtie Pasta

Bowtie Pasta
3 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded
Slivered Almonds
Craisins
Basil Pesto (I just used Classico brand)

Cook pasta.
Add to shredded chicken.
Add basil pesto, almonds, and craisins and mix well.
Yummy, warm or cold. Makes a lot, but will make for some yummy leftovers.

at the races

The Brower Boys had a ski race up at Park City this weekend. I lovingly shoved Kevin at 6:45 am when his alarm went off, made sure he was awake and went back to sleep; I was not getting up that early. I would rather drive up by myself a little later and waste the gas, then wake up at that dreadful hour. Sorry 'Global Warming'.

It was snowy and cold, but luckily my puffy kept me warm. Thank you husband for the coolest, cutest, warmest coat ever.

The babies came up a bit later when it was warmer and got to watch their daddy, uncles and grandpa race down. They loved it. When I told Ellie her dad was skiing down she startled giggling and dancing.

The boys did awesome. They of course cleaned up with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. And Kevin's not going to like this one bit but he didn't get first. No $100 for us. I need to give him better pep talks we're thinking. Shalane is a master at these, or so Daniel says.

1st- Mitchell
2nd- Daniel
3rd- Kevin
And Mark did very well in his age division.

and then with the handicaps they put in place:

1st- Daniel - the $100 winner
2nd- Mitchell
3rd- Kevin

Beware Daniel and Mitchell, Kevin is going to come back angry for the next race. He is determined, or so will ensue after my pep talk.








Cute bum. Kevin skiing with little Ellie.


Wow. Ellie actually has a smile on that face of hers. She must really love skiing.

The babies loved skiing with their dad and uncle Kevin. Loved it. I was surprised at how much they liked it. Kevin and Daniel would not hold back speed wise. Those babies felt more G-forces then I probably have skiing.
I think we've got little ski racers in the family.


This is what Ellie did every time Kevin put her down after skiing with her. She would put her sad, puppy face on and cling to his leg. It worked every time.


The Karbon male ski model. I'm married to him.

puffies, ducks & ice skates

A little video of fun in our wetlands park:

Recipe: Baked Shrimp Scampi

My MIL got me some non-alcoholic wines to cook with for Christmas. So to test out the white, I made some shrimp scampi to use up a bag of shrimp in our freezer.
I found this recipe on the Food Network website. I subscribed to their magazine for Christmas; really excited about it.

Kevin gave this an A+, which is pretty spectacular. Me, I give it a B.







I served it with roasted green beans, probably my favorite side dish right now.
All you do is preheat the oven to 400.
Drizzle, or drench-you decide, olive oil and kosher salt on the green beans (or asparagus)
Roast for 10-20 minutes. Depends on your taste.

I also served it with my favorite easy homemade foccacia bread.



Baked Shrimp Scampi

1 pound shrimp, in shell-cooked or uncooked
2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 tablespoons dry white wine
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 teaspoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
1/8 cup minced shallots
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup panko (Japanese dried bread flakes)
Lemon wedges, for serving

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Peel, devein, and butterfly the shrimp, leaving the tails on. Place the shrimp in a mixing bowl and toss gently with the olive oil, wine, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Allow to sit at room temperature while you make the butter and garlic mixture.

In a small bowl, mash the softened butter with the garlic, shallots, parsley, rosemary, lemon zest, lemon juice, egg yolk, panko, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper until combined.

Starting from the outer edge of a 14-inch oval gratin dish, arrange the shrimp in a single layer cut side down with the tails curling up and towards the center of the dish. Pour the remaining marinade over the shrimp. Spread the butter mixture evenly over the shrimp. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until hot and bubbly. If you like the top browned, place under a broiler for 1 minute. Serve with lemon wedges.