Recipe: homemade mushroom soup

Homemade Mushroom Soup

serves 2

(I recommend doubling, this barely serves 2)

2 cups mushrooms, cleaned and finely chopped 

(or if you don't want to finely chop the mushrooms, you can just add the entire soup to a blender at the end to soup-ify it)

1 Tb olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1 Tb butter

1 Tb chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme

1-2 bay leaves

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 cup chicken stock

1 Tb flour dissolved in 1 Tb water

salt to taste

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup milk

dash of nutmeg

ground black pepper to taste

Heat olive oil.  Add butter and light saute garlic on medium heat until golden.  Add mushrooms, thyme, bay leaf and worcestershire sauce.  Cook over medium for 5 minutes, or until the moisture from the mushrooms disappears.  Add chicken broth, stir and reduce heat.  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Add diluted flour and stir constantly allowing the mixture to thicken.  Season with salt and nutmeg.  Add milk and cream, bring to a simmer and turn heat off.  Enjoy!

The day I was going to fly to Vegas...

So my brother-in-law had this great idea that we should all go to the airport and greet Elder Moser. He then took it a step further and said we should buy a refundable ticket so we could go all the way to the gate with Elder.

Everyone else chickened out except us sisters (kidding, we thought it would be best if only those who could control their emotions went).  We bought our ticket the night before and hoped that we could get it refunded.  But if for some reason we couldn't get the refund, we wanted to go somewhere close we could play.  So Vegas it was.  It was either that or Boise.  And Boise was double the price (?!).

We knew when Elder Moser was supposed to get there (we knew his whole flight schedule), so we made sure we got there before he did.  We checked in for our pretend flight to Las Vegas and waited.  

And waited.  

We started to get nervous so Chelsey went and asked the lady at AA if she could let us know if a certain someone had checked in.  She said she couldn't, but Chelsey put on a sad face and said it was our brother we hadn't seen for a few months.  She quickly told her he hadn't yet and shoo'd her on her way.  We then went and asked a Skycap worker how the whole missionary drop off worked.  

With all the acquired information we now knew that he hadn't checked in and that the missionaries came in large un-marked buses. 

Awesome.  Now only if they would show up.

And then, the heavens parted and a big blue bus showed up.  We looked threw the windows and lo' and behold...a bus full of Missionaries!  I have never been so excited to see Missionaries.  I got out the video camera my dad gave us (he wanted a play-by-play) to record him walking out of the bus.  We watched all the missionaries come off, and not one looked like Tyler.  We both ran over to the big group (giving up our stealth location) and started searching for the maybe-very-different-looking-Tyler-we-no-longer-recognized.  When we couldn't find him, we asked if any of them knew of an Elder Moser.  A Sister answered me with a "He is not on this bus," in which gave me a heart attack.  We had missed him, I thought.  "He is on the next bus she then said", pointing to another replica of their bus pulling up. 

Huzzah! 

I started recording as all the young elders got off and there he was!  Elder Moser!  I hear him say to another elder, "Look! There is your family", and then in a very confused tone "...and my family?"  Total surprise!  I started to run up, with the camera on, and gave him a hug (watching that film will not be fun).  Oh it was so good to see him again.

And he wasn't weird!  Hooray, this still was our brother!

We helped him and the other three elders he was flying with check in and check their luggage.  Both of  Tylers suitcases barely made the weight limit, carrying the next two years of his life in them.

We then got to hang out with him while we waited in the incredibly long security line.  An important question of his was "So was the second Dark Knight as good as the first?  Be honest."  

While waiting in line he pops in a mint.  And me being me, "Uck, here just chew some gum," and while I'm searching for a piece he goes "Mal, really?  I am a missionary.  I am on the Lords errand.  I can't chew gum!"

 I had bought a spongebob squarepants mini-puzzle and some crossword, word search and sudoku books for him for his long travels.  While I pulled them out to give to him, he takes one look at them and goes "Mal, I am going to be studying the whole time."  Like, duh, I should have known.  "Babylon", he then said.  Ha, and I had thought those were the least evil products. 

I still stuck the puzzle in his backpack while he wasn't looking.

Because I mean, who wouldn't get bored from studying the day and a half he is traveling?

I guess I will repent for that later.

Sadly, we only had enough time after security to walk them to their gate and watch them board immediately.  It was hard to get emotional when Tyler was so excited to go.  I won't forget when he looked back and waved at us before he got on the plane.  So cute.   

See you in a while bud. 

Oh and your wondering if we got a refund?

We did.

Beatin' the system over here.

Soo happy to see him.

Cute siblings :)

All of his roommates.  Tyler was the only one going to the Scotland/Ireland mission.

He is going to miss his roomies.

Chelsey and Ty.

Trying to check him in.

50 lbs!  Good work Ty.

Kinda blurry, but I thought it was a cute picture.  We gave our phones to the other two missionaries Ty was traveling to Chicago with so they could call their family.  One was from Utah, the other from Hawaii.  They were so grateful.  It was so sweet to see them talk to their families :)

a little someone turned one

the birthday girl

What?!!       I got clothes?...

A doll.  Now thats more like it.

sneakin kisses

I'm one!

A doggie from aunti mal and uncle kevin.

My sister has fantastic taste in anything party related.  She is always the party decorator in our family.  

Gimme that cake!

Thought our rendition of 'Happy Birthday' could have been a little bit better.

Now she has the idea.

'no easy day'

I am sure you have heard about the book No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden.  It was written by a Navy Seal, a member of the DEVGRU, a special warfare development group.

There has been a lot of hoop-lah that this guy is a "traiter".  That he has given away our countries secrets and should go to jail for it.  I started reading this book trying to find any secrets that could be incriminating and telling of our countries level of intelligence.  I couldn't find any.  All I could find was a lot of Obama jokes.  And frankly, I think that is why Obama (& Co.) is trying to sue and defend themselves.  This book just makes them look bad.

There has also been hoop-lah about how Osama was unarmed but still killed.  I cannot believe that people are starting this discussion.  How can you have compassion towards a man who has killed thousands of innocent people?  Unbelievable.

I read reviews on a write-up of the book online.  I could not believe the comments.  People were saying how they "now wouldn't trust the Navy Seals to go out on a mission ever again" because of this "traitor".  All I have to say is: How dare you even say that.  These men are fighting for your rights, freedom and country.  They give up there time, families, and life for you.  Gain some respect.

My respect for our country grew immensely from reading this book.  We have some great people out there fighting for us.  

"Who is this guy!?"

That is not our baby.

I think she was trying to pick my nose...

Ruffle bum.

Me building sand castles and Hadley destroying them.

Probably my favorite picture of the trip.

She just loved the water.

Ice-cream and root beer floats @ Dangling Rope.

We love our knee-boarding.  Kevin loves to splash me the whole time.

You can never take a bad picture at Lake Powell.

  A houseboat wanted to share our great beach with us.  We weren't too happy about it, but what can ya do?  They offered us beer in exchange, but we asked to wakeboard on their brand new ski boat.  They laughed it off and didn't think we would take them up on it.  

They later said that we could go out "surfing" with them the next day.  Ha.  That's what you say to people when you don't think they know how to wakeboard.  Anyone can surf, we wanted to wakeboard.  

Well they had been watching Kevin dive and spear fish throughout the day, so once one of the girls dropped her sunglasses in the lake (by face-planting on her paddle board, ha!), they came over asking if Kevin could come over and dive and try to find her glasses.  He went over and not two minutes later you hear "AHHH YEAY!!!!!!!!!"  He had found her glasses.  

Now they felt like he deserved a ride in their boat.

So they took him out.  Boy were they in for a surprise.  We watch Kevin pull his first trick out of his bag and from quite a ways a way, we hear a roar.  They were not expecting this.  

When they finally brought him back, they tell us "Who is this guy!?"  "Is he on Nitro Circus?!"  "He is welcome on our boat any day!"

He even did my favorite trick I have only seen him do twice.  He only does it when he is really trying to impress me or he is on a fantastic boat.  Darn those lucky people.

They are about to be amazed.

my spear-fishin' man.

Kevins' most recent hobby has been spear fishing.  

He was in heaven this whole trip with all the clear water and fish.  Quick into the trip he had to pick and choose his fish because the water was clear and the fish a plenty.

  

Hadley loved that Kevin caught fish.  She was not scared of the fish at all.  She would carry them around, poke at their eyes, and would try to pick them up (but they constantly slipped through her hands, but did this bother her?.. No).  She even watched Kevin filet the fish.  It didn't bother her one bit.  She is a weird one that girl.  

Throughout the trip she kept telling Kevin to "catch the fishies Kenin!"

He ended up catching ten or so bass.  He filet them all and we made fish tacos one night.  OH MY GOODNESS were they good.  It can't get much better than fresh fish tacos on the lake.

"Look at the fishies!!"

We shared a beach with some dogs, one was named Stella.  After getting the fish from Kevin she ran over yelling "Stella!! Stella!! Look at the fishies!!"

Hadley learning how to filet.  No one else wanted to learn.

ummmm YUM.