kev & mal brower

the best day of my life

2012-02-13T23:23:00.000-08:00

I'm going to do a lovey-dovey post. Beware.

A lot of people say that their wedding day was the best day of their life. Mine wasn't. It was a great day, but kind of stressful and a lot to take in for one day.

The best day of my life was when Kevin told me that he was falling in love with me. I remember it exactly. I remember where we were, what we were doing, what I was wearing, that we went and got slurpees right after (ha), and how it felt. It was the best feeling. I remember being on such a high. I felt so loved, and felt so much love towards him. It was then that I knew I was going to lead a happy, love-filled life with him. That, was the best day of my life.

Happy Valentines Day Kevin. Love you.

a compliment

2012-02-13T15:07:00.001-08:00

Last night while talking to Kevin, he says:

"I really miss your cooking."

This is probably one of the nicest compliments my husband could ever give me. Ok not really, but it is up there.

So he planned what he wanted to do for our Valentines dinner (and Hooray-You-Are-Home dinner), that we will be celebrating Wednesday night.
He wants to cook a meal together. So cute. This man never wants to cook.

So now I am even more excited for Wednesday.

the salad

2012-02-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

I love to cook. But it's definitely not as fun when your only cooking for one. While Kevin has been gone I have been taking it easy on the cooking. I have eaten a lot of salads, since those are the easiest to prepare once you have all the ingredients you want.
I decided that this chicken is the best on my salads:

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (thighs would be fine too)
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup honey (I reduced this to a half a cup from a whole cup, that just seemed like a lot of honey to me)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced

I put frozen chicken breasts in my slow cooker, sprinkled with some salt and pepper. I then mix all the rest ingredients together, and pour over chicken. I usually cook on low for 8 or so hours. I start it in the afternoon, then have to work late.

When its done, I remove the chicken from the sauce (I just throw the sauce away) and shred it. Let it cool completely, then put it in a container in the fridge! Now you have awesome, flavorful protein to put on your salad!

Adapted from here.

Also in my favorite salad:
Baby lettuce
Pine nuts (Costco)
Craisins (Costco)
Feta cheese (Costco)
Balsamic glaze
Homemade olive oil/ garlic/ red wine vinegar salad dressing

"wife day"

2012-02-08T19:06:00.001-08:00

A few days before Kevin left, I wanted a "wife day." I have to allot myself "wife days" or Kevin will forget to do stuff with me. No not really, but he can be a busy guy. This day I told him I wanted to go snowshoeing. He said o.k., I will give you two options:

1) "I go shooting with my photographer."
or
2) "We go snowshoeing."

Hes so funny.
So I chose #2.

We started out with getting donuts from Daylight Donuts. I love this place. We each got two donuts. I ate both of mine. He only ate one. I win. He said he got a sugar sickness. I told him to train his body to enjoy sugar better.

We then went up Big Cottonwood and chose to do the Lake Blanche Trail. I had never hiked this trail before, snow or no snow, so I was excited. It was beautiful. And there was snow! We didn't have the time to do the whole trail, but one day, when we are feeling up for the climb, we will do it again.

But I did feel up to a photo-shoot:

And that was my "wife day".

what we have been up to today...

2012-02-08T18:46:00.000-08:00

While I made these today:

Kevin was up to this:

It rained one night so it froze all the snow.

On the prowl for some better snow.

They stayed in a poorly lit cabin.

Two words: Cabin. Fever.

Alaska

2012-02-07T15:00:00.001-08:00

Kevin is in Alaska right now, skiing and shredding. He got invited by Powder magazine to do a magazine spread. When Kevin told me about this, I was excited until he said "10 DAYS."
"10 days, what do you mean 10 days!?"
Are newlyweds (yes, I still consider us newlyweds) even supposed to be away from each other that long? I'm pretty sure not.
The longest we have been apart since we got married was 3 days.
So I was a bit saddened by his extremely exciting news.
But I wasn't going to be one of those wives that is like "You can't go and have all the fun!" "What about me!?" "But I NEED you home!" "This isn't fair!" Nope I sucked it up and said "Oh baby, Alaska here you come!"

After I snuck little Valentine goodies and a card in his suitcase, I tried to zip it up when Kevin goes "Oh wait, I'm not done." And then he found all his goodies he was supposed to be surprised by. Oh well. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Whatever that saying means. I mean, If I have cake, I am going to eat it.

A few days before he left, he, again, told me the story of the book/movie White Fang. He told me the part of him throwing rocks at his dog/wolf he loved and yelling at him to go away. He then said this analogy was going to have to be used for when I dropped him off at the airport. He was just going to run for it.
Well that all went through the roof once he got all his bags ready.
He had to give me the big 'Goodbye' hug and kiss. Then I lost it. Then he gave me more hugs and the "Don't worry about me, I'll be safe" talk. And then it got worse. And then I just got into the car and left. Ugh. Tender moments at the airport. I only like them when they don't involve me.

And this is for Lorna. This is what Kevin has been up to lately (Thanks to iPhone photo stream):

And tonight he is staying in a cabin (with heat!) on top of the mountain. Its close to heaven for him right now.

work party

2012-01-31T16:58:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-31T16:25:00.000-08:00

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.

2012-01-24T21:54:00.001-08:00

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

2012-01-19T12:07:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-19T11:43:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-17T20:13:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-16T11:42:00.001-08:00

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

2012-01-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-09T17:42:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-04T18:13:00.000-08:00

A little video of fun in our wetlands park:

Recipe: Baked Shrimp Scampi

2012-01-04T16:24:00.000-08:00

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.

our snow-less mountains

2012-01-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

Natalie and Jeremy wanted to go up and see the mountains since they are visiting from California right now. We obliged and took them on a little hike up to a waterfall. It was partially frozen of course, but still had some running water.

We then went to Snowbird to go watch Patrick train. I haven't seen him race before, so it was fun to see how good he was. Watching any athlete in training inspires me. I love it. All training is different, especially from what I am used to: swimming and water polo. I like watching the interaction between coach and athlete.
Ski racing is crazy to me. The speed they go scares me.
But I am sure people think the same thing while they watch a swim race.
"Holy cow they go so fast! How do they not get scared?!"
Or maybe not.

The Roof

2012-01-02T11:52:00.001-08:00

We go to The Roof with the Brower's every year around Christmas. Except last year; last year we went to Deer Valley and ate cheese, really good cheese. But this year we came back to the normal tradition. Only those who are a part of the family, or are engaged to be a part of the family can come. It's a tight club here. We thought Mitchell would bring a special someone, but no such luck.
And then Kevin kept pulling the "Well, I guess this as good as time as ever.....We're pregnant!"
Oh my husband.
We're not.

The food is always so good. The view is always prettier than I remember. The same goes for the prime rib. Mmmm.

Daniel got a little 'camera happy'

We then walked around Temple Square to see the lights, since none of us had been down there before Christmas. It was crazy how warm it was.

Thanks Browers. We love this tradition!

Christmas Day with the Mosers

2012-01-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning I was woken up to my brothers butt. "Merry Christmas!" he says to me. And then cute Hadley walks over and was like "Maorie??? Kenin???" She was really confused that we had slept over. But she was excited for the morning. She knew something was up.

It was fun to watch Hadley get excited about all the toys Santa brought. She got a play kitchen and she loved opening and closing all the doors.

After we had all opened a few presents, it was time to go to church. We all went to my parents ward; the ward I grew up in. I got to pretend that Afton was our baby and it was funny who believed us.
"Well that was quick!"
"I didn't even know you were pregnant!"
Oh what a fun game that was.
The little girl sitting in front of us wasn't fooled by our games though, she asked me if she was my mom's baby. She knew I was far too young to have one of my own. Your no fun little girl.

When we got home I was applauded for all the socializing I did. My family was amazed.

The rest of the day was spent opening the rest of our presents, lounging, playing Dance Central 3, MW3, pool, and eating shrimp and rolls at my Grandparents house.

My dad's parents came over for Christmas breakfast. Our favorite meal of the holiday. My mom's mom always made a special Christmas casserole every Christmas morning, and once she passed, we continued the tradition. Now my mom makes it. And it is delicious. We also always have homemade hot chocolate, fresh berries, and amazing strudel from Schmitts Bakery.

Zoe loves Christmas.
And when Hadley throws all her food on the floor.

And then Kevin karate-chopped Tyler.

Hadleys favorite toy had to have been Conductor from the show Dinosaur Train. She carried it everywhere.

The boys played MW3.

And then we ended the night with possibly the longest game of pool ever.
55 minutes.
I won by the way.

Christmas Eve with the Mosers

2011-12-30T09:35:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve is spent with my mom's side of the family. We always have a lot of traditions to go through. We first have dinner. This year we had clam chowder, chocolate chili and tomato soup with yummy bread. We then go and watch a video about the service project we did that year. Our grandpa gives us our Christmas money and tells us to do something good with it. This year we all did different things such as buying essentials and dropping them off at the Road Home, handing it out to a random barista, and putting money in the Salvation Army buckets. We usually make a funny video to depict all this, but ran out of time this year. So this year we watched all our previous years videos that still make us laugh.

When we get done with the videos we move on to the bells. We play Christmas hymns until our ears can't take no more.
Some of us are good at it, some of us...not so good.

We then play the candy bar game. This one we have played for years. We know each others favorites and some have learned how to work around this (ahem, corey).
Theres a huge pile of candy in the center and on your turn you roll the dice. If you get any form of six, you get to pick a candy bar out of the pile; or if you remember what candy bar someone has in their bag, you tell them what you want and they have to give you it. It gets pretty heated.

The doorbell then rings and at the door is santa's bag full of pajamas for each one of us and a clever poem that gets funnier each year.

Then it's time for the favorites gift exchange game. We all have to bring our favorite thing and it has to be good. $20 good. There's a lot of stealing in this game. This year I went through an XBOX live pass, movie passes, an amazon gift card and finally ended up with new pillowcases and a few essential oils to add to my collection! Kevin ended up stealing a box full of beef jerky. He loves beef jerky.

My dad is always holding that baby!

And then we call it a night. Bring on Christmas Day.

How To: make your own kombucha

2011-12-28T16:57:00.000-08:00

My mother gave me a SCOBY for Christmas! What is a SCOBY you ask? It's an acronym for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. It is the living mushroom that is formed from living kombucha cultures during the fermentation process.

Kevin believes that this drink can heal anything. He is a real Hippie you see. No I kid, he just believes it can ward off a cold. Any time he has felt something come on, he drinks a bottle of this and it goes away. And I believe him. And me, I just like the taste of it. But since it is around $4.00 a bottle, we buy it sparingly. But look no further Malorie! Your mother has made it possible for you to make your OWN kombucha!! It is quite crazy. I tasted some of the liquid swimming around the 'Mother' aka SCOBY and it tasted exactly like the bottled kombucha. Awesome.

So if anyone wants a 'baby' from my next batch I am selling them for $1000, no $10,000! Kidding. For family its free. For all you random's its $5. This is hard work people!

This is what I got for Christmas. "Mother...what...is this?.."

The 'MOTHER!'

So if you want to learn how to make your own:

Here's a recipe.

Heres a video to watch that helped me a ton. I maybe watched it 3 times.

I just made my first batch. Now I have to wait between 5-30 days for the final product. I will let you know how it goes!

Christmas with the Browers

2011-12-28T16:12:00.000-08:00

My MIL is awesome and decided to have Christmas a day early so me and my SIL could enjoy Christmas time with our families. We are completely spoiled being able to have two Christmas's.

Christmas morning while we were waiting for Ellie to be woken up, Kevin goes "Where's the fat one?" It took me a moment to figure out who he was talking about, but not Alta. She kept calling Ellie "The Fat One" the rest of the morning. Not good.

I got Kevin two big packs of Reeses Tree's for Christmas and had Ellie help him open it. She was sooo excited when she saw what they were. When we later took her for a little morning stroll, she was not too happy about going back inside. When I kiddingly told her she could have a "Reeses Tree" if we went inside, she let out a yell of excitement and started for the door. I could not believe she had understood "Reeses Tree." Maybe she really is "The Fat One".

Kevin got me an amazing pair of road biking shoes for Christmas. They are the best looking shoes I have ever laid eyes on. He did amazingly well. I don't even remember seeing them at Canyon Bicycles when we had gone there to peruse. Now to just find me a road bike to go with them... Does anyone have a Cannondale SuperSix, 56, Shimano 105 components bike for around lets say $500? You could really help me out here.

Alta loving her "Cutting Projects"

All the boys got "Technology Shirts". They all had to try them on and see who looked the best in them.

Benny got a new do' for Christmas. He's looking extra puppyish these days.

Ellie enjoying her "Reeses Tree"

The Babies enjoying there new baby sized table.

Goooooodmorning me!

Who even drew this and took this picture? I think we have an artist in the family!

fun at The Grand America Hotel

2011-12-27T22:03:00.001-08:00

We had a fun night with my family the monday before Christmas in the downtown. We started off with going to dinner at Italian Village and getting some pizza benders. It was Kevin's first time so we had to take action shots of his first bite.

Tyler managed to get a great shot of the both of us...

We then went to see a little Christmas light show in Murray which disappointed. Not worth the wait in line. But we did get to eat gummies while we waited and take cheek-to-cheek pictures.

Then it was off to the The Grand America. We love that place. That is where we had our wedding luncheon before we got hitched. Then we were lucky enough to spend our first night there. Such a beautiful hotel.

For Christmas this year they had a little fun family activity. They had cute decorated windows with clues you had to find in them. They gave you a card at the beginning with the clues on them, then you walked throughout the hotel to the 18 different windows. The incentive to finish was a sugar cookie at the end. We were all so excited for that sugar cookie. We received our sticker of achievement and took it to the bakery, where they preceded to shut the door on us and tell us that they had just ran out. My uncle Corey just about kicked that door open to show them they better bake him a cookie or they would have him to deal with. But then we decided to let our anger out on Tyler by putting our leftover stickers on him without him knowing. Boy was he mad.

We might have spent a little too much time in the cute toy shop at Grand America. That may have had something to do with us loosing out on the cookies. They had the cutest monster section with these animated frames with monsters in them. I felt like I was in the movie Monsters Inc. The toys were so good that I had to drag Kevin out of there.

They also had a huge gingerbread house on display which meant fun fun fun for Hadley. Right when we walked up to it, Hadley continued to crawl under the barriers with the intention of walking right on into it. Kevin was quick to grab her which was lucky since the peppermint stairs didn't look too sturdy. We weren't sure if the glass was candy as well so we dared Tyler to lick it. And he did. And it was candy! It was a true gingerbread house!

it's almost here

2011-12-21T10:16:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. It always comes so fast. This year has been incredibly nice with no school. This time of year was always extremely stressful trying to get everything done in time. I always wanted to think about Christmas, but school always won. But this year Christmas won! I was done with Christmas shopping last week. All the presents were wrapped and under the tree last week. Chocolates were passed out last week. And I still had this week for Christmas! Huzzah!

We have a wetlands park in our neighborhood. And since the pond froze over, Kevin has been ice skating on it! We luckily found his size ice skates at D.I. (on our third trip), but have yet to find me any. I did find a lean (mean) frying machine at D.I. that I wanted to take home, but Kevin said that whatever I made in there, he wouldn't touch. Darn it all. I want me some fried chicken!

I decided to try out my sewing skills again and make some Ugly Dolls for my nieces. I'm still working on them. Hopefully some of them turn out. Hopefully my nieces like them. Ellie saw me making the first one and loved holding on to it. But that was before I put the Ugly face on it. My family saw the first two that I finished and all of them laughed and called them ugly. Good thing that is the point. But when I took it to Hadley to show her, her face lit up and she yelled out a "CUTE!" Oh Hadley I love you. She really does love the weirdest stuff.

Meet Bunny, Albus, and Stickhead.

Some of Kevin's customers brought him a present the other night. Beer. Kevin didn't have it in him to say anything but "Thanks!" So I came home after work to two cases of beer sitting by the door. My first reaction was to check it to see if it was non-alcoholic. And then I went "Kevin................."
So what now?
Who want's to come party?
Mom, I'm kidding.

sundays with ellie

2011-12-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness Ellie hasn't been the biggest fan of nursery. Sundays with Ellie must live on!

She loved the Christmas tree and was especially excited to find Kevins' stocking filled with treats. She got so excited when I pulled out a reese's tree and started to dance. I couldn't resist. Kevin loves those reese's trees. But he surely doesn't dance when he sees one. Kevin won't be too happy Christmas morning.
Wait, yes he will! I got him the coolest Christmas gift this year. And the best part is, he hasn't tickled what it is out of me yet. This never happens. Only a few more days...

finally

2011-12-12T20:49:00.000-08:00

I finally caught a little of the Christmas bug. It always takes me a while. But I will admit to listening to Christmas music right when Thanksgiving is over. I really love me some Christmas tunes.

I made chocolates a while ago, but this year I also wanted to try and make my mother-in-law's rocky road. So, since the bug bit me, I decided to make a small batch to give to my friends along with some chocolates. Lucky ducks.

I always laugh at my decorating ability. Its nonexistent. I thought I could be O.K. at decorating. But then I realized this was a lie when I got married. I like too much stuff. But I don't know how to put hues, textures and designs together. I did take a interior design class in high school, but the only thing I remember from that class was my teacher taking my phone away from me for the entire day. So maybe that shows how much I liked that class.
I also don't like spending money on decorations; but I like the expensive stuff. This means I just don't buy anything.
I told myself that with all the money being saved, once we move into our dream home, in who knows how many years, we can buy nice, expensive furniture and decorations and an interior designer to go with it.

So here are all my Christmas decorations:

1) A fake tree that my sister gave me when they got a bigger and better tree.
We really wanted to go and chop down a tree this year, but the permits for the area we wanted to chop one down in were all sold out. So hopefully that tradition will be started next year. Note to self: Buy permit in November.
I got the skirt, ornaments and bow on extreme clearance one year only because my mother and sister made me get them.

2) A christmas tree candle. yum.

3) A wooden santa my mom gave me.

Now onto shopping.

a new rule

2011-12-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

We made a new rule for our household this week.

Never, ever make homemade pizza.

We have had it.

We have tried one too many times, get overly excited, and much too our disappointment, they never turn out.
All that cheese! All that homemade tomato sauce! All that homemade pizza dough!

I feel really bad for our future kids. They will never be able to taste the sweet taste of homemade pizza.
Sorry kids, mom is just not made out for it. And dad gets really frustrated when it doesn't turn out. But he will go and get you a Domino's cheese pizza when all else fails.
But just the cheapest one. None of that fancy stuff.

date night

2011-12-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

Kevin got off a little early one night I wasn't working so we could do a little date night. Since we both work nights, this never happens. It was fun to go to dinner together and know we didn't have to go to work later.
We of course went to Texas Roadhouse because we love that place and one of Kevin's friends gave him a gift card that he said he wasn't going to use. This always happens to Kevin. His friends know he will use that kind of stuff so they give him punched out cafe rio or pizza cards so we get free meals. Thanks friends.

We wanted to go see a movie but since it was 10:00 late, the only movie showing was a TWO FOR ONE! And one of the movies was Moneyball which we had been wanting to see. We all of a sudden felt young and hip and was like:

"Oh yeah! We are going to stay up sooo late tonight and watch TWO MOVIES! No big deal!"
And
"TWO movies for the price of ONE! Now THAT'S a deal! We'll take it!"

So we get stoked. The first movie was The Ides of March starring George Clooney and Ryan Gosling. When the movie starts and he sees the actors, Kevin goes "Ohhhhh, now I see why you wanted to see this so bad..." But you see, I didn't even know!
And I didn't even know it was rated R.
But it was good! There was swearing yes, but only a little sexuality. Go see Breaking Dawn; that movie has 4x as much sexuality as this movie. So I was impressed. It seems like PG-13 movies these days are trying too hard to be bad and sexy. Some rated R movies don't need to prove anything, since they are all ready rated R and are bad-a, so they just throw in some swearing and F-bombs and call it good.
So the movie was entertaining. And then it ended, and we were like:

"Oh yeah we are totally ready for a whole extra movie!" For free nonetheless. So we hang out in the theater for a good twenty minutes. Kevin gets anxious and tries to find out what the deal is with this two for one movie. I try to play patient and be like, "It will play! We are just having a little intermission!"
The other 3 people in the theater have left so we think, hey, maybe they are playing the next movie in another theater. So we go check it out. There is one theater playing. We walk in. There are two young kids, sporting there theater uniform, watching a movie all by themselves. We interrupt their little movie date and go:

"What the heck its 12:00 am and we are ready for our next movie!"

They explain to us that Moneyball had played earlier that day and somehow, miraculously, we were supposed to know that. Somehow.
We weren't going to let them play us like that. We wanted two movies. Two for one. None of this one for one crap.
So we demanded two extra movie tickets!
Kidding. Were not those rude people. We were about to just sit down and watch whatever movie they were going to watch because, heck, we wanted our late night. We wanted to be young and hip again!
But they obviously weren't too happy with that idea so they gave us two free movie tickets. Oh. Yeah. Two for one.

We like this two for one.

Sesame Noodles with Peanut Sauce

2011-12-06T20:51:00.000-08:00

This was as good as any restaurants peanut sauce I have tried. I had the chicken and sauce for two lunches after I had it for dinner. And I still am not sick of it.

Peanut Sauce
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup chunky/creamy peanut butter
4 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
2 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
5 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon salt
12 ounces dried spaghetti noodles

Optional
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil (to coat noodles)
green onions

Toast sesame seeds in a skillet for 10 minutes, or until golden and fragrant. Add rest of ingredients in a blender and blend until mixed well. Add toasted seeds (save 2 TB if you want to sprinkle them on top).

Broil chicken for 8 or so minutes per side (When I broil chicken, I usually just put some olive oil, kosher salt and pepper to flavor).
Shred chicken with fork.
Cook noodles, add salt to boiling water.
Pour sauce over noodles, add chicken, sprinkle sesame seeds and green onions on top and VIOLA! Yummy bummy.

the end

2011-12-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

We still managed to get a happy-looking picture of us all together even though the previous nights game of SCUM was still buggin'. Ha I kid. I'm still not mad...

Thanksgiving: Part 3

2011-12-01T11:58:00.000-08:00

Me and Shalane started the day out with a bike ride up Snow Canyon. We knew that you had to pay to enter the canyon. We didn't know how much, but we knew. We just decided to forget that little piece of information. I told Shalane that even if they try and stop us, we just cruise on by. I mean were on road bikes, were fast. And hopefully we would be faster.
Paying to enter our States parks doesn't sit well with me. I live here. Let me in for free.

Well sure enough as we start to ride past the park ranger station: "Hey! Hey! HEY GIRLS! You need to pay!!!! HEY!"

"Keep going Shalane!"
And we ride on.
We rode pretty fast for a while. Adrenaline was surging. Shalane kept saying "I can't believe we just did that!" "I'm scared!"
And I was too. But they didn't come for us; so we relaxed.
It was a nice ride, but hard. It's five miles continuous uphill and I am proud to say we didn't stop.
That was until the park ranger station at the top of the canyon stopped us. We had forgotten about the top station.
Shalane was a little ahead of me so the nice guy on top first stopped her. When I rode up I said "What seems to be the problem?" in the most innocent voice I could conjure.

"You didn't hear the ranger at the bottom yelling at you?"
"Whaaat? Nooo..."
"You need to pay."
"You do?"
"We have a park pass in our car at home." (My sister-in-law did, this wasn't a lie)
"You need to bring that next time."
"How am I supposed to carry that while I bike......" as my voice trails off... "Ok, will do, thank you ranger!"
And we were free. We had done it!
Shalane felt really bad. Me, not so much.

Me and Alta drew this together. For some reason I thought it was really cool so I told her to be careful and not mess it up. I messed up one part and she replied with: "Umm...you kind of just messed it up....." Touche.

"Look how fat my head is!!"

We took the boys to the playground since they didn't get to enjoy it the day before with us. We made them spin, spin and spin some more.
Once they got sick of that, we played some frisbee.

We decided to go out for ice cream the last night, and ventured out to Nelsons Frozen Custard. But when we got there, we realized we couldn't wait: we had cards at home to get to. So we went to Smiths and each picked out a Ben & Jerry's. Why is ice cream so much better when you get your own pint of it?! I'm no connoisseur of Ben & Jerry's ice-cream, and have probably only tried two different flavors, but the Pistachio flavor was really good, so I am going to say it is the best Ben & Jerry's flavor.

Alta came and sat on my lap with her ice cream and said "I love to share!"
So I had a bite of hers, and gave her a bite of mine.
But then she continued to eat just mine.
"Mmm Malorie! Yours is really good!" "We love to share!" She is a sneaky one.

Every night us kids would stay up playing UNO. Didn't know that game could be so fun. There was a lot of competition. But this game didn't even come close to the heat that SCUM created. We had to end that early one night due to everyone getting a little too into it, myself included. That game is stupid. I am still mad. Mostly at Mitchell. Worst king ever.

party video

2011-12-01T10:11:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of our fun in St. George:

Music by Local Natives.

Thanksgiving: Part 2

2011-11-30T16:02:00.001-08:00

Our second day was filled with fun fun fun!
The boys got up early so they could get plenty of razor hours in. While they were hurrying to get out the door my favorite Alta-ism was said.

Before I start this story I have to let it be known that Kevin teases Alta incessantly. And she knows this. Her dad was teasing her one day and she told him "Stop! Only Kevin teases me!"

So my little niece is three years old. Her size might fit her age, but her personality, the way she thinks, and the way she talks would make you think otherwise. Well this morning Kevin could not find his shoes. And he was getting frustrated. He had asked everyone. After about 8 minutes of searching Kevin decides to ask Alta:

"Alta, have you seen my shoes?"

"Yes."
"I hid them."

Kevin lets out a "Whaaaat..." And Alta jumps off her chair and retrieves his shoes behind a big plant pot.
She had hid them the night before.
And then she goes:

"I teased YOU!" as she hands him the shoes with a huge grin on her face.

We were all amazed with her trickery. How does a 3 year old know how to tease? How did she not give it away and laugh or giggle when Kevin was searching for his shoes? I mean I'm 23 years old and I would have started laughing at minute 2 of searching for the shoes if I had hid them. I applaud her.
After he left she kept saying "I teased him!" I guess she was sick of all his teasing and wanted to give him a dose of his own medicine. Well done my girl!

Now onto the playground. They have awesome playgrounds in St. George. This one was a spinners paradise. Or a worst nightmare for those who get motion sickness easily. We first let Alta play on the playground, but it wasn't long until we all started pushing kids out of are way for our turn.
Me and Alta both did way too much spinning and moving on all the toys. I started feeling nauseous on the swings and ended it right there. Alta kept going. She started looking a little nauseous and sick so we all decided to go home. It wasn't until we got home that she said "I probably shouldn't go there anymore."

Ha I love this picture. I am trying not to get sick. Alta is just loungin' in hers.

These were fun seeing how dizzy we could get ourselves after a long spin. Jumping out of one of these and trying to walk was a feat. We did it to Alta quite a bit, and then started to feel bad. But then we realized all the parents were doing it to their kids. Child abuse? Possibly. But it was so funny!

Thanksgivin' Stuffin'

2011-11-29T10:08:00.000-08:00

Stuffing

1 lb seasoned bread cubes
4 TB butter
2 onions
2 celery stalks
1 green apple
3 links sausage, casings removed
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley (I halved this and used dried parsley)
1 TB fresh sage (or more)
1 TB fresh thyme (or more)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2- 2 1/4 cups chicken broth
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Chop onions, celery, and apple into little pieces and sauté in butter for 10 minutes. Halfway through add parsley if dried (You want to add dried herbs at the beginning of cooking, fresh herbs at the end). After 10 minutes add sage, thyme salt and pepper and remove from heat. In another pan, cook sausage until cooked through and crumbly.
In a large bowl combine bread cubes, with the onions, celery, apples, and sausage. Add chicken broth. Beat eggs in separate bowl and add at end. Toss and combine.
Add to a large baking dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cover with foil in oven for 30 min. Remove foil and cook for 10 min longer.

Thanksgiving: Part 1

2011-11-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year we went down to St. George for the weekend. It was quite grand to have everyone together. It's even grander that we all get along.

On Thanksgiving day the girls went on a road bike ride and while we were preparing the food, the boys went mountain biking and golfing. The girls all picked dishes to make for the big meal. I chose stuffing, since that is my favorite thanksgiving dish, and creamed corn. I was really scared making stuffing for the first time for the entire family but it actually turned out good. The creamed corn didn't turn out how I wanted it to, since my moms recipe calls for dehydrated corn and I used frozen corn. Next time I won't be so lazy and will dehydrate the corn. But everything else turned out wonderful!

Me and Kevin had to sit at the kids corner because we aren't "producers" or "producing".

While all the boys napped, Jeremy decided to tie up Alta.

Alta then told me to take pictures of her. This was what I had to work with:

the chocolate factory

2011-11-20T20:57:00.000-08:00

For a while now my mother, my sister and myself have been making and dipping chocolates for Christmas. It has become a tradition that I love. We, well really my mom, makes the cream centers (mint, lemon, lime, strawberry, raspberry, cherry, maple-pecan, coconut, peanut butter...the possibilities are endless here) and then we, me and my sister, dip them and make them look pretty. It usually takes a few days to do, especially now with two little nieces in the mix. We planned for last Friday as dipping day and set the whole day aside. Even with the whole day we barely finished them all. Since my mom is the Relief Society president we ended up having to take care of three additional kids due to the mom having to run to the hospital. A set of 5 month old twins and a 3 year old. Holy cow. We quickly put Hadley down for a nap, my dad watched Afton and my mom, myself and Chelsey looked after the candy-crazed three year old and the throwing up twins. I kid you not, just one twin threw up on me 4 times in a total of 20 minutes. Not cool. The twins also threw up on Chels. And the blankets. And the floor. I decided then I really do not want twins. Ever. Or a three year old who demands candy, juice and popcorn all at once. Kevin stopped by when all of this was happening and was glad he could only stay for a few minutes. He doesn't want twins either. Even though the twin girl could not take her eyes off or stop smiling at Kevin. That was the only cute part of this whole scenario.

We somehow managed to finish. And Chelsey loved her little Afton even more when all the kids left. She doesn't throw up. She's not a twin. She slept through the whole thing. Good girl.

After the chocolates were done, me and Chelsey went and saw Breaking Dawn with a bunch of her girlfriends. It was good. Everything I expected it to be; everything I expected it not to be. Kinda scary, lots of sexy, too much wolf talk. After all the sexy time, the girls next to me were like "Thats IT!!" Ha. Really? I thought. I barely made it through.

But I did love the preview for The Hunger Games. OH boy. It gives me chills every time I watch it. I have a thing for good previews you see. I love a good put-together preview. I love when the music matches the action and excitement; and I only have two previews that match this description:

1) Terminator Salvation

2) Hunger Games

Hunger Games rules. March 23rd can't come soon enough.

how to: tofu

2011-11-15T13:37:00.000-08:00

I love tofu. I am not sure where this love came from, but whenever tofu is an option on the menu, I get it. At restaurants I loved the texture, flavor and density of their tofu. But I never really knew how to make it at home. I knew that you had to press it, but never wanted to really invest in a tofu press. Sounded silly to me. So I made it without pressing it, but it never was how I wanted it to be.

But then I decided to make my own press. Maybe after 500 pressings, my husbands textbooks will have been worth the money.

On second thought, this is a pretty expensive tofu press.

Yummy Tofu:

Buy the firm or extra firm tofu.
Cut into long slabs.
Place a towel on a baking sheet.
Place cut tofu on towel.
Cover with another towel.
Place a cutting board/bread board on top.
Place books, dogs, children, or husbands on top for 20 min to 2 hours.

Then marinate the pressed tofu in whatever marinade you like. Tofu marinates and holds onto flavor great. I used this:

Let it marinate for a few hours.
Then broil marinated tofu for 6-7 minutes per side.

It is sooo good.
Even Kevin really liked it and he hates any type of "healthy" food I try to make him.

Now I just need Costco to get tofu. I bought two packages of tofu from Harmons and we easily ate it all. I need this in bulk people!

sundays with ellie

2011-11-15T12:45:00.001-08:00

You first have to watch this little video of our day with baby:

Ellie in the snow from Mal Brower on Vimeo.

Jeggings for babies? Oh yes. This girl is stylin'. I tried to even put it up a notch with some Uggs, but she is one of them. One of them Ugg Haters. She'll learn.

This girl knows when she comes over to Uncle Kev's and Auntie Mal's that a party is in store. She gets right back into her carseat and demands that we buckle her in. And then she just sits. Sits and waits. Because she knows that eventually we will go somewhere fun. We. Are. So. Fun. She also knows we will give her watered down apple juice. Shhh. Don't tell her mom.

When we got back into the car after the first fun in the snow, this is what we had to deal with. She wanted more snow! So we went and found another spot.

Realizing this snow was edible was a big deal for this girl. We had to stop twice on the way down the canyon to get her snowballs so she could eat them on the way down. Kevin really does love this girl. I asked him if he would have stopped and got me a snowball on the way down. He just laughed. This little Ellie girl is trying to steal my man! I am on to you Ellie...

the mother of all cones...

2011-11-12T10:57:00.000-08:00

...the KONG cone!!
We love Maceys.
This huge piece of work was only $1.49.

My creepy "Look how far I got!" look. That's as much as we could handle. We took the rest home and put it in the freezer for a late night treat.

Tamale Pie

2011-11-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

Tamale Pie

serves 5-6

Homemade corn bread dough (I used this recipe)
1 lb. ground beef
2 red peppers, diced (any color and amount would do)
1 onion, diced
can of corn
can of black beans
salsa (any amount to give it some liquid)
sour cream (a couple spoonfuls, again, to moisten it)
cheddar cheese, grated (however much you want)

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Make corn bread as recipe directs. I used this recipe. In a large sauté pan cook ground beef until cooked through. Add peppers and onion, sauté for 5 or so minutes. Add corn and beans. Remove from heat. Add salsa, sour cream and cheese. Mix well. Place mixture in baking pan and spread the corn bread dough out on top as well as you can.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the corn bread on top is done.

Via here.

a day of many events

2011-11-09T15:43:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a day of:

1. My brother getting ordained an Elder
2. My little niece Afton receiving her baby blessing
3. Hadley turning two!

We sure got to party:

My Dad hoggin' the baby; always hoggin' the baby!

I caught Afton thinking she needed to give herself the blessing. Or maybe she was giving a prayer of thanks for having such a cool Auntie Mal. That was it.

Chelsey: "Ok blow it Hadley"
Hadley: "Blow it"
Chelsey: "No actually bloooww it out"
Hadley: "Blow it"
Suffice it to say, Chelsey blew it out.

She sure loved these cupcakes! She'd finish the frosting and then go "Cupcake?" And point to another. Atta girl.

My favorite part of the day was when one of Hadley's cute little friends brought her the present she had picked out for her. As she hands it to her she goes "Bubbles!" "Ariel!" And sure enough Hadley opens it and it is an Ariel toy that blows bubbles. Oh that little girl was just like me but even at age 2! Can't contain the excitement of presents. Cant keep a secret for the life of her. So cute.

the season I lose my husband

2011-11-08T21:13:00.000-08:00

When winter comes; I lose my husband. He skis, skis and skis some more. And then goes to work. That leaves no Mal time.
I was well aware before I married him this was how it was going to be. So its not a shock.
But then he came up with this grand idea:
"When we have kids, we will just move up Little Cottonwood and live there. So you will be closer to me when I ski! This way, you will see me more!"
I don't know how I will see him more... maybe he will stop in for lunch for a ski break?
Hey, I will take what I can get.
I begin liking this idea. So we go look at the houses/cabins by Alta.

And then there was this one.
My golly.
This may be my dream home. Look here and it will become yours too. But I called it first. Unless you can shell out the $5.5 million before I can. Then its all yours.

the first snow

2011-11-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

Kevin would have much rather gone skiing this morning, but I talked him into doing a lil' snow-shoeing with me so he could at least see if there was enough snow to ski. We hiked up around Alta and definitely were not alone. There were plenty of skiers and snowboarders (Oh no! snowboarders! I am sure the purists weren't too happy about this) hiking all around. Since some skiers were skiing down the cat track after hiking up, It made it look possible for me to do some hiking and out-of-season skiing with Kev. So maybe the next post will be "Mal ski's out-of-season and is really cool." Watch out for it.

This great piece of a mountain behind us in these pictures is Mt. Superior. Kevin loves this mountain. I hate it. When we were first married he climbed this entire thing and skied down this little chute all before I could wake up and stop him.
He said it was probably the second scariest thing he has ever done.
Don't worry the scariest thing he has ever done was done that same ski season. This was all during our first year of marriage. I am surprised he is still alive now. Hallelujah!
Every time I see this mountain I say, "Don't ski that this season please."
He just replies with "Sorry baby, I am going to!"
Ugh.

Welcome to Kevin's 'office.' At lunch he was getting business done. That iPhone is a great thing. It makes it so Kevin doesn't have to be at a computer all day answering the many emails he gets and so he can spend more time with me. Thank you Apple.

dinner tonight

2011-11-05T15:51:00.001-07:00

Chicken Corn Chowder

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup thinly sliced or cooked chopped ham
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 (14-oz.) cans chicken broth
3 tablespoons flour
1 can corn
2 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
4 oz. softened cream cheese
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

DIRECTIONS:
Place olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute celery, bell pepper, onion and jalapeno until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and ham; cook for another 3 minutes. Whisk the broth with the flour in a liquid measuring cup or bowl and then stir into the soup. Stir in the corn and chicken. Bring to a low boil and reduce heat. Melt the cream cheese a little in the microwave and whisk together with the milk. Add the milk/cream cheese mixture to soup and add salt and pepper.

-and-

Olive Garden Salad Dressing

1/2 cup mayonaise
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
4 TB parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp parsley flakes
1 TB lemon juice
2 TB honey
1 clove garlic, minced

Mix all in a blender! And don't let the mayo fool you or scare you away. This doesn't make a creamy dressing. It really is just like the Olive Garden dressing. Yum Yum. Many recipes say to add more sugar but I think it is just perfect with the honey already added. But do as you wish.

-and-

Costco's sourdough bread. MMMMMM. I waited wayyyyy to long in line today just for two loafs of this. But it was worth it. Maybe.

don't be fooled by those gorillas

2011-11-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Introducing...Babies day out at the Hogle Zoo! Oh these babies were so excited. Alta is good at showing her excitement. Ellie...not so much. We have learned that the face you see in every picture is her content and "This is cool" or "I am having fun" or "I am happy" face. She is such a tease.

I loved this little guy. So cute.

I love elephants. Love them. When I was first at the U, I was majoring in Biology. I wanted to study elephants. I wanted to live on an elephant sanctuary and study how they communicated towards one another, how their families worked; all that good stuff. This was shot down after a year of Chemistry which would then be followed by many more. I had to take more Chemistry classes then Biology. NOT worth it. I decided to switch majors but I continued to take extra Biology courses. Hopefully one day I will be able to travel and see an elephant in the wild. One day.

The gorilla exhibit was probably our favorite of the day. For some reason I have never seen this big of a gorilla up close in my life.
He. Was. Big.
Me and Kevin quickly decided that running into a gorilla in the wild would probably be the scariest moment of our lives.
This was then solidified when the mucho gorilla got up, grabbed two plastic bins and started going crazy by throwing them at the window right in front of us and the girls. It was the exact fit of rage you would expect from such an animal. Everyone in the exhibit started to scream; kids even ran out of the exhibit (wusses). My and Kevin were in shock. I quickly surveyed the girls, thinking they would be terrified and screaming, but no, they were in shock too.
Ellie just kept pointing at him.
I will never again be fooled by movies such as Zookeeper (Jeremy...). Yes we watched this. Sadly. It was the only movie in red box.
This movie makes the gorilla look like the good guy. He was sweet and could talk. He was a friendly gorilla.
Do not let those filmmakers fool you! Gorillas are scary.
One of the signs around the exhibit told us that no known gorilla has ever been known to kill a human. Ha. Thats a load of crap. I just bet they haven't gotten that far before we shot it. I am sure they would have no problem killing one of us. No problem.

Yes. That face is scary. He kept staring at Ellie. He might have been thinking "Well thats a cute little human." But I am sure it was actually "Now SHE looks tasty!"

I was sucking on a yummy chocolate in this picture and forgot to smile, or rather couldn't smile. I would say the same about Ellie, but again, we know that is just her 'happy' face.

Alta's enthusiasm and many faces make up for the lack of Ellie's.

the "old" retired couple

2011-11-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

We got to spend the Halloween weekend at the in-laws vacation home in St. George. It was such a fun weekend. The weather was nothing but perfect for us. We wanted to make sure it was jam-packed with fun, so jam-pack it we did:

We razored.
We played tennis. Well, rather I tried to play tennis. My good hits were rather inconsistent, but heck, they were there.
We went on a long, beautiful bike ride.
We hot-tubbed.
We ate out.
Kevin longingly watched the old men play golf.

We then realized what it will be like when we retire. What fun we have to look forward too!

Our trip started out kind of scary. Halfway there we stopped to get some gas. Kevin ended up needing a big bomb burrito (ha) and a drink to stay awake. I remember as we were buying these, a big In-n-Out truck was pulling out of the station. When we got back in the car, Kevin realized he really had to pee so he ran back inside. It's usually me we have to wait on since Kevin is always in a hurry. A few minutes back on the freeway and there were a bunch of headlights up ahead. We slowed down. Right when we slowed, we drove over blood, guts and who knows what. I got nervous and thought we were going to see a mangled body. To the left we passed a huge bull; he was completely mangled, guts hanging out, horn torn off.
It reeked.
Boy did it reek.
We then saw the cars that careened completely off the highway, multiple semi's and then we saw the rolled car. We knew it had just barely happened because they were still trying to pull the guy out, and the In-N-Out truck was right in the middle of everything. No cops were there. No ambulance. Just people involved in the crash were helping each other. They made room for traffic to go off to the side and a guy signaled to us to go ahead. We drove by in disbelief and sincerely hoped no one got seriously hurt. We couldn't believe that if Kevin had not run back inside to go to the bathroom, we would have been pulling out right when that In-n-Out truck had and who knows, we could have hit that cow. We felt extremely blessed to still be safe and to have just missed the whole crash by mere minutes. As we drove on we counted 6 cop cars and an ambulance storm down the other side of the freeway. To say the least, we were wide awake for the rest of the drive.

First things first. Razoring.

Kevin got bored of the view. He wanted to look at the razor.

What we razored our first day.

We then went and walked the grounds of the St. George Temple. Kevin got artsy-fartsy.

"Mal to take a good picture you just get real close to something and take the picture. Then they don't know what it is. That's art."- Kevin Brower

We then went to puke burgers for dinner. Oh wait, Red Robin. Sorry. I got really grossed out here for some reason. Every. Single. Person. walking in was big. Huge.
Appetite gone.
So I am not sure if my food was really gross, or the people eating there turned the food on me. Who knows.
Stupid bottom-less fries. I didn't even get to take advantage of you.

The next day I cooked Kevin a hearty breakfast since toast just wasn't doing it for him.

We then went on our biking adventure up Snow Canyon. It was a good (but tough) ride. It was around 5 miles of continuous uphill and then you looped around and had 12 or so miles of downhill on a nice paved trail! It was like a roller coaster at some parts with really steep downhills and then steep uphills right after. It was fun. It made the hard ride uphill all worth it.
In total, it was a 17.14 mile ride that took us around an hour and half to complete.

After our bike ride we went and played some tennis. Kevin won.

And then we went and razored again.

Kevin got himself in a little pickle and I only thought it was funny because I was out of the razor videoing. He would almost tip the thing trying to get out and would let out a little "Yelp!" I am pretty sure if I was in there I would have been screaming a little "Yelp!"
I am actually pretty good when I ride with him. He goes pretty darn fast and sometimes I have to close my eyes because I am too scared to see what will happen next. It doesn't work that well. My hands are pretty worn out by the end of the day from holding on so tight. He loves to get that one really scared scream out of me and is determined to get it at least once every time we razor. Once it happens, he is satisfied. Sadly, he knows the real ones from the fake ones.

Since it was Halloween, we went and ate at Cafe Rio. They go great together. They even had a bowl of candy so we felt like we got to partake somewhat of Halloween.

Kevin hates scary movies. And when I say scary, I mean somewhat scary. He thought The Sixth Sense was horribly scary. Since that is probably the least scary movie I could think of, I made him watch it with me in Halloween spirit. He still got scared.

We were welcomed on our way home with this:

Winter is upon us!

homemade refried beans (healthy version)

2011-10-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

And yet again I have no after picture. I just get so excited. And hungry.

I have been wanting to make homemade refried beans for some time now. Kevin fell in love with them on our trips to Mexico. He would eat refried beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
But I did not want to put bacon grease or lard in it (like 1/2 cup!). That fat is probably what Kevin loves about it, but Im pretty sure if I saw that much lard or grease go into anything, I would feel sick.
But I will gladly eat refried beans made at any Mexican restaurant since I don't have to watch them make it :).

People these are good. Flavorful and good.

Healthy Refried Beans

1 T olive oil
4 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 C diced carrots (about 4 med carrots)
1 diced onion
2 cans beans, rinsed and drained
1 3.5oz can green chilies
2 cans low-sodium beef broth
1 t kosher salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 t chili powder
1/4 t cumin
1/2 t dry oregano leaves
1 bay leaf

Saute onion, carrots and garlic in olive oil for 3-5 minutes.
Add the rest of ingredients and simmer for 25 minutes.
Remove bay leaf.
Puree in blender until completely smooth.
Enjoy!
Sprinkle cheese, or melt cheddar cheese on top.

These beans are awesome alongside these:

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

1.5 lbs pork or chicken, cooked and shredded
Sauce:
1/3 c honey
1/4 c lime juice
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 (10 oz) cans green enchilada sauce
Flour tortillas
Shredded cheddar & mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix honey, lime juice and garlic powder in bowl. Combine with chicken and let marinate for 3 hours or more (overnight is even better).
In 2 baking pans, pour enough enchilada sauce to cover bottom.
Fill flour tortillas with chicken and cheese and place on sauce.
Pour remainder of sauce on top and cover with cheese. Use a lot of cheese! The more the better!
Cook for 30 minutes.
Broil the top for 2 minutes or until the cheese is browned and crispy.
Let sit for 5 minutes. They are better when they have settled.
This recipe could make two pans of enchiladas or one. It all depends on how much chicken you want to stuff in them enchiladas.

And now I am off to St. George for a fun weekend with my hubs.
Peace out.

perfect roast chicken

2011-10-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

And I have no after pretty pictures, it was gone before I even thought to take a picture!

Found this Ina Garten recipe online. Looked easy enough. And it was! I will be making this over and over and over and over again.

Roast Chicken

1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
1 lemon, quartered
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges ( I didn't add this, and it was still awesome)
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Pat the outside of the chicken dry so the salt + pepper and butter will stick to make a nice crusty top.
Generously sprinkle salt + pepper all over chicken and inside cavity.
Fill the cavity with the fresh thyme, lemon quarters and garlic.
Brush melted butter all over chicken and then again sprinkle with salt + pepper.
Tie the legs together with some kitchen string (you want those legs close to the body so they will not get burnt), and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken.
In your oven-proof pan, toss carrots,onion and extra thyme with the olive oil and sprinkle will salt + pepper. Place the chicken on top.
Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove chicken and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes.
Enjoy!
You'll probably want to eat the whole chicken in one sitting between just the two of you; we did.

starting with a donut

2011-10-26T20:40:00.001-07:00

Before we went on our morning mountain bike sesh, we decided to go and grab a donut for breakfast. I have been wanting to go to a new local donut shop near our house called Daylight Donuts. We both got the big bear claw. It was the biggest one they had. It was perfect before our big ride.
It was a bit chilly this morning (40 F) but it was a beautiful time to bike. The leaves were all over the trail and the dirt for riding was perfect. This might have been one of our best rides together just yet. We both were feeling good, and me extra good since all my bike training was paying off and I was able to keep up with Kevin uphill. Granted, his bike is a lot heavier than mine (its a great handicap), but I was still proud. I still quite can't keep up him with downhill; but I'd rather be alive at the end of the trail then not. Don't want this to happen again.

bring on the bike race!!

2011-10-26T06:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, my mother-in-law's sister-in-law and myself (phewf) had our big bike race in St. George. I'd like to say it was our 60 miler, but it ended up being only 54 miles. I'm not sure how they lost those 6 miles...but they did.
My other sister-in-law even came to cheer us on with her cute new pregnant belly.
When we got to St. George we planned on driving the course of the race so we knew what we were getting ourselves into. Boy was that a bad idea. Do not do that before any kind of race. For some reason driving the hills on the course made them seem pretty long and hefty to us. We started to rethink this whole thing. We all started to chyme in:
"The 30 mile race is looking pretty good...heck the 10 mile race is looking dang good...Are we sure we want to go big and do the 60 miler...?"
But then we realized we were tuff, had trained, and could totally take the hefty hills and all.
So we went on with our plan to dinner at Xetava to have our nice healthy meal before the race. We don't really believe in carbo-loading, so we opted for fish and shrimp. It was delicious! But then we decided we need to carbo-load on bread pudding. And it was goooood.
We then of course had to get into the hot tub to relax all of our muscles. And to have girl talk.
With every thing done and said in preparation for the race, we all headed to bed.
I called my husband who then turned into my coach.
Oh did I not tell you there was $100 on the line? Oh yes. The Brower's, nay the Brower boys, thrive on competition. Especially when it's between their wives.

"Ok Mal, did you eat enough?"
"Go eat something right now, you want to have plenty of energy."
"You know Shalane is in the other room right now planning with Daniel how to win."
"It's all in your head Mal, all in your head."
"Go drink 5 glasses of water right now. You want to be hydrated."

"Ok, I now have to get some sleep Kevin...gotta get off the phone now...love you...gotta go...goodniiiiiight..."

We got all our bikes ready, on the rack and ready to go in the morning (without our husbands mind you).
Took some pictures before the race.
And we were off!!

SO much cheese.

The course ended up not being as bad as we had imagined. This was good. We all felt great! They had two pit-stops along the way to refill water bottles and grab some energy. There also was some talk with a tattoo-covered, half-naked Ironman guy who had also done triathlons, biathlons, and I won't bore you with everything else. He sure bored us. But his tattoos were cool.

We biked into Arizona. Yep it was a duo-state race. Big deal.

My bum started to go numb. So did my hands.

Then came the last 5 mile leg of the race.
"I should talk to Shalane about this whole race/money deal..." I thought.
Wabaam.
There she went.
At a stop light she saw the opportunity and took it. Darn her.
I look back at Lorna and go "And there she goes."
I tried to catch back up with here, oh boy did I try. I do not know how she got so far ahead; so far ahead uphill.
My body told me the race was about to be over, and it would like to be done. Please.
Shalane had won, I had lost out on $100 and a nice dinner at Zermott I had planned on spending it on.

We made it to the finish line. And I pumped my fist into the air to show how excited I was to be done.
And to punch Shalane.
I kid.

I then called Kevin.

Everyone was laughing hearing my side of the conversation. Kevin could not believe it. His wife had lost to his brothers wife.
He demanded a rematch. I said give me a few months.

After a much needed shower to get all the chain grease off my legs and a nap, we all headed to our "We did it!" dinner at Anasazi Steakhouse. It was just what we needed.
Cheese fondue.
Beef filet, scallops and shrimp cooked right on our own hot rock.
Chocolate, Toblerone chocolate, fondue.
It was all so tasty.
If your in St. George, and looking for a nice place to eat, this is it.
But do share. Between the five of us we got two cheeses, two main entrees, and two chocolates and were completely stuffed at the end.

It was a great girls trip.
We were all so proud of our accomplishment. And despite all the talk, Kevin was too.

alpine loop

2011-10-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been blogging as much lately. But here are some pictures to let you know we are alive and well!

pan roasted chicken

2011-10-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

I am always looking for new ways to cook meat. Ways that make the cut juicer, more tender and all around better. I found this recipe on how to cook chicken on the Williams Sonoma Blog. It worked really well with a few adjustments. The chicken was very flavorful and juicy.

Pan Roasted Chicken

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (they recommend breast halves with wings, but I got the thighs because they were cheaper. I got three large thighs for $3.00)
2 Tbs olive oil
Kosher salt + ground pepper
whatever seasoning you want to use (I used Spade L Ranch fish & seafood seasoning)

Preheat oven to 400 F
Rub chicken with 1 Tb olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper, then rub on seasoning of choice.
In an ovenproof pan roaster or saute pan over medium-high heat, warm the 1 Tb olive oil and brown the chicken on each side.
Place the pan in the oven and roast until completely cooked through.

This is where I had to play around with the time. The recipe called for 10 to 15 minutes. It seems to me that recipes always downplay the time needed to cook. I swear they do this so it looks like it will be done in a jiffy. Well let me tell you Williams Sonoma: it took my chicken twice as long to cook. So my thighs cooked for a good 30-35 minutes until they were thoroughly cooked. Or my problem could be my whack oven; who knows?

Please remember to use an oven mit when taking the pan out of the oven. Please. Grabbing a 400 degree pan hurts. It hurts bad.

Once roasted, transfer chicken to cutting board, cover loosely with foil and let sit for 5 min before cutting into it. You don't want those yummy juices to run away!
Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and enjoy.

Also, I know that chicken with the skin on is "bad" for you, higher in fat, calories... yada yada. But the skin and bone-in are important for chicken. This keeps the chicken moist and flavorful. Good restaurants (the one I work at) only use skin-on, bone-in chicken. It's the way to go. And when I was at the store, it was cheaper. Win win.
And if you still don't want to eat the "bad" part, don't; take it off after it cooks.
Win win win.

Hadley thinks I'm Jesus

2011-10-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was able to spend a lot of time with my two nieces and sister due to them staying up here with my mom while the boys went to Lake Powell. Watching two little girls was hard with the three of us. How does my sister do it?! There was constant taking out of toys, playing with toys, throwing toys and cleaning up of toys to go around.

We took little (almost 2!) Hadley to Snogression to see how she would handle it. She loved it. She was jumping like she was born to jump. She would watch the boys go off the ramp and yell "Kenin!!!!" (Thats her form of Kevin). She knows what he does. Then Kevin would come over and show her some tricks on the tramp and she would go crazzzzzyyyyy. She would clap and yell "WOW!" We even taught her to do a back flip. Ok, maybe it was just a somersault. But a backflip is next.

It is fun to hear her say all of our names.
Grandpa = Paki (we have nooo idea where this came from) or Randy. She heard my mom say it, so she started to say it.
Grandma = Mimi
Kevin = Kenin
Malorie = Maroree
Tyler = Ty
She loves looking at old family pictures of us and pointing out us and saying our names. She recently noticed the family pictures above the fire place and started naming all of us. She did good until she got to me.
"Jesus."
Hmm.
Not real sure why she thought I was Jesus. Was it my hair? My angelic smile? My holy hallow above my head? We will never know. I'll just take it as a compliment for now.

And here are some pictures of cute Afton. She's 4 weeks old. Still so little!

Chili Chocolate Chili

2011-10-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

This recipe is supposed to be called Chipotle Chocolate Chili. Since me and Kev are not fans of heat, I opted out the chipotle sauce. But I did keep the chili powder in it, so hence the name CHILI Chocolate Chili. I wanted to make sure you didn't think I was special and just accidentally wrote chili twice.

Due to the recent cold weather, The crock-pot has been used non-stop. I love the smell of something yummy cooking all day, especially something warm on a cold, supposedly-fall day.

I wanted to make some homemade chili and I happened upon this recipe. It said chocolate in it and that was all I needed. I did change it quite a bit though. They used ground turkey, but this stuff just drives me nuts. Why does everyone think ground turkey is soo much better for you than ground beef? It's not. More times then not it has more sodium added to increase flavor. Hold the sodium and "natural flavoring", I want my ground beef. Just always get the lean ground beef. I also took out the cumin, because that tastes like dirt to me. And opted out the extra cans of diced tomatoes and kidney beans: I have a small crock-pot. I was hesitant to add the chili powder but am glad I added it. Just adds great flavor, not heat. And I added corn because I like it.

Chili Chocolate Chili (Crockpot Style)

1 1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 red (or green) bell pepper, minced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 15-oz. cans diced tomatoes
1 14.5-oz. cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz. can beef broth
1 can corn
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped (optional; use to taste as needed; be careful, because too much will make your chili bitter)
3-4 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

sour cream
Chopped green onions
Shredded cheddar cheese

Heat oil and sauté onions. Add beef and cook until cooked through. When cooked through, add brown sugar and cocoa powder and stir until evenly coated. Add to crockpot. Saute chopped bell pepper in some oil; add to crock pot. Add tomatoes, beans, corn, beef broth, salt and pepper and stir.
Let this cook on high for an hour or two.
Add red wine vinegar and unsweetened chocolate. Add more of these if you want to play with the flavor. But be careful with the chocolate, you don't want your chili to become bitter and muddy.
Cook on high for another hour.

Adapted from here.

free gift certificate. say whaaaaat?

2011-10-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

Yep here is a free $25 gift certificate to my restaurant The Wild Rose.
All you have to do is click on this and print.
Easy Peasy.
IT IS FREE PEOPLE!

Tell em I sent ya.

recipe: homemade herb focaccia bread

2011-09-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

My In-laws recently came home from a trip to Tuscany. They brought us home some amazing Olio Extra Vergine di Olivia, a.k.a. Olive Oil. Since I am only going to use it for dipping bread, I knew I needed to make some special bread to go with it.
I introduce you to the yummiest focaccia bread ever!!

And if I could make it, you can make it! I have a lot of trouble over here with bread and, well, baking in general. But I figured out the problem!! My oven is retarded. I bought an oven thermometer so now I can adjust the temperature to the temperature I really need. Its been off by a good 25-50 degrees for who knows how long. Hallelujah!

This dipped in olive oil straight from Tuscany and balsamic vinegar = happy Mal.

Herb Focaccia Bread

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 large clove garlic, finely minced
3/4 teaspoon dried rosemary or 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or 1/2 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup warm water

In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), mix the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Mix in the garlic and herbs. Pour in the water and olive oil and mix until the dough comes together, by hand or with a dough hook attachment, if using a stand mixer. Knead the dough until it has pulled away from the sides of the bowl, about 4-6 minutes. The dough should be soft and pliable but not overly stiff.

Cover the bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 30 minutes, until it is puffy. Deflate dough and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly grease a large, rimmed baking sheet and with your hands, spread the dough out roughly an 8″x10″ rectangle. Use your knuckles or fingertips to make indentations over the dough, about every 1/2 inch. Lightly brush dough’s surface with olive oil and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Immediately after removing from the oven, stir together 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt and brush over the surface of the hot bread.

Recipe from here

it's official.

2011-09-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

So I finally got my diploma framed. I kept it in the DO NOT FOLD package it came in through the mail to constantly remind me to DO NOT FOLD. I am not good with official documents. When I was handed our Marriage Certificate after we sealed the deal, they told me it was better if the wife took care of this important paper.
Boy did I fool them!
For some reason I thought it would be ok if I rolled it up and put in in my purse. This later became all rolled up and crinkled in my purse. When my mom later asked for it so she could frame it, I am sure she was not surprised at all when I handed her what looked like "the homework my dog had eaten." I don't know what Wendy (the framer) did to make it look normal again but she delivered! It probably involved an iron.

When I got this in the mail, Kevin told me to be careful.
"This is the most expensive piece of paper you will ever handle," he said.
And boy is that true.
But then I got thinking...Shouldn't this be printed on gold or a copper plate ( I mean c'mon we have one the the largest copper mines right here in the valley)? Or, at least, hard card-stock. Ten cent printer paper is just not cuttin' it for me.
C'MON!
At least the seal on it makes it look good.

I get a lot of questions from people after I tell them I am a graduate. They ask "So what are you going to do with it now?!" "What is your career path?" "How old are you?"
Now let me answer these for you.
I am old enough to be a graduate. I am 23 years of age, not 18 or 19 or 14 for that matter.
For now, I am happy with the job I have now. I know it is not related to my degree in any manner. But I like it. I get good money. I work good hours. My Boss is a great guy and extremely generous and I work with great people. What's not to like?

"Why would I go to college and spend all that hard work just so I could be a waitress now?!"
Well, to be honest I have never seen myself as a career lady. Thinking of sitting at a desk, answering a phone all day gives me anxiety. That is not something I want to do. I like to move and interact while I work. With my job, I do just this.

I went to school so I could experience college, earn a degree (for if anything were to happen to Kevin, I could get a real job), push myself, learn, interact with students my age, learn how to be independent, and gain respect for myself. And I did just this. So I am happy. It is quite an accomplishment to graduate from college, so I don't really appreciate when people counter that statement with "Well you didn't do anything with it..."

I went with a degree that I could use for the rest of my life, something that interested me, and will continue to interest me. I use my degree every day.

And one day I want to be a mom and only a mom.

And a thank you.

recipe: stuffed peppers

2011-09-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

Kevin really loved these! And BONUS...they were easy!

Stuffed Bell Peppers

4 green bell peppers
1-2 lbs lean ground beef
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
EVOO
1/2 cup uncooked jasmine* rice
1 can tomato soup
2 TB Worcestershire sauce
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
salt and pepper (of course)
1 t Italian seasoning
Shredded cheese
Corn (optional, I added it for fun. FUN)

Cook the rice.
Preheat oven to 350.
In the EVOO, sauté the onions 3 minutes. Add ground beef and cook until browned. Add Italian seasoning to beef.
Cut tops off peppers. And bottom if they don't stand up on own.
Combine worcestershire, garlic & onion powder, salt & pepper with tomato soup.
Fill half full with beef, cover with sauce, corn, then cheese. Repeat.
Easy-peasy.

Bake for 35 min-60 minutes. My oven is retarded and makes its own rules. Really just bake until warm throughout and cheese on top is a nice golden brown.

*Ok am I the only one to recently discover jasmine rice? IT. IS. SO. GOOD. Geeze, I have been using regular rice for so long and have been constantly disappointed whenever I cook it. Well look no further Malorie! Jasmine rice is here. Always good. Always fluffy. Always flavorful. I am forever hooked.

vote for her

2011-09-25T20:41:00.001-07:00

Here is my cute friend Kaitlin. Isn't she the cutest pregnant momma?
I think you should vote for her in this hot mamma/baby bump contest.
If she wins, she gets a dream nursery and $500 to help with the many baby costs (ha, like I would know...but I can imagine.).
She wants to give the prize to her brother and sister-in-law who just found out their baby has Spina bifida.
This is a congenital disorder where the neural tube does not completely develop and fuse together.

She could use your vote!!

Go here and vote now!
You can vote every day until the 29th. Do it.

unbroken

2011-09-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

Ok this is the best book I have read in a long, long, long time. It might be my all-time favorite. I am only half-way through it, even though I could have read it in a day. I am making myself read it sloowwww so I can cherish it. This is hard since I am a professional book skimmer.

I find myself constantly chuckling out loud, this Louis Zamperini (I could say that name over and over again, and I have...) was one funny guy. Books that make me chuckle are good books.

Its so good that I have been having to share it with Kevin. I just can't stop myself. Now Kevin is realizing that he will want to read this book someday so he has begged me to stop telling him about it. But I can't hold it in. I find myself blurting out:

"Ahhh Kevin he did ______!"
"________ happened on their mission, can you believe it!"
"Ahhh man Kevin he just pulled ______ prank on him! ha!"
"Kevin, there are sharks! SHARKS!!"
"HE CAN FEEL THE SHARKS UNDERNEATH THEM!"
"A great white SHARK, Kevin!"
"A BOMBER!!"
"Kevin this book is so good!"

I feel like I have whats called Unbroken Tourette's Syndrome.
Poor Kevin can't take it anymore. He just walks away now.

Image via

treats treats treats

2011-09-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

I am usually a cookie kind of girl but lately I have been on a brownie and bar rampage. Rampage I tell you. I just barely came upon these things called brownies. I had forgotten about this easy, yummy dessert until someone said the word "Brownie" at work and all the glorious, delicious memories came flooding back. How did I ever forget about these things?

I usually don't have someone to share my treats with since husband isn't the biggest fan of treats (why!? why!? WHY!?), but since we are Patrick-sitting, treat making is fun again! He loves my late night treat making. Hooray!

I came upon this recipe because my sister-in-law accidentally left her batch of these bars with us for a night. And boy did we enjoy them for the small amount of time they were with us. The next morning when she took them away, I had to make my own. They were too good.

Oatmeal Chocolate Caramel Bars

*Makes 9X13-inch pan of bars

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup melted butter

14 ounce bag of caramels
1/2 cup whipping cream or milk
1 12-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degree. Mix the first six ingredients together and sprinkle half on the bottom of a 9X13-inch baking pan. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, melt the caramels and whipping cream or milk in a saucepan over low heat or in the microwave at 50% power, stirring often, until the mixture is smooth. When the bars have been removed from the oven, sprinkle the chocolate chips over the crust and pour the melted caramel over the top. Sprinkle the rest of the crust over the top and bake in the oven for an additional 10-12 minutes, until the caramel is bubbling and edges are lightly browned. Cool the bars completely before serving so they can set up properly.

Recipe via here

we love us some texas roadhouse

2011-09-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

After a long days of work at Snogression, we decided to treat ourselves and little Patrick to some good ol' steak. Kevin loves the prime rib and usually I just share it with him, but today I opted for the sirloin. And boy was it good. I of course had to have my ketchup with it...Ketchup always goes with steak. Always.

Thats an action shot of me a sqeezin the ketchup out. Oh yeah. And an awkward picture of me taking a picture of myself so I could prove that I was there too.

Why is this place always crazy and loud? We got stuck with this huge birthday party who loved screaming and singing. My Great Aunt Katie (who is 94) once took me and Kevin out to dinner and instead of Golden Coral (thank goodness) she opted for Texas Roadhouse because "You kids love loud places like this!" No, not even us Aunt Katie.

And why do the seaters that take you to your table always have to converse with you? It's like buddy, I don't want to talk to you, just take me to my table, my day has been fine thank you and yes I have been here before. Yada yada yada. And the walk to the table is sooo long. Your too social Texas Roadhouse, too social. Good thing you have good food.

fresh pickins'

2011-09-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

Me and Ellie had ourselves a little adventure in Grandma's garden. While I took pictures, she picked and ate, picked and ate and ate some more. She loved the tomatoes. I'd show her how to take the stems off and throw them to the ground before eating and she would take them off and eat them as well. She doesn't like to waste.

Get that bum outta ma face!!

Benny definitely stole that peach out of Ellie's hand right after this picture was taken. No good Benny, no good.

its open!!!

2011-09-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

For all you experienced skiers and snowboarders out there - this is the place for you!
And for all you wannabe skiers and snowboarders out there - the tramps here are the place for you!
I love the tramps.
There are four.
On multiple levels.

Heres the teaser:

snogression from snogression. on Vimeo.

Come and play.

baby tipton

2011-09-18T19:17:00.001-07:00

Afton Grace Tipton
September 17, 2011
6 lbs 11 ounces

For my first niece, I wasn't able to be there for the birth. So I made it a goal to be there for baby #2.
It was a surprise last Saturday morning when my mom texted me " LABOR!! "
Not knowing what to expect I rushed up to the hospital. When I got to the Labor & Delivery floor I expected to walk in the doors with woman screaming, babies crying and nurses running around.
But it was the opposite. It was calm and quiet. My sister was the only one there.
When I got there, the RN nurse was predicting that Chelsey would have the baby around 7:00 pm that night. This was a bummer since I had work that night and would have to leave around 4:00.
Thirty minutes past and the doctor was getting concerned for the baby. Her heartbeat was dropping and taking a while to stabilize after every contraction. He told Chelsey that she would have to have a C-section just like her first, Hadley. He started the prep.
She did not want this. She really had been hoping for a V-back. She told the doctor she wanted to wait it out and see if the babies heartbeat got better. So with her determination and the help of the nurse, within 25 minutes of pushing and changing positions, the baby was ready! The nurse paged the doctor but another patient had just walked in and needed a quick delivery. So we had to wait 15 minutes for the doctor to come and deliver the baby. It was pretty exciting knowing the baby was going to be here in only minutes.
Afton Grace Tipton was then delivered within 3 minutes of the doctor walking in the door.
It was an amazing experience.
My sister did awesome and her determination to do what she knew was right for her and her baby was inspiring.
I got teary-eyed when I first laid eyes on Afton. It was a teary-eyed moment.

This whole experience made having a baby seem do-able. I think it was good for me to see an easy-going labor. Makes me still want to have a baby. I know not all labor and deliveries go this smoothly, but lets just say they do for my sake ok?

Afton we are so happy you made it! We all love you so much already.

my husbands baby and all my doings

2011-09-07T14:12:00.000-07:00

We haven't been up to much lately. Kevin has been working like ca-razy. His baby and business Snogression is planning on opening this weekend! This means 12-14 hour days for him. What does this mean for me? A lot of biking, swimming, TRX-ing, cooking, cleaning, reading, working and no Kevin time besides sleeping time. Who said having your own business would be fun??! Oh wait, no one.

This summer I started road biking, and fell in love. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I go early, and by early l mean 6:30 am! early, and bike 12-14 miles on the Porter Rockwell Trail. We started now doubling the trail and doing 24 miles. We are getting ready for a St. Geroge 60 mile race in October. I just barely bought some bike shorts with pads, so maybe I can now go over bumps without my brain feeling like its going to bounce out of my head. Hopefully it will make my bum feel better also, even though I think I might just have a callused butt now.

Late summer meant the outdoor pools weren't crazy busy, so I decided to do some swimming. It's been nice to get my swimming groove back. I swam for Skyline's swim team all three years of going there. Once I graduated I had had my share of swimming. Getting up at 5:30 every other morning, swimming for two hours, then yet again having another two hour practice after school every day deemed enough for me. Just now (5 years later) am I feeling like I can get some more swimming in. I even took Kevin with me once and taught him some skills.
"Ha!" he said to me when I told him we were going swimming; me teaching him, a professional athlete, who is good at everything. Laughable he thought. I just told him water is different and not being able to breath while you workout is a little different too.
And boy did I show him. I killed him. Especially in the kicking department. He looked like he wasn't even moving.
It was a humbling experience for him.

One thing I have learned from TRX strength training: My arms are weak. And I have a hard time conversing at 6:00 am.

Currently I am reading:

Fallen (A cheesy vampire-like book that keeps me entertained at work during the slow hours)

Sugar Nation (The hidden truth behind America's deadliest habit and the simple way to beat it!!!)

Currently I am painting:

Yup. Thats a paint by numbers. But you will probably notice like Kevin that I went for speed rather than 'painting within the lines'. I get so impatient.

Currently Cooking:

A lot of homemade bread with bromate-free flour. Because bromate is bad. I use King Arthur Bread Flour. Read this if you want to learn more.

And thats it.

late night snack

2011-09-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

My mom recently gave me some fresh tomatoes out of Farmer Mel's garden and some fresh basil out of hers. She then told me to make some open-face sandwiches. She even offered to give us cheese. My mom always spoils us.

These delights were my dad's signature dish when we were little. If my mom was gone one night and he was on dinner duty, he would make these.
Another dish of his: buttered noodles with parmesan sprinkled on top and canned stewed tomatoes.
These always went together. These were common dinners in the Moser household growing up.
And now they have resurfaced. We just might be having buttered noodles for dinner tonight Kevin.
Yumdeliyumptious.

Open-faced Sandwiches

bread
cheese
sliced tomatoes
salt & pepper
basil (optional)

Put the oven to Broil. Place the cheese on the bread and place on a slotted cookie sheet.
Watch carefully, it only takes a minute or so. Then place the sliced tomatoes on top, sprinkle with salt & pepper and enjoy!

sometimes in april

2011-09-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

I somehow found this amazing movie on Netflix. I can honestly say it is as good as Hotel Rwanda. And boy is that saying a lot because do I love that movie.
This portrayal of the genocide in Rwanda leaves you wondering how we never did anything; how the Rwandan government could be so corrupt; and how the Rwandan people could be so easily persuaded by government officials and their radio to kill one million people.
This movies gives a good history lesson at the beginning so you understand the history leading up to the genocide.
But I warn you, by the end of the movie you are emotionally drained.
It is hard to believe that this all happened in me and Kevin's lifetime. The violent beginning started in 1994! This is very recent history.
During one part they show the U.S. news and how everyone was worried and interested in the suicide of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. I don't remember this (I was 6), but Kevin remembered.
"Oh that was when that happened?!"
I asked him if he remembered learning about the happenings in Rwanda. He hadn't.

It is so sad that politics over-rided helping a million people not be slaughtered during this time.

When we woke up this morning, the first thing Kevin said to me was:
"What are we going to do about Rwanda?"
He gets so emotionally involved in movies its cute.
I think he now wants to adopt a Rwandan baby.

I recommend this movie to everyone. Go get it now!

someone's got a crush

2011-08-31T21:16:00.001-07:00

So recently we remembered that we had a blockbuster card. And that lots of times redbox does not have the greatest of movies. Well, we found out that blockbuster has $1 movies as well for one night, and a much better selection. Booyah.
And then we quickly remembered why we didn't like going to blockbuster.
You see, there's this guy there that likes to follow me around.
He loves to tell me all the possible sales and deals they have going on at that time.
And then he continues to follow us, put movies away and asks if we need help finding anything.
And then he is at the cash register when we are ready to check out; where he continues to somehow find more deals to tell me about. And then he tells me:
"Have I ever told you you look like Kate Bosworth?"
"Uhh, yeah I have gotten that before..." Didn't want to burst his bubble that he actually has told me that before.

I wish I could see the resemblance. I think its the big (I prefer high) cheekbones. That has got to be it...

Well we finally lose him at the door and as I walk out, I turn to Kevin and say:
"I think someone's got a little crush..."
"Yeah, your definitely not going their alone. ever." Husband did not like it one bit.

recipe: parmesan cheese knots

2011-08-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Easy and delicious! And I love rhodes dough because it rises so well. Me and rising have a love, no, hate relationship.

Parmesan Cheese Knots

12 Rhodes Texas™ Rolls, thawed but still cold
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 cup butter, melted

Roll each roll into a 9-inch rope. Tie in a knot. In a bowl, combine cheese, parsley and garlic salt. Dip each knot in melted butter and then in cheese mixture. Place in a sprayed 12 cup muffin tin. Cover with sprayed plastic wrap and let rise until double in size. Remove wrap and bake at 350°F 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

sundays with ellie

2011-08-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

On Sundays we like to take Ellie so A) her parents can go to church and enjoy all their meetings and B) so we have an excuse not to go to church.
Oh I am kidding, we go.
Luckily our meetings are set up nicely so we go to church at 9, they go at 1.

We decided today would be a good day for Baby Marathon. We fed her plenty of carbs and prepped her for what lay ahead. We took her down to the little wetland park we have in our neighborhood and showed her her race track.
And off she went!
She walked all by herself for the longest time. We were quite impressed. We wanted to see how long she could do it and she made it all the way back to the parking lot. This was where the wall was hit. She just stopped and gave a grunt of "Up!"
She was done. She didn't necessarily finish strong, but we will take it.
Us Browers like to train our little ones young. She will be running Baby Marathons in no time.

Untitled from Mal Brower on Vimeo.

She loved the ducks at the park and would make duck noises (or so we assumed) as they swam by.

We also enjoyed the duck's famous sport of Synchronized Duck-butting.
This little group of duck-butters was quite good.

a day of wedding

2011-08-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

Ok. I just burnt my thumb waaayyy bad making frozen pizza for Kevin. Holy hannah. And I only said shoot. Can I get an amen!?!

Anyways.

My cousin Trista got married to her one and only on saturday. This was the first time I got to meet this Patrick Van Hoosen of hers. Good thing I like him.

My family is funny, especially my dad. My favorite part of the day was after the beautiful ceremony as me and my family were walking out on the temple grounds. I was saying that I liked this Patrick guy and my dad turns to me and goes:

"Who's Patrick?"

Yeah.

Well I am glad we got things all figured out before we went to the reception.

The reception was at the beautiful Loggia garden at Thanksgiving Point. It was a bit scary driving there with rain pouring down and thunder crashing, but they really lucked out and the rain stopped just in time. They really are meant for each other! C'mon, we all know we think that.

"Baby you have chicken in your teeth. Let me get that."
Yep they are married now.

Such a cute couple! Oh yeah, you too Kailey and Deely.

My cousin's boy Bentley. Check out that red hair!

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Van Hoosen! I know you will have a happy life together!

i now want some fried chicken

2011-08-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

I demanded the husband take Friday off of work so he could get some much needed Mal time in. And he did. I didn't think it would be that easy. But I guess when you plan a fun day, husbands just cant resist.

I started it off with a good breakfast of sausage and eggs for him, protein shake for me.

We then went and saw an 11:30 am showing of The Help.
Wow is this a crazy time to see a movie. You get a whole different crowd. Kevin was such a great husband for going with me: he was the only guy in the theater (I bribed him into going with me by our next activity of the day).

We both enjoyed this movie. I recommend it to everyone. It made me think of fried chicken all day. I might just have to make me some of that southern goodness soon. real soon.
Oh yeah I did try to read the book about a year ago. But I could not for the life of me get over the thick southern drawl used. It was 20x worse in the book than the movie. I got headaches reading it, so I gave up. I'm horrible I know.

So onto the next activity: Kennecott Copper Mine. You might think Kevin came up with this one, but in all honesty, I did. Kevin was quite impressed. I read in National Geographic that you could see it from space. Bull-crap I replied. I needed to see it to believe it (I had never been). So to see it we went.

This place is huge! I still don't know if I truly believe you can see it from space ( I mean c'mon...space? I must think space is a lot farther than it really is, or so Kevin tells me), but it truly is grand. What really made me giggle was how big the dump trucks were. Kevin was like those are huge!!! Look at those!!! I didn't believe him and didn't understand how big they were until I saw the little midgets walking around them. I for some reason thought this was hilarious and got the giggles and tears in the eyes. Oh the things that make me laugh.

We learned that these dump trucks are the size of two story houses.
They can carry up to 320 tons of mined rock.
And they get 1/3 mile per gallon.
They go through 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel a day (for the whole mining operation). Phewf.
We both just sat and watched these go back and forth for quite some time.

We also learned how exactly the copper and other elements are mined.
Fascinating.
I really recommend visiting. It was a great learning experience.
And your husband will love you forever because he is so happy. Watching Kevin there was like watching a kid in a toy store. He could not get enough and I loved it.

I mean look how small those guys are!!! Midgets I tell you. They hire only midgets here.

Kevin wanted to take a picture through the huge bino's. Great picture huh?

$25,000 per tire. per year. crazy.

struuuberry jam

2011-08-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

I made strawberry (freezer) jam.
It was so darn easy. Why have I not done this before?
Homemade jam makes store bought jam taste like fart. ok not that bad, but you get the idea.
It makes any peanut butter and jelly 10x better.
And don't even get me started on how good it is on homemade bread right out of the oven.
Up next: peach jam.

kevins cheesecake

2011-08-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

For Kevin's birthday this year I gave him two options for his cake:

1) Costco All-American Chocolate Cake
-or-
2) anything else.

I hoped this would spark his mind in remembrance of how good the Costco chocolate cake was.
But lo and behold, he wanted a cheesecake.
So I had my mom make it.
Because who knows how mine would have turned out.

And little miss Hadley is still afraid of birthday candles.

my mammut boy

2011-08-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

This is the husbands latest ad for Mammut:

Go husband!!! I'm so proud :)

ciao bella

2011-08-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

I am not a huge italian food fan. Pasta is too much for me most of the time.
I can handle cheese-filled ravioli and alfredo sauce but other than that, no thank you.
Spaghetti, forget about it (but I will eat the meatballs).

Well tonight I wanted to make something with pesto and something with shrimp. The only recipe I could find was a creamy pesto shrimp on linguine. And for some weird reason, it sounded good. Pasta sounded good. I must be pregnant. Hah totally kidding. Sorry Mom.
So I went for it. But I changed the recipe up a bit to take out the large amounts of unneeded fats.

Creamy Pesto Shrimp

Shrimp
linguine pasta
1 cup half and half
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 1/2 Tb olive oil
salt + pepper to taste
pesto* (add as much as you want, I just kept adding until I was happy)

Cook your noodles for 8-10 minutes. Drain.

In a skillet, cook the half and half, olive oil and salt + pepper for 6-8 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the parmesan cheese and pesto. Add the shrimp and cook for 5 minutes or until pink. Cook until your sauce is at your desired consistency.

Pour sauce over noodles and enjoy! Delicious!

*I just used the pesto from Costco. I tried making my own but failed miserably. I think it was cheaper just buying the Costco version.

Adapted from this recipe.

lunch in the park

2011-08-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoons = lunch in the park.
And husband getting creative with the camera.

kevin & alta

2011-08-11T07:47:00.001-07:00

This is my husbands and nieces relationship:
They fight and he teases her incessantly.
This is her getting in his face probably saying "No Kevin! Don't do that!"
This happens every time they get together, I love it.