Iron Chef Glover - Mushroom

I am back down in Dallas...this time for over a week! I got in late Friday night and we've already had some excitement. Saturday night, we went to the Dallas Hockey game with the people on Ryan's engagement. Deloitte got a suite so we had comfortable seat and good food. Plus it was an exciting game with a final score of 3-4...way high for a hockey game. We forgot to take a picture at the game, so we took one when we got back:
Now for the main excitement. We had our second Iron Chef Glover Competition. Our secret ingredient was mushrooms. (oh and FYI, one of our favorite cooking shows, "Hell's Kitchen," starts again April 1st).


I made "Maggiano's Stuffed Mushrooms." The ones from Maggiano's are still way better, but it was a start. Ryan used the mushrooms in a pasta. The champion: ERIN. Yay!!!...which means we are 1-1. We decided I won because my dish highlighted the mushroom better (however, it was bit heavy on the breadcrumb topping). Ryan's pasta dish included gorgonzola cheese and it dominated the flavor so you couldn't tell the mushrooms existed.

For Christmas Scott and Lani got us the Iron Chef Glover Chef's hat, so that's what the reigning champion gets. Here is us right after we finished plating (before we decided I won, so Ryan is still has possession of the hat). We had the dishes share a plate this time around. They look pretty good!
We are planning on having another competition this coming Sunday. We would love some recommendations for the secret ingredient (so we've done mushrooms and chicken so far).

Katrina's California Wedding

This last weekend I made the drive down to Corona / San Diego, California for one of my friends wedding's. Katrina is actually the first person I met at BYU freshman year. We lived with each other for a year prior to me getting married and then when Ryan left, she moved in with me again.

On the trip down, I stopped in Baker, CA for a Gyro at the Mad Greek. I saw it on the Food Network's "Diners, Dives and Drive-In's" and decided I should give it a go. The Gyro was huge and good, but over priced. I think I'm content with Gyro's from Apollo Burger. I also got gas while I was there. I'll never understand why people get gas from a gas station that is 20 cents a gallon more expensive than the gas station across the street. I did find that gas is cheapest in Utah, second cheapest in Nevada and most expensive in California...so plan accordingly if you're making the drive.

The wedding went well. The reception was the night before the wedding. I pulled up to Katrina's house right as they were leaving. On the way out the door, Katrina handed me jewelry and sandals and said my skirt had been taken to the reception, so I could change into it there (I was one of the bridesmaids). After just 4 hours of sleep, I got up the next morning and curled Katrina's hair...I think i did a pretty good job (well, she left it up from the night before, so I just did some touch up on the top and then curled the half that was left down). They were sealed in the San Diego Temple at 10am. They are so happy together! Here they are, Josh and Katrina Scott:Luckily, the photographer told her to go around and talk to people right after they got out of the temple, so I was able to get a picture of the two of us on my camera.I'm happy that I was able to be there. She is one of my best friends from college and one that I'll stay in touch with forever...plus they are thinking of moving to Texas after Josh finishes school. The drive back was kinda long, but Ryan was nice enough to talk to me for a huge chunk of it. Now it's back to a semi-normal life for the next couple weeks. I'm excited to not travel anywhere for the next two weekends.

Dallas Visit #3

Originally, we hadn't planned on me going out to Dallas again until Easter weekend, but last Monday we decided to buy me a plane ticket to go down this past weekend. After getting in Friday night, we went to Pei Wei which is one of my favorites. I love their pad thai. Then Saturday morning we drove down to San Antonio for a short visit.

First we went and tried to see the houses that Ryan's family had lived in/built...there was quite a few of them...however, they all now have guards at the entrance to the community and the guards wouldn't let us in, so that was a no go (later that evening we were able to get a family friend to tell the guard to let us in to look at one of the houses). The temple has gates, but no guard, so we went there and a walked around. It's a small temple with only like 15 sessions each week. Then we stopped at Longhorn Grill for some huge hamburgers...they were quite tasty.

We headed to downtown to see the Alamo and the Riverwalk. Who knew...the anniversary of the beginning of the Alamo just happened to be the Saturday we were there (Feb 23rd). They were having a celebration and re-inaction of the battle. Kinda interesting. We also got to walk the river walk in nice weather (oh, so much warmer than Utah) and did a little people watching. There were a lot of air force people in uniform and most were with family, so we think something was going on with that too, but we didn't ask.

We drove back up to Dallas Sunday after Sacrament meeting and stopped in Waco to visit/meet two of Ryan's friends from high school who are both at Baylor University (one's a recruiter and ones in graduate school). It was kinda funny because we had tried stopping by Diane's house in Dallas to visit, but when the guard tried calling their house, no one answered (we tried going two times). The guard kept asking Ryan if he had her cell phone number and Ryan's like nope. So then we're about 30 minutes outside of Waco and Ryan's phone rings...he looks down and says, "oh, Diane Thomas is calling," and answers the phone. Now, you are probably thinking....hmmmm...how does he know it's her if he doesn't have her phone number. Yeah, he definitely did have it stored in his phone the whole time, so all that awkwardness talking to the guards could have totally been avoided.
We spent Sunday night eating some yummy chocolate chip cookies that Aunt Cindy made and cookie dough ice cream and getting our trash kicked at Cranium. It was a fun trip full of good food and no exercise (notice the challenge to the right that I'm most definitely losing).

Snowboarding

I didn't go snowboarding at all last season, so I was excited to be able to go up for a little while this year. Two years ago I took the snowboarding class at BYU (audited it I guess) so when Dana and Michelle came to visit I decided it would be a lot of fun to take them. We went and Michelle ended up with a fracture in her arm...my mom said I sent her home damaged goods...oops.

Anyways, when I first asked if Michelle wanted to go snowboarding while she was here this time, she flat out told me no. However, once she got here, she started warming up to the idea. We went up to Sundance for the midweek twlight time. We all borrowed boards and boots from friends, then for $15 a person we were able to snowboard for 2 hours (2:30 - 4:30). For us, it was perfect. We got up there around 2 and Michelle took her sweet time putting her gear on. Here's the classic pictures of Michelle taking her time and Dana impatiently waiting for her:



Once we got going, we had a blast. I think we all ended up with bruised butts and were sore the next day, but it was worth the fun. Here's the three of us right after our last run down the mountain:

After our fun day, we met up with Log for dinner at my place...I really like this Tortilla Soup recipe I got from Ryan's mom...you just throw everything in the crockpot and it tastes so good!

Well, Michelle is now on her way home, so I guess it's back to school/work until tomorrow when I give my Omniture Competition Presentation then leave for Dallas! I'm excited.

February Fun

My youngest sister Michelle is in town until Thursday and so we've been having some fun. We spent Saturday afternoon making and frosting sugar cookies. They were surprisingly good for such a simple recipe. She was very proud of the one's she decorated.

For Valentines day Ryan sent a ton of boxes that were inside each other each with a different note. He also wanted to get me oreo's, Ben and Jerry's half baked ice cream and flower's, but since he's not here, I was supposed to go get them...I just don't think it's the same to go buy yourself flowers, so I had a hard time with that one. But Michelle and I thought we were pretty clever. We went to Walmart Saturday night and took a picture of me with the three and sent it to Ryan. Haha. We are just so funny. I would have bought the ice cream, but Walmart was out of the right kind. Maybe next time.We went up to the Finley Grandparents for Sunday dinner and it was fun to talk with them and look through pictures of our mom when she was a baby. We were also informed that our Grandpa is now famous. He made the Spanish Fork news paper front page above the fold! He's great!

Dallas Trip (Numero Dos) & the Infamous Tortilla Dessert

For Erin's second trip down to Texas, we got one of Ryan's (and now Erin's) favorite things, hot fresh tortilla from the local grocery store. Something you can only find in Texas. We made our visit to the store and go hot wheat tortillas and cinammon tortillas.

So, I'm sure you are awaiting to hear the concoction we made. We took some amazing hot fudge (made by Uncle Dave) and spread it all over the cinammon tortillas. We then took our favorite ice cream (Half Baked by Ben and Jerry's) and put in on top. We rolled the tortilla and put a nice layer of whip cream on top. It was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!

It was a very fun, relaxing weekend and great to see each other. Erin even made herself a friend while I was at work, Auggie (the Parente's dog). Also, we had the chance to see Gameplan from RedBox and we highly recommend it as a good family movie.

Big Papa Clenches First to 50 Miles Challenge

Big Papa (Ryan's dad) and I have just completed our first to 50 miles nike challenge. Big Papa clenched the victory by running 10.6 miles in about a 24 hours time period...yeah, apparently he has a competitive side and really wanted to beat me. Here are a couple pictures of our champion:



I would like you all to know that I also finished the 50 miles...even on the same day, but waited until the afternoon to run. I've decided that I definitely prefer running in Dallas where the sun shines to Utah where it is snowy, slushy and cold.

If you have an ipod nano, I definitely recommend that you go out and buy the nike running kit (it's basically just a chip you put on your shoe and a thing that sticks in bottom of your nano...it is only compatible with the nano). It costs about $30 for the kit and then you'll probably need a little holder for the chip if you don't have the nike shoes (i think they are ugly and i'm partial to asics). They also make armbands that hold the nano with the nike attachment. Anyways, if you by chance decide to join the club, let me know.