What we did with my family

Mom, Dad, and Courtney were her this weekend, and we had such a great time!  There is nothing I love more than having our family (and friends) come visit us.  (that is a hint to all of you!  Come visit us!)

They got here Thursday night, and on Friday morning, we went to breakfast at Jacks and Joe.  It is a breakfast place right in our neighborhood, and everybody loves it.  We went to the sample sales later that morning, and then out to lunch at Wurstkuche.  In the afternoon, my family helped me do my laundry!  Wasn't that nice of them to do on their vacation?  And I really appreciated the help.

On the bus to the sample sales:

At the laundry mat with Aunt Courtney:

While the clothes were in the dryer, courtesy of Grandma:

(this was after we all got pedicures, by the way.  My mom sure knows how to make doing your laundry more fun!)

On Saturday, we had our traditional Saturday morning breakfast at Ralph's and then we went to the beach.  We had such a good time at the beach; it was definitely my favorite part of their whole visit.  My parents brought a kite, and it was just breezy enough to keep it flying.  We ate at Wahoo's afterwards.  Wahoo's is such a southern CA thing, so we wanted to introduce them to it.

(I guess you can tell my mom was behind the camera most of the time; this is the only picture I have of her from the whole trip!)

They left to drive home yesterday after Sacrament meeting, and we already miss them!  Violet's first word when she woke up from her nap after church was, "Gra-pa??"

Vegetarian Month - Week 3

I almost forgot to post this even though I said I would yesterday!  We are so busy having fun!  I love having my family here.

Here is how week 3 went down:

Sunday:  Jamaican Shepherd's Pie (from Veganomicon)

I made this once before, and posted about it.  As I had supposed in that post, it was much better with regular old mashed potatoes instead on manioc root.

Monday:  Chili (from Fresh and Green Table).  

We forgot to take a picture til it was almost gone, but here is what we got.  It was delicious!

In the bowl

in the pot

Tuesday:  Rice Noodles in Curry Sauce + Veggies (no recipe)

This wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.  I took the lazy route and bought a prepared curry sauce, and it didn't have very good flavor.  Oh well.  Now I know to just always make the sauce from scratch.

Wednesday:  Bean burritos

These were exactly like the burritos we had in week 1, but I crisped them up in the skillet before we ate them, and it made them awesome.

Thursday:  Seven Treasure Tart

We ate this with my family this time, and they loved it! I'm so mad at myself for not taking another picture, because this one was way prettier than the last one.

We had pizza tonight, of course.  One week left!

A mistake

I made the mistake this morning of telling Violet that Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Courtney are coming tonight.  I didn't know she would understand me so well!  However, the "tonight" part didn't quite sink it, and she asked me about twenty times this morning, "Gama? Gwapa? Kee-tee?".  Then when we got home from our run, she ran into all the rooms of the house looking for them and asking for them, and started crying when she realized they weren't there yet!  

To make her feel better, we called both of my parents and they talked to her for a little while.  Although I have been more patient than Violet today, I am so excited to see everyone tonight!

(Is this the only pic I have of you and Violet, Courtney?)

p.s.  Tomorrow morning I'll post week 3 of Vegetarian Month!  (week 1 and week 2)

This weekend

We had a great three-day weekend!  I'm a little sad it is over because we had such a good time.  On Saturday, we went to the beach, and you wouldn't believe how wonderfully warm it was!  I actually got in the water, just up to my knees, but it was warm enough that it actually felt good!

Glenn had today off from school because of President's day, so we went to The Grove, the best mall that is relatively close to us.  We didn't find what we were looking for, but we still had a great time (and saw Mario Lopez, as usual).  I'm so grateful for Glenn and Violet; everything is fun with them!

Vegetarian Month - Week 2

We are still going strong in Vegetarian month around here!  Remember how last year, I ate a ham sandwich on the first day?!  Haha, I have done so much better this year.

Sunday - Stuffed Poblano Peppers

link

This was one of the two new recipes I tried this week, and we really like it.  We ended up just putting the stuffed poblanos plus a lot of the tomato sauce in tortillas and wrapping it up, so it was really like stuffed poblano burritos!  Yum!

Monday - Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

You guys, I forgot to take a picture of this.  And it was SO beautiful!  I am so mad at myself.  We had it with popovers, as usual.  We have had this several times; it is actually one of the meals Glenn requests the most often.

Tuesday - Honey Pasta Salad

Another of our regular meals, and also one of Glenn's favorites.  I posted the recipe last February, so here is the link.

Wednesday - Vegetable Pot Pies

We mostly celebrated Valentine's Day on Wednesday, and so I made the biscuits in the shape of hearts, even though it was a day early.  The vegetable filling on these was delicious, but the real star was the feta-scallion biscuits on top!  I followed this recipe, except I didn't realize I was out of frozen peas until dinner was halfway made, so I used corn instead, and it was delish.

Thursday - Tortilla Soup

Of course, on actual V-Day we had a totally non V-Day related dinner.  Except I REALLY LOVE tortilla soup, so there you go.  First, here are all the toppings:

And the assembled soup:

Tonight, we are having pizza as usual, and I'm planning on making exactly the same pizza I did last week.  So just refer to last week's post if you are dying to see a picture!  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  We really did most of our celebrating yesterday.  Glenn and I went on our date yesterday morning.  He surprised by taking me to a spa in Marina Del Rey where we got a couple's massage!  So romantic!

Then, in the afternoon, Violet and I met up with all the other kids and moms in our ward to decorate heart cookies!  We had a great time.

The masterpiece (I helped with the frosting, but the sprinkles were all Violet)

Enjoying her work:

Also, Happy Birthday Arizona!  I love you too!

Matching Cousins

My mom got Violet and Maggie matching Valentine's Day outfits!  However, they are not going to see each other on Valentine's, nor any other time while they both still fit in these outfits, probably, so I thought I would take the chance to post side-by-side pictures of them matching!  (actually one-above-the-other pictures, because - can someone PLEASE teach me how to make side-by-side pictures?)

Here is cute Maggie, who is 4 months old (right??) in her denim jumper:

And cute Violet, who is 19 months, in her denim dress:

These two girls are going to be great friends someday!
(Also, the colors look a lot different in the two pictures, but they really are matching outfits.)

Also, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, in case I don't get around to posting again before then!

(Annie, I just looked at your blog, and I think Maggie might actually only be 3 months??  That child is growing up slower than anyone I've ever heard of!)

Lacrosse Game

There was a free USC women's lacrosse game on Saturday, so we went!  The coolest thing about it was that it was in the Coliseum!

The least cool thing about it was that USC lost like 18-5 or something.  But we still had fun!  We parked in our church parking lot, and then still had quite a walk over there, but it was a nice day.  I actually enjoyed watching the game more than I thought I would.   The funny thing about the following picture is that Violet actually had a great time, and was never bored or antsy the whole time, but she was very mad about having to pose for this picture:

A Video for Saturday Morning!

Happy Saturday!  For your Saturday morning viewing pleasure, here is a video for you.

(warning, this video really has no point, Violet was just being cute.  So if you are not Violet's grandparents, don't feel obligated to watch it...)

Vegetarian Month - Week 1

So vegetarian month is going great!  You know, last year when we did this, it was pretty hard work.  I was trying all these new recipes, and some were good but some weren't.  But since we have continued to cook mostly vegetarian meals since last February, it hasn't been much of a switch to do it again.  I have actually only tried one new recipe so far!  

Here is an overview of this last week.  Tonight, I'm just making pizza, so I figured I could leave that out.  

Monday - Black Bean Soup

This is the new recipe I tried!  I didn't think one black bean soup could be much better than any other black bean soup, but this one was so good.  Glenn even loved it, and he usually loves neither soup nor beans.

Tuesday - Baked Pasta

Penne with tomato sauce, broccoli, and zucchini.  There is no recipe; it's pretty hard to mess up pasta.  Pasta is seriously the easiest thing to make vegetarian and have it be really good still.

Wednesday - Seven Treasure Tart

I have made this several times now, and we love it.  It is from my current favorite cookbook.  Basically it is a bunch of winter vegetables and feta cheese wrapped up in pastry dough.

Thursday - Bean burritos

Seriously, the ugliest picture ever, but I'd decided to take pictures of dinner all week, so I wanted to follow through.  Violet liked these, and ate one all by herself, and wanted more!

Update:  By popular demand (aka Annie asked), I am adding the picture of the pizza we ate tonight.

The sauce was the rest of this amazing tomato-garlic dip I got at the farmers market yesterday. We ate most of it for lunch with pitas yesterday, but there was a little left that we used for this pizza.  Other than that, it is just mozzerella, spinach, and a little bit of feta!  Delicious!

Fun Parents

Violet thinks we are fun, especially when she is hyper right before bed (which happens every night).  Particularly, she thinks Glenn is SO FUN when he will build a fort for her.  Generally, this involves putting a blanket over his head and letting her come under the blanket too, but occasionally he steps it up and uses the rocking chair too:

Can you tell she loves it?

Additionally, she thinks jumping is super fun lately, and also I just love her hair in these pictures:

p.s.  Vegetarian month started a few days ago!  It is going great so far, but to avoid posting about food everyday, I plan to update you on Friday and let you know what we ate every day this week.  Tonight's dinner was so good!

A Valentine

Happy February!  

Violet made a valentine for her Aunt Courtney to celebrate.  We actually made it last week, and Courtney got it today, just in time for February!  Behold:

Violet did all the coloring and put the stickers on.  On the back, I wrote a real conversation I had with Violet while we made the valentine.

"Do you love Aunt Courtney?"

"YEAH!"