All-American Pot Pie

the insides:

.5 T butter
4 C total of any of the following veggies: corn, carrot, red bell pepper, zucchini, spinach leaves (firmly packed), sliced onions, potato...
1 small garlic clove, minced
1.5 T flour
1 C warm milk
1 pinch fresh or dried thyme
.75 t salt
black pepper to taste

melt the butter in a skillet. saute the vegetables for five minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic, saute for five minutes more. sprinkle three tablespoons flour over the veggies and stir over the heat for two more minutes. add the warm milk slowly, stirring all the while to avoid lumps. stir in the thyme. bring the sauce to a simmer and cook it until the it thickens. continue to cook until the vegetables are tender. add one-fourth teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper.

the dough, et cetera:

cut a half-stick of cold butter into three-fourths cups of flour and one-fourth teaspon of salt. (cut the butter until the pieces are no larger than a pea) add two tablespoons of ice water and stir to incorporate all the flour. add more water or flour as necessary to make a soft moist dough. work it in the palm of your hand on a hard surface. form it into a flattened ball. chill the dough for thirty minutes.

roll the dough into a circle slightly larger than the diameter of the casserole dish. place it on top and pinch the rim so it clings to the dish. cut four one-inch long slits in the dough.

bake at 400 degrees for about twenty minutes, or until the filling is bubbling and the crust golden. Serve and enjoy!

[I used carrot, potato, corn and zucchini]

mellow + yellow = fabulous fun!

thank you, anna, for the wonderful swap surprise.
it was the perfect collection of blue.

scrabble sunday

Anna 280 | Peter 261

triathlon dreams

we made some new friends tonight. they are a young couple in our ward. they invited us over for a bbq two weeks ago and then had to reschedule for tonight. it turns out they're our dream couple. finally cool people in our ward to hang out with. katie is seven months pregnant and still running and swimming. she is what I want to be at seven months pregnant. [side note: the lady that was uber pregnant at masters swimteam--the one who I swear kept swimming right up until labor--had her baby four weeks ago and is already back in the pool. amazing.]

anyway, I've been inspired to actually get out and do a tri this summer. no more just talking about it. (I mean come on, before I ever got into running marathons I wanted to do triathlons...) and ever since I got my road bike a few years ago for my grandpa's 80 at 80 ride (my grandpa is the most hardcore person I know. we all got together and did an eighty mile ride on his eightieth birthday. and he kicked everybody's trash!) I've had no excuse not to! so I'm doing it:

the Echo triathlon in July.

who else is in?

the two-block-walk.

I didn't go running today. I was too busy with the working and the cleaning and the cooking and the YW's and all. but don't worry. peter and I did the two-block-walk. he says it's just as good as a five mile run. so I'm covered. plus we get to eat really yummy food afterwards. cinnamon life, here I come!

I *heart* walking to the grocery store.

arrested development, the television program.

thank you, jim, for introducing me to this quirky bunch. I have loved every minute with them. we will be needing season two and three shortly. if there is anyone out there who has not had the pleasure of meeting this crazy family, get yourself right on out to the video store and rent yourself the dvd's today. you will not regret it. how could you go wrong with a formerly wealthy and ever so dysfunctional family?

is there a little bluth in your family?

happy earth day.

"Mountains compliment desert as desert complements city, as wilderness compliments and completes Civilization.
"A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there." --Edward Abbey

broken.

peter is broken.

he took quite the tumble during some spring ski. landed on his shoulder.

the good doctor checked him out today at the family party. he kept mumbling the diagnosis, so we're still not quite sure what he actually tore, but thankfully he printed out some exercises he could do.

he's got a bum rotator cuff and life is hard.

good thing he's the toughest guy I know.

chocolate snob

chocolate and I have a slightly bizzare relationship. . .

I do like:
chocolate candybars, etc
chocolate cake and chocolate frosting
brownies

I do not like:
chocolate chip cookies
fudge
hot chocolate (it has to be extremely cold outside or flavored so I can't taste the chocolate)
chocolate milk
chocolate ice cream

and even then it depends on my mood.

fyi

don't ever try and de-pit an avacado by holding it in your hand and stabbing at the pit with an extremely sharp knife. don't even try it if you've seen some guy do it successfully.

nothing good comes from it.

[btw, who else is completely in love with avacados?]

community garden: the planting

jim posing with our future food, the zucchini.

the white trash plant markers.
[don't worry, I am making cuter ones.
it was pretty fun using jim's craft supplies, though.
it's always fun to weatherproof stuff using scotch tape.]
I had fun crafting while the boys had fun planning and planting.

juicing essentials: carrots and beets.

some of my favorites: "baby carrots" and "pole peas, sugar snap."

hurrah for gardens!

five hearts

i do heart:
*feeling my body move.
*that deep shade of blue in the sky as dusk transitions to night.
*the smell of chlorine on my skin.
*grey days and rain.
*my eternal boy roommate.


i don't heart:
*congregations of ants. it creeps me out more than seeing a spider.
*boys that wear their pants past their butt. (and it's not even that they're baggy pants!) please, just pull them up.
*girls who wear over-sized pants. I'm talking super over-sized. like they're trying to be a gangster over-sized.
*dvd players in cars. (I know, I know... I'm not a mom yet... but is it really necessary?)
*carol makita and shelley osterlo. is that mean?

Community Garden

the before: scotty's yard

preparing the land

filling up the "wheelbarrow"

future food

tiller love

everyone hard at work

religious scrabble

in keeping with the scrabble sunday tradition, and in conjunction with conference sunday, we decided to play a little game of religious scrabble today with the neighbors in between sessions.

all words played had to tie in somehow with the gospel. well, anything religious, really. if it wasn't obvious, you had to plead your case and explain why you felt it was religious. it was really fun to see what people came up with and how creative you had to be to tie it all in.

how is 'limey' religous, you may be wondering? just ask peter.

I guess the lesson learned this afternoon is that everything can tie into the gospel in some way or another, even if it is kind of a stretch.

I know that scrabble is true.

EY2K6

thank you for coming with us

we hope you had a fabulous time

we will end our tour of

the european honemyoon extravaganza 2K6

at Betty's in York

this dinner was the catalyst

of our eternal happiness

I love you, peter!

the end.

the scene of the crime

It was during the last JetBoil photo shoot of their European Honeymoon Extravaganza 2K6. The two love birds had just finished a romantic meal on the docks of Lake Zurich and wanted to capture the moment.

Why not some timed photos? Yes, of course. It's dark and we'll need as much light to seep into the lens as possible. But we'll have to tip the camera up to get the angle that we need. . . The lens cap! Yes, the lens cap.

"Anna, throw me the lens cap!" Peter shouted. "Okay, are you ready?" She yelled back. One. Two. Three. She tossed the cap into the air, expecting it to fly much like a frisbee, but instead it rolled on the cement right past Peter and the JetBoil on it's way to the chilly, deep dark depths of the lake.

They rushed over to the edge of the dock, hoping to catch the lens cap before it was too late. But it already was too late; they watched the cap sink slowly down, never to be seen again.

Ode to the JetBoil

companion of travel,
friend of hunger.
you are my one and only
sweet boiling love:
warm goodness fill me
with your ninety second
delight.

england | france | germany | austria | switzerland

Jungfraujoch, aka the Top of Europe

We took a train to the inside of a mountain.

We came out on top of a glacier.We played in a palace of ice.And embraced the eskimian within.

the expansive beauty that is switzerland

I *heart* the Jungfrau Region

old things.

There are places in Europe like voices from the past. It is deep rooted history. It is a testament to the human spirit; the ability of our stories to survive.

We were able to go back to some places in Pete's mission. Here in Dresden, Germany is a church that was obliterated in the fire bombings of the war. Now rebuilt with some of the original bricks, it is amazing to see the history live on even in the face of disaster.

I am in love with Europe for that fact. Everything is so old. Everything has so much history. You can see that time is trying to take a grasp on these structures, trying to take the past as her own. But things are preserved, things are rebuilt, the voices live on.

Paris

The Official Tour

Not only is Dee a historian,

He's a fabulous tour guide as well!

Thanks for the behind the scenes look at York!

Scarborough

the beach: a seaside excursion.

It was a very typical English sort of day--grey, cold, and rainny but there were still people out on the north shore surfing. The waves were much better there than the south shore (where we went up to the water's edge). Maybe one day I can surf the English coastline. One can dream.

I am drawn to water like waves to the shore;
I feel the pull of the tide within me.

York

I am in love with a little place called York, England. Not only is it cute and full of charm, it is also tauted as the most haunted city in all the world! Or so they say. And I believe.

Windsor Palace

we took a day trip to windsor palace.

so much fun, we had.

London

Arrived into Gatwick. Saw: Big Ben; Westminster Abbey; House of Parliment; River Thames; The London Eye; The Strand; Soho; Liecester Square; The Tube; Tate Gallery; Wicked. . . Departed for York.

It was a fabulous time.

Honeymoon Extravaganza 2K6

stop number one: snowbird

The view from the top of the world. Okay, it's really just the view from the top of the Tram. Hidden Peak to be more exact. This is where the adventure began; Pete proposed up here, so it was the perfect place to start our Honeymoon Extravaganza 2K6.

eternal happiness

it's been six months of wedded bliss,
it's about time for the honeymoon
recap. enjoy the next few posts.

I love you, peter.
ey2K6!

every day of my life