Birthday Boy and Craziness Around It

So Dan's birthday was this last week (Dec. 7). I had some ideas of what to do for his birthday but he had so much stuff to do before this week that we kept it simple. On Wednesday, I took work off and we headed to Idaho Falls. We stopped by Men's Warehouse to discover he had $50 credit. They had a buy one get one free sale going on. We got him 2 new dress shirts and 2 really nice ties. We then headed over to Red Robin for some birthday burgers. They sang to him and he got a small ice cream sundae. They even gave him balloons that they made him put behind his ears while they sang. It was quite enjoyable. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing husband who is a big kid at heart.

Birthday Boy

Balloons!!!!

Christmas is a week and a half away!!!!! I'm so excited. We're going to Spokane to see my family. Dan and I both need a break. I've been trying to get into the Christmas spirit lately. I've been listening to Christmas music, watching some Christmas movies, I even semi-decorated the apartment. I made a wreath for the door and I love it. I keep getting complements on it and that's always nice.

The Wreath

Even after all that it still doesn't fully feel like Christmas. You want to know why. Because there is NO SNOW. In Rexburg Idaho there is no snow (funny enough as I write this, it's snowing outside ;)). It has snowed here but it never stays. It always melts away within that afternoon or the next day. So we'll see if this time is any different. I just don't want a ton of snow to make it where we can't leave for Christmas. 

What it looked like yesterday.

The Much Needed Thanksgiving Break

This last week, as everyone knows, was Thanksgiving. Dan and I made the trek over to Washington to be with his family this year. We were so excited. That feels like an understatement to me because we were just so pumped about having a break and seeing family. Everyone was able to make it except for John of course who is on his mission. We had an amazing week filled with awesomeness. We had great food provided by my amazing mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, did some crazy Black Friday shopping, Dan got to go shooting, went to the American Girl store with all the nieces and nephews and flat out got to hang out with family. We loved being able to see all the nieces and nephews. As crazy as it sounds we miss all the kids running around. We miss the family already so much and wish we all lived closer together. I don't have many pictures from the week but here are a few that I have/attained from family. They are also out of order.

Kids playing at the fountain. Pretending to be magic.

Our new family picture. We love it.

Family gathered around the table for the feast. 

The last thing I saw as we were flying out of Seattle. Highlight of my flight.

Me with 2 of my adorable nieces.

Pumpkin Time

It's that time of year again. The time where you pick out the perfect pumpkin, get the perfect design and create a not so perfect carved pumpkin. Dan and I had a hardest time figuring out what we wanted to do for our pumpkins this year. We sat for about an hour looking at different things on google. This is what we came up with.

Destruction zone 

Best pumpkin ever!?!? I think yes.

Megamind! This pumpkin cracks me up. :)

Also this weekend, Dan's mom and sister came and visited Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon. We love having family come visit us. We feel like we don't see family enough even though we see our family more than some people we know. We got some pretty cool stuff for our food storage and she even got me the book I've been wanting. It's called Symbols In Stone: Symbolism on the Early Temples of the Restoration. I'm really excited to read it. 

Food Adventures: Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Ok, I am convinced that Pinterest is the greatest thing ever. I got this whole wheat pita bread recipe from there. I just had to try it. 
P.S. I love when people put up pictures of the process. Sorry for the quality (came from my phone) but you get the idea. Also I made little notes on the recipe so that's what the blue is.

Wheat Pita Bread

Ingredients:
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
1 tbsp. honey (could use sugar, but honey is healthier)
1¼ cups warm water (105˚-115˚ F), divided
1½ cups bread flour, divided
1½ cups whole wheat flour, divided
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. salt
Cornmeal, for sprinkling

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer*, combine the yeast, honey and ½ cup of the water.  Stir gently to blend.  Whisk ¼ cup of the bread flour and ¼ cup of the whole wheat flour into the yeast mixture until smooth.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside until doubled in bulk and bubbly, about 45 minutes. Note: I had mine covered for only about 25 minutes and it was bubbling away. So I just started the next step. 

After mixing and before the bulk and bubbly.

Remove the plastic wrap and return the bowl to the mixer stand, fitted with the dough hook.  Add in the remaining ¾ cup of warm water, 1¼ cups bread flour, 1¼ cups whole wheat flour, olive oil and salt.  Knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.  Transfer the ball of dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat, and let rise in a warm draft-free place, about 1 hour, until doubled in bulk. 

After rising

Place an oven rack in the middle position.  Place a baking stone in the oven (if using) and preheat to 500˚ F. I don't have a baking stone. I used a cookie sheet and flipped it upside-down in the oven. Make sure you put it in the oven while it's preheating.

Once the dough has risen, transfer to a lightly floured work surface, punch down the dough and divide into 8 equal pieces. 

Form each piece into a ball.  Flatten one ball at a time into a disk, then stretch out into a 6½-7 inch circle. Transfer the rounds to a baking sheet or other work surface lightly sprinkled with cornmeal.  

Once all the rounds have been shaped, loosely cover with clean kitchen towels.  Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, until slightly puffy. I had them sit out for about 10-15  minutes.

Transfer 4 pitas, 1 at a time, onto the baking surface.  (Note: These can be baked on a baking stone or directly on the oven racks.  I use a pizza stone, but either method is fine.) I read some reviews and some said putting directly in the oven rack didn't work. That's why I used the baking sheet. Bake 2 minutes, until puffed and pale golden.  Gently flip the pitas over using tongs and bake 1 minute more.  Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.  Repeat with the remaining pitas.  Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

*As always, anything mixed in a stand mixer can be mixed and kneaded by hand.

I love this recipe. The bread turned out great and you can used it for so much. I hope you enjoy. :)

Here is the direct link to the website: http://annies-eats.net/2010/04/20/whole-wheat-pita-bread/

Livin' On a Prayer

I had a little Bon Jovi music morning and the song title is perfect for how crazy life is right now. Ok we'll start with the good news. I finally got my Kapoosh! You're probably thinking to yourself, "What on Earth is a Kapoosh?" Well it's the most amazing kitchen appliance ever. Back story: this last Christmas Dan and I got a lot of knives that we so desperately needed. Our only problem was we didn't have a knife holder to fit them in. They were all different sizes and shapes. Well one day, as I was strolling through Bed, Bath & Beyond (my new favorite store), I found the Kapoosh. It's a knife holder with no set slots. I was so excited but the only ones they had in the store were light wood ones. That was not going to match with our kitchen. So we talked to a guy, who turned out to be the store manager, and he helped us order a nice stainless steel one. As we got to talking, we found out the guy used to live in Bremerton (where Dan is from) and worked at the Silverdale Bed, Bath & Beyond. Small world. Here is a picture for your visual pleasure of my Kapoosh:

Ok, now for some bad news but had some good consequences. It snowed!!! Yes, I understand it's Rexburg. Yes, I understand it's October and it snows in October here but COME ON! I want my fall season. I want cool, crisp air with hot chocolate at night. I want cardigans, boots and scarves (although I get that on winter as well). I want colorful leaves. Snow does not fit in there. Alright, it only snowed for 2 days and it all melted away. I just know if it snowed that early then what's stopping it form coming again and again and again. The good that came out of it... I pulled out my hoodies, our hot chocolate, bought coffee creamer for our hot chocolate and pulled out my boots. :) Also it makes me excited for Christmas.

Not the best of pictures but this is what it looked like as it started to stick the 1st day.

Ok now for the bad news. As you all know, Dan is a very active person but has some problems with his knees. He decided to play flag football with some guys in our ward this semester. It was their first game 2 weeks ago on Wednesday and of course I had to work. I told Dan not to hurt himself so I could see him in his future games. Well, what does my husband do? Hurts himself. I come home to an iced knee. I think I jinxed him. He got side swept (which is illegal) and hurt his good knee pretty badly (they did however win their game and his injury helped with that). Luckily, one of the guys on his team is the student director of Sports Medicine and helped him there on the field. He went to the doctors the next day and they told him he probably has an MCL tear. They set up an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon here in Rexburg and gave him crutches. Fast forward to this last Saturday. We went down to Pocatello to see my dad and to have him check out Dan's knee (my dad is a sports medicine guy and also does some physical therapy). After about 15 minutes he was 100% sure that Dan tore his ACL. He referred us to a surgeon he works with and told us he was really good. So we decided to meet with him instead of the one in Rexburg. Long story short, Dan needs surgery. We will find out in a couple weeks if he'll need it now or if he can wait until December for the break. They want the stiffness in his knee to go away. Now we have to wait and see what our crazy future holds. 

Dan at the doctor today.

Like I said, livin' on a prayer in the Fry house. :)

Jackson Hole Adventures

So for Labor Day, we planned it out with my dad to make a day trip to Jackson Hole Wyoming. This was a new adventure because Dan had never been over in that area. I used to live in a small town in Idaho on the other side of the mountain from Jackson. So when I was younger, we would go there all the time. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped to take a short hike before going out for lunch.

View from the top of the mountian

Walk back to the car on our mini hike.

It was so nice to get out and be in nature. My allergies haven't liked me since then but it was so worth it. We were so hungry after our hike, probably because we were talking about BBQ a good portion of the hike. We found this place called Bubba's BBQ. Any place called Bubba's has to be good and it was. We ended up getting pie after our meals and it was the best pie. Dan and I shared a Chocolate Buttermilk pie. It didn't taste like buttermilk at all. It tasted like a brownie with pie crust. It was so good.

After lunch we went and walked around town to see the shops. We stopped in this photo gallery because the pictures just caught my eye. The photos were just beautiful. The photographer was there and we got to ask him questions. His pictures just seemed to pop out of the frames. He said they take a normal picture and print it on silver lined paper to make that effect. In my opinion, his photos are beautiful enough that he doesn't need to make them pop them. Look for yourself.

These are just a small portion of them. His website is http://www.johnrichterphoto.com/home/page_id=10. Check out his pictures.

Here are some other pictures and I know this post is a little long but I have to tell this story. So as we were walking along we heard this loud "JIMMER!!!!". Dan was wearing his Jimmer shirt and this lady came up to Dan and got really excited. She told us that Jimmer is in her home ward back in New York. They all, her, Dan and my dad, talked about New York because they all served there. She asked Dan if he wanted a picture of Jimmer and sent him a picture of him and her son. She was so excited to see his shirt and she got even more excited that Jake, Dan's brother, made the shirt. She made our day. Her son that was with her was so embarrassed but we thought it was funny.

Oldest bar in the west.

Food Success

In my ward, we have a recipe club. We decided to put up a blog for those who can't make it and for documentation. I got a recipe for shredded pork, lime rice and creamy tomatillo dressing. Yes this is all stuff they serve at Café Rio. I just had to try these recipes out for myself. So we went to the store and got all the ingredients. To make a long story short, it was sssooo amazing. They each have really distinct flavors but when you put them all together on a tortilla, it's heaven. Dan and I loved it so much, I just had to share it on my blog. 

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

3 fresh tomatillos

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup sour cream

1 cup fresh cilantro

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

1 pkg. ranch dressing mix

2 cloves minced garlic

1/3-1/2 cup buttermilk

1.     Combine all ingredients in blender. Chill for at least one hour. 

Shredded Pork (Café Rio Style)

5-6 lb. pork butt (bone in)

16 oz. jar salsa

½ can coke

3 tbsp. molasses

2 cups brown sugar

1 tbsp. cumin

1 tsp. salt

1. Place pork in crock pot. Cover with brown sugar, salsa, molasses, cumin, salt and coke. Cover and cook until tender and pulls away with fork.

            2. About 6-8 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low. 

Lime Rice

2 tbsp. butter

1 ¼ cups long grain rice

2 ¼ cups chicken broth

Juice and zest of 2 limes (the rice was really limey but good, we might use just one lime next time)

2 tbsp. chopped cilantro

¼ tsp. cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

1.     In heavy pan, melt butter with rice. Add broth and other ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

2.      Add a little more fresh chopped cilantro to taste.

 

I wish I had pictures to share because I love pictures with recipes but trust me pictures can't hold a candle to how good this is. I hope you enjoy because I know we did.

P.S. I also made a Peanut Butter Oreo Ice Cream Pie. We haven't tried it yet but I'm sure I'll be posting that recipe as well.