Foodies

Ryan and I love food. We love to try new things, but we love finding thing we like and eating them over and over again. We soon realized that food out in the West is much different than the food in the Midwest. We are excited to try all the new and fun places to eat! We've been here a few weeks already, and here are our few places we've tried. Some we liked, others we disliked. There are still a LOT of places we want to try, but for now here's the 101 on the Food in Minneapolis.

Yum! Yep, the name of the restaurant says it all. We loved the relaxed feel and atmosphere of the Kitchen and Bakery. We had the Southwestern Salad and the Chicken Club, both we're a-mazing. They had a bunch of yummy cupcakes and desserts, that we did not try, but we will definitely be back!

This was some serious good pizza. It was super authentic Italiano pizza. It was fire oven baked, with a crispy thin crust, and fresh delcious toppings! We had a pepperoni pizza as well as pepperoni/sausage pizza, next time we'll go with just the pepperoni. But we will definitely be back - the only thing negative was it took awhile for us to get our food. But we will be back.

We were hoping to find a good Thai place out here, and we sure did! Ry had a curry coconut dish, and I went with the orange chicken. We both were so happy, and ate our food way too fast. Can't wait to go back.

We heard their Uptown Salad (chicken, apples, candied nuts, craisins, grapes, and special vinaigrette) was to die for, so we both got it, and it was just as good as it was talked up to be. We can't wait to try their sandwiches and shakes.  

We love Panda Express and we heard that this was the Midwest version. Fail. Blah. Did not like it. Sorry, but I'd rather go without Chinese than have this.

Four out of Five, not bad! Can't wait to see what's next! Yummy food :)

Minnesooooota

A few observations I've made in the last few weeks...
There is no sales tax on clothing! Yahoo!
There are more potholes in the road than actual flat road.
When speaking you should drag out your "o"s. Always.
Every street is named after a lake (Bass Lake, Schmidt Lake, Weaver lake, etc.)
I'm pretty excited about no sales tax on clothing.
A 15% discount at Target is a significant chunk of change.
I haven't seen any mountain men with rifles and fur hats like I had imagined.
Snow does eventually melt over time...
We have our own 2 missionaries for our ward, not the surrounding 4 stakes.
I can hear my neighbors beside and below me, apartment living is much different.
Ellen DeGeneres is my new best friend.
I miss spending almost every minute of every day with my hubby.
So far so good. I give Minnesota a stamp of my approval. For now.

Yummers

Marshmallow Cinnamon Popcorn



I was supposed to take a treat to a little get together the other night at a friends. I was planning on making my white chocolate popcorn, but minutes before we were supposed to leave I totally forgot we didn't have white chocolate. Ah! So I made do with what we had, and came up with this easy yummy treat! (I don't usually measure when I cook/bake, so my measurements are guess-taments)

One bag of popped popcorn

2 Tbsp butter

A 1/2 of a bag of marshmallows (about 8 oz.)

A splash of vanilla (about 1 tsp.)

A dash of cinnamon (about 1/4 tsp.)

Pop the pocorn. Melt the butter in a pan on the stove, add the marshmallows, vanilla and cinnamon. When the marshmallows are all melted add it to the popcorn, mix it really well. And yum! Enjoy!

Big Eyes

Since Olivia has been born I have heard 2 words more than any others. It's been said several different ways, but when people see Olivia, and I mean strangers at the grocery store, nurses, neighbors, friends and family, almost everyone that sees her face can't help but say these two words some how...

"Big Eyes!" 



My baby girl does have the biggest, prettiest eyes I've ever seen. It's as if she's trying to take it all in and she just can't quite do it fast enough. She loves to look around, stare at people, stare at Sargie, and open those eyes as wide as possible.  I love my baby big eyes. 

The BE

We made a great investment for little Livy. People call them exer-saucers, or bouncers, but this is kind of both of those. So I call our "Baby Einstein" play thingy the "BE". She loves being overwhelmed with the little toys, lights, and noises. She's just figuring out she can bounce and use her feet, and she's loving it. Mom is loving it probably that much more!

Fabric Flower DIY

As requested, I decided to do a "How To" on making a fabric flower. There are several different strategies, tips and tricks, but here's what I've found works for me. Here's everything you'll need:
4 or 5 square pieces of fabric, make them all different sizes.
3 or 4 small triangle pieces of fabric.
Scissors
Thread and a needle

Cut a long piece of thread, and tie the end of it in a knot.

Round the edges randomly, don't make the petals too perfectly even.

Take the biggest petal and go up through the petal so your knot is on the back side. Go in a square and do 4 or 5 stitches.

Then pull on the thread to scrunch up the petal to give it some dimension. 

Go down and up through the petal to help keep the scrunching in place.

Now add the petal that is a little smaller than the petal you just completed. Put the petal all the way down to the other petal so they are touching.

Do as you did above on the other petal by doing 4 or 5 stitches in square.

Pull the thread to scrunch up the petal. Then go up and down through both petals to help keep them in place.

Repeat these steps for the other 2 or 3 petals that you have.

Take one of the smaller rounded triangles and roll it up for the middle of your flower.

Sew this petal right in the middle of your other petals.

With the other two small rounded triangles sew the bottom as pictured below and pull down on to your flower. These petals should surround your rolled up middle petal.

Glue it to a hair clip or headband and enjoy!!

St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! To celebrate this funny green holiday, we went all out. I couldn't resist I had to make Livy a little shamrock onesie.

I have always wanted to do a green dinner on St. Patty's, but it's not as fun if you go all out for just your hubby. So since the Wrights were coming over to watch the BYU game anyway, I decided to go for it. I labored over these delicious Lion House green rolls... (they looked more green in person). I also made the cute little shamrock table runner...

Then we had a yummy fruit salad with honeydew, kiwis, green grapes, marshmallows, green apples, and pears.

Then a little green pasta primavera... (also looked more green in person).

And for dessert, Oreo Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Fudge Pie. Yum!!

I love a good excuse to make lots of yummy food. It was glorious. It was every more enjoyable since the Cougars won! Let's go BYU!