My "Little Chef"

This is my "little chef"...
isn't he cute!!
I especially love his little apron!
I made that for him on his 22nd Birthday.

My "Black Belt"

So today I had nothing to wear to work at Wilson Diamonds, but then I remembered all
of Kristin's pregnancy clothes that she gave me!!! I found this nice black sweater that
fit comfortably for work, however I told Justin I felt like a Karate Kid with my nice
wide "black belt"!!! This is me trying to practice my Karate Kicks!!!

Minestrone Soup

Marin and I saw Tyler Florence make this the other day on the Food Network and it looked so good we thought we'd try it...I had work off last night so Marin and I went to the temple and came home and made some yummy soup!

Hunter's Minestrone
2 quarts chicken stock (we used 3 15oz cans)
1 head of garlic halved
1/2 pound small rigatoni (we used half a box)
extra-virgin olive oil
8 fresh sage leaves (we did buy fresh cuz we didn't have dry)
1 sprig fresh rosemary (i have no idea what a "sprig" is, used dry until it looked good)
1 sprig fresh thyme (diddo from above)
3/4 pound loose sweet italian pork sausage
2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery ribs, roughly chopped
1 onion (yellow), roughly chopped
1 28oz can crushed plum tomatoes (we used 2 15oz cans)
1 bay leaf
2 28oz cans cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed (we used 2 15 oz cans, 1 kidney, 1 white cannelloni, his way is almost 60oz of beans!!!)
1/2 bunch fresh parsley leaves, finely minced
Coarsely ground black pepper
12 slices baguette
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (we just used Shredded Italian Mix)

1. Combine the stock and halved garlic head in a big saucepan and simmer for about 15 minutes to give the stock a nice garlicky taste; strain out the garlic. Keep warm.
2. Bring a pot of salted water to boil for the rigatoni
3. Pour 1/4 cup olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the sage, rosemary and thyme and warm the oil over medium heat to infuse it with the flavor of the herbs, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up the sausage with the side of a big spoon until well browned. Chop the carrots, celery, and onion (can use a food processor or we just used the "chop" option in our blender). Add to the saucepan and cook for 3-4 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned.
4. To the pan with the sausage stir in the crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, cannelloni beans (and any other beans you use) and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.
5. Cook the rigatoni in the boiling water for 6 minutes; it should be slightly underdone. Drain and stir into the simmering soup. Add the parsley, and salt and coarsley ground black pepper, to taste. Discard the bay leaf and herb sprigs.
6. To serve -- Preheat broiler or toaster oven. Put baguette slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, ground pepper and then some cheese...Let broil until cheese is bubbly and golden brown.
7. Ladel soup into bowls and float some baguettes on top!
Enjoy...

Looks like Will and I need to have a cook off for best chef! :)

New Crib and Changing Table

Hello everyone...

Here are some pics of our new crib and changing table. Let us know if you like it...
It's a Pottery Barn crib, very nice, but the bottom left leg needs a little glue to make it more sturdy. Other than that it's in really good shape...we paid $250 for both of them...deal or no deal? I think we should just keep them...Marin's having a little buyer's remorse...any thoughts?

Ride a Horsey

Decorating Cookies

Happy Valentines Day

Hope everyone had as fun of a Valentines as we did! We made some yummy sugar cookies (thanks mom for the recipe!) and went to the van Beevers to decorate them. They sure were yummy, and playing with the boys was fun, like always. (Except for when I tried to jam Luke's head through the ceiling! To bad we don't have a video of that!)

After that Marin and I enjoyed a yummy dinner at Macaroni Grill thanks to a gift card from Ash and Mike...Thanks guys.

And Hayley was nice enough to get us a cute baby outfit. My mom sent us some too so we're set with clothes! :) (Marin says "Yeah right") I guess I don't realize babies have "blowouts", Marin says...actually for those who know me I totally do understand! :)

B-Ball

BYU intramural game...we won!! No suprise there! :) Here are a couple shots. One is of me making a three and then two fast break layups. The last one I was totally cherrypicking! Oh well...

Marin's pretty good with the camera to get these action shots, especially since she had to sit up in the balcony section...but that's another story.

Gnocchi!!!!

Last night I was getting cravings for some authentic Argentine food...so we made gnocchis. In Argentina this is a classic meal, and they actually have "Gnocchi Day" on the 29th of every month, because it's a cheap, easy meal to make at the end of the month when the money is a little tight. This particular recipe has bacon and mushrooms in it and then you sprinkle fresh parsley and mozzarella cheese.

Here's the recipe:
Gnocchi - 1lb small baking potatoes (I used 4)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon sea salt (or just regular salt)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
Sauce - 2 Tbs olive oil
2 oz bacon, chopped (I actually used half the package, or 8oz)
1 Small red onion
1/4 lb fresh chanterelle mushrooms (I just used regular mushrooms, about 5 large ones)
"Sea" salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups chicken stock
1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup grated romano cheese (we used an italian blend w/ romano, mozzarella and asagio cheeses and it was really good)

The instructions are quite involved but just in case you want to try...

Boil potatoes, unpeeled in water for about 40 minutes over medium heat, or until tender. Drain them and let cool slightly. Then peel them and pass them through a potato ricer. (we used the fine side of the cheese grater) Spread the potatoes out on a cookie sheet lightly dusted with flour. In a small bowl, lightly beat egg adding a little salt. Drizzle over potatoes, and then sprinkle the 3/4 cup flour over the egg. Mix together gently by hand, being careful not to overwork the dough, until flour is incorporated. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. knead a fewe times just until smoot, adding a little more flour if needed to arrive at a dough that is not sticky yet is till moist. Set the dough aside, and scrape the work surface clean, discarding any bits of dough.

Lightly dust 2 rimmed baking sheets and the work surface. Cut the dough into 4 pieces, cover 3 pieces with an overturned bowl, and put the remaining piece on the floured surface. Using your palms, roll the dough into a long rope about 1/2 inch in diameter. Cut the rope crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces. Place the gnocchi onto the prepared pans, being careful they don't touch. Repeat with the remaining 3 dough pieces.

To make the sauce, in a large frying pan over medium heat, heat the oil and bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until bacon begins to turn golden...about 5 minutes. Add the onion and saute until softened...another 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper, and cook stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 more minutes. Remove the pan from the heat while you cook gnocchi.

Bring large pot three-fourths full of water to a rolling boil. Add 2 TBSP salt and then drop in the gnocchi a few at a time (I actually found you can do about 10-12) making sure they do not lump together. Cook stirring once or twice, until they rise to the surface...about 3 minutes.

When the gnocchi are almost ready return the frying pan with the sauce to medium heat, add the stock, and bring to simmer. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the gnocchi to the sauce. Raise the heat to high and cook for 1 minute, stirring very gently. (Don't break gnocchis) Divide gnocchi among warmed bowls and sprinkle with the parsley, cheese and some freshly ground pepper and serve immediately.

- Williams & Sonoma (Essentials of Italian)

Enjoy for one meal what I ate probably once a week in Argentina!

First Picture!!!

Here we are in FREEZING Provo! There has been a TON of snow lately. Now that we have our new camera we'll be posting plenty of pictures. In exactly 2 months from today we'll have a live video feed of little Carden's birth!