Harvest Time

Last week we went to the garden. It was kind of sad - it wasn't as lush and green as it was the last time we saw it. The corn was all chopped down, the plants and vines were all turning yellow and brown. Those darned cucumbers were still growing!!! But we were there to finish the harvest -almost. We picked about a dozen butternut squash and pie pumpkins. Then we turned over some of the sweet potato vines to see if they had produced anything. Sure enough there were potatoes down there. It was too late in the day to dig them out, but we at least had peace of mind knowing there was something there to actually dig out.

Today (Monday) I turned one of these beautiful gourds into Curried Squash Soup. It was -interesting. I forgot to take a picture, but just imagine what baby food looks like.

I used this recipe from Pillsbury.com. It was very easy to make (aside from cutting up the squash) and had relatively few ingredients that were easy to find.

But, it wasn't fantastic. It was one of those foods where during the first couple bites you're thinking 'hey, this is pretty good.' Then during the next several bites your enthusiasm wanes. Finally you can't bring yourself to even finish the last little bit that's in your bowl.

I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out really thick - like pumpkin pie filling. I would definitely recommend this as a first course or as an accompaniment to a main dish. It doesn't hold it's own as a main dish. Small portions are best.

Daniel suggested that maybe it would have been better had we not pureed it and left it chunky and more soupy. Oh well, I'm glad we tried it. Now for a new, better butternut squash recipe...if you have any tried and true please pass them on. We've definitely got more squash.

Relaxing Weekend

We have enjoyed a nice weekend of sleeping in and watching a great General Conference. There's nothing much else to note other than Daniel finally bought a bike yesterday. We have just over a month before the triathalon and I'm getting a little nervous. My training hasn't been going nearly as well as I had hoped, but it's still ok if I come in last place right?

Cobbler - not just a shoe maker

We made some cobbler for a function the other night and got compliments on it so I thought I would post the recipe. The base recipe I got from allrecipes.com, but I tweaked it a bit.

1 (29 oz) Can sliced peaches
1 (29 oz) Can sliced pears
1 egg
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart baking dish. (I actually forgot this step and it turned out fine)(oh, and I used a 9x13 glass dish which worked just fine as well). Drain the peaches and pears and arrange the fruit in the prepared baking dish.

In a medium bowl, beat egg, sugar, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon (I also added a dash of allspice because I didn't have any nutmeg); stir into the egg mixture. Stir in vanilla and melted butter. Cover the fruit with the batter mixture.

Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Cobbler should be bubbly and lightly browned. Serve warm with vanilla icecream.

Birthday Surprise

Friday was my 28th birthday. I can't believe how old that looks on paper - so close to 30. When I got to work this is what my desk looked like.

The theme was "Creepy Crawlers" because I'm always bringing in pictures of the bugs we find in our apartment to show my co-workers. The decorations were topped off with this super-huge hairy arachnid perched atop my computer - ewww!

Later that night just as Daniel and I were finishing dinner, his brother Mat called and said that his parents had a gift they wanted to give to me that night, so we headed on over.

But when we walked in I was greated by about 2 dozen friends and family all waiting to surprise me! Sneaky Daniel and been planning a surprise party for weeks! He did a great job of keeping it secret and pulled it off beautifully. It was so much fun to see so many people there - family, co-workers, old roommates and even mission buddies.

He even made and decorated a special cake for me! Do I have the best husband or what!?!?

Here I am blowing out the candles.

And speaking of creepy crawlers, here is the latest find from our apartment - gross!

Lately

After a two week break from school Daniel started fall semester on the 31st. But it's the beginning of the end - this is his last year!!!

We officially accepted a job offer with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Houston for next fall.

I have been all work, work, work and trying to keep my food down. (Thanks Maria for passing it on!)

We raided the garden last week of all the cucumbers, corn, peppers, onion and tomatoes. On Wednesday I played hooky from work and mom Gerow and I canned some salsa.

Today I made some really good food. Daniel said "these are the best pork chops I've ever had!" Yay me! I made spanish rice and pork chops in the slow cooker - tasty!

Last weekend we went down to Arizona for my nephew's baby blessing. My sister Amber had a bouncing baby boy - Spencer Kirk Lundell - on August 18th. Here are some photos from that trip:

This is my favorite picture - Spencer in his cute (and way oversized) cowboy bib.
How cute is that!

Baby Spencer in his cute blessing outfit.

The proud Lundell Family.

Here's the gang. Jared, Khristen, Emily, Daniel, Erma, Spencer, Amber, Stephen, Adam and Corrin. (Mom's taking the picture).

The Neighbors

We live in a half-underground apartment - so that means that we receive frequent visits from our neighbors, the Arachnids. These are most unwelcome visits mind you, but the Arachnids cannot be reasoned with and constantly show up un-announced and un-invited. And for some uncanny reason I always seem to be the one that greets them first; but I always make Daniel come to my rescue and "show them the way out."

The other week Mr. Steroid Arachnid decided to greet me in my shower. I did not like that one bit and very promptly summoned Daniel to send him on his way (if you know what I mean).

Yesterday Mrs. Steroid Arachnid finally came looking for her missing husband and we kindly helped her find him. ;)

A Beautiful Disaster

At the beginning of the summer, I had one goal: to hike Timp. I've lived in Utah for 10 years and have never done it; so it's been on the list and I decided that this was the year. Daniel was all for it and so yesterday was the day.

Let's just say that this trip was doomed before it even started. Friday night I was in a cranky mood - and a lousy 3-hour nap did nothing to help that, so when we left at 12 am to start our hike I wasn't any happier.

I proceeded to hate everything about the hike and let my complaints be known to Daniel. He - like a good husband - tried to remain positive and tell me it would all be worth it in the end. And so we kept on hiking through the trechorous blackness, through stream beds and along cliff walls and over rocky landslides.

Finally after 4 hours and 27 minutes of hiking and three wrong turns I was done. My head hurt, my hips hurt, my knee hurt, my back hurt. I was still in a cranky mood and I was really beginning to get scared. It was still very dark and the longer we hiked the more and more dizzy I felt - and when you're hiking up a narrow mountain path, balance it one thing you want to keep. So when we were about a mile or so from the saddle and we reached a part of the path that looked like it had slid off down the mountain side, I pulled out my white flag and surrendered. I did not want to slide off down the mountain after the path.

You might think dear friend that the trip must get better from here because we are now heading down the mountian. But oh no, don't be fooled. We now had to go back down the steep and slippery slope we had just climbed. I would much rather be going up than down any day. And so my terror did not end for a while longer until the grade lessened and the footing was more secure.

The sky was lightening little by little so that we could eventually see where we were going with out the flashlights but the remaining 4 hours of the hike back down never got pleasant. In addition to my head, hips, knee and back, now my shoulder was hurting and my feet were throbbing, all the water I drank on the way up had now reached my bladder, Daniel wasn't talking to me, and then there was the bees. I swear there was a swarm of bees that followed me all the way down the mountain and nearly gave me hysterics.

Am I sorry I wimped out a mile from the top and didn't get to see the sun rise from the summit? No. I was in such a bad mood I really don't think I would have cared if we had gotten to the top. Will I ever hike Timp again? Probably not. And I'm ok with that because I don't want to risk having a repeat horrible experience. Will I ever go hiking again? Of course! I still love hiking, but I have a few new rules: 1. I will not hike at night when I cannot see; 2. The entire path of the hike has to be dry - no crossing over any rivers or streams; 3. No part of the hike can be so steep going up that will cause me to wimper when I have to come back down. Those are reasonable requirements, right?

I did remember to take some pictures though. I suppose the only slighly redeeming part to the whole expereince was the views. Enjoy.

(click on this picture to view more)

Ok, after thinking about it for a while I did think of one other positive thing about the whole experience: we burned so many calories that we didn't feel guilty going to dinner at Chilis later :)