Nameste.

This semester I registered for BYU's fitness program and this week is the last week! It was a little under 50 for a ton of classes including a yoga class that I love. I totally recommend it to everyone (including you, Amanda). This Thursday is the last class and I'm totally bummed that I have to wait until Jan. to start again. There's something so calming about yoga that I just can't describe.

It actually reminds me of something that I saw continually, in every single public health class I took:

I love yoga because you genuinely sweat and hot, but you also stretch and meditate and get this total mind/body spiritual/physical workout. Love it.

**Also, you get to sink into the floor at the end and practically take a nap. I'm all for exercise like that. **

Another Blog

I know, I'm slightly addicted to blogging and making new blogs. But I've recently decided that I really want to up my photography hobby and really go for it.We're poor college students, so I can't just go out and buy the million billion accessories and lenses that go with cameras, but I've got my eye set on a new camera.

So, I bring you: http://www.emilymangumphotography.blogspot.com.

One more blog to add to your blogroll, I know, but I really wanted to document my pictures-taking separately, so there you have it. If any of you readers would like to be featured on it, send me an email or text me and let's go!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muddy Buddy Mix

As I transfer my recipes from one blog to the next  I had to add this one. It really is the perfect party mix and it's sweet and super dessert-y too. I was actually in the mood for muddy buddies this week and Chex were on sale, but alas, when I got to the store all the Muddy Buddy Chex cereal was gone so I got wheat Chex, not really the dessert-y kind. Either way, this will totally be made again and again.

I found this on Picky Palate a few weeks ago and made it for our Game Night that weekend (yay DC adventures!). Geez it was good. It makes a ton, so it was good to have the whole group over and eat it instead of just Ryan and I.  Also, everyone raved about it. So it's not just me who loved it.

Here's the recipe:

PB&J Muddy Buddies
from Picky Palate

White Chocolate PB&J Muddy Mix

9 Cups Honey Nut Chex (I used Crispix since it was cheaper...)

3/4 Cup chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips (I used white chocolate too, but I can't wait to try this with milk chocolate too. I think the white chocolate is more mild though so it allows the PB&J part of this to stick out more)

1/2 Cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 Cup strawberry jam (I used raspberry and it was great, so I'm sure any jam would be pretty great)

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Cups powdered sugar

1.  Place chex cereal in a large mixing bowl.  Place chocolate, peanut butter, jam and butter into a microwavable safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute or until melted.  Stir then pour into bowl of cereal.  Mix well then divide mixture into 2 large ziplock bags.  Pour in 1 Cup powdered sugar into each ziplock.  Close bags and shake until cereal is coated.  Pour into a large bowl and serve.

Stalking

Blog-stalking can be an awful habit, however, I've been recently floating from photography blogs looking for angles and posing and lighting and today I can across a totally rad gem that is my reward: Morgan (from Laguna Beach "fame") got married. I know this because as I was looking at Jill Thomas' blog I found shots of her. Maybe this post is just for my sisters, since I don't know how many other of y'all who read this blog of ours watched it, but still, I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out who it was.

Proof:

And go here to look at more: http://jillthomasphotography.com/blog/2010/10/morgan-joel-married-part-1/

The photos are super cute and the warm CA sun seriously shines through and makes me wish I was there instead of cold Utah. BRR.

Pumpkin Muffins

Trust me, you'll want to make these (even if the picture is yellow-tinted, so strange). After finding some great reviews and pictures on a blog that I can't remember now, I had to hunt and hunt and hunt to find the actual recipe! It was from a Tuesdays with Dorrie challenge and even though I know she's a famous baker of some sort, I'd never tried her recipes until now and this one is defintely a keeper. I haven't heard great things about her chocolate chip cookies, but if anyone else has tried any of her recipes let me know!

I actually tweaked the add-ins for this one, since I knew I'd be giving some of them away and I know some people are pretty picky about nuts (even though Ryan and I absolutely love them, hurray!) so I left them out and exchanged them for chocolate chips and dried craisins instead. I also saw someone switch out craisins for fresh cranberries and that looked to die for too, so I want to try that soon too!

Pumpkin Muffins
adapted from Dorrie Greenspan's recipe
found on Sounding my Barbaric Gulp

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
a few shakes of ground allspice
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temp.
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
1/4 cup buttermilk, I just poured almost a cup of skim milk into a bowl and then added 1 Tablespoon of distilled vinegar to the milk and mixed. *Hm, actually I think I mixed in 3/4 cup buttermilk instead of 1/4 cup, which is why my mixture before the flour looked a little questionable, but it totally worked out. Mine were super moist and delicious so you could totally do what I did, or actually follow the recipe..
1/2 cup golden raisins, I added craisins instead, since I love them so
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, I switched the nuts for chocolate chips 
about 1/3 cup sunflower seeds, for topping, I topped with the chocolate chips

• Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray 12 cupcake molds fit with paper cups. 
• Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.
• Working with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until soft. Add both the sugars and continue to beat until light and smooth.
• One by one, add the eggs, beating for a minute after they are incorporated, then beat in the vanilla.
• Lower the mixer speed and mix in the pumpkin and buttermilk. Add the dry ingredients in a steady stream, mixing only until they disappear. To avoid overmixing, you can stop the machine early and stir in any remaining dry ingredients into the batter using a rubber spatula.
• Stir in the raisins and nuts (or whatever add-ins you're using). Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle a few sunflower seeds/chocolate chips over the top of each muffin.
• Bake for about 17 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. 
• Transfer the pan to a rack and cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the pan, then carefully remove each one from its mold to finish cooling on the rack.
• My batch made about 18 muffins, but you can make less and make the muffins bigger as well

Pumpkin Muffins

No recipe or pictures yet, but I thought I'd let you know what I've been up to.

I made pumpkin muffins last night with dried cranberries and chocolate chips and they were amazing. Pioneer Woman even helped me out with her handy-dandy tip about making buttermilk from regular milk (I know you can just Google how to make it, but I trust her, ya know?).

They were amazing and when I get home from work, I'll totally post the recipe and some before and after pictures. Light and fluffy and amazing. For real.

Learning with Whitney (and some free photoshoots!)

 I helped Whitney Lewis shoot a wedding this weekend at the Provo temple. By "help" I mostly held cameras and watched her shoot. I'm learning so much about photography, cameras, posing, attitudes and what to say to make sure all the little kids look at you. Also, I totally got camera envy as I took a few shots with er Nikon D700. Oh, it was beautiful. It's definitely a camera for professional photographers, which I am not one, but it was still fun to handle it and learn how to take better shots. That being said, my new want is a Nikon D300 (just fyi). It's almost as good, but not quite, so I can learn on a great quality, but less complicated camera. Plus, once I save up enough money for Lightroom and Photoshop and learn my way around those programs, my editing can be even better and really make the photographs pop.

Speaking of photography, if anyone would be interested in allowing me to take their pictures (for FREE!), whether it be just you, a couple, a baby, a family, whatever, let me know!! Email me at emilydee@gmail.com.

I'm totally crafty.

Well, not particularly, but I have a few favorite blogs that are pretty crafty, one of which is a private blog, but you can see Alyssa's photography blog here, and check out another crafty blog called One Lovely Life here.

Alyssa made a cute scarf  from this tutorial (a picture of her is below) and also linked another blog's scarf idea.

 I totally jumped on it and made this: 

It's supposed to look more like this, but my shirt was a fairly form-fitting one, so it wasn't nearly as long. I'll definitely be hitting up more old shirts and DI shirts to make more. It was way easy and took maybe an hour? Also, I didn't need to buy anything to make it, which is nice since the crafty items in our household consist of krazy glue and kid-sized scissors...

Sweet and Sour Chicken

In combining my food and personal blog, this recipe definitely needed to be transferred. The sauce is totally addicting and we've used both regular distilled vinegar and red wine vinegar and  the two versions are both so good (and the red wine vinegar totally makes it taste like Polynesian sauce from Chik fil A!). I've made this for Ry and for my family during a visit to Indiana and Ry's parents in AZ and it got great reviews from bot sides so it's even more of a keeper than before!

Sweet and sour chicken..orange chicken...whatever it is, it's gooooood. Ry and I ate this up. I found it on Tasteandtellblog.com and it definitely hit the spot for our Asian kick. Oh and Ry and I made some fried rice after this. I'll post that soon.


Sweet and Sour Chicken
adapted from My Kitchen Café

Chicken:
about 1 lb.of chicken (we used two big chicken breasts from Macey's)
Salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil

First, put oil into a deep skillet and set the burner on med. heat. Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks, and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then put cover each chicken piece with cornstarch and dip with the egg afterward.

Note: It's a little messy, and you have to get your hands dirty, but that's what makes it fun!

Fry them in the oil until each is a little brown on both sides, but not cooked through (you'll cook them through in the oven). Place all the chicken in a baking dish, trying to spread them out as much as possible (we had to layer a few and it still worked great). Then, mix the sauce ingredients (below) and pour over chicken.

Sauce:
¾ cup sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
½ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Bake for about an hour (it depends on how big our chicken chunks are) at 325 degrees. Mix chicken every 15 minutes. 

We've eaten this plain, with green onions on the top after cooking, and with sauteed onions (I first sauteed the onions and then added them during the last 10-15 minutes of baking). However you style it, this stuff is the bomb.

Hate 'Em

There aren't many people I absolutely dispise in this world.

But when I find them, "Hate 'em" is usually the phrase I say when someone references them or when I see them.

Really, I'm talking about Delores Umbridge and Bellatrix LeStrange.

EVERY TIME I see them... no good.

Thanks, ABC Family, for showing HP 5 and 6 back to back yesterday. It totally made my hate grow stronger, in a totally healthy way, of course :)

Butternut Bisque

I love finding great recipes. Even better, I love finding great recipes on cute blogs that aren't even totally food-recipe related (it's an aspiration of mine to be a blog like that).

Enter: Little Family in the Big City. Abbie is the coolest (maybe one day we could be friends) and I love her take on life. Plus, she's Mormon, which is rad (in my totally non-biased opinion, of course). Plus, she lives in Brooklyn, which is super-cool too.

Anyway, so on her super-cool blog [[actually it comes from her food blog, but keep reading anyway]] (hm..I think that's my new favorite adjective...) I found a great recipe for Butternut Bisque. It's beautiful, and comes originally from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine.

It made a ton and it's SO good. It also freezes really well, another plus. The directions are pretty easy and I think maybe the only thing that I changed was that I needed to cook the squash a little longer than twenty minutes to make the squash tender.

Butternut Bisque

3 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus more for garnish (optional)
Coarse salt
1 large butternut squash (about 4 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Sour cream, for serving

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, heat butter over medium. Add onion, garlic, thyme, cinnamon, and cayenne. Season with salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Add squash, broth, half-and-half, and 3 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, and cook until squash is tender, about 20 minutes.
3. Working in batches, puree in a blender until smooth. Stir in lemon juice; season with salt. Serve bisque with sour cream, garnished with cayenne, if desired.
4. To Freeze: Ladle cooled bisque (without sour cream) into airtight containers, leaving 1 inch of space; freeze up to 3 months.
5. To Reheat: Run container under hot water to release bisque. Heat with a bit of water, stirring occasionally.

Date Night

Ryan and I have been pretty busy these last couple of weeks, so we hadn't had a date night and on Saturday we totally redeemed ourselves. First, we went to Trafalga to play some sweet blacklight mini golf (I almost won) and then we stopped by Spoon it up, a cute little frozen yogurt place by the one and only Jdawgs. It was delicious and I kind of want to go there every week so that they can stay in business. I feel so bad for that area and how almost everything fails. There was Smart Cookie, then a pulled pork sandwich place popped up and then went out of business pretty fast, and then there was a pizza place where Jdawgs took over after they went out of business super quickly as well. Now there's Jdawgs, Spoon it up, and a cute little mini-grocery store and I really hope that corner does well.

If you live in Provo, go to Spoon it up. I highly recommend the Raspberry, PB and Chocolate, and the Birthday Cake. Also, the toppings are great. Stellar. Wonderful. And they have cute, brightly-colored tiles and sweet tables and ikea couches and big pillows and cute decor. Have I talked this place up enough?

GO!

AMAZING Enchiladas and Cheesecake Bars

I highly, highly, highly recommend what I made for dinner on Sunday, and I hope everyone gets to make both of these in the very near future.

First up, Honey-lime chicken enchiladas. Let me tell you, these were great, and Ryan and Josh can testify (judging by their multiple servings). They're a tried and true recipe for the Sister's Cafe and I'm all for making these again and again. I made them using chicken, but she also recommends using a pork roast, so I'm excited to try that as well!! One suggestion I have for this was using a little more chicken. I think I used about 2 lbs instead of 1.5, but it definitely makes a ton and I'm super excited to eat the leftovers throughout the week.

Update (4/2011): I just made the enchiladas again, and they're just as fabulous as before. This time I didn't use as much chicken, since we had just about a pound available, and they didn't make as many but were still super-duper fabulous. Really, you're totally missing out if you haven't made these yet.

Next up, we have these amazing fall cheesecake bars. I'm quickly falling in love with anything using Granny Smith Apples and caramel, and these Carmel Apple Cheesecake Bars with Streusel Topping totally hit the spot. SO GOOD!! I love both of these blogs and definitely wasn't dissapointed with either. I only have one suggestion with this one as well and it's that it took almost 40 minutes in the oven instead of the 30 minutes recommended. Now, it could just be our old oven and inaccurate temperature, but watch out for it. Also, I'm a total novice when it comes to cheesecake, so maybe it's just my lack of experience. Also, you only need a little bit since it's so rich, so it's a great potluck-y (I totally just made it a word, don't judge) kind of dish!

No pictures, but the pictures on both their sites are great and I'm so excited to to make them again!

Weekend Review: Family, Football, Friends and Food

Those three F's sum up our weekend quite accurately, I do believe. First up, my little sister, Brynn, came into town on Friday and on Saturday we went to a BYU football game and totally SMASHED our opponents, thank goodness! I know UNLV is something like 1-8 but still, if felt nice to win 55 to 7.

Then, today we had some friends in the ward come over for dinner and I made enchiladas and cheesecake/apple/streudel/carmel bars and it was seriously amazing. It's not that I'm an amazing cook or anything, but I LOVE blogs and reliable tried and true recipes and the fact that there are pictures and great directions and everything right at my fingertips!!

I'll link the recipes soon, they're definitely recipes to be made again. I love that I can pick almost any recipe from my trusty blogs and it'll turn out fabulously, the first time and every time. Anyone have any favorite blogs that they just can't live without? I'm re-doing my go-to blog reel on the side, so watch out for some rad blogs coming soon.

Standardized Tests

[[A letter]]

Dear Standardized Test-makers,

I appreciate your efforts to make a test that can put us all on an even playing field, but I don't want to look at GRE words anymore, and I know that I haven't even done nearly as much as I should. Also, math stinks.

Love (but not really),
Emily

PS To all those crossing their fingers and praying for Ry's LSAT to go well, thank you for your support. He'll be taking the test again, since he didn't do as well as hoped, but that just means y'all get to cross your fingers and pray for him more! At least we know that we're super lucky that his semester isn't a killer, so he can study and have a job without his grades slumping terribly.

Amazing Chicken Marinades

*I'm going to try to mix more recipes in on here and combine our two blogs, so bear with me as we mix things up a bit*

We were on a George Foreman Grill kick a few weeks ago and had two fabulous marinades with our chicken. The first is from my rad pretend bff Melanie and her super rad group of sisters, and the second is from Ry's amazing cousin, Jen.

Melanie's recipe was great, and not too powerful of one specific flavor. Her sisters have made the chicken plain and put it on pizzas and salads, so it's pretty versatile. I'm excited to use it on smaller peices of chicken to have the marinade really soak up the chicken. If you don't want to hop over to their site quite yet, the recipe and my picture are below. It's not the best quality, but trust me, we ate this meal on a weeknight, but it's totally fancy enough to eat for Sunday dinner.

Mel's Lemon Chicken Marinade

Juice of one lemon (~3 Tb lemon juice)
3 Tb oil
1 tsp minced garlic (~ 2 medium-large cloves)
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp oregano
1 lb chicken breasts

Mix ingredients and marinate chicken overnight. Tip: If using this for a pizza or salad, dice the raw chicken and marinate it that way. If it's diced it has more surface area to marinate and then you can get away with only marinating it for 8 or so hours. You can grill this indoors or outdoors, or you may use a skillet (We used an indoor grill).


Ryan liked this next marinade better and I think it's definitely got more of a kick to it, so I think it can hold it's ground a little better on its own than the first one, but that doesn't mean we'll make it any more than the other ones, just that they can be used for different kinds of recipes, depending on the strength of marinade you're looking for. It also uses a few more ingredients, so it just depends on what you have on hand.  I'd definitely try them both out and see what you like! 


Sadly, I don't have a picture, but I'm sure we'll be making this again, and I'll try to get a picture then. Just don't be mad when the quality's not great since the natural light has long since gone to bed (it's getting darker so much earlier!!).


Brown Sugar Citrus Marinade


1/4 c dijon mustard
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/4 c vinegar (I used white vinegar, but I'm excited to try it out with different kinds of vinegar)
1/2 c olive oil
3 cloves garlic (I used jarred since it was more convenient this time, but fresh or jarred will work)
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt
2 Tbl lemon juice (I used the juice you can buy in the produce section of the store, but I'd get fresh lemons and limes when they're in season)
2 Tbl lime juice


Mix all marinade ingredients together and pour over chicken breasts in a Ziploc bag. Marinade overnight for best results.

DC will always be in my heart

Really, it always will be. So when I saw this video this morning on Rockstar Diaries, I knew I had to post it for all to share. Not only is Naomi super gorgeous, but there are scenes from all over DC and I have my own flashbacks of when we walked around the city and saw the buildings and monuments all summer long. Enjoy the little film!


Postcards From Italy from ForYouLoveMe on Vimeo.

Yup, we voted.

I know, I already told you that we were registered to vote here, but I just HAD to tell you that officially, we voted. It's kind of fun voting in local elections actually, and this year Ryan and I were able to become more involved than I have ever been, so it felt a lot more personal and I think everyone should be as excited, or even more!

Ryan worked for a campaign when he was in the Young Dems in high school, so he was more experienced than me coming into the whole "getting involved" thing, but I made up for it by working for the Utah Co. Dems (one of Ry's mission buddies works in the leadership there) by calling about early voting and then calling for the local House candidates the day before and day-of the elections. [[Disclaimer: I totally don't belong to one party or the next, so it was interesting working for a party and getting a bit of an inside glimpse, and being convinced that all the Dems in Utah are pretty much just a tad bit liberal Reps and totally deserve to win]] We both even went out and went canvassing on the Saturday morning before the elections to hang door-hangers for a couple of the candidates in a north-Provo neighborhood.

Even though it's getting late and we still don't know if Don Jarvis won (a House candidate for our Provo area) and even though many of the candidates I wanted to win, or at least *almost* win, didn't I'm super-proud we voted and got involved.

Oh, and one of my life-goals is to have both a Republican and a Democrat's sign in our yard. Given our occasional political dissagreements, I think we've got a high possibility of this happening.

Happy ((belated)) Halloween!

So I just realized that I didn't do a 4th of July post until afterward either, but hey, it was the weekend so I'm excused. Anyway, Ry and I had a blast at our ward party and even though we didn't take pictures until the night was over, I think our costumes were rad and we were super comfy the whole night.

We dressed in all red (and both turned our red Nationals and Reds shirts inside out--(GO RANGERS [they're red too, so it works, ok?!])) and then bought a pair of hand-cuffs and hand-cuffed our hands together. Can you guess what we were??

A CARDIAC ARREST!

Ahh, we're so punny.

By the end of the night the blue painting tape that said what we were had pretty much had come off, but you get the idea. Hope you're weekend was fabulous! We still have a pumpkin that we never carved, that's probably rotten inside, but at least we bought one…it's one step further than we got last year, so that's progress, right?