mint

if i had $495 to spend on a dress, i would buy this. check out Mint by jodi arnold. there is a trunk show this weekend here in seattle. she has the prettiest clothes! i just can't imagine paying that much!

why the weekend was so great...

this was the color of the sky... finally

our awesome new friends sarah and jordan.
eating dinner on the waterfront.

french fries.
pretty lights.
the office.

new bishop.
sloppy joes.
memorial day boating.
time with parker.

honey + wheat

my new-found friend sarah, kneeding away

not bad for our first time. i think the dough needed to rise a little more but supposedly that part gets better with practice. my mom sent me two different methods of making it and we made it the pioneer way... no bread mixers for us. my baking skills are slowly improving and it's actually really fun. ha.

Heat 1 cup water in microwave about 1 minute (warm, not hot, bathwater)
Pour into large mixing bowl.
Sprinkle over water 1 ½ Tbls yeast.
Sprinkle 1 Tbls sugar and stir briefly.
When very foamy, add 1 more cup water that has been heated as above. Stir.

Add
½ cup oil
½ cup honey
1 Tbsp. salt
Stir to combine.
Add flour 1-2 cups at a time, until its too thick to stir with a spoon.
Add flour 1 cup at a time with your hands until its pretty smooth. If its whole wheat, it will still be shaggy at this point.

Pioneer Method
At this point you can let it rest for about 30 minutes. It will rise a bit. Punch it down and Add flour if its still sticky. Knead it about a minute or so.
Turn out onto OILED table, and knead, , until very smooth, like a baby’s bottom. AS you knead it, it may get sticky again, so add flour as needed just to keep the stickiness down.
After 5-10 minutes of kneading, put it into an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel or an oiled saran wrap, and let it rise 30-60 minutes, till double in bulk.
Punch down, Turn out onto table.Knead again briefly, divide into 3 or four loaves, place immediately in oiled bread pans , or make free-form rounds or loaves and place directly onto the baking sheet. ( you really can’t handle them after this point so put them into or onto what you’re going to cook them on.)
Let them rise until doubled, but no further. Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 25=35 minutes. The loaves are done when a light tap on the bottom makes a hollow sound

saturday is a special day

saturdays are quickly becoming my new favorite day of the week, right after sundays. Sundays are the only day of the week that parker doesn't have to work so we get to go to church and hang out all day. saturdays are great cause he gets home around 5:30, as opposed to 9:30+ which is when he gets home on weeknights. we get to eat dinner at a normal time and possibly cruise around seattle looking for fun stuff to do or just stay at home and watch a movie. anyways i love saturdays because they go by a lot faster than the other days of the week. today i think i'm going to try making homemade bread. i had to leave my kitchen-aid in utah for lack of room in the car so i'm going to have to make it by hand. also i didn't bring my bread pans...parker told me i wouldn't use them... so i'm going to just make them on a cookie pan...hopefully it will look as good as martha's. i'll let you know how it goes.

pb kisses

made these last night... they were mmmmm,mmmm good. thanks to amy and her little cookbook that i was able to get my hands on. ran out the door with a warm one in hand to go see this

fully enjoyed it as much as i did the first one. definitely recommended to anyone that liked the first one.

help wanted

i am getting super frustrated trying to find a job. not just any job but a job that isn't the exact opposite hours of my husbands work. not too much to ask right? it's my own fault though because i didn't really start looking for a job until i really wanted to be starting one. doesn't work that way i guess. it's funny how the thing i thought i didn't want to be doing is the exact thing i wish i were doing right now. now i have to wait 4-6 weeks for paperwork to go through. don't worry. i'll find something in the mean time.

maddie

missing this face today. the cutest 2 year old neice i have! i love that purple lipstick mustache too..

garmin

we got this little life-saver at target after we had been out here a few days. we spent some of our target wedding money to get it and we got a good deal too. It has been SO nice to have...we don't have to think about how to get somewhere before we leave because it tells us exactly where to go. we just can't forget to use our own brains sometimes.

happy mothers day!

one day late

as requested by my mom...

we have the best moms!!!

silverware does not take up that much room

so for some reason while we were eliminating stuff (mainly kitchen items, as that seemed to be what i had packed most of) from our overstuffed car before our move out here, i eliminated our silverware to 6 spoons, 6 forks, and 6 knives. i was trying to simplify...ya know? only bring the essentials. you think that would be enough utensils for 2 people, but apparently not for us. we run out of silverware ridiculously fast. i'm always washing them. who knew...? anyways today i ran the dishwasher since our dirty plates caught up to the utensils, if you know what i mean. this is what i found 15 minutes later... i have no clue. remind anyone of raintree?

going green

i try where i can. got .05 cents off my groceries today for bringing in my own reusable bag. sweet right? Got this great bag from my mom for christmas. she gave them to all of us to take our stocking stuff home in. if you know my mom she has a good sense of global awareness/responsibity and is always trying to help us kids get the vision. i hadn't used it grocery shopping yet but it felt suprisingly good...plus i got 5 cents for it! you can get them at albertsons for 1$. yay for reusable and earth friendly.

bug

the bug we found on our walk the other day.

happy boy

pike place market

the picture is supposed to be for the famous 'public market center' sign and not that ugly truck...

pastries. we couldn't resist

Lots of seafood


we got samples of crab and smoked salmon from this guy. we almost bought some even though it was pretty pricey. it was so good. we would have but we were in a hurry to leave so we didn't have to pay extra for parking

Yummy fruits and veggies

we came home and made a really good omellette.
definately a favorite so far. so much to see.

leavin

parker and i left to seattle last week with our car packed to the brim. i didn't realize how much we had accumulated in our four months of being married.

parkers parents, my amazing in-laws, graciously let us use parkers old bedroom as our storage unit. it took about 13 hours from salt lake to our apartments. not a bad drive at all. and absolutely gorgeous the last half. we were welcomed into seattle very appropriately. it was raining as we drove in but it's been pretty weather ever since. it usually rains a few minutes a day but not too hard. SOO since the weather is beautiful and the drive REALLY isn't bad, i want to see a few of you out here to visit us while we are here!

pike place

went to pike place market this morning! loved loved loved it. more pictures later.

p + k

hello blog world. decided to finally start blogging for myself. see if i enjoy blogging on my own blog as much as i enjoy reading others blogs. parker and i are officially living in seattle, WA and loving it.