What's for dinner? Potato & Corn Chowder

Because of my crazy busy internship, Brad ends up making dinner almost every night. That can be a little stressful for him, since he is super busy too and isn't very comfortable with making much more than pasta {although he does make a great stir fry}. I've been looking for ways to make it less stressful for him and help me feel like I'm contributing more. Pinterest is full of links to blogs that sport "25 freezer to crock pot meals" so I thought I would give that a try, but I'll let you know how preparation for that goes after Saturday.

In my hunt for crock pot meals, I found this Potato and Corn Chowder recipe.  Since almost all of the ingredients are canned, I thought it would be pretty silly to try preparing it early, freeze it, and then defrost it in a couple of weeks. But I wanted to try it so Brad threw it together this afternoon and made a loaf of bread in our bread machine to go with it. He said prep involved a lot of opening cans and dumping. It was a perfect meal after a snowy day.

New Year

One of my "resolutions" for this year was to do better at keeping a blog and/or find a way of journaling that I will actually stick to. Well... it's been three weeks and here I am writing my first blog post of the year!

Life has been just too crazy since getting back from Christmas Break! {We had a fabulous Christmas Break, and hopefully I'll have time to write about that later...}

On January 7th, I started a super intense, 40 50+ hours a week, unpaid internship that basically sucks all my energy every.single.day. But I love it and I'm learning a ton! {Even if sometimes I don't love it...}

As of January 8th, Brad will be graduating in April instead of December!!! Which means we can start our {post-college} lives in April. We're still waiting to hear back from Microsoft on how they feel about it, but the plan is to move to Redmond this summer so Brad can do his internship there and then hopefully finding a job somewhere right after.

Last Friday, we went to Chili's and then walked around the mall and looked at the cute kitschy stores with way over priced decorations. It was fun to look at things and think about what I would use {or not} to decorate a house someday.

All this week Brad has been doing the sweetest things to keep my spirits up.
He bought me some chocolate {and the 4th Wheel of Time book to go with it}.
He folded laundry, then did some more.
He has been washing dishes all week! 
He's the best. I'm so lucky to be married to him!

Tonight, I took down our Christmas decorations and put up some Valentines themed decorations. And by Valentines, I mean cupcakes. I did find a couple printables that I think I'll use here and here.

I haven't been doing much baking since, like I said, I have no energy by the time I get home. In fact, Brad's been doing most of the cooking these days. He has been making a stir fry that is really yummy and I think I'll it post on here soon.

What's for dinner? Pizza!

I really want to be a food blogger. I take pictures of the food I make sporadically but I have a hard time just blogging about everyday stuff let alone trying to make my food look as visually appealing as real food bloggers do. But that's ok, maybe when I don't have to balance work and school and being married and all the other stuff I try to do... Or when I have a better camera. Maybe.

Anyways, pizza from scratch has become one of our go to meals. It's fun, pretty easy as long as I remember to start the dough early, and helps use up things in the fridge.

Chicken, bacon, artichoke, tomato pizza

It helps that I have a great tried and true no-fail pizza dough recipe. In stead of setting the oven to 500, I set it to 400-450. It takes a little bit longer but we've found that everything gets cooked properly.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

If we don't have left overs, I usually cook up some chicken using this recipe. It makes the chicken really moist and goes with everything. If I don't have time to make a lot in the oven, I'll cook up a breast on the George Foreman.

Cheese rolls

Also, that picture. The cheese rolls. I totally forgot about those. I have gotten used to making cheese sticks from the pizza dough recipe blog post, but you can also make the extra* dough into cheese rolls by rolling the dough into a rectangle, covering it with the butter, garlic and cheese, then rolling the dough up like cinnamon rolls then cutting it into one inch slices. Let them rise for a bit, then bake them until they are golden brown.

*the original dough recipe makes two pizzas. we usually make one into a pizza and one into cheese sticks.

Hurray for Fall

I love fall weather the best. I get to wear my cute cardigans and warm scarves.
It is perfectly acceptable to put cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger into every kind of food. And I take full advantage of that fact.
Hot chocolate becomes a necessity and the warm fuzzy blankets come out of their box.

Today, I love fall because of General Conference. Listening to both sessions durring the day was fabulous! I am so grateful for modern revelation! I am so grateful to be able to listen to a prophets voice! So far, my favorite is Elder Oaks talk about helping children.
You can watch it live at 10 am and 2 pm MST tomorrow, or catch up anytime.

I also love fall today because I am working on putting together this Autumn Delight Cake (without the crystalized ginger). Oh yummmm! It smells and tastes like fall :)

PS catch up posts may be coming soon, especially for our wonderful San Francisco adventure.

Brad's *FAVORITE*: Applesauce Cake

Brad love, love, loves this cake! One year for his birthday, he asked for a whole cake all to himself. We can finish off a whole 13x9 in a weekend, which is maybe why I don't make it very often. Brad's mom got this recipe at her bridal shower and gave it to me for mine. It is super yummy and super easy!

Brad's Favorite Applesauce Cake

1 1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. oil
2 eggs
2 C. unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp each baking soda & baking powder
2 C. flour
1 tsp. group cloves
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 T. cocoa
1 tsp vanilla

Put all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well blended.
Pour into a greased 9x13 pan.
Sprinkle with: 1/2 C + brown sugar, 1 C + chocolate chips
Bake at 350° for 35-40 mins.

Serve warm with ice cream, whipped cream or cool whip (Brad's favorite).

Enjoy!

A little bit of church history

After the Swank's sealing, Brad and I grabbed lunch at In-N-Out. We made a short stop at the South Jordan DI where I found a pair of pants I'm planning on dyeing.

Our original plan was to go check out the new City Creek Center by Temple Square, but by the time we made it up there we realized we had to pay for parking. Since we weren't super committed to that plan, we drove around till we found a 2 hour free parking spot and headed towards Temple Square.

There are a couple museums on the west side of Temple Square so we decided to take a peek at the Museum of Church History and Art.

Does Brad look like he just woke up? Cause he did...

We had a lot of fun looking at the art and learning about the early pioneers. At the exhibit about the saints from England they had an example of the bunks the pioneers. Whole families would occupy one bunk and store their belongings in a bunk above them because that was all that the members could afford.

Brad climbed into one of them. I really hope none of the families were as tall as his!

There are two bunks in this picture.

At this point, Brad started feeling really sleepy. We made it through the first floor and into a room on the second floor before he fell asleep in a chair in the Native American Affairs room. It made me think a little about Larry Echo Hawk.

View of Temple Square from the Museum.

When Brad woke up {it was only 15 minutes}, it was time to go to the reception. Hopefully this summer we'll be able to make a day trip to SLC.

A Swanky Wedding

Brad has a friend named Ben who he met his Freshman Year at BYU. I met Ben one Sunday in March 2011 when Brad and I happened to be at Kiwanis Park at the same time as Ben and his then girlfriend Elise.

Last Fall, Elise and I were in Human Biology together {turns out, Elise and I are in the same major}. Instead of paying attention in class, we bonded over Pinterest, talking about relationships, and wedding planning {Ben and Elise got engaged over the summer}.

Well, on April 21, Ben and Elise got married! Brad and I were lucky enough to attend their sealing in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and their reception that night. It was a blast!

The ceremony was special and sweet. {Lots of holding hands with my hubby, happy tears, and baby hunger(?) on my part. Sealings are about eternal families, as well as the couple at the altar.}

The reception had all of Elise's cute vintage style {which I didn't get any pictures of} and lots of swing music.
Before we got to the reception, I made Brad promise he would dance with me for one song {he hates dancing}. But as soon as we got there I remembered that most of the Swanks' friends are in the Swing Club, so I let him off the hook. {but he still owes me a dance...}

Between the sealing and the reception, Brad and I had a fun mini trip up to Salt Lake City, but I'll write about that in a separate post.

Thank you Ben and Elise for getting married! We love you!

I love this picture because Brad looks like a model :)