RECIPES!!!

I know you are all dying to see pictures of Christmas....or perhaps Harrison's birthday party last weekend with the awesome volcano cake, or maybe the audio file of Harrison and I singing jingle bells (too bad I don't know how to post an audio file..anyone?).

I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't think that will be happening today. Since Cory's phone contains our best camera (sad, I know-mine was lost in the move somehow) I have to wait for him to download the pictures to snapfish so I can put them on the blog....and wait I do.......

Anyway, I've been meaning to post some recipes for awhile. I used to put recipes up all the time, and I hate for anyone to think that just because we both work full time jobs and typically are gone at least 12 hours a day that keeps me from cooking, OH NO! Actually we've been trying really really really REALLY hard to not eat out so much (I'm incredibly impressed with how well this has been going, we haven't spent more than $20 a week between both of us eating out since Christmas...for us this is a HUGE deal, knock on wood...) so lots of cooking happens in order that there are things around to bring for lunch that will keep me from going to chipotle or panera or one of the 8 million buffets or pho places in the close vicinity of my workplace everyday. (mmm...panera...how I miss you...how I resent you for wasting so much of my money needlessly with your onion soup and yummy panini sandwiches....).

Back to the recipes.

This Fall, I made this Apple Pie with this crust twice and it was heavenly.

I contributed these and these to the Thanksgiving celebration and was loved by all.

And of course the best stuffing ever for the AZ Christmas soiree (gotta love recipes with "awesome" in the title...).

This was a hit at my work Christmas party and was ridiculously easy, although I recommend freezing it and I used real whip cream because I'm anti cool-whip on principle.

And then there's the recent dinners, nothing amazing, but some recipes I can honestly be EATING in 30 minutes (because those Rachael Ray ones always take me at least an hour, I'm slow... and when you get home at 6:45 and your kid's bedtime is 7:45 you don't have an hour....).

Seriously Yum salmon with some carrots and rice.

Easy way to use a jar of tomato sauce.

This one is not exactly kid-friendly but it was good and a breeze to put together.

Fast and easy and you don't have to buy the pricey gruyere cheese. I was happy using parmasean and leftover frozen spinach.

This one felt like a quesadilla version of bbq chicken pizza, with pineapple...yummy.

I can't remember how long this took me, but it was really good.

And of course the party this weekend, I made this pizza and this pizza (and a lame boring one for the kids, what do you do?). They're both favorites and really don't take much if you make the dough beforehand or use a pre-made crust. PS do use the fontina in both of these, YUMMY.

Oh yeah, and who can forget the new years eve sugar cookie bars with buttercream frosting six adults devoured in one evening right before we all started our diets, right?

Happy eating!!!!

New Thanksgivmas Eve!!!

Posted from sunny beautiful AZ where we are spending a FABULOUS week vacation (and loving it):

The weekend after Thanksgiving we went out to Pittsburgh for a Rockville girl roommate get together at April and Cord's awesome big old house. April initiated the gathering for New Thanksgivmas eve, a new holiday started by us :) Aside from Harrison being sick and Cory and Harrison having to take off before the main event (8 course dinner and gift exchange) it was so fun to have almost all of us (and Erin's sister Taci) together again with our families. Harrison loved playing with Vincenzo and Alesa and chasing the "baby kitties" around the house. Thank you April for making this happen, can't wait til next year where I will be more prepared to ensure my child is NOT sick

I snapped a few pictures....I really need to see the one with the boys in their cheap-o chrsitmas ties (holding up cory's since he was absent)! April??
Shalise and Frank getting ready for dinner. You'll notice beautiful table decorations and like THREE drinks at each place setting. It was pretty amazing.

Yumm...Ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, and pumpkin cheesecake

My claim to fame for the night was definitely assistance with salad assembly.

Our cute hosts!

Taci was SO excited she drew my number in the white elephant exchange....I of course had forgotten and threw something together that I found in the car (who knew that a big gulp cup filled with candy could be so hilarious..)

Although the weekend was half-super stressful, it was still a great time--can't remember when I've laughed so hard. Love you guys!!!

Thanksgiving

We just got off of two really fun (as far as road trips with a small child go) holiday weekend trips. First, we went to visit our friends Todd and Emily and Jonas and Carmen in the Detroit area for Thanksgiving. Todd and Cory are BFFs from their days at the BYU-I/Rick's College and we haven't seen them for far too long and it was great to catch up! It was COLD, but we had a great time eating an AMAZING dinner (with 4 pies plus awesome pecan bars and pumpkin woopie pies made by yours truly...yeah...for four adults and three kids under three.. :) YUM), watching the kiddos play awesome together, visiting the Ford Motor Company museum and "village" (not many people braved the cold to go into the old shops and buildings...good way to beat the crowd!!), and going out on a DATE to eat yummy italian food and see Harry Potter. Oh yeah, and we went to a diner and ate chili dogs. YAY FOOD!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! (I could say a bunch about gratitude here and what not but it's almost 11 and I have to get up at 5...so please just keep and mind that the Brown family is very blessed and grateful this year!!!)

Slim pickings in the weekend pics, but I think I covered the most important stuff:

A huge train set made out of legos!!
Blurry photo of Harrison and Jonas in the tub--the BEST part of every day! Nothing better than two little boys in the tub dumping water on each other and cracking up!!

OH WAIT!! There is something better!!! jumping up in down in your sister's bed after mommy told you not to!!!

(as a postscript to this post, Emily, you can see why I need your pictures, right??)

(also...let's save the new holiday and last week's trip for another day...before I start writing incoherent sentences that I'll regret in the morning)