To Infinity and beyoooooond!

First, one must prepare and gain strength through a nutritious dinner of yams.

Next, the audience must be arranged.

Ascending to the summit follows, and arms are raised in preparation for flight to Infinity and BEYOOOOOOOOND!

Angelitos

Siblings Sharing the Limelight

Every time I start shooting photos of Jack a certain little girl feels compelled to join in the fun. It's hard not being the center of attention anymore when a new kid arrives on the scene.





This is the first time Jack ever pulled himself up on anything. Mavis is sort of trying to help at first. Then he makes it, albeit shakily, on his own. Lucky am I to have had the camera on hand for this momentous occasion.

Halloween Cat and a Red Gladiola

A silly little decoration I made last year. Not my best, but fun to paint nonetheless.



I planted a whole bunch of gladiolas, but only had a few blooms. This electric red gladiola was a loner (the only red one—Pantone Red 032) and I'm glad she made it. Nieces and nephews collected these acorns for me from Nama & Papi's backyard.

the cutest Jack in the whole wide world

Here Jack is seen doing some of his favorite activities including climbing the stairs, eating chairs, sticking out his tongue, and generally being darling.

Cupcakes with the neighbor girls

I made these cupcakes for the neighborhood girls to decorate. My neighbor across the street made the frosting and directed the decorating. We had fun. These are the best chocolate cupcakes! I started with a Cook's Illustrated recipe for Chocolate Devil's Food Cake, but swapped the all-purpose flour for whole grain kamut flour resulting in a whole grain product that maintains the light fluffy texture associated with white flour cakes. Kamut is great because it doesn't give baked goods the dense, heaviness of whole wheat. Also, the flavor of kamut is more delicate, so it doesn't detract from the other flavors in the cake the way whole wheat would, but you don't have to sacrifice any of the nutritious goodness attributed only to a whole grain. Kamut can also be used in pancakes with wonderful success. In fact we like the kamut pancakes better than the original white wheat flour version.

Strawberry Leotard

Mavis loves "gynastics". She loves wearing leotards too. This one is shiny and has pink strawberries on it—a metallic version of pms 226. Super cute!

Keith Marries Amber

Stephanie took a pic of me with my kiddie widdies while we were walking in the gardens between the Lion House and the Salt Lake Temple. This is after attending my cousin Keith's wedding to the lovely Amber. I did their wedding invites, which I will post later when I post all of my recent wedding invites. Here are a few pics other pics I took that day.

Mavis Paints

Whenever I'm painting Mavis paints too.

I heart tomatoes

Grape and pear tomatoes from the garden.

Cucumbers & Tomatillos from the garden

colorstrology

According to colorstrology my color is pms 16-5820. It's described as emotional, prophetic, mystical. I love it. I'd like to know if everyone else feels perfectly aligned with the color under their birthdate as well. Amazing how perfectly it fits me at this moment.

It was meant to be

Most of my memories and feelings are associated with colors. For example, the day I met my husband I was wearing a green shirt (pms 376 u), he was wearing a coral-ish colored shirt (pms 108-4 u), and the sun was casting a golden glow about. Those are two of my most preferred colors, and in just the right light so it's not surprising that he made an impression under such perfect circumstances. A sure sign it was meant to be.

Spaghetti Sauce — fresh from the garden

This beautiful bolognese sauce starts with sauteéd onions and carrots (use olive oil). The meat is added and cooked till the pink is gone, but the meat is not browned yet. Then milk or cream is added and cooked till reduced (sometimes I add other liquids after the milk cooks down and cook till reduced as well, such as white wine, or red wine vinegar). Here you see cream added.
The tomatoes are blended well. I never remove the skins, so the blending assures that the skins don't detract from the final result.
The blended tomatoes are added. The whole mixture cooks for an hour or so till it becomes thick enough and yields a lovely pms 179.
This sauce is the bomb. Full flavored, satisfying, and intricate enough to provide an exciting experience for the full-fledged foodie.

Fresh Mint Lemon-Limeade

All summer our favorite drink was this minty lemon-limeade:

Fresh Mint Lemon-Limeade

3 cups of ice
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
a few mint leaves (5+ big leaves, more if the leaves are small)
1 cup sugar

In a saucepan combine the sugar with a few tablespoons of water and heat, stirring occasionally till the sugar is dissolved (about 3 to 5 minutes, or maybe less, I don't remember).

Fill blender with ice, then fill with water till the waterline is about a 1/2 inch or so above the top of the ice. Add juices and sugar water and mint leaves. Blend until the ice gets light and fluffy, and a little frothy.

Note: All measurements are approximate. Sorry for the lack of precision.

This could be a cure for pms (not that I'd know, and certainly not the color kind, which can be a cure for the other kind). Matches pms 365, and is a very nice complement to Josh's pizza.