March 30, 2009

Masterpiece

Has anyone else been enjoying the new Masterpiece Dickens collection as much as I have?

I loved the Jane Austen series they did last year (opened up a whole new world in Northanger Abbey for me) and Tess and Wuthering Heights from earlier this year were truly great. Trav and I have almost finished watching Oliver Twist and it's fabulous.

Fab-U-Lous.
I'm all for a good villain and Bill Sikes in Oliver is just perfect -- the chills run down your spin, make you want to run and hide kind of villain. Trav said the thing that makes him so scary is that everyone seems to know a guy like him. ::shiver:: I agree. I don't think I'd ever want to get up close and personal with someone like him.
And here's Bill - he's mean, he's nasty. He's perfect.

FYI - the current show is Little Dorrit and if you head over to Masterpiece you can watch each episode online for a few weeks.

March 24, 2009

We're going ethnic

For a variety of reasons, Trav and I decided to start cooking with as much of our food storage as we can get away with and only buying perishables as needed. We've been enjoying various rice and potato dishes but I get pretty bored with the same 'ole crockpot combos so I've been branching out and going ethnic for dinner. That's right: Ethnic. So. This is where I share and you dear reader: You be amazed by my culinary expertise!

And our first stop is to the Middle East for Exhibit A (Sunday): Falafel

These bad boys are made from ground chickpeas (and a whole lotta other things) which are then fried. I served them on lettuce leaves with tomatoes and ranch. I didn't have the stuff to make the yogurt sauce which we felt the lack of but they were still tasty. So this was a for sure try again meal - except next time I think I'll bake these bad boys. Can anybody say coronary?

Moving right along to Exhibit B (Tuesday) or in which our heros travel to South America for: Beef Empanadas!

These little babies were DELISH. Beef, raisens, egg, onion and lottsa yummy spices all stuffed inside a homemade pastry shell (so easy!). Look at those scalloped edges! Aren't they purty? The only alteration I made to the recipe was to bake them instead of frying (see above comment). I'm so excited to try out this recipe with other fillings: cheese, chicken and veggies, rice and beans...endless possiblities my friend! Endless!
So there you have it -- food I make when I get bored with the same old.
What do you make when you're looking to make a change and trying to use pantry items?

March 21, 2009

Peter can walk but Travis can run!

Last weekend, Travis participated in the ever-popular Rex Lee 5k Run at BYU. We figured he had to get one of those spiffy T-shirts, I mean (cough, cough) run in it at least once before graduating from BYU and he finished in an amazing 27 min!


Not to be outdone by his dad, Peter decided he's had enough of this crawling stuff and starting walking this weekend. He still hasn't quite figured out what knees are for and looks like a drunk monkey when he walks but he's getting around pretty good. We're just hoping all those bruises he keeps getting won't make his head too much bigger.

March 14, 2009

Sunny Days


Peter loves to the sunshine -- he'll stand in front of this window and tug on the blinds until I pull them up so can he see out. I think it's just cause he likes to spy on the neighbors..

March 11, 2009

Concentration

Our little cowboy -- who said little boys aren't serious about their play time?