Who said you have to carve a pumpkin?

I'll fill you in on more of my Halloween weekend adventures later (after all of them are over!) Have a happy Halloween!

Random thoughts for today

1. When someone asks me what my favorite flower is I never say roses. I don't have favorite flower, per se, I think I always answer that question differently. But it's not roses. That said my mom sent me a beautiful bouquet for my birthday. It contained bright green spider mums and roses in two shades of pink and other whitish flower that I can't remember the name of. They are on their was out and as I passed by them today I had the fleeting thought that roses really aren't that bad; what did roses ever do to me? I think I might like them, don't get me wrong, they are not my favorite and I never want to smell like roses, but sometimes it's nice to have them on the coffee table.

2. This is how I feel after this week at work, the days seemed to last forever.


3. Should I buy myself a birthday present? Is that something grown-up people do?

4. I love the rain, but I am afraid that it may be a sign of colder and wetter things to come.

5. I spent way too much time debating the purchase of a saute pan today, now I know that is not something normal grown-up people do.











6. I discovered a new disease to add to the list of things not to get. It's called cyclic vomiting syndrome. I don't think you want all the details, but trust me that you don't want to get it. My heart goes out to people I see everyday that struggle with challenges that I cannot even imagine.

That's all folks!

How can I make this about food?

I have been a slacker and haven't posted in a whole month, which means that my birthday has now come and gone. But, oh, it was wonderful! Because I feel obligated to talk about food I will recount my birthday through a food diary. (Other RDs that are reading this, don't judge me!)

Friday night:
I ate with some friends at The Snakebite, my favorite little hole-in-the-wall restaurant here in IF, while I was waiting for some other (procrastinator) friends to get up here! So, I had: salmon sandwich, waffle fries, and chocolate cake.

Later Friday night:
Friends FINALLY got here and because it was "1:30 night" we stayed up talking and laughing, and I'm pretty sure I ate something. (pic: Megan and I playing Cat's cradle... kinda)

Saturday morning:
Breakfast at my sister's house with the whole gang. Muffins, fruit, juice, banana bread, yum!

Saturday midday:
We drove to Rexburg to go to bear world! Pringles in the car, free fudge samples, etc.

Saturday before the game:
5 guys burgers and fries, we all shared fries, but I think I still ended up eating 4 whole potatoes.

BYU won! But on the Bryan scale of football fun the game was a 3, so not a total victory.

Saturday evening:
Jami hosted a wonderful party for me, complete with fruit, veggies, yogurt covered pretzels, cookie dough truffles and it goes on and on, and then Casady (I love her!) made me a delicious birthday cake. I don't think anyone got a picture of it before it caught on fire (a story for another day) but it was beautiful! (And someone bought me "Five" to have with my cake :)

Later Saturday evening:
This is the only part of the day that I didn't eat, but I should have had the diet coke that Megan got for me because Tiffany kept wanting to "talk" about stuff and sorry Tiff, but I couldn't keep my eyes open.

Way too few hours later/ Sunday morning:
Another breakfast at my sisters, cereal and Reed's choco milko. (pic: after church we walked around the green belt and discovered waterfalls and rock alcoves)


Sunday afternoon:
A beautiful "Thanksgiving dinner" spread complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, spinach casserole, and home-grown mushroom gravy- and for the third time that weekend, cake! (above: in between dinner and dessert; below: trying to burn off all the calories we just consumed and posing for our album cover photo)

Thanks to everyone who played a part in making my birthday weekend wonderful! It wouldn't have been the same without you.

Only 1 month left...

...until my birthday! I love my birthday. It is in the best month of the best season. And it is just another wonderful excuse to be surrounded by lots of friends and WAY too much junk food. Well, there was that one year that my roommates decided to be healthy :)


Don't worry, there was still plenty of chocolate and candy and ice cream to go around.

Home is...

Let me start off by saying that I had an AMAZING Labor Day weekend filled with so many good friends and even more good food. I probably shouldn't have eaten at all today, but I did. I'll fill you in on the weekend's goodies later, but first here is what happened today.

I was at my sister's house reading a magazine and one of the features was a collection of readers' opinions of what home means to them. Some were typical "home is the smell of my mom's perfume", some a little more interesting "home is where I can wear yellow yoga pants and a holey shirt and not worry about being ambushed by a makeover crew", and some were downright weird "home is the smell of my husbands neck right below his ear." However odd some people are the question got me thinking (though not too hard and honestly I would have never thought about it again if what home is to me hadn't smacked me in the face a few hours later.)

Let me back up a few years and explain. When I was younger my favorite ice cream flavor was vanilla, and I was not afraid to admit it. As I got older I fell into some traps, thinking that more is better and obsessing over my love of chocolate, I soon fell away from my classic flavor in favor of New York Super Fudge Chunk, Fudge Brownie, and other dare I say trendy flavors. I think I was a little afraid to miss something if I stuck with vanilla.

Today I apologize to vanilla. I am no longer afraid to admit that deep down you have always been my favorite. I don't need anyone to mix in chocolate chips or snickers bars or little pieces of bubble gum. All I need is vanilla, and that is home to me.
Thank you Haagen-Dazs Five for helping me remember what it feels like to be home.

Mango Salsa

Next weekend is labor day and I am heading to Provo for a weekend-o-fun with my old college friends, I can't wait and in my anticipation I started preparing for the trip today. I don't think there is a better place to start than with food :) I know that I will be eating a whole bunch of junk food, a minimum of 2 late night Wendy's runs, plenty of Diet Coke, and smiley face fruit snacks, so I thought I would contribute something (relatively) healthy-- Mango Salsa. I will post the original recipe below, but I adapted it a little bit today, mainly because I left my grocery list at home.

Start by dicing some onion.

Add some diced red bell pepper.

I forgot how hard and annoying it is to cut mangoes. It works best for me to cut the flesh from around the pit (the pit won't just pop out like an avocado). I discovered it does work pretty well to take the skin off with a spoon, my knife was taking off too much of the good stuff!

Next add a finely diced jalapeno pepper, you could also use a serano pepper, those tend to be a little more spicy. (I seeded mine because I'm a wuss when it comes to spicy things.)


I added a whole can (minus what I couldn't help myself from eating) of pineapple and a whole can of peach halves, both roughly chopped.



Last, but definitely not least, a few tablespoons of lemon juice and lots of cilantro, and other mango because I have lots of hungry friends.



I made almost 8 cups of mango salsa! I guess the real test is how much will actually make it to Provo when I have to look at in the fridge everyday.

Brittany's Mango Salsa:

2 mangoes
1 c each roughly diced canned peaches and pineapple
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 c sliced green onions
1/4 c snipped cilantro
2 Tbsp lemon/ lime juice
1-2 jalapeno/ serrano peppers, seeded and diced

To market to market

I am trying to hold on to what I have left of summer, and I know of no other way than with fresh fruit, perfectly ripe and sweet.

I was at Albertson's the other day and I found a little basket of pluots. They are a variety of plums and they are super-sweet with bright red flesh.




I never know what to do at this point. They aren't like apples and you can eat all the way around the pit (which was surprisingly small), but for some reason it just feels wrong. Don't worry I ended up eating every little bit!

I was also FINALLY able to go to the Idaho Falls farmers market. It was small, but fun and I left wishing that I had a house full of people to feed that would justify buying multiple loaves of bread and way too many pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables. I managed to restrain myself and left with only peaches and raspberries.


I'm hoping I can squeeze a few more weeks out of this summer before I have to go into hibernation mode, wish me luck!