April 24th

April 25. Supposedly the perfect date. 

While I wouldn't pretend to have the opinions of a beauty queen or nothin like that, I do have the opinions of a person who spends a lot of time on the internet. That's got to give me at least a little bit of credit, right? I mean, think of all the things that you've learned from the internet. And all of them true!! Amazing. 

Anyway, (back on track) it is my unprofessional opinion that April 24 is actually the perfect date. Anyone looking at meteorologic histories can see that the combination of ideal temperature, form and amount of precipitation, and amount of daylight clearly combine perfectly on April 24. This essay will attempt to persuade the reader that the most perfect day of the year is not, in fact, April 25, but April 24. 

The mean temperature of any given day is arguably the most influential factor when ranking perfectionism. Studies show that people are more fertile, and more likely to brush their teeth when the temperature of the room ranges from 70-75 degrees F. Higher temperatures tend to promote Godzilla-itis whereas lower temperatures usually result in binge eating. Taking this information into account, it is clear that the perfect day must have a historic mean temperature ranging between 73 and 78 degrees F. While I am much too lazy to look up any actual information regarding historic data, since yesterday was 77 degrees F, we'll go ahead and say that it counts for years past. 

Precipitation is another important factor when deciding what the perfect date it. Not only the amount, but also the form must be taken into account. Anyone with a brain will know that the most undesirable form of precipitation is wind, while the most desirable is a single, cumulonimbus cloud in the sky. This has only happened one time in recorded history, and it was on October 2. While this is nowhere near April 24, traditionally, April 24 exhibits cumulonimbus clouds while April 25 usually has only cirrus and hippo stratus. 

The last important factor is amount of daylight during the night before the date in question. The only recorded instance of any daylight through the night occurred in approximately 1 AD. Since this is so long ago, the correct and accurate date of this occurrence is unknown. So really, my argument on this point is completely invalid. Moving on.

For these reasons, it should be quite clear to you now that the date containing the most perfection is April 24 and not April 25. In conclusion, I would just like to say that, though Cheryll is probably the nicest person you will ever meet, she is wrong. 

Driving

This weekend we made the (7 hour) trek down to Las Vegas.

I know what you're thinking:

"Wait, don't you already live in Nevada?"

Why yes, yes we do. It's just a massively too large state.

We drove down to go see Andrew's brother, Joe, be married to his most attractive friend, Cami.

On the way down, we saw some pretty interesting things:

Such as, 2 people who got up way too early and then tried to do a self portrait with the sun shining in their eyes.

Some pretty cool rocks that look like a giant bite out of a giant sandwhich.

And an ant hill.

Andrew was like: "Oooh, Ima getchu ant hill!"

"Hiiiiyah!"

"Hmmm"

"This needs to go on facebook"

We kept driving and Nevada was like:

"Deseeerrrrt!!!"

And then it was like "Lol, jk! Lake!!"

And I was like "is this trip ever going to end?? I hope there's a pool in Vegas"

There was not. Lame

Wurk

As you may or may not know, I have a very cool job.

Well, it's pretty cool most of the time. Sometimes I get stuck behind my desk for weeks on end and that kinda sucks. But there are lots of fun things to see where I work.

Oh you want to know where I work? Right, sorry.

I work here:

Where I usually get to wear this:

And I sometimes get to wear this:

The dump trucks are as big as houses:

And the back-hoes are even bigger:

Side note: Here is the bucket on that shovel. It fit like 30 people inside it! Crazy.

I work at a gold mine. Yep, it's pretty cool.

I work in the environmental department managing the Environmental Management System (not as cool, but still fun).

So, I won't go into the details of mining (even though I know you would be absolutely fascinated by it) but this is our roaster:

It burns the dirt, we sprinkle magic fairy dust on it, and out pop gold bars!!

So for the last week, and this coming one, all the fairies are on vacation so we're cleaning up all the fairy poop. They're messy creatures, those fairies, I tell ya. We call it The Roaster Down (how boring). But it means that I get to be away from my desk a lot and climb all the way to the top of the 15 story tall roaster and lean out over the edge. Fun!

This is what I see. The water cooling towers and the 2 hugest propane tanks anyone has ever seen in their whole lives (those long white things towards the middle).

Tanks that are usually full of water that are now empty and being cleaned out.

And the ever present pit, of course :)

Yep, that's it. 

Peep Please!

So I have a confession:

When I first read about "Peep, please!" I had no idea what it was. It was only referred to and I had to draw my own conclusions (or I guess I could have searched through past blog posts to find out what it really was but that would have required way too much time and effort and I'm lazy). The way I imagined it in my head was like "B*tch, please!" you know all gangster and stuff, but maybe a little nicer. I read it here first, and I'm pretty sure my thinking was influenced by the writer. She's just too sassy. In a good way. Like a makes-me-snort-milk-out-my-nose way.

So we all get to see what's in each other's cars which is mostly boring until you find that what item that makes you go "WTF?"

Anyway, I was a little hesitant to participate mainly because my car is in a constant state of red alert due to the earthquake/tornado/hurricane that lives in there (aka moi). But it did sound like a lot of fun and maybe a good excuse to get me to actually clean out Ground Zero. I learned that I have far too many excuses already and don't need another one.

NEWHO

Front: Best seat in the house

1. Wedding cards that still need thank you's sent out. Does anyone sit around just waiting for their thank you when they give a gift? I sure hope not, cause it may just not happen.

2. Grocery reciepts so I can attempt to keep track of how much we spend on groceries each week. Who knew a man would eat so much?? I sure didn't.

3. Traaaaash. Cause mi coache is too dirty and I need a place to stash the trash.

4. McDonald's cups from our teeny road trip to Salt Lake last weekend.

Back Seat:

1. My temple bag because I'm way too lazy to take it inside. Ever.

2. Hard hat: to better play Sexy Construction Worker with

3. Shirt. Just cause. I actually really do not know why this shirt is in here

4. Water Bottle from work that I used to use all the time but then got stuck in The Black Hole

5. A Towel: Once again, a mystery item. It's not even our towel.

6. Shoes. JIC

7. My Highschool Freshman Year Book. My parents are in the process of slowly removing every reminder that I ever lived in their home. This is their latest ploy.

8. A package delivery slip that I'm not sure I ever redeemed.

And just cause I'm being super honest about what's in my car:

2 sweaters, his and hers, also JIC. Oh and another shirt. His

 The trunk:

1. The chrome chip-and-dip tray that someone decided the newly weds just had to have.

2. More shoes.

3. The glass cake display that someone else decided the newly weds just had to have. Although this one is pretty cool. It's from Ikea, so it has to be at leat a little bit cool.

4. Andrew's temple bag that he actually stole from his dad so he hides it in the car.

5. A bag full of naughties for the many bridal showers I've been attending lately.

6. A pair of boots for when I want to appear stylish like

7. A food chopper of which we received 2 so this one needs to go back

8. Wedding decorations that need to go somewhere but no one knows where.

What did you do with your decorations? I'm at a loss.

Don't worry, I know you're so anxious to know what we ate. Or you've just assumed we've been starving for the last week.

We had all this fresh produce from a co-op called Bountiful Baskets. It's all direct from farmer to consumer which means everything just tastes better because Harvey the Produce Man hasn't had his hands all over it.

So we made BLT's! Actually, we made BLAT's: Bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato.

mmmmm

Then the next day, we used the leftovers to make salmon sandwhiches. Also dericious. Not a typo.

Fallen Much Behind

Yes, like it says, I have done exactly that.
This is due to the fact that I was at a different site for my company all this week and this site is exactly 1.5 bajillion hours away. Well maybe just 1.5 hours. But that is a long time to travel both ways. And then to tack a 10 hour day in the middle of it leaves absolutely no time for witticisms or fun. Don't worry, though. We still ate some amazing food.

Ok, whatever you are doing, STOP! Seriously, stop right now and go to the store to get the ingredients for this soup. It is freaking amazing! And then with the bread... aaah. To die for.

Oh you want the recipe? Right, sorry, I was so caught up in remembering how good this soup was.

Freaking Amazing Tomato Soup:


Ingredients:
1 large carrot (or 2 smaller ones)
1 onion
2 T butter
1T thyme
1 large garlic clove
2 T sun-dried tomato paste
3 cans chopped tomatoes
2.5 c hot chicken broth/stock
3 T have cream plus more for serving
salt and pepper

Method:
Coarsely grate the carrot and chop the onion. Melt the butter in a pan and add the onion, carrot and almost all of the thyme. Season with salt and pepper and put the lid on the pan. Keeping the heat low, cook the vegetables for 15 minutes, until soft, but not browned. Stir about twice during cooking. Crush the garlic and add to the pan about half way through cooking.

Stir in the sun dried tomato paste, tomatoes and broth or stock. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes. Add the cream and transfer about half to a blender. Blend until smooth then repeat with the other half (if you can fit all into your blender, go for it! We just couldn't). Season again with salt and pepper.

When serving, swirl a little bit of cream in each bowl and sprinkle with thyme.

We served it with some reallllly good olive oil and rosemary bread. We bought ours from our local grocery store bakery, but my sister absolutely swears by this recipe. I mean to try it out someday.

Since today is National Grilled Cheese day, we ate the leftovers with some mozzarella cheese melted onto the bread. Andrew liked it better, I liked it just the same. Because, seriously, it was so amazing to begin with.

Weekend Leftovers

Sometimes Blogger makes me want to scream.

Sometimes it actually makes me scream

This was one of those time.

.....

Ok, seriously, what is with this whole picture placement thing in posts? Why can't they just go where I want them to? They need to grow up and stop playing leap frog or I will just have to go find somewhere else to put them. Like time-out.

Rant over.

Moving on.

The Weekend was wonderful :). And yes, I just capitalized Weekend, because, let's be honest, it deserves it.

Side note: What if someone came up to you and was like "Wow, weekends suck!" You'd be like "Abomination!!" Haha, I'm laughing just thinking about it.  

Friday night was like "Mexican fooooood!"

And Andrew was like "Oh, fajita, how you get so yummy?"

Then he was like "I love you so! I don't want to eat you!"

But then he was like "JK NOM NOM!!"

And then he was like "Aaaah flash!!"

(lol)

Saturday morning was like "Ultimate bedhead challenge!"

And then it was like "Look at my ominous-ness..." all day.

Saturday we made Morrocon Chicken Tagine (yummm!) with couscous and it was sooo good.

Tell me, what do you think of chickpeas? Cause we love 'em over here.

Ingredients:

2 16-oz cans chickpeas

4 roma tomatoes

1 large bell pepper

1 medium onion

2 T tomato paste

1/4 to 1/2 c chicken broth

1 T cumin (you can reduce this if cumin's not your thing)

0.5 t smoked paprika (it doesn't have to be smoked, I just like the flavor it gives)

2 chicken breasts cut into chunks

2 T peanut butter

Method:

Chop all veges (except chickpeas) into stew size pieces. Add to a medium crockpot along with tomato paste, chicken broth, cumin and paprika. Scatter chicken on top. Let cook on low for about 6-7 hours, stirring half way through. After it is cooked, stir in the peanut butter. Serve over hot couscous. 

Sunday we considered making a DiGiourno frozen pizza... seriously...but decided that the holiday warranted something with a bit more effort. Andrew manned up and made rosemary and goat cheese stuffed chicken breasts with tomatoes. Another sooo good meal. *Die*

Ingredients:

2 sprigs fresh rosemary (or 2 t. dried)

4 chicken breasts

3.5 oz goat cheese

8 strips bacon

1 T vegetable oil

4 large tomatoes

1 clove garlic

1/2 T olive oil

Method:

Cut a slit in each chicken breast and create a pocket. Spoon the cheese into each pocket and then seal it up as well as you can. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and then sprinkle with half of the rosemary. Wrap 2 strips of bacon around each piece of chicken as tightly as you can. Place a shallow, flameproof dish over medium high heat and add the vegetable oil. Let heat for 1 minute then add the chicken. Cook for 2 minutes on each side. 

Thickly slice the tomatoes and thinly slice the garlic. Add both to dish and sprinkle with remaining rosemary. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Cook in a 400 degree F oven for 25 minutes. 

Remove pan and let the chicken rest for about 5 minutes. Serve with some delicious bread or other grain. 

His and Hers

So we're gonna do a little thing here called His and Hers. We pick a topic, and then both Andrew and I write a little something on it.
Round 1: What 1 item would you bring with you to a deserted island?

Shahn's Response:

(Note: I don't know why mine has a larger margin space than the rest of the post. I don't want to fix it so you're just gonna have to get over it)

Ok, so you're stranded on a dessert island

Oooh yum! Dessert island! Where the water is made of frosting, the

ground is cake, the sunshine is lemon curd and absolutely everything

is eatable. I mean edible.

Ok, so you're stranded on Dessert Island and you have absolutely

anything that you could want to eat and drink and somehow or another,

you have no reason to worry about your survival (yes I am aware just

how abysmally inaccurate this description of "stranded" is). And, just

for kicks, your favorite person is there with you as well. In my case,

the Hubs. What is the one physical object that you take with you?

This is a pretty hard one; as long as i have food and my man, there's

nothing else I really want. But I suppose if you're going to twist my

arm about it...

My gut instinct is to say I would bring my computer because I'm pretty

sure that I couldn't actually live with out my handy dandy lappy

toppy. No offense to the Hubs but I think I would most definitely need

some interaction with other peeps. And where would I get ideas for

super cute swim cover-ups and recipes for mocktails to sip while I sit

on the beach without Pinterest? I would be lost, I tell you. But, I'm

also going to assume that there is no electricity on said island let

alone internet, so I will think of something else.

Next idea; phone. Now the determination on this one is going to depend

on what kind of stranded we're talking about. If we're going with

Tom-Hanks-in-Castaway stranded then a phone is out of the question.

Plus it wouldn't survive the wreck, anyway. But, if we're gonna go

with Castaway to the Moon stranded (Netflix it, it's good) then I'd

say a phone is not completely beyond imagination. But, just to be safe

(I like to play by the rules; it's residual goody-two-shoes-ness from

grade school) we'll rule out phone, too.
....
hmmmm

Toothbrush!! A toothbrush, while not vital to survival, is still

pretty important.

Now, I can't decide if I'd rather have clean teeth, or be clean shaven.

I think I can accept myself as a wildwoman with hair growing in all

sorts of places better than with dirty, fuzzy, bad-breath teeth.

Andrew's Response:

If I could take one thing with me to a deserted island it would be my wife. Shahn specifically told me that when considering this question I didnt need to worry about food or health. Some might say, "Andrew how can you say that you would want your wife on a deserted island? Do you have some kind of experience with deserted islands?" In fact I do. I currently live in Elko, NV. A deserted island if I ever saw one. And if I didnt have Shahn here everyday I just don't think I would survive! I know Shahn wanted a longer response to this question but as a man I don't have a firm grasp on how to flower things up. And so I tell it as it is: with Shahn, any" deserted island" instantly becomes a tropical paradise vacation for two.
(Note: Apparently I was not communicative enough when explaining the scenario and left out the part about me already being there.)
(Note #2: awwww!!) 

Shut Up and Spoon Me!

What is your favorite food?

Andrew's is Thai Massaman curry.

The second week we were married, he made it every day.

E'rry day!

I got a little Massamaned out. And when he told me yesterday that he was making again, I couldn't break his heart and tell him it sounded as good as moldy asparagus covered in poop.

Lucky I did hold in my comments, because I was pleasantly surprised when I spooned the first mouthful in.

Andrew, is a Thai curry god, let me tell you. If you've ever had bad Thai curry, you'll know what good Thai curry tastes like; and Andrew gets it right, every time.

E'rry time!

After dinner, we went to a little place called Spoon Me.

Spoon me used to be my faaav frozen yogurt place. I would go with my sister when she was in town and I was so sad when all the ones around me closed :( Then I moved to shun-anything-hippi-ish-or-liberal-in-any-way Elko and gave up all hope.

 But then! I saw the sign go up on an empty building and I started to have a little more faith in my town. I was THRILLED when I found out that a Spoon me was actually going to grace us with its presence here in Little Town Northern Nevada.

It's one of those self serve and pay by the ounce places which normally I dislike but they have the greatest flavor of all time: Natural Tart. Yum!

Andrew was like "I want this kind and this kind and this kind. Oh and this topping and this one!"

And I was like "I'm going to pretend to be healthy even though I'm eating ice cream but also these strawberry burst things look good so I'll get some of those, too."

And then I was like "Nom nom the sun is in my eyes!"

And then Andrew was like "Hm what's this kind? I can't remember."

And then he was like "whatever, it's all sugar."

Happy Tuesday

Tuesdays are the worst day of the week. Always. No argument.

The End



Ok, not the end.

I know, I know, I just talked about this.
You know how people always complain about Mondays? And it's ok, because everyone else hates Mondays too?
Well this is me, complaining about Mondays; except that I don't think Mondays are that bad.
(Say Mondays again)
Mondays
Starting to sound weird, isn't it?

My therapist (aka the person inside my head who likes to talk to me) (Now you're all saying "she does need a therapist") tells me that thinking of happy things when I'm sad is good for me. Here we go:

1. New blogs and funny peeps
2. Smart-phones. You should have seen me the day I got rid of my dumb-phone. You know how when beauty queens cry when they win? Yeah, that was me. "Thank you, thank you! I can't believe this is happening to me! I'm so happy." (invoke memory of hilarious scene from Miss Congeniality)(lol)
3. Husbands that do the dishes.
4. Wait, I should have cut that last one off at the first word: Husbands
5. Still wrong. I'm not a polygamist: Husband
6. Hmmm multiple husbands....
7. Nope, wouldn't work
8. Ok, back on track...
9. Still hate Tuesdays
10. Fail

We tried this recipe again. But no anchovies this time (I can practically hear your sighs of relief)  (seriously, what possessed me to try that in the first place? I will never know).
Greek olives instead of anchovies, and no bacon. We went vegetarian last night. Next stop: Vegan academy!

Monday Leftovers

Leftovers: (n) the food or feeling you get when you make something amazing and then let it sit in the fridge for a day and a half and then take it out and try to make it as good as the day before.

"Leftovers" about sums up the way I feel about Mondays. Still some energy from the weekend, but it's not nearly as good.

Hence why Tuesdays are the worst day of the week! Friday is nowhere in site but you've already eaten all your enthusiasm on Monday.

stupidtuesdaysihateyousomuchgodie

Sunday dinner was pretty good. Pot roast with potatoes, carrots and celery all in the crockpot for 8 hours. I'm still learning how to cook big-girl grown-up meals.  

Lesson #1 learned from my first pot roast ever in my whole life: No matter what the recipe tells you, do NOT trim all the fat off of your meat. If you don't believe me, go try it. Go on, but don't come to me when you totally regret it. 

It still turned out pretty ok. Andrew made Rhodes rolls.

Rhodes rolls! The Rolls Royce of the rolls world

(say that 5 times fast)

I do have to say, the veggies were delicious.

Nom nom

Introductions

We are the Larsons.

Newly married and transplanted to Northern Nevada. Life is... interesting. But also amazing :)

Welcome. 

Shahn loves to write and we both love to cook. So why not combine them? We already combined our names so we're off to a great start. 

I hope you find what you're looking for, recipes, a smile, or a bit of love, and you keep coming back to share in our experiences.