Cranberry Salsa

 This recipe was introduced to me by my cousin's wife (Melissa Pearson) and ever since we have had it, we would rather have this than cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. 

Cranberry Salsa  

1 can cranberries (not jellied)

1 vellow bell pepper, chopped

2-3 bunches green onions, chopped

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

Pinch of salt and pepper

1 tablespoon ground coriander

Juice of 1 lime

1 serrano pepper, diced (optional)

Combine all ingredients. Chill several hours before serving.

Delicious on turkey sandwiches and with Thanksgiving feasts. Combine several tablespoons with 8 ounces cream cheese for a yummy alternative.

Zucchini Stuffing Casserole

 This is so yummy, I now make it every year when the zucchini starts growing. 

Ingredients:

• 6 cups zucchini, cubed
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup onion, diced
• 1 package stuffing mix, divided
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded divided
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 Tbs butter, melted
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 8x11 or two quart baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Cook onion in butter on medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini and cook for 4-5 more minutes to remove some water.
3. In a medium bowl, combine 1/2 of the stuffing mix, 1/2 of the cheddar cheese, eggs, milk, butter, and the zucchini mixture. Add just enough water for the stuffing mixture to be moist. Spread into baking dish.
4. In a small bowl, combine the remaining stuffing mixture, remaining cheeses and 3 Tbs of butter. Sprinkle over zucchini mixture.
5. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until stuffing is lightly browned.

Potato Ham Soup

 Have left over Ham & an Instant Pot? Make this soup! It is SO good!

Ingredients 

• 1 Tbs Olive Oil
• 2 Tbs Butter
• 1 small sweet onion
• 2/3 cup celery, diced (about 2 stalks)
• 1 cup carrots, diced (about 2-3 medium)
• 3 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp Coriander, ground
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Thyme leaves, dried
• 1 tsp kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt)
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 lbs Gold Potatoes, diced (no need to peel)
• 2 cups Ham, diced

To Finish

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups half & half (or heavy cream or whole milk)

Optional

• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Garnish

• Green onions, chopped
• Italian Parsley, chopped

Instructions

1. Turn on Instant Pot Sauté function (Normal/Med heat). When the display reads "Hot" add the oilve oil and butter.
2. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Cook until the vegetables start to soften, and the onions are starting to turn translucent.
3. Add the garlic. Sauté for a minute, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
4. Add the bay leaf, coriander powder, nutmeg, thyme, and salt. Stir
5. Pour in the broth and stir.
6. Add the potatoes and the ham. Stir.
7. Place the lid on the pot and lock it in place. Turn the steam and release knob to the sealing position.
8. Cancel the Sauté function.
9. Select Manual (or pressure cook) and use +/- buttons to choose 5 minutes. High pressure.
10. When the cooking cycle has finished, let the pot go into the natural release (warm) mode. You don't have to do anything, it will do this automatically.
11. After 15 minutes of Natural Pressure release, you can manually release the remaining pressure by turning the steam release knob to the venting position.
12. When the pressure is all out of the pot, and the pin in the lid has dropped, you can open the lid.
13. Whisk the flour into the half & half and then whisk it into the soup. Turn on the Sauté setting and keep stirring unti the soup thickens. Then cancel the sauté setting.
14. Stir in the cheese, if using.
15. Add the sour cream, if using, and stir.
16. Taste and adjust salt if necessary.
17. Garnish as desired and serve.

Peach Pie

 Had SO many peaches this year from the garden so I decided to try making a peach pie for the first time. This recipe was good, so I am saving it here for later.

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 recipe All Butter Pie Crust
• ▢ 5 cups fresh or thawed frozen peaches
• ▢ 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ▢ 4 tablespoons cornstarch

FOR TOPPING:

• ▢ 1 recipe All Butter Pie Crust
• ▢ 1 recipe Crumble Topping

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Place one pie crust in the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate and crimp as desired.


• Carefully stir together peaches, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and cornstarch. Pour into prepared pie plate.

TOPPING CHOICES:

• Top the pie with a crumble topping (as shown).
• Top the pie by making a lattice (see note) or a double crust pie. If using a double crust pie, be sure to cut holes in the top to vent during baking. If desired, cut shapes out of the top pie crust using a cookie cutter.
• Place a pie shield around the edge of the pie and place the pie on a cookie sheet.
• Bake for 10 minutes at 425° then lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until crust is baked through and golden.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Choices

 Life is made up of a series of choices.

I have been thinking a lot about this lately. We are constantly making choices. Some bigger than others, but each makes an impact. A little decision to decide to go to cycle class to check out my friend Stacey's class has not only led to my new favorite workout, but it led to a really great group of positive, fun and uplifting group of friends.

The choices you make don't seem really life changing until you are an adult. Some a lot more so than others. I often think about how my life would have turmed out if I would have gotten married when I was 26... if my enegagment didn't turn into an emotional roller coaster. My life would be completely different. I don't know exactly how different, would I have stayed married? Have kids? Gotten divorced? Knowing what I know now I like to tell myself that it wouldn't have worked and that is why god interfeared and stopped it from happening. I will never know for sure because that is not the path my life took. 

You hear people say all the time that things work out the way that they are supposed to. Seeing where my life is now, it is hard to get on board with that sometimes. A part of me has always been kind of mad that a traumatic experience gave me some deep seeded issues (that I didn't realize that I had until recently) that has prevented me from being open to the one thing I have always wanted the most. Love & family. It feels like I wasted the last 10 years of my life being a victim and upset even though I thought I had completely moved past it. In a way I had. I didn't care about him anymore.... but what happened changed me. The other part of me (the bigger part) is extremely grateful that I didn't get married then. I have so appreciated all of the people that I have met and that have been in my life since then that most likely wouldn't have been and all of the traveling and different experiences that I have had that I wouldn't have had if my life would have gone a different path. I also appreciate all of the lessons I have learned and the person I have become because of the hard things. Sure, I would have had hard things that I would have had to work through going down the other path... but would it have led to the same result in how I have turned out? Not sure, but I'm guessing not.

So occasionally I go down this rabbit hole of what if's and also extreme gratitude of how life has turned out and ponder about the decisions I am making now and how it could shape my life. What choices am I making or should I be making to go down the path that I want to go down? Job choices, health choices, dating choices, friend choices... am I wasting years or am I heading in a direction that I can be proud of? I of course hope for the latter, but some days I am not really sure. I'm still trying to figure out the balance of life. Where I should set boundaries and where I need to just let things go. Who is worth keeping in my life and who isn't. Am I being the type of people that I want to attract? Do I practive what I preach? 

I always thought by a certain age that you had life figured out, but maybe you never really do. I know we are always supposed to be learning and growing, but I just thought I would be more certain of more things by this stage in my life. 

I know that happiness is a choice, and that is something that I try and choose everyday. All the rest of the choices? I am just doing the best that I can with what I have been given and with what I have learned. Thats the best I can do right? I hope that one day I can look back on it all and have it all make sense and that I can say with confidence that it all happened the way that it was supposed to.

I don't know how much this post even makes sense. Nobody blogs anymore or reads my blog, but I guess it doesn't matter. I just felt like I needed to write out some of my thoughts. I miss doing that in my old blogging days. I always really enjoyed writing out how I was feeling. Now that I live alone... I probably should do that more often. It would probably help me process my thoughts better. Either that or I need to start expressing how I feel to Milo. Somehow I don't think it would have the same affect. ha! 

New Normal

Well... we are now in month 3 of COVID Craziness. The world is still divided on how to handle things, but right now I am super thankful to be living in Utah because we are one of the few states that are opening up and starting to get back to normal.

I thought I would share some of the new normal now... you know, just to document this crazy time.

First thing that was awesome and I wish would have lasted longer but it didn't were the gas prices. It got down to $1.75 a gallon which gas hasn't been that low in 15 years or so. It was really nice while it lasted though.

And although Utah is opening up as of a week or so ago and you can go inside most resaurants now, you see these signs on pretty much every food joint. Of course they were up before trying to keep their business from shutting down... even though you can go inside curbside pick up is still very much an option for the people that are still keeping their distance.

And speaking of the food industry, You also see a lot of people encouraging us all to support our local businesses. Downtown Provo did it as a sticker challenge. You document that you supported on your social media and tag them, you get a cool sticker designed by a local artist just for thie challenge. Yes... I totally participated. Even though I don't live in Provo anymore, I lived there for years and still eat there on occation beacuse I have so many favorites over there. So now I have a sweet Provo sticker. I think these promotions to support local buisnesses are great because I DO NOT want to see any of these places suffer for no reason.

Utah decided to pay tribute to all of the hospitals working hard by flying these jets across the state in their honor. Kind of cool. Everyone knew about it and a scedule was put out so you knew when to walk outside and look for them. You better believe that we stopped what we were doing at work to go watch for them outside.

And who knew that masks would be the hottest trend of 2020! Not me! Everyone is selling them or making them and in all kind of fun patterns. It is super weird to go out and see lots of people wearing masks... but at the same time, it's not anymore... because this is the new normal. Truth be told, I have only worn one once... when I went to get my hair done because it was required in order to go into the salon. I did buy one though for when it is required... but I am finding that not that many places require it, so I haven't had to use it much. Even when I finally got a pecicure, they didn't make me wear it. Which I appreciated.

Speaking of getting my hair done.... it was strange. Not only did I have to wear a mask, but I had to wait in my car for my friend to come get me and then I had to wash my hands right away. Thankfully they hadn't gotten their thermometers yet or else I wouold have had my temperature taken as well. But hey... it is what I needed to do in order to get my hair done, so I am happy to do it. Everything was pretty shut down here for a couple of months, so I was thrilled to get my hair done and my nails done... something most people in other states still can't do. My friends outside of Utah were pretty jealous when I posted getting these things done. Again... I am so happy that I am in Utah right now.

Amidts all the crappy things happening, there are a lot of good/ fun things coming out of this as well. There have been drive by parades for students from teachers and for missionaries that have come home and most recently for graduations.

In our neighborhood in Mapleton specifically we have had a lot of fun things happening... especailly for the kids.... like sidewalk chalk to display for others to see and bear hunts where people put bears in their windows or outside for kids to find when they go out walking. On our neighborhood facebook page we had people offering items that were hard to find in the store and others that were taking those people up on their offers but in trade for other goods. I loved seeing everyone be so thoughtful and kind and looking out for eachother. We also have a group that goes around the neighborhood doing social dis-dancing. THAT is my favorite. It makes me to happy to hear the happy music as they pull this lite up stage around the neighborhood while people come out of their house to dance and sing along. Talk about bringing happieness to the neighborhood!!

Then of course you have the celebrities jumping on board trying to spread some joy as well in their own way. You have networks offering free shows, movies that were supposed to be in theaters being realised right away, free broadway shows on youtube, Josh Groban singing "shower songs", Jimmy Fallon continuing to do the Tonight Show from home with his family and interviewing guests via Zoom and having each guest highlight a different charity and encouraging those who can to donate. Then there is my favorite, John Krasinski doing "SGN" (Some Good News) Just reporting on all of the good going on around the world. A lot of the videos have made me cry. But are we surprised by that? I'm not.

So there is an update on the new normal. It has been sad for me not to be able to travel or even plan to travel which makes me so happy. But I have been trying to switch my focus and see it as an opportunity to get lots of projects done that I have been putting off! I will do another post on all of my projects soon. Also... I keep buying more house plants. ha ha. Maybe I will do a post on that as welll. It is getting a little out of control. Ha! Ok... bye for now.

Going Green

Lately I have been trying to make some changes and go a little more green. Do I think I am changing the world by doing these things? No. Am I going to go completly green? Probably not. Sure, I feel good about doing my part, but this is also about just not being so wasteful in general and saving money by not having to buy all of these single use products over and over again. Plus, because there are so many companies trying to change the world to go green, there are a lot of quality products out there that have not always been an option. So if you are wanting to make some of these changes... NOW is the time!

The first change I made I think is probably the most common one. Using tote bags when going to the grocery store. I have gone through phases of how good I am at remembering... and sadly when I order groceries online and go pick them up, that isn't an option (although I have put in the feedback online that it should be) but for the most part I remember and it is great to not have a million plastic bags around my house. I occationally use them, but not the amount that I have laying around and was coninuting to collect. So this was a great change.

A more recent addition were some netted bags I bought from Coconut Bowls company. These are to replace the plastic bags that you pack your fruit and veggies in at the grocery store. I love these! Great buy.

I didn't make any other changes for a long time. Then my sister and mom talked about dryer balls instead of dryer sheets that are actually not great for your clothes anyway. So I bought some dryer balls. So far... I am really enjoying them!

Next thing I realized is how many zip lock bags I used. So many that all just get thrown away! So I started looking on Amazon to see if there were some good reusable zip lock bags out there. I found some and decided to give them a try. They are AWESOME! I love how thick they are, they are easy to clean and the zip lock is really strong. My pack came with 2 different sizes... but now I would like to find a freezer size version. I like it THAT much!

Last, I decided to get some reusable straws. Not that I use straws that often... because I don't. But I thought I should have a few on hand for when I do want to use them. So I bought some coconut straws from Coconut Bowls. I really like them. I also got a pack of silacone straws in my fabfitfun box. Each pack came with a cleaning stick. Oh! I also got a reusable cup at Sodalicious and got one of their metal straws. For someone who doesn't use a lot of straws I now have a lot of straws. ha ha. The sodalicious straw stays in my sodalicious cup. Which I currently can't use thanks to COVID-19 along with my grocery totes.

Just kidding... that wasn't the last one. After doing a story about this on my instagram, I asked what else I should change in going green and almost everyone that responded said switching to bees wax paper instead of plastic wrap (which I was actually thinking about anyway) so I ordered some and it came and I have used it a couple of times now and I think it will be great. I just hope that I never need more than the biggest peice that came in the pack.

One last thing that I have ordered and is on the way... a diva cup. I have been scared of this one, but it would be a good change to make and save me a ton of money in the long run. I just hope I can adjust well and don't have trouble using it. ha ha.

Go green where you can everyone. If for no other reason that to save some money.