A few months ago Todd and I were in need of a marriage license. Next to the county court house, where we retrieved this handy document, we found a tree. Under this lovely tree there are three picnic tables and lots of comfy grass... obviously meant for picnicking. So last weekend we jumped on our bikes, picked up a couple sensuous sandwiches, and had a fun little picnic.
It's so big there are poles holding up the branches.
Hidden agendas.
Sometimes I look like a gremlin when I put my big smile on.
Once upon a time I was walking up the stairs in the RB and I saw a girl. She was carrying around pink Chinese take-out box and there were pretty flowers coming out of it. My first thought was probably something like, "Dang, I could totally go for some Panda right now." But I'm sure my second thought came shortly after and went something along the lines of, "That right there is going on the list." And it did... and I did it. And it was quite fun and extremely easy. (: Here's how it went... last week, after our completos date with Marysa, we made a stop at Zurchers in Orem. Being the activities co-chair last year I spent a lot of time getting party stuffs there and I had some vague memory of seeing take-out boxes. Luckily they indeed had them... and in lots of colors and patterns too! As you can see I ended up getting a purple one and a black'n'white-picnic-blanket looking one.
Pardon the quality of these pictures...
my camera is currently MIA.
My original plan was to put some rocks in the bottom (so they wouldn't blow over or anything) but I completely forgot! I even walked around our apartment complex looking for loose gravel or cement. Once I found enough for both boxes I kind of just spaced it, woops. Luckily the cheapo soil that I picked up from Macey's was pretty dense so they shouldn't be blowing away too soon. (: The seeds have a fun little story behind them as well. Two nice ladies from my homeward threw a bridal shower for me last semester and their theme was "He loves her." So they made lots of yummy flower sugar cookies and everyone got a packet of seeds with a little poem on them. My mother held onto a bunch of them for me for memories sake... and me, being my mother's daughter, did the same. So I ended up with lots and lots of shasta daisy seeds. Really though, enough to last me like a decade. So anyways I decided to use them, I mean why not, right? (:
Here's the finished product... the whole thing took me about 10 minutes--including the rock hunting part. And now they are sitting on my front porch next to my marigolds and cherry tomatoes. I still haven't decided if it looks tacky or not to have them on my porch... but I am thinking in the future they're going to be a window sill plant. But for now all my window sills are too small and don't get enough sun so the porch will have to do.
Round numero dos is completed... and this time Marysa joined us! She packed herself into the Chrysler boat and moved down here last week all on her own. Here she is sporting her BYU football tee as an actual BYU student. [p.s. she doesn't like this picture... but she also doesn't read my blog, haha.]
So here we are at Lomitos, located across the street from Target in Orem. This little Chilean joint was recommended to us by one of Todd's old Chilean co-workers. Coming from a native we thought it would be pretty legit. This little place sells all sorts of stuff... that I can't really pronounce or translate for you, sorry. But it didn't matter... because I was there for one thing. A completo. Why a completo? Because of this divinely inspired production:
Turns out three completos for three dollars is a dang good deal considering ours were about 5 bucks a pop. But... theirs were nude dogs... ours were clothed in the most delicious of delicious toppings.
And said toppings were... avocado, mayo, kraut (not included on the completo italiano that Marysa and Todd got), and diced tomatoes. Add a homemade bun to all of that and you've got yourself a delicious Chilean completo.
As you can see, this thing was huge! Almost longer than Todd's hands and Marysa's face... holy hot dog!
[Todd's hands.]
[Marysa's face.]
Cons: Yeah it was huge... but it was a whole lot of tasty so I can't complain too much. Because of it's massive-ness there was a lot of mayo and avocado on the top, almost too much. I am a huge fan of avocado though so if I had to choose I would cut back on the mayo. Lastly, I wasn't extremely impressed with the actual meat of the dog. I was expecting a little more spice.
Pros: can the whole dog be the pro?? This thing was incredible, almost as incredible as the time that Todd threw up 4 liters of water. The avocado-- and yes there was an entire avocado on there-- was awesome. Just like the 'matoes on my Chicago dog, the avocado was new and successful. I was also a big fan of the sauerkraut... but more for the texture than the taste. Another excellent bonus was the different sauces that our kind waiter man shared with us. One was some sort of finely ground-up spicy relish (I guess I did end up getting my spice fix) and the other was their sweet-homemade-secret-ingredient fry sauce. Those sauces with all of the fun ingredients on top of the homemade bun and I'd say this dog definitely has a shot at bringing home the gold.
This was before the dog... very happy and very hungry. Oh and still very in love.
Getting shaved ice today was complete destiny. This tasty event has been on the list since the beginning of the summer so really every time I see a snow cone stand I want to stop and get one. Todd say's I'm obsessed with them (haha)... I say I haven't had one in years! So how could I be, yea? Not to mention he's bias. He confessed to me the other day that he thought snow cones were a waste of time! And honestly after this experience I'd have to agree with him, snow cones are pretty lame compared to this tasty shaved ice business. Anyways, on top of seeing "snow cone" shacks all over town... last night after Marysa, Todd, and I got our Chilean completos and I was totally feeling some shaved ice... BUT (haha, get it?) the shack was closed! Dang. Then, later that evening, after we watched an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives there was a segment on some "how it's made" show about shaved ice! It was taunting me! And it totally knew it!! But we can't stop now... there's more! My buddy Autumn and her husband went and got shaved ice the other day and she blogged about it! For heaven's sake... by then I was really feelin' some shaved ice.
So today after running a painful 9 miles, moving Marysa into her new apartment, and going to the temple, Todd and I finally hopped on our bikes and rode over to the little Hawaiian shaved ice stand on Canyon Road. It was everything I was hoping for.
I got a short board tigers blood and strawberry colada and Todd got a short board root beer with a snow cap (which I am totally getting next time p.s.). They were pretty dang big and in the end these little better-than-snow-cone buddies were very refreshing after a hot day... Todd even said we could go back sometime! (:
Yum, yum, and oh yeah... YUM. I have been looking forward to this little activity for a long time, even longer than it has been on the list (which hasn't been very long haha). Last week we made BBQ chicken pizza for dinner and I sent Todd on his bike to Southend Market to pick up mushrooms and pineapple.
It was delicious and afterwards we had some leftover pineapple! I decided that instead of eating it--my first instinct of course--I would hold onto it so we could make fruit pizza later that evening. Unfortunately Todd works early on Wednesday nights soooo that didn't happen. And Thursday ended up being too busy. And then Friday night came and by the time we got home from our "date" it was again way too late to build another pizza. On Saturday however we spent the morning doing homework, volunteering at the MTC, running way too many miles, and building a house (no really though). And finally after our hectic morning we got to sit down and enjoyed each other's company by making a much wanted fruit pizza. One of my high school buddies once admitted to me that she found chopping vegetables (fruit in our case) therapeutic... I totally agree.
Anyways... it turned out very nicely and by the end of the night we had eaten more than half of it. (:
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth. Mix in egg. combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Press dough into an ungreased pizza pan (p.s. if your pizza pan has those little aeration holes then you'll definitely want to put foil underneath it before you put the dough on... then leave it there until after the crust has cooled.)
Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool.
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla until light. Spread on cooled crust.
Arrange desired fruit on top of filling, and chill.
p.s. the actual to-do mentions sharing it with someone... haha woops, forgot about that. I don't think Todd counts so luckily Marysa is moving down here today so I can share it with her! (:
Our judging begins at none other than Wienerschnitzel, a German hot dog joint that has been serving the nation since '61. Upon arrival I was surprised to learn that Wienerschnitzel is like actually a fast food restaurant. Todd new this and has been many times... but I didn't and I was expecting something a little more not-so-fast-food. Luckily I wasn't disappointed! I ordered a classic 100% beef Chicago Dog and Todd got the Polish sandwich (and a 79¢ corn dog, of course). Let me tell you, the Chicago Dog was delicious! Typically I only put sweet relish, ketsup, and maybe some mustard on my dogs but this dog had mustard, sweet relish, 2 tomato slices, chopped onions, two hot peppers, a chunkin' pickle slice, and celery salt. Woah!
Cons: I really really don't like celery salt and the onions were a bit much considering I was on a date with the husband. Luckily, the celery salt was sprinkled on top of the onions, which were also on top, so I just dumped all the yucky-ness off! Good to go!
Pros: I LOVE sweet pickles! And generally they're not the most popular, so when I took the first bite and got that sweet relishy taste I was very impressed. The tomatoes were also a great touch. I've never actually had tomatoes on a dog before (ketsup so doesn't count) but I really enjoyed it. Another pro was the 100% beef... I didn't think I would notice but I definitely did! Basically compared to the $0.50 8-pkg hot dogs at Macey's... this guy was a hit! Or should I say...
