i heart ... the swell season

last night brook and i saw

the swell season

in concert.

this was my first time seeing them

and i will totally be seeing them again!

first of all i love their music,

but second of all,

i love the whole chatty irishman thing.

can't get enough!

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i heart ... rustic soup of butternut squash with roasted garlic

i don't like squash.but i want to like squash.

i love autumn so so so so much

so that means i want to love everything about autumn

and that means i need to love squash.

i do love everything pumpkin,

and pumpkin is a squash, right?

so maybe i'm on the right track

toward my goal of learning to like squash...

and now i've found something else that is helping me toward that goal.

i made this soup on sunday

just hoping so much that i would like it

because it did sound so good...

all of it, except the squash part.

and i'm happy to report,

i loved it!

rustic soup of butternut squash

with roasted garlic

from american western cooking from the roaring fork

1 1/2 cups peeled butternut squash, cut in half

1 tablespoon dark chile powder

kosher salt & cracked black pepper

2 tablespoons softened butter

water (to spin squash in blender)

2 tablespoons corn oil

1/2 cup diced yellow onion

1 tablespoon finely minced shallot

2 tablespoons toasted, seeded & finely minced chile ancho

2 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup roasted garlic puree (you can google this to find out how to do it. so easy!)

1 tablespoon roasted & ground cumin seed

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

4 cilantro sprigs

preheat oven to 375 degrees. season squash with chile powder and salt & pepper. to roast the squash, lightly grease a roasting pan with softened butter and place squash (w/seeds) seeded side down on pan. roast for 35 minutes. remove from oven and allow to cool to room

emperature. puree in blender with just enough water to spin sauce. season with salt & pepper.

in a heavy pot, heat corn oil over medium high heat. then saute diced onion, shallot and chile ancho till just tender. add squash puree, broth, roasted garlic puree, ground cumin and cayenne. allow soup to simmer till it has reduced volume by 1/4. carefully puree soup with hand-held mixer. finish by stirring in 1/2 cup cream and salt & pepper.

place remaining 1/4 cup cream in squirt bottle. ladle soup into 4 wide-rimmed bowls. drizzle cream over soup in zigzag pattern. place small mound of toasted pumpkin seeds in center. top with cilantro sprig.

serves 4

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i heart ... pizzeria bianco no. 2

i finally went back.
took long enough.
i went with my friend deena.
this time we didn't have reservations
(since you need at least 6 people for reservations)
and the wait was 3 hours.

but we entertained ourselves.
there's a nice area outside where you can wait.

while you're waiting you can order appetizers.
we ordered
the cheese plate and olives
(best olives i've ever had!)

on this visit to pizzeria bianco
i knew exactly what i was getting!

the wiseguy!

(wood roasted onion, house smoked mozzarella, fennel sausage)

but deena was smart and thought we should
order another pizza that would be very different from the wiseguy
and then share them.
i hesitated for a second.
i didn't think i would want to share my wiseguy!
but i wanted to try something new too,
so that's what we did.
we decided on the margherita.

super good choice!

(tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, basil)

after my first visit to pizzeria bianco

i thought the wiseguy was my favorite.

but there is now officially a tie!

i would totally recommend getting these two pizzas together.

it was pure heaven!

taking a few bites of the wiseguy,

then taking a few bites of the margherita...

so different.

both hitting the right spot!

(i need an excuse to go back soon!

stephanie,

wanna go there when you're home for thanksgiving???)

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i heart ... a parade

today i took my niece natalie and my nephew ammon

to the veterans day parade.

at 11 on 11/11!

it was so exciting!
just look:

but really,

it was fun!

and it felt really good to acknowledge the veterans.
the spectators were clapping and saying "thank you"
to every veteran that came by.

and dear sweet natalie
put her hand on her heart
for every flag that went by.
i never even told her to!
in fact, i told her if she was getting tired of putting her hand up
it was okay if she wanted to put it down
and she told me,
"but i'm saying the pledge of allegiance in my head."
i love her!

i wish i remember what she was saying to me.

i'm sure it was really cute!

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i heart ... the claw

U2 posted this video on their website today.
i love getting a glimpse of the show from this angle
because for us
"the claw" was not so much a part of the show.
we were really close to the stage
(no complaints whatsoever!)
so for us it was just U2 on stage
which is exactly what i like.
but it's still cool to see the view from
farther back and getting the full effect of the 360 show.

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i heart ... halloween

i love halloween.

mostly i love halloween

because i love any excuse to watch scary movies.

but i also love to see my nieces and nephews all dressed up!

ava, natalie and paulina

clayton, ava and natalie

natalie as tigress from "kung fu panda"

clayton as mr. incredible

ava as cinderella

paulina as a much more fashionable master shifu from "kung fu panda"

eli as a baby pirate

(are there such things as baby pirates?)

if you're thinking eli's lips look blue, you're correct.

it's from the medicine the poor boy had to take.

beware
some of the images you are about to see
may be disturbing to younger viewers

(but oh so super cool!)

ammon, sierra, kaitlyn, thomas and brennan

kaitlyn the zombie

sierra the flight attendant post plane crash!

brennan, one of dracula's victims

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i heart ... visiting stephanie and her family

recently i got to visit

stephanie and her family

in utah.

on my first morning i woke up to this...

samuel asking me if i would like him to cook an egg for me!

what a sweet boy!

and it was the best egg i've ever had!

this was my first time visiting stephanie

in her new house.

i very much loved the view from the backyard...

and i loved the view even more from the front yard!

and i loved, loved, loved the view

out of this little window at the top of the stairs...

later that day we went to hang out at marsha's house

and as always drove past the provo temple...

then i swooned over this view at the end of marsha's street.

my first sighting of snow this year.

and maybe my last since i live in the desert!mount timpanogos


and then swooned even more over the beautiful colors

on her neighbor's trees!

and while in utah we saw many beautiful sunsets...

on friday we were able to do a session at the salt lake temple.

if you ever have the chance to do one - do it!
wow!

this is my favorite picture of the whole trip!


after our temple session

we took a drive around the area

and this is what we saw...

the state capitol...

a beautiful house...

another beautiful house...

this super cool lds chapel...

and on the way home from the temple

look what we stumbled upon...

yes, that's stonehenge!

you know, i visited stonehenge in england.

i never got the memo it had been moved to utah.

huh.


then we saw the rameumpton treehouse.

things just keep getting weirder.

(only in utah!)


then we went to the the grocery store

and look what i found...

the weirdest (and maybe coolest) thing of all...

and my personal favorite...

then thursday night

noah and samuel gave me my latest lesson on jets.

if you ever needed, for some reason, to know anything about jets

ask them.

on saturday samuel had a halloween party

for which shelby made cupcakes...
then those lucky kids got to decorate them...

and samuel looked very scary...

and with that

our visit to stephanie and family

was at its end.

goodnight!








p.s.

on our way home we saw this...

the manti temple.

this is where we'll do a session on my next visit to utah!

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