Food Creations

These little duckies were our contribution to the cake auction that our Young Women in our church put together to raise money for Girls Camp. It was a huge success and tons of fun. I found this recipe in What's New Cupcake? It was much harder than I thought it would be, but I think they turned out okay and they were a lot of fun to make.

The tail is half of a marshmallow, the head is a doughnut hole, the beak is an orange Tootsie Roll, and the eyes are mini chocolate chips. What a great way to play with your food!

photo by Liz Lambson

This was one of my favorite cakes that one of the girls made to look like kitty litter. So funny! There were also cakes made to look like a hamburger, a mummy, Chinese checkers, a race car, and a lot of other beautiful and delicious cakes.

photo by Liz Lambson

This is our latest Good Eats recipe attempt. Craig has been wanting to make this for a long time. Mostly because it is dried on a contraption made up of a box fan and air filters (never been used, of course).

Even though we tried to aim all of the jerky fragrance outward, the smell lingered in our apartment the whole day.

It actually turned out really tasty! Thanks Alton Brown!

Here is the recipe. Let me know if you want to borrow some air filters :)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds flank steak
• 2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Special Equipment: 1 box fan, 4 paper air-conditioning filters, and 2 bungee cords

Directions

Trim the flank steak of any excess fat, place in a zip-top bag, and place it in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours in order to firm up.

Remove the steak from the freezer and thinly slice the meat with the grain, into long strips.

Place the strips of meat along with all of the remaining ingredients into a large, 1-gallon plastic zip-top bag and move around to evenly distribute all of the ingredients. Place the bag into the refrigerator for 3 to 6 hours.

Remove the meat from the brine and pat dry. Evenly distribute the strips of meat onto 3 of the air filters, laying them in the grooves and then stacking the filters on top of one another. Top these with 1 empty filter. Next, lay the box fan on its side and lay the filters on top of it. Strap the filters to the fan with 2 bungee cords. Stand the fan upright, plug in and set to medium. Allow the meat dry for 8 to 12 hours. If using a commercial dehydrator, follow the manufacturer's directions.

Once dry, store in a cool dry place, in an airtight container for 2 to 3 months.

Yum!

Thank you to Costco and to summer for providing my favorite things! I am so happy.

On a less happy note- this little dish, though delicious, was responsible for making our apartment smell like fish for a week. I went to work after we ate this for lunch (wearing the same clothes that I cooked in) and kept getting random whiffs of fish. When I told my coworker that I had the suspicion that I smelled like my lunch he quickly says, "Oh! You're what I've been smelling that stinks!" Yikes. Luckily living so close to work provides the opportunity for a quick clothing change. Lesson learned: don't cook fish on a cast iron skillet indoors.

Our Portland Anniversary

We love the Portland Saturday Market!

A few Sundays ago we were enjoying some gorgeous weather and we celebrated by taking a drive along the Historic Colombian River Highway. It was beautiful! Along the way we stumbled upon the Crown Point Vista House which is apparently a popular tourist spot but we found it just by accident. It was built in the 1920's for the sole purpose of providing a bathroom for the ladies that visited the awesome view point. Funny.

And of course we had to stop at the beautiful Multnomah Falls.

It's official. We have now been in Portland for one year. Weird. We absolutely love our new home and we are enjoying getting more familiar with it every day. Here are just a few things that we have noticed about Portland so far:

- There is a very eclectic mix of people and culture
-We have all of the Trader Joe's and Costco locations that we could ever want
-The toilets have two options of flushing in order to save water
-There is an awesome array of eateries, but still no Cafe Rio (probably what I miss most about Provo)
-There are Pet Smarts in every shopping center
-We have a plethora of beautiful parks and outdoor locations to choose from and more outdoor flowers than I have ever seen
-There are more Starbucks than people (pretty much)
-Vacations are serious business in order to get away from the rain
-It always smells fresh outside
-No sales tax makes shopping wonderful

It's been a great year. We've met a lot of really wonderful people and have had some really great experiences. We look forward to what the future years in Portland have to offer.

Craig's Birthday in Seattle

On Tuesday, we had a fun surprise birthday dinner for Craig at Red Robin (Loni, thanks for your great idea). He thought we were going there for just the two of us to use his "birthday coupon" for a free burger. But when we got there, our awesome friends were already at the table to greet him with a surprise "Happy Birthday!" He was really surprised and we had a great time hanging out with everyone except for the broken glass incident. Sam, I hope your hand is feeling better :).

For Craig's actual birthday we headed up north to Seattle to celebrate. We got to the hotel late Thursday night, then spent the whole next day exploring the city. Here's Craig ready to open his birthday loot.

We hit up Pike's Place first thing in the morning. We didn't realize that it doesn't open until 10 so we had a little bit of time to kill before all of the vendors showed up. But what a fun place!

Here is the legendary "Wall of Gum." I saw this on the travel channel one time a long time ago and completely forgot that it was in Seattle until we saw a sign for it at a bus stop. Man was that a lot of gum. Craig was really sad that we weren't chewing any so that we could make our contribution.

We took a short little Harbor Cruise around the Puget Sound that told all about the buildings and the history of Seattle. It was a lot of fun, even with all of the wind!

The aquarium was fun too! My favorite part were the hands on pools where you could touch all of the star fish and anemones in the freezing cold water. Then Craig got busted for moving a starfish.

We debated about going to the top of the space needle, but I am so glad that we did! It took only 41 seconds for the elevator to get to the top, and it was a gorgeous 360 degree view. It felt kind of weird in the room because the floor always felt like it was moving (I think because of the rotating restaurant below). And It was so so so windy on the outside deck. They even closed the doors for a little while because it was too windy for people to go outside. But I totally recommend going to the top at least once!

We got multiple recommendations for a burger place called Red Mill, so of course we had to go. Once we saw how crowded it was, we knew it was going to be delicious and it was!

I think that the Fremont Troll might have been one of my favorite parts of Seattle. It was just so unique. We weren't really sure where we were going and then boom - out of nowhere there is this super huge, super creepy, troll coming out of the ground under the bridge. This was our last stop before heading back to Portland after a great time in Seattle.

Super Diamond

For any of you who know Craig, you know how much he loves Neil Diamond. It's a bit of a man crush really. So it was only natural that when he found out about the Neil Diamond tribute band he immediately bought tickets for the Portland show. Surprisingly enough, it was a really great show! Think of Neil Diamond with a little more drums and added guitar solos. The lead singer ("The Surreal Neal") did a great job too! My favorite part was when they sang Sweet Caroline to the tune of Sweet Child of Mine. Here's the moral of the story: Don't make fun of your husband for wanting to go to a really nerdy concert. It just might be really fun.

I absolutely hands down completely love my blender!

My wonderful in-laws gave us the most amazing blender ever created. Doubtful? Just check out what it can do in the Will It Blend videos. Craig and I both love it so much and we use it literally every day. Craig's family got us hooked on green smoothies which are loaded with yummy fruit and tons of spinach. That's right, spinach. It may sound strange, but it makes for a delicious and satisfying morning treat which is also loaded with gobs of nutrients. But the fun doesn't end there. The Blendtec came with an awesome recipe book loaded with tons and tons of great recipes. Our favorites so far? Raw Vegetable Soup, Orange Sorbet, and Honey Mustard Dressing. What did we ever do with out this wonderful machine?

J-e-ll-o!

That's right folks, Craig and I enjoyed a night filled with jello pudding, sweaters, and good clean fun. While he may be getting further along in years, Bill Cosby is just as funny as ever .

The tickets were part of my Christmas present to my hunny which was great because I got to enjoy it too :).