the dixon story

Weenie Roast!

2008-06-14T11:31:00.005-06:00

My sister Jordan is working at a family camp this summer and so we never get to see her ever. I sometimes forget what she looks like. Then I check her Facebook page and remember. Barely.

Anyway.

She turned 19 (holy cow, sometimes I think I'm still 19) on June 8th, and we had a wonderful party with presents and a three-tiered cake and balloons and U2 live and a fireworks show.

Oh wait, we didn't. Sorry.

She was working. Lame. So we didn't get to see her. I did, however, leave her a musical phone message that morning and think about her, which is practically the same thing. Or something.

So.

A week later, we were able to get together--and by we, I mean, my parents, and Jordan, and my One and Only and me--(Elisabeth and Tyler were in Hebgen, Orgegon, Katie and Chad couldn't make it, and Daniel was at Youth Conference) for a little fun.

Fun, in this case, is a fancy word that means WEENIE ROAST.

I don't recall being present at one of these since basically forever. The last one I have a clear recollection of was in Oregon when I was about 7 at my Great Aunt Annette and Uncle Mark's amazing house. I'm sure I've been to one since, but it has escaped my memory.

So last night, we drove up the Provo Canyon for a lovely evening in front of the fire. After a valiant escape from some inch worms, my parents and Jordan found the perfect spot for us to tuck away in.

We cooked hot dogs on the roaster sticks that my mom has been waiting to use for 2.5 years, ate chips, an AMAZING salad, and watermelon, and had yummy cold drinks. On cute tablecloths with plastic forks and knives, and disinfectant wipes, and hand sanitizer, and store-purchased wood, and plastic bags to sit on so we don't get dirty. My kind of roughing it.

Then, things got serious.

We. Made. S'mores.

Not just any s'mores, we had regular marshmallows, and toasted coconut marshmallows, and Hershey's chocolate bars, and Reese's peanut butter cups, and graham crackers.

Mom got hers perfectly golden.

Dad made a double-decker

I had mine en flambe.

Michael looked really dreamy. Duh.

Jordan enjoyed her birthday hootinanny. Uh...really. She did.

It. was. Great. Gruh-ate.

And we were a delightfully sticky, marshmallow-stuffed crowd.

In the end, mom started cleaning up, and we all pitched in too much, so we ended up being done a bit earlier than we'd hoped.

I guess it's all for the best though. It was getting dark. And you never know when you'll be attacked by wolves. Or inch worms.

Iron Chef Dixon: Battle Strawberry

2008-05-29T18:55:00.000-06:00

Michael and I like food. A lot. As in, when we don't HAVE to be thinking about other things, we're thinking about food. We get really excited to go to the grocery store, we watch Food Network, we plan menus together...yeah. It's a little embarassing. But, I figure, everyone has to eat, why not do it well?

Anyway.

On Sunday, Michael and I were in the mood to make a dessert of some kind and Michael (aka. Captain Make-up-a-game *my hero*) suggested that we make something based on what we had in the house (on account of it was the Sabbath after all), and also stipulated that it should revolve around the fresh strawberries we had in our refrigerator.

We thought up several options:

1. cream puffs filled with vanilla pudding and smothered in strawberry sauce

2. strawberry shortcakes

3. a mixed berry pie

4. a mixed berry crumble/crisp

Realizing that we had no whipping cream, we abandoned options 1 and 2. And out of 3 and 4, four just sounded to great to pass up. Having no recipe to go off of, we sort of pieced together recipes that had similar ingredients and came up with something really tasty.

And, if I do say so myself, really good looking. Bonus points to Michael for making the topping.

Don't be jealous.

Recent milestones

2008-05-29T08:47:00.013-06:00

Michael and I have crossed several milestones this month:

1. Michael watched Pride and Prejudice.

Yup, the really REALLY long one. Not the Kiera Knightly one, the REAL one. All. Five. hours.

Michael studied Pride and Prejudice girl culture for an anthropology project, so we had my sister Jordan come over two nights during the week and had dinner and orange julius while we watched each half of the movie. Friday (day 2 of the film), we even got New York pizza from a pizzeria owned by someone from Michael's mission. Michael thought it was somewhat lacking (the owner didn't make our actual pizza this time), but we all agreed it was delicious. Also humongous. While we were waiting for Jordan to come over, I thought I'd stick the box in our oven to keep the pizza warm. It didn't fit. I think we got the "extra-super-especially-very-X-treme" size. Something like that anyway. And we only had two pieces left at the end of the night. We're that good.

2. We rediscovered the magic that is orange julius

It had been a few years since I'd had an orange julius and I'd gotten the hankering. Our apartment was also heating up with the weather, so we decided to make something refreshing. Wowza. We have a steadfast and immovable testimony of orange julius. We are experimenting with changing up the type of juice used. Our next test is going to be with grape juice. Oodalally.

3. We finally got around to trying Michael's brilliant idea: Lemonade with Limeade ice cubes

I've sort of been on a citrus kick since about February, and Michael thought of this good idea. We have one ice tray (that makes heart-shaped ice), so over the course of a few days we made ice cubes out of limeade.

This is magic in and of itself. The sugar and juice content of limeade doesn't allow the ice to freeze entirely solid. This means SLUSHY ICE CUBES. SOFT ENOUGH TO CHEW. SORT OF LIKE SHAVED ICE. I can't tell you how yummy it is to pop a little bit of limeade slushy in your mouth on a hot day. Also, when you put them in lemonade, if you swish your glass around, the slushy cubes break up a bit and it's sort of like having an icee. Try it.

4. We went clothes shopping together.

and Michael still loves me. I have a hard time finding clothes. A REALLY hard time. Michael braved a huge bunch of stores with me this month to look for skirts, etc. (I haven't bought a new skirt since my sister Katie got married two-and-a-half years ago). We'd wade through mountains of clothes and Michael would load his arms with things for me to try on then wouldn't even act disappointed when not a single thing fit. What a great sport. He's also navigated through racks and racks of purses as we look for a replacement purse for me defunct one, with no success. I'm just too picky. Not on purpose, I just want to buy something I LOVE rather than something I just sort of like.

As it happens, we looked and looked with no success. Michael even expressed great sympathy that it's REALLY hard to find modest clothes (even in Utah). What a great supporter. My mom found a great selection of things at a Ross near her house and I was able to come away with a handful of really cute new skirts. I'm feeling incredibly spoiled.

5. We've been married for five months

We couldn't be happier. We love how well matched we are, and have really enjoyed that our schedules match up a little better this semester than they did last semester. It's been fun to spend more time with each other.

**as a side note: we aren't as jaundice-looking as we appear in the picture. We were in wonky lighting. And also we'd just played kickball.

6. Also, I saw a snail.

I thought it was the coolest thing ever. He was SO fast! It was hard to take a picture of him. This is on day 2 of 5 days of rain we just went through. Yes, it's random, but I could think of no other way to casually incorporate a snail into a blog post.

7. We discovered a REALLY good bubble blower:

The mixer from our hand mixer. Michael was GOOD at blowing big ones. I struggled. Shocker.

an ant, a plant, a fant(asy)

2008-05-21T08:30:00.009-06:00

Recent adventures in the Michael and Emily Dixon home:

1. Adventure #1: An ant
Last Thursday, Michael and I had magically finished our homework early and had a large portion of the afternoon to ourselves. We decided to make a pan of brownies and settle in for a movie. As we prepared to mix up the brownies, we spied a few ants. In. Our. Kitchen.

EW! I can't tell you how awful that was. We discovered their point of entry: the slight gap under our baseboard. Oy. Lucky for us, the largest number I ever saw at a time was about 6. Whew!

Michael, our fearless Captain of Pest Control whipped out his phone and called his dad (who--according to Michael--has fought many a battle with these villains) and secured the name of the proper poison.

Abandoning our movie plan, we headed over to our local Home Depot to secure the specified poison. Michael set his watch timer and we had a race to see how fast we could find the poison. It took us less than three minutes. Yessssss. This leads to adventure 2:

Adventure #2. A plant

Whilst in Home Depot we noticed a large collection of house plants. I've been wishing that we could have a garden and Michael's had the hankering to do yard work, so Michael suggested we find a plant.

Boring, overly-practical me countered by saying "well...we don't really need a plant..." and Michael agreed. However, he suggested "okay, if we find a plant under $4, we're getting it. We were slightly disappointed to see that the jade plant we both admired so much was in the $11 range, but were thrilled to find a plant whose tag description said "low light, low water, etc." which led me to believe it would be a very hard plant to slay. Thank heavens.

Eunice, our love fern

Thus, we came home with Eunice, our $3.97 plant. She has been a great addition to our home.

Adventure #3: A Fant(asy)

Our ant problem had cleared up by Sunday (thank heavens), and our lives continued. Lo and behold, Michael (who is applying for the Fall business program at BYU), received a letter from the Dean of the Business school stating that Michael had made the Dean's list (something only about 5% of applicants do)! A fantasy come true!

The mighty ant warrior rewards his successes with an ooey
gooey shapely brownie

In conclusion: winning the battle with ants CAN happen (and in short order), plants under $4 can still brighten a home, and fantasies like making the BYU Business School's Dean's List can come true!!!

Spoiled (adj.): Emily

2008-05-09T09:52:00.003-06:00

On Wednesday, the weather in Utah was...not so pleasant. Around 4:00, the drizzling rain turned into a waterfall. It was POURING. Michael and I were both on campus for classes, and I was dreading that we'd have to walk home in the deluge. I'd brought an umbrella, but...yeah, it was that kind of rain. Forest Gump rain. Sideways rain, up-and-down rain, stinging rain, etc, etc.

Well, by the time we got out of class at 6:00ish, the rain had slowed back down to sprinkling, though there were muddy little puddles everywhere. When I'd left the house in the morning, there really wasn't much of a hint of rain and it was supposed to be rather warm, so I'd worn jeans, a light sweatshirt, and flip-flops. As I walked up the stairs and across puddles on my way to meet up with Michael, I flip flopped rain right up onto...everything: my sweatshirt, my shirt, the backs of my legs, my bag...you name it.

Michael greeted a rather soggy, disheveled me in his usual sunshine-y way, and we started our walk home together. Michael was such a perfect gentleman. Without skipping a beat of the conversation, he was helping me around puddles and trying to make sure I made it across muddy patches or cracked sidewalks and trying hard to hold at least one of my hands at all times. We arrive back at our apartment to realize that the puddles all settle right in front of our back door. So after crossing one final muddy puddle, we made it home.

When we walked in the door, our apartment was warm and cozy. Michael had cleaned, and had moved the tv into our room. While I changed into my favorite snuggly pink jammies and soaked my feet in some warm water for a few minutes, he heated us up some yummy minestrone. We ate soup and warm rolls in bed as we watched a movie he knew I would like more than he would have necessarily and enjoyed the cozy protection of our apartment against the blustery, gray outside.

I can't tell you how much of a blessing it is to be married to someone who takes care of me in every way. I'd be lost without his sweetness. No matter how busy he is, no matter what's on his to-do list, he always--always--makes time for me and time to tell me he loves me. He has me completely figured out. He knows exactly what I need. I'm spoiled rotten.

springtime updates

2008-05-06T12:53:00.006-06:00

Michael and I are still spinning from the end of finals and the beginning of Spring semester. Ah well, life's good. Here are our recent updates:

Emily:

School: (rather begrudgingly) taking three classes this spring and whining pretty much daily about it. Although rather miffed at having to take yet another semester of school, she is absolutely NOT miffed that this is, in fact, her LAST YEAR OF SCHOOL. Praise all that is good in this world, the end is near!

Classes: Healthy Mind Healthy Body, Doctrine and Covenants, Computer Applications in Health Education

Interesting Experience: Emily participated in the Dixon family tradition of choosing a horse for the Kentucky Derby for her first time. She chose the only girl horse entered. The horse surprised her by coming in second, then promptly breaking both front ankles and dying on the spot. She hopes this luck doesn't continue next year.

Church: just released from teaching Gospel Doctrine with Michael. Now in that awkward interim phase of not knowing what calling is next (please not name extraction, please not name extraction...)

Other: really liking experimenting with recipes, posting to her recipe blog, and going on lots of walks with Michael in the newly warmish weather.

Michael:

School: Very pleasantly taking two classes this spring and still teaching at the MTC (and loving it). Not complaining or whining daily about having to take classes. Being his normal, optimistic, happy self about it. Feeling better and better about applying to the business program this summer.

Classes: Accounting, Anthropology

Interesting experience: Michael's anthropology teacher is sort of a wierd fellow. He doesn't like traditional phraseology for school, and, consequently, refers to Michael's class as a "community of learners," and class periods as "gatherings." He also comments often about their "journey through the semester together," and begins each class by rearranging the chairs in a circle and ringing a hand bell three times to help everyone "clear a space" in their minds. I know. Oy.

Church: Michael was just called to be Elder's Quorum president of the first elder's quorum in our ward. He then had the task of reorganizing (every) things since our ward is experiencing a HUMONGOUS turnover as people move out and graduate, etc. He's chosen great counselors and is already doing a great job reaching out to other people in the ward. His first Sunday he even had to sit on the stand since, as luck would have it, both counselors of the bishopbric were gone.

Other: Michael sliced his finger open on the mirror this morning. Yes, that mirror. We're thinking about suing. Or at least not inviting that mirror to our birthday parties.

Us:

Really loving being married. We think it's kind of funny that we're going to be one of the "older" married couples in our ward and we haven't even hit out 5 month mark yet. Ha.

Walking. We both like to be outside in the beautiful weather and have loved going on walks with each other. Emily has some intense speed-walking skills, but is pretty sure that Michael could out-skip anyone. Emily is thinking about entering him in a contest.

Attending LOTS and LOTS of weddings. In the past month, we've attended my sister Elisabeth's wedding, Michael's best friend Nate's wedding, and this Thursday, I will attend my cousin Jayden's wedding. We're so excited for everyone and wish we could be everywhere at once sometimes.

YAY MICHAEL!

2008-05-01T17:32:00.003-06:00

Michael and I checked our grades today. MICHAEL GOT A 4.0!!! He really feels great about applying to the Business School now. I'm so so so excited for him. He worked REALLY hard this semester, and I feel like it really paid off for him.

To celebrate, I made homemade pizza with our current favorite combination: pepperoni, green pepper, and pineapple (with sockarooni sauce and mozzarella). Yay for Michael's 4.0!

We are currently taking suggestions for the name of our pizza (pepperoni, pepper, and pineapple). We'd like to avoid anything with "ppp" on account of this could give the wrong idea...

So we're taking name suggestions. Go.

Happy third-of-a-year anniversary to us!

2008-04-28T13:04:00.004-06:00

Michael and I have been trying to think all day long of what you are supposed to refer to 1/3 as. 1/2 is "half" and 1/4 is "a quarter." What in blazes do you call 1/3?

Regardless, we love being married.

How did we celebrate you ask?

With no school, sleeping in, a round of pilates (isn't Michael a saint?), a haircut for Michael, 3 hours of work for me, BYU Creamery ice cream (Raspberries and Cream and Toasted Almond Fudge), sunshine, relaxing, Spongebob, green chile burritos, some killer cookies, Family Home Evening, The Barefoot Contessa, and The Fugitive.

I love my life.

We Liiiiiiiiiiive!

2008-04-24T07:22:00.008-06:00

Can I tell you it's a bit embarassing to look at the date of my last post and realize it's been more than two weeks? I've always made a bad journal-keeper, though (I've started and stopped roughly 4,293.7 journals in my life), so I guess that's not much different.

Anyway.

Michael and I survived finals.

All of them.

Sometimes it felt like I'd never get to say that we were finally done with finals.

Yesterday, we each had our last final. Michael spent about 7 hours on his literature class final, which was all essays. LONG essays. Full papers. Not short answer. Entire papers. BLEH.

I had a scheduled final (Health 460: Substance Abuse and Addictive Behaviors) from 5:45 to 7:45. It didn't take me the whole time, so when we met back at our apartment, Michael was ready to do something to celebrate. I, on the other hand could hardly construct an intelligible sentence in my mush-for-brains state. So Michael listened while I mumbled for a while, then we called it a night.

I don't think I've ever felt this burnt out in my whole academic career. Ew.

Michael was also weary of the long semester, but he's always so cheery and optimistic, I feel rather silly sometimes being Sally Raincloud.

Filled with dreams of all that could possibly fit into these (VERY) few days between semesters (hikes, walks, movies, adventure!), I awoke this morning to discover that it was, in fact, raincloud-y. And also that we still have to go to work till noon.

So plan B is in the works. Probably more along the lines of grocery shopping (which Michael and I both unabashedly adore), amaretto hot chocolate drinking, and pajama-clad movie watching.

Mmm... that doesn't sound so bad.

Birth Week

2008-04-08T09:27:00.008-06:00

Michael's birthday was last Saturday (April 5th). This was also the same weekend that we had General Conference for our church, and Saturday involved three sets of 2-hour sessions, so Saturday hooplah was mostly out of the question.

Plan B was to celebrate on Friday, but Friday night, my sister Elisabeth went through the temple for the first time and I'm the only sister who could be there, so we forwent (there's that word again) Michael's mission reunion and went to Salt Lake to be there for her. So, plan B of was also out of the question.

Plan C was to celebrate Thursday night. We were invited to a mystery dinner that night, so Birth Week was invented.

We decided to celebrate a little bit every day last week to sort of make up for the fact that no one day would really work for celebrating. Here's how it went:

Sunday: I let Michael open one present (he was VERY persistent in trying to get information out of me, so I caved). It was a car air freshener. I know, lame, but do I get extra points since it was named "Vanillaroma" and was made in Michael's mission? Also, we ate funfetti cake.

Monday: We ate more funfetti cake and opened another present. Also we studied for a statistics test, but to me, that part was not so celebratory.

Tuesday: We ate birthday dinner, which was tacos. Michael sure loves tacos. Also on this day, Michael scored a 100% on his statistics test. I very much did NOT get a 100% on that test. YAY MICHAEL!

Wednesday: Since Michael was "floating" at work, he was able to come home early and he actually surprised me with a BEAUTIFUL little bouquet of spring roses. These pictures don't do them justice, but WOW they were gorgeous. Michael also opened a card from his brother Ben.

Thursday: Michael opened packages from his mom and sister Stacy. He is now the proud owner of new ties, new movies, and lots of treats and snacks. What a happy boy! We also attended the mystery dinner with our friends. Turns out, I'm a murderer. Who knew? Not me!

Friday: We drove up to the Salt Lake temple to be with Elisabeth as she went through for the first time. Afterwards, we went over to Tyler's parents' house for dinner (which was Cafe Rio--Michael's favorite!) Unfortunately, tummy aches and tired eyes forced us to return home early, which in this case means earlier than everyone else; we got home at 11:00ish.

Saturday: We attended the morning session of General Conference at the Conference Center. Michael had never been before. We were there for the Solemn Assembly and the sustaining of not only the new president of the church, but a new apostle! Turns out we were actually on the Utah broadcast of Conference. My parents saw us on TV when they were watching at home. FUN! That afternoon we watched the next session of Conference with my parents, ate pizza for dinner, and Michael opened the rest of his presents--some new shirts, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Mambo cologne, and a new memory foam pillow. After the Priesthood session, we ate ice cream and watched Michael's movie "Carbon Dating: The Formative Years of Marvin D. Farnsworth."

Sunday: We ate a big breakfast (pumpkin muffins, almond poppyseed muffins, sausage, orange juice, and hash browns) and watched conference. We also went on a short walk, played a few rounds of speed Scrabble and And it Came To Pass, then ate a delicious dinner and had strawberry-topped cake for dessert.

What a fun birthweek!

Easter Feast Adventures

2008-04-03T08:41:00.009-06:00

Why, yes, folks, I am more than a week (okay, fine two) late in posting our Easter festivities.

Better late than never, though, eh?

Yeah, I didn't think so either.

Anyway.

I was REALLY excited to play Easter Bunny this year. It was my first time, and although we forwent (yes, I think I just made that word up) baskets, I was very excited to put out the treats the night before. When we woke up in the morning, I played the part of very excited younger sibling, hopping in to announce, "IT'S EASTER! THE EASTER BUNNY CAME!!!"

The Easter Bunny was very kind to us, bringing (for Michael) Lemon-lime gatorade and two kinds of Starburst jelly beans (he couldn't find the right flavor for a long time, but that's another story), V8 Splash and Sweetart bunnies, chicks, and ducks for me, and a variety of Hershey's chocolate and Mound's eggs for the family.

My parents and younger brother were in sunny California for Easter weekend, so Michael and I decided to host my sisters and future brother-in-law for Easter dinner at our apartment. This created a series of adventures. I love adventures.

Adventure 1: Table seating. Michael and I have exactly 4 chairs to our name and we were to have 5 people there. You do the math.

Solution 1: Move kitchen (folding) table to the living room and place it in such a way that two people can sit on the couch (loveseat). Because the table was so snug, we put the food out buffet-style on our computer desk. We even decorated with personalized Easter egg napkin rings and (although not pictured) a beautiful slice of lemon on the edge of each cup that looked amazing with the tropical-colored juice we had. I love being a newlywed.

Adventure 2: preparing a rather elaborate meal with limited counter space (as in about two feet of counter space) and no dishwasher

Solution 2: use all parts of the kitchen--stovetop, table, step stool, chairs, sink...even floor (with covered food) and washing 7 batches of dishes before guests arrived. Michael was such a trooper.
Adventure 3: Repairing a badly damaged lemon bundt cake that like a stubborn two-year old threw a fit and somehow stuck to the pan although it was VERY well greased and floured.

Solution 3: Coconut and lots of icing. This is more complicated than it sounds. The first bag of powdered sugar I used tasted like taco seasoning for some reason, so that gooey taco-vanilla mess had to be discarded and a second bag opened for a second try, which--thank my lucky Jupiter--worked.

**As a side note, Michael had to zest and juice (by hand) 7 lemons for that cake. I know...superzester.

Even through all the adventure, dinner was a FANTASTIC success!!! My sister Elisabeth (and her fiance Tyler) made a ham that was sooo good. None of us Lynn girls had ever made a ham, so we were all very impressed. We grew up in a house where we just didn't eat much meat, and ham was a "once or twice a year" food that our mom made. Michael was...well... incredulous that none of us knew how to prepare ham. (It's not our fault!)

Anyway.

The ham turned out great (and Michael and I even got to have some delicious leftovers complete with a barbeque glaze). My sister Jordan brought the world's most absoutely amazing fruit dip of all time ever, which we served with apples, pears, strawberries, bananas, and grapes. Mmmm.

For side dishes, we had twice-baked potatoes and caesar salad in parmesan cheese cups. (Although the lemon cake was supposed to be my crowning joy, I was REALLY pleased that the parmesan cheese cups turned out...especially since my uncooperative cake did not).

After dinner, we dyed Easter eggs, tried on bridesmaid's dresses (for Elisabeth's wedding next week), and called my parents to wish them a happy Easter. As usual, Michael's creative abilities TOTALLY TRUMPED mine and his eggs looked fantastic. After making sure everyone had some leftovers to take home, we all said goodbye and Michael and I put our very stuffed selves to bed.

I love Easter.

Rosie the Riveter vs. The bathroom mirror and the laundry room

2008-03-24T17:07:00.018-06:00

I typically do laundry on Friday nights, since Michael doesn't get off work until 8:45 and usually doesn't get home till 9ish. Also, pretty much NO ONE uses washers at 7:00 on a Friday night.

Anyway.

I was really excited to clean our apartment while the laundry took care of itself, since we were having my sisters and future brother-in-law over for Easter dinner on Sunday. I decided to wash an extra load of towels, kitchen rugs, etc. to really add the final shiny-clean touch. I was relieved that of the four washers down there, only one was taken, so I filled up the rest and went back to cleaning.

I changed into my Rosie the Riveter outfit (grubbies), and super-cleaned the kitchen and tub and even played handy-girl by fixing a light above our bathroom sink. By then the laundry was ready to put in the dryers.

As I walked down the stairs to the laundry room I noticed that it smelled a little...wierdish. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I saw that the floor was flooded.

Up to my ankles.
As you can see, the washers and dryers are on raised platforms. On the platform by the dryers crouched my beautiful Asian neighbor with her hand over her mouth and a very horrified/pensive look on her face as though to say "how will I ever get my clothes out of the dryer without going into the sicknasty lint water?"

I asked her if hers were the clothes in the far washer. At the sound of my voice, she suddenly jerked, and her hand came away from her mouth:

"My neighbor already call manager. MANAGER NOT HOME! MANAGER NO ANSWER HOME PHONE! MANAGER NO ANSWER CELL PHONE!"

I calmed her down, kicked off my shoes, and crossed the linty water of death four times as I moved all the clothes to the dryers. I assured her that things would be okay, picked up my shoes and slogged back to my apartment.

I decided to just go back to cleaning. As I was washing our bathroom mirror, my finger caught on the metal border at the top and sliced for a good six inches of mirror as I wiped across it.

Obviously, intense agony and a lot of blood ensued.

Four bandaids and a kitchen towel later, the bleeding stopped and Michael arrived. I explained everything to him and asked him for help getting the clothes out of the dryers. Not even questioning, Michael grabbed his flip-flops, rolled up his suit pants, and picked up the laundry basket. Armed with the camera and more bandaids, I trooped after him to document the experience.

I won't lie, I had the giggles pretty intensely:

Although the water had gone down quite a bit, it was still pretty gross and really hilarious.

After losing a heroic battle with the bathroom mirror, my finger and I felt much better because of Michael's life-saving sense of humor. Well, that and a freshly-baked batch of cookies.

Thank goodness for funny husbands, boxes of bandaids, adorable Asian neighbors, gooey-delicious cookies, and live-through-able adventures.

So...I got carried away. A little. Lottle.

2008-03-19T08:40:00.000-06:00

So, the blogging thing has been especially enjoyable for me. It's actually been a fun way for me to de-stress and unwind.

BUT.

I've noticed that I'm sort of starting to talk a lot about food and I decided that despite how fun that is for me, it's not the best way to "document our family" so I've decided that I'm going to start posting recipes to a sister blog called My Muffin Thursdays, so named for our sometimes tradition for having muffin thursdays. Anyway, the recipe/food site is launched, so there you go.

No more polluting the family blog with recipes. :)

Cup-pies in Ramekins

2008-03-17T18:06:00.010-06:00

My mom gave me some adorable colored ramekins and I was so excited to try something in them that on Pi day, I decided to try out some mini-pies.

Aren't they adorable?

I was thrilled. It was so fun to make rustic little pies with fantastic apple filling. I experimented with a new crust recipe that I LOVED. I also tried adding a new ingredient (vanilla) to my apple pie filling and I think it was a smashing success.

***as a side note: "Rustic" in this case means uneven, imperfect, no-fuss, etc. It's one of my happiest cooking words. It means that things don't have to be exactly perfect and it's OKAY!

Apple Pie Filling

Ingredients:
4-5 Granny Smith Apples, or other baking apple
1/2c brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbsp butter, melted

Directions:
Wash and peel apples. Slice into very thin slices, discarding the core. In a bowl, combine apple slices, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and butter. Pour into pie crust or ramekins, top with crust. Poke three or so holes in the top crust and bake according to crust directions (typically until golden--I baked mine at 375 for 30-45 minutes.)

I know it's not exact...I'm trying to get better at that, but there you go! They were amazing. And the perfect kiss goodbye to apple season.

Happy Pie Day!

2008-03-14T07:24:00.005-06:00

March 14, or 3.14 is Pi day! Yay!

Michael and I were talking last night about how fun it would be to go back to elementary school knowing what we know now. You have parties in the middle of the day for big reasons, little reasons, and sometimes no reason.

So although Friday is our crazy day (I am on campus from 7am to 7pm and Michael works till 8:45pm), we're celebrating Pi day this evening with pie.

I'm also going to watch an episode of Pushing Daisies online.

This meant that I had to choose ONE kind of pie to make. Sigh...

I really love making pies. It's been my favorite Thanksgiving responsibility for years. Pecan pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate cream pie, lemon meringue pie, strawberry pie, banana spice pie (SO GOOD, somday I'll post the recipe), apple crumble pie, and then...there's the most amazing pie in all the world: cherry almond pie.

How I wish I had the ingredients on hand to make that pie! My uncle made it for me last fall and I fell so deeply in love with that pie that I had him make several more for my wedding in December. The poor man also made my beautiful wedding cake, but that's another story.

ANYWAY... I've decided that based on the ingredients I have on hand, we're having apple pie. I'm sort of toying with the idea of making cup-pies. Sort of like cupcakes...except with pie...in ramekins.

I'll post pictures and the pie recipe later on to share.

Muffin Thursdays--Banana Chocolate Chip

2008-03-11T09:11:00.011-06:00

As Michael can easily attest, I am sort of a muffin fiend. Of all the things I bake, I most often bake muffins and cookies. Last fall, Michael would come over to my apartment on Thursday nights to watch The Office and I'd bake a batch of muffins. It sort of mutated into Muffin Thursdays. This semester, I'm not quite as vigilant about muffin Thursdays, but I still love muffins nonetheless.

This recipe is adapted from one by my old roommate Mandy, a queen among chefs. Not only is she the master of Italian cooking, but she is one stellar baker.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:
1/2c brown sugar
1/2c margarine
1 1/2c mashed ripe bananas (3-4)
1/4c milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
chocolate chips--I use semi-sweet

Directions: cream butter and sugar. Stir in bananas, milk, vanilla, and eggs. Stir in dry ingredients, stirring till just blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Use as many as you want based on whether you want them as a treat, a snack, or a breakfast food.

Quite honestly, for me...there's not always a difference.

Bake at 375 20-25minutes

Hypothetically speaking...

2008-03-07T08:41:00.013-07:00

If you had to name a restaurant/bakery/thingofwhateverthatinvolvesfood what would you name it?

All my "good" ideas were taken (i.e. "Lucky Buns")

So...I'm fresh out of ideas.

Also, check out this amazing website about cupcakes. SO FUN! My favorites are these, these, and these.

Fort + nachos + big + blankets = fantastic Monday night

2008-03-05T18:44:00.010-07:00

Michael and I had a fantastic family home evening this week. We combined a few of our favorite things and came up with something really great. I wish the pictures could do the fort justice. Michael was the perfect fort engineer.

I mostly stood by for moral support, and gave it some "homey touches" (such as a snuggly blanket for movie watching, a serving platter for the nachos, and my step stool to hold up one side of the fort.)

Anyway... we (Michael) built a fort and then we assembled some top-notch nachos. Our method: tortilla chips, refried beans, green chiles, salsa, tomatoes (on my side) and lots and lots of cheese. Baked at 400 degrees till ooey gooey.

Our movie choice of the night was Big to represent getting in touch with our childhood selves. It was so much fun and we ate ALL of the nachos.

And hardly even felt guilty about it :)

What I love most about nights like this is how we can take some very simple tools and put together a really memorable night. Michael is so good at date-planning. I'm sometimes embarassed that despite thinking myself a romantic, I am sort of a dud with date planning. Not Michael. Plus, he makes everything come together and always reminds me how fun it is to be spontaneous (something I'm not very good at).

I most definitely have a crush on him.

Minestrone and Grilled Italy

2008-03-03T11:13:00.007-07:00

Michael and I agree that so far, this is the best meal I make. We both love the minestrone, and I really love Grilled Italy as well (Michael's creative genius is responsible for its name). Anyway, I thought I'd like to share the recipes.

Remember I'm an amateur photographer. More like a pre-thinking-about-becoming-a-novice-in-the-pre-amateur-photographer-thing-of-whatever.

Note: don't be daunted by the ingredient list. I have recipes that use up all the other ingredients, so if you want those recipes or suggestions, let me know. I'd be happy to pass them along. You can easily substitute the type of beans used, etc. or leave anything out that you don't care for. The broth for this soup is amazing. It's rather thin, but it's SO delicious.

Minestrone Soup
This soup is a fantastic way to get lots of delicious vegetables into your diet. Feel free to add or subtract veggies to this recipe too. I've tried adding a handful of frozen or fresh spinach, and I'm sure it would be great with green beans or broccoli. The broth will change your life. Like I said, dont' be daunted by the ingredient list. I can think of lots of ways to use up those extra ingredients if you're nervous.

Ingredients:

8oz, kielbasa sausage, cut in half lengthwise and sliced (I use the lite version--don't get the smoked version...ew.)
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper (any color) chopped. (I use green or a mixture of red and green)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
4-5c water
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 1/2c diced carrots (2-3 carrots)
3/4c diced celery (1-2 stalks)
2 (14.5oz) cans Italian diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can cannellini (or Great Northern) beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2c dry farfalle (bowtie) pasta

Directions: brown sausage in bottom of soup pot. Remove sausage and set aside. Add onion, green pepper, garlic, and olive oil to pot, stirring to scrape up any brown bits from the pot. Cook on medium heat until onion is tender. Add c water, bouillon cubes, carrots, and celery to pot. Bring to a boil. Cook 5-8 minutes, or until carrots and celery begin to get tender. In separate saucepan, bring water to boil for pasta. Add pasta to saucepan and cook according to directions, making sure to stop cooking when pasta is still a bit firm (it will finish cooking in the soup). Add tomatoes and sausage to soup and reduce to simmer. Simmer 5-10 minutes. Add beans and pasta. Simmer at least 8 minutes more, or until ready to serve.

It tastes even better the longer it sits (as is the case with most soups)

Grilled Italy
I "made up" this recipe when I wanted the same great flavors that I get from my Ham and Mozzarella Pesto Stromboli but didn't have the time to make French bread dough. Use any bread that you have on hand. I'd recomment something that will toast up nicely and not mask the great flavor of the basil pesto. The buttery outside melts in your mouth, as do the rich pesto and delicious combination of melty cheese and smoky ham. Feel free to adjust proportions.

Ingredients:

bread of choice (I used leftover Sheepherders bread that I had on hand, but French bread, or white bread, or any bread will do)
Smoked sandwich ham of your choice
Basil pesto (I use Classico brand)
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
butter to spread

Directions:
Assemble as many sandwiches as desired, by spreading pesto on one side of the bread, and layering ham and cheese to taste. butter the top and bottom of the sandwich and cook in pan or on griddle until cheese is melty and bread is toasted to taste. Enjoy!

Soluting Real Men of Genius--Answering Machine Inventor

2008-03-01T22:11:00.002-07:00

Have you ever heard the radio commercials for Real Men of Genius? (If you haven't heard them, I recommend Mr. Too Much Cologne Wearer and Mr. Tollbooth Collector.) I'm in a class called Substance Abuse and Addictive Behaviors and we spend a solid portion of every class watching things like Superbowl beer commercials, explaining drinking games, or watching beer or tobacco ads. Lame.

Anyway, I decided to try my hand...

Background:

I'm pretty sure I believe that answering machines were invented to make perfectly competent people feel like complete imbeciles. For instance, one time, my sister Elisabeth (who is often quite eloquent) went to leave a message for a boy she was liked at the time (Jake). It ended up something like this:

Hi Elisabeth, this is Jake. NO! I mean, Hi, Jake, this is Elisabeth. I was wondering...um...

I have won speech contests before. I feel fairly confident in my ability to speak clearly, but another time, I tried leaving a phone message that came out something along the lines of

Um...hi...this is Emily...this message is for ___. So...hi ____ this is Emily...
Um...I was...um...okay...this is Emily...and...I had a question about____ so if
you can give me a call, this is Emily...and my number is...um...___.

So people who have all their faculties about them basically end up saying

I'm a complete moron. I'll call you back when I feel more competent...or you can
give me a call if you think I'm worth talking to still...I'll understand if
I'm too idiotic to speak to anymore.

And Here We Go...

So today I solute you Mr. Answering Machine Inventor. You make completely competent people feel like imbeciles (Mr. Answering Machine Inventor).

You make it possible to sound like you're speaking a foreign language when you're trying to communicate something simple (what the heck are you saying?).

You are responsible for ruining relationships, business transactions, and international relations merely by creating a machine that captures the absolute neanderthal in us all (ha ha you stupid moron).

Today we solute you, Mr. Answering Machine Inventor. May you rot in Hades. (Mr. Answering Machine In-veeeeen-tor!).

Happy Leap Day!

2008-02-29T07:32:00.006-07:00

I tried to think of a million amazing things to do on Leap Day. So far, all I could think of was...well...leaping.

And...well...lame.

So I thought I'd think of something completely different to talk about: Time travel [insert cheesy comment, i.e. "Leap into the past" here].

Michael and I were talking the other day about when we would want to live if we could choose any era/decade/time period. While we both thought it would be fun to try a week in various time periods (provided we could choose our socioeconomic status), such as the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, a Jane Austen book (oh, wait, maybe that one was just me)... we both agreed that we thought we could spend some serious time in the stereotypical 50's.

My initial vision was something Pleasantville-esque. Me in a dress and heels and half apron pulling dinner out of the oven as Michael dutifully walked up the lane of our perfectly manicured lawn, past Bobby and Sue Ann who are playing cooperatively in the front yard. In his still-crisply pressed suit, Michael hands me his briefcase and hangs his hat as he walks in the door in a "Honey, I'm home!" sort of way. Fantastic Etta James music would playing as a soundtrack.

And then I figured..."hey...bo-ring!"

So I popped that bubble, and we started talking about why we'd choose the 50s. For one thing, Michael and I are both believers in gender roles. Not in a women-oppressive kind of way, but in a traditional, Michael brings home the bacon and I cook it for dinner, kind of way. In the 50s, this was still the societal norm.

Another thing we liked was that this was the apple-pie-and-baseball time of life in America that we picture the country is supposed to be like. (And, like I said, we're going off of the stereotype here, so don't burst the dream bubble.) It was a time of neighborhood get-togethers, casseroles and jello-rings, dresses and suits, holiday parties, good music, family barbeques and wholesome values.

Sure, no time period is perfect, but this was about as stereotypically perfect as we could picture.

What would you choose?

Pro Marriage

2008-02-26T10:51:00.007-07:00

I have come to the conclusion that I am, in fact, pro marriage. (Naturally I've never thought to the contrary). These last two months with my wife Emily have been so great. I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of the most precious moments we have shared that haven't been mentioned already.

This picture is a personal favorite. For Christmas I got a new digital camera. This gift was dying to be tested, so Emily and myself went into the backyard and had a little photoshoot. We employed a wide variety of photography strategies. We modified the Lynn Classic (which is a special kind of jumping shot) in the the Lynn Frolic (which is more of a frolic than a jump, but still an airborn experience). I also challenged Emily's world renouned photogenic nature. I gave her a word and she had to strike a pose based on that word. As I recall words like "epic" and "pensive" were among the words uttered.

For our one month aniversary we made homemade pizza as pictured to the right. If you look closely at the peperoni and bell pepper topping you will notice a little peperoni heart in the center in addition to the heart shaped crust. That's Amore. After dinner we enjoyed a lovely Family Home Evening together. It doesn't get any better than that.

Another favorite thing we have shared together is playfulness. All the times that we joke about "moist flesh loaf" are postivaly precious to me. The faces, the voices, and the philosphising on meaningless things lead me to the conclusion that I am more comfortable with my wife than anyone in the world. Who else could I share a shower cap with for a picture? Frankly, nobody comes to mind. And to add the icing to the cake, it is one of the greatest perks of my life to be able to talk about what is for dinner. Poor Emily endures my endless questions (days in advance) regarding what we will be having for dinner. Her cooking makes me excited and is something special to me. I'm so lucky.

PS- for those of you who see this blog as a sappy afair, my advice to you is to "get over it!" Thank you, that is all.

These are a few of our least favorite words...

2008-02-25T09:06:00.007-07:00

Michael and I have recently been discussing our least favorite words. The list keeps growing, but here's what we have so far:

1. moist
2. flesh
3. loaf
4. whiz
5. sphincter
6. bosom
7. reared
8. "fruit of my loins" or any combination with the word "loins"
9. chunk

One of our favorite things to do is to use as many of these words as we can in a sentence. For example:

"The moist flesh loaf whizzed through the air"

Ew.

But also, too much fun.

***UPDATES***
10. secrete
11. squirt

Honeymoon pictures

2008-02-24T14:39:00.010-07:00

We enjoyed our Honeymoon in lovely San Diego from December 29, 2007 to January 3, 2008. The hotel we stayed at had some random piles of rocks that caught our attention and became subject to our chiding. A favorite activity was to contemplate "what are the meaning of rocks?" as depicted in the picture. To this day, we have not come to any certain conclusions. The hotel, also had a lovely view of the bay which would make anyone want to jump for joy. This view made our stay even more tranquil and enjoyable.

An interesting discovery was also made during our Honeymoon episodes. It has become really clear that if I ever start a band that I would play the dried palm leaf. Of course the band would have to be called Hot Coals Only. And naturally I would have to pose like a holister model
We enjoyed a walk together on the first full day in San Diego. Since we didn't have any photographer with us (I forgot to pack one), there are very few pictures with both of us in them. So even though it may appear that our struggles on this walk were different, we were fully united in sitting on the bench, pondering tic-tac-toe and climbing trees.
Our travels took us to Sea World too. We loved "encountering" penguins and sharks. We learned all about the Shamu slam and endured the faith permoting show entitled "Believe." We felt a stir with in us to bond with the creatures of the sea. This led us to pose like flamingos and Emily even kissed a manatee.

Foreging for food was a rather difficult task. Room service was pricey (although rather fun the first time) and other food possiblities were hard to obtain. So, we took a cab to a grocery store and secured some rations. They were delicious. We had some New Years Eve snacks like Crunch and Munch or chips and dip. It was a great move.

This picture is designed to depict Emily's cowboy side. We went to Old Town and meandered our way through some shops. It was great fun.

This section is to illustrate the many faces of Michael Dixon. Michael "crusher" Dixon, Michael "cloud head" Dixon, and Michael "groove thang" Dixon. Sometimes you just need to look at a picture side ways.

We also went to the San Diego zoo and saw many... interesting animals. Emily invented "zoo bingo" and we had a blast with it. We both made bingo cards by drawing pictures of animals in a different box in a grid. We both got bingos at the exact same moment.