Food and Photos

One of the things I love to do the most is cook! I also love to try new things! Here are some of my recent favorites! 

Shrimp tacos- I've had them before but recently have perfected my recipe! I could eat these every single week! 

I found my new favorite cookie recipe! It's secret ingredient is a package of dry pudding! They are even better when you turn them into ice cream sandwiches with birthday cake ice cream! 

These are Japanese Onigiri (rice balls). One is fired and crispy on the outside and the others are filled with suchi ingredients. Next time, I think I will combine the two and put the filling in the fried Yaki Onigiri.  

Here is a honey oat loaf. It made really good turkey sandwiches! 

Recently my mother has been working on some family history. To help her preserve some of the images, I have been digitally restoring them. Here are some examples:

This is my great grandma Mable Victoria Lewis when she was three (taken in 1902). 

This is my Grandpa Cluff's (the blond in the middle back) basketball team in 1946.

It has been a lot of fun getting the chance to hear about my ancestors and seeing their faces. When I was working on the image of my grandma, I could feel the spirit and knew that she was happy that someone cared to learn about her and to take away all the scratches off her face so that later generations could know her. It has been a great blessing to me.

In my free time during the afternoon, I love to read. Just last week I was outside reading under the shade of a tree and I heard this squirrel running up and down the branches. It took me a while to notice why he was acting so weird when I saw the owl sitting up a few branches! 

I walked up to the tree and the owl just sat there and looked at me. As you can tell from all the down feathers he is not very old. After doing some research on the internet (thank you, Google), I discovered that he is a young Great Horned Owl. 

It is hard to tell from the pictures but he is over a foot tall and his fingers are at least as wide as mine with talons more than a inch long (and he is just a baby!). Later that night, I saw him silently fly over to another tree and his wingspan must have been over a yard. He is one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen in the wild. 

I was lucky to see him for three days in a row and I often can hear him at night. I also thought that it was pretty cool that I was reading Harry Potter when we first met. 

Three Years!!!

I can't believe that Logan and me have been married for three years! It definitely has been the best and happiest years of my life! As we have talked about it and reflected on them, we can't remember what life was like before we were together because we are so happy now. It just seems so natural. 

I loved the last General Conference when Elder Clayton said "Marriage is a gift from God to us. The quality of our marriage is a gift from us to Him." I couldn't agree more and feel that the relationship that I have with my husband is one of the things that I cherish most in this world. 

Just the other week at church, Logan was teasing me so I was holding his tie and laughing and one of the brothers walked by and was like "how long have you been married?". Silly example but I think it helps show that we are still just as much in love as the day we walked out of the temple. 

Life with Logan is better then I ever thought marriage could be. When we leave this life there is only a few things that we get to take with us and I am so grateful that I get to always be sealed and married to my best friend! 

I mustache you a question...

So for March Logan grew out his mustache. He almost won two of the categories on base too but it is okay that he didn't...the prizes were some kind of alcohol. The best part I think about him having a mustache was when he shaved it off!! 

Logan really didn't look that bad with it and it was pretty funny that it was way more red then his regular hair but we were both happy to see it go. He says it will never happen again but I'm proud of him for trying it out once.

For General Conference this weekend, I finally made the Japanese Cheesecake that I meant to do for Easter. I found out it was harder to make then I thought! What made it difficult was that you make the batter in three separate bowls and then combine them. I ended up using almost every utensil and bowl in the kitchen but four hours later (and sitting in the fridge all night) it was finally ready to eat!

Just out of the oven! 

For the topping I made a Mango Miroir Glaze (mostly just pureed mango) and made a fancy little decoration with some leftover mango. 

All the work was worth it in the end! It was one of the best cheesecakes I have ever had because it is much lighter and less sweet then regular cheesecake. Even Logan who doesn't love cheesecake that much to begin with said it was one of the best he has ever had and liked it a lot! I LOVE all cheesecake and agreed with him - honestly I could eat this all day! 

Logan watching General Conference and eating his dessert! Look, no mustache! 

After the afternoon session of General Conference on Saturday, Logan and me went on a little date! We got burritos at Free Bird World Burritos and then went to the River Walk to eat them. Look how big Logan's burrito is! He was so happy! 

This was our first trip to the River Walk here in San Angelo and it was really beautiful. Very different from the one in San Antonio but still nice. We found a nice bench and watched the ducks and turtles. 

Then Logan had to go home to change for Priesthood session. Before he left though, he let me take a few pictures. 

He is so handsome! 

I love General Conference weekend and am so happy that we still have another day to get to listen to our modern day prophets speak to us. 

Spring!

Spring has come and we have had the best weather here in Texas! The grass is turning green and there are wild flowers and butterflies. All the trees and bushes around our apartment complex have been leafing out and blooming too! Doesn't it just look beautiful?!

WRONG! This bush is evil because whatever it is has made me a sneeze, snot ball for the last few days! I really do love how beautiful everything looks but my allergies have been killing me! Can't have the good without the bad, I guess. 

One of the nice things that Logan and me get to do together now that he is on the evening shift is workout together. 

Here we are in the little gym at out apartment complex. I took this picture because I never really sweat but you can see a little spot on my shirt! That's how you know I was working out really hard that day! See Logan in the background. His shirt started out a lighter green.... haha! (I'm not kidding!) He was working out hard too!

Happy Easter!

This is the first official Easter that Logan and me have had on our own! Before, we were with family at home or celebrated with Relatives in Utah (Last year I was in Kansas City and Logan was at IFS). So this year was the first time I got to make all the food by myself. 

We were invited to an Easter potluck with Logan's class on Sunday afternoon so I made rolls to take to that. I made two pans of them and I think they turned out really well! People were really impressed that they were homemade. 

One of the two sheets of rolls, ready to go in the oven!

For our Easter dinner, Logan helped me make the twice baked potatoes while I put together the other things. I saved out some of the homemade rolls to go with everything else and it turned out to be a great dinner!  

All of Easter dinner! 

I was going to make a Japanese Cheesecake with a mango mirior glaze for dessert but we ended up being at the class potluck longer then expected (they are a fun group of kids). That's okay, it will be a great dessert to make next week during General Conference (Note to self: read your recipes before hand so you give yourself long enough for them to cook and cool off - Japanese Cheesecake takes nearly two hours to cook alone and then has to cool down and be chilled all the way. Good to remember). We ate the little bit of Easter candy that I bought instead and it all turned out just fine!