Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day I thought I would share a few fun twists on your average drinking vessel. While plastic can be convenient we all know it isn't great for mother nature, but if you like the look of your plastic bottle or cup and think it would be fun to freak out your family and friends check out these fun glass bottles and ceramic cup. I think they are genius.

These glass bottles can be found at Crate & Barrel for 7.95-15.95



And this cool cup is 39.00 at generate.



Speaking of Earth Day, my office has been raising money to give a water well kit to a Malawi Village through this great website our office designed called ripple effect. This afternoon we are having a catered organic lunch where we'll be able to see how much money we've raised. Often times my office has activities or venues that I don't really get involved in because the are usually focused around copious amounts of alcohol, so I really love it when my office does something worth while that I can get behind.

99 Feelings

We all have them, some good some bad, but did you realize that there are 99 feelings any one person can have? I didn't until I ran across this very cool art project where a woman sculpted in ceramic each and every one of those 99 feelings. I think they are great! To see them all click here. But for a quick peak, here are some of my favorites.

Torn



Crushed



Cold



Sad



Irritated



And my absolute favorite. Stressed.

Spring Cleaning

We've been getting the front courtyard ready for summer entertaining. We finally decided to upgrade some of our planters. We got rid of some cobalt planters we have had for years. Our color scheme is shaping more into yellows and greens for the outside. This new mustard planter holds our transplanted Rosemary bush. We're in process of re-potting all the herbs I use when I cook.


I love our aqua planters with snake grass. These are now maturing and starting to fill out. We planted these a good five years ago and they have looked a tad scraggily, but are filling in nicely. We also moved around some of the squared off metal planters that have evergreens in them. Some candle stakes have also been added into the planters.


It's just about time to start opening the umbrella, power wash the table and chairs, and get all the green and aqua umbrella candle lanterns dusted and cleaned up. Anyone up for a BBQ? Or making S'mores around the fire pit?

More Meatballs Please

Whenever company or family comes into town, I love to plan a good home cooked meal or two. Yesterday, I shoveled out food assignments to Rebecca and Holly, and we had an excellent meal that we shared with the missionaries currently assigned to our ward. When we got back from the Tulip Festival on Saturday, I made sirloin and pork meat balls. I caramelized some sweet onion, garlic and carrot and mixed that into the meat, along with other spices and seasonings, brown eggs and bread crumbs. I used my fennel salt again that I made a few weeks back. After the meat balls cooked off, I made a big batch of marinara from scratch. All organic vegetables and stock, heirloom tomatoes and herbs reduced with some white wine. On Sunday, all I needed to do was cook off the pasta and bring the marinara and meatballs to temperature. Holly made some amazing dense chocolate brownies that we served with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Rebecca made our family recipe that we have for bread sticks. Every sibling in my family makes this recipe we got from Mom decades ago. We also made a big tossed salad. All and all, it was an amazing Sunday diner! Simple in nature, but best quality organic ingredients totally took it to the next level.

Lovin' the Tulips

We had a great time this weekend with Dan's sister Rebecca. The one thing she wanted to do was see the tulips, so we all piled in the car with our snacks and drinks (popcorn and vitamin water) and headed off to La Conner.



I'm always skeptical that this will be a good time but no matter how many times I go I'm always surprised by the magnitude and beauty of the flowers. The first batch we saw were daffodils. I love the yellow blanket the make.




We saw a few fields of bloomed tulips, but could never find a place to park and didn't want to follow the example of EVERYONE else who broke the law in no parking zones. But we did find the great farm that displays all the different varieties of bulbs which I love. We've been to this place before, but never really know how we get there. Pretty much we kept our eyes peeled for the windmill.




We picked up a catalog and marked the ones we liked best as we roamed around.





These are my favorites.






As you can tell I like the pointy ones and the feathery ones. I also like them when they are closed. I love the different colors you see in the stems.





I got yelled at taking that last picuture by some lady that thought I was being pushy. I wasn't. She was taking up too much space. That aside, it was a beautiful day.







And to top it off, they had a little store there with excellent fudge! We got chocolate orange, chocolate peanut butter and chocolate caramel. Yum-o!

Yay For Rebecca!

I'm looking forward to having my sister fly up this weekend from Utah. We plan to spend time at the annual Tulip Festival up in Skagit County, as well get some shopping in. It's going to be fun. I hope all the sarcastic commentary between the two of us, doesn't push Holly over the edge. Rebecca and I, sort of have a reputation for being "pills!"

Easter Good Eats!

We had an amazing Easter meal. Steve and Kelly blessed Miles on Sunday in their ward, so we went over to their sacrament meeting then had Easter dinner at their place with many family members. Steve made pork tenderloin with apricot glaze and steamed asparagus with hollandaise sauce. I brought over some scalloped potatoes and zucchini for another side. Chocolate cake and ice cream rounded out the Easter luncheon.

Holly and I left and came home and took a nap for a few hours. I then got up and decided to make dinner. I made organic roasted chicken with herbs, lemon and onion. When I assembled the organic scalloped potatoes on Saturday for Miles’s blessing, I also made a pan of organic funeral potatoes. I’ve also been brewing my own “hooch” to have sourdough breads and rolls anytime we want. I put my fermented yeast mixture out on Saturday to come to room temperate and bubble and burble a tad more. I made a batch of rolls to go with the potatoes, chicken and roasted carrots.

Holly and I hid Easter baskets for each other and enjoyed the day, relaxing, sleeping and getting ready for the hectic work week ahead of us both.

Silk Eggs

We usually dye Easter eggs every year, and every year I practically gag at the smell. All that vinegar really gets to me. I also get frustrated with my egg design, I always thing using the wax crayon will yield beautiful eggs and it never does. Anyway, this year I saw on Martha Stewart (yes, I watched it when I was home sick) that she dyed Easter eggs by wrapping them in old silk scarves and boiling them in water with just a little vinegar. I was intrigued!
So, on Saturday Dan and I tried it. We went to our local Deseret Industries and bought some old silk skirts for bargin prices. (Martha Stewart used her old Hermés scarves, yeah, like I have any of those hanging around)



Then you cut them into squares.



Wrap the silk around the egg and secure with a twist tie. You also need muslin to wrap around the eggs to keep the fabrics from bleeding into each other. We bought old pillow cases in stead, they worked just fine. Secure muslin with another twist tie.




Put them in cold water with 3 TBS vinegar and bring to a boil for 20 minutes.




Pull out of the water and let cool until easy to handle. Then unwrap!





I think they would have turned out more vibrant if we'd boiled them longer, but then you wouldn't be able to eat the eggs inside. They would also probably work better with silk that had less white in it and more saturated colors. But, we were pleased with our first attempt and will definitely try this again next year.

No Line On The Horizon

There are few bands that I completely love every CD that they put out. I could probably count on one hand the bands where we have every CD. Tori Amos, Cranberries to name a few. U2 is also one of them. Their latest album is classic U2! I love this and have been playing it very loudly in the car and at work in my office. CD's as of late typically only have a few songs that are good. I like every single song on this entire disc. I'm inspired to want to spend some cash on tickets when they have their next concert in Seattle. The last U2 concert I went to was the Lemon Tour at least 10-12 years ago up at the University of Utah before I moved to Seattle. Where does the time go.

Yummy Baked Beans

Of course, after a trip to Bean-Town, I need to post my family recipe for Baked Beans. This is a staple in almost any Craven kitchen. I make these all the time, particularly for barbecues during the summer.

Craven Family Baked Beans

2 Sweet Onions, rough diced
2 Granny Smith Apples, rough diced
1 Pound Ground Sausage
½ Pound Bacon, diced
½ C Brown Sugar, packed
¾ C Ketchup
¼ C Dijon Mustard
3-4 Cans Baked Beans [I always use B&M Brand, 14-16 ounce cans]
Fresh Ground Pepper

In a large sauté pan or indoor Dutch oven sauté bacon and sausage until fat is rendered. Drain fat, reserving a few tablespoons to. Add apples and onions to cooked meat and cook until limp. Add Sugar, Ketchup, Mustard and Baked Beans. Add pepper. Bake on a low oven 275-300 degrees, for 1.5-2 hours. Stirring every 30 minutes. Check beans at 1.5 hours to insure they do not over cook.

Recipe Notes:

I always use B&M beans; they yield the least runny product compared to other brands of baked beans.

I’ve made this with sliced cooked chorizo or kielbasa sausage. You can put any type of cooked mean in this. I’ve also added cayenne and adobo sauce before to make it more of a Latin inspired dish with a can of black beans substituted for one of the cans of the B&M beans.

Boston's Old North Church

The tour inside Boston's historic Old North Church was fun. I liked the Puritan Pew Boxes. Hundreds of years ago, you purchased a box and it was reserved for your family when you came to worship. Back then it was problematic to keep large buildings warmed adequately. So in bitter New England winters, you put heated rocks or bricks in your pew to keep warm. Look at how cute Holly is in her Religious Ice Cube Tray...!

Boston Food Finds

We had an excellent time in Boston. Our friends Hyrum and Nicole used to live in Boston and gave us some great places to try in the North End of town.


Giacomo's Italian was a hidden gem. Tiny, local mom and pop place with excellent food. We stood in line outside in excess of 45 minutes in sleeting rain and wind, just to get a few minutes at the table. It was by far one of our best meals in Boston. I was also extremely pleased that Annie Lenox's twin sister was our waitress with a thick Bostonian accent. I was waiting for her to whip out the electric guitar and start singing, "Here Comes The Rain Again!"


Holly had pumpkin tortellini with a sage butter sauce. I had some lobster ravioli with sun dried tomatoes and creamy white wine sauce. Even the basic house Cesar salad was excellent with home made croutons and the best garlic bread on rustic fresh baked baguettes.


Just down the street was Mike's Pastry. World famous in that they provided all the pastries for the Kennedy inauguration as well as the Clinton inauguration. A little sensory overload as I had not only one chocolate cupcake option, but about fourteen chocolate cupcake options all with different fillings and frosting's. Needless to say, we made it through the masses of people and ordered more than our fair share of pastries to take back to the hotel to enjoy over the next day.

(This is Holly now...)

Here are a few other photos we took of the scary Easter pastries at Mike's. At first I thought the sheep were cute, but then you got closer to them and they had weird faces.




And thanks also to my brother for his recommendation of this place also!

Another favorite was Darwin's in Cambridge. The sandwiches were divine! Mine was called The Story and had tons of prochuitto, fresh mozzerella, pesto, lettuce and an herb sauce on a baguette. So good!



Also on the list of good food was the Boston Temple cafeteria. Surprising yes. Coming from a person who eats in a temple cafeteria once a week, I know the stigma, and it's true. Temple food is usually yuck. But this was different. You could tell it was made by hand and with love. We had a great meatball sub with a salad bar. To top it off I had a homemade chocolate cookie with macadamia nuts and coconut in it. Yum! So, even though the weather was bad, the food was oh so good!

Bean Town...Here We Come

I'm SOOOO looking forward to "Getting the H$LL out of Dodge," and going to play hard on the East Coast in Boston. We both are looking forward to a break from work for a few a days. I'm very interested in our drive to Cape Cod [potentially], and visiting Plymouth, where pilgrims landed and this whole country was started. It's going to be a great time learning history, enjoying the ambiance of the east coast that we both love, and trying new food finds. I can hardly wait!

More Unfortunately...

Unfortunately Daniel has ADHD and spends more than 40 hours a week playing computer games or watching cartoons. I’ve got to get that down to at least 35.

Unfortunately, Daniel never fully recovered from that fiasco. Unfortunately, Daniel fainted before a full explanation was made a well.

Unfortunately, Daniel wouldn't even know how to SPELL Tuscaloosa much less how to get there.

Unfortunately, Daniel had to stop playing the game himself after his ACL tore for the 2nd time. Besides, he has great interest in Eastern European football.

Unfortunately, Daniel's Spanish-inspired dress failed to wow the judges and Heidi sent him packing down the runway.

Unfortunately, Daniel passed away four years ago, suffering a series of brain stem strokes. We always knew that for someone with his level of disability he’d eventually kick.

APPARENTLY, I'm an ADHD, Project Runway participating, sports freak who died four years ago...NICE! :)

Unfortunately...

I can't stop laughing at how unfortunate people named Holly are. I saw on Lucy's blog that she typed in "unfortunately, [your name]" into google (don't forget the quotes) and thought I'd try it myself. Here are my results.

Unfortunately, Holly’s birth also attracts the attention of Herrikhan, an evil warlock who freezes Holly’s heart, leaving her unable to survive

Unfortunately, Holly still can't get it through

Unfortunately, Holly is in a lot of pain. "Several of the moves became impossible for her to do," her rep tells Us. "She’s in a lot of pain ...

Unfortunately, Holly would need to find an exact tissue and blood match and also not just anyone can volunteer

Unfortunately Holly has turned out to have a few little idiosyncricities that make her less cuddly than my darling Blackie.

Unfortunately Holly is neither naughty nor nice

Unfortunately holly takes anywhere from eight to ten years to blossom

Unfortunately Holly and I had to run off right as they were moving the giant skillet over the flame and starting the "onion grillin' dance,"

Who knew google could be so much fun!