Tuesday, April 28, 2009

april SNOW showers bring...

CRISPY STEAK TACOS!

Our spring weather has been very "Utah" lately. On Sunday it was snowing! So we decided to bring a little warmth and sunshine to our kitchen and made this Cuban/Mexician dish. We whipped up these tacos that we saw on the Rachael Ray Show. The picture doesn't do it justice! They were soooooo good!


Ingredients:
1 2-pound flank steak, cut into 4 pieces
2 medium onions (1 peeled and quartered & 1 finely chopped, divided)
2 bay leaves
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped, divided
1 jalapeƱo pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 fresno chile, seeded and finely chopped
Salt and ground black pepper
3 tablespoons EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil, divided
1/2 pound cured chrorizo, removed from casing and finely chopped
6 tomatillos, husks removed, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon honey
1 avocado, pitted
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
2 limes
Soft flour tortillas, for serving

Preparation:
Place flank steak into a medium pot with the quartered onion and bay leaves. Cover with cold water and place over medium-high heat. Bring up to a bubble, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer meat until very tender, 20 minutes. Remove meat from pot and discard water and veggies. (We did that part in the crock pot and cooked it for a few hours.) Shred the steak with a fork and transfer to a medium-size mixing bowl. Add red onion, 2 cloves garlic and peppers to the bowl and combine. Season with salt and pepper and reserve.

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat with 2 turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Add the chrorizo to the pan and cook until golden brown, 5-6 minutes. Add the shredded meat and veggie mixture to the pan, spreading it out to cover the entire bottom, and cook until crispy on the bottom. Flip the mixture over and cook on the other side until crispy, about 5 minutes per side. Add juice from 1 lime.

While the meat is cooking, place a medium pot over medium-high heat with 1 turn of the pan of EVOO, about 1 tablespoon. Add the remaining chopped onion, garlic, tomatillos, and cumin to the pan, and cook until the veggies are tender and the tomatillos have begun to release their liquids, about 8 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a food processor (we used a blender), add in the honey, avocado and cilantro juice from 1 lime, and pulse to puree.

It says it serves 4, but we served our family of 6 with some leftovers for Aaron's lunch the next day :-) Yum!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Springy Photo Shoot


"sisters"




Sam da MAN

Kaeli Ray

Rylie Jane

Sara Kate

It doesn't get sweeter than this:


Spring Break Begins!

Yesterday was the first day of Spring Break for Sam and Kaeli. The weather was perfect! The kids spent the morning enduring one of my photo shoots at the park (pictures will be posted soon) and then we had a lazy afternoon. After dinner we went for a little walk up Butterfield Canyon. The road is still closed so we just hiked up the road. It's really pretty up there. Here are a few snap shots of our walk:
We like to pose behind "No Trespassing" signs :-)
We're sooooo rebellious!

Sara is always getting a free ride.

We don't have any BIG trips planned for this Spring Break. We were hoping to go camping, but we still have so many things going on that we can't seem to make it out of town for just a few nights. But Aaron is planning to take a few days off this week so we can work on the basement or the yard. I plan to simply enjoy my kids and hang out in the sunshine :-)

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny made a visit to our home some time on Saturday in the wee hours of the morning before any of us were awake! What a sneaky bunny! Kaeli asked us if the Easter Bunny was a real bunny or someone in a bunny suit. Because how can a real bunny really carry all that stuff??? We're not sure. But Aaron and I are happy that we're not the prime suspects...yet. The Easter Bunny left flip flops and candy in the kids' baskets. So fun! Later that afternoon we decorated eggs. This was the first time Sara got to be part of the decorating fun. We were grateful that the eggs were hard boiled as she carelessly exerted her creativity as any toddler would. Some of her eggish victims didn't survive without their shells being cracked, but she didn't seem to notice.

Here are the kids on Easter morning:


After church my sister-in-law's family and Grandma Karlyn came for a scrumptous ham dinner, and I got to hold the new baby :-)

Monday, April 6, 2009

General Conference

This weekend was General Conference! I look forward to listening to the church leaders every 6 months. I felt particularly excited this year and didn't want to miss a single word. How blessed we are to have have this guidance and direction. If you're curious what I'm talking about or would like to watch some of it click HERE.