Pinterest Recipe Finds

Time for a pinterest update!  I think I might start blogging every time I try something from pinterest.  I've seen people make a whole separate blog about the things that they do from pinterest, but I don't feel like having two different blogs.  The most things that I try from that website are recipes.  A lot of the other crafts or good tips are ones that are more for future doing instead of right now.  The recipes I love since well, we need to eat every night!

On Sunday, the 15th I decided to try  these Slow Cooker BBQ Ranch Country Ribs.  It was great because I could put it in the crock pot before church and it would be ready after church was done.  This recipe had you make your own BBQ sauce, so I tried it, but it ended up having too strong of a ketchup flavor.  The meat was delicious.  It was very moist and tasted great as leftovers.  The only thing I would change is just using a bottle of BBQ sauce since the flavor of the ketchup was really overpowering.

Yesterday, I made these Sausage Stars.  I actually don't like that they're called Sausage Stars, so I'm going to call them Sausage Cups because for some reason, stars just sounds lame.  I actually really liked these!  I strayed a bit from the original ingredients and amounts, but followed the rest of the directions the same.  I didn't cook as much sausage since there's just Scott and I to eat the food.  I just used cheddar cheese since that's all I had to use.  I also didn't use 1 cup of the Ranch dressing mix, but whatever I had left from the ribs on Sunday.  It equaled about a tablespoon I think.  I also didn't do any olives, but did red and green pepper and green onions.  Scott was a little hesitant about the green onions, but I thought you couldn't taste them at all.  I took a picture of the ones that were on my plate and I wanted a little bit more ranch taste, so I just put a dab of ranch dressing on top.  Scott said that they tasted like Mexican pizza.

These are more of an appetizer food and I did have trouble pairing something with these.  We bought a watermelon (all Scott) and so we just had some of that with the Sausage Cups.  I just didn't think any of the other vegetables we had would pair well with these, so maybe these are just better as an appetizer than a meal.  Either way, I did enjoy these and how quick and simple it took to make them.  Plus, they weren't fried in oil, but baked in the oven, so that definitely cuts out the fat.  Usually anything made with wonton wrappers is always fried in oil, so it's nice to find recipes using wonton wrappers in different ways.

Bridal Shower

My little sister Brianna is getting married May 11th, so Rebecca and I threw her a bridal shower on Saturday, April 7th.  Rebecca had a lot of things to deal with (she has 4 kids!), so I took the reins on the bridal shower.  I went to the internet and pinterest.com to help me with ideas since this was my first bridal shower to throw. 

The biggest thing for any shower is a theme.  I didn't want to resort to just kitchen item gifts or date night gifts, so I found a theme where you assign the guests a letter that would then spell out a message in the end.  The guests would then buy a gift starting with that letter and the bride would then get a variety of gifts.  I used the word 'Congratulations Brianna' to go off of. 

Brianna's colors for her wedding are a dark red and light blue with white as an accent, so I used that a lot in decorations, invitations and food.  It helped me more to go off of a color scheme than a 'Hawaiian' theme or something.

Invitations:  I didn't want to really spend money going to a place to get invitations printed, so I found this website where I could design my own and print it off with my own printer on card stock paper.  I thought they turned out pretty cute.  I had to take a picture of the invitation on my computer because the file is too big to load on the blog.

The food is what I was most excited about.  I love cooking new foods and showing off what I make.  I found out that Brianna likes chicken salad, so I made that the main dish and paired with croissants from Costco (any bread is good from Costco).  Usually there's always some form of vegetables and fruit at a shower, but Brianna isn't a fan of a lot of fruit.  I thought of this frog-eye salad recipe from my mom and found out she liked that and made it.  I should post the recipe for it because it's pretty delicious even though it has a funny name.  I bought a veggie tray and Rebecca got crackers and we had fruit punch and water to drink.  I'll go over dessert separate.

The food was delicious and I'm so glad there were leftovers. :)

I decided to be a little ambitious with dessert and make something I've never made before.  Cake pops are a popular dessert that I've been seeing all over the internet, so I figured why not.  I would be able to incorporate the colors so easily and they didn't look too hard to make.  Boy, was I wrong!  I went over to Rebecca's the Thursday before the shower to make them.  She had made them only once or twice before, so she knew about as much as I did.  I won't go into details, but I will say that there was some struggle in making them and I am glad that they were a hit at the shower.  We put them in Styrofoam blocks with red ribbon and it looked great!  I was so glad that they turned out despite how hard it was to make them.

The decorations went with the color scheme as well and we decided that we didn't need to go excessive on the decorations, so here is what we did.

 I found this idea on pinterest where you can download this template where the circles are the same size as a Hershey kiss and you can put in whatever words and pictures you want, print it out and glue onto the bottom of a Hershey kiss!  It works as a decoration, dessert and favor. 

This banner shows the date of Brianna's wedding.

Whole table view

Rebecca asked Kyle the same questions she asked Scott when she did my bridal shower and recorded his answers.  Brianna then had to see how many she would get right and if not, then a piece of bubble gum went into her mouth.  It was funny to hear her answers compared to his.

The number of girls that came weren't as many as were invited, but I'm glad Brianna was able to get a shower, feel special and see some friends.

I didn't realize how much planning went into any kind of shower, but it was actually pretty fun to do it and I'm glad that everything turned out as I had planned in my head.  Thanks Rebecca for helping me out! 

Easter Eggs & A Birthday Party

While Andrew, David & Kristene were here in Utah, we also dyed Easter eggs and celebrated Brooke's (Lane & Brita's daughter) birthday.  Here are some pictures to make up for lack of pictures in the post before.

Jocelyn & Scott

Scott decorating eggs

Scott would write funny sayings like this on the eggs.

All the eggs!

Jocelyn

Kristene & Jocelyn

David & Kristene brought their dog, Pebbles and Jocelyn loved playing with her.

Brooke's 1st birthday (cup)cake.

Brooke's 1st birthday ice cream cake.

Lighting the candle.

Singing Happy Birthday!

Brooke and her cake!

Love Brita's face.

Andrew & Brooke

Us & Brooke

It was fun to have Andrew, David & Kristene come up and visit those of us who live in Utah!

House Hunters

This past month, I have never felt so stressed out in my life.  Seriously, I cannot think of a previous time where I have been as stressed out as this.  Even planning my wedding was not this stressful.  I have been on such an emotional roller coaster and Scott is definitely learning some things about me that I'm sure he didn't know before.  Good thing marriage is all about the positive and negative things about a person, right?  Anyways, this thing that is always on my mind and stressing me out is buying a home.  Yes, Scott and I are looking into purchasing our first home.

The thought of buying a home was actually very random and surprising.  I will say that Scott was the sole reason for this thought coming into our heads.  He just started looking up homes one day for fun and it suddenly turned into calling a real estate agent to go looking for homes.  I'm not going to lie, I don't think we did all our research on buying a home before we started looking.  When Scott gets a thought into his head, it is all he thinks about.  He gets very excited and sometimes doesn't think realistically about certain aspects of what he's excited about.  So, that can be a problem, but it's also great that he is not afraid to go for things that might be a little scary or out of the comfort zone.

Obviously, buying a home is way outside of the comfort zone.  "It's the biggest investment and most money you'll spend in your life" is what we keep hearing from everyone we've talked to.  That is scary stuff to hear!  It was fun at first to look at houses with Scott and figure out what we liked and didn't like in a home.  What was a deal breaker and what we could be fine living with. It was fun to think about being able to decorate my home how I wish.  No one telling me what I can and can't do with the place I was living in.  It was fun to think that we could now get another cat without worry.  Whenever we would start a family, we knew that we would have space.  Scott could finally do what he wanted with the yard and plant a garden and his fruit cocktail tree.  It was great to think about being somewhere permanent, without worry of where we would be living from year to year.  I think because of all these fun things about a home, we forgot to do our research.

We went out and started looking at homes and found one that seemed very nice that we liked a lot.  Our real estate agent called the next day saying that an offer got put on the house, but no back up offer.  We started to get worried and decided to be the back up offer.  Say what?!  I know, I know.  Probably not the smartest thing to do considering we knew nothing about how much things would really cost. We have not heard back about the house we put an offer on.

Putting in the back up offer really set things off with me.  I started freaking out...a lot.  And I'm still freaking out....a lot.  The main thing that is scaring me the most is all the financial burdens of buying a home.  It really is the most expensive thing you will ever buy and own in your life.  I have to keep being constantly comforted and reminded by Scott that we will be okay and things will work out fine.

I had a little break down last night and was just crying and crying over how worried I am that we won't have enough money, we're going to buy the wrong house, etc.  After I was finished, I realized that I need to have more faith and trust.  It sounds so easy, but it is hard for me to have faith in something so huge, which is probably why I need to have it.  I think that now that I have discovered this, I hopefully won't break down as much. (Really crossing fingers here on this one...I HATE being stressed out.)

Scott and I have researched so much more into buying a home, which has helped in making me feel better.  We have gotten so much advice and support from family.  It still seems a little crazy to me that we would be buying a home after only a year and a half of marriage, but it does feel like it should be the next step in our married life (despite my frequent break downs).

So, here's to faith and trust that there will be no problems with money, that we will find a home in the time period we have, that we will get a home in the right area and that we will buy a home that suits who we are...Scott & Emily Fletcher.

Good luck to us!

Porter's Place

When Scott's brother Andrew comes into town, it is a tradition for him, Lane, Brita and kids to go to this restaurant called Porter's Place.  It is located in Lehi, Utah and it is a restaurant that pays homage to Orrin Porter Rockwell. 

• Joseph Smith promised Porter that if he never cut his hair his enemies would never harm him and that prophecy was fulfilled.

• Porter Rockwell served as Joseph Smith’s and Brigham Young’s bodyguard and was one of the first converts to the LDS Church.

• Porter Rockwell was ordained a seventy of the Church, a position he held throughout his life.

• Porter Rockwell was accused and jailed (later acquitted) for the attempted assassination of Missouri Lt. Gov. Boggs. Boggs issued the infamous “extermination order” to the Mormons. (Joseph Smith said he knew Porter didn’t shoot Boggs because Porter wouldn’t have missed.)

• At Porter Rockwell’s funeral, Apostle and future Church President Joseph F. Smith spoke and said the following about Porter –“They say he was a murderer; if he was he was the friend of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, and he was faithful to them, and to his covenants, and he has gone to Heaven and apostates can go to Hell… Porter Rockwell was yesterday afternoon ushered into Heaven clothed with immortality and eternal life, and crowned with all glory which belongs to a departed saint. He has his little faults but Porter’s life on earth, taken altogether, was one worthy of example, and reflected honor upon the church. Through all his trials he had never once forgotten his obligations to his brethren and his God."

Information taken from this website: http://www.porterrockwellutah.com/

Here's also a song about him as well:

Scott's other brother David and his wife Kristene drove up for a surprise visit for the weekend, so everybody gathered together and we went to eat there.  It is a western style restaurant with the serving portions being large, but good.  They have these fun specialty drinks also that was fun to try.  One that we tried was a mixture of  Ironport, cherry and milk.  It was actually pretty delicious and much better than the drink that I thought would taste like pina colada, but didn't.

This is the lame pina colada drink.  Scott was nice enough to trade drinks with me.

It was fun night out with the Fletcher family!!

Utah Grizzlies

When I married Scott, I knew he was into sports.  ESPN is his channel to watch and he'll flip between all the other sports channels.  I had no idea though of how much he was into hockey!  I think we went to one hockey game while we dated and since then, we've gone to at least 1-2 games per season.  Scott definitely enjoys it more than I do, but I am slowly enjoying it more each time I go to a game.  It's even more fun when Scott tells me things about the game of hockey, so I can actually watch and know what is going on!

Scott's younger brother Andrew is in town and he calls Scott all the time about hockey, so of course, we had to go to a hockey game while he is here!  Here are some pictures from the event.

It was pretty empty that night, so we got to sit up close.

Me and my hockey lover.

Face off! Go Grizzlies!

Made it on the big screen! Just barely got the picture taken in time, so that's why it's blurry.

  Brooke was eating goldfish.

Cute.

This game that we went to was a play-off game, so the season is pretty much over.  Until next time, hockey!  It's been fun.

Next up...baseball games this summer?!