lighter mac n' cheese

I recently came across this recipe from America's Test Kitchen ( i LOVE these peeps) in their Test Kitchen Favorites book and thought I'd share. I don't recommend using sharp cheese (it was still good, but a little too tangy), and we also used 1 % milk with no problem. Enjoy!

Note: they recommend grating your own cheese rather than using pre-shredded.

Ingredients:

Salt
1/2 pound elbow macaroni (about 2 cups)
1 (12 oz) can 2 percent reduced-fat evaporated milk
3/4 cup 2 % milk
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp garlic powder or celery salt (optional)
pinch cayenne
2 tsp cornstarch
8 ounces 50 percent light cheddar cheese, grated (about 2 cups)

Directions:

1. Bring 2 1/2 quarts water to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in 2 teaspoons salt and the macaroni; cook until the pasta is completely cooked and tender, about 5 minutes. Drain the pasta and leave it in the colander; set aside.

2. Add the evaporated milk, 1/2 cup of the 2% milk, mustard, garlic powder (if using) cayenne, and 1/2 tsp salt to the now-empty saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Whisk the cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup milk together, then whisk it into the simmering mixture. Continue to simmer, whisking constantly, until the sauce has thickened and is smooth, about 2 minutes.

3. Off the heat, gradually whisk in the cheddar until melted and smooth. Stir in the macaroni, and let the macaroni and cheese sit off the heat until the sauce has thickened slightly, 2 to 5 minutes, before serving.

Happy Anniversary #2!

Monday Jared and I celebrated our second anniversary. It's amazing how fast two years can go! We celebrated it fairly simply, by eating some yummy meals, watching a movie and hanging out together.
Jared handled breakfast, and it was DELICIOUS. He made pretty much every breakfast food out there and even brought a huge cinnamon roll from the best b.fast place ever The Farmhouse. Eva devoured a huge mound of hash browns and by the end of the meal we all had some pretty impressive looking bellies.
After breakfast Jared headed off to work, stopping by for some spaghetti at lunch (my so called specialty, even though its not very special) and the rest of the day was pretty much buisness as usual.
After Jared got off of work we dropped Eva off at some friends of ours who have a little girl about her age. I have to admit...I cried before we took her, but I figured I needed to grow up! I had to keep telling myself "she's 10 months old...she's 10 months old...it'll be ok". So Jared and I headed off to dinner at Joe's BBQ and downed pretty much all the rootbeer and BBQ we could hold. We ate so quickly that we had time to spare so we ran by the library to grab some movies. We picked Eva up who apparently didn't miss us at ALL. In fact, she threw the biggest tantrum I've ever seen when we were leaving. Poor kid, I guess that's a big clue to me that we need to get out a little more!
After we got Eva to bed we watched "Monster Garage" (Jared's pick obviously) which actually is pretty interesting since they get a bunch of wackos with no social skills together and some pretty funny fights ensue. All in all it was a pretty good anniversary! We're headed to Sedona tomorrow to do a little more celebrating and to hang out with Tim, Megan, Shaun David, Andrew and Morgan. It should be fun!

Our Wedding day, August 25, 2006

First Anniversary





Second Anniversary, and Yes I do know we look silly. We tried for 1/2 an hour and could NOT get a good picture! I look like a deer in the headlights!

BLAH!

after starting 4 different blogs with different subjects and then deciding i hate them all i'm giving up and just posting a couple of cute pictures of eva.

eva will put ANYTHING in her mouth. even if it doesn't really fit.

she very typically sleeps like this. bum straight up in the air!

and...this is apparently what she does when she wakes up. i think my baby needs a chew toy.

These are a few of my FAVORITE things!!!

Shop till ya drop...for me that used to be about 5 minutes. that is until now...maybe its because of the mass amounts of shopping you can do in this area or maybe it's just because now that i have a kid and am home all the time i miss the opportunities to shop whenever i want, but i've realized lately that i actually LIKE to shop! here's a condensed list of some of my favorites. (yes i DID cut some out!)

1. Trader Joes:....ahhh....i LOVE this store. It always has something interesting and new to try and for amazingly good prices. plus they have the best hummus known to mankind.
2. Cost Plus World Market: I honestly probably would never have gone in this store if i hadn't heard Sarah talk about it in her blogs. But now i'm hooked! I feel like i've just been plopped in another country.
3. AJ's Fine Foods: what can i say? i like to eat! AMAZING selection of foods that can be found nowhere else. not exactly cheap, but where else are you going to find red bananas, fresh gnocchi or tomato paste in a tube??
4. Ulta/Sephora : i have to list both because they're similar in nature (beauty supply stores) but different in stock (ulta carries cheaper to nice stuff, sephora carries nice to really nice stuff) this is one stop shopping for all of your beauty needs. i hate clutter and junk, but makeup is my weakness. sometimes i'll buy something i would never wear, purely because i think it's pretty.
5. TJ Max/Homegoods: i don't think i've ever spent as much time as i would like in this store. REALLY cool finds on a budget!
6. Bookmans: used books! for someone who likes to read, this place can be dangerous!
7. Joannes: you go in normal...you emerge as martha stewart. lovely place.

Colorado and New Mexico

The Manassa Group

Last Thursday night Jared, Eva, Megan, Shaun David and I all took off to go hang out out my grandparents (one lives in Manassa, Colorado, the other in Mora, New Mexico; about 3 hours apart from each other). We left at 8:30 pm and drove alllll night getting in to Colorado at about 8:30 the next morning. It went pretty well except for me being the silence freak for fear of waking the babies, which I think only made things worse. (No music and no talking makes for sleepy drivers) We spent Friday, Saturday, and a couple hours on Sunday in Manassa and then headed over to Mora after church. We slept through the parade on Friday (I know...how DARE we!!) then ate at the hamburger stand and chatted the rest of the day...come to think of it...that day is kinda foggy. Saturday we went to the parade, ate MORE hamburgers (they're REALLY good), went shooting, rode a ride at the carnival (during which i mooned all of manassa...not on purpose...different story) got rained on, got a pedicure from my lovely cousin Amelia, ate lots of fudge...basically it was a really good day. :)

On Sunday we headed over to Mora only to find out that we were in trouble with Popper for not showing up to his branch because he was going to make us talk.....sorry Popper....but I can't say I'm all that sad about missing that blessed opportunity. :) We spent the rest of the day talking, playing games, and staying up waaaay too late since everyone was leaving at some point the next day. Monday was pretty sad since Mom, Dad, Kelli and Emma left at the crack of dawn, followed by Tom, Amy, Joni and Jackson leaving later that morning. The main reason we went on the trip was to see Tom and his family before they leave for Israel for TWO years! That was a really hard parting....Tom said when we all moved away from Utah last year he felt like he'd just gone through a bad breakup. I felt the same this time only it was WORSE! I thought I was going to die! I lived with Tom and Amy and JoJo for a year and became really close to all of them. Amy is such a great sister-in-law. It's weird to me that she hasn't always been my sister. I've learned so much from her (like how to be an amazing mom for one) and she was always so nice to me when I lived with them, even though I'm positive I had to annoy the crap out of her sometimes. JoJo...shoot...I can't even think about that cute girl without crying! She's like my own kid. I just love her to pieces! I taught her every bad thing she knows like asking for butter on toast, yelling "SICK!" when someone sneezes, and how to take off fake eyelashes (she got a little confused on that one...) Jackson...he's just adorable. I'm heartbroken that I won't get to spend time with him like I did with Jojo. and Tom...he's just a great brother. He has a way of putting a hand on your shoulder and then you'll just start bawling and telling him all your issues even though you might not have thought you even had any problems to begin with. Poopy jokes are always funniest when Tom tells them. Even though we like to tease Tom about him being SOOOOO lucky to have Amy, he really is a great person. despite the fact that he has a secret desire to know what wine tastes like. :) I'm saving to come and see you guys! you can't get rid of me that easily. Try Timbuktu next time.Me and JoJo; I'm NOT posting the ones taken with Tom and Amy...I was crying too hard!

Later on Monday we played with Mommer and Poppers horses and basically just laid about. We took off for home at about 6 and stopped at Allsups on the way out to get some of their amazing chimichanga's. They're full of cheese and fried...what's not to love?? well...i guess being in an enclosed car for many hours after eating them wasn't so great...but they were worth it. I guess we must have driven pretty fast because we got home at 2:30 am. Got a few zzz's and sent Jared off to work while the rest of us sat in a daze. Then I guess Megan missed her hubby or something because she insisted on leaving that afternoon even though I had lots of fun things we could have done instead. sheesh...;) It was a fun couple of days, but I'm not doing it again unless it's longer!

MMmmm...chimi's.....

vacation and routines.....or the lack thereof

(The Gardner Family)

(our little family)

(eva. i just love her)

Over the 4th of July Jared, Eva and I were able to hang out in Seattle with the whole Gardner fam. It was tons of fun, despite the fact that I had to get used to being on vacation with a baby. It was weird to be "on vacation" but still have basically the same responsibilities and routines that I typically have. I kept thinking vacation-y thoughts such as "i think i'll take a nap" or "what are we all going to do for fun today?" and then i remember, oh...i have a baby now! i have to like...take care of this cute little person, even if i am on vacation. weird. you'd think i'd be used to it at this point. I really enjoyed getting to know everyone a little bit better, even though I still don't feel like I know everyone very well. I guess that's what future reunions are for!
Despite my best efforts to keep Eva sane and on some kind of a schedule, she ended up getting sick at the very end so I still had to put up with her waking up 50 bazillion times at night and refusing naps when we got home....UGG. thankfully, she's finally better and we're getting back to the normal schedule...at least until our 2nd vacation next weekend. :)

I'M FINISHED!!!

hallelujah! i'm FINALLY finished with eva's bumper. i only started it before she was born! but i'm so excited and relieved to finally have it done. I'm just hoping she's nice to it and doesn't destroy it like she tends to do with everything else.