Mom

My mom and I were lucky enough to get tickets to the LDS Relief Society General Broadcast in SLC. We ended up with really close seats because our stake was in the choir, and we had a good time. It was weird to leave RJ for so long...but I can't say I minded for the Girls Night Out.
My Mom always closes her eyes when the flash goes off.
Here she is with all of her grandsons. Dace had a temporary mohawk for Grandpa.

Leech or Indentured Servant

Leech: pitiful organism that depends on another, usually more advanced organism for its support and or survival



Indentured Servant: is a form of debt bondage worker. The laborer is under contract of an employer for some period of time, usually three to seven years, in exchange for their transportation, food, drink, clothing, lodging and other necessities.



We moved back this summer...back into my parent's home. This was the original plan: My parents were moving three hours south in August 08 and hadn't sold their home. They didn't expect things in the real estate market to improve any time soon and asked us to house-sit and live in, and take care of their home the two years we would be there. [Rhett is starting his clinical years of med school so we will be in UT for the next two years] We of course jumped at the idea of being the caretakers of my parents house.

Things haven't gone as my parent's planned and we found ourselves moving back to Utah, and into their house. We're very grateful for my parent's generous offer that stood despite their plans to move not working out as soon as planned.

But I am always worried about being a leech, mooch, free loader, etc. So I try to help out as much as I can around the house and in the garden (September is harvest time) to hopefully move our presence in my parent's home from the leech category into the indentured servant arena.


My Dad stated early on that from me he wanted: "to come home every night to dinner with a place-mat, garnish, and iced beverage". So with that slightly joking, mostly serious announcement, and my Mom going back to work, I've been cooking a lot lately. I've really liked it and have had a chance to try lots of recipes I've been collecting. I think sometimes my Mom feels bad like she should be doing everything as if these leeches living in her house should be treated like guests so we battle about who does the dishes often but overall we co-exist harmoniously.


Anyway, yes we live with my parents. We are so grateful for them. And we aspire to be as anti-leechy as we can...but we are here, our leech slime trailing through their house in the form of a box of baby toys in a corner, a drum set in the basement, and foreign loner socks popping up in the laundry. I guess an image of a slimy worm wearing the colonial clothes would be the best depiction of my life.

Raspberry Heaven

Is there any fruit more divine than raspberries?

Maybe to you, but not to me. My mom has a large raspberry patch and raspberries are the reason I love the month of September. We are at the peak of the raspberry season and I am loving my life.

I picked this bowl today. There were a ton, especially considering the many berries that didn't make it in my bucket because I jammed right in my face.


We have used all the jars available on peach-raspberry jam, and I've been making all my recipes that call for raspberries. So now we are deciding what to do with them, because we will have this many or more again Monday that need to be picked. I wish Katherine was nearby so we could both binge on these together.

Here are the raspberry creations that are delish if you have access to a patch or if nothing else, celebrate September with a raspberry splurge!


#1 Pear Raspberry Clafouti
I used this recipe from Katherine and added the raspberries. I only made a half batch and ate it exclusively by myself pretty much.

















#2 Moist Chocolate Cake with all the fixings

This cake is awesome, you make it in a bundt pan and you can find the recipe here. I added a tsp of vanilla. We served it with vanilla bean ice cream, fresh raspberries, and raspberry syrup...I'm drooling onto my keyboard. I'm sure you can find a recipe for the raspberry syrup, basically boil water, sugar, and fruit and strain and enjoy!




#3 Lemon Raspberry Biscuits
This recipe is from another med-wife and you have to scroll down a ways to get the recipe. Once again, I substituted raspberries when it called for blueberries. These are good with blueberries too and Rhett loves them.























#4 Spinach Salad Loaded with Fresh Fruit



No recipe. Couple hand fulls of baby spinach, hand full of raspberries, cut up Gala apple, cut up Bartlet pear, hand full of Craisins, some slices of red onion.

We like it with Kraft's Creamy Poppy seed dressing

**This was especially great that night because the apple, pear and berries were all from my mom's garden right off the trees/patch. Yay for mom's that love to garden and let their bummy children move back in with them! More on that later....





#5 Cream Cheese Raspberry Muffins with Sweet Berry Drizzle




These are scrump (for the Seinfeld fans) and have wheat flour so not totally in the dessert category. I used lemon zest instead of orange. I skip the cream in the drizzle instructions and obviously switched the berries. Recipe here.









#6 Red Breakfast Risotto
I ate this too fast to get a picture. I've make it a couple times. Each time I only made half the recipe, used jasmine rice, and didn't have strawberries to top it with. I actually never had the cream on hand either and substituted the cream and some water for normal 2% milk. I had vanilla beans but they are too precious and took too much time to use on this. So here it is if you like warm, rice-puddingish goodness. I look back and realize I barely followed their recipe I guess and I loved it, I can only imagine it is better if you make it the correct way.



#7 Pear Raspberry Bread Pudding
Bread pudding sounded really good to me, and I don't have a website for this one. I read a lot of different recipes and mish-mashed what I like out of all of them. It tasted great to me. My sister said: "I hate soggy bread so I may have to throw this away" as I handed it to her. But she ate it, I guess it could have been to be polite...but wasn't that the point of the warning? So pretty much this is good despite any qualms about soggy bread apparently.

Pear Raspberry Bread Pudding

1/2 of a loaf French bread, cubed

2 c. half & half

1 1/2 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. Combine sugar, cream, eggs and vanilla until sugar is dissolved. Plop bread chunks in to soak while you prepare the rest.

2 c. fresh raspberries

1 c. ripe pear, peeled, cored, cut in thin slices

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. melted butter

Mix these together. Grease a 2 qt casserole or 9x9 dish. Layer the bottom with the custard-soaked bread. Plop the fruit mixture on top, then distribute the remaining bread on top, pour any remaining custard/egg/cream juices on top. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

While baking make sauce:
1/2 c. evaporated milk

1/3 cube butter probably about 3 T

1/3 c. sugar

1/2 tsp..oh just go ahead and do a full 1 tsp vanilla

Cook over medium heat in saucepan until smooth and sugar is dissolved.

We served the bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream, but whip cream would be good too.

I have another stack of recipes to try for these raspberries...the majority are more desserts...like this one.

Camping

Last weekend we decided to go camping...with our 4 month old. A lot of factors could make this idea a total failure and nightmare. I dreaded the idea of having to urinate in the cold forest in the middle of the night, having to wake up all night with a baby unable to sleep, and being eaten by a bear. But Rhett really wanted to go, and I've always enjoyed camping in other situations throughout my life so we went ahead and tried it.


We drove up American Fork Canyon, which was beautiful as always. It was really pretty and for some reason hot dogs always taste the best roasted in the mountains.


Another delight I had not had for quite some time: ROASTED STARBURST. You torch them until they start to drip, then let them rest a minute and cool off. When you bite into it, the outside is a little bit crisp and the inside is warm and gooey...are you salivating also??
It got really cold, as you would imagine it might in mid-September, but all in all it was a success and we had fun. Luckily, RJ slept all night just fine.



I was showing my Mom our pictures and she saw this one and said: "That does not look fun at all."
It wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever experienced, but it was fun and the whole camping with a baby could have been much worse. In fact, there was a family around us with a small toddler that screamed all night so compared to that poor family, we did great...or RJ did great.

Hero in the Family

Our brother-in-law was in the news for saving a life. For the whole article, click here.

Only One More Week...

...until next Thursday at 8pm on NBC

What Kind of Doctor Is He Going To Be?

Throughout the med-school process this question comes up a lot. Whether your family has this decision to make in the next few years, or if you are wondering why certain physicians have similar personalities, this diagram may help. I thought it was pretty funny...and on some points quite accurate.

Wedding

Lynette and Drew were married in July. We are excited for them and happy they will be here this weekend as a stop on Drew's music tour.

Here is the latest music video. They filmed it in my Mom's backyard... although the chicken is not my mom's it belongs to the neighbor.
If you are interested in seeing Drew perform this weekend you can get info from: myspace.com/drewdanburry

Addendum to last post...

Some Internet research revealed what Tommy said in the last post:

"It must be 'Take A Worm For A Walk' week"

obviously directed more at Ali than Daniel-son... in case you were wondering.

What the crap does he say?

For those who's childhood in any way touched the 1980's, you have most likely enjoyed the film, The Karate Kid. We were watching this gem with our nephews and discussed the greatness of a character often overlooked in the karate series, Tommy.
Tommy is one of Johnny's cronies. This kid is a great actor, yelling out throughout the movie, with an intense expression that screams talent. This scene is one of our favorites...we probably watched it over and over at least 25 times. What the crap does Tommy say? We kept attempting to decipher his threatening comment, but to no avail--we are pretty sure the last two words are "walk week" further confusing any sense that could be construed. We theorized that it wasn't in the script and this kid just yells nonsense words for the violent, bully effect and the director didn't notice and when they went to edit they thought: "Why not...you can't understand him but his face is so great you don't need to."

NOTE: The video footage is terrible, but I assumed you either own a copy, or your mom does if you needed to watch a quality scene.


The next clip is just so classic how could I mention Karate Kid without giving this golden moment in teenage film history the attention it deserves? Tommy is so amazing: "GET HIM A BODY BAG...YEAH!!!!"



And lastly, the spring of 2007 I was sitting in the movie theatre in Kirksville with Lynette, waiting for Blades of Glory to begin. We were chatting and all the sudden Lynette's eyes got big. Reaching out she sliced my hands which were in action with my story like an umpire..."Did you hear what I heard?" she asked..."Listen to this song." It was a magial moment, and the best I can do is offer the music video for you.



Here is a link for the lengthened music video spotlighting actual cast from The Karate Kid currently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFlQNtL8F9s

Pegleg...the movie

We have filmed a couple movies with the nieces/nephews. Narnia, Clue, and this year we made an original story in St. George and finished it in Delta. It was pirate themed. We had a ton of fun and here are some of the pics & clips.

PLOT SUMMARY:

It's the first day of Pirate High and all the kids are anticipating this year's competition to become class captain. The two most likely to win are: pretty boy Pencil Neck Pete, or the rough and tough, One-Eyed Willey. Not a likely contender is the class outcast, Pegleg (played by Rhett). Everyone makes fun of Pegleg, eventually shattering his belief that his father was a famous pirate. His mother finally reveals the truth about Pegleg's dad, Captain Spatula, who ended up being no more than a pancake flipper at IHOP. Nothing is going right in Pegleg's life until he finds out the school janitor is actually, Scalleywag Sam--the most famous pirate of all time. He retired from fame and fortune to be the school janitor. Scalleywag Sam commits to get Pegleg in shape for the class competition. Pegleg ends up winning the contest and the girl: Ruby Gem.

These first clips together is the scene where Scalleywag Sam (Kyle age 8) trains Pegleg (Rhett) for the competition, filmed in Delta. The files were too large so I had to splice them into part 1 & 2. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do, maybe you just had to be there.

Here is the scene introducing Pencil Neck Pete, (Bryan, Molly's little brother). At the very end you get a glimpse of One Eyed Willie.

Thanks to Natalie for providing the soundtrack.

Update: Session III

St. George

Each summer we take all our nieces and nephews 8+ to St. George for a few nights. This year was the biggest yet, with 11 kids and our baby. It's usually me, Rhett and our best friend Molly. This year, Molly's mom joined us to help with the chaos. Tons of swimming, Guitar Hero, gummy bears, cookie dough globs frozen, otter pops, and sun block. We had a lot of fun even though I was unable to plan as much. Usually we have an award ceremony at the end, which didn't happen this year, but all in all, lots of fun.