I made a Cloutie Dumpling.

A new guy appeared a few weeks ago at work, and my first impression upon seeing him was, whoa that guy is big! The second he started talking I was like"no way! you have a Scottish accent?!!" In fact I actually yelled that at him. His name is Gordon and he is super proud about being Scottish (big surprise) sometimes it's hard to understand him I literally have to hang on every word for a second so I can interpret a very strong accent. We were discussing food last week and he started talking about a "dumplin' " how it was "brillian' " and when he said you cook it in a pillow case I was hooked! So I bugged him for the recipe for a Fort nigh'! JK maybe for a few days, and he brought it in today along with pictures from Scotland, as soon as I got off work I made it. I decided to put the recipe on here just as it appeared on the plaid paper,*thought that was kind of funny* but I lost the recipe already so this is from memory, so here it is with a few notes of my own:

Cloutie..pronounced Clootie and it means cloth.

1 pound flour
1 teacup sugar
1 teacup white bread crumbs
1 teacup milk
1 teacup Suet ( If you don't know what this is go here, veg shortning can be used instead)
1/2 pound currants
1/2 pound raisins
1 apple grated ( I used two small granny smiths)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mix spices (I thought maybe like pumpkin spices?)

Mix the four, suet, and sugar together. In another bowl mix apple and spices together, in a cup dissolve the baking soda in the milk. Add the dried fruit,apple and milk to flour mixture and stir.
Scald the pillow case then rinse with hot water. (I learned this one the hard way when my boiling water got super bubbly) Flour inside of pillow case generously and place dough in the middle. Tie up pillowcase securely and place in boiling pot of water. Make sure to have a plate at the bottom of the pan, (I am assuming so the stuff wont burn) Boil covered for 3 1/2 to 4 hours while adding boiling water periodically, ( I just kept a kettle on simmer). After boiling, place on a plate and put in a warm oven for 15 Min's ( I put it in there on 200 for like a half hour! It was pretty gooey) Take it out and serve with ice cream!
Boiling the cloutie, then bottom picture is fresh from the oven

Andrew is trying to figure out what's in it.

It was really delicious!

OK so when I took it out I had no idea how to get it on the plate it was really hot, luckily I had gloves for making cheese, so I just used those and was able to maneuver it onto a plate that included dumping nasty gooey mess in the sink via colander then I was able to shape it into a shape... of sorts. I put it into the oven and let it sit there for quite a while, then when it had this funky "skin" it was time to eat some, with ice cream it was sooo good! I kept saying how good it was over and over. Anyway I am bringing the other half to work tomorrow for Gordon to try hopefully he likes it and is able to have a taste of home!

garden outlook

This past week I have been on pins and needles wondering what is going to live and what is going to kick the bucket. We successfully transplanted our garden on Saturday and now just piddly things are being done to ensure the survival of our plants. I think it is safe to say the squash are the tough guys out of this mess, when we initially transplanted them they flattened out like wet newspaper on the ground or drama queens after a bad break up. After a few days and gallons of water they perked up, some of the leaves are crusty and falling off but there is a whole new plant sprouting from the core, and that my friends makes me happy. As for the tomatoes, onions, peppers, eggplants, and other random things we took they aren't looking so hot, or should I say too hot cause they're uber wilted but the leaves seem moist not crisp so we can hope! I had to uproot my potatoes, yams, sweet, yellow etc. I refused to have them just be plowed over! SO if anyone were to kill them it was going to be me. The Yams were really funny looking, if you have ever seen the movie Pan's Labyrinth it looked like that weird root baby the kid put in the milk bowl under her moms bed. It was a yam fetus, totally gross but totally funny. Since we have asked for so much help and received it, we have sparked a bit of garden fever in the ward, Andrew is now in charge of an Elders Quorum fall garden he has a partner to help him now and they are planning a fall crop. We had tons of help which was nice and took a load off. The pictures up top are what things currently look like.

I smell apricots

SO after work today I headed over to a friends house in American Fork, her family has a huge apricot tree in the back yard and they never use the fruit! I took it upon myself to pick a whole box full of these giant peach size apricots. I had one of those office boxes, you know the one with the handles and sharpie scribbled "finance records 2001-2002" on the side, worked beautifully. The best part is they don't spray and they aren't wormy. This is the second friend I have encountered that does not use their fruit trees! I am baffled as to why not? I wish we had that tree! Anyway I came home with this massive box after giving some to Andrew and we still had a crap load, I am making a really yummy apricot crisp right now. I of course, messed with the ingredients and it's magnificent. I usually don't measure but i will do my best, here is the recipe:

FILLING
5 cups of Apricots or peaches whatev
4 tablespoons of sugar
1 Tbsp of almond extract
2 tbsp of vanilla
pinch of ginger
1 tbsp of cinnamon

mix all of this in the pan and let set

Crumble topping:

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut * I prefer the clean organic stuff*
1/2 cup rolled oats

mush till it forms crumbs and sprinkle over top of fruit and bake at 375

om nom nom nom.

I would have taken pictures but I left my camera with linds, I was taking pics of her sister Cassie and her magically rounded prego belly.

The guy who drives the ice cream truck down our street is CREEPY! who gave him that job? whatever happened to wearing a white shirt and tie, and those hats you can make out of paper? His hands better be clean!

pictures of the INJUSTICE!

It is 5 pm I have been at the garden since 10 am. I have been pretty pessimistic about this whole deal, Andrew calls it "my phases" because I go from happy to sad to angry to moany. SO I am all sorts of up and down and on top of it all I am sunburned. Big surprise I did wear sunscreen! Still got burned, the morning started off with hard work. My friend Logan and his wife Sarah came with their truck and I was able to transplant my precious eggplant to a garden box across the street along with some squash, pepper plants, and onions. I was trying to explain to Logan why I loved eggplant but he didn't think "just because they are pretty" was a good enough excuse to save them. The plants are all wilting pretty bad I tried to give them lots of water and the soil they are in is fantastic, so hopefully I will be able to salvage those. As for the other plants? well we got permission to use the lot next door for our garden needs but it is taking SO MUCH to clear it of weeds and overgrown brush. We have been weed whacking and pulling all day along with Liann and others that have stopped by for a few and helped out. By about 4 pm I was ready to die. The sun had taken all of my energy away, and I will be busy tomorrow *not with farmers market I would give that up for this* I feel bad for Andrew who has a massive rototiller and will be able to plant stuff again but it is just so much work!! I love these plants like pets I will be devastated if they die. We are giving up my beans and corn, those will most likely no survive the move, as well as our potatoes those were dug up just for fun, they were wee big. My yams! we had to let go of the yams, the broccoli and carrot and other random things that were growing. Scott! We wanted to keep this going partly for you buddy! I am so sorry I know you loved that garden just as much as we did, and it was fun finding all the treats you left behind to grow. I will always hold a certain affection for that back lot, my sweat and a little of my heart will be there always.

really sad news about the garden...

The owner of Andrew's 4plex is redoing the asphalt in the back....and extending it all the way to the fence, therefore obliterating the garden space. I have spent the last few hours filling boxen of dirt and transporting the plants to the front lawn to try and save them. We are hoping the guy who owns the lot next door will let us use his land to transplant all our stuff too, if not I have not a clue where it will all go. I cried, it has been a lot of work to keep it up and we are finally just starting to grow stuff. I am most affectionate towards the eggplant, they are so pretty it was a sad sight to see them all in boxes. This was a surprise; they will be doing the parking lot on Monday, because after all another parking lot is just what Provo needs! So why not uproot a community garden! I'm quite bitter but hopeful, I told Andrew it felt like we were losing a child or something, it was sort of humorous. We called everyone we knew and visited a few as well, we had about 8 people from the ward show up so hopefully this will all work out and won't be too much of a loss...I am well aware there is no such thing as boxen.

Garden update

Hey! So during my week off from work I am trying to get caught up on the garden, I am doing projects where I dig up big holes here and there and use the dirt to cover up the newspaper I put around the plants to

quell weed growth. We are finally starting to get some real

produce, the
peas were delicious, those plants are starting to
die out and new stuff is coming up like eggplant which I was really excited for, I have never eaten it but it's just a pretty plant! Our peppers are also coming in and tomatoes, as well as my wax and green beans. We had a mystery patch of squash that was growing since early may, we have

been really frugal with our squash plants because they produce so much, so the mystery plant *drum roll please*..... MORE ZUCCHINI! We now have about 6 zucchini as well as 1 banana squash plant in the one patch. hmmmmm. I was really hoping for acorn squash as it was delicious last year, but I will survive. Plus there is a good chance the other mystery squash patch will end up being Acorn, we didn't plant any in hopes to already having a patch. The tomato plants are doing well, I don't like tomatoes but I do like salsa or sauce so hopefully we can make some and can it! The apple tree has a lot of apples on it, I learned how to make applesauce so I am looking forward to that as well. Unfortunately the corn is not doing so well, it is barely up to my knees and I have been babying those things since day one! I literally am a bit jaded about the whole thing to be honest, "Brother Hadley's corn is taller than me Summer! So not fair" I really shouldn't try and compare to brother Hadley...he is an expert gardener. OK off to make pumpkin pastie for the kick butt Harry Potter party that is going to last like 24 hours!

not happy, not all the time at least.

The past couple of weeks I have been in a depression, yes I do get depressed hard to imagine right? It is so easy to get wrapped up in life I forget to do what is necessary for my spiritual and mental heath. My spiritual self has taken a bit of a blow since I am so "busy" and I feel like other things are effected by it. First my ability to love people, I get anxious around crowds and I don't want to be social. I sleep a lot, and it is hard for me to do the work I do because I lose patience quickly. I cry way more than usual and feel pity for myself and my self esteem plummets, and to add to all of these great things weight gain, its only been like 5 pounds but still IT"S 5 FRIGGIN POUNDS! The gospel is such an essential part of my life and I always feel like the prodigal son whenever I sway off the path for a while, what is really sad? I did it on purpose this time. I felt I needed a rest from the constant guidance I was receiving, I was extremely in tune, but didn't like the responsibility of following. Stupid I know but I was put through flame so to speak and then blanched back to normal life so I felt I deserved a break, a really poor choice on my part because I have to work harder now. My remedy? I took the entire week off from work to work on me, I will read scriptures every day to get back to the habit, the temple is definitely on my list of things to do, and go to the dang gym. In addition I also discovered I need something to progress to, something new to try. I am thinking maybe teaching English in some country, or moving to another country to work for a few months to a year. School is on the list somewhere but I have a hard time with it. To most this would deem silly or me just procrastinating another life essential, but truly I have a hard time focusing. I indeed love to learn but I am more of a hands on type of girl. I learn best through others and first hand experience. Living in Utah has its perks, I have education surrounding me every where, there are 2 universities and a number of community colleges and programs. There are days where I am totally convinced I am going to save up and pay for a program but others like these past few weeks have been hard. It is easy to say I don't need school I have a good paying job and it is secure, but these things are of course temporary. I am well aware of the consequences I face not going to school, the thing I dislike about the area I live is, if you haven't gone to school it is literally frowned upon. More times than not I am totally disregarded as a conversationalist due to the fact that I am not "properly educated". I don't care if you are getting a masters degree, if you don't have character and charity towards others and what they're interested in, I just move on. I don't know why living on ones own since the age of 17 and paying my own way through life, and trying new life experiences is not educated! Anyway I am by no means a "hater" as the kids are calling it these days, I just want to be respected for doing what I do and being comfortable knowing that I should go, but being OK with myself if I don't and not feeling like I am less than a person. Anyway enough of my bitter rants I have a couple of things to look forward to over the next few months at least. Next week I get to see Harry Potter with my favorite Utah friends and then a boating activity on Saturday at Jordanelle! I will probably get super sunburned as always, I do in fact have sunscreen but I don't ever use it, just another thing I should do..but don't.

Farmers Market! Food edition

So usually I walk around the market and take pictures, when I can get a friend to cover my table because there are always different vendors there every week. One of the things that are the most prominent are food vendors, and it is really good food! My favorite thus far has been the Middle Eastern food, but they weren't there today. Not much went on for the first 3 hours or so, I just watched people walk by and occasionally said hi. I got to walk around with Jessica and we explored the new and permanent vendors. There were all sorts of goodies to be had! Most of them offered free samples and were quite friendly and let me take pictures behind the scenes. One of my favorite was the kettle corn, I find it quite fascinating to watch the creation of this treat! There is a big cauldron with oil and corn at the bottom a giant flame heating it slowly, the "Kettle Master" pours in sugar and mixes with a gigantic spatula and pretty much fluffs until it is popped all the way. I have a child like interest in things so of course this would make my day! In addition to the amazing fruit and heirloom veg's from local farmers you have fantastic animal products like cheese, yogurt, free range grass finished beef, eggs, and chickens themselves. There are also tons of salsa, BBQ sauce with a spicy kick after you swallow it, ice cream, and drinks like smoothies or fresh fruit lemonades. The farmers market is a great place to hang on a Saturday morning. One of the things I adore about the market as well are the quantity and quality of people, there is a community outside of BYU peeps! It includes people of all faiths, class, race, and nationality. There is nothing better to me than talking to someone I normally would not have run into during my daily walk in life. My favorite thing to do is people watch as you can see! People are great. Not all the time of course... :)
mmmm kettle corn
Navajo tacos and pie cherries.

This guy is BBQ sauce guy, he is a fantastic flirt and will make any girl swoon as he kisses his big guns...
The picture below is some yummy muffins, they have fantastic bread and I misplaced their card! I am so sorry cute bread people!!!
The table for this vendor was very colorful and they were super nice and greeted me right away. Oh and they had funnel cakes! My first experience with those were in PA the best state ever.

These treats belong to Flour girls and dough boys, they have really good carrot cake *my fave kind* and delicious bread of all kinds and cupcakes etc.

I didn't mean to take so many pictures of cotton candy but here they are!! I love prego ladies

These 3 darling girls looked at my bags, left, THEN CAME BACK! They were so sweet and bought 4 of the 6 I actually sold today.

Alex came by to see us! He had his sweet man bag I made him! This one is for you Amy, I made sure to get a pic.
In addition to the craziness that usually ensues there was a VW car show going on! I love these cars so I took a few pics as well. My favorite being the bus of course.

Sexzy Jessica, who comes and sees me every week as well as everyday at work!

July 4th and my birthday...LOTA PICs one gigantic blog!

I love the 4Th it coincides with my birthday which is on the 5th so I have always looked forward to it . This year I was kind of hoping to let it buzz by like any other day *my birthday* I almost got away with it! There was just to much going on! Summer's family was in town and at one point we had 21 people sleeping here, 9 upstairs and the rest downstairs. There were kids everywhere! we even lost one for an hour, she was found by the red cross 3 blocks away after the parade.



Friday:
The weekend started off with the hot air balloon festival! I love these things I have been known to rush out of my bed some early mornings, thinking I heard the rush sound they make as they fill up with hot air. They will literally land on your street, they float Georgy! They all float! After that I hung out with Andrew and we delivered a couple of bags that I had made for the farmers market to a lady in Springville. She had a big garden and sent us home with some really hot radishes, lettuce and thyme. Her compost pile was boss! It was growing stuff like squash plants and corn! She was super cool and I want to be like her when I grow up. We then hung out with his parents for a couple of hours which was different, I'm a bit insecure around new parents for the first time, It was fun they had a cute dog that did all sorts of tricks. After we left I talked him into going to a bizarre down the street in Provo, well actually I guilt tripped him into doing it but he went, and whined the whole time haha. I was like lucid all day! I was really tired!

Saturday:

Woke up early and Papa Carr made a butt load of pancakes which were DELICIOUS! Topped high with plain yogurt and homemade applesauce my day was set! Sum and I along with a few kids in tow went to the big parade. The streets were filled to maximum capacity if there is such a thing. I have never seen so many people in my life! Luckily we live 3 houses from Center street so we were able to get a primo view I sat on the ground right in front. I got lots of pictures, a few of my favorites are posted. The best one with the best story is the one with the two men, see what had happened Uncle Phil; a man was passing out Anti-Mormon literature to people mainly kids, it was kid-friendly as it was printed on paper that looked like fake money. Another guy stopped him and asked "do you have permission to be passing those out?" They preceded to get into a spat...right in front of me so I just took a picture of them! I love that pic it says a lot. After the parade the kids sold sno cones on our front lawn and everyone hung out till traffic receded. . The rest of the day was a blur I had to work that night and we ended up having a BBQ and got to set off 50.00 worth of fireworks
dude, Capitan America....I don't think those muscles are real.
I was trying really hard to focus on the cherry pits in the street from our earlier spitting contest




Sunday: My birthday.
Went to sacrament then came home to sleep because I had worked a grave the night before. I woke up later that afternoon and had a very long birthday song sung to me and homemade cards from the kids! I loved it. I went to dinner later that night with Beth Lora Michelle and her husband, they made this stuff we decided to call a tacoritto because you can't close it like a burrito and it's not crunchy like a taco, it was good none the less! Beth made me a cake shaped like a castle and it was really really good. I had a bit too much. Speaking of being a lush check out the sweet homemade vanilla they had! I used it to make the whipped cream, I love to add a ton of vanilla but was careful with the rum infused kind. The funny thing is these people are serious Mormons! like super strict, so I was amazed they used it! They explained that regular vanilla has a higher alcohol content. I was still careful and only added a little....It was a really great weekend!!!