Nerd alert

Ben and I went on a little walk through Bridal Veil falls up in the canyon and saw this guy...

I know it's blurry, but you get the idea. He passed us twice and we couldn't help but make fun of him. Why on earth would you wear a tank top and arm warmers?!! Is that so much cooler than a long sleeve shirt? I'm confused. Maybe I'm just not a cool enough runner to get it. Haha. 

It is really pretty up the canyon right now with everything turning so green :)

You cannot stop us rain!

Yesterday when we walked out of church we were SO bummed out to see it was cloudy and raining. We had a deeelicious picnic planned and when we got home we just said who cares we're going anyways! The rain ended up stopping by the time we got there and the weather turned out really nice! Faith I tell ya. Haha.
Now for the food...I saw this recipe on the food network show Giada at Home and it looked really good. Well it WAS REALLY good. I altered it a little bit and put onions and bell peppers on the steak kabobs instead of pineapples, since I don't like sweet food :)
Now I don't know if it was the steak we bought or the marinade, but the meat turned out sooooo tender! Ben and I commented on how tender it was about 10 times each while eating. We need to test it out on another type of meat to see if it tastes as good, if not then I'm sticking to a NY Sirloin (from the Sunflower market to be specific). SO GOOD.
Here's the recipe if you're interested, which you should be :)
And then some pictures of course...

Ingredients:

For the Parsley Sauce (marinade):

• 3 cups fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon crushed chili flakes
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 11/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 
  

For the Beef Pops:

• 1 1/2 pounds beef fillet, cut into 3/4-inch cubes (about 40 cubes)
• 1 (2-pound) pineapple, cut into 3/4-inch pieces (about 40 pieces)
• 20 (8-inch) wooden or bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

For the Parsley Sauce: In the bowl of a food processor, blendtogether the parsley, garlic, vinegar, chili flakes, sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until smooth. With the machine running, gradually add the olive oil until incorporated. Place half of the mixture in a medium bowl. Place the remaining mixture in a small serving bowl. Cover with plastic wrapand refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the Beef Pops: Place the beef in the medium bowl with the parsley sauce. Toss well until the beef is coated with the mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Thread the skewers starting with a piece of pineapple, then a cube of beef. Repeat with another piece of pineapple and another cube of beef. Continue with the remaining skewers. Grill the skewers for 2 to 3 minutes each side (for medium rare) or until desired doneness. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, arrange the Beef Pops on a serving platter. Drizzle with the remaining reserved Parsley Sauce or serve the sauce on the side as a condiment

The Best Red Velvet Cake

Here's the recipe Aarean! And for anyone else who wants it:)

•  
• Solid vegetable oil shortening, for greasing the pans
• Flour, for dusting the pans
• 1 (18.5-ounce) package plain butter recipe golden cake mix
• 2 ½ tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/3 cups buttermilk
• 1 (1-ounce) bottle red food coloring
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

1. Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease 3 9-inch round cake pans with shortening, then dust with flour. Shake out excess flour and set the pans aside.
2. Place the cake mix, cocoa powder, buttermilk, food coloring, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, baking soda and vinegar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are incorporated, 1 minute. Stop machine and scrape down side of bowl with rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes longer, scraping the side of the bowl again if needed. The batter should look well-blended. Divide batter evenly among 3 prepared pans, about 1 ½ cups batter per pan, smoothing the tops with rubber spatula. Place pans in the oven. If your oven is not large enough to hold 3 pans on center rack, place 2 on that rack and one in the center of the rack above.
3. Bake cake layers until they just start to pull away from the sides of the pans and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a finger, 17 to 21 minutes. The layer on the higher rack may bake faster so test it for doneness first.
4. Transfer cake pans to wire racks and cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and give the pans a good shake to loosen cakes. Invert each layer onto a wire rack, then invert it again onto another rack so the cakes are right side up. Let the layers cool completely. Make frosting.
5. To assemble the cake, transfer one cake layer, right side up, to a serving platter. Spread the top with some of the frosting. Place a second cake layer, right side up, on top of the first and frost the top. Repeat this process with the third layer. Frost the side of the cake with a thin coat just to set the crumbs. Use the remaining frosting to go back over this and liberally frost the side, working with smooth, clean strokes. To make slicing easier, place uncovered cake in the refrigerator until frosting sets, 20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
Place 1 (8-ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese and 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of room-temperature butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Stop machine and scrape down side of bowl with rubber spatula. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 4 cups sifted powdered sugar; beat on medium speed until well combined. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat the frosting for 1 minute longer.

Side note: I actually make half of the homemade cream cheese frosting and then add some store bought whipped cream cheese frosting. Ben thinks homemade cream cheese frosting tastes too cream cheesy, so adding the store bought fixes that and I actually really like it too. Try it if you want it's really good!

New summer tradition in the making

After a long week of school and work, Sunday comes. Ben and I go to church together and then as of last week, we started a tradition of Sunday picnics. There' a park a little ways into the Provo Canyon that is our picnic place of choice and the last two Sundays have been glorious outside. We bring our mini barbecue and cook up some hot dogs and just have a gay ol' time together. It really is so nice after being busy all week to just relax outside and hang out with just the two of us. Yesterday we brought a football and Ben taught be some plays haha...I can just see him with our boys some day (please let us have some boys who wanna play football!). I sometimes joke that our whole family can be football players, even if we have girls I'm sure they'll be big enough haha! Really though, let's hope not.
The only picture I had time to take before the battery died was this one after walking behind the park to look at the river. The mountains are so pretty and they turn SO GREEN in the summer. Love that about Utah.

Sunday also happens to be an eat whatever you want day usually...it just feels right. I decided that I wanted to make this red velvet cake recipe that I made for Ben's Birthday last year. It is soooo good and moist and delicious. The best part is it's half homemade half not. You use a regular plain butter cake box mix and add things to it. I'm going to have to freeze the rest of it so we don't eat it this week! Mondays mean back to eating healthy :)
Here's the damage from yesterday...Ben really likes cake. I'm surprised he didn't finish it, but I think he was holding back a little.

Ahhh the beach

I got back on Tuesday from my trip home. It was a great way to start my summer since the rest of it will be spent working and going to school most likely. I was able to get my sister Rachel ready for Prom, hang out with the fam, saw my long lost friend Rachael Clegg who was in town also, and of course hung out with my Amanda and her boyfriend Bobby. On Monday my family and I spent the entire day at the beach and got to watched my niece Brooklynn too. It was a perfect 80 degrees and sunny. The only thing missing was Ben! I missed him so much and wished he could have come. We're both dying to move to California which I'm sure I've said a million times now. Hopefully a job will finally come through for him.
I didn't take a lot of pictures but here's just a few from the day at the beach. I can't wait to go again!