6/19/11 PARTAY

Along with being Father day, Ben also turned 27 this last Sunday. I thought it would be funny to play a trick on him and write "Surprise! Happy Father's Day too!" in his Birthday card haha, but I didn't. We celebrated a little on Saturday and a little on Sunday. On Saturday we went to the Cheesecake Factory which is so good and then went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo with some friends afterwards. Sunday I gave him a 5 year old party at our apartment with just us two...it was pirate themed hahaha. Why not. After that we headed to the canyon for a picnic. We kept it simple with hot dogs and chips, but then for dessert we tried "oreo s'mores" which is chocolate graham crackers with cookies n cream chocolate bars and a marshmallow. Pretty good actually. Here's some pictures!

That says 27 haha

Ahh Nature ;)

I no longer work night shifts on the weekend!!! HALLELUJAH! So...yesterday when I got off at 3 we had to go out and enjoy the weather. Ben and I hiked up to Stewart falls and it was pretty sweet. It was weird being in 80 degree weather and then reaching the top and seeing snow! Pretty cool.

He did it again...

Ben always shows me a grand ol' time on my Birthday. I loved my presents and he always impresses me with how creative he is. I started off the day with school but then had the rest of the day off from work which was great. I did a little shopping and then came home to Ben video taping me and singing happy Birthday with my birthday shrine on the kitchen counter. Cute.
Along with getting me razzleberry pie (my favorite) and flowers, he made me the coolest shirt by airbrushing on a white t-shirt! It turned out sooo good. I was extremely impressed and totally thought he had bought it from a store. I've also been wanting to make my own lamp and chandelier for a long time (kindof random) but had no idea how to do it. Well....Ben of course did some research and bought all this stuff for me to do it, and then wrote down a bunch of websites where you can buy some other things like the crystals. What a good present! He always gets something I would never think of, but really want.
After presents I got ready and we drove to salt lake where I did a little more shopping with the gift card my parents sent and then we headed for what I thought was a restaurant called Blue Lemon. Ben had said it was pretty nice and not expensive. Sounded good to me! Well as we turned a corner he said "actually why don't we just go to Flemming's?" We were right in front of it and it's the BEST steak restaurant I've ever been to. It was a grrrreat surprise and I ate like a Queen...actually I'd say a King. I'm an eater. They also gave me a free dessert which was a chocolate lava cake with vanilla icecream and it was to die for. I was so stuffed and so happy when we left.
Here's a few pics from my big 24!

Memorial Day festivities

Some of us Poole's got together for a memorial day BBQ on Monday and I of course annoyed people with picture taking :)
Jeff, Courtney and little Brock moved to South Carolina today so I had to take some pictures! I will miss them a lot :)
It was also quite a treat to have my father in law Mitch here for a few days...He is just the nicest and cracks me up.

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!