Explore. Dream. Discover.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-13T20:31:00.001-08:00

Something to write home about

2010-10-15T19:23:00.000-07:00

Macie Akiko Jenson
made a long awaited appearance 10.4.10
Here to stay for good.

Finally, something to write about.

She is precious. Absolutely perfect.

Taste of Italy

2009-07-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

OOH! I found this sicilian pesto recipe that I tried out last night. We loved it!! And its so much cheaper than buying pesto at the store. I put the pesto on a baguette and topped it with chicken and cheese and put it in the broiler till the cheese melted. Then we put some lettuce, tomato , roasted pepper, and voila! A delicious sandwich! Its one of the easiest recipes I've ever made! And very delightful! It made a lot of pesto, so tonight I'll probably put it on pasta, yum!
Gotta try it! But you have like pesto...or at least the tast of basil because that's pretty much the recipe! 2 TBS equals 51 calories, so don't be afraid of the 1/4 cup olive oil! Enjoy!

Sicilian Pesto

Ingredients

1/4 cup pine nuts
3 garlic cloves
4 cups loosely packed basil leaves (about 2 ounces)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 cups chopped seeded tomato, drained (about 2 large)

Preparation

1. Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add nuts to pan; cook 4 minutes or until lightly toasted, stirring constantly. Remove from pan.

2. Combine nuts and garlic in a food processor; process until minced. Add basil, oil, salt, and peppers; process until blended, scraping sides occasionally. Add cheese; process until smooth. Spoon into a bowl; fold in tomato.

SUN DEVIL FOREVER!

2009-05-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

I'm now an ASU graduate!! Yay!

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards -- Benjamin Franklin

2009-05-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted wedding pics and some people have been asking to see them for a while! Here are just a glimpse of our favorites! Our photographer was AMAZING!! The colors in these pictures are incredible. I thought the hitchhiking idea was so fun! All Ryan's idea! :) If you ever need some phenomenal photos, call Ryan Hoffman!

I'm pretty proud of the last picture, I got him so good!
Our wedding day was perfect!

The best birthday!

2009-02-21T09:16:00.000-08:00

So for those of you who know me, I absolutely LOVE sushi! Its my favorite by far. For my birthday, that's what I really wanted! But being married and all, its kinda...out of our budget :)
Scott and I decided to make sushi!!!! It was so much fun, and turned out much more delicious than a restaurant! I made some good sushi rice (with the help of my mom's amazing recipe) and Scott made some perfect rolls!
We got the fish pieces from our favorite sushi restaurant, Temari's which worked out perfectly with our sushi adventure!
We'll definitely do this one again! We did all the sushi for about $20!
Scott made my birthday incredible! And so much fun :)

Here's the Sushi Rice Recipe

2 cups rice: Japanese short grain white rice
3 tablespoons Japanese Rice Vinegar
2-3 tablespoons Sugar
2 teaspoons Salt

Perfecto!

2009-01-31T10:07:00.000-08:00

Scott got a pasta machine from Maria for Christmas! He helped make pasta on his mission and wanted to see if he could make it. We found a basic pasta recipe and he went to work. I've never had home made pasta before, and let me tell you it was the best pasta I have ever eaten!
I was in charge of the sauce, and I wanted a white sauce. Of course, its completely unhealthy, so I went to my cooking light magazine in hopes that I would find a healthier one, and I definitely found one. It was delicious! And it was only a little over 400 calories per serving including the pasta! Our recipe made 4 servings so we had left overs! Try this sauce recipe, it was AMAZING!

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, divided
2 tablespoons 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups hot cooked fettuccine (8 ounces uncooked pasta)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley ( I didn't have this so we just sprinkled a little dry parsley at the end and it was still delicious!)
Cracked black pepper

**I also cut one chicken breast into slices, and grilled it in a separate pan and put it in the sauce at the end

Preparation

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in flour. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk. Cook 6 minutes or until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Add 1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, cream cheese, and salt, stirring with a whisk until cheeses melt. Toss sauce with hot pasta. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and chopped parsley. Garnish with black pepper, if desired. Serve immediately.

My love

2008-12-15T07:32:00.000-08:00

I love being in love! I'm so excited to marry him! Less than 4 weeks away!!!!

Teriyaki Marinade

2008-12-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

I bought a little mini me grill at Wal-mart! Scott and I used it and made a delicious (and romantic) dinner in the desert! I made a marinade for the chicken and found it off allrecipes. It sounds weird, but Scott and I couldn't get enough of it!!

INGREDIENTS

1/3 cup water
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon crushed garlic (I actually did 3 cloves)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
(not in original recipe) I added 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger too

DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, mix water, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic, and cinnamon. Place desired meat in the mixture. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 2 hours before grilling as desired.

Toffee Brownies

2008-11-28T15:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm not a great fan of Paula Dean, but I was on the Food Network website and I stumbled upon one of her shows and decided to watched a clip of an episode... of course the title had easy and toffee in it so I was curious! It looked delicious!!
So after I watched it, I had to try it! I made it, and it was really was heavenly!!! They are super super easy to make. Enjoy!

Here's the recipe, try it out!

1 (17.6-ounce) package brownie mix with walnuts (except I didn't use one with walnuts)
Vegetable oil cooking spray
3 (6-ounce) candy bars with almonds and toffee chips (recommended: Symphony brand)

Prepare the brownie mix according to package directions.

Line a 13 by 9-inch cake pan with aluminum foil and spray with vegetable oil cooking spray. Spoon in half of the brownie batter and smooth with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Place the candy bars side by side on top of the batter. Cover with the remaining batter.

Bake according to package directions. Let cool completely, then lift from the pan using the edges of the foil. This makes it easy to cut the brownies into squares.

The beautiful colors of autumn!

2008-11-11T17:15:00.000-08:00

Look...autumn really exists in Arizona!! I love this time of the year!

Spooky fun!

2008-11-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

We had a really fun Halloween! A couple nights ago, I was reading Lisa's blog and saw this picture.
And it gave me this sudden urge to make and decorate a Halloween cake, (I used to decorate cakes with Emilee all the time in jr high!) Scott's always up for anything, so I knew this was going to be really fun! I did a little googling and decided to do a haunted house on the cake! So here's how it turned out!
It was so much fun! Scott's so awesome to do this kind of stuff with me, we had some laughs biting off these teddy grahams' heads. We used up so much frosting!!! It must've been almost an inch thick on the cake itself!

And then on Halloween, we had to think of a Halloween costume for Scott really fast, so we made him a nerd! Oh, and Scott made sure to act like a HUGE nerd all night!
He's the cutest nerd I've seen!
...And I was just a boring witch!

The beginning of autumn!

2008-10-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

Since fall is just around the corner, we wanted to make an autumn wreath! So we went to Michael's and to our surprise, all the fall stuff was half off! YAY! It was a lot of fun, and it turned out cute!
Maria and Ian did one too! It turned out really cute too!!Too bad we don't have our own door to stick it on :) So...instead we put it up at his parent's house!

Yummy in my tummy

2008-10-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

The best dessert in the whole world is CHEESECAKE!!!
So, we decided to try this one...
Nilla Praline Cheesecake!!
It turned out really good! Delicious!

Ours looked pretty good next to the professional one! YAY for baking!! Here's the recipe, try it out!

66 NILLA Wafers, divided

1-1/4 cups sugar, divided

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine or butter, melted

3 pkg. (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup Sour Cream

1 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

25 KRAFT Caramels

3 Tbsp. milk

1/2 cup Pecan Pieces, toasted

Make It

HEAT oven to 325°F. Finely crush 50 wafers; mix with 1/4 cup sugar and margarine. Press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Stand remaining wafers around edge, pressing gently into crust to secure.

BEAT cream cheese and remaining sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add sour cream and vanilla; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

BAKE 45 to 50 min. or until center is almost set. Run small knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours. Microwave caramels and milk on HIGH 1 min. or until caramels are completely melted, stirring every 30 sec. Cool slightly. Pour over cheesecake; top with nuts.

How to Toast Nuts

Toasting nuts adds crunch and intensifies their flavor. To toast nuts in the oven, spread nuts in single layer in shallow baking pan. Bake at 350°F for 10 to 15 min. or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.

One fun project

2008-09-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

So, I got this table from a friend of mine for free for my new home when I get married! Here's what it looked like...

Scott and I decided to find chairs, so we got a sweet deal on craigslist on these solid wood chairs!
So, we spend a whole day sanding, painting, and staining our table...and here's how it turned out!

It matched PERFECTLY! I love projects! We just got a solid wood table and chair set for less than $100!