Where are you fall??

I have been looking for Fall this weekend. I thought he was going to be here soon, given the overcast weather we had last weekend... but noooo. He was just teasing us. It has not started to cool off too much yet and its making me upset. I am ready for scarves, sweaters and boots! I am ready to curl up under a blanket with my sweetie and sip hot cocoa! But I know come mid-January I will be waiting desperately for the sun. I don't want to think about that yet though. I am ready to pack away those shorts and flip-flops and pull out the sweats and slippers. Doug and I were planning on taking a scenic drive up the canyon this weekend to look at the fall leaves, but we decided to postpone our outing to let a few more leaves turn pretty colors.
Good thing too, because this weekend has turned out busier than I thought! We have baked, studied, worked, gone to a football game, got a haircut, grocery shopped, studied more, and I guess we did watch a movie too. And... I forgot to take my camera with me places. So alas there are no pictures of the football game, or the haircut (yet). Sorry!

Pretty much I got tired of waiting for fall and decided to make the first pumpkin muffins of the season! Its almost officially October right?
This recipe is my most favorite pumpkin bread/muffin recipe. It is pretty easy to make and the muffins are oh so good!
Here is the recipe:
1 c. butter
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. pumpkin
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 1/2 c. flour
1 bag of mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
First you cream the butter, sugar, eggs and pumpkin together. Don't worry if the butter is a bit lumpy in the batter, its fine. I usually like to use room temperature butter and even then it ends up kind of lumpy.

Next add the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix. Then add the flour. I like to add 1 cup at a time and mix it in before adding the next cup. Its easier than adding all at once and then trying to win the flour versus mixer battle. (Usually the flour wins and ends up all over the counter when that happens, just a heads up). Lastly add the entire bag of chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan, if you want to make it into bread, or into greased muffin tins. I tend to not use muffin-tin liners in this recipe. The muffins have always come out of the pan well for me. Using the liners is fine if you want to, I just find that when I go to eat it I have to really work to get every last crumb out of the liner and that's when it gets tricky, especially when trying to have good manners. It makes about 24 good sized muffins. This is also a fun recipe to make with mini-muffin tins. Sometimes I like to make smaller muffins and then it makes about 28. But lots of the time I am too lazy to get out a 3rd muffin tin, because washing two is torture enough as it is. Cleaning muffin tins are the worst! (But so worth it for these beauties!)

Bake for 60-70 minutes for the loaf, and about 19-22 minutes for the muffins. (Usually my muffins near towards the 22-24 minute range when I make 24 muffins because they are so big). I use the toothpick test to make sure they are cooked in the middle. 

The muffins are a pretty good size.

No problems coming out of the pan.

The muffins are seriously SOOOO delicious! Sometimes I like to freeze a dozen and pull them out a week or two after we finish the first 12. The mini muffins are really fun too. One thing I like about this recipe is the use of the mini chocolate chips. It makes it so you have chocolate in every bite, and its not an overwhelming amount. You never have to interrupt the texture of your muffin with a big bite of hard chocolate. If you make these, make sure to tell me how they turn out for you!

Bye-Bye Laura!

We took a visit to the temple this evening. If you would like to learn  more about the Latter-Day Saint (Mormon) temples, and why we have them, just click here. There are lots of good links and articles that tell about our temples and what goes on there. And if you have any questions feel free to ask! Doug and I got married in the LDS temple in Portland, Oregon. It was beautiful inside and out. Tonight we just went to our local Provo, Utah temple. The sun was setting when we came out and it was gorgeous outside. We went with my friend Laura who is about to leave for 18 months to serve an LDS mission in Chicago. Laura was actually my roommate my freshman year here at BYU. We have had some fun times together, and some pretty silly ones too.

The first day Laura and I ever met. Move-in day. 8-26-2009

Our apartment thought it would be clever to be "swine-flu" for Halloween.
Looking back, not one of my best costume choices.

Grabbing some lunch.

Bye-Bye Laura! See you in 18 Months!

If you want to know why college-aged men and women would ever leave their homes, friends and family for 18-24 months, just go to this link. My brother is serving his mission in Ukraine right now. He had to learn Russian so he could talk to the people there. I am so proud of him for going and I know he is blessing the lives of others as he teaches them about Christ. I know Laura is going to be an awesome missionary too! The people of Chicago are in for a treat!

On a random side note- Doug and I found the HUGGEST shoes ever at Ross a couple weeks ago! They are seriously size 21! I didn't even know they made shoes that big. Who has feet this huge? (besides Shaq of course) But shout out to anybody who does need big shoes-- they have an abnormally large amount of these at Ross. Go figure.

Spring in September

Today was such a gorgeous day! It was perfect! 75 degrees with blue skies and beautiful colors. It was finally cool enough to wear a scarf and light cardigan without sweating my make-up and deodorant off while hiking the hill to class. I just couldn't pass up these vibrant flowers without snapping a photo! It looks like spring. They might be the last flowers that are on campus for awhile. As soon as it gets cold outside its bye-bye to anything green and alive. 

So, you have probably gathered by now that I like to cook (and eat). I love to try new recipes and its always so exciting when it turns out yummy. Which happens more often than not in my case, thank goodness. Plus it is such a good feeling when you make food and other people love it! Compliments are addicting, and I found I can always get one out of my husband when I cook a good dinner. I saw this picture of cheesy goodness on Pinterest and was immediately hungry. I guess Husband and I have a thing for meat rolled in tortillas smothered in cheese and sauce.

 This is how mine turned out. I cut back the recipe a little since it would take literally 2 weeks for us to eat an entire 9x13 pan of enchiladas. The recipe was pretty basic. No tricky ingredients. I didn't have to buy some random spice that I would probably never use again. I am big advocate of using normal food to cook with. Though branching out is great too sometimes. I would say that this is a relatively inexpensive dish too. The main ingredients are things most people buy normally: tortillas, chicken, cheese, and sour cream.They turned out really good! I had never made actual enchiladas before, though I have made enchilada casserole. These will definently be making a reappearance on our table in the future.

Here is the recipe for the yummy creation.

I realize I am overloading on all the food posts! I do have plans to post about a craft project I am working on... It just takes longer to make a craft than it does to make dinner! But here is a sneak peak:

Magic Moms

This is what I made for dinner a couple nights ago:

It was kind of stressful actually. Do you ever wonder how moms magically can have all of the food done at exactly the same moment? I want to know their secret, because I am certainly not pro at this. 

I battered and fried the chicken myself, which was a big step up from the frozen chicken patties in our freezer. It was more work than I anticipated, to dip the chicken first in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. But it tasted delicious. Only the chicken was done like a good 10-15 minutes before the spaghetti was done, so it was cold by the time we ate it. But hey, at least it was still crispy. 

I decided to be double adventurous with this meal and make my own marinara sauce too! I don't know why I thought this would be a good idea. The sauce tasted pretty darn good actually, but was kind of chunky. And by chunky I mean large pieces of cooked down tomato. Guess I better chop up the tomatoes better next time. I used one 8 oz. can of tomato sauce and added that to a jar of home-canned tomatoes. My mom and I spent a good 4 or 5 hours canning tomatoes a couple weeks ago. Now our labor is paying off. After the tomatoes cooked down a little I just added a packet of spaghetti seasoning and presto-change-o! Spaghetti sauce!

I underestimated the time it would take for the noodle-water to boil. It was not even steaming when the sauce and chicken were done. Luckily I kept the sauce warm on the stove while waiting for the water. 

So in the end the meal was tasty and quite lovely looking (minus the unimpressive-looking canned green beans). Some day I will master the art of having all the food cooked at the same time. Maybe I can't do it yet because I am not a mother. I guess only time will tell. Bon-Apetit!

All Grown Up

My little sister is all grown up. Sniff sniff. She went to her first high school dance last night. Now that she is 16 years old, she is newly eligible in the dating sphere (If you are confused why I say she is newly eligble, you should check out this site.) and was super excited to be a part of the high school dance scene! You remember how excited you were for your first dance right? She graciously asked me if I would be her stylist for this big and important event. She came over to my tiny apartment last weekend and we had fun trying out some hair-do's while watching the dramatically sad BYU vs. Utah game. She picked a nice elegant up-do. It must be nice to have a big sister who will share not only her time and talents, but also her jewelry and shoes! Think of how much money I would have saved if I had a big sister to borrow from! Oh well, at least I get to be the older sister with lots of cool stuff. Makes me feel wanted.

Here she is all dolled up!

My mom said that my sister looked like she was 21. I asked my mom if I looked like I was 21 too (since I am) and she said, "not with those bangs!" Thanks Mom. Now I am going to be self-conscious about my bangs forever. Especially if they make me look younger than my 16 year old sister! It doesn't help that she is already taller than me. Maybe I will transition to side bangs. Those might look more grown up. Hopefully.

The hair had a poof in the front and then a french braid that wrapped around the  bun.

Not to shabby huh?

Maybe I do look younger than 21 

I came home to a wonderfully prepared meal by the husband. What a great guy. He really treats me right. We had crock-pot BBQ chicken with corn and mashed potatoes. I couldn't have made it better myself. It is so nice to have somebody else cook every once in awhile. 

Now looking at this picture, maybe we should move the
dustpan further away from where we eat our food.

Well we are headed back over to the fam's house tonight to bum a meal from Mom...oh and of course hear how the big dance went. Whoo! I don't have to cook again tonight!

Never Gets Old

I love advertising. Yes, I am that girl that when she is doing in homework in front of the TV, she is super attentive to the commercials and does her work during the actual show. Doesn't make sense right? Well I guess that is why I make a great advertising student. I am in my last semester of classes at BYU. Kind of a scary thought. I have to get a big-girl job soon and get to start being the money-maker of the family.

Shout out to the advertising program at BYU. It is so fun! I have loved every single communications class I have taken. It is without a doubt, the right major for me. I am so excited (and nervous) to start working on some real clients this year, starting with my capstone class. We are in a competition to come up with an ad campaign for the LA Clippers! If you don't know what that is, don't be embarrassed. I didn't know either until we were assigned the project and I found out they are an NBA team. But with the Lakers in the same town, no wonder nobody has heard of them. I guess we have our work cut out for us.

Just thought that I would share a few of my favorite commercials. These ones never get old for me.
Enjoy!

   

Cheese Grins

So... the hot topic of today: My Camera

I do not like my camera. I got it for Christmas when I was maybe, lets say 14 years old, give or take a year or two. There is nothing wrong with it, so I can't justify to myself buying a new one, especially considering my newly instituted save-money budget. But I do have some complaints. My camera weighs at least as much as a brick. When I carry it in my bag, my shoulder hurts by the end of the night. Its not bulky mind you, just heavy. Also, it sucks battery life like a kid sucking a Slurpee on a sweltering July day. I swear I use it for one event, and I have to replace the batteries by the next day. I also just am not in love with the picture quality. The picture colors always seem dull and out of focus. Therefore, I don't end up taking a lot of pictures. My camera is heavy and I am not in love with the picture quality, not to mention I am horrible at remembering to take pictures, and always feel so fake and posed whenever I do whip out my camera. Instead of getting the perfect candid moment of laughter and energy, it always turns into, "well you're in the shadow so move over here, and oh wait lets grab Friend so she can be in the picture too." By then it ends up being, "Okay everybody! Pretend I'm capturing the perfect, most joyful moment of this party. Put on your cheese grins and look at the camera!" (For illustrated version, see Exhibit A and B below.) OR the other scenario is where I am too cowardly to ask a stranger to take our picture, in which case we end up with, what I call, the "Classic MySpace Self-Portrait." You know what I'm taking about. Anybody who had a MySpace fell victim to this pose. It is also commonly found on Facebook. It is quite easy to do, you simply reach out with camera in hand as far out as your arm will go, and snap the picture of your face. Voila! A picture of your face that can be displayed on the internet. Sometimes you can make a model-face, or a silly-face; really any expression will work for these kinds of pictures. (For example, see Exhibit C, D and E below--I guess I am victim of these more often than I thought. But in my defense, its hard to get pictures of the Husband and me when it is just us two.) These shots are not so artistic, or candid. But I guess a few of these pictures now and then are good too, right?

Exhibit A: The definition of cheese-grins

Exhibit B: More cheesy smiles. Maybe we just always smile like that?

Exhibit C: At a softball game with no familiar people around to take the picture

Exhibit C: You can't tell he is reaching his arm out...

Exhibit E: Classic.

Take note of the washed-out color look of the photos. My theory is that I have just been spoiled by other people's expensive cameras and Photoshop, leading to my dissatisfaction with normal colored photos.  

But basically my intent in telling you all this is to warn you that if you do not see many pictures on this blog in the near future now you know why. Most likely I forgot to take pictures, or they are too cheesy for a blog. Of course, this post may be the exception to that, seeing how there are 5 whole pictures with this post. Hope that is not too overwhelming.

Hey Burrito

So this is what I made for dinner last night.

Hungry yet?
Yeah it was pretty good... and the best part was it was so easy! Even a naive chef, like me, could do it.
Want to know the secret to these cheesy, tender, beef burritos? Come here and I'll tell you. The trick is,
the CROCK-POT!
Basically you just throw in beef, enchilada sauce and 2 beef bouillon cubes and walk away for 8 hours. It was almost too easy. I got suspicious that I was doing something wrong or forgetting an ingredient because it was so simple.
And then I thought, why not try to make my own Pico de Gallo too? Which turned out awesome! (Even though I have a strange aversion to chopping cilantro.) It was a lot of cutting and my fingers smelt spicy for the rest of the night, but it was oh so delicious with the burritos!
Not to mention, Husband said about 6 times how yummy the burritos were. Feeling pretty great about my kitchen skills at this point.
I found the recipe for the burritos here (trade refried beans for black) and the Pico recipe here. So, I'm thinking you should make this soon and impress your friends and fam. To make it even easier, you could always just buy your own salsa, but whats the fun in that?

Introduction Please

Hello! I am Natalie. And yes I am naive. I am a novice when it comes to blogging. This is my first time entering the online blogging sphere as a participant, so we will see how it goes. I am also kind of naive when it comes to umm... everything! Great isn't it--I don't even know about my own life. Recently married, I am a new wife trying my best to please the hubby. I consider myself to be pretty clueless in the fields of fashion, cooking, crafting, couponing... pretty much every subject that people blog about. Super!

This blog is going to be a place for me to become less of a novice hopefully. If all goes according to plan, count on seeing a smattering of posts; everything from recipes I find, to daily life updates, and even maybe some outfits (if I feel brave enough). We will see what ends up here. Optimistically, in this process I, and others, might end up being a little less naive. And lets hope that's a good thing.

So without further ado... this is the official first posting of Naive Natalie.

Me (Natalie!) and the best husband ever!