Bryn's New Word

Bryn has a new word that is getting quite a lot of use lately. She likes to tell people that they are "rude"...particularly me. If you get after her or ask her to do something she doesn't want to do or to stop doing something she doesn't want to stop doing she likes to tell you that you are "rude." Tyler didn't believe that she could actually say it and in the right context until he was getting after her about something and she told him that he was rude!! Toddlers are hilarious.

Things I am Loving In Cold Dreary January

Is this month over yet? Why is January the most cheerless month of the year and feels like two interminable months all rolled into one? Bring on February. In trying to survive the gray and the gloom I have found a few things that are making it slightly more bearable.

#1 A Heated Throw Blanket

I got this little gem for Christmas and it is my new best friend. How did I ever live without you? It is perfect in that it allows me to be perfectly toasty while watching movies on the couch and Tyler can stay cool and non-toasty...since it is a throw blanket...and technically not meant for two. Perfect.

While I am staying toasty and cozy I am watching this:

#2 PBS Masterpiece rocks!! I love it and I just can't get enough of this series. I am absolutely smitten. Check out the trailer. It is so good.



#3

This is my favorite magazine (thanks sisters for the subscription). I get very excited when it arrives in the mailbox...of course it usually disappears and I have to wrestle it away from Reilly. One of my New Years Resolutions was to try some new recipes. That isn't really too hard for me to accomplish since I like to cook but I REALLY need to add some great new recipes to the old dinner repertoire. Most of the ones I have tried this month have been okay...nothing too thrilling in a knock-your-socks-off way UNTIL...last night when I made this:

Thai Chicken Soup

OH.MY.GOSH. I could've licked the pot clean...Tyler pretty much did. No joke. I believe he had thirds. My kids all liked it too except for Ailey who hates everything. You just can't win with that girl. But seriously...DELICIOUS. It's very easy and quick to make and not to mention cheap!!

Here's the recipe. TRY IT!! It has gotten rave reviews online and I add mine as well. This soup knocks it out of the park. It is really good vegetarian too.

Thai Chicken Soup (from Jan. 2011 Food Network Magazine)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons green curry paste
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 15-ounce can coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce, plus more to taste
• 2 red bell peppers, thinly sliced
• 4 ounces thin rice noodles, broken into pieces
• 2 small skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 1 pound), very thinly sliced crosswise
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, plus more to taste
• 1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and curry paste and cook, stirring, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth, coconut milk and fish sauce; cover and bring to a boil.

Add the bell peppers and noodles and simmer, uncovered, until the noodles are al dente, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken and simmer until just cooked through, about 3 more minutes. Stir in the lime juice and cilantro. Add more fish sauce and lime juice, if desired.

(I doubled the recipe, slightly upped the curry since we like things spicy around here, upped the fish sauce and lime juice as well.)

Have a great weekend!!

The Love Fest Continues

Is it possible to curl up in bed...enthralled...and unable to put down...a cookbook? Oh yes. If it is The Pat Conroy Cookbook which isn't really a cookbook. It is more of a memoir about food, travel and interesting people from his life with some good recipes thrown in at the end of each chapter.

I serendipitously read this book the week after reading his book My Reading Life. How fortuitous. Even though this book was published several years before My Reading Life there are many of the same influential people mentioned in this book that were mentioned in his other book and it felt like I was reading a sequel. Fantastic!! Plus, there was the added bonus of quite a bit of background information on my favorite book The Prince of Tides which was icing on the cake.

This book was pure joy to read. I loved it. I was pulled in again to the life, friendships, loves and passions of Pat Conroy. I couldn't put this cookbook down!! If was full of everything that I enjoy and value in my own life. The people that I like to surround myself with in my life are people who have a great sense of humor, a love and appreciate for great food, have a rich appreciation for travel and literature and tell great stories. This book has all of that with some Southern flare thrown in for good measure. It was a delight. And...there are some superb recipes as well.

You all know my love for Mr. Conroy and all I can say is that the love fest continues.

My Rating: Excellent

Book Club Hangover



This morning I have what I like to call a "book club hangover". Last night was book club at my friend Valynn's house and I stayed too late, ate too much, laughed very hard, and over shared...as usual. :) I then came home in the wee hours of the morning and proceeded to talk to Tyler for quite a while longer and then couldn't drag my butt out of bed to go to the gym this morning. As a result, I feel fat, lazy, and tired. But...I had a lot of fun last night so it was worth it!!

Our book for this month was Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. I was underwhelmed. I found it to be a snooze. This book has some things going for it: an interesting premise, set in Seattle, a sweet tale, nothing raunchy...very clean, you could recommend it to anyone and not worry about them being offended in any way. Maybe that was the problem for me. It was too sweet or more to the point it was too saccharine. I just didn't really get into it and didn't think the characters were well developed and fully fleshed out. That said I thought some of the secondary characters were much more fascinating than the main characters. I loved Sheldon and that crusty old chain smoking lunch lady. I wanted this book to do more, be more, delve deeper and it didn't. I also didn't care for the ending which was predictably dull. On a positive note, the story dealt with interesting subject matter from an uncommon perspective.

From School Library Journal

"Henry Lee is a 12-year-old Chinese boy who falls in love with Keiko Okabe, a 12-year-old Japanese girl, while they are scholarship students at a prestigious private school in World War II Seattle. Henry hides the relationship from his parents, who would disown him if they knew he had a Japanese friend. His father insists that Henry wear an "I am Chinese" button everywhere he goes because Japanese residents of Seattle have begun to be shipped off by the thousands to relocation centers. This is an old-fashioned historical novel that alternates between the early 1940s and 1984, after Henry's wife Ethel has died of cancer. "

Unfortunately for me, the novel didn't live up to it's pretty cover and catchy title.

My rating: OK

Weekend In the Palouse


We had a fun weekend. How could it be bad when Tyler came home on Friday night with roses and a little present for me? Woohoo. That started our weekend off great. I love you Ty!! Friday night we attended an art exhibit downtown by a fantastic local artist who just happens to be in our ward...the talented Danielle Hatch. It was so fun to see her art on display. Then we headed out on the Palouse highway to hit a rural roadside café that we had heard great things about. The rumors were true. It was delicious.

Saturday we headed down to Stacey's cute little town to celebrate my nephew Dane's 6th birthday. He had a wild and crazy Transformer birthday party at a Gymnastics center.

Look how fun!!

Some of the party-goers. Kameron and Ailey had a great time...Bryn too.

The Birthday Boy and his Dad

The whole crew

After the party we went back to Stacey and John's house to hang out for awhile and to let the kids play...and burn off some energy.

Sister time

Bryn was intrigued by John's goshawk. It's pretty to cool to have a falconer for an uncle!!

We were heading back home that afternoon when we decided to turn around and spend a bit more time in the area. Bryn had fallen asleep and the open road was calling. Plus with several Sisters Creed sales approaching I am always on the hunt for fun finds. I was not disappointed. I will post a sneak peek on the Sisters Creed blog in the next day or so. I am getting so excited for our upcoming sales!!

After playing in Moscow, ID for awhile the kids were starving and we were in Pullman, WA so we decided to try a restaurant that my friend,Valynn, had recommended.

The kids loved it...and Tyler was thrilled to get to eat some lasagna. I'm not a big Italian food fan so we rarely eat Italian so this was a TREAT for my family. Poor suckers missing out on all that marinara laden pasta.

Look at those Italian loving faces

I found something good to eat as well...minus the marinara. They have really good salads and desserts too. Reilly missed out as she was babysitting Elle that night but that girl has been keeping us supplied with these little beauties:

Homemade soft pretzels!! Reilly learned how to make them in her Life Skills class formerly known as Home Ec. and they are sinful...and addictive.

Happy Birthday this week to Dane and John!!
We love you guys.

Meet Victoria...My Awesome Mom

After much begging, pleading, and yeah...some threatening...she has FINALLY written her profile/bio for our Sisters Creed blog. Check it out. She is amazing. You can read it here.

I Am In Love


Oh Pat Conroy. I love you deeply. I am seduced by your way with words, wit, and wounded inner child. You beguile me with your southern charm. You bewitch me with your intellect. You distract me from anything else that I have going on in my life. I am consumed. Your magnetism is undeniable. I could leave my husband for you except I don't think he has much to worry about because he just might love you as much as I do.

I have read nearly every word you have written. Everything that I can get my hands on. Each time I am enchanted. Even when you show that the mighty Pat Conroy is fallible (South of Broad). Even when disappointed and left wanting I am captivated by your beautiful writing and charisma.

What a treat it was to open the cover of My Reading Life and have it be pure unadulterated Conroy. My heart skipped a beat. This is a book I must buy, write in the margins, and keep as a reference. I must own this work of beauty.

Who could not be beckoned to a comfy chair by this?

"I grew up a word-haunted boy. I felt words inside me and stored them wondrous as pearls. I mouthed them and fingered them and rolled them around my tongue." (pg.84)
Not to mention the ultimate phrase that thrills me every.single.time I read it?
"My wound is my geography. It is also my anchorage. My port of call." (Prologue from the Prince of Tides) Chills I tell you. Chills.

This book is pure joy for a Conroy fan. It is the author talking about his life, his influences, his experience, and the books and people that have shaped who he has become. I wanted it to never end. I wanted to sit by his fireside and listen to my favorite author forever.

I loved how he describes that joy of reading. It is how I feel but have difficulty articulating.

"When an author sets the table right, there will be no need to pass either the foie gras or the barbecue because the characters will grab me by the collar. They will spring to life so fully developed, so richly contained in the oneness of their own universe, that they will populate the cafes and verandas and alleyways of a city I will never want to leave. Few things linger longer or become more indwelling than that feeling of both completion and emptiness when a great book ends. That the book accompanies the reader forever, from that day forward, is part of literature's profligate generosity." (pg. 311)

"Can I incorporate this splendid work, ingest it whole into my bloodstream, where it can become part of my thinking and dreaming life?" (pg. 312)

I have walked many times through Mr. Conroy's "glittering city of words"and have journeyed to the darkest parts of hell with him by my side. I have loved every minute.

I close this book uplifted, inspired and fully satisfied.

My rating: EXCELLENT. A must-read for any Conroy fan or lover of literature

Happy New Year 2011

(Bryn was sound asleep by this point)

The New Year is here and with it a fresh start and the opportunity to make some new goals. I love it. I am a huge goal-setter and get nearly giddy with excitement as I sit down to make my list of resolutions. I am weird that way. Last year I tried not setting any goals to see what that was like and I did not care for it one bit. I ended up feeling indolent and slacker-ish and made a few mini-goals anyway. This year I am back to my old goal-setting ways with a big list to work on. I am not under any illusions that I will accomplish all of them and that is okay. But I know that I will accomplish many of them and I love the feeling that gives me at the end of the year to see some progress in my life. I love striving and progressing in different areas.

This year our New Years Eve was wonderful. Usually we always have somewhere we have to go
and end up rushing home and trying to cram food, games and fun into the night before the New Year dawns. This year we got to stay home, in our jammies, and relax. Fabulous.

Since New Year's Eve to me is all about the food we had a Seafood Fest. It was DELIGHTFUL. I think I ate the world's largest Alaskan King Crab leg. Tyler requested the biggest one they had and the lady went into the back and came out with a monster of a leg. Yes, I ate pretty much all of it myself...with a few bites begrudgingly given to Kameron and Tyler. Tyler requested scallops this year and they were also delicious. Kameron ate seafood as well. Only the girls were ninnies and "claimed" not to like seafood. Is this possible? I don't understand you people who don't crave seafood like I do. Reilly did make her famous Hot Artichoke dip and we also had crudités with dip, Stephanie Breckon's black-eyed pea salsa party dip, stained glass jello, and assorted Christmas treats. It was a good night!

We had fun playing games. For Christmas Reilly bought the family the Glee game which was a riot to play and if you haven't seen Tyler dance like Ken Tanaka you are missing out!! Even the little guys could play along because it involves singing and dancing and if there is one thing that we Johnsons like to do with great gusto and flare it is rock out and dance at our house!!

Then one by one people began dropping like flies...and in keeping with the tradition started by Kameron and Reilly at their parents' expense and humiliation...if you fall asleep before ringing in the New Year you get your picture taken.

First little snorer:

The second:

The third:

I love that all, except Bryn, completely passed out on the floor...just literally dropped. Too much partying I guess!! ;)

And then there were three...looking a bit worse for the wear though.

We were treated to quite the illegal fireworks display at midnight too. Fun!!

New Year's Day is truly a horrible day in my opinion. Christmas and all it's festivities are over with and now it's back to the grind with the long dark and dreary winter stretched out before you...with the added bonus of having to take down all the Christmas decorations. Blah.

But we made the best of it by having a delicious brunch made by Tyler. He made some amazing Belgian Waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. (Thanks Jordi for the awesome waffle maker!! We love it!!) and I made a big crockpot of hot punch that we sipped on all day while we rocked out to good music (La Roux's Bulletproof was our family's song of choice. We listened to it MANY times.) as we took down and put away all of the Christmas decorations and cleaned up the house. Tyler also did us the kind service of putting all kinds of new music on all of our Ipods...Love it!!

So the New Year is here. I crawled out of bed to be at the gym this morning by 6am, the kids are back in school, and everything is in full swing once again.

Happy New Year!!

Christmas 2010



Christmas has come and gone and I am sorry to say that I took very few pictures. Santa brought me a ragin' cold that took the oompf out of me and resulted in not that many pictures. Regardless, we had a lovely holiday.

Christmas Eve we did something new. We attended a local Methodist Church Candlelight Service. We LOVED it. I think we will do it every year. Reilly was one of a few students from her honors choir that was invited to participate in this church's Christmas Eve service. We attended to watch her perform and just loved the whole event.


First of all, there was something so satisfying about sitting in a church congregation on Christmas Eve and belting...and I do mean belting...out Christmas Carols. Lots of them. Those Methodists loved to sing and the church band was a fun addition. I just don't feel like we get to sing enough on our own Sunday before Christmas Sacrament Meeting. Three songs? I want to sing more!! We probably sang at least 12 songs at the Christmas Eve service.

Then the candlelight part was BEAUTIFUL. I was so moved by the whole event. Everyone lighting their neighbors candle...the whole church lit by candlelight...all while singing Silent Night. You could feel the Spirit strongly and it was a beautiful thing.

Not the church we were at but it looked very similar

I loved exposing our children to a different faith. Some people fear this but I strongly feel that it only builds their testimonies and makes them stronger. We were invited to participate in their open communion and it sparked such wonderful conversations about the gospel on our ride home. It was a lovely evening. Reilly also sang beautifully. In addition, it was neat to see how reverent and respectful she was during the service. Reilly performed at both services the 8pm and the 11pm and those wonderful church ladies took such good care of her and plied her with every kind of delicious food and treat imaginable. I love church ladies and love that regardless of denomination we are more alike than we are different.

Before we left for the church we had our own fondue dinner, Christmas program, and candlelight scripture reading. The kids did an amazing job!!

Then we came home, opened jammies and had a fun night together!!

Brynnie trying to wear her Christmas Stocking

Brynnie riding the "donkey". That girl had a lot of cookies and had quite the sugar buzz. She didn't go to bed until after 10pm!!

Christmas morning dawned very early and Santa was good to everyone.

We enjoyed a leisurely Christmas Breakfast and then got ready and headed to the lake to spend a wonderful afternoon and evening with cousins. My Aunt Marji and Uncle Dennis and most of their kids and grandkids were there, as were my Grandma, Mom and Ken, Kelley and Elle and Stacey, John and their kids, my Uncle Steve and Aunt Margaret and cousin Tania, and my Uncle John and Aunt Ade. We all enjoyed Christmas Dinner together (nearly 40 people). It was an absolute MADHOUSE!! But it was so nice to get to visit with all our Birch cousins and our kids had an absolute ball with all the Birch kids. There is someone for everyone to hang out with...even Reilly. I refrained from ice skating this year as Santa did not bring me full body armour!! :) But I will purchase some protective gear soon because that beautiful iced lake calls to me so enticingly. I wish I had pictures of the whole event but my cold was in full swing and I felt crappy and contented myself to snuggling by Tyler and chatting with loved ones.

Later that night our family and Kelley and Elle drove up to my mom and Ken's and had a wonderful night. More great food, beautiful handmade presents (my mom is amazing), and A LOT of laughs. We spent the next day at my mom's as well. I was sicker than a dog but my mom made my Grandma's homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles and it put me back on the road to health. My mom did a big purge and dejunking so we sorted through 7 enormous bins of pictures and divided them for each sibling. It was a huge undertaking but it was a wonderful stroll down memory lane. Such fun.

Then it was home sweet home where I climbed into bed and read My Reading Life by Pat Conroy. What a treat. Too bad I had to be sick.

Merry Christmas



Christmas is nearly here. The cookies are baked, presents are purchased, packages are sent and now it is time to sit back and enjoy the holidays. We are lucky to have a white Christmas this year...hopefully it lasts until Christmas.

Meanwhile we have been eating lots of delicious Christmas treats:




We have been so spoiled by friends and neighbors this year. Every night we have been treated to fun knocks at the door and plates of homemade goodness.

We have also been doing a lot of this:


We celebrated my Mom's birthday:


Reilly was asked to sing with a local Methodist Church choir for their candlelight services on Christmas Eve so that will be something fun and different this year. Can't wait!!

We have been watching a bevy of our favorite Christmas movies, listening to beautiful Christmas music (and in case you were wondering you can workout at the gym to Christmas music...I've been doing it all week) and as I type this I can hear the kids planning our own little Nativity Program. So sweet...oh wait...it was. Now they are fighting.


We are looking forward to spending time with family this Christmas Season while remembering He who is the light of the world. I am so grateful for the Savior and for my many blessings...and more importantly than any family tradition or holiday celebration this Christmas season is the knowledge that I have a testimony of Jesus Christ that sustains me.

Merry Christmas!!

Great Books For Christmas Break


It is finally Christmas Break...my shopping is done; my baking is done; my Christmas cards are sent out; the kids are out of school; I gave my talk in Sacrament Meeting today that has been looming over my head. Now it is time to kick back and enjoy the holidays. Bring on a cup of hot cocoa with my favorite coconut creamer, a cozy blanket and a good book.

If perchance you need a good book...here you go! These books are fun reads. I enjoyed them all.

First up...

This book was recommended to me by my sister, Stacey, who said that she could not put this book down. I couldn't put this book down either. It is a creepy page turning ghost story. Intrigued?

From Penguin.com: The Little Stranger follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline-its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.

This book is beautifully and elegantly written. I loved the atmospheric story-telling. I was intrigued by the Ayres family and their 1940's post-war identity crisis. I was drawn into their dilapidated home and crumbling lives. I am not a fan of scary stories but this one had just the right amount of creepiness while still making you doubt if it actually is in fact a ghost story or a dark tale of psychological obsession...or both. Much of this story is subtle rather than shocking and it takes a few days to digest the story completely. Our narrator is not the most sympathetic of characters and one doubts his "reliability" through out the book. I also loved that the book...on another level...is a commentary about social change and the decline of the British upper classes.

To be honest, when I finished this book I wasn't sure I loved it. But after mulling it over for a few days the answer is, yes I do. In thinking more and more about who the actual villain of the story is, reality versus perceived reality, and the many layers of Waters complex storytelling the tale has only grown more chilling.

I highly recommend this book. It would be wonderful to discuss in book club. The murky ending may at first be disappointing but on further contemplation it becomes completely satisfying.You will definitely have something to think about and you will want to discuss it.

My Rating: Excellent

Second:


This book has so far been my favorite book of the year. I loved it. I loved absolutely everything about it. This has everything I enjoy: set in Victorian England, a creepy manor house, mystery, several generations of an aristocratic family with secrets, a ghost, a hidden garden. Perfect for October.

From Booklist:

In 1913, a little girl arrives in Brisbane, Australia, and is taken in by a dockmaster and his wife. She doesn’t know her name, and the only clue to her identity is a book of fairy tales tucked inside a white suitcase. When the girl, called Nell, grows up, she starts to piece together bits of her story, but just as she’s on the verge of going to England to trace the mystery to its source, her grandaughter, Cassandra, is left in her care. When Nell dies, Cassandra finds herself the owner of a cottage in Cornwall, and makes the journey to England to finally solve the puzzle of Nell’s origins. Shifting back and forth over a span of nearly 100 years, this is a sprawling, old-fashioned novel, as well-cushioned as a Victorian country house, replete with family secrets, stories-within-stories, even a maze...--Mary Ellen Quinn

I loved this book!! It was a delight to read. I would say that in many respects it reminded me of The Thirteenth Tale. If you liked that book you would probably enjoy this one as well. I enjoyed the mystery of uncovering Nell's past. I enjoyed flipping back and forth through the different time periods...which surprisingly I enjoyed equally as each time period helped uncover the clues to her past. I enjoyed each of the different voices and their individual perspectives. I felt that the book was beautifully written...the characters were well developed...and I enjoyed the gentle pace of the narrative. Was the conclusion a complete surprise? No, but that did not diminish my joy in reading this book. I also thought that the dark fairy tales with hidden clues that were splashed throughout the story were an added treat.

Our book club enjoyed discussing this book and even had quite a lively debate as to the true feelings of Nathaniel and I had to drag my husband (he read it at my request) out of the family room and into the discussion to break the tie...and guess what? He sided against me!!
My rating: Excellent

Third:

I cannot say enough about what a refreshing surprise this book was. Not at all your typical celebrity biography. Not even close. I was amazed at what a well-written and engaging book it was. I had enjoyed the movie Julie and Julia, particularly the biographical parts about Julia Child, and so I decided to put this book on hold at the library. I am so glad I did. This book is not just for foodies and those with a passion for the culinary arts but for everyone who enjoys a good love story, food, arm-chair travel to exotic locales, humor, and fantastic stories about unique and eccentric people in an interesting time period...postwar France.

From Barnes and Noble.com:

"In her own words, here is the captivating story of Julia Child's years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found her true calling. From the moment the ship docked in Le Havre in the fall of 1948 and Julia watched the well-muscled stevedores unloading the cargo to the first perfectly soigné meal that she and her husband, Paul, savored in Rouen en route to Paris, where he was to work for the USIS, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who didn't speak a word of French and knew nothing about the country, was steeped in the language, chatting with purveyors in the local markets, and enrolled in the Cordon Bleu. After managing to get her degree despite the machinations of the disagreeable directrice of the school, Julia started teaching cooking classes herself, then teamed up with two fellow gourmettes, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, to help them with a book they were trying to write on French."

This book is easily one of my favorite reads of the year. It is funny and touching; passionate and spirited. I was laughing at the antics of the delightful Tois Gourmandes and sighing over her great love with Paul Child and their beautifully portrayed marriage. I loved her enthusiasm, spirit and joie de vivre .

This charming book will leave you longing for a trip to France, hungry for French cuisine, and inspired to follow your passions and for a life well lived.

I loved it!!

My rating: Excellent


Finally:


I read this several years ago for my book club and was struck by it's poignancy. It is definitely an eye opening read and one not easily forgotten. I highly recommend it.

My rating: Excellent

There you go. Four excellent books to curl up with on a cold winter's night.