March Book Review

First of all, can I just ask… how the hell is it April already? I can’t believe March has already come and gone. There were so many things I had planned to do that I didn’t get to in those 31 days… like March’s book review, for one. But since I’m not a total slacker, I do have it done despite the fact that it’s technically a day late.

This month’s selection was A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice & Fire, the first book in the series by George RR Martin, and I will say that it definitely lived up to all of the hype. Dane, as well as many of my friends, have already read the whole series and have been urging me to read it for quite some time. And it really was as great as they said it would be! It’s a book jam-packed with drama and action, with some extraordinary fantastical elements thrown in too. I’d already seen the first season of the TV show so many things weren’t exactly a surprise, but there were definitely a few interesting differences. Overall I found it to be very entertaining, and quite well-written. And despite its extensive length, it was actually a pretty easy read.

One of the things I appreciated most about this book was that it had elements of fantasy but wasn’t so completely outrageous that it required buying into another universe. I’ve tried to read some of the other fantastical books that Dane and our friends love, but found a lot of them to be too crazy for me to really get into. I like a book that’s a little on the believable side, ya know? Martin did a great job of making his world seem like the kind of place I might actually find myself if I’m not careful.

Well it’s onto the second book for me. What are you reading these days?

Honey-Lime Chicken

I have a serious love for all things cilantro and lime. Like fresh salsa with enough cilantro that you can smell it through the refrigerator door. Or even a little white rice with some fresh lime juice and chopped cilantro thrown in. But add a little sweetness and a touch of heat… and now we’re really talking.

Which is why I went absolutely nuts over this recipe.

This chicken is to-die for! The soy and lime keep things nice and fresh, while the Siracha and red pepper flakes pack just the right amount of punch. It was perfect served over the afore-mentioned rice sprinkled with lime juice and cilantro. Another plus? It was super easy! If you’ve got an hour to let the chicken marinate and 15 minutes to grill it, you can have dinner on the table in a snap. Gotta love it.

I hope this gets your weekend off to a good start. Toodles!

Jam-Packed

Sorry for the delay in posting, but I’ve been a little busy over here! But not the stressed-out-I-need-a-vacation kind of busy, but rather the I’m-too-busy-jam-packing-so-much-life-into-every-day kind of busy. Allow me to share!

The fun started Friday when my mom and I went to check out the Bodies Revealed exhibit at the Discovery Center. I’d already seen the bigger exhibit while we were in Las Vegas a couple years ago, but my mom had never seen it and I was excited to share it with her. Since we both work in the medical field it was definitely something we could both fully appreciate. Sadly, no pictures allowed.

From there we went to PF Chang’s, where we gorged ourselves on hot and sour soup, pork dumplings, chicken lettuce wraps, spring rolls, and wine at the bar. Then we wound up at this neat little bar downtown called Gone Rogue. We had a beer and listened to a local live band for a little while before moving on.

The Treefort Music Festival was also going on this weekend, so we decided to go wandering and see if we could get into one of the bars where a band was playing. We got in pretty easily at Tom Grainey’s, where we were lucky enough to get to hear two really fantastic bands, Danger Beard and Jupiter Holiday. We danced until we were sweaty, and ultimately left after my mom got hit on pretty hard by a 25-ish year old hipster who insisted she teach him how to swing dance.

Saturday was Manetherin, the annual Belegarth event in Mountain Home. Turn out was kinda small, as it usual is, but everyone had a great time nonetheless. I got dressed up in my goblin attire and even did my hair in an extra monstery fashion, but I just wasn’t feeling the fighting. I never did take the field that day, but still had a great time hanging out and watching everyone.

Also, is there anything more adorable than this baby in Mongolian furs?

Sunday was our much-anticipated airsoft game, Objective: Reciprocity. It was another military simulation game, during which the two teams raced to “blow up” all of the “data hubs” before the other.

COBRA worked very well that day, and won the day by blowing all of the data hubs with 25 minutes of game play left to spare!

Teresa, our photographer, was kind enough to brave the field to take photos for us. She got a few great shots, despite the difficulties of everyone hiding well and also trying not to get shot. Check out this one… the only reason you can tell I’m there is that the black tip of my gun is sticking out. Camouflage for the WIN!

Sunday after the game everyone came back to our place to debrief and hang out. We watched Black Hawk Down (of course) and Shiann and I drank way too much wine.

Monday was a nice, lazy recovery day. I started the day off with a much-needed massage, and spent the rest of the day just hanging out and taking it easy. Dane, Harrison, and I finished the afternoon with some fabulous wood-fired pizza from Casanova.

And now here I sit, with a cup of green tea, writing to you all and getting ready to actually get some necessary stuff done. My house is a mess – airsoft stuff is everywhere and beer bottles and glasses litter every surface from the living room to the kitchen. I haven’t done yoga in over a week, and haven’t cooked anything in almost as long. And I badly need to go grocery shopping. But I’m hardly complaining. These were just the kinds of days I needed.

I’m going to try really hard to have a recipe to share with you later this week. Until then… keep it real!

Easy Energy Bars

A lot of you have been anxiously awaiting this recipe since I teased you all with a photo on Instagram last week. Well the wait is over… here it is!

The recipe for these homemade energy bars is something I’ve been holding onto for quite a while. But now that I’ve made them and realized just how tasty they are and just how easy they are to make, I consider myself a complete and total homemade-granola-bar convert. I doubt I’ll ever buy another granola bar again.

These bars are dense and chewy, just the way I like ’em, personally. If you like yours a little more on the crunchy side, I’d recommend lowering your oven temp and baking longer… an easy adjustment. They’re just sweet enough to satisfy without tasting like a candy bar… another feature I like. Plus, all of the sweetness comes from wholesome ingredients like dried fruit and a little pure maple syrup, not from chemically processed sugary additives. No strange ingredients here! I love that these bars as satisfying to my health-conscious self as they are to my taste buds. A total win-win all the way around.

Try ’em and see if you’re not converted too!

Building Fence

Dane and I feel like we can finally call ourselves homeowners now, because we just successfully tackled our first DIY project! As I mentioned last week, part of our fence blew down in a big wind storm a few weeks ago and the whole section needed to be replaced. Having never done anything like this before, we’re pretty proud of our handiwork… so come take a look!

I hadn’t originally intended to blog about this little project, so I don’t have any before pictures, unfortunately. But what you can kind of see from this photo is that the original fence stuck out quite a bit further than where we placed our new fence. The previous owners had carved out this area as a place to store their ATVs. Since we don’t own an ATV – and we honestly never cared for this random patch of bare dirt along the side of our house – we decided to build the new fence back a bit further and flush with the rest of the existing fence. Part of this section of dirt will get turned into a flower bed and then the rest filled in with grass.

Here’s the front! We’ll paint this to match the rest of the fence soon.

And here’s the back! This is the view from our deck. I really enjoy the look of the wood, and this section is kind of sectioned off from the rest of the yard, so I don’t think I’ll paint this side.

We were feeling pretty motivated by the time we got done with the fence, so we decided to go ahead and finish off the remaining random dirt patch that same day! It’s kind of hard to see here but there is a small, short section of deck to the left of this area. There is also a small piece of fence on that side, which sections this area off from the rest of the yard. (The previous owners had kept a hot tub here… but rather than finishing off the area they simply sat it on cinder blocks right in the dirt. Weird, right?) Since we’ll most likely never own a hot tub, we thought this would make a perfect area for a grill pit! That way the grill master still gets to hang out with everyone but the grills don’t take up space on the deck.

We’d initially planned to use paving stones, but after exploring all of our options we decided to go with these rubber mats instead. They’re made from recycled tires – which makes my Earth-loving side feel good – and they should be much nicer to stand on while I’m cooking than concrete or stone. Plus they were super easy to install… they literally just clip together.

Now, to be honest with you, I was a little apprehensive about posting about our little projects. We’d posted a couple of these pictures on Facebook, and some of our friends had some pretty rude things to say. Look, we know it’s not perfect. In fact, we probably notice all the little imperfections more than any of you do. Yeah, the fence is a little uneven in spots. So the ground under our patio isn’t perfectly level. So what? We’re not professionals here. And for our first DIY projects, I don’t think they turned out that bad.

So that’s that! This is just the beginning of the home-improvement trail, so I’m sure I’ll have many more projects to share in the future. Until next time…