Quick Recap

Woah, has it really been 3 weeks since my last post?! Oops. 

A lot has happened and I've been horrible about updating my bloggity blog.  So to catch you up to speed here are five things that have happened since my last post.

1.  Ryan graduated from grad school - WOOOOO!!!!  

2.  We had a fantastic graduation celebration full of dessert and karaoke.  Mr. Belding was at karaoke and sang a song.  It was amazing.

3.  For Memorial Day weekend we ventured over to Temecula wine country  for some wine tasting with some of our cronies. It was spectacular.

4.  We hit up 2 Memorial Day BBQs.

5.  We saw 3 movies in the theatre! What to Expect, MIB 3, and Moonrise Kingdom.  All of them were awesome.  

So I guess after making the list I realized that I wasn't as busy as I thought I was.  There was also a lot of work, sleep, and pretend cleaning involved (you know, telling yourself that you're going to stay in tonight so you can get some cleaning done then you really just play Super Mario).

I'm sorry I've been so negligent of this blog these days.  I will try to get my regular posting schedule back on track!  

I seriously miss the weekend already.  But at least tomorrow is already Wendesday! Woooooot.

A little more Scandi love

Well, I don't know about you, but some weeks feel waaaaaaaay longer than others.  This is one of those weeks for me.  For the third day in a row it's taken me over an hour to get home (thank you, LA traffic) and even though the actual workday goes great, I come home like I've run 4 marathons in a row.  I'm tired.  And it's only Wednesday?! Really!?!

That kind of fatigue calls for some serious Scandinavian inspiration.  Here are my latest Pinterest pins from my Scandinavian pinboard...

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There's a dragon in my mouth!

After listening to a recent NPR story about chili-heads, I knew I had try making my own hot sauce.  Ryan is obsessed with spicy foods and a chili-head himself and I knew he would be on board with me attempting my own hot sauce.  Since I already had quite a few Thai chilies in the fridge from a cooking adventure earlier in the week, I decided to make a roasted Thai pepper sauce.  Be warned, these little suckers are hot.

After testing the final product, Ryan said, "It feels like there's a dragon in my mouth!".  Needless to say, he had tears running down his face along with a running nose.  And he still went back for more and more - crazy!

Roasted Thai Chili Sauce

adapted from this YouTube video

Approx 1 cup Thai chilies, red or green

1 tsp kosher salt

white vinegar, enough to cover chilies

First, rinse and drain your chilies well.  Remove all stems.

Place chilies in a preheated pan on medium-high.  Stir frequently to prevent burning.

After a couple minutes they should start to look slightly roasted.

A few minutes more and they should be done roasting.

Remove from heat and dump chilies in a food processor.  Add your salt and vinegar, I poured the vinegar directly over the chilies until they almost covered them.

Grind 'em up!

Pour into a glass jar and refrigerate until use.  Ryan likes to eat it on just about anything.  Chips, crackers, sandwiches, and especially veggies that he's try to mask the flavor of!

He's loving it!

Chugging along...

Plugging away at the baby blanket, on my 3rd stripe and have decided to nix the yellow altogther and just start back with white again.  Almost halfway done, just like this week!

Happy Wednesday!