I will NEVER go back to store bough ravioli or pasta shells again.

Seriously once you try this recipe, fresh homemade pasta, you will be converted

Dough recipe:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 pinch salt
1 T olive oil
2 eggs
3 T water (this one is kinda up to you, I just put enough water in so its not dry but be careful not to put to much water in. This is a very firm dough)

Egg Wash:
1 egg

Filling: You can put whatever you want in it, be creative
This is what we love:
1 1/2 Cup Ground turkey meat
1 Cup mixed cheeses (as much or little as you want, Mike LOVES cheese)
1/2 medium onion
2 T oregano
1 T parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Marinara:
Just pick your favorite kind :)

To make the dough:

1. Mound the flour and salt together on a work surface or bowl and form a well. Beat the teaspoon of olive oil, 2 eggs, and water in a bowl. Pour half the egg mixture into the well. Begin mixing the egg with the flour with one hand; use your other hand to keep the flour mound steady. Add the remaining egg mixture and knead to form a dough.

1. Knead the dough until smooth, 8 to 10 minutes; add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Form the dough into a ball and wrap tightly with plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour ( I only refrigerated for 20 min and it turns out great)

Make filling:

While the dough is resting, prepare the ravioli filling. Cooke meat, onions, parsley, and oregano together until done. While still warm add cheeses so it semi melts. Salt and pepper to taste. Set the filling aside.

Assemble:

1. Roll out the pasta dough into thin sheets no thicker than a nickel. To assemble the ravioli, brush the egg wash over a sheet of pasta. Drop the filling mixture on the dough by teaspoonfuls about one inch apart. Cover the filling with the top sheet of pasta, pressing out the air from around each portion of filling. Press firmly around the filling to seal. Cut into individual ravioli with a knife or pizza cutter. Seal the edges.

1. Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Stir in the ravioli, and return to a boil. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the ravioli float to the top and the filling is hot, 4 to 8 minutes. Drain well.
2. While ravioli is cooking warm up your marinara sauce.
   

Once drained put ravioli on plate, pour sauce over top, and enjoy the goodness of homemade pasta!!!

Friends, Balls, & a hundred year old bowling lane

Welcome to BYUH bowling where the lanes are buckled and warped, there is never a full set of pins, the machine breaks down every other bowl, and your score gets randomly changed.

Find us....this is kinda like the wheres waldo mirror. Who can locate us.



Chelsey and Matt



Me and lover boy



Matt had this infamous fist pump, luckily I was able to catch it on camera, priceless!



I never get over the look of bowling shoes......come on really? After hundreds of years of bowling they still can't come up with anything better than this?







Check out Mikes score, he ROCKED it.



Yeah buddy, Friday night bowling ;)

I love learning new funny words, check this one out:

tchotchke pronounced [chahch-kuh]/ˈtʃɑtʃkə/ Show Spe

-noun

an inexpensive souvenir, trinket, or ornament.

Next time your traveling and want to buy something from that particular place you could say, "wow, isn't this a cute tchotch I think I might buy it".

---

Origin:
1965–70, Americanism ; < Yiddish tshatshke < Pol czaczko bibelot, knickknack (now obs.; cf. mod. cacko with same sense, orig. dial.); of expressive orig.

If anyone is looking for a GREAT lightweight wind proof and water proof backpacking jacket this one rocks!!! It has a full hood, pockets, it compresses to be extremely small and light weight, it's water proof and wind proof.

I love it!

It comes in tons of fun colors :)




Features:

The one jacket we take everywhere—the Microlight™ packs into a tiny package, offers substantial weather resistance, and is an unbeatable value.

Adjustable Hood

2 Zippered Hand Pockets

Elastic Cuffs

Internal Hem Adjustment

Includes Stuff Sack

Center Back Length 27.25" (L)

Weight 8.5 oz.

Fabric: Microlight 800 WP 100% Polyester • Embossed Diamond • 75D • 3.04 oz/yd² (103 g/m²)

We bought ours at REI but Mountain Sports online is selling them for 3$ cheaper.

December couldn't come fast enough! Many of you know how much I don't like my job but thanks to my grandmas endearing advice I have almost made it :)

If you don't have the job you love,
LOVE the job you have
-Helen Swim (my grandmas awesome advice)

I thought these pictures were funny and they give me a better perspective on my own job

Eliminate the Excess

These are words I have heard my mother say for years but to me, they have never meant a whole heck of a lot. For some reason (actually a bunch of events that have happened in my life) that simple phrase "Eliminate the Excess" has taken grip to my heart like a hawk clinging to its prey.

Eliminate the Excess

These words could mean a thousand different things to a thousand different people.

Eliminate the Excess

Cars, money, things in your house, clothes, shoes, weight, food, junk stored under your bed, and the list goes on and on.......

Eliminate the Excess

Needs vs Wants

Eliminate the Excess

How much do we really need?

Eliminate the Excess

Simplicity is bliss

Here is my FAVORITE brownie recipe of all time!

If you like chewy, moist, melt in your mouth chocolatey brownies then this is the recipe for you.

Adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, melted
• 3 cups white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• You can also add any kind of nuts ( I love walnuts in these brownies)
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Combine the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, until thoroughly blended.
3. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until blended. Stir in the chocolate morsels. Spread the batter evenly into an un greased prepared baking dish.
4. Bake in preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove, and cool pan on wire rack before cutting.

Ok, for all you none bakers, short on time kinda peps here is a recipe that EVERYONE can master. Its the easiest & yummiest cookie recipe. Enjoy :)

Cake Mix Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 3 T oil
• 1 T vanilla
  
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I use a lot more than 1 cup cause I like Chocolate :)

- You can also put nuts or anything else in them
- You can use any cake box flavor

I love sandwich cookies here are a couple of my favorite combos:

• Red Velvet Cake mix with cream cheese frosting in between the two cookies
• Chocolate Fudge Cake mix with chocolate chips and walnuts and vanilla buttercream frosting in between
• Chocolate Cake mix with dulce de leche in between the cookies

• 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cake mix, butter and eggs until smooth and well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 6-8 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
   

Note: Make sure you only bake these for 6-8 min, even if they don't look completely done at 8 min take them out.

Our Fate

My heart is pounding, my mind is racing, my concentration is short lived, 3 more hours and then we will know.

Mike is currently taking the OAT (Optometry Acceptance Test) to get into med school for eyes and I am a nervous wreck.

This score determines so much.

Pray

Pray

Pray

The Start of Many Videos :)

I don't know about you but I love watching home videos, it hilarious.

Mike and I have decided (because we are leaving in 3 1/2 months) that we are going to take video of all our favorite places here in Hawaii. We doubt we will ever live here again and we want to remember how AWESOME it is and we think it will be something fun our future kids will like to watch :)

Video #1 Hukilau Beach

A Little Self Experiment

Warning: this is not scientific, it was tested on one person, may cause extreme happiness, cure pre-existing problems, and make everything look a little brighter

Hypothesis: If I listen to EFY/church music in the morning while getting ready for the day then I am happier throughout the day.

Tests:
#1. 1 Week of getting up and doing my morning routine with no music, then rate my mood.
#2. 1 Week of getting up and listening to EFY music in the morning while doing my routine, then rate my mood.

Results:
#1. Mood for the week was average, no noticeable difference.
#2. Mood for the week with music was significantly higher. Overall I was; more smiley, positive, easy going, and happy.

Conclusion:
Listening to EFY/church music in the mornings increases happiness :)

Seriously I did this for a week and I am a firm believer in the power of music and the spirit. During the week that I listened to music in the mornings my days went better, I enjoyed my job more, I had more patience, I was happier etc..... When you start the day with feeling the spirit and listening to something positive and up beat it makes a HUGE difference.

My FAVORITE EFY song ever, listen to the words, they ROCK!!!

We Got Our TiCkEtS!!!!


Seriously check out our itinerary, it's going to be one LONG 24 hours!

Traveling to Buenos Aires
Salt Lake City (SLC) Depart 6:00 am	to	Los Angeles (LAX) Arrive 6:48 am	Duration: 1hr 48mn	UA
Los Angeles (LAX) Depart 10:30 am	to	Bogota (BOG) Arrive 8:45 pm	3,480 mi (5,601 km) Duration: 7hr 15mn	AV
Bogota (BOG) Depart 10:10 pm	to	Buenos Aires (EZE) Arrive 6:25 am +1 day	2,908 mi (4,680 km) Duration: 6hr 15mn	AV
Total distance: 6,978 mi (11,230 km) Total duration: 20hr 25mn with connections

My obsession continues.......I love Cupcakes!

Here are some of my latest creations



Classic American Favorite!
We go to Sam's and buy those big boxes of Oreo's, you know the ones that come with like 12 packs inside? Unfortunately Oreo's are a love in our house. I have to safeguard them else I'll find my husband with a glass of milk and crumbs on his face and no Oreo's left (trust me this has happened more than once lol).




I seriously have this new obsession with Dulce de leche a.k.a caramel! I spent 4 1/2 hours last night making a fresh batch to use for a baby shower I am throwing this Saturday. I love it, any excuse to make it and I will!


Chocolate Sundae!
My husband doesn't particularly like this picture, he doesn't like how the chocolate is swirled around the frosting. I don't know why but something about it is soothing to me.

For all you who love ice-cream dipped in the chocolate shell this will rock your socks off! Vanilla cake topped with vanilla frosting and dunked in ganache chocolate :)


I love coconut! This is my favorite little snow ball cupcake.

**Ok, I probably say "I Love..." way to much but when it comes to cupcakes and cake it's true!