Smiley Coyote and Video Update

I went through some video footage today from recent tapes and pulled some highlights.  Life is good with little Hammie and Smiley Coyote (or as Ariel appropriately call Ben: Mount Pleasant).
Enjoy!

The first video is of our good time with Kate and Hardie's on Labor Day weekend.  I never seemed to take the camera out of the house, so we have lots of stills of our adventures in the city and lots of video of our good time at home.



The second video is of Abe singing a couple of his favorites.  My Dad always used to start his home videos with the same lines: "What's your name? . . . How old are you? . . . What are you going to sing?"  We also captured a Ben smile on video for the first time as seen on this reel.



Finally, here's a little of Abe from earlier today.  Just being his goofy, hilarious self.  Here's to a new, great week! 

Moroccan Chickpea Chili

"If I were Moroccan, and I wanted chili, I would look no further. But I'm not Moroccan, or even close to passing for one. The good news is, if I were American, and it happened to be the first day of fall, there couldn't be a better dish after a long day." -Andrew

This recipe comes from a Cooking Light magazine. My dear sister-in-law, Nonie, gave me a subscription in 2007. I have kept all 12 magazines and regularly refer to them. I love looking at the magazine for ideas, because it's like a cookbook that refreshes itself monthly with seasonal dishes!

I have used the picture from the magazine (and website). Is that cheating? Their pictures always look so much nicer than mine. If you have an opinion, let me know if you'd rather see the nice presentation, or just a snapshot of the food after I make it.

Also, this dish recommends lavash as a side, but Andrew made a delicious cornbread that went beautifully well with the chili. I'm sure a lavash would have been great, but we were fresh out over here ;)

And don't be intimidated by the long ingredient list, they're mostly spices. And I'm sure you could leave a few out and it would still be good.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

Ingredients
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup prechopped onion
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons no-salt-added tomato paste
2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

(Oops, I just realized I forgot the cilantro and lemon. It was good anyway, but I'm sure it would have been better with.)

Preparation
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, carrot, and garlic to pan; sauté 5 minutes. Stir in cumin and next 7 ingredients (through red pepper); cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add 1 1/2 cups water, tomato paste, chickpeas, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in cilantro and juice.

Silver Spring Stake Film Festival

So I've had a cool job lately: ward film producer.  We had our big film festival tonight, and had a great time.  Our piece was particularly well-received, if I do say so myself. This movie shows how cool and fun the youth are in our ward.  Enjoy!

Go Grantwell!

So I never really had a chance to blog about Grantwell while immersed in it last year. It was the most meaningful experience I had in the program, with the most lasting impact on me and the community. I wrote an op-ed for the Mormon Times on Grantwell in January and it finally ran a few weeks ago. I actually didn't catch it until last week. I have a snippet of it below, with a link to the full article, as well as a movie we produced last year. With grant money to use, a publication in an academic journal, and more projects lined up, I'm sure Grantwell is having a great new year!

"Two years ago I visited the Romney Institute of Public Management at Brigham Young University while wrestling over the difficult decision of where to attend graduate school.

While in the Tanner Building that day I spoke with Aaron Miller. In that short interview, Aaron told me about a program called Grantwell that would change my life forever. That day I caught a glimpse of the skills, experience, connections and opportunities to serve society that Grantwell could provide. As the current executive director of Grantwell, I can attest to all of the above.

Grantwell works for foundations and other large donors, offering grantmaking recommendations and assisting in strategic planning. Grantwell also provides opportunities to network with philanthropists, community leaders and other professional contacts. Ultimately, it prepares students for future work and service in the nonprofit sector." Read the full article here.

Hearty Vegetable Lasagna & Ariel's Pasta Sauce

"The heavens opened and a stream of light bathed this lasagna in a well-deserved celestial glow. This is the stuff that would make Garfield a vegetarian." -Andrew

The missionaries were over for dinner, and they also had two or three large helpings each, which is pretty good for missionaries and vegetarian lasagna.

This recipe I got off allrecipes.com. It's a place where users can post a recipe, and other people can try it and rate it. You can also see all the nutritional information for each recipe, and plug in the number of servings you want and the site will adjust the recipe to fit your group so you don't have to do all the calculations in your head (I always seem to forget half way through and so the first half of the ingredients are halved and not the second). This is a good place to find any kind of basic recipe that you want. Search something like "guacamole," and 47 recipes come up. The top recipe is rated 5 out of 5 stars and has 1792 reviews, so you can safely assume it's going to be a pretty good recipe. The only trouble is that these recipes make no claims to being healthy, so you may have to look for a while before you find some really healthy ones.

Source

This lasagna is not one of those really healthy ones, unless you are comparing it to a regular lasagna. I don't exactly follow the recipe, so you can see my comments at the bottom.

PREP TIME	25 Min
COOK TIME	1 Hr
READY IN	1 Hr 40 Min

SERVINGS-12

INGREDIENTS

1 (16 ounce) package lasagna noodles

1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

3/4 cup chopped green bell pepper

3/4 cup chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 (26 ounce) jars pasta sauce

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 (15 ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

2 eggs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water for 10 minutes, or until al dente. Rinse with cold water, and drain.

2. In a large saucepan, cook and stir mushrooms, green peppers, onion, and garlic in oil. Stir in pasta sauce and basil; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

3. Mix together ricotta, 2 cups mozzarella cheese, and eggs.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spread 1 cup tomato sauce into the bottom of a greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer 1/2 each, lasagna noodles, ricotta mix, sauce, and Parmesan cheese. Repeat layering, and top with remaining 2 cups mozzarella cheese.

5. Bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

For the sauce, I make my own. I guess now that I have my own place to put my cooking recipes, I can call this, "Ariel's Pasta Sauce."

I just chop up some garlic (maybe 2 cloves), about 1/2 of a large onion, or 1 small, and whatever other veggie I have. Zucchini (which, by the way, is SUPER easy to slice thinly on the side of a cheese grater), yellow squash, mushrooms and spinach are my favorites. You can also use bell peppers, but I chop them small so as to diminish the texture. You'd be surprised how much you can veg this up. I saute them in olive oil until somewhat wilted, and then pour in a can of tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes with the juice. If you have too many veggies, add another can of sauce or diced tomatoes. I add fresh ground pepper, salt if not already in the tomatoes, fresh basil if I have it, and any combo of dried basil, oregano, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper. If you didn't have any garlic or onion, here's where you can add onion or garlic powder or garlic salt. Then I bring it to a boil and let it simmer for as long as I have, which usually isn't very long. If you or your family doesn't like big chunks in your pasta, you can put the veggies in the food processor and just use tomato sauce instead of diced tomatoes. You could also put the whole thing in the blender.

I don't know why that looks so long, it's really very easy.

Okay, back to the recipe. For me, after I get done with my sauce, it usually makes a lot. And I find that I have twice the noodles and cheese that I need for one lasagna, so it makes two pans of lasagna just fine. Sorry no picture. You can see what it looks like on the website--it looks just like any other lasagna.

Why I Love Our Government

This morning, in my role at work as the FedExperience Program Coordinator, I spoke with eight agency representatives, all of whom are committed to improvement in their recruiting and retaining of experienced workers in order to further their agency's missions and make life better for all of us.

And tonight, at the Service to America Awards Gala that the Partnership for Public Service throws every year, I felt inspired, excited, and grateful. So much so that I wrote this blog post on the metro while riding home. The government as an institution is essential. I'm grateful for the security, leadership, regulation, and law that it offers. I recognize and try to remember that we depend on our government for clean water, for smooth roads, for scientific and medicinal discoveries, assistance to the poor here and across the world, safety, and countless other goods and services. But why I love public service particularly is because it is just that: service. It is service to fellowman.
Tonight the Partnership celebrated nine deserving individuals who have worn out their lives and careers in service to us. I was lucky enough to get to know and interact a great deal with Pius Bannas, the winner of the Federal Employee of the Year Award. This man spent (and spends) literally day and night providing Haitian children with the chance to finally embrace their adoptive parents in the United States, and he expedited the process for 1,100 to do just that immediately following the earthquake. I took a tour of the White House yesterday, and while getting a wave from Michelle Obama was very cool (it did happen, by the way), walking and learning from Pius marked me for good.



He, along with many other civil servants do the work they do because they care. It sounds cliche, but they really do care about people, about society, about our earth (here, here, and here), about human rights, about safety, and about our future.

I love my job, and am committed to public service. It is an honor to be part of a first-class nonprofit that revitalizes the federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by changing the way government works.

Let's hear it for public service.

2010 Federal Employee of the Year from Partnership for Public Service on Vimeo.

Late Summer Minestrone

"Beautiful enough for an artist to admire, healthy enough for those watching their figure, and hearty enough for those with steakhouse frequent diner cards." -Andrew (this review is specific to the recipe as rendered by the unmatchable Ariel)

Feel free to exchange one veggie for another (say--carrots for zucchini!). And you can add some bullion at the end to keep the broth rich if you have overdone the vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 6 c chicken or vegetable broth
• 28 oz. can tomatoes, or (better) equivalent amount of ripe, fresh tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/2 lb. fresh green beans, cut in 1 1/2 inch pieces
• 3 large celery ribs, sliced
• 3/4 lb. russet or Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 3/4 inch dice
• 1 T fresh basil, chopped
• 2 t dried Italian seasoning
• 1-2 med small zucchini, chopped into about 3/4 dice
• 2-3 c fresh corn from the cob
• 1/4 c chopped fresh basil
• 1 T extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and Pepper
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:In crock pot or on the stove in a heavy stock pot, mix together broth, tomatoes with their liquid, garlic, onion, beans, celery, potatoes, 1 T fresh basil and Italian seasoning. Cover and cook on low about 8 hours (much less on stove top--check frequently) or until potatoes are nearly tender. Add zucchini. When zucchini is at desired done-ness, add corn and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with 1/4 cup chopped basil and Parmesan cheese (optional).

Chaco Update, and A Pack of Pictures

I got an email from Amy at Chaco addressed to "Fabulous Chaco-Loving Ariel." She was pretty impressed that I had worn straight through those tough soles. Basically, she said she couldn't get me a free pair, but she said she could get me a pair for $40. Good enough for me! My new pair took me all around the zoo today.

I should have taken a picture with them by the orangutans, but I forgot. So here are my happy feet in the kitchen.

While uploading the chaco pics, I realized it's been a long time since we've updated the blog with pictures and happenings. So, here's a sample of our whirlwind life.
Andrew gave Benjamin James a beautiful blessing while Amanda and Thomas were here. We were also happy to have Joe and Melissa as well as some of the Evans family with us. We were sure sad to say goodbye to Amanda and Thomas! But we've been lucky to have lots of other great friends and family visit over the last couple weeks.
Jarilyn from the MPA program was the first of the visits. We went to lunch and then walked to the beautiful National Botanical Gardens. They have a fun children's garden where you can get dirty and wet and then go in a little house.We took a little weekend trip to Lancaster County, PA to visit our friends Dave and Sarah and their beautiful daughter, Madeline who is just between Abe and Ben in age.
They took us to Lititz. If you ever find yourself in Lititz, go to Wilbur's Chocolate Co.
"Smile!""Look at each other!"
"Now hug!"
What good kids . . .

At Lititz Park

Over Labor Day weekend, we had the great fortune of having our wonderful friends, Joe, Whitney and adorable little Ellie stay with us. And Andrew's sister Kate also came up for a couple of days.

We went all over DC and had a great time. Here's a splash of pictures from our adventures.Bens.
Abes.

We have been working so hard to try to catch smiles from our little baby who smiles all the time. So far we've been only successful in catching 1/2 smiles. But they're still sweet :)Abe was playing by himself downtown and we blinked and somehow he had become a little chimney sweep playing with the dusty rocks on the sidewalk.Andrew definitely can't wait to have a little girl . . . some day . . . later . . . down the road. We had such a great time with all of them!

Now, some Ben pictures for your enjoyment. This is for you, Grandmama and Nonna!The blurry beginning of a smile. You've got to hand it to him, it's got to be hard to move those cheeks!The Evans scowl. We weren't sure he had it in him for a while, but here's proof.Abe asks every day if it's FHE yet. With cookies and painting pictures, it's a little boy's dream.
This wasn't part of FHE.

Recipe of the Week

I love to cook. It's a good thing too, because I have a family of hungry boys who expect food a few times a day. I rarely cook the same thing twice. I'm not very inventive, so I just go through recipe books or online recipes and make what sounds good to me. I hear a lot of people who say that they don't have enough healthy, quick meals that they know how to make, and they don't want to risk making a recipe they don't have a personal recommendation for. It occurred to me the other day that it might be helpful if once a week I posted my favorite recipe that I made that week along with a picture and any additional notes about it. Most of the dishes would probably be vegetarian.

Well, would it be helpful? Would you be interested in these recipes? Again, I really only want to do this if it would be helpful or interesting, so please be honest!