WHAT'S COOKING

Matt and I have always loved to cook (and eat!) Add that to also having our own home, with new dishes, and discovering that Chopped is free on Amazon Prime, we have now started to enjoy taking pictures of our food. Just with an iPhone, so you know, no photography prizes will be found here...

 Matt made an amazing tomato and fresh basil soup from scratch...served with one eyed jack (Laura's specialty) and a few strawberries for a Saturday brunch.

 Matt saw this recipe for Cuban Black Beans on Reddit of all places and has been wanting to make them ever since. Laura was skeptical, but they were absolutely delicious. We ate them with rice and some spiced chicken thighs, and plan on making them many more times.

Not a great picture, but Laura's homemade chunky guacamole with a Cuban black bean quesadilla that we shared after church one Sunday...

Even though we love to eat, we try to eat small portions and Matt is often going on runs (sometimes Laura goes too, but she really prefers spin classes and doesn't have a gym pass anymore.) After reading parts of The China Study, a gift from Laura's best friend from high school Amelia, we are toying with the idea of going vegan for a month. We want to eat a diet of more plant based foods. We already don't eat too much meat, but adjusting to life without dairy products would be more difficult. We want to do all things in moderation, and we don't intend on living our lives strictly and never indulging. But the health benefits of a lifestyle that focuses on plant based whole foods just can't be disputed. We think a month of eating vegan would give us a kickstart in eating more this way than we already do, and help us learn recipes and find even more things we love that are the most beneficial for our bodies. After the month, we think we would still have dairy and meats occasionally and in small portions, but consciously build our diet on plant based and whole foods daily. But who knows until we get there!

BLACK SHEEP REVIEW

Matt and I have always consulted Yelp when choosing where to eat, and we did this especially on our honeymoon in Seattle. We never go to a place with less that 4 stars and usually only places have a fair amount of reviews. However, when we researched Yelp more thoroughly, we were disappointed that it may not be as accurate as it could be. (Here and here) We then got the idea of rating places on our own just for fun, and posting about it on our blog with our date nights and other recipes we make. So, here is our first review.

Matt: Grilled Quail

A duo of quail marinated in a mixture of traditional Navajo spices, grilled and served with cotija-roasted potatoes, spinach, and a spicy mole sauce. 

Two birds, spinach, potatoes and sauce. 
First, I loved the birds. Never got over the quails. I was intrigued the whole time by these miniature chicken. It was just different enough from a chicken in size and texture that it felt unique. Tender and juicy too. I couldn't really tell too much of the birds' natural flavor because of all the marination and sauce. Overall it was great. I was kept intrigued by this different bird. It reminded me when we used to have boiled quail eggs as little kids. Also reminded me of how me and Lee always talked of trapping some of the quails we saw by our apartment. 

Most impressive was the sauce. It really brought everything together into something cohesive. The menu talked about traditional Navajo spices and a spicy mole sauce. Didn't really get that, as the sauce was more sweet/nutty than spicy, somehow familiar but different. It was on the tip of my tongue the whole time. That tease sorta added to the intrigue. 

Overall, the dish was a fulfilling exploration. Unique and thought provoking. I don't know if I'd get it again though. And I love the artwork! 4.5/5

source

Laura: Navajo Taco Trio

Three tapas style Navajo tacos, The Black Sheep Pinto served with pinto beans that have been slow cooked in pork au jus, an adobo puree, and a ranchero salsa. The Red Chile Beef with olives and cotija cheese. The Green Chile Pork with cilantro. All with menonita cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, crema and onions.

I loved the concept of this dish and style of this dish. While all utilized the same formula of a frybread as a base loaded with a protein and toppings, the flavors were all surprisingly unique, yet complementary. I was very impressed with the wide variety of flavors they were able to bring out in all of them. 

The Black Sheep Pinto beans had an especially complex flavor; a great balance of spicy, sweet, and savory elements. The Red Chile Beef was the most similar to a typical Navajo taco from a street cart or fair, but of course a step above in quality. I would have to say the Green Chile Pork was my favorite of the three. It was the spiciest, which I loved, but not so much that the heat overpowered the other flavors. It also was the most simply topped, adding only cilantro to the list of standard toppings, of menonita cheese, lettuce, crema, tomatoes, and onions. I liked this because it really highlighted the green chile and pork, and let it speak for itself without adding too much noise. It was a rich, satisfying dish and I couldn't finish it all. 

However, since Black Sheep tries to provide a very fine dining experience, and all plates are 20 dollars plus, I think the presentation could have been a little cleaner. The toppings were fairly haphazardly placed on top, especially on the Red Chile Beef, and it just looked sloppy. (Picture above is not of my actual dish). Overall, I would give this dish 4.5 out of 5 stars.

For the rest of our date night, we strolled around downtown Provo for a bit. We then walked over to Smiths to get an Alpine Milk Chocolate Rittersport. (Laura has been craving milk chocolate lately, when usually she prefers dark, so this was noteworthy.) We have determined that Rittersport is having a supply chain problem on the Wasatch Front however, because all the places that usually carry them are out of stock. It's a travesty. So we setteled for a Lindt and Sprungli Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate bar. Matt ended up preferring it, but Laura still misses her Rittersports. We ended the evening watching some episodes of Chopped All Stars Tournament on Amazon Prime, because it's free, and why not?

DATE NIGHT 7/26 & 8/2

There are many more things we need to update on...but I want to make sure I record our Friday night date nights before I forget!

Our first Friday night date night as a married couple, (7/26/13), we decided to make a bolognese sauce together from scratch. We served it over fettuccine and had a spinach salad on the side. Laura loved it, since she always likes bolognese, and Matt was surprised at how good it was too. Our pictures really don't do it justice. We love cooking together and plan to do it a lot for date nights, as it's cheap and fun.

We then headed over to target to buy some things for our apartment, using our gift cards we got as wedding presents (thanks everyone!) We got a microwave, a knife set, a shower curtain liner, and some other things. We spent the rest of the evening trying to organize and get our home together. 

Last Friday night (8/2/13), we started our date night by jogging on the provo river trail. We stopped at some parks and enjoyed exploring our neighborhood and surrounding area more. Since our house is so close to the river, we plan on taking a lot more walks and runs on it while we live here.

By the time we got home, we were so hungry we didn't feel like spending the time to cook a thai curry like we planned, so we took some frozen tortellini we had, and Matt whipped up some nice tomato sauce and spinach salad to go with it. We then accidentally fell asleep on the couch after dinner because we were just so exhausted. Earlier in the week Laura saw on Facebook that Red Mango, a frozen yogurt place, was having a free yogurt day on the 2nd, so we had been planning on that all week. We woke up disoriented from our nap, and headed out for our free yogurt. Laura loved their peanut butter frozen yogurt, and we got some  free coupons to use the next time we go for date night.

To end the evening, we watched Capote, which we both really liked and were impressed with. Laura had been wanting to watch it for awhile since Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Capote won him Best Actor, and Matt was on board. In the first few minutes, Matt was saying how much he liked it. We both ended up really enjoying it- there is of course more we could say about it, but suffice it to say: it was really well done.

A SURPRISE AT WORK

sorry for the poor quality iphone photos. but i really love matt.

WHY LAURA LIKES MATT

I think it’s always a little trite when people ask me what it is that I like about Matt. If I could say one word about him, just identify one quality that makes me love him, wouldn’t that mean that our relationship is very one-dimensional? 

My next instinct is to then respond that I like everything about Matt. But again, that isn’t  giving the asker any real information. It’s a cop-out.

So what I usually end up saying is this.

From early on, I had a good feeling about Matt. I felt very interested and drawn to him, but if you had asked me why, I would have had no answer except that I had a good feeling. Somehow I just knew he was special, unique, and good for me. 

After only a few conversations, I was able to identify what it was I liked about Matt. To me, Matt is this perfect balance of so many things. I am honestly in awe of him every day.  He is so hard working, logical, and intelligent (you don’t just get into phD programs for Chemical Engineering by looking cute). But at the same time, he is one of the goofiest, kindest, most loving people I’ve ever known. He genuinely cares about others, and you can feel it- it’s tangible. He is always trying to be his best self; no matter what situation he’s in. He loves the art of Cezanne, but also taught himself Calculus- he just simply is everything; this balance of it all that I think is so difficult to achieve. Ever since the beginning of our relationship, I’ve found this dichotomy of interests and personality in him just absolutely fascinating. I love it.

Matt makes me want to be better, try harder, and love more. He accepts me at my worst, and encourages me to be my best.  I had a good feeling about him from the beginning, and while time has passed since then, that feeling still remains.

WHY MATT LIKES LAURA

Ever since I’ve liked Laura, I have been often asked what about Laura I like so much. I dread this question because there is no clear simple response. The answer probably lies in a mélange of the conscious and subconscious - common interests, shared experiences, hormones, intuition and whatever – that I don’t even am aware of. Thus, any answer is doomed to be trite and impotent. After much thought, I have decided to address this troublesome question with a long and unrelated story.

Sometime in mid-February, everybody around us was worried about a girl named 'Coriander'. Coriander usually livened up the neighbourhood with her eclectic sassyness, but at this time she had stopped coming to social events or church, and ostracised herself from everyone else. She stopped answering her phone and door. Nobody knew why. It was unfamiliar and troubling to us all.

One evening, Laura and I decided to visit Coriander. I remember the road was grim and miserably frosted still.  At that time, our relationship was in ambiguous limbo – we were spending a lot of time together but hadn’t officially called it dating yet – so I don’t remember if we had held hands.

When Coriander opened the door, the tension was immediately tangible. Despite this, Coriander let us in when we asked if we could come in. We started chatting on the couch but the uneasiness did not abate. Coriander was agitated and I didn't know how to react. I tried some goofy humor but it exacerbated the anxiety in the room. I thought everything was going south.

It was then that Laura came into the conversation. She expressed empathy and lent a listening ear. As I have since come to know, Laura’s listening –the attentiveness and sincerity - often soothes and calms. Composed and reflective, she rarely commands the crowd but often meets the need of an individual – a primal need to be understood. She considers and contemplates upon the person - she sees the lone tree in the forest. Such feat requires one to find and hold on to a genuine, non-trivial common ground between two psyches – some impressive emotional gymnastics. Laura often musters simple and sincere empathy from little common ground. The tension soon melted, and Coriander openly talked to us for a long time, until we had to finally excuse ourselves.

I reckon Laura doesn't fully appreciate her own gift, not only because she can be a harsh self-critic, but also simple because it is simply who she is (koala bears don’t know what it is like to be not cute. Laura was probably never emotionally deaf). I remember noticing it right away though, and appreciated deeply. It was one of the first moments when my feelings for her three-dimensionalized. 

THE PRODUCT OF A RAINY WALK

We're official!