Banana squash fries

A coworker offloaded a ginormous banana squash to me this week.


And since I had never cooked one myself I got online to look for a recipe. That's how I discovered that you could cut them into fries and bake them. I like sweet potato fries so I thought this should be good too.


First I found a huge knife to cut it open. Then I cut it into a ring. (This is when I preheated the oven to 435 degrees.)


Next I hollowed out the seeds and peeled off the skin. (I tried a vegetable peeler but it was too big a job for my peeler so I ended up using a paring knife to get the rest of the skin off.)


Then I cut thin slices from the ring and then sliced the slices into fry shapes.


And it all goes into a gallon size ziploc bag with some extra virgin olive oil and spices. I used allspice and cinnamon. Shakes the whole thing until every fry is coated in the spices.


One of the comments on the recipe mentioned putting a cooling rack on the cookie sheet to allow the heat to get to all sides at the same time. I left a layer if aluminum foil on the cookie sheet to both reflect the heat up and also catch the drippings. After about 20 minutes I flipped them over and stirred everything up and the put the tray back in for another 20 minutes.


They came out slightly golden, a little mushy, but completely delicious. Good with or without ketchup. Next time I will try different spices. I have lots of that banana squash left.

Thursday

I went to help Helen today to deliver deviled eggs to some people in the ward who were having a hard time. I was excited to help her serve others. When I got there she was quietly crying. Tears streaming down her face. She looked so worn out and tired. I asked her what was wrong as I gave her a hug. She told me that her friend's-husband's-brother just passed away. She had hears in her eyes about a man she didn't even know. She proceeded to tell how sad she felt inside for her friend and how painful it must be fore them and their family. I asked Helen if she knew that she didn't have to take the pain of everyone else upon her shoulders. She said to me, " I know I don't have to, but I want to. I know it is what He would have done."  She paused for a moment as more tears came down her face. "He would have wanted me to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those in need of comfort."

Helen's testimony and example helps me learn how to be more like the Savior. She lives His gospel daily through words, actions and deeds. I am blessed to know her and feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for her in my life. 

Fun with kids

We went to Discovery Gateway today with a few kids. It was fun!

iPhone post

I'm using a new iPhone app called BlogPress to create this post. I thought I would share this picture I took:



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Our Anniversary

This weekend we celebrated our three year wedding anniversary.

In that short amount of time, we've both graduated from college, gained full-time employment, and bought a house. We've also traveled to lots of exciting places including Nova Scotia, and the Redwood forest in Northern California. We also got a whole bunch of new nieces and nephews.

An extra special surprise this year! Katie surprised me and got me an iPhone. I've been wanting one ever since they came out a few years ago, and then even more when it finally arrived on Verizon. But plans to get one ended when we found a house to buy. And since all our money was spent in that direction, I was content to continue waiting. But now I don't have to wait any longer!

So now I have the new white iPhone 4, which means I'll be carrying a camera with Internet on it essentially everywhere I go. So I'll have an excuse to take pictures of stuff and post them on the blog.

Location!!

The best part about our house is the LOCATION!!!! We love our Sugarhouse home. Here's why:

Walking Distance: 

• Sugar house Park 
• Blue Plate Diner
• Our Ward house
• Hunan Gardens (Chinese food)
• Great Harvest Bread
• Anderson-Foothill Library

5 minutes away: 

• The FREEWAY entrance
• Home Goods and Brickyard
• DI
• Desert Book
• Sprague Library
• The dentist
• My hairdresser
• Foothill Shopping

10 minutes away: 

• My Mom's House
• University of Utah
• Our doctors office
• Costco
• The Hogle Zoo

15 minutes away: 

• My Work
• Braden's Work
• Braden's Moms
• Downtown
• The SL LDS Temple

20 minutes away:

• Fort Union Shopping Center, etc. 
• Bountiful Shopping

There are many more things really close by to us but the freeway is the best part about where we live. We are so glad to be right by the freeway and are glad that we live in a location that is in the city but also residential. Most of all we are glad to be by the things that are important in our life right now. We spend less money on gas, less time in the car, and more time with friends and family doing the things that we love! 

Blogs with Pictures

I apologize. We don't have pictures up on the blog yet.

If you're anything like Katie and me, you have an RSS feeder that alerts you of new posts on your favorite blogs, and then just scroll through it until you see a picture of something that interests you and then if you have to, you read the post (or at least part of it). We just don't blog like that. We read blogs that way, but that is not the way our blog posts usually end up. Hardly ever are there any post with pictures. Only sometimes. Usually just text that nobody wants to read.

So I apologize. I'll do better in the future to make more posts with pictures, and write a lot less text to read.