Happy Halloween!

My Unspectacular Quirks

I was tagged by Kasey to list of some of my unspectacular quirks. Since most of my quirks are spectacular, this was a hard assignment. Actually, I asked John to help me think of some quirks of mine. This is how the conversation went:

Me: Hey, Kasey tagged me and I need to think of 6 quirks about me. Do I do anything quirky?

John: (gives me the "are you serious" look)

Me: Seriously, I can think of the popcorn quirk (see below) but I can't think of any others.

John: OK, I have some for you.

He rattles off 5 more quirks in quick succession. I'm pretty happy that I have enough quirks to fulfill this requirement. I run to the computer to write them down before I forget them. John enters the room.

John: Hey, I just thought of a few more quirks. (He names off several more)

Me: I only needed 6.

John: But there's so many more!

I quickly run away from him to avoid hearing more quirks. Ah well. Here we go.

The rules are as follows:

1.Link to the person who tagged you
2.Mention the rules on your blog
3.Tell 6 unspectacular quirks about you
4.Tag 6 following bloggers by linking to them
5.Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

MY UNSPECTACULAR QUIRKS

1. I eat popcorn really weird. Here's why: When I was in high school, I had braces and as any brace wearer knows, popcorn kernals get stuck in your teeth and are very hard to get out. So my sweet mom, bless her heart, knowing my love of popcorn, used to pick off the white parts of popcorn and put them in a cup for me. It became an acquired taste to eat the white parts of the popcorn alone sans kernals, so to this day, when I make popcorn, I sit down with an empty cup and systematically bite off all the parts of the popcorn with kernals on it, eat those first, then drop the whites into a cup and save them to eat last (save the best for last). One reason I know John loves me is he will toss his whites into my cup whenever we eat popcorn together. Now that's true love.
2. Here's my deal with onions. I love the taste of onions and shallots, but the texture makes me gag. I love to cook, and many many dishes have onions in them as a major component. So whenever I cook something that calls for onions, I figure out a way to puree them and get them in there in a creative way, so there won't be chunks of onions in the final dish.
3. I am obsessed with Round Table Pizza, and since there is not one in Utah anymore, whenever we travel, I scout out where the closest RTP's are so I can go get some pizza. I also like it hot, very, very hot. I like it so hot, in fact, that in order to be hot enough for me to like it, it has to burn the skin off the roof of my mouth. A couple of weeks ago when we were visiting CA, we went to RTP two nights in a row, and I had multiple levels of skin burned off, but it was worth it. John calls my pain the morning after eating at RTP my Round Table Pizza hangover.
   
4. When I find an entree that I like at a restaurant, I do not vary from ordering that entree pretty much every time I eat there. I am always afraid that I'll waste money on something I don't like as much as the thing I know I like. I know, not very adventurous. However, I do love to eat at new restaurants and try new things, but once I have a favorite dish, I pretty much stick to it.
   
5. John threw this one in. I'm a habitual procrastinator. If I know how much time I have to finish a task, I will take every minute of that time. John loves to get things done early, but I will find other things to do to fill my time until I have exactly (or possibly less than) the amount of time needed to finish a given task.
   
6. Last quirk: I lie about my location when driving. I don't know why I do this, but whenever someone calls to find out how close I am, I exaggerate how close I am. For instance, if I'm on 800 North in Orem at the stoplight at State Street, I tell people I'm just getting on the freeway. If I'm in Lindon, I tell people I'm just just outside of Lehi. So when John calls me to find out where I am, I'll tell him, then he'll say, "OK, where are you really?" and I tell him where I really am. Quirk or deception? You decide...

OK, that was fun. Now I tag:

Emily
Karen
Karla
Michelle
Stephanie
Daisy

Can't wait for everyone else to take the same walk of shame that I just took....

Basil Smuggling

This week we took a trip to Palm Desert, CA to visit my sister and brother-in-law, play a little golf, and relax in the sun as our home town gets its first freeze of the season. Good timing, I must say. We prepped for the trip by picking up a whole bunch of healthy snacks, including apples, bananas and some other munchies. We had all of our stuff packed up, including the fruits, when I remembered that in order to enter California, you have to go through the agricultural check point, and surrender any fruit that was not grown in California. Snap, I thought, too bad. I hurriedly packed the rest of our food, carefully and contentiously avoiding any fruits or veggies. As we were heading out the door, I remembered that I had a container of fresh mozzarella in the fridge that I needed to use up, so I threw it in the cooler. I had some olive oil, salt and pepper as well, so I thought that I could purchase some tomatoes in CA, and throw together a delicious tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil salad. Without thinking, I threw the remaining ingredient (the basil) in the cooler too, and laid it right on top of the rest of our food.

Fast forward 7 hours. We approached the agricultural checkpoint and prepared to stop. I was driving, John was in the backseat with the baby, and I had the cooler of food next to me on the passenger seat. I rolled down the window to talk the the vegetable border patrol.

Agent: Hi there, what do we got in the cooler today?

Me (proudly): Absolutely no fruits or vegetables! I made a special point of making sure we didn't pack any of those items at all.

At this point I flung open the cooler with flair, to show him how confident and cooperative I was. I didn't look at the cooler, just flashed the vegetable border agent a huge and hopefully winning smile. Had I looked at the cooler, I would have noticed the huge package of basil sitting smack on top of the contents of the cooler.

Agent: (gives me a strange look, as if he's not sure if I'm kidding or not) Um, do you have any agricultural products in the cooler, other than the one I can see sitting right on top?

I turned to look at the cooler and realized my mistake. I explained to him that it was basil so it technically wasn't a vegetable. I'm sure my face was red. I'm surprised he didn't call for backup, with how flustered I got. After inspecting my basil and discovering that it was from California, he waved me through, but I've been watching my back ever since to make sure I'm not being followed.

Hot Apple Cider

Last night as we were driving around, I rolled down the window and smelled Fall. It's hard to say exactly what Fall smells like for everyone, but for me, at that moment, Fall smelled like pine trees, smoke from a few chimneys and clean rain. The air was cool and it felt so good to lean out the windows, open the sun roof and breathe in the change in seasons. Of course, one of the best things about cooler weather is making my favorite comfort foods (and drinks). Below is one of my favorite fall drinks that is guaranteed to take the chill off. My mom used to make this all the time and it's still a staple on New Year's Eve at my parent's house.

Hot Mulled Apple Cider

2 quarts apple cider (I like to buy fresh cider from Allred's Orchard, but any kind of cider will do)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 cinnamon sticks
1/8 tsp plus a pinch of ground ginger
1 Tablespoon whole cloves
1 orange, clementine or tangerine, washed but not peeled

Pour the cider into a large sauce pan, or a slow cooker. I almost always go with the slow cooker because you can leave the cider to warm all day, and the ingredients really start to meld the longer they cook. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon sticks and ginger. Cut the washed orange into 4 or 5 slices and insert whole cloves into the segments of the orange slices. Add the cloved orange slices to the cider, cover and cook on low for several hours. Serve piping hot with an extra cinnamon stick.

Pick Me Up for the Soul

This weekend was a huge "Pick Me Up" for the soul. I look forward to Conference weekend for so long, and it's always just so amazing. This year was no exception. After every talk ended, I found myself saying "Wow. That was SUCH a good talk." Tonight we went to my parent's house for dinner and were discussing which were our favorite talks. By the time we got done, we had pretty much, between all of us, named every talk given.

I didn't take any notes this year because I really wanted to just listen. Plus, the text will be online this week. Once the text is available, I'll share some of my favorite quotes. For now, I'll just say that President Uchtdorf's talk was so good that we listened to it twice (thank you DVR). There was just way too much in there to catch it all the first time. I loved his optimism and lessons in faith, hope and charity. Other favorites? Elder Holland (let's be honest, when does he NOT give one of my favorite talks?), Elder Wirthlin (great reminder of the value of humor), and Elder Eyring's talk this morning on Unity was such a good reminder of where we need to be. Can't wait for the Ensign to come out!

There's Nothing Like a Good Book

The Pumpkin showed us yesterday that you're never too young to curl up with a good book.

Why...

Why do I suddenly have the urge lately to watch the entire Anne of Green Gables series and The Man from Snowy River? It's possible that it's the weather, as strange as that sounds. It's kind of like craving comfort food when fall hits, these are "comfort movies". They are movies I was raised on, and also movies that if I was to watch for the first time now, I'm sure I wouldn't be as impressed. We were talking to some friends the other night about the impact Jim's decent down the mountain had on theater goers who saw The Man from Snowy River on the big screen. It was the equivalent of a heart pounding car chase.

Sometimes it makes me sad to go back and watch movies I idolized in younger years and realize that they are a little cheesy. However, cheese or no cheese, nothing you can say will make me dis on Jim Craig or Gilbert Blythe. Don't even go there.