A Busy Valentine's Day (plus an easy cake recipe!)

We had a real adventure this year on Valentine's Day. Since the beginning of the school week is especially busy for me, I got up early to try to get a heads up on all of my homework. As a result, I was really tired all day. After I took a midterm, I ran home for a one-hour break in my day to bake a cake. I decided I really wanted to use our new bundt pan, so I made a classic recipe from my Mom. (I'll put the super easy recipe at the bottom of the post.) Fortunately, our oven cooks really really fast (is it normal to have to shave off 2-10 minutes off of every baking time?) so I was able to get back to campus in time to meet with Matt for lunch and the campus devotional. 

Our Valentine's bundt cake

Man. Then we had five hours straight of class/work/homework until we could finally get home and relax a bit. I have to admit that I was a bit cranky by the time I got home, but Matt was so sweet. He had bought me some fudge (he certainly knows me well!), a copy of Thomas S. Monson's biography (so excited!!!), and the children's song book from our church. Since we are teaching the Sunday lessons for the six year olds in our congregation, this will really come in handy. It was so thoughtful! I bought Matt some chocolate covered cinnamon bears (a BYU classic) and made him some "love checks" that Matt can redeem for kisses and breakfast in bed and such. So cheesy, but certainly Valentine's Day appropriate :)

Once we had a chance to dress up for dinner, we had to catch the bus since we still don't have a car. Ten minutes and $4.50 later, we arrived at Red Lobster. We were trying to use a gift card my grandmother gave us for Christmas, but the waiting time at the restaurant was almost 2 hours! Wow. It was really cold outside and I was freezing in my skirt, but Matt, in his wonderful, eternal optimism was able to find a great place with a reasonable waiting time. We finally decided on California Pizza Kitchen, which was DELICIOUS. Their artichoke pizza is to die for! It was so so perfect. We had a wonderful waiter and 4 glasses of mango and peach lemonade each! Then we were able to go home and devour the cake. It was wonderful. Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays and I am so glad that Matt made it special this year. You know you've found the right person when they help you have fun despite the chilly air and long restaurant wait times. I'm one lucky duck.

At the bus stop :)

Recipe for Lemon Blackberry Bundt Cake


What you need:
One box of lemon cake mix
3 eggs
1 can of blackberry pie filling


Directions:
Mix ingredients in a bowl and pour into a well greased bundt pan. Bake according to directions on the box. To add a bit more deliciousness, I topped ours with a lemon glaze (lemon juice and powdered sugar). And that's it! It's yummy and very moist.

Noah's Pudding

A few weeks ago, Matt and I went with my Uncle Andy to the Pacific Institute in Salt Lake City for an evening of celebration in honor of Noah's Pudding or Ashure. The tradition of Noah's Pudding is an ancient one. The legend says that after Noah and his family stepped off the ark, Noah put all of the food they had left into one pot and boiled it all together. Every family has their own recipe for Ashure, so there are literally hundreds (maybe more!) recipes for Noah's Pudding. The dessert takes a long time to prepare, but it is delicious! Some of the common ingredients include chick peas, pomegranate seeds, lima beans, sugar, wheat, and sesame seeds. The idea of Noah's Pudding is that even though each of us is different, when we work together, we can create wonderful solutions. The message is simple, but powerful.

The delicious Noah's Pudding.

 My Uncle Andy was invited to speak at the Pacifica Institute about his current project, a glass sculpture collection of pieces that represent the 99 Names of Allah (you can read more about it here). He gave a short address about the importance of Noah's Pudding and was able to discuss a few sculptures he brought with him. It was a great evening. Matt and I were able to make a few new friends and enjoy delicious Turkish fare.

The Best Bean Burgers

It's been a while since we posted a recipe and this particular one has recently become a favorite. We really love bean burgers and we had a recipe that we used fairly regularly. Then, the website where we usually find our recipe was down. It was definitely a bummer, but then we found a recipe that we like even more on Allrecipes.com. This one uses more veggies and it's delicious!

Here's what you need:

• 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1/2 onion, cut into wedges
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce or hot sauce
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs

 
Directions

1. If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and lightly oil a baking sheet.
2. In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty.
3. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Then stir into mashed beans.
4. In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce.
5. Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide mixture into four patties.
6. If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side.

Since it's not really grilling weather right now, we just baked them in the oven. So good! I was a little worried about them being really spicy, but the beans and veggies really balanced out the flavor. We loved them. They're especially good with relish on top.

A Whale of a Brag Wall : 2012

Already?! What have we done already in 2012 that deserves attention? Well, some of it is culmination of 2011 efforts. Here's a list:

• Jessica was awarded a $1500 ORCA grant from the Office of Research and Creative Activities for a research project she's working on as a student research fellow at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy (CSED) at BYU.
• Matt was awarded $500 of an ORCA grant as part of a group project in computational biology.
• Jessica is team lead of an internship group working with Innosight through the Students for Social Entrepreneurship program at BYU.
• Matt got an interview at the University of Virginia (UVA) for February 23rd.
• Jessica is helping to publish a student travel magazine called Stowaway. She is one of the magazine's copyeditors.
• Matt is working on a new bioinformatics tool for the Griffitts lab (where he works) that visualizes transposon insertion data.

Thanks for tuning in for another episode of Brag Wall 2012!

Nossa Casinha

As most of you are probably aware, Jessica and I have moved up in the world as of the day after finals week and the day before flying to North Carolina for Christmas break. We transitioned to a new apartment, about ten blocks closer to campus. Besides being closer, we enjoy higher ceilings, windows and daylight, and slightly cheaper rent. Sounds like the deal of a lifetime, right? Well, yeah, it was :)

To satisfy the curiosity of all, here are a few pictures of our new living conditions (yes, the bed is in the living room ... or you could say the couches are in the bedroom)...










The apartment is technically smaller, but it feels much roomier and we love it. Amamos nossa casinha!