An Easter BB Blurb

A late Happy Easter to you! We had a wonderful weekend in northern Virginia and John certainly figured out how awesome an Easter egg hunt could be. But we have a few pictures from the beginning of the week too!

Mud football!

John was soaked by the end of this adventure. But he was pretty pleased with himself!

John's newest outside toy. The perfect place for a snack or a rock collection.

John and a friend throwing rocks through the fence. Because, why not?

Family date night to Ducks Donuts! Matt polishes off his maple bacon donut.

John found some friends to run around with.

Ring around the rosie!

Dying Easter eggs with Grandma.

Helping grandpa decorate.

Meeting a real-life llama!

The egg hunt begins!

"There's candy in these things?!?!"

He had to sample every egg.

Another find!

Mom wanted a picture. John just wanted more candy.

The aftermath!

And the tractor. John was in heaven!

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.

One Year Anniversary!

On December 21st, we celebrated our 1st Wedding Anniversary! What a quick year! Fortunately, 2011 was full of fun and happiness, and opportunities for both of us to learn and grow. It is amazing how much we've learned about cooking, being less selfish, and serving others since getting married. We are so excited to find out what this next year of marriage has in store! This new year means our last semester at BYU, since we both graduate in April. We're so excited to hear from graduate programs and find out where we're headed after BYU. Stay tuned!

We were out on the East Coast visiting our families for the Christmas break, so we had a lot of fun the last two weeks (more on that in the next post). So instead of agonizing over picking the right gifts for each other, we decided to celebrate all of our anniversaries with dinner at a nice restaurant. We chose one of my favorite restaurants in Chapel Hill, The Mediterranean Deli. The deli's atmosphere is awesome. They have Persian rugs and tile decor and the smells of hummus and fresh-baked pita are everywhere. Matt chose a tomato, spinach and feta fatayer, while Jessica chose the hummus and gyro platter. Then we topped it all off with some baklava. Yum! It was all delicious! Definitely a great way to celebrate!

After dinner, we ate a few bites of our wedding cake. Jessica's parents kept it in their freezer for a whole year! It was definitely a little gross, but it's a classic tradition, so here are some pictures to prove we did it!

Year-old wedding cake, in all its glory.

A Little Biggs Thanksgiving

Matt and I love Thanksgiving. The good food and wonderful family are the best, not to mention a break from school. Since we have so many family members in the area, we decided to divide up our break with some of our aunts and uncles.

We didn't have school on Wednesday, so I decided I really wanted to make a little Thanksgiving dinner. We had made a delicious roast chicken recipe a few months ago, so we bought two little cornish hens and cooked them! We also had some veggies, stuffing, and cranberry sauce already, so we decided to go all out and make rolls and gravy too. I bought some butternut squash and steamed it with brown sugar and spices. Finally, Matt and I decided to make the best dessert we could think of: cheesecake. My mom sent me a springform pan for my birthday last month, so we were set! I found a pumpkin cheesecake recipe online and we went to work. It took us several hours to cook everything though because we have one tiny oven with just one oven rack, but it was all delicious! We were so proud of how it turned out! Here are a few pictures of our little dinner spread:

 Jessica with the cheesecake mix

 Matt with the finished product! We were so proud!

 Our little cornish hens!

The whole feast! The roll pan didn't quite fit on the table :)

On Thursday, we spent time with my Aunt Rachel and Uncle Troy and our awesome cousins. We had so much fun! The meal was organized Troy's family with some great filipino food, in addition to the traditional dishes. We grabbed some leftovers after the meal wound down and Matt is still craving sinigang. Now we will have to find a tamarind soup packet and make it ourselves! Troy's family also loves dancing, so we got to play Just Dance as a group. It was so fun! My cousin Addy was the star. I wish I had a picture so you all could see it!

Then, Matt and I went to his Aunt Lila and Uncle Leo's house. We had a blast! We played tons of games (we introduced them to Five Crowns and Farkle) and watched at least four Disney movies. It was a serious party! They had also made some wonderful food plus SEVEN pies, so we had plenty of delicious food on Friday as well! We had a great time! We are so grateful for the wonderful family members who invited us to tag along with them. We are very lucky. We hope you all had a delicious, peaceful, and entertaining Thanksgiving!

Jack-O-Lanterns!

Matt brought home a beautiful pumpkin the other day when he went grocery shopping. It was sitting in our kitchen for a while because we couldn't decide what to do with it! We could do dinner in a pumpkin, we could make pie, the options are really unlimited. Then our upstairs neighbors gave us a challenge. They had a few jack-o-lantern stencils and gave us the most complicated one, so we accepted. A little while later, we had an awesome carved pumpkin and some delicious seeds to roast. Awesome!

Mortuary Halloween Fun...

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays! We always have fun choosing our costumes and finding new exciting treats! We decided on our costumes late this year (it's been busy!) but we finally decided on costumes that would be really easy because we already had almost all the accessories. I decided on a ballerina and Matt decided on a Trekkie. Fun! I love my legwarmers! They are so fun. They are actually really warm, which is nice since the weather has definitely gotten pretty cold lately.

On Friday night, our ward had a fun Trunk-or-Treat and Chili Cook Off. It was so fun! I am now inspired to try some white chili. I've always been skeptical that white chili could be as good as the red kind, but I've been converted! There was a white chili there that was so so so good. I'll have to look for a good recipe!

On Saturday, we went to a fun party at a mortuary! You read that right! We have some good friends who live in an apartment above a mortuary and we thought it would be the perfect place to celebrate Halloween! We had some great treats: caramel apples, chili cheese dip, and fantastic pumpkin cookies! Matt and I made some spiderweb oreos. We had a lot of fun and now we'll have to bring our considerable chocolate dipping skill home for Christmas too! Who knew that a toothpick could make such adorable spiderwebs? I was really happy with how they turned out. And they are so cute :)

They look a little messy on the wax paper, but they looked great. We played Mafia, which brought us back to our Singles Ward days. I think we played that almost every week back then. It is such a classic group game and all you need are cards! We also watched Hocus Pocus. That movie really makes Halloween for me. I'll definitely make sure my kids see that every year. The child actors are the best and Bette Midler is in fine form. It is such a fun story and it brings back such good memories.

And here is a little update from my birthday! (All the way back on the 11th...) We had a lot of fun! We went to dinner at Red Lobster and went shopping. And Matt went with me...of his own volition! I also received some wonderful presents from family. Matt's parents sent Foyle's War, which if you haven't seen it, is our favorite TV show now. Foyle is a detective in England who is solving mysteries and murders during World War II. I am now determined to get my hands on a WWII-era military uniform for next Halloween. Wouldn't that be the best? My parents also sent some kitchen goodies. My mom made me an apron and sent a springform pan! Hooray! Cheesecake, here I come! She also sent some of our favorite treats from Trader Joes (dried mango and ginger chews). We also received a restaurant gift card from Grandma Eileen. We're so excited to use it! We also received wonderful birthday money from my Granny and the Biggs grandparents. I am saving it all up for something fun! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family! We love you all! Here is a picture of me with some of my birthday gifts:

I also made some fall decorations for our walls! There are pumpkins and leaves all over our apartment. I love this time of year!

Parabéns Matt!

Happy birthday Matt! July 5th was Matt's 23rd birthday! We spent all day driving back to Provo after spending the holiday weekend with his grandparents in Nevada. The car we borrowed didn't have AC and we were super tired when we got home. Then, Matt had to go to campus and try to to pass off a computer programming assignment. When we were finally home and finished dinner, we studied for the GRE. Overall, not the best birthday in the world. But Matt loved his gifts and appreciated all the birthday wishes from friends and family. I bought him a few books that he has been talking about: Elantris, Triathlon 101, and How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization (I heard about it in a political science class, so I'm interested in this one too!) I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday evening, and what was his answer? Go to bed. So we did! Hooray for an early night!

P.S. I also made Matt a cheesecake for his birthday. Just so everyone knows, that is his all-time favorite dessert. Sadly, I do not own a spring form pan, so it was a no-bake. Still good, but now I am just reminded of how much I want a spring form pan. My Mom, a bona fide cheesecake-baking genius, definitely spoiled me.

Easter Planning

So we are busy planning our first Easter together. We want to make Easter a really special holiday for our family. Christmas always comes with so much anticipation--but shouldn't Easter be just as exciting? It's springtime, school is finished, and we can celebrate our Savior's resurrection. What a wonderful holiday. Since we can't leave out the egg hunt, I've bought some bright plastic eggs and filled them with mini Cadbury eggs. What else?

We are also really excited to plan our Easter menu. Since this is our first major holiday together (aside from Christmas, which we spent with our families), it has been really fun to decide what we want to cook together. Here's what we've decided on so far:

--Ham with an Apricot Glaze

--Potato Latkes

--Flatbread (unleavened bread)

--Asparagus

--Hot Cross Buns

I'm especially excited for the hot cross buns. This recipe has all sorts of yummy spices! It will be our first time using the dough cycle on our bread machine--we'll let you know how it works out! What are some other recipes and traditions that your family loves on Easter?