August Creations

The month of August has been VERY hot! We've done less climbing outside and more lazy-ing about in air conditioning watching favorite summer movies and shows. Also I've been on a cooking rampage and I thought I'd share some of our favorite creations from this past month.

BBQ Chicken!
Sar-ha stopped by for a visit and we decided to make smoothies for a pre-dinner snack and then have BBQ chicken with summer squash. I had wanted to try a rub that had both cocoa and curry powder in it. It required the use of a whole chicken which I found very fun to chop up. Sarah and I named him Steven.

Meet Steven

I love Sarah's finger over the lens in this shot. This was to depict the massaging of the delicious rub into Steven.

Christian did the work on the grill

Sarah polishing off her chicken and the only evidence that there was a vegetable present at dinner. Yay yellow squash!

Yummy!!

I made treats for Grandma too. One week I brought her raspberry filled cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I tried several different cupcake frosting styles.

The next week I made Grandma a delicious peach pie. I used Dad's pie crust recipe and for the filling I just went with what sounded good. I mixed up a bunch of sliced peaches, sugar, fresh squeezed orange juice, cornstarch, and vanilla bean. I added small butter pieces before sealing it up and brushed it with an egg wash. It turned out super scrumptious.

I went with some favorite girlies to the Sundance production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Did you notice the unfortunate color choice in pants chosen by the women just beyond Mom's arm? We sure did! We giggled about that until the sun went down!

The evening started with a BBQ under the tall pine trees with juicy pulled pork sandwiches followed by a short walk around the gorgeous Sundance hillside to the outdoor amphitheatre. I brought blankets and we watched the musical under the stars while sipping hot cocoa and munching popcorn. It was a delightful evening.

 Another favorite recipe was making a balsamic reduction to drizzle over a simple salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, basil (all from my patio garden), and crumbled chevre (goat cheese). It was an awesome lunch when paired with a delicious mushroom risotto.

Lately my favorite thing to make is Ice Cream! Liz got me an awesome book that has helped me create some of the best ice cream creations I've ever had. So Good!!

The first one I tried was a dark chocolate recipe which was so creamy and delicious I thought I'd died and gone to chocolate heaven! Then I tried the second one! It had me drifting on clouds of creamy lemony goodness and I still can't decide which one I like better. Both are incredibly mind alteringly delicious! 

Today for dinner Christian and I experimented with making Thai fried chicken and sticky rice. While we were in Thailand this was our favorite street food to eat and we've been craving it ever since!

Our attempt tonight was really good but I think we're going to try a few minor tweaks before making it for all our family and friends. The flavor was definitely there but the crunch on the chicken could be better. We're about 85 percent of the way there. The sticky rice was just right but I need to find some pandanus leaves to wrap it up into cute little bundles.

Also...
I came across this running advertisement and it made me laugh because it reminded me of Dad and his bus cometh-ing every morning during school days. It was also funny because I signed up for a zombie race in October that I still need to train for. I get to dress up as a zombie and chase the human runners who get to start two minutes before the zombies. So exciting!!