Nuts About Berries

One of my favorite restaurants here in Provo is Zupas. They make a variety of salads, soups, and paninis and they are all delicious! I've tried most of the things on their menu and liked pretty much everything I've tried. Over the past year, I've tried to duplicate their recipes so we can keep enjoying the food after we move away.

My favorite salad that they make is the "Nuts About Berries" salad. About a month ago, I saw that Sunflower Farmer's Market (another Provo favorite) had a great sale on berries, so I decided that I would try to make the salad for my mother-in-law's visit. It turned out great and we all loved it! It needs to be made in the summer to take advantage of the fresh, less expensive berries, but it's well worth it.

Doesn't it look so tasty?






Here's the recipe that I came up with:

1 head romaine lettuce
8 oz. strawberries,sliced
8 oz. blueberries,
8 oz. raspberries
2-3 oz. chopped walnuts (or almonds, or whatever nuts you like)
1/4 c butter
1/2 c sugar
2 T cinnamon
1/2 c poppy seed dressing (We like the Brianna's dressing they sell at Macey's. It might be local to Utah...not sure. Thanks for introducing it to me, Catherine!)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in microwave and combine with walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon. Spread nut mixture in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and bake for 5-7 minutes until nuts are toasted.

Wash lettuce and tear into small pieces. Add berries and cinnamon-sugar nuts. Drizzle with poppy seed dressing and enjoy!

*If you are not a berry person, or it isn't berry season, Zupas used to make a version called "Nuts about Fruit" that had chopped apples, grapes, and some other fruit...maybe Craisins? That one was really tasty, too.

Baby Blessing

On July 5th, we blessed Miles in Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's ward in Idaho Falls. It was really special to have Gerrit give Miles a name and a blessing. I had a hard time staying dry-eyed seeing my husband and my son there and listening to the special blessing that Gerrit gave. It was also wonderful to have so much family there in the circle. Miles was a lucky boy to have his dad, both of his grandfathers, his great-grandfather, and six of his great-uncles. I'm glad everyone could fit in the circle! He looked so cute in the little romper and matching jacket that my mom made for him, and luckily his behavior matched his sweet demeanor. He slept through the blessing, woke up right after for his dad to show him off, was a little grumpy for the church meeting, and then slept through his big party and all of his pictures.


Our beautiful little boy


The three of us (Still totally asleep...giant crowds don't bother him)

Family Reunion

Over the 4th of July weekend, we headed up to Idaho Falls for the annual Larsen family reunion. It was quite the trip! Sorry for the mostly picture-less post. I have realized I am not a very good multi-tasker. Even though the camera was pretty much always in the diaper bag, I almost never remembered to take it out. When I remember to ask my mother-in-law for pictures, I will do an all-picture post.

Miles did pretty well with the four-hour drive to Idaho Falls. We had someone sit next to him all the time and he alternating sleeping with screaming his head off. I had such a hard time driving while he was screaming and not being able to comfort him!

Here's our little road-tripper:


Here's some trip highlights:
*Miles has now met all of his living great-grandparents, all of his grandparents, all of his aunts and uncles, a lot of his great-aunts and great-uncles, many of his parent's cousins, one of his second cousins, and most of the Rushforths,some very close friends that might as well be considered relatives. (Trudy, I hope that we make it to California soon so Miles can meet you too!)I never met any of my great-grandparents (they all passed away before I was born), so I was particularly excited for Miles to meet all of his. Here's Miles with my Grandma Stuart. Pictures with Grandma Larsen and my four-generation picture of Miles, Gerrit, Gerrit's dad, and Gerrit's grandpa to come soon...



*We practiced a patriotic program to perform for some retirement homes that Gerrit's grandma works with. The program was fun and Gerrit's cousins did a great job with their songs!

*We went a hike in the beautiful Grand Tetons. More accurately, Gerrit's family went on a hike that we quickly realized would be too much in the baby carrier, so we turned around and hung out with Gerrit's aunt and two of his youngest cousins while everyone else hiked. Isn't the area pretty?


*On the fourth, we went up to Rexburg to visit with my family. My parents and siblings came in town for the blessing, so we visited with them at my aunt and uncle's house. My grandma also lives there, and my another of my aunts and her family came up for the day so we had a mini-reunion and it was great! We walked through the gardens at BYU-Idaho, saw the Rexburg fireworks, enjoyed delicious Stuart family cooking, and marveled at my Uncle Steve's magic touch with Miles. I also got to meet my youngest cousin (she's a year old) and my cousin Jessica's little boy (who is about 9 months old) for the first time!

* We had a huge combined Larsen-Stuart dinner after the blessing. It's a good thing that Grandma and Grandpa Larsen have a huge backyard! I think there ended up being somewhere around 40 people at the party and it was a lot of fun. In a funny twist, it turned out that one Gerrit's uncles used to work with one of my uncles. What a small world!

*In a not-so-fun development, a nasty stomach virus spread around the reunion. One of Gerrit's cousins got sick, then it spread to poor Grandma Larsen. As I was driving home from meeting up with our family friends in Kaysville, I started to feel kind of queasy. By the time we hit Provo, I was praying that I could at least make it home! As soon as we got home, the stomach virus hit with a vengeance. I think I lost all of the fluids in my body. Making things worse, every time I nursed Miles it triggered things again. Luckily, I got a blessing and I felt a lot better afterwards. Four days later, Gerrit got hit by the same virus and he got hit even harder! Luckily, Miles stayed safe through all of this. I was soooo worried that he would get sick too! In the end, my parents got sick, Gerrit's parents got sick, some of our siblings got sick, and more of Gerrit's cousins got sick. Yikes!

*I don't want to end with that...it really was fun and we loved visiting with all of our relatives! We hope to see everyone else soon!

Oquirrh Mountain Open House

While Gerrit's mom and sisters were visiting, we went to see the open house of the new Oquirrh Mountain temple. The temple is located in the Daybreak area of South Jordan, Utah. The houses in Daybreak are adorable! It's a brand new subdivision, but the houses have a lot of character. We loved looking at them on our way to the temple.

The Oquirrh Mountain temple is the fourth temple in the Salt Lake Valley and the second temple in South Jordan, making South Jordan the only city in the world with two temples. It was really beautiful, both outside and inside! The inside had a lot of beautiful patterned textiles, both in the carpeting and on chairs and couches. Here's what the outside looks like:




Miles did a great job on the tour. We put him in the baby carrier and he just fell right asleep. It was nice to have our whole family inside!