The Epic Burrito Showdown

Sweet pork burritos are extremely popular in Utah County.  The best-known one is the Cafe Rio burrito, but there are many, many options.  For a while now, Gerrit and I have talked about comparing all of them.  We finally decided to get together all of our siblings so that we wouldn't feel gross about eating six burritos by ourselves :) Each of us picked up a burrito and then we cut them into sixths to do a side-by-side comparison.

The contenders:
Cafe Rio
Bajio (at the Riverwoods)
Costa Vida (Pleasant Grove)
Mountain West Burrito (Provo)
Rancherito's, aka Beto's (Pleasant Grove)
Barbacoa (Alpine)

We gave each burrito an overall rating, and then also rated the proportions, the meat, the filling, and the tortilla.  When we finished, we each ranked all of the burritos from 1 to 6.

Here's how things turned out:

Bajio and Cafe Rio ended up tying for first, with Costa Vida very close behind.  Comments about these included:

"What I think of when I think of a pork burrito"
"You can tell they make their own tortillas"
"Just overall a really good flavor"

All of these three got a 1st place from at least someone.  They were honestly all pretty similar to me in terms of whether or not I would eat them :)

Our fourth place was Mountain West Burrito.  This one was a bit of an outlier because it really isn't sweet pork.  That automatically made it Joel's favorite.  He learned that he doesn't like sweet pork.  I do think they had the best rice and beans, but I like other things from there a bit better.

Beto's and Barbacoa were definitely in last place.  Beto's was just pork and guacamole...it really needed more toppings.  The one from Barbacoa was not good.  My pork was really fatty.  I took three bites just in case I had a bad one the first time, but they were all so greasy.  We got medium salsa, but it was mostly bland and tasted like canned corn.

We ended the party with tres leches rice pudding, games, and lots of fun "aunt and uncle" time.  I don't think anyone changed their mind about their personal favorite restaurant, but it was really interesting to see how different all of them were!

Favorite Books of 2013: Miles and Molly

Miles and Molly love to read just as much as their mom.  Possibly even more!  Here were their favorites from this past year:

Miles

Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover by Cece Bell.  This is an easy-reader book with four short chapters.  Rabbit panics.  Robot is calm and logical.  When Rabbit's plans fail, Robot saves the day.  Miles loves robots, so this was a winner.

Scaredy Squirrel, by Melanie Watt.  Scaredy Squirrel is too scared to leave his tree.  When disaster strikes, Scaredy finds out something surprising.  Miles thinks these are hilarious.  It's the first of a series, and the rest are also fun.

Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman.  Halloween, but not too creepy.  That's a plus for preschoolers!  This got a lot of rotation this fall.

Press Here by Herve Tullet.  The book gives kids instructions.  When you press on dots, they multiply, change color, or move.  It's really interactive!

Posy by Linda Newbery.  Miles probably liked this one so much because I made him an obstacle course themed after the book.  The illustrations, though, are beautiful, and Posy is a very charming kitten.

Not a Box by Antoinette Portis.  This bunny has a great imagination!  It's fun to see what the box will turn into next.  Also, the cover looks like a box.

Every single Elephant & Piggie book ever, by Mo Willems.  The book series that launched the Halloween costumes.  Miles picks up three or four of these every time we go to the library.  He thinks they are silly, and that's the best compliment he gives.

The Incredible Book Eating Boy, by Oliver Jeffers.  Books help you learn.  You'll even learn if you eat them! (but not as much as if you read them).  Another much-loved "silly"read.

Brontorina by James Howe.  Brontorina was born for ballet.  The ballet studio was not exactly made for Brontorina.  Really cute!

No, David! by David Shannon.  David comes up with some very creative ways to get into trouble.  Thankfully, these books haven't given Miles any ideas :)

Molly

 Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems.  Molly brings this book to me constantly, yelling "Pigeon!" "Bus!".  She really loves that pigeon.

Higher!  Higher! by Leslie Patricelli.  The little girl wants her dad to push her higher and higher, all the way to outer space.  Molly loves books like this, that have only a few words per page but a really fun concept and pictures.

Pride & Prejudice (BabyLit Version) by Alison Oliver.  There's a whole set of these.  This is a counting book, with things like 2 gentlemen, 5 sisters, and 10 thousand pounds a year.  The pictures are great, and Molly adores them.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  A classic for a reason.  We have this as a board book, and Molly loves putting her fingers in the holes that the caterpillar eats through the food.  She also loves identifying all the foods (including, of course, the cake).

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood.  A cute conversation with a little mouse who just wants to eat his strawberry.  Molly loves the part that goes "Boom! Boom! Boom!  The bear will tromp through the forest on his big hungry feet and sniff!  sniff! sniff! find the strawberry!"because we make our feet go boom and sniff with noses.

Mexican Potato Salad

I got another recipe published!  This one was for a potato contest.  I really wanted to make a potato salad that Gerrit would actually like.  He's not a big potato salad fan, but I like it a lot.  Here's a few things I did to engineer a "perfect for my husband" potato salad

*Use Mexican flavors.  Gerrit loves Mexican foods.  It's also got a fair amount of spice, from canned green chilies and chipotle chili powder.

*Roast the potatoes instead of boiling them.  The potatoes keep a nice chew and don't get mushy.

*Cut the mayonnaise with sour cream.  Gerrit's really not a mayonnaise fan.  That's probably why he doesn't like potato salad.  This one only uses half mayonnaise and half sour cream.  It fits with the flavors and helps the texture.

Mission accomplished!  Gerrit loves this one.

Favorite Books of 2013

Here's my ten favorite books from this past year!  I did a lot of reading this past year, and these ones all stood out for one reason or another.

Fiction

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple.

When I heard the plot summary, I didn't have much interest in this book.  Mother disappears?  Cruise to Antarctica?  It kind of sounded like a crime novel.  Luckily, it was not.  This book is laugh-out-loud funny.  It has multiple unreliable (mildly-to-massively crazy) narrators.  It's kind of a sarcastic humor, but I loved it.

 The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.  This book follows a young woman with attachment disorder as she ages out of the foster care system.  She finally finds her place working with flowers.  I had a student with attachment disorder a few semesters ago, so I loved reading more about a character with the same situation.  It is so fascinating to me how critical those early attachments in our life can be, even 18 years down the line!

 Wonder by R. J. Palacio.  We read this for our book club this year.  The main character is a young boy with severe facial deformities right as he starts public school for the first time.  The best thing about this book is that it follows multiple narrators, from the boy himself to his friends and family members.  His older sister narrates a chapter, and the description of being an older sister to a disabled brother was so completely, emotionally true that I broke down sobbing and had to put the book down for a while.  Now that I type this, I realize it does not sound like a ringing endorsement.  I'm actually trying to say that I think it is a very honest look at life with disabilities :)

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann.  It's a multi-generational book, mostly dealing with Ireland.  There's the trans-Atlantic fight of the title, a visit from Frederick Douglass, and the Irish peace talks.  Sometimes, I feel like multi-generational books stretch a little too much, but this one flowed really well.  It's also written beautifully.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.  I'll preface this by saying I haven't seen the movie.  It takes place in World War II-era Germany, and follows a young teenage orphan named Liesel.  Death narrates the book, and that was a really interesting way to frame it.  I've heard some complaints that the movie isn't dark enough for a WWII story, but I think the narration in the book solves that. I couldn't put this one down!

Non-Fiction

I've put in plugs for non-fiction before, and I'll do it again.  These aren't boring, and they aren't textbooks.  Non-fiction gets kind of a bad rap because people read it in school, but you read scholarly things in school.  These are written for a totally different market.

Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King.  This follows a really chilling race-based rape case.  The men were falsely accused, but their treatment by local authorities is horrifying.  This won the Pulitzer this year and absolutely deserves it.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.  I don't naturally gravitate towards sports stories.  This is one of the most compelling pieces of non-fiction I have read!  I was right their in the final race with them, yelling "Beat the Nazis!".  You also end up caring a lot about the individual rowers and just want them to succeed.

Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick.  I did some research on school desegregation in graduate school.  The two women in the title were both students at Central High School and they are the major people in the picture.  They have a complicated relationship now and it is interesting to see what has happened in their lives over the past decades.

How Children Succeed by Paul Tough.  I love this book!  Tough talks about how you have to teach children more than just academic skills for them to succeed.  They also need skills like persistence, curiosity, and ability to deal with disappointment.  I think that the whole new Cookie Monster section on Sesame Street is based on these findings :)

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  This book explores how powerful habits can be in our life, how we build them as individuals, and how companies try to build habits in us.  All of his examples are fascinating!

The Candy Anniversary

The 25th anniversary is the silver anniversary.  The 50th anniversary is the golden anniversary.  The 6th anniversary?  It's the candy anniversary.  Since Gerrit's parents were in town on our anniversary, we were able to take a slightly longer date than usual.  We went out for lunch at a southwestern restaurant in downtown Provo called Black Sheep Cafe.  It was delicious!

This is our cactus pear lemonade.  I loved it!  We also had a burger on nanniskadii bread, a Navajo taco, and horchata bread pudding.

We spent an hour or so wandering downtown Provo.  Gerrit was most excited about this.

We got to see them putting a steeple on the new Provo City Center Temple!


The next week, we went on another date to the BYU-San Diego game.  I always appreciate when Gerrit is willing to go to basketball games with me :)

Caped Crusaders

I dropped Miles off for preschool one day and noticed a sign that the next day would be "Superhero Day".  All of the kids were supposed to wear a superhero shirt or cape.  When I showed the sign to Miles, he said "Yay!  I can wear my green cape!"

Minor problem:   Miles did not own a green cape.  I frantically ran to the internet to find a cape tutorial.  I decided that if I was going to make him a cape, I would just go ahead and make nice ones for both of the kids for Christmas.

The finished projects:

I decided to make them reversible and do something that the kids love on the other side

Miles is a huge fan of the computer game "Bookworm Adventures."  This is the main character, Lex.

Molly is very devoted to cake, so I decided to make hers a cupcake.

Christmas Morning

Gerrit's parents came to visit us for Christmas this year!  We had a great time with Gerrit's family over the break.  Gerrit's mom is much better at taking pictures than I am, so we actually have Christmas morning pictures!

Miles with his circuit set from Grandpa.  It's one of those presents that might have also been for Gerrit, but they have had a blast so far doing projects together.

Super Molly!

Molly loves my necklaces, so Miles thought she needed some of her own.  You can see some of her other presents here, too.

Miles with his Perplexus.  He loved this at the family reunion, so we got him his own.  This one might be a little too hard, though.  It was even too hard for most of the adults!

Yay for presents!

Like I said, she loves necklaces.

Fun with Grandpa Larsen!

So, any time you asked Miles what he wanted for Christmas, he would say " A Christmas maze book."  I ordered him one through the book order several weeks in advance...and then it didn't show up.  Finally, on the last possible day of class, the book order arrived!  I was so relieved.

Miles made a Christmas cookbook for us at preschool.  This picture just cracks me up.  One day, he came home from preschool and told me he had a tough day.  When I asked him why, he said it was because they made him take a picture.  This would be that day-ruining picture.


Some other fun happenings from the week:
*Lots of time to play games like Forbidden Island, Pandemic, and Boggle.
*Obstacle courses with Aunt Brooke
*Yummy food
*The annual "New Foods" night. Some of the things we tried were starfruit and kumquats, candy cane Fat Boys, breaded macaroni and cheese bites, and some different sparkling drinks.

And the sad, less-fun thing:
*I got sick for the first time the night before Christmas eve.  It was miserable, but at least it seemed like no one else was sick.  Then, the next Sunday, Miles was really sick.  I got sick again on New Year's Eve, and so was Molly.  Gerrit got sick the next day.  Thankfully, none of our guests got sick, but it was kind of unfortunate.

Season's Eatings

I really love baking, but I usually try to err on the side of moderation.  After all, if I bake them, Gerrit and I will eat them.  Christmas time is a fun exception, because I get to give them all away!

Round One: Chocolate Candy Cane Loaves

We made these for the people that live on our cul-de-sac and all four of Miles's preschool teachers.  I let Miles crush all the candy canes and help me stir the bread so that he could participate.

Round Two: Cookies.  So Many Cookies.

Oatmeal Cherry Creams (a new recipe I was testing)

Triple-Layer Holiday Bars.  These are gingerbread on the bottom, eggnog in the middle, and pumpkin on top.  Another testing recipe.

We've gotten even more cookie cutters since the last time!  These are just the animals.  You can't even see our large collection of vehicles, dinosaurs, or people.  We used these to make our gingerbread cookies.

Maple-Glazed Carrot Shortbread

Chocolate Chip Orange Cookies

Not pictured: Candy cane marshmallows.

In retrospect, I went just a *tad* overboard on the cookie baking.  We gave these away to people that we home and visit teach and all of our siblings, but we also ate plenty ourselves.  It was a lot of fun, but I don't have any plans to make cookies soon!