A&E Engagement Pictures

I know these are way out of order, but I realized I never shared these. Ashley and Eric asked me to take some engagement pictures for them. Of course I said yes, but they needed to understand I wasn't a professional photographer so didn't want them to have high expectations.




The pictures turned out....okay. I actually learned a lot in the time I spent with them, so maybe I will be able to find another pair of willing models so I can continue to learn. It was a lot of fun walking around Central Park with them.

Friday Favorites: Baking cookies is my favorite

I guess I get my love for baking cookies from my dad. He use to make cookies every Sunday after church and now baking cookies is one of my favorite things! I just wish I had more time to bake or occasions to bake them for. Also, Jeff and I are trying to be more healthy so it's not good having cookies around the house. Sad, but baking is still my favorite.

Here are some of my favorite cookies to make (You will notice that most of them are Martha Stewart):

• Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies So, I like these, but Jeff isn't the hugest fan. However, Jeff loves the dough!
• Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing This is a favorite of mine! I could make these everyday for the rest of my life and be truly happy!
• Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies I've only made these once, but they were sooooo good. I will most definitely make them again. Jeff feels I need to work on the Peanut Butter filling. He said it was too sweet.
• Sugar Cookies Cutouts I LOVE these cookies. One of of Jeff's Young Men call them the "blue bunny" cookies. I made cute little light blue bunnies for my primary class two Easters ago and gave the left overs top the YM.

• Dad's Giant Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies! I don't have Dad's permission to share this one...sorry.
• BettyCrocker Peanut Butter Cookies: This is in one of my moms cookbooks at home. I have yet to find it's equal. Got a blue ribbon at the Clark County Fair with this cookie!

Here are some I would love to try and make sometime:

• Mini Black-and-White Cookies I love me a Black-and-White cookie!
• Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies These just look cool!
• Soft and Chewy Snickerdoodles You really can't go wrong with a Snickerdoodle
• Chewy Gooey Flourless Chocolate Chookie I really need to find a good Chocolate Cookie recipe. I've yet to find one. Maybe this will be the one!

CSA: Box 2...What to do with all these vegetables?!

We picked up our second CSA box today and it was packed full! I couldn't believe how heavy it was when I picked it up. We didn't even use all the veggies from our last box. I'm not sure how we are going to eat all of these before everything goes bad.

With last weeks box we had salad for every dinner, which was wonderful. Jeff made a nice leek and potato soup. It was delicious. I think we decided to make pesto with the garlic scapes and swiss red chard, but just haven't gotten around to it. I think it will be a Friday project. I will keep you posted.

What did we get this week?

Well, we got a lot more garlic scapes, swiss red chard, and leeks. And the new stuff...

Yet Another Different Kind of Lettuce

Broccoli

Bok Choy

Beets

 Radishes

We really need to pick up on our vegetable intake! Our fridge is packed!

We're planning on going to the farm and picking some strawberries, but we'll see if we actually get around to doing it. We have a busy weekend ahead of us.

Vegetables from Honey Brook Organic Farm 

Now for more Brie

Remember Thompson Park I wrote about a few weeks ago? Well, one of my favorite things is going with Jeff on his walks with Brie and taking pictures. It's nice having such a willing model. Jeff is never willing to have his picture taken, but when the dogs around he doesn't seem to put up much of a fight.

So Proud of My Basketball Stars...

I'm not sure if many of you know this but I'm the First Councilor in the YW presidency in my ward (What does that mean? I work in the youth program for my church). I really enjoy my calling. My girls are so wonderful and I just have so much fun with them.

This year the girls decided to have a ward basketball team for the Stake YW basketball tournament. All the leaders were so pleased that they wanted to play since it's been some time since our ward had a girls team.

The girls did so great! I didn't coach (lucky for them because I would have no idea what to do), but I showed up to almost all of their games.

It was a great season and I can't wait until next year!

What's in a name?

It's time for a name change!

I started this blog back in 2007 when I moved to New York City. I thought it would be fun to document my adventures in the city and share with friends and family. I named my blog "Is that a stoplight? I guess I'm not in La Center anymore." I thought this title was perfect since I moved from a small town in Washington where there are literally NO stoplights to one of the biggest cities in the US.

I've been wanting to change the title since I've moved to New Jersey, but have been putting it off for some reason. I mean my old title still holds true, but I feel I have started a new chapter of my life and therefore a new title is in order.

I have gone back and forth on several different names. Jeff gave me a few options, but I've discovered we have very different tastes when it comes to blog titles :)

What did I decide on?

Why Diners? Well, I LOVE them! They are just the best and New Jersey is totally crawling with them! Supposedly New Jersey has the most diners in the US. It's one thing I LOVE about New Jersey.

Why Jughandles? Well, I HATE them! Seriously they are the bane of my existence. I have gotten turned around, lost, and confused beyond all reason with these stupid jughandles. Supposedly they are supposed to help traffic, but they just drive me crazy. Sometimes the jughandles are before the stoplight...sometimes they are after...sometimes they are several roads after. Ahhhh! They just kill me. What's a jughandle? You can read all about them here. They don't seem that menacing in the article, but trust me they are! Jughandles are one thing I HATE about New Jersey.

Why "Learning to Love Jersey:" Well I think that is self-explanatory. :)

My URL will stay the same (http://manhattan-my-hometown.blogspot.com).

You will also notice that I gave my blog a face lift. I'm still making changes so please ignore anything that looks wonky.

Friday Favorites: Broadway Shows are my Favorite!

As many of you know I'm obsessed with Broadway and used to post little reviews on this blog. I just love going to see all the shows nominated for Tony's. My Broadway show intake has decreased drastically since getting married (which is ok by me since I love Jeff), so I have to choose wisely which shows I want to see. I have now seen three shows in 2012.

War Horse: Jeff and I went to see War Horse as a Valentines day treat. I'd heard great things about the show and Jeff and I had been talking for some time about seeing it.

The show was okay. I LOVED the puppets and how they used them to tell the story, but I didn't really care for it. The story was kind of slow in parts and seemed to drag on. It had a long running time and I think they could have cut out a few things. I know they needed to set up the story, but I thought they could have done it a little more quickly.

However, I'm really glad that I went to see it (seriously, the puppets were breathtaking). If anything go and see it for the puppets.

Newsies: I've always been a big Newsies fan and couldn't wait to see the show. Sarah and I bought tickets the day the box office opened, because we wanted the best seats in the house (luckily we bought them early because they raised the price of our tickets by $100 a few weeks later...phew).

We both LOVED it. The dancing was amazing and there was a great energy in the theater. I've heard that some people don't like the new songs, but I'm going to disagree. I thought they worked well with the story and were needed for a Broadway Musical.

They replaced Jacks quiet, awkward love interest in the movie with a fun quirky reporter (also replacing Bryan Denton - Bill Pullman's character). While I didn't really care for the vocal talent of the actress they chose, I really liked the idea of the character. Really improved the love story.

Jack did a really nice job. I don't know if it's Tony worthy, but I'm glad he got the nomination.

I just hope that it's still open when my family comes in September, because I would really like to see it again with them. I just know they will love it.

Once the Musical: Sarah and I wanted to celebrate our five year anniversary in the city with  dinner and a show...the best way possible! We decided to go see Once the Musical since it had the most Tony nominations, despite not knowing anything about it (I actually prefer it that way...makes everything more of a surprise)

How was it? The music is wonderful. The acting was superb. I really enjoyed the female lead (not at first, but she totally few on me). The show all in all was pleasantly simple. However, it wasn't my favorite. It wasn't my "type" of musical (I love the shows with the big song and dance numbers...like Newsies). I really appreciate the show and understand the the Tony nominations, but I probably would never go to see the show again or take family or friends.

What's next? Well, I'm hoping to get in to see Nice Work If You Can Get It and Evita this summer. I will let you know how that goes.

And Then They Came to See Us...

A few weeks after our visit to Minnesota Jon and the kids came out to spend some time at our house. They spent half of their time with us and half of their time down at Bob (Jeff's oldest brother) and Noramah's (Sister In-law).

It was so fun watching the kids play with Brie and Brie loved having such willing playmates.

CSA: Box 1...Jeffrey loves his vegetables...

Jeffrey loves his vegetables so much that he signed us up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)

What does that mean? Well it means that every Wednesday we get to pick up a box of fresh vegetables sent from Honey Brook Organic Farm (We pick the box up at a local organic food store). The box will be slightly different from week to week since we get whatever is being harvested.

So, basically we are going to have a little "Chopped" (TV Show) competition in our house this summer since we can potentially get vegetables we don't normally cook with. I think Jeff is excited for the challenge.

This is what we got in our first box. We aren't sure on the names of a few of these so please feel free to leave a comment and correct me.

 Red Lettuce?

Garlic Scapes 

 Hakurei Turnips

 Leeks

Spinach

 Chard

Lettuce? 

(not sure what kind)

I think we are going to be having a lot of salad this first week which Jeff is thrilled about. I'm not sure what we are going to do with the garlic scapes, but we googled what they are used for and I think we have several options.

I'll let you know what we end up making with this first round of vegetables, but if you happen to have a recipe or recommendation that calls for any of these things let me know. We are open for suggestions.