Garlic Chicken Farfalle (with a kick!)

This was served at our last gourmet club, and it SOOOOO tasty. I had to share! I made some adjustments to make it a bit healthier and I think it still tasted delicious. I made it last night for some friends and for Dan and they raved. Here's the recipe...

Garlic Chicken Farfalle (with a kick!)

Ingredients
16 oz. farfalle pasta (I have never found farfalle--bowtie--pasta in whole wheat, so I just used penne)
1 cup heavy whipping cream (I used light)
3-4 chicken breasts
2-3 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp pepper (this definitely adds a kick, so if you don't love spice, use less pepper)
1/2 cup butter
1 lb bacon, crumpled (I used 4 strips of turkey bacon)
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 (12 oz) bottle Lawry's mesquite marinade with lime juice (I found it at Smith's)

Directions:
Crock pot chicken and bottle of marinade on low for 6 hours. Pull marinated chicken out of the juices, allow to cool a little bit, and shred (or pull apart). Set this aside. (Discard remaining marinade). Cook bacon and cut into small pieces. Set aside. About 1/2 hour before serving, boil pasta. In small saucepan, melt butter, add garlic, whipping cream, pepper, parmesan cheese and crumpled bacon. Whisk together on low heat for 3-4 minutes. In a large bowl, pour over cooked drained pastsa, add chicken and stir through. Sprinkle with shredded parmesan cheese.

Queen Bee Tea on February 28th!

Some friends of mine have helped plan this fabulous event coming up on February 28th. It's a Dress-Up Tea Party & Charity Auction, held at La Caille Restaurant in Salt Lake City. The proceeds from this event will go to a non-profit organization called Project Lemonade, which provides financial assistance and scholarships for underprivileged children, allowing them to participate in extracurricular activities. It will be an amazing event, and the proceeds will go towards this wonderful organization. It would be such a fun thing to take your daughter and/or granddaughters to, so please join us! Or if you are unable to make it, spread the word to others who might enjoy coming. Please go to
www.project-lemonade.org for more info.

M.I.A.

I know, I know, I've totally been MIA. I haven't had a computer, so it's been a little tough. Oh, and I haven't been great at taking pictures, either. Dan has our camera at work with him most days, so that's my excuse. I definitely need to do better! Anyway, here's a few recent pics of Sienna. (I've been playing with photoshop, so the colors are all different...be patient with me!) Most of our pictures are all on Dan's computer. He just bought a new desktop for work, so hopefully next week I'll have the laptop and can do some catching up. I can't believe Sienna is already over 5 months old. I'll admit I kind of hate that she's that old. The older they get, the less excuse you have to still be a fatty. Sigh...oh, the joys of motherhood! I'm definitely not one of those girls who just nurses and loses it all. In fact, I think I'm one of those who's not really going to lose it until I stop nursing. Dan and I just signed up to do another triathlon in St. George in May (Anyone want to join us!??) so hopefully that will help us get our butts in shape! Anyway, back to Sienna....It's a good thing this kid is so stinkin' cute. She is definitely worth it! She is such a happy, smiley baby. I love getting her up in the morning. She decided last week that she likes to wake up at 6:00 a.m. But, honestly since she's basically been sleeping through the night since she was less than 2 months old, I can't complain. I'll totally take the 6 a.m. wake-up call over the 2 a.m. ones! So, back to the 6 a.m. wake-up call...she just lies in her crib, cooing and chewing on her feet, just waiting patiently for mom or dad to stumble into the nursery to get her out of the crib. She just grins up at you with the hugest smile! She has THE sweetest smile--that has gotta be the absolute best thing to wake up to in the morning.

Amazing....

Check out this video. It's incredibly inspirational.
http://www.4marks.com/videos/details.html?video_id=723

Christmas Eve 2008

Sienna's first Christmas! Can't you see the excitement?

Uncle Brad & the boys Grandpa Hanson playing with the boys. Why spend money buying gifts when kids seem to be happier being pushed around in a box?! Some of the favorite white elephant gifts...We especially liked how the footie jammies had pleats in the back to make for a more fitted look Rob, Brad & Sienna chillin' in their jammies Dan and his "What does Yuletide mean anyway?" undies & his anti-monkey butt powder (and his favorite gift from Debi & Jared--his redskins belt buckle)Not the best picture of them, but I got these huge, rainbow-striped suspendersSienna and her two cousins--Tommy & Carter Carter after making chocolate reindeer cupcakes

It's been fun to have my brother Jeff & his family here for so long over the Christmas break. I think they are here for a total of 5 weeks, going back and forth between Carolyn's parents in Logan and my parents house in Woodland Hills. They are in medical school in Wisconsin, so we don't get to see them very often. These pictures are from one night when we made dinner at my house and then went to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point. It was fun, even though, the lights were highly overrated. Christmas isn't Christmas without a light display and some hot chocolate. My sis-in-law Carolyn looking thrilled to be going
Aunt Nelly & the boys Sienna in the adorable outfit my aunt & cousins gave her

Carter & Tommy ready for the lights

Dad, mom & Brad (we were all wishing we were in the car with the boys--would've been much more exciting!)Check out those lashes. Glad she got them from her dad!

December happenings...

These pics are from my work Christmas party. Wait, I probably haven't given a work update yet, have I? A good friend of mine from college, Kim Ryan, is a social worker for a Harmony Home Health & Hospice and she and the other social worker are pretty swamped, so she talked to her boss about hiring a part-time social worker to help out. I started about a month ago and so far it's been great. I work from home, the pay is good, and I schedule my own hours so it's super flexible. Dan's work is flexible too, so he's been able to take her to work for a morning every week, then between Dan's mom, sister-in-law and a couple of close friends the schedule is working out great. Although I hadn't worked in hospice before, I had worked in a skilled nursing facilitiy and also with cancer patients at UCI, so those jobs have really have helped with the learning curve! Our Christmas party was in downtown SLC at the Wells Fargo building, on the 23rd floor. It was really nice. We had Sienna with us and weren't prepared to hike all over temple square in the freezing cold, but we did a drive by. You can see I took a couple of pics of the temple (out of the sunroof!). Neither turned out great, but fun to see some of the lights!

Me & Kim

Sienna in her adorable Christmas dress (one of the FOUR my mom bought to choose from!)

The fam at the Ryan Shupe & the Rubber Band Christmas Concert! We missed you Jeff, Carolyn and the boys and Nelly!

Just because she's cute


I went to dinner with some of my close girlfriends a few weeks ago to celebrate Christy's birthday (which was on November 17th). We ate at the Bohemian in Midvale--super tasty! Happy birthday, Christy! Love your guts! (I still can't believe it's been 13 years!)