awesome alfredo sauce

i found a recipe for the BEST alfredo sauce that i've ever had. and that's a big statement, because i consider myself a pasta connoisseur. this recipe came from Our Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen. i got it as a wedding present and use it for pretty much everything. here it is:

guiltless alfredo sauce (i have no idea how they say it's guiltless, but whatev)
2 cups milk
1/3 cup (3 oz.) cream cheese
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
3 minced garlic cloves
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1. blend milk, cream cheese, flour and salt in a blender until smooth and set aside.

2. in a large nonstick saucepan melt butter on medium-high heat and add the garlic. saute the garlic for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly.

3. add the milk mixture to the pan. stir constantly for 3-4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more or until the sauce thickens, about 6-7 minutes.

4. once the sauce has started to thicken, remove from heat. whisk the cheese into the sauce and immediately cover the pan.

5. allow the sauce to stand for at least 10 minutes before using. it will continue to thicken upon standing. serve immediately.

sooooo good! and guiltless! or so the mormon moms claim...

summer lovin

we love the summer.

and each other.

so i thought this was an appropriate title for this post :)

and turns out that we have been having quite a bit of fun lately.

case in point: moab trip, aka a story of mountain biking, sun burn, and soaring temperatures.

let's just say that we had way too much fun.

on thursday after i got out of class i got home to find the subaru packed and ready for some partying in the desert. shortly after taking off, though, we realized that the sube isn't quite ready for summer... before we even got on the interstate our little car started overheating. having dealt with this same issue last summer, i realized that we would have to drive all the way to moab without air conditioning. eek.

turns out that it wasn't too bad though. we drove all the way with the windows rolled down and country music and THE KILLERS blaring way too loud. i kind of loved it. i feel like that is the true meaning of a road trip. fun fun fun :)

right when we got to town, we ran around downtown trying to find a restaurant with a tv that was on espn so that we could watch the draft. michael wanted to know who the jazz picked and all i really cared about was where jimmer ended up going. the only places we could find were a sports bar (literally a bar. we would have had to show our id's to stay) and a reallllly expensive italian restaurant. our desire to watch the draft proved so great that we ended up staying at said expensive italian restaurant. we even ordered dessert because jimmer hadn't been drafted yet. turns out that our love for the jazz (michael) and jimmer (me) knows no financial constraints...

after our ridiculously expensive dinner, we got to our campsite, set up our cute little tent and then headed out to go on a bike ride at the poison spider trail that was really close to our camp. so. much. fun. but hard! dang, biking on all that red rock is not the same as biking in the wasatch mountains, tell you what. it was real fun though. we didn't get too far because the sun started setting, so we turned around to avoid having to come back in the dark. 

friday morning we woke up and hiked to bowtie and corona arches because the trailhead was right across the street from our site. it was way too fun. we just hung out in the sun for a little bit and admired the awesome arches before heading back. post-hike, we went biking again on the slickrock practice trail (as per the fact that i am really not the best biker in the world and not quite ready to brave the wiles of slickrock in full force). i think this was a good plan because it was so dang hot outside by the time we got there. like a hundred degrees hot. eeeeek.

post-bike ride(s), we found a (nasty) lake to cool off in, ate a picnic, and went to our new campsite (in town, with showers and a POOL!) to go swimming. after observing the other swimmers in the water complaining about how harsh the chemicals were, though, i decided to protect my hair and stay away from that business. michael didn't think twice about it though.

post-swim, we decided to enjoy the other anticipated amenity of the rv park: the showers. hallelujah. just to recap, we had gone on two bike rides, swum in filthy water, and languished in the sun for more than 24-hours without showers. they felt great. the cleanliness didn't last too long though, because we decided to go do the slickrock practice trail again... and it was amazing. it had started to cool down a bit and was absolutely gorgeous. loved loved loved it. 

afterward, we returned to the campsite to find that michael's family had arrived! we helped them set up camp and hung out for awhile before going to bed early so that we could go biking again in the morning.

which leads to probably my favorite bike ride i have experienced of yet: klondike bluffs. so much fun! and it wasn't too terrible for a newbie like me. it ended in arches, so it was gorgeous. i can't wait to go back to moab and do this ride again!

after getting back, we went rafting down the colorado river. this was so fun, but i got absolutely fried. i don't think my thighs have seen that much sun in awhile... i think everybody was a bit sunned-out by the time we got done, so we decided to head home. again, with the widows rolled down :)

best. vacation. ever

cupcakes

as per michael's request (pleading), i made cupcakes last night.

they didn't look quite as cute as this little guy, but they were yummmy.

so as we folded laundry and watched bones, we ate some cupcakes.

but they all just disappeared somehow...

michael turned to me at one point, his mouth full of cupcake, and said:

"i have eaten five cupcakes. (long pause)

i don't feel any remorse."

and then he got up and ate another one.

boys. i tell ya...