A Fun Dinner

Today was a really awesome day. Now that we don't have church at 8 am, I'm really beginning to enjoy Sundays so much more. I also LOVE our new ward. It's so fun to be in a real family ward with people in a variety of stages in their lives. I feel like I am able to learn so much more in my classes. Another couple moved into the ward the same weekend that we did and they also moved from Wymount. Today, before Relief Society began, the sister asked me if I missed Wymount yet. My response was "not at all." She said they are starting to miss their ward. This couple differs from us in 2 aspects: they haven't been married as long as we have and they have no children. I think this is what makes them miss Wymount when we don't. I do miss the friends that we made in our Wymount ward, but I feel like our new ward fills so many needs that Wymount couldn't. We are just so happy to be a part of the Pioneer Park ward.

We actually had some Wymount friends over for dinner today. It was really fun to have them over and hang out. I love trying out fun new recipes when people come over and I have a tendency to go a little overboard. The first time we had this couple over for dinner (about a year and a half ago), I made a burger from the Bobby Flay book that I gave Mitchell for his birthday a few years ago. They loved it and requested to have another great burger next time they came over. Mitchell picked out the Cheyenne burger for me to try this time. It had smoked cheddar cheese, homemade barbecue sauce, bacon, and thin onion rings on it. It was a really good burger. It would have been better when we ate it, but I timed a lot of the preparation wrong and they were kind of cold by the time we all sat down to eat. Nobody really cared about that, though. Mitchell made the onion rings almost entirely by himself (following Bobby Flay's recipe) and they were so good! I love good onion rings and these were just like the really good and crunchy ones you get at restaurants. They were a lot of work, but they were delicious. For some reason, I thought we would want fries to go with the burgers and I prepped them, but they were never fried; we ended up having more than enough onion rings to go on the burgers and eat on the side. We also had this amazing "Old-Fashioned Pink Lemonade" that I found online. It was SO good. It made 2 quarts and we finished all of it between the four of us. The last thing we had were Double Chocolate Milkshakes with Fluffy Coconut Cream. This was another Bobby Flay recipe and it was great. I've never been good at making milkshakes, I always seem to mess up the ratios and can't get good flavors. Following this recipe was easy and it was delicious. I actually made the chocolate syrup by hand earlier in the day; it made me feel so fancy. :) I didn't get the layering of the milkshakes quite right, but they were really good anyway. By the time we were done eating, we all felt like we were going to explode. It was a really fun evening and I'm glad we were able to have fun with some friends.

My kitchen is a DISASTER. I forgot to unload the dishwasher before I started cooking, so I couldn't just immediately put the dishes in there and they all just got piled on the counters and in the sink. And I accidentally left the frying oil on the whole time we were eating, so the house got super smoky and my dutch oven is full of pitch black oil. I want to just leave it all for tomorrow, but I don't think that would be a very good idea. I have to decide if I have the energy to get it all cleaned up...

P.S. If you are interested in any of the recipes, just let me know!