SouthWORTH bringing in the new Year!

Family, Friends, and Sparkling Cider! Oh MY!












So this past year has included a lot of changes in my life. New state, new town, new job, new freedom, new home, new husband, new family, new friends, etc. It's been Scary but Awesome!!! I can't imagine what is around the corner for 2011! I just know that my family has just been extended with a bunch of GREAT GREAT people.
So, who better to bring in the new year with?? Our house became Party Central!!!!! Anyone and Everyone who was a Southworth knew where to be on new years eve!! :) ha ha We had his family from CA, CO, WY and cousins & wife's and kids from California and LONDON and grandma from Oregon and friends of the family and so on... it turned out to be a great time. Mikes parents brought guitars and played and sang. Mikes sister Kristen made some DELICIOUS split pea soup and fresh bread (that unfortunately only fed half of us.) Sorry guys.. you really missed out! ;) And we made sure to lay out a variety of snacks to nibble on. Probably not sufficient for the amount of people.... BUT we had Sparkling cider to fill that empty hole! We had about 2 dozen bottles!... Now that is a Party! ;)

The kids all played well together, the adults laughed and talked, and mike and I reflected on our love for each other and our wonderful families! :) Okay... maybe we weren't that cheesy and we really didn't do that... BUT we are VERY grateful for both! xoxo
The countdown began and we all joined in... 3.....2.......1.... KISS! Clinked our Dixie cups full of cider and the rest is a fog! What was in that Cider?!?!?!?! ;)

I know what you are all thinking.... "you must be the party planner extraordinaire for them to travel all those distances" Although this isn't too far from the truth! JUST KIDDING! It wasn't me who got everyone here or my prize winning hostess skills (totally not true), it was this little guy Wyatt Doan who came into this world recently and brought us all together. YaY!!
Isn't he adorable! I'm in Love! :)
He was being blessed on Sunday and we filed into the church for a very special day and following that we all headed over to his house for a celebration. I was lucky enough to hold him MOST of the time. I decided that I was not going to offer him to anyone but if anyone asked I would sadly hand him over. Luck was on my side! :) We bonded!

It was a great way to bring in the new year and very memorable! I am so happy to be a part of such a fun family and I look forward to future parties! :)

WORTH another slice!!!!

A southworth favorite, I just HAD to share! :)

Toffee MUD PIE!

1 pkg. Oreos, crushed (with creamy center)
1/3 c. melted butter
2 pints Ben & Jerrys Coffee Heath bar crunch
2 pints Ben & Jerrys Vanilla Heath bar crunch
Hot fudge sauce
12 oz. Cool Whip
Roasted Sliced Almonds

In a 9x13 inch pan, mix Oreos and melted butter. (save 1/2 cup off to the side) Press to make crust. Freeze 30 minutes.
Spread vanilla toffee ice cream over crust. Sprinkle the remaining oreos on top of vanilla ice cream. Freeze 1 hour.
Spread coffee toffee ice cream over crust. Freeze 1 hour.
Spread a thick layer of hot fudge sauce over ice cream. Freeze 1 hour. Spread Cool Whip over hot fudge sauce. Freeze 4 hours.

Before serving, let stand for 5 minutes. Drizzle with fudge and Sprinkle with Roasted sliced almonds and serve!

Snow Days=Soup Days

It's hard to believe yesterday I staring outside the window with a little spring fever and wanting to go work on my 2011 Garden!! Now I wake up to snow and the forecast doesn't seem to predict it stopping anytime soon.. Today's errands will have to wait! I'm staying home and making Soup! Yum!

This summer, Mikes favorite soup was my rendition of Paradise bakery's "Fire Roasted tomato soup" using OUR tomatoes from the garden. Unfortunately the days of copious tomatoes is a memory, so I'm making it from Canned tomatoes....**gulp** Followed with homemade bread sticks! I hope it's just as good as fresh tomatoes! It's a really delicious hardy healthy soup so I thought I would share.

Fire Roasted Tomato Soup

Ingedients:

1 Large Onion
3 heads of garlic cut in half to expose the clove
(or use 1/4 tsp dried minced for each clove)
Olive Oil
2tsp Salt (to taste)
1 tsp pepper (to taste)
1tsp Oregano
3lbs of Plum tomatoes quartered
(or 5-15oz cans of diced tomatoes)
32oz bottle fire roasted (or sundried) tomatoes
(Costco sells a 2lb jar for a steal!!!)
2-8oz tomato sauce
2-6oz can of tomato paste
12oz Evaporated Milk
2-14oz Chicken Broth
(or less/more depending on the desired thickness)
12 whole basil leaves, minced
(I just add 1tsp of dry into the soup if I don't have fresh)
Sour Cream for garnish

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 450f. In large bowl, lightly toss together the quartered tomatoes, 3tbs olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour out onto a foil-lined baking pan and roast for 25-30 minutes until tomatoes are soft and have started to caramelize.
Remove from oven and set aside









Place halved heads of garlic on large sheet of foul with the cut side up. Drizzle with 1 tbp olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Seal up the foil and roast in the oven with the tomatoes until the garlic is soft. Set aside and allow to cool so that it can be handled.

In large pot heat remaining 2 tsp of oil over med heat. Add onion and cook until caramelized. Add Oregano, black pepper and tomato paste. Cook stirring constantly for one minute. Add the Tomato sauce, & roasted diced tomatoes with all the liquid simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the chicken broth and roasted tomatoes to the soup. Squeeze the garlic from its paper, discard the paper and add the soft garlic to the soup. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Using an immersion blender or in small batches in a blender, blend until smooth. Stir in the evaporated milk and bring soup to a simmer. Add the fresh basil. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream. Delish!

Now for some dippers......









Heathers Bomb-dig-a-dee Bread sticks

1tbs. dry yeast dissolved in
1 1/2 cups of luke warm water
Let it sit for 10 min.
Mix in bowl:
2tbs. olive oil
1tsp. salt
2tsp. sugar

Add yeast mixture, and then stir in 4 cups flour
knead about 5-10 min. Grease bowl with a little oil, place dough in bowl, turn over, cover and let dough rise one hour.

Divide into 18 peices, Melt about 6tbs butter, roll into 6" long sticks. Roll sticks in melted butter and place on pan. Sprinkle with garlic powder, a little dried parsley and Paprika. (I make a season mixture of 1tsp of each)

Let rise an additional 20-30 minutes. Uncovered

Bake at 425F for approx 12-15min.

Butter when fresh from oven and place in baggy with parmigiana cheese and shake to fully cover bread stick.

Serve with soup and make sure you wipe your bowl clean! :)

The Honeymoon: Worth the 'weight' in water!

Honeymooners in Paradise
Places we stayed: MOOREA PEARL RESORT Oct 20-23, 2010













LA TAHAA RESORT Oct 23-27, 2010 October 20, 2010 -













Heidi and I got to the Moorea Pearl Resort about 9am but they didn’t have our bungalow ready until 1pm. So we had 4 hours to explore the tiny town were in. We found a little local market where we could buy semi-cool water for 100 francs instead of 600 francs for smaller bottles at the resort. This helped us keep from going broke just trying to stay hydrated LOL.


























We were thrilled as the concierge walked us to our bungalow as we found it was at the very end, facing towards the ocean - the very best location there. It was seriously amazing!












Our place was positioned just above a reef filled with hundreds of beautiful tropical fish, and the reef dropped off to deep water right at the edge of the deck. So I awoke at 5:30 every morning, climbed up on the deck-rail, and dove in to the clear deep blue. Heidi even made a few jumps... pictures to prove it ;) We were in heaven :)













For our first activity we chose the 4x4 off-road tour (which was mostly ‘on-road’). It was pretty cool as a true local guy carried us high into the remains of an ancient volcano, showing us temples, tropical flower farms, and taught us the history of the Tahitian islands.










































The following day we took a 2-hour JetSki tour that was killer! We felt like we were in some travel commercial as we sped and splashed along the crystal clear turquoise water. Our tour guide took us into the coves and explained some of the same history we had learned on our other tour, but the coolest thing ever was just ahead of us... and we had no idea.







Our next stop was a popular attraction as there were several tours of people there walking and swimming around with stingrays and reef sharks! Yup... Heidi and I got to swim with about a dozen sharks. They swam within 1-2 feet of us multiple times and it was one of the coolest things either of us had experienced.
Sharks!!! ~Stingrays~















Then it was off to the private island resort of La Tahaa. W took a flight back to the main island, then a smaller flight to the island of Raiatea, where we were greeted by a young Tahitian man who loaded us up on the private shuttle boat and drove us around the two small sister islands to the resort. It was a beautiful ride along the coast, with waves to our left and cute little beach homes, schools and churches to our right. As we rounded the second island, our tiny little resort island appeared ahead. We pulled up to the dock to be greeted by several people from the resort who donned us with fresh leis, took our bags and led us to the very 'open' lobby. We were just blown away by the beauty of this dream-like place! Our personal guide took us on a quick tour of our island on the way to our bungalow. It was a much different environment than our previous location. It was so quiet, so serene... a perfectly groomed tropical paradise. Our bungalow was again over the water, which was like a 3 foot deep pool of bright crystal blue water surrounding us on every side. Our bungalow was absolutely wonderful! The layout, the materials, the comfortable bed, and the huge window overlooking the breath-taking water and Bora Bora island in the distance were nothing short of perfection.

La Tahaa was an entirely different experience. This resort is truly a honeymooner's retreat from the commercialized world we live in. There were no stores, or anywhere else to go on the island aside from the restaurant, pool, gym, and spa. Much more authentic to their Polynesian culture, all of the resort employees would greet us (la Orana) and thank us (maururu) in Tahitian. A perfect place to simply, eat, pray & LOVE! The first two days our activities included walking across the shallow water to the tiny islands across from us, relaxing in the pool, snorkeling in the reef garden, and kayaking all over. Some of our favorite kayak trips came between 5am and 7am as the water was like glass. I believe it is one of the most peaceful things one can experience. We also learned how tiny the island we were on truly was, as we set out to paddle around it - we found ourselves on the other side in about 25 minutes!

The third day we decided to venture out and take a smaller shuttle boat across to the actual island of La Tahaa, where we would rent a scooter and spend the afternoon taking our own private tour around the island. We stopped at a little convenient store to get water and try the 3-foot long bread loaves that everyone seemed to be carrying around the island. The long, soft, baguette-like food turned out to be one of our favorite things to eat in Tahiti :) We followed behind a funky little green school bus for miles, as they stopped to drop of the cute little Tahitian kids - who ran to their homes laughing and smiling terrifically. Our hearts were filled with joy as we were greeted by the cutest kids smiling and waving at us as we rode around their tiny, humble and beautiful island. On the other side of the island we came across a small sign that read 'Sophie's Boutique' - left here. After following the road for a while, we veered down a little grass driveway that lead to one of the coolest things we had ever seen. Sophie lived in the cutest little house, in one of the best locations on the planet I'm sure! Her place had open shutters all along the front of her house and tiny shop, which faced her own private little bay (Heidi wanted to move in!). The property, with its large tropical trees and bright green tropical grass, adorned with beautiful flowers was absolutely breath-taking! The little French woman did not speak much English, and was very friendly as she let us browse her collection of local art, t-shirts, and Tahitian Vanilla. I wish we would have taken more pictures there!

That evening would be our final night in this paradise, so we set out on our own little sunset tour on a kayak. We were blessed with calm, glass-like water as we paddled and paddled towards the sun and the waves. The scattered clouds made for a lovely sunset, and we relaxed there for a while and just reflected on our 8-day journey in paradise, the beauty that constantly surrounds us, and ever-growing love we have for each other. We will miss this place, but the feelings and memories will never leave us :)

La Tahaa Resort!
Sneak Peak

Chili Response from Judges!

Halloween Ward Chili Cook-Off

Bat wings, & spider legs.. Marilynn with her whichy brew! :) Okay, okay... its just my chili entry! :)


















Okay, so I’m starting to get a complex-- this is my second year entry into this cook-off thing and I get NOOO recognition.. what the heck!?!?!?! First year I entered my sisters white bean chili recipe WITH bread sticks and the only fan of the group was my favorite guy there... My hubby!!! :) Year two... return from honeymoon and lack of time.. I whipped up my crowd pleasing pot of taco soup. This time I had two more fans... My hubby and his parents! ha ha ha... I love the devotion of family.. Oh well, we had a great time. Lemont and Marilynn showed up all dressed up and ready to party. Here are a few pics from out fun night out. :)

The Wizard & the Witch


















The fresh from Tahiti honeymooners as Tahitians of course! :)


















That was not the end of our Halloween fun. We had more costumes up our sleeve. Guess Who??
Mike sat quietly and very still outside with the bucket of candy... He got a few weary trick-or-treaters who didn’t quite know what to think of this creature.. some guessed it was Mike others clung to there mothers leg, as I watched from behind the front door laughing quietly under my breath...