"Iron Chef" Family Night

Every third Sunday of the month, my family gets together to have dinner. Last year, we had the traditional Sunday dinner. Roast, lasagna, turkey or ham (or both) for the holidays. This year we decided to do something different every month. This month my mom decided we would have an "Iron Chef" competition, loosely based on the Food Network TV show. The idea was that everyone (each couple, really) would create 2 two dishes that incorporate a "secret ingredient." The only rule is to be creative. The "secret ingredient" for this occasion was cheese. Here are our creations.

Team Schmidt (Mom and Charles)

Cream cheese flan

Chorizo quesodillas

Mozerella w/ tomatoes

Team Tucker (Mel and Tim)

Pecan tassies

Turkish Borek

Team Armitstead (Kevin and Me)

Sun dried tomatoe and goat cheese profiteroles

Italian cucumber salad

Team Fellows (Dorthy and Rory)

Ham, cheese and apple melts


Canoli cups

Team Schmidt/Peterson (Sarah and Jordan)

Broccoli and cheese souffle

Fruit sushi w/ cream cheese

Everything looked and tasted great and everyone tried something they've never had before. After we tasted and voted on each others' dishes, the judges (Dad and Justin) tallied up the scores and handed out the awards.

The judges handing out awards

"Best Taste" went to Team Fellows

"Most Original" went to Team Tucker

"Best Presentation" went to Team Schmidt/Peterson

The rest of us got "Honorable Mentions"

We all had a great time and are excited to do it again. Next month: fondue.

First Tooth

Abi cut her first tooth today. It's about time. She has two teeth on the bottom that have been going up and down under the surface of her gums for the last two months. Finally today one popped through. The past few days she's been really miserable with a stuffy nose and a cough because she's been teething, so she's also been really cranky. That means her naps have been short and few. Today she crashed. Here's some pictures Kevin took of her with our fancy new camera.

Catching Up

Well, since the beginning of the year I have been a real slacker at getting this blog updated, which is a bad thing seeing as that was one of my resolutions this year. So, I'm not off to a very good start. Some other resolutions I made are:

1. Lose weight & excercise (but honestly, who doesn't make this one?)
2. Scrapbook (I haven't even begun this one yet)
3. Read more often (scriptures, books, everything)
4. Stick to a budget
5. Be a better person- all around improvement.

So far, I've been pretty good about a few things. I have been going to a water aerobics class at least 3 times a week. I'm trying to watch what I eat, but in all these weeks that I have been doing it (about 5 weeks) I've only lost 2 pounds. Sad right? Oh, well. I'm going to keep it up and see if it gets any better. The budget thing has been pretty good. Kevin and I set one up and decided to keep track of every penny we spend. We've been good so far, but just received our tax return and are trying to resist the temptation to spend it all in one month.

Last month we celebrated Kevin's 25th birthday. Happy Birthday! I tried my hand at cake decorating for the 2nd time. It turned out okay for an amateur, I guess. Much better than my first cake. You don't want to see it, trust me. You do? Are you sure? It's hysterical.

Yikes, I know. I had many fatal flaws in this monstrosity, but it was so hilarious that I had to take a picture.

See this one's much better.

I used melted chocolate chips to pipe words and designs to stick on the cake after they had set up again. (Thanks for the idea Dorthy) Though the cake was still a little lopsided.


The next week was Jon's birthday.

(Maybe the month of cake didn't help my weight loss plan very much)

The biggest event was also the biggest surprise. My brother, Charles, who had been serving a mission in eastern Europe came home from his mission last Thursday. The reason it was a surprise was the we weren't expecting him to come home in April. He's been sick and was almost done anyway, so it was decided that he would be released early so he could get some good medical attention. Here's a video of us meeting him at the airport. I hugged him with the camera on so, sorry if it make you sea-sick.


So that's whats going on so far this year and I'll try to be better at keeping this thing updated. Here's some pictures of Abi being cute.