Jam Session

Steve's mom came to our house to teach us how to make her famous boysenberry jam. We invited our friends over to participate in the jam workshop. Included below are the instructions for making the sugary spread, as it happened at our house.

1. Review instructions with master jammer, being sure to look interested when the camera is around

2. Smell the bucket of pureed boysenberries to make sure that a) they smell like childhood and b) it's caught on camera

3. Stir the puree

4. Take a break from stirring to stretch to "avoid getting carpal tunnel syndrome"

5. Bring the puree, sugar, and pectin to a rolling boil

5a. Strike several poses, thinking they're being caught on camera when they're actually not

6. Take a time out to kiss the carpal tunnel-less cook

7. Cover the jam with a layer of melted wax to seal in the goodness

8. Make and share boysenberry smoothies with friends and delight in warm conversation while the jam cools

Steve and I appreciate his mom taking time to come teach us the art of jam!

Boys and Grills

Steve received a grill for Christmas last year and has slowly been outfitting it for use leading up to the big initiation day. He procured a stand, a cover, a converter hose, and a propane cylinder in preparation to introduce it to its future frequent companion: meat. The arranged marriage took place yesterday when Steve fired up the coals (are there coals?) and grilled some T-Bone steaks. My gift to the grill on its momentous day was some meat thermometers that Steve used to cook the victuals to perfection. As expected, Steve and Grill became instant friends and plan to provide many sizzling meats to the Broadbent home. We'll be on the lookout for hungry guests...

Boss Man

Each Thursday I look forward to the office life humor portrayed in NBC's The Office. All of us can relate in some way, and perhaps identify persons at our job who bear striking similarities to the quirky characters. During the show's beginnings, a group of us friends would get together each week and watch the ridiculousness unfold. I couldn't help but notice that the boss of the Scranton branch, Michael Scott, reminded me a little of my then boyfriend. It began to be amusing to me to watch my own Michael Scott laugh at the NBC Michael Scott. Since the show has continued, I have had several people remark to me that my Steve reminds them of Steve Carrell, aka Michael Scott. You be the judge!

Mother Earth

With Earth Day upon us, I thought it would be a good idea to visit the Memorial Park Arboretum for Family Home Evening on Monday. There wasn't much to see at this time of year, it seemed, so we had fun playing with the camera instead. Here Steve is shown maximizing his visit--breathing in the nature experience--on a fallen tree. I could almost hear Celine Dion singing in the background what with that Kate Winslet/Titanic thing going on. For his turn as photographer, Steve captured me in this very candid pose. I commonly find myself sitting on logs, laughing gleefully at nature while spastically flipping my hair. Happy Earth Day!

Beefy Brisket

I have a top 10 list for my favorite meals made with chicken, beef, and fish. I keep them in google documents if anyone wants to have a look. Kalina always tries to make a new meal that will make the top 10 list and bump an inferior meal off the rankings. Tonight we had delicious beef brisket with baked potatoes, cornbread, and steamed carrots. I feel like this meal made it into the top 5, and not just because it was sunday night. I might even recommend it for a dinner party at some point.

I also ordered a new printer yesterday. My old printer was a brick house! I found this wireless laser printer from staples for 99.99 with a $30 rebate. I purchased a $25 off $75 coupon from e-junkie.com for $1.80 and applied that to bring my total with tax down to about $83 (before the rebate). That's in case anyone else wants to get the same one.

Dream Machine

Steve's favorite "wedding gift" (as in the one he got himself) arrived at the end of this week--a Blendtec as seen in Costco, smoothie stores, and probably on TV. He's hasn't been hiding his enthusiasm for the industrial blending machine since it arrived. We gave it a first try this weekend with a mango-strawberry-orange-banana smoothie. It was a hit! I foresee a smoothie-saturated summer ahead.

Early Bird Specials

We love sushi! Or sush, for short. Many of the Japanese restaurants here offer happy hour sushi deals...not that I'm promoting the practice of seeking out deep discounts on raw fish, but well, let's just say that patrons are happier with their bill during happy hour than during other times of the day. We haven't been out for sushi for a while, so this week's date included one such happy hour.

As we sat there we reminisced about the time we invited some friends out for a triple date sushi happy hour...on a Saturday...at 5:30 pm. Way too early for a Saturday dining out experience but Steve was determined to introduce our crowd to the happy hour way of life. As we discovered, not everyone has the same level of enthusiasm for on-sale sushi when one of our friends duly noted: "This is pretty early to be going out to dinner. I feel like we're senior citizens wanting to catch an early bird special."

Box Binge

Our house is looking rather...boxy these days. Not because of the construction or architecture, but because of the sheer volume of cardboard boxes we have stashed in every corner around our house. To an outsider it probably looks like we've started a box refugee camp, or are working towards setting a Guinness record for most cardboard fire hazards in a single home. I assure you, we're well aware of our rigid freeloaders, and are anxiously looking forward to curbside pickup day in our neighborhood...whenever that might be. Perhaps the 12 tons of cardboard will start to decompose before then, making the job of hauling it to the curb a little less burdensome.

Muchas Gracias

Tonight for Family Home Evening, Steve and I had a lesson on gratitude and practiced what we learned by writing thank you notes. How is that different than any other given night at the Broadbent home? It's not. We deeply appreciate everyone's generosity in honor of celebrating our wedding day and have enjoyed expressing our thankfulness.

EEEEE-ster!!

Happy Easter and welcome to our Broadbent blog! Today was our first official holiday as a married couple and it was...rainy! Our plans to take an Easter picture with the Texas blue bonnets were foiled, so we snapped a couple of shots on our covered balcony to avoid extreme smoker hair, where possible. For those not familiar with the term "smoker hair", hang out with me or my sisters in rain or humidity and you'll catch on.

No Easter is complete, of course, without a gia-meal and CANDY! of which we had both. Steve and I had a small dinner party...just us, really, since our dining furniture is non-existent for now. After dinner I had to convince Steve to take leave of the kitchen for a few minutes so I could distribute the Easter candy I'd purchased. 15 minutes later I retrieved my husband, aka big kid, and he proceeded to walk down the candy-laden stairs completely oblivious to the sweets along every step of his path. I watched in disbelief as he narrowly missed crushing cadbury mini eggs onto our stairs with his bare feet. He finally caught onto the game (with a little help) and he went scouting around the house, sporadically shouting "EE-ster!" while filling his festive brown paper bag...and sampling the goods.