A favorite summer recipe

Since moving into our house in April, we purchased our first grill. You all know that I've been trying as many different recipes as possible...but we've found one that we both love. It has become a summer favorite, and we've already made it twice in the past month! 

I typically find most of my recipes on blogs, but this summer I've been trying a lot of recipes from my magazines. BHG has really tasty meals, and they are generally fairly minimal - few ingredients, minimal time, and maximum flavor, just how we like it around here!! 

The recipe serves 8, but when I make it for two I halve the spices (so the seasoning is actually doubled) and I make the full 8 servings of salsa and divide it between the two of us. There's usually a bit leftover, but I just eat it by the spoonful :). I also substituted a couple green onions for the red onion.

jerk chicken with avocado orange salsa / melamine plates

On an unrelated note, Matt snapped these photos of Nora's long newborn hairs on the top of her head during dinner. She has been pulling on her hair, and they come right out in her little fingers so I asked him to take a few that night. Here we are about a week later and they exist no more :(. Oh Nora girl, you are growing up way too fast! Nora is 9 months today so hopefully she and I will have a little photo shoot soon.

What is your favorite summer recipe? 
We will try it!!

+, Lauren Aiken

California Trip, Part 3

As I mentioned in the previous post, our trip was extended due to a flight cancellation. We ended up getting a flight the following day out of Oakland instead of San Francisco. So in the meantime, Matt, Nora, and I, along with Mackenzie and Merrick, drove around San Francisco for a couple hours. I was glad we had the chance to see the city after all! 

See that top tooth? It was cutting through en route to California. Go Nora! She's such a trooper.

We drove to a couple look out points. It was super chilly and obviously really windy...

We also saw a couple doing a bridal shoot!!

I wasn't really into San Francisco that much until we got here - just a little reminder that I'm not a city girl at heart. 

We drove down Lombard Street and took a bunch of photos, but they really don't do it justice. Lombard is a really steep road that zig zags down. I wish I could have gotten a shot looking up the hill, but we were in the car and that wasn't really possible. You can look here for a better idea.

Does this make anyone else a little claustrophobic? It was fun to see, but I cannot imagine living there!

This was my favorite house, but mostly for the blue and fuchsia color combo! 

We drove to Oakland and stayed really close to the airport so we could catch the 4:40am shuttle for our flight. I'll spare you any pictures of that :). 

That sums up our trip to California! If you made it through all three parts, thank you for reading!

Have you ever been to San Francisco? 

Let me know your favorite spot so I can check it out next time we visit!

+, Lauren Aiken

Part I

Part II

California Trip, Part 2

If you missed Part I of our trip, it is summarized here. On Friday, everyone gathered for a picnic at the local park and for family photos. 

I don't yet have a photo of the entire family, but here's one of Grandma and Grandpa Bothun and their three kids.

Saturday was the real reason we went to California - Grandpa's 80th birthday party!! 

I totally forgot to mention back here that N gives open mouth kisses now when we say "kiss." 

Melts my heart!!

And then it was bedtime for the babies...

Sunday morning we went to Latif's, the local diner, for brunch. 

The meal was supposed to conclude week together, but our flights were cancelled due to the crash at SFO.  On the upside, we were able to see a little bit of San Francisco after all :).

+, Lauren Aiken