SCANDAL @ THE MCMURDIES

Friday night was a

*gasp*

Scandalous night

 We threw back shots, feasted on pulled pork with beer, drank daiquiri's, ate crack salad, and scarfed down Vodka & Kahlua cake

(don't worry the alcohol all cooked out so it really was a tame party where no designated drivers were needed)

Thanks to the I.P. group for the great time

Next up: Breakfast/PJ party

This could also be a SCANDAL considering what some of us wear to bed.

A BIRTHDAY FOR POPS

So my Pops had a Birthday...

and we decided to Celebrate.

Celebrations are like dates.

They must consist of 3 things.

1. Food

2. Affection/Gifts

3. Entertainment

1. Food came in the form of pie.

Pops likes pie.

His lungs are getting old so he had two volunteers help him blow out the candles

(obviously the candles are in no way, shape or form an indicator of his age.)

2. Gifts/Affection came next.

Pops got many great things.

Such as...

a bolt and nut.

(soooo exciting)

a Tiger Kiss from Tydon

A dirty look he gave to mom when he unwrapped this next present to find an...

iPad

You can never go wrong with a

"Teach ME how to JIMMER" shirt

New glasses from Kace

Pops is always losing his glasses.

This gift is a sure solution.

Kace came up with this idea all on his own.

We are just glad it wasn't a new fish.

(R.I.P not so Lucky)

3. The Entertainment was provided by Tydon.

Sadly this picture is craptacular.

Move over Spiderman, Iron Man, Bumble Bee, and Optimus Prime here comes...

NINJA TYDON 

After chores Tydon had to show us his Ninja moves.

He also got a trophy.

You can read about it on Rachel's blog here

Happy Birthday Pops!

DOWNATA HOT SPRINGS

DOWNATA HOT SPRINGS

So my inlaws gave us this Cache Valley Savings book which has been awesome.  One of the coupons in it was buy one swim get one free at Downata Hot Springs.  We took advantage of last Saturday to use up that coupon.  We couldn't have asked for a better day either.  It wasn't crowded and the weather was miserable (snow, rain, wind, etc) ... which made sitting in a hot tub and swimming around in a heated pool even better.

Clayton had never been to Downata and I had only been once...when I was like 5 or 6 or some young age when you can't remember anything except chipping your tooth from falling down while you were playing kissing tag in kindergarten.  So it was like a new adventure for both of us.

And we all know how WE like adventure 

In case you were wondering...

This is what Clayton would look like if he had feet for ears.

FYI this look goes well with a President Obama impersonation.

Underwater self portraits are hard to take without goggles (opening my eyes under water do not good things to my contacts)

TAKE #1

TAKE #2

TAKE # 57

stupid camera strap!

TAKE # 1,633,964

Who looks sexy???

Above water self portraits are much easier

In case you were wondering...

swimming with a bandaged thumb (see post below) is no easy task.

MISSING

MISSING!

NAME: part of Left Thumb

AGE: 30 years old

RACE & OTHER CHARACTERISTICS: Caucasian & surprisingly hairless considering who the owner is. 

LAST SEEN WEARING: A full hand

LAST SEEN: chopping up radishes in the kitchen

LAST SEEN WITH: This guy

* Please contact Heidi or Clayton with any information reguarding this thumb

FREDETTABOUTIT

EVENT: ESPN's Tournament Challenge

GROUP NAME: Fredettaboutit

PARTICIPANTS: Andrew Family

Usually great ideas come to me when I'm A) taking a shower, or B) running.  My latest and greatest came to me Friday morning on the treadmill while I was contemplating our weekend plans.  Saturday was already planned out to be a busy day, but Friday was lacking any sort of creativity.  I thought and I thought and I thought, but nothing came.  I was about to surrender to the thought of spending Friday night watching tv and stuffing my face while lounging in my fat pants...when it HIT me!  Make March Madness T-shirts that represent our group name! 

Brilliant. 

Friday after work we hit up Hobby Lobby and S.E.I for supplies.  So while watching the basketball games (and watching the outcomes absolutely destroy my bracket) we took to the iron and pressed and pressed and pressed and pressed and pressed...

end result...

Yesterday I found this beauty courtesy of Sloanshirts 

The name: Fredette vs. Norris

That is in Chuck Norris

NICE!

ST. PATTY'S DAY FEAST

4 posts in 4 days
you're welcome!

So as you may have known yesterday was St. Patrick's Day.  You may have also known that I also received my mother's love for holidays.  So it should come as no surprise that I would want to celebrate this day.  Growing up mom always colored our milk green.  In the words of one of my brother's "Green milk is yucky." Yes, they are 24 & 26 and still use the word "yucky".  I didn't color our milk green, but I did want to celebrate with food.  

Clayton had seen a Green Salad recipe on the KUTV 2 morning news the other day.  So we did an all green salad, Salmon and Irish Soda Bread.  

I had my doubts about the salad, but it really was amazing.  The "salad" portion is just Romaine lettuce and any green veggies you want.  We used peas, green pepper, broccoli, green onions, cucumber, and celery (was going to use zucchini and asparagus, but didn't have time).  If you ask me it was the dressing that made this salad special.  Since I like you here is the recipe:

AVOCADO DRESSING

1 large ripe avocado

grated peel and juice of 1 lime

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tsp honey

salt and pepper (too taste)

4 TBSP milk

Halve avocado and scoop flesh out into blender or food processor.  Add grated lime peel, lime juice, garlic, honey, salt, pepper, and 2 TBSP milk.  Think with remaining milk if necessary.

Here is the website it came from

Trust me it is D.E.L.I.S.H

On to the Irish Soda Bread...

I am a virgin when it comes to making this bread.  I didn't even have a recipe.  What do you do when that happens?  You head to allrecipes.com or food.com of course.  I love those websites because you can read reviews/comments and get ratings.  Anyway I was trying to decide between 3 recipes.  I hate decisions and wanted someone to choose for me.  Then I saw IT and knew that IT was the ONE.  It's all in the name...all in the NAME.

Grandma McAndrews' Irish Soda Bread

Clayton said it best..."If our last names (McMurdie and my maiden name of Andrew) were to have a love child it would be McAndrew."

Recipe was found Here

Someone on the website said that they topped it with brown sugar.  I tried that, but don't think that I will do it again.  I think overall the bread turned out pretty tasty...but then I don't have anything to compare it too. 

Don't mind the overripe bananas in the background.  They will be finding a nice home in bread within the next few days.

We finished up the night watching madness unfold in the

NCAA 2011 basketball tourney.

BYU won (little too close for comfort)

USU lost (that is the last time I pick the Ag's to make an upset)

Other "Idiot of the Night" Awards go to ...

* St. Johns for losing to Gonzaga

* Penn State for losing to Temple

* Michigan State for losing to UCLA

* Vanderbilt for losing to 12th seeded Richmond

As you can see from the family's ESPN Tournament Challenge group below I am not doing so well.

(you can click on the image to see my pathetic standing better)

Still early though...

THE IRISH INDIAN

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Remember how I am Indian?  Well did you know that the name McMurdie is Irish?  Did you also know that the Nowling side of my family (my mom's mom side) is also Irish? 

Knowing these two tidbits of information I'm sure that you will agree that it was only appropriate that Clayton and I would wake up Saturday morning and decide to ditch our plans and head down to the St. Patrick's Day Parade at the Gateway.  It was like one big family reunion with beer and bagpipes.

Now that I am an (self proclaimed) expert of all things Irish please note that the following are common occurrences at St. Patrick's Day Parades.

1) Men in skirts kilts playing bagpipes

2) Fire trucks

Every parade has to have a firetruck 

3) Riverdance girls

Ireland's equivalent to a high school drill team

4) DUI Marching Band

...coming to a Irish parade near you

5) Dogs

lots of dog

dogs wearing green

dogs for 10 minutes straight

6) Fake Dogs with Fake Poop Bags

7) Old men on super sweet old school bikes

I want one (bike not an old guy)

8) Clowns rocking their horse mounted Jazzyoh don't forget the fake dog he is dragging or is he hanging it...

...somewhere a little girl is crying

9) Saint (Heidi) Andrew Saint School

a. Does this mean that "Andrew" is also an Irish name?  Am I Irish on all fronts?

b. I already knew that Andrew's are Saints.  I didn't need to go to a school to tell me that. 

10) Really crappy bandsIt was a case of "I play Rock Band so I'm a self proclaimed musician" entry

11) Floats that tell me things about religion that I didn't know

The Father is represented by a church/house? 

Interesting...

12) Crazy and I mean C-R-A-Z-Y guys going entirely too fast in their little (I want one) cars
pretty sure next year this guy will be seen marching in the DUI Marching Band pictured above

13) Men talking on cellphones and women pushing strollers

Apparently all you have to do to get into a St. Patrick's parade is have someone in your party wearing green.  In this case the women is pushing the stroller holding a kid who is donning a green shirt.  No wonder this parade was 8 hours long.  Hold on...after looking closer at the picture I see that the lady has red hair...that means that she is Irish right!?!  Total entitlement to be a parade entry then.  Not sure what the story is with the guy and the cellphone is...maybe he has a bagpipe ringtone.  At least he isn't wearing a "I'm too cool for you" bluetooth.  Have I ever blogged about my distaste for those things?  That is a whole post in itself! 

14) Fruit Booters

This is the name Clayton gave to Rollerbladers

The parade was entertaining and all but I missed all the entries that "small town America" has in their parades: TRACTORS.  To me it isn't a parade unless it involves a combine, a baler, and a big ol' John Deere.

After the parade we headed over to the Irish festival to eat some Corned Beef, Cabbage and Lamb Stew.

Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes

Lamb Stew

Doesn't look good?

It wasn't.

So glad my Irish ancestors came to America...don't think I could take the food.

Bless the Irish

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY EVERYONE

THE CREPERY

Place: The Crepery

(130 N 100 E, Logan)

Saturday night was our "Feast Before After the Fast" with the Holmgrens.  

I. Loved. It.

Clayton and I split the Pepe Le Pesto [pesto, parmesan cheese, smoked turkey, roasted red peppers] and the Rushmore [egg, pepper jack cheese, ham].  They were both tres excellent.  I think the Pepe Le Pesto won out as the favorite.

Pepe Le Pesto crepe

Rushmore crepe

(picture is horrific...sorry)

Since this was dinner we didn't try any of the dessert/fruit crepes.  I can't wait to go back to try them though.  You can see the menu (and better pictures) for The Crepery HERE. 

The atmosphere was super chill.  There was no waiter or waitress to seat you.  You just go up and order and then find a table and wait.  The tables and chairs are all mismatched like they went and raided the D.I.  There are bookcases full of books, couches to lounge on, games to keep you entertained while you wait for your crepe.  This brings me to my one and only complaint...the wait time.  Don't go expecting fast service because you won't get it.  But if you have time bring a good book and just hang out.

Thanks Holmgrens for another great feast!

ps. Don't freak out and think that we didn't get dessert...we washed down our crepes with non other than frozen yogurt.  No surprise there.