Here's the picture of our fun night with our neighbors playing Settlers.


This is Yogurl's fave meal from last week... Yummy chili, exotic cucumber salad, and a great gourmet pizza from Trader Joe's. 

Where, oh where could the Grunion be?

This was a pretty good week over all. Yogurl got another babysitting job on Monday, score! Yogurl loves babysitting! Tuesday, I had duty at the barracks, which means I got to sit around and do nothing for 24 hours. At first I was a little excited because I get to eat at the chowhall whenever I have duty. It just wasn't as good as I remembered it being. I guess I'm just getting spoiled by Yogurl's cooking. The Duty NCO I was working with was an MP, and he busted some guys who were driving around the parking lot like idiots. That was pretty cool. Other than that, it was just really long and made me very tired. Meanwhile, Yogurl watched Bride and Prejudice, some Bollywood chick flick. So I'm glad I was on duty watching the news instead. She really enjoyed it, though. Also on Tuesday, I went in and got qualified on my second position. That means that I am no longer just a student. It also means that I am now deployable, so I guess we'll see what happens next.

Wednesday we went to Trader Joe's and I realized that I can't take Yogurl there because she spends all our savings. She spent at least an hour deciding which salad to buy. "Oh Manburger, they're all so yummy and healthy looking. I just don't know which one to buy." That's okay, Manburger is very patient. While Yogurl ate fun, organic pizza, I ate a free Chipotle burrito that I got for giving blood. Both of our tummies were happy.

Yogurl wants to tell you all about her exciting Thursday, so here she is...
Thursday I was invited out to lunch with some sisters from our church who all have children. They were nice enough to include me even though Manburger and I are far away from that point of our life. We took the kiddies to McDonald's and they ran around the play area. A few of us women bought lunch from Rubio's and took it over there so I didn't have to suffer the tragedy of eating McDonald's. I really enjoyed getting out of the house and talking to some ladies my age.

For dinner on Thursday I made the yummiest chili and a really good cucumber, mango, coconut salad. The pizza is from Trader Joe's.

If you want the recipes, sent me an email and I'll pass them along. You know, copyright issues.

Friday we had a fun date night with our neighbors two doors down. It was also the one year mark when Manburger proposed after bootcamp. For our date we went to our fav, La Perla Tapatia for desserts and then across the street to Eriberto's for real food. I had a yummy machaca torta and Manburger had a chimichanga. After we ate we went back to our friend's house and played Settlers.

This is Manburger again. Yogurl was kind enough to leave out that I almost ruined our date night. After I got back from work, I went to help a member move. Yes, they were moving at 6pm on Friday. So as you can imagine nobody volunteered to help, so I said I would. Anyway, I was supposed to be back at 7:15 or so, but I didn't get back til about 8:20. Yogurl was kind enough to forgive my tardiness. They didn't have much stuff to move, but their storage unit was on the second floor and inside. As you can imagine, that complicated things a bit. Everything turned out just fine, though. I would have left when I needed to to get back in time, but there was only the Elder's Quorum President, a youth, and myself. So, I would have felt bad leaving early. Anyway, we still had time for our date night. Also, we tried to go see the Grunion which the news said would be on the beach in abundance between 11:45 pm and 1:45 am. We arrived at approximately 12:30 only to find nothing made sand and water. What a rip-off. See if I ever believe the news again.

Saturday, Yogurl took me shopping for new cute clothes for her trip home. I guess that any sort of trip obviously requires a new ensemble. At least, that is what Yogurl tells me. Maybe if I hadn't grown up in a house with 4 boys I would know these things. Anyway, the best part of the day was when we went to Barnes and Noble. They had a deal where you could buy something from them and then go next door and get a free burrito from Chipotle. So I got to have a second free Chipotle burrito in the same week! What a sweet deal.

Saturday evening we rented Just Like Heaven. Even though it was a chick flick, it had the guy who was Napoleon Dynamite, so I thought it was pretty decent.

Anyway, I guess that is about all for this week. Just looking forward to going to Ohio to visit. Yogurl says she is looking forward to seeing her cute niece and her cute sisters and her cute friend and her cute parents and her cute house and her cute ward and showing off her cute husband.

Death by Chocolate Cookies

Here's a crazy recipe I fixed for a sister in our ward for her birthday. Ultimate chocolaty-ness.



Death by Chocolate Cookies

1 stick light butter, softened
1 stick reg butter, softened
Just under 1 c turbinado sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 c cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg
3 c oatmeal
1/2 c slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 c dried cranberries or cherries
12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar in large bowl. Add vanilla and egg, mix to combine.
In another bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and spices.
Add to creamed mixture, mix well. Stir in oatmeal.
Fold in almonds, cranberries, and choc.
Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets,bake for 8-9 min.
Makes about 3 dozen large cookies.

A brief review

For those of you who don't know, Yogurl and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple back in February. After the wedding, Yogurl went back to BYU where she attained great success and I went off to my duty station awaiting medical clearance. At the end of April, Yogurl joined me here in Southern California and we've been enjoying our time together ever since. Being newlyweds sure is fun!

Here's a pic

Just wanted to post a picture so that everybody can see how lucky I am to have the beautiful Yogurl by my side. This is at the San Diego Temple in La Jolla.

Our week

Yogurl and I ate wonderful Mexican food at La Perla Tapatia. It's just a little hole in the wall Mexican shop, but it was cheap and wonderful. Yogurl was greatly intimidated by the lack of English being spoken in the shop. Fortunately Manburger spoke English to an employee who spoke English, thus saving the day. Yogurl had a big fat veggie burrito, which she devoured. I had the Asada nachos. Yumm.

After dinner we went to the nearby theater and saw Nacho Libre, perhaps the greatest film ever made. Yogurl got a little tired of me talking like Nacho after the film, but I could not resist. Hey, take it easy!

I guess I should go in order of the week. Last Sunday, Yogurl and I gave talks in church on honesty. Yogurl's talk was excellent; mine was mediocre. Anyway, I'm going to let Yogurl type for a while now.

On Friday I went to a bread making class with a church women's group. The recipes were whole-wheat bread and whole-wheat hamburger buns. Now that's my kind of cooking. The sister who hosted the class fed us afterwards and we had the best sandwiches I've had in a long time.

This Sunday marks the first time that Manburger and I have entertained since getting married. We had our neighbor, whose wife is out of town, over for dinner and played Settlers of Catan. And who would've guessed, entertaining isn't so stressful. Our guest did have to bring his own chair however, seeing as we only have two green patio chairs. Ahh, the joy of being newlyweds.

For our dinner I made yummy stirfry with broccoli, carrots, onions, mushrooms, and waterchesnuts. We also had flounder fillets rolled and stuffed with cilantro, soy sauce, ginger, and lime juice. I made this crazy rice I bought in Utah called "mahogany and black blend." It turned out really pretty and nutty. For dessert I made a yummy chocolate cake from my new Moosewood's Dessert Cookbook. It called for baking soda and cider vinegar to rise instead of eggs. Manburger really liked it, too. I'll try to keep updates on my cooking adventures every week.

Manburger had a tough time this week because he got two flats on his bike. He even had special slime filled innertubes that were supposed to repair themselves, but I guess not! He was rather depressed, fortunately Yogurl lifted his spirits with a yummy lunch.

That's all for this week!

New to this

Yogurl and I aren't really sure how this thing works yet, but we thought that we'd give it a try. Hope this works!