Decking the Halls...

So for our Christmas presents to eachother, Chris and I got a new camera. After lots of debating and researching, we decided on the Canon Rebel XSi and 2 differents lenses. Before I get any comments on how I "should have gotten a Nikon, " let me just say that I understand there are some of you out there who are die-hard Nikon fans. If you have any digital SLR tips and photography tips, those are welcome, as this is our first BIG camera. I do not, on the other hand, need to hear the reasons you love Nikon and how I made a mistake. If you are so compelled, I have plenty of reasons why I did not... :)
As many of you could assume, I spent days reading my owner's manual. (This includes one night falling asleep in bed reading it! Ha! Such a nerd!) Here are a few tester shots around the house of my Christmas decor.
Again, the owner's manual taught me "how" to use it, but I have no idea in which cases I should use each feature. Tips would be much appreciated!
Merry Christmas!!

Kennedy Favorites, Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Maple Cinnamon Sage Brown Butter Sauce

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Maple Cinnamon Sage Brown Butter Sauce

Intermediate

Are you up for a challenge? This is a great holiday recipe that made it's first appearance on our table this year. I expect we will not only use it several more times this season, but in future seasons as well. It requires a bit of time and effort, but the reward is awesome!

Gnocchi is an Italian potato dumpling made similar to pasta and usually topped with many pasta sauces. Some say you need to learn to make gnocchi from a true Italian chef, but mine turned out just fine without :) This is a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis, but I added a few tips that worked better for me. (I put my additions in italics) Good Luck!

For the Gnocchi:
2 pounds sweet potatoes
2/3 cup whole milk ricotta cheese

1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I added 1/4 cup cause it was too sticky), plus 1/3 cup for the work surface

For the Maple Cinnamon Sage Brown Butter:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
20 fresh sage leaves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the Gnocchi: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Pierce the sweet potato with a fork. Bake the sweet potatoes until tender and fully cooked, between 40 to 55 minutes depending on size. While potatoes are baking, transfer the ricotta into a coffee filter and put in a strainer over a bowl and refrigerate to drain the liquid; and pat with paper towels throughout recipe to take extra liquid out of the cheese. Cool potatoes slightly. Cut in half and scoop the flesh into a large bowl. Mash the sweet potatoes and transfer to a large measuring cup to make sure the sweet potatoes measure about 2 cups. Transfer the mashed sweet potatoes back to the large bowl. Add the ricotta cheese, egg, salt, cinnamon, and pepper and blend with a hand mixer until well mixed. Add the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, making sure it is well incorporated before adding more, until a soft dough forms. Shape 2-3 gnocchi and boil in water to test texture. If too mushy, add more flour. Heavily flour a work surface and place the dough in a ball on the work surface. Divide the dough into 6 equal balls. Roll out each ball into a 1-inch wide rope, keeping extra dough in refrigerator until use. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces. Roll the gnocchi over the tines of a fork. Transfer the formed gnocchi to a large baking sheet. Continue with the remaining gnocchi. Refrigerate or freeze on baking sheet lined with wax paper until use. You can layer them if room is needed.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the gnocchi in 3 batches and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 5 to 6 minutes. They are done when they float. Drain the gnocchi using a slotted spoon onto a baking sheet. Tent with foil to keep warm and continue with the remaining gnocchi.

Boiling Frozen Gnocchi: Thaw in refrigerator the night before or a few hours before boiling on a baking sheet. Boil as suggested above.
For the Brown Butter Sauce: While the gnocchi are cooking melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted add the sage leaves. Continue to cook, swirling the butter occasionally, until the foam subsides and the milk solids begin to brown. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the cinnamon, maple syrup, salt, and pepper. Careful, the mixture will bubble up. Gently stir the mixture. When the bubbles subside, toss the cooked gnocchi in the brown butter. Saute the gnocchi in the hot butter sauce for a few minutes on medium low heat to slightly cook the outsides. Transfer the gnocchi to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a quick list of some of the incredible things in our lives that we are thankful for...
-Our Families! We both have such wonderful, supportive parents and families. We are so very lucky to have great relationships with all of them. I hope they all know how much we love them!
-Our Friends! Both as a couple and individually, we have the most amazing groups of friends. I hope we never take for granted the friendships we have and hope we can always be the friends that they are.
-Our Health! We have both been very fortunate with our health and our bodies and are very thankful for that!
-Our Country! We are so grateful for the country we live in where we are encouraged to become an individual and seek out the things in life that make us happy! We realize that there are many people that live where they are not able to choose the things we choose every day and we are so thankful for those freedoms!
- EACHOTHER! We are so thankful to live in a happy marriage and love eachother the way we do! What an awesome thing to be able to share your life with your best friend!
And the list goes on and on...
Happy Thanksgiving!

Tristan Prettyman

Over the summer, we went to a G Love and Special Sauce concert at Red Butte Gardens with our friends, Christian and Monique. We made a fun picnic and took a few bottles of wine. Despite the first 30 minutes of rain, we had a blast. Tristan Prettyman was the opening act and ever since, she has been one of our FAVORITES! Seriously, we have her music blasting at least once every couple days around the house. I added her to our blog as a little musical background for you to enjoy. I know you will love her as much as we do!!! (P.S. Take note of the Britney Spear's cover also. Made me love Tristan all the more!)

Red Butte Gardens is such an awesome venue for a small concert! Notice the beautiful background, the rainbow definately didn't hurt the view either :)

This picture is not all that great, but it was the best we could get from the camera phone, ha!

Red Wine 101

Our friends, Christian and Monique, threw a "Wine and Cigar" night at their house for a small group of friends. It was so much fun to see everyone. We all made delicious appetizers, Saul brought cigars and Christian had compiled a wine flight that was to die for! It was pretty interesting to compare all of our favorites, none of us had the same! Here are a few not-so-great pictures from that night...

Long Awaited Girl's Night Out!

This weekend, a bunch of us girls reunited for a Good Old-Fashioned Girl's Night Out!!
Rachel was in town from Fort Worth, Texas. Newly-wed Diana was in town from Chicago, Illinois. And, Dr. Sarah Atzet finally moved back home after getting her PHD in Seattle, Washington.
This was such a great night for all of us to go out again and act like we were still 21 :) We absolutely had a lot to catch up on, but it was like we never skipped a beat once we were all back together! Here are a few pictures of the coolest girls EVER!! Ha!

I know, this isn't that great of a picture, but the other one of all of us was a bit too dark. Sorry! (R-L: Ashley, Suzanne, Sarah, Rachel, Diana, Mary, me, Jen, Brandee, Cassi)

Not too bad for Ghetto Pad Girls, right?
(R-L: Diana, Rachel, Emily, Cassi)


(R-L: Emily, Jen, Brandee, Cassi, Ashley)

(R-L: Sarah, Suzanne, Mary)


Yes, sometimes after a little convincing, it turns to things like this... We can't help it...

Utah vs. TCU

This is our third year in a row to have season tickets to the University of Utah Football games and it might be our favorite year so far! Last week the university named the Utah/TCU game an official "Black Out." Meaning, all the fans wore straight black and the team wore black uniforms as an attempt to scare off the TCU Horned Frogs. Apparently we didn't scare them too bad cause my friend Rachel and her two cheerleaders still sat with us and cheered on their own team. That is, before they froze!
Utah beat the Frogs in the last 2 minutes of the game after 2 failed field goals by TCU and a touchdown thanks to our quarterback, Brian Johnson. This win continued our undefeated record of 10-0 and placed us 7th in the country. Now if we can keep it up through games with San Diego and of course that team down south...

The stadium looked so cool filled with black, what a difference to the usual Crimson Red!

You can see how the fans rushed the field after the win!! Go Utes!!

Finally got to see Rachel after a long long time! Too bad she forgot she spent several years attending the U...

And, FINALLY got to meet 3-year-old Presley!! What a DOLL!!! You can see Rachel's other beautiful daughter, Kaitlyn, in the background. She was too busy enjoying cotton candy and M&M's to take a picture.

Kennedy Favorites, Baked Brie

Baked Brie
Quick & Easy

This is a fun appetizer to use throughout the holidays. I got it from my Sister-in-law, Diane after she brought it to a Christmas Brunch. Since then, I have made it several times and it never fails to get the best reactions! It is so easy and SO delicious served with apples. Thanks again for sharing, Di!!

1 17oz. package of frozen Puff Pastry, thawed
15 oz. wheel of Brie
1/2 cup chopped Pecans
1/2 cup brown Sugar
1 Egg beaten with 1 Tbsp. Cream or Water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place 1 sheet of the pastry on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper.
Cut the brie in half horizontally and place bottom half on the sheet of pastry.
In a small bowl mix the pecans and sugar. Spread the mixture on your brie and top with other half (making it like a sandwich).
Place second sheet of pastry on top of brie. Cut away excess dough and seal top half to bottom half, leaving no openings in the seam. You can use the extra dough to decorate the top if you like.
Brush the top and sides with the egg wash.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until your dough is golden brown and puffy. Allow to cool before cutting. Serve with sliced apples.

Helen's Little Cupcake

A couple weekends ago, we threw a baby shower for one of my best friends, Helen Aoki. We had the shower at the cutest little cupcake shop named So Cupcake. Almost all the girls were able to come along with a bunch of Helen's family and friends. Besides having great food and adorable gifts, we got to eat cupcakes together and everyone got to make 1 (or 2, or even 3 for some...) little hair bows for the baby girl!! Here are a few pictures, I will add more if I can get some from Ashlee (hint, hint! Ha!).

The cute Mommy-to-be and the girls! (R-L: Cassi, Mary, Helen, Suzanne)

(R-L: Jen, Helen, Mary)

Mary trying on the bow to make sure it fits right!

God Bless America!

Regardless of who you voted for or who you think would make the best Commander in Chief, it is impossible to deny how incredible of a day Tuesday was.
It was so amazing to watch the television and see the insane numbers of voters that turned out to "leave their print." Not to mention, the amount of Americans our age and even younger who were so passionate about this race. I heard a statistic that there were about 44 MILLION registered voters between 18 and 29 years old. I think that is just incredible!! It completely opened my eyes and made me so proud of the impact our generation has on this nation!
Yesterday we witnessed history and we look forward to seeing the impact it has on America's future!
God Bless our wonderful country!!!

Kennedy Favorites

Some of you may not know that cooking is one of our FAVORITE things to do in the Kennedy house. Whenever we have a free weekend, we spend at least one of the days cooking. Some of you may have noticed, new recipes seems to eventally always come up in every conversation with me lately...
The only problem I run into is remembering the ones we like so we can make them again. Chris always tells me, "You always make my favorite things when people come over, then we never have leftovers!" Ha!
So, I decided to start posting some of our favorites. One, so we can remember and save them, but also so that I can share them with those of you who might want to try them. I am going to try to post at least one easy recipe and one that takes more motivation per month. Stay tuned for some of the Kennedy Favorites...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Quick & Easy

My sister, Lindsay, shared this simple recipe with me years ago and it has become one of our Autumn staples. I always double the recipe because we like BIG cookies :) Enjoy!!

1 cup Softened Butter
3/4 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 cup Pure Pumpkin
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 1/4 cups Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Nutmeg
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 bag Milk Chocolate Chips

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream the first 6 ingredients together and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the next 5 ingredients. Slowly mix the dry ingredients into your pumpkin mixture until well incorporated then fold in the bag of chocolate chips.
Drop spoonfulls onto a non-stick or parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet and bake about 11-12 minutes.
Makes about 2 dozen.

Our Trip to the Big Apple...

We had saved all year to take a trip to New York to catch one of the last games in Yankee Stadium before they tore it down. So, at the end of September, we finally got to go!!! We crammed so many fun things into only 7 days.
Obviously, the highlight of the trip, BASEBALL!! The Yankees played against the Baltimore Orioles and went the first 8 innings without a single run. Finally in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Yankees won with a walk-off double!! It was so awesome to see such a historical place and there was so much emotion in the air, as it was the second to last EVER home game at the old stadium! We were so glad we got to see it!
We spent a lot of time wandering the streets and shopping in Midtown, Greenwich Village, Soho and even Williamsburg. We even learned how to get by on the subways, thanks to our friends Cydni & Adam.
Here are a few more pictures from the trip:
Yes, I drug Chris to the Regis and Kelly Show! Front row!! That is Gelman in the way of me taking a picture. After he stepped on my toe, Regis told him to "be nice to that young lady!" Ha!
Did you see in the news about David Blaine hanging upside-down for 60 hours in Central Park? Then did you hear about the wonderous "Dive of Death"? Apparently only one of those worked as planned!
We went and saw "Wicked" for the second time and also we were fortunate enough to get tickets to a matinee to "All My Sons" starring Katie Holmes, John Lithgow & Diane Weist. It was phenomenal!! Afterwards, we got to see Katie (yes, first-name basis) and get an autograph!


Through Vacation Rentals By Owner we found this amazing condo on the 23rd floor right in the middle of Rockefeller Plaza. So, every morning, we would walk out the front doors to Dean & Deluca, get our coffee and then watch the filming of the Today Show.

Another thing we did that I loved was take the Water Taxi from Williamsburg down around Battery Park, past the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, past the Financial District, past Greenwich Village and up to Chelsea Piers. The weather was so nice and it was fun to see all the views from the water.
Hands down, this was one of our favorite trips together, and we so look forward to our next trip to the Big Apple!!

The Kennedys Have a Blog...

Even though the both of us were way busy with work all summer, we somehow found time to do alot of fun things. Chris ran several 5k's, The Salt Lake Marathon and a 17 mile run through a canyon north of salt lake. He even convinced me to run a 5k, The Race for the Cure.


In June, I got to join the girls (my sister, mom and some of her friends) on the annual girls' weekend at Country Jam in Grand Junction, CO. We got to see a ton of awesome shows including Sugarland, Joe Nichols, Josh Turner and my favorite, Tim McGraw! It was such a blast, I definately hope I'm on the invite list for next year!

In August we were crazy busy! My parents came to visit for a weekend of golfing and a James Taylor concert. We had a blast and it was so great to be able to hang out with them since the next time we see them isn't until Christmas :(

Then we threw our first Murder Mystery party. The theme was "Back to the 80's." Everyone got way into their characters and the outfits were like totally RAD!

We also went to Lake Tahoe for my friend, Diana's, wedding. It was so beautiful and the weather was amazing! The rehearsal dinner was on a yacht out in the middle of the lake for about 50 people. Then the wedding ceremony and luncheon was held at the clubhouse of the Edgewood Golf Course. It was such a great ceremony and of course the bride was stunning! That evening, we all boarded a bus that took us to a private beach for horseshoes, dancing and a fun BBQ. What a great weekend! Thank you to Diana and Cailean for including us in their special day!!!

August also included a very sad loss of Chris' Grandmother Jean Powell. She meant so much to everyone around her and she is missed greatly by all the family! We took a weekend to go to Mountain View, WY for a beautiful memorial. After a lunch with all the family, we hiked up the mountain that houses her cabin that she LOVED! Near the top, the trail opened up to a big grassy field where 2 huge pine trees stood and where her husband's ashes had been spread under one of the trees only about a year earlier. We took time to spread her ashes and enjoy being together. It was a very special day for all of us.
We were so lucky to be able to have such a great summer, and look forward to football in the fall and a fun Panama trip over Christmas!!!