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Sweet Pork Burritos

February 21st, 2008 · food

Sweet Pork Burritos (Costa Vida Knockoff)

The following recipe(s) are my best guess at Costa Vida’s Sweet Pork Burrito – so far. With any luck we will be able to improve the recipe even more after the taste-off. If you haven’t already read about that, you should.

To make a Sweet Pork Burrito, add the following (in this order) to your tortilla (recipes below):

  • Black Beans (or Pinto if it suits your fancy)
  • Cilantro Lime Rice
  • Sweet Pork
  • Green Chile Enchilada sauce
  • Mozzarella Cheese

Smother with additional sauce and cheese if desired. Throw it in the oven or microwave to melt the cheese.

And on the side:

  • Green Leaf Lettuce
  • Pico de Gallo

Black Beans, I just used the canned variety – and heated them on the stove.
One can is enough for five or six burritos.

Cilantro Lime Rice. Recipe makes enough for 6-8 burritos.

Cilantro Lime Rice

2 cups rice
2 cups water
1/2 cup lime juice
chopped cilantro (use about 1/2 of the bunch)

Add everything to a pot. Bring to a boil. Cover, turn off heat, and let stand on the burner for 20 minutes.

I imagine you can do this in a rice cooker – But I’ve actually never used one.

Sweet Pork. This makes lots – I’d estimate enough for 20 burritos. Leftovers freeze.

Sweet Pork
This recipe is very similar to Felicia’s, but the ratios are a little different. The size of the roast is approx. – A little bigger/smaller should be fine.
4 lb. pork roast (I used a rump)
2 cups brown sugar
1 (12-14 oz.) jar salsa
2 cans Coke (24 oz. or 2 1/2 cups)

Place roast in crock pot, fill half way with water and cook for 6-8 hours
Discard water.
Shred meat and return to the crock pot

Combine sugar, salsa, and coke in a seperate bowl.
Add mixture to the meat in the crock pot.
Cook an additional 3 hours. Stir occasionally.

Green Chile Enchilada Sauce. This stuff in a can worked great for me.
I purchased mild – but Dave says that the temperature is closer to Costa Vida’s medium salsa. So use sparingly if you can’t take the heat.
One can should be good for 4-6 burritos depending on how heavily used it is.

Finally, add shredded cheese. Smother if you’d like.

And on the side. . .

Costa Vida typically offers “lettuce and pico” – if you’d like to add this side to finish off the meal, then do the following:

Add cut green leaf lettuce to the plate, and make Pico De Gallo (recipe below)

Pico De Gallo. Recipe taken from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.
Believe it or not, the grocery store was actually all out of Jalepeno peppers when I went, so I made mine with Anaheim.

Pico De Gallo

5 Roma tomatoes (firm, not soft)
1/2 large or 1 small onion
3 jalapeno peppers
cilantro
lime juice
salt

Basically its chop/dice, add and stir. Lime juice and salt are added to taste. Visit the link above if you want a step-by-step.

And there you have it. Sweet Pork Burrito – Costa Vida style.
(Note: the pork added to the top of the burrito is decorative, and is strictly optional)

Serve with sour cream and/or guacamole if you so desire.

One of these days I may try to make homemade flour tortillas. Hopefully I can get them a little thinner and a little bigger. If anyone happens to have a good recipe, please pass it along.

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Sweet Pork Burrito (tasters needed)

February 20th, 2008 · food, random

Dave LOVES sweet pork burritos from Costa Vida. If he could, he would eat one nearly every day. Its a serious thing. Who can blame him though – if you’ve had one, you know that they are pretty heavenly.

A couple of weeks ago, we were sitting at our kitchen table dining on our Costa Vida menu item of choice, when Dave asked, “Do you think you could make these?” I told him that I imagine somewhere on the internet someone has posted a recipe we could try. Not two days later, Sandra called me and told me about a recipe on Felicia’s blog. . . it was all over from there.

It took three attempts – but between Felicia’s recipe, a bit of Google-ing, and Dave’s knowledge of each and every flavor wrapped up in that burrito – I came up with the meal you see before you. And boy, was it good. According to Dave I am really close. . . but am I close enough?

That is for you to decide. So, just for the fun of it (Not because I promise to BE Costa Vida), we are going to hold a taste-off. The event will be held on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at our home – In honor of my Costa-Vida-lovin’ husband’s birthday. The idea is that we will purchase a Costa Vida Sweet Pork burrito, and make some ourselves. 10 tasters will be chosen, blindfolded, and given samples of both burritos. They will be asked to state which they believe to be authentic Costa Vida, as well as which taste they prefer. If you are interested in being a taster, please tell us in 50 words or less why you should be chosen.

Disclaimer: This contest/event is just for fun. It is in no way endorsed or affiliated with Costa Vida. Any resemblance to food items or ingredients used in actual restaurant menu items is strictly coincidental. As stated above, the recipes used were derived from various sources – including the taste buds of one Costa Vida addict.

The finer print:

Sweet Pork Burrito Taste-Off
Friday, March 21st 6:00 p.m.

Entry Rules/Details:

  1. 10 tasters will be chosen based on responses posted to the comments section of this post.
  2. Entrants must, in 50 words or less, describe their qualifications for being a tester (E.g. I practically live at Costa Vida, I look really good in a blindfold, or my nickname is ‘sweet pork’)
  3. All entries must be posted as comments to this post. No other form of submission will be considered.
  4. Tasters will be chosen as individuals. Please do not submit entries as couples or families. Separate entries are needed for each person.
  5. Entrants must actually know us on some level. (Random men named Fred living in St. Paul may be disqualified.)
  6. Tasters must be available (in Logan) on the evening of Friday March 21st to participate in the event.
  7. Tasters must be willing to have their photograph taken (most likely while blindfolded), and posted on this blog.
  8. All entries must be received by Monday, March 10th at 11:59 p.m.
  9. Tasters will be chosen (and posted here) on the morning of Wednesday, March 12th.
  10. All tasters will be fed a full “Costa Tina” burrito dinner that evening.

The purpose of this event is to have fun, eat good food, and laugh out loud. The purpose of the contest portion of this event is to allow each of you to exercise your inner creative selfs, to give us some fun stuff to read, and because – well, just because its funny.

P.S. I’ll post the recipe (as it currently stands) tomorrow! Happy eating.

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Street Preacher

February 19th, 2008 · bridget

If you live in Logan, you’ve probably seen the local street preacher.

He is a man that stands on the corner of 1000 North and Main Street reciting scripture. Check out this video if you haven’t seen him:

Anyway – the other day we were driving past the street preacher, and Bridget and I had the following conversation:

B: That man is yelling
T: Yep. He is yelling
B: He’s yelling for his lady?
T: He’s what?
B: He’s yelling for his lady? Can’t find her.
T: Oh really. Who taught you what it means to have a lady?
B: He’s just yelling for his lady.
T: Oh. Okay.
B: She’s lost. He is yelling – can find her. His lady.

Sometimes I don’t know where she comes up with these things.

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Oreos

February 18th, 2008 · bridget, random

In May 2006, when Bridget was almost 6 months old, I took this picture of her.

At the time, Bridget was weighing in at the 97th percentile for her age – she was a chunk. I got a lot of people asking me if I regularly let my baby dine on Oreo cookies. Funny, funny people. For the record, that was the only Oreo she had eaten before her first birthday, and she didn’t even finish it.
On Saturday a friend brought her boys over for pictures, and we decided to play with Oreo cookies again. I took this one of them.

The little guy in the picture is 6 months old – basically the same age Bridget was in her Oreo picture. He’s a skinny little dude though – I guess his mama doesn’t let him eat too many Oreos.

There is just something cute about little kids and messy chocolate cookies.

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Is there someone in the closet?

February 17th, 2008 · college life, the hottest girls at USU

Back when I lived with the Hottest Girls at USU, we had a wall in our apartment dedicated to “Hideous Boy Moments.” As you’ll recall in the original post, I promised that I would explain the details behind some of them.

Well, this is the one that started it all!

Is there someone in the closet?

Let me explain.

First, it should be stated that were never very good at locking the door to our apartment (sorry mom). Second, I had some very dramatic roommates, and one very fatherly-type neighbor boy.

This is Steven, our next door neighbor. Unfortunately this is the only picture I can find of him – though it is a pretty good representation of his personality, and of his willingness (or lack thereof) to participate in just about anything we came up with. His roommates, Chet and Stewart (back left), frequented our apartment – and our fridge.

Steven was the sort of neighbor that would walk out onto the balcony when he saw us leaving and yell something like, “Remember who you are.” He thought he was funny. In any case, he felt some responsibility to look after us – after all, he was a ‘mature senior boy,’ and we were just a bunch of silly freshman and sophomore girls with little clue about the big bad world. His role in the story will be made clear shortly.

The story is set late one week night at our apartment when two of my roommates were out, and the rest of us were sleeping.

Since it was in our nature to leave the door unlocked – basically all the time (we weren’t the smartest people) – and since we didn’t know when Amanda and Michelle would be back, or if they had a key, we didn’t lock the door. For the record, we did typically lock it at night once everyone was home and in bed – but on this particular night, not everyone was home.

It was shortly after midnight when Amanda and Michelle decided to come home. When they arrived and found the door unlocked and the apartment dark. It caused them to be a bit uneasy – okay, it basically freaked them out. Anyway, they entered the apartment slowly, turning on every light they could find. When they passed through the kitchen one of them grabbed a large knife – I don’t even want to know what they would have done should they have needed to use it. Anyway, they finally made it back to their bedroom and quickly closed the door. A couple of seconds later they heard a crash sound coming from inside their closet. So, naturally, they grabbed the knife again and ran screaming out of our apartment.

All of the noise woke up our neighbor, Steven. He came out of his apartment to find my two roommate crouched in the corner of the balcony clutching a large knife. I wasn’t out on the balcony to see it, but I imagine their emotional state was somewhere between intense laughter (at the fact that they were outside in the middle of the night with a large knife preparing to face some unknown fear in the apartment) and a legitimate fear (in a freshman girl sort of way) for their lives. In any case, they were able to convince Steven that someone was in our apartment, hiding in their closet. Steven, being our protector (and home teacher), decided to investigate. Pajama-clad, he took the knife from Amanda and Michelle and proceeded into our apartment. My roommates followed closely behind. Now, one might wonder why Steven didn’t just call the police if he suspected an actual threat. To be honest, I think he knew us all too well. Remember the drama I was talking about? Well, I think he knew that we couldn’t do anything small, or quietly. Drama laced everything at our apartment – even late night scares. My roommates and their knife-carrying, pajama-clad protector passed the threshold of the girls bedroom and approached the closet. And that’s when it happened.

Steven, with his outstretched knife-carrying hand called out, “Is there someone in the closet?”

There was no response. After a minute of silence they decided to brave the unknown and push open the closet door. There they found a stack of jeans that had fallen from a shelf. At that precise second my roommates broke out into hysterical laughter and began peeing their pants (I’m not entirely kidding). It was that laughter that woke the rest of us up. By the time we made it out of our respective bedrooms we found Steven standing in the hallway holding a large knife and Amanda and Michelle on the floor in fetal position unable to stand from laughing. Steven promptly returned the knife to its home in the kitchen and went back to his apartment. Amanda and Michelle had a bit of explaining to do.

Within a few days of this incident, the wall of hideous boy moments was born. This quote was added because of the stance and the voice Steven used when uttering those words into the closet, and because we weren’t entirely sure what he would have done if someone would have responded from inside the closet.

Hmmmm, let me explore that possibility:

Steven: Is there someone in the closet?
Unknown: Yes.
Steven: Who are you?
Unknown: A bad guy. A very bad guy.
Steven: Oh, um. Stay right there. I’m going to go call the police.
Unknown: Ok, I’ll just sit tight.

Nope. That’s not to likely. Let’s try again:

Steven: Is there someone in the closet?
Unknown: Nope. No one here.
Steven: Are you sure?
Unknown: Yep, very certain. No one here.
Steven: (to my roommates) Well, I guess no one is in there – I’ll be going back to bed now.

Ok, ok. . . One more try:

Steven: Is there someone in the closet?
Unknown: Yes.
Steven: Will you come out so I can stab you with my big knife.
Unknown: I’ll come out, but I doubt if your knife is any match for my gun.
Steven: Yea, well, I know karate (disclaimer: I have no idea if Steven actually has any karate training)
Unknown: Oooh, I’m shaking in my boots.
Steven: Come on out and fight like a man.
Unknown: Ready or not here I come.

The closet door is flung open and a horrible battle ensues. Steven and his karate-kid action vs. unknown and is pellet gun. The result is a bloody, violent battle in which the victor is uncertain. And it leaves a terrible mess of the bedroom.

I probably had a little more fun with this than I needed to. In any case, now you have the inside scoop on the first, of what would be many, hideous boy moments. Amanda/Michelle, if you guys are reading this and notice any missing or incorrect details, please correct me. And Steven, if you happen to read this post, ever – thank you for looking out for us. Our moms appreciate it too. You were a good neighbor.

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Spanish Rice

February 16th, 2008 · food

When my mom was a kid her mom (my grandma) made enchiladas with Spanish rice. When I was a kid, my mom made it. Now, its my turn. The recipe for the enchiladas has been verbally passed down in my family for who knows how many years. My mom says its never been written down. I don’t plan to be the first to write it down – besides, I promised I wouldn’t. This is what they look like though. Yummy stuff.

Served with these enchiladas is Spanish rice (I don’t have a picture, sorry). I’ve made no such promise about that recipe. So, here it is.

Spanish Rice

2 c. white rice
1/2 c. white or yellow onion, chopped
1 3/4 c. chicken broth
1 can tomato sauce (8oz)
1 can diced tomatoes (use the kind with jalapeno peppers if you want to heat things up a bit)
cilantro

Brown the rice in a pan over medium heat. Just before it is done, add the chopped onions and finish browning together.

Add chicken broth, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes. Stir once.

Bring to a boil

Cover. Reduce heat to lowest setting. Let sit 20-25 minutes.

Remove lid. Fluff rice with a fork. Use the fork to stir in some chopped cilantro.

Optional: Transfer to a serving bowl and accent with a few whole cilantro leaves.

Its good stuff. Make it and serve with your favorite Mexican dish.

Growing up we used to warm up leftover Spanish rice and serve it with an over-easy egg on top for breakfast. I really liked it, but some people I mention that to think its was weird. Is it weird? Am I weird? Don’t answer that. I think it just comes with the heritage here.

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Glass Painting

February 15th, 2008 · a day in the life, bridget, random

I found this contest a week or so ago, where you can win $500 for the most creative Valentines Day craft. So the motors in my crazy little head started turning. . . I started running ideas past people and getting ideas from others. The result was a dang good entry if I do say so myself. What you see below is a joint creative effort between Sandra and myself. Wish us luck! Sandra, if we win – I owe you $250.

But, even if we don’t win, we had a whole lot of fun. And so did Bridget and Luke.

The contest ended yesterday. Take a look at our entry:

Glass painting

My daughter loves to paint. She’s painted on everything from paper to pumpkins to wooden blocks and picture frames, she’s even helped me paint paper mache. She’s only 2. So, it seemed only natural that the art project involve paint.

What you need:
– Enamel Paint (pink, red, purple, white – whatever colors you want) – $2 at Michaels Craft Store
– A sponge
– A glass jar, bottle, or vase (we also tried glass plates)
– Rubbing Alcohol
– Scissors
– Paper plate, or other surface to hold paint
– Apron, smock, or other paint-worthy clothing
– An oven
– Conversation hearts, torn paper, fabric scraps, etc (optional)

Prep:
– Cut the sponge into various valentines shapes. We did hearts, X’s, and O’s.
– Pour small to medium sized puddles of paint onto the paper plate
– Clean the glass container(s) with rubbing alcohol

The fun part:
– Dip one side of the sponge into the paint and press onto your glass container. Repeat as desired.

Note: This is fun for adults and children. My friend and I made some ourselves as our 2-year olds went to town on their own vase. At 2, the kids weren’t very successful at keeping the shapes of the sponges when the pressed onto the glass. But it doesn’t matter – the colors of the paint combined with the natural pattern of the sponge still made for a neat look. Besides, knowing that a 2 year old did it makes it even more special.

– Adults/older children may also want to use paint brushes to write messages on the glass: “Love,” “Happy Valentines Day,” “Be Mine,” or any other Valentines Day saying.

When you’re done painting (adult assistance required):
– Let the glass sit for 1 hour
– Place on a cookie sheet and put into a cold oven
– Turn oven to 350 degrees, and bake for 30 minutes
– Turn oven off, and allow glass to cool (to the touch) in the oven
– Once dry, items are top-rack dishwasher safe!!

Finishing Touches
– Fill the container with conversation hearts, little love notes (written on colored paper), fabric scraps, etc.
– Add a homemade flower (foam, colored paper, tissue paper, etc)

Note: I used heart-shaped Styrofoam, pipe cleaners, and hot glue (be careful if you use hot melt, not to melt the foam) to shape the flower. My daughter painted it with acrylics and covered it in glitter. After it was dry we glued a picture of her in the center. I had to use several pipe cleaners for the stem – the conversation hearts helped hold it in the jar.

Alternatives:
– Paint on the back side of a clear glass plate. Kids can make their own and use them for holiday meals, or give them as gifts to grandparents. Or adults can make them (like we did) because its fun.
– Paint on the outside of a glass candy jar. Fill with holiday candy. No flower required.
– Try similar for other holidays. Just change the color of your paint, and the items that go in the jar. The flower we made can also be an excellent 4-leaf clover when painted green. Cut your foam just right and you’ve also got poinsettas.
– I haven’t tried, but it might be fun to paint on mirrors as well. Perhaps more of an adult project though, if you want to have any useable mirror space left.

Random Notes:
– 8″ glass plates were only $1 at Wal-Mart. $1.50 for 10″
– If you are worried about little kiddos dropping the glass – line the floor with newspaper and put them on the ground.
– The vases/bottles we used came from a drink called “Fuze” – they were just the empty, washed out bottles.
– The Enamel paint washes clean from most surfaces with warm water. I don’t recommend getting it in clothing or carpets (as with any paint), but your table and your kids hands/arms should come clean pretty easily.

This is the plate I made. My daughter didn’t do a plate this time, just the vase. This is what it looks like from the top:

Up close look at the painting job of a couple of 2-year olds.

Kids, hard at work.

Up close of the foam flower we made. Note to self – it might be a good idea to paint the heart petals seperately, and then glue them together. We got too much paint on the stem.

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Happy Valentines Day!

February 14th, 2008 · bridget, family, random

A couple of weeks ago I did Valentine portraits of Bridget. We just wanted to share the love (and the pictures) with you in celebration of Valentines Day!

Hope you all have a great day!
XOXOXO,
The Ernstroms

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Don’t drop me!

February 13th, 2008 · bridget

The other night I was taking Bridget over to her friend’s house to play. It was date night, and we had a babysitting swap. En route my phone rang, and as I was talking I mentioned that I was on my way to “drop Bridget off at her friends house.” The conversation continued for a couple of minutes.

Bridget waited very patiently for me to finish, and when I hung up she very politely, and thoughtfully asked:

B: Mommy?
T: Yea?
B: You gonna drop me off?
T: Yes I am
B: I don’t want you to drop me.
T: Oh, um, well. I won’t really drop you. I’ll just set you down softly. Is that okay?
B: Yea.

It is an interesting thing to have a little person take everything you say so literally — kind of like when daddy got stuck in a meeting.

She is a cute kid.

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Hair Chair

February 12th, 2008 · a day in the life, bridget, family

A few days ago Bridget came into the computer room, where I was sitting, carrying her curling iron in one hand and her white step stool in the other. She told me she was going to do my hair. Smiling at her independence and motivation, and knowing that this was an idea all her own – I went ahead and let her curl my hair. Of course, the curling iron wasn’t plugged in – and in her experience as a two-year-old she’s yet to learn how to actually curl hair. So, it consisted of a series of “clamp, tug, count, tug, release. repeat” actions. It hurt a little, sure, but she was so pleased with herself.

After my hair was sufficiently ‘curled’ she turned to me and said, “I be right back, okay. You stay right there your chair, don’t go anywhere. Okay.” She came back carrying a handful of random hair clips from her bathroom.

20 minutes later, I looked like this:

Beautiful, aren’t I? I think I might wear my hair like this more often. Or maybe not.

When Dave came home from work that day, I suggested to Bridget that she also do daddy’s hair.

She did.

Anyway, the whole thing reminded me of this thing my little sister’s used to do to boys we (Livia and I) would bring home. They called it the “Hair Chair,” and anyone of the male gender (particularly boyfriends) that entered our home between the summer of 1999 and the summer of 2002 ran the risk of being subjected to the “Hair Chair.” It was considered a form of initiation or right of passage. Here are some examples.

Tom, circa 1999:

John, circa 2000:

Justin, circa 2001:

Dustin, circa 2002:

As you can see, my sisters didn’t limit themselves to hair accessories only. They got a little crazy sometimes. The more willing their ‘victim,’ the more inventive they became.

Sometime toward the end of 2002 my sisters began to outgrow the need for the Hair Chair ritual. Despite that, I think that both Dave and Barry (Livia’s husband) had the privilege of enduring said glorious ritual – though I have been unable to find pictures to prove it. Should any come available, I’ll be sure to post them here. (Note to Dad, the search for pictures isn’t over yet, but thanks again for your help so far.)

Oh, and did I mention that this wasn’t my first “Hair Chair” experience? This was in college, long story. Just know that whether you are two or twenty-two you can find joy in doing someone’s hair in a weird and wacky fashion.

Hair Chair hairdos are totally “in” right now. They are so popular I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw them in Vogue next month. Seriously, Hair Chair hairdos are the next beehive. If you haven’t received one you are missing out.

If anyone is in need of such a hairdo, I know a certain 2 year-old that would be glad to assist. She takes payment in PEZ. 🙂

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