One of the things I’m most excited about with this new Home and Family section is that I get to talk about random, non-food related things. Not that I don’t like to talk about food, (if you know me, you know that it’s pretty much all I talk about), but it’s fun to get outside of the kitchen every once in awhile. So welcome to the first edition of “Things I’m Loving” here on Taste and Tell Home and Family!

image via the Stitch Fix blog

I will totally admit it. I’m one of those moms whose fashion sense went right out the window once I started having kids. I work from home. I’m a full-time mom. And really, we are just home most of the time. I wear pajamas or sweat pants more often than I care to admit.

I’ve gotten caught up in the cycle that I think a lot of moms get caught up in. So many things become all about the kids, and rarely about mom.

I know, I know. It’s not the way things are supposed to be. But I have an easier time taking care of other people than I do taking care of myself.

So really, any clothes that I have bought in the last 4 years typically come from Target. There have been times that I know that I need something new to wear, but the thought of taking 3 kids shopping with me gives me anxiety. I actually did attempt shopping a few weeks ago, and lasted one store before I cried uncle.

Enter Stitch Fix. I’m sure many of you have heard about this company by now, but I had to give them a try. Basically, this is how it works. You fill out a pretty extensive questionnaire. Once a month, or however often you schedule your “fix”, a personal stylist chooses out 5 items for you based on those questions. You can also give them the link to a Pinterest board if you have one that shows your style. Those 5 items get sent to you, and then you get to try them on and decide what you want in the comfort of your own home. There are many reasons why I love this – mostly because it means that I don’t have to take the kids shopping with me. But I love that you can try them on with other items in your closet to make sure that they work for you. Plus, you don’t feel the pressure of having to buy it then and there, and then having buyer’s remorse, or regretting not buying that piece several hours later. And possible my favorite reason? I have no idea these days what is in style or what I should even be wearing. If it’s not a t-shirt, I’m clueless. These clothes make me actually feel like I know what I’m doing!!
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© Deborah Harroun for Taste and Tell, 2013. | Permalink | 5 comments |

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In just over 2 weeks, I have a family reunion that I am going to. Every year, my mom’s side of the family gets together for about 24 hours of family fun. My mom and her siblings each take turns taking the reigns and planning everything, and this year, my mom is in charge.

So there has been a lot of reunion talk these past few months.

We are teaming up with one other family for one of the meals, and being the planner that my mom is, she wanted to do a test run of the meal. So we all gathered on Sunday for taco salads and dessert.

And not that taco salad isn’t exciting, but let’s skip straight to the dessert, shall we?

Each of us kids is planning on bringing a dessert. My mind immediately went to brownies/bars – simply because they are easy to make ahead and to transport. And my mom has a cookbook that I’ve been addicted to flipping through lately, so I went on the search for a dessert to try out.

These Oatmeal Raisin Bars immediately spoke to me. As a lover of the oatmeal raisin cookie, I knew I wanted to give this bar a try.

If you are a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies, these bars are for you. A crumbly crust is topped with a creamy filling that is stuffed with raisins. Then more crumb goes on top and everything is baked together. The bars are messy – all that crumb mixture! – but I would honestly categorize them as in the top at least 5 of my favorite bar recipes right now. Really. I really, really liked them. They are a little bit more involved than your typical bar recipe, but they are totally worth it.

Oatmeal raisin lovers – this one needs to go to the top of your “to try” list!

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© Deborah Harroun for Taste and Tell, 2013. | Permalink | 18 comments |

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Growing up, we had a fairly large garden. All summer long, we took care of that garden. We weeded, we watered, we picked. And all summer long, we ate from that garden.

I’ll admit – all of my memories are not that fond. Having to wake up at the crack of dawn to weed your rows in the garden so that you’d miss getting burned by the summer sun – all while on your summer vacation? Not so fun for a kid. But those summer meals. They made it all worth it.

I didn’t really know a whole lot different. I grew up eating garden fresh tomatoes, so when I’d hear that there were people that didn’t like tomatoes, I just didn’t get it. It wasn’t until I was older that I found out that there were people who had never had a tomato fresh from the garden. They had only ever tried those hard, flavorless tomatoes that you get at most grocery stores year round.  No wonder they didn’t like tomatoes.

And then I moved away from home. I was a college student, living on my own. And like many young adults, I survived on microwave burritos (although they were usually homemade) and sandwiches. I think somewhere in there I lost the value of good food.

Then 6 years ago, I started this little thing called a food blog. The love of food that I had learned from watching my mother cook every meal growing up returned. I learned about farmer’s markets – which never existed in my childhood world. The farmer’s market back then was just a trip to the backyard. And CSA’s. I’ll admit – this was a totally foreign concept to me when I first heard it. But I was enamored by the concept.

A CSA, community supported agriculture, is a way for farmers to connect directly with consumers. Farm to table. No picking produce before it’s ripe and letting it ripen during transportation or storage.

But the problem was – there wasn’t a CSA program where I lived. Or close enough to make it work.

But that is no longer the case. Enter La Nay Ferme. Located on the bench in Provo, Utah, La Nay Ferme is focused on bringing naturally cultivated fruits and vegetables to the community. If you spend 10 minutes with the owner – Clinton Felsted – and you will see his passion and his vision. They are only on their 2nd growing season, but the farm has already grown, and Clinton’s vision is inspiring.

And the most exciting part about it all to me is that the growth and harvest isn’t being restricted to those few warm summer months here in Utah. Clinton says that the farm will produce about 10 months out of the year. To me, that is remarkable.
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© Deborah Harroun for Taste and Tell, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments |

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I have had a little bit of an obsession lately. With tacos. Seriously. I cannot get enough of them. I have a few recipes for them waiting in the wings for you all, but I’m at the point where I could make a new taco recipe once or twice a week and be totally fine with it.

It doesn’t help that I feel like no matter the line I stand in at any grocery store, there are pictures of tacos staring back to me. Maybe it’s because Cinco de Mayo just passed, or maybe the magazine execs are just going off of the fact that people love Mexican inspired food. And in my opinion, you just can’t go wrong when you cook up some delicious ingredients and then throw them into a tortilla or a taco shell. Crowd pleasing. Kid pleasing. Me pleasing.

These tacos are a great way to change things up just a little bit. They are sausage and potato tacos. This is definitely not a combo that I would have ever thought would be good together in a taco, but let me tell you. Sausage and potatoes were meant to go together in a taco. Throw on some of the fresh salsa and you have got a pretty perfect taco.

These tacos make me want to turn every night into a taco night!

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© Deborah Harroun for Taste and Tell, 2013. | Permalink | 20 comments |

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With the change of the design here at Taste and Tell, I am also switching things up with my Blogger Spotlight feature. First of all, you’ll notice that Blogger Spotlights are coming to you on Saturdays. So hopefully I’ll be able to introduce you to some great new blogs or let you know a little more about some of your favorite blogs every week! Second, the format is slightly changing. From this point on, the Blogger Spotlights will be known as The Blogger Ten. Ten questions all about blogging, food, and life behind the blog!

Also – BONUS! Make sure you are subscribed to my weekly newsletter, because the blogger will also be featured there with two more questions. Just another fun way to introduce you to some of my favorite Bloggers!

And now to this week’s blogger – Holly from Life As a Lofthouse. Holly’s blog is another that I’ve been stalking for years. Her food is family friendly and makes you want to run to the kitchen to get cooking, (hello Chicken Ranch Pizza), and the desserts are more than tempting (like her Easy Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream). I’m so happy to be featuring her here today and am glad she is sharing with us!

Hi everyone! I’m Holly from the food blog, Life as a Lofthouse, and I am so honored to be here today! I am a mother to 3 amazing kids and have been married to my best friend for almost 7 years. Along with blogging, I also work full-time as a surgical scheduler. I schedule surgeries for 3 Head and Neck surgeons. It is a very stressful and fast-paced job, but I love it. I love working in the medical field.

When I’m not working, I am home creating delicious food to feed my family. I started my blog in September 2010 and have so much fun being a blogger. It is such a fun way to be creative and share my passion with the world! I have always loved to cook and bake. Some of my favorite childhood memories are being with my Mom in the kitchen. I’d always ask her if I could help, even if it was just grating cheese for Tacos, I was in heaven!

What inspired you to start writing your blog?
My blog started out as a family blog. I would post pictures and fun memories about my family, and then I posted a couple recipes. I started getting compliments from friends and requests for more recipes. Before I knew it, I was only posting recipes.

What is your favorite kind of food to make?
Mexican. Hands down. I make tacos and enchiladas more than any normal person should, but we all love it, so I say why not!?

What is your favorite recipe posted on your blog?

Taco Pizza

My favorite recipe would definitely be my Taco Pizza.  It’s a combo of my beloved Mexican food on top of a pizza crust. Doesn’t get much better than that!
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© Deborah Harroun for Taste and Tell, 2013. | Permalink | 7 comments |

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Growing up, the only time we would ever get cereal was on Saturday mornings. That was the morning my parents got to sleep in, so we got to get up and get ourselves cereal for breakfast. I have to admit – I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to get themselves cereal in the morning. I’ve pretty much forgotten how it feels to sleep in!!
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© Deborah Harroun for Taste and Tell, 2013. | Permalink | 12 comments |

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So, Camden turned 6 months old yesterday.

And I know that everyone says that it takes 9 months to put the weight on, so you should give yourself 9 months to take it off. But any of you that have had a baby know that you don’t want it to take 9 months. You pretty much want to be wearing your normal jeans when you get home from the hospital. Which, I know, doesn’t happen for 98% of women.

But for some reason, I always have it in my head that I want to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by the 6 month mark. I’ve always made it before the year mark, but I always want it by that 6 month mark.

I didn’t quite make it – I’m still about 6 pounds away. But I’m super motivated right now.

Do you want to know what motivates me the most? Besides the fact that half of my clothes still don’t fit?

New workout clothes. Cute workout clothes.

Enter Albion Fit. Super stylish workout clothes. And great quality, too. There is nothing worse than getting new workout clothes that lose their shape after one or two times of wearing them. And these are so cute that I think you could totally get away with wearing them outside of the gym!!
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© Deborah Harroun for Taste and Tell, 2013. | Permalink | 123 comments |

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I have seriously been going overboard on the strawberries this year. Every time I go to the grocery store, I buy more, and they never go to waste. And it’s not even prime strawberry season here in Utah yet! But the berries we have been getting have been so perfectly sweet and full of flavor, I just can’t help but keep buying them while they are so good.

While most of the time we have been enjoying them just plain, the other day I was feeling like getting a little bit fancy.

Now, we are a pretty “no frills” kind of household. Cookies, sheet cakes, brownies – we don’t usually pull out the good china or serve anything up with special napkins. But these strawberries were just so good that I had to make something a little bit more special with them. Something with a little more wow factor than just a cookie. (Not that there is anything at all wrong with a cookie! )

These Strawberry Wonton Cups are kind of a fake out, because they are so easy to make, but they look like they took a lot more effort. And the taste? Let me just say that you’d better make sure you have somewhere to take these or someone to give them to, otherwise, you may find yourself sneaking away to the refrigerator every 15 minutes. Just a hypothetical, though – that totally didn’t happen.

So next time you need a sweet appetizer, or something that looks a little fancy for dessert, these Strawberry Wonton Cups are what you need!

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© Deborah Harroun for Taste and Tell, 2013. | Permalink | 40 comments |

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(Ok, first off – what a difference a few months makes! I took these photos when we had our night away at Hotel Monaco, and obviously, there isn’t still snow on the ground. I may need to do a version II in the future so you can see how pretty it is there in the spring!)

Growing up, we didn’t have much of a choice for shopping. My small town in New Mexico had one mall, and that was pretty much it. Besides Wal-Mart. There was a Sears and a JCPenny, and if you were one of the rich ones, you’d get to go shopping at Dillard’s.

Every once in awhile, we’d get really lucky and take a trip to Utah before school started, and we’d get to do our school shopping there. Oh, the choices!! We really felt like we were in shopping heaven.

These days, I’m not much of a shopper at all. The nightmare of taking 3 kids shopping may have something to do with that. But for some strange reason, I am obsessed with City Creek Center in Salt Lake City. It is a good 45 minute drive from where I live, but I’ve probably been there more in the last year than I have been to the mall that is closest to my house.

City Creek Center, located in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, is a shopping center that opened in March of 2012. Consisting of shopping, office space and residential space, it covers nearly 20 acres.

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© Deborah Harroun for Taste and Tell, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments |

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When I was pregnant with both of my boys, I had one craving that was the same. Salad. But not just any salad. It had to have ranch dressing.

Now, I’m not a food snob and I don’t put my nose up at ranch dressing – I actually do like it – but I used to opt for other choices. But then when I got pregnant with Easton, all I wanted was a big salad with ranch dressing. I tried to eat other dressings, but I just couldn’t. It was the ranch or nothing at all.

When I got pregnant with Camden, I found myself craving salads again. The need for ranch wasn’t quite as strong as it was with Easton, but it was definitely still there, and only ranch would really satisfy.

Luckily, once I gave birth, that need for ranch subsided. But the need for salads? I definitely still get a craving every now and again.

A few months back, I found myself craving a salad. But not just any salad. A chopped salad. A Thai chopped salad.

But the funny thing is – I’ve never had a Thai chopped salad before. But the craving hit, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

So I made one.

And it was good.

So good, in fact, that my husband and I pretty much inhaled this whole thing ourselves. Abbi did have some, (she is a salad addict), but Josh and I really went to town. And I’ve been craving it ever since. It looks like this craving isn’t going to go away any time soon!

And – you could totally leave the chicken out and this would come together pretty quickly. Or even use leftover chicken. But I actually prepared ahead of time and marinated my chicken. Not critical, but still delicious. But this would definitely make a killer meatless meal as well!
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© Deborah Harroun for Taste and Tell, 2013. | Permalink | 35 comments |

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