Syrups and Soda and Spaaaash!

Channeling Lars here. There were some flowers from my cousin's wedding on our kitchen table. They were too pretty to let them die a normal death so I took some of the drier (or more dead) flowers and put them together on this sign with acrylic paint, straws, butchers paper and sharpee. 

Custom sodas and syrups. They should be a thing. So why oh why are 98% of the syrups we see nothing more than extract from a bottle mixed with corn syrup? Some things will never make sense to me.

As you're making plans for summer entertaining, let me throw an idea out there. The last few years, Yoni and I have thrown a Soda Spash. It was supposed to be a splash, until I forgot the L in the sign and just decided to go with it. Here's how it works: make a vat of simple syrup and a vat of caramel. Then mix that with malt powder, peanut butter, and pretty much every ingredient listed above. Get ice cream, sparkling water and TADAH! Baller party with a fresh take on ice cream sodas. You don't have to go as crazy as I do on the syrups. Maybe start with one or two, then you can improvise from there. The options are as varied as your imagination, but this should give you a good start!

FIRST ...

Simple Syrup

1 Part Sugar (I like to make one brown sugar batch and one white sugar batch)

+

1 Part Water

Boil sugar and water together until sugar dissolves and consistency is slightly syrupy. Usually 5-10 minutes. This keeps for a long time. No need to put it in the fridge either.

THEN ...

Salted Chocolate Syrup

1 Cup simple syrup  +  1 Cup dark chocolate chips   +   1 tsp salt (optional)

Warm simple syrup. Add dark chocolate slowly, stirring until melted into the syrup. Add salt. Cool, but allow to come to room temperature before serving. Store in the fridge.

Strawberry Malt Syrup

Simple syrup  +  Frozen strawberries  +  Malt powder

I'd try about 1/2 the amount of simple syrup as strawberries. Pulverize strawberries in blender with a few hefty tablespoons of malt powder. Add simple syrup and stir. Allow strawberries to melt and macerate in the simple syrup. Refrigerate in airtight container.

blueberry maple cream, sour cherry and strawberry malt.

A FEW TIPS:

Try sodas with about 1/2 inch of syrup in a 6 oz cup. You can always make it sweeter.  

Buy a large carton of whole milk, half and half or whipping cream and add a shot to make cream sodas. You can do this with any non-fruit syrup. 

Sometimes we make the sodas on their own and sometimes we do ice cream sodas. I make my life easier by only getting one flavor of Ice Cream -- a good Vanilla. People can still go wild with the flavors but you have fewer variables involved. 

Torres Del Paine: The most beautiful place in the world

Torres Del Paine translates to "Towers of Blue." Cradled deep within the Southern Andes, the park is known as the crown jewel of South America. Its glaciers, rock faces, lakes, plains and mountains leave nothing to the imagination. It's all there, resplendent with beauty no photograph can capture. Nonetheless, on Yoni's and my South American adventure, we tried our best. The story of how we actually got there is quite entertaining, but I'll save that for another post. For now, I hope you enjoy some of our favorite shots of this exquisite national park which is the most beautiful place I have ever witnessed. 

Salto Grande

The Salto Grande is the largest waterfall in Torres Del Paine. A short drive from the South entrance of the park, it is about a third of the way through the prettiest hike in the entire park. BONUS: There is a rather fat armadillo who lives near the beginning of the hike. He can be found burrowing around dusk and making quite a mess of the trail.

Nordenskjöld Lake

Cute Cow ... I mean bull.

The Torres!

These two spindly towers are "the" towers that they mean in the name, Torres Del Paine. Not sure of why these ones get all the glory. Don't get me wrong. They're cool. But I'm in love with the bigger mountains around them.

Lago Grey

That is an iceberg that calved off of the glacier upstream. So cool... .... ... It's a pun

Grey's Glacier from the steepest hike in the park

This hike was crazy steep. Don't do it. Do the nice one, near the bottom of Lago Grey. Seriously. The one up the mountain, It practically killed me. But it was pretty. But not pretty enough to justify the insaniac climb.

Huemel

There are only 600 or so huemel in the entire world, so we thought it was pretty cool to see them. Still not cool enough to justify that hike, but cool, nonetheless.

GUANACOS!!!

Guanacos are totally unafraid of humans. This lack of fear nearly led to their extinction. Guanacos are related to llamas and camels and they're extremely entertaining.

Cave Drawing ... ... ... ?

We had to hike up a relatively big hill to see the cave paintings so I tried to convince Yoni that this was actually the cave painting. As you see, it is an eagle. It turned out that this one was drawn by mother nature all by her lone self (aka, it's not a cave painting. For that go to the next slide)

7000 years old!!

I guess someone was here before us and they were eco-vandals! 7000 years hasn't gotten rid of their graffiti. *he he he*

Goucho!

Goucho is another fun word that begins with G. It means cowboy and they hang out in Torres Del Paine. If you're lucky, they'll take you for a ride.

Horse (in case you couldn't figure it out)

When they made me put on the helmet, I thought it was silly

My mind changed about 35 minutes later. 

About 5 minutes after this picture was taken my horse bolted.

I was holding on for dear life, but when he stopped suddenly, he threw me off. Thanks to my helmet and the kindness in the universe, all I got was an ugly bruise. *prayers of gratitude*

Once the horse threw me off, the goucho took over.

True story.

TORRES DEL PAINE: IF YOU'RE GOING to Torres Del Paine National Park, You can get more information here. We stayed and ate most of our meals here. We rented a car here. While we opted for a hotel but there is a 3-6 day hike (depending on your pace) called the W and a 5-10 day hike of the entire park called the Full Circuit. There are campsites and little hostels along the way to stay at. If you do the W, make sure to make time for some of the smaller trails. There is a short and easy hike out to Lago Grey where you can see amazing glaciers. Despite its relative ease and obscurity, the hike around the Salto Grande (Big Falls) up to and around Nordenskjöld Lake is said to be the most beautiful in the park and should not be missed. We flew this airline (6 flights, no lost bags and generally on time) and they served remarkably good food free of charge. You might want to tack a few extra days on to see this (which we did see. there is a similar glacier at Torres Del Paine, but the Perito Moreno gLacier is pretty amazing, nonetheless) or this.

What is the most beautiful place you've ever been? We want to know (and maybe want to visit!). Give us your travel tips! Either email them to us at fivetdsisters@gmail.com or leave them in the comment section below. Can't wait to hear from you.

Have you ever wanted something really, really badly that was totally silly? I did and this is what happened...

I wanted to enter the county fair and win a blue ribbon ... bad.

A few months ago, I started concocting recipes and outsourcing them to my sisters. I enlisted help from my mom, uber domestic goddess Ginger and a few others so we could locally source ingredients. Mercina and Glorianna were going to be in town and I was working overtime to lure Kimber to Colorado for the fair. It was gonna be awesome and if it was the last thing I did this summer, we were gonna win.

And then life happened.

My cousin got married just when we were all supposed to head out West. One of my best friends decided to get married a few days after the wedding (the nerve of them both, right!?). I had two performances the week before. Mercina and Glorianna decided to stay in Washington. Kimber needed to go to California. Yoni's business partners needed him in New York. Mom was out of town and the dogs needed some serious loving. It was just me an Liberty. The day before we needed to register for the fair, we had no jars, no produce and no real chance.

There was an epic rains storm. While I braved the elements to collect every ripe (and some not so ripe) thing in Mom's garden, there was no way I had time to visit Ginger's house to get the remainder of the ingredients. But when Liberty opened the door to her house somehow, I knew everything was going to be alright. Vast stores of copper pots and pans pans emerged. Soon, the hum of blenders and cadence of knives on cutting boards echoed through her kitchen. Settling on two time-honored family recipes, we decided to focus on a salsa verde and a Hungarian sauce studded with tomatoes, peppers and onions. We roasted and chopped, boiling jars and doing things that are WAY out of our cooking league. The scent of paprika, caramelized onions, hot peppers and garlic filled the air. Finally, at about 2am, we called it quits, hoping our jars would vacuum seal.

The next morning, Libby and I raced to the fair grounds. We sat in the car for a few minutes, trying to decide if it was worth taking in our entries. The tomatillos were not ripe and made the salsa a little bitter. The jars took longer than expected to sterilize and the Hungarian lesco had become too salty.

Finally, with no time to spare, Liberty marched in our entries. The person at the desk (amusingly named Harmony. She should have been one of our sisters, right?) explained that we would receive an email as soon as the winners were announced.

Then we waited ... and waited ... and waited ...

Silence.

Then, the tirades began. The judges must be related to the entrants. Their palates weren't refined enough. They figured out our canning method didn't meet protocol. The tomatillos destroyed everything. We reduced the Hungarian Lecso for too long. Really, the whole thing was just super annoying and we were never going to do it again.

After church, I was going home. With noon day sun streaming through my car window I had almost forgotten the entire county fair debacle, when I opened my email.

Liberty and I rushed to the fair and ... well ... we liked the county fair after all ...

Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by an outcome?? We'd love to hear about it!!

QQQQQuestion?

Are you able to tell when you have enough?

Kimber: Nope. If anyone has tips for developing this particular power of discernment, please do share.

Charity: Not to go all Confuciun on this answer, but the more I have, the more I think I need. The less I have, the more I realize I can live without.

Liberty: I'd like to say yes, but after a recent joyous conversation (partially motivated by 3 glasses of champagne), that concluded in a fit of public tears...the most accurate answer is probably closer to no.

Mercina: Probably not. This question makes me think of a diet Glorianna and I went on a few years ago. We attempted to eat only fruit. But after a few days we were feeling pretty woozy and indulged in some cookies. By indulged I mean we ate until we got sick. And we both felt awful for the rest of the day. Yeah, no.

Glorianna: Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean I stop.

Bookclub Bites

Before anything... Go and get American Grace at www.charitysunshine.com. It drops tomorrow and it's gonna be epic.

Now, a recipe request from Paige:

Kimber's Stuffed Figs*

A dozen figs

aged English cheddar with truffles (not too spendy from Trader Joe's!)

honey from Dave's hive on the roof (I suppose honey from a jar would work in a *pinch*)

chèvre 

balsamic vinegar reduction

prosciutto 

flower pepper to garnish

1. Slice figs in half, longways. If you're feeling ambitious, grill them, seeded side down on a hot, lightly greased pan with a sprinkling of sugar for about 30 seconds.

2. Place about a teaspoon of cheese on each fig -- 12 with truffled cheddar and 12 chèvre. 

3. Drizzle balsamic reduction* on figs with chèvre and top with strips of prosciutto.

4. Garnish cheddar figs with local honey. 

5. Grind flower pepper over the whole yummy lot of them.

6. Eat one or two before your guests arrive, so they don't feel bad taking the first gorgeous morsel, which actually might taste even better than it looks.

7. Impress everyone.

*reduction: a cup of balsamic vinegar with a half cup of sugar on medium heat until it reduces in volume by 50%

QQQQQuestion?

What was the best part of your day?

Kimber: Willa joining me in the laundry room, WAY past her bedtime, and insisting on brushing my hair. When the midnight makeover was complete, she grabbed my cheeks between her tiny hands and whispered, "Mommy I make you so beautiful and happy."

Charity: Yoni and I went to a beautiful, magical party hosted by all of these wonderful women! It was so fun.

Liberty: Checking out Premal's cute bootie as we pedaled around Denver on our tandem bike.

Mercina: Seeing a mother duck and her SIXTEEN ducklings during a walk around the lake.

Glorianna: I was going through a lot of old pictures, so it's probably finding:

and

What about you? What was the best part of your day today?

Why do I judge you? Because my brand of feminism is better than yours.

We like to talk about food a lot on this blog. I hope that doesn't diminish our feminist credibility, because in the next weeks, you can expect a few posts on the topic.

Which track to take? That is the question. Next question? How I can make the woman who took a different road feel bad about herself. Actually, maybe that shouldn't be the question at all.

I was 18. It was midnight and my best friends were over. Katie, Ruth and I were an ambitious troupe with very clear goals. Ruth wanted to be a mother and musician. Katie wanted to be an academic. I loved opera and writing, but all I really wanted to do was go on a Mormon mission. We were eating frozen fruit as I read the central thesis of my newly written, favorite college paper ever. It was a magnum opus on a coming fourth wave of feminism that would broaden the scope of a once, narrow idea of female empowerment. The paper was good; it got an A. But the gathering foretold truths about modern womanhood that I would have never anticipated.

Today, we're riding that fourth wave of feminism I wrote about in 2002. From Hillary Clinton to Sherry Dew, Sheryl Sanberg to Sarah Palin, Susan Patton to Anne Marie Slaughter, Beyonce, Lena Dunham, Jezebel.com to FeministMormonHousewives.org, there seems to be a renewed understanding of the realities of womanhood. But it feels like the world of feminism is all Lean In vs. You Can't do It All, Ordain Women vs. I-Don't-Want-The-Priesthood, or Professional Lady vs. Parenting Warrior. In my life, the issue isn't either/or, it's achieving excellence and happiness in my path while experiencing joy in the roles of others.

I don't know of many people who stayed home with their kids while running a super successful business who became pop stars, politicians, gagillionaires, best-selling authors, astronauts, Olympians, scientists and concert pianists at the same time. Maybe I am alone in this, but if I want to be truly excellent in one thing, I need to focus. One of Paul's epistles says each of us are given different gifts. He goes onto enumerate some of the gifts: languages, healing, faith, knowledge, wisdom, discernment, the list goes on and on. I don't think this epistle was reserved for men.

Women are finally coming to terms with the vast number of acceptable and valuable occupations open to us. There are many noble professions, parenting being just one, incredibly valuable option. Happiness becomes much more difficult when we are preoccupied with expecting others to have the same skills, talents and gifts that we do. In my never-as-humble-as-it-should-be opinion, true feminism is about fulfilling our potential and encouraging others as they do the same -- regardless of their gender.

Take me and my sisters. We have as similar of a baseline as possible: same parents, same city, same gene pool and similar educations. But we're all different. Kimber is a full-time mom. I'm an artist. Liberty is a young professional. Mercina is a missionary. Glorianna is a student. I could envy Kimber's stable income, fabulous aesthetic and perfect children, Liberty's rational professionalism and effortless style, Mercina's work ethic and perfect chic, or Glorianna's Yale education, brilliance and self assurance. Sometimes, I do. But more often than not, I feel blessed by their different gifts.

Within a few years of that late night in Denver, me and my friends were living out each other's dreams. Katie was getting married. Ruth was going on a mission and I was at a top music school. It would have been easy for jealousies and envy to get in the way of friendship. Instead, something wonderful happened: I learned to experience vicarious joy in a way I never knew was possible. These days, Katie is being an amazing mother to her four kids, Ruth is a respected researcher and I am making music. We're still friends and I continue to receive a great deal of satisfaction from their successes. When we stop judging one another and focus on doing our best in the life we're living, we can experience the satisfaction that comes from doing it all without doing everything by ourselves.

What do you wish was part of the current discussion of women, womanhood and feminism?

What do you think is being overlooked? We'd love to hear your thoughts here. We might even write a post about them. Whether you're a lady or man-type, thank you for reading! We <3 you!