new year, new adventures

Happy new year everyone(Iranian new year that is, pronounced norooz).  This was the first year where I got to have my own haftsin, how exciting! For those of you that don’t know,  haftsin means seven S’s and it is like the Christmas tree of Iranian new year. It is table spread filled with symbolic things, most of which start with S.

•         Sombol (hyacinth flower): symbolizing the coming of spring
•        Sabzi (green herbs that you grow) : symbolizing  rebirth
•         Seer (garlic) : symbolizing medicine
•         Sumac (Iranian spice):: symbolizing sunrise (through its color)
•         Seeb (apple): symbolizing beauty and health
•         Sekkeh (coins): symbolizing prosperity
•         Serkeh (vinegar) – symbolizing old age and patience

Other things that don’t start with S that are usually on the hafsin:

•         Rose water: symbolizing cleanliness
•      Mirror: symbolizing truth and the reflection of the real world
•         Candles: symbolizing happiness and enlightenment
•         Fish: symbolizing life  -- We got two of them and their names are beehoosh and bahoosh (our first pets, how precious)
•         Eggs: symbolizing fertility
•         Sweets: symbolizing sweetness

Thanks to Roz and Monique, my haftsin was an easy success… here it is along with my mom's and both my grandparents':

our cute little haftsin :)

 

mom's haftsin

grandma's haftsin

other grandma's haftsin

happy new year from the Seyedalis!

just had to throw this picture in. we are so cool.

Along with the new year comes new adventures, and a few big exciting ones are about to happen.

First of all, me and my lovely cousins have been accepted to be on family feud. We will be flown to Atlanta for taping between May and July. I'll keep you posted on when it actually gets shown on TV. Here's the dream team:

Secondly, my husband got accepted to Tulane School of Medicine! Yay! So that means a big move for us to an awesome city. We will be heading to New Orleans in early July! Now it’s time to house hunt and job hunt.  I was doing some New Orleans research the other day and of course I have to check out the shopping scene. Apparently there is a lot of cute boutiques but one downfall: google tells me there is no Nordstrom down there! What ever will I do?! I guess I’ll just have to become a Saks girl instead… good bye nordstrom notes, 10 point shopping days, private shopping parties and unlimited returning. Saks, you have a lot to live up to. 

Don’t worry though we’ll be back soon; we did just buy a house here so the anchor is down and we plan to return in 4 years (speaking of, if you are looking to rent a cute and spacious 3 bedroom, 2 bath in kirkland, call me!).

I thought I was excited last year but the excitement and fun just continues to grow. I can’t help but be thankful!  Cheers to new adventures!

Yours truly,

Mrs. Mah

cold feet?

I have most definitely been in the mode of discount shopping lately. Probably because it was Christmas time and we were on a budget. So, I am going to take advantage of my blog and use it to share some great deals with you as they come. 


Uggs deal:
Although not the most flattery boots (or the cheapest) but they for sure are warm. And if you know Uggs then you know that they don't usually go on sale so grab them from Nordstrom for $79.90 (with free shipping and in store returns) while you can because I assure you they will be gone soon....click here: Nordstrom Uggs  
And if they don't have your size, worry not, you can always return them straight to the Ugg Store and they will replace them for your correct size.  Gotta love good customer service :) 

they also come in black

yours truly,

Mrs. Mah

our first christmas

We have just experienced our first Christmas together! I must say it was nice not having to wake up and drive over to Beazers house on Christmas morning or to be apart during Christmas eve because we both had family parties to attend or to only talk on the phone on Christmas (whether the phone call was coming from Utah or Slovenia). All I gotta say is that after being apart for so many years it was so nice to finally be with Beazer during the holidays. We got to put up lights together, decorate the tree, make goodies, shop for presents, and just enjoy each others (and our families) company and the season. 


It has been a year of "firsts" for us and the holiday season added a few more "firsts" to our book:

• We got our first tree, beazer let me pick whichever one I wanted and I happened to pick the biggest and fullest tree on the lot... figures.

getting our tree strapped on the car

our first tree

the final decoration

•  Our first ornament:  

• Our second gingerbread house... remember the first (http://mahyoblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/edible-honeymoon.html)  Since we had already created Paris, we decided to make a chinese temple, with of course a dinosaur guarding the gates.

• Our first time making goodies for neighbors of our own and ding dong ditching to deliver them.  (We were almost caught by Saffa and Noor!)

Peppermint Brownies and Marble Cake...thank you Martha Stewart once again

• Our first quiet Christmas eve dinner together

• Our first Christmas morning together with just us two... 

the aftermath of ripping open teapots, robes, chocolate, miami heat pajamas, yoga mats, clothes, books, etc.

Merry Christmas (and happy holidays) to all and to all a good night!

yours truly,

Mrs. Mah

gobble gobble

Thanksgiving came early to our household because of a little trip to hawaii that is about to happen in t minus 1 hour (I am sitting in the airport as I write this)!! 
Beazer and I took the honors of inviting our immediate family over and hosting the Beazer-Seyedali thanksgiving extravaganza. 
Prepping was a lot of fun, I had Martha Stewart's Every Day Food magazine sticky noted inside and out. Beazer and I got to spend some quality time cleaning up the house, grocery shopping, unwrapping our wedding china and figuring out how the heck to prep a turkey (more like Beazer did all the work with his hand inside the turkey and I stood there with a commentary that included, "EEWWW GROSS" every other word)

he refused to wear my apron yet he wore my beautiful pink glove and tore it

 But in the end it turned out to be a huge success (a shout out to Martha Stewart who made it all possible)! 

The Menu: 

The things Beazer and I cooked up:

Rosemary-Herb Turkey stuffed with lemons and onions

Pan Gravy

Cranberry Sauce with ginger and clove

Walnut-Herb Stuffing

Cranberry Sauce

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Glazed carrots with thyme

Shredded brussel sprouts with beef pancetta

Green beans with carmelized onions and tarragon

4 Different types of cider (we bought this one)
Yasi and Payvand made: 

Mixed Green Salad

Mama Sholeh made:

Jewelry Rice

Mama Lisa made:
Rolls

Artichoke stuffing

Coconut Creme Pie

Pumpkin pie

Shayla made:

Apple Pie

jewelry rice and carrots

brussel sprouts, stuffing and cranberry sauce

the turkey

i love me some green beans!

It was so fun having this thanksgiving dinner and prepping and cooking all this food. But I must say that the best part was having all my family around me as we ate it. Next time we can hopefully invite more extended family now that I've got the basics down :)  

the seyedali-beazer crew

 Happy Thanksgiving from the Beazers! 

yours truly,

Mrs. Mah

since you've been gone...

The Mr. has been out of town for 5 days in New Orleans and New York for med school interviews... here's a snippet of what I do while he's not around:

• hit up the nordstrom half yearly sale --- good timing mr. beazer! 
• spend some quality time with greg
• fix up the house 
• hang out with my parents
• have a grey's marathon with my tv buddy
• catch up with layla
• work on some wedding albums
• watch desperate housewives as I bake (how cliche). And with this kitchen-aid mixer I got for the wedding I feel like I am totally cheating because I can just let the mixer mix as I sit back and watch tv
• and best part....I put up curtains that I know beazer wouldn't approve of. The first two pictures are ones he would like but the last one with the pink bows...lets just say I had to bake him some chocolate chip banana bread to ease the blow. 

love my pink bows, thanks for the help mama!

I'm already brainstorming some more fun projects to do (that include the color pink) next time he's out of town, let me know if you have ideas! 

yours truly,

Mrs. Mah

happy halloween!

Happy Halloween from Pocahontas and John Smith!

pumpkin carving

The 2nd annual pumpkin carving party took place at our house last weekend. Thanks to Lily and Jasmine I was able to spice up the house with some halloween spirit. The party turned out to be a great success (except for the huskies scoreboard).  

everybodies pumpkins

Recap of the winners:

Most Frightening

Yasi with the flying witch

Most Creative

Beazer with the sonics logo (he was crying the entire time he was carving)

Most Intricate

Alicia with the spider

Good thought

Farshad with the 206

And the pumpkin that got the most 2nd place in these categories

Emily and Jamie's pumpkin with Andrew Luck carved to detail

   
Have a great halloween weekend! 

yours truly,

Mrs. Mah

new pets

We have acquired three new pets so far, Hank, Sawyer and Cruze, the squirrels. We randomly decided to name them last names of famous Tom’s. Yes, I am aware that it is  Cruise not Cruze and Tom Hanks and not Tom Hank, but whatever, I like Hank better.   The squirrels and Beazer share a love for peanut M&M’s so Cruze waits at the ledge of the backyard every night during dinner time waiting for Beazer to add to his winter stash.  

cruze

 Hank and Sawyer reside in the front yard and they wait for us during breakfast time. They also at times fight over the m&m's even though Beazer tries to be fair and give both of them some. Unfortunately for Hank and Sawyer, they had hid all their winters stash under our flower bed that is now rocks. They can no longer dig up their stuff... hope they didn’t  have too much stashed under there!  Poor guy keeps wishfully digging into nothing. Sad face.

We have realized a few things about these squirrels. The more food we give them the more they think they can come into our house (this is going to turn into a problem!). We have noticed that they are color blind (how cute, just like Beazer). We have also learned that if the peanut M&M is not cracked open they quickly runs off to some dirt, digs and hide it. If it is cracked (because beazer ate half of it) then they just sit in front of beazer and eat up the M&M. Also, we noticed that Cruze seems to be a bit more slow than the others.  We stare at these guys and the things they do with the peanut M&M’s. It is truly fascinating; yes, this is what our life has come to. Since we are scientists, I think we might even start a study analyzing the behavioral characteristics of these cute creatures. I’ll let you know what we find.

yours truly,

Mrs. Mah

hello autumn!

Welcome to the glorious season of Autumn (or is it Fall? the world needs to make that decision). Tis the best season of all and I'm here to tell you why:

• My runs are so wonderful. Wherever I go run (or even just drive) I am visually stimulated by all the beautiful, colorful trees. Plus, every day they are a fresh new color.
• The air is crisp and fresh. 
• Hot seasonal drinks:  Pumpkin spice latte, caramel apple spice, peppermint hot chocolate...yum!
• Halloween. I love dressing up, candy and carving pumpkins and just being halloween-festive in general. Ever since I was a kid I would pick my halloween costume for the next year the day after halloween; that is how much I love it. 
• Fall fashion. I can finally pull out my boots, leggings and long sweaters/sweater vests. And I even invested in a new pair of boots :) 

cute, aren't they?

• Soups never tasted better. To start off this Fall right, we made the BEST butternut squash soup I have ever had. It is was so good that I had to put my recipe out there for everyone to indulge. It was based off a few different recipes combined into one amazing goodness.  

The Beazer's Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:  Put however much of everything that you want, here's what we did for us two and we had enough left over for our lunches

- 2 TB (no, not terrabyte har har) butter

- 1 onion diced

- 2 celery stalks chopped

- 1 carrot chopped

- 1/2 butternut squash cubed

- 1 jalapeno

- About 16 ounces of chicken broth 

- half can of coconut milk

- Some grated ginger (2 marbles worth)

- Salt and pepper to taste

-1 TB of thyme

First we melted the butter in a pot on the stove-top then put all the chopped veggies (including jalapeno) in and browned them for about 10-15 minutes. Then we added the chicken broth, ginger, and thyme. We brought it to a boil then reduced the temperature as it simmered with a lid for about 30 minutes. Then we stirred in the coconut milk, salt and pepper and let that simmer for another 5 minutes.  Finally, the last step was using our awesome immersion blender to blend it up into one thick, smooth and tasty soup! Ta da! 

Thank you Autumn for coming, I welcome you with open arms. 

yours truly,

Mrs. Mah

the things that excite me...

call me a nerd but my boss just bought me a present and I could not be more EXCITED. 
Say hello to my new external hard drive... yep and its 1 terabyte (TB)! (for all those newbs out there, that is equivalent to 1024 gigs).  

Walking through Costco, two things excite me: the diamond section and all the external hard drives, specifically the new TB's (and conveniently they are right next to each other). And looky now, I have a diamond on my finger and a TB in my pocket! 


There are those people that are total pack rats, you see them on that hoarding show... well I am probably a form of that. BUT, I am a VIRTUAL pack rat. 1 TB is definitely a MUST.  And of course all my folder and files are organized by date and category, and backed up at least 3 times. 

yours truly,

Miss Mah

come to my kitchen

My kitchen has been full of wonderful people and recipes lately.  With living only a few blocks from beazers mom, my grandama, two of my aunts/uncles, and my great aunt, the house has definitely been blessed with these great peoples company often. Thanks to my mom and my grandma and my iranian cookbook, I finally feel like I’m getting the hang of Iranian cuisine.

Evidence of fun cooking times:

Dana came over and we went to the farmers market to get some fresh zuchini and then went on to make some Koresht (stew) with lamb and zucchini. Of course we had to wear our aprons.

Jasmine and Lily came over and we made some homemade pizza (they are holding the dough)...followed by a bracelet making session.

Dana came over (again) and we went out and picked plenty of blackberries and then made some yummy pie with it (yes, we made the crust ourselves too, and it wasn't easy!).

the pie aftermath (check out the roses from our yard on the table)

A little side-note: Dana and I have been good friends since we were in 7^th grade, we never went to the same school but were always on the same soccer team. On our “playdates” we used to juggle with our soccer ball and figure out new tricks, make movies starring ourselves or make up dances to NSYNC. Now, we get together to cook and bake…I would not have guessed it would come to this, but I'm not complaining. So come on over and cook with me.

yours truly,

Mrs. Mah

roses are red

We have moved our efforts now to the backyard where we have grass, a lavender bush, an apple tree and some herbs for my cooking pleasure.

my  herbs

beazers new favorite thing is taking care of the backyard, how cute.

Now to the main backyard attraction. Apparently rose bushes were planted here in 1987 when my grandfather died. Right when we had thought they were dead, our first rose sprouted up. Beazer was so excited that he took the initiative of grabbing the camera and calling me over to see it.  Now, one by one they are continuing to grow, and my oh my are they beautiful and fragrant.

our first rose!

Now we really have no choice but to “smell the roses”  :)

yours truly,

Mrs. Mah

welcome home

welcome to our new house...

The first set of projects upon moving into our new house was gardening since the weather was nice.  We had our work cut out for us because we have both a front and back yard. Since the weekdays are busy with work, this left us to do bit by bit every weekend.

First weekend - Alicia and I weeded out our front flower bed. Talk about a lot of weeds and a lot of nasty bugs. After doing this, I realized that I want a maintenance free garden (as much as possible). The solution: flower pots.

after weeding

before weeding

The next weekend, I ended up going to California to present at a conference so Beazer and my mom surprised me by creating a beautiful zen rock garden in the cleared out flower bed. I was so excited and so happy when I saw the finished product…it was beautiful!

final product

Next step of the front of the house was the window area. We ended up planting small bushes and flowers and adding window flower boxes. Slovenia inspired me with their window flower boxes so we absolutely had to install those in our house too.

slovenia does window flower boxes best

our flower boxes

Now every time we sit outside or pull up to the house, we smile. Worth the work? Most definitely. We've realized that gardening is not as bad as our parents made us think it was when we were younger.  

yours truly,

Mrs. Mah