Spring Break!

So we've been having an interesting Spring Break. My mom came in to town on Sunday night to visit family here and spent Sunday night at our house. She went over to her mom's house in Springville for Monday and Tuesday. We were pretty busy on Monday, but Tuesday we drove down and had dinner with Grandma and mom. I was happy because Tuesday was our last day of school before "Spring Break," which in Provo means "Wed-Fri." Not much of a break, but last year we only had Friday and they called it "Spring Recess," which I think is possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. I think they do it to mirror BYU's "Spring Recess," which is only a long weekend to keep the good little LDS kids there from ending up in Cancun and taking part in the debauchery there. BYU claims it's because of Women's Week, but I think that's just a thin cover.
Anyway, yesterday was our first day of Spring Break. Mom was back over at our house around noon and took us around to the pet store (to get some tubing I need for some gardening projects I'm doing) and Lowe's (to get some pea gravel I need for planters). Then we came home and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Luis went to "boy's night" and mom and I stayed up with Andrei and watched Harry Potter #1.
Today was a bit more eventful. Luis and I worked on getting the huge planter box I constructed yesterday up on the deck, and mom helped me put in the tubing and pea gravel for drainage. I think it'll work out great and will provide our deck with some much needed greenery for the summer months. I'm planning on planting herbs, greens, radishes, and eggplant in there. I also have some large pots I got at Ikea which will house cucumbers, peppers, tomatillos, and a small melon vine that I got. I'm planning on spending most of June after our London trip on my deck watering and then eating home-grown produce. FYI for those of you who don't know me well, that's actually how I imagine heaven- good food, sunshine, and lots of little growing things everywhere.
Last night we had a mammoth spring storm that dropped about 4-5 inches of snow on Provo. We spent about an hour in the morning making a killer snow penguin. It didn't look much like a man and the carrot ended up looking more like a beak than a nose, so mom added the gloves she'd been wearing to the mound of snow as feet and voila'! More spring-break awesomeness was born.
I also spray-painted Andrei's bunk-bed white. I've had half of the set for years now, since the bunk beds can split into twin beds. I had one twin and Emily had the other in her apartment in L.A., but it just went into storage when she left so mom trucked it all the way out here. The only problem is that it was the original late 80's "golde oak" color, which I think is clearly the ugliest color of wood ever invented. Now it has a nice crisp coat of white, which will blend in nicely with his dresser and the trim in his room.
Anyway, tomorrow we're planning on planting in the containers on the deck, making a trip to Thanksgiving Point to see the dinosaur museum, and possibly going shopping with mom for some bathroom fixtures for her newly remodeled master suite in Fresno. There aren't nearly as many cabinetry shops in Fresno as there are here, so I promised her I'd take her to all of my usual haunts and see if we can get her some good deals. BTW, if you're ever looking to decorate/remodel a house for cheap in Utah, ring me up. I have A LOT of connections and can help you find awesome stuff at prices you can't believe.
Tomorrow evening we're having a carne asada at our house so Luis's family can meet my mom. It'll be interesting b/c mom speaks no Spanish, but she's not shy and neither are my in-laws, so I'm sure they'll all be best friends by the end of the evening. Plus I've recently converted her to homemade salsa and chipotle flavored frijoles, so I'm sure she'll enjoy the food.
So in conclusion, Spring-Break is in full swing, most of the snow is melted, I've checked several projects off of my list that were in dire need of completion, and we're having a garage sale on Saturday to get rid of all the junk that was cluttering our crawl-space. Life is good. To prove it to you, here is my MIL's recipe for refried beans.

Ingredients: one bag of Pinto or Peruvian beans, 1/2-1 cup mayonaise, 1 can of chipotle red chiles, salt, pepper and garlic to taste.
Soak the beans in a large crock pot on high for about 1 hour. Throw the water away. Rinse the beans and then refill the crock pot. Cook the beans on high for about 4-5 hours (or until soft). Drain all but about 1/2-1 cup of the leftover liquid (unless you want to make sopa Azteca, which is possibly the most delicious substance on the planet!). Put the drained beans and the liquid in a large frying pan. Smoosh the beans up (I use a hand mixer for this- like the kind that you use to make smoothies, but you can use any other smooshing device you have on hand, too). Add the mayo, garlic (1 tsp. or less), salt, and pepper. Heat until the beans start to bubble. Remove from heat. Open up the can of chipotles. Take 1-3 Tbsp. of the chipotle liquid (not the chiles themselves) and throw them in to the beans mixture. If you want it extra hot, throw in one of the chiles, too, but don't crush it or you'll regret it. Stir it all up. Eat with hot flour or corn tortillas.

Recipe for the world's greatest salsa:
4-5 large roma tomatoes, 1 medium to large bunch cilantro, one large white onion, salt, pepper to taste, 2 large limes, green chiles (if you want some heat- I use about 3 smaller serranos and 1 medium anaheim).
Roast the tomatoes and chiles on the stove (if you're brave) or in the broiler (if you're not), turning occasionally to evenly cook them. You'll know they're ready when the skin starts to turn brown and peel away from the flesh. Put the chiles in a sealed plastic bag to sweat for at least 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, throw the whole tomato (cut off the woody stem part first), half of the onion, and the rinsed cilantro leaves (twist them off the stems first) into a large blender or food processer. Add approx. 1/4-1/2 cup water, a lot of salt (to tastep- I use large grain sea salt and I throw in about 3 large pinches of it) and some pepper. Blend until the entire mixture is pretty runny.
Take the chiles out of the bag and CAREFULLY rinse them under the tap to peel off the skins (which are hard and chewy). Be careful to avoid the seeds, which depending on the chile can burn your skin. Throw the chiles into the blender and then squeeze the juice from the limes into the mix. Blend again, leaving slightly larger pieces of the chiles. Serve with tacos, chips, etc.
If you want a green salsa you can make this the same way, only substitute tomatillos (husked and roasted) for the tomatoes- you can use the green salsa as the base for chile verde if you like that dish.

Happy eating!!