Sewing Room Makeover

My friends think I am good at decorating, but really, I'm just good at copying others good ideas. I saw this photo online at Heather Bailey's website and decided to model my sewing room after it.

So I painted the walls pink, bought a shelf for my fabrics, covered my cork boards with Heather Bailey designer fabrics, and now I just need to paint my sewing table that gorgeous distressed turquiose color. If it ever gets warm enough to haul it outside and paint it, it will happen. I thought of cleaning my sewing room before I photographed it, but hey, this is how it looks on a daily basis. (Yes, a new house is being built on the *&^% flag lot behind us. Don't ask me how I feel about that.) I need to do something about having a black chair in this very feminine-looking room. I need to figure out if I can take the chair apart and re-upholster it. It's comfy!

This cutting table has saved my life. I can't believe I sewed all those years without it! My little Ikea shelf would look gret if I would keep my fabric organized into colors, but that's too much work.

I bought this chair at Ikea so that Paul can visit me when I am working. He likes to prop himself down there with the latest copy of Fortune Magazine. We're a good team. Need to recover the chair in cute pastel fabric too. Ah, the never ending projects.

I buy my fabric stash wholesale now and avoid the retail prices. I had no idea retail was marked up 100% until I started buying wholesale!

My shelving unit is loaded with Ikea stainless boxes. All my containers are critical to keeping me 'semi-organized'. This unit holds my patterns, baskets of serger thread, zippers and buttons, sewing book references, etc. (The gallon of distilled water on the floor is to refill my iron.)

My iPod is my best friend. I have it loaded with heathen music that I love and LDS General Conference reports. See my Pullitzer-Prize winning Shuffle Me Righteous Blog for more info about my quirkiness with music and conference mixes. I hang Hallie's artwork behind the iPod on the bulletin board.

We complete your 360 degree tour of my sewing room studio with a view of my college diploma on the wall. I've always hung my diploma in my sewing room since the day I got it 12 years ago. It's the most expensive piece of paper I own and it took me another 5 years after college to pay off that piece of paper. Ah, but it was worth it. Look wear I am now? Working in a pink studio with sewing machines worth more than our 1993 Nissan Sentra.

It's Not Black!

I started going gray in my early twentites. So did all of my siblings. We blame it all on our mother. She has the early-gray-hair gene. (We also inherited the high-cholesterol gene and diabetes gene. Aren't we lucky?) Having the gray-hair gene is at least manageable. So I've been coloring my hair since I was 25. I usually keep it my normal dark brown, but two weeks ago I let my stylist convince me to go dark. Like one shade lighter than black on the color wheel thing. It's always a bit bizarre when they pull out the cardstock loaded with plastic 'hair' dyed certain colors. I choose the color as if I'm looking at the menu, "Mmmm.....I'll take brown 3b today." Well, it pretty much turned out really dark, practically black. And I know because my 4 year old (not pictured cause she was having a tempter tantrum off screen) told me so.

Hallie: Mom, now your hair is black like Nathan's and Ilene's.
(Now what you need to know is that I have never had black hair before. In fact, it's always my pet peeve when people tell me I have black hair. Ummm, are you color blind? It's clearly brown!!)

Me: Nathan and Ilene don't have black hair. And besides, it's not black, it's just really dark brown.

Hallie: Mom, I think you need to look in the mirror. Because guess what, it's black.

Rascal.

P.S. Do you like how I HAVE to comb her hair now to cover the entire left side of baldness?!!

It Didn’t Die!!

I believe in miracles. But maybe what you consider a miracle and what I consider a miracle are two different things. Having grown up in California where not too much goes dormant in the winter, I am always surprised living here in Utah when spring comes and things come to life again. Particularly in my own yard. I don’t have a green thumb, but I try. I’m a sucker for loading my yard with perennials that bloom at different times of the year so that I have color all year long. (Bottom picture is of my last home. But the new owners hated it so they ripped all flowers, perennials, and shrubs.) But for some reason I kill certain plants long before their time. I kill zucchini and squash plants most every year. And sometimes our trees just never come out of dormancy. Like last year our red maple just never came back to life in the spring. So you must know how amazed I am this

year to see my trees in bloom. Here is my Yoshiro Flowering Cherry in bloom. Honestly, with me as the gardener it’s a miracle it’s made it close to two years in my yard. But my Patmore Ash is still dormant……or is it dead? I don't see any buds on it yet. I do believe in miracles, I do, I do, I do.

Butcher Cuts

Hallie got hold of the scissors yesterday and cut off all the hair on the side of her head. Zoom in to start crying. I sure cried. When she went to bed she prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help her hair grow back. Maybe she should pray to avoid sharp instruments instead.

Spring Tunics

I've been on a sewing spree lately making tunics. I've been dying to have one for myself but seeing as I am a lazy sewer when it comes to sewing for me, I hunted high and low for a tunic pattern I could make in less than two hours. Qualifiations? No facings, no buttons or zippers. I wanted to just pull it over my head. This is the tunic I came up with for myself. (I modifed an out of print McCall's pattern.)

And here are the easy-peasy tunics for Ilene. Her pattern is from McCall's 5458 (the red shirt). I think these turned out adorable! (Although the first picture is from a horrid pattern I will never use again.) It feels good to once again (occasionally when weather permits) get out of sweaters and into lightweight cotton shirts.

Ignore My Last Post

I went ahead and bought myself a new camera. (Hey, it's a business write off.) I went with the Nikon D40 at my Dad's suggestions. He's been using Nikons since the 1960s so I figure that's a good sign. Here's what I've shot so far. Keep in mind I know NOTHING about photography. Still, I'm happy so far. (I bought the bracelet from this shop on etsy.com. Love it!)

Picture Perfect

I have no desire to be a photographer--the last thing I need is one more expensive hobby. (Right honey?) But this week my sister Carolyn and my Dad have been in town and have been helping me re-photograph items for my etsy store. I thought the pictures would turn out great, but I had no idea just how much better my items would look photographed with a real camera. My hubby hates it that I say our camera (only 6 months old) is Mickey-Mouse, but I don't think he can deny it any longer. Guess I'm gonna have to hire me a photographer--do you think I can find one around here who would want to swap photos for pillows? Or aprons? Or Tote Bags? Anyone?

The Real Veggie Tales

I have a very smart friend Allison. Actually, I have lots of smart friends, but Allison is who I am talking about at this moment. A couple of years ago Allison and another friend started a food cooperative in our neighborhood. 36 families belong to this produce co-op. Here's how it works. A truckload of produce is purchased every-other week, sorted into laundry baskets, and the picked up by us 36 folks. It's a great way to get a good variety of produce at great prices. (Yes, Costco is a great deal, but you don't always want to have to buy 5 pounds of broccoli to get a good deal.) We also get cool and exotic stuff like daikon radishes and fresh basil. And this week we were able to buy strawberries in bulk at about $1 a pound!! So I bought 16 pounds. I made jam, ate strawberry shortcake three days in a row, waffles with strawberries, etc. Anyway, here's a picture of what I picked up this last Thursday. The downside of the co-op is finding room in my refirgerator for all this produce! Not too bad of a problem. Thanks Allison! As she says, "Saving the neighborhood from twinkies and soda one family at a time." Amen sista!

What's For Dinner? The Never Ending Struggle

I am always curious as to what others have for dinner. Are you? Do my friends and neighbors cook actual meals every night? Take out? Restaurants? Frozen meals? Cereal? I figure in the thirteen years I have spent married I have spent 1,423 hours cooking dinner. That’s just 30 minutes a night—a fair calculation I figure given the fact that many nights dinner actually takes about an hour to cook. Also, the fact that we eat out 1-3 nights a month. I’m not sure what to think about those 1,423 hours cooking. I mean, I do love to cook, but wow, that’s a lot of time spent on something that I can literally see no results from. Once eaten I’m just left with dirty dishes. (However, I will not calculate how many hours a day I spend doing dishes. That could make me cry.)

I keep a list in my giant cooking notebook of dinners we have. That way, when I just can’t seem to figure out what to have, I open my notebook and look at what we’ve had in the past. That usually jogs the creative juices and then I can figure something out. So here goes—all the dinners we’ve had in the last 30 days. (I'm sure you'll be able to figure out a lot by our eating habits. i.e., we love spicy food--I've been on a Thai kick, eating lots of Mexican as always, don't eat much red meat, etc.)

*Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and Roast Beef Hoagies
*Thai Coconut Chicken Soup with Red Hot Curry
*Asian Broiled Salmon with Stir-Fried Snow Peas
*Chicken Piccata with Rice Pilaf and Fruit Salad (See previous post)

*Roasted Rosemary Chicken and Green Beans (Easter)
*Thai Ruby Restaurant
*Black Bean Chicken Stir Fry
*Chicken Tacos with Pickled Onions, Guacamole, and Queso Fresco
*Taquitos (frozen), Guacamole, Refried Beans
*Red Enchiladas with Sauteed Asparagus (Don’t tell my mom I used canned enchilada sauce)
*Grilled Tilapia
*Oatmeal and Eggs
*Pastrami Hoagies
*Turkey Burgers and Oven Fries
*Pasta with Red Peppers and Asparagus
*Curried Lentils and Rice
*Cub Scout Blue and Gold Dinner (Don’t ask)
*Grilled Hogi Sandwiches
*Roasted Lemon chicken
*Chicken Noodle Soup
*Leftovers
*Pizza Margharita (Paul’s pizza skills come in handy)

*Thai Green Chicken Curry
*Cream of Broccoli Soup with fresh bread
*Grilled Hot dogs and asparagus (I think the veggie cancels out the evil hot dog, no?)
*Pepper Seak with Egg Noodles and Green Salad
*Sloppy Joes and Carrot Sticks
*Chili

*Pad Thai
*Carl’s Jr (I had the Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich..mmm Anaheim Chiles) *Cornmeal Crusted Taco Pie

*Chicken with Pasta, Normandy Vegetables, and Alfredo Sauce

Meals on Wheels (Sort Of)

Four years ago when Hallie was born my friend Kelly brought me Chicken Piccata. It became an instant hit with our family—chicken cutlets in a creamy lemon sauce. Mmm..good. (Then again, if you read my Lemon Love Affair blog you know I’m a sucker for anything lemon.) Since then I make it all the time—for company, for Food 101 with my sister Carolyn, and tonight I made it for a friend of mine (Carly) who just had a baby of her own. I don’t think I’m ultra talented at too much, but I can cook and sew. So whenever sign-ups go around in my LDS ward to take a meal to a new mom or someone who is having surgery, I almost always sign up. I’d rather take someone dinner than weed their yard or babysit their kids anyday! Hey, it’s how I help! The last time I took a meal to someone was in January and it was Creamy Mushroom Chicken with Linguine. Don’t you wish you were sick now? Maybe in 4 years Carly will return the favor to someone else and take a new mom Chicken Piccata. Yup, I’m changing the world, one good recipe at a time.

Chicken Piccata
2 large lemons
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds), sliced crosswise into cutlets
Table salt and ground black pepper
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small shallot , minced (about 2 tablespoons) or 1 small garlic clove, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
1 cup chicken stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons small capers, drained
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, set large heatproof plate on rack, and heat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Halve one lemon pole to pole. Trim ends from one half and cut crosswise into slices 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick; set aside. Juice remaining half and whole lemon to obtain 1/4 cup juice; reserve.

3. Sprinkle both sides of cutlets generously with salt and pepper. Measure flour into pie tin or shallow baking dish. Working one cutlet at a time, coat with flour, and shake to remove excess.

4. Heat heavy-bottomed 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until hot, about 2 minutes; add 2 tablespoons oil and swirl pan to coat. Lay half of chicken pieces in skillet. Sauté cutlets, without moving them, until lightly browned on first side, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Turn cutlets and cook until second side is lightly browned, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes longer. Remove pan from heat and transfer cutlets to plate in oven. Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to now-empty skillet and heat until shimmering. Add remaining chicken pieces and repeat.

5. Add shallot or garlic to now-empty skillet and return skillet to medium heat. Sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds for shallot or 10 seconds for garlic. Add stock and lemon slices, increase heat to high, and scrape skillet bottom with wooden spoon or spatula to loosen browned bits. Simmer until liquid reduces to about 1/3 cup, about 4 minutes. Add lemon juice and capers and simmer until sauce reduces again to 1/3 cup, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and swirl in butter until butter melts and thickens sauce; swirl in parsley. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve immediately.

ABC Tag

My friend Laurie tagged me, and I always do what I'm told. Here goes:

A- Attached or Single? attached
B- Best Friend? Paul, Kelly, Robyn, Liz, Allison, Laurie, and now Paige
C- Cake or pie? Pie--lemon meringue or peach
D- Day of choice? Friday--bye bye housework!
E- Essential Item? my flat iron
F- Favorite Color? lime green
G- Gummy Bears or Worms? hate 'em both
H- Hometown? Chino, CA
I- Favorite Indulgence? eating pastries
J- January or July? July, preferably poolside
K- Kids? Three of the little monsters
L- Life isn't complete without? Paul's leg rubs
M- Marriage date? December 29, 1994
N- Number of brothers and sisters? 2 blue, 2 pink
O- Oranges or Apples? Oranges
P- Phobia and fears? Losing all my teeth, becoming diabetic,
Q- Quote? "Beauty Fades, Dumb is Forever" (Title of a book by Judge Judy)
R- Reason to smile? my new sewing machine
S- Season of choice? Summer.....always summer.....always
T- Tag three people? Ilene, Paul, Carolyn
U- Unknown fact about me? I blog, there is nothing left unknown at this point
V- Vegetable? right now asparagus cuz of spring in the summer? garden grown tomatoes
W- Worst habit? Not always washing my face at night, consuming heavy cream
X-Ray or Ultrasound? for what?
Y- Your favorite food? Mom's mexican food; or Mexican food from Las Tarascas in Provo; or chicken curma from Bombay house
Z- Zodiac sign? Capricorn. lame question.

Lemon Love Affair

Updated post to include cake photos from 2015

Paul is the best juicer of the lemons

I love anything with citrus, particularly lemons—lemon meringue pie, Chicken Picatta, lemon pudding, lemon pound cake, lemon vinaigrette, and of course lemonade. Growing up in California, we of course had a lemon tree in our back yard. As kids we would cut lemons in half, dip them in sugar, and suck away all the sweet floral goodness. My parents still live in my childhood home, thankfully, otherwise I would think that a lemon tastes like the ones you buy in the store. The difference between the Meyer lemons on my parents’ tree and the ones you can buy in the store is the difference between a homegrown tomato and a store bought one. So each time I head to California I pick as many lemons as we can (as seen by Hallie in top photo) juice ’em (as demonstrated by Paul), and freeze ‘em for the next year. I keep a good 200 or so whole lemons in my cold garage to last me through the winter as well. I’m getting down to just a few left now.

Yesterday I revisted my love affair with lemon zest as I made my favorite lemon cake. Of course it’s from cooksillustrated.com. You really should get a $20 membership to that site if you haven’t already. It will wake up your taste buds. I’ve played around with the recipe and have made a few adjustments for living at high altitude (to prevent the cake from sinking and being too 'wet'.) Enjoy!


Lemon Bundt Cake (Serves 12 to 14)

You will need between five and six tablespoons of lemon juice for this recipe. Because the amount of juice can vary from lemon to lemon, we suggest you first measure the juice from the three lemons you have zested, then juice a fourth lemon if necessary. Serve this cake as is or dress it up with lightly sweetened berries. The cake has a light, fluffy texture when eaten the day it is baked, but if well wrapped and held at room temperature overnight its texture becomes more dense -- like that of pound cake -- the following day.

3 lemons , zest grated and saved, then juiced for 3 tablespoons juice (see note above) 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces) (16 oz. in high altitude)
1 teaspoon baking powder (minus 1/8 tsp. for high altitude)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk (preferably)
3 large eggs , at room temperature
1 large egg yolk , at room temperature
18 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 1/4 sticks), at room temperature (only 2 sticks at high altitude)
2 cups sugar (14 ounces)

Glaze
2–3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (see note above)
1 tablespoon buttermilk
2 cups confectioners' sugar (8 ounces)

1. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick baking spray with flour (alternatively, brush pan with mixture of 1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon melted butter). Mince lemon zest to fine paste (you should have about 2 tablespoons). Combine zest and lemon juice in small bowl; set aside to soften, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Combine lemon juice mixture, vanilla, and buttermilk in medium bowl. In small bowl, gently whisk eggs and yolk to combine. In standing mixer fitted with flat beater, cream butter and sugar at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes; scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce to medium speed and add half of eggs, mixing until incorporated, about 15 seconds. Repeat with remaining eggs; scrape down bowl again. Reduce to low speed; add about one-third of flour mixture, followed by half of buttermilk mixture, mixing until just incorporated after each addition (about 5 seconds). Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining buttermilk mixture. Scrape bowl and add remaining flour mixture; mix at medium-low speed until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold batter once or twice with rubber spatula to incorporate any remaining flour. Scrape into prepared pan.

3. Bake until top is golden brown and wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into center comes out with no crumbs attached, 45 to 50 minutes.

4. FOR THE GLAZE: While cake is baking, whisk 2 tablespoons lemon juice, buttermilk, and confectioners' sugar until smooth, adding more lemon juice gradually as needed until glaze is thick but still pourable (mixture should leave faint trail across bottom of mixing bowl when drizzled from whisk). Cool cake in pan on wire rack set over baking sheet for 10 minutes, then invert cake directly onto rack. Pour half of glaze over warm cake and let cool for 1 hour; pour remaining glaze evenly over top of cake and continue to cool to room temperature, at least 2 hours. Cut into slices and serve.

Free at Last......Free at Last!

I’m entering a new phase of parenthood. My children can do more physically for themselves and thus I am now able to do less. That’s my goal in life: to teach them to be self-sufficient so that I can become a total leech on the back of society, or at least the backs of my children.

Nathan can cook pancakes. (We still have to help with the measuring though.) Ilene can wipe down the table. Hallie can make her own toast and butter it with 1/2 the tub of margarine. Nathan can scrub the toilet, clean the sink with Ajax, and clean the mirror with Windex. Ilene can clean the bathroom too. (Next, we’ll tackle the tub.) The older two can change their own sheets, take their own showers and unload the dishwasher. (Yup, they are too old for ‘baths’ now.) All three can pour their own cereals with milk, although if the milk gallon is too full they lose a bit to the floor. They can dust (and love to dust!) with the greatest invention of all, the Swiffer, or those cool micro-fiber dust mits. (As seen in photo.) They vacuum, comb their own hair, weed the garden, sweep the floor, and vacuum the stairs. Next stop? The teenage years where all this hard teaching of mine will seem to become unlearned as they become leeches on the back of society. That's karma I suppose.

(Hallie making coconut macaroons)

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Hallie wanted my old rotary cutting mat. She then grabbed the pizza cutter from her kitchenette and went to work 'cutting' fabric scraps. (My box of fabric scraps is her favorite 'toy' in this whole house.) Frustration loomed large though as she started screaming as she was 'cutting', "This isn't working! I need a real cutter." So I told her about the time I got stitches because I cut through my thumb with the dang rotary blade. She was not to be dismissed. Oh bother.

Month O' Birthdays

Phew.....we made it through all the kids' birthdays. Here's a riddle? Three birthdays in 3 different months, and only 29 days between all three? How can this be? Well, on a non-leap year, that would be January 30th, February 4th, and March 1st. I've baked way too many cakes for the blessed days--Yellow cake with Pink 7-minute icing (basically a whipped meringue), Old Fashioned Chocolate with Chocolate Buttercream, and Chocolate Sheet cake with Chocolate Frosting. Yes it's a different recipe than the Old-Fashioned Chocolate cake. I'm a little obsessed with my homemade cakes. I never do boxes and I don't care so much how they look, just how they taste. That's obvious though looking at the photos. Don't ask me why I don't have a picture to post of Hallie with her cake. I do have a video, and tried posting that, but unlike the rest of you, I try to upload the videos and they just never finish uploading--ever.

Pad Thai

The kids loved dinner tonight!

I have a weakness for anything spicy, salty, sour, and sweet. And what better dish to capture all 4 of my favorite flavors than Pad Thai? I've been on a Thai food kick lately. I went to Thai Chili Garden for lunch 2 weeks ago, went to Thai Ruby last week, made Green Curry with Thai sticky rice (in the hat shaped bamboo steamer even) for dinner Sunday, and today made Pad Thai. Oh, what glorious noodles! I used the recipe from CooksIllustrated.com and found a favorite! It's in my book entitled The Best 30-Minute Recipe, one of my favorite cookbooks. Ok, any cookbook by CooksIllustrated/ America's Test Kitchen is a favorite.

My substitutions: I did substitue soy sauce for the fish sauce because I didn't have any. Honestly, I love dishes with fish sauce in a restaurants, but at home it just doesn't work for me. I'm sure I just bought a bad brand. After all, who doesn't love fermented fish in a salty solution? I hate shrimp, so I used shredded chicken. And I doubled this for a main meal for our family of 5. I also used lemon juice for the 1/3 cup lime juice, but I did have lime wedges to squeeze at the dinner table--that's the kids favorite part, squeezing the limes.

Pad Thai from The Best 30-Minute Recipe,

A wok might be the implement of choice in restaurants and the old country, but a large 12-inch skillet (nonstick makes cleanup easy) is more practical for home cooks. Although pad thai cooks very quickly, the ingredient list is long, and everything must be prepared and within easy reach at the stovetop when you begin cooking. For maximum efficiency, use the time during which the noodles soak to prepare the other ingredients. Tofu is a good and common addition to pad thai. If you like, add 4 ounces of extra-firm tofu or pressed tofu (available in Asian markets) cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 1 cup) to the noodles along with the bean sprouts.

INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup water

1/3 cup lime juice, fresh
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional if cooking for kids)
4 tablespoons peanut oil or vegetable oil
8 ounces dried rice stick noodles , about 1/8 inch wide (the width of linguine)
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon table salt
12 ounces medium shrimp (31/35 count), peeled and deveined, if desired
3 cloves garlic , pressed through garlic press or minced (1 tablespoon)
6 tablespoons chopped unsalted roasted peanuts
3 cups bean sprouts (6 ounces)
5 medium scallions , sliced thin on sharp bias
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves (optional)
lime wedges

1. Cover rice sticks with hot tap water in large bowl; soak until softened, pliable, and limp but not fully tender, about 20 minutes. Drain noodles and set aside. Beat eggs and 1/8 teaspoon salt in small bowl; set aside.

2. Make sauce by combining lime juice, water, fish sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, cayenne, and 2 tablespoons oil set aside.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch skillet (preferably nonstick) over high heat until just beginning to smoke, about 2 minutes. Add shrimp and sprinkle with remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt; cook, tossing occasionally, until shrimp are opaque and browned about the edges, about 3 minutes. Transfer shrimp to plate and set aside.

4. Off heat, add remaining tablespoon oil to skillet and swirl to coat; add garlic, stirring until fragrant, about 30 seconds; add eggs to skillet and stir vigorously with wooden spoon until scrambled and barely moist, about 20 seconds. Add noodles, to eggs; toss with 2 wooden spoons to combine. Pour fish sauce mixture over noodles, increase heat to high, and cook, tossing constantly, until noodles are evenly coated. Scatter 1/4 cup peanuts, bean sprouts, all but 1/4 cup scallions, and cooked shrimp over noodles; continue to cook, tossing constantly, until noodles are tender, about 2 1/2 minutes (if not yet tender add 2 tablespoons water to skillet and continue to cook until tender).

5. Transfer noodles to serving platter, sprinkle with remaining scallions, 2 tablespoons peanuts, and cilantro; serve immediately, passing lime wedges separately.

Nephites vs. Lamanites

The kids are always hyper after church. Always.

All three of them are playing around and 'rough housing' when the following conversation occurs:

Hallie: "Hey guys, let's plays Lamanites!"

Nathan: "No Hallie, let's play Nephites. The Nephites are good."

Hallie: "I don't wanna be good. I wanna be bad!"

Two minutes later.....

Hallie: "Now let's play Nephites! Because I'm good to Jesus and I teach people!"

Chillin' with Chili

I love a good pot of chili in the winter. It’s a meal in a bowl—protein, fiber, and vegetables. And it’s a meal that everybody in the family likes—that in and of itself is a miracle. Oh, and it's healthy too. But I don’t make the authentic chili with dried ancho chilies and chuck roast because it just takes too darn long. Nope, I like the kind of chili that takes around 30 minutes to make. To me the perfect bowl of quick chili has to have three components—lots of veggies with a tomato base, beans, a good spicy (not necessarily hot) flavor. So after several attempts I think I finally created my perfect chili recipe. Let me know if you try it and like it. This makes a big pot! The pot is this picture is 7 quarts. It’s enough for my family of five to have dinner twice! I love leftovers for lunch during the week.

2-4 T. olive oil
2 chopped onions
1 T. cumin
1 T. chili powder
2 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
1 pound ground beef*
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 large can diced tomatoes (28 oz)
2 cans tomato sauce (8oz)
1 tomato sauce can of water
2 can kidney beans, drained
1 can black beans, drained
2-3 chopped red and/or yellow bell peppers
½ a bunch of chopped cilantro

Toppings: pepper jack cheese, sour cream, lime wedges
Good homemade cornbread. (I like Mark Bittman’s from How to Cook Everything)

In a large soup pot or dutch oven heat olive oil. Saute the onions and spices for 2-3 minutes. Spices need to cook in oil to ‘bloom’ them. Don’t skip this step! Add the ground beef, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. After the ground beef has browned for 4-5 minutes, add the garlic. Stir until combined. Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the onion and bell peppers are soft. Turn off heat and stir in cilantro.

Serve with toppings of your choice and lots of good cornbread.

*To make a chicken chili add 2 cups diced cooked chicken. I like to just shred a rotisserie chicken from Costco.

Surprise Babies

Ok, so my sister-in-law Ilene just blogged about her surprise pregnancy. I was particularly interested in the comments thus far to her blog about how many other ladies out there have had surprise pregnancies. I’ve never had a surprise pregnancy. Ok, so I’ve never had ANY pregnancy. I’ve never gone into details in this blog about our infertility, and I never will.

The closest we’ve ever come to having a surprise pregnancy is the surprises that come from finding out what all is entailed to adopt children in this glorious world. So my dear blogging friends, I’ll open up about something I rarely talk about. I don’t talk much about adoption because I just don’t think it’s a big deal, not because there is anything shameful or un-natural about it. Adoption has been the biggest blessing to our lives. If you ever say anything negative about it to me I’ll punch you in the face. Ok, I won’t punch you, but I’ll role my eyes and then give you a mouthful to your earful. Not that any of my friends would ever say such ignorant things.

But here, my dear readers are some SURPRISING facts that you may or may not know about adoption— (This is not going to be a blog about how awesome my kids are, that’s another blog, or actually all my other blogs.)

1. You have to be finger printed by a police officer. Yup, Paul and I got the full criminal treatment in the basement of the police station. The whole speech from the officer about, ‘Stand here on this line, keep one hand behind your back. We’ll move each finger across the paper, you just hold your hand limp.' I nearly cried as we did this. I felt like screaming, “Does every couple have to do this before they have sex and conceive?” They should, you know. Only fair.

2. You have to answer 52 essay questions in great detail. Well, if you go through LDS Family Services you do. Here are some actual questions: I still have them on my computer: Describe your parents including education, occupation, personality, interests, etc.; What are the strengths and challenges of your marriage ?; Describe your methods to teach and discipline children.; List possible hazards in your home and how you manage them for safety. For example, firearms, medication, etc. Oh, lets save these questions for date night Paul!

3. You get to write out checks left and right to various groups. One is to the state for your BCI (Bureau of Criminal Identification) check. What’s funny about these background checks is that after adopting three kiddies we now know that Paul’s will always be held up for further investigation. Yup, my hubby, the man with only a few traffic violations has an evil twin out there with a similar name who is a criminal so they always hold his BCI check to do further investigations. Again, I ask, do other couples have to do this before they have babies? What would the fertility rate in this country be if BCI checks were a must before conception was allowed? Yea, I know, sounds like Brave New World. Sort of.

4. You have a series of home visits. The first is to determine if your home is safe for a child. On the days we’ve had ours we put away our automatic weapons, our Samurai sword collection, and dump out the cigarette butts from all our ashtrays. After the baby is placed with us, the case worker comes 2-3 more times. So we put away all the contraband items again.

5. And my favorite surrpise of all, the on going questions from morons, such as; “Which ones are yours?” or “What is she?” or “Is her Dad dark?” See, this is where I know the camera from heaven is zooming in on me because all Christian thoughts have now left my brain. I feel like it’s a test from above or below, not sure which. Do I have compassion on this ignorant soul and nicely answer the question? Or do I go with my instinct and humiliate them? Either way, its being written in the book of life and I’ll have to answer for my behavior. Dang it.

Give me morning sickness and stretch marks any day.......

Pillow Talk

Yards of linen.....too many scraps to count.....inspired by Denyse Schmidt's book on quilts........the result? Lots of pillows!