Easter Dresses

I don’t sew. Sewing makes me want to swear. But I was inspired by my seamstress sister in law to sew my daughter’s Easter dresses. “It is easy. You can finish the dress in two hours,” she told me. (Mental note – never listen to Nicki when she tells you a sewing project is easy.) So I found some adorable fabric used the same “easy” pattern and began.

Now I may be crazy but I’m not stupid – I know that I don’t know a lot about sewing. So I started the project at my mom’s.

 

Ten hours, one really bad unpicking moment, and not the best language later, this is what we have!

St George Trip

Nothing spells fun like a trip with the cousins down to sunny St. Geroge - especially as you are driving out of town it starts to snow, and you know you are leaving it for a week! Last week we took a Grandma and Grandpa Girls gettaway and had a great time. My sister-in-law Allison brought her three girls, I brought my sister and Abbie and Savannah and we met for playing non-stop for six days.

It was hard to pick favorites from all of the activities we did. When we got down there I took the girls on the first of three swimming expectations. On the first trip they were both clinging to me the entire time -despite the fact they were both wearing life jackets. By the end of the third trip Abbie was swimming in some funky version of the Running Man across the benches and begging me to take her on the water slide "Again, again, again, again, again." (Honestly I bet she went on the slide at least fifteen times if not more. Savannah became so fearless that she started jumping in the one foot water from the edge and dunking her head under the water to blow bubbles.

One of the other favorite activities were the trips to Snow Canyon State Park. Each visit started with a hike - which is quite an adventure with five little girls - the oldest of which wants to climb up on all the rocks and the youngest hiker that wants to stop in the sand every thirty steps. After each hike we ended up at some sand dunes. One day was the red dunes, the next time the white dunes. On the first day we spent hours planting sand gardens digging pits to bury grandpa, and just flipping sand from one side to the other. On the second trip we had the start for a great day and began jumping down the sand hill - only to have a massive wind storm come up and break up the party early.

The last big activity was Grandma sewing pillowcases with each granddaughter - each with fabric that they had picked out. Abbie loved the princess crowns, and Savannah is still enthralled with Winnie-the-Pooh on her pillow each night.

All of this was amidst, sidewalk chalk, crafting, visiting the temple, pranks on grandpa, shopping, and staying up late to watch movies. Honestly this trip was as good as it gets.

Random Thoughts from an Email

(I've been out of town and am just catching up on life today but my good friend Heather sent this to me and I loved it so here you go! I will post vacation pics later.)

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
 
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
 
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
 
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
 
5. How are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
 
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
 
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
 
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the
person died.
 
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
 
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
 
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work  when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
 
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
 
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me
if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
 
14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this -ever.
 
15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?) but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail.
What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
 
16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
 
17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
 
18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
 
19. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
 
20* I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option
 
21* Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger
and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when   I first saw it.
 
22* I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.  
 
23* The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.
 
24* I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
 
25* How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?
26* I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front.  Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
 
 27* Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.   
  
 
29* There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
   
 30* Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
 
 31* Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet  everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time! 

B

So the new recipe for the week was a bust. Asparagus with Balsamic Reduction and Romano Cheese over Pasta. It sounds good. The recipe makes the reduction just like you do for the famed asparagus. But alas no go. The reduction was, well, reduced in potency when put all over the pasta. There wasn't enough asparagus to add to the flavor. The three dollar fresh basil could not even be tasted because of the mild balsamic flavor that was in everything and well it just seemed like a soggy, warm, pasta salad. I even added grilled chicken at the last minute to make it feel more like a main dish but unfortunately it was too last minute and they had no flavor at all.


I give it a B -. It was fine, but not good and not worth fixing again I ate the leftovers for lunch today (Russ "forgot" them.) and they were fine but I wouldn't reheat them if there were any more left.

Sigh.

Wait...What?

Do you remember this post about the popular doll in our family? Well she has been displaced in a bizarre social upheaval that no popularity poll could have predicted. This week we went to All a Dollar to spend the Valentines money from grandma. Each girl got to pick out one item. Savannah picked out the most deformed misshapen doll in the bin. Her face looked like it had been punched in and never fully recovered. Abbie picked out a bottle in which the juice disappears - magic! They were both pleased with their choices - for about a minute. The for some unknown reason the doll rose to a level of prestige and popularity unknown in our household. I only wish the real world looked on those with physical differences with such kindness. Savannah was immediately possessive and Abbie began spouting off everything she has ever heard me say regarding the importance of sharing.Savannah has fed, changed, sung to the doll (in an adorable version of I am a Child of God), and pointed out all her facial features -- as if the poor doll needed reminding.

    The doll had her clothing ripped and stuffing showing by the end of the day. Not because of fighting but because a dollar doll can only take so much loving.

Peace, Love, and Carrots

How well do you do at getting your recommended 5-9 servings per day of fruits and veggies?


No so good?  Me neither. I have started (and stopped and started again multiple times)  a quest to increase the amount of veggies that we consume in my house. Considering I can not get my children to enjoy anything except boxed mac and cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and a small number of other processed nightmares that keep Michael Pollen up at night - this is no small task. But I'm the mom and so it is my responsibility to nag, beg and plead with my family to eat what is good for them.

I have been trying to add at least one and sometimes two veggie side dishes to dinners at night. Most often it is a thrown together salad and lately we have added asparagus to that effort. The kids don't really eat them, but Abbie will at least take the obligatory number of bites to get her down from the table and possibly a cookie if any are lurking around. At least Russ and I are increasing our veggie intake.

Last night it was Glazed Carrots with Orange and Cranberry. While not as easy as the asparagus it was not difficult and inspired Russ and I to eat six full sized carrots between the two of us. When is the last time you ate three full sized carrots in one meal, loved it and contemplated how to make more? Me neither! This was a first. The girls.....you can guess, and I'm sure you will be right.

Glazed Carrots

1 pound full sized carrots (About six.)
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar - divided
1/4 cup dried cranberrys or cherrys
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp orange zest
4 TBSP butter (I know this is a lot of butter but...a spoonful of butter helps the carrots go down!)

Peel carrots. Slice them about 1/4 inch thick on the bias (Diagonal).  Put in carrots, salt, 1 TBSP sugar, cranberrys, chicken broth, orange juice, and orange zest in a 12 inch skillet and bring to a boil. (I just used my wok. I think a frying pan would work well too as long as you have a lid.) Cover. Turn the heat down and let simmer for five minutes, until almost tender. Remove lid and turn up the heat to high for another minute or two until the liquid reduces down to 2 TBSP. Lower heat to medium and add butter and second TBSP of sugar.. Cook for another 1-2 minutes. Serve immediately. Or put on serving dish and cover with tin foil and put in a warmed oven until the rest of dinner is ready and your family is sitting at the table (this can take some time.)

I think photos of food are difficult and more often than not make the food look less appetizing than is intended. I sadly think this is the case here, but I am wanting to show some of the food from the recipes. I just promise it tastes and looks better than it looks in the photo.

Socialization

In my class this week we talked about how our opinions are formed through the process of socialization. The influences we most often spent time with embed themselves into our psyche. That would explain why Savannah loves hide and seek -- Abbie's favorite game. Savannah runs to the corner where we count and proceeds to yell out words that sound similar to numbers, in no particular order, until she has decided that is enough. Hopefully it has been enough for us to find a hiding spot conspicuous enough for her to find us. It also explains her love of drawing on just about every papered surface (and a few non-papered surfaces) that she can get her hands on. Abbie loves all things artistic and Savannah follows her every move.


This doesn't however explain Abbie's fascination with getting married. I don't talk about getting married. Not with my three year old! I don't parade around in beautiful dresses or talk about dancing the night away. But some how she is very focused. She loves to watch our wedding video, although lately that has been out of circulation as Up has taken dominance. But most interesting was her conversation with her friend Spencer.

Spencer came over to play and immediately Abbie runs to me to help her put on her princess dress.


Spencer: Oh, brother, I know what this means.

Abbie: Spencer I want to get married.

Spencer: I'm working on the computer at Verizon dot com.

Abbie: I want to get married.

Spencer: Ignores her.

Abbie: Mom I want Spencer to marry me.

This goes on for about twenty minutes.

Abbie: PU -LEASE can we get married.

Spencer: FINE. Then can we go to the dinosaur museum.

Abbie: Yes!!


Nature or Nurture my friends? I come down that nature is pretty darn strong.

Smothered

Now anything with smothered in the title is telling you ahead of time that it is full of soft gravey goodness. This is no exception. When you cook bacon with the sole purpose of using the juices to flavor the gravy you know you are talking about good gravey. Last night I made Smothered Pork Chops. Not only was it a new recipe but the truth is...I've never made pork chops. It is true. I have nothing against them. I have vauge memories of my mom making them with no real attachment postivie or negative towards them. I just buy frozen chicken by the bulk so that is what we most often eat.

    Imagine starting with the smell of bacon in your kitchen (anything that starts with the smell of bacon means good things heading your way). Take the bacon out, save the drippings and add flour like you are making a roux. This is the first new thing I learned. Wisk the flour in on medium heat until the roux starts to look like peanut butter. You then loose the raw flour taste and add a nutty flavor. (Cool huh?)Then add chick broth.

   On to the pork. Sear both sides on high heat. Then brown your onions (long strips of softened onion...sigh.) in the pork drippings. Add the pork and the chicken/bacon broth, and simmer/braise for 30 minutes covered on low heat. The pork will be done after 15 minutes but it will be soft, tender, juicey, and chock full of flavor after 30. MMMMmmmmmm.. Take the pork out turn the heat up to high to thicken the gravy then pour it on top of the chops on your serving platter. Oh and dare I say it....put the sprinkled bits of bacon from the beginning of the recipe on top. MMMMMmmmm Oh wait I said that already, but I couldn't help myself. Even thinking about it makes me hungry all over again.

We served with sweet potatoes braised in cream (Yes! Cream. But only two tablespoons so it isn't that bad, right?) and asparagus. Yes, those asparagus. It was a fabulous meal. Russ ate two pork chops. Abbie liked the pork chops. We have success!


PS - This meal probably requires doing sit-ups or running a marathon afterwards. I'm not claiming to have done those things but I was thinking that they were a good idea. :)

Concern over Lemuel's eternal salvation

We read the scriptures with the girls at night. We use the children's version with the pictures which almost keeps the attention of a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Abbie has become obsesed with the bad guys, killing, and dying. In every panel she wants to know who is bad and who isn't. (Never mind that if she just listens she would catch on, but what do I know?) Whenever some one dies she wants to know who killed them and when they will be resurrected? She knows that the Lamanites are generally the bad guys and follows very closely when Laman and Lemuel vacillate between being nice and acting out in violent fits of murderous rage. 

Abbie is a very sensitive girl. And while sometimes I just plead for her to toughen up because life is hard and you can't allow ev -ery -thing to become a drama, I am grateful for her concern for others. I believe that the reason that she becomes so obsessed with all of the violence is because she genuinely cares for the people being harmed in the story. She wants to make sure that they will get resurrected.

For awhile I skirted over this issue. No one died they were just hurt. I wanted so much for my little girl's world to be sunshine, butterflies, rainbows and unicorns and cars, she loves cars. I am grateful she lives with me in the real world but the scriptures tend to deal with some gristly sides of that real world. Thankfully though I have realized I need to talk about hard things with my kids (even though they are young). I know there are plenty more difficult conversations to come and I want my girls to come to me for them. I don't think they will do that if they can tell it makes me uncomfortable. So as we explain Abinadi was killed or King Benjamin died (and that they will be resurrected) I hope I am making a home where my daughter can come to me with her concerns throughout her life.

Aloha Pork

There are a lot of good reasons to love a crock-pot meal. They are easy. You just throw everything into a pot, wait and you are done. They make your house smell divine. All. day. long. This is especially helpful on the last day of a bronchiolitis confinement. I speak from experience here. Finally, I think it is impossible to have a bad meal from a crockpot. Slow cooked tender meat with the flavors that have been combining for hours, I mean really.

I got this recipe from my neighbor Jenny, who I believe got it from her grandmother. Unfortunately when I went shopping for the items I was stationed at my mom's house trying to recover from three nights of three hours a piece sleep, and I didn't have the recipe with me. So I bought pork roast instead of pork chops. I had double the meat I needed, so I just doubled the other ingredients. I don't know how it would turn out with pork chops but I'm sure that would be good too. My family - including Abbie - declared this a delicious meal - which is huge considering Abbie doesn't like most things I make. Finally, it was also nice to eat the other white meat - because we eat chicken a lot around these parts.

Aloha Pork - Jenny Steed

4 pork chops (boneless)

2 t. oil

1-8 oz. can crushed pineapple

1/2 c. chopped green pepper

1/2 c. water

1/3 c. brown sugar

2 T. quick Tapioca

2 T. ketchup

2 t. soy sauce

1/2 t. dry mustard

Brown chops in oil.  Combine remaining ingredients.  Place chops in crock-pot adding other ingredients on top.  Cook for 6-8 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high.

Finally Russ sent me this link and I laughed so hard. I love to cook, and I love Brian Regan so this was perfect. Truly this man understands my life.

Bronciolistis

Thursday afternoon my girls got coughs.

Friday morning Savannah's breathing rate was twice what it should be and she was wheezing.

Three visits to the doctor's, three visits to the Respiratory Outpatient Clinic (Known as the Suction Shack, but I always want to say Snot Shack) to get suctioned out, and one visit to the ER later, I think we are through the worst.

Of course two nights in a row of going up to the hospital (one at 11:00pm one at 3:00am) to watch them stick a tube down the nose of my daughter while she gags away in hopes of improving her ability to breathe is bad. Especially when during the second of those nighttime visits the respiratory therapist thinks that she is going to have to be admitted. So you pay the exorbitant ER fees only to sit in a room for three hours and have all the scary symptoms disappear by the time the doctors see you. And then they think you are an idiot.

Nirvana

I am convinced that the reason Hindu's believe in reincarnation is so they can keep eating food like this. This is some of the best food I have ever eaten, much less made. Russ was raving. "The girls....ate the rice.Okay but my kids are picky eaters their vote doesn't count at a time like this. If you don't like Indian food you really need to rethink it. This recipe doesn't have curry and maybe you just don't like curry. Please try it, you will thank me.  Your spouse/boyfriend/roommate/office buddy/neighbor will thank me. I got this recipe from my brother's girlfriend. I will bless her name forever for sharing it with me.


If you decide to make this and live anywhere close to me, call me. I went to the ethnic food store for the spices and got tons and am happy to share. The Masala itself is good for a weeknight meal, just remember most of the preparation is the night before. It would take about 30-40 minutes the night of - but most of that is simmer time. I know it looks like a lot of ingredients but most of them are spices. It really is easier than it looks.  I added naan bread, and rice pilaf which honestly was pushing it time wise. All together it took about an hour and a half and I was tired by the end. If you want to go all out, I would recommend a weekend or a special dinner otherwise I would just cook up some rice to serve with it.

Warning: I am not responsible for what happens as a result of eating this dish. Blissful shouts of joy, wild dancing on the table, and serious over-eating are all common side effects. Let me know if you end up making it. I feel like I just read the best book in the world and need to talk to someone about it -- it is that good.

Tikki Masala                                          Melissa Falleroni

For the chicken you will need:

• 1 cup of yogurt
• 1/2 TB of ground cumin
• 1/2 TB of ground coriander
• 1/2 TB of chili powder
• 1/2 TB of kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cloves of garlic diced
• 1 TB of diced ginger (I just used one tsp of ground ginger.)
• Pinch of cayenne pepper ( I didn't add this because I don't like things that are very spicy.)
• 4 chicken thighs with the skin removed and cut into 1 inch dice. ( I used chicken breasts because that is what I had in the house and it was fine, although the thought of dark meat in this meal is very appealing. Hmmmmm.)
  

Steps for the chicken:

• Combine everything together but the chicken.
• Taste and if you are happy add in the chicken.
• Put in the fridge and let it relax overnight.

For the sauce you will need:

• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 onion thinly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic diced
• 1 TB of tomato paste
• 1/2 TB chili powder
• 1/2 TB garam masala
• 1 28 ounce can of tomatoes
• 1 cup of cream

What to do with the chicken after it has been marinated:

• Turn broiler to low
• Put chicken on broiler pan
• Throw broiler pan under broiler and broil until cooked through. (About 5-10 minutes.)
  

Steps for finishing up the dish including what to do with the sauce ingredients:

• In a large skillet (I used a  wok) over medium melt the 2 TB of butter and add in the onions.  Let this cook until the onions are softened and then add in the garlic, tomato paste, chili powder, and garam masala until fragrant (about 30 seconds).
• Add in the can of tomatoes and simmer for 20 or so minutes or until the mixture is thickened.
• Add in the cup of cream along with the broiled chicken and cook until heated through.
• Taste and adjust (add in some more cayenne if you want a little spicier or maybe some more salt and pepper if needed).

Serve and enjoy!