Lots of Growing Going On

The other day I caught G reading the morning paper.

He may be more advanced than I thought...

We are working hard to get the garden boxes together so I have a place for all the little seedling plants that are taking over the kitchen.  G wanted in on the action.

Notice my domestic prowess extends to power tools as well.  I only had to ask Jared once why I couldn't get the drill to go into the wood (it was spinning the wrong way).

Did I tell you he is smart?  He's getting so good at helping, sometimes too good.

Now the big news.  Jared and G came to my work to visit on Monday night with our social worker.  Here we are checking out the ultrasound pic of our soon to be little girl!  Jared felt the need to document for posterity.  We are super excited that we have been picked so quickly and we are looking forward to meeting our new birthmother on friday.  We will keep everyone posted on developments as they come.

Semi Half-Baked

Jared and I have a love affair going on with the Food Network.  We watch it all the time and its the first place I go to online when I need a new recipe.  One of my favorite shows is Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee.  She makes good recipes easier by using some pre-made stuff from the store instead of making everything totally from scratch.  She makes a lot of really good stuff, but both Jared and I think its a little weird that she always includes a cocktail recipe in her show.  Maybe its because we don't drink alcohol at all, but she seems to drink a lot on set.  So our nickname for her is Semi Half-Baked.  Its a good thing that the cocktail segment is at the end of the show, because I'd really hate her to be a little tipsy while wielding a big knife :o)!

I'm going to share this recipe with you all that I took from a show of hers, because I made it on friday and it turned out really yummy.  Jared loves curry dishes- his favorite restaurant in town is the Thai place.  I wasn't sure how Garrison would feel about it, but once he tasted it he couldn't get enough.  So here it is:

Chicken Curry with Coconut Rice

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 1/2 pounds chicken breast, cut in 1-inch pieces
• Salt and pepper
• 8 ounces frozen cut green beans, thawed (recommended: C&W)
• 8 ounces frozen pepper strips, thawed (recommended: C&W)

For sauce:

• 1 1/2 cups light coconut milk
• 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth,
• 1 tablespoon red curry paste
• 1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice, plus wedges for garnishing
• Coconut Rice, recipe follows
• Cilantro sprigs for garnishing

Directions

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add cut up chicken, season and saute until cooked through stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add green beans and pepper strips and continue cooking for 3 minutes.

While chicken cooks, start the peanut curry sauce. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together all ingredients for the sauce. Pour sauce into a frying pan over the chicken and vegetables, stir to combine. Turn heat up to high and bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens slightly, about 6 to 8 minutes. Serve over Coconut Rice or plain steamed rice.

Coconut Rice:

3/4 cup light coconut milk (recommended: A Taste of Thai)

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1/2 lime, juiced

2 cups instant rice

1/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut, toasted

In a medium saucepan, combine coconut milk, chicken broth, lime juice, and instant rice. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from heat and cover for 7 to 9 minutes. Fluff rice with fork and stir in toasted coconut. Serve.

I did a couple of things differently, but it still turned out great.  Instead of frozen green beans, I used a can of french cut green beans.  Instead of red curry paste, I just used curry powder and I do wish that I would have pulled up the recipe earlier, because I didn't know I was supposed to put coconut milk in with the rice- I bet that would have been really yummy.  

For those of you that only read my blog to see pics of little G, here are some from yesterday.  His favorite treat is Daddy's smoothie that he gets daily from Emerald City Smoothies.  Jared has to hide it until dinner is done or else I get really mad because then G will not eat his dinner.  

Hot Izzy

Friday was an exciting day. I got my new Cuisinart mixer in the mail (I love you UPS man!). She's not pin up girl sexy like Kitty was, but Izzy is still sexy in the brunette with a harvard degree kind of sexy. If I had gotten a bosch I would have had to name her Helga or something equally beefy and German. Can't you just see Helga manhandling the dough? No, Helga would not look pretty on my counter. Izzy though, she's been a lot of fun. I've already made cookies twice and I baked bread yesterday. Se's a powerful, quiet little thing that has a timer on the side, so she knows when to stop mixing. She starts out nice and slow, then works up to speed, so there's no flour flying around. Can you tell I'm impressed? We even got G up there helping with the bread. The mixing guard not only keeps flour dust in, but it keeps little hands out, too.

Just one thing wrong, though. Jared thinks she's hot. Not THAT kind of hot. He thinks our ebay seller is running a scam. The seller has been inconsistent with her emails and the machine was actually mailed from Sears, not the seller. She also didn't want to use paypal, and has no selling record.  Jared called Sears today and tried to explain the situation. It took the service rep a while to understand what Jared was trying to tell her, but they are supposed to have a supervisor call him back. I hope we can get it straightened out.  I really would like to keep her.  I don't think I will be buying anything from untrusted ebay sellers ever again, though.

In other news, G is finally making progress with talking. It was starting to really stress me out that he didn't want to talk to us. But today he was saying da-da-da as we came down the stairs. I felt so bad that Jared had already left for work. I really should try to get up before he leaves. Then later in the morning, he pointed at one of the balls on the floor and said ball-ball-ball until I looked up and paid attention and then he went and got the ball and brought it to me.  Then as I was making cookies, I got him to say ook-hee.  Yay!  I have secretly been worried that he has had ear infections that I didn't pick up on or that something was wrong with his hearing. It never made sense though, because he follows directions just fine. I can tell him something very specific and he will do it. So, I guess we all just learn at our own pace. Either that, or I'm just not worth imitating :)! Maybe I haven't said enough cuss words in front of him- I'm sure he would pick up on that quick!

Suicidal

My Kitchenaid tried to commit suicide today.  I think she heard all my talk of Bosch mixers.  I used to adore Kitty.  She was like a gleaming white statue giving evidence to my skills as a homemaker.  I displayed her proudly on my countertop and my single friends would envy my obvious prowess in the baking arts.  I secretly think that when Jared saw Kitty he knew he had to have me- mad kitchen skills and all.  

She even helped us sell our first home!  Our shark of a real estate agent wanted everything off the counters.  Everything, except Kitty.  "Kitty is a work of art!" she said.  So, she sat on the counter surrounded by fake greenery and enticed would be buyers into a deal.  I know the young woman of the couple that bought our house envisioned herself baking fresh cookies for her new husband with my Kitchenaid.  That couple put an offer on our house the day it was put on the market.   

We tried to sell our house this past spring and our agent wanted me to put her away.  I know she grumbled as she went into the closet.  "Doesn't he know my value?" she thought.  "I am a work of art!"  Our house didn't sell.  Some may say it was a slow market, but Kitty and I know the truth.  A buyer can't envision herself in an empty kitchen.  

The first time I tried to make bread with her was when a little of her glitter shook off.  I was so excited to make bread with her because I had just found out that I could let her do all the kneading.  My mom had always done it by hand and had been an excellent baker.  So I called my stepmom to get her recipe.  Poor Kitty had an awful time with those five loaves.  She sputtered and coughed white smoke.  Try as she might, she just couldn't do it.  The dough seemed to have a life of its own and came up out of the bowl, engulfing the hook and trying to suffocate her.  I saved her just in the nick of time.  When I cleaned her off, she looked at me woefully,"I just don't think I was made for that.  I'm so sorry, I thought it would eat me.  I just couldn't do it."  

Come to find out that the Kitchenaid Classic was NOT made for such things.  Since that moment I have been lusting after a Bosch mixer.  They are not as sexy as Kitty is.  No one will ever mistake the Bosch for a piece of art.  But if I can make yummy fluffy whole wheat bread for our family, it will be worth it, right?  

Kitty never really made it out of the closet after we took our home off the market.  I use her for cookies and things like that, but I don't think she ever really recovered from the dough incident.  Today I thought maybe she could redeem herself.  I used a recommended recipe from works for me wednesday for one loaf of bread.  Things were going well.  Kitty worked really hard at kneading the dough "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."  She was a little wobbly at the higher speed, so I turned her down and things seemed to be okay.  I then left the kitchen to go get dressed and that's when it happened.  She jumped off the counter and tried to hang herself.  My heart sank when I heard the crash.  NOOOOOoooo!  Oh Kitty, did you really mean to do that?  Her power cord had been ripped right out of the back of her neck.  Such a waste.  I just hope Jared will be able to fix her.  

** Notice the bent plug and extricated cord**

Potting, Canning, and Not My Kind of Oral Hygiene

So last week started out with some fall repotting of plants.  G-man was kind enough to get me started.

I think we may need to work on the remorse a little.

The remainder of the week, I worked on fulfilling my role as a stay at home mom.  Because I've started being involved in our finances again and keeping track of the budget, it's become very clear to me that I need activities that will contribute to the saving of money, rather than the spending of it (canning, food storage, etc. instead of shopping).  You can see that it's going well.  Judy and I went to the dry pack cannery and canned our hearts out for two hours.  And that didn't even satisfy me because when we went up to Provo, we stopped at a roadside farmer's stand and bought five bushels of tomatoes and a bushel of pears.  So now Judy and I have 25 quarts of tomatoes each and I have another 10 quarts of pears.  Yummy!  Maybe next year I will plant a garden again.  The only problem with that is that our soil is so poor.  Last year we put 5 bags of manure down in the garden and we had great tomatoes- the first batch anyway.  After that first batch, there was almost no taste to them.  So, I think I may just go back to the farmer's market again for tomatoes.  It's so much easier to deal with canning for one day instead of continually through the hot summer.  

Today I recouped after a long weekend at work.  We had twenty some babies in the nicu last week, so I picked up Saturday night after working Thurs. and Fri.  I promise that I am not trying to neglect G-man, but this afternoon something happened that may indicate that I need to pay better attention.  He pulled himself up to the edge of the couch right in front of our little dog Necia and opened his mouth for her to kiss him.  She obligingly licked out the inside of his mouth.  EWWW!  I wish I'd gotten a picture.  THAT might keep the girls away from him.