Shrimp & Zucchini Tostadas

I tried this thanks to my fabulous friend, M. This is so insanely good.

She found the recipe here: Shrimp & Zucchini Tostadas

And I followed it - except (haha) she had told me to do this thing to the olive oil that is a recipe she got from another friend.

Flavored Olive Oil 
(this is way more than you need but I promise you'll be glad there is extra to use on more things!)

1 cup olive oil

Add:
3 green onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, slightly crushed
1 jalapeno, chopped (seeded optional)
3 tbsp lime juice, fresh
salt & pepper

Just do that earlier in the day. I think mine sat for six hours.

Then everywhere it says to use olive oil in the above link - use that. And then when you put it together drizzle it all over it too. DELICIOUS.

I almost stopped and just sat and ate the zucchini after it was first done. lol. Just zucchini in the saw. MAN. So good.

Easy to make. It comes together really fast.

Genius!

Adoption #2

So I announced before we sent all our paper work in to the Denver agency...

Well, first let me add a little refresher....

We call LDSFS to find out which office we are assigned to from this area because there isn't a WYOMING office. The say it's the Centerville Utah office. Okay. Thanks.

We send our info there. We meet with a worker in Rock Springs (120 miles away from us). We don't hear anything for a long time but we were in the middle of a lot and not really paying attention. When we realize we call. Our worker has moved to North Carolina. We have a new one. Okay. Thanks.

I talk to the new worker and he thinks it's dumb that we are at his office because the Colorado office has someone who drives through our town once a month. He has our file transferred. Okay. Thanks.

We meet with this new worker. We really like him! He gives us all the paperwork. We fill it out but don't send it back because Drew is getting cut off work so much.

But now we send it in, with the homestudy money a couple weeks ago.

And two days ago I get an email from.... wait for it....

The Utah office.

Seriously??

So I write her back and ask if she's sure. She says yes. That our new worker is D, she also lives in Wyoming, and that we have to wait for her to call us.

Sigh.

We've done the initial "intake interview" twice. If we have to do it a third time I might actually have a fit. Okay?

Just Because

March 29, 2006

Spanakopita Lasagna

My newest thing to try: Spanakopita Lasagna
I'll put here what I did I guess. Changes mostly do to what I had in the house and what I forgot to have Drew buy. haha. (phyllo dough)

1 lb dried lasagna noodles, cooked for 10 minutes - add salt and olive oil to the water when boiling, lay them out or hang them over something, set aside. (you don't want to cook them all the way or they'll be mushy when they come out of the oven)

Béchamel Sauce:

• 5 Tbsp Butter
• 5 Tbsp Flour
• 5 cups milk
• 3/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp+ salt (I didn't measure)
• 1/4 tsp+ black pepper

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the milk while continuing to whisk, until the sauce is smooth. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Stir in the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Set aside.
*This is more sauce than the original recipe because I needed enough to coat the top since I wasn't doing the phyllo dough on top. This left me with about 4.5 cups once it thickened up. Perfect amount.

Spinach Filling:

• 1 - 10 oz box of fresh frozen chopped spinach, thaw, squeeze out as much water as you can in a colander
• 4 TBSP butter
• 3 cloves garlic (I used 3 HUGE cloves), minced
• 6 green onions/scallions
• 1/3 cup finely chopped parsley
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 lb feta
• 1 egg, beaten

In pan, melt butter. Add olive oil. When heated add garlic. Saute until tender. (be careful not to burn the garlic. Burnt garlic is nasty! lol) Add green onions. Saute until soft. Add spinach, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Set aside and let it cool.

In another bowl mix: egg and feta.

When the spinach mixture is cool enough to not cook the egg combine it with the feta/egg mixture.

Have about 1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan ready.

Assembly time!

1. 1/2 cup sauce
2. layer of noodles
3. 1 cup of sauce
4. 1/3 of the spinach mixture
5. about 1/4 cup of parmesan
6. layer of noodles
7. 1 cup of sauce
8. 1/3 spinach mixture
9. about 1/4 cup of parmesan
10. layer of noodles
11. 1 cup of sauce
12. rest of spinach mixture
13. about 1/4 cup of parmesan
14. layer of noodles
15. rest of the sauce (should be about a cup left)
16. rest of parmesan
17. I also sprinkled some bread crumbs on it.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let it set for maybe 10 minutes (I know that's so hard to do!)

OH! And here's what I forgot to add at the spinach mixture point: haha. oops. I found it after I the lasagna was done so I sprinkled it on top. Whatever. Parsley is a good garnish too right??

Edited to Add - since I didn't put the phyllo on top I've been calling this Greek Lasagna. It's not really spanakopita without the phyllo. lol

Random Phone Pictures

So I'm going through the pictures on my phone moving them to the SD card. Most of them are of Leah, of course.

And there's these two pictures. I vaguely remember seeing these recipes on boxes but I didn't want to buy whatever they were on so I snapped a picture with my phone.

I'd say this was genius if it wasn't for the fact that both pictures were taken over 8 months ago and I completely forgot about them!

Should I try them soon or wait another 8 months??

Cut again

Drew's turn got cut back off today.

Sigh.

Heaven help me. I'm going to lose my mind.

The Railroad

Spring

I've just had the most splendid day with my wonderful little girl. It's was mid 60s and just blissful. Something about spring makes you feel a little more alive, doesn't it?

Anyway, at about 10 we went to the store, did the work I needed to, went to another store to shop, then we went and got her cousin Elaina, we went to get some lunch, ate it at he park, played, went & shopped at a couple stores, washed the van, took the girls back to our house and they played, fed them dinner, went back to Elaina's and played some more. I cleaned while they played and visited with SIL while they played at her house. By that point it was 5:30 or so.

No big deal really but just a fun and pleasant day!

While we were washing the van each time the automatic thing would pass them to squirt water they would both scream at the top of their lungs. It was hysterical. I got these pictures with my phone...

After we got home I decided to make a cake...

Renee (oohh you're famous AGAIN!) told me to try Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix.

So I bought one when I was shopping this last time. Today I decided to make it. The only thing I did different than the instructions was to add a cup of sour cream (and do the high altitude instructions) - does that make you roll your eyes? That I can't help but add SOMETHING?? lol

I did it in 2 round cake pans. The center layer of frosting I used cream cheese frosting and on the outside I did the matching dark chocolate fudge frosting.

I'll just say - Renee is SMART.

THAT is some dang good cake.

Swedish Pancakes

Per Person:

1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup flour

A couple of weeks ago for a church activity we had "International Food Night" and the girls (and the adults) were each supposed to bring some kind of ethnic dish. I brought sushi, there was another chow mien dish, one of the other adults (Kristin in my blog roll) brought dessert sushi because I was bringing sushi - that was fun (rice krispies, dried fruit, and fruit leather).

Anyway, the other leader did Swedish pancakes and since then when Leah asks for pancakes I've been making them because at least she gets an egg in her too! Pancakes are just the most ridiculous breakfast food. lol

The above amount makes one big pancake - and I mean BIG. I do it in a 12 inch skillet.

This morning I remembered I had in my kitchen stuff this crepe making thing that was my step-sister's. She got it as a wedding present, never used it, and gave it to me because she thought I was more likely to play with it. She had no instructions with it or anything. So I just had to guess.

I used the Swedish pancake batter. And this was the journey:

The batter is very thin (crepe like obviously!)

The crepe makers and a similarly sized bowl. This is the part where I just had to guess how this was done because I have no instructions and I've never seen one of these before!

Sprinkle with liberally with sugar (butter it too if you're feeling like it. It's yummy!)

Roll it up:

I made strawberry sauce from frozen strawberries, a little sugar, and some strawberry jam (well, spreadable fruit so it was just fruit and pectin - no extra sugar) then pureed it. But seriously it's good without it - just sugar and butter. Several times I've done cinnamon, sugar, and butter. Delicious!

Slice up and eat!

So. The crepe maker. That's a pain in the neck. I will probably go back to just doing the big ones in my 12 inch skillet. It was NOT less work. It was messy. Seriously - it's just not that hard to flip a crepe. Or a Swedish pancake!

Maybe if I used true crepe batter? I don't know. I'll try it again someday.

Oh! And this would only have been better if I'd had some whipped cream. I did have some heavy whipping cream but I didn't want to use it before I was saving it for alfredo (which we had for dinner tonight with fresh spinach linguine. Yummy!)

So there you have it. My crepe maker experiment. Some kitchen tools are pointless!

Back to work!

I forgot to update that Drew is back on the boards! Hooray!

He's on his 2nd trip back right now.

I have to find my normal again. I'm so used to having him home!

The Railroad

Funny Face

Tonight right before bed I asked Leah if I could take a picture of her and this is the face she graced me with...

Phone Picture

Testing the email function. This is Leah on the airplane home from Florida.

Testing

Apparently, I can now blog from my phone. I am testing it out. :)

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip-Oatmeal Cookies

I was having a craving for peanut butter cookies the other day and in searching for a new recipe to try I came across these. I had just said to my friend Renee that I also kind of wanted oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips (she thought it should be raisins) and all the sudden I was staring at this recipe!

Fabulous. Just Fabulous. Satisfying all my cookie cravings at once.

I doubled the recipe and have a bunch of dough in the freezer. Well, I doubled everything but the chocolate chips. (Sorry my sister Leah).

So I halved the chocolate chips, I omitted the peanuts (because I didn't have any) and used chunky peanut butter instead. (1 cup instead of 3/4 cup). The changes are made in the recipe pasted below.

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip-Oatmeal Cookies

Makes about 30 cookies
Ingredients

* 1 cup (1/2 lb.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
* 1 cup chunky peanut butter
* 2 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup chocolate chips (6 oz.)
* 1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats

Preparation

1. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and peanut butter until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

2. In another bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir or beat into butter mixture until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips and oats.

3. Drop dough in rounded 2-tablespoon portions, 3 inches apart, onto buttered or cooking parchment-lined 12- by 15-inch baking sheets. With a lightly floured fork, flatten slightly into 2 1/2-inch rounds about 1/2 inch thick.

4. Bake in a 350° oven until cookies are golden and tops feel set when lightly pressed, 12 to 14 minutes (they will feel underdone but will firm up as they cool); if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking.

5. Let stand 5 minutes on sheets, then, with a wide spatula, transfer cookies to racks to cool. If hot cookies start to break, slide a thin spatula under them to release; let stand on pan to firm up, 2 to 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

1st Adoption vs 2nd Adoption

A funny difference....

The first time I had to draw a floor plan of our apartment I went on the internet and found the website that had floor plans and printed them. When we moved we had to update so I drew a floor plan on graph paper TO SCALE. I'm not kidding. It was a townhouse and it was perfectly drawn.

This time? I've just kind of sketched our home on a piece of paper. It looks roughly like our house.

It'll do.

:)

PS I mailed 90% of our paperwork in today. Or rather I gave it to Drew and said "Will you go mail this?" But it got done! Just a few things left to do. Hooray!

Happy Easter!

Pre-Easter Celebrations...

Waking up to an Easter Basket...

Easter Dress...

Pay It Forward

Here are the rules: The exchange focuses on doing an act of kindness without expecting anything in return other than that the recipient will, in their turn, pass the kindness along and pay it forward in their own way. This is how it works… I am going to do some act of service, or something fun, inspiring or uplifting for the first 3 blog owners who post a comment on this entry (please leave your email address if I don’t already have it). In turn you will then post about this on your blog, link to me, then send something to the first three people who sign up to play along through your blog. If those who respond to you are local, you can do something in person for them, or you can send something you made, bought, were given or found. No biggie--just do something that will make the person smile. And remember that kindness doesn’t have to involve money; there are untold ways to help others every single day, everywhere you go - just look around!

*******************

I signed up for this on my sister's blog - She sent me this book for Leah & I to do a Book of Mormon "Daily Reflection" and we both love it!

I'm all kinds of excited about this. So comment quick! lol

I am Powerful.

Parental Pride Moment

Today during dance class Mrs Babbette (yes that's really her name) comes over to Drew and says "You won't believe what your daughter did." And he's thinking "Oh man. What?" (which is funny since she's never been in trouble in class!)

And this is the story she tells him:

J's (another girl in her class) grandmother had come in the beginning of the class and brought J's sister but not J and said she was being horrible today and couldn't come. So they continue on with class but part way into it J comes in. She was being crabby to everyone and sort of participating but not really.

They get to the "shake em game" which they do with pompoms. The kids were all excited because Babbette had bought new pompoms but as it turns out she'd bought five sets and there were six girls there today. Well, it just so happens it was J who was the only one who did not get a new set of pompoms. She was sitting off to the side and crying holding her "old" pompoms and wouldn't come do the game. Babbette couldn't calm her down.

So my sweet child - without saying a word - walks over to J and takes her old pompoms out of her hands and gives her the set of new ones she had.

J is happy and they play the game.

Babbette told Drew she has never had a child that young who worked so well with other kids (which may or may not be true but it's sure nice to hear lol). She said she's good at sharing, taking turns, follows directions, she says please, thank you, etc.

I'm feeling proud of who she is. That's a lot of emotional maturity for a 3 year old.

That's my brag post. I'm done now. lol