Adoption Progress Update

We heard from WACAP today that they are sending our dossier over to China. I am so excited! It takes 3-5 days to get to China they will review and assign us our lock in date which is the date we will officially go by to wait our 30-36 months. I'll of course keep everyone posted as to when that date is. Yay for progress!

Pickled Organic Carrots

I've been antsy to make pickled carrots the past few weeks. I finally found the time in my schedule to crank these out late last night. In Blue Ribbon Preserves, by Linda J. Ahmendt, there are great recipes for the home canner. I typically refer to this encyclopedia of home canning for all my canning interests and pursuits in addition to the family recipes that have been handed down to me through the generations.


Prepping organic carrots in a soak of pickling salt and ice cubes. This draws out the moisture, so you yield a crispier end product.


Organic dill, garlic and spices. These get placed in each prepared jar with the brine which consists of water, white wine vinegar, a small amount of sugar, salt and powdered alum. The alum also helps ensure a crunchy texture.


The finished product. A few half pints of organic pickled carrot slices for our household, and a few to share with others.

Saved

I found this on the conference room door in my office earlier this week and am just getting around to posting it. Do you think this means my missionary efforts are paying off at the office? I guess since the offer has now expired I need to keep at it.

Apparently We're It!

We got tagged by Lucy to go to our photos, open the 6th folder and select the 6th image. Well this is it. Dan and I were up at the Whidbey Island Airforce Base with Sylvia and Gary doing a dutch oven demonstration. While we were there I saw this sculpture made of soda cans, I thought it was kind of funny someone actually spent their time on it, so I took a picture. Now you can all laugh at how funny it is that I took the time to photograph it. I'm curious, what would you find in your 6th folder? Thanks Lucy for the tag, it was fun going through some old photos!

The Stork Is Visiting Again!

Congratulations to my youngest sister Gretel, and her husband Jeret. They are expecting their third baby in the short term. Wishing them a healthy remaining pregnancy, and a healthy and happy baby. With Gretchen and Mike's arrival in the next few weeks, and this latest arrival with Gretel and Jeret, we are up to 15 nieces and nephews on my side of the family.

Wedding Brunch

This past Saturday we went to our friends, John and Carolyn's brunch themed wedding reception. The reception was very nice and the spread was simple, yet elegant. Lots of breakfast casseroles were served, alongside fresh fruit, baked hams and lots of sweet rolls. Sylvia simply makes the best breads and rolls in the world. I have a creole inspired breakfast casserole that I make from time to time. I volunteered to make this for the reception. I always feel a sense of accomplishment, when the food I make gets inhaled by other people. I love cooking, and I love enjoying good food with other people. Many asked for the recipe, so I have decided to post it here.

Dan's Creole Breakfast Strata

1/2 pound spicy sausage, chorizo, hot Italian, etc
1 large diced sweet onion
1 large diced red bell pepper
1 large diced yellow bell pepper
1/3 cup sliced green onions
1/2 cup dry white wine
8 cups, 1-inch cubes day old French bread
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 large eggs, beaten
1/2 pound Pepper Jack cheese, grated
1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, grated
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese


Preheat oven to 325° F. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook until golden brown and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Add the onions and bell peppers, and sauté until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the green onions and stir well. Add the white wine and reduce slightly, stirring, about 1 minute over high heat. Remove from the heat.

Place the bread in a large mixing bowl. Bread should be stale. If bread is not stale, bake off for five to ten minutes in a 325° F oven. Add the milk, cream and stir well. Let sit for 5 minutes. This step is necessary to prevent the strata from being soggy.

Spread the butter into a 9X13-inch casserole dish, and coat the sides and bottom evenly.

Mix the sausage and bread mixtures. Add the eggs, grated Pepper Jack and Monterrey Jack cheeses, salt, pepper, and cayenne, and quickly fold together. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the casserole from the oven and increase the temperature to 375° F. Spread the sour cream evenly over the top and cover with Parmesan. Bake, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes or until the casserole is lightly browned on top. Serve hot.

Girl Scout Cookies

Me Likes Cookies...! Thanks to our friend An Ordinary Mom and her daughter for ensuring we have our desired allotment of Girl Scout Cookies. There are so many things you can do with Thin Mints and Samoa's. We now need to learn to ration these and not overindulge and make them last. That's the ticket!

Weekend Getaway

This past weekend was our annual President's Day getaway. We went with a group of our good friends down to Pacific Beach and rented a house where we were able to relax, read, watch movies and walk along the beach. The house we rented was very nice, but in kind of an odd area. The "town" of pacific beach (if you can call it that) is a sad little place that makes Ocean Shores look like the big city. With that background know that where we stayed, in the man made village of Seabrook, consisted of $800,000 homes for sale mixed with rental properties. It was a pretty drastic difference between economic classes to say the least. Here is an example of what you see in Seabrook:





And here is what you see in the town of Pacific Beach:



I like this photo best of us with the beautiful painting above my shoulder.



We were able to go the annual Chocolate Festival which was more church bake sale than festival, but still fun.







The best part of course was hanging out and walking along the beach. We had a lot of fun stomping on shells. We felt it was our duty to help others from the temptation of making little seashell people, dogs, bird houses, etc.







Did I mention it was cold?






Of course we missed our Mathletes, but they had bigger and better things going on in their lives. (photo stolen from their blog)



We had a really great time and can't wait until next year to do it all over again!

Orange Chipotle Spiced Pecans

A colleague of mine at work prepared these pecans and brought them in to snack on today. After about five of these I became hopelessly addicted. I sprinkled them on my salad today and they made a great accompaniment. I asked for the recipe and she sent me the link. It's a Cooking Light recipe from last years holiday issue. These would be fun placed into custom packaging to give as gifts.

1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 large egg white
2 cups pecan halves
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper
Cooking spray
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 225°.

2. Combine first 3 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk. Stir in pecans. Combine sugar, salt, and pepper. Add to pecan mixture; toss well. Spread mixture in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 225° for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven; cool completely. Stir in cranberries.

Note: Store in an airtight container for up to one week.

CALORIES 91 (76% from fat); FAT 7.7g (sat 0.7g,mono 4.6g,poly 2.4g); IRON 0.3mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 4.8g; SODIUM 98mg; PROTEIN 1.2g; FIBER 0.8g

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2008.

Mini Safari Unfolding

Furthering the surprise of the holiday, Tamiko presented me with a Giraffe for Valentines Day. Unplanned from Mary's contribution. It looks like I have a mini holiday safari starting to unfold here in my office. Stephanie gave me a "demanding monster card" since I'm sort of demanding. It reads,"Hi Valentine...Be Mine...Damnit! The last word penned on the actual Valentine card to customize it.

Valentines Day Bullying Tactics

I pressured a colleague here at work all week to be sure to bring me in a Valentine today. I told Mary that it had to look nice, cause as a professional marketer, I'd judge it profusely and talk about it to everyone behind her back! She had her work cut out for her. Much to my surprise, when I came in today, I had not only a Valentine, but a hand delivered one. It's complete with lots of curly ribbons and glitter everywhere! In the center, is a photo of a Zebra, I'm sure we both saw on our respective safaris in Africa. I told Mary that this fit the approval, and this could now be mass marketed! Hence our Valentines Day office romance is a love...a love for Africa!

Portage Bay Café

There is a great eatery right by my office. I finally ventured up to try it with a few colleagues from work yesterday. This eatery has a great organic menu. Everything was simple, but very flavorful. I had an amazing ruben sandwich with salad and veggies, and cup of extremely flavorful french onion soup with gruyere crisps. Even the sauerkraut was house made. I was telling Holly that everything here looked good. We'll definitely be visiting this place going forward.

I Am A Spoken Word Artist!

We were watching television Sunday evening and came across a new term, which had us both laughing hysterically on the couch. She was a performing artist that had a secondary title of “Spoken Word Artist.” She convulsed around the stage and shrieked all sorts of nonsense that no one could really understand. She vacillated between super loud spouts, followed by quiet random mumblings! What the hell? She get’s paid for this? I AM A SPOKEN WORD ARTIST as of today! Going forward, when anyone has a conversation with me and wants my dramatic response, expect to be billed for the time [rendered services] I spent talking with you. Any questions? Good! I didn't think so.

Record Breakers

We're cleared! We have been officially been cleared by the US government and are deemed worthy of adopting from China. Our case worker at WACAP told us that we broke the speed record in getting our I-800A approved. We only have a few more documents that have yet to be returned from the Chinese consulate, after that the whole packet can finally be sent over to China. Once they receive it, they will give us a "stamp date" which is the official date we will go by for our 30-36 month wait. I know this is a blessing from the Lord and am so thankful for His hand in our lives. Let the waiting begin!

Gym Going Serial Killer

Holly and I have clearly decided that a “serial killer in the making” works out at the LA Fitness that we go to. I’ve taken up to calling him “Disgusting Sweaty Biker.” Additionally, this fine fellow human wears this torn, nappy, faded gray tank top with all the arm holes torn clear down to the waist, and the neck hole is also torn clear down to the navel to show off his sweaty man boobs! Why wear that? Go shirtless, or wear a real shirt! He’s basically naked from the waist up, and has what looks like a NAPPY piece of material chewed up by a lawn mower, draped across him as a substitute for a shirt. I don’t get it! He has this really unnerving look about him as well. We need to stalk and see what kind of car he drives. For all I know, there could be a giant black hefty brand garbage sack in his trunk with body parts, hair, fingernails and other weird things collected in it. Or at least that is what I believe he has in his car, based on some recent episodes of CSI that we have seen. I can’t wait for the new LA Fitness to open in Ballard. That location will be much closer to our house and hopefully less weird since it’s off the Aurora corridor. I’m sure the new locale will have its fair share of freaks as well.

More Angry Shirley

I've been a Garbage and Shirley Manson fan for years. I'm always pleasantly surprised how much I end up liking each of their CD's that they release. This one is a few years old, but I recently borrowed it from Patrick and have input it to my iTunes at home and at work. I was checking out the official Garbage web site, and another CD has been recently released. Looks like this could be a purchase in the very near future.

More Gaming Goodness

Barbecued Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Ingredients:
Pork shoulder roast, about 4 pounds
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups water or beef stock
1 bottle (16 ounces) purchased barbecue sauce, or 2 cups homemade sauce
1 cup chopped onion

Preparation:
Place half of the thinly sliced onions in bottom of slow cooker; add pork and water/stock, along with remaining onion slices. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours or 4 to 5 hours on HIGH heat setting. Drain liquid from slow cooker; chop the meat coarsely and discard excess fat. Put the pork back in the slow cooker. Add barbecue sauce and chopped onion. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours longer. Stir occasionally. Serve with warm split buns and coleslaw (optional). Serves 8 to 10.

Dominos & Good Eats

We got together with some friends this weekend for one of our recurring domino's game nights. Our friend Kate themed the pot luck and assigned out dishes. We had a BBQ theme based on the 2008 June issue of Gourmet Magazine. Selections included, pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, corn pudding, bean salad, and chocolate hazelnut blondies for dessert with vanilla ice cream. I've had corn pudding before that was very labor intensive to make.



This recipe that Rita brought over was super tasty. As I learned how easy it was to make, I thought, I'm totally making this again for a quick side to grilled meat or chicken going forward.

Quick & Easy Corn Pudding

1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can cream corn
½ C butter, divided
1 (8 oz.) pkg. sour cream
1 box Jiffy corn bread mix

Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in mixing bowl. Put in drained kernel corn, creamed corn and sour cream. Mix together well. Add corn bread mix over corn mixture and stir all together. Spread remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a 9 X13 glass baking dish. Pour in corn mixture. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees until done, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.