Fish Mush

This afternoon I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things. They had flounder on sale, so I bought some. Then I googled a recipe for baked fish. It was supposed to look like this...

I followed all the instructions and popped it in the oven for 20 minutes. It smelled good, I was very hungry. The timer on the oven went off, and I eagerly opened the oven, to find this...

At first it was still in fish shape, but when I put my fork in there to test "doneness", it disintegrated. I tested another place only to find it disintegrated also. I don't know what went wrong, everyone rated the recipe as 5 out of 5 on the website.

Anyway, I decided to make toast for dinner instead, which I promptly burned.

Asian Chicken Soup

This is a recipe I created. Feel free to try it out when you get tired of traditional chicken soup (and when you really want to use your wok for something).

1/2 bunch cilantro
2 green onions
1 T fresh ginger
2 or 3 cloves garlic
2 jalapenos
1 or 2 limes
2 cans chicken or vegetable broth
1 -2 T garlic chili paste
2 or 3 chicken breasts
2 T cooking oil
mung bean noodles, 2 bunches


Coarsely chop cilantro. slice green onions cross or lengthwise. Cut ginger into small matchsticks. Mince garlic cloves or put through press. Mince jalapeno.


Chop chicken into bite sized pieces. Add to wok with hot oil, and cook. Remove from wok and set aside.

Toss ginger, garlic, jalapeno, and a tablespoon or so of the chili paste into hot wok with some oil. Saute for a few minutes. Don't let the garlic get too dark.


Meanwhile soak mung bean noodles in water as directed for about 15 minutes. After they've become softer, add to wok. Pour in a can of broth. Add chicken back to wok. Squeeze lime juice into broth.

Let everything simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes or so. Portion into bowls. Add cilantro and onions to each bowl.

City Quilt

This is the quilt my mom was asked to design for the South Jordan Sesquicentennial celebration this year. She moved before this ceremony, but we all went as you can see. I made the red and blue sawtooth stars.

Read about it here: South Valley Journal

Mystery solved

My mystery present was a ukelele! Will post picture later when I get it.

Presents

Do you see this present? This is the mystery present. This is the present for which I had to hide in the bathroom while Dave brought it in the house. Then I had to stay in the living room while he wrapped it in another room for half an hour. Then he brought it out very carefully and told me not to touch it as it is very fragile. Do you know the very top of the wrapping is slightly open? I could probably peek and get a clue of what it is, but I have resisted. I am excited to open it though.


These are all the presents we (pretty much I) have wrapped so far for our families and ourselves. We still have about 1/3 of the presents out en route to us, as I did most of my shopping on the internet. So far we have used 150 feet of wrapping paper, plus three gift bags and multiple spools of ribbon. I can't wait to give some of these out!

First Christmas Tree

I think I told Dave as early as August or September that we should have a real tree this year. Because of the size of our apartment and the fact that the ceilings are not quite 8 or even 7 feet in some places, we were planning on getting a tree about 4 or 5 feet tall. We saw some tree lots open up and one of them seemed to have a particularly good selection. We went there and looked around. This tree's needles were too hard, this one has a missing branch, etc.


We finally found a tree that was a bargain, but it was a little over 6 feet tall. I was worried that it wouldn't fit on our car (Dodge Neon) but the guy working the tree lot assured us it would. He threw the tree on top of the roof tied it there in about 5 seconds flat. We drove home carefully.


Once home, we had to pull it up the steep and winding stairs to our front door. We were able to get it in the tree stand, a miracle in itself. It was a little crooked for a while. (Now it's leaning the other way.)

I decorated it mostly myself because Dave was too "tired". But he did take this picture of me.



Ta-dah!!! It may be hard to see, but the tree just barely fits against the ceiling.

We went to Tai-Pan for some of the decorations. Others were from the decorations we used growing up that my mom no longer wanted, and some were antique that my grandmother gave to me. The tree skirt is fabric from Wal-Mart, cut in half to fit.


Super extreme closeup...

Jazz Game

Tonight we went to the Jazz game. We got three tickets in a box seats from Dave's dad, and invited my mom to come. What amazing seats! I've never been to a Jazz game when they have lost, they always win when I am there. Someone should tell them what a good luck charm I am for them and maybe we'll get free season tickets. This night was no different, they won again. The pictures speak for themselves...