Julie, Julia & Me

Ok, I'm no chef but occasionally I like to pretend. When I was unpacking all of our recipe books, I kept thinking, yum, this looks good, ooooh, look at that! So when I saw the movie Julie and Julia, I guess I crossed the threshold of inspiration and I actually tried some new recipes that required some new cooking skills (new for me anyway).

#1 Grilled steak--Don't laugh but this really was new for me! We don't have a barbeque and Joe is such a great meat chef that I haven't really had to cook steak before. I followed an online recipe step-by-step that told me how to grill (broil, maybe?) steaks in an oven. It kept me busy because it had me switching those steaks every three to five minutes, either to a different rack location or flipping them over. The best part was moving around the big iron racks in the oven. Did you know things cook differently according to the closeness to the coils at the top or bottom? Of course, I knew that, too, but I always stick my food on the same rack in the general middle to bottom, so this was definitely branching out. Plus I juggled a real full meal--veggies, salad, potatoes, etc. so the timer was constantly going off the entire time. I see how Iron Chef contestants might sweat in their food. It is hot running around! That dinner used up my cooking motivation until Saturday when I found two more great recipes to try...

#2 Italian-style chicken roll-ups--I was excited about this recipe because it was going to use up the cream cheese, spaghetti sauce and half green pepper sitting in my fridge. I love that! It was actually pretty easy to make and I only messed up on one minor part (I put the final cheese on early). We thought it tasted good and X ate at least six bites of the chicken (not the stuff in the middle), so that was a bonus! It kind of tasted like a cross between chicken cacciatore and chicken cordon bleu. Should you feel like trying it, here's the recipe:

4 oz (half-pack) cream cheese, softened
1/2 c finely chopped green peppers
2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, thawed (I used 3 chicken breasts but two is probably better)
cheese (shredded or 4 Kraft singles, cut in half)
1 c spaghetti sauce

Mix cream cheese and peppers in bowl; set aside. Spray a 13x9 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Heat oven to 425'F. Pound each chicken piece flatter than it came (the recipe recommended 1/4-inch thickness but we don't have a meat pounder-thingy to get it that thin). Put cheese on the chicken and top with half the cream cheese mixture. Roll up chicken and put in dish seam-side down. Top with spaghetti sauce. Cover dish with foil. Bake 20 min. Remove foil and top chicken with cheese. Bake 3 to 5 min. or until melted. Enjoy!

#3 Pineapple salsa w/tortilla chips--Ok, this was probably not the best side dish with the above chicken but I definitely think it rivals the taste of the Grilled Caribbean Salad at Chili's and deserves the whole spotlight at a future meal! The motivation again was random ingredients in my fridge which I was excited to use up. This time it was the use of half of a red pepper and the cilantro that caught my eye. Here's the recipe:

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 or 2 cups of chopped pineapple (1 cup was good for a family of 2.5 eaters), 1/2 cup finely chopped sweet red pepper, 1 sliced green onion (we didn't have this but I didn't miss it either...), 2 Tbs. lime juice, and 1 Tbs. fresh cilantro. Cover and chill in fridge until it's time to eat! Stays fresh up to 48 hrs.

So there you have it. Joe liked them both. He said they were "good". Not the most descriptive review but I did notice he had at least seconds of both! :)

Two months later...

Our life has taken a significant turn since we received a phone call from Utah State University in the middle of a drive through Nevada last month. One camping trip and nine days later we were moving from southern California to northern Utah! Joe has an awesome new job at the business school that put him right to work and is giving him two months to learn everything before his boss leaves for a month and he is in charge. The people in his office love having him and already scheduled him to take a group of students to Japan next spring!

We may be cold in 80 degree weather but we are happy to be here. We get all sorts of bonus benefits like the use of the university gym and wellness program, chances to audit classes, etc. I'm glad that we have insurance again. It sounds wrong but I'm almost excited to schedule doctor and dental appointments. Since we've gotten here, we've been busy painting the rooms in our rental house (part of the deal for getting to move in the next morning), shopping and garage saling, doing yardwork, and trying to get internet. I love that we have family in town and relatives all over Utah. We have so many people to visit! I'm also excited for all the cultural and community events in Logan. Lots of date nights, I hope!

A rundown of our summer in pictures:

Swimming lessons with cousin Z

The 'cribs' in the pool let the kids stand and practice in the water

Baby Izzy waiting with us for the 4th of July laser show

Waiting to walk in the kids parade

Camping near Bishop, CA:
Hands-on camping!

Okay, we tried regular fishing but the U-Ketch-Em pond was much
more effective (thanks for paying, Grandpa!). Xavier caught two fish and was so proud!

X loved his camping chair and would slouch into it like a teenager

Grandma thought of everything to put in their camping backpacks!

X's fascination with the camper led him to convince us
to buy him a camper trailer toy at D.I. to hold his cars
So far in Utah:

X adores his older cousins who are patient and sweet with him.

Our new house!
(Okay, we rent the main floor, but it's still cool)

To be continued...

And now to catch up...

As I get ready to graduate, I'm finding more free time on my hands or maybe just feeling tired of studying. Either way, I've been thinking about getting on top of my scrapbooks but then opted for just updating the blog a bit. I want to wait on the scrapbook for when I can convince someone to come visit me for a week (she knows who she is...)! Until then, here is a rundown of the last three months:

Our visit to SLO (San Luis Obispo) where Ben & Esther live.

Uncle Ben, cousin Izzy, and Xavier

The SLO children's museum

Izzy's favorite spot at the museum

X's future job could be grocery checker...

or waiter...very cute.

At the beach with super-fine sand!

X and Z planted seeds for a project one day and we've all been fascinated with how they grow. I was the most excited when the sprouts came up and couldn't wait to show the kids. It was new to me to see how sunflowers push off the seed shells as they get bigger (first picture) and then how huge they can get (second picture)! "My" sunflower now is almost four feet tall, still growing, and has yet to put out the actual flower.

On almost no notice Joe was invited to interview at USU and since I was already planning to head to UT for a short trip, we just extended it into almost a weeklong family trip! So fun but unfortunately, no job offer this time.

We went to Cami's wedding...

and Makai's birthday party...

(playing with their candy bags from the pinata)

We saw lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Baby Addison was the biggest mystery to X. He has only been around infants and toddlers near his age. The in-between age of crawling and non-talking babies was something he couldn't quite figure out.

I got to see my sweet sisters and wish I could have seen everyone!

We made sure to honor our relatives on Memorial Day.

When I was newly called as a Webelos den leader in the Boy Scouts, I found a little "Mud Scout" outfit at Osh Kosh for Xavier, who I call my Webelos mascot. He usually prefers to stay home with Neen & Grandpa now but he did go to the Pinewood Derby and loved it.

He was right on the front lines for the races and as soon as they were over he jumped up and made sure he got a turn to race a car, too.

X and Z's "preschool" time with me hasn't been as innovative lately, but one of the ones I did like was our zebra day. We made striped cookies, played with black and white beans, read a story about zebras, and compared the letters in their names with the letters found in ZEBRA.

e
One thing about living with and close to family is that X gets a LOT of presents and surprises. Grandpa brought home this Snap On car with a real tool to assemble and disassemble the car. He insisted I take a picture of him taking off the tires.

The kids got art projects, like these balloon farm animals, from Jennifer and couldn't wait to show them off.

And, of course, one good part of having two kids everyday is that they get many chances to practice sharing. :)

Xavier the artist...he drew two people from their head bones down to their knee bones and toe bones (he can sing the whole "Dem Bones" song). We'll have to post the video...

Buff baby boy. He loves to push around grandpa's little bikes all day.

X is learning how to be more independent, including figuring out how to reach out-of-reach things like sink water for washing his hands.

and last of all, the most exciting part of every day...tractor rides with grandpa!

Happy Daddy Day!

Daddy,

Happy Father's Day!

Love, Xavier.

Xavier "painted" his father's day card with water so I hurried to take a picture of it before it dried. He worked carefully on his card...

...and was so proud of his work.

Then he wrote his name on the back all by himself. Look carefully. I was pretty impressed.
See the sideways 'X'? Then the circle with the line down the middle is 'A' followed by an upside down 'V', an 'I' with a dot on top, a tiny 'E' he wasn't satisfied with, and an 'R' between his fingers that looks better than how most people write!

X and Z both love spelling at the moment, so to their delight, I pulled out Scrabble Junior Cheez-its for a snack the other day. They found all the letters for their names (and ate them) before helping me spell one of the best words:

What would we do without daddys?

We sure love them!