Can you believe that it's almost the end of February? Time flies huh? I am enjoying my little block calendar that Traci and I made when I was back at her house last month. We got the instructions from a blog called Lark & Lola. Traci and I made 3 sets and by doing it the assembly line method, we got it done rather fast! You can see that we made a lot of blocks! I just love this calendar-it is so much fun to change the blocks each day-I have to beat everyone out at our house to change it! Anyway-March is just around the corner!
I hear that the Academy Awards are coming up this Sunday night. Well, you won't find me in front of the TV. None of my favorites were nominated and the majority of the "best picture" nominations were either rated "R" or are nothing I am interested in. I don't think I've really seen any movie that has been nominated since "Titanic". Oh well, I will just go on enjoying the movies I like regardless of whether or not they are "Oscar Worthy"!
Monday was super rainy! But, Brent and I drove up to Temecula and celebrated Corinne's 9th birthday (a day early) at IN n OUT! The kids were out of school for the holiday and so we met them for lunch. We went to their house after lunch and had cupcakes. Grandpa played Guitar Hero and Corinne modeled her new birthday apron.
My niece, Carolynn has a website with some free blog backgrounds that she designed and they are pretty cool. They are FREE and very easy to install. You may have noticed that I picked out one for my own blog. Her website logo is in my sidebar but you can also get to it by clicking here. Carolynn also has some design blogs-she does announcements, invitations, etc. Her logos to those sites are found on the blog makeover site. Check out all her great designs-she is talented!
I have been making these darling little take-out boxes thanks to templates found at Mirkwood Designs. They have all sorts of templates for all occasions. Anyway I think it will be fun to put little treats in them for Valentine's Day, birthdays, visiting teaching, "just thinking of you", etc. First, I printed the pattern on card stock, cut it out and then traced the pattern onto the paper(for the box)-then cut out the box. (It really helps if your paper is heavyweight (patterns on both sides of the paper is a bonus and means you have a pretty lining in the box!) I used an embossing stylus and a light box with the pattern underneath the cut out box, to score the lines-makes it much easier to fold. Also-after much trial and error, fold the bottom of the box lines first, then fold the lines from the corners of the bottom up to the sides. It takes a little bit of work but it is fun. If you have "YES" glue(paste)-it works great for gluing the corners.
Do you ever wonder what to do with that big bag of pot stickers you buy at Costco? Well, this recipe will give you a great idea. We have made this several times and it is so good, hearty, and makes you feel like you are having dinner at a great Chinese Restaurant. It comes from the Food Network but I changed a few things so now it is MY recipe! I added a little more chicken broth than the recipe calls for and I didn't add the Asian chili paste or cilantro but if you like it hot-go for it!
Chinese Dumpling Soup
Serves 4 - Makes 11 cups
Ingredients
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and julienned or cut into match sticks
1 tablespoon soy sauce, preferably dark
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
pinch of salt
2 carrots, thinly sliced on the bias- about 1 cup
24 frozen Chinese dumplings(Pot stickers), or 1 pound package
3 green onions (white and green parts), thinly sliced
4 cups bag baby spinach
chopped cilantro (optional)
Asian chili paste (optional)
Directions
Put the broth, ginger, soy, vinegars, sesame oil, sugar and salt in a soup pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Adjust the heat so the broth simmers and cooks to lightly flavor with ginger, about 10-15-minutes.
Add the carrots, and simmer until tender and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Just before serving, add the dumplings, cook for 3 minutes, stir in the scallions and spinach and cook until the greens wilt, about 1 minute. Divide among warm bowls and serve. Serve with chili sauce on the side if desired.
Optional- Cook the dumplings according to package directions for pot stickers- Serve dumplings on the side of soup.
The checkerboard is done. I dug out some old roller blade knee pads to finish painting the checkerboard today. Really wish I would have thought of that last Friday when I first worked on it. Honestly, I could hardly walk for a day or two and my knees have scabs on them! We are having our Grossmont Ward Game Night on Feb. 13th. I think it is going to be a lot of fun. We have a variety of games for people to play along with "Human Checkers" and Qwest which is a cleaned-up version of a game that is played on Royal Caribbean ships. We are having a snack shop so everyone can have something to munch on while they play. You know how we are at Church events-we always have to have something to EAT.
