This & That

Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps

As much as I hate the idea, warmer weather is on the way. Summer and it's temperatures are not my happy place. This has been discussed endlessly here and I won't rehash it, but I'm not sure that fresh garden tomatoes make up the difference for me. My meals make a shift when it comes to the weather. I really try to avoid a lot of time over a hot stove or oven, unless it's very early in the day while it's cool. I try to use my crock pot more. I schedule a dinner salad once a week, and we eat more stir fry meals. Also, if I'm going to cook, I'll cook enough for multiple meals, so I can freeze some. I found this recipe on the Mel's Kitchen Cafe site and it's billed as a 20 minute meal. Took me a little longer than that...maybe 30 minutes, but that's usually the case when I'm trying something for the first time since I'm unfamiliar with the recipe. Yummy. Really. Froze what little there was left to take down to my starving college kids. We had some asparagus and fresh pineapple with ours.

Cashew Chicken Lettuce Wraps

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup finely diced yellow or white onion
1 cup finely diced (or shredded) carrots
3-4 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed through a garlic press
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1/2 cup chopped raw cashews 
Bibb or green leaf lettuce leaves for wrapping
Chopped cucumbers and tomatoes for serving

In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the onion and carrots. Add the garlic, salt and pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the vegetables start to soften.
Season the chicken pieces lightly with salt and pepper and add to the skillet with the onions and carrots. Cook, stirring often, until the chicken pieces are cooked through, 4-5 minutes.
Stir in the soy sauce and maple syrup and cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, letting the soy sauce and maple syrup bubble and simmer.
Stir in the cashews, cooking until they are just heated through. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper, if needed.
Serve in lettuce leaves topped with tomatoes and cucumbers.

Around Here This Week

So around here this week....

....this has been the average temperature. Totally my happy place. Can we just stay here all the time, please? I have also spent some time trying to find something to wear for the wedding. Just kill me now....please. I am not a shopper. Never have been, which I know flies in the face of all kinds of female life rules, but there it is. My idea of Outer Darkness is a never-ending mall with dressing rooms everywhere you look.

We were treated to this view one evening. No filters....just an Idaho sunset.

The roses have started their big initial bloom. I cut the first bouquet this week and it made my kitchen smell amazing! I love smelly flowers. Of course, they have to actually smell good and fortunately these do.

My husband came home from work with this one evening.

Apparently he was driving next to a large semi-truck and something came off the truck and hit his window. Holy cow. He spent an evening with the shop vac trying to get all those little pieces of glass off the floor of his truck.

From the kids and grandkids this week I got a bunch of pictures of Eric and Elisa's kidlets. Caroline graduated from preschool.

The butterflies in their butterfly kit hatched out.

And the kids were pretty fascinated watching them when they set them free in the yard.

They were Painted Lady butterflies. Be free! Be free!!

Emmett has traded in his heart sunglasses for some patriotic ones.

My DIL, Alison, sent these pictures of James with the caption, "Toys I didn't know I had..." (As an aside, how can he sit like that???)

"Sticking q-tips into a travel shampoo bottle..."

Alison and James were able to meet up with this cute gal, one of my daughter's lifelong BFF's. She is serving a church mission out in their neck of the woods and they have watched for her and tried to get together with her before they leave the area. There was a short, but happy connection this week. I sent this on to her mother because I know how much those missionary pictures mean.

And from my DIL, Rachelle, this totally sweet picture of Isaac giving a kiss to Levi. All together now, "Awwwwwww......"

Catching Up

I've got a catch up today in the Project Life pages I've done for the past 3 weeks.

A lot of these pictures you've already seen in blog posts.

I have placed my first print order with Project Life and should receive that soon.

I've also ordered an album and page protectors for the  pages.

I had actually hoped they would have their photo book option ready so I could just do a bound book at the end of the year, and of course now that I've ordered the individual pages and a binder, they'll announce the photo book option next month.

Some of these you haven't seen yet, but there are stories coming for them.

I can't stress again how amazing I have found this app to be in being able to keep up and stay current with my daily life. I consider it family history and I. Love. It.

Into the Woods

The weekend after getting home from my travels, we headed into the cabin. My husband had been in there while I was gone, but it was my first time in this spring. We took Roger with us, as his mom participated in a science field trip with the older boys. It's beautiful any season, but the spring is wonderful because it's cool, and that's a big plus in my world these days, and everything is blooming and green.

We spent a lot of time wandering different places and trying to spot wildlife for Roger to see. There is actually a deer in this picture. If you can see the white spot in the upper middle, that's its rear.

 

 

Roger loves his grandpa.

And he loves throwing rock into the river. 

The water is really high this time of year, though, so we keep a hand on him at all times. It's been warm enough that the runoff from the mountains is coming down. We've also had a good amount of rain which also contributes to the water height as I will show you next week.

Speaking of weather-related things, this is one of the pine trees close to the house that was broken in the Great Roof Snow Slide Off this past winter.

Seriously just snapped like a twig.

Omaha and the Union Pacific....aka "Choo-Choos"

I couldn't be in the mid-west with Marc's family an not connect with Collin's family. They only live 2 hours apart for the time being, so at the end of my week, I made my way over to Omaha. I was there for Mother's Day and in the afternoon we made our way to a park/botanical garden/there are big train engines place. The transcontinental railroad made its way through Omaha and there are two big engines on display at this park place. 

Now, I have to tell you that James is all over the train thing. Anything "choo-choo" related is right up his alley.

There were several photo opportunities in a fairly small space.

Since my son's family will be transferred to a different base this summer, they wanted to get a few pictures in a place that was uniquely "Omaha" before they left.

James was much more interested in wandering next to the big, old steam engine.

Can I just say that I love this series of shots of Collin and James together. They make me happy.

"Hey Gramma....just letting you know that I'm going to be moving too fast for you to get really great pictures of me, OK?"

As an aside, we are very lucky that we get frequent Face Times with this little guy....even if he's much more interested in seeing Ollie.

There's nothing quite like trying to get an 18-month old to cooperate with family pictures. I'm glad he was looking at the camera. :)

The Old Guy

My Collin has a birthday today. It's one of those milestone birthdays that ends in a "0."

Don't let the chubby-cheeked, happy grin here fool you. He was a tremendously ornery, colicky baby.

Fortunately, he outgrew it for the most part.There's something about being a mom looking back on kid pictures. You remember that there were hard times, but the passage of the years smoothes that out and softens things a little bit around the edges. 

This boy has always liked things to be fair, and takes to heart the "liberty and justice for all" part of the pledge of allegiance. He based his career on it. His dad and I are incredibly proud of him, the choices he's made, and the way he has chosen to live his life. 

It's also amazingly satisfying when you get to be my age, to stand back and watch your children parent their own kids. Each one has their own style of course, but when you see them sort of trend the same way your tried to raise them, it makes you feel like maybe you did a few things right when you brought them up.

Happy birthday to my Collin! If it makes you feel any better, you don't technically reach that milestone age until somewhere between 8:30 & 9:00 tonight, so enjoy that last little bit of frivolous youth, Sweetie! Love you!

Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta

I've discovered that cooking for 2 sometimes has advantages. For example, if I get a late start on a batch of bread and it happens to be coming out of the oven right at dinner time, fresh bread and fruit makes a perfectly adequate dinner for my husband and I. Who knew. While I'm still coming to terms with the leftover situation, things are working themselves out fairly well, although my husband would usually rather have a slice of bread and jam for lunch these days than whatever leftovers we might have. I've taken to having a fridge forage night about once a week to help with that. 

This recipe is one I've had pinned for a while and it's a nice change from our usual stir-fry recipes, although making it is fairly similar. I found it here and you can see that her photos of it look much more appetizing than mine.

Thai Peanut Chicken Pasta

• 1 pound thin spaghetti
• 4 tablespoons oriental sesame oil, divided use
• 1 cup julienned carrots 2 cups napa cabbage, sliced
• 2 cups chopped, cooked chicken breast meat
• 8 green onions, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• ¼ cup honey
• ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1½ tablespoons chili-garlic sauce (I used about half this much because I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to heat. Even for me it could have used just a little more. I found it in the Asian section of my grocery store.)

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add 1-2 tbsp of salt to season the water. Cook pasta, and drain. Toss with 2 tbsp sesame oil.

Pat dry the inside of the pot and add 1 tbsp of sesame oil. If you would like to add some green onions as a garnish at the end, reserve ¼ cup of them before putting the rest in the pan. Add the green onions, carrots, napa cabbage, chicken, garlic and ginger. Saute for a minute or two until they have softened and barely start to turn color. Add in the honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar and chili-garlic sauce.

Stir all the ingredients together and add the pasta back into the pot. Toss the pasta with the rest of the ingredients and serve. Garnish with remaining green onions if you chose to reserve some. Serves 6

 

Around Here This Week

So around here this week....

....we spent some time last weekend up at the cabin. It was my first trip in for the spring and my husband and I took Roger in with us. His brothers had a science field trip that their mom with on with them, and Roger got some solo time with Grandpa and Honey, which he still calls me. It's unbearably cute. Unfortunately for all involved, on the way home he lost most of his dinner down his front and in his carseat. I was driving Jan and the boys home while our husbands were out looking for bears. We pulled over in a sagebrush flat and tried to get things cleaned up the best we could, poor boy. There are things I really miss about having young children at my house, and there are things I don't miss too much. Barfing in the car would fall into the latter category.

With some recent changes in church geographical boundaries, our ward (congregation) has changed where we attend church. Our new location is right next to the temple here in town. I walked out of the building to head home and was struck by the view. It was awesome to have that to look at as I left church...after getting a dose of counsel and encouragement for the upcoming week.

My peonies are about ready to burst into bloom. My husband and I are having our annual back-and-forth about the correct way to pronounce Peony. In my world it's PEE-uh-nee, and in his it's pe-OH-nee. I've actually looked it up hoping to nanny-boo him, but apparently either way is considered correct, depending on where you live....darn it.

I picked up the roses I tagged at a local nursery before heading out to Iowa. You might remember that the nursery people wouldn't let me take them initially, saying it was too cold for them to be out still. I wondered if I'd have to sign away my firstborn before they let me keep them, but luckily for Evan that wasn't required. I even dug the holes and planted them, too.

Except for this one. My husband took pity on my and dug the hole for this one since it was late in the day and I was running out of steam.

I spent some time at the piano. Somehow I got roped in to accompanying the middle school from across town's choirs for their concert on Tuesday. Believe me there will be another post about this and the internal debate I have about it.

I spent some time in the garden this week....picking some rhubarb, watering, clipping some aspen runners. There are a lot of things up, although I was really disappointed with the lettuce sprouting. I think I only have 4 plants that have come up. Still, the peas are going great guns and there are beans, beets, carrots, spinach and potatoes all putting in an appearance. I need to get some pictures. I found this little guy on a fence post as I was leaving the garden. I'm not sure why, but looking at his little self just made me think about a beautiful world and all I have to be grateful for.

From the kids and grandkids this week, I got this from James' mama. He was ready to go!

Here's a wide-awake Levi. He's changed already since I came home. He's gaining weight well, but has had a few gas/spitting up issues this week.

This picture is just so cute and I experienced this when I was out with Isaac and Levi. Isaac wanted to share his cars with Levi. It's pretty sweet. His mom wondered if that will still be the case when Levi is actually able to play with them. Any guesses? 

And finally, Bryce made the paper...the BYU campus paper, the Deseret News in Salt Lake, and the LDS Church News, which is where I got this clipping. He's standing next to the one, lone lady in the picture who is Sister Hall, the director of the Men's Chorus. This was at the groundbreaking of a new engineering building on the BYU campus where the Chorus sang. None of the people in this picture are the dignitaries who actually performed the groundbreaking. These are Men's Chorus kids who got the chance to pose after the dignitaries went to have lunch.

 

Free Range Wallabies

While I was in Iowa, we ventured out on a couple of excursions. The first was for Levi's one week check up and the other was to the zoo for a couple of hours. 

There's nothing quite like the zoo to keep Isaac entertained for a bit. You can't see it, but there's an exotic bird roaming around under the leaves of that plant and Isaac was pretty excited about it.

This particular zoo has a large, fenced area where there are wallabies just walking around. 

They don't let you get terribly close before they go hopping off, but I thought it was pretty amazing.

I had to get a shot of the flamingos which I promptly sent to Collin. He called them Falingos when he was little. We ran across a man taking pictures of one of the animals and I swear he had a lens on his camera that was something like 3 feet long. I was amazed and a little intimidated, and wasn't altogether sure how he managed to carry that much lens around with him.

We rode the train, which had to stop mid-way back to the station for some ducks that just decided they needed to sit on the tracks.

Isaac was pretty fascinated by the tiger, who was awake and roaming around.

Levi was a really good boy until he decided he was hungry. My DIL took him back to the car while we made one last stop to look at the rhinos. 

And this was my favorite picture of the day. My boy and his boy at the zoo.

 

Ready for Your Close Up, Levi?

Most of my photos these days are happening with my phone, because that's what I have with me all the time, and the best camera is the one you have with you, right?

That said, when one has a new grandbaby, it merits packing the "big" camera into my backpack and carrying it through the airports, so I can theoretically get good pictures of said new grandbaby. Levi's mama had great ideas for props to use and fortunately, Levi was pretty darn cooperative.

Collin's wife had made this blanket for Levi....so appropriate for any Allan grandboy. It's made out of a Minky-like fabric that's so soft.

This is probably my favorite picture of the afternoon....also Allan-appropriate.

Then there's this.....miss this sweet little face! Do I not have adorable grandchildren??

I liked this one...how his little peely feet are in focus and the rest of him isn't. Interesting story about the blanket...Marc had a recent med school rotation about 2 hours away from his home and he ended up staying there during the week and just coming home on weekends. On the last day of his time there, one of the nurses gave him this blanket that she'd crocheted for the new baby. Just so sweet of her.

Love this boy.