Some other things...mostly food...because really...it's food.

It snowed a couple of weeks ago!! Crazy!! I got a little bit excited and had to take a picture!!


These are a couple of just really good recipes!!

Best Lemonade Ever (or Limeade in this case!)

1 3/4 cups white sugar
8 cups water
1 1/2 cups lemon juice (or lime juice)

1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve sugar. Allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until chilled.
2. Squeeze lemons for 1 1/2 cups juice, remove seeds but leave pulp if desired. In a pitcher, stir together chilled syrup, lemon juice and remaining 7 cups water.


So Tasty!! My hands hurt a little afterward because we don't have handy gadgets and I squeezed about a million limes. But it was so worth it. I love the little pulpy things!!

Sesame Chicken

Sauce:
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup chicken broth
1-2 tablespoons sesame oil (to personal taste)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 dash red chili pepper flakes (Or more if you are my husband)
2 teaspoons cornstarch (or more if you want a thicker sauce)

Chicken:
4 chicken breasts-cubed (If you don't want to marinate the chicken in the ingredients below, it's still yummy!!)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon sherry wine (I just used chicken broth)
1/2 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice Powder (optional)
2 drops sesame oil
cornstarch to coat

Other ingredients:
veggie oil or peanut oil for frying (I didn't deep fry mine, just stir fried!!)
sesame seeds to garnish
sliced green onion to garnish
prepared rice to serve with chicken and sauce

Directions
1. Combine chicken ingredients EXCEPT cornstarch and let marinate for 30 min in the fridge.
2. Remove chicken from marinade and toss in cornstarch (if you are NOT going to deep fry - skip the corn starch!). Cook chicken in hot oil until cooked through. Remove from pan and keep warm in oven while making the sauce. (I just left mine in the pan because I added some veggies and let those cook while I was making the sauce-I already had everything for the sauce in the pot because it doesn't take that long to stir fry and I just had to heat and add the cornstarch)
3. Combine all sauce ingredients EXCEPT cornstarch in a sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
4. Mix cornstarch (for sauce) in a little water (about 1/4 cup) in a cup until dissolved then slowly add to the sauce mixture while stirring and heat until the sauce is thickened to your liking.
5. Add chicken to sauce until heated through.
6. Remove and sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions.

Notice the veggies swimming in sauce so that Justin will eat them??

Alive!!

So I have a job now. Are you all just so impressed? I work at the cutest baby/maternity boutique downtown!! The owners are super fun and I don't dread going to work. It's supposed to be part time, but it has been more like full time the last couple weeks...so I leave the house about 9:40 am and get home at about 7 pm...I know that's not too bad as far as hours go. But, I am preggo and my back has been killing me!! So really by the time I get home, I eat some dinner and veg on the couch til I go to bed at 9:30 (yes, 9:30 every night!!)

Our life recently:

1. We went to a Chili cook off for our ward and won the judges place trophy (which is about 2 inches high and plastic, but we are very proud). It was so good! We were making it and it simmered on the stove for a couple of hours...our crazy dog sat in the kitchen whining. We thought he needed to go outside-no. We fed him his lunch, which he woofed down and then sat in the kitchen whining some more. We had no idea until the next day when we reheated some of the leftover chili and he did the same thing again. So, we had to let him try a taste, which was probably a bad idea by the way. I have never seen a dog act that way about anything. You would think we were dealing drugs or something. For crying out loud...it's just chili. But in his defense, the judge thought it was the best.

2. This post would have pictures but our camera has decided to pass on. It died the other day and refused to be resurrected. Sad...Here's what kind of pictures our camera takes...

I believe this was a picture of me...aren't I so beautiful??

3. I would take a picture of the tree outside of our balcony because the colors are amazing...but something about a camera. I LOVE THE FALL!! It makes me want to bake and make soup. So the other day I made pumpkin squares with cream cheese frosting...SO TASTY. But it was a recipe I haven't tried before and the pumpkin portion was not my favorite. SO IF YOU HAVE A GREAT PUMPKIN SQUARES WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING RECIPE I WILL BE SO GRATEFUL IF YOU WOULD LET ME KNOW WHAT IT IS!! Thank you!! One of the other things I love about the fall is that you can wear sweaters and drink hot chocolate and apple cider and have the best apples (Honeycrisp or Pink Lady are my FAVORITE). I love the fall!!

4. I HATE politics-they make me want to cry.

5. I am 16 weeks along this week. The baby is doing fine. I am getting bigger and had to break down and buy a pair of maternity pants the other day. I was not happy about it but they are way more comfortable than fighting with unzipped-unbuttoned-held-on-by-hair-elastic-pants. I bought a pair at Old Navy and they ripped after I wore them 3 times. Those ones were returned and I bought the pair from work that I would probably never buy but because I have store credit and I get things at cost....I got them. They are FABULOUS! And no holes. I love working at this store!! They gave me a shirt that says "rub my bell for good luck" and has a picture of Buddha on it. It's hilarious [we will see how I feel about people touching my belly-no one has so far (except Justin-but he's allowed)] probably because it's not cute yet. I think pregnant bellies are cute (the round ones, no lumps!) but we will see how I feel about my own belly.

6. I can't really remember anything we have done recently because my brain cells are on vacation. I hope that they are somewhere warm and tropical. Maybe they will send me a postcard so that I know where they are!!


I don't really have anything else at the moment. I don't love posts without pictures, but what can you do??

PLEASE send me your pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting recipes!! I will love you forever!

Sorry...Blogging Slacker..

I have been a blogging slacker lately...but I have been totally busy, which is great. I have a job now and will post about that later because I love it.

Here is something absolutely HILARIOUS!!

It's called Cake Wrecks...here's the link.

Check it out!!