The cards

Just to have these on file in case they get lost in the fray, they were especially cute this year.

Except the big 'DADDY' on Sophia's card, I did all the writing.

Bella's card: I asked her what she wanted to say about or to daddy:
"I say love you daddy"
"say hello daddy"
"daddy is handsome"

Sophia's:
I prompted her on this for a poem-like feel, then we did a little 'mind map' with Daddy's name in the middle and what she thought of when she thinks of him.
Her poem (bold parts are her own words, the others are prompts from me):

Daddy I love you you're so funny
you're so sweet like honey
Daddy I like it when you play with me
Next time won't you come to my tea party.
Daddy I want you to pick me up every day,
so that we can play
Daddy you are so silly in the whole world
wherever he goes I will go with him

The mind map (things you think of when you think of daddy):
Fun, play, making igloos, spins and swings me around, best in the whole wide world, handsome, don't go away (she kept repeating this).

Recipe: Mock Jalapenos

Mock Jalapenos (from my friend in another city here):

1. Choose peppers: short smaller wrinkled green hot pepper. Wash 6-8 (or more depending on the pepper and size) wash and take stems off and slice across just like you get when you buy jalapenos in a jar (whole round pieces leaving the seeds in place)

2. Put in a wide bottom bowl then pour the liquid (recipe below) over them and let them sit until cooled, then put them in a glass jar and refrigerate.

3. Liquid recipe: bring to a boil 1 ½ cups of white vinegar and 1/3 cup of sugar and ½ tsp of salt. Boil until sugar is dissolved and while still hot pour over the peppers. Stores in frig up to a month.

4. If you want more kick than the green lajiao (hot pepper) toss in a couple 'xiao mi la' (small hot peppers) cut in half with the other peppers or more if you like a lot of kick.
   

Recipe: Mexican: Taco sauce and bean dip

I made Taco Bell Taco Sauce to put in the chimichanga recipe, you can find it here.
I made CC's Mexican dip, which David loves:

Can of refried beans

Salsa or picante sauce

Sour cream

Shredded cheese

Layer first three ingredients, stir, top with cheese and bake until hot.

Recipe: Mexican: Refried Beans

REFRIED BEANS

• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 3 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
• 1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic

• 5 teaspoons salt

• 1 3/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper

• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin, optional

• 9 cups water

Directions

1. Place the onion, rinsed beans, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin into a slow cooker. Pour in the water and stir to combine. Cook on High for 8 hours, adding more water as needed. Note: if more than 1 cup of water has evaporated during cooking, then the temperature is too high.

2. Once the beans have cooked, strain them, and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.

My changes: I actually refried the beans! I used about 3-4 TBS of butter in a frying pan and put the mashed beans in. (you can actually use black beans or any red beans probably)

Recipes: Mexican: Chimichangas

Beef and Bean Chimichangas from All Recipes link is here:
(I changed this recipe by using less cumin and by actually frying the chimichangas instead of baking them)

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1 1/2 cups whole kernel corn
• 2 cups taco sauce
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  
• 1 (16 ounce) can refried beans (I used my own)
  
• 8 (12 inch) flour tortillas
• 1 (16 ounce) package shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• shredded lettuce
• 1 tomato, diced

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Brown the ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat. Drain excess grease, and add the onion, bell pepper, and corn. Cook for about 5 more minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Stir in the taco sauce, and season with chili powder, garlic salt and cumin, stirring until blended. Cook until heated through, then remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Open the can of beans, and spread a thin layer of beans onto each of the tortillas. Spoon the beef mixture down the center, and then top with as much shredded cheese as you like. Roll up the tortillas, and place them seam-side down onto a baking sheet. Brush the tortillas with melted butter.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Serve with lettuce and tomato.
5. For frying: fold up and use toothpick if necessary, then fry in 1/2 inch or more of oil for a minute on each side, or until golden brown.
   

David turns 34 Fiesta!

10.25.2011

We decided on Mexican for David's birthday. I decided weeks ago I would make my own tortillas because the local ones are just not that good. Any time we do Mexican we have to start days in advance, making everything from scratch. I really did not want to be frantic the day-of, so I wanted to make sure I prepped in plenty of time. BUT, I was doing our quarterly order from the provincial capital and the store had tortillas, so I splurged, and it saved me some hours. And, while in a nearby city I found a few jars of salsa, so I bought them up and limited those hours in the kitchen too. But still our menu was stacked with scrumptious stuff:

• Fried Bean and beef chimichangas (this recipe called for Taco sauce which needed to be made as well, I used the supposed Taco Bell recipe, it was pretty good)
  
• Guacamole
• Mexican bean dip
• mock jalapenos
  
• salsa
• sour cream (a luxury, I made it from whipping cream, also bought in another city)
  

On Monday I put the pinto beans (brought from Thailand) into the crockpot and other things belonging to my refried beans recipe (I will post all recipes in another post). I mashed and refried them that night so they would be ready for the dip and chimichangas on Tuesday. Meanwhile, since I had thawed some homemade chicken stock to make room in the freezer for baby food, I decided to make chicken pot pie. A pretty dumb move since it kept me busy making pie crusts in the afternoon (I know there are easier ways, but the Betty Crocker crusts are so delicious).

A friend happened to bring us Avocados from the border and I decided to make the Guacamole day-of for freshness.

We chopped tomatoes, chopped lettuce (washed with Veggie wash), we shredded cheese (Monterey Jack, we have never had this here! We bought it from a nearby city, what a find!). I say 'we' meaning with Ayi's help. We crammed it in the morning because she asked for the afternoon and next two days off right then! This is the local way, I wasn't shocked and had I not prepped so much Monday I possibly would have told her 'no', but it really worked out okay, since I had been cooking for two days straight.

The key to this coming together was my trying to put it all together and go get Sophia and Caleb from School at 5 p.m. smack dab in the middle of dinner prep. Since Ayi was not there I had to pull David to do some 15 minutes of kid-watching, something he was glad to do, it being his bday and all. I put the dip in the oven and got all the Chimichanga stuff prepped so all I would need to do is put them together and fry them when I got back.

I wasn't sure how it all would turn out, I knew the Guacamole was good (I tasted it early), but everything else was wait and see. Especially the frying part. It all turned out great and we had a huge spread that we thoroughly enjoyed.

Afterwards we enjoyed Chocolate Eclair cake that Sophia helped me make a few days prior. This was David's choice. We nibbled on it a day early, oops.

Breakfast: biscuits! they didn't rise, bummer, but were still good.


the makings of Guacamole




souring the cream


I print a lot of recipes and put them in notebooks, when I need one that is not in a normal cookbook, I take it out and hang it up.


mock jalapenos. This was my first time doing these. David said they tasted a little like sweet pickles. The bite I took lit my mouth on fire, but yes, it did have a sweet pickley taste.


The Chimichangas. Real beef chimichangas are with pulled beef, I opted for the easier ground beef kind, and they were still yummy.


SO thankful for Poppy and CC sending the paper 'Happy Birthday' plates, saved some of my dish washing time, and were quite festive.



A little interlude of Tobin cuteness.


His eyes looked so bright blue in this outfit.


A few new very sporty shirts from Poppy and CC. Thanks so much!


He lights his own cake...


we put 7 candles on: 3 and 4 for 34!



she was making this face for the camera, she loves this cake.


An end of the day cuddle with mommy.

Bella and Sophia wrote David cards. I prompted Sophia and she came up with a great poem for him, Bella came up with some describing words for 'daddy' as well. Too cute. He loved the cards.

Tobin eats feet

In this part of the world you may think I mean he is gnawing on some chicken feet, a favorite of locals, but no, I mean his own feet...

some family photos

The most recent family photos, trying to get everyone looking at the camera, thanks J for shooting these:

A friend's birthday

10.23.2011

Last Sunday was our friend's birthday. K and family invited us to a restaurant on the way out of town closer to the mountains where you can hike a little and see some waterfalls. It was beautiful and we all had a great time. Happy Birthday K!! We love you.


Caleb and Sophia. Pals.


Just like their daddies.


We ran into some goats...


The kids loved running up and down this sand hill.


rain forest and water falls


the hike back to the restaurant, love the old bridge.

Disclaimers

In the videos you probably noticed two things, I will add disclaimers now:

1. We call our children by the wrong name. We only have three children, but we still call them all by the wrong names almost daily, oops. No real excuse except that we are busy and hurried and our brains are mush! They know who they are and they know they are loved.
   
2. Bella has a few injuries. She has an eye injury that came when I let them take all the couch cushions off and jump on them (I am loosening up). She slid into a chair. The chin injury is from her falling into a hard part of the couch when walking around carrying a big back pack. I told David that if she makes it to three years old without stitches I will be surprised.
   

Just silliness...

Questions and answers 2

okay, now we are getting somewhere...

Questions and answers:

Don't judge us by our children's theology:

Will god ever die?

No, he lives forever

Why did God make you?

God made all things.. from his own glory.

I was made to…

…glorify God and he loves me and takes care of God

Can you see God?

‘no I cannot he always sees God’

Has God ever had a beginning?

‘no, he lives forever'

'he has always been'

The First parents of God are the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit

Miscellaneous August videos

Sophia and Bella dancing.




Sometimes Bella makes me laugh and does crazy stuff or says funny things so I say jokingly: 'you're crazy'. This time she said it right back.

Kid speak

Sophia:

The world has a lot of bad in it. (after hearing a story of someone being beaten to death. She overheard our helper telling this to me in Chinese)

Mama, am I clean on the outside and dirty on the inside? (after reading about Jesus telling the pharisees that they were indeed clean on the outside and dirty on the inside)

While daddy was gone I smelled his pillow and it smelled like him and I missed him.

(when we told her that a lot of people don't believe in Jesus)

So they don't have Easter?

The mean girl was only mean to me two times today.

I am friends with the mean girl now. I asked her if we were friends and she said yes.

Bella's phrases of late:

Bella now loves to use the word 'because' : the first half of her sentences makes sense, then she adds 'because' and the second half makes no sense at all (to us).

We saw a big earthworm outside, mama..

I call this bear inch bear...because….like inch worm and inch bear (okay, this one made a little sense)

Let me tell you something

I need to tell you something

Know what momma?

Let me show you something

In just a minute momma.

Wait just a moment.

(is your eye better?) Better enough.

(when Tobin cries) I am here. I am here. OR Daddy's here. (this is to comfort him).

Hugs for Bella and Sophia (after listening to Poppy and CC say this at the end of a recorded book)

Thank you God for Poppy and CC (after listening to the whole book 'Thank you God for everything' read and recorded by Poppy and CC)

Tobin laughs (video)

this is a few months old now. Tobin laughs

Road Trip part I

Our bags were packed, snacks were made. I had spent the weekend making cinnamon rolls, granola bars, and banana bread. Lists were checked off. Our plan was to get up early Monday morning of the 10th and be on the road by 7 a.m. to get to our destination five hours away. I was so excited about getting away with friends and being able to visit friends too....

And then. Sunday afternoon my stomach began to really rumble, nausea set in. We canceled our Sunday afternoon village trip and waited to see what my body would do. Indeed the stomach bug wreaked havoc on my system for a good 24 hours. Obviously we did not get on the road that day. We postponed the trip exactly 24 hours. I was so thankful I recovered enough to go! We ended up having a great time.

We stayed at a really cool place, small with grassy places for the kids to run. The weather was perfect. The atmosphere cozy.


this was before our trip, the girls playing in our laundry basket.


No, it was not cold enough for the hat. It was 7 a.m. and we enjoyed banana bread on the balcony.



Little Big Man




K and I hung out with the kids in the mornings...




We walked around the town....



The girls love little dogs. Our hotel had two big golden retrievers that were so sweet. BUT they were a little big, and one was only 8 months old so she did not listen very well. The girls were scared quite a bit, and I don't know how many pieces of napkin, paper, etc. that I dug out of its' mouth.

If you ask Sophia she says she loved the dogs and mentions them a lot when talking about our trip. But she was scared more often than not and had to talked into standing still and not running from them, she did get better by the end of our stay.








eating at a nearby restaurant





One day David and K and other friends took the older kids on a chair lift up a mountain to view the city.









we went out to explore in the evenings




Our friends brought their helper, and she was a big help! She loved holding Tobin.





Bella tried on some friends' new hats


Caleb joined in the fun



After we spent a few days at the lodge our family went to visit some of our best friends in a nearby city.