April: Snowmen, superglue and letting go......

This is one of my favorite Christmas decorations. The skiing snow family! We bought it years ago when our 3 girls were under 10 years old and it perfectly depicts our family doing one of the things we love doing most together...skiing!! Dad is helping Emily, Mom on skis, Alicia on a sled and Kate going down the mountain on a tube, with birds next to her (she used to have a pet bird). It has weathered many years, including several moves. A little super glue and a lot of TLC keeps it usable each year. 

Wesley with his stocking

Can't say the same for our snowmen stocking holder family though, a couple of them are beyond repair I'm afraid. One of them got knocked off the mantle this year in a game of chase between Wesley and Emily and when it crashed and it's head went rolling across the floor ....it didn't look good for fix-ability. It had already be repaired in the past. I have a hard time letting go of some of the meaningful family treasures, as simple as a snowman stocking holder is. After all, they are still with us, when two of our daughters have grown, finished college, gotten married and for the first time in 25 years were not home for Christmas this year as their new jobs, and responsibilities did not make it possible. 

So I guess I will get out the super glue and patch up the snowman stocking holder once again...just not ready to let go quite yet......even if two of the stocking holders were empty this year....well. okay, they didn't stay empty, I bought the cat and dog their own stockings as hanging only three did not seam right! They certainly loved getting a stocking full of toys and treats smile emoticon Christmas morning and while it was not the same, it was nice to have 5 stockings hanging by the fire again.

Alicia: Meeting Brandon Sanderson!

On the 20th, I had the great opportunity to meet Brandon Sanderson at Mysterious Galaxy bookstore! He was there promoting his new book, Firefight. I will post a review of this book later, but I can tell you it was awesome! I purchased the book two weeks before the signing along with the first book in the series, Steelheart. I had no problem flying through Steelheart, but got caught up in work and life and was stalled with Firefight. I ended up going to the book signing early and finishing the book while I was waiting for the event to start! The owner of the bookstore said that people had started showing up for the signing at 1530 and it didn't start until 1930! Needless to say, I was too late to get a seat! I did find a good place to stand near the front squeezed in between two book shelves. 
A lot of people showed up for the event and packed the bookstore. There was a group of girls in beautiful capes and various other people dressed in random fantasy articles not necessarily related to Mr. Sanderson's works. I wore my Captain America sweatshirt and Darth Vader shoes. I figured I should try to be as nerdy as possible! It worked and I got a lot of compliments on my sweatshirt. There was another guy there in a Captain America shirt and we connected as the super hero twins. It was a lot of fun! 

During the Q&A I asked Mr. Sanderson if he could write in another writer's universe again, which would he choose to be a part of. He complimented the lyrical writing style of Patrick Rothfuss but said it was too far outside of his own writing style to mimic well enough to write in Rothfuss' universe. He said he admired Brent Weeks' magic systems but if he had to choose one universe, it would be Anne McCaffrey's Pern. I have always loved the Dragonriders of Pern and am excited to know that he enjoyed the series as well! Anne McCaffrey was an amazing writer and was one of the first authors I discovered when I stared reading fantasy books.

Mr. Sanderson gave out character cards as part of #Steelhunt2015 that have a link to Perfect State, a novella of Mr. Sanderson's that has no been published yet. I received one with the High Epic Newton on it. I am too excited! Perfect States looks just as compelling as Mr. Sanderson's other works and I am excited to read it in its entirety. 

I was the 50th person in line for the book signing that took place after the discussion, and it was well worth the wait. Mr. Sanderson personalized two copies of Firefight for me as well as The Emperor's Soul and The Alloy of Law. I had one copy personalize for Katie who was a Sanderson fan years before I had read any of his books. He signed the Firefight books with bad puns. Too perfect! 

If you ever get a chance to to to a signing with Brandon Sanderson, I would definitely recommend it. He answers everyone's questions and has a great personality to be around. It was worth staying up past my bedtime for! 

Alicia: Ha! I finally did it!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I finally got around to making the quinoa stuffed bell peppers that I have been trying to make for 2 weeks now. Hey, things get busy and it's so much easier to just grab a microwave meal...or some popcorn!

So, without further ado, the process of love:

Take 6 peppers and cut off the top and hollow out the inside. I made the mistake of picking up two peppers that wouldn't sit up on their own, so I had to lean them against the side of the pan. Make sure to look at the tipsiness of your peppers when you buy them! 

Cook the the quinoa and transfer it to the bowl where you will mix everything else from the recipe all together. I didn't use the feta cheese or cilantro that was recommended. It still turned out quite tasty! 

Take the mixture when you are finishedand scoop it into the peppers. I thought I was going to have too much filling, but I ended up being a little short on the last two peppers. I filled them to the brim and added cheese on top in addition to the cheese already in the recipe. 

I stuck everything in the oven and pulled it out later for an excellent dinner!

Overall rating: ★★★★★
I enjoyed this meal and had lots of leftovers since Justin was in the field last week. It only gets 4 out of 5 stars since I had some problems cooking the peppers. The insides were super tasty, but the peppers were crunchy where I was expecting them to be soft and easy to cut. More like peppers in a fajita! Next time I make this, I am going to try cooking the peppers first and then adding the ingredients and putting in all back in the oven. Hopefully that way the peppers will turn out more as expected. For people like Katie and Zack, you should be able to take out the corn and purchase a cheese without corn additives and it should be perfect for people with corn sensitivities! 

Katie: Mozzarella Macaroni and Cheese with Bacon

       One of my favorite comfort foods ever: Macaroni and Cheese. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to have some in a long while, baring the one time we picked up Black Truffle Mac and Cheese pre-made from Whole Foods for a date day that was utterly delectable! In any case, its been on the craving list and now that I have some free time, I decided to make my own version last night.

The Challenges to Overcome: 

1. Husband doesn't like cheese. 

Potentially a major obstacle when it comes to making Mac and Cheese as that is kind of the prime ingredient. He offered to let me just make it for myself, but I don't like cooking so much as to want to make something for one, and we live on a rather small grocery budget, so I don't like spending money on food only I can eat even if he says hes ok with it. 

The Solution:  Mozzarella!

He does like -or at least dislikes the least - mozzarella, so we agreed to try making the dish with exclusively this variety of cheese. 

2. Finding Cheese Husband can eat. 

The issue with many cheeses is they often have additives in them such as lactic acid. Most chemically derived additives are stabilized with corn, and as Husband is allergic to corn, most things with additives don't get to come home with us. Also, all pre-shredded cheese we could find  has anti-caking agents added that are corn-based, and any mozzarella that comes ball-shaped and packed in liquid it immersed in vinegar, which is also often corn based, so is therefor on our 'No-No' list.  

The Solution: Aldi!

After scouring the shelves of Whole Foods, Trader Joes and Publix, we finally found block mozzarella cheese at Aldi that was only 1.80 each (at least half the price of any other store) and had no additives in it. 

A tip for any one out there trying to eat healthy or avoid additives: stores such as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods which are marketed as having healthy options can be really good resources, but sometimes they charge a lot more for food that isn't actually the best option on the market. Instead of assuming if such stores dont have it, no one else will, be willing to check more 'normal stores' such as Aldi and Publix: especially in the case of Aldi, you can often find much less expensive things that are even healthier for you then what you might find at a 'health food' store.    

3. Finding Healthy Bacon 

I've also been craving bacon for a while (because really, who doesn't?) but as we all know, bacon is on the 'Super Bad For You' list for many reasons, including being full of nitrates and additives and being super-processed. Also, most bacon comes from pigs who are fed corn, and while we do still occasionally eat meat that is corn fed, we are trying to cut it out of our diet entirely as it is bad for Husband in the long run. And me too I suppose. 

The Solution: Wellshire Bacon! 

The Wellshire Pork Shoulder Square Cut Uncured Bacon (Chopped and Formed) has an insanely long name, but is a great healthy bacon option that doesn't come from turkey and still tastes really good. We found it buy-one-get-one at Whole Foods, so it was pretty inexpensive. The pigs were raised with no antibiotics, there are no added nitrates and minimal processing, and it only has 6 ingredients. 

Another shopping tip: the more ingredients something has, the more likely it is you wont be able to eat it. Sometimes its worth reading through the ingredients list as some things have long lists with

real ingredients. But as a general rule of thumb, if you're trying to quickly scan ingredient lists while trying to not spend for ever in the store, long lists = bad food.  

The Finished Product

       After gathering all the specialty ingredients, I began. I based it off of This Recipe I found online, but used almost 16oz. of mozzarella - hand shredded - and used a little more then a cup and a half of cream instead of milk since we didn't have any in the house. Also, I only left it in the oven for about 20 minutes since Husband had pre-cooked the healthy whole-grain noodles for me but they got a little over-cooked, since the healthy ones don't cook the same as regular ones. The bacon I  cut up in chunks and fried separately, then mixed it in with the cheese sauce before pouring over the noodles. It fried up pretty well, though it didn't get super-crispy like regular bacon, but that could be because I just didn't cook it long enough. It still tasted a lot like bacon though and added a nice flavor to the Mac and Cheese. When making the cheese sauce, I realized I probably wasn't going to have enough for the amount of noodles, plus it still looked really thick, so I added in some water - maybe about half a cup  - to stretch it a bit.

  The end result had some texture issues; after careful analysis, Husband and I determined it was probably the extra starchiness from the over-cooked noodles and using cream instead of milk, plus possibly the egg, that contributed to the weird texture and lack of really cheesy sauce. Also, mozzarella has a higher moister content then cheddar cheese, so we think that may have contributed to the difference in consistency.  

All in all it turned out pretty good, though it doesn't taste like traditional Mac and Cheese. Once I got past that part, I really like this dish and will probably be doing it again, only next time with actual milk, more cheese, and I might leave out the egg to see what happens.    

The final touch: Ketchup! I have this weird enjoyment of putting ketchup on my Mac and Cheese, and this dish lent it self well to some ketchup-y enjoyment! 

Husband found me this organic ketchup from Trader Joe's that tastes great and isn't very expensive for a healthy, organic thing. 

         

Alicia: Friday blues and a rainy Sunday

Don't bother me, I'm trying to sleep here! 

I came home from work on Friday feeling blah. It's that inescapable feeling of something not being right, but you can't really put your finger on exactly what it is. You can't just say you have a headache and take some Aspirin. I was just feeling out of sorts in general. Thankfully, I had the puppy encouragement squad to cheer me up. I curled up on the couch with Samantha and Miko to spend the evening watching America's Next Top Model. (Don't judge me. Whatever you are thinking, just keep it to yourself. I like the show, no matter how silly it is. At least it isn't Keeping up the Kardashians!)

I had a green-ish juice to help combat whatever I seemed to be coming down with. Into the juicer went:

1. A medium sized Pink Lady apple
2. A tiny green Granny Smith apple
3. 4-5 leaves of Romain lettuce
4. 4 Large carrots
5. A 1" hunk of ginger

All it all, it was quite tasty. I had a yogurt for dinner and then decided that I didn't feel like eating anything else. That's how you know I was out of sorts. I usually have the appetite of a teenage boy! I went to bed early and spent the rest of the night reading. I really know how to get down with my bad self on a Friday night! 

Saturday was spent sleeping in. We met our realtor in the afternoon and spent a couple of hours looking for houses in the area. We found some potential places yesterday, but nothing that really stood out. I am hoping we can find something as close to perfect as possible in the next week or two. 

It started raining last night and continued on through the night and into this morning. People are saying that this the most rain that have had in a long time. Californians are so funny. There are weather forecasts out all over the place in advance of what can be optimistically called a persistent drizzle.

I have started reading Steelheart in anticipation of meeting Brandon Sanderson on the 20th. I figure I can get through it and the next book, Firefight, before the big day. So far, I can say it is awesome! It reminds me a lot of the Mistborn trilogy mixed with George R. R. Martin's Wild Cards series. It is the perfect thing for a rainy day. 

Oh, and I am feeling much better now. 

Puppy kisses did the trick!

Katie: The Intimidation of the Blank Page (Or, Starting is the Hardest Part)

      It sits there, imposing, daunting, staring you down with its vast, blank emptiness. It’s the new page awaiting the essay, the picture your pencil is posed to draw but doesn’t know where to begin, the letter or email you keep intending to write, but cannot figure out where to start. And that is the crux of the problem; because starting is the hardest part. There are many reasons why humans have this inherent fear of beginning, but I think some of the main ones are the indecisiveness and the what-ifs. What if I fail? What if people don’t like it? What if its not as good as I wanted it to be, as I thought it could be? What if I'm not as good as I though I could be? But in the end, it all boils down to that primal motivator: fear.

       Now most of us will look at a page, an opportunity we hesitate to take, and think “Im not afraid” And then we come up with other reasons why we don’t start, like ‘I just don’t have time’, ‘I’m too tired’, ‘Im too stressed’ or ‘I’m not feeling inspired’. Which are all legitimate thing in life. Believe me; after the stress of the last few weeks/months in my life, I certainly understand being too tired or busy or stressed. But I also know that there will never be a time in your life where you not these things; there will never be a time when you are perfectly rested, in a zen-like state of peace, unburdened by the cares of the real world, and completely inspired with an unwavering sense of purpose and direction. It would be lovely to think that such a state exists – and if anyone out there finds it, please feel free to prove me wrong! – but in our practical life experience, it does not. And waiting for this Elysian state of existence to occur before we take on new challenges just means the world will pass us by.

       As I have been learning in my 8 months of marriage, you have to make time for the things that are important. You have to be intentional about life. About the things that matter. There are some things, like work and house cleaning and traffic, that we may see as arduous or a waste of time (well some of you out there might enjoy house cleaning… lets just say you wont find me hanging out in the cleaning/organizing section of pinterest), but we have to do them anyways. But the rest of our free time, its up to us to decide what we are going to do with it, and we cant just sit on our computers or in front of our tvs, playing games and watching shows waiting for life to happen. (Which I’m pretty sure is something my mom has been trying to get through my head my whole life). If we want to achieve anything new, to become more then what we are, to achieve even those secret dreams to don’t want to discuss because they seem to far away to ever catch, then we need to begin.  

       

       So how do we overcome the intimidation of the blank page? Or the mountain of school work between us and that degree? Or the extra pudge weighing us down around the middle as we contemplate that jog we've mapped out in our minds? We simply begin; we start, we put pen to paper or fingers to key board and write a few words, then a few more, and see where they take you. Even if you have to go back and rewrite the first thing on the page, starting is the hardest part. It’s a beginning, a foundation from which you can build, and starting gets you farther then you were before. 

       

       So put aside the self doubt and the fear and write those first few words, put pencil to paper and draw a line, then another – see where they go. The picture you end up with might be different than the one you had in mind when you started, but in the end you will have a picture where previously none existed. Take that run; put one foot in front of the other, and again, and again, until you cant anymore, or have reached your goal. And it might not be the goal you wanted, you may not get where you intended in the end, the picture or the story may not be what you originally envisioned. But you will get farther then where you were before you started.  And while your final destination may not have been your original goal, you might end up somewhere or with something completely unexpected and altogether more brilliant then you first planned or imagined. And all progress lends itself to more progress, no matter how small, it builds, and it does get easier over time. 

     

       I think more then anything I am writing this post to myself – you will notice my first post is about just starting, because that’s what I have been struggling with. But even that can be turned into a starting point; it doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t even have to be what you wanted it to be, sometimes its enough that it is a start. And once you start, there is no telling where you might end up!

“It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

(Lord of the Rings quote because A) Added epicness and B) I can - always include LotR when ever possible!)

Alicia: For the want of Quinoa

I was excited to make the bell pepper recipe last night. I cleaned up the kitchen, pulled up the recipe, started to get out the ingredients, and quickly realized that the quinoa I was sure we had in the pantry wasn't there anymore.

I double checked to be just to be sure. There was an incident Christmas Eve when I was sure the pantry had disappeared the lasagna noodles I bought. It took a thorough search of the house and car to turn up the noodles...in the pantry. With my improved detective skills, I confirmed the quinoa was truly missing. 

Not to be deterred in my effort to cook at least once this week, I fell back to my alternate plan: Smoked salmon egg white frittata with arugula. I made it once before and thought it turned out well enough to try it again. Last time it was way too salty, so I left out the salt all together this time. I also added two whole eggs to the egg whites and threw in the last of the sharp cheddar cheese and parmesan we had in the house. The added cheese barely covered the palm of my hand! We like cheese way too much in this household. I think it came it pretty decently! I had some problems getting it out of the skillet, so it was more in chunks than slices, but it tasted delicious! 

Justin came home late and heard about my woes concerning the missing quinoa. He confirmed it was not in the pantry...it was in the spice cupboard. I didn't put it there, but it was hiding out with the rice all the same. I think we are going to call a truce and blame it on the dog.

This is a little late, but here are some pictures of the dogs in their Christmas costumes. I still can't answer the question of why exactly the dogs need Christmas costumes, but believe me they do!