Last night I made thai wraps for our friends Amy and Michael Whitlark, and I guess they were pretty good because Michael ate about 5 of them:) I've had several people ask me for the recipe, so I'm going to post it here on the blog. It's a hand-me-down from a friend and I can't find the orginal recipe, so hopefully I'll get everything right! I tend to improvise when I cook anyway, so they taste a little different every time.
Tasty Thai Wraps
1 lb ground chicken (I've also used pork)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 cup unsalted cashews - chopped
4 carrots - chopped
1 bunch of green onions - chopped
2 TBS fresh ginger root - chopped
brown sugar to taste - usually about 1 TBS
soy sauce to taste - usually about 5 dashes
red pepper to taste - a few shakes
2 dashes of tabasco
rice wraps - these are round, paper thin sheets of rice that you can only buy at a whole foods/natural foods store. They are about as big as a small tortilla, and one pack usually lasts through 4 batches of this stuff.
I also add a few sloshes of Mr Yoshida's oriental sauce - we got a huge jug of it at Costco a few years ago and still have a good bit left. I don't know if you can buy it at the grocery, but it is a dark brown salty/sweet sauce. If you can't find a sauce like this just add more brown sugar and soy sauce.
Brown the meat and garlic together while you chop up everything (the green onion is the worst to chop, so I usually do everything else first). Once the meat is brown, add the ginger, brown sugar, soy sauce and cashews. Then throw in the red pepper, tabasco and any special sauce you want to use until you get the flavor you want. It should be a spicy/salty/slightly sweet mix. Then turn off the heat and add the carrots and onions. Now the fun part - making the wraps. While you're prepping the fillings, put a teapot on to boil water. Once you're ready to make the wraps get out a shallow dish that is round enough to fit a whole wrap - some pie pans will work - I use a shallow (1" deep) round cookie tray. Place one wrap in the pan and pour boiling water over it. Let it sit immersed for about 30 seconds, then pull it carefully out with a fork and add another one to the pot to soak. I try to wrap one while the other is cooking - it's essentially just a big noodle but it cooks really quickly. You'll need to keep adding hot water to the pot to cook the wraps thoroughly - just be careful not to burn your hands.
I think the wraps are good on their own, but we usually make some sort of dipping sauce - either soy sauce, brown sugar and sesame seeds or the yoshida sauce I mentioned above. Either way they are delicious! And this recipe makes a ton of filling, definitely 2-4 meals for 2 people. Enjoy!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Two weeks later
After 2 weeks and at least 25 calls to the Cobb County police station, the abandoned car blocking our mailbox was finally towed this morning! The police station must hate me now, but it's really not my fault. Every person I spoke to over there gave me a different answer. To replay a few - Day 6: "You filed a police report four days ago? It looks like no one came by, I'll send an officer right away," Day 8: "Can you tow the car yourself? I'm sorry I really don't know what to tell you, let me give you the number to the officer on call," Day 9: "It's still there, yeah we need to send someone out to take care of that for you," Day 10: "I understand your frustration - let me get an officer to you right away to take care of it," Day 11: " We can't tow the car until Monday because right now everything is current on it. But Monday the insurance will expire so we can tow it then. The officer thinks it might belong to someone in the neighborhood." Nevermind the fact I'd already checked with every neighbor in our cul-de-sac and it had been sitting untouched in front of our house for TWO WEEKS! And in case this ever happens to anyone else, on the orange tag the officer affixed to the vehicle on the 18th (4 days after I filed the report) it says "if this vehicle is not removed without undue delay it will be towed at the owner's expense." So I guess undue delay means indefinitely or until something expires on the car.
I know I shouldn't go on and on about it so, I'm just glad it's gone. And so is our post-lady.
On a lighter note, we had a lovely and quiet Easter Sunday with friends, although the day leading up to it was not so smooth. Jeff and I got into a spat early Saturday afternoon and I started crying, which is rare for me. We worked through it, but then he went downstairs and I started watching Anne of Green Gables while I cleaned the closet. I guess I just needed to cry, because he came up 2 hours later and I was still crying. At first he was alarmed thinking I was still upset over the earlier incident, but then he tuned in to what was playing on tv and with his typical male sensitivity declared "I can't believe you've been up here crying over Anne of Green Gables for 2 hours!" It was actually Anne of Avonlea, but who was I to argue. I love everything about that series. In fact I love it so much that even though I own all of the DVD's I still watch it on TV when it comes on during the PBS telethon - annoying infobreaks and all. I know if Anne and I had known each other we most certainly would have been kindred spirits:)
I know I shouldn't go on and on about it so, I'm just glad it's gone. And so is our post-lady.
On a lighter note, we had a lovely and quiet Easter Sunday with friends, although the day leading up to it was not so smooth. Jeff and I got into a spat early Saturday afternoon and I started crying, which is rare for me. We worked through it, but then he went downstairs and I started watching Anne of Green Gables while I cleaned the closet. I guess I just needed to cry, because he came up 2 hours later and I was still crying. At first he was alarmed thinking I was still upset over the earlier incident, but then he tuned in to what was playing on tv and with his typical male sensitivity declared "I can't believe you've been up here crying over Anne of Green Gables for 2 hours!" It was actually Anne of Avonlea, but who was I to argue. I love everything about that series. In fact I love it so much that even though I own all of the DVD's I still watch it on TV when it comes on during the PBS telethon - annoying infobreaks and all. I know if Anne and I had known each other we most certainly would have been kindred spirits:)
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happy Easter
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead"
1 Peter 1:3
What hope He has given us! His blessings truly are unfathomable!
And since this has been such a beautiful day of thanks and reflection, I'm posting some old family pictures my grandfather scanned for us awhile back. Enjoy!
1 Peter 1:3
What hope He has given us! His blessings truly are unfathomable!
And since this has been such a beautiful day of thanks and reflection, I'm posting some old family pictures my grandfather scanned for us awhile back. Enjoy!
Left Picture: Guess which one is Jeff:)
Right Picture: That was my favorite white hat. And I did not ask for that haircut, that was the first and last time my dad cut my hair. It was past my shoulders when he started - you can see where it ended up. He felt terrible afterwards and took me right to the store to buy clip on earrings so people wouldn't think I was a boy. Yes it was really that bad - but then in this picture the hat doesn't help at all.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Mother Nature
Is on a rampage this month. Snow, hail, high winds, up to 14 tornadoes. Look what happened to our city last weekend.
Thankfully no one we knew was injured or displaced, although one of my friends was in the Georgia Dome when the storm hit and her house was only a mile away from Cabbagetown - a subdivision almost completely obliterated. God was definitely watching out for us last weekend! Up here in Marietta we experienced, hail, high winds and a day full of tornado sirens, but nothing too serious. We were actually visiting our good friends Mike and Suzanna and their new baby Caroline over in Norcross when the first storm hit - the one that wreaked the havoc in the pictures above. We knew it was a severe storm, but had no idea the extent of the damage until the morning after. It's hard to believe those pictures were taken only a few miles from where I work.
Speaking of work, last week was insanity at my hospital. A water main broke on Peachtree Street and we had no water for about 18 hours. And just in case you're wondering, no water in a hospital is not a good thing. The hospital next door to us was worse off than we were - they have 500 beds and went nearly 36 hours with not a drop! We were lucky and had about 40% of our flow available at select times over the 2 day ordeal. So what do you do when you have no water at the hospital you ask? Cancel any procedures, bring in lots of water bottles, use pool water to flush patient toilets, send non-essential staff home and supply port-a-potties if necessary. We didn't use them, but the hospital next to us did. It was quite an ordeal, but thankfully we had an emergency plan in place and everything went relatively smoothly. But top that off with the weather last weekend - what a week it was for our patients! Let me say this though, we so take for granted how blessed we are to be living in the United States. You don't think about how nice it is to have things like electricity and running water until you have to go without. I have a whole new appreciation for my toilets now. You don't realize how wonderful they are until you can't find one that works anywhere in a 7 story building!
As an aside, we've had a random car parked in front of our house since last Wednesday and no one seems to know who it belongs to. It is sitting right in front of our house blocking our mailbox and our neighbor's. I filed a police report Saturday, but since they still haven't come to look at it I'm considering having it towed. I was worried it belonged to a missing person, but Jeff thinks someone dumped it so it wouldn't get repoed. How annoying! Why couldn't they have left it in the Walmart parking lot instead of in front of our house?
Anyway - shame on me for complaining about the inconvenience of an abandoned car when so many people lost their homes last weekend. My heart and prayers go out to those affected by the storm. Thank you God again for keeping all of our friends and family safe!
Thankfully no one we knew was injured or displaced, although one of my friends was in the Georgia Dome when the storm hit and her house was only a mile away from Cabbagetown - a subdivision almost completely obliterated. God was definitely watching out for us last weekend! Up here in Marietta we experienced, hail, high winds and a day full of tornado sirens, but nothing too serious. We were actually visiting our good friends Mike and Suzanna and their new baby Caroline over in Norcross when the first storm hit - the one that wreaked the havoc in the pictures above. We knew it was a severe storm, but had no idea the extent of the damage until the morning after. It's hard to believe those pictures were taken only a few miles from where I work.
Speaking of work, last week was insanity at my hospital. A water main broke on Peachtree Street and we had no water for about 18 hours. And just in case you're wondering, no water in a hospital is not a good thing. The hospital next door to us was worse off than we were - they have 500 beds and went nearly 36 hours with not a drop! We were lucky and had about 40% of our flow available at select times over the 2 day ordeal. So what do you do when you have no water at the hospital you ask? Cancel any procedures, bring in lots of water bottles, use pool water to flush patient toilets, send non-essential staff home and supply port-a-potties if necessary. We didn't use them, but the hospital next to us did. It was quite an ordeal, but thankfully we had an emergency plan in place and everything went relatively smoothly. But top that off with the weather last weekend - what a week it was for our patients! Let me say this though, we so take for granted how blessed we are to be living in the United States. You don't think about how nice it is to have things like electricity and running water until you have to go without. I have a whole new appreciation for my toilets now. You don't realize how wonderful they are until you can't find one that works anywhere in a 7 story building!
As an aside, we've had a random car parked in front of our house since last Wednesday and no one seems to know who it belongs to. It is sitting right in front of our house blocking our mailbox and our neighbor's. I filed a police report Saturday, but since they still haven't come to look at it I'm considering having it towed. I was worried it belonged to a missing person, but Jeff thinks someone dumped it so it wouldn't get repoed. How annoying! Why couldn't they have left it in the Walmart parking lot instead of in front of our house?
Anyway - shame on me for complaining about the inconvenience of an abandoned car when so many people lost their homes last weekend. My heart and prayers go out to those affected by the storm. Thank you God again for keeping all of our friends and family safe!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Warm Wedding Whatnots
It's hard to believe our 5 year anniversary is coming up in August. There is a part of me that wishes we could go back and do that beautiful day all over again. Not all of the planning, just the fun wedding day part:) I feel like the 2 people standing at the altar on August 16, 2003 were complete strangers - we've both grown so much that I hardly remember who we were back then. In fact I hardly remember anything about our wedding day. Thank goodness we have plenty of wonderful pictures to remind us of everything. Marriage is not easy, in fact it's one of the hardest things I've ever done - but it's so worth it. And I thank God everyday for blessing me with such a wonderful husband. We've definitely had our fair share of trials - more than our fair share it seems at times, but I can't imagine anyone else for me.
I seriously think we could produce our own version of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" someday - although a better title would probably be "3 ER Trips and a Wedding." For those of you who haven't heard about our insane wedding week, let me give you the highlights in a nutshell:
1. Jeff gave Courtney the flu a week and a half before the wedding, so all the things she needed to get done were pushed back into the wedding week itself.
2. Courtney's mom fell off the shed roof helping her dad the Saturday before the wedding and was on Codeine the entire week. She actually fractured her back (thank heavens she didn't break it!) but didn't find that out until weeks later. So you can imagine what a good mood she was in for everything. And why was she on the shed roof you ask??? Well 10 days before the wedding my dad decided he had to build a shed to the clean out the garage. Right....
3. We spent all afternoon Wednesday before the wedding in the ER with Courtney's pregnant matron of honor from out of town. Thank goodness it was a treatable issue and not anything that required bed rest or hospitalization!
4. My pregnant sister-in-law had to go to the hospital the right after the bridesmaid luncheon - again thank goodness it was nothing serious.
5. My maid of honor got extremely sick two days before the wedding. We thought it was mono but it ended up being a bad cold.
6. The day before the wedding I had to go to the hospital.....JUST KIDDING - although it wouldn't have surprised me in the least! Although I did break down at the rehearsal after a multitude of calamaties - again nothing serious just the straws that broke the camel's back.
Add to that a bunch of crazy family dynamics, and it ended up being quite an interesting week. Despite all, the wedding itself was BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT and I'm so thankful to both families, my church family from MS and all of my wonderful friends for their part in making such a special day. I've posted a few pictures from a CD I found last weekend. And as an aside, you might notice that Jeff is wearing glasses in these pictures, something he hasn't done again since that very day I do believe. And why is he wearing them in our wedding pictures you ask? Because he was trying to hide his bloodshot circle laden (hungover) eyes - he finally admitted that to me a couple of years ago. I think it's hilarious now - although I know I would not have felt the same way had I had known back then:) Funny how that works. And along with being the last time he wore his glasses that was probably the last time Jeff had a hangover too, just so you know.
One more thing about marriage - Jeff loves to tell everyone about our fights over really important things - like which way the toilet paper roll is supposed to go on the holder and the right way to fold underwear and t-shirts. Which by the way, although I did learn how to fold a t-shirt correctly so it doesn't have a crease down the middle, I refuse to fold underwear his way (in 6 quarters). I mean come on - underwear? Who gives a flip?! Once over and away!
Isn't it funny all the things you fight about your first year that seem SOO important at the time. Now we fight about much more significant issues, like who is going to clean the kitchen or take the dog out. My we've come a long way:) But I do love my husband more than I can easily express - the obsessive compulsive underwear folding toilet paper nazi that he is!
I seriously think we could produce our own version of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" someday - although a better title would probably be "3 ER Trips and a Wedding." For those of you who haven't heard about our insane wedding week, let me give you the highlights in a nutshell:
1. Jeff gave Courtney the flu a week and a half before the wedding, so all the things she needed to get done were pushed back into the wedding week itself.
2. Courtney's mom fell off the shed roof helping her dad the Saturday before the wedding and was on Codeine the entire week. She actually fractured her back (thank heavens she didn't break it!) but didn't find that out until weeks later. So you can imagine what a good mood she was in for everything. And why was she on the shed roof you ask??? Well 10 days before the wedding my dad decided he had to build a shed to the clean out the garage. Right....
3. We spent all afternoon Wednesday before the wedding in the ER with Courtney's pregnant matron of honor from out of town. Thank goodness it was a treatable issue and not anything that required bed rest or hospitalization!
4. My pregnant sister-in-law had to go to the hospital the right after the bridesmaid luncheon - again thank goodness it was nothing serious.
5. My maid of honor got extremely sick two days before the wedding. We thought it was mono but it ended up being a bad cold.
6. The day before the wedding I had to go to the hospital.....JUST KIDDING - although it wouldn't have surprised me in the least! Although I did break down at the rehearsal after a multitude of calamaties - again nothing serious just the straws that broke the camel's back.
Add to that a bunch of crazy family dynamics, and it ended up being quite an interesting week. Despite all, the wedding itself was BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT and I'm so thankful to both families, my church family from MS and all of my wonderful friends for their part in making such a special day. I've posted a few pictures from a CD I found last weekend. And as an aside, you might notice that Jeff is wearing glasses in these pictures, something he hasn't done again since that very day I do believe. And why is he wearing them in our wedding pictures you ask? Because he was trying to hide his bloodshot circle laden (hungover) eyes - he finally admitted that to me a couple of years ago. I think it's hilarious now - although I know I would not have felt the same way had I had known back then:) Funny how that works. And along with being the last time he wore his glasses that was probably the last time Jeff had a hangover too, just so you know.
One more thing about marriage - Jeff loves to tell everyone about our fights over really important things - like which way the toilet paper roll is supposed to go on the holder and the right way to fold underwear and t-shirts. Which by the way, although I did learn how to fold a t-shirt correctly so it doesn't have a crease down the middle, I refuse to fold underwear his way (in 6 quarters). I mean come on - underwear? Who gives a flip?! Once over and away!
Isn't it funny all the things you fight about your first year that seem SOO important at the time. Now we fight about much more significant issues, like who is going to clean the kitchen or take the dog out. My we've come a long way:) But I do love my husband more than I can easily express - the obsessive compulsive underwear folding toilet paper nazi that he is!
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Wacky Weather
We've had some crazy weather this winter - one week it's 30 degrees, the next it's 65. We were also lucky enough to get an inch of snow last month, the first real dump we've had since we moved here in 2003. In January 2005 an ice storm hit the city, but we were on our way back from a trip to Alaska - no joke - and missed all the fun. Our plane was actually re-routed through Tampa because of the weather. Before everything warms up too much I wanted to post some pictures of our house in the snow. Although it did snow yesterday morning, these were taken about a month ago.
I'm one of those weird people that loves cold, snowy or rainy weather. I love nothing more than curling up in front of a roaring fire with a cup of hot chocolate and good movie or book. I guess I will always be an Alaskan at heart!
I'm one of those weird people that loves cold, snowy or rainy weather. I love nothing more than curling up in front of a roaring fire with a cup of hot chocolate and good movie or book. I guess I will always be an Alaskan at heart!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
9 States in 4 Days
Last weekend we embarked on our annual ski-trip, which ended up turning into cross country tour. After plans to fly to a "real" resort fell through, we decided to drive to Indiana to visit old friends and spend a few days at "The Perfect North Slopes" ski resort, which from the website looked reasonably nice. And it was closer than the 10.5 hour drive to West Virginia, which we didn't want to make on a 4 day schedule. After an 8 hour drive to Indianapolis we finally made it to Becky and Eric Valentine's house, where we ate delicious homeade pizzas and played with their adorable 10-month-old son Blake. Becky and Eric were in our first Sunday School class when we moved to Atlanta in 2003 and were some of our closest friends until they moved to Indy in 2006. We're so glad we got to reconnect with them, despite what happened next.
Here are some pictures of Becky, Eric and Baby Blake - who just loved Jeff if you can't tell from the pictures!
Anyway, after a lovely breakfast on Sunday with the Valentines we headed to the slopes. I'll have to say we were both a little concerned, as we'd seen no mountains or hills driving in, but you just never know. So we drove the 1.5 hours down to Lawrenceberg, IN with high hopes. Now we've skiied in North Carolina several times, so we were used to small resorts, but this was more like a hill with a few lifts on it. And to top it off as soon as we pulled in it started raining - not sprinkling - pouring. Nevertheless we went in to get our tickets. I have to add that we were probably the only people in the vicinity not in camo or redneck attire, and on top of that the lodge itself smelled like BO and nacho cheese. Lovely. However, still determined to make the best of the situation, we marched to the counter to buy our tickets. Luckily Jeff happened to notice the sign by the clerk that said "closed tomorrow due to rainy weather" before we bought anything. So here we were in the IN for a ski vacation with 6 hours of sloppy slushy slopes to look forward to before everything shut down. So, at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon we decided what the heck, let's just drive to West Virginia and get in one good day or real skiing. So that's what we did. 7.5 hours later we pulled into Snowshoe, West Virginia. And I have to add that 2 hours of that drive was through extremely treacherous windy moutain roads - worse than any I'd driven in Alaska. You see Jeff had the bright idea to take the 80 mile shortcut over the mountains instead of around on the interstate at 7:30 p.m. at night. I'm not sure if it was much of a shortcut, but we made it safe and sound so that's what's important. And it was SOO worth it. Snowshoe was a wonderful resort. Not as big as what I grew up with in AK, but at least a "real" mountain with "real" snow. Not to mention the fact that they have this village you can stay in on top of the mountain, so all you have to do is walk out your door to hit the slopes. They also have restaurants, shops, even a Starbucks at the top. It was such a cool place. For those of you from Atlanta, imagine Atlantic Station on the top of a mountain. We skiied all day Monday, from 10:30 a.m. - 8:30 p.m., and just had a blast. It was about 65 degrees, so we didn't have to wear extra clothes or even hats. It was a perfect day and definitely worth the extra driving to get there. Here are a few shots of our room and me in my ski attire - until we got outside and it was so warm I dropped the hat and muffler.
It was a beautiful trip, and our timing was perfect, as it was pouring rain when we left Tuesday. That would have made for a miserable ski day. We drove through torrential downpours from Snowshoe all the way to NC, and had the weather been better probably could have made the drive in 8.5 hours.
So we made the initial trip to IN to avoid the 22 hour round-trip to WV, but ended up driving nearly 30 hours instead. Go figure. But we got to catch up with some good friends and actually had a good time visiting on the drives. And what a beautiful drive it was from the border of WV all the way to Snowshoe then back down to NC. I love the mountains, they are such a beautiful display of God's greatness. A perfect ending to a perfect trip. I'll post pictures of us on the slopes as soon as I get them developed.
Here are some pictures of Becky, Eric and Baby Blake - who just loved Jeff if you can't tell from the pictures!
Anyway, after a lovely breakfast on Sunday with the Valentines we headed to the slopes. I'll have to say we were both a little concerned, as we'd seen no mountains or hills driving in, but you just never know. So we drove the 1.5 hours down to Lawrenceberg, IN with high hopes. Now we've skiied in North Carolina several times, so we were used to small resorts, but this was more like a hill with a few lifts on it. And to top it off as soon as we pulled in it started raining - not sprinkling - pouring. Nevertheless we went in to get our tickets. I have to add that we were probably the only people in the vicinity not in camo or redneck attire, and on top of that the lodge itself smelled like BO and nacho cheese. Lovely. However, still determined to make the best of the situation, we marched to the counter to buy our tickets. Luckily Jeff happened to notice the sign by the clerk that said "closed tomorrow due to rainy weather" before we bought anything. So here we were in the IN for a ski vacation with 6 hours of sloppy slushy slopes to look forward to before everything shut down. So, at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon we decided what the heck, let's just drive to West Virginia and get in one good day or real skiing. So that's what we did. 7.5 hours later we pulled into Snowshoe, West Virginia. And I have to add that 2 hours of that drive was through extremely treacherous windy moutain roads - worse than any I'd driven in Alaska. You see Jeff had the bright idea to take the 80 mile shortcut over the mountains instead of around on the interstate at 7:30 p.m. at night. I'm not sure if it was much of a shortcut, but we made it safe and sound so that's what's important. And it was SOO worth it. Snowshoe was a wonderful resort. Not as big as what I grew up with in AK, but at least a "real" mountain with "real" snow. Not to mention the fact that they have this village you can stay in on top of the mountain, so all you have to do is walk out your door to hit the slopes. They also have restaurants, shops, even a Starbucks at the top. It was such a cool place. For those of you from Atlanta, imagine Atlantic Station on the top of a mountain. We skiied all day Monday, from 10:30 a.m. - 8:30 p.m., and just had a blast. It was about 65 degrees, so we didn't have to wear extra clothes or even hats. It was a perfect day and definitely worth the extra driving to get there. Here are a few shots of our room and me in my ski attire - until we got outside and it was so warm I dropped the hat and muffler.
It was a beautiful trip, and our timing was perfect, as it was pouring rain when we left Tuesday. That would have made for a miserable ski day. We drove through torrential downpours from Snowshoe all the way to NC, and had the weather been better probably could have made the drive in 8.5 hours.
So we made the initial trip to IN to avoid the 22 hour round-trip to WV, but ended up driving nearly 30 hours instead. Go figure. But we got to catch up with some good friends and actually had a good time visiting on the drives. And what a beautiful drive it was from the border of WV all the way to Snowshoe then back down to NC. I love the mountains, they are such a beautiful display of God's greatness. A perfect ending to a perfect trip. I'll post pictures of us on the slopes as soon as I get them developed.
Jumping on the Blogging Bandwagon
So we're starting a blog. I hope some people enjoy reading about us as much as we enjoy reading about other people!
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