Tuesday, December 9, 2008

On The Menu

So other people blog about their hobbies, interests, activities etc. I've been blogging mostly about what our little family is up to. I've decided to add in a segment devoted to one of my favorite pasttimes- FOOD.. particularly what I'm cooking, baking etc.

My first installment- Last night's dinner. Homemade Lumpia & Fried Rice

Why does my fried rice look like ground beef in the top picture? (top: fried rice -- bottom: lumpia with sweet & sour sauce)


UPDATE: Recipes

Lumpia

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup minced bean sprouts
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
40 lumpia wrappers
2 cups vegetable oil for frying

DIRECTIONS
Place a wok or large skillet over high heat, and pour in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Cook pork and ground beef, stirring frequently, until no pink is showing. Remove meat from pan and set aside. Drain grease from pan, leaving a thin coating. Cook garlic and onion in the same pan for 2 minutes. Stir in the cooked pork, carrots and bean sprouts. Season with pepper, salt, garlic powder, and soy sauce. Remove from heat, and set aside until cool enough to handle.
Place 2 to 3 heaping tablespoons of the filling diagonally near one corner of each wrapper, leaving a 1 1/2 inch space at both ends. Fold the side along the length of the filling over the filling, tuck in both ends, and roll neatly. Keep the roll tight as you assemble. Moisten the other side of the wrapper with water to seal the edge. Cover the rolls with plastic wrap to retain moisture.
Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat, add oil to 1/2 inch depth, and heat for 5 minutes. Slide 3 or 4 lumpia into the oil. Fry the rolls for 1 to 2 minutes, until all sides are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve immediately.

Makes 40 lumpia rolls


Pork Fried Rice

2 cups jasmine rice
1 cup cubed ham pieces (you can find these in the lunchmeat section usually)
1 16oz bag frozen peas & carrots
1/4 c. chopped yellow onion
1/2 c. chopped green onions
2 eggs beaten
4 tablespoons soy sauce (you can adjust this to taste)
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Cook Jasmine rice according to package directions. Let cool slightly. Heat oil in wok or large skillet and stir fry rice until slightly golden brown. Add ham, peas, carrots & yellow onion stirring until just heated through. Make a well in the center of your rice and add eggs cooking until set. Stir eggs into rice mixture. (if you're unsure of this you can scramble your eggs in a seperate pan then add to rice mixture) Add soy sauce, salt & pepper, onion powder and garlic powder and continue cooking until again heated. Remove from heat and sprinkle green onions on top.

Serves 4-6

Monday, December 8, 2008

Achievements


"Guess what I got today? We were all in the cafeteria and I got to go up in front of everybody and the principal called my name and look what I got!"




Sunday, December 7, 2008

Baptisms, Blessings & Anti-biotics


Our oldest daughter, Madi turned 8 in October but with so much going on we didn't have the opportunity to get her baptised until this weekend. What a beautiful site my husband and my precious daughter dressed in white entering the baptismal font. To see the excitement on Madi's face and the light in Jason's eyes was enough to bring this mom to tears. We were also very fortunate to have Grandma Angela, Noah & Ellis, Aunt Ivy & Abby, Aunt Kerri & Uncle Jeff, Grandpa Boyd & Grandma Elaine, The Bartons, The Abeytas & Bishop Foley all in attendance. What a blessing to have so many friends and family to witness her day.

I hadn't been feeling so great for a couple of days and by the time we got home from the baptism I was shaking and freezing and my throat was killing me. Jason finally convinced me to go to the dr. (not that I really had an option, I was too weak to fight my 6'4" 300lb husband lol). One phone call to Grandma Ang, she's such a blessing to have in our lives, had the kids taken care of and we were on our way to the E.R. A half hour later I had a 102 degree fever, a sinus infection, strep throat and a prescription for Amoxicillin. Needless to say I was pretty much worthless for the rest of the day and most of today. But I've found a few minutes where I feel well enough to sit up in bed and blog about our joyous experience.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Decorating & Donuts




It's time again to decorate the christmas tree. I bought the kids all matching plaid xmas jammies for our little tree trimming party and stole a donut recipe from my girlfriend Rebecca http://olderandwisor.blogspot.com/2008/12/its-my-party-ill-fry-if-i-want-to.html to use for our snacks that night. The tree is now lovingingly garish with a thousand mismatched ornaments and the donuts were so good I had to promise to make them again, it's a good thing the 4-pack of biscuits was less than 2 bucks at Wal-Mart (thanks rebecca!)
Homemade Donuts & Hot Chocolate


Cinnamony Deliciousness


Playing with Mom

Hey! Look what we did


Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The Joys of Motherhood...

I just love it when I get a phone call asking "Is this Madison Hays' mom?".. I just smile so big and I'm proud to answer "YES! I'm a mommy!" What sucks is when that question is followed by "She's throwing up at school, you can pick her up at the office"..UGH... I had spent several hours up with Jake vomiting the night before but Madi was fine when I sent her to school. Ahhh washing sheets and taking temps and listening to both of them argue over who gets to watch tv.... the Joys of Motherhood

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Honeymooners



Chillaxin at the fountain at the Paris Hotel, Las Vegas


After the craziness of the wedding Jason and I spent 8 sun-filled, fun-filled days in Las Vegas and Disneyland sans kids. It was a blast. Jason had never been to Las Vegas and I hadn't ever been to California Adventure. We spent two nights in Las Vegas at the Monte Carlo hotel, then three days in Disneyland at the Disneyland Paradise Pier Hotel where we enjoyed a private entrance to California Adventure, then back to Las Vegas to finish out our week at the Beautiful Treasure Island hotel.


Our first night in Las Vegas we saw that Rodney Carrington (one of our favorite comedians) was in town for one final night so we ran down to the concierge to see if tickets were still available and sure enough they were. We went and saw Rodney at the MGM Grand that night and I've never laughed so hard in my life. My stomach hurt for two days after from laughing so hard. The following day I spent many hours dragging Jason up and down the strip shopping at the millions of stores there. He even took me to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel. 500 feet above the Las Vegas strip, it's exactly half the size of the real one in Paris, France.



The Eiffel Tower, Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada



Brandi at the Arc D'Triumph, Paris Hotel


Looking Down 500 feet to the strip below from the top of the Eiffel Tower


The Magic Kingdom



On Tuesday we headed off to Anaheim and spent the next three days like two kids in a candy store at Disneyland. We rode every ride, saw the Parade of Dreams, caught the fireworks show over the castle, saw Fantasmic and fell in love with the "Soarin' Over California" ride at California Adventure. Jason even convinced me to ride the California Screamer roller coaster the goes upside down and the appropriately named "Tower of Terror" ride. I was scared to death, but it was so much fun.



Taking a break on the Train Ride



Scared to death on the California Screamer



Awww Pluto! (See what's in my hand? Authentic Disneyland Churros.. the closest thing to heaven on earth besides my husband)



Me & my very own Prince Charming in front of the Castle


We headed back to Las Vegas on Thursday night and I was reminded why I no longer live in California- THE TRAFFIC! It took us 2.5 hours to go 30 miles. So what should've been a 4 hour drive, took us more than 6. We had opportunity to catch the "Tournament of Kings" show at Excalibur (it's like Medieval Times), the "Sirens of TI" show and the dancing fountains at Bellagio. We crammed a lot of activities into 8 short days but we were glad to get the chance to spend some time with Just Us 'cuz you never know if we'll be able to do it again, at least not until the kids are grown and gone. We had an amazing time and will have many many years of memories, laughs and souvenirs to remember it by.



Showgirls at the Tropicana. I asked them if I could take Jason's picture with them LOL


The Dancing Fountains at Bellagio

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Our Life Together Begins This Day...


At least that's what the napkins at the reception said. It's finally over... months of planning, stress and freaking out and it lasted all of a couple hours. But it really was a dream wedding because I married the man of my dreams. Check out the pics of the big day below and for a more complete album I've uploaded everything to photobucket in 2 albums because they wouldn't all fit in one:
http://s262.photobucket.com/albums/ii118/Brandilinam/Wedding%20Pics/Wedding%20Pics%202/

http://s262.photobucket.com/albums/ii118/Brandilinam/Wedding%20Pics/



My handsome groom... take a look 'cuz chances are good you'll never see him in a tux again


The bride


The bride at Millenial Falls


Daddy & Daughter- just a few minutes before I walked down the aisle


speaking of the aisle...