Mad Scientist and Fried Rice. . .

I had a craving for fried rice last night, so I decided to whip some up.  You know what that means, right?   I am like a mad scientist in my kitchen, at times.   I will create a recipe for something in two shakes of a rats tail.  This is how it went:
11/2 cups of Basamati rice
edamame (small bag frozen)
two eggs beaten
3 cloves of garlic pressed
soy sauce
olive oil
11/2 tbsp red curry paste
a little powdered ginger

I have never used Basamati rice before but it worked great in this recipe.   You soak the rice for thirty minutes then rinse and drain.  I cooked mine in a rice cooker.  On the stove, I used a stir fry skillet, heat 2tbsp olive oil and the pressed garlic until aromatic.  Add the red curry paste, if you want it a little more spicy add a little more curry.   Gently scramble your eggs in another skillet and set aside.   Cook your edamame on the stove and set aside.  Add your cooked rice to your stir fry skillet with the garlic and curry paste and mix well.  I add a little soy sauce and then the edamame and gently stir.  Make a hole in the center of the skillet and add the egg, let it get warmed back up and then gently incorporate it into the mixture.   This seems like it would take a long time but, it actually did not take that long.   It was a huge hit with the hubbs and I loved it.  It is not as bad for you as take out or restaurant style stir fry because you do not use as much oil.

Sex Education and Family Life. . .

In case you did not know, Big T is my youngest and he is also the one that probably tells me too much, most of the time.  I am glad that he feels comfortable talking about everything but sometimes it does catch me off guard.   The hubbs took the day off yesterday to do some things around the house and since I did not feel real well he picked the kids up at school for me.  He also did my Wal Mart shopping too.  I am very lucky to have such a sweet man as my best friend, husband, lover, and partner in this crazy life.  We quietly celebrated twenty-three years of marriage and twenty-four as best friends.   When life gets crazy and throws those curve balls we back each other up and for that I am blessed.
Since I did not pick the kids up at school I did not get to hear about all the happenings until we were on our way home from baseball and lacrosse.   Big T started telling me about his family life class, now if you do not have kids or they are not at least in fifth grade you may not know what family life class is.  Here is the long and short of it.  Family life is basically what sex education used to be.   They sort of start them in fifth grade with basics of the differences between boys and girls.  I have noticed that the girls mature  a lot faster than the boys, or at least my boys.   Each year they add a little more and get a little more specific.  Big T is now in seventh grade so it got pretty specific this year.  Since the hubbs and I both have a medical background and part of my hubbs job is to promote birth control, I felt like we had covered all of this already.    Big T gets in the car at the ball field and begins telling me about his day.  He said family life was really bad and I asked how it was bad.  He said well, you know about STD's?  I said yes, and he said well they showed us pictures of the different kinds of them.  I had seen the pictures before so, I sort of felt bad for poor Big T.   He said, it made me sick and I had to leave the room.   I simply told him that the only way to be sure not to get any of those diseases is to practice abstinence.   I also told him to catalog those images in his memory so that if he ever has the urge he could recall them and that should settle that.   We had a nice long talk on the way home about sex, condoms, and abstinence.   He then tells me they gave them a snack after the class.  I said that sounded good, he said, nope it was gummy worms.  I busted out laughing.  Poor Big T.  
Sprat, on the other hand, is very closed lipped and he rarely shares things like this with me.  We have had that talk and in fact I got a little irritated with him one day because all he would tell me about his day was that it was good or ok.  I decided I was going to take care of that.  This was when he was in seventh grade and for some reason I did not have Big T with me.  Sprat got in the car and I asked him about his day and I got the typical "ok."    I told him we were going to have the "sex talk " then since he did not have anything to tell me.   He immediately broke into his day, minute by minute and told me everything that had happened from the minute he got to school until the second that I picked him up.
I love my kids, they are very different and I guess that is what makes my world go around.   They amaze me on a daily basis, they also push me to my end on a daily basis.
Living in the little moments with my clan.

Rules to Live By. . .

I must share the sermon from Children's Church yesterday.  I use the website Sermons 4 Kids these are set up with a story and activities for the kids and coloring pages that follow the sermon.   This particular story was taken from John 13:34-35.  This story told of the rules for living, "the Golden Rules for Living."   If we all followed these little rules we would all be so much better off.

If you open it     close it
If you turn it on          turn it off
If you unlock it          lock it
If you move it            put it back
If it belongs to someone else      get permission to use it
If you don't know how to operate it       leave it alone  (men should really pay attention to this one)
If you use it        take care of it
If you break it      admit it
If you can't fix it      call someone who can   (another one for the men)
If you mess it up      clean it up
If it is not your business, don't ask questions

The last one should be, if it is not your business stay out of it.  I think these are awesome and even the lesson said if we all followed these simple rules of life our world would be a much better place.   I love getting to work with our little ones in Church, I always learn something from them.
For my ethics class I had to write my rules to live by or my personal ethics that I followed.  This would have really come in handy for that paper.

Pepper Jack Rice Casserole. . .

Last night I decided to make my jalapeno rice casserole.  As par for the course I changed things up and did a few alterations to my own recipe.  I used whole wheat orzo instead of white rice and I made up my own cream of mushroom soup minus the mushrooms.  I have never attempted to make up my own cream of mushroom soup before but it is pretty easy.   Here is how it all went down.  I started my homemade soup first.  One tablespoon of butter melting in a sauce pan then add a tablespoon or two of flour to make a rue.  Then add equal parts of milk and chicken stock about a cup each.  It will bubble up, mine did not get real thick but it worked.   Cook your white rice or whole wheat orzo according to package directions.  I used two cups of dry orzo.   Grate one 8oz block of pepper jack cheese, one can of green chilies, and 8oz sour cream.   Combine your cooked rice/orzo with shredded cheese, chilies, soup, and sour cream.  Mix and put in casserole dish and bake for 30-45 minutes at 350.  You can top with corn chips, I did not have any on hand last night so I did not use them for this recipe.  This was really good and it thickened up very well in the oven.   The hubbs loved it but, I did not even broach it with the kids.  They are not much for casseroles.

A Sprouting We Will Go. . .

Alfalfa sprouts, I love them and I have recently started sprouting my own.  Thank my Mom again for this one, she used to sprout them for us.  Growing up I ate salads all the time.  My Mom even figured out how to pack them in my lunch box.  My teachers use to love to see what I would bring to school for lunch.  I ate asparagus roll ups, salads, and vegetable spread, this was when I was in third grade.  I have mentioned how much I love sweet peas right out of the garden, well I love alfalfa sprouts that much too.   I decided I wanted to try and sprout my own this year.  Alfalfa sprouts run anywhere from $2.50-$3.75 a container depending on where you shop.  It is cheaper to sprout your own but, it is time consuming, they must be watered 2-3 times a day and their trays shifted from top to bottom.  It takes 3-5 days for them to sprout.  The picture below is half of my harvest from my very first sprouting.  I have eaten them in salads, on a flour tortilla with hummus and some fresh lettuce,  and on toast with cream cheese and lettuce.  You can find your seeds and trays on Amazon.   You will want to get organic seeds to make sure they have not been treated with any pesticide.  The trays that I bought gave specific directions on how to set them up and start your seeds.  Mom just used a mason jar and a screen over the lid.  Happy sprouting.

Beautiful Weekend. . .

Another adventure in the little moments.  Spent Saturday watching Big T's team win two more games for their tremendous 9-1 season.  We also did a drive through to another small campus for Sprat.  We have to tour when we can.
Our youth were in charge of our Sunday worship yesterday.   They did an awesome job and our youth leaders are the best.  Sprat read the Liturgy and I must brag just a bit, he did wonderfully.   I was a very proud mama.  The younger kids took over as ushers and everyone sang.  Big T was an usher and he reluctantly sang too.    Yes, their Sunday outfits are their own hand made tie dye shirts.  They made these after the grave stone cleaning on Good Friday.
I spent this morning with Big T at the dentist, he had to have a tooth pulled.  Not a happy time at our house.  He did well though, he took it like a trooper.   Milkshakes and no school, poor fella.  He is trying to milk (no pun intended) this tooth for one more day of no school.  

And the Uterus has it. . .

My  crew can never find anything they are looking for.  You might think that my house must be terribly messy, it is but not to that extent.  My hubby claims Amelia Earhart is most likely missing in my pocketbook. 
As a Mom you must be the locator of all things big and small.   I honestly do not know what they are going to do if anything ever happens to me.   You will have three males with dirty clothes,  if they are able to find said clothes.  They will be in mismatched shoes, if they have them on at all. 
Sprat came to me the other day and could not find his last bag of rubber bands for his braces.  I asked if he had looked upstairs  and downstairs he said he had.  I asked if he had checked his book bag and his pockets.   Well of course he had, how duh did I think he was.  I was in the middle of studying for a big test and really did not have time to look for his stuff.  I knew they were in the house somewhere.   They did not sprout legs and walk off.  Sprat stomped up the steps and whined again that he could not find them.  I told him if I found them he would lose the Xbox for a month.   I hoped this would inspire him to look a little harder, sadly it just caused more whining.   Only you moms will truly be able to appreciate this next part.   I got up from my computer and went into the bathroom where the illusive rubber bands were laying on the counter as plain as could be.  I could not help but laugh and this seemed to cause my poor Sprat some great distress.  It was just one more example of how truly helpless some men/boys are.  

I have always told my hubby that the Uterus is not really a homing device for all things lost but, it seems lately it is.  I am the only one with a Uterus in this house and am the only one that can find anything.   So Moms unite in the fact that the Uterus is all powerful and all knowing.  

The Uterus predicts it is going to be a beautiful day so get out and enjoy the little moments.

Empanada. . . . Comfort Food

I found an old recipe for an Empanada.  I use to make this all the time before we had kids.  The hubby loved it, I consider it a comfort food.  There are lots of recipes for the individual empanadas but this is for one big one.  Here are your ingredients.
1 pkg of pie crusts (2)
1/2 lb lean ground beef
1/3 cup sliced black olives
1/3 cup chopped onion
3tbsp cilantro (fresh or dried)
1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
1/3 cup thick and chunky salsa
11/2 tbsp taco seasoning
1 garlic clove pressed (always use fresh if you can)
1 egg beaten
Sour cream and extra salsa for garnishing. 
Let your pie crusts sit at room temp while you prepare everything.   Brown your ground beef, I add a little white wine.  After browning drain and set aside.   Drain your olives and combine with onion, cilantro, cheese, salsa,  taco seasoning and pressed garlic and mix gently. 
Gently open your pie crust and lay one out on your pizza pan brush a little of your beaten egg gently over the top.  Spread your beef mixture over the pie crust but leave 1 inch from the edge for sealing.   Spread your second crust out on a cutting board and roll it out just a bit then fold in half and line it up with your other crust.  Press and seal the edges of the crusts using a fork.  Brush the top of your crust with your egg.  I cut a few slits in the top to let your mixture breathe.   Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Serve with a dolop of sour cream and a little salsa. 

You use thick and chunky salsa for this recipe because you do not want to have too much liquid, trust me, I learned the hard way.  If you do not have an egg you can always use a little milk and brush that over top of your pie crust.  Milk will also give that golden brown to the crust.   I like the fresh garlic too, it adds a good deal more flavor than powder and it is also better for your heart.  

Until we eat again. . .

Living in the Little Moments. . .

I have been staying focused and living in the moment.  We had a fabulous weekend filled with lacrosse,  Church, youth lunch, and double header baseball to finish things off.  Two big wins for Big T and lacrosse, two hard losses to start our baseball season.   Very proud of Sprat he pitched 3 innings and struck out 5.  He was a little slower getting his bat going but boy, when he got warm,  he bounced one off the fence and knocked the third baseman on his booty with the other one.  I love watching my boys play ball.  They always keep it exciting. 
Yesterday the hubbs took the day off and we had our traditional breakfast date and then on to our errands.  I know there are many men out there that would not take their wives around for her errands but my guy does not mind.  In fact he took me to a new grocery store to try that is not too far, and it was great.  I will definitely go back.  Wonderful morning spent with one of the three best men I have known.  The other two my daddy and my daddy-in-law.  My very sweet father-in-law passed away when Big T was two.  I miss him, I wish my kids would have had the chance to get to know him.   I see him in both of my boys and most certainly in my hubby.  I think Big T resembles him the most, it is something about their eyes.  

Sad, sad day at my house this morning, my dear sweet Big T informed me that he knows about the Tooth Fairy.  He pulled a tooth last night and left it for the Tooth Fairy but, there was some question before he pulled it whether it was ready or not.  He was terribly afraid it would fall out during the night and he would swallow it.  He has been wanting it out for the past two days and I kept telling him it was not quite ready.   The Tooth Fairy must have been very busy last night because she forgot to come by our house.  Big T came down for breakfast and I saw his dish still on the table with no money I did not know what to do.  I told him the Tooth Fairy did not think it was ready either and that is why she did not leave him any money.  Ughhhh, no Mom of the year awards this week.  That is when he looked up at me with his BIG brown eyes and said, "Mom, I know."  I asked, you know what?  He said, "I know about the Tooth Fairy and have known for three years."  Ughhhhh  NOOOoooooooo!  It cannot be true, my heart still laying on the floor.  

One of Those Weeks. . .

Excuse my gap in posts, it has been another wild week here at the clan.   Baseball has gotten started full swing for Sprat and we are still battling Lacrosse with Big T.  Big T had a game last night against a local middle school,  they tied last night after beating them weeks before.  This middle school team is really good so if we could not get another win against them, I guess a tie will do.  
A cold front came through the other day and I think I may have lost some of figs.  I do not think anything in the garden was damaged but my figs are most definitely going to suffer.  I am not sure what type of fig we have but some years I get two crops; and early crop and then one later in the year.  I think the cold may have damaged my early crop this year.  It ruined my early crop last year and I did not get a good late crop either.  Like most things my mom has been my influence with my garden, herbs, and fruit trees.  Mom has a huge fig tree, she can even pick them from her open window in the dining room.  I have always loved figs, when I was pregnant and my folks would come up to see us they always brought me fresh figs.  Mom also makes fig preserves, they are so good.  I have not tried my hand a preserves yet, I have never had enough at one time to make preserves.  I eat them right off the tree, they rarely make it into the house.  I have found some good recipes on Pinterest for figs and cheese and honey.  If I do have enough to do anything with I think I will try one of those recipes.  Mom always keeps me stocked on my fig preserves.
I really do enjoy eating what we grow, I wish I could get my kids a little more excited about it.  They each have certain things that they like out of the garden; Sprat likes the potatoes and Big T likes the lettuce and spinach.  The hubbs and I like it all!  I am going to try and freeze more of my jalapeno zucchini cornbread casseroles this year and I hope we will be able to freeze more peas too.  
Stay tuned I will probably share that zucchini recipe again and a few more that I have tucked away.  I might even share my hubbs pepper jelly recipe, yummmm.

I Like the Small Campus. . .

We had a great time this weekend.  Met with the Vice President of the college, that was a surprise.   I would wager a guess that the Vice President of NC State would not sit down with a prospective student.  I was very impressed with the campus and all of the student perks and the people.   The student that showed us around was great.  At one point when we were walking across campus, I asked Sprat what he thought about everything.  I expected a smarmy teen answer but, he said he liked the campus and the fact it was smaller.  One thing the Vice President told us was that when doing the college tour thing to pay attention to how the people associated with the college treat you.  He said he took one of his kids on a tour of their dream college and they were treated just like a number.  I am sure that is why he was visiting with each family on the tour personally.  He knew what it felt like to be treated as a number.  All of our other college visits will be compared to this one and I am not sure how they will measure up.  Stay tuned, several more trips to come before a decision is made.  We hope to go to a larger University in June.  

Bless Big T, he got car sick on the way to the college and I had to call my mom to come get him so Sprat and I could do our tour.  Thank goodness mom and dad do not live far from the college, I told Sprat that would be a perk too.  He could go and visit with Gee and Poppy any time he wanted and I know she would feed him.   Below are two of my pictures from our tour;  the first one is the Honors College dorm and the second is  the clock tower on campus near their student center.