Forces Unite

My mom & dad came into town this weekend from Colorado and my brother also came in from California. This weekend was a much needed family weekend. We are so lucky to have such great family. And this is only half--now that we are married we get twice the family! I'm so excited to spend this weekend with my Mom and Dad and Brother and of course my Joshy :) We've enjoyed grilling brats, kabob's and veggies out on the grill and sat to enjoy the evening. I'm such a family oriented person so I just love these get togethers!

These pictures are not recent. The first one is from November 2006 in San Diego, CA; the second is August 2006 in Greeley, CO and the third is from January 2009 Las Vegas, NV.

Makes your mouth water

Wanted to include some pictures from some of the amazing meals I've cooked lately. Really been in the cooking mood and really craving these great asian dumplings/pot stickers. I almost can't make them fast enough I just want to eat them! The problem might be that our steamer only holds 3 at a time. Speaking of the steamer, I absolutely love it! I've found myself making steamed rice 5-6 times a week. This could be bad to eat this much rice, but who cares it's great! I for one love steamed rice. And I've taken different angles on it too. I've make fried rice with broccoli and zucchini and yellow bell peppers. I love veggies!

Wa-la! The fried rice using brown rice. Very tasty! With veggies.

Our wonderful rice cooker!

Also Will include a couple pictures from the previous post I did with this Tangy Turkey Meatball recipe. It was very yummy and made a great meal, or would be a great appetizer!

Last night I made asian pot stickers/dumplings with a recipe I have in my Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook. I made these previous about a month ago. And man oh man were they good! I needed to use up some of the wonton wrappers I had and just craved them. I'll find the recipe and post it here very soon!

Last night I made the pot stickers with ground beef, onion, ginger and lemon with a hint of garlic. I had more beef than I did wrappers so I used the rest and made the meatballs. I sauteed some veggies (zucchini, yellow bell pepper and some onion) in olive oil and served it all with some of the dumpling sauce I very much love! The sauce consists of:

Soy Sauce

Siracha Hot Sauce

Splash of Apple Cider Vinegar

Yum! Can't wait to cook up some more goodies. Looking forward to making some great Chewy Chocolate Drops with a recipe my Aunt Sandi just gave me. Sounds good to me!

Have a wonderful week all!

Mothers & Women

Happy Mother's Day. Whether you are, were, will be or want to be a Mother, we should all be fortunate for all the wonderful women in our lives, as my Mom put it so nicely :) We should be thankful every day for all the women in our lives. I am so lucky to have so many great women in my life. So many of my good friends have become mothers in the last few years and I couldn't be more proud. To watch them become a mother has been such a life changing event, even more so to them I'm sure, but it has also been very beautiful. Women are so strong, beautiful, amazing people. To be able to grow something inside of you for almost a year and be able to push it out of your body is just such a beautiful thing. I'd like to thank all the women in my life for just being them and being so wonderful to me. I hope that one day I will be half as good a mother as mine has been to me. Happy Mother's Day, and more importantly Happy Women's Day :)

My Mom & I on my wedding day

Josh & His Mom

Josh with both of his grandmothers

Josh and I with my Grandma & Grandpa (closest to me) and his Grandpa & Grandmas

Josh's sister Steph with her son Kayden (she's next to be married this summer!)

Stephanie who just had her first baby boy March 22

Leota who is due with her first baby boy August 28

My cousin D'anne with her daughter Tea

My cousin Alexa with one of her twin daughters Ava & May

Me and My Brother with our Grams

And this is my "baby" Lucy. She sure has gotten big :)

Tribute to Mother's Day

I love celebrating Mother's day simply because I love my Mother and my Grandma. The last few years have become more meaningful with so many of my good friends becoming mother's. I hope that one day I can be as good of a mother as my mother and grandmother have been to me.

My mom is and always has been my best friend. I'd say I am pretty lucky because during my pre-teen and teenage years I didn't fight or rebel against my mom like some teenage girls do. Maybe I was the odd one? Who knows. I've always respected her, whether I understood her logic or not, and I knew she knew best. It wasn't so much that I feared my mom but that she meant business and I respect that. Like I said, she is my best friend. My grandma, or Grams as I call her, is also one pretty amazing lady! She's always been full of great advice, fun sayings and she will tell you the truth! She is pretty honest when it comes to what she likes, dislikes or what is bothering her. I would say when I was younger that I may have feared her and was afraid to get in trouble. It is one thing to get in trouble by your parents but Grams will punish you harder! Lucky for me, I didn't get in trouble all that often!

My Mom & I Sept 2006

As for my friends that have become mother's, I must say I respect them even more. As great of a friend as they have been to me, to watch them become mother's is just amazing. It is really great to watch people become parents and how they can care and love one another so much. Like I said, I can only hope to one day be such a great mom.

So here's to all the Mother's out there, Mother's to be and Grandmother's. Thank you for being such a wonderful Mom.

My sister Steph & Kayden May 12, 2007

I don't have pictures of all my favorite mom's out there, sorry!

Collage

Having some fun....

Spaghetii, made my own way!

Went for the easy dinner idea last night: Spaghetii. However, I wanted to do something a bit different. I guess it's not really that different, just wanted to give it a twist. At first I really wanted to do a spaghetii bake and I wanted to use penne noodles but I didn't have enough. So I went traditional with spaghetii noodles. It was yummy! This recipe is really "make-it-how-you-want-it".

Spaghetii a-la Veggie:

• 1/4 to 1/2 onion chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 - 1 lb ground turkey (or ground beef, all I had was about 1/2 lb turkey)
• 1/2 to 1 whole green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 small zucchini, diced

Start by putting the onion and garlic in a deep pot with some extra virgin olive oil. Saute onions & garlic until onions are tender. Add meat (ground turkey was great!) and brown. Add veggies. These veggies were terrific! You can add other veggies if you'd like; yellow or red bell pepper would be great, I'm sure mushrooms would be tasty as well. Cook for a few min but don't let the zucchini get too soft; it was nice to have a little crunch in the sauce with the fresh veggies.

• 1 can Hunt's spaghetii sauce, large--20oz or so (any flavor you'd like, but probably best to stick to something fairly simple. I used garlic & herb, I love garlic!)
• 1 can diced/peeled tomatoes (to add more sauce)
• 1-2 Tblsp oregano
• 1-2 Tblsp parsley
• 1-2 Tblsp garlic salt

Season to your own liking, with whatever you like. I personally love garlic. You can also add season to the meat before or as you add the veggies. Let sauce simmer/cook on low for about 10-15 min as you cook your noodles. Cook noodles to your liking, amount and kind. I am in love with wheat noodles lately and they are great for you! I hope you have a wonderful dinner!

Dinner tonight...

I've planned out some meals for the week. Makes it easier when you work crazy hours like I do! So for tonight: Tangy Turkey Meatballs. From the recipe book I have & love, Taste of Home, thanks to my Grams. The recipe calls this to be an appetizer but, I can just make it a meal by adding some rice or noodles or just eating these alone!

I tend to alter recipes quite often, since I don't always have exactly what they call for or I want to make it my own! That's all the fun of cooking, and I really do love it! For this recipe I am using a bit more meat, so I will make more meatballs, but you can always do with the ingredients what you want.

Tangy Turkey Meatballs:

• 1 egg white
• 2 Tblsp dry bread crumbs
• 2 Tblsp chopped green pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 drops hot sauce (siracha hot sauce for me!)
• 1/3 lb lean ground turkey
• 1 tsp canola oil

Sauce:

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 Tblsp water
• 4 tsp lemon juice
• 4 tsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 2 teaspoon molasses (I will use sugar-free syrup instead)
• 1/2 tsp ground mustard
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/8 tsp pepper

Start by combining  egg white, garlic and hot sauce in a large bowl. Crumble turkey over mixture and mix well. Shaping into 1-inch balls and place on a small nonstick skillet, brown in oil over medium heat and drain.

Combine the sauce ingredients & pour over meatballs. Bring to a boil, reduce heat & cover to simmer for 10 minutes or so. This recipe yields 8 meatballs.