It Looks as Good as it Tastes

Of late I’ve discovered that I really enjoy having something decorative on our dining room table. We’ve done a lot of flowers which has been great except for the times when I pick something up and then have allergy issues from the flowers. Sneezing and having itchy eyes kind of takes the enjoyment out of the blooms. With that in mind, I decided we needed something fun for the Easter season and hit Pinterest, of course, to find some cute ideas. Once I had a plan, Malia became my cohort in crafting. We shopped the dollar store, the craft store and the grocery store to find just the right elements and then she helped me create a masterpiece. Malia and I are both pleased with the results of our afternoon’s work. Now the kitchen smells like marshmallows and chocolate. It’s a pretty appetizing alternative to flowers. And although the Peeps are going to get hard pretty darn quickly, my family is looking forward to eating the Cadbury chocolate eggs after Easter has passed.😉

 

A Hunting We Will Go

With a recent announcement from our stake leadership, weekly youth meetings have finally resumed. One of the very first activities the young women planned was a COVID safe Easter egg hunt for all the primary age children. We have not been given permission to hold primary meetings of any kind as of yet, so the young women went to every house that has primary aged children and did a small egg hunt for each family. What an amazing service for the little ones who have had no primary of any kind for over a year. Malia was so thrilled. My mama heart is full of gratitude. These girls and their leaders are amazing. 

Dulce de Lightful

With my current food trend focusing on cheesecake, I was unable to resist a cookbook called “The Cheesecake Bible.” This tome contains three hundred ways to make my mouth happy. After poring over its pages, I selected my first experiment. My latest delightful cream cheese creation was a luscious dulce de leche cheesecake. I could eat this stuff all day. It’s probably a good thing I’m required to share with my live-in taste testers. 😉 

Let the Band Play!

Tonight was an exciting evening. After a year of cancellations and disappointments, Matthew finally got to participate in a band concert. Due to the C-word, this was only his second concert ever. He was in beginning band last year and beginning band is not ready for a concert in October, so his first concert was in December. His next concert was scheduled for last March. In fact, it was scheduled for the week that things shut down. It went from being a normal performance to a streamed performance to being completely cancelled in just a couple of days and was one of his first COVID related disappointments. After a year of no performances and streamed concerts during the normal band class period, it was amazing to be back at a concert. No matter how good the recording or the stream, it can never come close to imitating live music. There were COVID precautions in place, of course, including each band having their own performance time rather than having one big concert, required masks and social distancing, but despite all that, it was glorious. Matthew is in the intermediate band and enjoys that, but he loves the jazz band. His joy in the music and the opportunity to perform were evident in his face. It was so fun to see his face light up with excitement.

This is a baby step toward normalcy. Sometimes it feels like things are never going to be the same again and in reality they may never be exactly the same, but every time we regain a bit of our lives, it feels like a win. I had not realized just how much I had missed the live performances and being able to support my kids as they get back some of these events brings me joy.

Church to Child

In the past few years, it has become pretty normal for the church to do special broadcasts for certain groups within the church-youth, young adults, families, etc. However, today was a first for the church. This afternoon Malia and I watched the first ever Friend to Friend broadcast, an event created specifically for the children of the church. While we have resumed sacrament meetings and second hour meetings via technology, there has been nothing at all for the primary kids. I know that some wards and stakes have done things for the kids, not necessarily meetings or activities, but something to reach out to the children and give them something to look forward to, but our stake has not allowed anything at all. It has been hard on Malia. She has missed primary so much and while we print the activity page from the lesson manual and try to have some kind of primary experience here at home, it is most definitely not the same. Her longing for primary has brought her to tears on multiple occasions. As such, today’s broadcast was a blessing for her. As she watched she participated by singing, drawing, creating rock art, etc. It was wonderful! AND the fact that one of the presenters told the kids to start looking for rocks to create rock art had her justifying the big box of rocks she has in her room. I guess if the church condones it, I can’t really tell her not to do it. 😉

As soon as the broadcast ended, Malia declared that she was wishing for another one. I’m hoping and praying that before long she’ll be able to have some kind of primary to go back to. It has been nearly a year and that is a long time for anyone. 

Yet Another Pandemic Birthday

As my boys have gotten older, their birthday celebrations have naturally become more low key. Add to that a worldwide pandemic, and Matthew’s fourteenth birthday was downright mellow. We did the cake and candles thing (or in this case the cookies and candles thing) on Sunday while Daniel was here. Matthew opted to do chocolate chip cookie bars instead of cake, so I created a mountain of cookies so there would be a place for the candles to go. I was looking for something to make our celebration a bit special, so I picked up some sparkler candles. I thought it would be fun. What I didn’t know until after the candles were lit and blown out was the fact that these particular candles also have a tendency to reignite. It had not been my intention to make my asthmatic child blow out the candles a dozen times, but it happened and was actually pretty entertaining. Matthew was a good sport and once he figured out that blowing out the flame was not going to get the job done, he got a bowl of water, blew candles out one at a time, and immediately grabbed the extinguished candle and dropped in into the water.

Today was his actual birthday and we had balloons and doughnuts on hand to celebrate. Kevin also took him to K-1 Speed, an indoor go cart spot, by way of an activity. One of Matthew’s favorite video games is one where he just gets to drive a semi-truck all over. The creators map actual roadways and he really enjoys the driving, so driving for real was a good fit.

A few present highlights-Nathan gave Matthew a Metal Earth semi-truck. Like I said, Matthew really enjoys his driving game. He also really liked the wrapping Kev used for the presents from us. Many of his BYU t-shirts have become muscle shirts in the past year, so he has needed a few new ones. He was excited about the big boy Ironman Lego and the electric razor was a less popular, but highly practical gift.

Matthew has grown up a lot in the past year. This particular age has always held a big growth spurt for my boys, and while Matthew has not gained statuesque heights like Nathan did, he has outgrown his pants three or four times in the past year, and he is now taller than I am. He has also grown up mentally and emotionally. In some ways he has always been more mature than others his age due to the necessity of dealing with his food allergies and his subsequent greater understanding of his own mortality, but there has been a big jump forward this year. All of a sudden, he is no longer a little boy. He is a young man. We have all been faced with some daunting emotional challenges in the past year and Matthew is no exception. But he has leaned on his faith and his family and has been able to withstand the adversities that have come. That’s a valuable skill to have gained. I’m hopeful that as life eventually returns to a more normal state that he’ll remember what he has learned and continue to allow all of us to support him. Matthew is the one of my children that I intuitively understand the least, so having him learn to trust us and talk to us makes a huge difference in our relationship. I’m grateful for his trust and hope our relationship will continue to grow as we all move forward as a family. 

Year of the Ox

One of the ways my family celebrates our Chinese heritage is celebrating Chinese New Year. The actual lunar new year was on February 12, but today would have been the day my family gathered for our traditional big family feast in honor of the day. With our current need to social distance, I decided we were still going to celebrate. However, cooking a dozen courses all by myself seemed daunting so instead of creating one enormous feast where just one bite of everything would make me so full I felt like barfing, I decided to spread the feast out over an entire week. My immediate family was totally on board with the endeavor, of course, so we’ve spent the past week enjoying Chinese cuisine.

While I was pondering how to structure our menu for the week, I realized that while I know how to cook all the Chinese fare, I don’t usually bother with the exception of teriyaki and a variety of stir fries. I know my mom will make things for our Sunday dinners fairly regularly, so I just enjoy it on those occasions. But the accompanying light bulb was the fact that if I don’t teach my kids how to cook these traditional dishes, they will lose that part of their culture. That is something I definitely don’t want to happen, so as often as possible, I included the kids in the creation of the past week’s meals.

We started our weeklong ethnic food experience with the sweet courses, because who doesn’t like to eat dessert first once in a while? Our treat for family home evening on Monday was Chinese almond cookies and gau. The cookies are always a favorite around here, but gau receives more mixed reviews. Daniel, Nathan and I like it while Kevin, Matthew and Malia give it a hard pass. And I’m ok with that. It is actually pretty weird by American standards. I did learn that due to our high altitude, gau doesn’t cook well if you try to steam it the same way you would at sea level. But once I consulted with my mom and broke out the pressure cooker, it came out just right.
 

 

On Tuesday we enjoyed Hawaiian style chicken long rice. While it may not be traditional Chinese fare, my mom grew up in Hawaii so elements from other cultures are mixed up in our traditions. When they are as tasty as chicken long rice, I feel like it is a boon rather than a diluting of the traditions. And it is a reflection of my family heritage. Matthew and Malia absolutely love this particular dish which means I made lots so there would be enough to go around. And I made Malia earn her portion. She sat and shredded all the chicken once it was cooked.

 

Dinner on Wednesday was composed of Chinese chicken salad and shumai. Malia was my sous chef again and help me assemble all the shumai. They are supposed to end up looking like little meat filled baskets, but she thinks outside the box (or the dumpling) and decided she liked them much better shaped as little flowers. They were definitely cute, but due to the fact that they had shrimp in them, she didn’t actually end up liking them. Next time I make them I might have to be a nice mom and leave the shrimp out of a few so she can actually enjoy the fruits of her labor. But for those of us who like seafood, they were delicious. Definitely something we want to see on our menu again.

 

Thursday was our fried rice day. This is a meal that we have more regularly, but I don’t make it the way you usually see it in restaurants around here-rice with some ham, peas and egg. I make it the way my mom taught me-rice with some ham, a plentiful amount of various tasty stir fried veggies and egg. That way it is a full meal rather than just a side dish. I always make one big pan with all the fixings and one small one without the egg so Matthew can enjoy it as well.

We celebrated the arrival of the weekend by eating stir fry noodles with char siu pork on Friday. While I was in the planning phases of this big adventure, I discovered that the char siu seasoning packets I’ve always used have a cross contact warning for peanuts, so I made the char siu from scratch this time. Let me tell you, it was well worth the extra time. It was absolutely delicious. Matthew told me that we never need to use the packets again and I agree with him whole heartedly. We broke with tradition again because didn’t use the traditional egg noodles. Matthew can’t eat them which is why we ditched them, but the egg-free yakisoba noodles we used instead were entirely delicious. Because of the egg noodles, this is one dish Matthew can never eat when we gather with my family. That was a huge perk to doing our food celebration on our own-Matthew could eat everything. 

Saturday was dim sum day. With everyone at home (including Daniel), I had plenty of helpers when it came to creating all our tasty morsels. We enjoyed char siu bao, sweet bean paste bao, wontons with sweet and sour sauce, banana fritters, egg rolls and potstickers. We purchased the egg rolls and potstickers, but everything else was home made.

Throughout the course of the day, I discovered that when my children are involved, Chinese cooking lessons can also double as entertainment. While making bao, Nathan lost his grip and ended up with a bao floor taco. He also managed to create a bao dinosaur which is funny because he was actually trying to make a normal bao and as his attempts headed south, he turned his food into art. The other kids did pretty well with the bao and after several years of practice, I managed to create a couple that look pretty darn close to the traditional twisted top. 

 

While Nathan struggled with bao, he did just fine folding wontons. Of course, he has had lots of practice there so he had some past skills to fall back on. Malia was terribly dismayed with the sad results of her first wonton, but by her third she had it all figured out. Matthew’s first attempt was laughable, but his second was just fine. However, he is a (nearly) 14-year-old boy and he got bored making normal wontons so he got creative and we ended up with an Eiffel Tower wonton. As for Daniel, origami genius extraordinaire, he made beautiful wontons from the get go.

I think dim sum night was my favorite of the week. Yes, there is a lot of manual labor involved. But not only did we eat the foods that we generally eat least frequently, but all my little clan was here. And we all worked together to create our meal. And we talked and laughed and celebrated our heritage and had a fabulous time. And yes. I did in fact eat too much. But not so much that I felt like barfing. So that’s a plus. 😜

 

This evening we finished our weeklong celebration with our family favorite broccoli beef. We also celebrated Matthew’s birthday, but that is another post. After the whirlwind of activity that was dim sum day, today was a nice, calm day. It was wonderful to have all my kiddos here. I know that in coming years, these moments will become fewer and farther between, so I intend to enjoy them whenever they occur. And while the social aspect of celebrating with our extended family was missed, I actually really enjoyed spreading the food out so I could enjoy each and every dish. Having said that, I’m really starting to crave a good burger. 😉

Wacky Weather

The past year has been a weird one and it seems that trend is extending to the weather now. All my life I’ve heard the adage to never eat yellow snow, but today I’m thinking that should be expanded to include brown snow. Because that’s what we’ve got.

 

Some internet searching informed us that the strong winds associated with today’s storm kicked up loads of dust and salt which mixed with the snow that then fell as the storm progressed eastward. We also learned that while this phenomenon has happened before, it is most definitely not a common occurrence. Since I’m forty-seven and have never seen this kind of snow before, I would have to agree with it being a rarity. I guess today’s dust colored precipitation is another one for the record books…or the blog.