Friday, February 25, 2011

The doctor said

I got a call last evening from the doctors office saying they need to see me. They got my blood work back from the lab. I went this morning. For the first time, my cholesterol is high at 210 and my Uric Acid is too high. My test showed that I am obese at 5 foot three and 175 pounds. I said to him, do I look obese to you? He said no, no one would. He then said, I don't know how to say this without insulting or offending you. You are very well proportion, and you are build like a line backer. There you have it. I am build like a line backer. Nothing new. Thirty years ago, when I was a student at BYU Hawaii, while playing tennis in my short tennis outfit, thinking I was looking great. Two guys walked by and pointed to my calves and said "wow, look at those calves, they are like linebackers."  Needless to say, I have avoided wearing shorts or showing my legs again. I think it is God's way in keeping me from wearing short skirts and shorts.
The doctor said, " if you were to sit next to someone who has your weight and height, it would be like sitting next to a pear." He told me because I do work out regularly, my physical appearance is Missleading. He prescripts medicine for my gout and told me that I should lose 10 months, and to increase my cardio in my workout. It would be easier on my gout and feet. I am to go back in a month. I came home, promptly ate a bowl rice with hot dogs for my breakfast. Now if you will excuse me, I need to get my backside downstairs and hit the gym.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Strogonoff for dinner

Here is the recipe for the strogonoff.  You will need the following:

5 pounds rump roast - washed, pat dry, sliced thinly across grain
Worcester sauce - about 1/2 cup
A 1 steak sauce - about 1 cup
16 oz. fat free sour cream
sliced mushroom (washed)
minced garlic
slice onion - medium size
black pepper
1 tbsp. chicken bouillon 
4 tbsp. olive oil


Washed the meat, pat dry, sliced the meat across grain







Marinate sliced meat with A1 and worchester sauce






sliced onion,mushroom,mince garlic





 heat pan. Add two tabsp. olive oil. Saute onion and garlic. When onion is translucent, add sliced mushrooms - cook for about two minutes



Removed saute mushroom, onion mixture to a bowl. In same pan, add 2 tbsp. oil, add marinate meant
 and brown the meat.




Once meat is brown, add mushroom mixtures. Stir in sour cream. Cook for a couple more minutes.






Butter the cooked wide noodles and serve strogonoff over it.  It is also good over butter rice as well.

pork or chicken for Rugby lunch

This morning, I stopped by to visit McKay and to make sure his graveside is neat and cleaned.
The flowers still look good. I got a call this morning from a rugby mom asking us and three other parents to provide lunch for 75 people on Saturday. I have the main meal assignment. What can I make to feed 75 people without breaking the bank. Dana said we did break the bank.
We discussed it with the boys. It was a toss up between teriyaki chicken/rice, Hawaiian pork/rice or sandwiches. We decided on puledl pork sandwiches. Most cost effective, and we can control the food a little better. It is more hygienic as well.
We went shopping at Costco and bought about 60 pounds of picnic pork roast and 96 hamburger buns. I hope it is enough. On Monday night, eight boys ate 12 pounds of pork roast. We will season the pork roasts, cook it on low all night long. We will take it down to grandpa and ma, and warm it up on Saturday for lunch.
The kids just left for rugby practice. Dana is hoping to take me out on a date. It is not going to happen. I have to cook dinner for the boys for when they get back from practice.  We are having beef stroganoff over egg noodles.
The boys think Utah has lots of beautiful girls. They have never seen so many pretty girls in one ward, or in high school.
Last night after scriptures and prayer, we were sitting around visiting. Ashton has been accepted to BYU, and thinking about living in the dorm. Walter immediately pipes in and said, when Ashton moves out, I can move into his room. This is a kid who has a plane ticket to leave in May.
I am hoping that Ashton will go to UVU, live at home, after a year, go on his mission, come back get his associate degree at UVU and then go to BYU.  We will see what he decides.


Dana got an early birthday, anniversary and fathers day present from me. He got a new muffler with a throatier sound, a full helmet, and a back rest, (so I no longer have to be his back rest) for his Harley. He can now go for  trip to Death Valley in March, with some of the guys in our stake. Shirley is going to stay home and keep an eye on the three teenagers at home.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Pavlova for boys




We got a text earlier in the day from Ashton,  that after rugby practices,  - the boys are coming home with 5 more boys to dinner. I made a 12 pound pork roast, garlic mashed potatoes, rice, stir fried green beans, and salad for dinner. They ate everything. One of the boys, a new convert, Sione  regale us with stories of his time growing up in Tonga. Telling us stories of him and his buddies talking until late at night and falling asleep where ever they are hanging at the time. Sometimes it is by the road side, under coconut trees, or under the sky somewhere. He told us how one night they were out talking, and a coconut fell on his uncle's head and knocked him out. They just left him where he fell, figuring that he needs his sleep.

We had pavlova for dessert one evening.  Here is the recipe. You will need to prepare this a head of time. Can be made the day before.

6 egg whites (room temperature)
1/4tsp. cream of tartar
1  1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp. cocoa
2  tbsp. cornstarch

Preheat oven until 300 degree. In a food processor, beat egg whites and cream of tartar









until soft peak




Sift 1 and 1/2 cup sugar  with 3 tbsp. cocoa and 2 tbsp. cornstarch





Add sugar mixture a few spoonfuls at a times, beat  egg whites until stiff and shiney


Add the balsamic vinegar. 




Line baking pan with parchment paper. Spread the merigue into a circle about 8 inches across.



bake for one hour. Turn off heat. Slight ajar door while pavlova cool down.


serve with whipped cream and berries, drizzle choc syrup on top if desire

This photo is from a cookbook "chocolate never faileth, I forgot to take a photo before the boys ate it all up.  It looks pretty close except without the choc syrup and more berries.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

piano players

In order to keep the boys busy while Ashton is at school, and the boys are not at physical therapy training, I started Walter and Brandon on the piano. We are using the easy primary song book. Since Walter is not a member, he has a little harder time learning the song, Brandon knows the songs, and he went through the book, and wrote all the note down in alphabet and started playing them. They are supposed to learn to read notes, but they try to get away by memorizing the song instead. Walter wanted to sit and practice, after an hour of practicing the same song. Wow.
At scripture reading last night, Walter wanted to know if he could start us off, and he offer to give the prayer for family night. Awesome or "sweet as"  the Maori boys would say in New Zealand.
While at mutual last night, Walter leaned over to Dana and said "this is fun." I don't think we have ever heard any kids said that mutual is fun. It is amazing to see Brandon and Ashton teaching this young man, how to pray, explaining the steps, etc. Very kindly and patiently. Amazing.
Brandon's best friend is coming as well. The club is looking for a host family for him. A family volunteer to host Russell, but the coach is not sure about it. We might end up having three kids instead. We will see. The  boys are already getting texts on Ashton's phone from girls in our ward. Imagine that. This would be new for Ashton -  texts on his phone from girls but not for him.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Ribs for Boys

The first meal I decided to cook for our sons is pork ribs. Shirley's style served over rice.  Our children and my "college boys" and husband loved this dish.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. You will need pork ribs, sea salt, loads of black peppers,  brown sugar and garlic powder and your favorite BBQ sauce. Wash and dried the ribs with paper towels. I like to lined my baking pan with tin foil for easy cleaning. Once ribs are dried, put ribs in pan.  Generously sprinkle, sea salt, black pepper, and garlic powder, and loads of brown sugar.

Ten the foil over baking pan like in the picture leaving a little opening on top. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, then turn heat down to 250 degree for 6-7 hours. If you want it faster, then bake at 300 for 4 hours instead (perfect for while you are at church). Once ribs are done, drained off the liquid, generously  pour your favorite BBQ sauce over meat and bake for another 15 minutes (uncovered).  We serve it over rice,  and ate it with broccoli and salad.
The boys ate more ribs after rugby practice at about 11 pm.
for dessert, we had haupia pie.
The Maori boys had left over ribs for lunch the next day. when Ashton came home to lunch from school, all the ribs were gone.
He is going to have to get used to not having more left over meat for lunch the next day.

sons - biological and not

Three years ago, I had two biological sons on earth. When our oldest son -McKay went to college,  he would bring home many brothers to our home to stay for weekends. On weekends, we have 10 sons instead of two. We would take two cars to college bring them home on Friday nights and take them back to the dorm on Sunday evenings. after loads of food, music, laughter, singing and more eating. McKay would sit at the piano, surrounded by his new brothers, own brother (Ashton) and sister (Naivasha), singing on top of their lungs. Some can carry a tune, others not so much, but everyone had a great time. We missed those days, when I got to cook loads of food, try new recipes on these kids. The best way to try recipes are to hungry college students.
Then the college boys were scattered all over the world to be missionaries for two years, before returning to college. These boys volunteer two years, pay their own ways, to serve and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our son was assigned to Romania. After being there for six months, he and another missionary died an accident death through carbon monoxide poisoning. We went from two sons to one son.
It had not been an easy year. My desire to cook also wane. Then I pull my head out of myself and decide that I do have a husband, daughter, and teenage son who are alive and still need to eat. I went back to doing a little more cooking not like I did, when I was always baking breads, cakes, cookies, making food from all over the world.


These past Sunday, we received two teenage boys from New Zealand. These boys are the same age as our youngest son. These boys are now brothers and sons to our family for the next few months. All three boys will play rugby for team United (they ranked 2nd in the nation). Yes, they all sit down to pee and follow the bathroom and house rule. To keep their room clean, and learn that it is a home not a dump, and if they want to live in a dump we will be happy to take them there.
When one of the boys arrived at the airport, saw a lady walk by, he said "sweet as" meaning beautiful - the lady turned around and said "excuse me."  I was advised that "sweet as" is a compliment like "awesome," "pretty," "nice," ...... Need to get use to that.

When they arrived they did not bring much, we had gone shopping for personal things like deodorants, clothes - for work (volunteer with a physical therapy place to learn some skill and to spend time instead of staying home being couch potatoes when they are not training for rugby) clothes for training, T shirts, church clothes, shoe, ties for Walter, he is not a member of our faith, Brandon is, but he need T shirts, pants, jeans, personal items, etc. It is a good thing (Dana) dad is not a stingy man. We have to teach our son Ashton that these boys do not need brand names,for their clothes.
It was funny, when Brandon came home, all he could say was "Ridiculous" when he saw our garages. He said his whole house could fit into one of our garage, that he lives in a grass hut (which is not true). Brandon is a funny kid.
He wanted some hard boiled eggs. So I made some. By the time he got around eating it, he said the yoke was cold. He like his hard boil eggs warm. I told him he could microwave it for 10 seconds. He decided to do it for 30 seconds. He took it out of the microwave, when he tried to break into the yoke, the egg combusted and splattered him and the whole kitchen with hard boil egg yoke. He thought it was so funny that he wanted to do it to Ashton when he got home from school. I told him, he will have to clean up again and mop the kitchen, he said "it would be worth it." We are in for an adventure.
Today is the first day of training for the boys. They will take turn working morning and afternoon. The one that is home and not at work, I started them on piano lessons. Walter is learning to play "Love one another, " he practiced for an hour. He did well. Walter is not a member, therefore, we had to get him church clothes, shoes and ties as well. He also needed indoor workout shoes. Walter is very excited to learn to play the piano.