Be specific

For FHE this past Monday night, I made this enormous pan of lasagna with meat, pepperoni, three different cheeses - Parmesan, cheddar, mozzarella, etc. Guess what, no one came to dinner. Good thing the three boys at home like it. They have to eat it over a few day.
Some of the things we talked about (common sense things), is that no doing laundry at 12 am since our bedroom is across the room from the laundry room, No cooking food after 12 (nothing smell worst then the smell of food cooking when you are trying to sleep, and no girls after 11:45 pm. so they can be home by 12 am and no TV after midnight.  After that evening, At about 1 am, I heard the TV on. The two Maori boys were watching a DVD show and making microwave popcorn. Dana said no TV after midnight, he did not specified no movies and we did not specific cooking included microwaving pop corn. I never thought microwave popcorn could smell so bad. Be specific, when it comes to rules.
It is hard for the boys with nothing to do during the day. The house can only be so cleaned. The weather is not cooperating, therefore, two very bored Maori boys at home since they do not like to read books that has more words than pictures. It is going to be a very long few months for these boys. They had expected more practices and playing time, but with the weather, that has not been the case.  I asked if they want to do services for families that have lots of little kids, so the moms can have a break, they said no.

snow for newzealanders

On Tuesday,we had quite a  snow storm. The two Maori boys got to shovel snow while Ashton was at school.

This is the first time that the boys are experiencing so much snow and shovelling it. I do not know whether they like it or not.

I had them eating beans and carrot with their meal. (Brandon does not like beans and Walter does not like carrots), I figure if I served them on their plates they will have to eat what I put on their plates. Brandon said, I guessed I will force myself to eat the beans. I told him, be grateful, we have food to eat. If it is up to them, they will only pick out the meat. I don't believe they eat this much meat at home in New Zealand. I told Brandon, that he most likely will go somewhere on his mission where he will eat lots of rice and beans.

The boys went to a dance at American Fork High school. Ashton got asked by Whitney. She got two friends to ask the boys. It was a blind date for them. Walter's date is half Brazilian, and Brandon's date is half Laotian. Ashton's date is a Blondie. They went to pizza factory before the dance. They had a great time..

After Rugby game at Rio Tinto on Saturday, Dana took the boys to a Jazz game - Sacramento King and Jazz. Jazz won in overtime. They went to Bajio for dinner. Naivasha and I had a girl night with one of Vasha's friend Maria. We had take out from Panda Express.

Rugby girls when they are not playing and out there cheering the boys.

curry, curry

We had curry for dinner for FHE this past Monday night. We have a new member joined us. It is one of the boys brother who just got here from California. Here are what you need for curry

1/2 cup of curry powder (Indian or Malaysian)

1 thumb size fresh ginger

I med. onion quarter

9 cloves garlic

sea salt

bleck pepper

2 tbsp. oil

1 can coconut milk

1/2 cup soya sauce

12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

red potatoes

In a food processor, add curry powder, garlic, ginger, and chopped finely.  Add 2 tabsp. coconut milk to mixture and mix well.

                                                     Washed and cut up potatoes. Wash, cleaned, dried chicken and cut into bite size pieces.

Marinate chicken with soya sauce, black pepper, curry powder and 2 tbsp. ccoconut.  Heat up a large pan.Add 2 tbsp. oil, add onion mixture. Saute on low heat for 5 minutes to bring out the spices.                            

Add remaining coconut to pan, sit well, add potatoes, and chicken. Mix well. Add salt to taste. If you like spicy curry, this is a good time to add 1 tsp. of chili powder.

Bring to boil. Covered pan, simmer curry for about 20 minutes.

I served curry with rice and stir fried cabbage in galic and olive oil. The kids really like this. We also had home made bread with it.

Rugby in St. George

The girls team got beaten royally, but had a great time. Naivasha was chosen by the other team as woman player of the match.

For the games, we were in charge of lunches for 75 people. We made 60 pounds of pull pork and had pull pork sandwiches. We had potato chips, oranges and drinks for the lunch. No one got sick. We had cooked the pork at home, and heated the food at the Buehner's home (who live about 3 minutes away from the field). We were going to warm the meat up at the grandparents - who live 30 minutes away. We stayed there the kids stayed with their teams.
 The U19 team won all their games. Lone Peak got beaten by Low Land and Snow Canyon. During one of the U19 games, I thought I saw Ashton ran pass me during a game. (It was Danny another player, I could have sworn it was Ashton) I called out (loudly) Run Ashton, run, run Ashton run. I turned to Dana and asked, why is he not wearing his scrum cap? He said, looking at me, as if I was out of my mind, and point to Ashton who is standing at the side line. All his friends and the sideline teammates were looking at me and laughing, because everyone knew Ashton was standing there, except for his mother, who was cheering him on, on the top of her lungs. The team on the field were looking around to see where Ashton was in the field.



Ashton and Jordan



Shanda and Brandon



I took the kids to see "I am number 4." I like it, except for the love story in the the movie. It is pretty dumb. Everything else was good, even the pop corn. After that we came back to the house to hang out. Dana had cook up some sausages for dinner. The boys were happy

pork veal for dinner

Since Veal are expensive to buy, I would get pork loin, sliced them thinly, tenderized them a little with a metal tenderizer. For this recipe, you will need: pork loin, flour for dredging the meat in, salt, white pepper, lemon pepper seasoning, oil and butter, sliced onion, mushrooms, minced garlic, chicken broth or chicken boillion, marsala wine and some heavy cream for the sauce.

pork loin - sliced thinly and tenderized
Mix 1cup all purpose flour with 2 tbsp. lemon pepper, black pepper, 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt,
oil for frying pork in
chicken bouillon to taste with water to make one cup broth
1 medium onion, sliced thinly.
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tbsp. butter
2 cups sliced small portebello mushroom or whatever mushroom you prefer
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup marsala wine
1 tsp. white pepper
1 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary


In a large frying pan,add about 3 tbsp. olive oil. Dredge pork slices in flour mixture, shake off extra flour. Put in hot oil. brown on each side. Remove from pan. Set aside, until all the pork are done. Add more oil as necessary.
Once all the meat are done, in the same pan, add a little more oil, 1 tbsp. minced garlic, 1 tbsp. butter, onion and mushrooms. Saute until onion is transparent. Add marsala wine, chicken broth, cream and white pepper. Stir to mix. Add the pork back into the pan, with the chopped rosemary. Bring to boil. Turned down heat, and simmer for about 4 minutes. I served it over rice. The boys ate the left over for breakfast.

homemade mac and cheese for boys

The Maori boys love to eat hot dog. Hot dogs with rice, hot dogs with buns. naked hot dogs with nothing, hot dogs for breakfasts, hot dogs for lunch, hot dogs for midnight snack, and hot dogs with mac and cheese. I asked if they are sick of hot dogs yet, they said no, so we went and got more hot dogs for them. They also loved anything with lots of cheese. Tonight we are having home made mac and cheese.

Ingredients:

16 cups cooked elbow macaroni ( I also use ziti pasta)  = to 7 cups uncooked macaroni pasta cooked in 16 cups of salted water - I cook my pasta for 10 minutes instead of the 12 minutes,so it is el dente.

5 cups shredded cheddar, 1 cup grated Parmesans, 3 cup shredded mozzarella)

3 cups cream (I use heavy cream and Parmesan cheese instead of making bechamel)

1/2  tsp. cumin

Preheat oven to 375 degree

Mix all the above in a large bowl. Pour into a casserole pan. Top with additional cheddar and mozzarella cheese.

This is a good time to freeze it for another time. If freezing it, be sure to wrap the casserole in plastic wrap and wrap again with tin foil. It can be frozen for up to a month. Be sure to remove plastic wrap before baking.  If out of freezer, bake 1 hour (Covered with tin foil ), uncovered, bake another 10 minutes, until top is bubbly and golden.

If prepared ahead and keep in fridge for a day or for the evening in fridge and not frozen, bake covered with foil for 40 minutes and uncovered and bake another 10 minutes until golden.

If pasta is still warm, (the cheese will melt as you toss the ingredients together) bake uncovered for about 10 minutes until the top is golden brown and bubbly.

Tonight I am serving it with grilled teriyaki geese breast.   

   

Hiroshima revisted (apology to my Japanese friends in advance)

I had posted this earlier, took it off, but Naivasha insisted that I put it back on. A few nights ago, I had a bunch of boys to dinner. The next day, after teaching school all day, I walked in the door, Ashton told me that I needed to check out the guest bathroom, because he is not cleaning it.
I walked in there, lifted the toilet seat up, whow, I almost threw up. It was like someone had dropped an atomic bomb down the toilet. It looked like Hiroshima must have looked when the US dropped the atomic bomb on them.
Seriously,one needed mask and goggles to clean up the toilet. To made matter worst, the person tried to clean up by using the toilet brush, since there were no plunger available. This made matter worst. I must have used up a whole bottle of Clorox toilet cleaner, a whole bottle of disinfectant cleaning up the mess.
Last evening, we have some of the same boys over to dinner and FHE, Ashton had to tell some of them, and I told the others, that I do not want any surprises when they come to eat and use the bathroom. Of course, none of them that were here last night, admit to it. After the boys left, I did not find any nasty surprises.

Mckay day

We fed a bunch of boys for breakfast this morning of sausages and french toasts. They were going to go out, but a couple of them did not want to spend the money. It is decided that it is cheaper to eat at our house.

Today is a McKay day. His best friend from Kindergarten is coming home tonight from his mission in Serbia. We are happy that Marc is coming home. However, it brings pain like pouring hot boiling oil on our spirits.
 I miss McKay filling the house with his piano playing and singing, I miss his smile, I miss him hanging out with us at the dining table, I miss dancing with him, I miss him giving me a hard time, I miss watching him hang out with his brother and/or sister, I miss him walking in the door and said, "Mommy where are you? I am home, Mommy how was your day? What did you do today (he wanted details)," I miss him wanting to know what is for dinner, I miss his kindness to those around him, I miss his smile, his voice, I miss him bringing friends to our house, I miss his intelligent around me, I miss everything about my McKay.

It is a good thing Ashton had the day off from school. He ended up crying with his mother. The other boys feel bad, but do not know what to do with us. The boys decided to go to Burgess park to practice rugby. Ashton insisted that his mommy comes along. He would not let me stay home alone. Smart and sensitive son. It was a nice thing. I was able to sit on a lawn chair - enjoying the sunshine and watching the boys throwing around rugby balls.