6-6 Tag

I decided to play this picture tag.

Wow this was a long time ago. I think the picture was taken December 2002. I am sitting with my niece Audrey at my in laws house. You can't tell but I was about 4 months pregnant in the picture and I think Audrey is 4 years old almost 5 since her birthday was the next month.

I tag anyone who wants to play. Go to your My pictures folder and choose the 6th folder and then the 6th picture.

Have fun remembering I sure did!

General Tso Chicken

General Tso Chicken is been one of my favorite Chinese dishes. I love how the sauce is sweet and yet the red pepper flakes made your mouth warm and flushed. I have always enjoyed Chinese food and so I was a bit nervous when James and I went to Beijing a few weeks ago that I would not like the real deal, since American and Belgian Chinese food is pretty toned down. But I am happy to say I really enjoyed the authentic food. I am sure what I ate was still pretty mild since we ate mostly at the hotel restaurant's and they see a lot of foreigners but I look forward to having an Ayi and enjoying real Chinese food. I think I want her to cook for us twice a week and I want to watch her cook so that I can learn some new ways of cooking. I know if I cooked along side a Belgium I would learn a lot too but that isn't something I have really had a chance to do.

Sorry I can't remember where I found this recipe. It is one I got online a while ago but didn't get around to trying it until now.

1 1/4 cups long-grain brown rice
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 pound snow peas, trimmed and halved crosswise
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated and peeled
3 tablespoons light-brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
2 large egg whites
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as safflower

Cook rice according to package instructions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1/2 cup cold water until smooth. Add snow peas, garlic, ginger, sugar, soy sauce, and red-pepper flakes; toss to combine, and set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together egg whites, remaining 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add chicken, and toss to coat.
In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Lift half the chicken from egg-white mixture (shaking off excess), and add to skillet. Cook, turning occasionally, until golden, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate; repeat with remaining oil and chicken, and set aside (reserve skillet).
Add snow-pea mixture to skillet. Cover; cook until snow peas are tender and sauce has thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Return chicken to skillet (with any juices); toss to coat. Serve with rice.

Pop-up Card

I made this pop-up card today. It was a bit of work but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I was really excited to make a pop-up card but as I looked through my stamps I had a hard time finding one that would work for a cut out.










I took several pictures so that you can see how the pop-up works.

I used my Blooming with Happiness and Eastern Blooms stamp sets and the paper colors are Rose Red, More Mustard, and Kiwi Kiss.

In this picture I used a Filigree Brad.

Recollection Thank Yous!

I have had this paper called Recollections for a few years and have always liked it but I think I only used it once. I have been challenging myself to stop hording my paper and use it. I have been trying to use it on Scrapbook pages since I will be keeping those for a long time but I wanted to make some cards and this is what I can out with.

Baked Curry Cod

Has anyone else notice how all my food pictures kind of look the same. I guess I like yellow food a lot since that seems to be the color of most the food I have posted.

Those of you who know me pretty well know I don't like fish. I like shrimp and sea scallops but other than that I stay away from food that's home was the ocean or water. But at our last enrichment we did a potluck and everyone brought things to eat and they were also suppose to bring the recipe. Well we didn't get a very good turn out only 5 of us were there but Sister Vivian Leman made this fish dish and I loved it. So I decided to give it a try for our Valentine's dinner since James really likes fish and I thought it would be a special treat for him.

I will do my best since the recipe was a little of this and a sprinkle of that.

1 lb. Cod fish, skin and bones removed
1 golden delicious apple, peeled, cored and sliced
6 slices of swiss cheese
1 T. fish salt
1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. flour
1-1/2 to 2 c. flour
1 t. curry powder

Lay fish in a 9x9 glass baking dish. Sprinkle with fish salt and sliced apples. Lay swiss cheese on top of apples. In a sauce pan melt butter and add flour to make a rue. Cook slightly until light brown color stirring constantly. Slowly add milk until a white sauce is made. Stir in curry powder and pour over fish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Using Glitter

Well I like to go to the splitcoast stampers website and the challenge I chose to do today was use glitter on a card. I have been wanting to use this stamp set called , Big on Spring, and I thought it would make a nice card and that filling in the heart with glitter would work nicely. I have also been challenging myself to use my scraps since I have quite a large pile of them. So everything on the card is made with scrap paper I had from other projects and I used a piece of ribbon I have been hording. I am really a terrible hoarder but I thought since this was James' Valentine card I should try and make it nice. I really like the teal and pink with the chocolate chip paper, they just seem to go so well together.

The Great Wall and China

Well James and I got back from Beijing yesterday and I just want to say how much we loved it there. I am really hoping that the contract Barco gives us is a good one so that we can move there is summer. I have a hard time even explaining what it is I loved so much about the trip. One the food was great! I have always loved Chinese food and was a bit nervous that the real deal would not be to my liking but it was not so. The chopstick thing was really hard for me since there were no forks in most of the restaurants we ate at, but I will get better with practice. James got a good laugh if nothing else. Since James Mother served a mission in Japan she taught all her kids how to use chopsticks.

The people were so friendly and kind everywhere we went. They seem to have to make up jobs for people but that just shows how much honor the put in work. I will admit that I am not a very hard worker and I have seem their example and want to strive to do better.

Things seem pretty cheap with the once exception of food. Food is very expensive, but we stayed at a 5 star hotel and it was only $100 a night. It was a nicer hotel than I think I have ever stayed in and the service was excellent.

I will admit I felt more at home there in Beijing than I do in Europe. James and I went in to this with a very open mind and both felt like China is way more the the fears we grew up hearing about. Yes they have lots of poor people, and the have lots of poor areas. But even the old lady sweeping the street has a smile on her face. This is a country where they are growing into this fast pace world and trying to make changes the best they can to improve the lives of the people who live there. They way of going about it may not always be the best but the I don't think the American government always does things the right way either.

With the financial crisis right now I know that few people are traveling but if you are looking at going somewhere I highly recommend China! It is an experience I can't wait to take my children into. They have such a rich culture and the people have good hearts.

Recessed Window, Urban Garden

You can't tell from this picture but flowers are deep like a box. The bad things about this card is that you really can't put it in a envelope since that would smash the window. I have really fallen in love with the Urban Garden paper. These colors are so rich but soothing. The card took a bit of work but I am happy with how it turned out.

Urban Garden

Here are a few cards I made with the Stampin' up paper called Urban Garden. The first one is pretty simple but I think the patterned paper holds it's own. The second card I used the Upsy Daisy and the Dreams du jour set. I embossed them white right onto the patterned paper. I just love the Not Quite Navy, Kiwi Kiss and Soft Sky paper combination.