More Recipies

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa

5-6 lb. pork roast

21 oz. Dr. Pepper (or Coke, do NOT use diet soda)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
7 oz. can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
6-ish oz. red taco sauce (I used hot)
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Before cooking the roast, rub with a little salt, pepper, basil, oregano, paprika, onion powder and red chili powder. Put the roast in the oven for 1 hour on 350 degrees. As it cooks, blend the remaining ingredients. Pour them over the top of the roast at the end of one hour and then turn the temperature down to 200 degrees for 4-8 hours. Seriously yummy. Serve in tortilla, over salad or just eat straight from the pan.

Okay, there have been a few recipes that everyone keeps asking for and I thought I'd write it down in a place where I wouldn't have to write it down again. Anyone wants another recipe, I'm just posting it on here and sending them a link to my blog!! :)

Okay, the number one recipe request:

Shrimp Gumbo

• 1 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1/4 inch rounds
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup bacon grease
  
• 1 (4 pound) chicken, cut into parts
  
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 2/3 cup green bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 pounds medium shrimp - peeled and deveined
• 8 cups water
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• file powder

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium skillet, brown the sausage over medium heat. Remove from pan, and drain on paper towels to remove some of the fat.
   
2. In the same skillet, heat 1/4 c bacon grease 1/4 c veg. oil over high heat. Brown chicken pieces in hot oil. Turn frequently until golden brown on all sides. Transfer chicken to a dish, leaving oil in pan. Set chicken aside, but keep warm. (By frying everything in the same pan, you're actually seasoning the pan which is key to good gumbo.)
   
3. With the hot oil in the pan, begin to make your roux by adding the flour. Turn heat down to low. Continue cooking flour and oil mixture, stirring constantly, until it reaches a dark brown color. This may take 30 to 45 minutes; the darker the roux, the better the final gumbo.
4. When the roux is a dark brown color, quickly add the sausage, onion, green onion tops, green pepper, parsley, and garlic. Cook over low heat until the vegetables are wilted, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
5. Stir in 2 cups water and spices. Add chicken parts. Add rest of the water slowly. Bring mixture to a boil, and reduce heat. Simmer for about 45 minutes, until chicken is done and tender.
6. Remove chicken pieces, and save for another use. Add shrimp to gumbo; cook for about 8 to 10 minutes more. Remove bay leaves. Taste, and adjust seasoning. Serve gumbo in deep bowls. Sprinkle file powder over individual servings, and stir in.

Charquican

• 1 large slice of banana squash
• 10 potatoes
• 1 lb hamburger
• 1 large onion
• 2-3 large teeth of garlic
• 1-2 cans corn
• 1/2 lb green beans
• Salt
• Pepper
• Milk
• Butter
• Cumin
• Paprika
• Basil

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium skillet, brown the hamburger. Add the onions and garlic and fry until translucent.
   
2. Spice the meat (called Pino) with cumin, salt, pepper, paprika and basil. Sorry, I don't know the amounts Cody uses, he just dumps as looks/smells good.
   
3. Peel the squash, cut into bite sized pieces and boil just like potatoes for mashed potatoes. Add some basil to the water for better flavor.
4. Drain the squash, mash with butter and milk making a runny goo that looks like orange mashed potatoes only a little more wet.
5. Make mashed potatoes with the potatoes.
   
6. Combine the squash, potatoes and pino.
7. Add corn and green beans (if desired)
8. Taste and adjust spices as needed. The longer it simmers the more the flavors come together. Usually tastes best the second day.
   

Okay I can't think of the other recipes that've been asked for lately so that's all for now. I'll add more when I think of them/when they're requested :) Enjoy.

Free Summer Activities

Okay so Cody gave me an assignment today. (Yes I know it's summer but he's an eternal teacher!) I'm supposed to make a list of all the stuff we could do this summer and create a summer schedule. Since I'm the best student in the world and lose my paper as soon sn my pencil loses contact with it, I thought I'd post it here so the world could see it!

Here goes, here are the free/low cost things we can do.

1--Utah Art Museum -- 200 S W Temple (ish) -- this is only fun-ish for the kids, but Cody and I enjoy it. We pack a picnic and eat on the grass outside on the north side of the building and the kids enjoy that part so it's a win win.

2--Church History Museum -- we've yet to see all of the stuff inside even though we've gone there a few times. We tend to end up in the Primary room with all the fun interactive stuff for kids to play on. My suggestion? Bring a book to enjoy while they enjoy themselves.

3--New Church History Library -- don't know if it's open yet, but I want to see inside!

4--Brigham Young's House/Church office Building 26th floor -- They rush you through so fast! We're hoping to find a time/day when the missionaries seem bored and there isn't another tour hot on our heels so we can actually ask questions and see all the cool stuff in there!

5--Hike Ensign Peak -- lived in Utah my whole life and I still haven't done this one. I'm thinking a sunrise hike sometime sounds great!

6--State Capital Tour -- we toured it on our own last year and that was lame, except the kids loved being in someplace so huge. This year we'll take the tour.

7--Liberty Park -- old stand by but the kids love it.

8--Gateway--playing in the water after a trip to Barns and Noble

9--**Main Library--actually, picking a different library, city or county, each week would be fun, never go to the same library twice but go to the library every week of the summer. **

10--Zoo--not free except if you buy an annual family pass then it feels free cuz you only pay that first time.

11--Clark Planetarium -- only good once a year cuz after you've seen it the only thing to do is watch a movie there. But why pay $50 to watch a movie (all 7 of us) when you can pay $3.50 (for all 7 of us) on Monday at the dollar theater? But it is fun to go that one time.

12--Utah Museum of Natural History -- free the first Monday of every month so hit it then!

13--Utah Museum of Fine Arts -- at the U -- first Wednesday of each month is free and the third Saturday from 2-4 is a free art project/lesson/lecture.

14--Temple Square & JSMB -- The movie's always fun, and downstairs in the North Visitor's Center...but we usually save this for a Sunday outing if we're ever not overwhelmed with meetings and other obligations.

15--Kennecott Copper Pit -- it's $5 per car load but it's SOOO cool. Plus, our favorite picnic place is up at Copperton Park so it's a must do, at least once each summer.


So I'm trying to think of how many activities we need. Summer's only 8 weeks long for the year round school kids. If we go to the library once a week and then go to the park once a week that only leaves 3 other days a week. If we do only one of these activities a week that leaves one day for laundry and one for outside chores. I'm thinkin' we're not going to be bored this summer! Oh, and I forgot to add all the concerts in the parks around town! There's something we can do after the boys get home from the gym!


Tentative summer schedule...

6:00 Mama to gym
7:30 Up and breakfast
8:00 Chores
8:30 Scriptures/Devotional
9:00 Outing
12:00 Lunch (or picnic if we packed it for our outing)
1:00 Papi School 20 minute centers / X1-X2 Nap Time
Math
Music
Foreign Languages
Reading
Writing
Other
3:00 Free Time
5:00 Dinner
5:45 15 min Chore touch up
6:00 X1-X2 Story time / Gym for Papi & Riley / Free kid time
6:30 X1-X2 Bed time
8:00 Kids to bed
10:00 Parents to bed


(Okay, if even 50% of this actually happens, I'll consider it a successful summer!)

A Good Day!

So every day with Twins doesn't suck. There were no bodily fluids soaking perfectly clean laundry, no major catastrophes caused by cunning conspirators, not even any real messes that occur naturally with children. It was beautiful! We even took a three hour nap. Okay, they took a three hour nap, I did dishes, laundry, fixed a hole in the wall and prepped for scouts tonight then lost consciousness for a solid ten minutes--but it was a good three hours!

Then the big kids came home from school. They were so excited. "Guess what happened on the way to school this morning?!?! We almost got hit by a drunk driver!!" When my heart restarted, I got the whole story. Apparently, it was on the news--you can go to this site to get the real story. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=6475664 The driver wasn't drunk, but to the shaken kids she almost hit, she sure appeared to be.

Since I've never been a worrier, I'll just thank my Father in Heaven, again!, before I go to bed and ask that tomorrow will be as great a day as today was.

Why can't every day be Mother's Day?

So for Mother's Day, Cody took the kids all around town doing every free activity I had found where the kids could make something for me...the real gift? A whole day alone. It was bliss. The bliss continued into Sunday...Belgium waffles with strawberries and whip cream and fresh squeezed OJ were waiting for me when I got out of the shower. Four pretty potted flowers (courtesy of Lowe's) were on my dresser and I had four purple draw string bags full of jewelry the kids had made me (courtesy of Michael's). It was so sweet.

I didn't have to deal with potty training for two whole days. They cleaned the whole house while I slept in. Cody even washed all the grimy finger/hand marks off the walls. I even got a delicious ice cream cake from Cold Stone. Oh it was wonderful!

Then Monday came crashing down on me like Monday's tend to do. We woke up late, so late the kids missed the bus. While trying to get them out the door, a tenant knocked because when they woke up their stove hadn't shut off in the night...some kind of short in the burner. Only these tenants are not from this country. They're still learning how to live in a house. They've yet to discover the use of soap and water on frequently used surfaces. Their apartment smells so bad I couldn't stand to be in there. Worried about my kids being on time for school I explained the best that I could to people who don't speak English that I would look up how to fix the problem and be over when I found the answer.

Ten minutes later my family was kneeling to pray so we could walk out the door--just in time. The 9 year old from up front came and knocked. Then rang the bell. Then started pounding on the door. We prayed through the cacophony and using all the restraint I could muster, answered the door. "You come fix right now!" was the demand. Restraint? Gone. I didn't yell, but I wasn't nice. I scolded him as I would one of my own children if they were that disrespectful to an adult. I let him know in unmistakable terms that I would fix their stove when and only when I was done taking care of my own family. (I could go off on a tangent about how since coming to this country they have been grown to expect everyone to bend over backwards to take care of their every whim. This sense of entitlement stems from the generosity of many many people who desire to help by giving fish instead of teaching to fish. But I won't. It would make for a very long rant :)

As I was walking out the door, Cody stuck his head out of the shower to suggest that I unplug the stove so we didn't have a fire. Duh! Why didn't I think of that before when I was over there? Oh yeah, the smell. So while the kids got in the car, I ran around front to unplug the stove. I pulled it away from the wall and just about heaved. Literally. I struggled for a good half a minute to keep my breakfast down. Bugs were swarming all over about 3 inches of gunk under the stove, up the walls and on the back of the stove. The smell was unimaginably worse. The mom just kept saying, "Sorry Dolly, so sorry Dolly," over and over. To my shame, I was rude. I couldn't look at her. I couldn't respond. My jaw was clenched so tight to stem the vomit that all I could do was yank the plug from the wall and run. I fled. Like in a cartoon.

My skin crawled the whole drive to get the kids to school. My stomach churned while I ran a few errands avoiding going home. I made a mental list of all the things I would do when I got home so they would have enough time to clean the mess up before I went back over there. I'd stuck a load of laundry in first thing when I woke up--just because I wasn't dealing with potty training didn't mean it wasn't happening. I opened the washer to take out the clothes and was first greeted with the smell of poo. Then I saw the chunks. Lots of them. All through the clothes. How? Why? Who? Wha.... seriously, what does it matter? I wasn't taking care of it so it wasn't being taken care of. Got it. Okay, no problem. Gagging from the smell of my own house, I began cleaning the mess. Mesmerized by what I was doing, Xavi didn't think to mention that he needed to pee even though he was standing 6 inches from the toilet. So I'm standing in urine, cleaning fecies out of the washer with visions of cockroaches scurring through my head and I heard my spirit break. My will was gone. I cleaned it up. All of it. I went around and plugged the stove back in. Thankfully the burner was off. It stayed off.

I went back to my apartment and we all took a three hour nap and prayed for bedtime as soon as my eyes opened.

Life will get better, right?

The joy of twins just never ceases. After getting all the kids off to school I thought I'd be a nice Mama and do Carmen's chore for her...dishes. She loves doing them so much there were pans from dinner 3 nights ago still in the sink. I normally will make her stay in the kitchen till they're done thus ensuring that she will not be able to survive without a dishwasher as an adult because she loathes the chore as much as her mother...what can I say? I'm a great mom.

The boys were happily playing in the front room. They've finally hit the stage of potty training where they want to do everything themselves so when they both came in and said they needed to go potty, I happily just said, "Well, go. Do you need help?" With a squealed, "NOOOOO!!!" They ran to the bathroom. They actually went to the bathroom by themselves, then asked for help turning on the water so they could wash their hands. Frequently I steal ten precious minutes of freedom by allowing them to "wash" their hands by themselves. They play in the water, soaking the bathroom in the process, but an easy cleanup for something that engenders in them a love for washing their hands is priceless in my opinion. Plus I was fifteen minutes from finishing the dishes! All for the greater good, right?

Wrong. As I put the last pan into the sink and prepared to scrub the dried on goo off, two cheshire cat grins walked into the kitchen. "We cleaned the stairs for you, Mama," they proudly proclaimed. "Really? That's wonderful! Thank you boys!" I said as I tried to remember how many toys had been on the stairs to gadge my enthusiasm accordingly. "Come see! Come see!" they chanted as they pulled me to the stairs...that were laden with several gallons of water from the bathroom sink. They cleaned the stairs with my oxiclean bucket. Luckily it was empty before they started filling it with water to dump on the carpeted stairs. Also lucky for me, my next task of the day was to wash towels.

An hour later, I shut the bathroom door to close out the noise of the agitating towels and said to the boys, "Please don't go in there again," and went to finish the last pan, finally. As my hands hit the water, I heard water hitting tile in the bathroom. Great. I walk back around the corner to see Xander peeing on the bathroom door. Trying to keep the hysteria out of my voice I said, "What are you doing?" "You said please don't go in there but I had to go pee." Of course. Logical, no? After cleaning that mess, we took a nap. A very long nap.

That pan is still sitting in the sink.

Peppermint, poop, snot and ketchup

I finally got a shower after two days of sitting on the couch holding a crying mucous filled two year old and proceeded to prepare for my foray into the professional world. As I'm taking an interpreter test, I donned my nice black blouse and Caribbean skirt and for the first time in several days, felt human.

I walked downstairs and noticed both boys doing the "potty dance". I assisted them in doing their business then gave them each a peppermint to thank them for not making me change diapers anymore. Xander, still whiny but I can cope cuz I got a shower, climbed into my lap and promptly coughed his sticky slimy peppermint right into my hair and down my neck. Lovely. I go to the bathroom and clean myself up and am immediately joined by Xavi. The moment he entered the room I knew that he had intentionally waited until after the peppermint to evacuate his bowels--why oh why couldn't he have just gone in the toilet three minutes ago?!?!

As I clean him up, he picks up his soiled pants and throws them at me. Bulls eye! Right in my lap. I finish cleaning him up and go change my skirt wondering if it's going to smell like poop if I just throw it in the wash or if I should soak it in oxiclean first. By now both boys are screaming for hot dogs. Can't go wrong with hot dogs, right? Wrong. I make them both hot dogs with ketchup. Xavi jumps up to feed himself. Sick Xander wants to be picked up and put in his chair. Hot dog in one hand, two year old in the other I walk to the table. Xander sneezes and knocks the ketchup topped hot dog onto my blouse. Of course my hair was in the way so now I have ketchup in my wet hair and all over my nice blouse.

In a completely different outfit than I had planned on wearing to my test, children fed and relieved I thought my ordeal was over. I resumed my spot on the couch with Xander on my lap and he curls into me for a big hug...and wipes his snotty nose across my only other black shirt suitable for being video taped while interpreting.

I love my life.