Menu Monday

My first attempt at a regular posting... to both keep me on track and share menu ideas with my readers... if there are any. ;)

This week:
Monday -- Lasagna, Salad, homemade garlic bread
Tuesday -- Stir-Fry, Rice, and homemade Egg Rolls
Wednesday -- Potato Soup and Rosemary Bread
Thursday -- Leftovers (it's Homelink day)
Friday -- Homemade Pizza

In case you're interested...

Homemade Egg Rolls
1 pkg tri-color coleslaw mix (just cabbage, no dressing mix)
1 pkg or 2 lg handfuls of bean sprouts
1-2 green onions (chopped fine)
1/2 can water chestnuts (chopped fine)
small piece of ginger (grated or chopped very fine)
1 egg
soy sauce
chopped ham, chicken, shrimp (if desired)
Egg Roll wrappers

Mix coleslaw with bean sprouts, green onions, water chestnuts, ginger, and meat (if added). Sprinkle with some soy sauce, a couple of teaspoons. Separate egg, add egg white to filling mix and put egg yolk in small bowl with a splash of water to use as wrapper "glue" later. Stir filling to distribute egg white and soy sauce.

Place one wrapper diagonally in front of you. Place one heaping tablespoon of filling on center of wrapper, fold up like an envelope and roll until you have just the tip (flap of envelope) exposed. There's usually pictures of this on the back of the wrapper package if it sounds confusing. Dip your fingers in the yolk mixed with water, run them along the edge of the flap and then roll the rest of the way. Continue for rest of wrappers.

Fry in hot oil until the wrapper is bubbly and golden brown. Drain on paper towels and eat with various dipping sauces.

If you have leftover filling mix you can make easy egg foo yung. Just add filling to scrambled eggs before cooking and cook like patties. Or use for fried rice. Or go buy more wrappers and make more egg rolls! :)

Enjoy!

Back Again...

Apparently I approach blogging like I do housecleaning. In random spurts. I'll try to do better.



We had a wonderful Christmas, even with our crazy schedule of driving to visit family (2.5hrs each way). We arrived back home around 3am Christmas morning, and promptly sent the kids to bed before they realized that it was Christmas and technically we could be opening gifts. We woke them around 9am for a bacon and egg breakfast before the gifting began.



This year was again declared the "best Christmas ever" by all three kiddos, and I would have to agree. The generosity and love that went into each gift was unmatched. This year the kids all bought (with their own money) and wrapped gifts for each other. There's something truly magical about watching a young gift-giver giggle and tremble while their gift is opened. It's hard to decide who's more excited about the whole thing.



Another highlight of our Christmas this year was getting to see the drive-through nativity that our church put on. It was a huge event for the community and such a blessing to see so many people involved in reaching out to tell the true Christmas story.



Time to start 2008 resolutions if you haven't already... only 4 days left!

When is Christmas?

"Hey mom... why do all those houses have their Christmas lights up already?"

"Ummm... because Christmas is in three weeks."

Did Christmas sneak up on anyone else this year? Last year it seems like I had everything ready to go when the clock struck midnight on November 30. Advent calendars were up (one for each kid), the tree was ready for decorating, gifts were bought, and I had snagged one of the fabulous advent stories from the library early (if you've never read Arnold Ytreeide books at Christmas, you're missing out!).

As for this year... I just got the Christmas decorations out of storage, we still haven't gotten the tree up, and the advent calendar is staring at me from the counter still waiting to be hung. I did manage to get our advent book from the library, but we haven't started reading it yet. So, I guess it was no wonder when my kids asked me that question while out running errands the other day.

Now, don't get me wrong, not having a minute by minute countdown until Christmas, starting in mid-July, is okay with me. It's the seasonal equivalent of "Are we there yet?" However, I think we'll be missing something this year that is usually wrapped up in the less-than-patient anticipation of Christmas.

This makes me think of the first Christmas... sure Mary had about 9 months notice, but the shepherds didn't have time to get their shopping done and their decorations hung. They were blown off the hillside by angelic glory just in time to scurry on down to the stable. Yes... the wise men had their gifts all picked out and wrapped neatly, but let's remember that they didn't actually arrive until Jesus was about 2 years old. Even I could work well on that kind of prep time!

So, as I struggle to keep from getting frantic about what we've done and not done to prepare for Christmas, I'll remember to have a shepherd-like attitude and just go with the flow, enjoying each precious moment as it arrives, careful not to miss God's glory in the earthly celebration of the greatest heavenly event of all time.

Guess who had a birthday??

Yes, indeed, our very own Man of the House turned 40!

The kids had a blast making him both a bread "cake" and a chocolate-to-the-extreme cake. Princess Buttercup (the 8.5yo) even stated that it was too sweet for her, and would anyone like to finish her piece. Whoa! That should give you some idea. Guess we'll be scratching Triple Chocolate Fudge cake off the recipe list.

This of course led to a much, much later bedtime than usual. Dragon Slayer (the 6.5yo) and Curlylocks (the 4yo) were up quite late giggling all of the Triple Chocolate Fudge out of their systems. Another reason to scratch that recipe!

Happy Birthday sweetie!!

Hello World!

Let the blogging begin!