Monday Menu (November 30, 2009)

Another Monday came and flew by. It was a long day: Bill and I went out to lunch at Chili's. Then we drove around town while I looked for the remaining presents for our advent calendar (I will post in a later blog about that). While we were at Family Dollar our van got hit in the parking lot and the driver side door opens just a little bit. After our store hopping, we did our final shopping at Wal-Mart and because I suffer from ADD, I locked the keys in the van. However, we did not discover this until we were DONE shopping. Now, the van has a safety feature where if you leave the keys in the ignition and try to lock the doors, it won't lock the driver's door. That only works when the key is IN the ignition... So, I called my awesome friend, Laurie, and she came to the rescue. It was COLD and so we sat on the bench next to Ronald. Gotta love Ronald. Between him and the other freaks walking in and out of Wal-Mart, the time just sped by.

For dinner, we wanted to use our leftover turkey and turkey broth, so we made this: Shaker Chicken and Noodle Soup.

However, we made a few adjustments. We did not use the vermouth because we don't use alcohol when we bake or cook. It does not cook out all the way like people think it does.
So the adjustments:
*I didn't add the alcohol.
*I only had 8 cups of turkey broth left over from Thanksgiving dinner so I used Better Than Bouillon and enough water to make it 13 cups.
*I added some sliced mushrooms.
*Instead of chicken I used leftover Thanksgiving turkey.
One thing I would change, I would NOT ADD the parsley. It turned out funky tasting in the soup and I ended up picking it out of the whole soup after we all had our first bowls.

Other than what I want to call the 'parsley incident,' the soup was very tasty. I will make it again.

For dessert, I made a version of Banana Cream Pie I found online. But I used a pre-made Oreo crust and only two bananas instead of four. Also, I know that when making cream pies, that whole milk is a must. I didn't have any, but I did have some heavy cream in the fridge, so 1 cup was 1% milk and the other cup was heavy cream.
I didn't do the final baking that the recipe said because there were comments of people who said they didn't like that. Then when it was chilled, I added a nice layer of whipped cream. We all liked it very much. I have a picture of the slice I cut out and it looks kind of pathetic, but it tasted really yummy.

Bonnie

Ever since Bonnie's accident she is constantly on my mind. I am so happy to hear that she is slowly becoming more aware and healing.

I think about her several times throughout the day.

I decided to sit down and write about some of the things that make me think of Bonnie.

On the days I go running, I go past her house and I think about her.

Whenever I use my V CAST Song ID I think of her because of what Bill told me. He told me that he showed Bonnie the free program for her Verizon phone so she could identify songs. Well, I guess he neglected to tell her that you had to hold it up to the radio for it to identify because she complained to him one day that the program wasn't working. Come to find out that she was singing songs into the phone trying to identify what song she was singing. I still smile when I think about that.

When I see a long blond woman at the store, I wish it was her.

When I talk to a baby and my voice gets all high pitched and gooey, I think of how much I love hearing her talk to babies and find myself sounding like her.

Bonnie often made silly faces and when I make silly faces or see someone make one, it makes me think of her.

When I eat popcorn, I think about when she and I attempted to make Audree's white chocolate popcorn.

When I play Uno-Flash, I think of how much fun she is to play with at that game and the many times we played it.

Something as simple as cabbage makes me think of her.... and the time we ran to Wal-Mart and got all the ingredients for that Cabbage Soup Diet. We both didn't care for it much...

When I go to Maggie Moos I think about the times we would go there. The first time we were there together, we were with our friend Danielle and it was after a Relief Society Enrichment night. There was another time we went where we took our husbands and I wore a clown wig. It was so much fun watching Bill and Larry not wanting to stand near me with that thing on (which I kept on the entire time we were in eating our ice cream). Bonnie had fun with it and didn't care I was wearing a wig.

I remember the time Bonnie, Larry, Bill and myself went to Alberto's to eat. Bonnie was so cute as she tasted a little bit of everything. I have a hard time going there without her.

Apparently we ate out a lot. For a Girls' Day Out, Bonnie, Danielle, Lana, and myself went to Pizza Factory. Oh, and Bonnie brought Makayla. We had so much fun stuffing our faces as we ate a HUGE salad from the salad bar and our breadsticks.

There was another Girls' Day Out when we had lunch at the Garden House. This time Lana couldn't make it. Besides the delish food, I remember her holding Danielle's little girl, Ella. She just doted on Ella and would tell her, "I could just eat you up!"

One time Bill and I took Bonnie and Larry to Off the Cuff and it was a blast watching them laugh at the silliness. So when I see OTC members in town, I think about Bonnie.

One thing that Bonnie and I shared a love of was VeggieTales. We LOVED VeggieTales. When we were first starting to become friends, I would lend her the VeggieTales she didn't have. I loved hearing her sing "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." When we watch VeggieTales, I think of her.

When my girls want to build an indoor tent I think of when we were at the Gerber's house and her girls and my girls built an indoor tent in their house. I would stress that my girls would break something and she was so mellow and would say, "Everything is from the DI, don't worry, they can't harm anything." She let the girls be girls. So whenever my girls ask or make an indoor tent, I remind myself that the girls need to be girls.

Bonnie was my visiting teacher and one month, she gave me an awesome painted rock. I LOVE it and keep it by my TV. So now, every time I see that rock, I think of Bonnie and hope she will continue to heal well.

Bonnie has had a GINORMOUS impact in my life. Her healing has been miraculous so far and I am eternally grateful for Heavenly Father answering our prayers. There are a bunch of people praying for her. I am sure she has had a huge impact in their lives as well. Bonnie truly is one of the most awesome friends a person could have.

On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for Bonnie and pray she will continue to heal well.

Rebekah's Story

Ok, Rebekah had to write a story about a turkey for her 5th grade class. First she had to decorate a turkey and then write a story about it. Here she is in her class right before she reads her story to the class. If you look, the far right of the turkey, at the bottom, it is holding something... it is a camera. :-)


This is what she wrote:

The Turkey Named Me

By Rebekah Pearcy

“Hhhhiii arrrre yyyooouuu goonnna eaaatt mmmmeee?” said Me, shuddering.

“No Me, I’m…” began Sadie.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” screamed Me.

“Me, stop…” began Sadie again, trying to talk.

“Don’t eat me please, don’t…” begged Me.

“Stop Me. On Thanksgivin’ some people eat pork, chicken, and deer meat. So calm down so you…” said Sadie while she got interrupted again.

“Don’t eat me plea…” said Me.

“So you don’t interrupt me, Me,” explained Sadie.

Me began to calm down while Sadie talked.

“Why do you have a camera, Me?” asked Sadie.

Me got very excited and said, “So I can take pictures of weird people at Wal-Mart and put it online at www.peopleofwalmart.com.”

“Hey! Me, do you want to come to my house?” asked Sadie, smiling.

“Yes siree!”

“Okay, come tomorrow, ok?”

“Ok, but tomorrow is Thanksgivin’ though,” said Me a little suspiciously.

“I know but you can have veggies and fruit while me and my family eat pork,” said Sadie, licking her lips.

“Okay, I’ll come over to your house,” said Me.

The next day, Me went over to Sadie’s house and rang the doorbell. Sadie opened the door and said, “Oh my, hello Me. Would you be interested in to going into the kitchen?”

“For what?”

“To see what I can give you for your meal,” said Sadie licking her lips again.

“Ok, can I put my camera down over on the couch?” asked Me.

“Yes you can,” replied Sadie.

Five seconds later, in the kitchen, Sadie’s dad said, “Get in my belly!”

“AHHHHHH!!” screamed Me.

Five more seconds later, her mom said, “Dinner is ready!”

Sadie’s little brother, Bob, shouted, “Yeah! Yummy turkey in my belly!”

After a nice meal, Sadie’s mom walked into the living room and sat on the middle cushion, her stomach full of Me. She looked to her left and saw Me’s camera and exclaimed, “Free camera!”

STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EPISODE, “CHRISTMAS: A PIG NAMED ME.”

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

No, I am not talking about Thanksgiving.... although I did eat a scrumdiddlyumptious salad at The Garden House today called the Thanksgiving Salad. But that is neither here nor there. I am talking about the turkey-pigs I have living in my house!

I have a house of teenagers.... well, technically only one true teenager: Nate, 14. But the other kids act like teens already. And appetite is just one of the main teenage hormones rampaging through our house.

I cooked 16 hot dogs for dinner.... SIXTEEN! Lily isn't feeling well so she didn't eat anything. I am not a huge hot dog fan, so I had leftovers. But between Nate, Justin, and Rebekah, 14 of the 16 are GONE! Nate had 6, Justin had 4, and Rebekah had 4. I thought I would have leftovers in the fridge for later, but there are only two left and Bill will probably scarf them down when he gets home from work.