Cooking Adventures

So yesterday I tried my hand at brisket.

There was a slow-cooker recipe in my Better Homes & Gardens cook book. I went out and bought all of the ingredients, and was ready to go. I got everything in the crock pot and it smelled YUMMY!!! I went to work, and when I got home, it smelled even better. I made the sauce, and when Chad got home from work, I had dinner on the table.

So now it was time to try this brisket. I was unimpressed at first, but the sauce (made from the marinade and some added ingredients) added a TON of flavor - sweet and spicy. It was delicious. And if it was beef, and I was eating it, then that's saying something!

I asked Chad how it measured up to his memory and he said "I don't know - that was 10 years ago. But this is good!"

I even got a facebook status


It was pretty tasty, and I might have to make it again sometime.

Just a quick video from when Lady was teeny tiny. AWWWWWW.....

Christmas

I know I need to provide a real update on Christmas in Connecticut, but I thought I would at least post the few pictures I had on my cell phone from the trip.

Finally in Connecticut! Bradley International Airport after traveling ALL day. Trying to stall since the fam wasn't there yet.



Late one night, this is what Mollie opened her bedroom door to.


Back in Utah, when we got on the shuttle to go back to our car, I thought - is that all OURS?! And so it is. We try to pack light.

Adventures in Cooking

We have eaten a lot of boxed meals over the past few months, because, well, they're much easier than actually cooking. You empty all of the ingredients into an 8x8 baking dish, pop it into the oven, and Voila! Dinner is served!

But we decided we need to eat real food, and more meat in particular. Sometimes we have chicken (in the form of nuggets, pre-made cordon bleu, or grilled tenderloins) and sometimes we have hot dogs (on buns or in mac & cheese), but that is pretty much the extent of our meat eating, and I'm not sure hot dogs even count... We have a lot of room for improvement. So I planned a menu and made a shopping list. I have lots of meals to make now, but because most of the recipes make 4-6 servings, if I make dinner every night, we will run out of Tupperware (and room in the fridge) to store leftovers in. So right now we are on an every other night basis. (Not that I don't provide dinner of some sort every night, but not a big involved meal - perhaps one of those boxed dealies, or soup)

On Sunday night I made Spinach Stuffed Shells. Chad had never had stuffed shells before (who knew?!) and was pretty skeptical the whole time I was making it. But the dish turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. Although, I think I prefer mom's spinach-less stuffed shells, which I think I will make next time.



Future meals include some oldies but goodies - mom's (White) Chicken Enchiladas, taco salad, crock-pot ribs, and Erin's recipe for Beef Stroganoff.

My second new meal this week is Brisket. Chad had it on his mission and fell in love, so I am going to try to make a crockpot version. It's a surprise though so don't tell him! (Don't worry, he doesn't bother to read my blog.)

But, in other food news, we bought a freezer! (YAY!) This is something we've been looking at for a while, when we found out how cheap a 5.0 cubic foot freezer is. So we bought one this past weekend. We put it in the basement at the foot of the stairs. Now we can buy stuff on sale or in bulk and have somewhere to put it - extra bread, stuff we grow in the garden, meat, etc. Any of you who have seen our fridge/freezer combo know that this is a good thing. Maybe I will try freezing some of the extra portions of the meals I make this week.

Hello dear blog readers,
I have several posts to update you with, but first, (this is random) I was going through some files on my computer and came across our gift list from our wedding.

There were little x's next to a bunch of the names, which I assume is to account for a thank you note being sent. However, I am remembering that I put Chad in charge of sending thank you notes to his family, and many of those names do not have little x's next to them. So if you are bored enough to have found our blog, and haven't written us off because you are so offended that we didn't send you a thank you note, THANK YOU for everything you gave us. I have a detailed list of what everyone gave us, so I can even thank you for your specific gift. And I can tell you where it is in my house or what we spent the money on. Sorry Chad never got around to writing those thank you notes. But your contribution to our brand new beginnings as a married couple have helped us get to where we are now - in a lovely little home, complete with washer and dryer, piano and puppy.

Anywho.

A few weeks ago, BYU-I held an open house night for the new BYU-I Center for all alumni. I got Chad to work his schedule around it, so we got to go. The new auditorium is rumored to be the largest college facility that isn't a sports arena. It seats 15,000. One level seats the total number of people that fit in the Hart Auditorium. (This is where Commencement was.) AND you don't have to sit in bleachers! I was sad that I missed playing at the dedication by 1 year.

Here are some pictures from my cell phone:
The stage


The view from the bottom


The view from the top


It is pretty awesome. They're hosting a Women's Conference there next Saturday that I'm hoping to go to, and then I'll get to see it in action. Interesting fact: their broadcasting cameras are hand-me-downs from the Conference Center in Salt Lake.

In addition to this auditorium, they built 10 new basketball courts, a suspended indoor track, a new cafeteria/dining area, new bookstore, new cafe, skywalk between this building and the old gym, and a skywalk between the new M.C. (Student Center) and the library. Apparently they did not build any new parking though, so those 15,000 people that show up for an event in the BYU-I Center will have to do a lot of walking. That was silly.

Also, hanging in one of the upstairs hallways of the new auditorium was this familiar painting:

I didn't know it was Mormon folk art.

First of all, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! ... I think my regular background is particularly festive today.

Second of all, I was talking to Chad last night (after he talked to his dad who is a school teacher in the state of California) and I came to a realization.

When you're a child, your teachers are pretty much the coolest people ever. I'm thinking of the time Mollie cried when her first (?) grade teacher wasn't there on the first day of school because she had a baby, and instead had a long-term sub for a while. I'm thinking of my first grade teacher who was nothing but nice, and always had cool crafts for us to do. I'm thinking of my second grade teacher who I was scared of, but who convinced the whole class that getting a drink from the drinking fountain at the back of the classroom was a coveted reward for winning Bingo. I'm thinking of my fifth grade teacher who always made us laugh, my seventh grade science teacher who made science fun, and countless high school teachers who were good at their jobs. There are some teachers that you wouldn't care if you never saw again, but they were still teachers. I guess what I'm saying is, it was kind of implied that your teachers were good people. They devoted their lives to teaching little (and sometimes not-so-little) kids. They must be good people. They enforced right and wrong in their classrooms (some better than others) although I didn't always think they were very fair.

And going to an LDS school only heightened the expectation of moral behavior from your teachers/professors.

And yet, now a certified teacher myself, I find that teachers are not always the irreproachable people I used to think they were. I guess you expect some amount of unfairness as a child and teenager, but you would never think your teachers would break the law, or skirt responsibility, or defend immoral or unethical behavior. And yet they do. I know they're "just people", but something tells me that a teacher should be held to a higher standard. If they're going to be the example for their students, then they should behave like it, no?
They should abide by their classroom rules if they expect students to also. They should model the attitudes and behaviors they expect from their students.

When did "being a good teacher" come to mean "being friends with my students."? The best teachers I ever had were the ones who pushed me to work harder, even when I didn't want to. They were not necessarily the ones I wanted to chat with after school. I liked some of my other teachers as people, but they were lack-luster teachers. Similarly, it seems that some teachers are afraid to pass responsibility to the students for fear of parental backlash. There are some downright crappy teachers out there. It frustrates me as a certified teacher that can't find a job. And once they get a job and survive the first few years, nothing can touch them. They have to be certifiably crazy (Mr. Kos, anyone?) before they lose their job. I'm all for protecting teachers from baseless accusations, but with such complete job protection, there is so much room for ineffective teaching. If the country got serious about education and weeded out all of the "here's-a-handout-I-printed-off-of-the-internet" teachers, I wonder how many would be left?

I just think that teaching can be a rewarding career. As a teacher you have a huge responsibility over the students with whom you associate. You can change lives for better or for worse, and you have an incredible opportunity to make a difference. Am I just naive?

I recognize that circumstances and life are not always perfect, but can't we do better? Shouldn't we expect a little more?

...Becoming an educator and working at a school is like working at your favorite restaurant. Once you know what goes on behind the scenes, you never want to eat there again.

Just sayin'.