How's this for a lazy post?

And here's mine. As you can see, I like Eric, games and tomatoes.

You can get your own Word cloud from Wordle.

Review: Amazing Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

This week I am reviewing the Amazing Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce that I found on allrecipes.com. I chose this recipe because I had all the ingredients on hand. I had purchased sun-dried tomatoes for another recipe. In fact, that other recipe is the only one I had ever used sun-dried tomatoes for. I really like sun-dried tomatoes, and I wanted to find more ways to use them. I also happened to have cream on hand from a recently made pot of tomato soup.

We loved this recipe. It whipped up, so to speak, very quickly- about 25 minutes total. We served it over spiral noodles, but I would be happy serving it over any type of pasta. The sun-dried tomatoes were absolutely perfect in the sauce and added just the right amount of extra flavor amid bites.

I did change the recipe a bit by adding chopped onion and garlic, per the suggestions in the comments. I also used (gasp!) colby cheese. I happened to have it on hand. And hey! We're on a budget. I can't go running around buying different types of cheeses all the time. It's just too costly right now. It worked out fine because it was all blended together. In the future I will probably add mushrooms.

The great thing about this dish is that it works as a side or a main. It can be your main dish if you want a filling vegetarian meal. You could also add chicken to the pasta, if you want. Chicken is ridiculously expensive here, so we hardly ever eat it. But when we get back to the states, I can't wait to eat this sauce on some grilled chicken. I salivate just thinking about it. I think this dish also works well as a side. Cook up some chicken parmigiana and serve this pasta on the side with a vegetable. Asparagus would be nice.

This is really one of the quickest meals I have ever made, and it was wonderfully tasty, albeit rather high in fat, which kind of explains the "tasty" part. I highly recommend.

Independence Day

Today is not the first Independence Day that I have spent working. No, in fact, I'm pretty sure I worked on the Fourth of July every summer that I worked at the grocery store, which equals three summers. Although, come to think of it, the first summer was at a different store than where I was the second two summers. Usually I got off work early enough to go out and see the fireworks, but I'm pretty sure that at least once I didn't get to.

This year I worked right through it because, as it turns out New Zealand doesn't celebrate America's Independence Day. Imagine that.

It would be great to have spent time in the sun eating barbecued foods and being antsy with anticipation about seeing the fireworks shows across the Salt Lake Valley and even into Utah Valley from the vantage point of Eric's aunt and uncle's back yard.

But, of all the holidays, it's one that is easy to give up for me. And besides, I got to see fireworks just a few weeks ago from my living room.

And best of all, I was home all day to refresh and refresh and refresh and refresh, waiting for the results of Eric sister's race in the quarterfinals of the 1500m race in the Olympic Trials. After so much refreshing and not getting the results, we just called Eric's mom. We were surprised to learn that she decided this morning to attend the race (which is actually a day behind us, and thus not actually Independence Day). We called just as the race had finished and were jubilant to learn that Michelle advanced and will be running in the semi-finals tomorrow.

Keep her in your prayers. And if you're not a praying person, now is as good a time as any to start.

Plex

Everyone in Eric's family is really into games. One of my favorite times of year is about the third week in August when we go to Park City with the extended L. family. It's just board games day in and day out. Also food. And night games on the golf course. And food. And playing games with the cousins. Also, as an interesting note, I only knew two of my ten cousins growing up, so marrying into Eric's family where he has about thirty cousins on the L. side and five million on the K. side was really exciting to me.

Anyway, Eric has one cousin in particular, Abe, who likes to make up games. I first played one of his made up games, Pork, when Eric and I were dating or maybe we were engaged by that point. Anyway, Abe's wife, Erin, was also there, and so were Bart and Janssen. It was destined to be a fun night because the six of us just exude fun. Which is why we are all so crazy about board games, I guess.

One time over Christmas break the extended L. family went to a giant cabin called Spring Haven for a few days. That is where Abe introduced us to Plex, another of his invented games. It is a great game where the object is to buy properties that are close together. But you are also investing money so that you can earn more so that you can buy more properties. And if all goes well you will have lots of money when everybody else has none, and you will get properties for cheap because you buy properties (and you make investments) by bidding. And that's all the summary you're going to get from me.

So, Eric set out to make Abe's game. I let Abe know about it, and he sent me some files with the cards already made up. Eric worked really hard for about two days cutting and cutting and cutting to get the game ready to go. We have played it with a few folks, and so far everybody loves it. Eric and I really think Abe could market the game, and we'd be happy to let him use our copy as the prototype to show to some head honchos of a game company in case he is not so interested in cutting.

This first picture is of Eric sitting in front of the heater (hogging all the heat!) while designing the coins of the game. I sent this picture to Abe and Erin letting them know what a game-making fiend Eric has become, and that is when Abe sent me the files. Also, this is just to show you that Eric does own a pair of non-pink pajamas.


And this is the final version of the game. As you can see lots of things were done by hand. But it's such a great game, it was definitely worth the time we (mostly Eric) put into it.

Another Assignment

Yesterday the missionaries dropped by and asked us for our help. They are starting a new English class for the many, many non-English speakers in Dunedin. It's going to a just a general community class, and they are going to work really hard to get the word out about the class. Hopefully there will be a lot of interest. They asked us if we would be willing to help teach the class, and we said we definitely would.

We are really excited. We will be teaching with another lady who served her mission in Japan. Plus Eric speaks Portuguese and a little bit of Spanish. And I speak a little more Spanish, but I haven't practiced it like I should these last few years, and it has definitely declined.

Plus this will be good practice for us in case we decide to go teach English in China or Korea for a year. Oh, I hadn't mentioned yet that we are considering that. Well, now you know.

Something You Should Never, Ever, Ever Do

Parents should never tell a child that he was an accident. It is not a nice thing to do. Don't do it. In fact, don't tell ANYONE that the child is a surprise because word might get back around to that child.

I say this because I've read a few blogs lately in which female writers post about their recent accidents and how it took them a while to come to grips with things and be happy. And all I can think is, "One day you're child is going to read this and feel very unwanted. Not nice at all."

I have a very good friend (no, I'm not talking about myself. My parents wanted me, thankyouverymuch.) who was a surprise baby, and her mum often told her, "When I found out I was pregnant with you I just cried and cried because I was so upset. But now I'm so glad you're here and that you are a part of our family." And do you know what my friend heard? "I didn't want you at all." That's what she heard.

It's not even okay to say, "No, of course you weren't a mistake. God doesn't make mistakes, and obviously he wanted you here." Because still the message is, "I didn't want you here, and God forced his will upon me."

I've heard one excuse which goes like this, "Well, I wanted people to know it was an accident so they didn't think I was crazy for having another baby so soon." Let people think you're crazy. First of all, it's not really their concern if you decide to have babies 10 months apart. Your body, your family, your decisions. Second of all, it is much better for people to think you are crazy than for your child to think he is unwanted.

As you can tell, I feel very strongly about this.

Don't ever tell your child that he is an accident. If he asks, LIE. It's for the greater good.