Dinner at the McCurry's

If you know me at all, you know that I'm obsessed with Cooking Light. I pour over the magazine every month, reading all the articles and all the recipes. I tear out the recipes I want, cut them down to size, paste them onto pieces of paper, laminate them, 3-hole punch them and then put them in my huge binder. It's truly one of my favorite hobbies. (Not to mention that I actually do cook with all those recipes - each Saturday, I flip through my binder, planning my menu and deciding what we'll eat all week. I do this so I can make my grocery list.)

Anyway, one of the articles I read recently said that all dinner plates should be 1/4 lean protein, 1/4 starch and 1/2 vegetables. I've been inspired since then to strive for those ratios. I've accomplished it on several occasions, and Ian, who could make a whole dinner with a plate full of chips, doesn't even complain! (Not that I blame him - chips can be very delicious.)

Last week, I made salmon, pilaf, green beans and broccoli, and as you can see, the portions were Cooking Light approved.

Isn't food so pretty sometimes? Ah, I love cooking.

My Nephew was the Lead in his Kindergarden Play

Sarah's 2nd son, Noah, was "Old King Cole" in the nursery rhyme "Old King Cole." Needless to say, he was the lead. I got to watch him perform last night and my little auntie heart was bursting with pride. There are 150 kindergartners at his school - I have no idea how they picked the leads (Noah's not a ham or very theatrical...) but he read his lines just perfectly and did a great job keep his composure. He was SOOOO CUTE (to his face, I said he did a fantastic job, since no 6 year old wants to be cute).

All the other kids in the play lined up before the play started, as you can see here:

Then Noah made a grand entrance, with the other storytellers, which you can see here (he is in the cape and crown, in case you don't know a king when you see one):

He was so serious and focused as he read his lines. It's really a very cute poem, if you're not familiar with it. He throws a party and invites many of the other stories.

And the fiddlers play in between each story - aren't they so cute?!

One of the people the king invites to the party is Humpty-Dumpty. I don't know whose kid this is, but he was darling!

At the end of the play, all the actors got an induction. For the soldiers, about 25 kids would stand and we would clap. But Noah got his own introduction and you can believe his mother and I went crazy when they let us cheer for him. Here he is, just sitting back down.

I had such a great time and it really made me look forward to the day when our kids are dressed in awesome duck costumes, singing on a stage with other kids. Thanks, Noah, for inviting me to your play!

M.I.A.

That's what I've been. This week I had a big event on Wednesday and Thursday night, so work has been crazy, and we were out of town last weekend (if you consider Huntington out of town, which I certainly do).

I have no pictures to share today, but I do want to eventually post a few from recent work events, so you can see a little what I've been up to.

Sadly, I also have no pictures from Easter, though the MASSIVE egg hunt that took over my parents back yard certainly warranted one. Maybe some year when we have our own kid in the hunt we'll actually take our camera to the event. Maybe. It was a wonderful celebration though, of family and what Christ has done in bringing us life and life abundant.

So that's all for now, my friends. I'll try to do better soon!

My First Prom

This past Saturday, I went to the prom. And yes, it was my first prom. 13 years ago, when it was my senior prom, my sister got married, so that sort of took priority. =) On Saturday, Ian's school had their prom and since it's pretty much required for all teachers to go, I happily went as his date. And while I just admitted that I don't have a comparison, I have to believe that going to the prom with your husband has to be better than going with a pimple-faced, nervous, immature high school boy.

The prom was at the Reef, a restaurant in Downtown Long Beach, on the south waterfront side. Mary actually had her wedding reception there. We had dinner and then dancing and while Ian and I tried to dance a bit, let me just tell you that not only did I feel VERY 31, I also felt VERY white. His students are predominantly African America and man, can they dance! I mostly just shuffled and watched them bust a move. =) It was like my own, up close and personal So You Think You Can Dance episode.

We left before Prom Queen and King were crowned, but all in all it was a fun night and I think his students enjoyed themselves.

For next year's prom, I have already decided to buy a new dress! The one-shoulder look was very in with the teenage girls this year...

Friday Afternoons

It's supposed to be warm all weekend long. And I mean, nice and warm. I can't wait. I'm sitting in my over air-conditioned office right now, cold and so tired (big work event last night, didn't sleep well when I finally did get home) and just longing for the clock to say 5:30 so I can head home and begin the weekend. I both love and hate Friday afternoons. Here's why. On the one hand, they draaaaaag because I am so excited about the coming weekend. But on the other hand, they are marvelous, because I am just on the cusp of freedom - lots of time with Ian, time outside, time to pursue my hobbies, time with family. What a see-saw of emotions Friday afternoons stir up in me. =) Happy Friday and happy weekend friends. Enjoy!

Making Lunches

For some reason, I've been blog "uninspired." Things are going just fine, I just feel quiet, in my soul. You know? But because I really do like blogging, I thought I would do a post anyway, uninspired as it is. So, I bring you: Making Lunches. This is what I do Sunday night. I chop Ian's veggies for the week, and usually three days worth for me too, and then I assemble Monday's lunch. Here's what it looks like when I'm doing it. Packing our lunches is not only healthy, it's cheap. Ian doesn't have a long enough lunch (or a nice enough surrounding area) to eat out, so his choices are to pack or to eat the school lunch. The school lunch is fine (surprisingly healthy) but it does mean hanging around where the kids are. So he chooses to take a packed lunch (and miraculously, doesn't care at all about what goes in it, so I pack it 100% of the time). I pack a lunch for myself because in spite of the MANY delicious options, I would gain way too much weight and spend way too much money eating out. So here we are, happy lunch packers. Isn't my lunch bag cute? (Ian takes his in a plastic bag because he can shove it more easily into the backpack he wears to work, since he walks to the metro station). There. You're all caught up on mundane activities of our life. =)

Making My Own Salsa

I have several ideas in my head about how to save money and be frugal, especially if we go down to one income some day. I already make quite of bit of bread from scratch (dinner rolls, breakfast loafs, rosemary bread, corn bread, garlic bread sticks, etc.) but this weekend, I tried my hand at homemade salsa. We had just finished a bottle of green salsa (the La Victoria brand, which is really good) and I was in the store, ready to replace it, when I thought of making my own. I had looked on the ingredient label of the salsa before and saw that it wasn't hard and then remembered that I had actually made green salsa before (one time in college, that actually resulted in me throwing away the whole batch because I was using a blender and couldn't get the food to mix so I pushed it down with a wooden spoon...and ended up with thousands of tiny splinters in my salsa). Anyway, I did much better this time. I go 6 tomatillos for about $1.30 and a jalapeno for $.14. I had some left over cilantro in my fridge already, plus a half an onion that was just waiting to be used up. Of course, I always have garlic on hand. I mixed everything up and ended up with tons of salsa! Enough to fill one full jar (I just put it right back into the newly washed salsa jar we had saved) and another half jar, which I've put in the freezer. So, for $1.44, I got 1 1/2 times the salsa that I would have gotten for $3.59 at the store! True, it won't save us millions, but over the years, think of how much money we could save if I made all our own salsa?

Up next? Making my own jam this summer!