Sharing the Goodness of Food!

I thought that every now and again when I make something that both Ben and I love, I would share that recipe with any of you who like to expand your cookbooks. I am always looking for new recipes and thought I might share some of the things that are yummy to my tummy. Anyway, this is one that both Ben and I love, but that I frequently forget to make! It is really simple and it goes great with rice and broccoli. Easy side dishes right?

Sweet and Sour Chicken

4-8 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 beaten egg
cornstarch
oil
sauce (recipe to follow)

1. Dip the chicken breasts into the egg then roll them in the cornstarch.
2. In a small amount of oil, fry the chicken until just browned.
3. Place the chicken in a shallow baking pan, pour the sauce over it, and bake uncovered at 325 for one hour, turning every 15 minutes.

Sauce

3/4 c sugar (I like between 1/4c-1/2c)
4 tbsp catsup
1/2 c vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Mix all ingredients together

My mom got this recipe from The Friend magazine years ago and I love it! It is great with homemade fried rice and chow mein too. One more note. On time I cut up pineapple and green pepper and put it in with the chicken to cook to make it more like Chinese food and it was delicious. Just another variation to a good recipe! Hope you all enjoy!

One of Those Mornings

No pictures from me this morning, just me using this blog as a chance to vent a little. This morning was one of those mornings when I woke up and had to take Ben to school so he could be there before his first class at 8:00 and he will probably be there until 6:00. He gets a free lunch from a meeting on campus today so I won't see him for lunch. I miss my Ben and today is actually not one of the bad days! When tests come around, he is gone to school from 8-6 then comes home for a little break for dinner and hits the books again around 8pm til' around midnight. Then its up around 4 or 5 am for more studying for his test at 8 am. Craziness! Medical school feels like it will last forever sometimes, but I sure am happy that it really doesn't! Oh one of these days it will be over and when it is I think I am going to scream and shout for joy!

Osteostach

There is this silly tradition among the second year medical students at Ben's med school, ATSU - A.T. Still University or KCOM - Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. The second year students grow mustaches around the time that all the first year students begin to move to Kirksville, probably as an odd welcome. They call it the Osteostache! We took these pictures just after Ben and I went running so if he looks super tired that is why, even though his lack of sleep from studying for tests should probably get the credit.


Goofball!

More Improvements On Our House

We finally got around to working on the kitchen. We have been re-texturing all the walls in the house before re-painting them. We did this to the kitchen too and also re-painted the cabinets and got new hardware for them. It was a lot of work, but we like how it turned out!


Just having a little fun before I textured and painted! Love you Ben!






We got these barrels at the Joseph Smith Red Brick Store in Nauvoo. We don't have very much storage in the house so we bought them and store things like potatoes, bags of flour, and towels in them. And they match the kitchen! Actually, they are one of the first things that we got and matched a lot of stuff to them. All of the antique stuff on the shelf is either from garage sales or visiting the historic sites in Nauvoo.

Girls Camp for the Nauvoo Stake

Our Girls Camp cake that we made with the girls at the cake decorating class!

Jenna Featherston, Me, and JoHanna Featherston

Plllllbbb!

The girls performing their skit. The theme was "Stand Like A Hero" and each ward had a female hero from the scriptures. Ours was Mary Elizabeth and Caroline Rollins, the girls who protected the Doctrine and Covenants from the mobs. They had a fun "mafia mob" skit, it was great!

I completely forgot to post about Girls Camp. I was asked to be the Girls Camp Director for our ward this year. Girls Camp was way back in June, but I thought I would put a few pics up anyway. It was a ton of work because we had to do all the certification on our own at a ward level. It took so much planning, I can't even imagine being the Director at the Stake level! It was definitely worth it though. The girls are so awesome and we had a good time.

Nauvoo Pageant

Ben and I went to the Nauvoo pageant in the middle of July. We feel so blessed to be close to the Nauvoo temple and all the church history that is around us in Missouri and in Illinois. It was a wonderful performance and we had a wonderful day doing all of the pre-performance activities. It was a little hot and humid though!


There were bagpipes at the beginning of the performance. They were spectacular!




Pulling each other in handcarts.

Can you tell it is humid by my crazy hair?

Walking on stilts.


The temple was right in the middle of the stage backdrop. At the very end of the performance, in the last hurrah, they lit up the temple in the background. It was beautiful. It kinda took our breath away when it was lit up and the voice of President Gordon B. Hinckley speaking about the temple was playing through the speakers.

Summer Vacation 2008

Jess wakeboarding.


I don't think I got one picture of Matt(My sister Jessica's husband) that wasn't fuzzy. This was the best I could do. Sorry Matt!

Rachel and Sarah(Mysister-in-law and my niece). We were able to be there for Sarah's blessing.
Lexi (Jared's girlfriend) kneeboarding
Mom Skiing
Me skiing
Love the hair Ben. Fun in the sun on Topaz Lake!
Ryan and Ben on the tube. The goggles are awesome.
Little Adam(Jason and Leslie's little boy)..Sooo cute
Brianna (Jason and Leslie's second daughter)I love the attitude
Granny and Brianna at Topaz Lake
Go Dad! Check out that cut. Look how nice and smooth that water is. We loved having the lake practically to ourselves!
Ben wakeboarding.



Ryan (My brother) and A.J. (Rachel and Ryan's little boy) canoeing. We were pulling them with the ski rope from the boat back to the shore.
Ben, his brother Mike, and his nephew Sam at Lagoon.
Jared and his team at Junior Olympics.
A.J. drinkin' a Jones! I love this picture!
Brianna and A.J. on our vacation at Topaz Lake.


Isn't the stained glass amazing!?
We stopped at Winter Quarters on our way out west and visited the Omaha, Nebraska temple. When we were almost there, the tornado sirens went off and the sky got very very dark. We took refuge in the basement of the visitors center and watched as the rain poured and the winds howled against the black sky. A tornado did touch down just west of us. It was crazy!! This is what the sky looked like.
On our drive out to Utah with Ben's parents we barely made it through some of the flooding in Missouri. This one of the places that half the road was closed and we had to drive through on the side that had higher ground.

Ben's parents came out to visit us in July and we drove back with them to meet my Mom, Dad, Jared, and Lexi in Utah. We spent a couple of days with Ben's family in Morgan before my parents came to pick us up. Jared was playing in Junior Olympics for Volleyball and we watched him for the rest of the week. His team did great and it was a blast to watch him! We then went and met up with the rest of the fam for a week of fun on Topaz Lake in Nevada. We had a great campsite and we had the lake to ourselves most of the week. We got to spend a couple more days at home in Cameron Park before we headed back to Missouri to real life again. All in all it was a wonderful trip and we had a great time! We miss everyone!
Here are some pictures to document our trip.