kind of stinky but delicious

Polynesian Meatballs

~66 meatballs (Italian or plan)                     2 Tlb. soy sauce
1 - 20 oz. can pineapple tidbits                    2 Tlb. Lemon Juice
2 Tlb. Cornstarch                                           1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cups cider vinegar                                

Cook the meatballs, per the package directions.
Drain pineapple, reserve juice; set aside the juice adding enough water to it to equal 1 cup.
In bowl; combine cornstarch, pineapple juice mix, vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice and brown sugar.  Combine until smooth.  Add to skillet.  Bring to boil; stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Add cooked meatballs, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add pineapple tidbits and heat through.
Serve over rice, enjoy!!

Above is a picture of the kind of soy sauce we use and the pineapples waiting to be added.
Here's the rice cooking, oh yummy rice.

You can't really see them but those are the meatballs cooking in the sweet and sour sauce

The finished product.  Meatballs, pineapple and rice.  A great dinner and it doesn't take too long to cook either.

Close up of the meatballs and sauce.

       This is one of my mom's favorite recipes, she always wants me to make them, they are great the first day and just as tasty the next day.  You can add more or less pineapple or meatballs if you like it to be more saucy.

      Another is to saute up some green bell peppers and onion to add a little more color to this recipe.  If you like those, my brother won't eat them so we don't add them.

Enjoy yet another of my favorite recipes.

More to come!!

Baking

So with all this time I have had on my hands I have found that I enjoy baking...WAIT!! I already knew that ;)
   I still love baking and I keep finding new things to bake and try the latest conquest is Banana Cookies - Thank you Natalie.  They are delicious, so I am going to share this delicious recipe with you and then from now on I am going to share any other good recipe that I have tried with you.

Banana Cookies

1 cup Butter                                         1 tsp. Vanilla

1 cup Sugar                                          4 cups Flour

2 Eggs                                                   2 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 cups Buttermilk                             1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Baking Soda                               nuts - optional

1 cup Mashed banana

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk.  Add and beat in milk, banana, and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Drop on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 10 - 12 min.

Frosting (option 1): Melt 1/2 cup butter in sauce pan and add 1 cup brown sugar and boil 2 min.  Stir constantly.  Add 1/4 cup milk, stir until it boils again.  Remove from heat.  Cool, then add 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar.  Spread on warm cookies.

Frosting (option 2): 

1/4 cup butter (softened),  3-4 cups powdered sugar,  2-3 Tlb milk and 1 tsp. vanilla.  Mix and spread on warm cookies

Frosting (option 3): 

The finished product.  Yummy!!  

Makes about 3 dozen cookies, depending on how large you make them. 

Catch up...

So if you actually read this blog you know that I have been sadly lacking in updates.  So here is a quick update in my life:

    I finished and passed my student teaching in Utah.  I had a great time and I enjoyed meeting and teaching my students.  They were seriously the nicest students I could have asked for, I mean there were some students I could have lived without, but they helped me grow to be a better teacher and taught me what to be prepared for in the future.  My cooperative teachers were wonderful and provided some great experiences for me, as well as some great material for my future.  The sad thing is I don't know if I want to teach for the rest of my life, I love the interaction between me and the students but I'm not sure I enjoyed the actual teaching part, mainly because I hate having to grade papers and come up with papers and activities for the students to do.  I loved doing hands-on work but most students think it is stupid but they did it anyways.  I don't know, I will keep thinking.
Here is my diploma - I am officially graduated from Brigham Young University - Idaho.  Yeah me!!!

  

    I moved back to Alaska to be with my family after I was done student teaching.  My family moved to Alaska last January, so my dad could be close to his family and my mom would have more help taking care of my dad as well.  My sister and her husband (Tabs and Jake) were up here for Thanksgiving but then they had to head back for work.  It was great to see them again.
    December should have been a good month but it was kind of depressing.  My Dad passed away on December 11th.  It was the saddest day in my life (thus far).  We had a week to plan the funeral and to get my sister up here so she could be here for the funeral.  We had so many people offer to help and to give us assistance, we wouldn't have been able to do it without all the help and my dad's sister and mother.  I was glad though because he is finally in a better place, where he can finally talk and walk again.
   The one good thing was a week before he passed away I was able to give him his Christmas present early.  I spent two days sewing him a blanket with his 'symbol' on it.  His symbol stands for "Mighty Mudgeman"  He has been using that symbol for as long as I can remember and it's something that I love about him.  So I made it into a blanket that he could use to keep himself warm and then we used it as a cover on his coffin.  Now the blanket resides on my bed.  It's very comfy and warm.

  It's been two months and we are all doing good, surviving and planning our lives.  We have planned a family vacation in March, we are looking forward that break.  I'm still trying to figure out I want to do with my life...  It's up in the air.  Any ideas for me???

Oops!!

So funny thing happened tonight.  I was in my room folding laundry...the end!!
Just kidding.  Ok so I was folding my laundry but it's not the end.  The family I am staying with was talking down at the end of the hall about their daughters college professor.  Then they said "Those that can't do teach"  Of course I am a teacher so I yelled "HEEEYYY!!"  They all started laughing, as did I.  I thought it was so funny because I have even heard that at my school.  So we had a good laugh about it for along time.
Good times!

Parent teacher conferences

So since I am doing my student teaching I knew that this day would happen sometime, i was kind of hoping I would have a few more weeks to get to know the students better, but I did ok.
My first night of parent conferences was slow, only a few students and their parents showed up, the second night was by far the best night.  I had one mother come with her son, and he is one of those kids that likes to goof off in class and make funny nosies when it's not appropriate and I've been struggling with how to handle it.  So I started off letting her know how he is doing with his work, which is fine just missing a few assignments then I slipped in there that he likes to make animal noises in the middle of class, when it's not appropriate.  She said that he does it at home as well but she would talk to him.  Then she turned to him and said "So next time you'll think before you moo!"  Priceless.  Best meeting of the night.  My cooperative teacher and I were laughing for the rest of the night.

Moving all around

After graduating college on July 23rd, I traveled to Washington for my sisters wedding.  It was a fun week, with Saturday being a hard day to get through, it was my sisters sealing and reception and my dad decided to have a minor heart attack just as we got to the temple.  He was out for the whole day, the thing was we didn't know that's what it was until later that day, after pictures had been taken and my mom had taken him back to the hotel, we really just though he had fallen into a very deep sleep, for the whole sealing.  It was so scary and we didn't know what to do, but he made it through and finally woke up towards the end of her reception and finally got to see his daughter in her wedding dress.  It was a hard day with two very happy endings.  My sister is now married and my dad was able to wake up for part of that day.   Talk about mixed emotions at a wedding.
* I will tell you something funny that happened that day, that made me laugh even if I wanted to cry.  My sisters husband's ex-roommate was there helping with whatever he could help with.  I thought it was so sweet and he really is a nice guy, and of course one of the few guys actually my age there, so my aunt and grandma and my great aunt kept pushing me on him, telling me I should go after him.  I've known him for 2 semesters I told them and if something was going to happen I would think it would have already happened by now.  They just weren't having it, I guess we were flirting back in forth the whole evening (I didn't even know I knew how to flirt, it was news to me).  Then later that as the festivities continued I had no less than 5 people as if he and I were dating, mainly because they knew him but didn't know that he knew Jake and Tabs, they thought he was there helping me out because we were dating.  I had to let them know that we were not dating, I think some were a bit disappointed, oh well, such is life.*
The next day my family (minus my sister of course) traveled up to Alaska.  This would be the first time I get to see where my parents are now living, and there condo is super cute.  If I could afford it I would live there as well, it's got a great view of the water and mountains as well.  Alaska is just the best place ever, I hope I go back again after student teaching.  Most of the time I just watched movies, read, played Wii with my brother or slept.  My mom thought I was bored and that I should get out and do something, what she didn't understand is that I have been going since last April, no stop with school and work and everything.  I wanted and needed this much needed break from life and reality, it was nice to get away from it all.  Though my grandma and aunt were really pushing me to got to the singles ward up there, they really wanted me to fall madly in love with an Alaskan boy so I would move back up after student teaching and I kept telling them that "I'm only here for one Sunday, it won't happen that quickly."  But hey they can hope and wish for me.  I wouldn't be surprised if the next time I came up they had a date set up for me every night.  You've got to love it!!
After two weeks in Alaska and 12 hours of traveling on Sunday I finally made it to my new home.
HELLO!! Murray, Utah.
Next week begins my life as a student teacher, which I'm sure will be filled with heartache, sadness, laughter and hopefully a happy ending.  We shall see!

locked in my room

So last night some how I got locked inside of my bedroom.  It's 2 am in the morning and I really have to go to the bathroom and no matter how many times I turn my door knob it doesn't budge.  I am stressing out and I have no idea what to do. UGH!!
Lucky for me, my parents believe in making sure we are prepared for everything so I had a tool kit in my closet. Out came that kit and it sure did get used.  I ended up taking off the door knob, that didn't help so I spent another 15 min, trying to get it back on without sending the other half out into the hallway, where it would have been of no help to me at all.  (Let's just say I'm glad none of my roommates were up to hear or see me in this predicament)
After putting the door knob back on I thought that maybe I could take the hinge bolts out and just pull the door off.  The first bolt came out pretty easily, the second and third were not coming out easily, they wanted me to struggle a bit...mind you this whole time I still have to use the bathroom so I'm sitting there holding it.  I finally gets all the bolts out and then you'll never guess what happens.
That's right the door is stuck I can't pull it out.  Man I hate my bedroom door!!
So 20 min. later I finally get enough strength built up and I push up and then pull out and it finally comes out of it's proper place and allows me to use my bathroom.  FINALLY!!!  SO that was a fun 45 min. of my life!

I decided to leave the door as it was and just leaned it against door frame so that the next time I had to use the restroom it wouldn't be so hard and it wouldn't take as long.