Asian Cooking Class

My catering boss, Mark Petrey, decided to put on an Asian cooking class last night at Orson Gygi in their demo kitchen. (So jealous of that kitchen.) I decided to take Nathan with me because he loves to cook so I thought this would be fun for him. He was excited to learn some new stuff and was impressed by Mark and how good he was with a chef's knife. :-) There were about 50 people there.

Nathan volunteered to go help out. (The pictures are from cell phone and I was in the back row- so they're not too clear!)

We learned how to make Apricot Chicken filled pot stickers (so good!), lo mein, chinese chicken salad, Mark's secret teriyaki sauce and sweet and sour pork roast. Everything was delicious and it was a lot of fun. I think Nathan wants to go to a culinary school. I said his future wife would LOVE that!

Still Eating Cookies

Well, I am still enjoying my cookies and diet pepsi. Haven't made it back to the gym yet. (See post below...) Partly because I've been battling a cold. (EXCUSE-I know.) I tried a new cookie recipe yesterday that I found on another blog. TO DIE FOR! They were chocolate cookies. There are variations on the recipe. You can add white choc chips, choc chips with mint chips- or the one I did. You wrap the dough around a Rolo and bake. YUM YUM! Nothing like a caramel center in a chocolate cookie- and so easy. If anyone wants the recipe then let me know and I'll post it and try and find the blog where I found it to give them credit.

So as for now I am adding calories instead of subtracting them. (I was always better at addition than subtraction anyway.)

Queen of the Catwalk

First of all, let me just say that I have never been surrounded by so many fake boobies in my life as I was in the gym on Tuesday. I think all the women must reward themselves with a new "set" once they get their bodies in shape. On the treadmill next to me was a lady with her nice set of "twins" (as Curtis Brown calls them) and her little sportsbra/tank shirt. Her incline on the treadmill was at a 10! I didn't even know the incline went that high. It was like she was hiking up a mountain. And she went for a full hour! I guess it was intimidating and I was determined to stay on there as long as she did so I walked/jogged 4.25 miles on the treadmill. It took me 60 minutes. I was proud of myself for enduring that long on there. Wednesday I returned to the gym with a burst of energy. I did the 4 miles- ten minutes faster than before- and thought "I'm going to go for five miles." I sped up the pace and was jogging and actually running. I had my Ipod going and felt great. I did the five miles and I just wanted to throw my arms up in the air and do a little cheer. Yahoo! I did it! I contained myself- didn't want to draw any undo attention to myself- AND I KEPT ON GOING! I guess I was on a "high." I did 6 miles total. I proved that I could do it. My Aunt Karen has been exercising and losing weight (60 lbs in like 4 months) and she started calling her treadmill "The Catwalk" because she felt so great on it. At that 6 mile moment I truly felt like the "Queen of the Catwalk." I don't know where I got the energy from. Maybe it was because I finally went and saw Twilight the night before. Edward Cullen was giving me some extra energy or something. :-)

The rest of the day was pretty much a waste because I was so exhausted. I felt a little better after a short nap and a hot shower. Thursday, I was back at the gym. My body was feeling it so I could only do 3 miles. The entire week I have watched what I eat and only had ONE diet Pepsi a day. That is huge for me! Then I get on the scale this morning and have gained a pound and a half! What the H***!!!! I just don't get it. I have been exercising about 3 times a week (sometimes more) for at least 6 weeks now and not one stinking pound is gone and my thighs still rub together when I walk. So, I popped open the can of diet pepsi and made some cookies. Cookies and caffeine makes it all better....there's always next week. I wish you could see results instantaneously when exercising. Walk a mile, lose a pound, walk a mile, lose a pound...... UGH.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

The Monday before Valentine's Day, we had a family home evening lesson on love. I read a little story titled "The Love Drawer" from a past issue of the Friend and then we each made these cute door hangers out of paper plates. I challenged each family member to leave at least one note in each person's door hanger telling them something they liked about that person or a compliment, etc. They could also leave candy with it. The kids had fun decorating their valentine holder.

Valentine's morning I got up early and decorated the kids' bedroom door. I also hung up hearts and garland in the kitchen. We ate pink heart shaped cookies for breakfast and then made sugar cookies to take to a few neighbors.

That night Spence and I went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill with our good friends, Vicki and Dale. We were smart and made a reservation a couple weeks ago. Otherwise the weight was almost 2 hours! The place was packed. Then we went to the late movie and saw "He's Just Not That Into You." It was pretty good. Was a good show to see on Valentine's Day. Hope you all had a great day also!

Here's the conversation taking place in the background at the moment:

Claire- "Quinn, did you fart?"

Quinn- "No."

Claire- "Cuz boys fart a lot."

Quinn- "Well maybe it was Logan."

Short Conversations with Kids

Here are a few conversations I've had with some of my kids lately....

I was with Logan and walked by someone smoking and we both hated the smell of it. Logan commented on it so I took the opportunity to tell him all the bad stuff about smoking...

Me: "Smoking is really stinky and bad for your body. It makes your insides black and gross. It damages your lungs and makes it hard to breathe and can give you cancer which is a disease that makes you sick and can kill you. "(No harm in scaring them to death is there?)

Logan: "Well why do people smoke then? Do they WANT to get sick?" Good question bud.

All Claire has been watching on TV lately is TLC. (Learning Channel) She loves the baby shows- Baby Story, Bringing Home Baby. She also is addicted to Jon and Kate plus 8. This was her question of the day-

Claire: "Mom, what do you do at baby showers?"

Me: "You bring gifts for the new baby and sometimes eat and play games."

Claire: "Well, does the baby take a little bath or something?"

Me: (laughing) "No, the baby usually isn't born yet. You bring the gifts for the mom so she can be ready for when the baby comes."

Claire: "So the baby doesn't even get to watch?"

Geez- what a bummer party for the baby!


I was reading the other day and not really paying attention to Claire. She came up and started telling me this:

Claire: "Mom, Macy's little cousin had to go to the hospital the other day because he swallowed a polly pocket toy."

Me: (not really paying attention...) "Oh, really?"

Claire: "Yeah, they had to get it out of him."

Me: "Hmmmm."

Claire: "They had to cut off his foot to get it out."

Me: "Hmmm." Then it registered what she had said... "What? I don't think so Claire. They don't cut your foot off to get something out of you that is stuck."

The thing with Claire is she is really good at making stuff up and telling stories so I never know what is true and what isn't. Em- did your nephew really swallow a polly pocket and get his foot cut off to get it out? :-)


Oh- another funny moment was when I had picked up kids from school. We dropped off one of Nate's friends and Logan wanted to walk the rest of the way home. So he got out of the car and started running home. I was following in the car and started to roll down my window. At the same exact moment Nate did the same thing and we both shouted out the window "Run Forrest Run!" We busted out laughing that we would have the same thought at the same time. It was funny- guess you had to be there. :-)