Things That Must Stay

My dear sister Alicia made a wonderful suggestion to have more lists of 'Things That Must Stay'. Why not focus on the positive? What a brilliant idea. In fact, I think I'd like to start making a list each week. Grilled muenster sandwiches most definitely make the list this week. I had an ooey gooey one for lunch today, and it was delightful. Other things that must stay are gorgeous campuses that are meticulously cared for, with buildings that are works of art in and of themselves. Bell towers (although I'm not sure the repertoire of the particular bell tower I'm thinking of necessarily MUST stay), and wheat bread must stay. I just love wheat bread. Not even a particular brand, but it just has such a great flavor and smell that isn't available in many white breads. The Gospel must stay (and it will). It's been a great week. Pretty colors must stay. Anticipation for yearly traditions must stay. Yearly traditions must stay. Family togetherness must stay. Familiar faces and kind words must stay. Puccini must stay (alright, so I know he's gone, but his music must definitely stay). Cell phones must stay. Letters, mountains, small pastry shops must stay. Czech crystal, Neutrogena, pretty shoes must stay. I'd continue on, but I actually must go.

I'm afraid that's what sells...

Wow. I haven't actually been to this market yet, but I'm dying to check it out (no puns intended)! I wanted to go there when I got their circular from last week advertising cactus pears on a great sale. I have never had a cactus pear and it sounds like an adventure I'd like to make. I had a good laugh at this week's circular. Notice the Aztec carrying a human sacrifice cleverly digitally superimposed upon the gala apples being advertised. How does this sell produce and meat? I don't know, but if the cartoon is grabbing my attention like it just did, then those advertisement folk are doing a good job.

Jacquelyn's gone DIGITAL!

In spite of the mounds of more important things on my 'to do' list, I decided I would learn how to work my scanner today, and in celebration, here are some of my favorite pics from my pen pal across the pond! I've also been called as a Family History Co-Chair of my ward, so I've taken up indexing, which is digitizing census and church records. It truly is remarkable and I can bear witness to you that the Lord truly does not call us to a work, save he provides the means for us to accomplish it. He will fight our battles if we allow him to: We merely have to have faith in Him. I've tried indexing before, and it was such a struggle. I have a really difficult time reading old scrawly cursive, but this last time I came across names that I honestly couldn't recognize, and yet I almost instantly knew what they were. It isn't like that for every name, but I know the Lord helps his humble servants when they put forth the effort and exercise faith in Him.

Is ok, I make lamb (?)

I was going to make lamb. I was. But how can you pass up the ground turkey when it's probably a third of the price and less fat? So I used turkey to make these Moroccan Meatballs, which I served with Brown-Sugar Glazed Carrots and "Moroccan Couscous". I don't know how Moroccan either of these two dishes actually were, but if your eyes are sweatin' with all the spice in the air, you're probably getting close. I think it was a perfectly balanced meal, not just as far as nutrition goes, although I hit that point for sure, but flavorwise as well. The meatballs had a really complex flavor, which balanced really nicely with the subtle couscous which was mainly flavored with butter and onions (some might not call that subtle, but I love onions and da mo' butte' da mo' bette' dat's what I say). The carrot recipe called for rosemary, which I don't have (which is a shame, because you try and tell me an herb that smells better than rosemary, I dare ya) so I used coriander instead which tied the flavors of the meatballs and the carrots together. I had a sweet peach to go with it. It was a lovely meal. However, I've got to stop with the ground turkey. The meatballs tasted good, but they lacked the certain rich, bold flavor that one can only get from lamb, and they also lacked the moist, tender texture of a more marbled meat (although you'd be surprised at how much fat I rendered from the turkey, it was disgusting!). As a sad and final note, the molten chocolate cookies are only good when they're fresh, I'd sooner toss them than give them to company the 2nd day. You've got to eat them before they cool down completely after you've taken them out of the oven, but if you do, you're cares will melt away in chocolate bliss for the remainder of the cookie.

Should I stay or should I go?

Hello my friends! On our day to day adventures we cannot help but mentally think of a list of things that must go. These things could include living about 30 feet away from an outdoor theater which leaves your eardrums and your floors pulsing with the baseline of some rather poor music, or linolium with indentations for asthetic effect which consequently 1) aren't asthetically pleasing, and 2) make it impossible to effectively clean the floor. The list may also include football and the traffic that ensues therefrom, but there is one thing that most definitely must stay: Molten chocolate cookies. These cookies don't just have a melt in your mouth, not in your hand quality, but infact, when eaten warm, the centers are pure molten chocolate goodness. These kind of cookies ALMOST make up for any thunderous, poorly done music and hoards of people dressed in blue dispobeying traffic laws and common sense. These cookies are perfect chocolate bliss.

Guava Juice and Cous Cous OR Auditory Ossicles

So I should've been studying for what would almost serve the purpose of a clep test instead of making a fairly elaborate meal for a Tuesday, and I should be studying right now instead of bloging about it, but...it's good! It is Moroccan Chicken Stew with sweet potatoes on cous cous. Good stuff. Frying scares me a little bit though. Too loud. And hot oil isn't friendly--it spits, like camels. Last week I made Coconut and Beef Curry with noodles (sorry folks, I'm unable to hyperlink this one). It was delicious. It would have been more delicious had I used beef, but sometimes...you gotta eat cheap and healthful, so I went with the ground turkey. Ground turkey tastes a lot like ground carboard, so it works better in really spiced up dishes like spaghetti and tacos. I probably won't use it in curry again (this was a more mild, wimp-friendly curry), but it was a really good curry nevertheless. The great thing about dishes like this is that as the leftovers sit in the fridge, the flavors get more comfortable with each other and start to hang out and mingle, which makes the leftovers actually better than when it was totally fresh. This is also good for a college student, because when I cook...I eat the same thing everyday for a good few days.

Walking to School

Walking to school is an adventure, but actually, now that I think about it, so is walking home. On the way to school there is a row of sprinklers that never fails to be on. The heads rotate at different rates, so if you aren't watchful and quick at stopping and starting at the right times, you will inevitably get wet. I lost the first battle, but I'm getting much better. At school there are appropriate signs on some of the greens that read, "I'm trying really hard to grow, so please don't walk on me" or something to that effect. Do you ever feel the same way? I do sometimes. Walking home can be more sprinkler dodging, which probably ought to be an Olympic sport and would probably be something Tyler would enjoy. Sometimes walking home is grasshopper dodging. That only happened once, and there were only two...I think, but they sure can jump high and fast and two grasshoppers is probably an overload for one walk. Hopefully we wont need to hail in the seagulls to come and bail us out again.