We weren't sure that with a 20lb turkey and 5 pies we were going to have enough food for two people, so we made a lot of frog-eye to make sure. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.

Cooking Light Update

Hey,

Sorry to hog the blog... and we don't even have any cute kids as an excuse! But we tried this great CL recipe tonight and it was restaurant quality. It's easy, but you really do need to buy the ingredients for the sauce--eg., the chili paste w/ garlic.

Hope you luv it! We ate it over ramen noodles, but I'm sure anything is fine.


Stir-Fried Shrimp with Spicy Orange Sauce

Neutral-tasting canola oil allows the flavors of orange juice, honey, ginger, and chiles to shine. It can also withstand the heat of stir-frying in this tasty take on sweet-and-sour shrimp. Serve over rice or udon noodles.

1 1/2 pounds peeled and deveined large shrimp
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chile paste with garlic (such as sambal oelek)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup chopped green onions. (I substituted a red bell pepper, which was sweet and yummy--and healthier than just onions.)

Place shrimp in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with cornstarch; toss well to coat. Set aside.

Combine juice, soy sauce, honey, vinegar, and chile paste, stirring with a whisk; set aside.

Heat canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add minced ginger and garlic to pan; stir-fry for 15 seconds or until fragrant. Add shrimp mixture; stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add juice mixture and onions; cook 2 minutes or until sauce thickens and shrimp are done, stirring frequently. Serve immediately w/ stir fry veggies.

Camelback Phx Climb

My "climber" friend from the ward talked up this route pretty good. I couldn't wait to actually climb outdoors again--imagine my pleasant surprise when we showed up to a 5.4. Needless to say, I stayed down below. Here are pictures of my friends.

3 monkeys

While we were visiting with our next door neighbor Emily, Landon found that she had been given a monkey just like his for her baby shower. She told us we could take it home, rather than force him to leave it. Once we got home, he found original monkey in the laundry hamper, because it is do for a washing. He could hardly believe his good fortune that he had two monkeys. We went into his room because it was time to go to bed, and he saw replacement monkey in the crib. Thus the 3 monkeys. He walked around with all of them (even though one kept on dropping and he had a hard time figuring out how to hang on to three with only two hands) until we put him to bed. I am a little worried he is going to be expecting this many from now on....

More youtube

Dustin's friend showed us this video the other day, we thought it was pretty funny. This one too... They are both in Japanese and a little random...

Landon jumping

Well the quality of the video isn't that great, but Landon is pretty proud of his new skill and wanted to share it. Hopefully this works...

Birthday girl

Sorry to be hogging the blog so much. Here are a couple pictures. Melanie had fun with her little party. She helped mom blow up the balloons, she had fun making noise with her xylophone, and she really likes pushing her little stroller around.

Melanie laughing

Just a quick link, she thought this was pretty funny.

Landon's latest

The first picture is when we went to the lake to feed the ducks, the second is his new obsession with washing dishes, and the last are his halloween pics. I think it is tradition for him to hate his costume. He was a lot happier when we could run around outside, although he was much more interested in throwing rocks than carrying around a bag. (he was a monkey, if you can't tell)

We cohosted a Halloween party with some friends on Wednesday. The highlight of the night included meeting the Phantom of the Opera and playing Mario Kart.

P.S. We're a pair of blue jeans ("Gene" and "Jean"). We thought it was cool until we showed up and saw everyone else totally decked out.

Halloween

The kids had such a blast trick-or-treating this Halloween! When Lexi figured out what was going on, she would get her candy then say, "Let's go next house!" Carson was a knight, Lexi a pretty princess, and Nathan spaghetti and meatballs, of course!