new recipe

This recipe has great potential. Sam and I both liked it but we'll still play with it to see if we can perfect it. We used broccoli instead of sugar snap peas because I couldn't find any. Also, we didn't have any peanuts and I don't like cilantro so they were left out. Maybe we felt it was lacking because we just went to Szechuan Garden and were spoiled with amazing food. :)

Szechuan Steak

1 lb. steak (any kind), sliced thing, 1-2 inch pieces
8 oz. fresh sugar snap peas (2 cups)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
2 Tbs dry roasted peanuts, chopped

Heat some vegetable oil in a wok or skillet. Add peas and stir fry for 2 minutes. Remove to plate and add beef, garlic and pepper. Stir fry meat until brown. Combine soy, water, sugar and starch in a bowl. Return peas to pan and toss with meat. Add soy mixture and stir fry until thick. Remove from heat and serve over steamed rice. Top with cilantro and peanuts.

happy birthday to us!

Sam and I just celebrated our birthdays last week. They were quite fun. I got to sleep in and when I did get up Sam had written me a sweet note on the bathroom mirror. He made me a favorite dish for dinner, german pancakes. We both worked on one cake for the both of us. He wanted to sing and have me blow out candles but seeing as we didn't have any birthday candles around (we're newly weds) he grabbed my avocado-olive scented candle and stuck it right in the middle and sang "Happy Birthday" for me. Haha. My family came up on Saturday to take us both out to lunch to celebrate our birthdays. We went to Panda for lunch and then over to Chili's for dessert. We also went and looked at numerous shelters for dogs because they wanted to get a dog for Christmas (they found on in SG yesterday). They gave us both a handful of presents and we loved it. I also had my mom bring up birthday candles. They sang to us both befor we opened our presents. For Sam's birthday I got up early and made him a great big breakfast only to find out when we got to church that it was Fast Sunday. Oops! Then I made him a nice dinner that night. I sang to him too with the real birthday candles. Haha. It was quite the party. :)

yay stumbleupon

I use this site called StumbleUpon and it pulled up this picture and I thought it was too priceless to keep to myself. I laughed pretty hard. :)

feasts a plenty

Thanksgiving was pretty much the bomb! We went up to SLC on Tuesday night because we were itching to get out of Cedar and for a break. We stayed at Mom & Dad Schofield's. Wednesday we got all our Christmas shopping done (yay us!!) and had lunch with Ryan and Emilee. We went up to Josi's house that night and while I wasn't used to staying over at someone's house for Thanksgiving we had a lot of fun while we were there. Lots of games and good food to be had. Thursday rolls around and the kitchen got busy at 9:00 a.m. I baked my first pie ever. It was a gooseberry pie. I love this kind of pie and hadn't had it in years and Sam told me that his family had never had one so I just had to make one. Word to the wise, gooseberry pies only get made every few years in my family and this is why: they are $5.58 a stinkin' can and near impossible to find. 6 phone calls to northern grocers finally landed me with gooseberries. Won't be making this pie for a while since my wallet is kind of bare. As I went to pull my pie out of the oven I had to reach over two other pies that were baking as well and the top coil in the oven bit my arm. Rude, I know. So I've had these two awesome stripes on my arm since then. I also made my Grandma Dean's a-maze-ing dressing/stuffing. I couldn't bear to go without it. I didn't make a ton because I wasn't sure what the response would be since I was under the impression that they weren't a "stuffing family". The stuffing was a hit too and I got many compliments on it and the pie. I didn't boil the pie filling long enough so the inside was runny but still tasted exactly like I remembered. Speaking of pie. My in-laws are the biggest pie family ever. I was very excited to experience the "Thanksgiving of Many Pies", and many pies there were. 15 pies, to be exact. Almost enough for one pie per person. There were 4 pumpkin, 2 banana cream, 2 blueberry, 2 cherry, 1 pear, 2 sour cream apple, 1 peach, my gooseberry and a birthday cake for Sam's little brother, Matt. Dinner was fantastic and the pies were superb. We hadn't eaten so much food in months and now our tummies are hungry because of the extra space. Haha. Friday we hung out with more friends and played games and had a blast. Saturday we hung out with Kristyl and Mike and they made us an awesome dinner and we played games. Such a very good weekend. We had so much fun spending time with family and friends we're contemplating relocating to SLC to have a social life. Haha. It was great to see Nick, Crystal and Kendra who we haven't seen in months. OH! So we get home Sunday night and I flip on the light and go over to check on our fish. Sam bought an automatic fish feeder since we were going to be gone for more than 2 nights. Well, I went and looked at the fish and they were HUGE! Their little bellies were swollen to the max! The feeder had been feeding them way more than we had been and they gobbled up every bit. They were uncomfortable and bloated. Looks like we weren't the only ones that had a Thanksgiving feast. We didn't feed them at all today to let them pass most the food they'd eaten while we were gone and I just fed them bits of a pea to help with constipation. Regular animal doctor, that's me. Now its back to the daily grind for us. This is the last week of school and I have 2 lab finals and a chemistry exam this week and then my remaining 3 finals next week. Sam has 4 finals next week. After that we'll be out for Christmas break. Yahoo!!! I just barely put up our little Christmas tree and its awesome. Yay for fake, pre-lit trees that will last forever. Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all!!!!