Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Snowed In

Apparently we are going to be snowed in this whole week before Christmas. It snowed on Sunday, church was canceled and the kids have been out of school for two days and it is supposed to snow tomorrow, Thursday and on the weekend.

What better to do on a cold winter day than make soup! Here are some of our favorites.

West African Chicken Peanut Soup.

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1 1/3 cup diced onion

3 tsp. minced garlic

4 T. dark sesame oil

3 tsp. curry powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp dried red pepper flakes

6 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup tomato paste

2 cups diced stewed tomatoes

6 T chunky peanut butter

In a large pot, saute the chicken, onion, and garlic in sesame oil for about 10 minutes until the onion is tender. Add the curry powder, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and saute 1 minute more.

Add the chicken broth, tomato past, stewed tomatoes, and peanut butter, stirring until well-combined. Heat until very hot but not boiling.

Cumin Flatbread (Morocco) (Eat with chicken peanut soup)

1 1/3 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)

1 T dry yeast

3 T extra-virgin olive oil

2 1/4 t. course salt

2 t ground cumin

3 cups bread flour

Place warm water in bowl of mixer. Sprinkle yeast over and stir to combine. Let stand 10 minutes.

Add oil, salt, and ground cumin.

Using the dough hook, gradually beat in flour. Continue beating 5 minutes

Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth-about 2 minutes. Dough will be very soft.

Place in plastic bag and let rise in the refrigerator overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Brush 12X18 baking sheet with olive oil.

Place dough in pan. Using fingertips, press out dough. covering pan completely (dough will be very thin). Lightly oil the top of the bread.

Bake until golden, about 30 minutes. Remove from pan and serve warm or at room temperature.

(Very yummy together, the soup is spicey. Sorry this is double spacing?)

Another Favorite is Minestrone soup (Serves 16-20)

1/2 cup olive oil .................2 cups canned tomatoes...................2 lg. onions, chopped

2 T basil .................... 2 carrots,sliced ....................2 cloves garlic

2 stalks celery, sliced................1/2 head cabbage, chopped.....................2 lg potatoes, diced

1 can red beans (14 oz)..............1 can green beans.................... 1 cup shell macaroni

1 can garbanzo beans (14 oz)...........salt to taste .................12 cups vegetable broth (or chicken)

Heat oil in a stock pot, add onion and fry until soft but not brown. Add everything except cabbage and pasta. Simmer several hours until thick. Just before serving, add cabbage and past. Cook for additional 20 minutes or until cabbage and pasta are tender.

If you make this Minestrone you will never want to eat at Olive Garden again. Really it is that good! Enjoy and stay warm.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Lego Robotics III

(Our team is 914, they ran the program three times. The picture below is the team cheering because they were able to complete one of the harder tasks.)
WE ARE GOING TO STATE!!!!

The Banks Bots have struck again.
They got First place!
January 17th they will be going to state.
What a year, these kids and their coaches work very hard to get to this point. Hours and hours are put into this competition, they meet every Friday and Saturday evening for about two hours every time and then the closer we get to competition the more hours they put into it. They have to build a Robot, program it to complete tasks. They have to put together a presentation, present it to the community. They have to be drilled on how they built the robot, how they programmed it, what they learned, how they work as team and sooooo many more areas.
A Big Thank you to Uncle Sid, and Dan for all the hard work they put into this every year!!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Flashback Friday

(Hope and cousin Trevor)
I have been reading people's blogs about their children and the cute things they say (most have little kids). I really like these posts but since my kids aren't little anymore and the things they say are not quite so darling I thought I would share some of the things I wrote down when they were little.
I will share a story about Hope first. She is about 2 in this picture and at this stage in her life she liked to sing and dance. She would sing "Rock a baby" and another song I remember was the ABC song she would sing along with me, the cute part was when she would get to "LMNOP" she would sing "LMNgoPEE" :) Too cute!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Thankful Thursday

Today I am Thankful for a Father's love.
My Husband, Father of my children
My Heavenly Father
My Father

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Christmas Party


Last night was our ward Christmas Party, it was very nice. Emma got the chance to be Mary, she was so pretty. I had fun dressing her up. The pictures are from the practice earlier in the day.
Joseph (Trevor) was so bored we had to put the picture up so you could all enjoy it and Mary looks a little bored herself. I thought it was funny how Emma got herself ready for the part, she kind of resembled a ghost :) She was trying to hide the dress, she didn't like it and it didn't help that an older sibling (Jackie) laughed at it either.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Flashback Friday

Long ago our ward in Utah had a Christmas tradition, Santa would come to our homes on Christmas Eve. Here is one of our girls unhappy and if you look close Santa isn't very happy either :) Can any of you tell me which one of my girls this is?
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For those who chose Emma you are correct!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Sick

The last little while I have been sick with bronchitis, first time ever hhhhmmmm does that mean I am getting old? Jackie has also been sick, poor girl. So what should a couple of sick girls do?


How about watch hours and hours and hours of......... The Office. Thank you Netflix and Roku.

Jackie is definitely hooked, it's like her own personal heroine :) (Twilight)

I am trying hard to not be bugged by some of the people but I am intrigued by a couple of characters.

Pam and Jim

Why are these two not married? I mean come on, it is starting to bug me a little bit, but I like them the most.


Next is Dwight aka the weird guy

I am not sure what it is about him but his stuff usually makes me laugh. Him and the girl that likes him :)

Not sure why but Kevin is the next person that makes me laugh maybe it is because he laughs all the time, my favorite episode with him was when a new lady in the office thought that Kevin was mentally handicapped




Anybody else like these guys? Definitely not my favorite show but when you are sick and drugged up it is entertaining.