Evangeline Audrey

Born to Andrew & Betsy
5/20/2009 at 8:56 pm
7 lbs 3 oz
19.5 inches

absences…

I’ve been sick for the past week or so, hence the lack of posting. And with Abra only a few days from her due date, I have a feeling that posts might be a little thinner here for a little while longer. Thanks for bearing with us!

Urgent Prayer Request

Please pray for a friend of ours who had a baby recently with complications. Pray for mother’s swift recovery, and comfort. Pray for the safety and health of the infant. Thank you.

auto shop 101

I just thought that this was too funny not to post.

It is commonly held that the fairer sex knows little about the inner workings of a car. This generalization is generally true, and so I offer this quick lesson. If your dipstick looks anything remotely like the one above, you’ve got a bit of a problem and should probably find a new mechanic.

Legal Jargon: Unfortunately, the qualifier at the end of movies (“Any similarities between these characters and any persons living or dead is purely coincidental” or something along those lines) does not work in this case, as the above dipstick belongs to someone we know, but I’d like to come out and say that it is no reflection on said person’s mechanical abilities, only those of their mechanic, and that problem has been remedied.

Summer Holiday

So, we are on our semi-annual vacation to the west. Visiting family, eating fantastic food, basking in sunlight, getting spoiled generally. I forgot to bring my camera cable, though, which means my foodie posts will have to wait until we get home. We did a fantastic gourmet steak meal for under $40.00 (for 6 people!) the other day in under an hour that tasted amazing! But, you’ll just have to wait.

blueberry beer

In some ways, I think it’s hard to get more “modern patriotic” than blue beer. I mean, it’s one of the three colors of the American Chromatic Trinity, and it’s beer. But I’m not advocating that you try this beer for any semblance of patriotism.

I think you should try this beer because it’s tasty. It’s got blueberries, if that gives you any ideas. And granted, because it has blueberries it’s not going to be very appealing at all to those people who like to chew their beer. It will also probably not be appealing to those who like to drink their beer out of 20 oz chilled mugs that smell of horse manure (you can ask me about that experience later). It does strike me, however, as a good way to introduce somebody to beer. The initial taste that you get is that of blueberries and then it gently fades to a ‘normal’ beer aftertaste. We are, for example, going to try to get my parents to split a bottle tonight at our barbecue (these are the parents that lived in Germany for a cumulative six years and still do not like beer).

So if you’re looking for something new and fun to try, I’d recommend this Wild Blue Lager.

For those of you here on the Palouse, you can find it in the cooler at WinCo. For those of you elsewhere, it is bottled by Anheuser-Busch, so it should be pretty readily available at your local grocer.

Bella Beach

I forgot my camera out at my parents’ house yesterday, which puts anything crafty or culinary out of the running for today’s post, so I thought I’d tell you all about a fabulous little place on the Oregon Coast that my family highly recommends.

Bella Beach is a small community on the coast built around the idea of “new urbanism”. There’s a lot of hokey stuff involved in new urbanism and sustainability and all that stuff (I know – I got a degree in it), but when it results in places as lovely as this, I’m all for it. Now before you start thinking “Oh no! Composting toilets!”, take a look at this.

Those aren’t yurts on the left there. Not convinced yet?

I don’t know what kind of beach houses you may have grown up with (if any – ours was often the type that involved poles and pegs), but this is certainly a cut above.

In this application, “new urbanism” means lots of public open spaces (like playgrounds, picnic areas, and ‘greens’), paths to the beach, and garages hidden in the back and only accessible by alleys. It makes for a very cosy and aesthetically appealing neighborhood. It is very obviously all contrived – the homeowners probably have to get paint schemes passed by a committee or something, but it is very lovely all the same.

Our house was a three bedroom, two bath house with the option of the additional sleeping loft above the garage. There was a fully stocked kitchen (stocked in the way of utensils and cookware, not food), laundry room, hot tub, and all the normal TV, DVD, etc. We visited in the off season (September) and so we got a really great rate that ended up being less than most hotels in the area. And even if we had had to pay more than a hotel – it’s a whole house, so that’s okay! They have great weekly rates as well, and it would be perfect for a family vacation where everyone can come and stay as long as they want, or a couple of small families could easily share a house (especially with the separate, optional sleeping loft above the garage for privacy).

Bella Beach also puts you very close to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Lincoln City Outlets, and lots of state parks (not to mention a Cold Stone Creamery), so there’s always plenty to do if you get bored with the playgrounds and beach.

So, if you’re pondering a vacation to the coast this year, check out Bella Beach, or either of her sister communities, Olivia Beach and Seabrook.

Kielbasa Penne

This is a good basic recipe to have on hand. It’s easily and quickly made and while I found the taste to be lacking the fire I love, my husband and daughter thought it was delicious. Next time I’ll probably add some garlic and fresh basil to the mixture and think about adding some spicy sausage, too. I especially appreciated how inexpensive and easy to throw together this one was. If you don’t have asparagus around, you could easily substitute with broccoli. Ditto the penne. You could really use any pasta, penne just looks nice and I prefer the guilt free whole wheat any day!

Ingredients:

8 oz uncooked whole wheat penne
1 can (14oz) stewed tomatoes, undrained
12 oz turkey kielbasa
1 bunch fresh asparagus, chopped into 1inch pieces
4 tbsp. prepared pesto sauce
a good handful of grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, heat tomatoes in medium saucepan. Cut sausage crosswise into 1/4 inch slices; add to tomatoes. Stir in asparagus and pesto; cover and simmer until asparagus is crisp-tender.
3. Drain pasta; toss with tomato mixture and sprinkle with cheese.

Makes 4-6 servings. Prep and Cook Time 25 minutes.

Secret Insecurities

I think most women have a secret insecurity. We seem to start developing about the same time we start to care what other people think of us. It’s usually something stupid. It can be the shape of our toes, or how we can never figure out how to start a conversation with a perfect stranger or maybe it’s our not so fashionable sense of fashion, or the fact that we can’t wrap a birthday present very well. It’s just something that you know isn’t perfect. I can’t speak for everyone, but mine pop up at regular intervals, wreaking havoc on my confidence and happiness. I don’t have my demons under control. I’ve been working on it for years. It did help to get married. Ben is really good about finding the perfect compliment and the more I hear them, the more I’ve learned to believe them. He likes my eyes and my nose. I never did until he did and the very fact that he likes them makes them endearing to me, instead of being too small (eyes) and too long (nose). But the truth of the matter is, my now not-so-secret insecurities are a sin problem. Vanity, obviously. Being obsessive, definitely. But it’s worse then that. If I allow these thoughts and worries into my head, it makes me unhappy…and I have no right to be unhappy. God created me, my eyes, my nose, yes, even my thighs and to dislike like the body God gave me is very disrespectful (not to mention arrogant). It carries over to new insecurities, too. Like my stretch mark and my mom-pouch (for those of you who don’t know, belly skin never fully goes back after being pregnant). I acquired those attributes because God blessed Ben and I with Ophelia. How horrible of me to be unhappy with the “side effects”. They should be glorious, not something I’m ashamed of. When it comes to abstract insecurities, the time I spend worrying about them and allowing them to pick away at my happiness is time I should be spending focusing on how to fix them or (live with them.) It’s downright selfish of me to be worrying about my bad social skills when I should just be happy to be with friends. Anyone worth talking too isn’t going to mind that I’m a terrible conversation starter, or that when I talk my words come out disconnected because my head is going faster then my mouth. And if I happen to be talking to a really good person, they’ll even help me work through it by giving me practice and be a better person for it. Sorry, if I’m rambling here. I was just thinking about it today. It’s a problem for me. I’m working on it, so I don’t have any really good advise. I just know that I need to work on it and that I’m not alone. It’s been going on for generations and I really want to figure out how to fix it before my daughter starts having secret insecurities of her own. Perhaps, if I get ahold of my sin problems, she won’t have such a bad case of secret insecurities.

the darkest chocolate

My family (ok, mostly just my dad and I) have a somewhat unique life goal. We are continually looking for a darker dark chocolate. Our fallback favorite is Scharffen Berger Chocolate, and I’ve got two bars sitting here on my desk that contain 62% and 70% cocoa, respectively. Scharffen Berger has been around for fifteen years or so, but was recently ‘acquired’ by the Hershey company. Unlike the buyout of Jaguar by Ford however, this merger has seemed to have no effect on the quality of the finer product. We’ve found some other brands that have higher cocoa content, but they have thus far come across as too bitter, so we’re fairly content with our Scharffen Berger for now. There is a brand that the Moscow Food Co-op carries that is pretty decent, but is a bit more expensive. Scharffen Berger, by the way, is available at the Grocery Outlet down in Lewiston at a much discounted price.

Here is my favorite. It’s called the Nibby Bar, and it has little bits of roasted cocoa beans in it to give it a bit of a crunchy bite. Quite tasty and enjoyable. (Photo courtesy of the company website)

If any of you know of some great dark chocolate, I’d love to hear about it!