Try-Me-Night Review: Crock-pot Chicken Enchiladasby Angie
18 Dec 2007
9:12 pm2
Becka’s mild chicken enchilada recipe is one I’ve made many times before, but altering it for the crock-pot made it a try-me night. I wanted to try making the enchilada filling in the crock-pot (for those who have Rachel’s crock-pot chicken alfredo recipe, the method is very similar), then rolling the tortillas and cooking them in the oven to finish them off. It actually worked really well, and I felt like it took much less effort on my part. I thought that using all dark meat might make it too greasy (since all the fat would be stuck in the crock-pot as it cooked), so I used a combination of chicken thighs and breasts. The meat was cooked beautifully after four hours on high in the crock-pot! I also warmed up the tortillas before rolling, which made them easier to handle.
Overall, it was a great experiment, and I think I’ll keep doing it this way in the future. Thanks for the original recipe, Becka!
Springtown Ward Christmas Programby Angie
16 Dec 2007
8:12 pm0
Today at church, we participated in the ward Christmas Program for Sacrament Meeting. There was a violin solo, a guitar solo, and a trio of sisters who sang, “Born to Wear a Crown.” Jim and I were both in the choir, which sang three hymns, and we also sang a duet: “No Room for the King.” We were both pretty nervous – I got the hiccups shortly before Sacrament Meeting started, and I was terrified that they would come back while we were up on the stand! Luckily, no such disaster occurred. Everything went great. After the meeting several people complimented us, and they were all amazed and impressed that my mom had written the song. Our Relief Society president enjoyed telling everyone that, because she had been sitting in the choir behind us, she could see that we were holding hands while we sang, and she thought that was the cutest thing ever. 🙂
This afternoon, Jim had to go to a presidency meeting for the Teachers Quorum, which overlapped a little with ward choir practice. I walked there on my own (our choir director, Brother Senecal, lives right around the corner from us), and we were about fifteen minutes into our practice when Jim arrived and joined the basses. They were very relieved that he “finally” showed up, since none of them are confident reading music, and Brother Senecal announced to Jim that, “It’s people like you that make ward choirs a success!” I love seeing Jim flattered and embarrassed and pleased all at the same time.
Happy Birthday to Meby Angie
15 Dec 2007
5:12 pm1
Today is my birthday! I got to enjoy breakfast in bed and a relaxing morning with Jim, and then we went to the Oakland Temple together this afternoon. This evening, we went to Strizzi’s – a fabulous Italian restaurant in downtown Livermore. Parking downtown is pretty tricky on a Saturday evening, so we had to walk a little ways. As we approached the intersection near Strizzi’s, we heard the unmistakable sounds of a motorcycle behind us. The rider pulled up to the stop light and we realized that it was Santa! From head to toe, he was decked out as the jolly old elf, complete with christmas lights on his motorcycle. He was waving and “Ho, Ho, Ho”-ing, even after he turned the corner and drove out of sight. I’m so sorry I didn’t get a picture of it – I tried, but I wasn’t quick enough. It was a very entertaining part of a very lovely birthday.
Last night was our Stake Choir Concert on Temple Hill! It was a great success and we’ve both really enjoyed the wonderful people we’ve met and worked with in the choirs over the last couple of months. We performed our whole program twice, and the second time it was video recorded. We kind of wished that it had been the first performance that they recorded, but they were both great, really. We’ve made a lot of new friends through the choir, and it’s been very fun to rehearse and perform.
Vroom…squeak!by Angie
12 Dec 2007
11:12 pm2
Cars can be so exasperating. We think our brakes need replacing pretty soon here and are trying to decide when and how to make it happen. Jim and his friend Justin were looking them over this evening and it looks like they’ve got another couple of months on them. With Justin’s help, Jim is thinking of replacing the brakes as a DIY project (it would save us hundreds of dollars – literally) …but just contemplating such a task made us both even more aware of how little we know about cars.
Justin has done home repairs before and worked on cars a lot with his dad when he was younger, but he doesn’t feel like an expert, either. He said it seems like those who know tons about cars remind him of a club – if you’re not “in the know” early on, it’s really hard to be initiated later in life. Where does a car-dumb grown-up with no mechanical savvy or spare car to take apart find herself some effective tools for figuring out how cars work, anyway?
The end.
St. Mikulás Dayby Angie
6 Dec 2007
10:12 pm1
St. Mikulás visited our house and – since we have been very good children – left our shoes full of presents! We got DVDs and popcorn and hot chocolate and candy, and Jaquie got new toys that she adores. Her favorite is a set of three catnip mice – Jim detached one little mouse from the cardboard and she went crazy playing with it, and a few minutes later was trying to get the other two mice out of his shoe, where he had set them aside! We got a picture of her attacking the mouse, but when we tried to get a video of it, she stopped and walked away in a huff.
We had our Mikulás Feast last night because tonight we had choir rehearsal. I made cider and soft ginger cookies to share with everyone, in honor of it being St. Mikulás Day, and we got to tell everyone about the Hoffmans’ traditions and background. Everybody was pleased with the treats and very grateful, and I enjoyed doing it but…note to self: don’t try cooking big meals and treats for 60 people two days in a row. I am exhausted, and my poor kitchen looks like a whirlwind waltzed through it.
Mikulás Feast (and Try-Me-Night!)by Angie
5 Dec 2007
9:12 pm3
Today was wonderful! I spent – literally – most of the day preparing for this evening’s Mikulás Feast. We invited our friends, the Bradleys, to join us and I planned to make five dishes – three of which, I’d never made before! Jim’s favorite part of the traditional feast is the Ham Stack, so I had to go to a specialty meat market this morning to buy ground ham (because a regular supermarket butcher is not allowed to grind both raw and cooked meats). The gentlemen at Kelly’s Meat Market were so helpful and pleasant! Anyway, besides that, I already had all my shopping done, so I could go home and get right to work. Here was our menu:
A 16-layer Ham Stack – Alternating layers of palacsintas (kind of like crepes) with a mixture of ham in bechamel sauce. I’ve helped with this one in past years, so it was familiar. I made the ingredients and Jim stacked it up.
Voros Kaposzta – Red cabbage, braised in butter & vinegar. Kristyn took over for me on this one and it turned out great! Well, those who like red cabbage thought it was great.
Kathy’s Goulash – Beef in a sour cream red sauce over hot buttered pasta. This is a regular favorite at our house, especially because it cooks in the crock pot all day and is super easy.
Krumpli Nudli – Potato noodles rolled in breadcrumbs. These are a lot of work! I know, I was forewarned . . . but Jim loves them, so I thought I’d give them a try. By the time I was done rolling the noodles, I thought my arms were going to fall off! They tasted wonderful, though, so I’m afraid I’ll be making them again in the future. 🙂
Hungarian Stuffed Peppers – Bell peppers filled with meat, rice, and aromatics. This was not one of the traditional dishes Jim grew up with, but I wanted to try it. This link goes to the original recipe, but (of course) I played around with it a bit. Instead of ground meat, I used kielbasa (polish sausage) and it was delicious! The recipe also calls for “paprika gravy,” which looked pretty strange to me, not to mention huge…so I changed that a lot. I left out the anaheims, only used 2 cups of beef stock (instead of 6), and a few tablespoons of corn starch (instead of 3/4 cup flour). I ended up with a tangy, creamy paprika gravy that we used on our peppers, with plenty left over. It was also great on the krumpli nudlis, actually.
After dinner, Jim read us the Mikulás chaper from Kate Seredy’s “The Good Master.” Kathy will be gratified to know that the very same parts that always make her cry got Jim a tad choked up, too. When he finished, we discovered that Mikulás had left treats in the Bradleys’ shoes, which we had set out on the windowsill! Their two-year-old daughter, Emily, loves toy cars, so that was her present. She played with them while Jim & Justin played Guitar Hero and Kristyn & I played with little Maddie (and chased Emily around). When it was time to go, Emily was pleasantly surprised to learn that she really got to keep the cars and take them home! All in all, it was a wonderful evening. I’m glad our first Mikulás Feast was such a great success!
Christmas Decorationsby Angie
4 Dec 2007
10:12 pm1
Jim and I weren’t going to buy a Christmas tree this year, since we will be spending the holidays in Utah… but as I was planning for our St. Mikulás Day Hungarian Feast, I just felt like we needed some decorations to accompany our festivities. I was going to Target anyway, so I bought the tree on sale, and just cheap little lights and ornaments… it was only about $20 in all, but it looks quite pretty all put together (if I do say so myself)!
So, here are some pictures of our lovely little tree. Look, there are already some presents under it! Those are actually Mikulás gifts: some are going into our friends’ shoes during our Mikulás dinner, and the package on the right is from the Hoffman Mikulás in Utah, for Jim and me.
In the picture on the right, you can see where the tree is set up. I know it doesn’t look like a fantastic spot, but we don’t really have a fantastic spot for a tree this size – it either hides or gets in the way (hm…sounds like I’m talking about a pet ferret or something).
I also included this picture of Jim (playing Guitar Hero), so you can see how tiny a three-foot tree looks beside a six-foot person. Small, but sure cute! Hey, like me!