Heidi's parents in town

Heidi's parents, Rick and Debe, are in town this week. They live in Raleigh, North Carolina ... so this heat wave and high humidity makes them feel right at home!

Our two oldest cats, Moo and Kitten, love Heidi's parents. Moo comes up and cuddles with Debe, and Kitten perches next to all of us sitting in the living room. (When Kitten perches next to you, you know she likes you.)

The four of us will be going to visit Evan's parents this weekend. It's a blessing to have our parents like each other. In fact, our parents have visited each other without us even around! How weird is that? :)

Summer weekends at The Lake

We just got back from another weekend at my parent's lake cabin. It's one of our favorite summer weekends -- jump in the car after work and get to the cabin, then have a great, great, great day swimming, boating, and making great food.

Evan's parents love having people visit them, and we love to visit! It's a great arrangement! :)

When we go, we often invite friends. This past weekend, Tony and Erin came up from the Cities. We've known Tony and Erin for years. They're more like a brother and sister; they're part of the family.

We can't wait to get back to the Lake in a couple of weekends, when Heidi's parents come to visit us!

Our first Twins game at Target Field!

The Twins won 1-0! Heidi got a cool hat!

One of our favorite recipes

Thai Fried Rice

1.      Steam rice at least two hours ahead of time, chill it

2.      Mix the sauce

Now, make the fried rice. And it’s gonna be great. Here’s the order:

Step                                                                                                                            

1.      heat the oil                                                       

2.      stir-fry the aromatics (garlic, or ginger, or chili paste, or green onions)

3.      stir-fry the meat (if you’re using meat, make sure you cook the meat before you cook the eggs)

4.      stir-fry the beaten eggs

5.      add the rice, mix to coat the rice with the oil and flavors of goodnees you’ve already added

6.      add the sauce, which makes everything magic

7.      stir-fry the vegetables (snow peas, carrots, bell peppers, mushrooms)

The key is to get the wok (or skillet) hot hot and cook everything quick quick.

Really, you can add whatever you want to this dish. Experiment! This is a humble, easy, get some good stuff in your belly meal. As long as you make the sauce, you’ll have the base Thai taste. Here’s the recipe that we’ve improvised from:

 

2 cups of cooked, chilled rice

(we prefer jasmine)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Sauce:

1 scant tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp lime juice

mix

Aromatics:

1 tbsp diced garlic (2 good cloves)

1 scant tsp of chili paste

Protein:

2 eggs, beaten

8 oz pork, thinly sliced

Vegetables:

1 red bell pepper, diced

1/3 cup julianne carrots

1/3 cup sliced mushrooms

Serve with Sriracha sauce to taste

Happy Mother's Day!

Evan's parents visited this weekend, which is always wonderful. But it was extra special to be able to spend Mother's Day with them.

Of course we can never say everything that needs to be said to thank our mothers. Both Heidi and Evan have beautiful, amazing, lovely moms. We can't wait until we get to see them be beautiful, amazing, lovely grandmoms.

Happy Mother's Day to you and to the people you love!

May Day Snow, and New Members at Church

In North Dakota it might snow any month of the year, except, maybe July. Even then, July can get mighty cold. We woke up this morning for the first of May -- May Day, the day where you make baskets and frolic in the sunshine and green green grass -- and saw a few inches of crackly, icy snow on the ground.

OK. So we move on. But, well ... blargh.

In much better news, this morning we became members of United Lutheran Church. It's an historic church in downtown Grand Forks, with a wonderful and welcoming congregation. At Sunday Services, we meet with young young children and friendly elderly members, and we very much enjoy the wide range of people. The pastors are a married couple, and have been at the church for about a decade.

After the service, we sat in the Fellowship Lounge for a coffee-and-bar hour. It was a nice morning, and we're very happy to be a part of the church.

So, snow in May isn't so bad, when you're a part of warm community!

Just as the garden peeks through, the snow comes back!

April fools with us each year -- yesterday, Heidi watched old snow melt while new snow fell.

It's nice, though, once the snow melts back enough to reveal the garden. We have a six foot by 20 foot garden in our backyard. These plants (above) are our heirloom shallots. They're already growing!

In the summer, which is so close we can taste it!, we're in the garden at least an hour a day. Our cats patrol for bugs, we clean out weeds, and we water when we need to. We have a large herb garden, and almost all our summer meals have some sprinkle of backyard rosemary, oregano or thyme.

We'll have more pictures of our garden as the summer rolls along.