Flowers from Me, Him & Her

I'm lovin' my flower filled house right now! I bought myself these sunflowers last weekend:

Then earlier this week I had a little meltdown before work and was feeling really sad & pouty. So, my WONDERFUL, sweet, thoughtful husband send me these beauties. He had them delivered to my work which was such a nice surprise. Yeah, he's alright. ;)

So, I was feeling pretty good about having 2 bouquets of fresh flowers in the house when we had our in-laws and their best friends over for dinner last night. And what did their friends bring to our house for us? More flowers!!!!

Needless to say, my house smells great!

Korean Bool Kogi on Rice Sticks

I heart Trader Joe's. So what better cookbook to buy than Cooking With All Things Trader Joe's? Squeeee!

I tried out my first recipe yesterday, and it was YUM. Dan was quite impressed as well. To quote him as he ate, "I likey". It was a bit of a challenge cooking this because, well, I have no oven! Our oven crapped out on us Sunday night. When I say it crapped out on us, I really mean that Dan broke it when he tried to unhook the annoying oven timer. Our oven was ancient and had a timer on it that would randomly (sometimes at 3:00 A.M) go off. It was loud enuogh to startle us from our sleep and one of us would drag ourselves to the kitchen to turn it off. So, while it sucks to have the unexpected cost of buying a new oven, I never have to hear that timer again. Woo!

So, how did I cook my meal you ask? Our camping stove but of course! See..

Here's the recipe..

Ingredients:

* 1 (1.5-2 lb) pkg refrigerated Bool Kogi Korean marinated beef ribs, ready-to-cook

* 6 oz Rice Sticks noodles (about half the package)

* 3 Tbsp soy sauce

* 1 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil

* 1 Tbsp sugar

* 2 garlic cloves, crushed, or 2 tsp jarred Crushed Garlic

* 1 carrot, shredded, or 1 cup bagged Shredded Carrots

* 1 cup sliced mushrooms, cooked or raw

* 2 green onions, thinly sliced

1) Cook meat over medium-high heat in a grill pan or over a grill to desired doneness. Remove from heat and cover with foil for 10 minutes. Allowing meat to rest keeps it juicy.

2) Cook noodles according to package instructions and drain.

3) Whisk soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and garlic until combined. (tip: I used a little extra soy sauce and sugar and it tasted better) Pour dressing onto cooked noodles and toss well to coat. Stir in carrots and mushrooms.

4) Slice meat diagonally into thick strips.

5) To serve, arrange noodles on platter. Place sliced meat on top of noodles. Garnish with green onions.

Another tip for you. Be sure to read the ingredients carefully. I clearly did not because instead of either buying regular sized carrots to shred, or a bag of already shredded carrots, I bought a bag of baby carrots. FAIL. It worked, but I had to slice them until they were carrot nubs, and then I fed the nubs to my dogs. Apparently Cali likes carrots!

Here's the final result.. bon appetit!

Notice anything different?

Yep, I changed my blog title and updated the look. Like I mentioned in my last entry I'm changing this blog to be a more general life blog. So, while I'll still post my progress on my list, I'll also be posting about random every day things.. the little things that make me smile, and keep me going every day.

So, first off I have to address #54 on my list. Most of you know that Dan & I have been trying to get pregnant since October, 2008. Almost 13 months ago. And while there's nothing we can pinpoint as the culprit for it taking so long, I'm still stamped INFERTILE in the medical world since we hit the year mark. We want nothing more than to start a family, so it's been a difficult journey so far.

The current plan is to do one more cycle on Clomid (a popular fertility drug that makes me ovulate sooner), followed by an unmedicated cycle, followed by IUI. I never thought we'd be facing this, but I know it's making us grow closer as a couple. Some day we'll have our baby & I'm going to appreciate every bout of sickness, every stretch mark, every kick in the ribs. Oh, and I already know the first thing I'll be buying for the baby.. seems pretty appropriate. :)

It must be Fall..

I'm lovin' the cooler weather & I'm ready to bake! #25 on my list is to bake cookies & make cocoa the next rainy night. Well, I jumped the gun a bit last night by baking sugar cookies. It ended up raining at 4:00 in the morning, so I guess that doesn't really count. I'm ready with instant cocoa packets and cookie ingredients though & ready to do a rain dance! I'm so over the heat and excited to get some cold weather & rain. yay!

Another nice thing about colder weather is that I'll get more book reading in. Today I finished my 2nd book on Oprah's list, What I Thought I Knew, by Alice Eve Cohen. It was good, but not my favorite. It's a memoir written by a woman who is told she's infertile, so she adopts. Then years later, when she's in her 40's, she finds out she's 6 months pregnant.. and she's not very happy about it. I guess if I had to rate it 1-10 (10 being the best), I'd give it a 6.

In other blog related news, I'm making some changes! I'm going to be changing this blog to a more general life blog, not just my list. My first non-list related blog to follow!