Scampi Fibber

I just love to cook....Jeff loves to cook too....So we talk about food allot because we love to cook and eat good food.

When Jeff and I started dating, Jeff would talk about how he can make shrimp scampi....this really impressed me.....I thought this man with a freezer full of waffles and pizza bites can cook? Wow. :) So one night he set up a romantic dinner. He had me meet him at his apartment and he had decorated the table with candles and flowers. It was swoon worthy believe me. So we sat down for dinner and he had made shrimp scampi and garlic bread. I was so excited to try his shrimp scampi! I praised him through the whole meal on how delicious it was. When dinner was done I got up to help him do the dishes and I went to throw something away and there it was.....  a frozen Bertolli pasta bag.....Then I put the two and two together and gave him a hard time about how he tried to pass the Bertolli off as his recipe....We still laugh about it to this day.

Well it took a few years but he made real shrimp scampi for me on valentines day....so I can no longer give him a hard time about it. It was so good. I thought I would share the recipe. (By the way this is not his recipe....but it is sooooo yummy!)

Baked Shrimp Scampi
Ingredients

2 pounds (12 to 15 per pound) shrimp in the shell

3 tablespoons good olive oil

2 tablespoons dry white wine

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 teaspoons minced garlic (4 cloves)

1/4 cup minced shallots

3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary leaves

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 extra-large egg yolk

2/3 cup panko (Japanese dried bread flakes)

Lemon wedges, for serving

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Peel, devein, and butterfly the shrimp, leaving the tails on. Place the shrimp in a mixing bowl and toss gently with the olive oil, wine, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Allow to sit at room temperature while you make the butter and garlic mixture.

In a small bowl, mash the softened butter with the garlic, shallots, parsley, rosemary, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, lemon juice, egg yolk, panko, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper until combined.

Starting from the outer edge of a 14-inch oval gratin dish, arrange the shrimp in a single layer cut side down with the tails curling up and towards the center of the dish. Pour the remaining marinade over the shrimp. Spread the butter mixture evenly over the shrimp. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until hot and bubbly. If you like the top browned, place under a broiler for 1 minute. Serve with lemon wedges.

Prayers from children.

Let me just get this out of the way.....This picture makes me want to have a million babies with Jeff.....isn't he the cutest thing you have ever seen!? Anyways......

Jeff and I teach the sunbeams at church. They are age 3 going on 4....we get them for 2 hours. This has been so much fun, but also a challenge. Trying to get kids at that age to sit in there seat, leave each other alone and convince then that they don't need to go to the bathroom or get a drink every 5 minutes is allot of work! But every sunday when I leave, they have each done something to make me laugh. I just enjoy them so much. I think they are teaching me more than I am teaching them.

We say a opening and closing prayer in our class. Some kids are able to do it them selves and some need a little help. They say the sweetest things in there prayers, and some are funny. For example....one boy said in his prayer "please bless Sister Moss will think we are good in class so we can have a snack."

Today one of the boys that need alittle help sayings prayers wanted to say a prayer. So before he started one of the little girls asked if he wanted her help. He was so excited for her help. They asked if the sick people could be blessed and know that we love them and they asked if we can all have fun together today like we also do.

There are a few things I learned from this prayer today. These two that did the prayer together get annoyed with each other all the time! But even though they annoy each other....they are so willing to help one another. I need to start being like that. I need to have more patience and love everyone no matter who they are. Another thing I learned was the things they pray for are so simple...but yet so important. We need to remember the simple things in life. To worry about the important things in life, instead of focusing on all the stress or the extra clutter we add into our lives.

This is my new goal....and I am looking forward to making my life this way!

Our favorite Chocolate Dessert.

This recipe I found on cooking light. It is still a indulgence....but it is sooooo good. We top it with Vanilla ice cream. It makes 4 small ramekins.....but we are kind of bad and only make 2 :)  You can use semi sweet chocolate for the middle...be we have found dark chocolate is the best....they are almost like a lava cake the chocolate in the middle just comes pouring out when you cut in....mmmmmmmm My hips even think its worth it!

Ingredients


Cooking spray

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup 2% reduced-fat milk

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 tablespoons butter

1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 large egg white

4 Dark Chocolate Square ( OR if you only make 2 you will only need 2! )

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly coat 4 (2-ounce) ramekins with cooking spray, and sprinkle 3/4 teaspoon sugar into each of the ramekins, shaking and turning to coat. Set prepared ramekins aside.

Combine 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, milk, and cocoa in a small saucepan, stirring well with a whisk. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook 30 seconds or until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; add the butter and 1/2 ounce unsweetened chocolate. Stir until the chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Cool chocolate mixture 10 minutes.

Add flour, vanilla, salt, and egg white to chocolate mixture, stirring with a whisk just until blended. Spoon 2 tablespoons chocolate mixture into each prepared ramekin, and top each with one chocolate square. Divide the remaining chocolate mixture evenly among ramekins, spreading to cover the chocolate square. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until barely set. Cool for 10 minutes. Invert onto dessert plates. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

Groundhog day.

Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day? I have a billion times. It is a great movie......but I feel my life has turned into that lately..

I love my " To Do" list I write one every day....but I have noticed lately I don't even need to write a new one for the day....I just need to make a million copies of the same list.

On my way to work the same music plays every morning....same commercials...I can sing all the commercials on the radio.....This drives Jeff crazy lol but I cant help it.

I have been with my job for five years this month....I still love my job and I am good at it. But lately I'm going through the same motions everyday....even feel like I am having the same conversations with people. I even see the same people in the bathroom everyday,..its like we have same the same pee schedule (sorry to share that...but it is true)

At home Jeff and I have a routine and I could tell you how our night goes...lol we are creatures of habit I guess.

Anyways the list could go on and on. Like the movie I find my self thinking....is my day repeating like this because I'm supposed to change something....or help someone?  or am I just supposed to make my white whiter....or am I supposed to smile at more people.....How do you get out of the "Groundhog Day Syndrome"?

Just being honest.

This past week I have had this thought and this feeling to blog about it....I have been ignoring that feeling all week....but it is still there nagging at me. I'm not sure if I am meant to share this to help someone else or if it is for my own growth,  so here is goes.......

I really like to plan things. I like my to do list every day because I feel like I have some control over my day. I just love to plan everything!  This may drive Jeff insane sometimes, but that is who I am. Ever since I was little I would plan and day dream about my life. I had a list in my head of what I wanted to achieve.

 1. Finish my personal progress for young women's...Check
 2. Marry my prince charming in the temple....Double Check :)
 3. Be a stay at home mom......uuuuuuuh

I just love children. I have always felt that being a stay at home mom or just a mom is my calling in life. I feel I was put here to be that. After finding out that it will be hard for this goal to happen....because of health issues on my part..... devastated me. I just have no control over this and it is very hard for me to accept.  I have been so angry, jealous and doubting my self worth..... ugh! that sounds so horrible. But it is true. These past few months have been such a inner struggle for me to get rid of all these feelings.

 I have to admit....when someone does tell me there pregnant I am very happy for them...I really am, but there is always that pain in my gut when I hear it. It brings all these emotions and wanting. Yep that would be Jealousy.

So here I am today sharing this so I can move on from it.  These past couple of years have been hard. But I feel I need to move on and live my life. I feel I have been living the past 3 years longing for a child and having a pity party for my self on something I have no control of. I'm not really living. So I set some new goals for my self this year and I am going to enjoy my life with my husband. When we are blessed with a child it will be a answer to our prayers, but until then I need to figure out what god wants me to do now on this earth.

One of my goals is to continue to love all the children that are already in my life. Try to be a better Aunt and primary teacher because they are here and they need me now. I will also try to be a better wife, friend, daughter, grand daughter and sister....because they don't deserve to be around a angry, jealous person. :) So hello world! I'm here to live!

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!
-Bob Marley

The funny things about marriage.

When two people decide to get married....they start putting all there focus on the wedding day.... to plan the big celebration of two people in love that want to spend forever together. After that wonderful day....it is about two people, with totally different personalities trying to build a life together without the instruction manual. Which is a big adventure!

Since I got married, I love talking to people that are married about marriage. For the advice and wisdom they can offer. It is very interesting how they all can be so much alike, but yet so different. It is also a lot of fun to laugh at the same things other couple are going through, that you are experiencing yourself.


For example it is comforting to know that other wives are going through these and that they are normal:

 - Cant seem to find the opening to the laundry basket syndrome.
 - "Babe can you please wait until the commercial" syndrome.


It is also very comforting to know that other husbands are going through these and that they are normal:

- leave every single pair of shoes she owns all over the house syndrome
- I will wear my dress pants with 3 creases in them because my wife claims she can iron syndrome.

Even though these sound so annoying. They make me laugh. These things make us "us" in our marriage. I just love this quote-

"Don't marry the person you think you can live with; marry only the individual you think you can't live without." ~James C. Dobson

This quote is sooooo true.....Even though sometimes I grumble about his laundry not being in the basket....I cant picture my life any other way :)......I cant live without him!..... ( Wait am I saying I cant live without the dirty laundry? WOW)

New year's with Notre Dame.

For a Christmas present I got Jeff tickets the the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Tx.  Notre Dame was going to be playing Miami. El Paso is only 4 hours from here, so it wasn't that bad of a drive.

We went up the night before. It was snowing here in Arizona, so we wanted to beat the weather. It snowed the whole way there and our car looked like this.

Freezing!

The Game was awesome! It was very cold but Notre Dame Won!!! Go Irish!

It was worth sitting in the snow...because the smile on this guys face is priceless!