Finally!

Fari & Mansour have been waiting for the container of almost everything they own for over a month now. The container left Iran sometime in September and arrived in Seattle around October 10th. This container has survived a fire at sea, being held ransom by the ship captain & the Port of Seattle & barely survived inspection by the Dept. of Agriculture.

To make a long story short - Fari & Mansour had to secure a lawyer & pay lots of money (to many waiting hands: lawyer, Port of Seattle, the shipping company) to get their own belongings back (after they already paid the fees before leaving Iran). It's enough to make you have a nervous breakdown.

Yesterday - they could finally celebrate the arrival.

It's here!

Opening the container (& waiting with bated breath).

It's all good.

Thank God! Finished!

Finito!

What ever happened to Mtv? Remember when it was full of good videos? Now it's crap like Tila Tequila and the one at the top of my dislike list: Viva La Bam. I have recently banned Viva La Bam from my tv. Bam is an idiot and somehow, millions of young teenage boys have come to love him. If you don't remember, Bam used to be on Jack Ass. Now he has his own show and the man is just an idiot. That's the nicest way I can say it.

Two suprisingly good shows on Mtv: Run's House and believe it or not: Snoop Dog: Fatherhood. I actually like Snoop Dog's show better than Run's show. I never thought I would say that about Snoop Dog! I don't mind the show because (again: believe it or not!) Snoop holds his kids accountable (really!). I was expecting him to live in a huge mansion like Run - but he lives in a normal neighborhood with a normal sized house. Trying to keep things normal for his kids. Tune in for a pleasant surprise. It's a good thing Mtv isn't on all the time - the great thing about my kids is they prefer The Office (yay!) to anything on Mtv.

Mealy Pudding 101

What? You haven't heard of mealy pudding aka: Scotch dressing? You are so missing out! All the sons-in-law in my family would disagree - but the rest of our clan (including my dad) agree - it's not a real Thanksgiving dinner if there is no Scotch dressing present.

As a kid, I would load my plate with Scotch dressing first, cranberry sauce second, a roll & butter third, mashed potatoes & gravy 4th. No turkey needed. As an adult....I haven't changed. I still load my plate up the exact same way. Tradition! My next day sandwiches are the same: stuffing & cranberry sauce - no turkey.

Whenever one of us kids brought friends home for Thanksgiving, we would silently pray that they wouldn't even try the Scotch dressing. This way, they wouldn't waste it (by taking a heaping spoonful, taking one bite and not finishing the rest). Even now, I try to discourage others from sampling too much ("just take one small bite - you probably won't like it!"), or "We have Stovetop for people like you."

If you are brave enough to try a new recipe this Thanksgiving, give Scotch dressing a try. If you don't like it, I will gladly take ALL your leftovers and make myself stuffing & cranberry sauce sandwiches for lunch.

Scotch Dressing
(for a 20 lb bird)
8 cups Old Fashioned Oatmeal (no quick oats!)
1 T. salt
Pepper & Sage to taste (this equals LOTS) I use a T. of Pepper & a lot more of the sage. I gauge it on the smell. When it smells 'sagey' enough, I stop adding sage.
1 medium onion
1 cup oil
1 cup water

Mix all ingredients except for water. Stir until coated & then add water. Place dressing into a cheesecloth & stuff into cavity. Cook bird at 20 mins a pound at 275* then turn to 300* for the last hour (approx. 5 hours).

Suitcase Biographies

The 7th graders at Matty's school have been working on researching famous people for the past 6 weeks. The kids have to fit all their research articles into a suitcase & be prepared for lots of questions from parents & other teachers from the school. They were even required to 'dress up' as their characters. This evening they had their presentations. It was a busy night and the school was packed with people.

Matty chose Adam Sandler.

Nick as Robin Williams (Good Morning Vietnam) & Matty as Adam Sandler

Enjoy these pix of some of our other friends:
Kelsey as Shirley Temple (I begged her sing On the Good Ship Lollipop, but all she would do was 'pose' for me).

Lia as Amelia Earhart

Madison as Tori Spelling. Omid gave her a hard time for not covering her shoulders (nothing her dad wouldn't do for Nas).

Irresistible to people & dogs

These little cookies are so very delicious. Not only are they delicious, they are super easy to make.See if you can stop at just one cookie! * Update: We just arrived home from an evening out and Remy 'somehow' ate 4 out of 8 cookies we had leftover (they were on the counter....far enough away from Remy- I thought!). We decided to toss out the other 4 as they were covered with Remy slobber. :(

Tangy Lime Creams

Filling ingredients
1/3 cup sugar
2 T. lime juice
1 T. grated lime peel
2 egg yolks
1 drop green food color (optional)

Cookie ingredients
1/2 cup softened butter
1/4 sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 t salt
powdered sugar

Combine all filling ingredients except food color in 2 qt. saucepan; mix well. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens (about 4 mins.). DO NOT BOIL. Remove from heat. Stir in food color. Set aside to cool.

Heat oven to 325*. Combine butter, 1/4 cup sugar, egg yolk & vanilla. Beat at medium speed mixing well. Add flour & salt. Beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place one inch apart on UNGREASED cookie sheet. Make indentation in center of each cookie with thumb or back of spoon. Spoon 1/2 tsp filling into each indentation.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until set but not brown. Let stand one minute. Cool completely. Sprinkle tops with powdered sugar.

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

IKEA

Awwww, so cute!! Matty put these glasses on Remy and I think he looks super sweet!

B, Matty, Cayden & I spent a ton of time at IKEA today.

B & Matty ordered 'meatballs in a cup' for $1.00. Cheap snack.

Meatball Twins!!

Tasty!


Cayden & his ketchup covered hot dog.


Clowning around IKEA.

Nap time!

More Saturday Pix

Fari & Mansour


Matty & Cayden

Fari

Nas & B

Omid & Mansour - bbqing kebabs

Cayden

Nas

Matty & B

dinner at last!

Grilled kubideh kebabs, grilled tomatoes, rice (made by yours truly!), mast-o-khiar (yogurt cucumber salad), shish kebabs & sabzi (radishes & green onions). YUM!

Saturday Pix

B & Cayden drove down from Olympia today. B & I had plans to spend the afternoon at Powell's Books in Portland.

B purchased a whole shelf of spy novels. Really.

B incognito in Powells.

After Powells, we needed a protein fix & stopped at a restaurant. We ordered two glasses of wine and a cheese plate. Here is our half finished plate.

We couldn't leave Powells without this: A virgin Mary toast stamp. Notice the 'divine' light. B bought one too.

Testing the bread.

Holy bread.

Holy toast - ready to sell on Ebay (actually, Matty ate it).

When we came home, Omid was prepping for dinner. Here he is making koobideh (in honor of B's visit).

Kebab barg shish kebabs.

Home sweet home

Omid has been gone the past week working in Spain & Germany. He wasn't scheduled to come home until Monday. What a surprise we got when we arrived home from school today & Omid popped out to surprise us. Yay!

After our initial shock, he and I drove over to surprise his parents. They had just spoken with Omid 20 minutes earlier and thought he was still overseas.

We celebrated with pizza, then Omid became very sleepy and fell asleep at 6:30 p.m.

Welcome Home Jooni!

Christmas Decorations

I can't even begin to think about Christmas/Christmas decorations/Christmas shopping until the day after Thanksgiving. I think it's a crime for retailers to bring out their Christmas wares before Halloween. It may seem strange that I am promoting the link below. Yes...it's Christmas shopping before Turkey day, but unless you order express or overnight shipping - you most likely won't receive it until after Thanksgiving (& I won't write you a ticket if you do).

Rocks in my Dryer has a promotion right now with the Dayspring company. They are offering 25% off their products if you type in the coupon code rocksinmydryer25. There are many cute things but my favorite is the Nativity candle. There are items not only for Christmas but the whole year as well. Check it out!

Fun with Matty & Remy

Matty donned a clown nose tonight and teased Remy with it. The first few bites were gentle, then Remy chomped down.

Listen for my cackle - you'd think it was Halloween all over again.

Thanksgiving Recipe

We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year. Today I called my dad and asked him what he & my mom would like to contribute (Omid is cooking the main dish (turkey & cranberry rice) everyone else is supplying the other dishes). My dad and I talked turkey (ha!) and then decided he & my mom would bring broccoli corn crunch for a side dish. This recipe is so good, I can taste it now. Here it is if you would like to try it.

Broccoli-Corn Crunch

1 10 oz package frozen chopped broccoli
1 8 oz can cream corn
1 tsp salt
1/4 melted butter
1.5 cups seasoned croutons
1 egg, beaten
1/4 chopped onion
1/4 tsp pepper

Thaw broccoli and drain well. Combine egg, corn, onion, salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter and croutons; toss to coat evenly. Reserve 1/2 cup for topping. Combine broccoli, egg-corn mix and 1 cup croutons. Spread evenly in greased 1.5 quart casserole. Sprinkle with reserved croutons.
Bake at 350* for 30-35 minutes.
**This recipe doubles & triples nicely for large potluck events.

Yesterday, the kids, Omid's parents and I drove out to the Columbia Gorge Outlet stores. While I was in the Norm Thompson store, I found a bottle of lotion I wanted to buy. I had a 20% off coupon for several stores, but this store wasn't one of them. The sales lady asked me if I was 50 (hello!?!) or a AAA member. I told her NO! to both questions. She said, "well, just tell me you are a AAA member and I will give you a 10% discount." I told her I couldn't do that. I could tell she was surprised. I was honest and she gave me the 10% off anyway.

Flashback to last weekend, I was returning an item for Nas at the Hollister store. The shirt was purchased in Oregon and I returned it in Washington. The clerk gave me the $ plus tax back. I gave the tax back as I didn't pay it in the first place. The manager was standing right next to the clerk and she couldn't believe I was honest about that. She went on and on. To me - it was the right thing to do. I didn't pay the tax - so taking the tax would be dishonest. My kids were with me both times and I am glad they witnessed me doing the right thing.

Remy!

Remy has been a very willing photography subject today. This is with my a low shutter speed (I am using my new vocab word). Remy is moving - you can see his ear is in motion.

Such a cute baby!

Favorite pasttime (going for a ride in the car & barking at anyone who walks by our car).

Sleepy.

Here is another low shutter pix. Look at that tongue! Matty took this one.