Iron Chef

Only two weeks to go to Labor Day, so we couldn’t let a Sunday pass by without trying to complete another item on our Summer List. One of our favorite activities from last summer was our first Iron Chef competition. We split our family into two teams, boys against the girls. Last year the boys won by preparing the judge’s (Grandpa) favorite fruit salad as an appetizer. This year the girls were determined to win.

Our list of common ingredients included chicken, zucchini (what else am I going to do with it?), and chocolate chips. Then each team got to choose a secret ingredient that was revealed to the other team this morning. The girls chose oatmeal and the boys chose Swiss Chard… really?!

The cook-off started at 4:30 with all three courses to be served at 6:30. We take a little more time than the TV show since we only have one kitchen. My sweetie is a much better cook than me, so we make the boys cook outside where they have the option to grill, Dutch Oven, or use the hotplate on the grill. They can also use the oven if needed (we try to be nice about these things, although after the chard thing they didn’t really deserve it).

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

One of the best things about this competition is that we try to make something new and maybe a bit unusual. Grandpa is always a good sport and he eats everything. His all-time favorite food is homemade bread. Last year we made rolls as part of both meals. This year I forgot to make that stipulation, and the first thing my sweetie did was mix up a big batch of Dutch Oven rolls. The other rule is that everything has to be made from scratch with ingredients we have on hand or in the garden.

We were pretty sure we had a winner this year. The Drama Queen printed some recipes for Teriyaki Chicken and Tempura Vegetables. I know my dad loves Japanese food since he has a Japanese daughter-in-law. We also figured that a good bar cookie would top that off just perfectly.

We had planned a salad for an appetizer, but the guys got to the lettuce first, so Bossy pulled off a miracle by making Swiss Chard veggie sushi. She used thin sliced cucumber, carrots, and zucchini and rolled it into chard leaves with a little rice to hold it all together. It was surprisingly good (although the boys beat it out with their fruited salad. They used lettuce and chard, but then they added fresh strawberries and apricots (I still have a ton of them if you are interested!) carrots and nuts. They even made a homemade vinaigrette!

Ok, maybe they deserved that one. But our Teriyaki Chicken with rice and Tempura Veggies beat out their Zucchini Boats with Chicken and Pasta hands down. Not even their homemade rolls could save them. My sweetie agreed that our food was tastier!

So it was all up to the final dessert. The boys had a good one. Sport and the Dog Walker made Rice Krispie squares with chocolate chips stirred in. The little kids had already given it the thumbs-up! But in the end, my Coconut Pecan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookie bars were declared the winner.

We had a great time sharing our food, talking and laughing and just being together. Last year the girls (losers) were required to do the cleanup. This year we just earned bragging rights…I’m still not sure how that happened…next year I’m going to write down ALL the rules before we start! Thanks for being the judge, Grandpa!

Road Trip

Today was our last mostly free Saturday until after pee-wee football season ends. Sport went in early this morning for weigh-ins, although why they didn’t just X him (make him a lineman) I have no idea. He would have had to lose at least 20 pounds to keep him off the line. So my sweetie dropped him off at the park and then headed over to work for a few hours of overtime while I tried to make up for some of the sleep I lost earlier this week. Baby Doll is teething again…need I say more?

I finally dragged myself out of bed about 10:30 because I thought I heard someone knocking on the door (it turned out to be the neighbors hammering something, I guess they didn’t know some of us were still trying to sleep). I checked the blog and read all of your nice comments (Thanks, I love the input!), and then texted my sweetie. After we traded a few texts, we determined that this was the perfect day for a road trip!

I packed a lunch, diaper bag, stroller, and the kids and then drove down to my sweetie’s company and picked him up. Then he took the wheel and I settled down for the 2-hour drive to Logan. We try to get up there every couple of years so we can show the kids where we lived and went to school when we were first starting out. We always stop for Aggie Ice Cream and we love a little zoo they have called Willow Park.

The Dog Walker - Peacocking!

We arrived just after 2:00 and headed directly for the park. Except that we got lost and drove all the way around it before we finally hit the entrance. The kids loved watching the monkeys and the turtles. Some kids were feeding the ducks but we dug through all our pockets and didn’t have a dime for the machine so we just watched them fight over the kernels tossed by the other kids.

The Old Coot

Princess remarked that the bald eagle looked a bit psychotic (exactly what I’d been thinking!). We giggled at some of the names, but my favorite was the American Coot. I made my sweetie pose with the sign since he’ll be 48 next week and I’m thinking that probably qualifies as an “Old Coot.”

The Dog Walker was fascinated by the peacock, but it didn’t matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get him to spread his feathers for us. The trees are amazingly tall and beautiful at Willow Park and they made the day pleasant in spite of the heat.

Pet Rocks!

After looking at all the animals (even the pet rocks), we headed to the playground. Then we loaded all the kids and took our campus tour of Utah State and ate ice cream. Things have changed quite a bit in the last 25 years, but we still recognized most things, except the right road to Willow Park. I hear some people get Alzheimer's as they get older...

What's the Big Deal?

I’ve told you before that I LOVE a bargain! The only way to raise a big family nowadays is to be independently wealthy, be part of a reality TV show, or hunt down bargains. Since I missed out on the independently wealthy thing and no one is pounding down my door to see if I want to be on TV, my only option has been the bargain thing.

When we were first married, nearly every grocery chain on the planet offered double and sometimes even triple coupons. That made the slick coupon ads that come in the newspaper even more valuable. This was in the early ‘80s, before the days of open access to the Internet and online sales. I was pregnant with Bossy and we moved back to my hometown. We were dirt poor and since our parents were all still raising young children, they were not able to help us. Grandma was always careful with money (still is even at 93!) and she agreed to help us collect coupons to help cut our food bill. She made several trips to the post office each day and pulled coupons from the garbage.

Not our actual dump and not my grandma

Our town also had an open dump then about 3 miles outside of town. The idea was that you drove the dump road with all your stinky, yucky garbage in the trunk of your car. When you got to the dump, you drove to the edge, stopped your car, plugged your nose and flung your bags into the pile. Someone came along periodically and threw matches in there to burn everything back. So Grandma and I haunted the dump. We mostly stuck to the edges and pulled bundles of newspaper before the flames could devour them. We ripped open garbage bags and we also hunted for soda pop bottles (5 cents, please!). In later years Grandma gathered aluminum cans, then brought them home and ran over them with her car. About 20 years ago they shut down the dump and brought in a garbage service. My grandma was so sad that day…My 28th anniversary is in a couple of weeks and Grandma still sends up little bags full of coupons she collects and saves just for me.

Last week I was asked to review a coupon site called www.couponchief.com and give an honest opinion. I eagerly logged on and set up an account. That part was easy. I also asked some of my grown up kids, Bossy, Gym Rat, Drama Queen, and Teach to check out the site. Since it is all about online sales, they are way more techno-savvy than me. This site is huge! They have coupon codes for about 15,000 stores all arranged in alphabetical order. I chose several to look at that were places where I might actually place an online order.



I started with Amazon.com. Whenever I need to buy some strange item and I don’t know where to look, I try Amazon first. Coupon codes there would actually be very handy. Sadly, after trying three different codes, they all came back as expired. So I switched to Wal-Mart, but their coupons were for very specific things and I didn’t want to take the time to find whatever they were trying to get me to buy. The last coupon codes I tried were for Lowes and Home Depot. There were also expired or invalid.

So I called the kids to get their input (since obviously I must be doing something wrong). The Gym Rat tried Barnes and Noble and all three codes worked great for him. The Drama Queen was also able to get it to work, but she reminded me that she rarely shops on line. Boss and Teach spent a little time too but got stuck in the same trap as me.

I think this site is a wonderful idea! Sharing coupon codes with other shoppers can save us all a little money and that makes it easier for us to buy more and stimulate the economy. This site actually pays you for your codes as long as you are the first one to make a submission. What I didn’t like was that the codes didn’t automatically delete after they were expired. That means any bozo could get on and make up a code and publish it and then it would never work for anyone! They do have a nice rating system so you can see which coupons worked and which ones didn’t. I would love to have been able to print off some of these coupons so that I could take them to the actual stores. I’m looking forward to using this site in the future since one of my favorite stores, Discount Dance Supply is on their list. I can’t tell you how many pairs of tights I’ve bought for my dancers…even if I only save a buck or two it will definitely be worth looking.

Since www.couponchief.com paid me a small sum for this review, I want you to know that the opinions I've expressed here are solely my own and represent my honest viewpoint. Like Shell at Things I Can't Say, I promote Blog With Integrity.

Food for Thought - Apricot Salsa

When we got married, my sweetie told me right up front that he didn’t like Mexican food. I’ve told you before that he had a phobia about those little canned tamales, and it had spread to all-things-Mexican (food that is). This was actually a problem for us because my only real cooking experience came from the couple of years I worked as a cook at Taco Time. I started working there at the ripe old age of 14 (in small towns there was no such thing as Child Labor Laws) for a $1.50/hour (which was also well below minimum wage). It was the fall of 1979 and I was tired of never having any money of my own.

The owner was a grumpy grouchy sort of guy and he was well known for treating his workers terribly. When I had been there for about a month, I got sick and I was in bed with a fever. My mom called in for me and insisted that I stay home. It was a Friday night. On Saturday, I felt a little better so I showed up for my shift as usual. My boss came totally unglued! He screamed at me, telling me that if I didn’t want to work, then I just as well quit now. I didn’t say anything, just listened to his rant, then assured him I did want to keep my job (how is it this kind of stuff always happens to me?). I found out later that he had seen my boyfriend in town and naturally assumed that I had called in just so I could spend time with him.

Picture credit

I have lots of other Taco Time stories, but I think I’ll save them for another day. Taco Time has changed over the last 30 years, but back then, the only salsa they offered came in little packets. My sweetie makes an amazing salsa out of apricots and since we still have hundreds left on our tree (none of you have been by to pick any…) he mixed me up a big batch.

Picture credit

Now all of these measurements are approximate depending on the size of the fruit and veggies and the amount of heat you like in your salsa. When my sweetie finishes a batch, I am always the resident taster. I dip a chip here and then a chip there and tell him how to tweak it until it is just perfect for me.

Apricot Salsa

4 cups chopped apricots (don’t worry about the skins)
    (you can also use peeled peaches or mangos…both are delicious)
3 – 4 large onions (yellow or white)
3 – 4 large green peppers (red, yellow or orange are good too)
10 – 15 tomatillos (or 3 – 4 green tomatoes)
2 Anaheims
2 Jalapenos
6 large red tomatoes (romas work really well)
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
juice of two limes
a small bunch of cilantro
black pepper

lots of chips for dipping!

We start by chopping up all the veggies and fruit. We often use the food processor, but not for the tomatoes or the apricots.

If you like it a little more mild, remove the seeds from the hot peppers. When you have everything chopped, put it all into a large bowl. Squeeze the limes over everything, then mince your garlic and add it. Chop the cilantro and sprinkle over the top. We like fresh ground pepper, about six grinds. Stir it all up. Make sure to taste test in several spots. We often have to add a few more apricots or a little more tomato. We almost always have to double the original amount of cilantro because we love that fresh taste.

This fruity salsa needs to be served cold and then stored in the refrigerator. It only keeps 4 or 5 days and you really can’t put it into jars. When we have extras, we serve it over chicken or salmon. I’ve been known to eat only chips and salsa for an entire meal. Hope you love it!