Orange Chicken

I thought I'd post a recipe that we love for orange chicken, like P.F. Chang's :) This is a recipe I got from my cousin Michelle. She made me a cookbook for my wedding and it was one of my favorite gifts :) I'm sure I'll post more of her recipes in the future. I posted her recipe for Scotcheroos a few months ago.

Anyway, here is the recipe for orange chicken!

To begin you'll need a 28 oz. bag of popcorn chicken (It's kind of expensive, but just remember that it's a lot cheaper than what you'd pay at P.F. Chang's. You could also just use breaded chicken tenders and cut them into bite-size pieces. That's usually cheaper. Whatever you buy make sure it's all white meat chicken and not the chicken nugget type stuff..haha).

So, cook the chicken according to the directions on the bag.

In the meantime, make the sauce.

Saute for about a minute in a little oil:
2 T. minced garlic
4 green onions, sliced

Add:

8 oz. tomato sauce (one little can)

1/2 C. water

1/2 C. sugar

2 t. chili garlic sauce (Found in Asian aisle. This is what gives it all the heat, so it can be adjusted according to your taste - we only use 1 teaspoon.)

1 T. soy sauce

1 t. cornstarch (up to 1 T. if you want the sauce thicker)

Bring to a boil and let thicken. Add the zest of an orange into sauce. When the chicken is ready, add it to the sauce.

Serve over rice (we like brown), which hopefully you remember to start in time so you're not waiting for it..haha!

I took this picture of Trent and this is how he posed..haha! He cracks me up!

Wisdom Teeth

Any of you who have been reading my blog all along, know how much I love Ellen. I watch her talk show whenever I can. I think she's hilarious :) Last week she showed part of a video of a brother and sister who had their wisdom teeth pulled on the same day. Their dad is in Iraq so their mom decided to record them on the way home and send the video over to their dad. It's on YouTube and it's 10 minutes long. That may seem long, but I love the whole thing..haha.

I'm only going to put the link. When I've put YouTube videos on before they sometimes get removed due to "use violation." Does anyone know what that means and how I can prevent it? Anyway, here is the link to the video.

Of my sisters I'm the only one who's had their wisdom teeth pulled, and I was just really quiet and tired afterwards. I hope I'm there when the girls all get theirs pulled, if they get theirs pulled (goodness I can't believe they still haven't!), especially Amy.

Did any of you say crazy things when you got yours pulled?


Oh and totally random fact, but yesterday I learned that a woman who has lost her husband is a widow and a man who has lost his wife is a widower. Did you guys know that?! My parents and Trent were like "Duh!", but I had no idea. Random little fact :)

Series

A few hours ago I started reading this.

I've heard great things about this series and just about my entire family has read it, including Trent. You have to realize though, this is a big thing for me.

Let me just say, I really dislike series. I hate feeling like I have to read every book in a series. I feel stuck.

I gave up on the Harry Potter series. I just couldn't get through the second book. I also felt overwhelmed with how many books there are, in addition to how long they are.

I also gave up on the Twilight series. I only read the first two. I may give that series another try. There's only four. Maybe I could do it now that I've graduated and don't have to worry about school.

I much prefer reading just one book and being done with it. It's so satisfying. I think I'm just not patient enough to read series. It takes too long to receive the satisfaction of being done.

So again, this is a big deal that I'm taking on The Hunger Games. I may need some encouragement.

And They're Off...

Jen and Jill left for Utah yesterday on their way to Idaho to start school again on Thursday.

It has been so weird to watch them head off to college and that I don't go with them! It was especially weird when Amy left b/c she was headed to Provo and BYU. Trent and I should be there with her..haha. It's kind of sad that I already miss it. Then again, I'm loving being down here and starting a whole new journey :)


Best of luck at school sisters! See you at Thanksgiving (Amy you're making a big mistake not coming..haha). Love you!

Removals

So Trent got a new job - well at least a filler job until he finds something else. Do you all know what removals are?? I didn't..haha. Trent now does removals, which is basically picking up dead bodies and taking them to the funeral home. Sounds weird and pretty gross, huh? It's good money though!

Trent is on-call, meaning he can get called in anytime between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. Friday he worked his first memorial service. At these services he really just has to stand around, be present if the family needs any help I guess. Today he had his first two experiences with removals. He was called in at 2 a.m. (big bummer!), came back home around 4, and was called in again around 8 a.m. Not only does it stink getting called in so sporadically, but he also has to get dressed up every time.

I have already gotten some great laughs from the stories Trent has told me! And he's only been working 2 days! This new job of his is definitely a great conversation-starter :) Thanks to Todd from our ward (congregation) for letting Trent know of this job opportunity. He is also my employer at Old Jerusalem Treasures in the mall :) Man, he helped both of us get our current jobs!

I am grateful to Trent for taking this on, and helping bring in some money, while he continues to look for something a little more appealing. He has been looking for a job since we got down here in July. Something in the medical field ideally, to prepare him a little more for P.A. school in the near future. I am confident he will find something soon :)

Magnets!

I've probably been saying since January that I've wanted to make magnets. I didn't get any when we got married so I've always just used the ugly ones that come in the mail. Monday Jen, Jill, and I finally went for it! I found the idea on another blog and you can find it here.

We decided to just use scrapbook paper instead of fabric. After a trial run, we discovered we needed to double up on the paper b/c the glue was going through the paper and we could see the black magnet right through it.

First we traced around the crafting "bubble"

Then, of course, we cut it out

Then we glued the paper to the "bubble" and glued a magnet to the back of it. Definitely look at the blog I mentioned for more specifics!
SO quick and easy!! Aren't they adorable?!
And finally on to my fridge :)

Our Final Summer Trip

We got to go on a final, kind of spur-of-the-moment, trip this last weekend. All during the spring Trent and I talked about going to California, but once we moved down here we decided against it b/c we didn't want to spend money on a hotel. Well, it turned out that my cousin and his wife, Tiersha, who were here a few weeks ago, invited us to come stay with them while they were there. Tiersha is from California and they were headed there to babysit her little twin siblings for several days. We were so psyched for the invitation b/c now we could make our trip to California without paying for a hotel :)

We had a great time! We headed there Wednesday afternoon after I got off of work. I was not feeling good so Trent drove the whole 6 hours. He's so good to me!

The sunset on the way there!

We made it to Tiersha's parents' home around 10:30 or so, chit chatted for a few hours, and headed to bed.

Thursday Josh had appointments to meet with 2 different accounting firms so we headed to the Irvine Spectrum, which is basically just an outdoor mall, with Tiersha and the babies. We had some lunch and then Trent and I headed to The Great Park Balloon. It is a tethered helium balloon and they give rides for free! It wasn't all that exciting and it was only up for maybe 5-10 minutes so I was glad it was free. But it was still fun!

Here are some facts about it:

I think this is a cool picture, if only the light pole weren't in it!

Trent, on our way up!

Trent's artsy picture :)

The next day, Friday, we did a whole bunch! Josh had another appointment during the afternoon so Trent and I headed to Laguna Beach on our own. It was pretty foggy and chilly down by the beach so we just strolled along looking in all of the cute shops and art galleries/stores.

You can tell how foggy it was!

My artsy picture :)

We headed back to Tiersha's parents' and had some lunch, and soon Josh was home. Then we all headed to Balboa Island. This was a highlight of our trip :) We definitely plan to go back there next time we're in California (I'm sure we'll be back to California often now that we're so close!) There were such cute houses everywhere. I just loved them!

I took this picture from the ferry.

On the pier!

Tiersha and Josh with the twins, William and Lillee :)

After a bit, Tiersha and Josh headed back home with the twinsies and Trent and I headed to Corona del Mar to check out the tide pools. The tide pools were at Little Corona so we had to walk a little bit to find them, but not far.

I love this picture with the flowers.

The houses here were all beautiful and HUGE! I took a few pictures of them (I hope it's not illegal or anything..haha)

One home had dolphin bushes in front!

What can I say?! Fancy!

This home had a water slide attached..haha

We found the tide pools and I was psyched! This is actually something that I had on my bucket list. Such an easy one to check off :) I was pretty excited!

In this picture all of those little shells are hermit crabs scurrying around! We saw a lot of them!

Pretty purple coral

Sea urchins maybe?

I have a lot more pictures from the tide pools, but I'll refrain! We headed back to the house for dinner and later went out to Golden Spoon for frozen yogurt. It was our first time and it was so good! We'll definitely go again (we have one here in AZ so that's convenient!)

Saturday morning we packed up and headed to a swap meet before the drive home (a swap meet is basically a flea market). We had fun looking, but didn't buy anything. I had specific earrings that I was looking for :) Afterward we got on the road.

We had so much fun on our final little trip of the summer! A big thanks to Tiersha and Josh for inviting us to come stay with them :)