"Hello, Child Services?"

The morning after Mya fell and hit the "coughing" table (as Afton would say).

What's for dinner? - Intro and #1

I'm sure my mother would agree that if any of her children was destined to become an experimental chef at home, I was the most likely candidate. After all, I was the one that wrote home from Syndey, Australia, terrified as a new missionary...not because of dogs, merciless taunts, or homesickness. But rather because at one of our dinner appointments, a nice old lady had put an entire tomato on a plate for me to eat. AN ENTIRE TOMATO! Talk about horrors of all horrors. But I guess that was the first step in transforming from a kid that grew up living on hamburgers, cold cereal, pizza, and peanut butter/honey/cheese sandwiches, to one that likely drives his wife crazy with all of the new recipes I like to try. But we've found some good ones, and after another triumph last night, I figured I'll share the ones that work out.

Skillet Pork and Parmesan Peppers

- 1 large pork tenderloin, trimmed (about 1.5 lbs)
- Kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, thickly sliced
- 2 red and/or yellow peppers, sliced into wide strips
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed
- 16 fresh sage leaves
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/4 cup sliced pepperoncini, 2 tablespoons liquid from jar
- 1/3 cup white grape juice - 2/3 cup chicken broth - 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Preheat the broiler. Slice the pork on an angle into 1-inch-thick pieces; season with salt. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat; add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the onion and bell peppers; season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until the vegetables are crisp-tender and slightly browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil to the skillet. Add the pork and sear over high heat until browned, 2 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer the pork to the plate with the onion and peppers.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the garlic, sage and tomato paste to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until the tomato paste turns brick-red, about 1 minute. Add the pepperoncini slices and their liquid, then pour in the wine and bring to a boil. Add the broth and return to a simmer. Arrange the pork in a single layer in the skillet; add the onion and peppers and sprinkle with cheese. Transfer to the oven and broil until the pork is cooked through, 4 to 7 minutes.

Prep time - 20 minutes. Cook time - 22 minutes.

Hospital 101

A recent visit to the hospital confirmed the following as undeniable truths:

- It is virtually impossible to walk past hospital rooms and not have your gaze slowly drift inside the open door. It doesn't matter if there is the most vile stench emanating from the room, or if a patient's moaning and groaning makes you shudder, or if you've got a constant internal audio feed going in your brain saying, "Don't look, don't look, just keep looking straight ahead,"...none of that matters. You still will walk by rooms with open doors and glance inside.

- The hospital administration and staff are extremely concerned about your privacy. They will hand you a 5 page privacy policy in 8 point font to prove it. They take it very seriously...until you are actually admitted. Then you'll be sitting in a waiting area preparing for surgery, and there will be no way to escape knowing that John in the area next to you has diabetes, lung cancer from a history of smoking, is missing two left toes, is allergic to penicillin, and is wondering when he starts to get his pain meds. And you'll know John's first name, last name, and birth date since the nurses conducting his medical history will need to verify all of that with him before heading in for surgery.

- The developer of the hospital gown was most certainly in cahoots with whoever created the silver metal chairs used in LDS chapels across the world. Are those two of the worst creations ever? I've never had my belief in the church shaken outside of the isolated moments when I sit on those metal chairs that support our shoulders instead of our backs. At those times I have battled weakness, with thoughts entering my mind about how divine inspiration didn't step in and hault the mass purchase of all of those nasty things. The only way to make them worse would be to sit on them while wearing a hospital gown and feeling that cold metal on all the areas of your body that the gown doesn't cover up.

Afton - animals and other stuff

Afton has been quite obsessed lately with imaginative play where she is a certain type of animal. She will announce the animal she is going to be (cat, dog, giraffe, lion, tiger, eagle), what color the animal is, and then will request a name. We normally go through 3 name suggestions before she says, "The baby giraffe likes that name". Then she'll crawl around the house pretending to be that animal until she decides to change into a different animal, go through another naming process, and then only talk to us in that animal sound. Last night she was meowing through The Farmer in the Dell for at least a solid 15 minutes straight.

Needless to say, it at times tests our patience, to put it mildly. I did however realize this morning that it really isn't that bad. Afton woke up and asked if she could watch Life on TV, the Discovery Channel documentary. Part way through a show about primates Afton said, "Daddy, I really wish we had some real animals at my house. I just love animals." I committed then to be a much more willing participant in games with make-believe animals.

Afton had her first trip to the dentist. She was very cooperative and let the hygienist and dentist do whatever they needed to...much better than my phobia of dentists would let me do w/o some of the good gas. She thought it was neat that her dentist went to school with her dad and had a nickname like Bubba.

This is a picture from a day when Afton rode her princess bike all the way to grandma's house while Stef pushed Mya in the stroller. She loves that her bike has both a horn and bell on it. We love that too when she's riding it in the basement while Mya sleeps right above her...

I took Afton on her first trip to the "big movie vater". We went to see How to Train Your Dragon. She couldn't stop smiling from the time she started getting ready, through the trip up to the theater, and until the movie actually started. Then it got really dark and loud. We had to take a little break outside to get used to the whole movie experience, but she did great the rest of the movie and ended up loving the dragon named Toothless. She was too cute in her 80's dress, side pony, and neon bracelets that she picked to wear.

Helping Dad make our version of s'mores...marshmallows and Hershey's chocolate in a chocolate chip cookie sandwich. Afton loves to help us cook and make treats, and it becomes incredibly difficult for her to keep from taking little bites of whatever we are making. She is usually such a good little girl at not eating much candy or other treats...she just doesn't ask for it much and when she does have a chance to get some she just has a few bites and is done. But if we're making shakes, she grabs a spoon and it seems without even noticing she will keep taking more and more bites of the ice cream until we are done.