It all started when
this link (Shill Family) showed up on Jacob and Maria's sidebar. They know this family from the ward they used to live in. I'm sure when all is said and done, we are related somehow (Mike's paternal grandmother was a Shill) but it was the food that got my attention. What a feast, looked yummy. I sent Mike out to pick up a pork roast and I began my pursuit of recipes.
(Eat your heart out over that bundt cake, too ... I think the girl who made that is just a young teen. Watch out world as her cooking skills increase!)
After a couple real odd recipes pages and directories, I happened onto
this blog page with tons of recipes and totally scrumptious pictures. Talk about some eye candy. Scroll down on that page for some Cafe Rio'ish looking burritos. I was introduced to Cafe Rio when John and Kelly took me out for dinner on a recent trip to the valley. Talk about yummy! It was really good and we had a good time.
I settled on
this recipe from Closet Cooking for cooking the pork. I didn't take pictures because, quite honestly why bother when there are such awesome pictures already done, just take a look. Don't look at the comments on that post too seriously. Oh my stars, just what do some of those people think lard is anyway? It's hard to believe they're complimenting for finding an alternative to cooking in lard (rendered animal fat) by cooking in the rendered pork fat remaining after the meat is braized. Okay, enough of the picking - the food is good. I didn't use this page like an "actual" recipe, following step by step instructions. I just read it over for a general idea and then cooked away spicing and braizing the pork as I would normally. The second step was the change - where I would normally serve the pork roast by slicing or by pulling (shredding) the pork and making barbecue or green chili, I instead cut the pork into small chunks as indicated on the Closet Cooking page and fried it in a bit of rendered meat juices from the initial cooking. I added a bit of additional seasoning by dicing an onion and several garlic cloves and simmering with the meat. It seriously was sooo good!
For the lime rice, I also used a recipe on Closet Cooking. I liked that it used brown rice and thought it would be an interesting change. No disappointment, it was good. Although, I stirred a can of black beans into the mixture. It really was good.
We didn't have dessert ... at this point I'm wondering if Hallie does her bundt cakes for sale. hmmm?
Coach of the opposing team, Jerry Perry, does double duty as pitcher. He tossed the ball a couple times but TJei wasn't able to make a hit on it. She looks so cute with her ponytail bouncing around on the back of her batting helmet. There is a little oval slot there for just that purpose. :-)
TJei takes a hit off the batting tee.
It's been a long time since t-ball was part of our spring routine but we're off to another exciting season of youth sports with TJei taking to the ball field. :-)
The two little girls were sitting on the couch and having a great time cuddling up with one another after dinner on Saturday evening.
I have no idea just what it was that had them laughing so hard or even why they were sitting there covered up with a blanket but they sure were having a good time.
TJei was keeping a close eye on some sort of slapping card game Quentin, Felicia and Kelly were playing at the table.
The girls had a super time with Uncle Quentin teaching them to color eggs. Quenting used instructions on a box of food coloring to make the egg dye because I tried locating a coloring kit all over the place and couldn't find one. Quentin did a super job with what he had and the girls had an "eggs"tra special time with this activity.
The TV remote had been missing for several days and we had pretty much resolved ourselves that Mia may have thrown it into the trash without being seen. Then, Mia unknowingly helped Grandpa find the remote when she started playing with one of TJei's boxes. Inside the box was the missing remote.
Mike helped identify the box a bit more clearly by making a label for the little tin can. {wink} He is such a fun Grandpa!
Mia loves to latch onto any of Grandpa's hats to play with them. She parades around proud as a peacock (or peahen) whenever she gets hold of one of them. ♥
LOL Signs of growing up. Mia has learned how to open the refrigerator and she is very determined to get whatever she goes after. I walked into the living room and discovered her sitting in a chair with a plateful of catsup and a half-eaten hotdog. She was quite pleased with her accomplishment.
This picture of TJei is cute ... with her chocolate moustache after "helping" Grandma make cupakes.
I have a tremendous distaste for bake sales. Yuck! There is an abundance of time and effort put into creating baked goods along with the cost of raw ingredients, utility costs, clean-up costs ... all so a couple dollars "profit" can be made by a group selling baked goods for near nothing. And, who would pay more than "near nothing" for the baked goods? That's precisely what they'd pay at Walmart or Fry's or Albertson's or Basha's; near nothing. Bake sales just aggravate me. That said, I baked a couple dozen cupcakes and a dozen fudge cakes for the Headstart bake sale today. They are planning to sell the baked goods right there, along the fence adjacent to the school and asked me if I'd be able to come down and help there, too. Uhm, no, I don't think so. I baked the cupcakes. Why would I want to set up shop in an area with no traffic - absolutely no foot traffic - unless you count the people driving by on the main road through town, as though it is a highway. No, I don't think so.
We celebrated the anniversary of Relief Society with a luau social last evening. It was so much fun! There are more pics and a video clip on the Lyman Ward pages (link at top right).
