I Am In ♥

Yes, I am in love.

With a baby girl.  She's beautiful.  She's perfect.  And she's my niece!  I'm an aunt!  This week has been so fun and out of the ordinary!  We've been (my mom, me, and Cal) in and out of the hospital visiting and it's just so exciting!

Mommy and baby are doing great but of course would appreciate your prayers!  As much as I would love to tell the world, that's all I can share for now...I will let the parents do an official announcement.  But I'm sure they would appreciate your comments for now!  And if you know them or live in the area, I bet they would LOVE a home-cooked meal in a few weeks...  :)

I also in love with this girl. 

She's learning new words.  She not only says "baby," "hi," "hot," and "dada," but now she also says "apple" and "paint"...very appropriate for how we have been spending our time around the house, huh? She's also loving to sign "more" and does it a million times a day.  Especially when she's around her grandmas because I think one of their jobs is to always give her what she wants! :)  She nods her head yes and no.  She likes to make the sound a horsey makes...and she tries to say "mama" sometimes, but it sounds more like "baba."  Maybe we should teach her what sound a sheep makes?

Speaking of Kiley and Matt, we had a fun dinner party with them and some other friends last weekend...I used some new recipes I found in the blogosphere (thanks Darby) and so I appreciate their willingness to let me experiment on them.  :)  The food turned out great, so I am "reusing" the menu tonight again for some other friends. 

We had Asian marinated steaks that turned out really yummy.  It was fun to finally get out the grill...and we actually have a deck to put our grill on!  It was so fun!  We had steaks with this Chinese salad.

The salad had these crunchy things on it that were really good.

And some baked peaches, which were super easy.  As well as some Ciabatta bread.  Tonight I might make some jasmine rice to go with too.

And for dessert, Kiley made this AWESOME peanut butter chocolate cake.  It had TONS of Reese's peanutbutter cups on it.  It was soooo good.  Maybe she will post the recipe once she has time.

Steak Marinade
1/3 C soy sauce
1 tsp ginger (grated or powdered)
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
2 tbs brown sugar
3 tbs honey
2 tbs olive oil
Combine ingredients in small sauce pan and stir until it comes to a boil then remove from heat. Let cool completely before marinating. This recipe will marinate 2 steaks (I tripled the recipe for 6 people).

Chinese Salad

12 head of Napa chopped
1/2 head of green cabbage, chopped
1 bunch of green onions, chopped

Salad Dressing

2 tbs soy sauce
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C white wine vinegar
1 C olive oil
Add these ingredients to the blender and blend.

Crunchies
1 tbs butter
1/4 C sesame seeds
1/4 C sunflower seeds
1/4 C slivered almonds
1 package of ramen noodles, crushed
Melt butter in large skillet add all ingredients to it until well toasted about 5 or so minutes. Place on baking sheet cool then mix in salad.

Baked Peaches

1 large can halved peaches in heavy syrup
Put peaches in baking dish, top with a little of the syrup.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and a bit of nutmeg.  Bake at 350 until warm. 

 

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So on another note, have you tried this cereal?  I think it's new...it's really good.  Kashi GoLean Crisp Toasted Berry Crumble.