This is a (Gluten-Free) Miracle!

My little sister's friends say, "This is a miracle!" when something is especially awesome.  I feel like now is an appropriate time to use this phrase.

THIS CROCK-POT RECIPE WAS AMAZING!  And gluten-free!! Wahoo!  The name got cut off, but it's called Terisha's Chicken.  It comes from 101 More Things to  Do With a Slow Cooker.

It was sooooo easy.  There are so few ingredients that I actually had them all without having to go to the store.  It took me about ten minutes to defrost the chicken, cut the onions, and put the sauce together.  I actually only had half a cup of soy sauce, so I only used half a cup of sugar as well.  I used four small pieces of chicken and it worked great.  There was plenty of sauce.  Since I was cooking for one, it ended up being just the right amount for dinner tonight and leftovers for a couple more meals. 

So delicious. And easy. That's my favorite combination.

Try to Remember the Kind of September...

September has been chalk full of many activities.  It has been the perfect way to start the new school year.

Park City:

Daniel and I have a tradition of going to Park City to celebrate birthdays.  This is the third year we've done it since we met.  We went the weekend after my birthday.  When we got there, it was pouring.  So, off came the shoes and we went running in to town from the parking lot which was not super close! It was actually very fun!

By the time we left, it was just overcast.  What a wonderful little respite from a busy world!

 Minute to Win It:

This little lady, Megan, from the singles ward I was in...

...planned an awesome "Minute to Win It" game night as a combined YSA relief society meeting/stake young women activity on the third Wednesday in September.  The girls had a BLAST.

In this game, one person twirled around in toilet paper while the other one held it and the point was to be the first to use up the whole roll.

The 'ole get the oreo from the forehead to your mouth game...

Our ward was in charge of dessert and we did little fruit pizzas on sugar cookies using this recipe (but using lemon juice instead of lime juice concentrate). 

Sunday Lunch:

 Something very weird happened in my life and I started getting in to cooking a little bit.  For my birthday, my roommate gave me a gluten-free slow cooking recipe book and this morning, I prepared baked potato soup in the crock pot.  Above is the first step (potatoes, celery, carrots, chicken brother, onion, cooking tapioca, salt, and garlic) before cooking it in the crock pot. 

Because the soup made so much, I asked the Goncalves family to come over after church and share it with me.  When we got to my house, all I had to do was add milk, sour cream, and blend it with a hand mixer.  I served it with grated cheese, bacon bits, and sour cream.  It actually ended up being a hit!  

Sabrina was captivated by our old elliptical my dad recently brought up for our apartment.

The kids and Isabel all made me belated birthday cards and brought them to church today.  It was very touching to me. 

Sabrina helped me make GF butterscotch/chocolate chip cookies.  She is such a good helper!  I absolutely love those two kids.  Today was the primary program and they both gave little talks in English.  The primary kids all sang one verse of "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" in Portuguese and I immediately started crying. Isabel and Ricardo and their family have become like family to me. 

The Cooking Adventures of Reed and Katie, Part 3

Reed and I planned to get some sun by the pool at his complex around 3:00 p.m. It was a gorgeous day. I went into the dentist at noon, looking forward to an afternoon of sun later. By the time I left the office at 1:00 p.m., it became overcast and windy. Lame! So, Reed and I reevaluated our plans.

Instead, of sunbathing, we decided to do a little cooking. I borrowed Christina's Cooking Light cookbook because I'm trying really hard to get control of my eating habits. We chose two incredible recipes (one dinner, one dessert) to make for my roommates and a couple friends. With Reed, no cooking task is impossible. In fact, the crazier, the better. And, being the daredevil that he is, Reed combined two recipes for the entree. How about that?

Cooking still stresses me out, but today, I found it rather exhilarating! For example, I was in charge of cooking the pasta and the bacon AT THE SAME TIME! It's was a rush.

Our fettuccine had bacon, sun dried tomatoes, two kinds of onions, some garlic, thyme, fresh Parmesan, and the sauce was made with half and half. It was delightful.

Here is the group at dinner:


Our crowning achievement, however, were the cheesecake caramel and fudge parfaits.


They were made with fat free cream cheese, ff sour cream, ff whipped topping, graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, ff caramel, and theoretically ff hot fudge (but we couldn't find any). Reed kept trying to push the limits of "cooking light" so we ended up with a Butterfinger layer (which was actually really good!) and shaved chocolate on top. We got the tall flutes from the dollar store, and now I have a set of 8 matching goblets for fancy occasions :-).

Cheers!

In case you thought it would never happen...

I cooked something from scratch.

I really did.

My friend Reed is very culturally savvy. He has visited many countries and interacted with people and food all over the world. So, he decided one night to make Taiwanese potstickers and graciously invited me along.

I loved seeing Reed's excitement over his new food processor. It was like watching a kid at Christmas. Nothing but goodness goes in the middle of potstickers, including pork, garlic, green onion, cabbage, etc. And by the way, real chefs mix ingredients with their hands. (I don't actually know if that's true, but it's a good theory.)


The best part was getting to wrap the potstickers. It took me several tries and lots of experimenting...

...before I figured out how to keep them closed during boiling. Can you tell which row is mine and which is Reed's?



Okay, so I changed my mind. The best part was EATING the potstickers. Dipped in a mix of sauces, a la Reed. YUM. (What does 'a la' actually mean?)

Seriously. SO delicious.

Holiday Baking

7.95 = the price of one 8 oz. box of white chocolate almond bark from the chocolate gallery

2 = the number of boxes my mom got me for my Christmas Party Mix recipe.

15.90 = the price I had to pay to replace the almond bark my mom bought after I burned it all in the microwave

1/4 = the portion of a cup of oil you must put in to chocolate to melt it (something my sister taught me about 16 oz of white almond bark too late)

1 = the number of packages of pretzels I forgot to put into the recipe until it was all done.

0 = the number of times I will cook again

P.S. For any SB residents, we are having a hot chocolate night at the Houston household tonight at 8:00 p.m. Come for some Christmas Party Mix, chocolate turtles, and assorted flavors of hot chocolate made in the infamous cocoa-motion (thanks, Jen Anderson!)