January 25, 2009

Stuffed Peppers alla Robbie

Robbie made these delicious stuffed red peppers for dinner tonight. He adapted the following recipe, Spanish Beef and Rice, from Rachael Ray's cookbook, 30-Minute Meals 2.

Spanish Beef and Rice
2 cups beef stock
1 & 3/4 cups water
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups white rice (Robbie used Uncle Ben's Minute Rice, Imported from Alaska)
1 tablespoon olive oil, preferably extra-virgin
1 & 2/3 pounds of ground sirloin (Robbie used deer hamburger)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large onion finely chopped
4 cloves garlic (we buy the minced stuff in a jar from Costco)
1 green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped (Robbie omitted this step, as we used the mixture to stuff in red bell peppers)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups tomato sauce
1/4 teaspoons ground cloves (Robbie doesn't add cloves to any recipe, so this step was omitted)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (Omitted, not on hand)

Robbie's Additions
Jalapeno
2 red bell peppers whole
1 cup Tillamook Garlic Chili Pepper Cheddar Cheese (What we had in the fridge)

Bring beef stock, water, and butter to a full boil in a medium-size pot. Add rice, reduce heat and cover pot. Cook 20 minutes, until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.

Heat a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil, onion, garlic, and jalapenos, saute until the veggies are tender. Add meat, and Worcestershire and brown. Add tomatoes sauce, cloves, cumin, and parsley. Bring to a low boil and then reduce heat to low.

Combine cooked rice, and cheese with meat mixture. Stuff into red peppers, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

***We boiled the peppers first to soften them slightly before stuffing them. Advice courtesy of Grandma Marilyn.***

Robbie's peppers were awesome, and I highly recommend this recipe to you our family and friends. If you try them and add a different spin, let us know how it goes.

Bob Appetit

January 20, 2009

Our Newest Feat

Robbie and I brought back several puzzles from Grandma Jean at Christmas time. This was the first one we attempted, and it took us much longer than anticipated to complete it. Our friends Dave and Emily (http://beatleys.blogspot.com/) also just completed a puzzle that racked their brains, I've asked them if we shouldn't do a swap.

January 14, 2009

John Day Fossil Beds

Here are a few pictures from a day trip we took to the John Day Fossil Beds. The Thomas Condon Paleontology Center (visitor center) is located about 45 minutes from our house, at the Sheep Rock Unit. We took the longest trail offered, The Blue Basin Trail, about a 3 mile loop. The trail overlooks the valley and only changes in elevation by about 600 ft.

January 10, 2009

Christmas Photos

Uncle Robbie with our Niece and Nephew Olivia and Rowan.


It was defiantly a white Christmas.


Grandpa Bob modeling a Krusty Hat Original.


A star in the making. Olivia shows off her new guitar.


Rowan's my name, and "Da Da's" my game.


Christmas Morning!

December 30, 2008

25 Weeks

Well here is a shot I took this afternoon with our Skype Cam. As you can clearly see, Plus One is growing and so is my belly.

Robbie and I are still in the process of determining who or how we will have Plus delivered now that we are settled in John Day. While living in Juneau, we were attending the Juneau Family Birth Center and were seen by three wonderful Midwives. I've had it in my mind during the pregnancy to birth outside the hospital setting, if at all possible and we remain a low risk pregnancy.

John Day does have a hospital and one Midwife who performs Home Births. It was time for a check-up so we met with the Midwife, Sherry, last week before heading out to Sandpoint, ID for holiday. She is very knowledgeable and has already confirmed that I/we would be comfortable with her delivering Plus One. Now we just need to do all the responsible stuff, like find out if our insurance will cover the cost of home birth and Sherry's services. The hospital here as one can imagine is pretty tiny and does have Labor and Delivery services available. It is amazing in this town how many people ask where we are going to deliver and as soon as we mention Sherry, they tell us how she birthed their children, or that she birthed them. Can you tell I'm already biased, and practically have my mind set.

Anyways, our last check-up went great, and the baby should be about 1&1/2 pounds now. We heard the heartbeat again, and we were able to hear the swooshing of the blood going in and out of the heart valves. It is amazing to know that all that is going on inside my body. The baby has been much more active the last few days too. I think he/she must be doing somersaults or something and causing quite a bit of commotion.

As we approach the third trimester, I will try to be better about keeping you updated. I'll add pictures, but suspect they will be hard to distinguish my belly size until right before I explode. What you will be able to see grow and stretch is probably my tattoo. Robbie and I wished we had measured it early on in the pregnancy to see how big it will actually get. Any wagers?