I Kind of Invented a Recipe!

You probably know that Shawn and I are Catholic, so Fridays during Lent mean no meat.  Now for a lot of people, this isn't really a big deal.  Lots of Catholics just eat fish on Fridays.  I don't mind fish, but it's never been one of my favorites, and I've never really learned how to cook it.  Typically, if I want to make fish, I pull out a bag of Gorton's frozen fish filets, pop a few of them in the oven, and call it good.

This year, though, Shawn and I have agreed that we should try to branch out a bit...try new things on Fridays.  I've pulled a recipe out of a magazine to try salmon, which is a huge deal for me (I've only ever had smoked salmon, and I hated it).  And a friend of mine recently gave me a link to a recipe for crab rangoon, which I actually think sounds pretty good!

So that's what I decided to try making tonight...crab rangoon.  I got all the ingredients, but then I re-read the recipe and realized that the filling mix needs to refrigerate overnight.

So.  Hm.  Now what to do?  I was actually in the mood for crab, so I thought about possibly making crab cakes.  I looked at a recipe I've tried once or twice before, but I don't have any tartar sauce.  I started looking on allrecipes.com (one of my favorite sites for finding recipes), but I couldn't find a recipe that I actually had all the ingredients for.  So....I kind of made one up!

I basically used this recipe as my base.  But I don't have lemon juice, tarragon, or crackers.  And I don't like red pepper flakes.  So I decided to pull some other flavorings and seasonings that I had seen in other recipes, and put them in here.  This is basically what I came up with!

Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 egg, about 4 TBSPs mayonnaise, garlic powder (I eyeballed it), a dash or two of Worcestershire sauce, about 1 tsp of brown deli mustard, and some sliced green onion (I sliced up most of two "bulbs").  If the consistency looks too runny, add a bit of mayo.  Then stir in two 6 oz cans of crabmeat (drained first).  Once that's mixed in, start adding in dry bread crumbs until the consistency looks right (I just eyeballed this....maybe 1/2 cup?  3/4 cup?).

I divided the mixture into four equal-ish portions and formed them into cakes.  Then I melted 1 or 2 TBSPs of butter in a skillet over medium heat (but I did turn it up to medium-high after a few minutes), and cooked the cakes, about 5 or 6 minutes on each side (until golden brown).

I have to say...these crab cakes were pretty darn good!  And since I'm normally a very "follow the recipe to a T" kind of cook, I was also impressed with myself that I was able to improvise and end up with something more than just edible.  :)

Here are the cakes after the first flip:

Look What We Have!

Even though the rain won't really stop in this area for a few more months, I'm definitely excited that spring is just around the corner!  Since we don't typically get super cold temperatures in this part of the country (although we did get snow 3 or 4 times this winter!), one big benefit to living here is that our flowers start to bloom a bit earlier than other places!  As I've been taking Satchel on his daily walks, I've really enjoyed noticing the little differences in the plants, bushes, and trees around the neighborhood.  As Satchel stopped to sniff at one of his favorite bushes this afternoon, I noticed that it has tiny little leaves on it that weren't there yesterday!  Our neighbor's plum trees are also starting to blossom, and even our own maple tree is starting to get little buds (or maybe they're huge buds...who knows...they're nowhere near the ground, so it's hard to say).

I took a couple pictures of the flowers that are starting to bloom in our own yard.  This is a flowering bush we have in our front yard.  It's a type of Japanese Pieris.

Since I took that picture on Saturday, the rest of the flowers have popped and it looks really pretty!

We also have a group of flowers growing near our garage.  Honestly, I'm not sure if they're tulips or crocuses.  The leaves look like tulips, and the petals are a bit too long for crocuses, but they're low to the ground like crocuses, and the shape of the petals are more like crocuses.  I was telling my dad about them, and we wonder if they're a hybrid....each flower is a tucus (pronounced "tookus").  It made us laugh.  We're odd.  Anyways...I took this first photo on Saturday:

And then I took this photo early this evening:

I should've taken the pic earlier today; around lunch time, I noticed that the petals were more open.  Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.  If you notice the leaves poking up behind these flowers, those are our irises popping up!

I'll definitely have to keep an eye on the flowers and try taking more pictures soon.  We have day lilies popping up in the front flower bed, and Shawn and I noticed that our columbines are coming back!  Those sprouts are super tiny right now, but they're there!  It's nice to have a little Colorado in Washington.  :)

First "Major" House Project

Okay, that title might be misleading.  It was the first "major" house project we did (something more than painting, weeding, or installing a new appliance), but we didn't actually do it ourselves.  We definitely paid someone else to do it.

Anyways...during our home inspection when we bought the house (back in September 2009), we realized that the garage door had some issues.  Namely, it wouldn't stay up.  Our inspector thought that tightening the springs would probably do the trick, so we didn't think too much about it.  After living here for a few months, we had someone come to look at the door (and, ideally, fix it), and we were told that actually, the springs had already been tightened as much as they could, and at this point, all we could really do would be to replace the door.

Shortly after we were told that, we also realized that the door was falling off the track.  If we did open the door, one side of two of the panels was hanging off the track, just waiting to fall.  Additionally, the wooden door was "smiling" (warped enough that, from the outside, the bottom of the door looked a bit like a smile...turned up on the ends).  It kind of makes sense that a wooden door in a super rainy area would probably warp after awhile.  I was searching for a "before" picture, but I don't think I really took one.  This is probably the best picture I have of (part of) it.

You can at least see that it was gray, and it had little squares on it.  I guess I never really cared to take a "before" picture of our crummy garage door.  :)

So finally...about a year after we moved in to the house...we had the garage door replaced.  One guy came and did it by himself, and by the end of that day, we had a brand new, white, non-wooden, insulated garage door.  And a super quiet garage door opener.  I love it.

Other than the fact that the garage door opener is so quiet that I can't hear it from inside (even from our bedroom,which is located directly above the garage!), my favorite thing about this new door is that we can actually park the car inside the garage!!  You may be aware of the fact that it rains a lot around here.  I love that I no longer have to walk through the rain to bring in the groceries from the car.  :)

I Blame Satchel

Oh goodness....it's been a few weeks since I last posted, hasn't it?  Sorry.  :(  I've actually taken a bunch of pictures to post on the blog, since I've realized that I actually do have some things to blog about!  Shawn and I haven't been totally lazy the last few months.  :)

So...I blame Satchel for my lack of posting.  See, here's the thing.  If he's awake and ready to play, it can be difficult to use my computer.  He has this habit of barking at me in an adorable, growly way, and I feel the need to put aside the laptop and play with him.  Or he'll come up next to me and nudge his nose under one of my hands, sort of tossing it on top of his head, asking me to pet him.  He's hard to resist.

And then there's what he does if he's ready to sleep.

Um....yeah.  He comes up on the couch and plops down on my lap.  Sometimes, he keeps his head up, and he basically leans his "elbows" and shoulders on my leg.  Super cute.  Then, when he falls asleep, he flops his head over across my lap, which is what he's doing here. 

Now seriously...who can say no to something so adorable?  And when he's there, it's again rather difficult to use my computer.  In all honesty, he often doesn't mind if I go ahead and put my computer on top of him, but I do try not to do that.  My only other choice, then, is to hold the laptop in one hand, a la server holding a tray of drinks, and then type with just one hand.  I can do it...but A) my left hand gets tired, and B) typing is painfully slow.

So needless to say, when I've finished my work for the day, and I don't have to work on my homework, and I have time to blog....well, Satchel often prevents me from doing much on the computer.  I can blame him, right?

I Felt Naked

I had the day off from work on Monday, so I decided to do a little shopping.  While I was out, I realized I should take in my rings to be cleaned, inspected, and rhodium plated.  (Rhodium is what keeps white gold looking silver instead of yellow...without getting this plating done from time to time, my rings would eventually look like yellow gold.)  Unfortunately, the plating takes some time, and I was apparently not the only one who thought she'd do this on a Federal holiday, so I had to leave my rings there overnight.

I felt naked.  I kept trying to play with my rings, and I would have a little shot of panic when I first felt that the rings were missing...and then I'd remember why and go about my business.  But Monday night and all day yesterday, it was driving me nuts.

Shawn picked the rings up for me last night between work and rugby practice, so I didn't actually get them back until about 10:00 last night.

Ahhh...much better!  I had missed them.  And now, aren't they super shiny and pretty?!

RE Update

I went to the RE on Wednesday for a follow-up appointment and to go over all my test results.  I didn't really get any answers....at least, none that I wanted to hear.  The good news is that I seem to be pretty darn healthy.  No indication of clotting disorders or uterine deformities or hormone issues.  The bad news with that is that it basically means that there's no discernible reason for having two early miscarriages...which means there's not much that can be done to prevent another one from happening in the future.  I'll be taking low-dose aspirin and extra folic acid, and I'll continue taking progesterone supplements.  All of these things fall into the category of "we don't know for sure that they'll help, but they can't hurt."

The "scary" news for the day is that the doctor thinks that I have an issue with ovarian reserve, based on the number of follicles she could see during the ultrasound and the level of my FSH on cycle day 10 (after taking clomid for 5 days).  In other words, at the ripe old age of 32, my ovaries are starting to run out of quality eggs.  Because of this, her recommendation is either to just keep doing what we've been doing, or do IVF.  Because Shawn and I will not do IVF...well, this means that we just keep doing what we've been doing.

I'll admit that Wednesday's appointment was hard for me.  I left the office thinking primarily of the "ovarian reserve issue."  It's a very scary thing to be told that you're running out of time to have kids earlier than "normal."  I couldn't help but focus on "If we haven't been able to get and stay pregnant on our own in the last 18 cycles of trying, what makes me think we'll get pregnant now?"  Lots of "big picture" questions were going through my head, like what will our lives be like if we never have a child?

A few days have given me a bit of clarity, though.  In all reality...it does only take one good egg to make a child.  And I do have some...just not as many as I'd like.  When I left the RE's office, her suggestion of "do it on our own or do IVF" was very frustrating; but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she's been approaching the whole situation from the standpoint of trying to figure out why I've miscarried twice...not why I'm not currently pregnant.  Her reasons for not wanting to try a few cycles of clomid or even doing IUI was mainly because it still wouldn't address the issue of miscarriage (and with my numbers, I'd be at higher risk for ending up with multiples...like 3 or 4).  But that's not to say that we can never get any help from her.

At this point, this is what we've decided.  Shawn and I are going to keep doing what we've been doing.  We're going to try our best to just put our faith in God and remind ourselves that He knows what He's doing, even when it doesn't make sense to us.  Our plan right now is to give it until June or so.  That would take us up to a year from the last miscarriage.  If at that point we're still not pregnant, we'll call someone (not sure who...my OB/GYN, this RE, another RE...someone) to see if there's anything else we can try.

So...that's where we stand!

Still Here...

Darn it...I'd been doing so well with blogging at least once or twice a week.  :)  Oh well. 

I'm still here.  Really nothing super interesting to report right now.  I finished reading Frankenstein last week for the first time.  I have to say that it wasn't at all what I expected, but it was pretty good.  Now I'm re-reading Left to Tell, by Immaculee Ilibagiza.  I read it in July of 2009 (my review is here), and I'm reading it again for a book club that I'm hoping to start attending on a regular basis.  The book club meets on Sunday (I think...or maybe it's next week), so I need to read a bit faster!

I also have started my first class.  I have an assignment due in less than five hours, and I'll admit that I haven't actually started it yet.  I did do all of the reading that was assigned, but I haven't yet begun actually completing the work that needs to be turned in by midnight tonight.  Last week, I had to write my first website using XHTML code; it wasn't too bad.  Now I have to figure out how to write Cascading Style Sheets and apply them to the website I created last week.  Should be fun.

Shawn is at rugby practice right now, and Satchel is snuggled up next to me on the couch (with his head on my hip, snoring away).  Now that I've written a blog post...I should probably quit procrastinating and get to work on that assignment.  :)  (Teachers really are some of the worst students!)