Reclaiming the "K"

The Amazing Race, once again, went to India. I love it when they go there. It is on my list of places I'd like to go to, but it is low on the list since Matt doesn't want to touch foot there. Am I crazy for wanting to go?


This season, the teams go to Kolkata. Calcutta? No, Kolkata is right. I was surprised when I saw the spelling of it on tv the other day. Knowing that Bombay is now called Mumbai, I figured Calcutta is now called Kolkata for a reason. So I did a little research.

India became independent of British rule in 1947. "Calcutta" was the anglecised name of Kolkata. In 2001, the spelling was changed back to reflect the Bengali pronunciation. Some view this as a move to erase the legacy of British rule. But much of western media have been slow to adapt to the change. They need to get with it! Now I know.

What do you think of when you think of India?

I think about my most favorite accent... a native person from India speaking english. I love to listen to it! I've tried to do it myself, but I stink at it.

I think about colors. Vibrant colors.



I think about noise. Lots of people. Massive car, rickshaw, and foot traffic...mixed with cow traffic.


I think about smells. I've never been there, but I can only imagine the intense foreign smells that must be present the moment one steps off of the airplane. I had a beautiful indian friend in Virginia. Her name was Sandeep. Then, for some reason, it changed to Anu. I spent the night at her house, and it definitely had an aroma that I wasn't used to smelling.

I think about exotic looking women. Women with jewelry and silky sarees. The parents of that same friend of mine owned a little boutique in Washington DC. I spent the afternoon with Anu there once. It was so fun to try on the rings and colorful scarves, etc. I don't think that I have ever seen an unattractive east indian woman. The men... that's another story.

I think of wide spread poverty as well as extreme wealth.

I think about religions that I don't know much about. My friend Anu was Sikh. I had to look up that spelling. Now I know at least how it is spelled.

I think of curry. I think of yummy food. I think of monkey brains. Didn't Indiana Jones go to India and eat monkey brains? Let's hope that is just in the movies:)



Elephants. The Tajmahal. Hand painting with henna. Elaborate long wedding celebrations. Belly dancing. Tigers. Yoga.




India. I need to learn more about it.

My Wish: To Run My Race Like Sam

Here is my beautiful sister in law Sam (Matt's older sister).
Today marks one year from her sudden passing from this life. Everybody misses her.



This picture was taken when we lived in North Carolina. She and her kids came down from Richmond and met us for a fun (but cold) day at Kitty Hawk.




We are so grateful that we got to live near the Moore family for 10 months.



This picture was taken because of the kindness of Sam. She was so excited to get to babysit 3 1/2 year old Emma while we took Josh and Chelsea up to Washington DC for a few days.



Oh my goodness! Our kids have grown so much since this picture was taken.



Here is my baby with her baby.



Sam loved going to Utah to visit family. This was taken at the bbq in Lucile's backyard just before Jed and Heather's wedding.



During the same trip out west, Sam brought her family up to Boise to visit us. We took them to this place (Sandy Point at Lucky Peak) one afternoon to play. I can kick myself for not taking any pictures while they were here.



This is a picture of my young women group up at girls' camp this past summer. I put this on here because I know how much Sam loved going to girls' camp in Virginia. I like to think about Sam when I'm doing my YW president duties:) I had a more positive camp experience this past year because of her example.



Sam is full of love. She loves being an aunt. She would ask my kids who their favorite aunt was. There could be only one answer. Aunt Sam!

China Part 2

You know what intrigued me most about The Amazing Race this past Sunday? "Hard Sleepers" in China. What in the world is that, you wonder? Hard sleepers are 3-tiered sleeping bunks on trains in China. There's a strange part of me that actually wants to travel on one! I'm not sure which bunk I'd want to sleep on... top, middle, or bottom. Hmmmm. Which would be the least creepy to curl up in? I've read that, despite their name, the berths are well padded and come with bedding. They are a bit cheaper than "soft sleepers" which have four beds per compartment instead of six. Upper and lower. The lower beds convert to couches for daytime use.



Watch this short behind the scenes CLIP from "the show". It shows the cowboy team (love them!) with the southern pageant girl (hate her!) chatting while on their 8 hour ride on one of these trains.

Can you say "claustrophobia"? Throw in there the strange sound of a foreign language being used all around you and the smells that might be present... and I think I might be a bit freaked out. But, again, I kinda wanna try it out.

Here's what my train ticket would look like. Talk about butterflies in my stomach! Yikes. Just a bit intimidating!

Gotta Have It

I have been using recipes from OurBestBites.com for a couple of years now, since my sis-in-law Jody told me about it. This past year I have had the opportunity to try even more recipes now that I'm not in a "meal group" anymore. I have more freedom to try meals that I wouldn't have wanted to triple the recipe for. Although there are some that I did make for meal group.

The website is done by two Mormon moms who love to cook. One lives in New Orleans and the other lives right here in the Boise area. I love the way they write about the food they cook and recipes that they come up with. It is so fun and relatable. Is that a word? Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday they make a new post. Sometimes they give stuff away, too.



The two ladies just put out their first cookbook in February. I LOVE IT. Many recipes in the book are found on their website, but there are many new ones as well. I love that I have the book right here at my finger tips. Everything that I have tried so far has been pretty much awesome. All except the apple cider spice doughnuts that we made last fall. But the problem was probably just us. We had never made doughnuts before.

You can buy the cookbook at Deseret Book or on Amazon. You won't be sorry at all! It is even a hardcover spiral-bound which is my favorite kind!

Farm Fresh

Look at these beauties! Aren't they gorgeous? We love having eggs of such pretty colors. No more boring, white eggs from Winco. Not that there is anything wrong with boring, white eggs from Winco. These are just more fun!

I'm Not Chicken Anymore!

A friend of mine, (Gina) who used to live here, was a pro canner. She seemed to be canning all of the time. She would give demonstrations at her house on all things canning. When chicken or london broil would be at a really good price, she would can her own meat. She said how easy and yummy it is. Even though pressure canning scared me to death, I bought a pressure cooker about two years ago so I could do my own meat. Well, it has been sitting in my garage waiting for me to get the guts up and actually try it myself. Unfortunately, that pro canner friend moved to Colorado last year. But fortunately, I have other friends who know how to use that freaky pressure cooker thing.

There is a company called Zaycon that sells chicken for $1.58/lb in cases of 40 lbs. Last fall, I bought 80 lbs worth and froze it all. I still have some left in my freezer. So when they announced that they'd be delivering to Boise again, I decided I didn't need any. But then I remembered that dusty pressure cooker out in my garage! I really did want to have some canned chicken on my shelf. So I went ahead and ordered 40 lbs. I picked it up on Saturday morning.

One of my brave pressure canning friends, Kris Bell, said she would come over and help me get started on canning my chicken. She stayed with me until the canner reached the desired pressure. I was such a brave little girl, I told her to go home and I'd finish it myself. I did three batches that day. I only had one jar crack and one other jar not seal. My final count was 24 pints and 5 quarts.





I made chicken noodle soup for dinner last night with one of the two jars of chicken that didn't work properly. It was so good. And how easy is that to just open a jar and not have to worry about pre-cooking chicken. Have you ever opened a store bought can of chicken breast and it smells a little like canned tuna? Not my favorite smell. Well, this does NOT smell like that!

I'm happy that I have overcome my fear of using a pressure canner.... maybe not completely overcome... but pretty close! Now, onto canning some good quality red meat. We aren't big red meat eaters, but I would like to have some on my pantry shelf. I'm thinking quick, easy beef taquitos or vegatable beef soup.

China

Last week's post was written about four days before the Japan earthquake and tsunami. All week my mind had been on my temple trip to Tokyo, so when the disaster occurred on Friday, I was stunned. How horrible! It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about the suffering that is going on over there right now. It's seems unbelievable. But it is so real.

Then Sunday came... and yet another episode of The Amazing Race that left me smiling!

This week (and next) The Race takes place in China. I don't know very much about the geography of China. But I'm learning. The racers went to the city of Lijiang in the northwest part of the Yunnan Province which is in southern China. Here's a map.





Wow! What a beautiful place. I gotta go someday. From what I've read and from watching the show, it looks like this is an area that the Chinese like to visit. Because of its low latitude and high elevation, Lijiang has a mild subtropical highland climate. It's wet time of the year is during the summer months. The population is 1.02 million people. That surprises me because it doesn't look very big. They must be packed in there pretty tight.

Look at these mountains! Matt will be happy to know that he could golf here.



Just gorgeous. The racers went up Jade Dragon Snow Mountain on a gondola. It is the southernmost glacier in the northern hemisphere.

Here's another place in the area that the racers visited. The chinese like to come here and ride the yaks and get their pictures taken. I couldn't find a good picture that showed people on the yaks. Look at the terraces! Gorgeous! This place is called Baishui Terrace Baishuitai which translates to "White Water Terrace". Spring water flows over a sinter terrace leaving behind travertine. Cool.





Lijiang has an "old town" that dates back 800 years. It is a UNESCO heritage site because of the way it's been preserved. What a place! The traditional people here are a minority called Naxi.



Oh my goodness! Look at this cute old lady!



Can't wait to see what the next episode of A.R. brings:)

Quick Results...But A Long Way To Go

In case you are interested (or not) in what my teeth look like right now... Here they are:



The low hanging front teeth (AKA Beaver Teeth) are gone. Oh Yeah!

Konnichiwa

I'm obsessed with The Amazing Race. I know.

I've decided that every week I am going to do a little research into each place they go and pretend I'm there. Won't that be fun for you!

But so far, the first few episodes have been in places I have already been.

In April of 2005, Matt and I went on a temple trip to Tokyo with some of our Guam District members. Thankfully, our district president and a couple of other people spoke Japanese and were able to navigate us through the city. What a fun few days full of temple work and tourism. I wish that we could have had more time so that we could have gotten out of the city and into more natural settings like in this latest CLIP of my favorite show.

Here are some pics from our Tokyo trip.

Guam District Group Picture- Quite the diverse traveling group!


Super clean, but complicated, train system


The "leader of the pack", President Davis


Kim on train with Kazuko


Sushi Chefs


Kim eats sushi for the first time!


Matt at the park


Lunch in park


Kim at park


Old men fishing at the park


11th wedding anniversary at the temple


Tokyo Temple


Tokyo Disneyland


"It's A Small World" sung in Japanese... of course... we were in Japan!



Senso-ji Temple


Senso-ji Temple shopping entrance


Senso-ji temple shopping


Senso-ji Entrance and Offerings


In shabu shabu restaurant- The best lunch I have ever eaten


Shabu-shabu restaurant