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Saturday, April 5, 2008

Wilkes' Weekly Dinner Plan

Here's what's for dinner at our house this week. I will be out of town Tuesday and Wednesday night so there will be leftovers for Jim and the girls to eat while I am gone - easy for them!


Sunday - Molasses Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Oven Browned New Potatoes I used red potatoes instead of new potatoes (Meat needs to chill/marinade for 8 hours)






Tuesday - Pork and Pesto Paninis (using leftover Pork Tenderloin)



Wednesday - Leftover Enchilada casserole for Jim, girls to the Young Woman re-broadcast and dinner






Friday - Date Night and Dinner Out



Saturday - Korean Beef (needs to be prepared night before or at least 4 hours prior to cooking)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

The Pacific NW

Among the dozens of emails that came into my inbox today was this one from my father. Dad likes to pass along all those emails with jokes, stories etc. I usually delete most of them (sorry dad) but this one caught my attention.

Those of you from the NW should enjoy it and those of you who aren't might get a chuckle or two!

The Pacific Northwest According To Jeff Foxworthy:
1. You know the state flower (Mildew).

2. You feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash.

3. Use the statement 'sun break' and know what it means.

4. You know more than 10 ways to order coffee.

5. You know more people who own boats than air conditioners.

6. You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant or to church.

7. You stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the 'WALK' Signal.

8. You consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it's not a real mountain.

9. You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle's Best, and Veneto 's.

10 . You know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon.

11. You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Haceta, Yaquina, Yachats, Issaquah, Oregon, Yakima and Willamette.

12.. You consider swimming an indoor sport.

13. You can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food.

14. In winter, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark while only working eight-hour days.

15. You never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho.

16. You are not fazed by 'Today's forecast: showers followed by rain,' and 'Tomorrow's forecast: rain followed by showers.'

17.You have no concept of humidity without precipitation.

18. You know that Boring is a town in Oregon and not just a state of mind.

19. You can point to at least two volcanoes, even if you cannot see through the cloud cover.

20. You notice, 'The mountain is out' when it is a pretty day and you can actually see it.

21. You put on your shorts when the temperature gets above 50, but still wear your hiking bo ots and parka.

22. You switch to your sandals when it gets about 60, but keep the socks on.

23. You have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain.

24. You think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists.

25. You buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot find the old ones after such a long time.

26. You measure distance in hours.

27. You often switch from 'heat' to 'a/c' in the same day.

28. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit under a raincoat.

29. You know all the important seasons: Almost Winter, winter, Still Raining (Spring), Road Construction (Summer), Deer & Elk season (Fall).

30. You understood these jokes and will probably forward them

Monday, March 31, 2008

Wilkes' Weekly Dinner Plan


I am going to try something new. With Jim's travel schedule, Spring Break, the musical and just life in general I have had a hard time being organized with my meal planning.

Instead of planning out the week's menu a week at a time like I use to do I have been making it a daily decision which also means there is usually a daily trip to the grocery store to get what I need.

So I am making a public committment -is there anyone out there?? if there is, you could let me know by leaving a comment now and then:), a committment to posting our weekly dinner plan.

Yes, on Mondays - o.k. so it's almost Tuesday but my goal is to post the list every Monday morning - I will be letting you know what we are having for dinner that week. I will try to include recipes too.

So I hope you enjoy it - please let me know if you do. And if you try some of the recipes I'd love to hear what you think.

If you have any favorite family recipes to share - I'd love to try them too - just email the recipes to me.

If you are reading this post in an email update or through a RSS reader you will need to click through to the actual blog to leave a comment - thanks!


Happy Meal Planning!




Monday - Balsamic Chicken Pizza using leftover chicken and balsamic sauce from Sunday. This was so yummy!


Tuesday - Hamburgers Teriyaki and Parmesan Crusted Potato Wedges - recipes to follow


Wednesday - French Dip Sandwiches - this is a new recipe for me - I'll let you know what I think. It is done in the crock pot.




Friday - Date night for Jim and Leigh Anne - Girls to Rascal Flats Concert


Saturday - Whatever we feel like!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Spring Break - Northwest Style

Sunshine...


Rain....


Snow...


Sleet....


Hail....


.... and that is how you describe Spring in the Northwest.


Day #1 - Sunshine - Well, at least we had one day of sunshine for Spring Break. Fortunately that was our first day in Seattle and we were able to take in the view from the top of the Space Needle. We had a great view of downtown Seattle and the Puget Sound.







That night we made Jim happy and went to a Blazer/Sonics game - unfortunately the Blazer's lost but we were decked out in red in support of our home team!

Day #2 - Rain. We woke up to rain and Jim woke up to a vertigo attack. While Jim recovered in the room the girl's and I drove around the campus of Seattle Pacific University - one of the colleges Cali has been accepted at and then did a little shopping in downtown Seattle.


That afternoon we went to see the movie Penelope - a cute movie.


Day #3 - More Rain. Jim had business appointments so the girls' and I went to the Experience Music Project at the Seattle Center. We had fun recording our own CD and version of Give Said the Little Stream in a recording booth (believe me - you do not want to hear our version!) and then we went on their mock stage complete with cheering audience and instruments and did a karoke version of "Wild Thing" with Tessa on the drums, Cali on guitar and mom on keyboard. We got quite the applause.


Once Jim was finished with his appointments we headed south to the Great Wolf Lodge - a new family resort/indoor water park that had just opened up.

Day #4 - SNOW! Yes, we woke up to an inch of snow on the ground.


We had a fun time playing in the water park and yes, even Leigh Anne got her hair wet!

Yes, that is snow outside the doors where the girls are standing!

We then headed home and on Friday we woke up to snow in Portland - it didn't stick but it sure came down for a while.
We had planned to go to the beach for the weekend but with 6-8 inches of snow in the pass we needed to go through and 2 inches on the ground at Manzanita we decided to just stay at home.



During the next two days we had hail and sleet!

Gotta love the Northwest!


We did enjoy a relaxing weekend at home, we went to see the movie Vantage Point together and then Saturday night went out to dinner as a family with our friends the Watt's.



Boy Update:
Clark went with his ward down to Moab for a campout where they did a little hiking. He sounded pretty tired on the phone today so I'm not sure how much sleep they got.

Logan enjoyed some fun dates this week/weekend (all with the same person who shall remain nameless at this point) and also did a session in the Salt Lake Temple on Saturday.