Since we were gone this week, we celebrated the birthday (and since everyone was gathered at church for him today anyway) today. His two favorite gifts?  A cookbook and this...

A Ute themed apron! (I think that I'm going to need to steal it from him)

We made homemade Won Tons for dinner tonight.  We didn't do anything fancy, but they were pretty good.  I actually thought that they would be a pretty simple and easy meal to make on a Scout camp out. We bought the Won  Ton wraps at Wal*Mart, then took Cream Cheese and canned chicken and mixed it together, put a small amount in the middle of the wrap, closed it up, put it into the hot oil and let it cook.  With a little modification, you could easily make them at camp.  Basically you could use a Dutch Oven instead of a Fry Daddy and you're good to go. For Dessert we just filled them with Cream Cheese and dipped them in Strawberry and/or Chocolate Syrup. The nice thing is that they were cheap to make, very filling, interactive to make and good to eat. We also had Fortune Cookies, and if you've been following me and fortune cookies for a while you know my luck with them. Well, I had two.  The first one said that I would be getting a new home in an area full of sunshine in the next year (not sure that I really want to live in Florida) and I can't find (or remember) the other one right now for some reason, but it had something to do with new opportunities coming up.

One of our Summer staples is to BBQ.  During the summer we'll usually BBQ at least once a week, sometimes it's up to 3 or 4 times a week. I guess we won't be doing any of that this summer.

This is too bad.  I hate to see him go but Chef Irvine can come cook for me any day :D

The list of things that I need to do continues to grow. Things that must get done:

1. Fix/Adjust the blinds on every window in the house
2. Paint many walls/rooms.
3. Hang many things on said newly painted walls.
4. Clean up/out my sanctuary...errr....garage.
5. Finish and Paint the walls in the garage.
6. Add shelves and organize the garage.
7. Work on finishing the basement.
8. Finish redesigning/installing the home network.
9. Finish setting up new home Firewall.
10. Finish setting up new home fileserver.
11. Fix damage done to house this winter.
12. Finish Mud Room Bathroom Shower.
13. Finish Mud Room Lockers.
14. Fix broken door knob.
15. Put up fence around yard/house
16. Finish Fountain and Pond in front yard.
17. Put in Flag Pole in front yard.
18. Finish flower beds in front and back yards.
19. (Start &) Finish RV Pad and gate.
20. Rotate tires on all four cars.
21. Change oil in all four cars.
22. Fix nail pops and other various types of wall damage within the house.
23. Caulk the bathrooms and kitchen.
24. Deep clean kitchen tile floor.
25. Setup computer(s) for kids to use while doing homework.
26. Get Truck trailer lights and brakes wired.
27. Get Van trailer lights and brakes wired.
28. Get into MBA school.
29. Finish MBA school.
30. Finish Wood Badge tickets.
31. Finish University of Scouting tickets.

and the list goes on. Here is a list of the hobbies that I would like to take up or do more with.

1. Get a Snake.
2. Get a Motorcycle.
3. Learn to be a better cook.
4. Get a Shotgun.
5. Go Clay Pigeon shooting with said Shotgun.
6. Go Camping (more often).
7. Go Backpacking.
8. Do more Mountain Biking.
9. Pick up Basketball again.
10. Pick up Softball again.
11. Get a Black Powder Rifle.
12. Go to target range with said Black Powder Rifle.
13. Get a 22 rifle.
14. Go to target range with said .22 rifle.
15. Take up fishing.
16. Do more woodworking.
17. Learn to weld,
18. Buy snowmobiles.
19. Go Snowmobiling.
20. Tour the world riding the worlds great Roller Coasters.

As you can see the second list is shorter, so I'm thinking that I should start with that list first, though I think that my wife has other thoughts on the subject.  She may even veto many of the items on the second list.

What do you do when you've spent the night away from home camping, hardly slept, overworked your bad back, haven't seen your kids and your wife much in the last couple of days, your wife isn't feeling well and needs your love and attention, but would like "something choclate" and you have nothing (premade or mix) Chocolate in the house? You bake her a cake from scratch.

Right now I'm craving a homemade pulled pork sandwich.  I got this one from my parents.  Take two to three pork loins and put them in the crock pot and cook them nice and slow for about 8 hours. Then take them out and shred them into small pieces and put it all back into the crock pot.  Add BBQ sauce to your liking, but make it wetter than you would think that it should be, because the sauce is going to reduce and will cook into the meat. Leave it in the crock pot on low for another 2-3 hours.  Serve on the buns of your choice.  For some coleslaw is required, for me I'd rather not. The thing that makes the sandwich is the BBQ sauce and just any old sauce from the local grocery store won't do.  No, you have to get special BBQ sauce brought in all the way from Memphis, TN. I'm talking about Corky's BBQ Sauce.  There is none better in my book (one of these days that book may actually be published, and then I'd be in trouble I'm sure). You can't find it in the stores here in Utah, so every six months or so, we order a few cases of the Regular Sauce, Apple BBQ Sauce (great on pork and chicken) and the dry rub, and have it shipped here.  We go through a lot of it in the summertime, but we use up our fair share of it in the Winter too. We usually make Burgers and chicken with it, but on occasions we'll take three racks of Pork Ribs, put some of one of each of the sauces and the dry rub and grill them. If you ever get a chance to try it, I would highly recommend it.

I've mentioned in the past that I like to cook.  As a result I watch my fair share of The Food Network.  I usually watch Iron Chef America in awe of what is being made.  One of my goals in life is to be able to open the pantry/fridge see what we have and be able to whip up something delicious from ingredients we have on hand.  Basically be able to "Iron Chef" my own dinner. One of the typical ingredients in many dishes is alcohol.  I don't drink and I have no desire to drink.  I also have no desire to have it in my food, so many recipes that I've thought would be fun to try I haven't attempted because I've never really known what I could use instead of the alcohol and not destroy the dish. I've always wanted to send a question to the Food Network Chefs and see if they'd actually respond with techniques for cooking without alcohol.  So Alton Brown if you're reading this, please leave a comment, I'd love to hear your answer. Which is why this cookbook is intriguing to me.  I may just purchase it just to see if I can learn to master some of substitute ingredients.

I have always loved Thanksgiving Weekend.  Growing up Thanksgiving was always a big holiday in my family, family came from all over for the feast.  I have fond memories of huge Turkeys, mounds of mashed potatoes covered in butter (gravy - blech!), deviled eggs, crab cocktail (yes, my family has crab for Thanksgiving dinner) with hot sauce (or super hot sauce depending on if you dare), Yams with mini-marshmallows, salads, rolls, stuffing all served on Mom's best china. Our family tradition is to play a couple of games (Bingo and "The candy bar game") together as a family.  Each game had their own reward.  Heaven forbid you got the Old Grandma and Grandpa in the Hot Tub gift (don't ask).  We all had a great time and enjoyed being together as a family.  Once the games were done we'd break out the pies.  There were so many choices that it was near impossible figuring out which to have, so you'd just have a sliver of each. A couple of hours after Pie we'd break out the left overs and start making Turkey sandwiches.  Privately, this was one of my favorite memories growing up.  Making a turkey sandwich on a roll.  I'd put on some mayo, a little bit each of dark and light meat and dig in. Most years Mom and Dad's house would be full of fantastic smells and family members and I loved every minute of it. Growing up we also had snowmobiles, so for several years if conditions would permit we'd go snowmobiling the day after Thanksgiving.  Have you ever tried to dig a snowmobile out of a ton of fresh powder while you're stomach is still full on turkey?  It's not a lot of fun, let me tell you. While serving as a missionary, I probably missed my family more on Thanksgiving than I did at Christmas. My most favorite Thanksgiving of all time was probably my first after my mission.  I arrived home on Halloween and Thanksgiving was a few short weeks later.  I was still in missionary mode, though I was sleeping in a bit later than 6:30 and staying out later than 9:30 at that point. The previous year my parents had invited a Pennsylvania friend of mine to come over for Thanksgiving.  She (yes, I said She) was anticipating a call from her Grandparents in Idaho and possibly one from my parents in West Jordan.  She was living in Provo at the time, so either one was an option. She told herself that she'd go to which ever family called first.  It just so happened that my mom called about five minutes before her grandmother.  She spent that Thanksgiving at my parents house with them and my three sisters.  From the reports that I got, my entire family fell in love with her and thought that I needed to fall in love with her also. That just wasn't going to happen.  I was a missionary after all and I was dead set on not marrying anyone (Sister Missionary or Member) from my mission. Back to my first year home.  I had invited several additional Pennsylvania friends to spend that Thanksgiving with us.  This same girl, her sister, another friend who was attending Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) and a former Sister Missionary. We all had a great time that weekend, but something happened.  Something that I had not anticipated would ever happen, in fact I had told myself that it never would.  We started to hang out and talk, which was really strange because this girl was extremely shy, especially around the opposite sex. We really started to hit it off.  My family had been telling me that I needed to ask this girl out and I still flat out refused. We went to see the Christmas lights be turned on at Temple Square (back then there was a ceremony and literally 100,000 people downtown to see it).  I dropped everyone off at the West gate and was going to go park.  I told myself that if this girl stayed in the car with me as I parked the car (something I was sure would have to be divine intervention because she'd never do that normally) that I'd ask her out. Everyone piled out of the van, even her sister opened her door and said "Are you coming?".  Her reply was "No thanks, I'm going to go with him to park the car".  My jaw hit the floor, I couldn't believe it. After seeing the lights, we went for a drive and passed the University of Utah Married Student Housing (the "Village").  I joked with this girl that the next year she'd be living there with her new husband.  Her response was that it was I who would be living there with my new wife.  We both laughed it off and thought nothing more of it. Needless to say, I held up my end of the bargain and by the end of the weekend we were planning our first date. Oh and the next year, I was living in the "Village" with my new wife, but the joke was on her, because she was living there with her new husband also. Love you sweetie!  I am so thankful that we had that special Thanksgiving together 13 years ago, my life hasn't been the same since and that's just how I would want it.

I love a nice warm bowl of homemade soup.  My mom makes some great soups and has been kind enough to pass the recipes on to my wife who now makes them for our family. Four years ago, we decided to have a Fall Block party and invite everyone to bring their own homemade soups and breads.  That was the start of our annual Fall Homemade Soup Block party. On a late October Saturday we have whomever would like to be here over to our home and we have a grand old time.  It's always fun to spend some time with everyone and to relax. Tonight is the night.  Our house smells wonderful.  We're making Homemade Chicken Noodle and Homemade Cheese soup, and my wife makes "Pumpkin Bars" (another recipe passed on from my Mother, Thanks Mom!). I usually try and make homemade bread but I've had such a miserable few days that I honestly haven't the time to do so.  The party is in 90 minutes, maybe I can hurry up and make a few loaves. Oh and for the record, last night wasn't the best night of sleep either.  I did actually sleep but it was more chemically induced (Tylenol PM) than anything.  As soon as that wore off I was tossing and turning again.  I hope that this passes soon because sleep has to be one of the greatest things in the world.