Karen’s Curry

Karen Dela Cruz always cooked this dish for nursing students when traveling to Ghana.
Every once in awhile I get in the mood for Curry Chicken.  My neighbor takes a group of BYU nursing students to Ghanna every spring.  She has invited my family over for Ghana Curry Chicken a couple of times and I have become hooked!
I made this dish three weeks ago and the only thing I changed from her recipe is that I added two cans of coconut milk instead of one.

1 lb chicken cut into 1" cubes
Large onion diced
4-6 stalks celery chopped
2T olive oil

Saute' together til chicken is done

In seperate pan stir in

1 can water
2 cans coconut milk
1pk S&B mild curry
1/8-1/4 sugar (to taste)

Let simmer til bubbly and thickening then add chicken.

Serve over rice with following condiment's on side:

Flaked coconut
Chopped salted or unsalted nuts
Sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds if you want
Chopped green onions
Raisins or cranberries
Pineapple
What ever sounds good to you, sort of like an African Haystack.

Enjoy!

Creative Dance

Julzs came home the other day and told me she might be on the new BYU Children's Dance flyer going around Utah County.  I couldn't even remember her picture being taken for the flyer so I asked her to get one from the neighbor.  Sure enough there she was floating in air.
Julz is third to the right.

                                                                                                           
This year will mark the fifteenth anniversary of our involvement in such a great organization.  I signed Jake up into a boys class when he was six. Jen and Jess followed their brother and now Julz has really enjoyed the creative classes.  One thing I really like about the program is that they recycle their costumes, and they are modest.  Jess wore this same costume in a concert five years ago.  The music selection is always uplifting and the teachers are very in tuned with what I call the pure art of dance.
Jen and Julz both wore this costume in the picture below around age five.

There are sacrifices that go along with being involved in extra curricular activities after school.  GW and I rarely go out to eat. The dollar movie is about all we can afford and our vacations are very simple but enjoyable.

Hopefully some day I will be able to make it up to GW. I would like to go on more camping trips and maybe even pay off the house.  Even though we continue to count every penny, pay bills that never end, I feel it has been worth it.

Thanks BYU!

How to Survive Without an Air Conditioner

Our air conditioner bit the dust one month ago this week. GW and I are trying hard not to purchase big expensive things on our credit card, so we have endured the hottest part of the summer in a stucco house without a basement.

We have learned a lot of things concerning survival during the warmest part of the day.  There were a few items that we already had in our favor.
1. Three ceiling fans.
2. Three extra fans.
3. One big shady tree on the south side of the house.
4. Lots of ice.

Another thing we learned is that we probably have been using our central air way to much throughout the summer season.  Our house actually stayed pretty nice until the mid afternoon.  We made sure to close all the  windows around 10:00 am so we could keep the house as cool as possible for as long as possible.

One of the challenges were the little gnats that probably got through some of the screen windows at night.  Where ever there was a light on so were the annoying little insects.  Between 4:00 and 8:00 pm we had to make sure our shorts and cotton shirts were on.  I even had a little fan right next to me in the kitchen while cooking.  If ever I needed to bake it was only during the cool early morning hours.

I noticed our personalities were a bit frazzled during the late afternoon.  Being outside on the east side of the house was much more pleasant then inside.  Getting dressed was another interesting attempt.  Once the night cool breeze started to come through the windows we kept everything opened.  So off with the lights so you could change into pajamas and brush teeth without the neighbors even noticing.

Hopefully by next spring we will have our new air conditioner.  The fans will still be used at night with windows opened. Maybe we can learn to only use the central air during the afternoon.  We'll see.

I'm just happy to have survived one month of discomfort and lived to write about it.

Life on the Bus

This year I've decided to try new employment. Cooking in the school kitchen was fun last year but just a little to stressful. I still work with the Provo School District but I am now an aide for the special needs  bus.  In the last two weeks I've been on several different assignments.  The first week was picking up students at Timpview High.  We had two wheel chair teenagers who couldn't speak or walk. The rest were Down Syndrome or Autistic. They seemed a little surprised to see a new person but gave me a big smile when I called out their names.

What makes the job fun is how excited the students get when the big bus starts up. Some of them start smiling and waving their arms. Now that Autumn is on it's way a nice breeze comes through the windows while we drive to and from school. They really like it when we hit a small bump in the road. Especially if your sitting in the back!

I never got to ride the bus going to school when I was growing up in Bountiful.  Once in a while I got on a bus for field trips and drill team activities but that was about it. Now I get to ride the bus almost every day and it's way fun.  I feel like I'm a kid again only I get to wave goodbye when we arrive at our destination. 

Yesterday was a Provo High shift with all teenage boys.  A lot of them were much bigger then me but their spirits are full of love and happiness.  Securing the wheel chairs was my most challenging task because they are all different sizes and you have to make sure all the belts are on tight and secure.  I'm sure in time I will be faster but as of right now I'm a little slow.

I also applied to help for an hour and a half at the school right by my house during lunch time.  We rotate working out at recess or in the lunch room.  What's neat is the kids have to raise their hands before they can leave the lunch room.  Last year at the other school 50% of the kids who got free lunch just threw a lot of their meal away and it was pretty discouraging after working hard all morning preparing it.  Now at Amelia Earhart we encourage the kids to try and eat most of what is being served that day.  If Jewels doesn't like what's on the menu that particular day she will ask for a home lunch the day before.

Anyway, the cool mornings are back again and I look forward to my two mile walks.  Hopefully I can get in a little better shape so when I hook up the wheel chairs to the bus I will do it in lickity split time.