Pho @ MindSay

The minute you walk into FuBonn Asian Supermarket you are transported into the orient. The 100 pound bags of rice give off a sweet jasmine scent and the unpronounceable spices and ingredients are amazing. We went there this morning to get strange sauces and veggies and bundles of lemon grass. Next door was a pho (soup?) house so we had a lunch of Vietnamese egg rolls and bun thit nuong. An indescribably delicious grilled pork over vermicelli noodles that I haven’t eaten since leaving Denver 14 years ago. Oh heavenly days. I was reminded of the little ice cups of Vietnamese coffee we used to drink at on Denver’s west side.

 

 

Then we shopped for more wall tiles to finish the kitchen – my tile painting fiasco has failed totally near the sink…. So I will retile there. Daltile Urban metals @ $10. per tile. Sheesh is right .  Then we hauled more rocks for the pond and stream bed and finally around 5:30 I was able to throw my clothing in the washer and wash the mud off my glasses and out of my hair. Life with a Jacuzzi is close to perfect. I am now in my greek white linen caftan with the blue embroidery, the one I made to go with the new house because I  imagined coolish mornings on the top deck with the breeze requiring a hood and long sleeves. It goes perfectly with my SWITCH embossed leather mules I found in Multnomah Village.

 

We are still cruising through season one of the sopranos and loving it more and more. Gandolfini is a genius. The flash of emotions, excitement and the desire to keep them bundled up all flit across his eyes and blow me away. Oh and the purple rhododendrons are now blooming.  I am sooooooooooo blessed with having moved here. Fin.

oh yes. i have the pictures i told you all about. here they are:

first and foremost. here's my father. with the beard.



then it's the chocolate that i got from Israel. the brown one on the left is dark chocolate and the red one on the left is milk chocolate.

 

now it's some of the lotion we all got from Israel. not all of it though.

 

and last but definetely not least. this is the bag my dad got for me. i really like it but i have no real use for it. i think i've already said something about that though.





hope you like em. :D

Mmmm.  Today I ventured out of my 'comfort cooking zone' and made Beef Pho (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup) from scratch.  It isn't so much that it is difficult, as that it takes a very long time to make the broth.  I told josiejunk that I would cook dinner tonight, but I needed to come over early as the broth in the recipe called for 6 hours to 'simmer'. 

 

I went to our Asian grocery store and picked up all the necessary items to cook Pho.  The beef oxtail took a while to cook, and really, it could have simmered even longer for taste's sake.  But all in all it came out pretty good!  Even josiejunk's husband was impressed, which is a good sign - but he did help me "kick it up a notch" at the end, to make the broth better.

 

We topped off the good meal with some good white wine and home baked chocolate chip cookies.  I think Alex ate about 10 cookies - he kept yelling for more cookies as soon as he finished the last one.  Then it was time for his bath at Auntie Josie's house, so we gave the kids a bath and then put them to sleep - well, at least one to sleep, as Alex refused to be read a bedtime story.

 

Then it was time for josiejunk and I to indulge in some Appletini's - and boy does Josaphine make a mean Appletini!  It was scrum-didili-umptious!  Thanks goes out to lizardbeth for the appletini sugar for the rims and appletini mixer!  Yummy!

 

Needless to say I called my husband to drive us all home (he was at a basketball game that night) as I had one to many appletinis!  Hooray for my designated driver!

Ok, so it wasn't actually me who got naked, but my daughter and kikuye's 18 month old son that ended up naked in the tub, but the evening was still fun!  It all started this morning, when I decided that today was the day that I would make Valentine Day cookies with the kids (Sarah and Big Alex) and I invited Rana and her two girls, Noor & Masa, over as well.  So, when Kiyuke (Annmarie) called later in the morning I invited her and her son, Baby Alex, over too.  It was going to be a party!  Yay!  Annmarie decided that since her hubbie would be abandoning her for a bastketball game she would bring foodstuff over and prepare homemade Pho (vietnamese beef noodle soup) for us.  Cookies and comfort food, how much better could this get.  The kids had a blast decorating the cookies, there was frosting and sprinkles everywhere.  I had chocolate chip cookies flying out of the oven.  FYI...don't leave an open jar of frosting and nekkid cookies around Annmarie, all I can say is that woman loves her some cookies and frosting ;)  Anyway, by the time Garrett arrived home from work, Rana and her girl's had left, and Big Alex was picked up by his dad.  Annmarie and I cracked open a bottle of wine, and watched as Garrett finished preparing dinner.  It was delicious!  And guess what we had for dessert...more cookies, and some appletinis.  Got to luv them appletinis!  And my cookies were frickin delicious!  There's nothing better than eating lots of yummy food and getting toasted with your friends!  Appletinis for everybody! ( OMG, how many times I'm I going to use the exclamation mark!!!!)

Today I did my classes. Still was tired... Picked up my cousin, went and ate some PHO... Then bought my airline tickets. I'M GOING TO CHICAGO on November 23 .. Spend Thanksgiving there. Then Soccer practice... And that's about it.

I <3 U All,
Dan