Campbell's Kitchen: a take on my favorite dish

When we lived in Oregon there was this peanut sauce that I would buy from WinCo (aka the best store ever) to use in my stir-fries. Aldi does not have the same brand and the few peanut sauces I have come across have not been as good; so I have taken it upon myself to try and create a good peanut sauce.

I have yet to succeed. 

My latest attempt was exactly two weeks ago.

I found a site online, scrolled through the obnoxious obligatory ten pages of back story and ads to get to the recipe (just kidding, this website got straight to the point which I appreciate), and got to work.

I was super excited for this recipe because it included quinoa and coconut (two of my other favorite foods) with the peanut butter and tofu dish I was trying to recreate.

Early in the day I pulled the tofu out and placed it on towels between two plates with a container of flour on top because I am basically MacGyver in a kitchen.When it was time for me to start cooking dinner the tofu was really dry, which makes a nice crispy tofu when cooked.

The recipe only called for broccoli but I am a rebel and I love eating the rainbow so I chopped up yellow squash, zucchini, and carrots. Also, broccoli doesn't last long in this house (my kids looovvve it) so I didn't have any. 

For the sauce, I also didn't have any rice vinegar, so I used white. Or soy sauce. Apparently it was a bad week for my kitchen basics so I used lemon juice instead. But I doubled everything the recipe called for because I like a lot of sauce with my vegetables and tofu.

The recipe said to mix everything until incorporated. The peanut butter in my sauce never completely became smooth. Probably because I used a spatula instead of a whisk but more likely because I only spent two seconds trying to blend it in before I decided to move on with my life.

I doubled the amount of quinoa because there's no such thing as too much quinoa and I decided to use my smallest pot because I also like to live on the edge. I am pleased to report that, despite rising to the lip of the pot, it did not boil over.

When cooking the coconut I became distracted (probably by a small child, I don't remember it was two weeks ago) and burned it. Instead of throwing it out and starting over I decided to just go with it because it wasn't that burned and coconut is amazing. Also I am cheap and grew up poor so throwing food out is really hard for me to do.

After burning the coconut I cooked the tofu in some olive oil in the same cast iron pan (I love that pan), when the tofu was done I pulled it out and cooked the vegetables for a few minutes before pouring in the sauce and letting that simmer until thickened.

When finished, I served up the food and then tried to maintain composure when my kids stoped eating and decided they did not like the dinner I had prepared and they had been enjoying when J came in from work and made a disparaging remark on the food.

It was delicious. 

Promise.

I just happened to be married to a philistine. 

But I am still on a mission to find a recipe that he will not try and then say, "do you remember that peanut sauce that you used to make when we lived in Oregon?" And then I have to explain for the up-tenth time that we DO NOT have that brand of peanut sauce at Aldi. I guess I could try Kroger or Walmart but I just love that feeling of disappointment when my family tells me that they don't like my cooking.

My next attempt will be with this recipe (because honestly, that bok choy looks amazing). 

The Masked Singer: Season 3 Finale

J and I don't watch a lot of television.

We don't even have a tv.

What we do have is a computer, the password to his parents' Netflix and Xfinity accounts, and no shame. We take comfort in the fact that J's siblings also pirate off his parents' accounts but his older sister pays for Hulu and shares her account with his parents so that's more of a symbiotic relationship compared to our purely parasitic one.

Occasionally we decide to follow a show together. For the last year it has been The Masked Singer. I found it when a cousin started sharing the first season on Facebook (#socialmedia works). A few youtube videos later I introduced it to J, we discovered it was on Xfinity and have been following along when we have the time (and remember) ever since.

The show is Dancing With the Stars meets American Idol with costumes so you have no idea who the celebrity is until they're voted off. The show is taped (not air lived) so only the in-studio audience may vote on who they think was the best performer. J and I will try to guess who the audience will vote off but we will also discuss who we personally think was the best. J tends to judge based on how well they sang, I like a good performance and will forgive a weak singer so long as they're energetic and fun.

Night Angel (aka not the best performer of the season)

We finally watched the finale of season 3 yesterday and while we have been disappointed in some of the episodes before this is the first time that we have been disappointed in their season finale. The episode before the season finale there were four contestants left: three men and a woman. Each contestant shared what it would mean for them to win with the woman (Night Angel) saying that it would mean that she was the first female to win the competition. At that point J said, "she's going to win".

Kitty (aka better vocals than Night Angel)

While Night Angel was not wrong, she was the first woman to win, she was not the best singer. In fact, she should have been voted off several episodes previously. Kitty is a better singer than her. Every time Night Angel performed J and I were both, "eh, that wasn't my favorite".
EVERY TIME.



In (I think) the final clue package Night Angel shared that she used to be in a girl group but could not make it as a solo artist. Based on her performances we are not surprised.

Frog and Turtle
(aka better performers than Night Angel)

Turtle and Frog were consistently my favorites throughout the season and I am so upset that one of them did not win (so much so that I am actually taking the time to dedicate a blogpost to it). J was not as emotionally attached to any one performer as I was but he is also disappointed.

Now to make a political statement:
We both feel that the only reason Night Angel won was because she's a woman.
Voting on the show (like in politics) should not be done based on gender.
There's a former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, who said, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." I feel like there should be an asterisk,  It does not help women if they are given a job or award that they do not actually deserve. In some ways, that is actually sexist.

Reverents

In the tradition of posting our sacrament talks on this blog I wanted to post the talk that Hulk gave today during our family sacrament. This is the second talk that he's given during this period of social distancing and he's given a handful of talks during Primary over the years. So while this is the first time I have posted one of his talks on the blog this is by no means his first talk.

I am very proud of the responsibility he takes over his talks. When planning church last night I asked if he wanted to give a talk today, he said yes. This morning he picked out his topic and wrote the talk himself with some help from J. When he gave his talk he stood up in front of us, smiling and eager to share what he had written.

I may have cried. (happy tears, of course):

Sunday May 24, 2020

Today I want to talk about how we can be reverent. Reverence is when we be quiet so we can listen to the Spirit. There are several ways we can be Reverent. First, we keep our hands to our self and we fold our arms. We sit quietly and listen to who is talking. We don’t wiggle and for prayers we close our eyes.

In my family we started doing reverence time to practice being more reverent. We use a timer for about one min. when we get older we can be reverent for an hour.

I know when we are reverent we will be blessed.

I know the church is true and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

My Commencement Address to 2020

When I graduated from high school it seemed like the common sentiment was, "We did it!"
The feeling behind that sentiment was that we had accomplished something difficult and that this was the greatest thing we had ever done.

Real talk now.

High school is easy. Now, before you start let me clarify: for the GENERAL PUBLIC all you have to do to graduate high school (4.0 GPA aside) is go to class and do the bare minimum of work.
That's it.
Anyone can do it.

Now, I realize that there are students with extenuating circumstances. They are the exception. They deserve the commencement speech by Oprah Winfrey or Malala Yousafzai.

But for everyone else, graduating high school has become some over celebrated and over exaggerated symbol of entrance into adulthood.

If graduating high school is the hardest and greatest thing that you have ever done than you have failed at life.
You peaked in high school.
And that's sad.
No one wants to peak in high school.

There are students who worked hard in high school. There are students who take AP classes, a 5:30am seminary class, run with the track team in the morning, practice with the swim team in the evening, work part time as a life guard, and teach piano lessons in their spare time.

What all of that does is teach you how to work hard because the hardest and greatest thing you do is what you do with your life. You could coast into college or trade jobs thinking that your life is going to get easier from now on. But it doesn't. In some ways it gets a lot harder.

And when you've finished college or training for trade jobs you can think that life is going to get easier now that you'll never have to learn again.

But you'd be wrong. Again.

Our lives are meant to be hard. We grow from challenges.

We learn from challenges. And that is what we are meant to do.

Learn.

Little Viking Girl Gets Her Own Bike

As we were driving around town yesterday we passed a house with a vacuum cleaner, a small kid's bike, and a sign that said "This stuff only free".

I jumped out of the car to look at the bike.
Little Viking Girl has been ready for a bike but:
1. bike's cost money (I did find some for $30-40 on craigslist)
2. we don't give gifts that are unnecessary or that expensive unless it's a birthday or Christmas

We've been biding our time. I think some part of me was hoping that Hulk would out grow his bike so we could give it to her and then buy him a new(ish) one. He's going to outgrow his bike soon and this way we would only have to buy one bike.

Thankfully Corona Claus was watching out for her. The bike chain looked good so we took it home, pumped up the tires, put Hulk's old training wheels on, and took Viking Girl down the street.

She was so excited the whole time. When I brought the bike over to the car her face just lit up and she exclaimed, "My bike!"
She knew.
She has wanted one for a long time.
After we got home, the first thing she wanted to do was ride the bike. When she's excited or wants something done right away she tries to be super helpful.
Which is not helpful.
At all.
(She's only two after all)

But I want her to be helpful so I try to remember to take a deep breath, slowdown, and let her "help".
She took to biking like a natural. She's my athlete.

The One With All the Scare-coronas

I happened across an article in the local news about a walking art show in Northside (a neighborhood just northwest of downtown Cincinnati). We have never been to that part of town and taking the kids for a walk to look at other people's yard decorations sounded too good to pass up.

We went.

And we loved it.

On the way back home I commented to J that I like Northside better than the part of Cincinnati that we live in. It feels like a very artistic part of town, it has personality, people were friendly and open to chatting (six feet apart, of course), and it looked like it had a lot of neat shops and restaurants (since we're social distancing and didn't have our face masks we didn't go inside any). Much better than the ugly strip malls that we never go to in our part of town.
When all this is over I want to go back.

In typical Cincinnati fashion it has been hot and humid the last couple days.
Hulk was dying during the walk.
Viking Girl actually stayed in the stroller (never happens).
And Teddy took a nap (typical).

I am grateful for a community that was willing to creatively express their frustration.
I am grateful for the friendly people sitting outside their houses willing to chat with us.
I am grateful that we live in such a diverse town.

And now here's a picture dump:

And my sentimental favorite <3

Happy Mother's Day

This week started out rough but ended well. My feelings about Mother's Day oscillate from year to year. Some years I feel stressed, frustrated, and under appreciated. Other years I am able to relax and enjoy the holiday. 

This was one of those years. 

As an introvert, I would appreciate the holiday more if I didn't spend half my day calling all the mothers in my life to wish them a happy mother's day.

But that's really selfish of me.

I should be grateful that I can still call and talk with my mothers (and that I have a good relationship with all of them).

A friend shared a picture of her baby girl last month and said that today she is grateful to her daughter for making her a mother. This friend also has two step-sons. 

I am of the camp that every woman, in some way, is a mother. You don't have to physical birth a child to influence others. To me, a mother is someone who teaches, mentors, and guides others. While this is most often her own children (biological, step, or adopted), it could be the children of friends, relatives, or her children's friends. It could be the children you coach on a regular basis or the random child you stop when you see them running into the street after a ball. 

I have friends who hate mother's day because the day tends to glorify the idea of the "perfect mother" which leaves real mothers feeling inadequate and guilty. There's a good post from Thus We See that puts my thoughts on this topic into words much better than I could. Sure, there may be "better" mothers than me out there in the world but I am doing the best I can with what I have been given. No one can expect more from me than that and I consciously do my best to not compare myself to other woman. So when I hear stories of "perfect mothers" I listen politely. If there's an idea in there that I like and I think will work with my kids I try it out otherwise I move on with my life. This may not work for everyone but it works for me.

The one thing that I consistently don't like about mother's day each year is the consumerism. If J bought me jewelry for mother's day (or candles, or blankets, or wind chimes, or whatever else is being marketed that year) I would through a fit. I have a birthday (and there's Christmas) buy me stuff then. For mother's day, make my day easier by cooking dinner and playing with the kids so I can take a nap. THAT'S IT. That's all I want. 

And maybe some flowers but a bouquet not a plotted plant that I then have to care for and feel guilty about when it eventually dies.

J did have the kids sit down with me to take pictures (and they mostly behaved). 

It was a good day.

Now to go pick up the toys that the kids didn't put away and clean the kitchen. 

There are no breaks in motherhood.

Campbell Family Church

Since churches were closed at the beginning of the quarantine (along with schools, restaurants, libraries, museums...) we have been participating in church at home.

J and I have tricked to mimic a typical church experience - I print programs with an activity page on the back for the kids, J provides the sacrament, we have a speaker (by J or Hulk), share testimonies, sing songs while I play piano, and then do a primary lesson (by me) for Hulk and Viking Girl while J puts Teddy Bear down for a nap.

We have really enjoyed this experience.

Last year, our church came out with a new teaching program called Come, Follow Me. It emphasized the importance of teaching the gospel at home and then coming to church prepared to participate in the lessons by sharing thoughts or experiences related to the topics.

J and I have felt that church, like school, is meant to facilitate teaching in the home (not replace). It is our job to teach our children (and ourselves). Church fills in the gaps. You learn a lot through discussion and church provides a place for you to come and to talk and learn from other people. It is a community where we can come together for support and help each other but the majority of learning should be done at home.

Come, Follow Me also gave focus to the lessons we were trying to teach the kids.

So we've really appreciated the program. Especially now, when all church is at home. I particularly appreciate how the lessons we have been going over during this quarantine are uniquely appropriate to the current situation.

In the spirit of honesty, before the quarantine we only sat down with the kids to go over the Come, Follow Me lesson once or twice a week. We wanted to do more but always seemed to get side tracked by something else. During this quarantine we have gone over the lessons almost every day (I think we've only missed one day).

Today, our ward participated in Sunday School through a Zoom conference. That was a great experience. As an introvert that prides herself in being independent I had not realized how much I missed my church family and listening to their insights on the gospel until then.

I am grateful for a modern prophet and leaders who were inspired to shift gospel learning to the home, to change the Visiting/Home Teaching programs to a ministering program that did not require home visits, and to remove the one year waiting period members who were married civilly in the United States had before they could be married in the temple. I feel like all of those changes have prepared us for this unique point in our lives.