La Mien! Chinese pulled noodles -the first attempt

Thanks to Chelsea and Kevin, who attempted the "pulled noodle" last month (click on the words in quotation to see a video!!), I went online to learn and figured I'd try it myself. They're no Uighur Noodles, but I thought for a first try, I did pretty good! I'm pretty sure I ate these noodles every single day, sometimes twice in a day in Nanjing. It was fun to try, but it's still easier to go down to Munchies and just buy a bowl of niu rou mien for a few bucks. :) And also, I've been notified by my husband, (who was kind enough to eat a bowl) that this is once again a recipe that his family would NEVER eat...

Struggled quite a bit with getting them uniform before they broke. Sometimes I wish I was a Uighur cook.

And here is my experiment with "shaved noodles." I only had a really dull potato peeler, so they didn't work out, but again, it was a fun walk down memory lane. (Looks a little bit like albino leeches...)

For those of you who may be remotely interested in La Mien making, try www.cheftomm.com/chinese-hand-pulled-noodles and www.lukerymarz.com/noodles/index.html

Long Time, No See

This week, Lindsey and I threw a party and gathered a bunch of friends we hadn't seen in a while! (and a few regulars as well) It was so much fun and there was tons of food!! Best of all was reliving those great 9th-12th grade memories. Ahhhh.

Jessica and Jackson with Ashlyn, enjoying the food!

Serena, Kendahl, Jordan and his wife Rachel, taking a walk down memory lane, with old old picture albums! YIKES!!

I forgot to get a picture of Steve Nelson and his family before they left, but this is his beautiful wife Sherrie and their son Jared (stole the picture from facebook)

Me and Mine.

Spencer and Mackenzie Pranger, and little man Colton.

Jackson, Jessica and babygirl Ashlyn Behling.

Jordan and Rachel Miles.

Kendahl Andrade, Lindsey Andersen, Serena Del Castillo

Linds and baby Sofie

Evan Crockett showed up as well, but my camera had already left the party, so no picture. It was tons of fun to see the next generation of "The Group" and we're so sad that a few people couldn't make it!! Hopefully we can get more people together next time (especially if we have more than 6 days to throw it together!!)

I'm the winner!!

My friend Chelsea (who I studied in China with) had a little raffle-ish thing going on last month, and I was one of the winners! She sent me this fun package of Christmas stuff (candy, cookies, hot chocolate, etc. etc.) and this way darling apron!! She's so talented! Thanks Chelsea!

Buon Natale!

Caterina Consiglieri Porcaro making ravioli.

Caterina is my great-great grandma, born in Italy in 1883 and came to America as a governess to a Doctor. She was remembered for her love, kindness, and talent for cooking great food (and was only 4'10"!!). She was a cook in the Porcaro's own Italian restaurant "Caro's" for years. Today we pass on the tradition of cooking ravioli for Christmas. Every Christmas Eve the Porcaro's get together for a big Italian feast of ravioli, meatballs, spaghetti, melanzane (an eggplant dish), etc. Unfortunately, G-pa has the big task of cooking the Italian food for all of us, so I'm trying to learn the trade so I can help keep the tradition alive.

Me trying to be as cool as Caterina was.

Grandpa Porcaro and me. The cheese filling.
(Sorry about all the cheesy poses)


Fortunately, we have new-fandangled technology to speed things along for us. This is the Kitchen Aid ravioli attachment that allows you to kneed the dough, stretch it, and add the filling to it.

Cutting the raviolis

Putting them on trays to freeze and keep until the party.

All Done!

I made about 250 (with G-pas supervision).

Thanks Great Great Gma Porcaro!

Ward Christmas Party

Andrea, Derek, and Sofie enjoying our Ward Christmas dinner. (I know Derek looks like he pretty much hates his life, but he was chewing and this was the look we got.)

Sofie loved the music! THS's Show and Chamber came to sing for us and Sofie helped lead the music. She learned this in Primary and I've never been able to get it on film. So cute. Denkers would be proud. (The kind lady holding her is a woman in our ward who couldn't get enough of Sofie that night!)

Talent or Desperation?

My mom says I have a talent for using leftovers in creative ways. I'm not so sure if it's a talent or if I'm just desperate to clean out the overflowing fridge. Anyway, this time we had leftover Western Family already-made pie crust (not enough for a full pie) and some cherry pie filling. So I made little pies using a cupcake tin. They boiled over quite a bit, but it was fun, and a great way to make individual sized pies. :)

B-day Times

This year for Derek's b-day we got to go to St. George to visit his family. (Although, this b-day cake pic was taken tonight here in Orem...) It was great to see them again and be able to watch the kids play together.
Sofie playing with cousin Ethan.

She decided to go ahead and share the walker with Ethan and push him around for a while. He was such a great sport!

Oh yeah, and Thanksgiving was great too. We spent it here in Utah Valley with my side of the fam. I don't have any pictures though. :(

Flash Back

Just thought I'd throw this pic up here. This was about a year ago. (plus, I was a little sad about that last picture being the first thing I saw whenever I opened this blog...this is much cuter)

A New Stage

Still dealing with the mullet of all mullets: But Sofie has officially hit the Pony Tail stage of hair length! I'm so excited!!

Although, the headband was still needed to catch the side stragglers.

Now I just need to figure out how to get her to leave it in for more than a minute and a half!!

Motherly Tidbits

As a mother, I feel that I have learned many things, like: Patience, Unconditional Love, Multi-Tasking, and most importantly, how to use a baby food mill to turn a perfectly good homemade chicken pot pie into something that even a puffy-cheeked, loritab popping Mommy can eat :)

Appetizing huh?

(ps, I recommend this contraption to anyone trying to teach a baby how to eat food, it'll grind up anything!!)

Day 3

The swelling is supposed to be the worst today, then get better. If this is the worst, I think I'm doing alright! Just wish I could find a quiet enough place to take a nap.

Only 3

I did it! I survived and I survived WELL! I got my top two and bottom right wisdom teeth taken out yesterday morning. My favorite part was when the Surgeon came in and said, "Well, looks like we've got 3 Wisdom Teeth to slip out today." I thanked him for using such a wonderful verb. "SLIP" I had imaged "YANK", so slip was a great thing to hear, like taking raisins out of pudding!

Swelling hasn't been bad. In fact, I can only notice it on that bottom right side where it looks like I have a marble stuffed in my cheek. That was the hardest one to get out because they had to break it into 3 pieces in order to not damage the nerve it was entangled with.

I love Loritab, it's wonderful. And I've been able to stay well fed, as I bought a bunch of baby food (I really like the squash...) so I could stay away from the sugary-lack-of nutrition in most easy-to-eat foods. I am very determined to heal quickly and get right back on track, so I figured baby food would be a great way to stay on top of vitamins and nutrients.

The 3 culprits. I actually feel better now that I'm not "teething" anymore. :) And I love that I look more like Sofie than ever with my puffy-cheeks. She's so darling, she could tell something was up yesterday after the surgery, so she kissed me over and over and over. Made my day!

Last Supper

So, tomorrow I (Andrea) am going under the knife to have 3 wisdom teeth yanked from my head, and I was hoping to have a great meal tonight as my last real food for a while. Fortunately, we all decided that we should have a combined Derek/Whitney b-day party as well. So we settled on a Sushi Night. :) Couldn't have asked for much better.

ps- sushi is not "raw fish", although sometimes it may contain raw fish.

Scott and Andrea rolling. (Whitney and Derek helping out)

Derek working on the Tempura veggies.

Scott slicing up the fish. He usually is able to buy the fish from restaurants, however, this time he was only able to order a bunch of Sashimi from Happy Sumo. We just used that and sliced it thinner for the sushi. We had tuna, salmon, yellow tail, scallops, etc. We also used a bunch of veggies and imitation crab. So good!


We made TONS! Didn't count, but most likely it was over 10 rolls. But even after all the fancy fish we had, my favorite is still the simple and boring California Roll -cooked crab, avacado, cucumber. I also made a sushi that most people are unfamiliar with, one that I LOVE -Inarizushi- which is just sushi rice stuffed inside these soy pouches that have been soaked in soy sauce, sugar and vinegar. Yum!

The Tempura (Sofie loved the sweet potato and zuchini)

Halloween Amendment

Here are some better pics of Halloween night and our little Pegasus.
Princess Sierra and her trusty sidekick Unicorn.

Trick-or-treating with Mom

Trick-or-Treating with Dad

My Baby Beethoven

Sofie is taking after mom's side of the fam. :)

Halloween Times

I'm a little slow with the pics here, I know, I've been chastised. The problem was I didn't really have any pictures for a while, and I had the flu, and we moved back into my parents. It's been a busy few weeks! We also went to a work party, and later another family party that I don't have pics from yet. But here are some of the other festivities!!

This was the Halloween treat I found on the front porch. I almost died. Thank you Derek for being brave and taking him on to the next life.

The Porcaro Halloween party. Sofie is a little "Unicorn Fairy" (as she was called by a friend). I promise that although she's not smiling in any of these pictures, she did love it! I was getting over the flu, so I had a mask on with a "swine" snout drawn on it. Derek was Derek.


Halloween night, baby Unicorn Fairy (also known as "Charlie") went trick-or-treating just around the block and she loved it! She kept trying to grab the treats out of her bucket.


Trick-or-Treating with cousins!

Sofie discovering the loot. She still hasn't made the connection that the stuff inside the wrapper is the same as the treat mom let her have. Thank goodness.