Cooking Class - Part 2

Kari nervously putting a little bit more filling in her "Scallop Shu Mai Dumpling".

Demonstrating how to twist the top of the "BBQ Pork Buns" and Ken trying to do it like the instructor.

Making an egg roll.

Kari's best looking "Scallop Dumpling" Notice the little pleats in the dough!

"Scallop Dumplings" ready to be cooked.

Rolling out the dough.

Working on more dumplings in both the picture above and below.

Kari learning the pork bun twist.

Finally, it's time to cook the dumplings! We had appetizers when we first arrived at 6pm, then all the food was made, and cooked. One of the Chefs suggested that everyone sit down and eat after she had some of the food ready, but some people were enjoying making everything so much, they wanted to continue to work, so it was 9pm before we actually sat down to eat.

More food cooking. The class was only supposed to go from 6-9pm, but it was 10:15 before we left, so it was a late night for all of us.

Cooking Class - Part 1

Last Monday, Ken, Kari, and Todd went to a cooking class in Seattle at "The Blue Ribbon Cooking School". Since it was Chinese New Year, the theme for the night was "Dim Sum". I went along to take pictures and I also got to eat the food that was prepared. (The cooking class was Ken's 60th birthday present.)

One of the Chef teachers, part of the kitchen and some members of the class.

The first thing they did was chop up ingredients for several different types of "dumplings". The term,"dumpling" included things like pot stickers, egg rolls, pork buns, and some actual dumplings. All the ingredients for each filling was laid out on a tray like the one above.

Todd chopping up fish for the steamed fish dumplings.

Kari and Ken worked on the filling for the shrimp scallion dumplings (Har gow), in the picture above and below.

Stirring the mixture up.

This is what the fish mixture, that Todd made, looked like before being put into the dumpling.

Some of the dough had to be cooked on the stove to thicken.

Rolling out some of the dough.

Making some pot stickers.

Ken is making a BBQ Pork Bun (Char Siu Bao). There was quite a trick to rolling out the dough, wrapping and pleating the dough to cover the pork filling!

Another Weekend With Grandkids

Last Friday, we met the Young's in Mt. Vernon for dinner, then brought Saben and Annika home with us. As we were leaving the restaurant, we bought them each a sucker with a flashlight in it. This is what they looked like when they sucked on them.

Saturday, we met Todd and Seth in Everett, then we all went to lunch and the Children's Museum. Each adult was with one of the kids, and I was with Annika most of the time, so she got her picture taken more than the other 2 kids, since I had the camera.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to take a good picture of the lights in this dark room, but I thought it turned out really good. The small yellow shadow is Annika and I'm the larger one.

One of the things, Saben did at the Children's Museum, was build a bridge out of paper and popsicle sticks.

After we got home everyone worked on craft kits that I had gotten for them.

This is what Seth made.

Everyone stayed overnight on Saturday, Todd was giving Betsy a day and night to herself as one of her Christmas presents, so Seth and him stayed with us. Unfortunately, Annika got sick to her stomach during the night, so it was a long night taking care of her. It's been a long time since I've had to be up so much during the night and I'm glad that it doesn't happen very often any more!

Snow In January

Fruit trees with lots of snow.

We got a total of 12 inches on Tuesday.

Shoveling the driveway for the second time with the power shovel.

After snowing most of the day, the sun came out for awhile, which just added to the beauty.

Gorgeous!

At least no branches have broken off this time...

...at least that we've seen so far!

Our neighbor's bird bath, I don't think any birds are going to be using it soon.

Breakout Party

Friday night we had our 4th grade Breakout class over for a party. Ken had challenged them to earn 150 points during the first 8 weeks of class and if they did we would have a party. They easily met the goal, so we had them over for dinner and to play some games.

For dinner we had a taco bar, with chips and pop. For dessert we let them make their own sundaes.

The first game we played was Wii bowling, which we did as teams. The second game, which is shown in the picture above and the ones below is a game we used to play years ago, called "States". The object is for the person in the middle to hit someone with the newspaper before they can call out the name of someone else's state. (Everyone chooses a state name at the beginning of the game.)

No one had played the game before and it was a real "hit"!

We had a lot of fun, but I couldn't believe how loud they got! 6 fourth graders can get really wound up, maybe next time, I shouldn't serve pop with the meal!

Chimney Fixed

This is our new chimney.

Even after the chimney was repaired, the closet still smelled smokey. We decided that the smell was probably in the bricks, because there was some creosote leakage on them. We also thought there might be some smell that got into the walls, so we painted the chimney in the closet, with a special paint to cover the creosote, then also painted the walls in the closet. Everything is smelling fine now, so hopefully everything is taken care of!