Boo to You

Happy Halloween everyone!  And…more importantly…happy birthday to my wonderful momma.  Growing up, Halloween was a special holiday for us.  It was an opportunity to dress up and get great candy but it was also a day we spent with friends and family to celebrate my mom’s birthday.  Every year, we’d eat take-out pizza and birthday cake before donning our costumes and heading to the biggest neighborhood we could find to trick-or-treat.

This weekend was quite a bit different from the Halloweens I experienced as a kid but no less wonderful.  Completely un-Halloween related but the Cardinals won the World Series on Friday night and MU had a terrific come from behind win against Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon…I knew the weekend was shaping up to be pretty terrific.  We spent Saturday night with some of our closest friends who know how to throw a heck of a party.  The evening had a very simple equation…Food + Alcohol + Twister & Ultimate Ping Pong = A GREAT TIME!  JPug and I were vampires…

Sunday afternoon we volunteered at the KC Zoo with Tiger Stripes (an MU Alumni Association service organization) for Boo at the Zoo.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather while handing out candy to hundreds of metro children.  We continued the vampire theme which was a total hit…most of the kids were mesmerized by my fangs which I assured them were NOT real :)

The big weekend culmination was pumpkin carving with friends.  JPug and I used patterns while Blake & Mary free-handed their masterpieces.  I think this might be the first time JPug and I have ever carved pumpkins together but this was Blake & Mary’s 5^th Annual Carve-Off.  Check out the pictures below and vote for your favorite in the comments section…Pumpkin “A” is on the right and Pumpkin “B” is on the left.



Duren A (Right)     Duren B (Left)



Pug Pumpkins

Today’s the big Trick-or-Treat day…have fun, be safe and don’t be stingy with that candy! 

Quick Update

As excited as I was to talk about non-“I” word topics…

The results of JPug’s 3^rd analysis came in this week and were…improved.  Not “normal” but also not the down-and-out, move straight to IVF story that we heard a couple months ago.  So, I’m happy cautiously optimistic to report that we should be starting IUI (if you don’t know what that is…read my previous post) with my next cycle. 

There are still a few potential hiccups we could encounter…1) my body is still getting used to the synthetic thyroid hormone which takes time (although the thought of “time” is super annoying to me, I feel like I’m actually getting more patient as the process progresses).  My TSH (if you don’t know what this is…read my previous post) is lower but the affects the dose has on my body and systems vital to reproduction are still in transition.  2) The hand-off of JPug’s blood tests from Dr. K to Dr. N have been the exact opposite of smooth.  Dr. N needs to complete a full review of JPug’s blood work as he may be able to identify the root cause of any issues. 

Man…Team Pug is a heck of a pair with what seems like a fair amount of problems!

Because I have no interest in blog readers becoming cycle-stalkers, I probably won’t discuss the IUI process a whole lot as we go through it.  I’ll continue to write posts about the process in real time (experiences, thoughts, feelings, etc.) but probably won’t publish those posts until the time is right.  It’s important to me that we share information about the entire process but it’s also very important that if we do conceive, we get through the crucial first trimester before announcing to family and friends.

Enough of this “I” word talk…back to the fun stuff!

Quick & Delish: Crockpot Pepper Steak

One of my favorite hobbies is cooking.  I love trying new recipes and challenge myself to make a sit-down dinner most nights of the week.  I’ll share some of my favorite weeknight recipes labeled “Quick & Delish” to signify tasty weeknight meals that won’t force you to spend the entire evening in the kitchen.  The recipes I’ll share are tried & true…I’ll always include my own comments as italicized remarks within the recipe & directions.  Bon appétit!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 lbs boneless beef top sirloin steak, cut into strips 
• Note: You could probably use a lesser quality cut of meat as it crumbles when fully cooked 
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• Note: I would suggest omitting the salt as the recipe is fairly salty, even with reduced sodium soy. 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 green bell peppers, cut into strips
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• Hot cooked rice 
• Note: We prefer short grain brown rice and recommend Lundberg which can be purchased at most grocery stores.  If using short grain brown rice, note the cooking time as it can be up to an hour.

 Directions

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-low heat.  Brown steak strips in 2 batches.  Add garlic; cook and stir 2 minutes. Transfer steak strips, garlic, and pan juices to 4- to 7- quart Crock-pot slow cooker.
• Note: I prefer to brown the meat on med-high which cooks faster and really seals in the juices.  Once the pieces have a nice caramel color on one side, brown the other side, remove them from the pan and place them in the crockpot.  Add the garlic while browning the second batch.  The increased skillet temperature made it difficult to remove the pan juices once the steak and garlic were cooked.  I removed the steak pieces and added ½ c. of water to the skillet to deglaze.  The additional moisture should loosen the pan bits right up…add the liquid mixture to the crockpot.
2. Add onion, soy sauce, sugar, salt (I would suggest omitting), ginger, and black pepper to slow cooker; mix well. Cover; cook on LOW 6-8 hours or until meat is tender (up to 10 hours).  Once I added all the ingredients to the crockpot, it didn’t look like much.  I was scared to death that the meal would burn while I was at work.  It cooked for right at 10hrs and was perfect when I got home.  If you know your crockpot runs hot, I would suggest reducing the cooking time.
3. Add bell pepper strips during final hour of cooking.  Blend water and cornstarch until smooth; stir into slow cooker.  Cook, uncovered, on HIGH 15 minutes or until thickened.  Serve with Rice.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Thanks to Mary Duren for sharing this quick & delish recipe.