Mangos with Sticky Rice

Ben and I are always on the lookout for new Thai restaurants to try out. We just found this great little place in our town called the "Thai Pepper".

I was impressed with the food. It was really great. Since Ben liked it I knew it must be good because he is the Thai food expert.

I have been to many Thai restaurants since Ive been married to Ben but this was the first one that had "Mango with Sticky Rice" on the dessert menu. Usually you see fried bananas and things like that but this was different so I tried it.

IT WAS DELICIOUS!!! It had warm coconut milk poured over the whole dish. Yum yum yum. I vaguely remember Bens mom cooking us mangos with brown sticky rice (which I loved) So I am super excited we have a place in town that makes it!!!

I also got online to learn how to make it myself! But I doubt Ill ever find the time :(



Serves 2-4
1 cup Thai Sweet Rice (also called "sticky rice", available at Asian markets and grocery stores)
1 3/4 cups water
1 ripe mango, cut into bite-size pieces (look for mangos that are fragrant and easily bruised), or 1 pkg frozen mango
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. brown sugar (for a natural sweetener substitute maple syrup)
1 can good-quality coconut milk
1/4 tsp. + pinch of salt
2 tsp. coconut flavoring
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cornstarch or arrowroot powder dissolved in 2 Tbsp. water


Soak the sweet rice in 1 cup water for 20 minutes, or up to 1 hour.

When done soaking, add 3/4 cup (more) water plus 1/4 can coconut milk, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. coconut flavoring, and 1 Tbsp. brown sugar. Stir this into the rice, lifting any rice grains that have stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Gradually bring to a gentle boil, then partially cover with a lid (leaving some room for steam to escape). Turn the heat down to medium-low (2.5 to 3 on the dial).
Allow to cook for 10-20 minutes, or until the water has been absorbed by the rice. Remove the pot from the heat, place the lid on tight, and leave to "steam" cook for 5-10 minutes. The heat within the rice pot will finish cooking the rice.
Make sauce and serve the dessert right away, or store the rice (covered) in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it.
To make the sauce, warm the rest of the can of coconut milk together with 1/4 cup sugar, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp. coconut flavoring and 1 tsp. vanilla flavoring over medium heat (5 minutes).
Add cornstarch or arrowroot powder (dissolved in the water) to the sauce and stir to thicken it slightly. As it thickens, turn down heat to low. When thickened, remove from heat (this should only take a couple of minutes). Tip: Try not to over-cook the sauce, or you will lose that wonderful coconut flavor.
Before serving, taste-test the sauce for sweetness, adding more sugar if desired. If too sweet for your taste, add a little more coconut milk.

Pet Peeves

I have a few pet peeves. Things that just absolutely drive me up a wall.

1. I hate it when you are in the grocery store and you get behind someone who is in the same rhythm as you are. You end up following and bumping into this person the whole time you are in the store. I HATE waiting behind someone while they are in front of the thing I need to grab.

2. I hate picky eaters!!!!!! To all my freinds, family, and husband this dosent mean I don't love you any less this just means that I hate the way you eat! My husband wont eat anything mushy! My sister wont eat anything spicy! Ive got a cousin who used to order a cheeseburger with everything on it but then would take all the lettuce and tomato off it when she got it (you know who you are) she said she just liked the taste it left behind but didn't want to actually eat it. I used to know a guy who would go to taco bell and get a taco with no lettuce on it! Ben cant eat french fries without ketchup! He will refuse to eat them!!!!!! Ahhhh!!!

I wont eat onions on my burger (unless they are cooked onions) and I wont eat fishy tasting fish. BUT other then that I will eat just about anything.

3. People who are intolerant/racist against other peoples religion/beliefs. I have blogged about this before and I really don't want to go into it right now but I try to "Live and Let Live"

4. When my husband takes off his clothes or boots wherever he wants in the house and leaves them there for me to trip over. Many a fight has started that way.

6. I cant stand it when people don't take their cart back to the correct place at the store. How lazy are you that you can't walk to extra 10 feet to put the cart back?

7. I hate people who park their HUGE car half hanging into a second parking space. Grrrrr

I'm sure I will think of some more soon and add to this post.

Red Baby

It seems that Natalie figured out how to crawl overnight. We had the missionaries over to watch a movie and the whole time we are trying to pay attention Natalie is CRAWLING. Ben and I kept looking at each other silently asking each other.

"Did you see her do that?!"

So now I will be sitting on the computer and I will start to hear her little hands slapping the tile floor as she gets closer and closer. I guess its time for baby gates and child locks.

Which reminds me that she was fooling around with an electrical socket this morning.....crazy kid

We were in Atlanta this past weekend and everyone we met kept saying Natalie was "fat" or a "chunk" and my own personal favorite "healthy"

She is only 21 pounds people! I think the problem is she is short. She is still only 27 inches long and has been so since she was 7 months. Ive cursed my baby to be short and chunky like me. Poor thing.

As you may or may not have noticed Natalie loves to drag around her "red baby doll" grandma Marian got her. Well today in church a little 16 month old girl 'stole' Nat's red baby. I wasn't worried about it I was sure we would get it back but Natalie was not pleased. She is attached to that baby and was grumpy someone else was playing with it..... she has sharing issues.

Natalie's vocabulary:

Shoot

Dang

Da da

Daddy!

Doogie Doogie

Ba ba

Ooo we ooo

Hey Bub

Hey Daddy

and my own personal favorite is: Te te te te

That is what she says when she wants me. I try and say 'ma ma' or 'mommy' with her all the time but all I get is "Mmmm"

She also mumbles things she hears. Its like she is trying to repeat things it just comes out sounding like she is mumbling

We were at my good friend Danni's house the past few days and we had a really great time catching up with her and her girls. Natalie actually let Danni hold her for about 4 minutes. Ben and I didnt know what to do with each other for 4 whole minutes. Nat is very clingy when we are in new environments. She wont even let me put her down on the floor in new places. She is also very observant of everyone and everything......she studies everyone and everything. But when we got home she was back to chilling by herself on her mat, ignoring me.

I have no new pictures of her right now. I need to go get some old ones developed.

Why do I blog about all this baby stuff? Because I am terrible at writing in a baby book. I plan on printing all this stuff out and making her a scrapbook.

Missy Before and After

While we were gone Missy got a new doo.

Missy Before..... Such a hot pup



Missy After...a cool pup



She got a "Lion" cut. They keep the face hair and the tail hair. She is soooo happy. I think we will do this every summer.

Texas Trip

We had a great trip to Texas. Bens family hasn't all been together since Christmas. So it was nice to visit with everybody. Unfortunately Natalie started to get sick the day we flew to Texas. She had a high fever and was being really crabby the whole time. She refused to eat or drink barely anything, but grandma did discover that she likes avocado!

We did end up in the E.R. because her fever wouldn't go down and that was the closest place that would take our insurance while we were traveling. The last time she was in a hospital she was 3 months old. It is majorly different now. She is much stronger then she used to be. They had to hold her down when they were taking her blood and urine. Usually she says da da da all the time. But while they were holding her down she was screaming DADDY! DADDY! Ben said it was breaking his heart.

After it was all said and done they said she just had a virus and it would work itself out in a few days. Poor baby. That was really the first time she has ever been sick. Of course it had to be during a trip :)

The Dr did tell us to give her benadryl before we got on the flight so her ears and sinuses wouldn't be bothered while changing altitude. Marian told us we should give her some to see how she re-acts to it before our trip. She said that some kids get sleepy from it and it makes other kids hyper.

We should have listened.

I just figured it made everybody sleepy because it makes Ben and I sleepy. Apparently it makes Natalie super hyper. This was the first flight EVER that she refused to sleep on. She was kicking her legs and squealing the WHOLE time. Thank goodness Ben was with me for this trip. She is also boycotting the stroller. So by the end of this trip my arms were about to fall off. Thank God she loves sitting on Ben's shoulders, holding on to his ears.

Natalie was excited to be home in her house. I think she missed her mat. Which runs along side our entertainment center. We've never had a problem in the past with her trying to get into those cabinet doors. But overnight it seems she has gotten an extreme interest in those doors. I had her on the mat and I went into the hallway when I came back around the corner she had the door open, pulling out the DVDs. She looked up at me like "Look what I found!" "Did you know these were in here?"



Yesterday she pulled on the glass door enough for the magnet to come undone and she fell backward. She didn't hit her head because she caught herself with her arms. Pretty smart.



Sometimes she does a face plant:



But she never gives up. I'm so proud of her

Girly Girl

Somehow I gave birth to a 'Girly girl'

She talks all the time. da da da..baa baa.Oooo we ooo

She gets extremely excited whenever I talk on the phone. She LOVES talking on the phone to her grandma.

I got out an old Barbie Doll of mine yesterday and I thought she was going to hyperventilate she got so excited. She loves playing with the Barbies hair.

She loves twirling her own hair around her finger. She also likes playing with MY hair

She loves looking in the mirror at herself.

She always hams it up for the camera

When she cries its really high pitched and squealy....so girly.

I love my girly girl. I think we might have a problem trying not to spoil her.

Scoot!

So we just got home from our visit up in PA. Natalie and I had such a good time visiting with everyone! I am not quite sure what was going on with our flights too and from. But both had HORRIBLE turbulence. The last flight was so bad that the flight attendants wernt allowed to get up from THIER seats. The first flight to BWI the landing was so terrible that I got very sick, and Natalie got so sick she threw up. She was still a little queasy the next day because she puked again. Ewww

Natalie is such a good traveler. I couldn't imagine doing all of this traveling by myself with any other kid. God definitely blessed us there.

I came back home to GA then I took a nap and when I woke up I was still a little groggy and I asked Ben "Where is Evan?" He is like "Back home with his mom"
I was worried about him, because I knew Ben was holding Natalie, who is holding Evan??? I miss him for sure. I also got to meet my niece Joy for the first time! She is adorable, she has such a cute little cry and beautiful eyes. She is only 2 1/2 months! I held her and she is so light compared to Natalie. It was tripping me out to see how big Natalie has gotten in just 9 months!

Ben was reminding me that it wont be long before Natalie is 1 year old! Time flies so fast when you have a little one.

Ben is happy we are home and Natalie really missed him. But now we miss Evan! Natalie is now trying to 'cruise' on the furniture like Evan does. She learns so much from him when we visit. She isn't crawling yet but she is scooting across the rug. No longer are the days when I can put her down and she will be in the same place when I come back. But this new skill brings a lot of bumps and bruises especially to the head area. So I am in search of a foam mat for the tile floor so she can scoot around in the living room without the risk of hitting her head really hard on the tile floor.

Natalie is now wearing 12 month clothes! I cant believe she is that big. When I was in PA the YWCA was having a Nearly New sale and I got a ton of 12 month summer clothes for Natalie. If I had bought all those clothes new I would have probably spent a few thousand dollars. Kids just grow out of their clothes so fast that there isn't much point in spending a ton of money on new clothes. Plus I love getting stuff cheap...yay


Aww! Don't they look related?