Oriental Pork

I was going to go to my brother's place for dinner with a friend tonight, but my niece got sick. I'm sad I missed out...but I had to come up with something else. After making an inventory on my ingredients I decided on cooking some pork chop steaks into an oriental dish. This was inspired by mom's Oriental Beef/Chicken.

Oriental Pork

Pork chop steaks (that's what I call the thick cut), cut in strips
Garlic
Onion
Bell Pepper
Sugar Snap Peas
Rice, cooked

Marinade:
Soy Sauce
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Cayenne Pepper
Ginger Powder
Pepper

Marinade the pork strips in the marinade sauce. Saute the garlic, onion and bell pepper. Add the pork till all strips are browned, add sugar snap peas. Cover and cook thoroughly. Serve over rice.

As you can tell, I have no measurements. That's because I was improvising. So, just add everything to taste. If I had pineapples, I would have added a little of the pineapple juice to the marinade and served the pineapple on the side. This can be a quick meal if you prep the ingredients early in the day. Also, you can use chicken or beef, and you can mix up the vegetables you have on hand. This is basically a stir fry. And...if you want to be adventurous you can try to eat with chopsticks.

Wang Jian-Xin and Li Feng-Yun

I went to the performance of Wang Jianxin and Li Fengyun in September. They teach at the Tianjin Conservatory of Music in China and have been on tour. I really enjoyed the music. During the performance Wang Jianxin explained the different instruments that they played. I was very impressed with their talent.


The instrument above is the xun which is made of clay. It is also called an ocarina.


This instrument is the xiao. This flute is played vertically.


The qin is a very beautiful instrument. The one that Li Fengyun played was at least 600 years old. It has a very unique sound to it that can evoke different emotions. I enjoyed watching her play this instrument.


The pipa looks like a guitar. The name comes from the direction of strumming the strings--"pi" is strum in one direction and as you come back to strum in the other direction it is "pa". I thought it was a cute description.


The last instruments that were played were the di-zi. These flute like instruments come in all sizes and are played horizontally.

I really enjoyed the music and talent from that evening.

Frog Exhibit

I went to a frog exhibit at the U of U on Labor Day. I was really excited to see all the frogs on display. Andy picked me up so I could go with their family. I took pictures and I thought that they were deleted from my computer. However, I found them and have a little slide show for you to see now.

Havasupai Arizona Trip

I went to Arizona for vacation last month in August and had a great time. Andy and I met up with our cousin Michelle at the airport. That was an adventure in itself. I used the wrong name for Andy on his plane ticket reservation and security wouldn't let him through. I felt really bad about it. So I called the airlines reservation to have them cancel his ticket and then reissue another one with his name that showed up on his license. We finally managed to make it through security. Once we got to the gate I received a call from Michelle and she was more than half an hour away from the airport. Luckily the flight was delayed 45 minutes and she made it just as we started boarding the plane. Traffic was really bad that night in Utah. However, we made it to Phoenix where we met up with Dad and Adriana (Michelle's sister).

Above is one of my favorite pictures that I took. I think it's a blue dragonfly, but I could be wrong. I was amazed that the insect let me get as close as I did (and i really did have to get close) because I don't have a fancy camera that will let me take that kind of shot from far away.

Below is a slide show of some of my pictures from the trip.

We hiked down the canyon in the afternoon. As we started our hike, clouds moved in to give us shade. We also had a nice breeze. I think that we really would have had a harder hike down if we didn't have the shade and breeze. The rest of our party was already in the lodge once we arrived in the Supai village. That group consisted of Uncle Clifton, Aunt Elinor, Loren, McKenna, Maria and Sarita.

The next two days we enjoyed hiking and playing in the water of the falls. I mainly enjoyed the peace and quiet I got from being out in such a beautiful place. The day that we first hiked to all the falls was nice. The water was clear blue...beautiful. The clouds moved in again in the afternoon and by the time it was evening, we have a rain shower. The rain shower washed dirt into the river so the next day we didn't get the clear blue water, but muddy looking water. I'm glad that we were able to enjoy the clear blue water at least one day.

We also had some friends from Midland hike down to enjoy the sights and falls for one of the days. Luckily it was the day that the water was clear blue.

In 2008 there was a flood in Havasupai that destroyed one of the falls, some of the pools surounding the falls, caused damage to the camp grounds and created a new water fall. Navajo Falls no longer exist. At least not the way I remember it. There is some remnants of where the falls used to be. However, in the destruction of one fall, a new one was created...Rock Falls. These falls are fascinating to me because there is evidence of so much destruction from the rock/land/mud slide but at the same there is a new beautiful fall. The ground all around the trail down seems a bit unstable, but it looks like the tribes people are working on making a trail that is safe down to the falls.

I'm really happy that I was able to go enjoy a little nature.

Roasted Pears with Caramel Sauce

I experimented with a new recipe and I am very happy with the results. This should be a low calorie dessert for those that like to count them. I definitely plan on making this dessert again. I found this on the allrecipes.com website which was ranked at 4 1/2 stars.

Roasted Pears with Caramel Sauce

4 tablespoons butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
4 pears, halved and cored
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup coarsely chopped toasted pistachios (or your favorite nuts)

1. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Place butter in a baking pan large enough to hold the pears in a single layer: set in the heating oven until it melts.
2. Sprinkle sugar over melted butter, then place pears, cut side down, on top. Bake until tender, about 30 minutes.
3. Remove pan from oven, turn pears over and baste with pan sauce. Return to oven; bake until golden and glossy, about 10 minutes longer.
4. Let cool slightly. Transfer pears to dessert plates or bowls. Top each with dollop of sour cream, drizzle with caramel pan sauce, sprinkle with nuts and serve.

I made sure to use ripe pears. The recipe didn't say whether or not to peal the pear skins off. So I left the skin on and I think it helped keep the pear together. Also, because the pears were ripe and soft, I baked them for only 20 minutes the first time and 8 minutes the second time.

Now for the alterations I made to the recipe. I sprinkled cinnamon over the brown sugar (which was light brown sugar because the dark brown sugar was as solid as a brick). Then I sprinkled some raisins before placing the pear halves on top of the sugar. Once the pears were cooked and cooled I used a dollop of cool whip instead of sour cream because I already had a container of cool whip opened. The caramel sauce I used was an ice cream topping. I didn't need to make up my own. Finally, for my nut of choice, I used pecans. I would still like to try this with the sour cream and pistachios, but that will have to be for another time when I have the ingredients on hand.