Slices of Life

    Ingredients: (serves 6) 3 lbs stew beef 1 red pepper; chopped 1 green pepper;chopped 2 onions; chopped 4 cloves garlic; minced 1/3 cup brown sugar 2 Tablespoons sesame oil 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar 2 teaspoons ground ginger 1 Tablespoon hoisin sauce (or sriracha; I had hoisin sauce on hand so used that)   Cornstarch/water slurry (added in at the end-2 tablespoons of cornstarch to 1 tablespoon water)  Serve with: Rice or rice noodles broccoli pea pods mushrooms (shredded carrots would be good with it too!)  Toasted sesame seeds (optional)    Step 1: I cut up and added all the onions and peppers along with the minced garlic to the base of my crock pot. Step 2: I added in all the ingredients to make the sauce-- brown sugar, sesame oil, rice vinegar, ground ginger, & hoisin sauce.   Step 3: Added in the stew beef and set the crock pot to low and let it cook for 6-8 hours. Step 4: I added in a cornstarch slurry (2 tablespoons of corn...

 *Originally posted February 14, 2016 when my boys were 8, 10 & 11 We love watching movies together and try to have a family move night once a month or even once  a week if we can. Now that my boys are getting older they have little desire to sit and watch "little kid" movies.  They almost always prefer movies with real life characters now and it can be hard to find movies that we can all watch together. For the most part we go by the ratings & we usually feel pretty safe with any PG movies (though every now and then we might find an inappropriate scene or two-- usually when we're in the middle of watching them!).  Of course, every family's idea of inappropriate is not the same either so I do recommend previewing them if you're unsure of showing them to your kids. That said here are some of the boys favorite movies: Old Dogs -- A funny movie about two middle aged men, best friends, working a business together when one of them suddenly f...

This past week I unexpectedly spent time with a couple of friends. Evan was headed to his friend's house on Friday and Thursday night that friend's mom texted and asked if I'd come too so we could talk and catch up while the boys did the same. It was so much fun.    Then Friday Evan and I set up plans to meet up with a different friend and mom and take a tour of one of the campus dorms (this friend goes to the same school Evan is headed to next year) so we spent much of the day with them yesterday. I was so, so worried about parking IN the city as I can not parallel park but I didn't let that stop us from saying yes and I am so glad we went.    The rest of this week should be pretty quiet since Evan is working and has my car but we leave (just him and I) on Saturday to head down and see my mom, aunt, and sisters and their families for a quick weekend trip.  I can't wait!   Thank for all your lovely comments last week. We had another really wonderful link pa...

I've been an avid reader all my life. And while I know I have forgotten more books than I'll ever remember there are some books and series that really stand out in my mind from my childhood that I just LOVED.  I honestly can't remember what years I've read most of these but I feel confident in saying it was mostly middle and high school... though I also remember reading lots and lots of Danielle Steel books in my high school study halls too.  The Babysitter's Club : my girlfriends and I actually looked into start our own babysitting club (as we often babysat in pairs anyway; particularly if we didn't know the family well). We'd each take turns buying and swapping the books.  Sweet Valley High:  Another one my girlfriends and I used to swap. It was like the drama of the Beverly Hills 90210 high school saga in paperback format. We could not get enough of these twins and their high school antics.  The Gymnasts--  I would buy so many books through the school...