Tracie's World

This morning for a savory breakfast, I made something called "shakshuka". It's basically a middle eastern breakfast dish of eggs poached in tomato sauce. Typically, it's seasoned with garlic, paprika and cumin, but since I was out of cumin, I made mine a little more Moroccan-style, and added cinnamon and lemon juice, and some spinach, in addition to the diced tomatoes. Basically, you make the sauce, and then you crack some eggs into it., and let it cook for several minutes until the eggs are done. I served mine on a bed of grits ( in the middle east it would probably be couscous, but I'm out of that too), with a bunch of feta cheese sprinkled over the top. Delicious!

The bright spot to the entire family reunion weekend was getting to see my nieces and nephews, who I adore so much. They are all amazing children, and I am one fortunate Aunt. Out of the 19, 17 were able to be there, which is pretty incredible when you think about it. And the tip of the iceberg was meeting nephew #8 for the first time. He's totally precious.

Last week was our Edwards family reunion, in celebration of the parentals return from their most recent LDS mission, and their 50th Anniversary, which had occurred while they were away. We spent several months preparing for the event, and in an effort to save some money, I reserved a rental car. The cost for a flight was just outrageous, and I wasn't sure my beloved Monty could make the trip.  The week of the reunion finally arrived, and the afternoon before I was to leave, I arranged for one of the neighbor ladies to take me to pick up the rental. However...we couldn't find it. Come to find out, the rental agency was no longer there. We stopped at a neighboring business to ask, and they provided us with a phone number. I called that number, and was informed of the new address. After driving around for an hour, we finally arrived at the new location for the rental agency, only to discover they didn't have the car I had reserved. The situation just did not feel right, so I...

It's been awhile since I've made pancakes, but my sweet tooth was in a mood this morning, so I whipped up a batch, and topped them off with some bananas foster (sans the traditional rum, of course).

Over the last several weeks, I've had a problematic big toenail. It had gotten injured as a result of my half marathon walk along the Jordan River Trail, and just was not recovering. In fact, it got very much worse, and by last weekend, I knew it was going to have to come off. So, on Monday, I got myself down to the instacare. Yes, they all agreed, the toenail was going to have to go. Four shots in my toe, and a couple hours later, said toenail was no more. Immediately after the procedure A couple of days ago. Looking slightly pink, which is ok, because it matches the rest of my toes. I have several friends and family who are all runners, and they have assured me the nail will indeed grow back good as new, although it will be anywhere from 6-9 months before it does. In the meantime, it will need to stay wrapped up, in order to protect the toe. I'm already stocking up on gauze rolls and tender tape. I also might see if I can get a discount on a pedicure - I mean, w...

Last Saturday, the good brother, along with awesome sister-in-law #1 and Nephew #2, met me at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple for a family temple excursion. I had found several names of ancestors which I'd found using the Take a Name app, and this was a great opportunity to do some temple service together. It was my first time performing proxy baptisms since probably my college years, and it was a special morning. So fun to be there with family, and especially with my nephew, who is beginning his own tradition of temple service.

Had a terrific 4th of July Holiday last week. The morning started off with the Holladay City community pancake breakfast. A friend from my ward walked over to City Hall with me, and for $5 we got to partake of a delicious pancake breakfast with all the trimmings. It was great fun, and we met some delightful people. This was followed by the Children's Bike Parade. Hundreds of kids and their bicycles, all decked out in their red, white, and blue, and led by the Police and Fire Departments. Later in the afternoon, the good brother and awesome sister-in-law #1 and the kids came over. The kids swam in the pool, and after swimming, we had some red, white, and blue popsicles. For dinner I made vegetarian sloppy joes, chips, homemade onion dip, and ice cream sandwiches. All in the comfort of my a/c, which was a blessing, seeing as it was over 100 degrees that day. That evening, I met up with my friend Stephanie, and her girls for a free concert in the park behind City Hal...

What would a weekly blog be without more pictures of a spoiled fat cat named Toby? This past week, he got even more daring, with positions and situations he's never attempted before. Here he's decided that the office chair is now his. I've basically had to work out an agreement that I can still use the chair a few times a day. He likes to snuggle up in the space between my side and my arm. And yes, that's his little paw in mine. Too precious for words. Normally he's into one side of the back of the couch or the other. But this time, he perched himself right smack dab in the middle, behind my head. What you can't see is that he's stroking the back of my hair. Seriously?

There's a new app available for LDS folks, which is amazing, and so useful for those of us who want to participate in proxy ordinances for our own ancestors. It's called "Take A Name", and the exciting thing is it searches your Family Tree info in FamilySearch, then returns a list of results of all those in your family who still need their work done. You can then print up the ordinance card directly from the app, or save it to Google Drive and print it from a desktop. This is a huge time saver, as for the average amateur LDS genealogist, doing the research on your own can take hours, and often feel fruitless. Last week I got myself to the Oquirrh Mountain temple and was able to perform an endowment for the wife of an ancestor, and it was an even sweeter experience than normal, knowing it was for a family member.

As much as  enjoy cooking, it's often the last thing I want to do when I get home after a long day, especially when I'm only ever cooking for one. So, more frequently than I care to admit, my go-to meal is a big bowl of popcorn made on the stovetop. I posted this photo the other day, calling it the "Dinner of Champions for single people everywhere", and apparently I struck a nerve, as it seems I have plenty of company in the popcorn for dinner department. 

Had some leftover cabbage I needed to use, and thought it would be fun to find a way to make my own vegetarian egg rolls. I went down to the local Fresh Market the other day, and purchased some egg roll wrappers, then came home and chopped up all the cabbage with some onion in the food processor, and mixed it with a little soy sauce and ginger. After a quick stir fry in the skillet, I wrapped up the mixture, and baked for around 15 minutes at 425 degrees. And here's the final result. I had some Thai sweet chili sauce on hand, and used that for dipping. They ended up being really tasty, and super easy. I will definitely keep this in my cooking repertoire. Next time, I may try with a little shrimp mixed in, and maybe some homemade peanut sauce for dipping.

I feel as if I've been remiss in sharing photos of Toby lately, so here are some recent ones. He may tell you that things are pretty rough around here, because he only gets to sleep a good 12-15 hours a day. But in reality, he totally rules the roost - literally, as you can tell from his perch overlooking the stairway.