The Dental Hygiene Monster

Norristown, PA., the destination of this weekend's excursion. Juan is in the Hispanic Dental Association at Temple and they had a booth at the carnival in Norristown; they were handing out free toothbrushes and toothpaste and teaching people how to brush properly. Juan had the help of "Minty", his dental hygiene monster friend, to demonstrate how to use a toothbrush. It was really cute because every time kids walked by the booth, they squirted water from Minty's mouth at them. I learned something new as I was listening to a dental student talk with a passerby: they are now finding links between periodontitis (gum disease) and diabetes. Interesting, huh? That's even more of an incentive to brush your teeth night and day. (Incidentally, their booth was right next to the missionaries' booth, as the pictures show.)

Siena is looking more and more like a Chavez.

11 on a scale from 1-10

Siena pulled out all the stops today... literally. All I can say is WOW... and I'll let the pictures (G-rated, of course) tell you the rest.

Compote or Compost?

Have pork? Have apples? Have canned corn? Then you can make my newly-invented "Fall Harvest" dinner. That's pretty much all I really had to make dinner the other night (I've been neglecting the grocery store,) so it made me get creative. Here's what went down (and surprisingly didn't come back up:)

Seared Pork with Apple Chutney

6-8 pork loin medallions
1/4 cup vegetable oil
salt and pepper
paprika
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3 medium apples (tart are best for cooking), diced
1 medium can sweet corn (retain water)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. coriander (seed or ground)
1 tsp. celery seed
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Preheat oven to 350 F. Heat frying pan with oil and season pork with salt, pepper, and paprika. Sear each side for about 1 minute. Transfer pork to oven-safe dish and cover. Continue cooking in oven for 15-20 minutes. In same frying pan (using the leftover oil), add apples, corn, vinegar, sugar, coriander, and celery seed. Let reduce over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add water if needed to keep from burning. Serve over cooked pork medallions.


ps. I served this with cheese drop biscuits and it was a perfect "Southern-style" match.

My Goals, Renewed

I've been doing some thinking and I have decided to recycle some old ambitions. Some of them are new, some are altered, and some were never lost:

• Talk to Siena in Spanish
• Cook real meals for my family
• Hold Family Home Evening every week
• Keep a current journal
• Read (books, magazines, everything)
  
• Sing, or play music for my baby
• Write letters

So, there they are, and now that I have written them down, they'll be easier to keep, right?

"The Baguette That Lived"... and then died in the end.

Today I made an amazing discovery: the baguette is nothing to be afraid of. I never bought them from the bakery because they seemed to "fancy" for the type of food I cook. However, I took a bold step and bought a single baguette last Wednesday. I wanted to make crostini with sun-dried tomatoes and melted provolone on top for Thursday dinner, and what the heck, it was only 60 cents. Well, I didn't use all of the baguette for that meal and was kind of sad to see that I still had half a loaf left. I let it sit in the bag all week, just thinking that I was eventually going to throw it away anyway (I was half hoping that it would get moldy so I didn't have to use it. It didn't.) However, it had dried out significantly. Well, the epiphany, however "Duh!" it was, came today as I was making Beef and Barley soup (from a can, go figure.) I could cut it into medallions and put it in the bottom of the bowls. It was actually just what that canned soup needed. I still have some more left, but I'm not worried because another idea popped up: why don't I use the baguette as croûtons in our next salad? I'm actually excited to use it now! (And by the way, another helpful hint I discovered with the soup tonight: I served the soup a little too hot... okay, it was scalding... so to cool it off, I added frozen vegetables. It actually cooked the veggies to the perfect crispness and cooled off the soup enough to be edible. It turned out to be a SCORE on a "canned soup dinner night".)

Our Amish Visit

Why are HAMburgers made of beef?

Today we gave in to Juan's never-ending craving of Five Guys Burgers. They are pretty famous here in Philadelphia. Why? Because they are all-American burgers with all the fixin's you could want. I wanted mine classic-style, so I had tomatoes, fried onions, sauteed shrooms, lettuce, ketchup, mustard, and pickles. Juan decided to get a little creative and added a ton of other stuff, including jalapenos (which actually ended up disappointing him. They were so weak, he thought they were green peppers until the last bite.) Anyway, another reason everyone loves going there is because of the homemade fries made from fresh potatoes brought in from the Western states. My favorite way to order them is Cajun-style... can't beat it. Oh yeah, and while you're waiting for your food to be cooked, you just grab a tin pail and pile it up with as many peanuts as you want. Yum! http://www.fiveguys.com

More Power to Powerpoint

So, a while ago when we did a clean sweep on the laptop to clear up the viruses, everything went back to Windows '78, or something near unto it. Anyway, we lost Photoshop, too, so I've been desperately trying to find some way of editing my photos. Well, lo and behold there still was hope... little hope, but hope none the less. I remembered that Powerpoint has a picture toolbar. It is extremely limiting, but "si se puede!" So to demonstrate, I've changed the title bar and the sidebars into Powerpoint "masterpieces". A little rough, but I've never been one to just take what the template gives you. Juan and I are hoping that we can budget in CS3 (for Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator) by Christmas, then the real fun can begin.

Sugar Daddy

Dad is feeding her the "good stuff" behind Mom's back.

Card Club!

Okay, since the only news from today was that we finally got our phone hooked up, I will share some pics of the cards I've made for the months of September and January. I'm excited to be in this particular card club because I'm doing it with a friend and it's motivation for me to do something during the day while I'm at home. These cards were great for me to make because they are made out of materials I already had and wasn't going to use otherwise. Trash into treasure?

Bad Hair Day

"Grunt, grunt, grunt." Siena is learning how to talk. (Sorry... it seems as though our entire blog has been about Siena, but our world centers around her, so there is not much else to write about.) We were really excited to get our land-line for phone today, but there is a huge maroon van parked right in the place where the installation guy needs to be and we don't know who the owner is. We'll see how long it takes them to get our note.

Tonight I am going to experiment for dinner. Sounds exciting, huh? I'll have to discover what it will be before I can write about it. :^)

Roaming

What a beautiful Saturday! We decided we wanted to use the stroller a lot today since we haven't been out walking much yet. So, naturally we looked for a park to go to; it didn't take us long to decide to go to Fairmount Park. This is the largest city park in the United States so we should have realized that because of its size, there wouldn't be a lot of effort in maintaining trails. Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful... a kind of "forest-y" beautiful. The trailheads are marked for hikers, bikers, and horses, if that gives you an idea of what it's like. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, and now we know for next time that we should also bring the Baby Bjorn.

And just for fun, we had to celebrate today because Siena is fitting into her bigger clothes (0-3 months.) :^)

Chunky Changita

Yes, it is true-- Siena is getting fat. After all, she is eating about 10 times a day... but who's counting? Today we all took a drive to the DMV to get our drivers licenses, which was a bit of a drive, but in the end we were turned away because we didn't have two proofs of residency or Juan's social security card. We didn't mind the drive, though; again, trees everywhere!

Today it really hit Juan that he was in the big leagues, school-wise. He also found out that they offer a program at Temple in which you can graduate with both your DDS and your MBA in pretty much the same amount of time. So far he loves his classes, especially Restorative Dentistry (which he affectionately calls "arts and crafts".) He's got a lot of buddies from class and they seem to be having a good time... I mean, isn't that why they came here? ;^)

By the way, all of the rooms are unpacked; now it's just a matter of organizing the clutter. So to reward ourselves, we are going to take a break tonight. Juan was invited to a ward-wide HALO party and Siena and I are going to watch Pride and Prejudice with Genevieve. Tomorrow we hope to have the rest of the house organized.

Green and Gray

There are two colors here: green and gray. Philadelphia is kind of like an urban forest. There are so many trees you can't see anything past the street you are on, but there are so many buildings that a even a golf course seems out of place. I already miss the openness of Utah, but there are so many things to do and see here that I think we'll be able to make it through the next 4 years.

We've just been unpacking again today. Our story of the day is that we've established that I cannot parallel park! Now, that was fine when we were in Utah; hardly ever did I have the need to parallel park. However, we are in a completely different scene now, and if you don't parallel park, you don't park at all. Aaah!

As to the video we took last Friday that we promised to post:

This video is appropriately named "The corner of the circle where King Tut goes when he stays at the Philadelphia Museum of Art." (I can say some really stupid things sometimes.)

(Don't worry the videos will get better as we get better at the video editing software, better footage, and better "skills".)

Humid- what?

It's finally gone (for now at least.) A cold front blew through last night and took the moisture with it. The weather was so beautiful today! We did some more unpacking this afternoon and are starting to realize that we have more useless things than we thought. Limited space probably does that, though. Siena and I are going to Enrichment tonight and since we signed up for an appetizer, we thought we would bring the all-famous corn and black bean salsa. Just in case anyone wants to know what the recipe is:

Corn and Black Bean Salsa

1 medium can black beans
1 medium can sweet corn
2 medium cans Mexican-style tomatoes (they contain cilantro and lime juice)
1 bunch cilantro (the most important element in my opinion)
1 small onion (if you like onions)
Salt, Garlic powder, lime juice, and cayenne pepper (add to taste)

Mix everything together and serve with tortilla chips.

The BIG move

It finally arrived! Our truckload of "stuff" pulled up to the apartment at about 2:00 yesterday. Three words: U-Haul next time! We are so happy it is here, though. Siena,Juan, and I have been really busy opening boxes and finding out what surprises are inside. So, heaven forbid, the blog was put on the back-burner for the last 48 hours because we have been too busy unpacking. Juan created a visual tour for y'all. Enjoy!

Strom-bo-li: Italian for "delicious!"

A bus ride and a couple train rides got us to the dental school (a.k.a. Juan's second home.) It was a 45 minute ride but we didn't have to worry about driving and finding parking. Juan is right, it does stink down there (meaning the subway) but, it is not as bad as some places per se Rome. Oh yeah, we saw two rats while we were waiting; I was expecting to see Splinter from TMNT right behind them because they were so massive. Juan gave us a guided tour of the school and after he poured a quick set of teeth out of plaster we took a train to the Italian Market.

Juan and Siena waiting for the bus

Napping in a clinic chair

The old set of teeth... the reason Juan poured a new set

Siena, the future dentist?

Even though it was the Italian Market it felt like we were in Mexico because there were a lot of Mexican stores too. We stopped for lunch at a popular Italian deli called DiBruno Brothers; they are famous for their cheeses, but oh how I loved their salami and pepperoni in the stromboli Juan ordered. It's a shame the West doesn't have strombolis like out here. After a long afternoon of sightseeing, we decided to head home for the BYU game. Jeremy and Genevieve are going to let us party with them tonight. Who says you can't have fun when you are living out of suitcases?

Our Friday out on the town

Siena's first plane trip

Juan hard at work while Siena gets "tummy time"

Today we took a drive into downtown. All along the way we saw really cool murals and large sculptures. There are a lot of historic cathedrals, too; it was a mix of the new Philadelphia and the old. We finally found a parking spot near the city center and took a walk to the LOVE Park. Because our stuff hasn't arrived yet from Las Vegas we can't post the video we took (we need the power cord still) but as soon as it gets here, you can see our "gander in the park". On our way there we found a hole-in-the-wall pizza place where we ate dinner. Juan got his cheese steak and I got a huge slice of pizza... all of it was delicious. That was pretty much it other than driving this way and that. Tomorrow we hope to be able to go visit the school. The stake temple trip is also tomorrow and we're really sad we can't go. We were really excited to go until we realized "Oh yeah, we have a baby." But don't get me wrong, we ALWAYS love being with her, too.

Here's a collage of some of the pics we took today.

SiENa

A Philadelphia Story

We're discovering that the East coast is very different from the West coast. Ever since the drive home from the airport, I couldn't get over how lush and green it is here. Beautiful! But what I want to know is how do people function with this kind of humid heat?! Two things are for sure: my skin is going to love the moisture and my hair is going to hate it. Siena is so cute with that puffball head of hair, but I don't think grown-ups can pull that off (I miss my flat iron.)

Good News! The moving company said the truck left on Sunday with our stuff on it. That means it will get here around Friday or Saturday. We're really glad it will arrive on a weekend, so Juan can be here. We've been starting to "home-ify" the little apartment, though, with rugs, a desk, lamps and a changing table. Not much, but it does kind of help us feel less like we're on an urban camp-out.

Other Good News! Siena is finally taking a pacifier (other than the ones they give to you at the hospital. I don't like those because they fall out every 3 seconds.) We've needed her to take one the last couple of days because she's been really fussy at night. Maybe it is because she misses home (wherever that is-- she's been a gypsy for the last few weeks, jumping from house to house.)

Philadelphia is such an awesome place! I can't get over how friendly the people are. It seems that every place we go, there is someone who will just come up to us and tell us how precious our little baby is and that we need to take good care of her. I guess I expected people to be a lot more cold because of the "East Coast" mentality, but I was wrong. We've met a lot of people in our ward through the Dental program, we've met our landlord, and we've met some neighbors... all very nice people. The food here is great and it seems as though the entertainment scene is going to be fun, too. I can't imagine it being terribly hard for us to get used to living here.