Christmas Soup

This evening I threw together a soup that had the colors red and green in it. Thus the name Christmas soup. The soup was similar to the classic chicken and rice soup. My ingredients were: turkey, rice, a can of diced tomatos, water, celery, salt, and black pepper. It was delicious.

Alphabet Lullabies For Baby Shastya

 

This afternoon I was holding baby Shastya and began singing to her. First, I tried singing the English alphabet song: "A, B, C, D, E, F, G . . . H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P . . . Q, R, S, T, U, V, W." And that's as far as I got. I knew the rest of the alphabet: X, Y, Z, but I couldn't remember how the rest of the song matched up with the rest of the English alphabet.

Second, I decided to sing the Russian alphabet to my darling baby girl. "A, b, v, g, d, ye, yo, zh, z, i . . . iy, k, l, m, n, o, p . . . r s, t, u, f, h ts, ch, sh, shch . . . ', ii, ", e, io, ya," I sang. Got through that one easy, so easily I surprised myself. I sang the Russian alphabet to the tune of "My Favorite Things" from Rogers and Hammerstein's The Sound Of Music. I had set the Russian alphabet to "My Favorite Things" over ten years ago when I was teaching a neighbor lady some Russian.

Third, I thought I'd sing baby Shastya the alphabet song I learned in Greek. "Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta . . . eta, theta, iota, kappa, lamda, mu, nu . . . xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma . . . tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega." Amazingly, I got through this third alphabet song from start to finish like I had done with the alphabet song of my second language, Russian. Years ago, while I was still in grade school I had learned this Greek alphabet song from a family friend.

Fourth, I thought I'd give the Hebrew alphabet a try. "Aleph, beth, gimel, dalet, hey, vav, zayin," I sang. Then I drew a blank. I could remember a few more letters in the middle of the Hebrew alphabet, and the song for those letters, but that was it. A friend had taught me this song for the Hebrew alphabet in grad school.

Baby Shastya seemed to like all four alphabet lullabies. Maybe these alphabets will come to her second nature some day. Hopefully she won't get too confused.

Open Faced Hot Turkey And Gravy Sandwiches

Who doesn't love a good ol' hot turkey and gravy sandwich after Thanksgiving? This sandwich is a great American tradition in the north and the south. I discovered this upon discussing the sandwich at lunch with my husband. He's from the south, and I am from the north. Both of us remember eating these fabulous sandwiches after the holidays. We also have memories of these sandwiches being standard fare at diners across the U.S.

Thanksgiving After Thanksgiving

We had a turkey dinner on this cold rainy day. It definitely hit the spot.  I made smashed potatoes to accompany the turkey. Anthony asked if there were any secret ingredients, I replied water. Yes, I actually put water instead of milk in my potatoes for liquid, and yogurt instead of sour cream. The potatoes were nice and fluffy. I sprinkled rosemary and thyme on the turkey, and surrounded it with celery and onions. It smelled like stuffing while it cooked.

While the meal was delicious, we both decided that having each other there was what made the meal. He was glad to have a wife that cooked him dinner. I was glad to have a husband to eat the dinner that I had cooked.

Sausage Pizza

I wanted to make something a little different or special for supper to celebrate Anthony's last day of exams before he graduates with his Master's in Mechanical Engineering. He loves pepperoni pizza, so I thought I would make that but also add sausage. He really liked the pizza.

Sausage:

Italian Sausage

Ground Ginger

Dried Basil

Chopped Onion

Soy Sauce

Revolutionary Dinner

 

Yes, I did combine pasta and grits in a single dish, and it was amazing. I sprinkled a little parmesan cheese on top. The dish tasted similar to macaroni and cheese.

 

Homemade Spanish Rice

 

Ingredients:

Vegetable Oil

Salt

Black Pepper

Cayenne Pepper

White Rice

Water

Butter

Mini Peppers

Onion

Tomato Sauce

3D Printing

So our blender broke last year. The only thing that needed to be replaced was the connector between the motor and the blade. This past summer Anthony drew up the replacement part on Solid Works and printed it off on a 3D printer. We tried it with the blender but the blender sheered off parts of the connector.

Tonight, Anthony reconfigured the printing instructions so that the replacement connector part would no longer be hollow. He tried printing the part with our new 3D printer. This second new replacement part was solid, and it worked when we tried it with our blender!

Unfortunately, the smoothie we made in the blender did not work. We had planned on a banana peach smoothie but the peach was rotten inside. We switched our plan to a banana nut smoothie. The outcome chewed like raspberry walnut vinaigrette, and tasted like banana bread batter- nasty.

 The Sheered 1st Replacement Part

 

Printing The 2nd Replacement Part

 

Banana Nut Smoothie

 

2nd Replacement Part Still Intact After Blending