Yesterday I made these Reese's Pieces Cookies and these Chewy Lemon Sugar Cookies to bring with us as we had been invited to dinner at some friends house. Both were delicious, and quite simple! The sugar cookies were the perfect balance of firm on the outside, but soft and chewy in the middle. The Reese's Pieces cookies... well, is there much better than chocolate and peanut butter together?! I can say "no thanks" to plain chocolate most any day, but mix it with PB, and I'm toast. I like that the chocolate flavor in these comes from cocoa powder - I don't often bake with it, but really enjoyed it in this recipe!
Let me know if you make them, what you think!
9.28.2011
9.23.2011
Do we look different?!
I wish I had a photo I could share, but picture this:
Two goofy kids, cheesy grins, standing proudly at the boat marina holding our new shiny certificates...
We're officially licensed BOAT CAPTAINS!
Peter and I both passed what they call the "practical test" on Thursday, which was our final step. To obtain our license we had take a two-night class, pass a 100 question written knowledge test, a 25 question boat knowledge test, (Peter also passed the written portion of the sailing endorsement; I did not attempt this one yet), go on an orientation cruise and then pass the practical test. The practical consisted of knowing all the islands on the East and West side of the atoll, knowing all the buoys in the lagoon, navigating the boat using a GPS, driving the boat from the lagoon through one of the passes to the ocean side, performing a satisfactory "man-overboard" drill, knowing all of the radio channels and proper radio etiquette and finally, docking the boat at the marina parallel-parking style!
In reality, we don't have a pretty, shiny certificate to show off, but we do have another license number to memorize! :-)
Ahoy Matey! Come and cruise with us!
9.19.2011
Weekend Recap
Hi friends!!
Just wanted to drop a line on our little space in the World Wide Web to let you know we're still alive and enjoying ourselves! We had an awesome weekend. It's funny how our idea of a productive weekend has changed so drastically in just a few months!! It used to be that we didn't feel we had accomplished much if we hadn't torn down a wall or remodeled a room or laid some tile...? Now we feel it's been a great weekend if we've logged a few dives, had a smoothie (or two) and soaked in a few rays. :-) Such was our time this weekend. We logged four dives in the past two days and both logged our deepest dives to date! (P. at 124 feet and myself at 120 feet- Yeah!)
Yesterday afternoon we dove two shallow shore dives - the first off of Emon Beach and the second at a wreck off of the ski-boat area (my personal favorite dive site so far). This wreck is awesome! The life on it is absolutely breathtaking. We had quite a bit of air left on our way back to shore so we stopped at another wreck closer in (and much shallower) and were graced with the passing presence of a spotted eagle ray! So cool! We're both doing really well on air consumption - both of these dives we lasted over an hour on a 3000 PSI tank and surfaced with air to spare.
Today we dove two deep wreck dives - the first was Barracuda Junction (didn't see any barracuda, I'll have to find out where the name comes from!) and the second was K5 Upright (named after the buoy it rests under). Both were pretty awesome. Barracuda Junction is laying on it's side, and K5 upright, aptly named, is sitting perfectly upright in about 120 feet of water. I won't bore you with the dive details, but if you come visit and are AOW (Advanced Open Water) certified, we will definitely take you to these two! They're fairly easy to find with the GPS coordinates and easy to tie off to also.
In other news, Peter and I hope to be boat captain certified on Thursday! Note, this is different than the sailing certification which we also hope to get... just at a later date. We have our practical tests (meaning we have to take the boat out with an instructor, and perform all the required maneuvers and passes) on Thursday. We practiced docking the boats this a.m. and both did pretty well. Our captain on the dives we went on this afternoon let me drive the boat back in after our final dive, and I was able to dock it just fine again. This was a great test for me since the boat we practiced on this morning was a single hull - VERY maneuverable, and the boat we rented for the dives this afternoon was a dual hull - NOT very maneuverable So we're hoping we pass our tests on Thursday... at which point we can rent boats and take them diving whenever we want! :-)
Tonight we had the crew we dove with today come over for tacos. It was a nice, laid back evening with lots of laughs. Dozer even approved of them all and spent all evening laying in the middle of the conversation. :-) (He usually disappears when company arrives.)
Tomorrow morning is the "island fluff" weekly ladies dive. :) That being said, I best get some sleep so I can join them!
Hope you had a great weekend too! Aloha from the big blue Pacific Ocean!
Just wanted to drop a line on our little space in the World Wide Web to let you know we're still alive and enjoying ourselves! We had an awesome weekend. It's funny how our idea of a productive weekend has changed so drastically in just a few months!! It used to be that we didn't feel we had accomplished much if we hadn't torn down a wall or remodeled a room or laid some tile...? Now we feel it's been a great weekend if we've logged a few dives, had a smoothie (or two) and soaked in a few rays. :-) Such was our time this weekend. We logged four dives in the past two days and both logged our deepest dives to date! (P. at 124 feet and myself at 120 feet- Yeah!)
Yesterday afternoon we dove two shallow shore dives - the first off of Emon Beach and the second at a wreck off of the ski-boat area (my personal favorite dive site so far). This wreck is awesome! The life on it is absolutely breathtaking. We had quite a bit of air left on our way back to shore so we stopped at another wreck closer in (and much shallower) and were graced with the passing presence of a spotted eagle ray! So cool! We're both doing really well on air consumption - both of these dives we lasted over an hour on a 3000 PSI tank and surfaced with air to spare.
Today we dove two deep wreck dives - the first was Barracuda Junction (didn't see any barracuda, I'll have to find out where the name comes from!) and the second was K5 Upright (named after the buoy it rests under). Both were pretty awesome. Barracuda Junction is laying on it's side, and K5 upright, aptly named, is sitting perfectly upright in about 120 feet of water. I won't bore you with the dive details, but if you come visit and are AOW (Advanced Open Water) certified, we will definitely take you to these two! They're fairly easy to find with the GPS coordinates and easy to tie off to also.
In other news, Peter and I hope to be boat captain certified on Thursday! Note, this is different than the sailing certification which we also hope to get... just at a later date. We have our practical tests (meaning we have to take the boat out with an instructor, and perform all the required maneuvers and passes) on Thursday. We practiced docking the boats this a.m. and both did pretty well. Our captain on the dives we went on this afternoon let me drive the boat back in after our final dive, and I was able to dock it just fine again. This was a great test for me since the boat we practiced on this morning was a single hull - VERY maneuverable, and the boat we rented for the dives this afternoon was a dual hull - NOT very maneuverable So we're hoping we pass our tests on Thursday... at which point we can rent boats and take them diving whenever we want! :-)
Tonight we had the crew we dove with today come over for tacos. It was a nice, laid back evening with lots of laughs. Dozer even approved of them all and spent all evening laying in the middle of the conversation. :-) (He usually disappears when company arrives.)
Tomorrow morning is the "island fluff" weekly ladies dive. :) That being said, I best get some sleep so I can join them!
Hope you had a great weekend too! Aloha from the big blue Pacific Ocean!
9.12.2011
Fried Crisp
I got fried today for my first time since arriving on island. Complete accident. All it took was 10 minutes in the 2pm sun. Typically if we're outside we put on 30 SPF at least twice per day, more often if we're in the water. Today it just completely slipped my mind. 8 degrees off the equator makes for some seriously STRONG rays!
Word to the wise when you come visit... wear sunscreen! 70-100 SPF is not a laughable thing here.
9.08.2011
Khao Pad Kra Prao Gai Recipe
My dear friend Liesl made this dish for us (remember this post) back in April, and we loved it. She sent me the recipe a few weeks ago and although I had to wait an extra week to make it because our grocery store was out of Basil, it was well worth the wait! This will be a staple in our dinner rotation from now on (as long as the store has basil). :-) For us fresh vegges come once per week on a Tuesday flight from Honolulu.
Let me know what you think if you try it out!
(Photo courtesy of Liesl's kitchen)
Thai Basil Chicken Fried Rice
(Khao Pad Kra Prao Gai)
(Khao Pad Kra Prao Gai)
Ingredients for 4 servings
4 cups "already cooked" jasmine rice or long grain rice (let the rice cool before using it in the fried rice recipe)
6 big cloves garlic (crushed)
2 to 4 Thai red and green chili peppers or 1 to 2 Serrano peppers (crushed)
¼ cup cooking oil
1 to 1 ½ lbs chicken meat (cut into bite sizes)
3 tbs oyster sauce
2 tbs fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 medium size red bell pepper (julienne)
2 cups fresh sweet basil leaves
1 cucumber (cut into bite sizes) *optional (garnish)
½ cup cilantro sprigs *optional (garnish)
First, heat the oil in a deep pan or wok over high heat. Wait till the oil starts to smoke. Add crushed garlic and crushed chili peppers. Stir quickly (don’t let them burn). Then immediately add sliced chicken meat. Stir. Add oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Stir until the chicken is cooked through. Add already cooked rice. Stir quickly until sauces are blended with rice (a couple of minutes). Stir in red bell peppers and keep stirring for few seconds then add basil leaves. Turn the heat off. Garnish with sliced cucumbers and cilantro sprigs. Serve Immediately.
9.07.2011
Wordy Post...
Hi y'all...
Just wanted to catch you up on our Island life. Our ability to upload photos has left the island, so I'm back to drawing you pictures with my words... sorry! We're keeping our fingers crossed for higher speed internet to make it out to the housing quarters before too long, so hopefully I can upload more photos in the future. Until then, it'll just be sporadic one or two photos, here and there as I find patience to upload.
Peter has spent the last month a very sick boy. It started with a sinus infection, which moved into his lungs and turned into Bronchitis. The Dr. on island put him on antibiotics for the sinus infection, but it was too far along and the meds didn't touch it, so after a week of sinus infection medications he had to switch to another 10 days of different meds to kick the Bronchitis. He finished those on Sunday and seems to be on the mend. We know how easily Bronchitis relapses though so he's taking it pretty easy.
Anyhow, that explains why I haven't been posting much! We haven't been doing a whole lot for the past month except sleeping whenever possible and trying to get Peter better. I've been diving mid-week, one or two times per week with a group of ladies who are also island fluff. It's a nice way to get to know some of the shore dives that we are able to do, and I'm excited for when Peter will be able to dive again so we can explore together. His Dr. told him no diving for the past three weeks... although he's hoping to be able to go this coming weekend. :-)
We snorkeled quite a bit last weekend and went kayaking yesterday. I'm continually amazed by the number of folks here that don't take advantage of the many things there are to do on the island!! Especially snorkeling. There's so much to see beneath the water surface, and it's practically free to do! Anyhow, off my soapbox. :-)
We're REALLY looking forward to our October company coming and are super excited because we just found out some more friends are coming in late-December/early-January!! Yahoo!
I best let this be and get my day started! Hope this finds you all doing splendidly!
Just wanted to catch you up on our Island life. Our ability to upload photos has left the island, so I'm back to drawing you pictures with my words... sorry! We're keeping our fingers crossed for higher speed internet to make it out to the housing quarters before too long, so hopefully I can upload more photos in the future. Until then, it'll just be sporadic one or two photos, here and there as I find patience to upload.
Peter has spent the last month a very sick boy. It started with a sinus infection, which moved into his lungs and turned into Bronchitis. The Dr. on island put him on antibiotics for the sinus infection, but it was too far along and the meds didn't touch it, so after a week of sinus infection medications he had to switch to another 10 days of different meds to kick the Bronchitis. He finished those on Sunday and seems to be on the mend. We know how easily Bronchitis relapses though so he's taking it pretty easy.
Anyhow, that explains why I haven't been posting much! We haven't been doing a whole lot for the past month except sleeping whenever possible and trying to get Peter better. I've been diving mid-week, one or two times per week with a group of ladies who are also island fluff. It's a nice way to get to know some of the shore dives that we are able to do, and I'm excited for when Peter will be able to dive again so we can explore together. His Dr. told him no diving for the past three weeks... although he's hoping to be able to go this coming weekend. :-)
We snorkeled quite a bit last weekend and went kayaking yesterday. I'm continually amazed by the number of folks here that don't take advantage of the many things there are to do on the island!! Especially snorkeling. There's so much to see beneath the water surface, and it's practically free to do! Anyhow, off my soapbox. :-)
We're REALLY looking forward to our October company coming and are super excited because we just found out some more friends are coming in late-December/early-January!! Yahoo!
I best let this be and get my day started! Hope this finds you all doing splendidly!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)