Everyday is a Snow Day!

I love days like this. Lil'Bug and Dearest Husband usually head out to sled and play in the snow while I stay home and catch up on stuff (read blogs, drink tea). Today I decided to go with them. I would have taken more pictures but I decided to partake in the fun and put my camera back in the truck. Also, white mittens=bad idea. Lost in snow forever.

Lil'Bug decided a sled was too cumbersome for both the trek up and down the hill......that's just how she rolls!

Lil'Bug meets Dearest Husband at the bottom. Because I came along he got to bring his snowboard out of storage (it's been like 8 years!). Fun stuff. I would have gotten back into the snowboard groove as well, but for the fear of crashing on my belly. There are some sports that will just have to wait until Baby is born.

Sounds Like Fun: The Iowa State Fair

Sounds like fun, eh? Sure. When it's 105 degrees out and sunny, it sounds like fun to gather with 7,378+ people and eat deep fried whatever you can think of and walk around lost looking at animals in barns, people in barns, through the left overs of both and emerge into the gloriously, glaring, and overbearing Iowa sunshine only to think of all the other deep fried food you can ingest before you die of heatstroke on the Midway........


Oh, but we had fun! We did. The new Animal Learning Center is awesome (read: air conditioned), HARRY POTTER WAS IN BUTTER (I'm not kidding!), and I whole heartedly agree that next time we go we are doing so to view our own 1st place ribbons on our own food entries. My raspberry jam could so beat out this year's entry.



Also, I'm entering the Ugliest Cake contest; I have ideas bubbling right now, most of which are titled, "Muck and Goo For You".......
If they had a muddy hippos contest, I'd enter Lil'Bug. She went straight for the water fountains when we sat down to eat round 1 of greasy fair food. :) She says she liked the piglets best.....

One Buggy Night

The Creepy Crawly Cookout.....it occurred to both Dear Husband and I at the same time how interesting it was that they chose to serve hot dogs. Yummmmmy.

Lil'Bug had a great time, mostly because she loves bugs and dear husband caught and jarred six specimens to be identified by the "expert" etymologists, and quite a bit because Mama B and her boys were there too.

I was not impressed by the undergraduate students (who were likely failing Bug 101 and needed extra credit) who identified 3 of our mystery spiders as.....spiders. Seriously. Our fly that looked like a bee....."I'm pretty sure that's a fly that looks like a bee," said the "expert" and our squash beetles, "Yes, that's definitely a bug." ???? Very disappointing. I am considering emailing their supervising TA (I asked and they provided me his contact information), on the other hand they were there, which is likely all they needed to be.

Eggrollies.......the Experiement in Cabbage!

• 1 pound ground pork
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder OR 1 tsp of GP and 1 of sweet curry powder
  
• 1 quart peanut oil for frying
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons water OR 2 tbs of soy sauce
  
• 3 cups shredded red cabbage
• 4 ounces shredded carrots (like more carrots? we do. I used 5 carrots)
  
• 20 (7 inch square) egg roll wrappers
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds or crushed cashews/peanuts (optional)

1. Season pork with ginger and garlic powder (or curry or whatever seasoning) and mix thoroughly. Heat mixture in a medium skillet, stirring, until pork is cooked through and no longer pink. Set aside.
2. In another large skillet heat oil to about 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) or medium high heat. While oil is heating, combine flour and water in a bowl until they form a paste (if you use that option). In a separate bowl combine the cabbage, carrots and reserved pork mixture. Mix all together.
3. Lay out one egg roll skin with a corner pointed toward you. Place about a 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the cabbage, carrot and pork mixture on egg roll paper and fold corner up over the mixture. Fold left and right corners toward the center and continue to roll. Brush a bit of the flour paste on the final corner to help seal the egg roll.
4. Place egg rolls into heated oil and fry, turning occasionally, until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels or rack. Put on serving plate and top with sesame seeds if desired.

These are/were seriously yummy. We now have 40 eggrolls in the freezer. What an excellent way to use cabbage and save $$ on lunches. We froze 3-4 per bag, so a perfect individual serving. I was really worried about what to use the cabbage in and then I was worried about the deep fry part (made Dear Husband do it). Silly me. They were easy! Ok, they were only easy because I made him do all the hard parts. :)

PCCB Field Trip Pond Study

Polk County Conservation Board (PCCB) offers awesome hands on science classes. We signed up for one a month, year round. Today was the first and it was really, really cool. It was also only $2.50 per family. Some insects, amphibians, and reptiles cannot live in water that is pollutes by certain degrees. The naturalists can determine the health, not only by labratory tests but by cataloguing the creatures and plants in the water. We helped! Here are the pictures of what we found when testing the health of a pond by documenting the living inhabitants.