Cook from Scratch with Angie Quantrell – Turkey Quinoa stuffed Green Peppers.
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Cook from Scratch with Angie Quantrell – Turkey Quinoa stuffed Green Peppers
I did a guest post recipe on Sally Cronin’s blog. Thanks, Sally!
I’m One of Them!
now the cap is where it belongs
It’s true. I’ve joined the “Look at that! I can’t believe they did that? Honestly, who forgets that?” group. And if my son finds out, I’m gonna be on his list…
Set the scene: midnight, last leg of the trip home from the Tacoma area, HOT (still almost 90), driving because it’s cooler at night (??? serioiusly, 90’s are better than 100’s if there is no AC in the vehicle, right?), the gas gage is hovering between 1/4 of a tank and the red zone…
The question: Do I stop and do a quick fill, or just head over the 3 humps and pray the gas holds…Do I really want to sit in the dark (with an empty gas tank) waiting for family members to notice I am not there (and can’t call because there is no reception on those hills)?
Solution: Ok, quick stop at the truck stop for $10 of gas to make it home.
Just in case some of you have never been at a truck stop at midnight, it’s kind of weird. And hot. Did I say how hot it was? The station had these special lights that attracted thousands of moths (I AM NOT overexaggerating). The ground was crunchy with carcasses, while the rest circled clueless as to their fate, banging against the lights. Before I even got out of the rig, they were swarming. Ick. I dashed in, paid my money, and went out…to fight the moths landing on everything. I flicked them out of my hair, off the truck, away from the gas tank..As I stood there, I thought, really, they need a few bat houses here or a ginormous bug zapper. But I’d rather they go natural with some bats.
So, as I watched the ten bucks disappear into the tank (let’s NOT talk about gas prices), I observed suicidal moths, the lack of gas receipt, the moths in my face…when the pump quit, I put the hose away, zipped in the caballero, and headed out asap – mind you, talking to myself, wishing they had bug catchers or something, and asking how could I get a receipt if I paid cash…it’s the simple things that escape me in the middle of my mind, I mean night, like forgetting how to go in and ask for a receipt. Debit cards are much easier.
Fast forward 35 minutes and I was pulling into the carport in Yakima. I got out of the vehicle and started unloading my junk…And I noticed the gas tank was open. Weird, I didn’t remember not shutting it. Then I looked closer, and not even the gas cap was on! Gasp! Oh, no, Taylor is going to kill me…where is it…Not laying in the back where I place it when I put gas in the tank. Oh, relief, there it is, rolled up to the front of the pickup bed. Quick, before anyone notices, screw on the gas cap and close the door.
Uh, did I just drive all the way from Ellensburg with my tank wide open??? What a space…I can no longer wonder how people can drive off with the gas hoses still attached or forget their drink on top of their car or leave the gas cap dangling…I’m one of them. Just a moment of distraction, and too many moths, yes, I’ll blame them…
Whew. Good thing it was dark and no one could see what I did.
Guess what we found?
We have good news. For those of you who know Kevin and his tendencies for eating extremely healthy, with many fruits and vegetables, he is now a happy boy. We made this discovery this morning at a nearby Champion (grocery store). Ooh-la-la. He is a happy, happy boy.
For Kevin, the happy boy.
Present in Paris
count 3 & 4 from the left...very top floor...those are our 2 windows
All along the way, it seemed like we would not actually ever really travel to Paris. But we are finally here! We are in day 3 of trying to get settled and adjusted to big city life with a 9-hour time difference. We have the cutest little (28 sq. meters) apartment in the Latin Quartier, very near Notre Dame and the Pantheon. The apartment is on the 6th floor, top of the building, and occupies 2 of the adorable dormer windows common in Paris buildings. Despite the pint sized accommodations and lack of storage, the address is very cozy and adequate for our needs (a washer is even included – with a drying rack which sets up in the middle of the kitchen floor). Kevin and I will live in this apartment for about 2.5 months while we attend Institute Catholic to study language.
what you can see, from edge to edge, is the length of the kitchen
The address is 27 rue Lacepede, between rue Monge and rue Mouffetard for those who have a map of Paris and wish to see exactly where we are. If you know how to use googlemaps you can actually find our street and walk along it.
Sundays may become a favorite day (besides being the day of our Lord). Our community area has a very neat market day. Not only is there an excellent market square set up with fruits, vegetables, cheeses, meats, breads, flowers…there is also the length of rue Mouffetard arranged with individual flea market tables. The streets are closed to vehicles, and pedestrians take over the narrow road. It seems to be the thing to do on Sunday afternoons. Everyone is out with their wheeled carts or shopping bags, bartering (I’m guessing on this one, as it was all in French) and purchasing household items or food stuffs for the upcoming week. Kevin and I ventured out with bag in hand and managed to communicate enough to purchase bananas, a red pepper, broccoli (yes, Kevin wash helping me, the lover of veggies), green beans, delicious radishes, and carrots with greens on top. I found an old individual coffee brewer to put on top of a cup and add fresh grounds from our family stash (thanks Peeps, for the markouts).
what a view!
We did one load of sheets (ok, one sheet plus 2 pillow cases). It has taken 2 days to dry. Humidity is pretty high right now. Doesn’t matter how long it takes, but the kitchen is pretty crowded with the rack up. We just push it back and forth as we move around. The windows stay open when we are in the apartment for fresh air. But when we leave, they are closed to prevent the roving rain showers from sprinkling our rooms. You just have to be prepared for rain…it comes as quickly as it goes.
Chad & Amy, our new friends, met us at the airport with a station wagon. They have helped us tremendously – taking us to our apartment, explaining how things work, keeping us awake the first day, going out for a meal, dinner at their apartment (in Massy, where we will be in August), helping us find the stores with items we need…Thank you, God, for friends and helpers.
The only thing missing is our family. Hurry, get your passports!
And for dessert, madeleines avec Nutella!
madeleines with Nutella
Bienvenue a Paris!
the main doors into our building, on rue Lacepede
Bon Anniversaire, Hayden Dean!
He’s here! Baby Hayden Dean Aucutt made his arrival on Saturday, May 2 at 12:44 PM. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 11 oz, 21″ long, 14″ head circumference…He’s a handsome boy! Nana and Poppa are so proud of Hayden and his parents, Chelsie and Collin. Braggin’ rights go to the grandma. 🙂 Yes, you can tell us how cute he is.
Now you also know one of our biggest prayer requests. His parents will not let us take him as carry-on when we leave for France…Sigh. They are mean mean parents. (JUST joking). They are not mean. They are very loving for baby Hayden. 🙂
Awwww, he's so cute
Kevin loving Baby Hayden
awwww
A List of Events – Too Much Too Fast
~move out of a house~clean a house~build crates~pack crates~ship crates~Pt. Defiance Zoo~Mall walking with son~Send son to CA for military training~prenatal appointments with daughter~3 baby showers~Dad’s birthday~clean house~move storage stuff (twice)~help son move stuff to storage~Seattle zip trip~Mom’s surgery~Dad-in-law’s surgery~Mom-in-law’s surgery~inventory lists (ug)~more passport photos~move into a spare room~live out of suitcases~stomach flu~belly watching~sew baby quilt~sew school satchels~thank you cards~BABY being born~no sleep~changing diapers~house repair~meals out~skype-ing everyone~dr. appointments~shopping~sanity drives~final paperwork~closing accounts~prayer~Bible reading~goodbyes…
It is amazing how much we can cram into the 24 hours of each day that the Lord has given us. I’m sure He does not intend for us to be THAT busy. I’m sure I have forgotten some things, many things, but the brain slots are too full to overflowing and much has leaked out. Be still, my heart. Man makes his plans, but the Lord God has the final words on each day. (my paraphrase on Prov. 16:1) Whew.
peace. be still.
Good-bye stuff.
He can't believe it all fits...
There it is. Before the door was put on. It’s amazing how much one can cram into an 8x8x4 container. At the same time, it’s amazing how little we are taking with us. And what we will (and already have wished we had) remember and wished we had added to our collection of stuff. It’s just stuff. Things that could make life easier and more comfortable. Months, ok a few years, of making lists and considering and asking what would be best to take…and this is what it boils down to. Yes, you do see TP (it’s a great filler, ok?).
To tell you the truth, by the time we receive these belongings (and haul them up probably several flights of stairs?!!), we will most likely wonder why we packed this, and this, and this…
Kind of freeing, not to have to worry or take care of stuff. 🙂
Collin & Chelsie - the light holders!
Kevin screwing the door closed
Both are amazed at how much stuff fit!
Bye-bye stuff!
Angie plus a permanent marker
The Flood
Just so you know, it’s not Kevin’s fault. For those of you who know him, this may be hard to believe. But it’s true! He did not cause, accidently or otherwise, our ‘maybe we should build an ark‘ moment. Continuez-s’il vous plait! (Continue please.)
Early Wednesday morning, the first day of OFFICIAL meetings and trainings, Kevin and I woke up and were preparing for the day. It was also a day of extra duties for us, as we had 2 additional meetings for small group facilitators. I was in the shower shampooing my hair, and Kevin announced, calmly, “We have a leak.”
No big deal, I was thinking, other than the shower curtain was loose or the toilet was leaking…I kept washing my hair.
“Honey, we have a big leak. You need to get out.” There was a little more urgency to this announcement. But what’s a girl to do? I had to finish my hair.
“Ang, you need to get out now!” Desperation was quite evident as well as volume increase. After I turned off the shower, I heard disaster running between the bathroom wall and the bedroom. I peeled the curtain back to see the center of the bath mat the only island of non-standing water. One foot down, and that disappeared as well. Looking around the corner, pooling water stood everywhere! Kevin was frantically dressing and throwing bags, shoes, and items stored on the floor onto the bed.
Talk about an early morning shock. While I was hurriedly throwing on clothes, the ceiling started leaking onto the corner of the bed (onto our very nice mattress pad and lovely duvet, compliments of the Motley’s in Italy 🙂 Gasp! Our voices were quite loud now (it was still early), and 2 female heads poked into the door.
“Can we help?” “Yes, evacuate stuff! And Kevin, dial 0 and call maintenance.” Even as we worked at hauling stuff into the laundry room, yet MORE water began to leak from out of the light fixture and fire alarm. It spread ever closer to the window heat/AC unit, which is quite a long ways from the bathroom. I admit I was a bit panicked about all of us being electricuted and ran around turning off anything electric!
It was only a short while, but seemed much longer, before maintenance, in 3 golf carts, waltzed in to find out that we were in truth, having an emergency. I was very amazed at how little time it took 4 of us to completely strip the room of all our belongings and toss them into the laundry room. Quite a neat look. (I would have taken a picture, but I lost the camera in the rush, and my mind was a bit busy grabbing and shoving things into the suitcases).
Kevin and I had to leave for our first meeting, not ready, totally unorganized and unprepared, but we were on time. 🙂 Due to our extra meetings, we were unable to return and move rooms until the completion of the afternoon meetings…Great news though – we now are upstairs in a clean (DRY) room with a view of the river. Nicey nice. We decided that God wanted us to have a room with a view. He just used a very creative way to get it for us.
We found out it was a rare event where a cap popped off a pipe in the ceiling sprinkler system (right above our bed). We are very happy that we were already up and moving around. What a shock that cold water would have been had we still been snoozin. Sorry to our dorm mates, who did not have water for showers. We used it all up. No, just kidding. It was shut off to fix the problem.
All’s well that ends well. We met our across and down the hall neighbors in a most unusual way. Team work does work! A great big thanks to the maintenance guys who fixed it, the housekeepers who washed the bedding in the big washers and dryers, and the housing people who did not put us back in the same room, where I was concerned we would wake up to a bed full of plaster from a crashed in ceiling.
See – Kevin did not do it this time! AND, not one piece of clothing or any belonging was ruined, and only a few were even damp! Amazing.
Thankful Thursday
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. (1 Chronicles 16:34)
This is only one of many references to giving thanks to God in the Bible. He has given us so much – as believers, as His children, as His creation, as a nation of His people…and yet I see America more and more consistently turning their backs on the power, majesty, and holiness of our God. Not only on Thanksgiving, but every day, we need to remember to acknowledge His love, care, and provision for us.
Enough preaching from me. That’s Kevin’s gift. So I am proclaiming this post to “Thanks-for-giving.” Consider it, and then make your own list of Blessed by God and Thankful for…. Go ahead. I dare you.
1. My Salvation. Without this, nothing else matters. Worship and prayer. Add to this a loving, living God, eternity waiting for me, what else can a gal want?
2. My honey. My best friend. Someone I can be myself with (ugh, he even loves me in spite of morning breath and zits and bad hair days).
3. My children. Ahhhh. A boy and a girl, with their ‘significant others.’ And one day grandchildren. Healthy, safe, independent (and I mean INDEPENDENT), believers…A heritage unto the Lord.
4. My family. This includes my birth family, my marriage family, my extended family, my church family, my family of friends…life would be awful boring without any of these. 🙂
5. My health. Granted, I AM getting older, but mostly it’s just aches and pains. Good health to get out there and love and serve…
6. Food. Clothes. Shelter. The basics are all covered. And then some extras are lovingly provided…transportation, entertainment, free time, work time, study time, coffee, tea, music, my cat…
7. Everything else. Freedom in this country, jobs, ease of communication with friends and family, technology, church, hobbies, nature, sanitary conditions, running water, electricity, and the list goes on and on…
Love, Laughter, and Life 