A nice weekend

Abigail has a new nickname - she's Abby, the Crabby Crustacean. Funny thing about it though. Amanda thought I was calling her a "Crusty Asian". !!!!

Here's a photo of one of my cameras, the Sony Cyber-shot F717, which we got in 2003:

(Image from Digital Photography Review)

Fabulous camera, but I don't really use it to its full potential, as I am always on AUTO. Yes, I am just a point-and-shooter. But I hope to change that. One of my goals this year is to become chummy with the manual and eventually shoot in manual mode. THEN, we'll be ready to move onto a digital SLR camera.

This mosaic captures some of our happy moments from this past week:

(Click for larger image)

Abigail's hair is long enough for pigtails, so she is sporting a cute little hair pretty from Annie and Olive.

Amanda and I made some dinner mints - super easy, child-friendly recipe. If you'd like the recipe, let me know. They're impressive with little effort.

Amanda's typical breakfast is oatmeal. It's a great source of fiber and low in calories.

And Ron's steak and mushrooms dish - it is to die for!

Ron's Steak & Mushrooms

Ingredients:

A rib steak

10 to 12 white cap mushrooms

1 stalk of green onions

1 tblspn butter or extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Pack the steak with kosher salt on both sides for 15 to 30 minutes, letting it reach room temperature.

2. Wash the salt off the steak and pat dry.

3. Sear both sides of the steak in a pan until desired doneness is reached.
4. Melt the butter in the pan with the steak drippings, and throw in the mushrooms and green onions.

5. Splash some worcestershire sauce on the mixture. When mushrooms are done, pour over the steak. Serve immediately.

We usually make one 1-lb rib steak and share it amongst the family, pairing it with corn, and a stir-fry dish (bokchoy, green cabbage, spinach, napa cabbage). And of course, rice.

Ron was inspired by this blog post that explains how to make cheap cuts of meat taste like prime rib. Very interesting.