Oh Okra!

On our quest for better health, Greg and I have been trying a number of new vegetables. For the most part we have been happy with our new discoveries, but tonight was definitely a failure. We've never tried okra and had no idea would it would taste like. While it was cooking I thought it smelled "Green".


Greg dished up first and ate all of the okra on his plate while I happily ate my delicious Tilapia. Greg asked if I had tried the okra yet and I said no. He didn't want to tell me what it tasted like or if he liked it, so I knew something bad was coming. I took a bite and started chewing. The flavor was fine, but in the few seconds of chewing, somehow the vegetable in my mouth turned into a big mouthful of snot. Gross! It was so disgusting! I had to jump up and spit it out to keep myself from gagging. I didn't even try to swallow.
(This is a picture of some okra slime. It happens just by cutting into the fruit once. Sick.)


I'm not sure who decided okra is an eatable food, but I think they were crazy. It reminded me of those "snot fish" we saw on Dirty Jobs and MythBusters. Those fish are a type of eel that continuously produce slimy snot as a defense. And that's exactly what happened with the okra when I started chewing it. Gross gross!


If you happen to like okra, please comment and explain yourself. Maybe you have a good recipe that keeps the snot thing from happening...?


On a positive note, you may have noticed I mentioned my delicious Tilapia. We've tried a few recipes that were all good, but this is the one we made tonight:



3 tablespoons coarsely chopped mint leaves
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Pinch red pepper flakes
2 tilapia fillets (about 1 pound total), halved
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Some extra virgin olive oil
Some lemon juice (Oil and lemon juice were not measured. We just poured it until it looked good.)

We mixed up all the spices and made a kind of soup by adding some lemon juice and the olive oil in a bowl. Then we brushed the mixture onto the fish and baked it at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. You can flip it halfway through if you want. If your fish is thicker it might need to cook longer. Our fish was really thin on parts and really thick in the middle, so it had to cook longer.


Sorry, I didn't get a picture. I found this online in case you were wondering what raw tilapia looks like. When it's done baking, it should be white (not see-through at all) and it should flake easily. When I took it out the first time I tried to cut a thick part and it was kind of chewy and hard to cut. That means it's not done.

After we got over the grossness of the okra, I steamed some broccoli to have with our fish instead. Definitely a good choice. I think my favorite vegetables to have are steamed broccoli and cauliflower mixed.

What are your favorite vegetables and how do you like them? (Raw or cooked in a special way?)

What's new with Choir

I'm singing in the Idaho Washington Concert Chorale again. It's been fun to see all my old friends again, and interesting as I sing in the soprano section. (I usually sing alto, but this time I auditioned the director said my voice "Really wants to sing soprano.")

Anyway, I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of the beautiful music we're going to sing. (This is not my choir.) Actually, I think it's probably going to scare all the kids in the audience. It sounds like crazy chaos for most of the song. It's like the soundtrack for an action adventure movie with religious undertones. (The words are sung in Hebrew.)



There's a part in the 2nd movement where they write in the music for the women to sing "Blissfully unaware of Danger." At the same time the men are supposed to sing, "Savagely." Do you think you can recognize that part? The women's part really is pretty.



I won't put the rest of the song and give it away for the people going to the concert. I have to leave a few surprises to jolt you awake for the rest of the song. (Don't you love how it lulls you to sleep and then surprises you with a bang? haha.) We really are singing other songs that are pretty, so don't be afraid to come to the concert. One of my favorites is, "Sure on this Shining Night." It's soft and peaceful.



The other exciting thing is that we will be getting new dresses for the choir. Our current dress is like a big black tent, best fit for wearing to the funeral of someone you don't like. They haven't made an official decision yet, but I think we will get the dress that I like the best. It's a velvet top and a separate skirt with pretty sparkles.

Treasure Hunt!

I forgot to finish and post this! This is from the first week in January. I made a treasure hunt activity for the kids at church for our Wednesday night activity. It was lots of fun--to plan and to participate!



I started by looking up scriptures that could be used as clues. For instance, one clue was Hosea 7:6. "For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait; their baker sleepeth all the night..." So they would go find their next clue in the kitchen of the church around the oven. I came up with 13 clues so they would stay busy for about an hour.

This activity involved all the kids (girls and boys) 12-18 yrs, so I had a large group to work with. I divided them into 6 teams, each with an adult leader to keep the group on track. Each team had their own set of clues to find around the church, and each group leader had a cheat sheet in case they couldn't figure out the clue, or the clue was taken by another group or person. With each clue there was a small assignment. Some of them were silly, like, "Jump up and down while patting your head and rubbing your stomach." Most of them were serious, like case studies about what to do in a certain situation. It was fun to walk around the church and see groups of kids excitedly flipping through their scriptures and running to the next clue.

At the end we all met in the gym for a closing prayer and treats. My partner in crime (another adult leader named Kathy) made the treasure chest cake, along with a bunch of cupcakes for the treat. I thought the cake was so cute! I wish I had a good excuse to make one now.