Greek Fest!

So...we wanted to do something fun with the whole free day on Labor Day, and I saw the perfect thing advertised on the back of a bus--The Annual Long Beach Greek Festival!
I did a little investigation and found out that admission was free from 12-5, so we spent the morning washing our car, and garage door. By the way, have you ever seen anyone washing their car by hand in California? We have not. It worked great, though, and with a little help from Aunt Cinda and Uncle Brian's village car wash materials, we now have a shiny new car! We also took some wire from the fan to the battery and found out that our fan is not broken--it's probably just the coolant temp sensor. Yay!
We left for the Greek Fest sometime after one, and ended up parking in a little mall a few blocks away. Who knew that this would be the cool place to spend your free Monday? Now, we were expecting a lot of costumes and food and booths, and I even suggested that we could dress up like Greeks (shot down), but the surprise was... greek fest, as far as we can tell = county fair

My favorite parts:
1. There were the most random booths! I mean, I guess the Russian booth kind of fits the cultural idea, and the same goes for the Indian clothing booth, but advertising sheet sets? the "tutor doctor?" What does this have to do with Greeks?

2. The tour we took of the Greek Orthodox church. A guy even sang us some chant. Cross your fingers, I'm going to try to upload this one. :)

One funny thing is that we asked what the difference between the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches is. "Nothing, just the language." BUT why, then, is there a different Bible, different cross, different church shape, different iconostas, and different worship service rules? Suspicious. I was dying to go back to our friend at the Russian booth and ask what he thought, but his booth suddenly got very popular, so we never had a chance. Here are a couple of pictures I took of the inside of the church.
















3. We tried some Baklava. Good, but I like our rich american desserts better! Give me a brownie and ice cream any day! Miles agreed--I guess we are just not the eastern cultured type yet!

We came home and to finish off our Greek festivities, I found a recipe for pita bread online, and we had our own version of souvlaki (thanks to some of that bottled elk :)) for dinner. Yummy!

Another reason that Miles loves his job

Apparently the LDS church down here has been having quite a few run-ins lately with bees building hives in steeples, walls, etc.. Miles has been telling me about them, and how they have to get people to come out and extract them, and then ONE day, he came home to tell me about another hive they'd found in one of his buildings. The bees had gotten into a wall from a little pipe left sticking out, and they'd built a hive inside the wall.

When Miles showed me some pictures of him trying on a bee suit, I began to realize that this was going to be no ordinary work week. On the 14th we stayed up late working on a bee smoker--you know, the smoke you blow in the hive to calm them?--but we didn't get it done in time, so that just barely got finished.

Instead, Miles left for work with his bee suit, some cans of wasp spray, and some tape to make sure there were no gaps in his clothes. I spent some good time in fervent prayer that morning! Sometimes I let my imagination run away with me, but I was also excited to see the pictures he promised to take. Here are some of the best ones, and since they tell the story pretty well, I'm not going to write a ton more.

First Miles (and some helpful painters) taped off the hallway so that no bees could get inside the church

he could hear the bees and knew he'd opened the right section of wall. Now for the flash...

An entire hive! See them in between their honeycomb? SO COOL!

Miles demonstrates the safe gear for any bee removal tasks.

This wall is going to need some repair. No more bees, though!

Honeycomb, dead bees, and...a rat! Gross!

 Since Miles is at work and can't type this himself, here are some of the videos he took, so you can hear him explain. Pretty cool!

The job. s.

After looking for what seemed like forever, suddenly in the past two or three weeks everything has fallen together. I'm trying to think of what I learned from my four months of unemployment, because I know that whenever things don't go according to MY plan, it's always been because there's a better plan out there.
I was thinking, and some of the blessings I can see from that long wait are: I learned to type (finally! that has been looming over my head for years), I had time to set up my violin studio the way I wanted to, I really really REALLY value the time I have together with Miles, had free time to get to know some people in our ward and go on adventures, and learned that my attitude has everything to do with how I feel about my day. Also how much work I put into things!

Anyway, so now the waiting is over. I have three great little violin students and have a part time job as a nanny for two kids that live at the beach. Here is a pic of one of my work days...at the beach! ---------->

<---this part here actually was hard work, and I still don't really know what possessed me to go down all those stairs with a stroller. Don't worry, though; I had the older one walk and held the little one, and we went slow, despite the 3-yr-old's encouragement to "let go of the stroller! Let it bounce down all by itself!" :) I know it's not the most prestigious job in the world, but it is one of my very favorite things ever!

The long-awaited Neal visit!

Jenn and Matt came this weekend with their kids, and we had a BLAST! We love playing hosts, and Jason and Cory cracked us up...we never knew that our futon and Russian stacking dolls could provide so much fun for so long!
We went to the beach to dig for crabs, and again tried our luck with fishing off the pier, but again...no bites. I even pulled out all the stops and baited the hook with some leftover chicken, but those fish would have none of it. Shame...it was good chicken, too! It was Jenn's first time fishing, and maybe Matt's too? You never would have guessed from their amazing technique and finesse, though.







It gets pretty cold out there on the pier, so Jason borrowed "Uncle Miles's" jacket. He lost his arms a couple of times, and mainly flapped around looking like a sailor. So cute!




Miles and I decided to make things really festive, and we pulled out one of our new favorite recipes. HOMEMADE EGG ROLLS! Man, they are sooooo good, and now we finally have a second opinion! Jenn wanted the recipe, so I thought I might as well post it on here and share it all around. They're SO easy to make, and amazingly good.  I mostly pulled the recipe off Allrecipes.com, but the purple parts are my additions or helpful hints. Enjoy!

Egg Roll Filling (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-egg-rolls/detail.aspx)

Ingredients


1 pound ground pork (I used ground turkey--it's cheap and yummy)
1 teaspoon ground ginger1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 2 cups shredded cabbage
• 2 ounces shredded carrots
• (also I added liberal amounts of pepper and season-all to spice things up a little)

• 
  
• 1 quart peanut oil for frying (unless you have some handy, vegetable oil works great)

FOR PASTE:

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons water

Directions

1. Season meat with ginger and garlic powder and mix thoroughly. Heat mixture in a medium skillet, stirring, until meat is cooked through and no longer pink. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. In the skillet, cook the cabbage and carrots with maybe a tsp of oil until they're just beginning to be cooked--the cabbage will change color a tad and be less crunchy. When its ready, combine the cabbage, carrots and reserved pork mixture. Mix all together.

Egg Roll Wrappers (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/egg-roll-wrappers/detail.aspx)

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1-1/2 cups cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup peanut oil (if your pan is not a good nonstick. If it is, you don't need any oil at all)

Directions 

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, cold water and salt. Mix in all-purpose flour 1/3 at a time. Allow the mixture to stand 15 minutes at room temperature.
2. Heat a frying pan to medium/high heat. Pour about 1/4 cup batter on and rotate pan quickly to spread the batter, like a crepe. I've found that it works best if after this step you quickly spread the batter into a larger circle using a spatula, so that the wrapper will be thin and not crack when cooked. The ideal size is about a 9-inch circle.
3.  Cook over low heat 45 seconds to 1 minute, until bottom is golden brown and edges begin to curl. ONLY COOK ONE SIDE! Carefully remove from heat with spatula and place on a paper towel, golden brown side down. These do not stick together, so you can stack all you want. Repeat with remaining batter.
4. Allow the wrappers to cool completely. 

Making the egg rolls-Directions 

1. In a small pot heat a couple cups of oil to about 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) or medium high heat. (we just heat it until a little piece of dough thrown in will sizzle and brown quickly) While oil is heating, combine flour and water in a bowl until they form a paste. 
2. Put maybe 1/4 cup filling onto a wrapper. Fold in the sides first, sticking them down with the paste, then begin rolling from the bottom to the top. Use the flour paste to seal the egg roll shut.
3. Place egg rolls into heated oil and fry, turning occasionally, until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels or rack. Eat large but not excessive amounts with great satisfaction, and share with friends.

So good! AND if you really want a delicious meal, serve it with veggies and this teriyaki sauce:

http://www.food.com/recipe/restaurant-teriyaki-sauce-133751  (I skip the honey and drop the sugar to 3 tbsp, and it's right on! Also, it thickens as it cools, so no worries if stirring doesn't do the trick)

Teriyaki Stix has nothing on us here in Long Beach! :)