tim & helen

On our recent travels, we were blessed to be able to connect with Jason's cousin, Tim, and his wife, Helen. What fun it has been to get to know the two of them and their family (they have two children - Thea, 5, and Danny, 2) over the past year since we first re-connected with them at a family reunion last summer. We welcomed them up north into our home this past cold winter shortly after our basement was finished. It was a treat to have them be our first official guests! This spring they finished their basement and thought an inaugural visit was in order! :-) We stayed with them for a couple of days before the wedding and had a blast!

We arrived to an all-out family barbecue, with Jason's aunt and uncle and two of his other cousins and their families (there were 20 of us in all!) who live in the same area. Our kids were thrilled to have so many "cousins" to play with!

The next day, we visited a local recreational center that had a HUGE wading pool, two enormous water slides, and a giant sandbox, to boot! We were there for a bit in the morning, but ended up getting rained out before lunch - the storm clouds rolled in quickly!

The five kids had so much fun playing together.

One night Tim and Helen treated us to a home-made traditional Chinese meal, complete with chopsticks. WOW - it was soooo good! Both Jason and I ate way too much. We are excited to try the following recipe at home!

PORK IN PEANUT SAUCE
1 lb Pork Strips (thinly sliced)
1 Onion chopped
1 Red or Orange Pepper thinly sliced
1 Clove Garlic, crushed
1 Inch Ginger Root grated (or you can use powdered ginger too -- it's easier than grating)
2 tsp Ground Coriander
1 tsp Ground Cumin
2 TBSP Soft Brown Sugar
Juice of 1 Lemon
4 TBS Crunchy Peanut Butter
3 TBS Soy Sauce
#1 -- Stir Fry the Peppers & Onion in hot vegetable oil first until mostly cooked, then remove from pan and set aside.
#2 -- Stir Fry the Pork in hot vegetable oil until done and then mix the cooked peppers back in.
#3 -- Create a Sauce with all the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Add sauce to the pork and peppers and fry on medium a little bit longer until the sauce is heated up and mixed in.

#4 -- Serve with hot rice. ENJOY!!!

*Note from Helen: An easy side dish to serve this with is green beans. I stir fry fresh green beans (takes a while to cook) and add a TBSP or two of Soy Sauce and some crushed garlic. You can also had some hot peppers or hot sauce to make it spicy but we usually leave it mild for the kids.

As a special treat, Tim and Helen arranged for a babysitter on our last morning there. Emma played with the kids while the four adults went out for a quiet breakfast. Thank you so very much, guys! We had an amazingly wonderful time and hope to visit again soon!