Scrumdidlyumcious Fish Tacos

I work with a master chef called Jeremy Jacobson. He is a funny guy. It came up a while ago that I like fish tacos. He claimed to have the best recipe for fish tacos. He finally gave me a copy of the recipe la st week and I made the taco's today. Shantell and the kids claim to not like fish. I made them anyway. It was a good thing I did . Shantell and the kids loved them! Shantell ate three, Amanda ate two, and Tyler and Bre-Bre at one.

I took some over to the Owens and the Rash's and they thought they were great as well. Johnny said that he didn't like fish tacos, so he didn't try them. I asked if he had ever tried fish tacos before. He said no. I think I will refer to that and other illog ical answers as a Spockisum. Needless to say, the recipe was a big hit. Here is a copy of the recipe, I added the chili power an d red onions.

Jeremy's Fish Tacos

>Taco Items
Shredding Red Cabbage
Corn Tortillas
1 lb White fish. I cross cut the fillets into 1 or 2 inch strips.(I used cod)

>Batter:
1 Cup Flour
1 tps kosher salt
1 Cup Beer
2 Egg Whites

Mix flour and salt. Stir in beer. Beat egg whites to a soft peak and fold into beer mixture. Dip fish into batter and deep fry until golden brown.

>Sauce
1 Cup Mayo
1/4 Cup minced Cilantro
2 Tbls Dill Pickle Relish
3 Tbls Minced Pickled Jalapenos
1 Tbls Fresh Lime Juice
1 tbs Mustard
1/4 tbs Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup diced red onion
Chili powder to taste.

Mix above ingredients together.

Warm tortillas. Place heaping tablespoon of sauce on tortilla. Then add cabbage then fish strips. Fold tortilla over and enjoy.

Alternative use for Drums: Alarm Clock

Note to self. Banging on the drums and symbols is an effective way of waking up the kids. It appears that Shantell isn't to keen on being woken up by this sound. :)

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Zune Video Converters

I found this all-in-one program that says it can rip and encode your DVD's into WMA format.

I also found this command line program,FMPEG, and a GUI interface, WINFF for it. This program is also Ubuntu friendly.

These other converters are pretty useful as well:
Media Converter SA Edition
Media Coder

Do butterflies have bones?

I cant remember a Christmas where I haven't awaken before the kids. I also can't remember a Christmas where the kids have gotten up earlier then 7:00. Today was no exception. Tyler was the first to awake, then Amanda. Bre-Bre loves to sleep in so we made the kids wait until she woke up.

I remember waking up early on Christmas morning and going into the family room to check out the loot that Santa brought. Rus was usually my partner in crime since our rooms were downstairs. I haven't caught my kids doing this yet. They would probably get more satisfaction out of doing it, as Santa leaves the kids presents unwrapped at our house. Santa always wrapped our presents when I was a kid.

The kids finally grew impatient and woke Bre-Bre up. We all went downstairs and the kids were surprised with their presents. Santa was very kind to them. He brought Tyler and Amanda a Microsoft Zune. Bre got a Lightning McQueen car and some other misc Cars toys. Tyler also got a drum set. I think all the kids will enjoy playing on them. Now all we need to do is find an drum instructor for Tyler.

Tyler received a Lego set and the first thing that he noticed was the number of pieces. "There are 390 pieces in this. It sure is going to take me a long time to put this together."

Bre-Bre was funny. It seems that most of her presents were wrapped in white boxes. She was overheard saying "Not another white box". The best moment of the day was when Bre-Bre opened a present from Grandpa Gerald. Grandpa had bought himself a Beyerdynamic DT290 Professional Headset. He then used the box to wrap some "Cars" in it. Bre saw a picture of the headset and exclaimed "AWESOME". She was a bit let down when she opened the box, but nevertheless loved the "Cars".

We went over to the Owens later in the evening to hang out. They got the "Are You Smarter Then a Fifth Grader" for Christmas so we played it. Shantell was asked the following question on her first turn.
2nd Grade Animal Science
Which of the following doesn't have bones:
Bird
Snake
Butterfly

Which animal do you think Shantell locked in her answer with?

Chili Recipe

Some of the people I worked with wanted to have a potluck on Christmas Eve day. I announced that I would bring the chili. Jeremy was funny. He was a bit taken back by the fact that I could cook. I think Jennifer has her doubts too. Wont they be surprised when I show up with my chili. Here is the recipe for my Bren'dys chili. I call it bren'dys chili because I used to work for Wendy's and based my recipe off of a knock off of recipe for Wendy's chili.

Bren'dys Chili

Ingredients:
------------
2 pounds Ground beef
1 can (29 ounce size) tomato sauce
1 can (16 ounce size) kidney beans w/liquid
1 can (29 ounce size) pinto beans w/liquid
1 can (16 ounce size) black beans w/liquid
1 medium Onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 Rib celery, diced
3 cans (16 ounce size) tomatoes with green chilis
2 teaspoons Cumin powder
3 tablespoons Chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon Black pepper
2 teaspoons Salt
2 cups Water

Directions:
-----------

Brown the beef and drain the fat off. Crumble the cooked beef into pea size pieces. Return beef to pan and boil for 30 minutes. Remove and drain.
In a double boiler pot, combine the beef plus the remaining ingredients. Heat mixture in double boiler, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2-3 hours prior to serving.
You don't have to use a double boiler, but thats what we cooked the chili in at Wendys.

Neighborhood Movie Stars

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Super Tyler
I was particularly proud of Tyler today. He is becoming quite the the super kid young man. Today I heard a racket in the kitchen. I thought that it was Bre Bre getting a PB&J. I went into the kitchen to see if she needed any help, and much to my surprise Tyler had emptied the dishwasher. I asked him why he was emptied the dishwasher and he said that it needed to be emptied. What a great kid. I helped him put away the dishes and went back to trying to configure Blosedit.

Nature called so I headed upstairs. I heard a commotion in Amanda's room and saw Tyler coming out a Amanda's room. Amanda gets pretty upset when people go into her room when she isn't home. I asked Tyler what he was doing, and he said go look. I walked into her room and asked him what I was looking at. He said look at her bed and floor. Tyler had made her bed, as best he could, and picked up her dirty laundry. He is quite the young man and I love him for his tender heart and his love for his sister. Tyler your thoughtless good deads made me a very proud dad.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You know, the Mormons. I am a primary teacher of the 4 turning 5 year olds. Yeah I know, why are then letting me teach kids gospel principles. If you ask Shante it's because I am barely older then the kids are. :) In all seriousness, I love little kids. Its that best church calling anyone could ask for. It is far better then the other calling I have that entails the babysitting of grown men as the Stake Sports Specialist.

There are six kids in my current class. One of these kids in my is quite the charater. He isn't shy about telling me what is going on in his life and the life of his parents. He gives me a great big hug everytime he sees me and has a hard time distinguishing my name and the name of his other teacher. The other teachers name is Brother Cannigator. This little boy calls him Brother BerrettCannigator. We tried to explain to him on Sunday that the name of the other teacher is Brother Cannigator and not Brother BerrettCannigator.

Here is how the dialog went.

Me: Whats my name?
Child: It's Brother Berrett
Me: Whats Brother Cannigator's name?
Child: It's Brother BerrettCannigator.
Me: Look its Jacob. (Jacob is Brother Cannigators son) What is Jacob's last name?
Child: It's Cannigator
Me: Thats right. Jacob is Brother Cannigators son.
Me: Do you know that Jacob and his dad have the same last name, Cannigator?
Child: Duh.
Me: So what is Jacob'd dads name?
Child: Brother BerrettCannigator.
Me: *Sigh*

This same little boy is also a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. He knows who the Cowboys are playing against every week. I am a Cowboy's fan and don't always know who they are playing. I asked him this week who they are playing and he told me that they are playing the Eagles. Cool I said. He then asked me if I wanted to come over and watch the game. I said that I would have to ask his parents if that was ok. His mom came to pick him up from class and she gave her approval for me to come over. He then proceeded to tell me that I could come over and watch the game, but I couldn't sleep over because he has school in the morning.

I am going to miss this little boy when he moves to his new primary class in January.

Speaking of new primary classes, I will get a new class in January 2008. There are about 8 kids in that class. It will be fun times. They a group of mostly shy girls. The primary president has asked for a baby photo to share with the primary. She will show the photo and the kids will have to guess who it is. Here is the photo that I turned in.

Party like a rock star

Amanda had her friend birthday party today. She celebrated it with (Ralph)Lauren, Payton, Kaitlyn, Mary, Mariana, and Jordan. They went to the Red Butte Garden and the Beehive Tea Room in Salt Lake City.  They made illuminaries at Red Butte Gardens and had a tea party at the Beehive TeaRoom.  Amanda got some neat presents from her friends. 

One of those presents happened to be a Rubik's Cube.  This brought back alot of memories for me.  I think that my brothers and I first received a Rubik's cube when I was around 9 years old.   My Rus, the Brainiac that he is, was able to solve it.  I on the other hand was only able to partially solve it.  The reason it brought back memories is that it was the root cause for me losing two of my permanent teeth.  It seems that Rus was not very keen on my singing skills or that that I was bugging him with my singing skills.  I think it was the latter reason.  Anyway, we were sitting in the car waiting to go to church and the Brainiac was solving the cube.  His idea to turn off my singing was to throw the cube at me.  My teeth didn't do a very good job at absorbing the impact of the cube.  The cube chipped off the lower corner of my left front tooth,#9, and killed one of my lower front teeth, #24.   I have had about three caps on the #9 tooth.  Apples and #9 didnt have a very good relationship.  I got a cap for old #24 last year. (Thank you Rus) 

I know have the dubious task of trying to solve the cube when the kids make a mess of it.  The only problem is that I never fully learned how to solve it.   Good thing we have the internet.  I installed this program on the computer and now the kids can mess it up all they want.  They still want me to partially solve it, as it lowers the amount of steps they have to take to solve it by 50 steps or so.  One day I should really learn the algorithm of the solution. 

Blasted Sugar Plum Fairy!!

My brain now randomly plays music from the Nutcraker over and over in my head. It also starts playing it when blasted TV commercials play the music. The only way to get it to stop is to listen to Billy and the Boingers, or to listen to the song that my nephew Kiser wrote. My sister-in-Law Jennifer is the vocalist.

What kind of nut does it take to be in the nutcracker?

My wife, Shantell, is a dance instructor at Utah Academy Dance Studios. The Rocky Mountain Ballet, directed by Connie Burton, share space with UADS.  Rocky Mountain Ballet performs the Nutcracker on a annual basis.  They were short some dancers, so Connie asked Shantell if she would like to be in the party scene as one of the parents.   Needless to say, I was roped into joining the performance.  I had my reservations, namely my two left feet, about accepting the role as a Party Parent.

I had to perform in two "easy" dances.  Dancing isn't as easy as my daughter Amanda makes it out to be. "Point your toes." "Look up at your hand." "Round your arm." "Make sure you are in a straight line." I struggled a bit with some of the choreography.  Needless to say, practice makes perfect, or at least practice makes you look like you know what you are doing.   It was a great experience and made me appreciate the difficulty involved in dancing.   The performances were great.  The dancers were all great. All in all I would rate the experience as an 8 out of 10.  I very much enjoyed the performance and Connie asked me back for next years performance.   Hopefully the choreography will remain the same. 

I also got to volunteer to be a stagehand for the show.  I got to pull the rope that made the thing-a-ma-bob shake and release the snow on stage.  I gave myself the code name "snowman".  It was fun wearing a headset and making the stage hands freak out with my follies of shaking the thing-a-ma-bob.  In one show I thought the stage manager was going to have a heart attack.  I proclaimed that I was releasing the snow in the middle of the "Snow Flakes" dance.  The snow is supposed to be released at the end of the their dance.   Good times.  My Mom, Dad, Rees, Jessica, and Jessica's mom were able to attend on the 12th.   

Here are some wonderful pictures.

Best and worst christmas gifts.

Best: anything that my kids give me
Worst: every one of them!

Berrett Santa Party
Here is a picture taken at the Berrett Santa party tonight:

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