A Gingerbread House Massacre

Craftiness and creativity are in the eyes of the beholder, or in the slightly delusional state of someone sick.

For a family activity over the weekend, Dallin's mom bought three gingerbread house-making kits. We all split off into teams and started crafting away, with Dallin and his older brother, Kevin, on my team. 

Everything was going pretty normal for the first little bit. Dallin was feeling sick so Kevin and I were working on putting up the house and starting to decorate it. We added peppermint stepping-stones, cotton candy snow, just your basic gingerbread house amenities. And then Dallin got ahold of one of the gingerbread men and started decorating it. 

That's when things started to get a little weird. 

Dallin made this: A speedo sporting pirate who is flipping everyone off. 

So Kevin and I decided it would be a PIRATE gingerbread house. We decorated the roof, made an "X" marks the spot, and stuck a skull and crossbones over the door, all while Dallin was working on his other gingerbread man.

We were ready for the next pirate, but instead Dallin gave us this...

A zombie gingerbread man, who is coming up out of the ground and eating a poor, defenseless gummy bear. 

According to Dallin, this zombie is a shipmate to the pirate, but he stole a piece of cursed gold and now will forever roam the earth as a zombie. But has no connection to Pirates of the Caribbean.

By this point, Dallin's mom had stopped calling our house cute, but Dallin and Kevin were on a roll, so of course the most logical thing to add next would be

Gummy bear heads on stakes. All along the peppermint walkway. With their decapitated bodies laying to the side. 

And finally, the piece de resistance, 

A "Ye be Warned" sign out front.

All in all, our house ended up looking like a Gingerbread House Massacre. 

But, hey, at least it's got some flare.

A Sukiyaki Special

Everyone. College is crazy and I apologize wholeheartedly for the giant gap between this post and my last. But to reward you for your patience, I'm going to share something very special with you....

The Recipe for Sukiyaki

Last year, Dallin's parents hosted a lovely little lady from Japan, and during her stay, she shared the very authentic and very delicious sukiyaki recipe. 

So let's mix up your holiday turkeys and hams and get a little merry with some sukiyaki!

Gathering the Goods

First you will need to visit an Asian market. 

Unfortunately, some of the ingredients are not carried in normal grocery stores. 

Once you are at the market, you will need to find the following ingredients:

Napa (which is a special kind of lettuce)

Green Onions

Whole Mushrooms

2 Packages of Broiled Tofu

2 Packages of Shirataki (also called yam noodles)

Thinly sliced beef or pork (having a butcher cut this for you will help save some time, as you want it pretty thin)

1-2 Bottles of Special Sukiyaki Sauce (I'm honestly not sure what this sauce is called, as the label is in Japanese, but if you ask, someone should be able to help you find it)

Rice (this can be found at normal grocery stores)

Note: The quantity of napa, green onions, mushrooms and meat should be added according to taste. For example, Dallin's family really likes mushrooms, so there is usually a fair amount of them. If anything, you want an equal amount of each. 

Getting Prepped

Napa: Wash the napa, cut lengthwise, then into pieces. 

Green Onions: Cut diagonally and separate the white ends from the green.

Mushrooms: Wash and cut in half. If the mushrooms are especially big, cut in half again.

Broiled Tofu: Open package, and before removing from package, drain and cut into squares.

Yam Noodles: Open package, and before removing from package, drain and cut into smaller pieces.

Note: The yam noodles will be slightly difficult to cut. Just do your best. 

Meat: This should already be sliced into thin pieces. 

Sukiyaki Sauce: Open the bottle.

Rice: Follow the directions on the package and start cooking it.

Add Some Heat:

Using either a wok or an electric frying pan, set your temperature to 400 degrees and add some oil. 

Once your pan starts getting warm, add the white ends of the green onions and sauté. 

Then add the meat and sauté again. 

And as difficult as it can be, try not to mix your ingredients together.

Add some sukiyaki sauce to cover and keep on cooking. 

Next, add your mushrooms.

Then, add the yam noodles.

Add the rest of the green onions, and some more sukiyaki sauce. 

Add the tofu.

And finally, add the thicker pieces of the napa. 

As you can tell, things can get a little tight with all the ingredients. The napa will cook down and you can continue to add it to the pan until you have your desired amount. Also, if your ingredients mix a little, don't worry too much about it. It takes some practice. 

You can also add more sukiyaki sauce at this point if you would like. Sample a mushroom or other ingredient to test the strength of the sauce. If it's too weak, add more. If it's too strong, add a little bit of water. 

Once the napa is cooked down... Voila! You are done!

Slap some rice into a bowl, add a little bit of everything from your pan, and enjoy! And if you're feeling extra adventurous, try to eat it with chopsticks. But beware. Table manners, sukiyaki, and chopsticks do not always mix.

Questions about the recipe, the ingredients, or the taste? 

Leave some comments below!

To the Mouses in these Houses

A Poem:

To the Mouses in these Houses

To the mouses in these houses, I have to be frank,

You're sudden arrival has left us feeling below rank. 

It's not that you mean to, I do understand. 

But you've taken our space, and that is not grand. 

Your scurries and munching are not quiet in the least,

Are you already eating your Thanksgiving feast?

I must ask you to leave, but that would be trite,

As you have made this your home, without an invite.

Please hear me out, it's not that we hate you.

You're small and you're cute, if I have to be true,

But we can't take no more! I'm drawing the line!

These houses aren't yours. Their his and their mine.

I'm begging and pleading, down on my knees,

"Please go away! Please, please please!"

To the mouses in these houses, my final request,

Is that you'll leave us alone and give us some rest. 

A Little Weird

I stumbled upon this song the other day... 

"Shia LaBeouf" Live

Warning: Only click on the link if you are truly prepared to participate in a judgement-free zone, make it full screen, and turn your volume all the way up. 

If you followed the link, you are thinking to yourself, "Adrienne. What. The. Heck. That was the weirdest thing ever."

It is weird, but I love it because when I found it, I knew I could share it with Dallin. 

You see, I have decided that every person has a level of weirdness and when you get married, you marry someone that can handle it and laugh along with you. This song demonstrates one of those moments. 

After all our homework was abandoned and it was late into the night, I pulled up Spotify and showed Dallin "Shia LeBeouf." Live. We then watched the music video. Twice. And together we laughed at the weirdness.

It's good to be a little weird. It's more fun to be a little weird. And being a little weird keeps things interesting. For example, Dallin thinks it's weird to want to dress up, especially for Halloween. I, on the other hand, think that dressing up for Halloween...

Is possibly the best thing ever. 

Dallin accepts that, puts on his old merit badge sash, lets me dress up as an old man, and then takes me out in public. 

Heavens... How did I get so lucky?

Big News

If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that Dallin and I have some big news for everyone....

We adopted a plant!!

His name is Herbert and we are already secretly obsessed with him. Yesterday when we came home from work, I proudly showed Dallin how Herbert is growing a new leaf. We then congratulated him on his good work and told him to keep on growing.

Then later when some friends came to visit, we just had to show off Herbert and his new leaf.

I also talked to Hayley, my all knowing plant scientist/guru, about how to keep Herbert alive. Like a new parent when their kid has a cold, I had to be sure I knew everything about Herbert so that we can keep him alive and healthy.

It's weird. I know. But Dallin says we can't have a puppy so this is going to have to do.

Have you ever adopted a pet, plant, or rock that suddenly becomes part of the family?
Any other plant advice I should know?

Best Halloween EVER!

Halloween is coming up, and like many other couples, Dallin and I are struggling to come to an agreement about costumes. If Dallin could have his way, he would always be a dinosaur, just like when he was a little kid.

(But isn't he so cute?)

He even looked at a child size dinosaur costume at T.J Maxx and tried to convince me that it was a good idea to try and squeeze himself into a tiny T-Rex costume.

But I have a better idea. Ever since we celebrated our first Halloween together, those many moons ago, I have wanted Dallin to be one thing for Halloween. 

Russell. From the Pixar movie UP. 

Because, and I say this with all the love I have in my heart, Dallin looks like a grown up version of Russell. 

Dallin would make the best Russell. And I would be Kevin, or Doug, or Mr. Carl Fredricksen. It would be the best Halloween EVER! I may or may not already know exactly how to bring both costumes together, and I may or may not already have bits and pieces of both of the costumes. 

Now I just have to convince Dallin... 

Any suggestions?

Tiger Leotard

One of the best things about being married is having a best friend that supports you in all your good decisions and is your voice of reason in all your bad. 

Except in the case of the Tiger Leotard. 

My own mother told me I was not fierce enough to pull it off. Dallin, on the other hand, insisted that I buy it right then and there. No questions asked.

This could be considered one time where Dallin was not my voice of reason, but rather the voice of insanity, yelling at me as I ran away.

However, Dallin is my support and my cheering section. I can credit many of my own successes to him because of his encouragement and support in helping me along though difficult decisions. 

I believe that Dallin learned how to be so supportive from his family. Recently, another Fukui family member left to serve an LDS mission, and the support at his farewell was heartwarming. Dallin's extended family showed up early, helped make food for a house full of people, stayed late to help clean up, and will be right there again when this missionary comes home. Family from Utah and Washington all gathered in Idaho to support this missionary in his decision to serve. 

This is not the first, or the last time, this will happen.

And why is this so important?

Because we are family and it is

TRADITION!

Grapes and Bicycles

Dallin and I are two very different people. If you could compare apples and oranges, Dallin would be grapes, and I would be a bicycle. Totally different. Both very great, but completely different. 

These differences only make our marriage stronger, however, they become very apparent when we have to go on road trips. A few weeks ago we drove to St. George and Dallin made a special playlist just for the occasion. It was terrible. I mean... I love him and everything, but it was terrible. He picked country music and only the sappiest and saddest songs seemed to make the cut. Most girls are currently swooning at the thought of a handsome guy picking out lovey-dovey country songs to sing along to in the car, but not me. 

I was DYING.

We just have different tastes, Dallin and I. He likes country, and I... don't really. 

Once during a Fukui family dinner, Dallin told his family that I am a music hipster. When his family asked what kind of music I like, I said,

"I like music with... Banjos...?"

True story.

It got awkward after that.

But to prove the point that my choice of music is different from Dallin's, here is one of my current jams:

And here is one of Dallin's:

I'll probably listen to his song for a while and he has grudgingly admitted that my song is not too bad.

None of this has anything to do with being raised with different backgrounds or in different cultures. Instead, this has everything to do with being different from one another, having long and boring playlists for long and boring road trips, and still loving and liking each other.

(If any of you know where this reference came from, we will most likely be best friends for life. Dallin knows, but because I made him. Not because he wanted to.)

Literally Living on Love

Dallin and I are about as well traveled as a piece of gum under somebody's shoe. Between the two of us, we have traveled a ways, but we have been stuck in the same spot for some time. We would like to be less like a piece of gum, and more like... Well, less like a piece of gum.

In the next year, Dallin's family is planning a BIG family trip to Japan to pick up Dallin's little brother, who is serving his LDS mission in Kobe. 

JAPAN!

Dallin and I have never even been out of the country! Being able to go to Japan, see Elder Fukui after two long years, and be able to tourist about for a few days would be an amazing opportunity!

But. Going to Japan is no small feat for two broke college students. It's important though, so we are trying to hustle to stash some cash so that we can go with Dallin's family.

In order to help with this, I've decided that I'm going to start doing meal plans. Planning out our meals in advance and having a shopping list will probably help with our Japan Fund. Right? I even started searching out menu plans and shopping lists. So far I have found a lot of recipes that require a lot of time, effort and ingredients.

Oh heavens.

Fresh rosemary and cilantro? Homemade dough? Spinach inside the chicken?

How about biscuits from a can and gravy from a package?

I'm not a great cook. I made French toast for dinner yesterday, burned it, and then smelled like the inside of a toaster for the rest of the night. And with school in session, time is short. I haven't even had time to go to the grocery store since the semester started. Five weeks ago.

We are literally living on love.

However! I may have found a meal planning solution.

And on weekends, we will have cereal!

I know that THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA. We would blow up like balloons from the amount of salt in every package, and then we would die of malnourishment.

So what do I do?
Everyone is busy, so how do you still find time to make real meals?
What do you make and how do you find ideas for new recipes?

Leave a comment below and share your ideas!

Pause. Long Pause.

Ever since I married Dallin, I keep having these reoccurring conversations.

"How do you say your last name?"

"Foo-Koo-Ee."

"Oh! So you are..." Pause. Long pause. Always a pause.

 I'm white. Can't dance, can't sing, can't tan, can't spend a day at the beach without continually bathing in a tube of sunscreen.

My nieces even play this game where they compare their olive skin tone to my pasty skin and then laugh.

So when the world sees my fair features with my last name, people just get awfully confused. I'm usually nice and tell them that it's not me, but Dallin, that is half-Japanese. Because I'm married and this reflective skin could have only come from European countries where the sun just don't shine.

If I were more outwardly sassy, I might say something like this to fill in that long awkward pause,

"An ever loving Aggie? Every day."
"Going to eat this entire cupcake by myself? Of course."
"Dancing my little heart out? Most likely."
"Using milk jugs for work outs? Thanks for noticing!"

Or better yet, I would not say anything and embrace the awkward silence.

After I teach the world to look for a wedding ring, I'm going to rid my conversations of awkward pauses around my new last name. Mostly, this will be for Dallin, who puts pauses in all the wrong places.

"F-U," Pause. "K-U-I"

It's a work in progress.

One Big Hole

I'm not a very crafty person. In Home Economics in middle school I tried to make a pair of polka dot pajama shorts and ended up cutting a big hole right under the bum. I also got docked points for using blue thread. In my defense though, I thought it matched. My mom ended up helping me fix the hole, and I still wear those polka dot shorts because I made them. However, that is my crafting life, one big hole under the bum.

This summer, Dallin's mom and sisters asked me to help throw a bridal shower for a cousin on the Fukui side of the family. Not just any bridal shower, but a bridal shower with Japanese themed decorations. "Cherry blossoms and kokeshi dolls," they said.

"I don't know what that all means," I said. "So we will see how this goes."

In order to get my craft on, I had to visit the Holy Grail of all that is good and evil in a world of glitter and hot glue guns: Pinterest.

And as luck would have it, I stumbled across this little gem.

I tried to make my own, with a few modifications. A spool for the body, beads for the buns, paper wrapped around the spool for clothing, and a ribbon for that extra flair.

Her head turned out to be too small, one side of her face is smudged, and I accidentally gave her weird cheekbones. Whoops. 

However, a trip to Hobby Lobby, some origami paper, a spoonful of painting talent by Dallin's mom, and lots of hot glue later, between the four of us, we were able to make these:

Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

Handling the hot glue gun might have cost me a few fingerprints, but this experience just might have put a few stitches in my big hole under the bum crafty life. 

Me and Dallin: A Married Couple

To make a long story short, we met, we fell in love, we got engaged, and now we are married. Hooray!

One day I was talking to my friend about his girlfriend and he commented on how it was nice to talk to someone else that was in an interracial relationship. Me? Oh right, Dallin is half-Japanese. That’s where the Fukui comes from. (Pronounced (Foo-Koo-Ee) for those of you that don’t know.) Sometimes I forget, because to me, he is just Dallin.

We eat a lot of rice, only certain kinds of rice, and sometimes we eat it with chopsticks. We celebrate New Year’s by eating sashimi, mochi, and edamame for breakfast. New Year’s is also the holiday of the year. It’s almost a bigger deal than Christmas.

When we were dating, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I don’t know how to make any of these foods, let alone say them all. Heck, I grew up eating Minute Rice, and steak and potatoes. I also don't know the traditions that go along with holidays, birthdays, or weddings. But I’m trying. With Dallin’s help, and my sweet mother-in-law, I think eventually I will be able to figure out all the traditions and expectations that come along with being a Fukui. 

However, it's been over a year and I’m still trying to master eating with chopsticks.

So here is a tutorial for you about the proper way to eat with chopsticks. Good luck!