Frenchie gets to vote in the next election

Frenchie and I had our interview for the green card today, which, incidentally, is not green but actually pink. I was hoping it would be exciting so I would have a good blogging subject today but it was actually quite boring and easy! Better for us, not so good for my blog. The "adjudication officer" asked us for some evidence to show that our marriage is genuine. After we gave her insurance stuff and bank account information she said, "I'm satisfied," so we held off on the pictures documenting our five years of love. That woman was missing out! Then she made Frenchie promise he's not a terrorist or prostitute. We were approved immediately! Thank goodness we don't have to fill out any more paperwork! Frenchie is allergic to forms.

The waiting room was much more interesting. Many of the other people in the room had attorneys with them so it was interesting to see them at work. For example, one couple came out of the interview area, sat down with their attorney and handed him a GIANT wad of cash. They were being discrete but luckily I looked over at just the right time. That was one happy old attorney. At that moment I decided I wanted to be an immigration attorney.

Seriously though, I think it would be really cool to work in immigration. The process is SOOO confusing, even for me, so I can't imagine being a non-English speaker and trying to navigate the system. Plus, this might be coming from nothing, but I got the idea while eavesdropping on other people's interview experiences that ours was much easier. I can't help but wonder if it is easier for people with a certain education level or from certain countries to become residents and citizens of the United States. OK, I guess I'm not really wondering, I'm pretty positive this is going on and I would love to fight that prejudice.

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Win a FLIP camera from Common Sense With Money.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm Sauce

Some of you know about it, some of you probably think that I'm crazy to be this obsessed with a sauce, others are allergic to nuts and can't enjoy (sorry Marie!). Cafe Yumm is a restaurant that was started in Eugene and is spreading across Oregon. Their signature dish is the Yumm bowl which is rice, beans, some other stuff and YUMM SAUCE. I was pretty convinced that this sauce had crack in it because it is totally addictive. While I was in law school in Eugene I would crave Yumm bowls and went there at least twice a week. Usually more. I found the recipe online, probably stolen by an employee, but it doesn't mention crack as an ingredient. Strange...

After what was hopefully my last turkey lunch (SO sick of turkey!), I trekked to Whole Paycheck to find almond flour and nutritional yeast. It turns out both of these ingredients are insanely expensive so I decided to splurge only on the nutritional yeast (I know, it sounds gross but it is essential to the sauce) and use some slivered almonds I had instead of almond flour. Here is the recipe I used.

YUMMM SAUCE
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup almonds (for a creamier sauce use almond flour)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup chickpeas or garbanzo beans
1/4 cup soybeans, cooked (from a can, not edamame)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lemon juice
1-2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried cilantro

Directions:
Blend everything together in a food processor or blender. Cover and let sit in refrigerator overnight (or a couple hours if you can't wait). Don't cover too tightly because it may expand with the yeast.

I made it last night and then realized this morning that I totally forgot to add the oil. Strange because I usually look forward to adding the fat to any recipe, so I had to put everything back in the blender to add some oil.

and...THE VERDICT IS IN. It smells and tastes like Yumm sauce! There is something a little off, maybe the texture with the almonds instead of the almond flour? But wow. Totally brought me back to the good 'ol days.

This sauce is great with rice and beans, chili, vegetables, salad dressing, and basically on everything!

Meyer Lemon Cranberry Scone

Meyer Lemon Cranberry Scone
Originally uploaded by etjarrell

Meyer Lemon Cranberry Scones

2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (from about 3 lemons; preferably Meyer)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse, or 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries or dried cherries
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream (I used milk)

Preheat oven to 400°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

With a vegetable peeler remove the zest from lemons and chop fine, reserving lemons for another use.

In a food processor pulse flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal and transfer to a large bowl.

In a small bowl toss together fresh cranberries and 3 tablespoons sugar and stir into flour mixture. If using dried fruit, add to flour mixture.

In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.

On a well-floured surface with floured hands pat dough into a 1-inch-thick round (about 8 inches in diameter) and with a 2-inch round cutter or rim of a glass dipped in flour cut out as many rounds as possible, rerolling scraps as necessary. Arrange rounds about 1 inch apart on baking sheet and bake in middle of oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until pale golden.

Serve scones warm with crème fraîche or whipped cream. Scones keep, individually wrapped in plastic wrap and foil, chilled, 1 day or frozen 1 week.

My first attempt at scone making. It was sort of a disaster, especially since I did it before having any coffee.

Note to self. Do not bake before coffee.

The cranberry's I had were frozen so I tried defrosting them with water. This made them all mushy and difficult to cut. The mushiness in turn made the dough super wet so I had to keep adding flour. Until I ran out of flour (probably for the best) and just plopped the sticky mess onto the cookie sheet. And they turned out OK! Not wonderful, but definitely edible, especially if warmed up a little.

Franco-filly

I have to vent about my French class a little. We had a makeup class this week so I had class Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It's like I was in France this week! Ok, maybe not, but it was a lot of crazy French teacher. Our teacher is pretty nice but not such a great teacher. She doesn't speak any English so she asks us to do things in French but we have no idea what she is asking so she just keeps repeating herself. Lady, you can repeat that sentence 57 times and I'm still not going to know what you are saying! Eventually she'll just give up and ask something else or do some pointing. She gets obsessed with certain things, like teaching us the difference between types of kisses and pointing to her tongue to explain, what we call, French kisses. Gross!

Besides the weird teacher, one of the students is equally strange. I'll call her P. I told her near the beginning of the course that I was married to a French man and she started to get excited and suggested he give her private lessons. Ok, that's a little weird, but whatever. Then a couple weeks ago we went to an open house at the French Library and P was there. I introduced P and Frenchie and she got very excited and talked to him the whole time, asking him many things about France and French movies. This was a little strange but she is obviously a Francophile and kind of socially weird so didn't think much of it.

Yesterday, though, she took it a little further. Two of us in class are married and the two others are single so we were talking about our statuses and all of the sudden, P says, "I'm waiting for Emily to divorce her husband so I can marry him." Huh? Seriously lady? I mean, she sort of laughed while she said this but isn't that a totally inappropriate thing to say? Then, today after class P wanted to go out for coffee so, seeing as I had nothing else to do, I joined her. Twice in our conversation she said she wanted to marry Frenchie. I had no idea how to respond to this so I just sort of ignored it. What would you have said? I mean, I barely know this woman and she keeps saying she wants me to get divorced and steal my husband. I spent the whole conversation trying to think of something witty and equally as weird to say to her to "get her back." But, as usual during these opportunities in life, my mind went blank. We have two more classes so if you have any suggestions let me know.

Our tiny Christmas tree

Our tiny Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by etjarrell

We found a Christmas tree in a pot at Russo's. We wrapped the bottom in a cape that Frenchie had. Yes, he owns a cape, you have a problem with that?

The tree is a Dwarf Alberta Spruce which we unfortunately found out later will not survive inside for long. So we will be rotating it outside periodically because it would be really sad if it died! Although it will probably die anyway because I have that effect on plants. Unlike the rest of my family, I was born without the green thumb.