Agriculture Identification Contest

Yesterday, I participated in a Texas Agriculture Identification Contest at the Academic Rodeo in the East Texas State Fairgrounds. The  Academic Rodeo is where people from public, private, and homeschools all over East Texas come and participate in one or more of 14 different contests which includes the agriculture  identification contest, fashion show, writing and art contests, one act play, Lego mindset etc. At the AG ID contest you basically have to identify the product, answer if the product grows above or below ground. and what it classifies as. Today I found out how I placed. I placed 1st place over all the other middle school kids.


*picture taken from http://www.etstatefair.com

Buddha's hand fruit

Q. Can you identify this fruit?  This fruit originated in Northeastern India or China. It grows on a shrub tree with long thorny branches. This fruit's tree has leaves that are four to six inches long with blossoms that are white with a purple tint. It contains small amount of fruit and is juiceless. The Chinese and Japanese use it for perfuming rooms. The peel of this fruit can be succaded which is a candied peel of a citrus fruit. A neat fact I learned when researching this fruit is: Trees can be grown from cuttings taken from branches two to four years old. 

A. If you guessed a budda hand you're correct.

Food Show

My dish

Yesterday, I participated in the 4-H Food Show, Food Challenge, and the Food Quiz Bowl. First, I did the Food Show and won first place. The Food Show is where you make a food and tell how you made it, how it is healthy for you, and tell how many calories your dish has. After the Food Show, my team won first place in the Food Quiz Bowl. The Quiz Bowl is where you and a team of other kids have buzzers and buzz in answers about food nutrition and safety. Lastly, my team won first place in the Food Challenge. The Food Challenge is kind of like the Iron Chef but you have to tell how the food is healthy  how much it cost to make, and safety precautions you used. Since I won in all of the contests I will get to go to district with the 4-H Food Show, Food Challenge, and the Food Quiz Bowl.


If you would like to make the dish that I made, below is the recipe.


Chinese New Year Noodles with Shrimp
6 ounces thin spaghetti noodles
7 ounces shrimp, deveined
1 ½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt, divided
½ teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/4 cup snow peas, sliced thin on diagonal
1/4 cup matchstick cut carrots
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine can substitute for apple juice.
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Bring a stockpot of water to boil. Add 1 tsp of salt to water and cook thin spaghetti, according to package directions. Drain. While pasta is cooking, place shrimp in a small bowl and add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the cornstarch. Mix well and let sit for 8 minutes. Rinse the shrimp well, washing off the salt and cornstarch. Pat very dry with paper towels.
In a wok or large skillet, heat cooking oil on high until a bead of water sizzles and evaporates upon contact. Add the shrimp and fry until halfway cooked through, about 1 minute each side. Dish out the shrimp to a plate, keeping as much oil in wok as possible (you should have about 1 teaspoon of oil left and you may add a just a bit of oil into the pan if needed.)
Turn heat down to medium and add garlic. Fry until fragrant, about 15 seconds then add the snow peas and carrots. Fry for 1 minute, until the carrots and snow peas are cooked but still retain a nice crunch. Add the soy sauce and rice wine. Turn heat to high and add the drained spaghetti noodles and shrimp. Toss well to combine. Let cook for 2 minutes, until shrimp is cooked through. Toss with sesame oil and sesame seeds.

Happy new year

              Happy New Year!!
2013 Has finally come. One of my family's traditions is to write down what we want to accomplish this year. This year some of the things I want to do this year are:

1. Read the whole Bible
2. Ride Benny(Benny is the horse)
3. Plant a garden and keep it weed free.
4. Spend more time with my pets.
5. Write letters to our neighbors that moved and my friends.
6. Explore our property(again)
7. Get a tree house
8. Read all the books in my room.
9. Blog more consistent
10. Use our microscope more.
11. Cook new dishes.
12. Expand my poultry business.
13. Improve my shooting skills
14. Lead one of my neighbors to Christ.
15. Win 4-H Contest that I have entered.
16. Get more vet shadowing hours in the vet science program.

What are some of your new year goals?

Christmas

                                          Merry Christmas

To celebrate this Christmas season we decorated our house for Christmas. Some of my favorite decorations are our ceramic Christmas villages, stockings, and nativity scene. I also really like our Christmas ornaments. This year for the first time we bought a fake Christmas tree from Hobby Lobby.The tree is a nine foot Montana Pine.
On Christmas Eve we open the presents that we got from each other. I got a coupon book for game time, books, and a dice game called Farkle from my little brother. My sister gave me Temple Run the board game ,and candy. From my parents I got the Lego camper, Lego minifigures, Bobwhite quail, books, and an awesome pair of cowboy boots. My favorite thing(s) from my parents would be the Bobwhite quail. I really like the quail because: I can take them to the local livestock show, hatch their eggs in my incubator, and release some of them in the wild. I will keep you updated with the raising of my quail.

Bobwhite quail

The next day we got to see what Santa had brought us. I received more Lego products, a replica of the wild west playset, clothes,candy, and a bunch of other really neat items.

What did you get for Christmas ? Please comment and let me know.

Christmas cookies

 This year to start off the Christmas holiday, we made several batches of M&M, gingerbread men, spritz, and sugar cookies. After we finished baking all of the cookies, we delivered them to our friends, neighbors, and members of our church family. My favorite kind of cookie to bake is the spritz cookies because you   use a cookie press to make the cookie design. My favorite cookie to eat would be the sugar cookies. Although making Christmas cookies, giving and receiving presents and everything else that you do for Christmas is fun, make sure you remember that if God hadn't sent his Son Jesus Christ to be born on Christmas day we wouldn't celebrate CHRISTmas.  

Luke 2:9-14

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. (10) And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. (11) For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (12) And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, (14) “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” To read more Christmas bible verses click  here

Jesus is the reason for the season art taken from here

Gaylord Texan

My grandparent's wedding anniversary is on the first day of December. This year they celebrated 50 years together. My Dad planed a weekend trip to the Gaylord Texan for them,my aunt and older cousin,Steven, plus my family and I. Normally, the Gaylord Texan has authentic replicas of the River Walk, Hill Country, and the Palo Duro Canyon.  While we were there, everything was decorated for Christmas; there were giant toy soldiers, huge presents, trees, large Santa's boots,and a big gingerbread house. Also, there were toy trains decorated for Christmas, fake icicles, poinsettias and a tall rocking horse. They also had a lot of  Christmas activates for you to do such as; decorate gingerbread houses, observe gingerbread houses which chefs and college students made, and ICE, a life size display of 2 million pounds of carved ice.

A life size gingerbread house 

As you can imagine,with one-and-a-half million twinkling lights, 12,000 ornaments, 5,600 feet of garland, and an amazing 52-foot-tall Christmas tree everything was really festive. We were able to get to go to Ice! and it was wonderful. This year's Ice theme was Merry Madagascar Christmas Marty, Melman, Gloria, Alex, King Julian, and Mort. Plus lemurs, reindeer, Santa, a sleigh, and several ice slides were all carved out of ice. At the end there was a nativity, all carved out of clear ice, which sparkled and looked really nice. The Nativity was my favorite part of the ice carving display. The next day we ate a breakfast buffet on the River walk. After we ate, my Aunt Laura and cousin Steven went and picked up my Uncle Albert and my other cousin, David. They had just returned from Italy. Then we went and ate at a steak restaurant. The next day we went home.  

Lego replica of The Gaylord Texan 

A wall with plants growing out of it which I thought was cool.

Koi fish in a replica of the river walk in San Antonio.

My dad, grandfather, cousin, and my older sister under a replica
  of a tree called the "treaty oak" which cost $250,000.

Me in front of a giant Christmas tree.

My Grandparents, aunt and dad.