Salmon with a Vietnamese Twist

Bret bought a fishing license so we've been going out fishing. He finally caught something for the first time in Utah since I've known him. It was just a tiny trout that he ended up tossing back.
Anyways, whenever we fish here in Utah I get nostalgic and miss fishing in Alaska where you are always successful and what you catch is usually HUGE. (This is a king salmon that I helped reel in.)

Anyways, Salmon is my favorite fish to eat and I love the way my mom always made it so today I'll be posting her recipe. She's Vietnamese and brought her Asian influences to wild Alaskan food (like Moose Phở). So even though there aren't Salmon in Vietnam, I'll call this dish Vietnamese Salmon!

I also wanted to submit this post for the Delicious Vietnam #3 blogging event. Anh of A Food Lovers’ Journey and Hong and Kim from Ravenous Couple came up with the idea where people all over the world could get together and share their love of Vietnamese food in a combined blog post once a month.

Vietnamese Salmon

Ingredients:
1 Large Salmon Fillet
3 Cloves of Garlic, minced
3 Tbs Oil
1 recipe of Vietnamese Dipping Sauce/Nuoc Cham (At the end of blog post)
approx. 1/2 cup Sugar

Directions:
Cut up your fillet into single sized portions. Heat the oil in a large skillet and add the minced garlic, bring to medium heat. Then add your Salmon portions and cook each side for a few minutes until cooked all the way through.

Pull the Salmon out and set aside. Pour out the excess oil and discard. Now add about 1 cup of the Nuoc Cham liquid into the skillet. Add in the sugar and cook it down until the sauce caramelizes and turns into a syrup consistency. The more sugar you add, the quicker you'll reach your desired thickness. When the sauce is done, pour it over the Salmon and serve it immediately with a side of rice and your favorite vegetables.
This dish is sweet, savory, and has just a little bit of heat to it. The sauce will have a very strong smell as you cook it but the flavor will be amazing! It's also a great way to use up your left over Nuoc Cham when you've made it for other Vietnamese dishes. Enjoy!

Sensitive Vascular Tree

Sensitive Vascular Tree... Doesn't that sound pretty? Well... I saw the Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist down in St. George yesterday and he did an ultrasound of the cord and said that I have a sensitive vascular tree which means that I WILL be having preeclampsia again with this pregnancy. It is disappointing but on the bright side nothing has gone wrong yet and now that they know this early they can keep a close eye on me. I'm starting a medication for high blood pressure to keep my pressure down and I was also instructed to get plenty of rest. I can't do anything too exciting and I should not lose my temper. Haha- I told Bret he'd better start treating me like a princess so that I don't have a reason to lose my temper! :D According to the ultrasound, the baby looks good and healthy so no problems there which is a blessing. They took my blood and they'll be running tests to see how my internal organs are doing so far. With preeclampsia my organs will start to deteriorate and when that happens they will induce labor to get the baby and the placenta out. The only cure for preeclampsia is to get the placenta out. For some reason, once that happens the mother gets all better. The downside to that is that the baby gets kicked out of her warm uterus a bit too early. The doctor told me that the magic number is 32 weeks. If I can make it to 32 weeks of pregnancy before things go wrong with my body then she will have a 99% chance of survival and a 99% chance of avoiding neurological damage. As of right now (27 weeks) the percentage is only 75% so if we make it to at least 32 weeks then things will be so much better.

Anyways- wish us luck and keep us in your thoughts and prayers if you could. We'd appreciate it!

Pregnancy Update

I am now 26 weeks along and had another ultrasound this week. The baby is looking good and is right on target for growth- she's estimated to be 1 lb, 14 oz. It was confirmed that she IS a girl. Her sitting position was much more cooperative this time for trying to figure that out.

Names we're debating between:
Esmae Linh
or
Rowan Kieu
Which do you like better?

So as some of you may recall- during my pregnancy with Kien I had preeclampsia (pregnancy induced hypertension) kick in when I was 30 weeks pregnant and I ended up having to deliver Kien at 33 weeks after 3 weeks of strict bed rest in the St. George hospital.

My doctor has been keeping a close eye on me and checks my blood pressure every week to make sure it doesn't sky rocket again like it did last time. I get a nurse named Bree who I really like! She bought one of Willow and Sam's shi-tzu babies from us a long time ago (we called him brown bear and she named him Koda- coincidence? I think not). Anyways- she is usually the one to check my blood pressure and when she does it's always good. However, whenever she is not there and someone else checks it, it always ends up being a lot higher. Weird right? She started to worry that she's not doing it right but she double checks me and says she can hear it and she knows it's right. I don't know- maybe I'm just more comfortable with her???? Anyways- my OB doctor wants me to go see a specialist down in St.George who specializes in High Risk Pregnancies, just to make sure that everything that can be done is being done to make this pregnancy go smoothly. I have an appointment on Monday so we'll see how that goes.

I have really great in-laws who are constantly praying for us and putting our names in the temple so I appreciate that and I know it has made a difference. One of the other signs that preeclampsia was coming when I was pregnant with Kien was that I had MAJOR swelling and the protein in my urine was really high. This time around the swelling has been pretty minimal (compared to my giant bee-stung-looking-face last time) and the protein in the urine has just been "trace" which means trace amounts which is low which is GOOD.

I can laugh at my bloated face now but there was a very long time that this picture was kept in a vault and for good reason!
Anyways- that's the update.

Vietnamese Dinner

Have I told you lately how much I LOVE Vietnamese food? I found an excellent recipe online for Bun Thit Nuong- One of my all time favorite Vietnamese dishes. I always order it when I get to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant. Here's a LINK to the recipe (Found it at The Ravenous Couple blog-GREAT RECIPES). It is grilled pork with lots of great flavors (lemongrass, shallots, garlic, etc.) laid on top of rice vermicelli with a lot of fresh veggies and herbs like cucumber, basil, mint, cilantro, bean sprouts, and green leaf lettuce. I also made pickled daikon radish and carrots- so yummy!!! Then you pour nuoc cham all over it and you're in heaven. I also made egg rolls that people could cut up into bite size pieces to put in their bowls as well. Here's a LINK to my previous blog post for my egg roll and nuoc cham recipe.

Anyways, our good friends Brian and Amy recently moved to Las Vegas and we wanted to have one last dinner with them and some of the other cousins. So I made the dinner above and it turned out great. Thanks to Amy for taking the pictures!!!Cousin Brent made me so happy when he said that he couldn't stop smiling while he was eating because it was one of the best meals he's had in a long time. Good ole' Brent. We need to feed him more often. (Because I really love to be praised for my food!!!)

After dinner, the boys enjoyed watching some UFC online.
Kien had a great time playing with cousin Hannah. We sure are going to miss them.

It's a Girl... or so they think.

We had our ultrasound this morning and the little baby kept putting its foot in the way of its nether regions so they weren't 100% sure but for a brief moment little baby Hicken moved her foot and the US tech said she thought it was a girl- that that was her best guess.

So..... It's a Girl!!! How fun. Kien will be an excellent big brother. We're very excited. Here are the pictures from her latest photo shoot:

3-D Pictures:
This sleepy little princess is rubbing her eyes....

The Little One's First Picture

Here's a snap shot taken yesterday morning of our little one:

Baby Number Two

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am pregnant with baby #2. Bret and I are super excited for a new little family member. I'm 14 weeks along and the baby is due on September 13th. We'll find out next month what we're having. We've tried to explain to Kien about a baby being in my belly a couple of times but I don't think he believes me. :D