Put on Your Dancing Shoes

(Vienna in her dance costume)

Taking Time on Tuesdays with Joni

This last weekend we were busy with my daughter Vienna's dance recital. It was quite the week. On Thursday we had rehearsals then the recital was on Friday and Saturday. It felt like much of the week was spent getting ready for the recital, curling hair, putting on making and going to the recital. I was worried that it might put me into labor but luckily we survived! Vienna did such a wonderful job and I am sure I looked like the proud parent. When she was walking out onto stage I was so nervous for her that I even crossed my fingers. I knew that she was scared but she did wonderful. She smiled so cute and did every step perfectly. I was in tears because I was so proud of her. It was so fun to see her and she looked so cute. Though it was a lot of work, it was worth it to see her up on the stage.

Seeing her dance brought back memories of my dancing days. Out of all my sisters, I was the dancer. I loved dancing and did it all the way through college. I miss dancing now. The difference with dancing and any other sport, is how often people come and watch you. With my sisters' sports teams, you could find the whole family going to the school twice a week to watch their games. My parents believed in us all supporting each other, so much of my after school activities were spent in a gym watching a sibling play. I always enjoyed watching them. For me as a dancer, the frequency of support wasn't so often. I went twice a week to practice and had a performance twice a year. We worked hard every week and were only able to perform every six months. That made it a big deal to have a recital. My family always came to the recitals and were very supportive. It was fun to have them there. One recital I had when I was in high school I will never forget. My dad had gone to the bathroom in the middle of intermission. As he was in there, he heard the dads complaining, "If I have to watch one more dance with kids throwing big beach balls, I will die." "I don't know if I can sit through this much longer" etc, etc. My dad won the super dad award that day. He said something like, "Hey guys. I don't think you would be complaining like this in the middle of your son's T Ball game or basketball game. You need to give your daughters the same support." I don't know if he made a difference to those dads, but to me he made a huge difference. He was showing the same support to me as he did to my sisters' sports. He showed me that it was worth it to sit through all the other dances to get to see my dances. I felt very loved that day.

Now I am a mom watching my daughter dance. And I now have a husband who had to sit through two hour recitals twice this weekend. Instead of complaining, he came and supported Vienna and even brought her flowers. He is a good man and Vienna is lucky he is her dad. And my dad was there, sitting through dance after dance of little kids. And I didn't hear one complaint! I am surrounded by good men. Thanks for the support!

Recipe of the Week: Tempura Vegetables Gluten Free

This is a batter recipe to make Japanese-style fried vegetables. It was so yummy and we had a lot of fun making it.

Ingredients:

1 egg well beaten

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup rice flour

1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup sprite

3 cups of vegetable oil, for frying

2 cups of cut and washed vegetables (You can use mushrooms, sweet potatoes, zucchini, green peppers, onions, or any vegetable you choose, just cut them up in french fries size of vegetables)

Instructions:

-In a medium size bowl, mix up all the dry ingredients

-In a separate bowl, beat the egg up

-Slowly add the egg and sprite to the dry ingredients while mixing

-Whisk until well blended

-heat up the oil. We used a fry daddy and heated it to 375 degrees

-Dip the vegetable one at a time in the batter and put into the hot oil. Turn when golden brown.

-When nice and golden on all sides, put on a plate with paper towel

-You can dip in cocktail sauce, ranch, or a tempura sauce. I made a sauce with 1/2 c Soy sauce (gluten free, I got from a health food store) 1/3 c vinegar, 1/3 c Honey, 1 T Sesame Oil, sugar to taste)

-Happy Dipping!