Dusty Muffins

I made blueberry muffins today. They are delicious. The best part is smearing a huge portion of butter across the split I make in the middle, and watching it melt as I shove the whole thing in my mouth. It's very ladylike, don't worry.

But it does make me think of this video, which is hilarious, and also very ladylike.

Cinco De Mayo

Hooray for a reason to eat Mexican food. I freaking love Mexican food. I totally should have been a Mexican. Except that then I would get deported when I visit Arizona, and my family would have to make do without me.

That wouldn't be much fun. For them.

For me? Totally fun. I could live it up pretty good there in Mexico on a beach with a margarita and a hammock.

But for tonight we just celebrated by eating Pioneer Woman's enchiladas. Muy delicioso.

With Spanish like that, how could I not love Mexico?

Baking Blunders

About a week and a half ago, Emma had her Stake Activity Days activity at our Stake Center. Since I'm the Ward leader, I was in charge of getting all 6 girls there and back, and entertaining them during the 45 minute drive each way. It wasn't an easy task. But we survived.

One perk was that during the activity, they had the girls assemble cookies in a jar. You know, where you add the flour, sugars, salt, and chocolate chips in a cute little mason jar? Yeah, those. You've probably received them for Christmas from neighbors or friends. They're cute, and I always thought it would be a fun idea for neighbor gifts. After this, I'm rethinking that idea.

So we made the cookies. I followed the directions and everything. It wasn't pretty. I don't know if the recipe was skewed to fit in the jars, or if they just didn't think about it too much, figuring nobody would really go home and make them.

I did.

And here's what I ended up with. These cookies are so flat and gross. They are burned on the edges and raw in the center. And they were nasty. Yes, I tasted them. I wasn't about to let an ugly cookie go to waste. I don't discriminate on looks. But they tasted as good as they looked.


So I improvised. Not being a baker by nature, I had to call upon my 4H skills from years past, and dig deep. I added a cup of flour to thicken up the batter. Still looked weird, so I added some oatmeal. After mixing it for what seemed like an eternity, it finally came together and resembled cookie dough.

I baked them. They looked pretty good.


See? Better. They were fluffier, not raw in the center, and the edges were nice and golden brown.

But they tasted like crap.

See, you should never discriminate based on looks alone.

So I'll stick with my own cookie recipe. One that never fails, and makes a million cookies. I should know to never trust my baking abilities to the hands of strangers. Never again, I say! Nevah!

It's What I Do When My Head Gets Restless

The last couple of days I've been doing something I don't usually do a lot of. No, not exercising. No, not cleaning. No, not parenting.

Cooking!

I mean I usually cook dinner, most nights. Really, I do. But I don't usually really cook. I mean, I'll heat up some chicken nuggets and a can of beans and a box of rice, and then I'll make some honey mustard dip or Ultimate Dipping Sauce, but that's about as gourmet as I get.

These last few days my head had been restless. That's the only way I can describe it. I have a lot going on, and I don't deal well with stress. I have a big party coming up for Activity Days, I have the Primary Program coming up, and I have to teach and review and encourage and teach some more for that, and I have people around me that are struggling with depression, and that alone brings back so many emotions of what that feels like.

So I started cooking, and it felt good.

First I made Pioneer Woman's Tres Leches Cake.

If you haven't tried TLC, you are missing out on pure bliss. There is a little scary Mexican restaurant near my house that has it, only occasionally, and when my mom and sisters were here, we were able to try it. They all loved it. And PW's version is better than that! It's not an easy recipe, meaning there are a lot of steps, but it's not too bad.

Next I made Avocado Ranch Dressing.

I love this stuff. I could (and do) eat it straight out of the bowl. Last night I heated up (see, cooking!) some chicken fried steaks, sliced them up, and put them over a yummy salad of green leaf lettuce and sliced carrots. Add a dollop of the dressing, and it's lovely bliss.

This makes my head calm. Keeping my hands busy doing something, and then being able to enjoy the fruits, or veggies, of my labors is very cathartic. I think I've always been like this, which is why I blog. It's just what I do.

Saucy

Last night for enrichment night we had a real treat. A man in our Ward is a retired chef from several restaurants in Chicago, including some Country Clubs. He's studied under Classic American chefs, German chefs, and Italian chefs, and brings a little of each to the table. He so graciously agreed to host our cooking class, and wow, did we have a great time.

He taught us how to make 3 simple pasta sauces from scratch. Easy stuff for him, but for some of us, me, it was nice to see that making it from scratch is almost easier than opening a bottle of some store brand.

We had a marinara with chunks of peppers, cherry tomatoes, and onion. Yum! Although those of you that know me, know I would forgo the cherry tomatoes in place of perhaps mushrooms or even tofu.

A dreamy easy garlic sauce. Perfect over shrimp or chicken, or just on it's own with some summer veggies on the side.

And last but not least, my absolute favorite, an Alfredo sauce that would knock your socks off. This one I'm making tonight. How easy is this. Heavy cream, simmered, some parmesean cheese melting in it, add a little salt and pepper to taste, pour over pasta with chicken, steak, veggies, husband, whatever, and voila! Perfect dinner.

I'll be sure and take pictures. I did make a yummy shrimp scampi on Sunday. I was in heaven. SugarDaddy was on the fence, he has shrimp issues that go back to the Sunday night visits with my parents and the shrimp had been sitting out all day. The kids, no way in heck were they touching the stuff. You know what that meant for me? Extra leftovers for lunch the next day! Yay!

You might think I'm turning into a Top Chef, and trust me, sometimes I think I am, but then I pull out a frozen pizza or a box of Mac n Cheese, and am humbled again. I'm still just me.

Saucy.

Pop On Over

I woke up feeling good today. I know! It's a miracle. I think part of it had to do with the fact that I took 3 Klonopin before I went to bed, ahhh, drug induced sleep, and part of it has to do with the fact that Emma has her school talent show try-outs today. I have a little nervous energy by proxy, I guess.

So I needed to keep busy this morning. I wasn't in the mood for a shower yet, so I started on dinner. I have a dentist appointment tonight (again), and knew I needed to get dinner made in advance, so I got the noodles going, and the meat browning.

Then I remembered a recipe I had come across in a book I had been reading. It sounded good at the time, so in the middle of the night, I snuck down to the computer and made a copy of it.

Today seemed like as good a time as any to try it out. So here it is.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with the noodles or meat. Completely different recipe, that one.


Popovers. Basically eggs, milk, flour and salt baked at high temperatures until they look like this. Now, the recipe said to use muffin tins. I have a handy dandy Popover Pan courtesy of Sugar Daddy and his sweet hook ups, so I thought I'd break that bad boy out and see what it could do.

Judging by the height on these things, I'm thinking a muffin tin would have been better. But how cool are they? They taste like a round German pancake.


Here's Gretta enjoying her popover. No, really, she is. I know the look on her face doesn't show it, but she was very concerned about me sitting on the floor and blocking her binky. You know, priorities. Next time I will definitely use a muffin tin. Or maybe just fill the popover pan half full. Or is it half empty?

I finished getting dinner ready in the time they were cooking. How cool do I feel right now? Yeah.


Here's the recipe for you recipephiles.

4 eggs, should be about 1 cup of eggs.
Beat for 1 minute with a whisk, just to incorporate them.

Add 2 cups milk.
Whisk again, just to incorporate.

Add 2 cups flour and 1tsp salt all at once, and mix with a wooden spoon. It will be lumpy, so don't over mix.

Bake in a preheated oven at 450 for 30 mins.

Don't peek, because if you open the oven door, they will fall flat.
When they're done, take them out to cool and pierce with a sharp knife to release the steam.

Serve with butter, mmm, or jam, or honey butter, or cashew butter, or orange marmalade, or road tar. They are that good.

Meat Twinkie

Sugar Daddy loves his meat loaf. And I've learned to make it just the way he likes it. But last time I made it, he was bragging about it at work, and someone told him they stuff theirs with Mozzarella cheese. Of course, Sugar Daddy can't turn down anything cheese-stuffed, so I had to try it.


Behold, the slice of cheese stuffed meat loaf. It really was quite good, although a little cheesy for my taste. But then again, I'm not a loaf of many things lover. Bread, of course, but not of the meat variety.


And the Meat Twinkie in it's natural habitat. Next time I'll probably just cut up chunks of Mozzarella cheese and insert them into the already formed loaf, as it is quite tricky to "stuff" it. It was more like "shove it in there until it stays put". I'm sure Rachael Ray has a better way.

Beaten

The other day I made a killer lasagna. My trick? Rinse the cottage cheese, then drain it through a tea towel to make it nice and crumbly. Then add it to the Ricotta, with a beaten egg and some Parmesan. Delish.

But it was killer in another way, as well.

You see, I like to eat leftovers for lunch, and I was so excited to have a slice of this tasty cheesy treat yesterday. I microed it, covered in a paper towel of course, and then let it sit in the microwave while I patiently waited for it to reach eatable temperature. When it was time, I whipped open the door to the microwave, reached in to retrieve my noodley yumminess, when the microwave door decides it wants to fight back. It came swinging back to the closed position, which it would have achieved, had my eye not been directly in the spot where the hook latches it closed.

I took it right to the edge of my ocular. I swore, sorry Mom, and instantly thought I was going to be blind. I rushed to the sink, fearing a blood storm, grabbed a towel to stop the flow, when I realized something. Nothing. Nothing at all. No blood. No eye juice. No nothing at all. At first I was little miffed, because I was expecting something great after all that pain. Then I was relieved that I wasn't blinded. Then I was fully expecting to see a great big bruise that I could pass off as my battered wife wound.

Still, nothing. Don't get me wrong. It hurts like Hell. I can't even squint my eye without a stinging sensation permeating my face and eye ball. But there isn't even a mark where the stupid thing hit me! Not a mark! I have acne scars more noticeable than this thing.

I'm such a wuss. But hopefully in a day or two it will bruise up nicely so I can play the battered wife card and get some sympathy.

(New) In Town

We were able to have Ken and Michelle and their two cute girls over for the weekend. It is nice having some family close enough that we can crash at each others houses on random occasions. Ken had an early interview in the City on Friday, so Michelle and I stayed home and watched the kids play. And by play, I mean fight. To the death. It was like total WWF around here. Our little 2 year old's can NOT play nicely together. But it was still fun to have them here.

Friday night, after an easy dinner of chicken nuggets, Grandma rice, and Grandma beans, Michelle and I headed out to see New In Town. It was a cute movie. Mindless, and easy to watch, a perfect escape for a night out.

Saturday we hit Panda Express for some EggRo goodness. Mmm. And then it was Roast Beef for dinner. I over did my mashed potato to gravy ratio, and ended up eating them like they were soup, but they were still mighty tasty. I'm a sucker for mashed potatoes and gravy, just like my Mom was.

Sunday we sort of pooped out on church since I had no voice due to that stinking cold I was brewing, and Gretta was sporting all sorts of pretty green boogers, so we just hung out most of the day. I don't think Ken even changed out of his pajamas. Good boy. We fried up some steaks and baked potatoes for dinner, and life was good.

Today I let Emma stay home from school to spend a little more time with the cousins, and because I'm such a cool mom like that. She helped out with the sheet washing, and by entertaining the kids while everything got packed up it the van.

It was a fun visit. We always love having family over. Hint hint.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Sunday was a big day at our house. We hosted a huge Superbowl par-tay. It was a total blast. Here are just a few of the highlights.

A view from the balcony. The men were all intent on the game, and more so on the commercials. I think the "Wipe Out" show was an attention grabber, as well.

The pile-o-coats. Since we moved our front room furniture into the living room to accommodate our 30 + guests, there wasn't a better place to throw the winter garb.

This little gal chewed away on her chubby little toes, and melted our hearts with those fat rolls. I'm pretty sure I could eat her. I don't think Tina would mind, do you?

And a little view of some of the mess atop my counter. Home made pizza, tons of appetizers, and delicioso desserts made for a filling party menu.

We got an impromptu cheer session from Shylo. I outed Carli and her 9 month flu, and we corrupted the Elders because we wouldn't turn off the game when they came over. But for the record, they just came, ate, and skedaddled. I bonded with the newest Kelley and her bow making abilities, (Yay!) and I think Noel, Brooke and I had a little 3 way action that sent The Chad over the top.

I'm just a good hostess like that, what can I say?

We did miss our Lacey Fay, as she was out having just birthed her third baby boy, Justin. But we'll bring her some pizza as a consolation prize. For missing the party, not for giving birth.

And the fact that the Steelers brought it home, including #99, made it that much sweeter.

Good Santa, Bad Santa

We had our annual Ward Christmas party on Saturday night, as did the rest of the Mormon world, I think. Being on the newly formed activities committee, we were in charge of various aspects of the party. Part of the food, including baking 5 bags of potatoes, the paper products, and finding a suitable (get it, suit?) Santa, were all left up to us. After volunteering said Santa, there were a few weeks where we weren't sure we would even have a Santa. Luckily, he came around, and decided it would be good for his soul, not to mention his sleeping habits, since if he had rejected the part, he would be sleeping on the couch. We procured a suitable suit from neighbor Kate, and Voila! Santa was born.


Santa with some neighborhood girls. Excellent babysitters, these girls. Look how excited they are!


Who knew Santa had such big beautiful blue eyes?


And here he is telling a sweet story of the symbolism of the candy cane. He did an excellent job. He knew most of the kids by name, which is always a plus when you're playing the part of Santa. The only "oopsie" moment, was when we realized he had on brown shoes, and not black. Eh, small details.


All in all, it was a great night. We had plenty of potatoes, ran out of side dishes, and had to make an emergency run to Jewel for more cookies for dessert. But everyone had a good time, and we fed and entertained about 165 people for 2 hours. Not bad. And our Bishop gave us a count, saying he thought we had at least 40 non-members or investigators present. Wow. That's unheard of in Utah. I don't even know 40 non-members in Utah! It's refreshing to see the community all come together to celebrate a common thread, regardless of religion.

That was our one big party, and now we're pretty much taking it easy until the Memorial Day picnic. I think we are planning a Spring service project, but we have to wait until the ice melts (around May) before we decide exactly what it will be. Now, it's all about getting us to Utah, through our first Christmas without Mom, and having the best wedding ever!

Remember That One Turkey?

Sugar Daddy kind of dropped the ball on our Thanksgiving dinner. After being asked by moi several times to go and pick up a turkey, he "forgot", and Sunday morning decided he could just run to Jewel and pick up a fresh one. Ha! Yeah, I knew it. I fully expected him to return empty handed, or at the very least, with a rotisserie chicken. But he went all out and purchased this here beauty. A fully cooked, yes you read that right, fully cooked, whole turkey. Vacuum sealed for freshness, and caramel color added for appeal. Mmm, caramel color, my fave.

So here we have the beginning product. Yes, it's a Butterball. That was my only hope of it turning out half decent, I've always had good luck with a Butterball.



Here it is in all of it's bagged glory. Why a bag you ask? I really don't know, except for that is how my mom always did hers, so that's how I do mine. No basting, it always turns out juicy, and it's just the way it is. Obviously I need to spring for the bigger roasting pan, as my scale of turkey to pan is a little off.



Here you see the temperature set at 320. The instructions say 350, but my oven is a total over achiever, and likes to cook a little hotter than it should. So I have to compensate. And you also see the timer set at 1 hour and 46 minutes. It should be 1 hour and 45 minutes, but I overshot it a little. I usually do this when I top off my gas tank too. I always get that 1 penny over. Dang penny. Also, I apparently have no use for that "Auto Clean" button. For I have never to this day cleaned any oven I have owned. Perhaps I should.



And here is the lovely finished product. Looks okay, right? The caramel color seems to have done a nice enough job. The juices were flowing, and the meat was tasty. I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised. Like so pleasantly surprised, that I'm thinking about going and buying another one to freeze and keep on hand just in case. For .89 a pound, it's not a bad deal. And considering that we've eaten turkey in some form or another for 3 days now, it's pretty economical.

So even though Sugar Daddy had to change up our routine, he proved me wrong, as usual, and came out on top. It ended up being a nice, simple, fairly easy meal to cook, and I was happy to be all together as a family again. Thanksgiving just isn't the same without Sean around. Nothing is.

Gifts

Some of you may or may not know that I hosted my In-Laws for a couple of weeks. And being the good hostess that I am, I never took one stinkin picture of any of the stuff we did. Yeah, I'm just cool like that. We did have a good time, though. We did lots of cool stuff. We did a "double dutch bus" tour of the City. Very interesting. We made pajama pants, and the poodle skirt. Charlie did laundry. Mountains of laundry. He even cleaned under my kids' beds. Seriously, that alone put me a good week ahead in the housework department.

But Mom, being the sweetheart she is, knows the two things I love the most. Cookies and Roosters. So she gave us a "thank-you" rooster cookie jar. And she filled it up with home made chocolate chip cookies. Yummy! They lasted about 3 days, and my kids were begging for more. So I spent all day yesterday (okay, like an hour, but it seemed like all day) making more chocolate chip cookies. And refilling the jar. And I suspect they will last another 3 days.

So thanks, Mom. That jar will be put to very good use.

Untitled

Wow. Today is quite the day. It's a Sunday, which is not a usual blogging day for me. But today, today I have to write. There are just too many words in my head, and let's face it, it gets crowded in there with the voices.

Today is my mom's birthday. She'd be 60. I miss her. A lot.

Today is also Conference Sunday. She loved Conference Sunday. She would cook turkey dinner, and we would meet up at her house to eat between sessions. It was the best.

17 years ago today, she and my dad were returning home with my brother from his mission to Japan. And guess what? She made sure Jill knew how to cook the turkey dinner so it would be ready for us when they arrived home.

1 year ago today we were enjoying our last "girls trip" to Seattle. We had the best time. The underground tour, the locks cruise, and Ruth's Chris. We practically had to wrestle my mom to the ground to get that bill away from her. But we did it, and it was the least we could do to show our appreciation. I would wrestle her to the ground in a second now, if i could.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that all of these events circle around this date. I find it strange that this has always been a special weekend for our family, even back 17 years. I know it will be comforting to hear our Prophet speak each year, around her birthday, and know that the words he and his disciples say will bring comfort to me. The last few days have been very emotional because of the anticipation of this weekend. I've had my share of anxiety attacks, pity party, and crying during dinner. But now, now I know that I have the knowledge and keys to see her again. And that makes this weekend even more special.

And I will be making a turkey dinner in her honor. Yams and all. And I will do it every conference Sunday, just like she did.

Happy birthday, Mom. I love you. I miss you.

Veggie Tales

Many of you may or may not know of my fear of veggies. One type in particular. I am very afraid of raw tomatoes. Raw tomatoes are the bane of my existence. Okay, I may be exaggerating a little here, but it's mostly for effect, so cut me some slack. But seriously, they frighten me. The smell, the texture, the feel, it all just makes me cringe, and gag a little.

Yesterday we (neighbor Kate and FFU* Noel) decided to take the entire bushel of tomatoes I bought and make Mom's salsa. I needed their help, mostly to deal with the raw tomatoes. But due to kid issues, running to and from school, naps, and pooping, I ended up having to deal with the tomatoes for a time. I came to one conclusion: they look like testicles. You may realize this is the second time in about a month that I've referenced testicles. Maybe I'm obsessed (Sugar Daddy wishes!) or maybe I just have a sick mind. Let's just say I'm not obsessed, so make your own assumptions.


So we went from these beauties

To these beauties in only 8 short hours. Granted, there are these couple of dozen, and the other few dozen Noel and Kate took. But how cute are these jars? I just fell in love with them as soon as I saw them. I drove an hour each way to get them, and they were worth every penny. They are made by Weck, and the clips just did it for me. I think Sugar Daddy was a little miffed at the cost, but what the hay, it was worth it.


And after all that work, we all felt like this. Poor G, she was just done. She literally fell asleep where she was playing. Poor little thing. She slept here on the kitchen floor for over an hour while I closed up all the jars. Honestly, it was kind of nice to not have her tugging at my pants and pulling them down. Apparently she was a little sleepy. Plus, she didn't feel good. Obviously.

So now it's chips and salsa all around. And fajitas. And tacos. And enchiladas. And anything else you can pour home made salsa over. Yummy.

*FFU- Friend From Utah. Noel and I knew of eachother in High School, but weren't close friends. She was a year older than I. At our first week in our new Ward here, she tracked me down, and ever since then we've been fast friends. The Lord definitely works in mysterious ways.

Proof

Wow, that weekend flew by. In fact, it flew by in such a fashion that my camera never made it out of the bag until just last night. But thanks to a few random pics of our "party" last night, I have proof of our visitors.

Ken and Michelle drove up from Peoria on Friday night. It was so good to see them, and Tressa is such a big girl now! Although her size certainly doesn't deter Gretta from beating the crap out of her. But instead of posting a boring play by play, and no pictures to boot, I'll just do one of my most favorite blog items-Bullets!

• Lou Malnati's sausage-fest pizza. Wow. Lots o' sausage on that one.
  
• The Milwaukee Zoo. Yes, on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, oh, and during Harley-fest, too. 'Twas a tad crowded.
  
• 'Smores in the backyard fire pit.
  
• Church on Sunday. Nothing like arriving late, and leaving early.
  
• Cedar Lake Beach. Spent jimmy. 'Nuff said.
  
• Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Like Sun Valley, but with a ginormous lake. Cold Stone brownie batter ice cream, the "Red Pony" boutique (yes, someone really named it that!), and no cell phone service.
  
• Monday night BBQ. And more 'smores.
  

It was a fun time. Now it will be good to get back to reality. I like the routine of getting up early (yes, it's me talking), and getting started on my day. The weather here is so nice, 70's pretty much all day except the high afternoon when it hits 80 or so, so that makes the mornings especially nice. So back to life, back to reality, back to the here and now.