I really miss this blog.

So, while Kelly and her sisters made dinner, I emptied the camera and curated, just for you, an exhibit of our lives from the last few weeks. 

Naomi had a birthday.

Michael raced in the pinewood derby. He came in 2nd for his age group and 3rd overall.

After all these years of taking kids on their turn for the homeschooling whale watching trip, I took my last two kids. It is hard to believe how everyone is growing up. This past week was Michael and Naomi's turn. It was a great trip. 

We saw a great blue heron looking for lunch...

...and lots of cormorants with a few pelicans mixed in...

...California sea lions lounging around...

...and from my view on the upper deck, a couple of cute kids.

Of course, what we were all most excited about was the opportunity to see some cetaceans!

The captain was able to find a bottlenose dolphin willing to surf the waves in front of the boat and we got a close up view. I learned something new on this trip. Bottlenose dolphin mothers name their offspring with a unique whistle that the dolphins then introduce themselves to other dolphins with for the rest of their lives.

We also saw more whales (all gray whales) on this trip than any other - seven in all! It was amazing :)

Here are two swimming together...

...and the tail of one diving.

The kids had some ocean science instruction on the trip back.

On to other exciting news - Naomi let her Dad pull a tooth.

Finally, some pretty pictures. I took the plunge and, in spite of my black thumb, bought some new house plants. I plan on hanging them in the window when I get around to it, but until then, they have a home on the kitchen counter. They are tillandsias, or air plants and they don't need dirt. I just soak them in a bowl of water every few days. Fun, huh?

I think they are really nifty...

...and was especially thrilled when one bloomed!

Meat Desserts

The missionaries came to dinner at our house on Monday night. Sunday, when I was talking to them about a time, I asked if either of them had food allergies or were vegan or whatever. One of them replied, "I'm a meatatarian."

I said, Okay, we'll have meat for dessert," and his companion, sounding very relieved, said, "Oh that's good! Then we won't be having ice cream. Ice cream makes me sick." (Oops, I think I might have forced ice cream on him last time he came.)

A quick search came up with a few recipes -

Chocolate Covered Bacon

Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hamburger Brownies

I couldn't decide which one to make. I was strangely fascinated with all of them, so I made them all!

This is what the brownie batter looked like (I added chocolate chips) -

And this was what our dessert smorgasbord looked like -

 

1. Heather made some truffles and I put them out in case someone, out of the blue, became a vegetarian all of sudden...

2. dark chocolate covered bacon*

3. white chocolate covered bacon*

*I actually used compound coating because I had some and it is so easy to melt and dip.

4. bacon maple chocolate chip cookies - One of the reviewers suggested using bacon fat instead of butter. I did and the cookies worked great. I didn't used the whole two cups of bacon that the recipe called for. I ran out of patience with frying bacon after one pound. I saved the prettiest pieces for the chocolate covered bacon, the next prettiest for the garnishes on the cookies and crumbled the rest into the cookie dough. With the bacon fat, they were still plenty bacon-y, in my humble opinion.

5. hamburger brownies - If I ever make these again, which is highly unlikely, I will used my tried and true, favorite brownie recipe and just add hamburger, instead of this recipe. It wasn't chocolatey enough, even with the added chocolate chips.

Everyone's favorite was the chocolate covered bacon. Elder Meatatarian says they are a contender for his wedding reception :) 

The cookies were okay, but not worth the hassle of cooking bacon, which happens to be one of my least favorite kitchen activities. (See what I will sacrifice in the name of a good joke!) I took the leftover ones to a parent meeting at Michael and Mo's school and they were a hit, so if you like cooking bacon, or a least tolerate it, they are worth a try.

The hamburger brownies were kind of blah, sort of weird, good in a novelty kind of way, but not much more than that. 

It was fun, but I did warn the missionaries not to expect to be served chicken, cow AND pig next time they come to dinner :)

Update

Rachel and Heather turned two cake mixes into cupcakes for Mutual the other day. This is what Rachel did with the leftover batter.

Inexplicably, the "after "photo uploaded sideways.

One recent Sunday, Rachel and I were unintentionally color coordinated and decided it would be fun to have a picture. We had a hard time being serious.

For Veterans' Day, we went on an outing. Rachel let me do her hair a la Pinterest.

Everyone was happy to be out of school and together.

I pointed a squirrel out to the kids and Michael tried to keep Naomi from running up and scaring it away.

Heather took some lovely pictures.

We had a delicious lunch. I ordered two sandwiches and an order of onion rings for seven people and we still took extra food home!

Naomi showed me this picture that Rachel made her.

Lastly, we have some very sad news.

On our way to St. George for Thanksgiving, we planned on dropping Bertram Wooster at some friends' to be pet sat while we were out of town. Unfortunately, he flew away while we were all chatting in the front yard. The local shelters haven't seen him yet. We miss him and are sad and lonely.

Bye, bye Bertie :(

A Recipe for You

Here is something yummy and easy to make for your Christmas parties and treat plates...

White Chocolate Candy Cane Popcorn

I put sprinkles on this batch because I took it to Michael's Kindergarten/1st Grade party and have this idea that kids like sprinkles on everything, but they are optional.

The following recipe makes enough to cover 8-15 cups of popcorn, depending on how thick you like the chocolate. That is the same as 1-2 bags of microwave popcorn, or 1/2-one batch of air popped corn (at least from our popper). If you use microwave popcorn, I'd suggest using "Light' instead of "Butter". I'm not sure how well the chocolate would stick to the buttery kind, but you could always try it and eat the whole batch yourself if it is too sticky ;)

It is a good idea to shake all the old maids (unpopped kernels) in your bowl of popcorn to the bottom and move all the good popcorn to another bowl (make it a big one because you will need room to stir).

Next, measure one cup of white chocolate candy coating. I like Guitard A'Peels.

Then, pulverize two regular sized candy canes in a zip lock bag. It will make about 2 and 1/2 tablespoons of crushed candy cane.

Melt the candy coating in the microwave, stirring after a minute and then returning it to the microwave to melt it some more if needed.

Dump the candy cane powder in the chocolate, mix well and pour it over your popcorn. Stir it until the popcorn is evenly coated.

It is best if you let it cool before you eat it, otherwise, your hand will look this!

Celery Salad

I needed a salad for dinner and also needed to use up some celery while it was still fresh and lovely, so I mixed some different recipes from the internet together and came up with this.

Celery Salad

2 cups chopped celery
2 small to medium under ripe pears (bartlett are good), diced
1/3 cup dried cranberries
2-4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Mix and eat :)

The Worst Cookies I've Ever Made

Heather wanted oatmeal cookies to take to camp and I thought I'd try a new recipe. I found one in a cook book I bought at the library book sale, Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything".

I was skeptical when I saw milk in the ingredients because I am not a big fan of cakey cookies, but the title of the cookbook is so confident, I decided to trust him.

Oh well, live and learn.

Even packed with craisins and butterscotch chips, then slightly undercooked, they were dry as bones. Ugh!

So, I baked half the batch and have a blob of cookie dough in the fridge that I am not willing to toss because of the aforementioned craisins and chips, so what is a girl to do? I think I'll try to redeem them with icing and take them to the Ward FHE treat potluck next Monday!

There you go, just another benefit to reading my blog. If you are going to the Ward FHE, you now know to avoid my cookies!

p.s. If you have a recipe you like from Mark's book, please leave it in the comments, so I know what is worth trying next :)

Yesterday and Today

This morning, Michael asked me if he could play with play dough. We were taking off in a little while and I didn't want to worry about the mess, so I told him no. I asked him if he wanted to help me make brownies instead. He got excited and asked what the brownies were for. When I told him that they were for the young women, his face fell. Poor guy. I decided to try to kill two birds with one stone and had him roll some cookie dough (the original play dough?) and smash it into sprinkles. He did a good job and had fun. I can hear him in the dining room now asking his sisters if they like the cookies he made.


Yesterday, we all went to the pet store so that Summer could pick out a bunny. Summer is hoping her bunny is a girl and named her Madeline, because she was born in March. Get it? Mad as a...

She isn't mad, though, she's adorable.

I took her outside to take pictures and she was happy to discover dandelions in the back yard (happier about it than I am).

It was so cute, it made her nose yellow when she ate it.

My Brilliant Idea

A while ago, I bought this nifty sprinkles container. It has 6 sections, each with a different color of jimmies.

Each section has it's own lid so that you can use one at a time without mixing the colors.

It was kind of pricey for colored sugar, but when you have little kids around, sometimes it is fun to have stuff like this in the kitchen AND I used my Michael's 40% off coupon.

Anyway, we have had fun with them while they lasted, but each color was only enough for one small batch of cookies or cupcakes, so they went fast. As you can see, we only have blue and orange left.

I didn't really want to keep buying sprinkles at that price, so when I saw this big container for much less money, I snatched it up.


I told Kelly and Michael that we could eat lunch after they were done sorting all the sprinkles into individual colors and putting them into my six section container.

I think they might try to get Mo to help.

While they are busy, I am going to go start dinner. We are having the missionaries over.

Naomi is 3!

Here is our Mo on her third birthday.

We can't believe our baby is THREE!

She had orange soda in a goblet and wanted a pink and brown cake.

She got a recycled from older sisters, has been hid away for a few years, dollhouse.

This may be the first, but undoubtedly won't be the last time someone gives her chocolates for her birthday that they bought half off after Valentine's Day.

Here she is in her new sunglasses.

She wore them to the beach the Saturday after her birthday - post coming soon!

The Ironies of Life

Last February 16th, I made my way to Target and bought 72 Fun Dip Valentines. I knew Heather and Gwen would be needing them for Valentine's Day parties at school this year and I wanted to get them half off on clearance. How could Fun Dip possibly rot, right?

I remember putting them away and saying to Stan, "Help me remember where these are because it will drive me crazy next year if I can't find them." When, after searching the entire kitchen, I reminded him of this conversation, Stan pointed out that he probably suggested I write it down. Which I didn't. And I couldn't find those elusive Fun Dips ANYwhere.

I suppose the bright side is that I cleaned out multiple cupboards, organizing as I went, but no luck. It just stuck in my craw to pay full price when I have (somewhere!) 72 half price Fun Dip Valentines, so I formed Plan B. I bought cheapo puppy and kitten Valentines and decided to make cookies to sweeten the deal. Never mind that the butter to make the cookies and the plastic bags to put them in probably cost more than brand new candy Valentines. It was the principle of the thing.

Gwen's class party was scheduled for Wed. the 10th, so Tuesday afternoon Rachel and I were busy dipping cookies I had baked into pink icing. Heather's party wasn't until Thursday, but I made enough cookies for both of them and then we ate the rest. I planned on letting them set overnight and bagging them up before school Wednesday morning. Well...

...about four in the morning Gwen threw up and then Heather started at around six. Gwen was obviously not going to make it to her party. Poor thing! I was feeling fatalistic after all the stress those silly Valentines gave me, so I ate some to console myself and gave some to Michael and Kelly. There were still more than enough for Heather, with twenty something left for people around the house to eat. As the day wore on, Heather and Gwen started to feel better and by early afternoon were obviously well enough to go to school the next day.

Gwen asked if she could drop by the school to pick up her homework, so I dropped her and Rachel off and told them I'd be back after I got Summer. When we returned to the elementary school, Gwen got in the car and made the AWFUL announcement that her teacher had changed the party to Thursday! The kids and I just ate a third of her Valentines for breakfast!

Well, you know what I was doing Wed. afternoon...baking and dipping more cookies. I hope I have learned my lesson. I think I will go buy some (more) Fun Dip Valentines for next year and write down exactly where I hide them.

(Now where did I put that note?!?)

Sunday Afternoon

Not today, but on a recent Sunday afternoon, one of the girls made a cookie ice cream pie.

It was delicious.

We needed a walk after we ate it, so we went to a local park with a small lake.

We saw an egret and...

...some obese geese.

Naomi is so glad her Dad picks her up and carries her. What luxury!