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 :)

Camping Trip!

For our last hurrah before school started, we went camping. On the way up to the mountains, we past these three dead palm trees tied together with...hundreds of colored wires? Does anyone know what this is? Did someone just want to be REALLY sure they didn't fall down? Is it ART? I pondered those deep questions for a while, but soon forgot about them as...

...we found our campsite. Gwen helped Stan set up one of our three tents.

We were right next to the Santa Ana River, but it wasn't much more than a stream at this point, perfect for a wading spot.

There was also a huge log to climb on.

We found this nifty caterpillar. Isn't it pretty?


Summer took some time to relax and read Wodehouse.

Speaking of Summer, she convinced us to bring up some BeanBoozled jelly beans to camp.

Some of us loved the grossness of them.

Some of us weren't sure.

Some of us WERE sure - that we didn't like them!

Here is Summer, watching to see if Stan got Peach or Barf. Which would you want to eat?

We recovered by roasting stuff - hot dogs, hot sausages, marshmallows, Starbursts...a couple of kids even tried roasting grapes!

Rachel was so upset when she burned her marshmallow, instead of roasting it perfectly, that she flung it to the wind. Too bad the wind was blowing in her direction!

The two teenagers took off for a walk. One of them appreciated it when I said goodbye, one of them did not.

One of the fun things about camping for the under thirteen set is getting dirty, but I think this is taking it to the extreme!

On the way home, dusty and smelling like wood smoke, we stopped at a nifty little museum.



Here is Summer examining a collection of cruets in a rainbow of colors.

Lovely and lovely :)

Weird worms...

...are worth digging for!

Thanksgiving Trip

Here I am, finally blogging about our once-in-a-lifetime Thanksgiving trip. Who knows when I'll catch up on all that has happened since then.

:)

All nine of us left in the wee hours of the morning for the airport the Monday before Thanksgiving. We took two cars and had nine bags plus three car seats to check. The skycap guy EARNED his tip. Each of us had carry-on bags with books, toys, art supplies, games, work to do, and snacks, snacks, snacks. It was pretty exciting to go on the airplane. So exciting, that Michael was satisfied with the fun he'd had and asked at the end of the first leg of our trip out, as we were deplaning, "Are we back?"


I took this picture of Michael in one of the three airports we were in because I liked how his shirt matched the grey and yellow of the escalator. Notice his half on/half off suspenders. Michael's suspenders made their mark forever in the history of our family when they set off the metal detector at the security checkpoint.

We flew into Dulles, picked up the 12 passenger van we were renting, and drove to the Washington D.C. Temple. We met Aunt Sara at the Visitor's Center, took a couple of pictures, decided it was too cold for our thin-blooded selves and headed to our hotel.

I had written our congressman months before to get tickets to the White House, so Stan, the kids and I took off. I had grand plans about driving all the way around D.C., taking the Metro in and having a head start on our trip south, but rush hour traffic was not part of them. I don't know why I was so sure we could make it. I should have remembered from when we lived there, but we never would have attempted this trip if I wasn't an optimist, so we were lucky that Sara was back at the hotel, using the WiFi to do homework on her laptop. She found a Metro station online, got us to it and saved the day. We parked the van, bought some tickets, hopped on the train and made it just in time for our tour.

Our extended family reunion theme was "Concentrated Insanity", but our specific family sub-theme may have been "Security Checkpoint Mishaps." Summer set off the metal detector at the White House with her braces (as confirmed by the Secret Service guy using the wand on her after she made the walk-through alarm sound).

The White House was neat. I think my favorite parts of being there were the feeling of walking where so many admirable people have walked and also the paintings.

After the White House, we walked to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum and met Sara there. Stan took a picture of the rest of us in front of the elephant in the rotunda.

One of the funnest parts of our day in D.C. was riding the Metro. I regaled the kids with stories of the times I rode the Subway in N.Y. in high school. They all learned why there are lots of things to hold onto while you stand.

We got back in the van, drove down the George Washington Memorial Parkway and stopped to see the house we rented while we lived in Alexandria. This is the house Heather came home from the hospital to, so we took her picture in front of it.

We headed to North Carolina Tuesday afternoon and stayed the night in Fayetteville so that we could spend the next morning with my sister Abby and her family. She made German pancakes and French toast for us for breakfast - very international and very yummy.

We drove from North to South Carolina Wednesday and got lost. We waited in a Baptist church's parking lot, overlooking the graveyard for my brother Tim to come rescue us and that is where we first met up with all the grandparents -- my mom, my dad and my Grandma Blanche -- who flew out for the reunion.

We finally made it to the condos on Lake Moultrie we were staying in, ate something, got the kids off to bed and made plans to play jokes on the aged father for his 65th birthday. Sara, Summer, Rachel and I got up at two and, trying to keep the giggling down, made a pyramid of plastic cups in front of his bedroom door and wrote a message with toothpaste and mini-mini marshmallows. His nickname is Mean Old Ugly Ogre, in case you are wondering.

Here are Summer, Rachel, and Heather playing football with their cousins and some kids that were staying next door Thanksgiving Day. They had a blast.

Everyone loves the Mean Old Ugly Ogre. He almost constantly had some admiring grandchild or another in his footsteps. Here he is on the Lake Moultrie beach with Adele.

We really enjoyed spending time on the beach. We never made it to the Atlantic, but the beach on the lake was nice, too. There were lots of shells...

...and Naomi discovered that sand tastes good salty or not.

Gwen enjoyed the sand too, even though she didn't eat any.

Summer, Rachel and various aunts cut cardboard mustaches out for us all to wear for the family pictures. Here is Kelly looking adorable with fake facial hair.

We ate all kinds of interesting things. Tim deep fried a couple of turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner -- they were delicious. We also ate fried okra, Moon Pie, Grandpa's donuts, Krispy Kreme donuts, shakes from Cookout's, and oysters on the half shell. One thing I love about Stan is his willingness to try new things. Here he is getting ready to swallow his first oyster, it's heart probably still beating.

After having a Thanksgiving, Grandpa's birthday and an all around blast with the family, we headed back north in the van on Saturday. It was fun to take a road trip together in one vehicle, which we haven't done since Mo was born.

We enjoyed seeing the scenery, especially the fall leaves, which, while not as spectacular as New England, were still impressive to us south westerners.


Our trip back to Virginia Saturday included the low point of the trip when I locked the van's keys inside...oops! Poor Stan waited outside near the van, so that we didn't miss the locksmith in weather colder than we usually see all year. Every cloud has a silver lining, though. He bought himself a jar of pickled pig's feet at the gas station we were stuck at. He's been trying to get the kids to try them for months and is planning on having these for his birthday dinner.

We went to church Sunday morning and headed to the airport. I ended up volunteering my seat and taking a different flight than Stan and the six older kids, but we still all made it home within an hour of each other. Stan and I looked at each other and said, "Whew, I can't believe we made it!"

My kids are SO OPPRESSED!!!

Almost every Saturday morning, I get up and make a batch of muffins. I use a recipe that calls for 1-1 1/2 cups fruit or vegetable. I usually use pumpkin or banana, sometimes apple or zucchini.

Okay, flashback to Thursday. I'm at Costco, looking at the spinach, wondering if I should buy some. I pick up a three pound bag of fresh spinach and stare at it for a minute. "No" I think, "we'll never finish this before it goes bad." As I lower it back into the box, I hear a faint ripping sound as the perforated plastic top rips off. I put it in my cart.

So...I've been trying to figure out how to eat this up and muffins came to mind. As I told Stan, "Anything tastes good if you mix enough sugar and oil in with it."

I kept the kids out of the kitchen so that they wouldn't see the blender when it looked like this.

They thought maybe I used the new food coloring I bought at Michael's. I wouldn't tell anyone the truth until after they ate at least half a muffin. Rachel was even more appalled when she found out they were FRESH spinach muffins. She said, horrified, "That is like LETTUCE muffins!"

Stan liked them. I thought they were okay, but a bit bland. Summer was frightened that I would even attempt spinach muffins. Rachel's reaction is noted above. Heather liked them. Gwen didn't. Kelly liked them. Michael liked them. Naomi loved them. I guess they were a semi-success, depending on who you ask, but I think I'll give the spinach a wide berth a Costco from now on!

Weird Science

Rachel needs to do three experiments a quarter for her homeschooling science credit. She scraped some cheek cells out of her mouth, put them under our microscope and took a picture. She'll label it and submit it as a work sample. Nifty, huh?

Little Things

Ruby and Coral sent Rachel some ant candy. Rachel shared and each of us (except for two who will remain unnamed) tried a little bit. The ants I had were crunchy, tasted like minty white chocolate and were delicious.

I decided Naomi looked a little bit funny from behind. All her newborn hair had fallen out on top, plus she had a bald spot from sleeping and just a little hair left in back, so I shaved it off. Poor razor burned baby.

Like my mother always said to me as she put pin curls in my hair, "You have to suffer to be beautiful."

Dirty, Clean, Messy Again

Yesterday, Michael played with his sisters in the backyard for a while. They found an orange that had fallen off the tree and Michael wanted to eat it, but he was too dirty to consume anything without major contamination occurring.

It took two applications of baby shampoo and countless cups of water dumped over his head to get him clean. The water was grayish brown when we were done and had nameless backyard things (in addition to the orange) floating in it.




When he was all shiny clean and dressed, it was time for lunch. At the end of the meal, he was left with a cup that had an inch and a half of milk in it. He was just about t o exit his high chair in his usual fashion, by sliding down under the tray, when I told him, "Finish your milk before you get down or I'll have to dump it in the sink."

He grabbed his cup, took a big swallow and said, "I'll dump it in the sink!" He then proceeded to leave his high chair with the cup in his hand, revealing gloppy graham cracker pieces and bits of chewed up apple mixed with the milk that showered his hair, face, shirt and high chair, while I was hollering, ineffectually, "Leave the cup on your tray, leave it on the tray!!!"

So much for the clean boy!

That Stinky Diaper

Boogers, A Birthday and Poetry

Warning - Grossness Alert!!!

If you are feeling nauseated for any reason, do not proceed because this will only make it worse.

The other day, I caught Michael sticking his finger up his nose and then trying to clean it off with his mouth. Hoping to nip a potential bad habit in the bud, I told him, "We don't eat our boogers!! That's gross." Well a couple days after that, I saw that more clarification was necessary. He obviously still thinks there may be nutritional possibilities coming out of his nose.

I was trying to merge onto a busy freeway (always a good time for someone to need help in the back seat) when Michael hollered, "I have hamburgers!"

Me - "What?"

Michael - "I need tissue. Get hamburgers out of my nose."

Me - "Oh, you mean you have BOOGERS. I'll get you a tissue in a minute."

Michael - "Yes, I have bagels."

On another note,

I had a birthday this past week. It was lovely. Here is a picture of the dinner Stan and the girls made - Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo, veggies and Greek Lemon Cake for dessert. It was all delish.

The kids gave me beads, a small blue dish, and more beads. Stan gave me a string of Akoya pearls.

And last, but far from least, is some poetry. We haven't had much rain this winter so everyone was excited when we woke up to the sounds of dripping water this morning. Before she even ate breakfast, Rachel, with a little help from Heather, composed the following -

Pitter, patter everyone,
Pitter, patter to the sun,
And maybe it will rain.

Call the clouds to come o’er here,
‘Cause right now the sky is clear,
And hope that it will rain.

Get galoshes from the garage,
And umbrella, try to dodge,
The maybe coming rain.

Look, behold! It’s dripping now,
Do a dance and then a bow,
We finally have the rain.