Random Thoughts Thursday

Now that the park service has cleared out the thorns on the bike trail near our house, we've been taking family bike rides to a nearby park in the evenings. This is as close to nirvana as my life gets. It is beautiful!

Why can't I write two lines without getting interrupted by children? Oh, yes I'm a mom.

No one seems to comment on my recipe posts. I don't know why this is.

I am one of the crazy few looking forward to fall. I'm a little tired of the super-hot temperatures that keep us in-doors. I love the crisp autumn air, the still-comfortable temperatures, the changing leaves, and the idea of cooking all sorts of comfort food in my kitchen!


I have three princesses running around my house today. One keeps telling me detailed descriptions about their adventures then quizzes me later. I'd better pay better attention.

I'm looking for a good book to read, any ideas?

School starts in a few weeks. I'm getting excited to teach again.

"Cleaning a house while children are growing is like shoveling your driveway while it is still snowing." This has been my mantra for the week. I'm snowed in.

I have all the ingredients for Orange Chocolate Fallen Cakes sitting in my pantry. Hmmmmm......


Russ is on a business trip. I miss him.

 (From our visit to the National Arboretum.)

Yummy Food!

We watch a bit of PBS kids at our house. Among the many positive messages that they try to teach kids is that they should eat healthy foods, and that there are a lot of healthy foods that are delicious.  I think that these are good messages to teach kids and I try to do that in my home as well.

Problem. I love chocolate. I love custard, and I love cream.

As I'm sure you've notices from many of the recipes I post. I like plenty of food that is unhealthy. And man is it delicious. I try to tell myself that because it is made from scratch and doesn't have all the preservatives of preprocessed food that it is better for us but I know that if true (which I honestly have no idea) it is only to a certain point. Cream has calories baby.

We have many discussions in our home about food that is unhealthy, but yummy and food that is both healthy and yummy. (Strawberries come instantly to mind!) The problems is this, while we all crave savory solid food and healthy food and would get sick of sugar if we ate it all the time, there are just some foods that are more delish than others - and they tend to not be as healthy.  We don't fix them all the time, but they do crop up occasionally.

So without further adieu the recipes from the last few weeks.


Double Chocolate Pudding

2 tbsp cocoa
2 tabsp cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup light cream
3 egg yolks
2 cups whole milk
6 oz bitttersweet chocolate melted
1 tbsp butter
2tsp vanilla

Sift together dry ingredients into a sauce pan .Whisk in cream and yolks, then milk. Stir in the melted chocolate. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat and stirring constantly whisk. Reduce the eat to medium an cook stirring gently but constantly with a wooden spoon until it constancy coats the spoon very thickly. Pass the pudding through a fine-mesh strainer. Stir in butter and vanilla. Press plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate until cold and set, at least three hours.

Enjoy!

 Gourmet Pizza - This is not a kid friendly pizza but this is amazingly fantastic for adults. I got the recipe from my brother and his girlfriend and there was nothing left either time we've made it. 



1 Pizza Dough recipe of choice
1 lb asparagus
1 onion
1/3 cup brown sugar.
1 small package of goat cheese, sliced.
Mozzarella

 Prepare dough as per recipe. Meanwhile. Broil asparagus covered in olive oil, salt, and pepper for about 6-8 minutes until crisp. Slice into bite sized pieces. Slice onion and saute until it begins to soften then add brown sugar stir until sugar starts to carmelize and onions are completely soft. Top pizza with asparagus, onions, and goat cheese, and mozzarella/.



Creme Caramel (Yes it is that good.) 

This recipe was surprisingly easy for how amazingly cool it turns out. It is the dish on the cover of the New Best Recipe book and I've been craving it since I bought the book - and since I had Hagaan Das Dulce de Leche ice cream awhile ago. This recipe calls for individual custard dishes called ramekins. These are definitely worth having in your kitchen.

Caramel

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 tabspoons light corn syrup
1/4 tsp juice from one lemon

Custard
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups light cream (The stuff I bought just says cream, as opposed to heavy cream.)
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

For Caramel - Bring all caramel ingredients to a simmer  continue to cook until the sury turns from clear to golden about 8 minutes. Swirl gently and constantly until large bubbles appear and it turns honey -caramel color.  4-5 minutes longer. Remove from heat quickly (and carefully) pour even portions of the caramel into eight 6-7oz oven proof ramekins.

For - Custard - Preheat to 350. Heat milk and cream in sauce pan until steam appears about 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat. Meanwhile whisk eggs, yolks, and sugar in a bowl until combined. Gently whisk the warm milke mixture, vanilla and and salt into the eggs until combined. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. Pour mixture into each of the ramekins. Put two towels in two 9x 13 pans and put ramekins on top. Then pour boiling water in the pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.  Cover loosely with aluminum foil. Bake 35-40 minutes until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool to room temperature. To unmold slide a parring knife around the perimeter of each ramekin Hold a plate over the top and invert. Shake until the custard releases.

You've got to be kidding me!

Last week was Girls Camp. This is what I learned about teenage girls. They are 100%. They don't do things by halves. If they are mad, they are 100% mad. If they are spiritual than it is 100%. The mood and the emotion change rapidly but whatever they are feeling at the moment it is completely encompassing.

But that is not why I'm writing today.

Today, I made an easy Sunday dinner of tortilini and sauce. I've had a busy week and needed something that didn't require much effort. I was excited because in a house of picky eaters pasta is always a winner.


But not today.

Savannah wouldn't touch it. At all. We tried sauce, not sauce, warm, cold, big bite, little bite, time out, animal bites, time out again, and again and again. I was tempted to shove a fork down her mouth.

It would be one thing if she tried a bite and hated it. It would be another if I didn't know that normally when I serve any pasta dish she is covered in both pasta and sauce within the first five minutes. I could not believe her complete refusal to eat something that I am still confident she would have loved if she had tried it.

We finally settled on no ice cream at grandma's because she didn't eat her dinner. She was disappointed but only mildly until she was distracted by the toys.

Sigh.

Three in DC

Flying across the country with a four-year-old and a two-year-old is not for the faint of heat - it is also not for one who doesn't have portable DVD player. 

     Last Tuesday we went to see my friend Tara in Washington DC. Abbie and Tara's daughter Hazel were poised to be BFF when Tara's work took her to DC and will be taking her to China this winter (Cruel, cruel world.) So in order to see that our friendship is passed along to the next generation despite being half a world a part, we undertook this visit. Savannah is broken-hearted to be away from her sister for more than a few minutes so it was decided that she should come a long for a wonderful girls week!

    Our first day in DC reminded me why no one wanted to build the nation's capital just outside of Virginia. It was hot and humid. Sweat dripped from everywhere after doing nothing for three minutes. We had planned a trip to the National Arboretum, which turned out to be a little dull for all in the party under the age of five - until we found this amazing Children's Garden with musical instruments made out of wood and sand.  Thankfully joy was restored and all was right with the world. After the arboretum, being gluttons for punishment, we decided to to the National Mall, because pushing a stroller in 110% humidity in DC means we are patriotic. We went to the Natural History Museum and learned a great deal about the affects of air conditioning on mood. We also saw many animals that Abbie took great pains to inform us were not alive. Clear favorites in the group were the dinosaurs bones and the giant mammoth fossil in the entry.

On Thursday in order to escape what was expected to be the hottest day in DC of the summer on top of already  life-sucking humidity, we escaped to the beach. It was perfect. The water was cool - a pleasant contrast to the hot air and sand. The girls didn't take long to become completely comfortable in the soft tide. We did see a jelly fish and maybe got stung (matching weird rashes on Abbie & Hazel, don't know....). There was a dragon at the beach that chased princesses out of the water, but as soon as the girls decided they were pirates and not princesses they made a truce with the dragon and they all decided to go in search of buried treasure.  We build sand castles and were delighted by the chefs making the best the sand had to offer. The day was perfect, married only by being stuck for two hours in a tunnel at the end of a long car ride home.

Friday we stayed home and had Princess Day! The girls dressed up as princesses, had their nails done, and proceeded to become princess artists for the day. Tara's neighbor had given them the mother-of-all-princess craft sets and we let the girls go to town. I don't think the carpet in her living room will ever be the same again (sorry taxpayers) but it gave us time to chat and relax. The evening was supposed to end with a chocolate cake tea party. See results here.

Saturday the weather had tempered and the humidity had abated so we took another stroll along the mall to see the monuments. The girls were thrilled to tough the Washington Monument or "Big Pencil" and liked to stick their feet in the water at the World War II Monument. They saw the Lincoln memorial... but were more excited by the police horses outside. I think they were just excited to be somewhere they could run around and play. We ended the day with a quick stop at the Air and Space Museum only to realize that every tourist with children under 10 was doing the same thing and left quickly.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day at church and home and we left early Monday morning.
Unfortunately we had to meet our plane at 6:45a.m. Also unfortunately there was an unlisted layover not mentioned on the itinerary (Apparently if the plane stops somewhere but you continue on to somewhere else on the same plane they don't have to tell you about the stop.) Also unfortunately they lost our stroller at this unmentioned stop.  Also unfortunately our last plane was supper small and I couldn't sit next the my girls. This means that after about nine hours of flying and being in airports when Savannah dropped her coloring book and couldn't pick it up, and I was too far away to help her - she screamed her guts out for about 10 minutes (but it felt like forever.) Truthfully though, all things considered I think the girls traveled very well!

Recipe Catch- up

Clearly I've done a terrible job at blogging about my new recipes but I want you to know I've been trying them every week. So here is my attempt to catch up .

Last Week

Last week I was in DC with a friend and we decided to make what she told me was the best chocolate cake on the planet. A chocolate hazelnut cake. The cake has a tbsp of coffee powder in it. We, knowing nothing about coffee, bought the smallest container possible (Like we'll need it again!) and I set to work. I should note that we also splurged and bought gourmet dark chocolate and milk chocolate for this recipe.

While putting everything together I thought everything smelled strongly of coffee, but I assumed it was because I don't drink coffee, don't have it around, and wasn't used to the aroma. After I put the batter in the pan I licked it. Coffee flavor no hint of chocolate. (Which, in my book, is disgusting. ) I had my friend take a lick and she agreed, but we both hoped it would be better after baking. We baked it, cooled it, added amazing milk chocolate frosting and  a semisweet glaze. This cake looked beautiful. Then we took a bite. COFFEE! It turns out that the little container of coffee we bought .........was extra concentrated!

The Week Before That

Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Quesadillas


This recipe was a hit!!  I served it with rice as a vegetarian main dish for dinner and it worked really well but it is also a good appetizer. One change though, the actual recipe calls for one small canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce. I used about a teaspoon of the sauce and that brought more than enough fire to the dish. Adjust for your own level of chile tolerance.


8 ounces jarred roasted red peppers, minced (Side note - roasted red peppers have become one of my favorite ingredients in just about anything. Sandwiches, pasta, quesadillas. Yum!)
1 tsp of adobo sauce from small can of chipotle chile with adobo sauce
1/2 clove garlic minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
Salt and Pepper
Flour Tortillas
4 oz Monterey Jack Cheese
2 tbsp vegetable oil


Combine red peppers chipotle sauce, garlic and cilantro in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Spread half the mixture over flour tortilla leaving one inch border. Sprinkle with cheese. Place the second tortilla on top. Repeat until ingredients are gone. Heat non-stick skillet to medium. Brush tortilla with oil and place in heated pan. Cook for 3-4 minutes and flip. Cook three minutes more. Repeat with all tortillas.

The Week Before That

Curried Apple Pasta. See here. :(


The Week Before That


Chocolate Sheet Cake

A hit! I made this for Savannah's birthday, and it is honestly the best 9 x 13 cake I have ever had. The New Best Recipe Book calls a sheet cake, "like a two-layer cake with training wheels, it is hard to fall off." I have to say though that their recipe for it is so good I've made it two more times since then. (During the most recent - again in DC, hoping to make a decent cake after the first fiasco - I put whipped cream on top, but the cake was still hot and the cream melted into the cake. While very sticky, it was still delicious.)

If you need to make a cake for a church thing, birthday, or just for kicks this is the cake to make! One note, just like with everything the higher quality ingredients you use, the better the flavor, but I did use chocolate chips for the semisweet chocolate and it still turned out amazing!

3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk (You can use 1 tbsp lemon juice and then fill the rest of the cup with milk and wait 10 minutes if you don't have butter milk.)

Preheat oven to 325. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 pan. Sift together cocoa flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.Heat the chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl covered with plastic wrap for 2 minutes at 50% power; stir until smooth. (Repeat in microwave if necessary.) Whisk together the eggs, sugar, and vanilla in a medium blow. Whisk in the buttermilk until smooth. Whisk the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until combined. Whisk in the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth and glossy. Pour the batter into the prepared pan; bake until firm in the center when lightly pressed, about 40 minutes. Cool on a wire rake until room temperature - at least an hour. Frost if desired.

Haircuts!

I don't have any before pictures but if you scroll down you'll see some in older posts.  Abbie has an A-line cut in the back that you can't tell from her oh, so flattering picture. Savannah just got a bob-cut. The second lady asked me what I wanted while I was still having heart failure in the middle of Abbie's cut so, I backed off. This was somewhat of a last minute whim, and at one point during the process I got rather sick to my stomach thinking the girl had ruined my girls' hair but now I'm happy!

Random July Stuff

Abbie had a busy July. She finished a month's worth of swimming lessons and improved her skills dramatically. She went from asking to not have to go to swimming lessons to getting excited and jumping around when I said it was time. I consider that success.

She also participated in the Days of 47 Youth Parade that takes place the week before the Days of 47 Parade.She didn't seem too impressed with the actually parade, but the bounce house at the end was a highlight.

The best part of the last few weeks was a camping trip over the 24th of July weekend. We got up to the camp site and within minutes Savannah was covered in mud, but I couldn't blame her. There was a small stream running right next to the site and it was too inviting to ignore. It became a repository for wayward rocks, pincones and anything else the girls thought might belong there. After setting up came we went on an impromptu hike. Savannah was a really trooper and Abbie was a botenist on the about mile round trip adventure. (Note: Do not go on a hike at dinner time.)


Dinner was roasted hot dogs and marshmellows and dirt. Abbie and Savannah slept okay in the tent. But we were trying to share a queen size air mattress with our whole family and Savannah is used to flopping all over a crib so things were pretty crazy at some points. Overall however very good.

In the morning we went up to Silver Lake and were eaten alive by mosquitoes walked around. The water was so clear you could see the fish swimming around. Overall it was nice to beat the heat and escape the pressures of life for a few hours. We had a great time!

Abbie-isms

Abbie's prayer the night before last..

 "Dear Heavenly Father,
   Thank thee for this day. Please bless this food. Please bless that I don't have to get a shot. ever. I really really don't want a shot. Unless I really need one but I don't want one. Please make it not hurt.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
   
 
Abbie's prayer last night.

"Dear Heavenly Father,
   Please bless this food. Please bless that I don't have to get any shots again ever. Like I've said in my last prayers. And please, please, please, don't forget. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."


Abbie saw Savannah get her two-year old vaccinations. I think she was a little traumatized.

Random Thoughts Wednesday

My kids were so dirty by 11:30 this morning that a bath was not a luxery. They were clean when they woke up. Aaaauugghh summer!

I made Curried Apple Pasta salad for my new recipe this week. Complete bust! It was from The Book. I must say that while almost all of the recipes from that book have been beyond amazing, I have not had good luck with their pasta salads.

Yesterday my girls went in for their annual well-child visits. They were testing Abbie's eyes and asking her to identify different shapes.  She called the heart an "I love you." I'm used to this but the nurse thought it was so cute. Am I the only mom who is a sucker when people think your kids are adorable? It makes up for the times when they aren't.

I'm reading The Three Weissman's of Westport. I give it three stars out of five. I just can't really develop empathy for the charecters, but I feel like I should. I feel like it is a good book that I should be enjoying more but just aren't able to.

Savannah was lucky to be alive at the end of church on Sunday.

I want to fix something delicious that is not unhealthy but tastes like it is, that wont over-heat my kitchen, and I have all the ingredients siting in my pantry......any ideas??? Please?

We went and walked around Silver Lake last Saturday (that is what these pictures are from). We saw a moose, but that wasn't nearly as interesting to the four and under crowd as the squirrels.

We are going camping this weekend and I haven't done more than think that maybe I should think about getting ready.

Happy Birthday !

Today is Savannah's birthday.  She received a tricycle from mom and dad and a Tinkerbell bag from sister. All were big hits. When we went on a walk later today she couldn't quite reach the pedals on the tricycle but thankfully we got the kind with a handle for parents to push so all was well. We celebrated by taking both of the girls to Discovery Gateway. Abbie was so excited that during her rest time this afternoon she kept talking about it. I could hear her all the way downstairs. We don't go to DG often and it was fun to see them getting so creative in what they chose to do. Savannah wanted to play in the house and cook and take care of babies. Abbie enjoyed that but she also loved going shopping in the store and building with the big blocks and the crane. It is nice to have an excuse to spend some quality time as a family doing things that we don't normally do. Tonight Russ's mom is in town so we invited her, Cooper and Cambelle over for some cake. (Cake recipe to appear later...YUM!) The cousins always had fun together and Savannah thoroughly enjoyed being the center of attention.

Savannah is my sparkler. She knows what she wants, which is usually to follow her sister around, cuddle, be read to and be tickled. I have loved seeing how her and Abbie love and depend on each other. She wants to be where everyone else is and doing what they are doing. She has a wonderful sense of humor that has really started to develop over the last year and she gets so excited when she makes someone laugh. She loves to take care of baby dolls and pretend she is cooking. Along with Abbie, she is always wanting to make me some yummy concoction with the plastic food that litters our home. She loves stories and could sit for hours being read to if I had the stamina. I love my Savannah Banana!

Roast Chicken, & 4th of July Cake

 I have kept my goal of cooking a new recipe every week. Obviously I haven't done so well at blogging about it, but I'm trying to catch up. Here are the recipes I made the last few weeks.

Roast Chicken - New Best Recipes

Why didn't I know this was so dang easy? Oh yeah my last attempt with roast chicken was a complete disaster. This time I tried a basic roast chicken and WOW easy. Although I will say that now that the temperatures are in the 90s the thought of having an oven on for an hour in my house is very unappealing, this makes for a juicy chicken with little effort. I believe the turning every 15 minutes is supposed to rotate the juices like a rotisserie chicken. All I know is I've never had such juicy breast meat. Yum. I also like this dish because it is easy on the pocket book. (Yeah like any of us carry pocket books anymore.)


1 whole chicken 3 1/2 - 4 lbs rinsed and patted dry, giblets removed
2 tablespoons butter melted
Salt and Pepper

Place a shallow roasting pan in the oven and heat to 375. Brush the chicken with the butter and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper to taste. Remove the heated pan from the oven and set the chicken on an oiled v-rack. (I have no idea what this is so the alternative is to use balls of aluminum foil to keep the roasted chicken propped up on its side. Worked great!) Place the chicken wing-side up, roast 15 minutes. Rotated the chicken to the other wing side up. Roast 15 minutes. Then rotate the chicken breast-side up. Turn the oven to 450 degrees. Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the breast registers 160 and in the thigh registers between 165-170 degrees 20-25 minutes longer. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board let rest 10 minutes. Carve and serve.

4th of July Cake - Barefoot Contessa

I got this recipe from the Pioneer Woman who got it from her Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. WOW! I've seen Contessa on TV but had no idea that her food tasted this good. This is an amazingly delicious cake that looks awesome. The only thing to remember is that don't buy raspberries too far in advance or they go moldy. I had to make a reverse flag with blue stripes and a red square because a lot of the raspberries molded. That said this sheet cake was devoured in one evening by my family up at Bear Lake. Finally, just remember that you are dividing the ingredients on a sheet cake so it isn't as unhealthy as it looks and there is fruit in it so of course it is healthy....right?

The 4th on the Lake

Over the holiday weekend we went up to Bear Lake for some much needed R & R and time with my family. Thankfully it was the same time that my brother's family made their semi-annual pilgrimage to Utah so we were able to have everyone but my brother on his mission there.(We missed you Scotty!)  And we had A LOT of fun.

We arrived Thursday midday where Abbie, Savannah and my nieces adopted all of the bears that decorate my grandparent's cabin and cuddled them, taught them, and threw them over the balcony. In between four wheeler rides with grandparents, games of ping pong, lawn bowling,  and air hockey the bears became a running theme for the girls throughout the week.

Friday was our first day at the beach and unfortunately Savannah was not feeling well so I sat on the beach and the boat and held her all day. (I think she is getting her canine teeth and not having much fun with it.) As much fun as it is to be able to cuddle my baby for hours on end it did make for a long day at the beach. It was quite windy and a little cool but despite the uncooperative weather Abbie still played in the sand and Russ wakeboarded and all was right with the world.

The day ended with a nieces vs uncles water fight over the balcony. Considering the uncles were only defensively armed they did rather well for themselves.

Saturday we took a drive up Bloomington Canyon to a glacier lake. The canyon and lake are gorgeous and worth the drive. This lake is provided with a rope swing so that in 90 degree weather you can swing out and cool off. Unfortunately, my insane brothers' felt a need to swing off and swim into glacial waters in 60 degree cloudy weather. Sometimes I prefer not to claim those who have the need to push to insanity.Russ thankfully swung but didn't jump in. At least I married someone who isn't testosterone driven.

Sunday we went to church, played Bang, made an insanely good 4th of July cake, did crafts, and just relaxed around the cabin. Until volleyball. We were ready for an all out grudge match. Well, ready in the loosest sense of the word. Despite what you might know of my amazing athletic abilities, my family is well...about the same. I think we had only a handfull of volley's in the course of three games. Thankfully though, we did have a lot of fun.

Monday we were back at the beach, and while still windy the weather had warmed up considerably. With Savannah feeling better I was ready to go out and water-ski. Let me first note that I have only gotten up on water ski's twice and that was pre-children. (Every other time we've gone up boating at the lake I've either been pregnant or just had a baby.) Needless to say my attempts were less than successful, but I 'm glad I tried and want to try again. Russ on the other hand is a natural wakeboarder and was going crazy behind the boat. It is just like my dad has said Ebert's may not be talented but we marry talent.