Success

My recent kitchen adventure:

http://froggy-flipflops.blogspot.com/2011/02/if-at-first-you-dont-succeed.html

And, my little bitty craft blog has gone international with hits from 14 countries. Woo hoo for me. And my sister Sandra, who has done all the crafting lately.

The First 12 Days of Christmas

The First 12 days of Christmas we:

1. Got a package from the North Pole

2. Earned 50 cents to donate to the Angel tree at school
    Did a secret service for a family member

3. Decorated the short Christmas tree (kids only! no help from mom and dad) and hung lights on the porch

4. Went to the county tree lighting celebration

5. Had a visit from Saint Nick

6. Wrote letters to Santa

7. Watched Christmas movies and ate popcorn

8. Made treats to take to school

9. Mom visited our classrooms and read stories and passed out food (it is good to be the cool mom!):
Stick balls and a porcupine for the kindergartners

Orange cookies and Christmas oranges for the 3rd graders

10. Filled a Kmart cart with groceries and toys for the Salvation Army and paid using our pizza money and went home to leftovers for dinner instead

11. Donated our outgrown clothes, toys, and bean bag chair to the stuff swap at the church, and didn't bring anything for ourselves home in return; Had hot chocolate and cookies at the table while daddy read stories

12. Put up the big Christmas tree and nativity sets


Whew! OK, whose ready for the next 12? Not me, but here they come anyway!

Thanksgiving vacation

For Thanksgiving vacation we:
took a trip to the library
spent a day with Chuck E Cheese
made a Robin mask and some bamboo for a hungry panda sidekick

made root beer

made a present for grandparents

made a present for aunts and uncles

watched the construction workers pour cement in the neighbor's yard

drove a long way for a too-short trip to Nana's house

We need a vacation to recover from this vacation!

Thanksgiving 2010

This year I am thankful for:

Recliner chairs,

Good food,

Cousins,

Turkey,

And really big, full dining room tables.

And family. Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2010

Highlights include:
Flopped cake pops (see, not perfect. And they were just a happy with orange-filled oreos)

Preschool party with face painting and dress up. We practiced trick-or-treat and went on a lollipop ghost hunt.

A fairy princess

Batman

Sick baby disguised as Batman, hoping to get out and go to the party

My Appalachain Culinary Education

We have just returned from a week in West Virginia. A good friend of mine was there visiting her parents for a few weeks and invited us to join her. Her family was very generous and hospitable and welcomed me and my kids and treated us just like family.
In addition to the gorgeous mountain views, the fresh cool air, the huge yard for the kids to run and chase butterflies and lightening bugs, and the chance to sleep in once in a while, the best part was the three meals a day placed in front of us that I didn't have to cook. That in itself made it worth the 10 hour drive. Even better, they were usually made from scratch homemade meals that my kids would actually eat. Unfortunately, I think I gained about a pound a day while I was there.
Each day I was asked, "Have you ever tired...." or "Do you like....." and then was presented with a new eating experience. I thought it would be fun to journal the things that I ate while I was there. If I had to find a way to illustrate good country cooking, I think this is probably the menu I would put together.

Beans and ham with fried potatoes and something green in a frying pan that I didn't try
Lasagna and green salad, made with vegetables pulled right from the garden by curious little kids
Chicken, fried green tomatoes, and home bottled green beans
Biscuits and gravy
Elk steak with tomato sauce, creamed potatoes and peas- new potatoes and peas served with white sauce, dug straight from the garden earlier that day
French toast and eggs
Wild turkey cutlets and trout fillets, fried in seasoned flour, and fresh broccoli with cheese sauce
Paper cupfuls of blueberries picked right off the bush
Ice cold lemonade, made without the use of any powdered or frozen mix
Chicken pot pie

Throw in some fishing, four wheeler rides, nature walks, deer sightings, bird watching, and rain dancing and I'd say we had a pretty good country mountain experience. Did I mention we slept under the watchful eye of a mounted boar's head?

Thanks Rosetta, Wilma, and Tim for a fun week! The kids are already talking about going back next summer.

In a Jam

How to make strawberry freezer jam- an un-tutorial.

1. But a bucket of strawberries from your local farm stand. Try not to eat them all on the way home.

2. Wash the berries. Try one or two to make sure they are good.

3. Have mom cut them up, even if you think you can do it yourself. Throw them in a big bowl.

4. Smash them up with a potato masher. Awesome! Try not to rocket them out of the bowl on to the floor too often.


5. Dump in the sugar and pectin and stir. Then lick the spoon while you wait. Quality control is important, make sure it tastes good!

6. Put it in a jar. Fill it all the way up!

7. Show off your finished product.

8. Give it to your teacher on the last day of school, for the "berry best" teacher ever!

What happens when you cook in someone else's kitchen

This is what a plastic cutting board looks like after it has sat in a preheating oven for 30 minutes while you put the baby down for a nap. When you are at some else's house and try to be nice and bake dessert, but don't ask before turning on the oven. And neither of you notice it until the whole house smells like melting plastic.

The oven rack and cutting board were lost, but after we got the oven cleaned up lunch and dessert turned out great. I guess I am the only one who has never stored something in the oven to get it out of the way for company.

Oops. Sorry. I know what your house warming gift is going to be!

Need a hint?

Here is an alternate view.

Not ice. Not wax. One of my blonde moments.

In my garden

"I want to grow a watermelon! And a pumpkin! And cucumbers!" Andrew's enthusiasm climbed as he moved his finger across the rows of tiny seed packets in the garden center. "And for Lenna we need peas, and green beans! And corn on the cob! And broccoli!" Rebecca followed dutifully along, her tiny arms stuffed full of the rattling little paper envelopes with pictures of brightly colored plants on the fronts. I am hesitant to invest even a few dollars in vegetable seeds. My mind reels with excuses. The dirt has too much clay. The ants and slugs and squirrels will eat everything. Its too hot to weed and water all summer. I don't know how. We don't have the equipment. The kids don't eat veggies anyway. I think of my neglected house plants and the tiny flat of petunias I killed last week when I never got around to planting them. "Maybe we should go home and talk to daddy about it first, before we buy anything?" I suggest, hoping that as soon as we leave the store he will forget his farmer dreams and move on to playing Batman.

When he doesn't mention it again, I feel relief, quickly followed by guilt. What kind of Mormon housewife am I? Aren't we counseled by church leaders to grow a garden? Aren't home-grown fruits and veggies better for you? Home bottled produce is so much better tasting, and better for you, than canned from the store. With food costs going up, growing your own is a wise investment. Aren't kids more likely to eat what they help grow? I have taken every gardening class ever taught at church, I know what to do. It isn't too hot for everyone else I know. And what a great learning experience for my kids- to plant a seed, nurture it, and watch it grow. To work hard at something and literally harvest your rewards.

I knew I didn't really have a good excuse. The truth was, I just didn't want to do it. I was struggling to keep on top of all my current responsibilities. Wasn't it enough to keep the clothes washed and the floors clean and the little tummies full of healthy food that someone else grew? If I did suddenly come up with that much free time, I would rather spend it doing a hundred other things besides digging in the dirt, pulling weeds, or battling insects in the humidity. I would rater indulge in some other luxury, like taking a shower or eating hot food or playing checkers with my kids.

On the drive home we stopped at a farm stand to buy a bucket of strawberries. Andrew was all grins as he hefted the bucket into the kitchen and began washing his treasures. We were going to make freezer jam- my compromise. We would preserve the fruit, even if we didn't grow it ourselves. I put the baby down for a nap and spent the next hour with my little boy slicing and smashing and mixing and pouring. We hadn't gotten along so well in weeks. He talked to me about his friends, I taught him about the magic of pectin. He thought of all the people he loved and wanted to send a jar of jam to. I thought about how blessed he was to have such a long list.

Sometime during the day, perhaps over peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches, it occurred to me that I already have a garden. I don't till rows of dirt, but I do get my hands and knees dirty. I plants seeds of faith and knowledge and trust. I pull weeds of doubt and sin and discontent. I don't grow plants and harvest fruits and vegetables. I am growing children and family. I am harvesting hope, love, giggles, fun, and wisdom. Instead of jam, I am preserving memories and character and independence. My garden is full and thriving and isn't affected by weather or draught or fire ants. My storehouse of crops won't fill and empty with the seasons, but instead will fill and continue overflowing into eternity.

One day spring will come and I won't have small children to nurture and grow. My garden really will be full of flowers and vegetables. I will grow tomatoes and watermelon and send my children jars of home bottled preserves. Not this year.

This season, I'm growing children!

Better Late than Never

Remember this post? Well, I finally was able to throw something together for my little princess. It wasn't what I had originally planned thanks to some scheduling conflicts but we made it work.

A surprise slumber party with a handful of her good friends. Mike took her out running errands after school while the guests arrived just in time to shout "Surprise!" Followed with secrets, giggling, cupcakes with too much frosting, presents, movies, and sleep- sort of.

Next year, I promise to throw in the same year as the birthday itself.

A Light Dusting

Not much will strike fear into a mother's heart faster than the words "Uh-Oh!" and "Oopsy!" when exclaimed by her five-year old son, who is perched atop a kitchen stool, trying to be helpful in a cooking adventure.
Faster than she is able to traverse three rooms and visually inspect the damage, she takes a mental inventory of all the possibilities. What kind of uh-oh? "I fell and hit my head"- nope, no screams. "I dropped something and it shattered into a million pieces" nope- not guilty enough, and I don't think own anything that could shatter anymore. "I did something to annoy/injure/disgust/frustrate my sister"- no, no retaliation noises.
Well, must be the last kind of oopsy- the "I just made a huge mess and mom won't like it, but I really don't feel too bad about it" kind of oops. As she rounds the entry to the kitchen, her guess is confirmed. A thin layer of flour, cocoa, and sugar coats three counters, the stove, the floor, and the stool. And of course the kitchen helper, but he doesn't seem to notice. He continued his mixing of the dry ingredients for cookie dough with a little too much enthusiasm, adding another layer of ingredients to the sugary snowstorm. But who is she to discourage the budding genius of the next iron chef? So she waits until he is finished whisking and hands him the dustbuster, his other favorite kitchen tool. If only she had manged to get to him before the cocoa managed to coat the bottom of every one's shoes and socks and leave slippery little trails all over the house.
This morning as we waited two extra hours for school to start due to the fear of snow or frozen roads, I am reminded of our kitchen adventures about a month ago. With all of the muddy buddies, sugar cookies, and gingerbread houses, I was sure that our kitchen would be unable to rise above the constant coating of confectioner's sugar that covered every flat surface.
We did come away with a White Christmas, albeit a slightly sticky one. Now it is a western winter- no snow but plenty of chocolate-scented dust to slide around on.
Now to finish those cookies. And I probably need to mop.

PS. You know what else scares me? I lost my camera. Haven't seen it in over a week. I hope it turns up soon!

Let Them Eat Cake

Monday:


Tuesday (and Wednesday):

Thursday (and Friday):

Saturday:

Kids cook

Yesterday I let the kids try out a new dessert recipe. They chose apple dumplings, using this recipe from pioneer woman, one of my favorite blogs. My kids love her food. Anyway, I will not do a step-by-step tutorial- you can just read the recipe then do it yourself. It was super easy and super yummy. Hers is prettier than mine, but I bet she didn't have a four year old helping. I let the kids do the parts that didn't require heat and we doubled the apples.


Lenna read the recipe.

Andrew invented his own rolling style.

Just baked. A little too much help with the cinnamon shaker, but still tasted good.

Excellent with ice cream.

MMmmmmmm....

After everyone gets a taste, hurry and think of someone you can give it away to. Trust me, this is the only way to keep from eating the entire pan yourself after the kids go to bed.

Someone who just had a baby, had surgery, lost a loved one, broke up with a boyfriend, is getting skinnier than you and you want to make them gain five pounds, any of those reasons would be acceptable grounds for a house call.

I let the kids deliver it themselves, with exclamations of "We made this for you!" and "We already tried some, so we know it is good!"

Enjoy!

School is in Session

Andrew and Lenna started back to school this week. Lenna is off to second grade (she wishes it was third) and Andrew started pre-K.
We had a party, or course, with a school bus cake. This year, I tried my hand at a cupcake cake. I think I like it the best so far.

Of course, no party is complete without a centerpiece.

Lenna on the first day of school:

Andrew sporting a new"spikey" haircut.

While my children were busy learning new routines and rules and such, I was very busy as well.

Very, very busy doing this:

Finally she can nap in peace...