It Was Hot

This was at 9:00 this morning!

We did it again in the afternoon, and they made mudpies...lovely.

It always amazes me how much they can entertain themselves and the things they come up with.

Such cuties!

Oatmeal

I have my magazine back and will share the recipe hopefully tomorrow, but tonight I have too much to do.  Instead, I will tell you about this awesome oatmeal Paula Deen made the other day and we had for breakfast this morning. 

Cook your oatmeal in salted water per directions.  Spoon into bowls and put in a pat of butter.  Mix in brown sugar and raisins (which you could also add to cooking oatmeal to have them plump up).  Pour heavy whipping cream over to get desired consistency.  Slice bananas and mix in. 

I have no measurements, just guesstimated everything.  Yum-o!  The girls and I loved it, and oatmeal is so wonderfully filling!  Next time, we are going to omit the raisins and bananas and put in peaches instead.  Peaches and cream oatmeal! 

Anyways, we are supposed to have a yard sale with Joel's mom this Saturday so I have to go prepare some more for that!

Haha!

I just realized that I let Jackie borrow the magazine that has the recipe for the vanilla-plum preserves that I was going to post.  Ha!  So, let me just tell you that they are delicious.  The preserves are relatively simple.  I'll try to remember to post it someday:)

Today, we went back to the Monster Playground for the second time this week and then on to the Apple Store.  Usually, they have apple slices sitting out to eat so the girls were very disappointed that that wasn't the case today.  To console them, I bought them each an apple fritter, which they loved!  I thought it kind of tasted like a donut when I tasted Pilly's.  Maybe we will have to try those sometime.

Tomorrow, we are going to see Toy Story 3, which has finally made it to the $2 theater:)  I'm not sure what we are doing on the weekend, but I'm just glad that it is the weekend!  Have a good one

Hmmm

I have another delicious recipe to post, but I don't feel like typing it all out tonight.  I feel like finishing The Three Musketeers.  Thusly, this is the post with which you will be left while I go read:)

Sour Cream Pound Cake

We made this pound cake tonight and ate it with ice cream and peaches.  It was good, a little sweet though.  The texture reminded me of an angel food cake, it almost had a melt-in-your-mouth feel to it. 

1.5 c flour
1.5 c sugar
1/2 c butter
1/2 c sour cream
3 eggs
1 pinch baking soda
1 t vanilla

1.  Preheat oven to 375 and grease loaf pan.
2.  Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add sour cream, eggs, and vanilla.
3.  Add flour and baking soda, mix well.  Pour into loaf pan.
4.  Bake for one hour or until fork comes out clean.

If we make it again, I may cut down on the sugar.

Joel was doing some work for someone after work so the girls and I were here until they went to bed.  We made the cake, and while we waited for it to be done after supper, we made new sock puppets.  They wanted dogs this time.

It is really hard to sew with one hand inside the puppet to make sure you don't get both sides.  Pilly's didn't show up well because his ears were black.

Pnut's was a girl because her sock was pink.  They were very silly with them and ran around and made them talk to each other.  They also were playing "scary woods" with their puppets.  The woods had an owl in them.  I'm not sure what all it entailed, but they would run into the living room and then run screaming back out to the kitchen.  Very goofy!

Just a Monday

I had physical therapy tonight and had to work after the girls went to bed so I am just ready to relax!  We had a nice day today and the weather was just beautiful, which made our time at the playground lovely.  The girls were making cakes in the dirt and decorating them with flowers.  I don't Pnut knows that there is a difference between flower and flour.  She probably thinks that flour is made out of flowers:)

Pnut was ddoing paint by number today and was doing a great job!  She is going to work on her picture a little at a time so she doesn't get tired of it:)

Pilly did 2 paint with water pictures, part of a reading lesson, and then played with chattering teeth.  Here, they are biting her finger.

No, I am not actually trying to teach Pilly to read yet.  I am trying to get Pnut interested in it, which she is if Pilly is doing it.  She told me maybe we could do it tomorrow.  Ha!  We'll see.  Whatever, I don't mind waiting another year if she doesn't want to do it!

So now I am off to fold clothes, finish putting a few things away, although the girls did do a good job cleaning up tonight, and then relax.  Have a great night!

Three Delicious Recipes!

This month was my turn for cooking club, and I ended up changing my whole menu at the beginning of this week because of Paula Deen.  That Paula Deen is always swaying me!  The menu was Moo Shu Pork, Savoy Cabbagee, Cilantro, and Lime Coleslaw, and Bobby's Caramel Cake (by Paula Deen). 

Moo Shu Pork

3 T hoisin sauce
3 T rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced (I forgot this and just realized this!)
salt and pepper
3/4 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into thin strips
2 T vegetable oil
8 oz shiitake mushroom, stemmed and sliced
14 oz bag coleslaw bag
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
12 Bibb lettuce leaves (I used romaine)

1.  Combine the hoisin sauce, vinegar, garlic, and 1/2 t salt and pepper in a large bowl.  Add the pork and let marinate for 10 minutes.
2.  Heat 1 T vegetable oil in a large skillet over high heat.  Put just meat in pan and save marinade and stir-fry for about 4 minutes.  Remove pork to a plate, add a few T of water to pan, and then pour pan juices over meat.
3.  Add the remaining 1 T veg oil to skillet and when hot add mushrooms and stir-fry until slightly golden brown, about 2 minutes.  Add coleslaw mix and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes.  Add the pork, half the scallions, cook 2 more minutes.  Season with salt and sprinkle with remaining scallions.  Serve in lettuce leaves.

Savoy, Lime, and Cilantro Coleslaw

1 head Savoy cabbage
4 scallions
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c mayo
1.5 T sugar
2 limes
salt and pepper

1.  Chop the cabbage as thinly as you can with a knife or shred if you have the option.  Cut the scallions to resemble the thin pieces of cabbage.  Toss together in large bowl and add cilantro.
2.  Make dressing in separate bowl by combining sour cream, mayo, sugar, and the zest of the limes.  Stir well, sprinkle with salt and pepper and finish with lime juice.  (I only juiced one of the limes).  Pour dressing over slaw and toss well.

Try to refrain from laughing at my cake.  It didn't turn out looking like Paula Deen's cake at all!

Doesn't look too back from this angle, right?

My middle layer crumbled when I took it out of the pan so the icing wouldn't stick well to it and the whole cake was kind of lopsided!  But, the important thing is that it still tasted good:)  This is a rather involved recipe, by the way.


Caramel Cake

For cake:
1 c butter, at room temp
2 c sugar
4 eggs
3 c sifted self-rising flour (you can look up on internet how to make your own)
1 c milk
1 t vanilla

For filling:
1 c butter
2 c light brown sugar
1/4 c milk
1 t vanilla

For frosting:
1/2 c butter
1 c dark brown sugar
1/3 c heavy cream, or more
1 16 oz box 10x sugar (or 2 cups)
1 t vanilla

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350.  Grease (and flour if desired) 3 cake pans.
Using a mixer, cream butter until fluffy.  Add sugar and combine for 6-8 minutes.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each egg.  Add four and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with flour.  (Paula says this makes for a moister and lighter cake).  Add vanilla and beat until just mixed.  Divide batter equally.  Remove bubbles by dropping pans on counter 3 or 4 times.  Bake for 25 minutes.

For filling (start right about time cakes come out of oven):
In a saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, and milk.  Cook and stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. 

Invert cake onto plate.  Pierce each layer andn pour 1/3 over each layer before stacking next one on.

For frosting:
Melt butter over medium heat.  Stir in brown sugar and cream.  Bring to a boil and transfer to a mixing bowl.  Add 10x sugar and vanilla.  Beat with mixer until it reaches spreading consistency.  If frosting is too thick, add 1 T or more of cream.


So I only had 2 cake pans, and when I took one cake out of the pan, I forgot to butter it before putting the rest of the batter in.  That made the cake stick to the pan and thusly crumble when I took it out.  I was afraid that was going to happen, so I set it up for that to be the middle layer, which did help.  At least it wasn't the top!

For the Moo Shu Pork, watch out when frying it.  It really spits and hurts!

Hope you enjoy these recipes.  I'm looking forward to the leftovers:)

Strawberry Cookies

We made Strawberry Cookies with White Chocolate Chips todayd.  They are good.  And so pretty!  Who can resist a pink cookie?

They were super-easy!

Box of strawberry cake mix
1/2 c oil
2 eggs
3/4 c white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients together and dollop on cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Voila!

The best part about these was that the girls could help with the whole thing!  They each got to add 2 things.  I didn't let them put the cookies on the sheet, but they did taste the dough and, of course, the cookies when they came out of the oven.  We got 24 cookies out of the recipe, and they were all nice sized.

For lunch, we had chicken noodle soup that Pnut and I watch Giada make yesterday.  Well, sort of.  We modified it a little. 

2 c chicken broth plus 1 c water
Leftover chicken, about 1 c or so
Juice of 1 lemon
bay leaf
carrots
spaghetti noodles.

Heat broth, water, bay leaf, and juice to boiling.  Add carrots and cook for 5-8 minutes until just tender.  Add spaghetti and cook almost all the way through.  Add chicken and heat until chicken is warmed through. 

I really liked this!  The lemon gave the broth and the noodles a nice flavor.  The girls loved it too!  The carrots were perfect because they weren't mushy or anything, slightly crsip to bite yet. 

We had a fun day cooking together.  The girls also helped me prepare a coleslaw tonight and popovers for supper.  They love to cook!

Headbands

Pnut is headband crazy.  She wears one every day and has quite a little collection of plastic ones.  In one of my sewing books, there is a pattern for a cloth ones that wraps around the whole head so we tried that today.  The girls helped me sew part of it, and they were quite excited about it!

You can't tell, but Pnut's is green with bumblebees.  I ended up having to take part of it apart and cut off a little over two inches because it was too big.

These were fun, and they require such a little amount of fabric.  It was great for our art time today:)

Beach!

First of all, the weird...I pulled these plants and put them in a pile because I didn't have enough room in my trash bag for them.  They were still blooming several days later.  Morning glories are crazy around here.  They would take over the entire area if they were not kept in check.

We got to go the beach on Saturday for the day.  It is a 3 hour trip, which means we left pretty early!  We haven't been for 2 years since Pilly was only 9 months ago.  These children have no fear of the sand or water!

Pnut would have stayed in the water the entire day if we had let her.  The waves were really big and the current was really strong so it was a little hard to let them play in the water.  Pilly got knocked down quite a few times, and we were barely out in it.

They had fun in the sand too.  Here, they were playing "museum" and collected shells and rocks for it.  The girls also kept picking up seaweed.  Gross! 

So we were exhausted yesterday and spent the whole day resting basically.  I napped for at least 3 hours!  My lips are burnt, and that hurts.  I never remember to take chapstick to put on them! 

It is nice to only go for one day.  I'm not a fan of sand in my suit and all that, and it is hard with the girls because sometimes one goes one way and the other goes a different way and I'm afraid of losing both of them!  I think it would be nice to go in September when it is not crowded, but even so, I think just one day is nice!

Fun Fact

In Iceland, some people put reindeer sausage on their pizza.

Shape Pictures

We actually made it out the door at 8:00 this morning to head over to the playground before it was blasted with heat.  Hopfeully, we will do the same tomorrow!  I'm ready for fall!

The girls do so well with our schedule, and for "art time" today we played with these shapes:

Here, Pnut was making a bunny rabbit.  I see the ears, the body, and the tail, then she started adding things on the side.

Pilly likes to line up all the same shapes.  She can do the pictures on the boards well, but she doesn't try to make her own pictures yet.

I forget what this is supposed to be...I think it looks like a flower.

These are really fun, and the girls enjoy them quite a bit, especially if we have a long period of time in between using them.  They also keep the girls quiet if I am talking on the phone while we play:)

Not too much exciting happening here...which is just fine with me!

Another Gift

I finished another baby gift I needed to do over the weekend.  I made another little kimono.  I just love these!  I don't know if our baby will get one...even in boy colors, they might be a little feminine.  What do you think?

Pnut quote of the weekend, "Your kids are making you lose your mind."

Patellofemoral Misalignment with Pain!

This morning, while I was getting the girls breakfast, the dog got under my feet in the kitchen.  I tried to avoid stepping on him and instead did something to my knee.  When I was in college, I dislocated this knee, and it has never felt very stable.  The doctor said it isn't tracking right and is sending me to physical therapy, who can't fit me into until next Thursday.  So I get to limp around and not bed my leg the whole way for a whole week!  It's okay, I"m thankful it isn't worse and that I have insurance right now because of the baby!  I just expected to go to the doctor and have him fix it.  Ha!

We also had our OB checkup this morning, and everything looked great on the ultrasound, praise the Lord!  I'm always thankful for healthy babies. 

Tonight I am just going to take it easy, not try to work or sew.  I have half a lemon whoopie pie to eat:)  Have a lovely weekend!

Finally...

I finally used my sewing machine!  It's only been since April that I last opened it.  I had to make a gift for Saturday, and to go along with the other things we have I made a little blanket.  I think this print is so cute!  I'll probably sew a little more tomorrow afternoon because I've not had work in the afternoons and I have one more baby gift to make. 

I don't think I have much time...I saw a flash of lightening outside and the girls hate thunderstorms so I'll probably be upstairs in a few minutes!  Better go enjoy my few minutes of freedom!

Our Lovely Weekend

We had company last night and I never got to post!  I actually forgot all about it:)

Joel and I celebrated our fifth anniversary on Friday, and some wonderful friends of ours gave us a weekend away in the mountains at a bed and breakfast.  It was lovely. 

This is the only picture we have of our weekend.  Right after I took this, the camera battery died.  We took a walk by this lake.  It was beautiful and the weather was perfect!  No humidity and not too hot!  It was so relaxing to just be alone and away from home so there were no demands.  We've decided we are going to try to set aside money from our tax return every year to go away for our anniversary. 

This is our silliness from yesterday:

I finally got out Pilly's size 6 shoes, and she put some sneakers on her "Spotty Puppy."  Pnut wears size 7.  I hope Pilly doesn't catch up to Pnut because they will probably want to wear the same pairs of shoes!

I should probably go check on the girls...I'm not sure what they are doing upstairs!