Rec Center Halloween Carnival

New Car

James bought me a new Nissan Pathfinder. Ok so it is not brand new. It is a 2008, but has less than 5,000 miles on it. So it is almost new. I am just really really glad that I don't have to drive a clunker or a mini van.
Thank you babe...I love you!

E-mail in the eyes of an 8 year old

I thought that this was too cute. Brooklyn has been sending e-mails to her dad and I thought I would share one of them with you.

"yo   dude   this   is   brooklyn    tipe  to   me   yo   ok  ive    ben    whating  ok   so   what  are   you    doing"

I love how she told him who she was and the spelling cracked me up. I think that her inner gangsta was coming out in this with all the "yo's." This kid is always making me laugh.

We went to the store today after school and Brooklyn had some money. She asked me if she could spend it on whatever she wanted. I told her I didn't care, so she bought one of the giant sized Hershey bars. We got home and she started chowing down on it. I told her to slow down and save some of it or she might end up with a tummy ache. She looked at me with a funny smile and said, "mom, sometimes a girl just needs her chocolate." I couldn't argue with that. She ended up eating the whole thing.

Skating...Thank You Slattery's

We all had so much fun skating. Especially since it had snowed 3 inches outside and was freezing. I wondered why we didn't take the kids skating more often and then I remembered after we got on the rink. It is because my kids don't leave the wall. Our dear friends the Slattery's rented the entire rink and invited a whole bunch of people. They are so awesome! What's a better way to end a fun morning of skating, than with cupcakes?

Helping in the Kitchen

Still Cooking!

...but it has to stop! I am afraid that if I don't, I am going to gain 20 pounds before James comes in November. Anyway, here are some pictures and the recipes for the latest new recipes that we tried this weekend. They were so good!

Egg Foo Young

8 eggs

1/4 pound thinly sliced ham, finely chopped
1 cup fresh bean sprouts, a few healthy handfuls
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/4 pound shitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced
1 cup baby bok choy, shredded
1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped
1/4 red bell pepper, very thinly sliced
1 bunch scallions, white and green, thinly sliced on an angle
1 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and grated, plus 2 thin slices
1 large clove garlic, grated or pasted
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup tamari, aged soy sauce
Hot sauce, 1 teaspoon

Preheat a griddle pan over medium heat and brush it with some oil.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs then stir in ham, bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, bok choy, water chestnuts, bell pepper, scallions, grated ginger and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and mix until completely combined. Using a large spoon, drop about 1/2 cup of the mixture onto the preheated and oiled griddle. Cook like pancakes, about 2-3 minutes per side, until golden.

Meanwhile, combine cornstarch with a splash of chicken stock to dissolve. Place remaining stock, tamari, cornstarch, hot sauce and sliced ginger in a small pot. Bring Thicken 3 minutes or so to coat a spoon. Remove sliced ginger and turn off heat.

Serve 2 Egg Foo Young cakes with gravy poured over the top for 4 people.

Monkey Buns

1 large banana, thinly sliced

3/4 cup dark brown sugar
10 tablespoons honey
2 to 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 pop-tube refrigerated biscuit dough

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Spray 10 cups of a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In each cup of the tin, lay down a few slices of banana and cover with about 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablesoon honey, and a dash of cinnamon. Pop open the tube of biscuit dough, separate each portion and place one piece into each muffin cup, pushing down slightly so the dough touches the bananas and sugar. Bake the biscuits as directed on the package until golden brown.

When the biscuits come out of the oven, let them cool for a couple of minutes then place a large platter or baking sheet on top of the muffin pan. Carefully but quickly, invert the muffin tin and platter or baking sheet together. Remove the muffin tin (fishing out any biscuits or topping that may have stuck to the bottom) and let the biscuits cool further. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Fudgy Coconut Cookies

I would have to say that these cookies are the next best thing to treating depression. Now that all of the closets are cleaned and organized, I have started baking. Not necessarily the best thing, but sure is tastey. I was surfing the internet for some good cookie recipes and I found this one here. I posted the original recipe, but I used milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet and I used semisweet chocolate chips instead of the bar style chocolate. I used my Pampered Chef medium scoop and ended up with 24 cookies instead of 18. If you try the recipe, I would like to know what you thought. Just leave me a comment. Enjoy!

12 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Place chopped chocolate in microwave-safe bowl; microwave on medium 3 to 5 minutes or until almost melted. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Stir in brown sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth.

2. In small bowl, stir together flour and baking powder; stir into chocolate mixture. Stir in coconut and chocolate chips. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of batter onto baking sheets.

3. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, 12 to 15 minutes or until cookies are set. (Be careful not to burn cookies because batter is dark.) Place baking sheet on wire rack; cool completely.
18 cookies

PER COOKIE: 210 calories, 11.5 g total fat (7.5 g saturated fat), 2 g protein, 28.5 g carbohydrate, 30 mg cholesterol, 50 mg sodium, 1.5 g fiber

14th Anniversary!

Yes we made it another year! Happy 14 honey! I took the liberty of looking up traditional and modern anniversary gifts again. The traditional gift is ivory and the modern gift is gold jewelry (I'm not making it up). James, this does not mean that you can get away with giving me a bar of soap. As I was looking though the different years I noticed that after the 15th the gifts are different jewels until you get to the 80th and then it is OAK. What? My first thought was, "what does someone that old need oak for?" Then it hit me...to build a casket, duh!

Here is the mushy stuff...

I am so very lucky to have James as my eternal companion. He is the absolutle love of my life. Everything that I have ever dreamed of in a man, he is. I could not imagine not having him in my life. He is an incredible husband and father. My love for him grows more everyday. I never thought someone could love another person this much. I miss him so much right now that I cannot even put it into words. I cannot wait until we are together again.

Here's to another 14 years babe!

She's at it again...

Brooklyn was trying to decide what to pack in her lunch and asked me if I could just go to Wendy's, pick up chicken nuggets with ranch, and bring it to the school. I told her no, that she just needed to pack a sandwich or something. She said, "that doesn't sound good," and then told me, "you never buy any foods that kids like." So I asked her what kind of foods kids like and she said "chicken nuggets from Wendy's." Of course they are, I should have known.

Another Brooklyn-ism!

We were watching the series premier of The Big Bang Theory last night when a Verizon Wireless commercial came on. Brooklyn said, "don't we have Verizon phones?" I told her yes. A few seconds later she said, "then why don't we have all of those people following us around too?" Not sure how to respond and not really feeling up to trying to explain the whole representation of the network I said, "it's because that costs extra!" It seemed to satisfy her curiosity, but was probably not the best answer. I can just imagine what she will be telling her friends.