A little end of year post

Since my last post in September Jade has truly excelled in school. She loves everything about it and then some.

We only do school Mondays and then Wed-Fri for around an hour, hour and half. Because of this, many afternoons Jade is asking me "is it school time yet?"

We just started reading the week of Christmas, and Jade is very excited for school break to be over so we can hit the books again.

In cooking updates, there have been many new recipes I've tried, and loved. Ones I've actually remembered to take pictures of are as follows:

Pumpkin mousse pie

Starbucks inspired Pumpkin Spiced Cupcakes

Now, this one I can't say I really "loved" it, but it gets an honorable mention because it was the first (and perhaps last) time I ever cooked with quinoa. Granted, I was missing many of the ingredients for the recipe, so that may be why it wasn't my favorite thing ever. LOL

Quinoa Cakes

Cranberry Salsa with cream cheese

Coconut Chocolate pie

I don't have a recipe for this one, as it was a combination of ideas. A devils food chocolate cupcake with meringue frosting and just a piece of chocolate and graham cracker. I had owned a small cooking torch I would have toasted the tops to make it more like a s'more :-) On my wish list!

This is also a combination of ideas. I took a cinnamon bun recipe from my Mother-in-law and then twisted the dough up like a tree. Made a little glaze and added sprinkles for the kids:-)

And then, there is this cake. I'll attach the link for what I was attempting to copy but sadly this cake did not come close to what I had hoped.

I made this for a friend's baby shower, and it was a very last minute plan. Thus, I didn't really do any research on the actual cake recipe I used and didn't even scroll down on the inspiration link to see what the real recipe was.

So my "chocolate" cake turned out very, very, very, dry and very, very, very bland. The frosting was good, and the malt balls were fabulous. But I did run out of malt balls and had to use whoppers. Which, are nice...but the real malt balls had a LOT more chocolate coating, and thus, more delicious.

Also, not pictured, was right before I boxed it up, I brushed the top of the malt balls with edible gold dust powder. See the inspiration link for why:-)

I'm not gonna lie, there were a lot of "ball" jokes thrown around at this shower when they saw the cake. hee, hee....we are a mature bunch of women.

Malted milk ball chocolate cake

With this year now coming to a close, there are a few things I'll continue to look forward to. Spending as much as time possible with my wonderful family, continuing to workout and be fit (despite the lack of weightloss, lol), continuing to eat healthy, and finding LOTS and LOTS of wonderful, new recipes to try at home (thanks mostly to pintrest!)

My resolutions for the new year is to continue to spend time in the word and in prayer every day!

Continuing to workout four days a week

Make smart food choices

Spend time with friends and family as much as possible (this I know I can keep!)

And avoid gossip and negative conversations

I'm excited to see what this New Year holds and can't wait for it to get started!

Kindergarten

One year ago I started Jade in homeschool Preschool

Even though she is half a year to young to start Kindergarten, we decided to go ahead and start her early anyway. She's been teaching herself how to read this summer, learned to count to 100 just for fun and has been aching to return to school, daily asking me "is it Fall yet".
So here we are, one year later and just as eager as she was at 3.5yrs. LOL
baby Cutter isn't so much a baby any more, and while he took his morning nap during our school hour (yes, just one hour...though tomorrow we may need to go longer. Jade was disappointed when I told her we were done) he too was eager to start a new year!
we are doing some sing, spell, read and write for Phonics, here Jade is coloring away on what she called the "easy page" LOL

I don't post any more:-(

It's kind of a bummer I don't feel like posting any more. With facebook so many of my immediate blog needs are met, that I don't really care to post pictures and update my blog.

I guess most casual bloggers drift away after a few years, so my time has come.

Sometimes I think I'd like to turn this into a food journal, post pics of all the new recipes I try. Like recently trying Giada's Lemon Hazelnut Tiramisu ,
but sadly, though I probably try a new or super yummy recipe at least once a week, I'm awful about taking pics of said food, and defiantly bad about the step by step process. I enjoy cooking, but I'd rather have someone watching over my shoulder taking pics, then break up the blissful routine of making my meal. lol

Anyway, I don't plan on deleting my blog, cause you knows, maybe I will update it every 6mons or so, and I'd hate to lose all the wonderful pictures of the past that I've posted on here.

I guess I'll see what happens:-)

Mantou or steamed rolls

I hosted bookclub at my home last night. Every time we meet we try to provide foods that were talked about in the book or are some how related to the book.

Our book club read "Safely home" which mostly takes place in China. While googling "traditional chinese foods" I came across the blog "Almost Bourdain". I immediately fell in love with the recipes chronicled there and decided to try her Mantou, or steamed buns.

While my pictures are not as beautiful, nor my result as perfect. I'm very excited about my first attempt at steamed buns (which, like Almost Bourdain, I did deep fry half my batch and served them with condensed milk)
I think one of my favorite things about this recipe, is needing to borrow my neighbors kitchen scale to measure the ingredients.
When not given to me in "cups" and "teaspoons" I do find myself very lost. However, measuring my sugar and yeast and flour, using a kitchen scale, I did feel like a culinary master and can't wait to try another recipe that requires measuring weight, apposed to volume:-)


if you try this same recipe, I recommend not trying to fit four rolls in your steamer at a time. Instead, copy "Almost Bourdain" and do just three. When they steam cook, they rise even more and mine stuck together a bit.

I wish I had take a picture of the inside for you to see. Perhaps mine were slightly over cooked, but they were still fairly fluffy on the inside. The deep fried ones were perfectly golden and crisp on the outside and the milk added just the right amount of sweetness to each bite.

It was well worth the effort and was a surprisingly simple roll to make. I will be making these again!

I also served my guests, beef and broccoli with steamed rice and Singapore noodles with beef instead of chicken. Oh and I also managed to find, pre-made chocolate covered fortune cookies with little love fortunes inside:-)

pics

This was taken about two weeks ago. We are starting the beginning stages of potty training. hee, hee
Here is Fourth of July, around 8am, kids doing "poppers" in the front yard. Good morning neighbors!

Jade doing a cute little "Cheese" face

Cutter at the fourth of July festival:-)

This was taken today at a "Tangled" birthday party Jade was invited to. All the little girls got braids and flowers in their hair.

Some pictures from this week

With no plans yet made for my day, I've spent the morning just playing around on the computer. I thought I'd post some pictures from this week that I'd taken on my phone.

Jonathan took me on a date last Friday, we played a round of miniature golf and then bought the largest bucket of golf balls we could get and practiced our very poor golf swing till our arms were tired. LOL

Jade was invited to a gymnastics birthday party on Sunday. I'm thinking I need to sign her up for Gymnastics, the girl was going wild! Here she is getting ready to jump into the pit full of foam blocks

and the action shot

Cutter is in a silly stage of discovery. Jade has a toy egg that he found and attempted to keep on his head while running across the living room.

"see mom, it's half an egg"

he found walking kept it on his head, but running made it fall off.

Jade in all her fabulous-ness

Showing Cutter how she can balance the egg on her head on one foot! She's amazing;)
Monday I got to watch a friends two children. The two girls spent the entire day playing together and while the boys were very different in age...they too spent the day together. Here Kameron is teaching his very eager student about the tiny piano

snack time feeding. I may need to hire Kameron out from now on, he kept Cutter happily distracted most of the day!

I recently started buying free range, farm fresh, eggs from a friend of mine. She was short an egg in the dozen I bought from her on Sunday. Her husband said they'd give me an extra egg this week "but let me know if you get a double yolk...cause then we won't need too" (joking) and what do you know...I got a double yolk!! hahaha!
So there ya have it.

Watermelon!

I know I posted these pics on Facebook already, but they are so sweet I had to post them on here to. Plus, we've had so few sunny days this summer...and it's another rainy one today...I needed to post something to remind me that I do love living in Washington.

Cutter enjoying his little slice of heaven

Jade says watermelon is one of her favorite things

sheer bliss

My cannoli's

I made cannoli's a few years ago for a friends get together. They turned out "okay" but nothing fabulous. This time around I did a lot of searching for a really good cannoli recipe (which I found) and I borrowed my friends pasta maker for perfectly rolled dough (same thickness all around). My dough came out perfectly and the pasta maker was a dream to work with!
the cannoli's were for an International potluck event at our church, I made 40 bite sized cannoli's (the recipe below I just doubled and it was more then enough)
every last one of my cannoli's were gobbled up before I could sit down and enjoy my dinner (at the potluck), so lucky for me I had extra pastry dough at home to make more for myself and friends.

cannolismakes 16 servings.

shells2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 eggs plus 2 yolks
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup marsala
1 egg white, beaten
oil, for frying

filling1 lb whole milk ricotta, drained
3 Tbsp confectioner’s sugar
1/4 lemon, juiced (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
mini chocolate chips (optional)

1. make the shells: place the flour mixer. In a separate bowl mix eggs, yolks, butter and marsala, pour into flour and mix on low for just a few minutes. Dough should be smooth and moist. let rest, covered with a damp cloth, about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. roll the dough very thin and cut into 4-inch circles or which ever size you wish (I used a biscuit cutter for small cannoli's)

2. loosely wrap the dough circles around the cannoli tubes and seal the overlap with beaten egg white. deep fry at 325F until golden brown. remove from oil and carefully slide off the tubes. cool on a wire rack.

3. for the filling, drain the ricotta in a cheesecloth-lined colander in the refrigerator for at least an hour (overnight works best). whip in the confectioner’s sugar with a fork. just adding sugar keeps the ricotta flavor very pure, but for a more varied flavor, add the lemon juice and vanilla.

4. in a pasty bag (or a sandwich bag with the corner snipped), pipe the filling into the shells just before serving. sprinkle with chocolate chips and serve!

My kiddos

The past few mornings jade has been entertaining the newly "put in a booster seat at the table" Cutter with funny antics, quotes from her favorite films and has really put in an effort to teach him how to speak "Say STRAW-BERRY...strawberry!". I decided to film some of it this morning to share with you all

Memorial day 2011

While some families took their children to parades, some did BBQ's and gathered with family and friends...we, well, we took our kiddos to the children's museum for some hands on play-time and learning.

Here Jade is selling tickets to a fabulous show
She sold her tickets for $6 each, in case you are wondering...
and what do you know, it was to hear her sing...live!
Cutter was a fan of the pastry counter. He manned that booth till I made Daddy move him to another.
and that would be the meat counter. He was a big fan of the lobster and mussels.
after picking apples and harvesting vegetables, Jade tried her hand at ambulance driving. She multi-tasks well (EYE's on the ROAD!)
The emergency response life wasn't Jade's favorite. She favored (like Cutter) something that involved two of her loves. Bread and driving. So she and Cutter drove around in the bread delivery truck.
stopping to make a delivery.
All that pastry and bread made Dad and Mom hungry, so after the museum, we went out to lunch!