Day 51 -- My Son the Klingon

I had been stalling and stalling all morning. As soon as I finally got up the gumption to open the paint can, we hear John start crying from the front room. It appears that he ran into the piano bench, or something near it, we're not 100% sure. By the time we walked the 10 feet around the corner to go pick him up, he already had a big purple bruise. We hurried and put ice on it(John most seriously did NOT like the ice), but I think he's going to look like a Klingon for a few days.

We did finally get to the painting. Maddie was a great little helper. She loved using the brush and the roller. I've finished the first coat, probably picking up KFC for dinner and trying to tackle the second coat before bed.

Day 49 -- Penguins on Parade

Maddie's Kindergarten did their big presentation for the year. It was called Penguins on Parade, and there were hundreds of people there. I was clear at the back, so the video is fuzzy, but here are some highlights (these are mainly for her wonderful grandparents):

Stromboli/Pin Wheels

I love Stromboli -- I stink at making it. The traditional Stromboli is meat and cheese rolled up together inside bread dough, then baked like a log and then finally sliced. When I bake it in a log, it comes out soggy on the inside and the dough is never fully cooked.

A long time ago, I went to a Pampered Chef demonstration where they made pepperoni pinwheels. A-ha! No more soggy Stromboli. Slice before baking, that's the ticket!

The recipe below will feed 3 adults, with 3-4 slices each. It is a very filling meal. You can add any meats/cheeses or veggies that you like. I have to say though, the veggies add liquid which again adds to the main problem of soggy Stromboli. I prefer just meat and cheese -- I get my veggies from dipping it in the spaghetti sauce :)

Note: This recipe is one of those that the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. In other words, it's much tastier than it first appears by the list of ingredients. It has a wonderful buttery, sweet and spicy tang to it.

Stromboli

1 package Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
3-5 slices honey ham
15 slices pepperoni
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup spaghetti sauce

1. Roll crescent rolls out flat. Use a rolling pin to smooth the cracks or perforations until the dough is like one piece. Roll it out a bit so that you have a large rectangle.
2. Place the ham in one layer covering the entire space of the dough.
3. Place the pepperoni in two rows.
4. Cover the entire thing with the shredded mozzarella.
5. Roll tightly.
6. Slice into 1 inch pieces and lay flat on a cookie sheet -- so you can see the swirl.
7. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until light golden brown.
8. Serve with spaghetti sauce for dipping.

BBQ Bacon Chicken

This is one of those recipes I often turn to for a quick fix meal. I usually have the ingredients on hand, and it's EXTREMELY tasty. It even passes the kid test in my house, which is truly saying something. I serve it with roasted potatoes, baked potatoes, or rice and corn.

I buy chicken breasts that are about 1 1/2 inches thick, so I usually slice them in half for this dish. The amount here feeds our family of four with a smidgen left over.

BBQ Bacon Chicken

4 strips cooked bacon, diced
2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 cup cheddar cheese grated

1. Place chicken in a baking dish.
2. Cover each breast with 2-3 tablespoons BBQ sauce
3. Crumble bacon and place on top of the chicken.
4. Top with cheese.
5. Bake covered for 35 minutes at 350. Remove cover and bake 5 minutes more.

Day 48 -- Funny faces

Little John tries to be a comedian. He likes to make this funny face to see if he can get us to laugh. What a kid!

Which One?

I'd like to put a cabinet in over the toilet. Here are a few that I've found, let me know which one you like:

Cabinet #1

Cabinet #2

Cabinet #3

Cabinet #4

Cabinet #5

Bathroom Upgrade

I decided that working on my quilt was giving me back my zen, but I wanted to see some impact in my daily life. Something dramatic that I could take from blah to beautiful and happy. So, what better than to paint and decorate a room. HERE WE GO!!!!

I took a funny panorama of the half bath on the main floor of our house. It's an adorable little bathroom with so much potential that has just been left blah. I'm hoping to fix that this week. Here's the before shot:
You have to kind of imagine where the real corners are -- it's a tiny bathroom and hard to get a good picture of it. :) Gives you an idea anyway.

The paint is the original builders paint. It has scratches and marks all over it. I don't have any real decorations in there. Hoping to improve that too. I've taken down all the fixtures, and will clean and prep for painting when John wakes up and I can get to my supplies.

Tune in next week for the results.....

Mozart on the Cheap

If you're looking to add a little Mozart to your life, Amazon has an album of The 99 Most Essential Mozart Masterpieces for $3 -- it looks like about 4 hours worth of music.

Not a bad deal!

Proofing your bread

Proofing or Proving your bread in bread baking terms means to allow the bread dough to rise. Often, in basic yeast bread recipes, the dough will be proofed two times. The first proofing will be in a covered bowl. The second and final proofing will be in a bread pan. Each time the bread is allowed to rise to about double it's bulk.

Here's my tip -- put your bowl or pan in the oven. DON'T turn the oven on.

Simply turn the light on.

It makes the oven warm enough to help the dough rise, but not so hot that it will ruin your dough.

I love simple things that work well!

My White Bread

A few years ago I set out to learn how to make bread. It's amazing to think I really had no clue back then what I was doing. AT ALL! I found a recipe for Challah bread and fell in love with it. I've modified the original recipe a bit over the last two years, and now this is the staple recipe in our bread baking diet. I'm always surprised how many people think it tastes a little like cake. Maybe I like cake a tremendous amount and don't know it.

All I know is that I love this bread served with a little bit of salty butter or dipped in soup. YUM!
NOTE: I usually whip this up in the bread machine and let it do its thing. However, you can make it by hand also.

Darcy's White Bread

3/4 cup milk, scalded
2 eggs
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup honey
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups bread flour
3 teaspoons yeast

First, scald the milk in the microwave by heating it for about 1 minute.

Add the oil and honey to the milk to cool it a bit. Stir thoroughly.

Add the eggs, salt, then flour, then yeast. Turn bread machine to the dough cycle and let it go -- check during the first kneading process to make sure the dough has enough flour to 'clean' the sides of the dish.

When the dough cycle is finished, remove and punch down dough. Form into two loaves. Place in greased baking pans. Let rise for about 45 minutes.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until internal thermometer reads 180 degrees. I usually put aluminium foil on the top about 15 minutes into the baking time.

Remove from pans immediately and transfer to a cooling rack.

***You can also make this into one really tall loaf -- that's what is pictured above.

Day 46 -- Create

Do you ever have days where you just feel melancholy? Ever since church yesterday I've just felt frustrated, angry and sad. I know the reasons why, but I just can't seem to shake it.

So, I'm going to go take some great advice:

The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before. Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty. Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty.... As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Second Counselor in the First Presidency

This excerpt was from a talk given by one of the leaders of my church. Today, I'm going to to take him up on the thoughts he developed here and go create something. It doesn't make much sense to work on a Christmas quilt in February, but it's the project that's been hanging over my head for about 5 years now -- time I finished it, February or not.

Chocolate Chip Cherry Scones

I first tried scones a few years ago at one of those places where you put together dinners to take and bake at a later time. They were pretty good, but a bit dry for me. Since then, I've tried several scone recipes, but fell in love with this one. I'm so in love that I even passed on chocolate chip cookies last night in favor of scones -- unbelievable!

I think a good scone should have chocolate chips. Always love the chocolate. Also, I'm a huge fan of dried cherries. If you aren't, or don't have any on hand, dried cranberries will work too -- just swap them for the cherries in the recipe below. So I modified the beloved recipe to become this -- my favorite recipe for scones:

Chocolate Chip Cherry Scones

1 1/2 Tbs freshly grated lemon zest

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 Tbs butter, cut into 8 or 10 chunks

3 Tbs sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup dried cherries

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. With a vegetable peeler remove the zest from lemons and chop fine, reserving lemons for another use.
3. In a food processor pulse flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal and transfer to a large bowl.
4. Add chopped cherries and chocolate chips to flour mixture. Toss to coat.
5. In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.
6. Shape scones as desired. Bake at 400 for 15 to 20 minutes, just until they start to turn a light golden brown.

NOTE: Dough can be frozen. I usually divide the batch into two halves and freeze the second half for another day.

Servings: 12

Day 45 -- 3rd Suppers

Sometimes John has to graze his way through a day, never stopping to sit and just eat. He found the snack drawer and requested a fruit leather tonight. He couldn't wait for the high chair -- it had to be RIGHT NOW!

Day 44 -- It's Magic!

Jared got a magic trick book for Christmas and he's been learning new tricks ever since. I picked up a deck of cards for him on Saturday, and he's been practicing his magic on all of us all weekend.

Day 42 -- Toilet Paper

A 36 roll package of toilet paper and a little imagination can create a lot of fun! Towers, bowling, a toilet paper fight, and on and on!

Day 41 -- Spinning in Circles

The kids have really been playing well together all through the Winter Break (Maddie has a week off school). One of the favorite past times has been spinning in circles until they both can't stand up. I recognize it's a little difficult to capture on film. Sorry!

Day 40 -- The Seaport

The Mystic Seaport is a really fun place to visit. They have lots of info about sailing, boats and all kinds of things. They have a great little children's museum for the kids to play and fun exhibits for them to explore.

Day 39 -- Jellies

How could I resist? OK, they're not for me, but I'm honestly tempted to try to recapture my youth with fun plastic shoes. I loved the 80's. When Maddie found these shoes and politely asked if she could have them, little did she know she was asking for one of my most favorite things I ever owned. She's living the dream for me! I don't think I'll give in and get a pair for me, but it sure is tempting!

Day 38 -- Piano

John loves to play the piano -- he'll ask to get up several times a day and will play away. We laugh that it sounds like he's trying to summon 'Trolley' from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

Day 37 -- Valentine's Day

I was sick as a dog! Our Valentine's Day may go down as one of the least romantic in history. But, my sweetheart of a husband vacuumed, cleaned and watched the kids all day while I slept in bed. We rallied to drive-thru Wendy's for dinner, but that was as close as it got to an evening out. I will say that I do have the best husband in the world and I love him with all my heart! Thanks for doing all the work!

Day 36 -- Longing

Both babies were longing to break free. There were four more kids running about -- this was the safest place for the little ones for a while, but it didn't help the sad little faces.

Day 34 -- Making Valentines

We took all the suckers ad made them into cute butterfly valentines. I hope Maddie had fun, I did. I cut out dozens of butterfly's and flowers for Maddie and our Daisy scouts to make valentines.

I got my printables from Skip to My Lou -- a great little idea blog.

Day 33 -- Homemade Suckers

When I was little, my mom would make homemade suckers for Valentine's Day almost every year. We've been keeping up the tradition. If you're going to try, remember this one tip -- don't overfill the molds!!!

If you'd like to get started, the a great place to get stuff is LorAnn Oils.

Wild Rice Soup

This recipe is one of the best around. It truly is a soup that eats like a meal. It is a great one to take to other people when you need to lend a helping hand.

Wild Rice Soup

1 large Onion
2 cups Carrots, diced
3 cups Celery, diced
½ cup Butter
2/3 cups Flour
6 cups Water
2 tablespoons McCormick chicken base (or 4 Bullion Cubes)
2 pkgs Rice-A-Roni Long Grain and Wild Rice
5 Chicken breasts (cooked and cubed)
2 cups Half and Half
½ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Pepper

1. Chop vegetables and place in large soup pot. Melt butter and sauté vegetables until tender.
2. Add flour and stir until vegetables are coated. Let the flour cook for about 2-3 minutes until it has a golden blond color.
3. Slowly add water and stir vigorously until flour dissolves. Prepare Rice-A-Roni as directed on box, then add to the soup.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer on low until well blended, usually about 1 hour.

Day 32 -- NO TRASH!!

Our trash is kept inside a kitchen cupboard. Every time we open it up to throw something away, John will run over and bite the trash can. I don't know why. He's done it since he was mobile. We always tell him "No trash!" in an attempt to stop the problem, but it happens, day after day. It will be fun to see how long it takes to grow out of this habit!

Day 31 -- Shout out and Furnace

Little John loves to talk on the phone. If it is on speaker, he has to give a shout out and have his turn. Here he's talking with grandma & grandpa.

Today our furnace stopped working. I love my house! We think it stopped working on Saturday, but it took almost 24 hours for the house to get cold enough for us to notice -- thanks insulation!

But, the best part of the day was when the repair man told us that we didn't owe any money. None. He came out on Sunday, did about one hours worth of work, replaced two parts and didn't charge us a dime. Why? We bought a service contract when we moved into the house since we didn't know anything about oil and we were worried what might happen. I paid $189 for two years -- it even includes annual cleaning. I'm betting we would have paid about $300 for the service call. I love it when I get a bargain!

Day 30 -- Good Friends

We had a great time on Saturday with some of our friends. They came over for a church meeting, but Maddie was so happy to play with their kids.

French Peasant Bread

This is a very simple bread to make. It is absolutely fantastic to eat! It's very similar to Macaroni Grill's appetizer bread that they bring to the table.

(If you are looking to make it taste even more like Macaroni Grill, add a small amount of crushed rosemary and shake kosher salt on the top of the loaves just after they've been brushed with the final butter.)

The first time I tried making it some friends were over, and we gobbled down a loaf in just a minute or two. I like it best fresh out of the oven dipped in balsamic vinegar. I just bought a gigantic bottle of vinegar at Costco this week, and I'm dying for some bread. Maybe on Sunday.

French Peasant Bread

1 package dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons butter

1. Place yeast, water, sugar and salt in a warm bowl and stir until dissolved.
2. Add flour and stir until blended, but DO NOT KNEAD.
3. Cover and let rise one hour or until doubled in size.
4. Flour hands, remove dough from the bowl and place in 2 rounds on an oiled cookie sheet.
5. Let rise an additional hour.
6. Brush the top with melted butter and bake at 425 for 10 minutes.
7. Reduce oven temperature to 375 and cool an additional 15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and brush again with butter.
9. Serve warm.

This recipe comes from one of the three vital cookbooks every woman should have -- we'll cover the other two another time. The cookbook is..... "Favorites" by the Ivory Family. You can purchase a copy here by calling the Make-A-Wish foundation. They will ship it media mail, so the shipping is really cheap. I highly recommend you call them on Monday!

Remember to Read!

In our ward at church I work in the primary. We are asking everyone in primary to read the Book of Mormon this year. Hopefully, their families will read right along with them. We've got a few incentives planned. I even taught a short lesson on Sunday to all the kids about reading their scriptures.

Even with all the encouragement I'm giving to others, I'm having a hard time remembering to do it myself. Maybe that's why I think it's so important that we work on it as a whole group, I'm not sure. A friend pointed out a scripture reading site that will actually email you the verses you would like to read based on your own goals. You create a login, set the pace, and it will email you the verses.

I love this part -- it won't email you the next group of verses until you click on the 'complete' button. You have to actually acknowledge the email, scroll through the verses -- read -- and click on the completed button. Then it tells you how close you are to finishing your goal.

Now, I recognize this might be just a bit lazy, OK a lot lazy, but if it gets the job done, where's the harm?

Day 29 -- Homemade Pasta

I was inspired by this post to make homemade pasta for the family. I don't have a pasta machine, so it wasn't very even, but it was really tasty! I'll do it again for sure! Maddie gave it a 10 with extra fingers. No higher praise exists in our home! Wohoo!!!