Oh say can you say?

I still cannot pronounce the greek word for thyme honey dumplings but I can make them. The supper turned out very well. the herb and tomato soup was well recived by all and my DH very kindly grilled the meat and potatoes for me that I had so painstakinly prepared. The pork chops were marinaded to perfection and the dessert was very, very sticky thanks to the honey. Right now I am watching our Lexie kitty slurping up the small bowl of my daughter's soup I haven't cleared away yet. I still need to go run the dishwasher we only cleaned up halfway after supper to watch the Olympics. The ice dancing exhibition was beautiful, the silver medal winners from the US were fun to watch, he skated in jeans and a white blouse very Cowboy Casual. Although if you live where i do clean jeans and a shirt with buttons is nearly formal wear. The skater who won gold for male single skater did his in a skateware styled like a tux and was breathtaking to watch. Tomorrow I am staying home with my kids without Daddy, he is going with his Dad to a toy auction to look for collectable green toy tractors. I am proud to say that I found and gave my FIL the jewel of his collection, a gold NIB tractor that was a special show edition limited production. My husband recently introduced him to the joys of ebay where I find all the tractors we have given him and they have been on a John Deere toy spree. Thats ok, I still have an entertainment center in the master bedroom full of Harry Potter stuff including toys I will not let out of the boxes. I also have gathered a modest collection of Precious Moments, all of which I am proud to say I have never spent more than $8 for. I buy nearly all my PM stuff at second hand stores. I also have this other thing, I collect vintage wedding cake toppers. Perhaps its because me, now an experienced caker had a very, very modest wedding cake that cost under $100 because it was a sheet cake with a small heart on top. It suited our homespun wedding very well (MIL and I made my veil and I did all the flowers, most of the food and our venue cost a whoppping $50) but I know have an interesting assortment of cake toppers including some traditional, some sweet and some quirky. I have one that are a kwepie set from the 20's the groom isn't wearing any pants but full tails and a top hat. Wow, sorry tmi? Anyway I don't begrude the hobby auction and the kids and I are going to make cupcakes and enjoy a quiet day at home. in the words of the immortal tigger TTFN ta ta for now!

its almost the weekend!

To bad we don't have laurel trees in leaf this time of year, at least not in WI. I would have to make silk ones but since we are making this kid friendly we will be using construction paper. I will do my best to rig togas out of the ever popular bed sheets. I wish I looked like Aphrodite, not since I was 25 and started having kids. To get in the spirit I have been listing to My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Very funny, very very funny. I still haven't found greek thyme honey but wisconsin clover and apple blossom honey is pretty good too. To bad my Gran isn't still with us, she raised honey bees. The kids don't know what we are doing yet I am going to suprise them. Well, the clock says its time to unpause my timing tool and go back to work!

Olympics

Ok its Thursday, the week is nearly over. I decided in honor of the Winter Olympics that we are having a greek night this weekend. Pork chops are what we shall roast over hot coals instead of lamb but I did find pork chops in a Greek Cusine cookbook. I will also toss up a greek salad and make Greek honey dumplings although not with the authentic thyme honey as a I don't have time to special order it. Still it should tase good, now if I could just pronounce Loukoumades

Geese are intimidating even plucked and trussed

It's Sunday, Narnia is magically near to our family room. If only the goose cooked by magic. DH is watching the Calli race while actually sleeping, I didn't sleep much last night I ended up not feeling great last night but Andyboy and I went to see The Lightning Thief yesterday afternoon. It was a fun movie especially with a bit of foreknowledge about mythology. I spent the ride home explaining the mythical connections to the HP stories, like the hellhounds, cerbreus the 3 headed dog, Fluffy in HP&SC. Hermes and Hermionie, its fun to watch your childs face light up in the ahha moment when the connection of understaning is made. Now, I have to start draping the room in 'tapestries' throw blankets and go bake a pound cake and prepare hazelnut stuffing, I coudn't find chestnuts. By the by, I saw a picture of a roast goose from japan that was roasted whole head, bill and all. it did Not look appetizing and I am somehow now afriad of a dead ready to roast goose, but maybe not quite as afraid as I was confronted by my grandparents live geese who were mean biting buggers!!

Our Goose will be cooked!

Ok, the title is trite but couldn't resist. I found a goose two nights ago at WalMart. I was suprised to see they wanted $45 dollars for one. There were only 3 frozen honkers and one was much smaller and only $24 so I snatched that one. It was still pricey but my DH really wanted to try it. the cashier told me to brine it the night before so we will be soaking it in salt water tomorrow. Hubby wants to plunk it on the grill, I hope the water cooperates. I am also going to make pound cake for dessert but I need to go in search of chestnuts for the stuffing. I also got a few throw blankets today at Savers to serve as tapestries for Narnia night. I also will send my kids in search of the Narnia happy meal toys that are no dout at the bottom thier toy boxes. It's late, 2am I need sleep. Its the weekend now and that is a very happy thought!

ramp up for narnia

Ok, its Thursday and the weekend is fast approaching. I wish I had tomorrow off like I did last week but those days are rare. Its been a hectic week, my Bear is sick with strep throat and has been wakefull at night. Both kids are looking forward to the first official Narnia night. My plan is to have them in a series once a month. My DH has requested this weekend that we have either goose or duck. I wonder if I can find these fowl in Eau Claire? I picked up posterboard at the dollar tree for $.50 a sheet with which we will make decorations. We will also be making little lions and idea I got from a magazine. I also visisted my favorite Christian bookstore and found a couple of Narnia action figure sets on clearance from christmas stock. I have looked at the local 2nd hand stores but haven't had much luck. I usually find things I am not looking for but as we will do these narnia night we will be adding more decoration and sets as we go along. Its late in the week for not knowing what I am preparing for food, but even with a fever Bear is as excited as her brother. Got to go back to work, but with the knowledge that I only have 12 hours of work before the weekend!

mid week

I have a little Bear who isn't feeling too good, she stayed home from school with a fever and a sore tummy. That seems to be going around. I picked her up somthing today that should cheer her up tomorrow, new dresses. Like lots of people these days I buy a lot of stuff at second hand stores and today I visisted two. I am in the midst of planning this weekends party, although I seem to be the only one who's really interested at this moment. Granted that's due to not feeling good and homework overload. Our next theme is, Narnia Ta Da! My husband still has his orginial boxed set of the Chronicles of Narnia from the early 80's when the BBC produced the mini series. I confess, although I had read many books in my youth this series was not one of them, the only reason I can think of is perhaps my late Mother didn't approve. Anywho, I first read them in 2003 shortly before the arrival of our Bear. It was mid August and since she was due the first week of that month and it was 95 degrees everyday was out of sorts to say the least. my husband, in an attempt to distract me brought home his boxed set from his parents house. To his relief I enjoyed them, to his dismay I read them all in one afternoon so the distraction was short lived. A few years ago I gave him a new set for xmas, so the aging box set could be retired. Some of the pages are falling out and brittle. The downside of paperbacks. the new set are hardcovers. So, we are going with Narnia but I don't know yet what I am going to make. We made turkish delight a couple of years ago, it was a lengthy painstaking process and we did not find it to our taste. Rosewater was for a long time a favored flavoring of sweets, before the common use of vanillia but we did not appreciate the flavor. I thought about panfried fish, you know the Beaver's dam home, but I don't care for fish and my DH who does wasn't to enthused about my suggestion for some reason. Sauages and mashed potatoes come to mind also, the supper on thier first night at Professor Diggory Kirk's home but my Andyboy isn't' fond of sausages, especially not hot dogs. If anybody is actually reading this I could use some sugesstions, any body? well its nearly 1am, i really need sleep, another 10 hour day at work tomorrow, yippe kia yay.

finally

We survied the daytona 500, after we sat down to a beautifully roasted turkey I realized I cooked for 8 full hours today. so much for taking it easy. The J.johnson cake came out well, the model my son did was amazing. I didn't have enough black fondant so I covered a small cake plate with what I had and it turned out good. I used the gourmet vanilla my DH gave me for xmas for the icing it made an amazing difference from imatation. The sugarpaste was ok, just tasted like sugar. I didn't get the color diversity I was planning for without enough black the cake ended up too white but it tasted good. My next cake project is my Son's b-day cake, he wants somthing pokemon. I have a Piccachu pan around here somewhere since yellow is his favorite color and the primary color of Piccachu I think we will do that one. I don't alway do my best work on charater pans, the Dora the Explorer pan is bane to my skills but my 3D pooh was spot on. I think I might hand paint the piccachu with colored candy melts. My boy is wanted a party at home, so it can last all day long, oh joy. I do have the day off before to prepare but still thats a tall order. I think I might just get a room, too bad March isn't really a good time to have parties out of door in WI. I would like to state that on the bottom side of Sunday night with a kitchen full of a mess worthy of a major holiday that heading off to work looking down the barrel of major overtime its depressing. I wish I didn't have to but I need to a. keep my job. and b. pay for both a birthday party and a one man trip to Bristol in the next month. I should have known better. I asked for three things for Valentine's day, Julie and Julia on DVD, a necklace with a heart shaped pendant, and tulips. I got, a new crock pot, a digital meat thermometer, and flateware. I am ok with it, I bought myself some potted tulips and only scratched my head over the flateware. Really? how romatic, matching spoons. He means well, really he does.

D-Day

The daytona 500 has come upon us, its snowing so it is way too cold to appempt grilling the turkey so I put it in the oven at 3pm. The kids are right now happily painting the nascar sun catchers I picked up at the Dollar Tree store in Eau Claire along with the Nascar fuzzy posters and the blue tableware. I still have to go construct the J. Johnson cake the Model is finshed thanks to my boy and the marshmellow crispy treat cake is ready to go. I only need about 20 min to finish. We don't have any company today, I got a unhappy gift from my digestive system yesterday. Uhg, the kids made themselved canned ravolis for supper because I was sicker than the Bear's pup after wolfing down a stick of butter that weighed more than he did. I am still a bit shakey today, hence the rice cripsy treat 'cake' instead of an actual baked one. On the plus side I never have to toss out any crispy treats. We did have our planned Valentine's Day lunch, crepes with 2 berries and real whipped cream. I for the first time sucessfuly flipped a crepe without the use of a spatula. I usually make them in that silly pancake pan I got as a give a few years back, the one sold via infomercial that has a doulble cooking surface pans. It works great for crepes but it was very time consuming. An hour is the ususal cooking time. I decided to speed things up and used the cheater method of the pankcake pan and also make them like your supposed to, in a small skillet shaking the pan the entire time and flipping the crepe in a skillful toss. I got right after a few tries they were delicious. I make whipped cream myself usually and I use a cake decorators trick to stablized it, meruinge powder. Of course we don't have any egg allergies which would be a problem, but if you can use it works wonders. It can be found at WalMart, Micheals, and JoAnn's in the cake decorating isle. At my local Wally World its in the same isle as the book scrapping and wedding isle. Its cheap and keeps for a long time. I add two tablespoons per 2 cups of cream. Another trick to getting it wipped up good and quick is to use a metal bowl and put both the bowl and the beater in the freezer for about 15 min before use. When you take them out of the freezer make the cream right away it will whip for me even in August. Even here in the frozen north we still have 90*F days in summer and with all the lakes and streams it get very humid. The other day it got warm enough to melt some of the snowcover and it was so damp the mostiure hung in the air in thick clouds of fog. Now, I have to go assemble a 'cake' and baste a turkey. the race just started again after a red flag, excitemt returns!

It's finally Friday!!!!!

Hip Hip Hooray, I get a day off! Tomorrow, or rather today since it's actually Friday now but its a full, paid day off! The kids have no school tomorrow so its Family fun time. We are making cake and jello, go sledding and shopping and maybe a movie. Ok, so we might just get some of that done but we shall have fun doing it. Bear will be read to cause chaos in the kitchen and Andy will do his thing with the Jimmy Johnson car. My grandfather used to race stock cars back in the 6o's. this is so romantic, just in time for Vday. He loved racing, it was his passion but when my grandmother was pregnant with their 3rd child, my uncle Amph she begged him to stop racing fearing he would be killed leaving she and the kids alone. He loved her so very much that he did, I was born 7 or 8 years later and heard often over the years how much he loved racing. I think of all things he did for her over the years that was one of the most loving things he ever did. Gran passed back in '98 after a long battle with breast cancer and I was there when she left us. Grandpa held her as she slipped away with my aunt and myself quietly weeping at her bedside. They were married for more than 40 years, as in love the day she died as they were the day they exchanged vows. His last words to her were "let go sweetheart, you don't have to fight it anymore." Ok, sorry enough emo. I do miss her too, now I have my own family and tell them often how much thier Great Gran would have loved them, just like thier Grandma does in life. Now I really need sleep, day off with kids doesn't mean sleep in!

I rememberd today why I do not buy fonandt in Eau Claire. Its only the chinzey, but costly stuff by wilton that tastes like playdough. I broke down and bought a small 1.1lb box for nearly $12 because I cannot get MMF black no matter how much coloring paste I use. Not to mention the mess of black food coloring paste all over my kitchen. I am making a J.Johnson cake for the Daytona 500 dinner on Sunday and I just need black for the track. I will make my own for the blue, yellow and white. Even blue can be hard to tint the proper blue beyond a pastel shade. I love caking but it has been quite a while since I did one, months. I am feeling inspired, I did several years ago do this one for my husband's 30th birthday but I couldn't find the refill kit for the decals. My Andy boy is going to help out though, by making the model for me, he is really very good at it. Maybe he will like to decorate cakes someday, he does enjoy making candy melts in the wilton molds. I have been teaching him to cook for nearly a year and is able to make simple meals with only supervision so he doesn't burn down the house or loose a digit. My Bear likes to cook too, but at only 6 she needs a lot of help, see last weekend's 'holiday' sauce accident. back to work for me, my 15 min of freedom are over for now.

aftermath

Wow, the mess aftermath of the SB dinner and accidentaly crashing in the chair left an incredible mess in the kitchen. I also way overslept which means when I get home tonight after I make a midnight run into wally world for milk and eggs I have on heck of a mess to clean up. I about wept when i ventured into my kitchen this morning. My kids are already thinking up ideas for our next fun night. This weekend its Nascar Daytona 500 sunday. I am married to a man, who given the choice between football and racing will always choose racing. In just about a month he is taking his anniversary present from me and going along the the Bristol Foodcity 500 weekend. It is also the same weekend as our son's birthday but as my DH hates, I do mean hates, any sort of social occation that doesn't inovle beer and some sort of sporting event we don't really see that as much of a problem. I am taking a 4 day weekend that week to spend some extra special time with my kids and will most likely celebrate the big day without him. I am leaning twords Chuckie Cheeses since the kids will both go into orbit over the idea. The real question, do I invite all 10+ assorted cousins and spend several hundered dollars or keep it to just us. Hard to say. Well, my break is over time to go back to being a drone in an insurance company.

super bowl

My only interest in SB Sunday is making sure my guys have the snacks they want and keeping our Bear out of thier hair. Anna and I made cutout football cookies and the veggie pizza and fruit pizza turned out fanstastic. I made white cookie dough for the fruit pizza and used the other half of the dough for the cut outs. I had for many years used the same sugar cookie recipe that was in my very old 1960's St. Croix Co Homemakers Ext the I inherited from my Step-Grandmother when I was 15. It was a good one, called Ice Box cookies; yep that well loved and much abused cook book was a very firm foundation that helped me make my first foray into the competive baking for the county fair. I love that book and am currently transferring my favorites to e-form cuz the old dear is yellowed and distintigrating. My meandering point is I had tried several of the cut out cookie recipes before deciding on the one I like but I had some how overlooked the standared called simply White Cookies. 20 years later I was a mom and soon to be wife my now husband wisftfully asked if I could possibly replicate the white cookies his grandfather used to make. the grandfather whose home we live in, and make lefse and cookies on at christmas time. Andy my son, was only 18 months old at the time and was perfectly content to bang on a kettle with a wooden spoon while I hunted for a recipe. I was inclined to take the trouble because Andy, my now husband had just gotten out of the hospital after a severe bout of sepsis brought on by another chronic condition. Very, very scary, but that is a tale for another time. To make my man happy I tried and after consulting my honey's mom I found one in my old St. Croix Co stand by that was prounced just right by husband and husband's mom alike, and husband's brothers. Now its the only sugar cookie I make and now am teaching my kids to make. Its a very mild cookie, soft or crisp depending on cooking time and blends perfecty with icings, fillings and even as a sub for shortcake during strawberry season. Even when hubby is feeling really crummy he can usually stomach a white cookie. Those cookies have graced christmas buffets, a large graduation cake, birthday cakes, a very memorable cookie party with several grade schoold and toddler neices, nephews and younger cousins, gift baskets, and even a wedding cake. I make a fondant out of marshmellows that blends so nicely with the white cookies. I can't take credit for that, it was someone else's recipe and just my elbow grease. We made a gift basket last year when really, really broke for a classmate of my son's. He was mortified, but I have on hand all the right stuff for a goodie basket. We made footballs, stars, and a trophy white cookies and colored Marshmellow fondant known as MMF and decorated the footballs with icing stripes. He was still unhappy even though it looked great when we were done but it turned out to be a hit at the party. Now, the Saints just won the super bowl, my guys are happy and I have to put kids to bed!

pre game prep

Well, its 10:30 on sunday morning and I have the croissant crust for the veggie pizza browning as I muse. Really considering I couldn't sleep last night I should have everything already by now but oh no not I. In my defense I did get the cookie and crossant dough made last night as well as scouring those pesky egg and salt crystals the were peppered all over my food prep area after 2 batches of blender hollindase sauce. I was picking them out of my hair still at 4am. You know I see 4am almost as often on 2nd shift as I did when I started work at 6am. But I digress and am a bit crunched for time. Oh, Snoopy the wonder yorkie is doing light speed laps around the ground floor of our house. And now he and Ellie our terrier of who knows exactly lineage have taken the case upstairs in pursuit of Lexie, my husband's Himmalyan cat. I slept about 4 hours and now must cook, and since the kids are sledding clean up the phenominal mess they made while I got 3 of my 4 hours of sleep. Incedently I was actually sleeping the recliner in the living room it was somewhat comical that I was awoken by thier desperate search for Ellie who was alseep on my lap under the blanket. She has thin fur, Its Wisconsin and its Feburary, she shivers inspite of her bright pink jacket. Kitchen timer going off got to switch pans!

artichokes, sauce and a Bear

Bear, as we call our daughter Anna is a bundle of energy and usually behaves like her bouncy yorkie puppy Snoopy in the kitchen. While we are saving our party for SB Sunday we did have to eat tonight so doing a crock pot take on poached chicken I did decided to get bit adventurous and try artichokes and for the first time hollendaise sauce. No powdered mixes for me, oh no (self directed sarcasm) I must be a purist and do it from scratch. Only my Bear was at all excited about trying artichokes but she really wanted to help make 'holiday' sauce. Don't bother arguing with a six year old about phonetics, especially my six year old so I a traditional french sauce much touted by America's French Chef as well as Denny's everyware became holiday sauce and a novel idea in our meatloaf and mashed taters kitchen. I however, am not so masochistic that I hand beat the sauce, blender thank you very much. What a mess, you have to blend it on high with the lid off while slowly adding the hot butter in a slow steady stream. The reason I though this blog worthy? Well, because my kitchen got spattered with salted egg yoke and butter foam so liberaly that our dogs were trying to lick the air. And one very bouncy AnnaBear knocked my fresh bowl of 'holiday' sauce off the counter. She was bouncing on the footstool slipped and my baby, my sauce and the bowl of tepid water it was set in crashing to the hardwood floor. No I didn't weep over the smashed sauce or bowl but as my girl was scraped and bruised I tried real hard not to laugh at her spattered from head to toe in perfect frothy yellow sauce. If you didn't know, cause I sure didn't before tonight hollindase sauce is egg yokes mixed with an entire stick of butter and lemon juice. she was a mess, a pitiful, sobbing slighly banged up mess. After checking for cuts and broken bones I started a shower for her while trying to reassure her I wasn't mad she smashed the holiday sauce. Let my Bear to steam clean in the shower and went back to make another batch of sauce. One plus to dog ownership? you almost never have to wipe up spilled food. What the pups missed my Andy boy (my husband and our son share the name Andy) and I mopped up along with the tepid now cold water. Ok, Daddy helped Bear by fetching clean jammies and towels while I whipped up more sauce. the chicken was tender enough to have to scoop it out with a large slotted spoon after the first breast disinigrated when I tried to pick it up with tongs. Chicken, check, parsley boiled potatoes, check now forest green artichokes, check, fresh batch of sauce double check. Ok, Anna squeaky clean and no longer sobbing table set, food severed, grace said and dig in. ARTICHOKES ARE AWFUL! I could have boiled pine cones and they might have tasted better and free. Up side? Holiday sauce goes great on poached chicken. Spuds rocked and not one of us liked artichokes. Now the dishwasher is done washing, kids are tucked in and I got to go gear up for tomorrow. I have go do battle with cookie dough and crossiants for fruit and veggie pizzas respectively. I think I might just mince the veggies tonight too! By the by, my Andy boy gamely tried twice to choke down artichoke, he deserves a purple heart. Yes, pun indended goodnight!

this is the trimphant Basilisk stombolie. The kids and I painted the stripes on with food coloring gel mixed with eggwhite. Olives and pimento make up the eyes and tounge, it was much yummier than rattelsnake according to my grandfather was nasty, filled with deli turkey, provolone cheese and a mix of herbs and butter. The bread dough usually gets a brush of the butter herb mix on top before baking but we left it out for asthetic effect. I am a great cook, need serious work on my presentation.

Family Fun Night Revived

Famliy fun night, ah yes disney movies, pizza and or McD's on a friday night. Here's the deal. I got a new job last year after getting layed off due to budget cuts in the Xerox corporation, the new job was a minor miracle in the biggest economic crash and burn since the great depression. That said the only shift availble at the time was 2nd shift. It sucks!!! I've got two grade school children and I have been forced into being a weekend parent just by my work schedule. Of course i can see them for a rushed hour before the get on the bus but otherwise its saturday and sunday. So friday family fun night got boxed up and put away. My husband is able to be home with the kids since after school but after a year of over compensating by taking the kids to movies and taking turns with my kids for some mom kid time. But I stilled wanted to spend more time as a family.

Now, I love to cook and bake I even do the occational cake for family and friends including a few weddings. I'm not afraid to try new things but the kids and my dear hubby are a bit more fussy. No peppers, no onion and forget this I love like squash and steamed broccoli. I decided a couple of weeks ago that we as a family are changing family fun night to saturdays with a new twist

Every weekend we are having a themed dinner party for just us 4. We started two weeks ago with Scandinavian heriatge night of Lefse and riced potatoes with meatballs. Its an old family tradition. Bye the bye we have a real woodfire cook stove in the kitchen of our 1880's farmhouse that's been in my DH's family since his how ever many greats grandfather came here from Norway. We make lefsa on the woodstove in great big sheets. Incase someone actually reads this blog lefsa is sort of like a tortillia, only made with potatoes. My son hates potatoes, but loves lefsa go figure kids tastes are weird.

Last weekend we a fantastic Harry Potter dinner party, I'll post pics tomorrow, we had Snake Stromboli, Jelly (from book 1 the Sorcer's Stone in the book the welcome feast includes Jelly known to us yanks as jello) we made bat droppings (pretzel bites dipped in chocolate) We dressed in costume my 10 yr old son makes a great harry potter with his dark hair, green eyes, and glasses. My daughter was of course Hermoine and they had costume wands. The had 'magic' duals and played one of our Hogwarts games.

I had a HP collection mania a couple of years ago and aquired several toys, action figures and other assorted toys so for decoration we used stuff we already had including a Trevor the frog, Norbert the Dragon, The Burrow (the Weasly home), and a Hogwarts castle with the magic trio, Hagrid, and of coure Dumbledore. Even though I had a bitch of cold that day we all had fun and Harry Potter night was a resounding success. Next up Super Bowl Sunday! Football Cookies, Jello Helmets and touchdown pickle rolls. I have die hard football fan in my son he even did his homework with out the obligitory whineing. The weekend is off to a pretty good start! Next week it's France night, but I think we will avoid any snails. ewww!