Traditions Layout

 

CC-items: FP Chipboard Alphas, FP Grab-Bag patterned papers (Delight), marker (AC precision pen), diecuts (MM Flutter), MM brads (B&W combo), MM baby metal signage, MM celery ribbon + slider

For the month of November, the Cropchocolate.com focus group's challenge was "Traditions". I decided to finally scrap photos of our last New Year's morning, when we ate some ozoni. We're a pretty relaxed family when it comes to traditions, but I simply CANNOT begin a new year without making this for breakfast! This past year, it was the 4th day after my ACL surgery, but I still managed to hobble around the kitchen, making the soup. :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We spent a very relaxing week in Palm Desert, thoroughly enjoying the sunshine... Marika's soccer team finally ended their season (the day we left), so I was able to de-compress from that stress. Mika's team clinched first place (yay!) and will have their playoffs next Saturday. They've already clinched a berth to advance to out-of-area play, which won't begin until January. DaddyDude says I should stop coaching after this, because I'll never have a better team - he's absolutely right, this is a "Dream Team" on many levels - and hopefully things will work out with the girls, so that I won't "have" to coach anymore, either.

Pinterest and recipes

I admit it - I'm still in love with Pinterest! Not only can you find some really interesting things, but for a list-maker like myself, I love that I can "pin" it and easily find it later. Voila! An instant way for me to keep track of recipes I want to try!

This past weekend, I made some cioppino - we'e always wanted to make it but the "shove" finally came when I found a convenient package of mixed seafood at Fresh & Easy. LOVE that store! It turnd out "okay"for a first-time dish, since I had to modify things a lot, due to the availability of ingredients in the house and the fact that the F&E package came with a broth. In a nutshell, it was tasty but too salty - and no, it probably didn't help matters that the family came to the dinner table LATE, so things probably cooked longer than they should have... *sigh*...

With the cioppino, I made a new salmon dish: Miso Salmon with Orange and Fennel. I didn't have any fennel, so I substitute it with dried basil and fresh cilantro. It was quite tasty! The creator of this recipe is Jaden Hair, owner of the www.steamykitchen.com blog - she is GOOD!

The girls had a fun weekend - one of Mika's teammates had a birthday party with a water slide. For some reason, they all decided it was better to bounce down it. There's Marika, bopping along...

And on Sunday, Mika's all star team had yet another tournament but a "friendly" one. They won both games decisively with scores of 13-4 and 12-6. These are the same two teams they'll play this coming week at our local tournament. Mika is still batting over 0.500 and whacked one out to outfield this past outing. Maybe if we get some meat onto her skinny little arms, she can hit it farther...

Lately...

I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day! Things have been busy here, but here I am at last!

Patterned papers all by Echo Park (Springtime collection), twine (MME Lime Twist), and bling (MM white bling)

The latest Cropchocolate challenge was to use simple shapes to make a more complicated one. I chose to make a kudusama ball, something I've wanted to do for a very long time. I found a good tutorial here and here and modified it to suit my needs. I used sixty 2"x2" pieces (two 12x12 sheets) for this project.

Patterned paper (Making Memories - Cosmopolitan 6x6 paper pack), brads (MM), Quickutz heart die, rub-ons (Fancy Pants), ink (Tim Holtz)

The CC challenge last week was to create a Valentine's Day card, using non-traditional colors. I chose to use the Cosmopolitan paper pack (6x6 by Making Memories). I am rather fond of the light blue with brown color combination.

I was really crammed for time, but managed to squeeze out a couple of cute gifts for the girls' teachers. I found these printable mailboxes from the Facebook page of Print Candee. 

And what would Valentine's Day be, without a Father/Daughter dance? I went to help this year (usually my friend Michelle comes to hang out with me, but this year, she was in Japan) - it was crazy busy! I basically stood behind the snack table all evening, handing out chips. The girls enjoyed getting dressed up and luckily, DaddyDude was able to get off work in time to be their date. Aren't those the cutest cupcakes? 

In other news... the girls made us dinner one night - chicken fingers and chicken corn chowder. Dinner was pretty tasty and the house didn't burn down - it was a good day!

And in case anybody is looking for a good stocking-stuffer for next year...  I picked up some crystal growing trees at Lakeshore Learning Store. This isn't exactly what I got (that one was much fancier), but it's pretty close. The picture on the left starts at time zero and pictures were taken at one hour intervals. They are very fragile when they're done - the crystals can easily be knocked off... it's like snow (without melting). The girls really enjoyed watching the tree grow, though.

Happy New Year!

Welcome, 2012!

As things turned out, Miss Mika passed out before the ball dropped, but Marika persevered. Both girls bounded awake early, anxious to eat our so-called "traditional" Japanese New Year morning meal, ozoni.

Remember those rice cakes (mochi) I made last week? This was their big debut! Marika helped DaddyDude broil them (to make them puff out) before we put them into the soup. DaddyDude says he is not a big fan of ozoni, but every year, he puts away several mochi and a few bowls of soup. I try to make the soup extra hearty for him, hence some vegetables appear that shouldn't be there. :) This year, Marika ate three mochi! Next year, I better put more into the soup pot... :)
Making the ozoni totally wiped me out, though. Recovery feels negative today, as I had to lay down for a few hours afterwards and am now fighting off a fever. Does my new ACL hate me? Perhaps... so no trucking around the neighborhood today, but maybe tomorrow...
Happy New Year, everybody!!! Hope it's a great year in all ways!

For fans of Chili's

One of Daddy Dude's all-time favorite places to eat is Chili's. I don't particularly care for their fare (it all makes me really thirsty! But I do really enjoy their chili con queso with chips), so when we go, we order the "2 for $20" and DaddyDude gets to eat to his heart's content while I just eat a small portion. DaddyDude usually picks the chicken/bacon quesadillas with the cajun chicken pasta - and the girls always beg for some of the pasta.

So.... we looked up a copycat recipe and tried it out. This is not for the faint of heart, because the calorie count per serving is over 1100 calories!!! Just to give you an idea... the recipe calls for 3 cups of cream. We thought it was pretty tasty, although next time we'll have to remember to get the bags of grated parmesan (vs the plastic container) and get some real lemon pepper. I've been enjoying the last cup of whipping cream for my morning coffee... Mmmmmm...

But do you know what I say in these situations? "Moderation is the key!" So, eat away - just don't eat this dish every day! :)

Something else you shouldn't eat very often? McDonald's! However, with their Monopoly game going on (DaddyDude and I catch breakfast here at least once a week, as a sort of "date" with no babysitter required, after dropping off the kids), I find myself with a handful of "free medium fries" tickets. I almost NEVER eat lunch out (usually feasting on leftovers at home) but today, with a "free small Frappe coupon" and a very tired body - it was time. I scored this lunch for $1.71 (on Fridays, filet o' fishes are only $1.59 each). Once the caffeine kicks in, I can continue to clean the house before heading in to help PTA set up for their bookfair.

Do I know how many calories I just ate? No... but I'm sure it's a lot! Like I said - everything in moderation! That and... that is why I run 6 days a week. :)

Staycation, Part 2

So, I mentioned that we went cavortin' on the Colorado River, right? Oh, yes, we did!

We really had a great time - we were invited to go along with our next-door neighbors (who are really fun) and they happened to have a Sea Doo. Does anybody else think of James Bond? ;) DaddyDude and I got to drive it - but then I decided it was more fun to have DaddyDude drive, so all I had to worry about was hanging on for dear life as we bounced along the wakes. VERY FUN! The girls (especially Mika) had a blast, though half the time Marika wailed that she wanted to go back to me (on shore).

She did, however, enjoy being pulled in the innertube (see above), but I have to tell you - it's not so much fun as you get older. DaddyDude got knocked out (after flopping around like a rag doll prior to ejection) and I was only on the tube for a short while before I decided that I had had enough. I had started out laughing (because it WAS fun) but then realized THAT was a stupid thing to do, because water kept spraying into your face. I must have swallowed quite a few mouthfuls - blech! The problem was, if you weren't brave enough to lay on your stomach (we weren't) then you had to keep your butt off the bottom of the inntertube, because hitting the water was like hitting hard ground. I don't know about you, but it was really weird trying to keep your body relatively rigid while your legs were flopping around wildly (despite your best efforts to avoid doing so). Perhaps worst of all was when DaddyDude started to spin me in a circle - I swear he was trying to kill me by going really fast (I thought I was going to fly off!) but he swears he was going really slow. Humph. I guess we'll never know the truth... :)

All in all, we had a fabulous time - it probably would not have been so great without the good company and the Sea-Doo - but it was a grand and unique experience! It also made us realize that a weekend getaway (with kids) was totally possible.

For the rest of DaddyDude's staycation, we went to the local waterpark (again)...

And the girls FINALLY went to the movie theater - for the first time ever! Yeah, I know... it's pretty late for them to get started. DaddyDude and I probably hadn't been to the movies in over 7 years. YES! SEVEN YEARS! The last movie we saw was Chicken Little (in our defense - I think our first choice had been sold out).

We went to see Transformers, because oddly enough, although our children are scared of Cinderella (they hate the cat chasing the rats), Snow White (the evil stepmother), Curious George (Mika's absolutely terrified of the "man in the yellow hat") and Ultraman (my favorite Japanese superhero) - they really like the Transformer movies and aren't afraid. Go figure!

Well, that is... until the movie trailers began and both girls clapped their hands over their ears. It must have taken at least 15-20 minutes before they got used to the noise level (I was flinching for most of that time as well!) and took their hands away. Have movies really always been that loud?! Holy cow!

And finally, one of the perks of DaddyDude being on staycation is... he cooks! He made some yummy sliders today - aren't they cute? And can you guess where we got the mini burger press? Joann's! Yes, they were in the 70% off aisle, so for $7.49 + tax, we got ourselves some really cute burgers! Topped with cheese, carmelized onions and some herb salad, they were delectable on those Hawaiian sweet rolls! Yup - Joann's is NOT just for scrappers and sewers! :)

Lettuce Wraps

During our Scottsdale trip, we were finally able to eat at a P. F. Changs restaurant. Now, I know for most of you, this isn't a big deal, but it was - for us! What we liked the best were the lettuce wraps, so when I saw some iceberg lettuce on sale today, I decided it was time to try making them.

I found this recipe and though I chose to use ground beef rather than chicken (I had to use the ground beef up before tomorrow) and I had no water chestnuts in the house (substituting carrots instead), we thought it was still pretty tasty. Next time, we'll use chicken and water chestnuts OR try this other recipe - and make any sauce extra spicy. Yay!

Enchiladas, anyone?

We love Mexican food and recently, I've made it a goal to make amazing enchiladas. One of my soccer buddies (Missy) made these delicious enchiladas for a baby shower, so I begged her for the recipe. It was MUCH better than what I had made been making before, but... I still need a homemade sauce (she had recommended Las Palmas brand) - I googled around for some enchilada sauce recipes, but if anybody else has a good one they'd like to share... (*hint, hint*)... :) otherwise, I'm just going to have to figure it out on my own...

Speaking of Missy... she's one of my favorite soccer people because she has lots of personality and on the field, she is very ballsy (you have to be, if you ever play goalie). A couple of months ago, she went skydiving for the first time and lived to tell the tale. You can see the video here (she's great for the camera). I could NEVER - in a million years - be brave enough to do it!

And speaking of videos, I did make my first one (ever!) for my cropchocolate project (the flower topiary project posted back in June). You can see it on youtube here. I was very pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to use Adobe Premiere Elements. However, I'm sad to report that I did not make the cut for CC's design team. Oh, well... on to new things!

Tidbits... in case anyone is looking for any book recommendations... I finally finished reading the entire Girl with a Dragon Tattoo trilogy and the Hunger Games trilogy. They were both great series! The Hunger Games books were rather disturbing (very violent) so while they are considered to be "young adult", I don't know when I would feel comfortable allowing my girls to read them... maybe when they are closer to 15...?

Are You Ready For a Throwdown?

Daddy Dude loves to watch Food Network and "Throwdown" (with Bobby Flay) is probably his favorite. He recently bought the "Throwdown" cookbook and decided to make some meatball lasagna.



Here are my happy meatballers... (hey, wouldn't that be a great name for a roller derby team?)



Ah... up close and personal with a bunch of meatballs...

These were baked for about 30 min and then simmered in sauce. And this was just prep!


Did I mention I was upstairs happily scrapping away? By myself? What a lovely treat!

Ta dah! A mountain of yummy lasagna - layers upon layers of thick gooey stuff. Tons of ricotta cheese and even more mozarella. Not for the faint of heart... or the lactose-intolerant!


Daddy Dude did a great job - thanks, honey!

Ah... it's that time of year again! Actually, we hadn't eaten any girl scout cookies in several years - we are happy to have found a supplier again.


And last but not least... we are trying to teach the girls how to handle money, so they get an allowance and they get to go shopping. Mika's behavior at the store was frustrating one day, because she wasn't listening to me or being considerate of others. At my wit's end, I finally asked her if she knew any of my "rules".

"What rules?" she asked. "I don't know what you're talking about!" Meanwhile, Marika - right next to her - starts rattling them off: "Don't chew with your mouth open... sneeze into your elbow..."

So, I told the girls when they got home, that they had to make a list of my "do's and don't's". They really got into it (apparently, it wasn't a punishment at all) and came up with a list. They still refer to it, which makes me laugh.

Taking in some sunshine again

I asked Marika if she would rather go to this new park (new only b/c we never went there, although it's only about 0.5 mile away from our house) or stay at the school playground with the other kids after school. Thankfully, she wanted to go to the park - I figure this gives both of us space away from the school playground "issues". Out of sight, out of mind, right?

One of the best things about "new" parks is their bright colors - it's easy to take photos and have them look great because of the eye-popping colors. Another reason we like this park is the big spaces around it (big enough to throw a ball or play a mini-game of softball with kids) and a sidewalk that loops all the way around it - so the kids can skate, scoot or bike safely. Marika has played here so hard that she got a blister (that popped) on her hand - there are at least two sets of monkeybars on this playground and at the rate she scales them, she's going to have some spectacular upper body strength!

Perhaps most therapeutic for me... I can sit in the sunshine and crochet my little flowers (practice makes perfect!). I used to take the time to soak up the sun while the kids were out of school but I'd forgotten all about that. Sometimes it's nice to sit and smell the roses (so to speak)... and slow down and enjoy life... and it's a nice view, isn't it? Mount Baldy (in the background) has tons of snow on it still.

Speaking of enjoying life... I really love how sweet my husband is! Last Sunday, he and the girls cooked up some fancy omelettes. We didn't have any deli meats, but I was impressed with his resourcefulness - he popped open a Lunchable and used the meat and cheeses inside - too funny! They were delicious omelettes, too! =)

And on a different note... I subscribe to a number of scrapbooking blogs, but this particular post caught my attention (in a big way!) this past week. Obviously, we scrappers would LOVE to have our own little scrap room (or shack, as some people do!) but most of us just dream about it. I ran a quick google search to see what other pretty pictures were out there and found this, this, and this link to a great variety of scrap rooms.

How's that for inspiration to clean up and re-organize our scrap spaces? =)

And so the New Year begins!

Hope everybody's 2011 is starting out well so far!

The girls attended their softball clinic this past week (it had been postponed due to rain 2 weeks earlier). There weren't that many little kids - so they got lots of attention and practice.

They had a good time - Mika started sliding on her knees to make catches, can you tell? Daddy Dude went through all the effort of scrubbing to get those stains out - what a great guy!

Mika's soccer team finally had their end-of-the-season party, too. It was fun to see everybody again - we really liked most of the other parents. I say "most" because much to everybody's dismay, out of the 8 girls on the team, 7 did show up. The only one who didn't was the team mom's daughter - and yes, it was the team mom who collected $15 from each family for the coach's gift, etc. Luckily, another parent bought the coach a gift certificate and we pitched in to help pay for it - so at least the coach got SOMETHING. It's pretty depressing to know that this kind of thing happens, you know?

It's been a busy week - one of our soccer buddies is moving back to New York (she's on my left in the picture above). We went out to Elephant Bar on Monday to send her off (they have good desserts there!) and were lucky enough to play with her one final time - though on different teams - last night. We re-vamped our Thursday night team (for the better, we think) and won 3-0 (yours truly scored 2 goals!).

We tried out a new recipe today, called Arugula Pesto. I had picked up a bag of arugula at Fresh & Easy for $0.79 (it was 75% off and wow, it really keeps for a long time!) and picked this recipe. I liked it - it's got a rounder, more mellow taste than basil pesto - but Daddy Dude is still on the fence. I know I'll enjoy eating it for leftovers next week, though! =)

Also, I have a new book recommendation: The Soloist by Steve Lopez. Some of you may have seen the movie, but I always prefer to read the book first. It was a very enjoyable and interesting read (I read it in about a day - but I am a very fast reader) and I look forward to seeing the movie. As a child, I played the piano and went to some competitions and camps where I interacted/observed child prodigies (not me!), so it's especially interesting for me to read these kinds of stories (like the movie Shine with Geoffrey Rush - it was interesting but at the same time, very difficult to watch due to the subject matter). Some of the kids I knew ended up "making it" in music, which I think is pretty neat. =)

By the way...

The jook (rice porridge) cooked in the crockpot turned out really well. I popped everything in (I cooked the beef on the stove first, as I could have for the stove-top version), turned the setting on LOW and waited. It took about 6 hours before things began to visibly thicken (I admit, was panicking before that). I cooked it for a total of 8-8.5 hours. I actually liked the slow cooker version better because I didn't have to worry about thing burning.

Mika's back to a normal diet now. At least we know now, that she really likes pudding! I could do without reconstituted potato flakes, though. =)

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I had purchased something from Kindred Creations, which is a deal-of-a-day kind of place. My order was shipped about 1 week after I checked out, and received about 3 days after that. I was quite pleased with my purchase and would shop there again.

Today was a whopper of a hot day. It was about 80-degrees around midnight and at 5:30 am (when I stepped out for my run) it was 76-degrees. Sheesh! I checked the temperatures throughout the day and the highest I saw was 108.5-degrees. Fortunately, tomorrow's high is only supposed to be 99 (woohoo!), followed by a weekend of 80-something degree weather. I cannot wait!

Unfortunately, we've been running the air-conditioner for over a week now... we tried to avoid it, but the second floor kept hitting 89-degrees. When the downstairs started to hit 83-85 (a few days ago), Daisy and Hissamina (and the darkling beetles, too) were all moved upstairs to enjoy the air-conditioning. You'd think they'd be grateful, but the guinea pig had been very crotchedy and ornery. She either dislikes the darker environment (obviously all the shutters are kept closed) or she's terribly lonely. A cranky guinea pig, however, does not attract any friends, especially when she nips them on the lip when they come to kiss her. *tsk, tsk*

Hope everybody is staying cool! =)

Adding to my collection...

I admit it - I couldn't resist it! Target had this slow cooker on sale for $7. Isn't it adorable? I know it's small (1.5 qt), but I thought I could use it for soups or desserts. Maybe I need another big slow cooker for side dishes... =)

By the way, scrappers - Target has some of its scrapbooking materials on clearance (30% off) to make way for Summer-CHA things. My Target had some clear stamps on sale, as well as stickers and various embellishments...

Oh, and my Michaels had some new Studio G stamps (Series 52) - I saw some butterfly designs, at least one bird design, and a couple of card sentiments.

Lights! Camera! Action!

Today the girls attended their very first drama workshop. Ms. Didi, who also runs the monthly library arts/crafts hour, is an accomplished stage director and invited the girls to come to the free workshop. For 45 minutes, Ms. Didi taught them the fundamentals of stage acting ("when you're on stage, it's a big 'no no' to wave to your mom or dad in the audience!"). The kids got to wear costumes, say some lines, and of course - dance to a musical number while "swimming" across the stage. Since the organization sponsoring the acting workshop received a grant from Pepsi, we all got some free product afterwards (although the kids had to pose with the product for a picture). Marketing in America, right?

At home, we are always treated to concerts. I was tickeld by their innovative Tinkertoy microphones. =) This was from yesterday's performance.

Mika wrote her first song called, "the Dance of Love". It really helps when she writes the words down, because today the girls tried to sing a new number, "the Love song" but Marika - apparently - was not taught any of the lyrics. By the end, I was confused and not sure if the song was about sisters, or bugs, or what...!

The girls are becoming more creative - learning how to embellish! - which I enjoy seeing. These were the "gifts" distributed at their concert today. Inside, we received a huge number of bookmarks. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I can't read more than 3 books at one time... =P

And speaking of gifts... I wanted to make a special thank you gift for my good friend Holly, who kindly took care of Daisy (our guinea pig) while we were in Arizona. Daisy is a special high-maintenance guinea pig, because she absolutely refuses to drink out of her water bottle. I don't know what her problem is!

So here is what I made Holly - it's a baking mix with almost everything in it - she just has to add butter, milk and some vanilla extract (I think) to make some chocolate cobbler. What is it, you ask? I had no idea, so we had to test-drive the recipe last night and let me tell you - IT WAS DELICIOUS! It's like chocolate cake/brownie with some chocolate sauce. We ate it with some vanilla ice cream and yum yum YUM!

I know you're all dying to know how I came up with this wondrous creation. I didn't! Last week, the YSS blog mentioned the Lollychops blog with regards to making tea toters. I looked around the blog and this woman is AMAZING. She's very crafty and she has several beautiful free downloadable printables for making special gifts - these will come in handy when it comes time to making teacher appreciation gifts, or even holiday gifts.

So in other words, you follow Lollychops' directions to pack the mixtures, print out the template to make the packaging and voila! You have allowed your friend to make a scrumptious dessert with minimal effort. How cool is that?

Lovin' it!

Crock pots are cool!
Mom's boyfriend, Fred, dropped this off last month. It's an oldie, but goody. We'd actually been thinking about getting one for the last couple of years (our friend Sandy has been raving about them for years) but weren't willing to invest in something we considered "iffy". But, how can you complain about a FREE crock pot =)

I can't tell you how nice it is to spend only a few minutes in the morning prepping dinner - and enjoying a hot meal 8-12 hours later. We've made chili verde, a couple of beef stews, meatballs and a pot roast so far. The meatballs were really easy (just ground beef, egg and bread crumbs) but Daddy Dude loved them in his Hero sandwiches - even the girls liked them! If anybody has any recipe or cookbook recommendations, please let me know!

I had a realization this morning, as I took the girls to the car dealership for an oil change. Daddy Dude has taken care of all of the car maintenance appointments ever since the kids were born (and yes, that was a long time ago!), because taking them with me always seemed like such a hideous pain (the waiting, the crying, the whining, not to mention the woes of changing diapers, etc.). He's been working a lot and it's very difficult for him to fit them in now, so the girls and I sucked it up today and took the car in ourselves. Despite being a little anxious, it was surprisingly easy. The dealership recently renovated so the service department is incredibly streamlined and the waiting area is impressive. I was actually able to enjoy a nice hot cup of Starbucks coffee (snagging a coffee collar for a scrapbooking project, of course) while the kids played happily in their own special waiting area.

So what was the realization? We've reached another milestone of child care - where taking them places and handling other errands is no longer really problematic! I mean, how cool is that?!

Wrapping up the week

Miss Mika had her final softball game on Tuesday. We were so proud of her because not only did she refuse to cry when somebody caught her pop fly, but SHE caught a pop-up later for an out. Woohoo! She was the only person on her team to ever catch one of those - the entire season. We took her to the Dollar Tree to celebrate (that's their favorite store to pick things out - aren't we lucky?) by letting her pick out a few items.

But don't worry, folks - you don't have to wait until next spring for more sports highlights. We signed them up for AYSO this morning - officially. We handed over the check and everything - I couldn't handle waiting for a month to see if they processed our application. Besides, we are within walking distance to the soccer park, which is really cool!

Wednesday was a lovely weather day. Marika and I went to the park, where she demonstrated that she can now climb up and over that climbing wall - something she couldn't do last year. It's nice not having to worry (anymore) about any of my kids flipping off the playground equipment. Now, I only have to worry about them getting beaten up or chased! =) Marika was a little scared when another little boy kept following her around. I told her, "this won't be the last time this happens!"

On Thursday, Marika had a double field trip. First, we stopped by the fire station, where the kids got to handle the fire hose and slide down the pole (not all the way!). They had a great time, obviously!

Afterwards, it was off to a ceramics studio, where the kids got to pick out what they wanted to paint. Since it was a "Mother's Day" kind of trip, we picked out some bugs. Do you see how absorbed and focused she is? They allow walk-ins, so I think I'll be taking the girls there over the summer... Marika should get her project back within 1.5 weeks - I can't wait to see what they look like!

And last but not least... I decided it'd been a long time since I tried out a new recipe. Daddy Dude loves the Food Network, so I decided to try the Shrimp Scampi with Linguini, since I had a bag of frozen shrimp. I still had to buy a bottle of white wine (I wanted dry sherry, since I use that for my Chinese cooking, but I couldn't find any, among the zillions of bottles). THEN, because Daddy Dude was so late coming home, I had to watch a video on the internet to figure out how to use my (single-lever) corkscrew to open the bottle of wine. Yes, I'm almost middle-aged and I'd never opened a bottle of wine before in my life! Apparently, Daddy Dude was always around to do it for me. Well, there's a first time for everything, right?

The dish was quite tasty and very easy to make. We had zero leftovers, which is always a good sign!

And since one of you asked... Daddy Dude has been temporarily sidelined from baseball, in an attempt to let his knee recover but my leg ligaments appear to be doing well. I joined a new soccer team for Monday nights (short-field 7x7) and though we lost 5-3, I'm pleased to say that I scored two of those goals. Heh heh... for once in my life, I'm the leading goal scorer on the team! =)

The sun is back!

Yay! After several days of heavy rain, the clouds finally cleared and the sun broke out this morning. Don't our mountains (Lake Arrowhead is up there) look gorgeous? We'll be sure to thoroughly enjoy the sunshine and good weather until the next storm system comes again (in a mere few days).

In other news... Daddy Dude has been watching A LOT of Food Network lately (Mika now shouts, "It's Bobby Flay!" at the TV - kind of cute and kind of scary at the same time). Just a few days ago, there was a waffle throwdown. And thus, Daddy Dude was inspired - lucky us!

Ooooooh, so pretty! They were light, fluffy and crispy waffles. We didn't have any fresh strawberries (with all the rain, I didn't feel like going grocery shopping this week!) but we did have some whipped cream and powdered sugar. Wooohoo! They were delicious! I think we'll have to persuade Daddy Dude to make them again soon... =) Aren't I lucky to be married to a man who cooks? =P And not to gloat, but he even barbequed some salmon tonight, too... =)

Nuttin' like good friends & good food...

Michelle had been planning to visit for quite some time, but finally... it happened! Daddy Dude and I had chicken that we wanted to cook with... had a craving for pasta... and searched the Food Network website for ideas. We decided to make Chicken Carbonara, a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis. It wasn't a recipe for the faint-of-heart, simply because it had lots of cream, cheese, egg yolks, and pancetta.

Now, I have to admit - I'm a very lucky girl who is married to a fabulous man. While I was cleaning the house, he started dinner all by himself. The girls helped him a little bit and voila! Our dinner was ready minutes after Michelle arrived in the pouring rain. It would have been nice to have fresh herbs (not his fault) but the dish was delicious! A real winner! (and as Marika would say, "Yummers!")

Michelle has been stressed by graduate school (as she is supposed to be - if you're not stressed, you must be doing something wrong!) so I thought she might find it relaxing to do a little bit of baking. I'm not a baker, but she LOVES it, so I made her give me a lesson cookie-cutting. No, I didn't make her do ALL of the work (that wouldn't have been nice!) but I tried to learn as much as I could from her.

Here's Michelle, demonstrating her cookie dough rolling technique ("use flour!").

And now here's everyone (but me) cookie-cutting... (it's not as easy it looks!)

I tell ya, the amount of work is (grossly) inversely proportional to the yield!

Voila! Here are some of Michelle's iced creations. Pretty, aren't they? So festive!

The only reason I had been baking sugar cookies, too, was to get a trial run of a new recipe, since I was scheduled to bring in 52 un-iced sugar cookies to Mika and Marika's classrooms on Thursday (tomorrow).

On Monday, I was told that the cookies HAD to be store-bought, that the school was enforcing their policy. *sigh* So today, I went to buy 5 dozen un-iced sugar cookies from Albertson's. Do you know what the really scary part it? The label on the bakery carton said that they should be eaten by 1/23/10! And I was worried about them being fresh enough... sheesh!

You know somebody's a really good friend when they come to visit, even though they know you have a soccer game the next day - and they agree to come. Michelle even offered to take pictures, which was really nice of her. I normally hate being photographed, but I didn't have ANY pictures of me playing soccer at all, even in high school.

I like this artsy picture of Mika with the soccer ball... we were lucky to have beautiful weather (it'd been raining the 7 days previous).

This picture was on my camera and taken from far away (so it's a little blurry), but I thought it made me look pretty cool... even though this girl kept pushing and knocking me on the ground. *sigh*

And here are the pictures from Michelle's camera. She made me look good, didn't she? Thanks, Michelle!

So it was grand to see Michelle... but sadly, we probably won't see her again for another few months, since she'll be buried in grad school stuff. Wow, am I glad to be done with all of that! =)

And last but not least... since we knew the rain was coming, I had purchased some umbrellas for the girls. Marika was rather miffed that the store didn't have any "cute" ones (as the 99-cent store usually does), so the compromise was to give them a bunch of colored Sharpies and let them decorate their own umbrellas. They enjoyed doing that, but I have to admit - I was very surprised that they only wanted to draw little things and only on the very top part of the umbrella. What's up with that???