February Recap

Kinda hard to believe we're already into March of 2012... And that the official first day of Spring is tomorrow!! Of course, we're still getting snow here and there. Not much. Just a dusting that lasts a few hours. And the next day it is beautiful and sunny. And the next day it is torrential downpour. Typical Pacific Northwest valley weather. I just have to keep reminding myself that that's what keeps everything so green and beautiful!!

* No date-night-movie-of-the-month. We had other stuff going on every weekend and did several group dates with some other couples. We both had movies we wanted to see, though... Sean wants to see "The Woman in Black" and I've been wanting to see "The Vow." This weekend is already pretty booked, but hopefully next weekend we can finally have our date night!

* 50s Stake Dance: I still can't really believe that we went to this! It's not really our "scene" to go to dances any more. Not that I don't love to dance, but I know it's not Sean's thing. But we decided to go check it out and it wasn't too bad. Sean and I even dressed up. I wore my jeans rolled up, Converse shoes, cardigan, pearls and my old letterman's jacket [go SHS!!] and Sean wore jeans and a white shirt with a deck of cards rolled up in the sleeve - he caught flack for that all night! The decorations were cute and there was bubblegum blowing contest, limbo and couples dance promenade. They had root beer and orange floats, but it was ALL 50s music - not going to lie, that got old after a while. Check out our good-looking group from the ward, though:

[Picture of a picture - original courtesy of Picture Perfect Photography]

It was the after-party that was the most fun, though! We went back to Tellez's house with some other friends, cranked up the music and had a real dance party!! Ha ha! It was awesome. Nothing like a bunch of 30+ year-olds {with the exclusion of me!} dancing in the living room. :)

* New Stake Presidency: We had our stake conference the second weekend in February and got a brand-new stake presidency. Nobody we knew, of course, because we don't really know anyone in our stake outside of our ward. And we stayed for all of the Sunday session. We couldn't believe how many people got up and left after the announcement of the new stake presidency. Wow.

* Lizzy got glasses!: My sister, Lizzy, finally got her eyes checked which revealed that she does, in fact, need glasses. We had suspected this for several years so we were not surprised! Here she is in her cute, new frames. Very stylish.

* Girls movie night: Even though Sean and I didn't get out to see a movie, I was able to meet up with some friends to go see "This Means War" with Reese Witherspoon. Hilarious.

[http://teaser-trailer.com/movie/this-means-war/]

* Visiting Teaching luncheon: My visiting teaching companion and I are less-than-stellar when it comes to doing our visiting teaching. I have never been good about setting up appointments and I blame myself more than my companion - she has 5 kids with another on the way. So, to make it a little easier, we decided to have the ladies we visit teach come to us and we hosted a luncheon! We all have young non-school-age kids, so we let the kids play while we chatted and then ate lunch together. PB&J with fresh fruit for the kids and chicken salad on croissants, broccoli salad and fresh fruit for the adults - with lime tarts for dessert. We had a wonderful time and I think this will become a semi-regular thing.

* Coca-Cola Cake: I discovered this little gem on Pinterest a few months ago. Here's the cast of ingredients:It goes together really quickly and uses just one can of soda. Of course, any flavor of cola can be used. Just before it comes out of the oven, you make the icing and then pour it over the top of the cake while it is still warm. I think the icing portion makes more than you need, but it seeps into the warm cake making the cake very dense and moist and also giving the top a nice glaze. Sorry, no picture of the finished product, but you can get the recipe here: http://mayflaum.com/2011/06/08/the-chocolate-cola-cake/

* Oscar night: We had our Coca-cola cake while we watched the Oscars at the Colemans' house. We may or may not have put 20 cent bids on the major categories. We had fun seeing Octavia Spencer win Best Supporting Actress for The Help {read my review of the book and movie here}, couldn't believe how many Oscars Hugo won and decided to add Best Picture winner The Artist to our must-see list!

* Already covered:
- Valentine's Day
- Cinder-Ethan
- Rash Wednesday
- Leap Year

* Sorry, no random pictures. It was kind of a slow month on the picture-taking front.

October Recap

Oh, my! October is NOT going to be easy to remember... But I still want to do the recap, for journaling purposes. Luckily, thanks to my very recent (and LONG overdue) Halloween post, I think most of the important stuff has been covered. Or, at least, the stuff that I have pictures for!!

* Date-night-movie-of-the-month: Well, I don't think there was one... But I could be wrong! I really don't remember. I even tried searching through movie releases, but I'm pretty sure we didn't see anything.

* New calling: Have I mentioned I got a new calling?? Well, actually, an in-addition-to calling. I'm still the Primary teacher for the 10-11 year olds, but now I am also an Activity Day leader. They kind of go hand-in-hand, since I already work with a lot of the girls on Sundays. We have Activity Days twice a month, which makes Thursdays a bit hectic at our house on those nights. Sean has a vocal lesson at 6pm and we have to leave right after that. Dinner is usually a quick bite to eat before Sean's student comes or we pick something up on our way home from the church. It also means no chance at getting Ethan to bed before 9pm. We're making it work, though! My very first activity was spent making decorations for a Daddy/Daughter Halloween party and then two weeks later we had the party.
* More jam! If you'll recall from September's Recap post (clear back at the end of November!), I made jam for the first time - strawberry. Well, in October, I made peach jam - or, as I like to call it, golden goodness!! I love peach jam - especially on buttered toast.
* Green smoothies: I have turned a new page in my smoothie making. I have added SPINACH!! A nice, healthy handful (probably about a cup) of spinach in every smoothie. You can't even taste it and I love that I'm adding a green, leafy vegetable serving without even trying. Even Ethan gulps down these smoothies! This particular one was with banana and pineapple, but my usual smoothies are banana, frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup orange juice, any other berries we have on hand and spinach. YUM! Try it!
* Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider cookies: I didn't mean for this post to be so food-based, but I guess that's what it's turning out to be. Thanks to Pinterest, I found this little beauty of a recipe and had to try it! Spiced apple cider packets in the dough and each cookie formed around a caramel square. I tried them out for the first time for treats for our ward's Super Saturday craft day thing and they were a huge hit!!! Like, empty-plate, people-begging-for-the-recipe hit!Word of caution, these cookies get stale quick and start to crumble and fall apart within just a couple days. Make them the day you plan to eat them!

* Mummy Bars: Another idea via Pinterest (and one of my favorite crafting blogs: The Idea Room) that I made for my Primary class since Sunday was the day before Halloween. Cute, easy and cheap AND the kids liked them! [Photo and idea found here: http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/10/halloween-mummy-birthday-party.html]
* Stuff I Already Blogged About:
Pumpkin Patch
Surprise Oregon Visit for my Parents' Birthday
Ethan's First Primary Program
Halloween

Alright! Done with that! Now I just have November, December and January recaps.... :/

Cultural Night: BRAZIL (i.e. land of beans and rice)

Sean served his mission (2 years) in Brazil. Did you know that? Two years embraced in a new culture.

He was bound to find some new foods to love.

And he did.

Beans and rice.

Fast forward a few years or so... Sean and I meet, fall in love, get married, etc. And in 6 1/2 years of marriage I never once made beans and rice for dinner. Mean, I know. {But, it's not like he ever requested it... At least, I don't think he did.}

I like rice. Plain.

I'm not a big fan of it mixed with other things {other than Spanish rice} - it's a texture thing.

So, imagine my surprise when reading my favorite cooking blog {Our Best Bites} a few weeks ago and the post of the day is "Black Beans & Rice With Chicken And Apple Salsa" and it actually looks good to me! Knowing my hubby's love of beans and rice, I decided to make a night of it.

Cultural night at the Southworths!

Destination: BRAZIL

I made the beans and rice - though I subbed pinto beans for the black beans.
I even made the apple salsa. It was good, but next time I'll probably just do some fresh pico de gallo.
Sean loved it.
I loved it.
{Ethan was cranky and went to bed early that night. He had something else for dinner.}
Sean said it tasted authentic.
Took him right back to Brazil.
I scored mega good-wife points.

I also made "Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls" or Pao de Queijo.
You just have to have tapioca flour.
Which you can buy in the bulk section at Winco. About a $1.10/lb. And a single batch only takes 1 cup.
Quick and easy to whip up the batter in your blender.
Just don't overbake them - it's easy to do.
The hubs loved these too.
More good-wife points.

And, of course, to drink we had to have Brazilian Lemonade.
Which is made with limes.
So it should probably be called Brazilian Limeade, but whatever.
Fresh limes, water, sugar and sweetened condensed milk.
SO GOOD!
If you are going to take it slow and only make one thing, start with this!
Sean and I love it.
{We've gotten all our WA peeps to love it, too!}
Good-wife points were off the charts!



We will be having Brazil Night at the Southworth home again. And, if Sean has anything to say about it, the sooner the better!
[All recipes from Our Best Bites.]

Snow Day January 2012

Two weeks ago the weather kept teasing us. Little snow flurries here and there. Freezing cold temperatures. Cars frozen shut in the morning. But no accumulation of snow. Until late, late Tuesday (17th) night. We drove home from Sean's choir practice as the snow fell, which meant we had to drive a little slower, but we got home with no slippage - despite the sparkling snow on the ground. Yay for big, heavy SUVs!

Well, it was close to 11pm and yet Ethan HAD to run around in the snow a little...

It was so cute. If you listen closely, you can hear Ethan saying, "Playing in the snow! Playing in the snow!"

The next morning I had the (slightly) daunting task of outfitting Ethan in snow gear. Except that, other than the new coat we just got him (yay for clearance!) and a hat, he had outgrown everything! Boots: too small. Snow pants: non-existent. Make-shift snow pants from last year: too small. Mittens: could only find one! So, we improvised with lots of layers... Long john jammies, fleece jammie bottoms, thermal undershirt, too small make-shift snow pants from last year, 2 pairs of socks, shoes and fleece jacket and new coat. Topped him off with a hat and then was lucky enough to find the missing mitten in the car.

So Ethan went out back and played in the snow and then the neighbor-boy hopped the fence and the two of them built a cute little snowman.


After Ethan was thoroughly chilled to the bone (actually he stayed fairly warm and dry - other than hands and feet - thanks to my expert layering!) he came inside to warm up while I threw everything in the dryer and then we met some friends to go "sledding" down a big hill. The big kids use inner tubes, but Ethan mostly just ran around throwing attempted snowballs and having fun being outside with all the kids.
Dinner that night was not what I planned, but a pleasant, hearty, tasty surprise. Flipping through my Our Best Bites cookbook, I found the White Chicken Chili recipe and discovered I was only missing fresh cilantro. Made the soup and a pan of cornbread and it was so, so good!

Seriously, quick and easy and good. Here's the recipe: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/09/white-chicken-chili/

Spaghetti and Poor-Man's Garlic Bread

Ok, so this may not be the most opportune time to post it because this is warm, hearty comfort food right when summer is on its way and BBQ and outdoor grilling are at their peak. But, there's not much I can do because I let Lizzy borrow our camera for her band trip to Disneyland over Memorial Day weekend and have thus been camera-less for nearly 2 weeks. It is killing me!! I've had to go through my picture files for post ideas. But the reward will be sweet... My parents are getting Sean and I a new camera as a combined birthday gift and we get it this weekend!!

First off, the spaghetti sauce recipe. Up until last year, I had never, ever, ever made my own sauce. I thought I had to slave in the kitchen over a simmering pot for hours and hours. Not with this recipe. It is quick, easy and TASTY!! I got the original recipe here but have changed it up a little to fit our family. Oh, and if you have a food processor - use it!! We only have a small one that works as a attachment with the motor from our immersion blender and it works great for this. Saves me time and hassle.

For the sauce:
* 1 medium onion (white or yellow) diced (or chopped in the food processor)
* 2-4 cloves garlic (depending on how much you love fresh garlic) minced (or pulverized in the food processor)
* 1 tsp. Kosher salt
* black pepper to taste
* 1 Tbl. or so Italian seasoning
* 1 bell pepper (preferably green for color) diced (or chopped in food processor)
* 2 medium carrots finely chopped (or pulverized in the food processor - you want small, small pieces)
* 1 can tomato paste
* 1 can diced Italian-flavored tomatoes
* 1 can tomato sauce
* 1 lb. ground beef
Plus
* 1 lb. spaghetti (we've found we prefer the thin spaghetti noodles)

Saute onion in olive oil and add garlic. Add ground beef and cook through. {Meanwhile, get the water going for the pasta and be sure to add plenty of salt.} Once meat is browned, add salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Mix well and then add bell pepper and carrots. Cook for a minute or so and add all three cans of tomatoes. Let it all simmer together while the pasta cooks - at least 10 minutes. {Doesn't that look good?! And it's not even the best picture!} Just before the pasta is finished, pull out a cup or so of the nice, starchy (flavorful!) pasta water and then drain the pasta. Return to pan and pour sauce over the top {if desired, but I really do prefer this all mixed up}. Mix/toss well and add pasta water if needed - I usually end up adding at least a couple tablespoons to 1/2 cup.

We LOVE this spaghetti!! Nice, hearty, soulful, comfort food - fit for company or just the fam. The original recipe calls for adding sugar, but I've found it difficult to judge how much and it was sweeter than we like. Instead, I add the carrots - they add a nice sweetness plus it's one more veggie thrown in the mix. I love that Ethan "doesn't like tomatoes" and eats this up! He has no idea how many veggies he is getting in his dinner. :)

As for the "poor-man's garlic bread" - this comes from a trick my dad taught me. He often made "garlic bread" with leftover buns or bread that we had on hand and I have affectionately dubbed it "poor-man's garlic bread" in recent years for a couple of reasons... 1. We have a small family and when I buy hamburger buns we rarely eat them all before they start to go stale. 2. I make this with whatever bread buns and cheese we have on hand - I've never gone to the store and bought the ingredients with "poor-man's garlic bread" in mind.

Anyway... Split the burger buns, sandwich rolls or whatever in half and butter the inside of each half, which will now be the top side - make sense? {Oh, I also just use our tub margarine for this - not real butter. That is saved strictly for baked goods!}Sprinkle with garlic salt and (if desired) shredded cheese. Again, we usually have a bag of pre-shredded stuff on hand and I just use that. The cheap-o powdered parmesan cheese in a can works well too, but I rarely remember to buy it because we don't use it.Put under broiler until cheese melts and edges brown. Note: depending on the thickness of the bread, you may have to bake it a little first so there is a nice toastiness throughout the bread and then put it under the broiler to brown.

Seriously, I have taken this to last-minute dinner invites and it is always a hit!! :)

Finally, a question to you all. It was recently suggested to me that I start my own cooking blog {Jenn's Best Bites was even thrown out as the title} and while I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon, I am curious to known if there really is an interest in seeing more recipes/cooking segments on our blog. Just curious... I won't be offended if you would rather I keep it mainly about my adorable family! :)

Candy Bar Valentine

Sean and I are not big on Valentine's Day. We like to keep it pretty simple and low budget and fun. This year I went old school, but let me start with last night's prep work.... I made Sean's lunch {a very rare occasion at our house} complete with a roast beef/cheese sandwich cut into a heart shape, chips, drink and homemade apple sweetie pies for dessert. Then, I left a couple heart-shaped notes on the mirror for when he woke up this morning, making sure he knew there was a lunch waiting for him {since it's such a rare occasion, I didn't want it to accidentally be missed!}.

Now, Ethan and I's day started with a visit from grandma Sandy and grandpa Chuck, passing through Vancouver on their way to Seattle area. Always fun when we have visitors and Ethan has to show them everything he owns! Once they left, I whipped up a batch of triple chocolate cookies courtesy of Our Best Bites - chocolate cookie with semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips. Yes, they were da' bomb. And I had to take a picture with the flash because it made the red and pink sugar sprinkles sparkle!
Then I got to work on Sean's old school valentine. I did a candy bar card!It read:

Sean, aka my BIG HUNK -

We’ve been friends since the day we met and I knew you were a MR. GOODBAR. Who else can give me the SNICKERS like you? I’m pretty sure the heavens parted and STAR^sBURST when we got married. And even though sometimes we get in a bit of a CRUNCH because, it’s not like we make 100 GRAND every PAY DAY you still bring this family MOUNDS of [ALMOND] JOY. You, me and Ethan, we’re like the 3 MUSKETEERS and it’s a sweet SYMPHONY when we’re all together… well, most of the time! Anyway, it’s safe to say that we both SKORed in being married for eternity.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love you to [REESE’S] PIECES!

Jenn

I made up a plate of cookies and a few of the piesand then Ethan and I drove over to Sean's work. The lady at the front desk was very cooperative in letting us go back to the TA breakroom. We found out later we probably got there just minutes after Sean had finished his lunch break. Phew! Anyway, we put the cookies out on the table, hung up the card and put Ethan's present to Sean on his desk.

We were in stealth mode. We got in, we got out, and no one knew the wiser. Except the lady at the front desk!

Next stop was Target {got a sweet deal on some new shoes for Ethan - on clearance for $4.98}, McDonald's {Ethan and I share a happy meal - he takes the apple slices and chocolate milk and I get the cheeseburger} and then Redbox for a free DVD rental. When we got home, Ethan put in his movie and then complained he wasn't feeling too well. Sure enough, he had a fever - about 102 degrees! So he rested and then eventually crashed on the couch while I picked up and packaged goodies for some friends.

Our evening was spent attempting and succeeding {for the most part} homemade pizza that started from a ball of dough. Why didn't anyone tell me that stuff is a pain to try and roll out?! Eventually we got it {mostly} circular and the size we wanted and then pepperoni was arranged in the shape of a heart. Yep, that's how we roll. I got an awesome picture of it, too, but for some reason our camera doesn't agree with me and says that it is an invalid image. Whatever. Our pizza was good and you'll just have to take my word on its cuteness.

Oh, and Ethan got a package in the mail from Nana and Papa!! Perfect timing!I told Ethan I was pretty sure the See's sour hearts were meant for me. I don't think he bought it.

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! Tomorrow morning I am off to find some half-price roses to adorn our dining room table. I told Sean to skip the over-priced flowers this year and I'd see what day-after deals I could find. One year I got a dozen long-stem red roses on February 15th for about $3!! I'm hoping to have the same luck this year. :)


Triple Chocolate Cookies
[taken from Our Best Bites Candy Cane Kiss cookies and Cadbury Egg cookies]
1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder
about 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
about 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter, shortening and sugars for 1-2 minutes on medium-high or until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour and cocoa powder in separate bowl. Add to the butter/sugar mixture and mix to combine. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop dough by tablespoons and bake 8-10 minutes or until centers are set but still soft. Mine take right at 9 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Holiday Decor, Ethan's Paintings and Pumpkin Bread

* Holiday Decor:
Nope, I'm not talking about my Christmas decorations... these are delayed pictures of our Halloween decor and the Thanksgiving/harvesty {yes, I know it's not a real word... the red squiggly line that popped up underneath it as soon as I finished typing it was my first clue!} I just swapped it out for.

First up, the delayed Halloween decor. Since we no longer have a fireplace mantle, I use the top of the piano as the centerpiece for decorating. Here's what it looked like for Halloween, along with one of the end tables....The bats are "vintage". My mom gave them to me from her collection and I have yet to see anything similar in the stores. They just don't make paper/cardboard wall decorations anymore. It's all about the vinyl. I got this new haunted house in the Target clearance section this year. Love it!I also made this sign {as mentioned in my "Pardon My Absence" post, I made this sign for both me and my mom} and I hung mine over the couch along with a garland made of previous year's pictures at the pumpkin patch and Halloween costumes.Oh, and these are the lanterns I made again along with my "vintage" ghost - also inherited from my mom. Got the idea for the lanterns and the directions from Our Best Bites {surprise, surprise! Here's the link if you want to make your own.} and had a battery-powered tea light in each one. It looked very cute all lit up at night!
Finally, last week I took down Halloween and replaced it with my cornucopia-a-plenty {all gourds courtesy of my grandparents' garden} and other harvesty decor.Notice the little pumpkins by the Family sign? If you scroll back up, you'll notice they are the same jack-o-lanterns that are by the little haunted house in the first picture. Yep, I turned them around! That's how we roll in this house. Ha ha!!
* Ethan's Paintings
Ethan does a lot of watercolor painting. It's one of his favorite things to do and one of mine too! Quick to set-up, easy to clean-up and it keeps Ethan's creative juices flowing! We've had a string of decent weather days {read: windows of non-rain!} and I try and make sure Ethan and I get out for our walk. We have been enjoying all the beautiful fall colors and also collecting leaves on our walks.

I know, this isn't the best picture, but I love how big that tree is!!

On Friday we finally did the leaf painting project I had been promising and Ethan loved using my paints {which are not watercolor!} and "stamping" the leaves onto the different colors of construction paper.
Here are the final works of art! And don't even bother asking... they're not for sale!! ;)
* Pumpkin Bread
I'm not sure if I've posted my pumpkin bread recipe before, but I've made two batches already this season so I thought I'd share. If you are a lover of all things pumpkin, this is definitely worth a try! I got the original recipe from Nestle, but I triple it so I get three loaves and have lots to share. Plus, then I can use one big can of pumpkin. Enjoy!

1 1/2 cups softened butter [3 sticks]
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
6 large eggs
1 large can pumpkin
5 1/4 cups flour
3 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ginger
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 tsp. cloves
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease/flour three 9-in loaf pans. Combine ingredients in large mixer. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often for 1-2 minutes until well mixed. Spoon batter into pans and bake for 45-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Summer w/ a toddler, semi-neglected chores and blueberry muffins

Yesterday I felt like I finally got a glimpse into how I hope more stay-at-home-mom summer days will go. It wasn’t perfect, by any means. We were down to our last few drops of milk, a handful of pull-ups and I still have laundry that needs to be folded and put away, a pile of mail and clutter on that counter that needs to be sorted and Ethan was far from being angelic, but for what matters most, it was a good day. Here’s how it went down.

* 7:30am-ish: Up and at ‘em. {Thanks for the wake-up call, Ethan. Nothing says “good morning” like being jumped on!}
* Breakfast time. Cereal and cartoons for Ethan. Scrambled eggs and toast {with my favorite peach jam!} for me, with a side of facebook-checking and blog-surfing.
* Tidy up the kitchen, change into work-out clothes and bribe Ethan {who was perfectly content to stay home and play with his cars rather than hanging out in the stroller} with licorice.
* 4 mile walk. Phew!
* Get back by noon and time to play! Put Ethan in swim trunks and lather him from head to toe in SPF 5000. Empty and refill the baby pool {that I spent an hour and a half scrubbing down with Comet on Monday… it was grody [groddy? groudy? grodie? anyway... pronounce it "grow-dee"], but cleaned up nice} and Ethan is happy as a clam playing in the water and spraying the hose. Play for 2 HOURS in the gorgeous afternoon sun and even read some in my book. Oh, and find out Danae had her baby!! Baby Elizabeth entered the world at 11:37am!!
* Eat lunch outside per Ethan’s request. [Brought his table outside for him and brought him his plate. He sat down and then said, “where’s your lunch?” So you’d better bet that I got right inside the house to get my sandwich made so we could share in the outdoor dining experience!]* Enjoying the bracelet tan-line I am getting and the plethora of new freckles on my nose, cheeks and arms. It has been far too long since my skin has seen this much sun! Years of working full-time indoors = haven’t had a sunburn since possibly before Ethan was born.
* Story and naptime for Ethan, giving me a chance to do my “chores”. Made our bed, picked up the living room, dusted, reorganized and wiped toddler fingerprints off all the Disney DVDs, swept and mopped every room in the house {except Ethan’s, of course}, cleaned the kitchen and decided on dinner plans.
* While Ethan chills in our room, watchin' Charlie & Lola, I follow-through on said dinner plans… Spicy-honey BBQ chicken {of course, it was my man doin’ the grillin’ – not me!}, roasted garlic potatoes {I used this recipe, but we had no rosemary – I would also cut down on the mustard next time and “zest” the garlic} and green beans. Ethan, of course, will have nothing to do with our yummy meal. Go figure.
* Send Sean out for milk, pull-ups {yeah, two of the essentials and we were out of both!} and to fill up the Explorer while I bathe Ethan and re-clean the kitchen.
* Add another 1 mile walk, bringing the total for the day to 5 miles!
* Back in time for family prayer and putting Ethan to bed.
* Have found a new addiction in the form of this website: http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ and am inspired by it - time to re-dirty up the kitchen. Make blueberry muffins from scratch. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something very rustic and homey about making your own muffins. I think it has a lot to do with the simplicity of the ingredients and being able to mix them by hand in a plain ol’ mixing bowl with a plain ol’ wooden spoon. No fancy Kitchenaid Mixer required. {And let me tell ya, these are good muffins. Got the recipe from the Relief Society compiled cookbook I got a couple years ago… I’ll tack it on at the end.} Bake 'em up and reclean kitchen. {I'm noticing a trend here in the form of that dang kitchen being cleaned about a bazillion times a day!}
* Pack Ethan and my bags for our weekly Oregon trip and assemble everything by the door.

* Watch one ½ hour show I’d recorded on the DVR, set the alarm for 5:35am {blech!!} and hit the hay, exhausted but feeling very satisfied.

Blueberry Cream Muffins

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup+ blueberries {I always do more!}

Mix all ingredients and fold in blueberries at the end. If using frozen blueberries, don't thaw them - unless you want mushy berries and bluish-purple muffins {I, uh, may or may not speak from experience on the purple muffin part… I’m just sayin’}. Use non-stick spray on muffin pan wells and along the top. Fill muffin wells almost to the top, so that when they bake up you get a nice muffin top on that baby! Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I usually do 22 minutes, but I think they may be done even before that so maybe take a peak at 18-19 minutes.

Makes 12 healthy-size muffins.
Oh, and even my picky, turns-his-nose-up-at-new-things toddler loves these!
Also, I'm sure they'd be even better with a little crumb topping or coarse baker's sugar sprinkled on the top, but I'm just too lazy to bother!

Enjoy!

Good Soup Weather

I've come to the conclusion that one of the perks of all this cold winter weather is that it definitely makes for good soup weather. Or chili or stew, but you get the point. A meal in a bowl, and a bonus if you've got a nice chunk of crusty bread.

When Sean and I were first married, we used to have "soup and sandwich Sundays". With a summer wedding and living in Oregon, cooler Fall weather was in full swing by late August/early September and we spent almost every Sunday after church (having 11am church helped) enjoying our last bit of weekend together over a bowl of hot soup. It actually wasn't always a sandwich that went with it, sometimes just a bisquit or some french bread, but the same idea. Now, with church callings and Ethan added to the family we don't always get the luxury of sharing our Sunday afternoons together like we used to, but we still enjoy a good bowl of soup on a cold day.

So... the other day I made Taco Soup. Threw everything in the crock pot before work in the morning and presto-chango we had dinner hot and ready when we got home. Seriously, this was some good soup and so, so easy.

Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef - cooked and drained

2 cans diced tomaotes

1 can pinto beans

1 can beef broth

1 can corn

1 small can diced chilies

1 packet taco seasoning

1 handful dehydrated onion (or chopped fresh onion but I try to avoid chopping onions when I can)

Step 1: Plug in crock pot.

Step 2: Dump all ingredients into crock pot and stir.

Step 3: Cover with lid and turn on low.

Step 4: Let cook for several hours (or all day while you're at work).

Step 5: Serve with corn chips, cheese and sour cream.

It's that easy!! Enjoy the soup weather! :)