Our Little Martha

We made some cookies last Friday to take to a picnic. (As an aside, the cookies never made it to the picnic.... it was their own fault though, they were too good.)
Here is the tutorial on how to make "Coconut Clouds" by my own little Martha Stewart. (After we were shooting, I told Nat she was like Martha. Nat said, "Martha is a good cooker. We should make her a card to tell her she is a good cooker." I think that's a great idea =)

"Foreshadow of a Fatality"

Alternatively titled: "Better than a Butterball"

Now, those of you who know John, know that he has always been a very motivated and disciplined person. He succeeds in life and in reaching his goals by harnessing his inner drive and using proven techniques. In addition to his persistance (which is how he obtained both his lovely wife and his fulfilling job), he uses visualization and planning. He has always been a strong believer in writing down your objectives and goals, reviewing them, and assessing your progress. Just ask his personal training clients and students

Case in point: About 6 weeks ago, Toby wrote the ominous message you see here (see the 28th) on our April calendar. Oh, not the "8pm - 6am OT"..... the "I Kill Turkey!" part.

As you can see by the pictures below, including the date-stamp. I think he can check this "goal" of his list as "completed."

BEFORE: AFTER:

Julia Turns 2!!

That's right. On Friday, April 24, my little Julsie Pulsie turned 2! Since we were heading to Nana and Popop's that day, we celebrated with Daddy and our friends on the 23rd. In total, we had three parties for her =) I will show you pics and tell you stories from each one, but here are some pics of the cupcakes I made for her big day.

Luckily I did not delete them (like Nat's). For only my second time using a pastry bag, I think they came out cute. I'm starting with easy =)

I told Nat she could help me make the cupcakes, but timing just did not work out well and I ended up working on these during the night. When she woke in the morning, I was in the shower. She came to me sobbing. After deciphering the cry-speak I realized she wasn't in pain or in danger. "Mom, did you make the cupcakes without me?!" "Yes, honey, I had to get them done last night before the party, but I left 7 cupcakes for you to decorate." "Seven?" "uh huh" "That's a lot"

When I got out of the shower I found she had pulled up a chair to the high kitchen counter and was looking at the cupcakes. I came out to her and could tell she liked them. With her serious and soft voice she looked at me with those big doe eyes and said,

"Well mom, they're not much.... but you did a great job."

"They're not much" ..... hahaha Where does she get this stuff?

The Eating Disaster

Eating at home was a complete DISASTER. On our way up, I packed tuna fish sandwiches and organic animal crackers so we wouldn't be slaves to fast food. It all went downhill from there. We got candy at the parade and bought an order of fries and chicken fingers to share at the fair. We went to the local greasy spoon for breakfast the next morning. My sister came up for the day, was bored and made cookies. John said, "did your sister make cookies and then leave?" hahaha. Like, "not fair! leaving them here to tempt us!"
That night for dinner, we got some "extra lean" meat at a small grocery store. It was really 80%! John feels 80%? - you might as well shoot animal fat directly into your veins. He was disappointed, but decided to cook it anyway. I was with the kids and he was outside at the grill. After a while, I came down to see if they were finally ready and he says, "well, the burgers are inedible." Looking, I need no explanation - there is an entire plate, heaped high with hockey pucks. Matching charred buns were close by. My skeptical mind immediately thought, "you burned those on purpose!" Oh well, I know he didn't. He was so stressed he wasn't even going to eat. Keeping my own stomach and the kids in mind, I head over to Hometown Pizza and pick up the best choice at the time. At least we all ate.
The next day we did the Eddie's/Hank's run. (For those of you who don't know, Eddie's is a famous footlong hot dog place with "special sauce" and Hanks is a famous frozen custard place. Both have been around for over 60 years.) John and I both had footlongs with "the works" and 2 scoops of vanilla =) I had a "works" on one of our early dates... and he was impressed. Now, not so sure it's impressed he's feeling.

You may need a full body cleanse just reading this. (John is on low-carb now.)

I don't know WHAT to title this

For a week or two, I've been thinking about writing a post about my latest culinary exploits; about all of the wonderful things I have been, well, mostly baking. The title was going to be something like "I really CAN cook" or "I'm on a 'Roll" or something that rhymes. After Saturday night, that all changed. I made snickerdoodles.... and ate them for dinner. No, not two. Try 20!!! The recipe was to make 40 cookies, I can account for 18 of them and Julsie may have had another couple. That makes 20 cookies!!! Even if it didn't make exactly 40 cookies, it is clear I ate about 1/2 the batch. I couldn't help but think I needed to change the tone and title of the post to "Confessions of a Closet Carboholic." Yes, my stomach was uncomfortably full and bloated.

Anyway, it all started with John thawing out a bunch of purees I had in the freezer. I prepared them last fall when my MIL, Mare, bought me the Jessica Seinfeld book, Deceptively Delicious. I couldn't possibly let them go to waste, so I started making recipes from that book. Additionally, I got 7 lbs of blueberries and after eating about 2 lbs the first night, I started NEEDING to make some baked goods requiring them. By then, I was in a downward carb spiral... making more and needing more and making more and... well, you get the picture.

In just over a month, I've made 2 batches of chocolate chip cookies, 1 batch of snickerdoodles, 1 batch of oatmeal raisin (I tried freezing these to slow my onslaught, but quickly found out they are good frozen), 1 batch of blueberry muffins, 3 batches of blueberry cheesecake muffins (with spinach and squash), 1 batch of lemon raspberry muffins (with squash and rasp), corn muffins, hmm. Is that all?

I also just got done making raspberry and blackberry freezer jam. I picked the raspberries fresh this year from a ravine behind our apartment and I picked the blackberries from the same spot last year.

On the good side, I've been cooking squash like its going out of style.... or like its going out of sale at Giant! Of course, I sprinkle cheese on it and dip it in sour cream with Hidden Valley Ranch mixed in. hahaha.