Snow Day, Day Three...

The scene outside our front window still looks like a winter wonderland.  Today is day three of sub-freezing temps here in Oklahoma.  Today is also the third snow day for the kiddos, funny how if the temps don't get above freezing everything stays frozen.

Tuesday, my office was actually closed, which has never happened in the 13+ years that I have worked there.  It was nice to have a real snow day.  I got to do some baking.

Homemade cinnamon rolls.  I got this recipe off of the Pioneer Woman's website.  I got the dough going on Monday evening, so it only took about an hour to have them all baked up on Tuesday morning.  It was my second attempt at this recipe, and they were well worth the work, and a million times better than anything you get from a can.

Carson even had one, and though she claims to not like cinnamon, she claimed they were better than the ones that come out of the can.  From her, that is high praise.

My free day of baking meant that I had to make cookies.  Last week, Carson was making her lunch and she got the last sugar cookie and looked at me and said "Mom, you need to bake some more cookies."  That's when it hit me, I have created a couple of monsters.  Ha!  I love that they love my homemade cookies.

I went with the chocolate crackle cookies that was reference on a blog that I follow.  The recipe is on Martha Stewart's website.  I did change it up a bit, using melted semi-sweet chocolate, and I added some mini chocolate chips to the batter, because more chocolate = better, right?

They turned out super chocolaty and they actually fit the theme of snow with their powdered sugar coating.  Yum.


The baking didn't end there.  I also baked a loaf of white bread.  I aspire to bake my own bread.  I have gotten pretty good at dinner rolls, and I just love the look of homemade dough after it has risen.  I must say the honey white bread turned out great.  I might try a second loaf today.  I do like knowing exactly what is in it, and it only has three tablespoons of honey and no sugar in it so that's a plus.  I made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch yesterday and they were great with leftover potato soup I made on Tuesday.

No baking on Wednesday, as I had to log in and get some work done, and I'll have to get some work done from here today if I can get into my computer.  But I might be able to fit something in.

So for now, it's a winter wonderland outside, Josh should almost be to work now, and the girls are asleep in Carson's room.  She happens to have the warmest room in the house, I swear the temperature is about 15 degrees warmer than anywhere else in the house.  We set up the air mattress and Camy has been sleeping in there because her room can get pretty chilly.

Thankfully, the Norman Y will be open again today.  I've gotta get a workout in this afternoon, all this baking, cooking and sitting around is starting to catch up with me.

Beer & Cupcakes...

Who says that beer and cupcakes don't go together?  Not me, definitely not me! 

I got a call from my brother-in-law, Shawn, last week.  One of his biggest customers, Old Germany, out in Choctaw, OK is hosting Beer Sprocket 2011.  What the heck is that, do you ask?  Well, the Old Germany website describes it like this:

"Meet us at the home of the famous Choctaw Oktoberfest (Choctaw Creek Park Pavilion) this spring for an outstanding selection of 80+ Beers from around the World and the delectable foods of Oklahoma’s own Old Germany Restaurant. Designated Drivers welcome! No entry fee but you will have to buy your food and N/A beverages on your own."

Anyway, how it relates to me and to cupcakes.  They have about eight restaurants lined up to do food, but were looking for someone to do desserts.  They considered this cupcake place that is insanely close to my day job, and in my opinion does not have the best cupcakes I have ever tasted, but my BIL recommended me for dessert duty.

Rumor has it there could be as many as 1,000 tickets sold for the event, which means I'll have to make a crap load of cupcakes.  I have decided to go with mini as the size, and will pick about 4 or 5 different flavors to work with.  I considered doing cookies as well as cupcakes, but then decided that I would stick to one dessert for the event.

I have a friend working on a logo for my cupcake company, because I intend to get every ounce of free advertising out of this charity event.  Here's hoping it all pays off, and I don't fall flat on my face!

Tickets to the event are available here.

Pregnancy...

We Morris girls never seem to have any trouble getting pregnant, but once we get pregnant we can be quite a mess.  I suffered from morning sickness and/or nausea my entire pregnancy and was hospitalized at 27 weeks with a fever and contractions, and got to make a visit to the ER for dehydration at about 14 weeks.  My older sister was in the hospital for a week before our doctor let her go ahead and have my nephew.  She also had a broken toe at the same time which was pretty funny.  Hospital beds are not designed for six feet tall pregnant women, that's for sure.

My twin sister is pregnant with what will surely be my last niece or nephew.  The little guy isn't officially due until February 23rd, and she started having contractions last Thursday, which progressed on Friday and were five minutes apart when they got to the hospital late Friday night.  I went to see her on my lunch today, and took her some of the iced sugar cookies I made for her baby shower that was supposed to happen on Saturday. 

They still have her on meds to stop the contractions, but she is still having them.  They did take her off the IV today so she can get up to go to the bathroom alot easier now, and she'll get to take her first shower since before they admitted her.  Her doctor is planning to keep her until she is 35 weeks, which would be on Wednesday.  After that it's home and bed rest until my little nephew is ready to come into the world.

Oh how I envy women that are good at being pregnant.  Women that are never sick, that work up until the day they go into labor, and don't have to spend time in the hospital, or emergency room before they give birth.  I tell my girls that the most horrible eight months of my life gave me them.  I am very lucky.

Seriously...

So we have resolved that 2011 is the year that we will become debt free.  It has started off on a high note, we sold Josh's Mazda 3 and bought a 98 BMW from a friend.  Josh has spent the last two weekends working on the new car, and is very excited about it's potential.

Our perfect storm of insanity began yesterday morning, and I am hoping there is an end in site.  I am sitting here with my cup of zen green tea, I am not going to let this get to me, because it's beyond our control.

When he tried to get in the car yesterday the driver's door wouldn't open.  We tend to leave our keys in our cars in our garage, I am sure that laziness plays into this, so we'll go with that.  The door was unlocked, it just wouldn't open, and there is only the one key.  So a call to the locksmith and $85 later, we'll call that a stupid tax, Josh was in his car driving to work.

He hadn't gotten out of the neighborhood when he noticed that it was pulling hard to the left.  They had replaced the shocks and struts before they got the new tires over the weekend, so he drove back to the house to check it out.  Well a flat tire will create the problem he was experiencing. 

I am going to take a short break here to express my hatred for all things Walmart and Sam's Club.  This will be backed up further along in our story.

So, Josh was going to put the spare on the car and he'd get the tire replaced.  Only now, whether it had something to do with the locksmith we don't know, but we are having some electrical issues with the car and the trunk, which is where the spare tire is, won't open.  Our theory is that the only key we have is the valet key and we have somehow been locked out of the trunk.    I guess on the bright side, the only jack and tire changing supplies we own are in my car. 

Josh got the tire off last night and took it to Sam's this morning to replace.  Apparently, the tires he bought aren't ones that they keep in stock, but they can have a replacement tire for us in a week.  ***Please see above comment about Sam's.***

So now the task for the day is to figure out how we get a new key for the car, and more importantly how we get the back seat out of the car so we can put the spare tire on the car.  I do use the term "we" very loosely here, as I am at work, sitting in my office and will have no part in all of that.  Lucky me.

A funny side note, Josh worked from home yesterday, and he walked to the Rec Center to pick the girls up from the after school program.  We wanted Carson to get her homework done before Kumon last night.  Josh said that after a short question and answer session, he and the girls walked home in the cold.  I am hoping we can avoid that today since it's only going to be in the 20s today.

I believe our resolve to being debt free is being tested, but I am still determined.  2011 is going to be a great year.

Who Needs Meat...

The Curvy Carrot is a blog that I follow.  A while back there was a post for Vegetarian Pot Pies, and since I am a self proclaimed online recipe junkie, I printed it out and stuck it in my binder with my other recpies that I use or don't use depending on my mood.

I pulled it out a few weeks ago and whipped it up and it was awesome.  I had so much filling left that I put some of it in the freezer to use later.  Yesterday after icing sugar cookies and not thinking I would want to cook later I pulled out the extra filling and a pie crust and made it for dinner last night.  It is so good.  I have never cooked with lentils before and wasn't sure what to expect, but they are really good and they add that little something extra almost meatiness to the pie.

The original recipe called for a topping, but I am a firm believer that a pot pie should look like a pie, so I opted for the pre-made pie crust for the top and the bottom.  I aspire to make my own pie crusts, it's on my ever growing list of things to conquer in the kitchen, I just haven't gotten around to conquering it yet.

I especially love how soaking the dried mushrooms creates such a dark liquid to be added to the filling.  Really, it looks like it has meat in it.  Not that I want it to have meat in it.

Vegetarian Pot Pies

For the filling:

1/2 cup lentils
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
1 and 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
4 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 refridgerated pie crust (top and bottom)

Instructions for the filling:

1. Combine 3 cups cold water, lentils, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium saucepan; bring to boil.
2. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. In the meantime, pour 3 cups boiling water over the porcini in a medium bowl; soak 25 minutes.
4. 
   Remove the porcini from the soaking liquid, squeeze dry, and chop coarsely. Make sure you save the soaking liquid.
5. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.
6. Add fresh mushrooms and sauté for 3 minutes.
7. Add 1 tablespoon oil, onion, carrot, sage, and thyme. Sauté for 4 minutes.
8. Add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
9. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
10. Mix the flour into the vegetables and cook for 1 minute.
11. Add the porcini soaking liquid.
12. Mix in porcini, potatoes, soy sauce, and tomato paste.
13. Cover; simmer until potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally, 13 to 15 minutes.
14. Add the lentils; season with salt and pepper.
15. Place in pie crust and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

So a new recipe for a brand new year.  I would highly recommend it for a Meatless Monday, or any other day of the week.

2010 in Review...

In less than 48 hours it will be 2011.  Can you believe it?  2011, no way!

So as I sit at my desk and wait for others to finish their work, so I can in turn finish my own, and as the temperature soars to 71 degrees outside, I thought I'd try to recap my year.

2010 didn't seem very promising when it started.  First I had to deal with knee problems and high cholesterol, then in March we had to say goodbye to Lucy.  Not a very good start for us.  Luckily things got much better.

In May, a wonderful new friend introduced me to Skinny Bitch and I became a vegetarian.  Since then I can count on one hand the number of times I've had meat this year, and I honestly have never felt better.  I have lost weight, gotten my cholesterol back to under 200 and have had to buy new clothes in a size that I don't think I've ever worn.

2010 is also the year that I officially became a runner.  I have a "Runner Girl" sticker and a 13.1 sticker on my car now.  I have run over 400 miles since April this year, would would have thought that?  I was a member of the Brooks I.D. program and I won a free pair of shoes.

My girls started their last year of elementary school this year, and their second year of Concert Chorus, they also got a pool for their birthday.  While it is not a fancy pool, it was big enough for us to spend lots of time in this summer, and we discovered that Penny is quite the swimmer. 

I officially became a baker this year.  I have made hundreds of cupcakes, and have even sold some.  I even had a marathon baking session for a wedding in September.  I see lots of cupcakes in my future.

Josh and I chipped away at our debt snowball this year, paying off around $20,000 in debt.  Who would have though that?  We even sold our Mazda yesterday and have cut another huge chunk out of it as well. 

So what will happen in 2011?  Here's what I'd like to see happen:

• I will raise money for Komen for the Cure and participate in the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Dallas in March.
• I will do my first trail run race in February.  Will we do 7 miles or 14?  We probably won't know until we get there.
• I will run my first full marathon at the OKC Memorial Marathon on May 1st, and through our Y I will even help others train for it as well.
• I will get a better bike and become better on it.  Maybe even participate in the Hotter than Hell 100 mile bike ride in August. 
• Redman half?  That's all I am going to say about that right now.

2011 marks 30 years since my mom passed away, and I hope that I can do something this year to honor her memory and celebrate the life I have because of her.  It will also mark 15 years of marriage for Josh and I.  It's been a great 15 so far, not always easy, but very interesting.  I will also officially have 12 nieces and nephews at some point in 2011.  I was lucky enough to add three new ones this year, and I'll get to add two more maybe around May, and I have a nephew on his way now that should show up sometime in February.

So here's to a Happy New Year!  I am sad to see 2010 go, because even with it's rocky start, it's been great.  I have meet some great people this year, and have done some fun stuff.  I am sure there is more to come.

My Girls...

These are my girls.  My babies.  They probably would dispute that though.  These are my babies that lived in my tummy for 8 months.  While they were in there they made me absolutly miserable, the worst 8 months of my life gave gave me heartburn, nausea and vomiting, stretch marks, and these two girls.  Luckily things have gotten better since then.  I remember wondering what kind of people they would turn into.

They have turned into girls that love to sing.  Not sure where they get that, it's surely not from me.  The only singing I do is in my car, mostly by myself, and I never wanted to be in any kind of chorus when I was in school.  At Eisenhower, in 4th and 5th grade they have the opportunity to be a part of the Concert Chorus and they both jumped at the chance.  The fact that they start each semester with a donut party and end each semester with a trip to Perfect Swing or Hey Day doesn't hurt either.

Last night was their Winter Concert, and it was great!  We got to hear a little but of music from Shrek (they even sand the song that the little puppets sing at the beginning when Shrek and Donkey first travel to Duloc), an Oklahoma fold song, and a medley of Christmas tunes.  Today they got to perform for their school and travel to two other elementary schools in Norman to perform as well.  After that it was off to Hey Day for pizza and laser tag, which my kids probably didn't participate in.

When we were trying to find space to record the performance last night on our camcorder, we watched a little video from around Christmas probably five years ago.  Man, I had not realized how they have grown!  They seemed so little!  Carson just spazzed around for most of it, while Camy was showing off the dance from the Christmas ballet recital.  So cute, and did I mention how little they were.  Lucy even made an appearance on the video, oh how I still miss that crazy dog.

Now I have big girls.  Girls that sing, and they love it.