Paleo Review

So I have been doing this paleo thingy--here is a summary based off of this site

It is a somewhat scientifically untested diet but based on an interesting theory that our bodies have not evolved to handle all the processed stuff, many refer to it as the cave man diet.  Some people think it is like Atkins, but it isn't--the meats are lean, they focus more on veggies and I don't recall Atkins people cutting out grains.

I am sure I have blogged about in the past, but as a refresher, every year from October to December 25, I don't eat sugar or refined flour.  Or chocolate, but that is kind of redundant because I can't afford to buy chocolate that doesn't have sugar or flour.

Why do I do this?  Well, I use this dieting approach called attrition:

See that blue dot?  Well, if you are 30 and you weigh 150, you are somewhere in the 60th percentile for weight, kind of on the tubby side.  But if you wait it out at 150 for 10 years, suddenly, you find yourself hovering right above 50th.  If you wait it out for 10 more years at 150?  You drop down below, so suddenly you become trimmer than the average woman.  And all I really want is to be a little less fat than everyone else.  Isn't that the American Dream?  So I just need to maintain my weight in an effort to lose the appearance of weight each year.  Brilliant, no? (I don't know what I will do when I hit 70 and the average goes back down but I am thinking that is just because the older generation aren't as obese as we are so I am counting on that going back up as we age)

In my effort to win this normalizing war and shave off a few pounds during the holidays that I may have gained from my busiest travel season, I simply go without foods I really love.  Abstinence, very effective (mostly).

This year, I discovered that after 3 years of going without sugar and flour, I have replaced those foods with other yummy things that have rendered the change in my diet almost useless and I wasn't noticing any difference in my weight or the way I felt.

So this year I needed something different, a change that would help me shed those extra pounds and stick with my general short-term policy.

As a periodically avid pinterester, I had started to see reference to paleo recipes.  And aside from the cashew cheesecakes, most everything looked like good foods, things I believe in eating.  I started stalking browsing their forums and I was impressed by the paleo community.  They don't seem to be strict like other kinds of communities--no letter of the law involved for the most part.  In fact, the majority of the questions about "are we allowed to...?" on the paleo forums most often yield a "well, here are the reasons to avoid that food, but listen to your body to know if that food impacts you in a negative way."  Any community that goes with a more spirit of the law approach and encourages one to listen to the body sounds like one I could be a part of for awhile.

So I decided to try it.

The biggest changes for me?

Dairy products.  I didn't know I was eating so much cheese there, whoops! It was easy enough to give up, but made all my concoctions slightly less yummy.

Corn products.  Long ago I cut out corn syrup with very few exceptions and I haven't eaten the fake corn stuff from chicken nuggets or other hidden ingredients (thank you mucho to Michael Pollan for forcing me to read every single label ever).  But tortilla chips?  And yummy corn tortillas??? What the heck was I going to do about this one?  I did it, but it was hard.

Whole Wheat.  I thought this was going to be hard, but given that I think it impacts my reflux so I had cut back over the years, it was actually not too tough. Missed a few almond butter sandwiches, but I was strong.

Rice
What the.. no rice?  Do you know even KNOW how many foods contain rice?  Or how many tasty and healthy meals can be enhanced with rice?  And how rice makes everything cheaper?  Yes, I make quinoa but not a real replacement.  And I am not making no cauliflower rice.

The results?

Well, I did shave off a few pounds so good for me.  But, like any other change over a period of months, I learned a few things which were of value:

1) I used to have to blow my nose every morning.  Like, I would get up, get my drink of water and a box of kleenex.  Since I cut out the stuff, no problems.  After December 25 I have had a bit of ice cream and, whoops, blowing my nose again.  So, perhaps bye-bye to dairy for awhile.

2) I have completely lost my appetite for whole wheat flour.  I am even LESS tempted by processed flour (like flour tortillas, once a former favorite food even seems a little gross).

3) I have no idea what to eat now.  I love the paleo foods but they take so much effort!  So I have gotten into a rut with a few foods but I haven't come up with many "quick" dinners other than the same old soups that my kids are tolerating.  I have dropped certain habits but haven't picked up new ones, how annoying!

4) Eating right is expensive.  I don't care who you are or how amazing of a cook you are, I have come to the conclusion that unless you have unlimited time, eating right is costly.  I am not a woman of leisure who has hours to prepare food, I am full-time employee, full-time student, and full-time mother. I can either come home exhausted and then spend hours cooking or I can do something quick and expensive.  What would you choose?

5) I am still not going organic except for corn chips.  Sorry.  I am still not good enough at what I put in my body in general to get to that refined state of being.  If it is around the same price, I will do it, but other than that, count me out of that movement.

So I think I will stick with the no sugar policy, I like it, I feel good, and it keeps the weight off.

Moving forward I will keep most of what I gained from the paleo people and stick with mainly those foods, but I reintroduced the corn chips (organic to avoid the whole GMO thingy).

My resolution for the next several months is to require 30 minutes a day of exercise. I am hoping to keep the habit as long as possible before reality sets in.  If I can keep up the self-control of the food thing and then add the exercise, maybe I will feel great, stay trim, and beat the death threat of age 55 (average age in which my parents died) that my husband thinks I face.

Overall score for the paleo diet: 8 (until I get a few recipes under my belt).
Overall score for the paleo community: 10

Authentic Dining Experiences

In my opinion, there are two kinds of people in this world:  those who will pay for a $100 dinner, and those who will not.

You know which group you fit with--I am not talking about variables like "well, if I had a spare $100 floating around on the ground" or "if someone else paid for it" I am talking about the general concept of your willingness to spend money on your meal.

If you don't know which group to which I belong, you do not know me as well as you thought.


*This week I was in New York and ate dinner at Da Umberto in Manhattan.  For those who have not eaten at a really high quality restaurant, there is no point in even trying to imagine it.  What was wonderful about this particular place was not just the food, which I will get into in a minute, but the ambiance. 

I am pretty certain that 100% of the wait staff were genuine Italians.  The accents were thick, sing-songy, and the rolling of the Rs was like watching a broadway theater production.  I was riveted by the pronunciation of every last offering from the "For the ah especial this evening, we have the ah... rrrrrisoootto with the ah, butternaut esquash" to the "oh maybe you like a combo of the feeg and estrawberry gelaaaato?" to the "no, it no have the pancetta, it have the prosciutto." Some people do not want a belabored dissertation for dinner but as for me and mine? When it has the accent and beautiful descriptions, it is an audible treat.

It doesn't hurt that in general, the swarthy Italian waiters look you straight in the eye as they are pouring more water.

We had some of everything and perhaps part of the reason why these meals are so much money is that the waiters make the food sound so tempting that you won't say no to tacking on something here and there.  Something like, ah, thees?

My favorite was the sun-dried tomato ravioli with the goat cheese and some herb or other but it was almost a tie with the fried baby artichokes and the pancetta-wrapped chicken breast with pecorino cheese.  Our table held a collective moment of silence in honor of the great flavor.  And of course a chocolate mousse for dessert.

It was a tremendous memory and much more valuable to me than any concert or play.  Because for me, my deepest connections are with the food I eat and the people I am with.  As my mother aptly noted, "Lee Ann, I eat to live while you live to eat."

Amen, mamma mia.

*Disclaimer:  My work pays for my meals when I travel but if we go over a reasonable amount which is very rare, we pitch in our own money and in the story above and others like it, my colleagues and I put up our own money to make up the difference so that we are not using sacred education dollars for my personal indulgences.

Obligatory Self-Promotion

So last year as you may recall, I gave you a sob story about getting the flu as a lousy excuse for my horrible orange creation during the Hunger Games Cake Decorating Contest.

This year let me give you a different excuse for voting for me:  I love my cake.  I think the craftsmanship is mediocre for reasons outlined below, but I had so much fun coming up with the idea and talking to my kids about it and teaching my husband about the book as I researched the different districts that I just was happy with the process of creation even if it didn't play out exactly as planned.

If you haven't read the book I highly doubt you would bother to keep reading this post because you will be running out to catch up with Hunger Games and Catching Fire prior to the release of Mockingjay at Midnight tonight but this year's contest is of course hosted by the one and only Jespy.  If you don't know about Jespy (known around here as jennyesp) than I feel sorry for you since she is truly a delightful person.  She has a great deadpan kind of humor and btw has kept me reading for the last year via both a blog and random texts, not to mention that we are super compatible on goodreads...and the rate at which she keeps up with iPhone games is one of the key reasons I miss that particular device.  She is kinda competitive, especially when her sisters get involved so keep your head down and don't make too many snarky comments if you are playing cards with them.

So back to me, the contest, I want you to know that I pulled into town at 4 pm yesterday, got my cake made, and was ready to move onto frosting when I realized I was out of both butter and powdered sugar.  Since I didn't have any untapped neighbors I decided to google search "frosting without powdered sugar" and sure enough I ran across a nice little Royal Icing that you can use for such occasions.  I had to boil sugar and cream of tartar until it hit 238 degrees F, whip up some egg whites to stiff peaks, and then mix the two concoctions together whipping constantly until cool.   A lot of work, eh?  But that is how dedicated I am to this contest.  And did I mention my kids started school this morning and we have been gone for 10 weeks?  So anyway the frosting didn't actually turn out to be stiff enough for detail hence my poor quality detail.  But it is shiny so that part worked out.

Down to biz.  Here is the cake.  Your job is to go to the site and vote... not even for my cake, just for the best one because honestly there are some really good ones.  But you have to give me SOME points for thinking it through, no?  I thought putting the numbers on there was kind of Captain Obvious/Oprahlike but I couldn't help but think there might be some who would be confused.

Need some help?

District 1?  They make luxury goods for the capital which is located there in the Rockies.
District 2?  Yeah those are the careers.  Training for the annual games because that is the way they roll.
District 3?  Explosives.  Want a close up?

District 4 is of course fishing.  Love my shiny lake?
Yeah so then you got Foxface showing her meano face in district 5
Factories/industrial district 8

Districts 9 is of course electricity
11 agriculture
10 livestock
and 13 we know is nuclear power.

SPOILER ALERT
District 12?
12?

It WAS the coal mining region but now....

There is no district 12.

I Know When I Have Been Beat

Really, I do. And I might even give up. But in this case, I really have a good excuse:

For those who are not my normal readers, I had the INFLUENZA this weekend. I was so, so sick. My doctor told me that I could cause people to DIE if they came into contact with me.

I thought perhaps I would be healed by Monday to do a site visit to one of my schools (alas no) so I only had one afternoon to participate in a cake decorating contest in honor of my favorite book.

I dragged my very sick and sad carcass out of bed, surrounded by unsympathetic children who asked me to make homemade cheesesauce which I burned because I was in a sick, sick (did I mention sick?) fog.

I did not have enough powdered sugar to properly do a crumb layer, but due to my extreme righteousness, I kept the sabbath day holy and had to stick with my small quantity so nothing about this cake worked out.

I sincerely believe, do not build me up here, that I would lose this contest.

However, I entered for the children. It is my goal to educate the world and I believe I can only really do this by walking around the neighborhood with aprons reflecting fine literature. Magnets on the fridge are also acceptable.

Think of all these children, traipsing through my home, without any good books to read. Think of their illiterate parents, working on a Ph.D, who don't believe in having books in the house. Without my suggestions, these children are likely to wind up taking part-time literacy courses at the local library, if they even know where it is located.

How can you help?

Vote for #1 on this site. I know it is ugly, but think of the children.

My New Theory

Like many others I struggle with my weight.

I know what I need to do, I just don't do it. I know that I shouldn't have refined foods, get 30 minutes of exercise a day, lift weights instead of my fork, etc.

But I have a new theory: I am genetically a survivor. I love to eat because I am from a species designed to thrive. This isn't my theory by the way, but scientifically proven that our bodies cling to fats and turn sugars to fat storage because of our hunter-gatherer evolutionary needs of storing food when we could get it to make up for times of lean and scarcity.

This new revelation, however, is specific to my personal genetic code. Everyone in previous generations had several children. My grandparents had 8 children, my great grandgrandparents had 16, the great-greats had somewhere around 15. I descend from the Joad family, the Scots-Irish, the Irish Bravehearts (or something like that.) Is it any wonder that in a modern technological age, we have now become the genetic losers fighting the modern problem of industrialism: obesity.

The bodies once designed to cling to food are now the weak ones in society, the poor blue collar workers whose physical prowess allowed them to thrive in yesterday's world. What once was a boon, to have a body that would outlive the rest under circumstances of starvation, is now a curse in today's era of abundance.

In order for me to increase my children's quality of life, I must fight our genetic code and teach them not to eat as much as they can but it is moderation and keeping their bodies trim and fit, not keeping the water in the camel constantly full, that will lead to their success in the gene pool.

I have come to this realization in the nick of time. What once was a personal challenge can now be a much bigger triumph. Fighting the natural man, as we are admonished, to overcome what my DNA wants me to do is much more inspiring than simply trying to be more attractive, since the desire to be beautiful to attract a mate as part of our evolutionary tendencies is partially lost upon one who is so happily married.

My new plan... and hold me to this:

1) Three days a week of gym classes. Two of hip hop and one zumba.
2) While traveling, only fish or salad for meals and no dessert
3) Back to only whole grains and no refined sugars

If I can do these three things and say "stick it" to the natural man perhaps I can gain Darwin's glory for today while retaining the prize of yesterday in preparation for any potential famine that would wipe out the people who have no fat storage. Wish me luck.

7th place!!!

Okay I know this is such a high honor and I never really anticipated winning, but I appreciate all the voters (6?) who lent their sticker to vote for my cake. I would like to thank the following people:

1) Steve who supported me by holding the baby while I decorated
2) My three older children who hovered and requested licking frosting every ten seconds
3) Freighbor Katie for the best cupcakes I have ever eaten in my life (Barefoot Contessa Coconut Cupcakes)
4) The Ward Activities Committee for coming up with such a fun idea (Ace of Cakes, make a cake representing something from the scriptures. No one did New Testament, I think it was seen as sacrilege to do anything about Jesus or lepers)
5) The prize committee who awarded me with a symphony chocolate bar (with toffee!) and a pirated church humor CD. Love it!

Here are some pics of the other people who somehow placed higher than I did:

Shower Deets

Here are some quick pics I took of the shower. I did not have my own shower in the morning and I didn't have time to decorate the cupcakes nor make the rolls but this is what we ended up with on a tight schedule. The frosted cupcakes are red velvet, very very yummilicious. The brown ones are from Freighbor who busted her hiney to get me what I needed in my dire circumstances. She panicked that I wouldn't like the cupcakes because the recipe called for a whole two ounces of red dye but they were perfect. She didn't even try one because she was worried there weren't enough. We had plenty and it was beautiful.


















Outside in the lovely back yard:

















More food shots:

Chicken salad, caprese stacks, and fruit salsa with cinnamon tortilla chips:






































Me, unshowered, dirty smokey clothes from my trip, and baby Meg who I hadn't seen for a full week!




















More salsa pics. Fruit with mint mmmm....
















The caprese stacks: Fresh mozza, basil leaves, heirloom cherry tomatoes:




















Prizes for games. Again, Freighbor Katie and her beautiful bow work...





















The honoree--well the host of el bebé anyway. She seemed happy so I hope she enjoyed it!

Day 4 Update

Don't judge me. But I doubt I will go to Church on Mother's Day. I do love going-- It is a fast and efficient way to see a lot of people I love (in my home town) but after today I think I can't hack it alone and I don't like saying to people (who I prefer to have think that I manage my life well) "hey I haven't seen you in a few years, but I can't handle my kids on my own so could you give them the following instructions while I am out in the hallway with my crying babe?"

Instructions:
-you can only leave once to get a drink water
-don't pick your nose
-don't peel the papers off the outside of the crayons
-don't fight with your sister/brother about who sits next to me
-you cannot bring that picture to our neighbor/your primary teacher/the chorister during the prayer
-it is not appropriate to sit on the floor in the foyer during church
-put your skirt down
-you can't play in the primary room during church
-sit up
-don't turn the ringer on my phone so that it will ring during someone's testimony

I think I did a post like this before but this list only includes specifically what I said today.

So as a present to myself I am unlikely to attend OR I will leave the baby at home with my aunt. I don't want to dislike my children or be stressed by them on the one day a year in which I have the expectation that my kids will get along. I know, I should lower those.

Other than the first hour of church being a bit rough (and most of that occurred within the last ten minutes), today was nice. I had a nice morning with the kids and made a pretty good apple scone recipe in which I substituted whole wheat, of course, and reduced milk to 1/4 cup as the first reviewer recommended. Oh also added 1 t cinnamon to the mix. We attended a nice little potluck after church with some neighbors who were only an hour late bringing out the main dish for the event, and I got to hang out with my favorite freighbor (pronounced fray-bor, a variation of frousin and it refers to a friend/neighbor) for a nice long chat interrupted only every 20 seconds or so by one of my children.

This evening Casey cried because he misses his daddy. I said "you never cry when I am gone" and my three oldest kids said "we are used to you leaving." I am glad for Steve that they don't cry but I hope I die first because it was brutal. I told them to wake up early and write him an email.

Evening wrapped up with a nice review on the Smart Remarks Book Club and me getting five pounds of spinach and grape tomatoes plus a bowl full of lemons from freighbor Katie.

So even though I have a nice long evening to catch up on Facebook and read my book, I really feel like Sunday is the one day that man should not be alone. Or his wife anyway.

Learning to Cook

Bridget has taken to cooking lately. I love to watch her mind because it is so sharp and quick.

Her outlook on life is mirrored in her food preparation and I am beginning to wonder how she came into this world with such power and confidence. My biggest fear is that she will lose that confidence and doubt herself.

I only want her to be mousy with me so I can keep this place in some kind of semblance of order. As I have said before, I want my children to question authority, just not mine.

The following are real-life examples of what she does when she cooks:

--No partial measurements. If it calls for 1 3/4 cups, she either does one cup, or two. I asked her about this and she simply responds by saying "I don't want to measure a portion of a cup."

--If she doesn't have an ingredient she doesn't blink an eye, she just throws in a substitute or leaves it out. Tonight she made some sort of shepherd's pie. No meat? No problem. Let's use refried beans instead. Have you ever had refried beans with carrots and cheese? Surprisingly, not bad.

--She reads the instructions and decides whether or not they are legit. Tonight she was supposed to boil potatoes and then mash them. She cooked them in the oven instead so they were way underdone and then she tried to use a meat mallet to mash them. I actually intervened on that one but still, she was adamant that she could mash the potatoes that way.

--In spite of changing up recipes, she is actually making a conscious choice to skip those parts--others she HAS to have the right way. She asked three people in the neighborhood for avocadoes before I told her she was running out of time on the dinner preparation and decided to substitute tomatoes instead. I tried to tell her that you can borrow things like a cup of sugar or pasta, but you do not borrow three avocados which she immediately dismissed as being ridiculous logic. I have no idea who all she asked so hopefully people don't think I actually sent her to borrow something like that.

--Time is meaningless. If the recipe calls for 45 minutes of cooking time, she just cooks it for 20 because that is when she wants to eat. She made some frozen yogurt and then instead of freezing it for 2 hour minimum, she pulled it out in one hour and it was kind of liquidy still. I asked her if it was runny and she said "yep" as if she planned it to be runny like that.

All of her dishes come out fine so she has no incentive to change this behavior. Once she doubled an entire recipe for pancakes except for the flour so the batter was very thin. I asked her why she did such a thing and she told me she didn't feel like measuring out more flour. Sadly, the pancakes turned out perfectly. Also the beans and carrots (not cooked) were surprisingly good (also helped that dinner was 90 minutes late) so she doesn't see any problems with her substitution magic tricks.

I definitely am proud of her kitchen antics but I see some patterns that are troubling. I will have to limit her endeavors to vegetarian efforts as I am not interested in a bout with e.coli or other raw meaty kind of stuff. I wish she would work WITH me and not insist on working alone but perhaps we can find some kind of middle ground if we plan it out in advance.

If you are ever in the neighborhood, stop by and we can see if she can make you one of her signature dishes. I promise I make her wash her hands.

Conference Weekend

1. It was absolutely beautiful here. A Eucalyptus tree fell in the front yard yesterday and the kids had a ball playing in the jungle. Don't you wish a tree would fall in your yard?















































2. Katie and family hosted a little get together between conference sessions and I made these little dealios:



























See all the shiny happy people?



























3. I am obsessed with Gordon Ramsay. I ran across one of his youtube videos and I was totally amazed by how quickly he does everything and how easy he makes it look. I made the profiteroles in the picture above in, no joke, about 40 minutes total. I think it might have taken longer to get it all assembled as you see it but it was so fun. Here is the vid

Órale

Last time I post on race, sheesh. Anon.

So on to bigger and better issues: Food.

What are the most important tools in your kitchen? I cannot live without:

--Whisk
--Immersion Blender
--Offset Serrated or some other AWESOME one-stop shop knife NO multiple knives.
--Small cutting board (so I don't have to clean off my counter)
--Double Boiler
--Peeler

I am sure there are other things I use regularly but these are the items that I just can't live without.

In the Name of Food

So I went about six months sans refined flour, sugar, and chocolate. I had three days of that time that I went on hiatus.

Now I understand what people say about the fact that abstinence as a method really doesn't work.

I did lose some weight--down about 10 lousy unnoticeable pounds from pre-pregnancy now. But I still am way out of shape and have added going to the gym to the list. It is tricky to find time so I am heading down on the way to pick up the kids every day. I started Friday so I am one for one tyvm.

I did pick up a few habits though--plain unrefined flour still gets the thumbs down (makes me feel dirty) and white sugar makes me want to brush my teeth. The chocolate bit was lame but demonstrated enviable self-control and all.

Back to the gym--I was wondering why the kid's center was closed from 1-4 everyday since it could have been cool to drop off the two girls and give Steve some extra study time but then I went to the gym at that time and, well, no one in my demographic is down there at that time. Who is down there?

Single people. Young people. Unemployed people.

There were a lot of grunting sounds from weightlifter types and some young girls wearing short shorts with messages like "tough" across the back. Blonde girls I think mainly though for some reason I try to avoid eye contact or really even looking at people at the gym.

I walked into the baño and there was a woman completely stark naked blow-drying her hair. I found it odd that she would be fixing her hair prior to getting dressed, particularly considering the location (front and center view of first entry) but I was glad of my previous no eye contact policy and just steered away.

I was glad for the ipod which helps me look focused and busy and I still get nervous when I approach those machines like people are going to judge me for not knowing how to use all the stuff. I did experience a bit of glee when one of the blondies left the "hip abductor" machine on 50 lbs. and I could move it up to 70 no problema. I am still paying for that 70 a few days later though, and hope that in four month's time I can say that it was worth it.

In case you were wondering about who we had over for Sunday dinner: Casey's teacher who is one of the most incredible educators of her time, and her lovely husband. Good times (soup in homemade *bread bowls) and Boston Cream Pie for dessert. They brought edamame and carrots with some yummy hummus.

*100% whole wheat duh

People for Dinner

We have people for dinner on Sundays again. I took a hiatus but now that church is late it works better for our schedule.

Anyway, prompted by my friend Katie, I have been thinking about behavior when you host dinner. How do you know if your guests liked your meal?

If someone says "this is amazing, I want the recipe!" they could be lying.

If they eat a small portion and don't comment on it, does that automatically mean they don't like it?

What if they don't say anything about it but have a healthy second serving?

Do the missionaries always say the food is good?

Do you invite someone to come back if they didn't like the food? Will they come?

Do some people come for the company, not the food?

Is my taste the same as other people?

So how do you know if you were successful? THIS is the real question I want you to answer.

More Birthday Happenins

So as with any birthday that lands on a heavily commercialized holiday, it just keeps giving.

We have received an almost infinite amount of incredibly tasty chocolates, cookies, etc. Included in that gift-giving was this incredible trio of hand-dipped caramel apples created by a very talented individual:



















My step-momma came to town unexpectedly and took me to dinner as a fun surprise. Here she is giving lil meg some verboten ice cream:



















Steve likes to do that stuff too--give babies food before they are capable of digesting it. However as you can see in this pic she is a huge fan of the stuff. It WAS really tasty tho.

In other news:

1) Elder Holland is coming to our stake conference in March. New stake prez will be announced.

2) Saw the Hulk last night. Ed Norton is awesome, movie mediocre.

3) A water pitcher broke, which is devastating since I purchased a one-of-a-kinder from my friend Ben whose artwork is truly spectacular (his wife Lynette was one of my mission comps.) The good news is that it only held a quart of water so I ordered a replacement on Amazon.com. Matches my new le creuset ramekins. I am totally in love with the cherry red line now so I think I am going to order the crock next. Who knows, maybe I will even get crazy and order like a mini cocotte or something. Anyway I am chalking up the broken pitcher to a new opportunity.

Valentine Candy

I LOVE to make treats. I don't always have time for this but I really do think it would be fun to be a pastry chef. I would love to have someone else make all the stuff for me and then have me decorate or something since my time is somewhat limited in the kitchen these days.

Anyway, obviously it is not a good fit that the school where my kids spend mucho tiempo has a sugar ban. They send home notices saying things like "please respect our no candy policy as you prepare your valentines." Über lame. If I didn't love the school so much I would have to switch solely to be able to bring cupcakes and cookies to school parties.

When Casey was in kinder we used to take chocolate chips and cover them in tinfoil and then tape them on the valentines, like little kisses. It was so cute! This year we had to settle for paper roses instead of making little chocolate cupcakes like I would have in my dreams. The sad part is, I bet the kids will be like "what? paper? where is the candy?" because their parents will have ignored the policy. Why do I feel like I can't violate these rules? I aspire to be a rule breaker. Here is a pic of the final producto:

























I was going to also post on these topics but I ran out of time this morning due to feeling some loyalty to my awesome job. If you want my opinion on these topics email me for deets:

1. Why parents who are getting kicked out of SBUSD because of their attempt to become a Basic Aid district sooner (aka excess revenue) should be aiming their anger at the school district where they reside and demanding their own quality school.

2. My Idol faves aka I heart blue collar men.

Family Harmony (in Three Parts)

Part I: Marykay Makeover:

My friend came over Thursday to provide a facial since she thought the girls would enjoy it--we just did the soft skin business, you know, no makeup or anything. Here we are:




















When she was finished, the girls were like "Hey lady what about the makeup?" She kind of hesitated out of respect for me in case I didn't want them in makeup but it was a loooost cause. The girls saw her baggy full of samples and it was all over.

Here is what they came up with. I love Gill's face on this one:


















Next up Pinewood Derby:

Steve is actually the Cub Scout leader so ironically, Casey was the only one without a car on the day they were tricking them out (injecting with graphite or some such thing) so they ended up actually carving one out of wood. How old school is that?

So here is Casey's car (pics from derby all compliments of Bridget):



















Isn't it so originale?

And here is the man himself:



















You can see his car was doing extremely well:


















The wheel came off and rolled down the track by itself. Apparently Casey thought that was really cool which is wonderful since it apparently compensated for not finishing in the top half of his heat with the kids whose grandpas were also pinewood derby champs.

That stuff is serious business.


Lastly, a cupcake party. Steve took the Meg on his Home Teaching appointment so I could have time to do the cupcake stuff and a few minutes of sanity again. (I was kind of overwhelmed today since she was up until 10:30 last night and I was feeling like I don't have any alone time anymore. Kids don't wait until your youngest is 4 to have another baby, k?)

Here are the kiddos with the final row of cupcakes:



















We did leetle doggies from an awesome cupcake book called Hello Cupcake that Jen gave me for postpartum reading. We tried doing one when Meggers was only 3 weeks old but I think we are getting better now:



















I had a buncha frosting leftover so I made a plate for my awesome friend Katie (who I still love even though I didn't win her giveaway) to eliminate the ongoing requests for frosting licking, an action I find utterly and totally disgusting. I just sat at the table by myself using up the frosting from my new pampered chef frosting distributors--four stars for SURE if you ever do frosting stuff. Anyway, if you were my neighbor you might get one of these:

Wannabe

I love to try different recipes and would say that I can follow most recipes for breads and desserts fairly successfully which makes me more of a baker than a cook . But I WANT to be a cook, I want to be able to whip together a sauce like little Remy and automatically know what goes together to serve up a superb meal.

I like the cooking blogs and peruse them regularly for dinner ideas and I ran across the blog of the sister of my friend Katie. I am a secret lurker but I am coming out of the closet on this one because it has some GREAT ideas and I want to share one here since it was so successful and fun too.

Tin foil dinner! The kids loved the idea of opening dinner "like a package" and I could control portions to equalize the meat available. Here is a photo of the makings:



It is sooo easy- just chop up some carrots, potatoes, and chicken pieces. You could add anything you like and I would have added some broccoli but I didn't have any on hand. My only regret is that I made the portions small (one chicken breast for the whole family!)

Instructions:
1. Cube up pieces of veggies, etc.
2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and whatever spices/herbs you want (I did thyme from the garden, s&p, and a minced glove of garlic)
3. Sprinkle with olive oil OR stick 1 T of butter on top (I sprinkled parmesan on top for fun too)
4. Double foil it-- wrap it once and then wrap the outside too
5. Cook for 20 minutes at 400 and then flip it over to cook for another 20

EDIT:: Vivian claims that 40 minutes is not enough time for these dinners (says it is my fault my oven runs so hot) so you might want to consider adding another 20 total. I was worried about that myself because it always takes longer to cook the potatoes than recipes state so I cubed up the little veggies into teensy squares and the time was just right)


Yum.

Also ran:

Whole Wheat Foccaccia Bread

The kids school sadly does not allow for treats so we had to settle with cutting out foccaccia in the shape of pumpkins. This would have worked out really well with white flour but with whole wheat I honestly hurt myself with the cookie cutter. Tragic, really.







Lastly I made a fun little dessert with phyllo--chocolate purses?




Instructions:

Melt together in double boiler (or micro if you are way lazy):

-2 big scoops chocolate chips (maybe 8 oz or so?)
- 4 T butter
- 2 T sugar
-1/2 c milk

It should be about the texture of brownie dough (thanks for the analogy Katie!) so if it is too runny, add more chocolate. If you add more milk it makes a nice smooth sauce for desserts or for garnish (do you call it garnish if it is a dessert?)

Then take the phyllo dough and make purses, triangles, or whatever other shape you want. If you need help, here is a little video I watched on how to do it--> Phyllo purses

I didn't take a picture of the whole tray but here is an individual one. They were fun (a bit time consuming but definitely a repeat for other such events.)

If you want the flavor but less work, then just brush the phyllo, throw some chocolate on it, and then bake it.

EDIT: Lyndsi says that there were nuts in the bottom, which I forgot to add in this recipe. I took a handful of almonds and toasted them, then chopped them up in my handy nut chopper until they were pretty small (think the kind on the nutty buddy ice cream cones) and then I put them underneath and on top of the chocolate. My tip on that is that I took a round teaspoon (shaped like a melon baller) of chocolate and dipped it into the nuts, then put the spoonful in the phyllo. I then sprinkled a few nuts on top as well. Sorry I was negligent before!

Oh yeah, bake 450 for 10 minutes.

Of cooking

Okay I have to post this recipe. Only because I know some of you are craving a 100% whole wheat recipe.

This works every time and it is quite useful if you are too lazy to go to the store to buy more bread and you want to save $4 or so. Note that I double this.

3.5 c whole wheat flour (I have been using the freshly ground food storage stuff lately)
3 T olive oil
5 T honey
1.5 t yeast
1.5 t salt
1.5 c water

It calls for some gluten thingy and nuts or sunflower seeds but I skip that crapola.

Cook it for like 45 minutes or so in a 375 oven after it rises twice.

Voilá healthy bread and happy kids.

One tip: Slice it all quick and stick it in the fridge or it disappears from the counter as if it were some kind of treat.

Several Items

1. Sarah Palin
2. T-5 days!
3. Excellent Veggie Recipe complete from my pal at work. You have GOT to try this. Looks weird but is extremely tasty and healthy. Tiff I know you won't but it is gooood.

Shepherd’s Pie


From Mollie Katzen’s Enchanted Broccoli Forest
Modified by Kevin


Cheesy Bible pic from the Internet:




2 large potatoes
butter/milk/sour cream/chives

1 ½ T butter
1 ½ C chopped onion
1 or 2 large cloves garlic, minced or crushed
2 carrots, small dice
1 t salt
black pepper
1 stalk finely minced celery
8 to 12 oz. diced mushrooms
1 lb zucchini, small dice
1 red bell pepper, small dice
½ t each: basil, oregano, thyme
1 C raw (fresh or frozen) peas
½ to 1 C frozen corn
½ C (packed) grated Cheddar. Sharp is best
3 T wheat germ (I usually just use whole wheat flour, not having wheat germ)
1 T either cider or balsamic vinegar (I like balsamic)


1) Cook the potatoes and then mash to your favorite kind of mashed potatoes. I often add roasted garlic, but sometimes that overwhelms the lovely subtle veggie medley below.
2) In a large, heavy skillet, sauté the onions and garlic in 1 ½ T of butter, with salt and pepper, for a couple of minutes. Add the carrots, and continue to sauté until the onions are soft.
3) Add the celery, mushrooms, and zucchini. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally. When the zucchini is cooked through, and red pepper, herbs, peas, and corn. Continue cooking about 5 more minutes
4) Remove from heat. Toss with chese, wheat germ (or flour), and vinegar. Spread this mixture into your buttered deep-dish casserole. Spread the mashed potatoes on top, as a crust. Sprinkle top with some paprika and a little extra cheese to make it look pretty if you wish.

Bake, uncovered, 35 minutes at 350°

Another Recipe

So I have used this recipe since the beginning of summer when we had the kids b-day party and it has been useful on a number of occasions.

I actually stole it from a website for "copycat costco moussecake filling" and then modified it to meet my own personal needs. It is very versatile and I have used it as filling, frosting, frosting AND filling, and plain mousse (excellent layered with whipped cream). Made it again last night with even fewer of the ingredients and once again a hit. According to me of course.


8 ounces chocolate (recipe calls for white but we all know that isn't real chocolate and it works with milk, semi, and dark chocolate as well)
16 ounces well-chilled heavy (whipping) cream
1 (4 serving size) package vanilla instant pudding mix (works well with chocolate too)
2 cups cold whole milk
1 (8 ounce) container whipped cream cheese (I use regular and I skipped the cream cheese last night)
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt

::EDIT for TIFF::

In a small bowl, melt chocolate in microwave (I use the double boiler so I don't burn it but I am lazy)

In a medium bowl beat heavy cream until it holds soft peaks.

In a medium bowl, beat pudding into milk for 2 minutes. (I do this in a large measuring cup so that you don't have to wash four different bowls)

In a large bowl beat together cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and a pinch of salt until creamy smooth. (This can also be done in a measuring cup or small bowl that fits in your dishwasher with the other recipients)

Stir the pudding into the cream cheese mixture. Stir in 1/3 of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture to lighten. Then fold in another 1/3 of the whipped cream and then fold in the remaining 1/3.


I am going to keep whipping cream on hand from now on if you ever need to borrow some stop on by. I wonder if I will keep it around post-partum...