This Week in Food

I feel like things were a bit to chaotic to actually do any cooking this week but looking back on it I find that I cooked every night.  Weird how that happens.

I've been using Our Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen by Sarah Wells and Kate Jones lately and loving it.  Since I'm a big fan of the blog this wasn't a surprise.  The monkey bread recipe out of the book was insanely good.  It uses honey which I'm pretty sure makes everything better.  We had that for dinner with scrambled eggs and bacon and everyone was happy.  Well except J, he had toast.  We don't think he's human sometimes.

Then Monday came St. Patrick's Day.  I made a cheddar Guinness soup where I discovered that while I like Guinness and I like cheddar I do not  care for the flavor combination.  Then I made Soda bread from My Irish Table.  It was good.  Like I now understand why soda bread is a thing kind of good.  As someone of pretty hefty Irish heritage it was a  little embarrassing that I didn't particularly care for soda bread.  Then I made this from an Irish cookbook from an Irish chef and I feel all better now.  This book is gorgeous and I plan on buying it in hardcover form soon as I just have it in kindle form and I don't like cookbooks on the kindle.

The next night was not a night for inspired cooking but I was rescued by a seasoning blend.  I have a ton of tasty seasoning blends floating around - mostly from Penzeys.  I sliced some chicken up, crusted it with a jerk seasoning blend and we had chicken sandwiches.

For the big finale I invented my own recipe!  I'm not good at this.  I can follow a recipe.  I can tell if a recipe will be good just by reading it but I am missing the brain cells that let me create my own.  Thursday night however I did just that with a little help from Paul and a Martha Stewart pancake recipe. Paul has been working at McDonald's for the last 6 months and has fallen in love with McGriddles with the exception of the weird aftertaste/film that remains after eating one.  But we did it!  And they were good!  Paul and I could have eaten about 10 of them.  Emma has discovered that she doesn't like the bacon/sweet combination which makes us question her humanness.  J wouldn't even try them but we'd kind of already given up on him.

This week won't be quite so interesting as spring break always makes food a low priority!  I'm thinking funfetti cupcakes for the cupcake of the week this week!

Random Saturday - The Scary Lawn Statue Pictures

Last Saturday J and I went to a garden store because one of our fountains didn't survive the freezing temperatures this winter.  We don't normally go to this store because it's a bit out of the way and normally pretty expensive.  It will probably be awhile before we go back because it's pretty expensive and everything is enormous.  We did, however, find some truly terrifying lawn statue/decorations.

 If you have around $900 to spare this metal family of pigs could be yours.

 This would't be so bad except it's HUGE.  Like 2 feet around.

 This copper steer is also a grill and for $2500 you could have this on your deck!

 I like owls quite a bit but I think this one would give me nightmares.

 The good thing about this little gem is that I can text the picture to the kids when they're not behaving or when I think they need a little shaking up and tell them to behave.

Friday 5 - The Week of Creepy Pictures

This week I'm linking up with Emmy Mom and Nicole at Life's a Beach for the Friday 5.  It's a fun way to end the week with 5 facts and 5 pictures about the past week.

1.  We ended up going on a spontaneous adventure Saturday which is so not our usual style but so much fun.  We drove to this little town near us where they have an old fashioned hardware store and some gorgeous houses including one that we decided has to be haunted.

2.  This week was also the birthday party of a friends' little girl and the Tornado has been looking forward to it for WEEKS!  It was such fun.  The friend always does a fantastic job with playdates and parties and this one was no exception.

3.  We have finally made our spring break plans and it looks like the kids and I will be heading out of town down to south Mississippi to stay with my grandparents for a few days.  They live in the middle of nowhere and have an assortment of animals and lots of places to wander so it's always a good time.  I don't think J is going to make it but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

4.  Our allergies are all going crazy right now.  I'm about 50% benadryl.  Paul should be but he gets all teenager-y stubborn/forgetful and doesn't take any which makes him sniffly all the time.  The Tornado is having some problems especially in the morning.  Not sure if he's going to school today but I'm hoping the allergy medicine will kick in because he's not a good patient.

5.  Speaking of teenager-y problems Emma broke up with her boyfriend this week.  It's always awful when stuff happens that you can't fix for them.  I let her take a personal day the day after and she seems to be doing okay with it.

 He was so excited he got to use a cart his own size when we made a quick run to the grocery store.

For the low price of $300 you can own this terrifying lawn statue.

 Found this house on a drive through the area around us.  It has to be haunted right?

The Tornado in his St. Patrick's Day shirt.

The dessert table at a Lego Movie Themed birthday party we went too this weekend.

Week 36 Cupcake - Peanut Butter Cupcake with Dark Chocolate Frosting

Peanut butter and chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations and one I've been seriously craving lately.  I think all the Reeses' eggs that are everywhere tempt me.  Something about the seasonal Reeses' make them hard for me to pass up.  So when I saw these peanut butter cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting I decided this may be the answer.  Plus the recipe makes 12 which is high on my priority list.

1. Source:  Sally's Baking Addiction
2. Ease of Recipe (1 being cake mix/canned icing - 5 tons of steps and very time consuming): 2.  Just a cake and frosting so pretty simple.

3. Changes Made:  I was out of dark brown sugar so I had to substitute light.  Also, I didn't have the cute little mini-Reeses' to top the cupcakes with because 2 unknown people (J and the Tornado) got into the bag I had bought and ate them all.

4. Problems:  Mine needed less cooking time than called for.  Since I was paying complete attention they got a little overdone.  Next time I would shorten the cooking time by 2 or 3 minutes at least.

5.  Overall Impression:  I really wish I hadn't overbaked these because they would've been fabulous.  I always taste the batter before it goes into the oven but in this case I ended up eating it out of the bowl with a spoon.  It was amazing - probably one of the best ever.  So peanut buttery and amazing.  My cake texture was dry but that was due to over baking.  The frosting was a little heavy though the flavor and sweetness were really good.  Next time I'll try whipping it on high speed for an additional minute or two or substitute half the cream for milk.  Other than these 2 tiny problems (one my fault) the cupcakes were absolutely everything you could want to satisfy a chocolate peanut butter craving.

6. Quantity:  12

7. Make Again?:  Yes, though I'll watch the baking time  a little more carefully.

Top Ten Reasons Teenagers are Great

This week I was planning on doing by post for the Leibster Award that the adorable Maria over at Not Fancy, Just Life nominated me for.  However, that became a casualty of a busy weekend and a 2 day soul crushing headache.  If anyone knows any good blogs with less than 300 followers please let me know!  I need a few more.

So instead, we have the Top Ten Reasons Teenagers are Great.  This week's list was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend at a party a week or so ago.  She has kids who are around the Tornado's age and is terrified of having teenagers.  J and I are a little unusual in that we're a blended family (the true his, hers and ours kind of blended) so we have older teenagers and a preschooler.  The Tornado is of course the ours, 1 of the teenagers is mine and 2 are his but we've been married forever (well 11 years) and have always been custodial so I've given up worrying on the whose kid is whose kind of thing.  All of this craziness does give us an interesting perspective on the advantages of having non-4 year olds.  So after lots and lots of rambling here's my:

Top Ten Reasons Teenagers are Great:

1.  No more babysitters!  Want to go on a date night?  Go for a drive and a lunch at a new interesting sounding restaurant that no kid would want to set foot in?  No need to hunt down an available and hopefully responsible teenager.  You just say "See you in a few hours." and you leave!  It's magic.

2.  No more worrying about bedtime routines.  Once they get past 14 or 15 are bedtime routine consisted of a knock on the door and "Hey, shouldn't you be trying to go to sleep?"  No stalling, no stories, no arguing about brushing teeth just a simple "Go to bed"

3. You can have an actual conversation with them or around them.  With the Tornado dinner time is still more of chaotic event where we're trying to include him in the conversation without letting him interrupt but keeping him at the table.  With teenagers they are able to be included in actual conversations (or you can let them stare at their phones in which case it's easy to ignore them).

(this picture was taken during the 10 day power outage we had after a tornado a few years ago so excuse all the mess.  Also, it was apparently near Easter)

4.  No more awkward small talk with other parents when you pick them up from a friend's house.  Get there in the morning to pick them up after they've spent the night.  Just text them "Here" and in a few minutes they come out.  It's lovely.  You're also no longer obligated to stay for parties.

5.  No more kids' shows!  I have done my time with Lizzie McGuire, Hannah Montana and the oddly fascinating Wizards of Waverly Place.  They're old enough now where I no longer need to monitor their TV which is great because they watch some really awful sounding stuff.

6.  You have an idea of how you've screwed them up.  With the Tornado we don't know what possible hangups he'll have because of us.  With the older 3 we've got a pretty good idea.  It takes a little weight off your shoulders once you see you haven't messed them up too much!

7.  They have their own transportation.  Once they get above 15 or 16 they start having friends that can drive or they start being able to drive.  Them driving means you don't have too!  Oh you have to be across town at 8AM on a Saturday?  Be very quiet so as not to wake me up!

8.  You don't have to stay for practices.  Emma and Paul have played soccer for years.  All 3 were in band at one time or another.  All of those evenings stuck watching them practice whatever it is that they've got going on are over.  If I have to drop them off at all it consists of a "See you in a couple of hours.  Call me if it ends early."

9.  Watching them become actual people is really kind of fun.  They're developing the interests that will actually turn into their careers.  Eleanor already has her major declared, Emma is talking law school and Paul is researching the military.  It's terrifying and amazing all at the same time.

10.  You get to start figuring out what to do with their rooms once they have homes of their own.  The time they've got left with you is not so long anymore and it's growing shorter everyday.  So you can leave their rooms as shrines to them or you can turn them into something else.  I have plans for all of their rooms though I have agreed to wait until they have actual homes of their own and not just dorm rooms but they know it's a temporary lease!

My Ireland Box Review - March

I signed myself up for a 3 month subscription to My Ireland box, a subscription box filled with a different blend of things from Irish artisans.  The box is just over $40/month though there is a mini box available for around $25.  I got the regular size box which is a bit bigger than a shoe box and is packaged like a gift with tissue paper.  It took less than a week from shipping to my doorstep.

The full contents of the box

There's a card in the box that tells a little bit about the people who created the items in each box.  It tells where they're from and why they were selected.

First up was some Barry's Tea which wasn't mentioned anywhere so I think it was just an extra.  I've been reading a lot of books set in Ireland and they all mention Barry's tea so I was glad to get a couple of bags to sample.

Then came this gorgeous calendar from Dublin photographer Liam Blake.  The photos are beautiful and every month is different.  The photos are 5x7 size and once I'm done using this calendar I think I'm going to frame my favorites and it will fill fit perfectly on this little wall I haven't known what to do with.

Then came this fridge magnet from Harvest Pictorial in West Cork.  This isn't my usual style but it's on my refrigerator and I enjoy looking at it every morning.

This tote bag is made by Olyart in County Galway.  It's a really nice quality tote bag and the sheep makes me giggle.  I'm going to be using it as my new library bag.

I had no idea what this was when I first pulled it out of the box but when I connected the tab ins I got:

Sheep napkin rings!  These are really cute - photos don't do them justice.  They're from a company called Green Gorgeous in County Louth and will be going on my table for our St. Patrick's day dinner.

This box definitely contained a wide variety of stuff.  Everything is unique, everything is useful and everything has made me smile.  I'm definitely happy with this box and can't wait till my April box arrives!

Friday Five - Co-hosting!

This week not only am I linking up with the awesome Emmy Mom for Friday 5 but I'm also co-hosting!  The linky will be at the bottom of the page.

1.  I went to a friend's last hurrah dinner before the baby last night and it was such fun.  I got to see some people I haven't seen in forever that I'd been missing.  The guest of honor is always a lot of fun so she'll be missed when she goes into temporary baby hibernation though we're all thrilled for her.

2.  We were leaving the house Wednesday morning and discovered the loud crash we had heard the night before was actually someone hitting our mailbox and leaving.  The good thing about having a brick mailbox is that while we may have to replace the metal door which is an inconvenience his day was probably a lot worse than ours judging from all the car parts left in our yard.  I found the side mirror, every part that connects the side mirror to the car, a door handle, a bunch of trim and quite a bit of paint.

3.  I bought this sleep cycle app that Emma and Paul have been using and have become obsessed.  For one thing it has graphs and I'm a sucker for data.  It seems to be eerily right on knowing when I wake up and stuff like that.  Also it has an alarm clock that you can set for a time interval and it will wake you up at the best time in your sleep pattern during that interval.  It's like magic!  I've been tracking how having a cup of coffee at around 6 effects my sleep and it turns out not that much.

4. The weather has finally gotten nice!  We've been in the 50s and 60s for most of the week and it's been lovely!  The Tornado's been having a great time playing outside and we've opened up the sandbox.

5.  I'm trying to decide what to do about the garden this year.  Our house doesn't get much natural light and we don't have to space to rig up a sunlamp shelf thing so I've always waited till it was just warm enough during the day and put my plants out and brought them in at night.  Even with the warmer weather we've still had enough cold days where that'd be difficult.  Last spring we had so little sun I ended up having to buy plants instead of growing from seed and I'm thinking that's what I'll end up doing this year too.

Playing outside on one of the nice days we've had lately

My Ireland box arrived!  In love with this subscription box - review will be up Monday.

The daffodils are out in force!  Hoping the weather stays nice enough to really be able to enjoy them.

You can own the world's weirdest flower pot - the upside down pig for the low price of $299.99.  I'm somewhat mystified.

I gave my dad a Cookie of the Month for Christmas.  This month's selection were the German Chocolate Cake cookies and they were fabulous.  I'm not even the biggest German chocolate cake fan but I can't stop eating these.

Now for the Linky!  Remember to go visit Emmy Mom!

Due to some technical issues I've removed the Linkup since it was either that or banging my head into the wall!