Annie has spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen as of late.  I’ve started to run out of things to cook and bake that aren’t too complicated for little hands.  This last Sunday found Annie and I making Monkey Bread.  I had kind of forgotten about it after all of these years, but it’s so simple and sinfully delicious.  My little sister, Heidi always seemed to enjoy making it.

Besides the pie tin and the oven, 1 roll of Pillsbury rolls, 1/4c melted butter, and a little bowl of cinnamon and sugar is all you need.  I cut the rolls into 1/4ths, dip in butter, cover in cinnamon/sugar mixture and spread them out into the pie tin.  350 degrees and 14-17 minutes later, we are set for a fabulous treat.

Will took us to Miguelito’s on Coronado Island a few weekends ago.  It is one of San Diego’s best hidden and most delicious.  This is the first restaurant our kids have been to where they were perfectly behaved and they ate EVERYTHING on their plates.  We sat outside on the patio surrounded by cute little shops.  Yes, Will and I both left with Miguelly belly, as he so kindly names it.  We attribute it to the delicious sauce they serve complimentary with all of their chips.

Side Note:  Will swears by their Shrimp taco…we have also made a goal at all of the restaurants we go to, to order the special or whatever the waiter thinks is great.  We have yet to be disappointed.

It’s that time of year again when strawberries are on sale for 69 cents and that final jam jar from last season sits lonely on the fridge shelf wondering when that last sandwich will be made and it services will no longer need rendering.

My kids had full participation this time around.  It was so wonderful to christen my new kitchen with this activity.  All that chopping, blending and mixing was wonderful with the warm sun peaking in the windows to remind us once again why we love San Diego so much.  We only made 5 jars so I imagine I see another afternoon like this in the near future if we are hoping for jam that will last the rest of the year.

Have you ever wondered why a PBJ made by someone else is always so much better than when you make one for yourself?  After making Hudson a PBJ with his own jam he says this to me, “Mom, this is the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  The strawberry jam tickles the peanut butter and makes is so delicious.”  There you have it!  You can stop wondering.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with the Rands this year again.  Another year of successfully enjoying lots of great food, fabulous company and fun games!

We started putting up the decorations the day after Thanksgiving this year.  Due to my extremely late Thanksgiving night coupled with a touch of morning sickness, I sat out on the 3 am sales.  We took a quick kid’s shopping trip at 10 and then spent the rest of the day decking our halls.  Hudson and Annie were so helpful and very willing to help!

Will was sweet enough to finally let me get a real tree.  It fits perfectly by the front window

Often times, I find myself with grand dreams and schemes.  My schemes to the real thing ratio is actually pretty high.  Unfotunately this time, it just didn’t happen.  Thinking to myself I say, “Hmmm, we need snacks at the Egg Hunt.  Let’s make them healthy.  How do we make veggies fun?  Veggie men on skewers, with string cheese hair!!  Of course.”

It’s obvious from the pictures. Veggie men were definitely NOT the answers.

Skewers were kept, but  a more traditional approach was used.

The cupcake cones were really easy and fun to make.  I was wanting to do a really stiff frosting that peaked nicely to make it look like ice cream, but I don’t have all the right tools so, melted ice cream was the outcome.

I had inspiration from two friends to start this mini-project.  My good friend, Carmen loaded me up on jam when we first moved to California.  She sent me more jars than I could count of delicious jam(I’m sure the postage was out of this world).  I just opened the very last one and was in a panic, thinking I might soon be jamless.  Combine that situation with my good friend Amber, who was just talking to me about how easy it is to make jam and voila, you get my mini-project.  

I finally made freezer jam for the first time in my life.  It was actually quite quick and painless.  People have been telling me this for years, yet I find I have never taken the plunge.  I let the kiddos help me and I think it made everything even more fun, and a little more messy.

I didn’t notice until the last strawberry, that as Annie was passing strawberries to Hudson for washing, she was first taking a bite out of the bottom(Here is hoping Annie stands the test of strawberry dirt).  I guess I shouldn’t be expecting any managerial positions anytime soon.  She was standing right next to me.  As a result of Annie’s antics, any jam we were planning on sharing will remain in our posession…sorry.  I actually didn’t make very much anyway, just in case I bombed.

All in all, I think this FHE on food storage was a success!!  At least the jam I couldn’t fit in a container was really good on vanilla ice cream.

Annie was begging to cook today.  She had found scrap material from the apron I made her and was falling apart because it wasn’t fitting right(I know my apron isn’t wonderful, but it functions well and I only had to pick out a few lines of stitching.  One day I’ll hop on the sewing bandwagon).  I digress, after a treasure hunt for her apron, Hudson joined us in the kitchen for some quick cooking.  Considering the fact that I haven’t been to the store for quite some time I thought a cake mix could do the trick.  I didn’t want to worry about busting out the oil and eggs with the little ones so I substituted all of the ingredients on the back for a can of soda.  Annie got to dump the cake mix.  Hudson got to dump the soda.  I’m not sure how many of you out there have tried baking a cake like this, but it is quite good and VERY QUICK!!

#1. I don’t mind letting the kids lick the beaters…no raw egg.

#2. Less ingredients

#3. A good dessert for food storage.

#4.  The cake ends up more moist, strawberry shortcakish, if you will.  

One of my good friends from when I was teaching gave me this…”recipe?”  She says it came from Weight Watchers.  I can’t stake claim.  I must say the yellow cake mix + Sprite + straberries + whipped cream topping = Heaven

Of course things got crazy when I was taking picture.

 I think their attention span was about one ingredient each today so it was  good day for “Soda Cake.”

“Chocolate…chocolate cake with chocolate frosting,” was Hudson’s response to a birthday cake this year.  He didn’t want any special type of cake except for chocolate so chocolate it is!  I actually took to making and freezing the cakes ahead of time.  The day of and before always seem rushed.  I thought it would be fun to attempt a checkerboard cake.  I think it just might become tradition.  It wasn’t really that hard.  I had forgotten how much easier frozen cake is to deal with.  It also turned out to be very moist.

Note to self: freezing cake makes birthdays less stressful and makes the cake more moist.

I know the frosting looks a little funky, but I am not one for the normal frosting…too rich.  I mixed it with 2 cups of whipped cream and I fell in love.

Below you can see the cake without a petticoat…how embarassing!  

So I love food.  I love the way it looks.  I love the way it smells.  I love the way it tastes…at least most food, most of the time.  I dipped into a recipe book to make these little guys.  Apparently, it was for someone a little more advanced than me.  The instructions were along the lines of scoop 175g of cooked potato and mix with avocado, tomato, a soft cheese and various herbs.  Hmmmm…various herbs.  Yes, let me pull out my various herbs.  What the heck?!  I got a little spicy in the kitchen and let my creativity loose.

This is what I ended up with:

I poked holes in and cooked 5 potatoes in the microwave.  I sliced them in half and removed about 2 tablespoons of potato from each side.  I brushed them in and out with olive oil and cooked them for 25 minutes on 425.

I then mixed:

potato guts
1 sliced and diced tomato  (sliced and diced just sounds more fun)
2 sliced and diced avocados
2x2x2 fresh chunk of mozzarella (I didn’t have any soft cheese around)
1 T of salt
6 grinds worth of pepper
maybe a 1/2 to 1  teaspoon of basil
a sprinkle of garlic salt (I was out of cloves)

Potatoes came out and I filled them with stuffing and then I sprinkled them with Romano cheese

PS – Yes, I am aware that Avogadro’s number is 6.02×10^23

For those of you wondering how big that number really is…imagine marshamallows covering the entire continental United States 55 miles high.  That would be a mol of marshamallows.