Almond Scones

This is a simple and delicious recipe for scones. If you think scones are dry, bland, or yucky, you MUST try these scones. They have a wonderful sweet taste and are fabulous with a hot cup of coffee or tea. They are definitely special enough for Christmas morning or brunch.


Almond Scones

2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick (1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, frozen
3 tablespoons almond paste
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 egg
Large coarse sugar (like demerara or turbinado)

Move oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400ºF. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Grate butter over flour mixture using large holes of a box grater. Next grate almond paste into the bowl. Use your fingers to work in butter and almond paste (mixture should resemble coarse meal).

In a small bowl, whisk sour cream, almond extract and egg until smooth. Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clump forms. Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball. (The dough will be sticky in places, and there may not seem to be enough liquid at first, but as you press, the dough will come together.)

Place on a lightly floured surface (a pastry cloth works great!) and pat into a 7 or 8 inch circle. Sprinkle the top with coarse sugar. Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden, about 14 - 17 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.


Important note about scones: It is very important that you do not over mix scones. They will become dry and tough if they are handled too much. You will see butter globs and the edges will be raggedy when you pat it into the circle. It is supposed to look this way. Trust me. If you make these right, you will want to make these often!

I absolutely love these scones! The first time I made them I added some dried cherries after I mixed in the butter and almond paste. They were really good that way, but my kids picked out all the cherries, so I started making them plain. You could also sprinkle some slivered almonds or red and green sugar on top for an extra special look. Hope these make it onto your Christmas (or New Year's) breakfast table!

Full Moon

My youngest daughter came up to me in the late afternoon and said she could see the moon and it was full and very pretty. So I followed her to the living room and looked out the window at a beautiful full moon, shining perfectly between two branches of a tree in my front yard. I immediately grabbed my camera and went out on my front porch to take pictures. Unfortunately because of the snow and my not putting on warm clothes, I could not get the picture I saw from my living room floor. However, I was able to take the following shots, which I think are quite lovely.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

I made this for the first time this summer and realized that this is a perfect Christmas fudge. Creamy, peanut buttery with a crown of chocolate. So tasty and EASY to make. Aren't those the best kind of recipes? And yes, I know, another peanut butter and chocolate recipe, but I love the combination of tastes. There will still be one more for the P.B. and chocolate category, but I'm saving it for another week!


Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups peanut butter
2 sticks butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1 (16 oz.) box powdered sugar

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Press into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish.

1 (12 oz.) bag milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups peanut butter

Melt the chocolate chips and peanut butter in a double boiler until smooth. Pour over the top of the first layer and refrigerate. Cut into squares and serve. Store in the refrigerator.

This fudge is sooooo yummy. It is also an easy recipe to halve and make in an 8 x 8 inch pan. Hope you enjoy this fudge as much as we do!

Brrrrrrr!

I live in the Chicago area. It's wintertime. Therefore, it's cold. Even though I have lived here since 2000, and I would always wear a hat when building snowmen with the kids or sledding, I have not always been a hat wearer. Ear muffs, yes. Hats, no.

Well, I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and don't care as much, or if it's just because I hate being cold (always have - I was never one of those teenagers who didn't wear a coat, my mom never had to worry about me not wearing a scarf or gloves), but I have made a big decision about winter this year.

I'm going to wear a hat, one of those winter knit ones that smoosh everything down and cover my ears perfectly. And I'm going to wear it everyday, every time I go out the door. I don't care what my hair looks like when it comes off. I don't care where I'm going. I'm wearing my hat all winter long.

And I'm going to laugh at all the people who own hats but don't wear them. Because that's just stupid. I know, I used to be one of those people.

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Yes, this recipe is absolutely as good as it sounds! I made this for Christmas dessert in 2005 when I was hosting my husband's family for Christmas dinner. I was in charge of everything and made a huge dinner of barbecue brisket and for dessert, this! (This dessert even made my cheesecake hating sister-in-law give it a try!)


Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

1-1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup crushed Oreos
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
FILLING:
3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, divided
6 peanut butter cups, cut into small wedges

In a bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, sugar, cookie crumbs and butter. Press onto the bottom and 1 in. up the sides of a greased 9-in. springform pan. Place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 7-9 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat peanut butter on high for 30 seconds or until softened. Spread over crust to within 1 in. of edges.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and sour cream until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in vanilla. Pour 1 cup into a bowl; set aside. Pour remaining filling over peanut butter layer.

In a microwave-safe bowl, heat 1/4 cup fudge topping on high for 30 seconds or until thin; fold into reserved cream cheese mixture. Carefully pour over filling; cut through with a knife to swirl.

Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer.

Microwave remaining fudge topping for 30 seconds or until warmed; spread over cheesecake. Garnish with peanut butter cups. Refrigerate overnight. Remove sides of pan. Refrigerate leftovers.

Yield: 12-14 servings.

This was one of those truly decadent desserts that everyone wanted to try. I had a lot of fun making this and got lots of compliments. When I told my husband which recipe I was sharing today, he said, "Yeah, that was really good!"

Ginger Creams

The third recipe for you all is Ginger Creams. I made these on Tuesday to deliver to my church as a part of our PADS program. Our church provides one dinner and then the next morning's breakfast once a month at Hesed House, the homeless shelter in our city. The parishioners can sign up for whatever items they would like to donate (according to a menu), and three dozen cookies, along with two packages of brown-n-serve sausage was my responsibility this month. Lucky for my kids and husband, this recipe makes four dozen, so there were still cookies left to be munched on after the delivery.

I found this recipe in an old cookbook in which they grouped cookies not by type (drop or refrigerator), but by categories like: Lunch Box Surprises, Picnic Stars, and Fun for the Youngsters. This recipe was categorized under "Beau-Catchers (and Husband-Keepers.)" I kid you not. With a category like that one, I knew it had to be good!


Ginger Creams

1/4 cup soft shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
1 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix together thoroughly shortening, sugar, egg, and molasses. Stir in soda and water mixture. Combine remaining dry ingredients and stir into mixture. Chill dough for two hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Drop dough by small rounded teaspoonfuls on lightly greased cookie sheet (or use parchment paper) about 2 inches apart. Bake 7-8 minutes or just until set. Remove to cool on racks. Frost with Quick Cream Icing.

Quick Cream Icing:
Stir together 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 1-2 Tbls. cream or half & half until easy to spread.

Yield: Approx. 4 dozen

The dough for this cookie looks very much like cake batter. I made the mistake of forgetting that the dough needed to be chilled, and ended up only chilling it about 45 minutes (I threw it in the freezer for part of the time). The cookies were fine. Do use very small spoonfuls as these spread and puff up a lot! These are really soft, cake-like cookies. My children declared these to be the best cookies EVER (disclaimer: they do that a lot when I make cookies), but my husband also emphatically agreed that they were very good cookies. I guess these really are husband keepers!

Bullet Points From My Week

- Why are people rude? I was in the self-checkout at Meijer, checking myself out, and a woman approaches the checkstand. I continue scanning my groceries, then my coupons, and finally I pay. As soon as I tear my receipt and coupons out of the machine, she begins scanning her items. She send them down into my groceries without even attempting to wait or separate them. Fortunately the nice woman working at Meijers came and put the separator bar between our orders (I was too busy pushing her stuff away so I could quickly bag my groceries without taking any of hers!)

- My son, while not yet figuring out that Santa isn't real, has figured out a few things about the old man. When I brought up the fact to the girls (in front of Ian) that Santa watches their behavior and sees if they are naughty or nice, Ian gave a little smirk. He followed the smirk with the comment that Santa doesn't watch him too closely. I asked him why he said that. He answered (while rolling his eyes), "Mooooom, I've been getting presents for nine years."

- Zoe watched an old Christmas Blue's Clues today. While in the van on the way to Meijer, she asked me what the boy's name on the show was. I told her it was Steve and she said, "Oh yeah, Steve. I'm Steve's honey." I asked her what she meant. She said, "What are you to Daddy?" I answered between giggles, "I'm Dad's honey, that's right."

- I made three dozen cookies for our local homeless shelter on Tuesday. I'll be sharing the recipe with you tomorrow.

- My first grade daughter read a petition at church this morning and did a great job. I was so glad I could be there to see and hear her.

- I forgot to remove the foil from the broiler of my gas oven on which I cooked pork tournedoes last night. I didn't realize it despite the burning smells until black smoke was pouring out of the top vent in my oven. Needless to say the french fries were inedible (I saved the beans-n-franks) and I burned my rubber gloves for washing dishes and fused burnt foil to my brand new $5 slippers I bought on Black Friday. I'm not happy about the slippers. Not one bit!

- I still need to go Christmas shopping.

Chocolate & Peppermint Ice Cream Cake

Our second recipe is Chocolate & Peppermint Ice Cream Cake. Not only is this a beautiful and tasty dessert, it is easy to make and can be made several days ahead if necessary! You will definitely get ooohs and aaahs when you bring this out for Christmas Eve dessert or any other time of the year for that matter.

I also won fourth prize with this recipe in Quick Cooking (Now called Simple & Delicious) and won $100. It was very exciting. You can find the recipe here, but my name doesn't appear on the website. (I have a copy of the magazine and the cookbook it was published in.)



Chocolate & Peppermint Ice Cream Cake

1 18 oz. pkg mini chocolate chip cookies (like Famous Amos)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup hot fudge topping, divided
1 quart chocolate ice cream, softened
1 quart peppermint ice cream, softened

Crush about 25 of the cookies, set remaining cookies aside. In a bowl. combine the cookie crumbs and the melted butter. Press onto the bottom of a greased 10-inch springform pan. Freeze for 15 minutes.

Microwave 3/4 cup of the hot fudge topping until soft enough to spread easily, and spread over the crust. Stand remaining cookies around edge of pan. Freeze for 15 minutes.

Spread chocolate ice cream over fudge topping. Freeze for 30 minutes. Spread peppermint ice cream over chocolate ice cream. Cover and freeze until firm. May be frozen for up to 2 months.

Remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving. Remove sides of pan. Warm remaining 1/4 cup of hot fudge topping and drizzle over top of cake.

Enjoy!

Obviously you can make this with any two ice cream flavors you enjoy. My winning entry used vanilla and chocolate ice cream. It's up to you to make it exactly how you and your family would enjoy it!

Frosted Orange Cookies

My very first recipe is for Frosted Orange Cookies. I have found this is one of those recipes that people either love or hate. There doesn't seem to be any in between. For me and my family, we love them. I got this recipe from my mom. she used to make them for us when I was a kid because they were one of my Dad's favorite cookies. They are simple and yummy, and most kids can't resist a frosted cookie!


Frosted Orange Cookies

1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup orange juice
2 T. grated orange rind
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Orange Butter Icing:
2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
2 T. butter, softened
1 T. grated orange rind
2 T. orange juice

Preheat oven to 400 ºF. Mix shortening, butter, sugar and egg. Stir in orange juice and rind. Blend dry ingredients together. Stir in. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets (for easy clean up and cookie removal, use parchment paper). Bake 8 - 10 minutes.

Icing: Combine butter and sugar. Mix. Add orange rind and juice, mix until smooth. Frost cookies when cool.

Makes about 3 dozen.

I always squeeze the juice out of the oranges I've zested, and if there is not enough for the recipe, I simply add juice from the carton in my fridge to equal the amount needed in the recipe. The fresh juice really makes a difference.

These are a soft cake-like cookie with a great orange flavor. So delicious and special on a Christmas cookie tray. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Recipe Extravaganza Coming To Heather's Recipes!

Be sure to come back tomorrow because tomorrow starts my "Twelve Recipes of Christmas" celebration. I will be sharing twelve of my favorite holiday recipes with all of you. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I will share a recipe as well as pictures of some goodie or dish that I have made in celebration of Christmastime. The week of Christmas I will share a recipe on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, taking us right up to Christmas Eve. I hope you will come back often to see what yummy things I am cooking up and maybe try a few and find some new favorites for yourselves!

Shopping

I headed out this morning while having barely digested the delicious Thanksgiving dinner I enjoyed at my mother-in-law's house last night. I didn't get up until 5:00 AM, so I had close to six hours sleep. I took a quick shower and grabbed a bowl of cereal in the dimly lit kitchen before heading out the door at 5:30 AM.

I started at Wal-Mart, which was a complete crazy house. So, I turned around and walked out without buying anything and headed to Target, which was scheduled to open at 6:00 AM. I parked my minivan at 5:55 and got out to head to the front doors. To the right was a long line that snaked all the way down the TJ Maxx store and to the left was a growing group of people who weren't going to wait in the line. I toyed with joining the small group of people to the left of the door, but decided I couldn't do that (shopping for deals just isn't worth being rude) so I started to walk down the sidewalk to the end of the line figuring all the extra walking might work off some of the pie and stuffing from the night before. As I was walking I could see several of the people in the line stepping out of their place to see the ever growing crowd of people to the left of the doors, waiting for it to open. I knew what they were thinking. "Those people just arrived and they think they can get in before us?" I took my place in line and as I did it started moving. As we neared the Target entrance, I saw a large man wearing a red shirt directing everyone from the line into the store and keeping all the people in the group to the left out until the entire line entered the store. I even heard him say, "Not until this line gets inside." I have to admit, I wasn't the only person in line smiling, knowing doing the right thing has it's rewards.

I went to several other stores, with varying degrees of success. My final destination was Kohl's, where I have to admit I was going to give up and go home, despite finding a gift for my sister-in-law and a stocking stuffer for Ian. The line was literally all the way to the back of the store! It just wasn't worth the wait. So, I returned the toy to the shelf and headed back the the front of the store to put back the jewelry when I had a revelation. The jewelry counter wasn't that busy. Yes, I had to take a number, but they seemed to be taking care of customers quickly and there were four women behind the counter helping people. I made a quick inquiry as to whether I could buy a few other things along with the jewelry I wanted to buy, and she said I could. So, I ran back to the toy section, picked up my giftie, grabbed a Curious George Christmas book from the Kohl's Cares For Kids display and took a number. Less than five minutes later I was being checked out by a really nice checkout lady and out the door with my purchases!

And I have to admit, everybody I encountered was really nice, including the people working at the stores. I would definitely shop Black Friday again, but next year I want everybody's list, so I can get it all done in one day!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

What says Thanksgiving more than a four year old in a turkey hat?

Maybe a four year old in a turkey hat and her big sister?

Hope you have a good one. Don't eat too much turkey or potatoes, do save room for the pumpkin pie!

My Son and Hugh Hefner

Ian took a shower this morning and when the water turned off, I opened the bathroom door holding up a brand new bathrobe for him. He has never had a bathrobe and I was saving this one for Christmas until I realized I'd have to buy some clothing item for each of the girls, and they need more clothes like I need a hole in my head, so I just decided to give it to him.

He poked his head out from behind the shower curtain and squealed with delight, "A bathrobe!" He immediately got out of the shower, dried himself off, and put on his new bathrobe. He walked down the hall to his bedroom, admiring how warm and soft his new robe is.


A few minutes later he appeared downstairs in his new robe, and only his robe if you get my drift. He strutted around the first floor and occasionally his sisters and I were flashed with boy bits that none of us wanted to see! That is when I sent him upstairs to either get dressed, or at least put some underwear on. Two minutes later he was back downstairs wearing his robe still. He opted for the underwear option. He spent the next hour and a half in his robe until I finally told him he would have to get dressed before lunch.

I'm not sure I'll ever understand boys!

My Son, The Chef

Ian is in fourth grade this year. That means he has to write four book reports each quarter, basically one very two weeks. They are easier than traditional book reports in that they are all worksheets that he has to fill out (answer questions) for. And, he can choose his own book. But, there are twenty different genres to choose from, and he can only do each genre once. It is a lot of work, but definitely exposes him to a wide array of literature.

We chose to complete this week's book report on a cookbook. On our bi-weekly outing to the library, I suggested he look at the cookbooks in the juvenile non-fiction area. He chose two that interested him, as well a book about sweet foods. He pored over each cookbook and decided he wanted to use the Pampered Chef Kids in the Kitchen Cookbook for his book report. I also suggested that he choose one recipe and he and I could whip it up together.

After careful consideration, he chose the chocolate chip cookie pizza recipe to make. I made sure we had all the necessary ingredients and on Saturday the two of us went to work. I made him read the recipe, pre-heat the oven, showed him how to measure the flour and other ingredients, and let him do the work. He was really excited and did a great job trying to mix everything with just the wooden spoon.

The final results turned out like this:


And it tasted as delicious as it looked!

More Cake And Some Favors

Over the last three weeks I've made more cakes than I can count (okay, not really, but I've made lots of cakes lately.) The first one was for Elizabeth, my sister-in-law's, baby shower. This is her first baby and my first niece or nephew on my husband's side of the family, so I'm very excited to get to hold another baby again! (That's Elizabeth with Zoe and Emma - isn't she the cutest pregnant woman?)

Her only request for the cake was the flavor, my snickerdoodle cake. It is a cinnamon cake with cinnamon buttercream frosting. I've never met anyone who doesn't love this cake. So after lots of internet searches for ideas for a cake, I finally came up with this cake:


The clothes are just cut from scrapbooking paper and hung on with little clothespins I found at Michael's Crafts store. I found the idea for this cake here.

I wasn't sure the three layered cake would be enough for everyone, so I also made 12 chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes frosted with vanilla buttercream. I topped them with little plastic carriages I also found at Michael's. Here are what they looked like:


Along with the cake duties, I volunteered to make the favors for the shower. I made 25 little paper onesies with three Hershey's milk chocolate nuggets inside each one. They turned out so cute that I had to share them here:


My husband's Aunt Mary, also happened to be having a birthday on the day of the shower and her sisters wanted to surprise her with a cake. So with the other half of the batter from the cupcakes, I made a nine inch round cake for Mary. Here it is:


Finally, I made my husband's 36th birthday cake, too. Since I've been married to him I've made him a cake every year, but none have been particularly exciting form a decorating standpoint. But this year, I wanted to surprise him. He has been talking for a few years how when he was little he had a Batman cake all done in the frosting stars. Then in March at Zoe's 4th birthday, he made an offhand comment about how he would like the same birthday cake Zoe had. So being the good wife that I am, I made him this cake:


He loved it!

That is all of my cakes (except for the pumpkin spice cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting I made for Bunco two days ago) from the last three weeks. I'm going to focus on pumpkin pie now!

Happy Birthday, Brendan!

Today is my husband's birthday. He is the love of my life, the father of my children, my best friend, my confidant, my rock.


He is an amazing dad, son, brother, husband and man. I am so proud and lucky to have been married to him for almost 13 1/2 years now. I also have now known him for half of my life. I feel so blessed to have him. Happy Birthday, Brendan! I love you!

Now, head over to his blog and wish him a happy birthday!

Halloween Round Up

I know, I know, this is late in coming. But I've been busy lately!

Halloween actually began on Wednesday when Zoe had her preschool party. I'm room mom and planned the party for the kids. Zoe went as a cowgirl and I think she is the cutest cowgirl in Illinois. We didn't know it, but her teachers dressed as cowgirls, too. Mrs. Voirin repeatedly introduced Zoe as "her sidekick." Zoe grinned ear to ear each time her teacher said it. We made a craft, ate some cupcakes and brownies, then ran a relay where the kids had to scoop up candy corn on a spoon, run across the room, dump the candy corn into a bowl, then run back and pass the spoon onto the next person. The kids loved it and the I had a lot of candy corn to pick up off the floor when the game was done!




Here are my three kids getting ready to go out trick or treating with their Dad. Ian was Ash, the trainer from Pokemon. I made and sewed the symbol on his hat out of felt and cut the fingers out of the gloves for this costume. You can see Pikachu peeking out from the back of his backpack. Zoe is, of course, Scooby Doo. Emma chose Shawn Johnson of Olympic gold medal fame as her costume this year. I cut the letters U S A out of white felt and sewed them to her gymnastics suit. Then I cut a circle out of some cardboard, painted it yellow and sprinkled gold glitter all over it. After punching a hole in it and stringing white ribbon through it, she had a gold medal. The final touches were a ponytail and make-up and cheek glitter.

Here is each one on there own.

Ian

Emma

Zoe

I think my favorite part of the costumes this year was that they cost me all of $1.50! The gloves for Ian's costume and the blue bandanna for Zoe's cowgirl costume were the only things I had to buy. Everything else I had in the house somewhere. (Zoe wore the Scooby costume last year, too!) I did however have to spend a few nights hand sewing the USA onto Emma's costume and the Pokemon symbol onto Ian's hat. But, I love that their costumes were unique and exactly what they wanted to be. No princesses or Darth Vader's for me this year!

I'm also realizing that I love the set-up we have for the annual trick or treat fest. Brendan has always taken the kids out, and I've always passed out the candy. I saw several sets of both parents going with their kids, which led me to question who is passing out candy at their house? I understand not wanting to miss any of the cool things your kids do, but I also think they need to do special things with each parent separately. And for us, this means getting candy door to door with dad. I hope my kids look back on this and remember it happily. (With Brendan working in the city, they get to do loads of things with me. Doing something with Dad is extra special.) Besides, I really like the hour or so to myself in the house while the four of them are all out gathering goodies. I've come to find it relaxing and equally exciting to hear their stories when they get back and dump all their candy on the floor. It's a good set-up.

Hope your Halloween was as much fun as ours was!

The Flip Side Of Pleasing Everyone

The elections this year seem to have sent an unprecedented number of political phone calls our way asking us to vote for candidate A or candidate B from everything from the presidential election down to the Will County Auditor's office. My husband and I were discussing how we can't recall an election with this many phone calls asking us to vote one way or another.

Maybe it's because my husband and I generally fall on opposite sides of the political spectrum, or because we actually voted in the primaries, but the number of calls was really out of hand. And since I am a stay at home mom, I am generally around to pick up the phone. One day it occurred to me that the fastest way out of these phone calls, besides not answering them, was to agree with whatever the caller was telling me.

"Can Candidate A count on your support on November 4th?" Absolutely!

"Will you be voting for Candidate B on election day?" Sure!

"Would you like a sign for your yard?" Not at this time.

This was how the typical conversation would go. First of all, I didn't have time for most of these phone calls. Second of all, I didn't always know what the candidates were running for at the time (I did educate myself before today, but sometimes they called before my research had been done.)

I know this isn't exactly productive, but I enjoyed it.

But this afternoon I got another phone call. "Hello! Did you get a chance to vote yet today?" Yes. "Did you vote for the _____________ party?" No. Awkward pause. "Ooooh. That's okay." Click.

Yeah, it was a little weird. I'm sure I told this perky lady I would vote for her candidate, but then didn't. (I know for a fact I told two opposing candidates I would vote for them.)

I actually felt a little bit bad. But only a little.

It's Election Day!

It's time to go vote! Get in line, stay there until it's your turn, and let your voice be heard. Whether you lean left or right, red or blue or maybe green, go vote. It is your right and responsibility as a citizen of this great country. Go now. Vote.

Fun Monday - Spooky Edition

Sayre, over at SayreSmiles is our hostess this week. Keeping with our Halloween time of the year she has given us the following assignment:

Tell us about your favorite Halloween as a kid (pictures, if you have them!), and show us your costume for this year. If you're not dressing up, show us a picture of a pumpkin carving that really tickled your fancy or how you decorated your house.

I grew up in England during my prime trick-or-treating years, and I don't know if it has changed much, but back in the early 1980's they didn't really trick or treat over there. I remember one Halloween my mom loading me and my two brothers and my sister into the car and driving us to all of our American friends houses to trick or treat. Needless to say, we didn't ever get a lot of candy while we lived there.

Another Halloween in England my mom threw a big Halloween party for all the different families we were friends with. She went all out and hung up creepy homemade decorations and had scary music playing. We had a long window over our stairs right at the front of the house that we could open. She strung a ghost made out of a white sheet to a tree outside and then strung the end of the rope into our house through that window. It was the kid's job to pull on (or let go of, I can't remember now!) the string and send the ghost flying right down to the entryway outside our front door. It was great fun scaring adults and kids alike, though my best friend at the time wouldn't come into my house after that! My mom also served foods with scary names like witch's brew for green kool-aid or Vampire's blood for red punch. I'm sure the adults had stronger concoctions, but I wasn't aware of it.

I don't have any Halloween pics of costumes for myself this year (though one of my favorite costumes was the first year after I was married and my new husband went as Fox Mulder and I went as Dana Scully!). So here are our pumpkins we carved for last year's Halloween. One is the traditional scary pumpkin, and the other is a little more artsy fartsy (we like to say "creative.")



Here's a close-up of the scary pumpkin.


And here's a close-up of our creative pumpkin.


Finally, here is a picture of my youngest daughter helping her Dad to make our creative pumpkin. She is 3 1/2 in this picture. (Yes, that's an electric drill if any of you were curious how we achieved such an effect.)

Another Cake

This is a cake I made for my sister-in-law's husband for his birthday. It is a dark chocolate cake with fluffy peanut butter frosting and chocolate frosting. On top are chopped up chocolate and peanut butter chips. This was very decadent and tasted wonderful. I did not get a picture of the cake sliced, but it looked so pretty. My only complaint was that the cake turned out a bit crumbly. It was made from scratch and was not quite as sturdy as a box mix cake. But, it did taste great.

The recipe I used was for Dark Chocolate Cake from Allrecipes.com, one of my favorite recipe websites. I followed the directions exactly, EXCEPT I baked it in two nine inch pans and made six cupcakes. Also, grease and flour the pans, otherwise you risk the cake not coming out after all your hard work! After baking and cooling, I split each cake in half. I then made the peanut butter frosting and it turned out great. It was difficult to spread at first, but after adding a little more milk it spread very easily. If you are a peanut butter lover, this frosting is amazing! It reminded me of the inside of a Buckeye candy. So delicious! I also made the fluffy chocolate frosting recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor book and then layered the cakes as follows: cake, peanut butter frosting, cake, chocolate frosting, cake, peanut butter frosting, cake, chocolate frosting. I topped the cake off with chopped up chocolate and peanut butter chips. This turned out to be a really decadent cake and a great way to celebrate Patrick's birthday.

Here are my daughter's posing with the cake.

Eight Percent

I have lived in or visited eight percent of the world countries. The really sad thing about that is all but two (the Bahamas and the USA) were as a child. As an adult I've pretty much gone nowhere.


visited 18 states (8%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Thanks to Irish CoffeeHouse for the links!

Funny Things My Kids Say

- Ian got in trouble yesterday for screaming at his sister. When I asked him why he did it, he said, "Do unto others as they do to you - the Golden Rule." Apparently his sister stuck her tongue out at him as she was walking up the stairs. I clarified the Golden Rule and our house rules.

- Zoe told me that if I ever had another baby and if it was a girl she would sleep in her sleeping bag on the floor so the baby could sleep in her bed.

- Zoe gave me a special hug and kiss last night because she thought that someday Brendan and I wouldn't live together anymore. (Brendan's parents are divorced.)

Birthday Cakes

Way back in August we had a double birthday party for Ian and Emma. Ian's birthday is in July and Emma's is about two weeks later in August, so it just makes sense to combine them when it is going to be a family affair. Since they were little I've been making their cakes myself. I love seeing their faces when they see the cakes they requested.

This year was no exception. Emma changed her mind repeatedly and finally decided on a cake with hearts all over it. Ian initially talked about a Pokeball, which I thought would be pretty easy. And in the end he did pick a pokeball, but not the regular recognizable one. No, instead he chose a Masterball, which are more successful when being used to catch Pokemon. After asking Ian to describe the Masterball to me, I decided to Google it for an image I could understand. After finding and printing out a picture of the pokeball, I went to work.

The resulting cakes looked like this:



Emma's cake is on the left. Her's was a yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. The hearts and her name are made out of marshmallow fondant. I brushed some pink luster dust on her name, and she wanted me to add more to the hearts. Here's a close-up of her cake:



Ian's cake is the Masterball on the right. He requested chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I used the top of two cupcakes to make the bumps on top of the cake. The cake is covered in marshmallow fondant. In the end Ian was thrilled with his cake. Here is a more detailed look at it:



Actually, they both were happy with their cakes, which made me happy. I can only imagine what they'll come up with for next year!