Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Kitchy Kitchy Kitchen!!

I was walking through the toy section 
with Motor Mouth and Mini Me,
taking pictures of what they wanted for Christmas
We found this. 
I fell in love with it all. The whole set.
I mean, Mini Me loved it at first sight!
Grandma got it for her. Yeah, Grandma!
Then it was time to put it all together.
Mini Me kept a close watch on Daddy's progress!
Daddy deserves 10 medals for this one
Mini Me is right at home in her kitchen!!
Mini Me + Kitchen = Major Attitude!!
Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Home for the Holidays

There's no place like home! There's no place like home!
There's no place like home for the holidays!
And you know you are home in Oklahoma
when the coffee table book is a gun book!
ahahahahaha!

But seriously, my FIL got my MIL gun class lessons
I don't think she needs them, do you?

Monday, December 29, 2008

Party Like A Rock Star!

You've seen my kids. Now tell me.
What do your kids get to do when they hang 
out at their daddy's office?

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas Babies

Words cannot express how much I love my kids








Saturday, December 27, 2008

No Parents? The Kids Are Gonna Play!!

J's Grandparents spent Christmas in Florida this year. 
Normally, they are in Tulsa with us!

There were little things that hinted to his grandparents being out-of-town for the holiday. 
Like...The bottles of alcohol on the porch
- right by the door the family enters through
(I never asked why they are on the porch)
And the bottles of RUM sitting out on the counter
Out of respect for J's grandparents, his parents keep the devil's ale tucked away in the pantry or cupboards. This goes to show that no matter how old you are, how many kids you have, or how many grandkids you have, when your parents go out of town, the kids are gonna play!!

(This post published with permission from my MIL.)

Monday, December 22, 2008

Warning!!
Michy Me, please remove Z Girl for this post. 
She might see something she shouldn't.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled blog.

We are traveling today, so I thought it appropriate to blog on a situation we experienced with the vehicle recently...

The other day, I ran some errands for one of my clients, got groceries, and waited with the kids at my husband's office for him to finish work. At 5:30 pm, he informed me he needed to go to the suburbs to Ikea. We have 1 car. Our home is in the opposite direction. J enticed us with the promise of Ikea meatballs. 
Everything was fine. Nice dinner, great visit to Ikea. But then he made some purchases. I think he forgot how much crap we haul around our vehicle at any given moment:
- 2 bottles of washer fluid
- a shopping cart
- Mini Me's stroller
- bottle of coolant
- paper towels
- my briefcase
- his laptop bag
- bag of returns/exchanges
- toys, toys, toys
- other misc random items 

I do believe he also forgot I had purchased 10 bags of groceries. And, I have a massive box in the back for Z Girl's Christmas gift from her parents - it can't be found in Tulsa, but was found in Chicago.  
Michy Me, is Z Girl gone yet, 'cause it's coming up quick?!

Some of the usual stuff floating around our cargo area.
Notice how full it is?
This is how high the floor was stacked by the kids' feet
SOME of what was in the cargo area
More of what was in the cargo area
24 - 30" tall candles!!
Help! I'm squished in!!
Groceries at Mini Me's feet
Z Girl's gift fit perfectly between their seats
That strap is holding our shopping cart on the roof rack
A shopping cart on the roof!!!!!
Welcome to our crazy life.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

What's Cooking Wednesday - Trinidad Breakfast


Wow, Widney Woman!! It's Sunday, not Wednesday.
I know. 
But my faithful blog reader, and commenter, Jen of A2eatwrite asked to get the recipes for our traditional Trinidad breakfast. Only Wednesday will be crazy for her, so I am very happy to oblige by posting today!
Bake
1 tbl baking powder
4 cups flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
4 tbl butter
1 1/2 - 2 cups water

Feeds: 4 adults

Preheat oven to 350. Spray cookie tray with PAM. Mix it all up together. Don't knead it. Should be like a thick porridge. Spread out round (like a pizza) on pan. Bake approximately 30 minutes, or until lightly brown on top. Turn over for bottom to get brown (approx. 10-15 min).

To Serve
Cut in chunks, slice center and add butter, or jam, or anything you want.
Whatcha Do Different? 
I don't know if I put too much water in, as I modified the recipe down, so the dough was sticky and lumpy.  Bake is supposed to be smooth and soft, like pizza dough. The above picture (courtesy TriniGourmet.com) is what a whole wheat bake looks like - yeah, nothing like mine. 

That said, I LOVE it when bake is bumpy and harder (kinda crunchy). Mine came out with lots of ridges and not at all smooth. It was perfect for me but a true Trinidadian would be appalled, I'm sure.

I let bake for 25 minutes and checked on it. It was cooked perfectly. So, I brushed some butter on top to make it brown and put in back in for 5 minutes. I did not turn it over.

Chow Chow
Cauliflower (couple little flowers)
Carrots (1 or 2-ish)
White onions (about 1/4 of a large one)
Jalepeno peppers (optional - 1 small)
Red peppers (optional - 1/2)
Jar of pickles (any kind)
Pickle jar juice
Bottle of mustard (like French's)
Matouk's Pepper Sauce (optional)
Refrigerate. Lasts about a year

Chop up the veggies (including pickles) into tiny, tiny pieces. Pour into the pickle jar, with the pickle juice. Pour as much mustard as will fit. Shake it up, baby! This has a bit of an after kick. But if you like hot things, add a drop or two of Matouk's pepper sauce in to taste.

To Serve
Spread over ham. Eat on the side. Put it on ham sandwich. Add it to potato salad, basically, you can do all kinds of things with this. I've seen it in German stores almost exactly like this, so there may be German recipes with it - only I don't know what it is called in German.
(Jar with mixture before chopping)

Whatcha Do Different?
I bought a bottle of vegetable medley from the Italian section. I poured out some of the water, added the pickles and pickle juice and mustard. You can also find it in the Chinese section. The chunks of veggies were too big, so I chopped it fine in my trusty

Eggs
Eggs (2 per person)
Green onions
White onions
Tomato
Salt
Pepper
(milk optional)

Chop onions fine. Chop tomatoes small. Pour oil in pan. Put onions in pan for about 5 minutes. Break eggs, add salt and pepper. Add more salt because most people just don't salt enough. Whisk eggs well with tomatoes. Add to onions in pan. Leave in pan and when start to get hot, stir up like scrambled eggs. Put on plate when cooked.

Whatcha Do Different
It was 2 adults and 2 kids, so I made 6 eggs total. Used 2-3 green onion stalks, 1 small tomato, 1/4 white onion, and no milk. I didn't add enough salt, so we added on our own plates.

Ham
Cooked ham, with/without bone in

Slice thin. Put on plate and warm in oven for 5 minutes or so - long enough to take out the chill and to have serve warm.  Eat on bake, like a sandwich, or on the side. Your pick.

Salt Fish
I didn't get to do the salt fish this time, but it is one of my favorites. So hopefully you can make it to the fish counter before they close - I'm just sayin'!

Cod Fish
Small White Onion
Tomato

Put cod fish in container with boiling water
Let settle. Drain.
Repeat to get salt out
Strip into pieces (shred)
Dice tomatoes and onions
Put oil in pan
Add fish
Add tomatoes and onions
Mix around in pot (stew around)
Takes 5-6 min to cook

To Serve
Serve with eggs and bake. Can also mixup (cook) with eggs if you want.

I like to put it on top of my bake, like an open-faced sandwich. Sometimes, I break a piece of my bake off, and put it on top, like when you eat Indian food. Or, sometimes I put the fish and eggs inside the bake, like a sandwich. And sometimes I do all of these things in one sitting.

Watcha Do Different
The picture of salt fish above, is from the Internet. It appears they used green peppers. We don't. You can. It's a matter of choice. You can have with rice for lunch or dinner. It's pretty versatile. If you do an Internet search, you will find recipes for Saltfish Bujole. Similar. Not the same. Equally good.

Tales of the Fairy Blog Mother is home to What's Cooking Wednesday, where you can check out lots of tried and worked recipes!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas Traditions

My Bloggy Friend, Whittaker Woman, posted this and I thought it was fun. She didn't do tagging, instead opting for an opt-in. I thought it was fun!!
 
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? 
Gift bags won out before we had kids. Now it is ... Wrap, wrap, wrap! 

2. Real tree or Artificial? 
Artificial. J loads our trees with too many lights for a real tree. 

3. When do you put up the tree
Between church and his parents' home, J usually has so many trees and locations to decorate, if we don't get it up a week or two before Thanksgiving, it doesn't happen until Christmas Eve.

4. When do you take the tree down
My family waits until January 7th. However, it is up in the air with us. One time, J's parents tree stayed up until March and that was only because our friends were getting married in their foyer!!
 
5. Do you like eggnog? 
Kind of. In my family, we make Punch de Creme. It is similar to eggnog, but thicker. And loaded with rum.

6. Favorite gift received as a child
Maybe my Easy Bake Oven!
 
8. Easiest person to buy for? 
Me. My sister and I used to buy ourselves gifts, wrap them, address them, and open with surprise and wonder. Then hug and kiss ourselves. She's 45 and still does it. I love her!
 
9. Do You have a nativity scene? 
Absolutely!! We bought it our 2nd Christmas together when we went to Canada to Christmas with my family. I am looking at it on our windowsill, right now.
 
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? 
Both. Plus hand deliver. This year we skipped cards - too much on our mind!
 
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? 
Not so sure about that. I've been blessed. I can tell you we were given a peach bath mat for a wedding present. It didn't even have the cardboard from the store on it so we could return it. And one year, my ex-sister-in-law gave my mother a pink, cushioned toilet seat.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? 
Don't have one. But my family always gathers around to watch Sound of Music every year. And as we got older, we started going to the movie theatre on Christmas night.
  
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? 
Usually December. Sometimes late November. But NEVER the day after Thanksgiving. 
 
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? 
Absolutely. One mans junk is another mans treasure.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? 
Grandma Barbara's desserts. 
She's going to Florida for Christmas this year!!
16. Lights on the tree
Usually enough to read by is sufficient.

17. Favorite Christmas song? 
Harry Connick Jr's - Happy Ho Ho Ho
 
18. Travel for Christmas or stay home?  
This is only the 2nd year ever I've traveled home - Home was with J's family until April this year. We did travel to Canada 1 time to Christmas with my family.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers?  
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Donner, Vixon, Dixon, Blitzen, Cupid, Comet. 
Did I get 'em all?
 
20. Angel on the tree top or a star
Angel this year.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? 
We are traveling this year, so I am going to fix a traditional Trinidad breakfast Saturday morning and have Christmas with our kids. We'll take Santa's gift with us to open Christmas morning in Tulsa, with J's family.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year
The traffic and the crowds and the long lines.
 
23. Favorite ornament theme or color?  
Jewel tone: burgundy, green, purple, gold 

24. Favorite Christmas dinner
Mashed potatoes, brown gravy, turkey, dressing

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? 
A sewing machine

OK... I want to read yours... 
Do one on your blog and comment back here so I can read them. I haven't mastered Mr. Linky yet and 'tis not the season to have time to do so! Falalalalalala!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Finished for Friday - Gingerbread House

Last year, Motor Mouth asked and asked for a gingerbread house. I bought him a little one the size of a hand. My hand. 

This year, I'm a stay@home mom, so of course I decided to tackle this task. How hard could it be? I never want to do this again. That is how hard it is. 

Day 1: Saturday - Bottom Walls of House
Day 2: Sunday - Back of House
I was testing out the techniques
The curtains remind me of saggy, old woman boobs
Do your boobs hang low?
Do they woggle to and fro?
Can you tie them in a knot?
Can you tie them in a bow?
Can you throw them o'er your shoulder
Like a bag that has a boulder?
Do your boobs hang low?
Day 3: Monday - Roof Side 1
Day 4: Tuesday - Purchased more candy
Pkg didn't give enough to do what is pictured on box 
I added gum drops, sprinkles & blue icing for curtains. 
Don't knock me on the blue curtains. The only other icing tubes I had were red, pink, green.
Day 5: Wednesday - Roof Side 2
Close up of pink curtains
Made cookies with Mini Me on Tuesday.
She used up all of my sprinkles. 
I had to improvise with the corners!
This was like childbirth. I hated it the entire time I labored. I wanted to curse. Probably did a few times. I told J Motor Mouth had better change my diapers with a smile when I'm 90. But you know, once I was done, I thought: "I could do this next year."

Alrighty. Now you can head over to Lit and Laundry where Three Under Two has mastered Finished for Friday.