Funny Ha, Ha - Part 2

A girl can multi-task right!?!?

Also, these Monkey Bars are so freaking good, I thought I would share the recipe with you right now:

Monkey Bars

Ingredients

Banana Bread Bars:
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 ¾ cups (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Browned Butter Frosting:
• ½ cup butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
• about 3 tablespoons milk or half and half

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour 10x15 jelly roll pan. Beat first four ingredients until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla for one minute. Add dry ingredients and blend for one minute. Stir in nuts and spread in pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Cool slighty until warm but not hot and frost with Browned Butter Frosting (recipe below).
2. For the Browned Butter Frosting: Heat butter in saucepan over medium heat past the melting point until it is boiling and a delicate brown. Remove from the heat and immediately add the remaining ingredients. This should be thicker than a glaze and thinner than frosting. Using a spatula smooth over the top of the Monkey Squares immediately. The frosting will be easier to spread once it's on the warm bread.

Notes

Source: TheWelcomeMat

Time to go whip up the Browned Butter Frosting and then lick the mixer paddles and clean the kitchen, but that is NOT for another post!

Drinking Up Memories . . .

Ok, so a little while ago, I went through all my pulled out stacks of recipes, found them on-line and pinned them on Pinterest. It took a lot of time but I got rid of sooooooo many pieces loose of paper and organized everything in my pretty little boards!

While going through the recipes, I found several that immediately brought back memories of my childhood. One of them is called Russian Tea. My mom used to make large batches of this for me and I remember drinking it on cold nights. I loved the taste and remember it had a bit of a sour/sweet flavor.

So, I had to go to Publix today to buy some things for my youngest daughter's birthday dinner tomorrow night. While there, I picked up all the ingredients I needed to make me some Russian Tea!

When I asked the first Publix employee where I might find some Tang,
he had no clue what it was (yes, he was young).
 I explained to him it was the drink of the astronauts.
Luckily, he found another employee who knew Tang and that
it was located by the powdered drinks (on the bottom shelf!). 

Here's the recipe:

Russian Tea -
Ingredients:

1 c instant powdered tea
2 T powdered lemonade mix
2 c Tang
2 c white sugar
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Mix all ingredients and store in a sealed jar.
2. Mix 3-4 tablespoons of mix with 1 cup of hot water (could also use in cold water)

I did not realize how much sugar it had in it. No wonder it tastes sooo good! I did cut back on the sugar somewhat, but not too much!

Sit back and drink in the memories.

Time to go wrap birthday presents for the birthday girl, but that is for another post.

I'm Getting Hungry!

Ok, so I have been super busy trying to get my house as organized as possible before school starts. I truly believe when I as a mommy and the house are both organized, our home runs smoother, much smoother!

So when I found myself glued to the Olympics (not sure why but our family has been addicted this year), I wanted to also be productive. Now that I have "discovered" Pinterest, I no longer feel the need to buy a lot of magazines (still get a few though) and pull ideas and recipes from them.

This is my stack! It usually is a little neater but this is what I started with when I pulled all the folders and threw them in a basket. 

I decided to go through the stack and recycle all the recipes I no longer wanted. Usually on recipes I try, I will write a note and the date and whether it was liked or not. I do this in all our cookbooks, too. One, so I won't repeat recipes no one liked and two, so when the girls are older and receive the cookbooks, they can see recipes they liked and ones they helped me cook. SO I gathered my gagillion recipes and started googling them. There are a lot of variations out there so I made sure to find the exact one.  Out of ALL the recipes I hunted for, only a handful of them I couldn't fine on-line so I kept them.

Now I have (almost) all the recipes I want on Pinterest. God help me if Pinterest ever closes or goes out-of-business!!  Looking at all these recipes have really gotten me interested in cooking and baking again. Living in Florida during the summer, I lose all desire to cook because it is just too hot!

Getting smaller.

So I have one more folder to make my way through - Desserts - and women's water polo is on. Go Team USA! Beat those Aussies! If you want to see any of the recipes I pinned, please go to my Pinterest page. Can't wait to start making some food but that is for another post!

Pinspiration!

Ok, so life has been keeping us super busy. The end of the school year is so exciting for the girls - we have an 8th dance and graduation, year-end parties (out the ying-yang!), dance rehearsal and then recital, piano recital, and so on... you get the idea as we all are enjoying, and rushing to, all these activities.

So what, you ask, do I do to calm myself and embrace the chaos (other than therapy that comes in the shape of a wine bottle, box, or jug - I'm not judging!), I head to Pinterest!!

Something about pulling up my page and seeing all my favorite things, right there, in front of me, makes me giddy like a school girl! We are getting ready to make some minor changes to our house, will post all the before and afters starting next week, and I spent a couple hours with the carpenter designing how I want our coffered ceiling and moldings to hold our pediment we bought at a Paris flea market. My carpenter/contractor is one of the best and reasonably priced. We sat down yesterday and I pulled up Pinterest to show him exactly what I want.

I love the detailing, even though I want mine to be slightly different. The color is also similar to what we want. Don't want to go too dark (please go to my Pinterest page to get all the original sources).

He is also going to make one of these for me, either 8 feet long or 2 4s. This will go on top of my new Pottery Barn piece to help hide the window it is covering. I will use it for seasonal decorating, flowers in the spring, pumpkins and gourds in the Fall, and ornaments with lights at Christmas (can't wait!!). Of course, that long will take a LOT of items to fill it but I am ALWAYS up for that challenge. That's just a few of the items on my Greg List.

Another source of Pinterest love for me is the recipes. Here's what's been on tap for dinner the last couple of weeks:

Chicken Asparagus Roll-Ups

Made these for dinner the other night. I added garlic and used gruyere cheese because that it what I had on hand. I also added the "sauce" on the inside and it all melted together nicely. Would make again.

Crowd Pleasing Taco Salad

This salad was a huge hit with the family. I bought a small bag of Fritos, just enough to give the salad a little bit of crunch. I also used green olives instead of black, added fresh cilantro, used ground turkey breast instead of hamburger, added black beans, corn, and red onion. One final adaptation for our family was using spinach and spring mix instead of iceberg. It was such a hit, that my youngest took it to school with her the next day for lunch (when I made it, we added the dressing and turkey to individual bowls so leftovers wouldn't be soggy and my vegetarian could still eat it).

Sunburst Lemon Bars

While I like the occasional hint of lemon (I do LOVE the smell though), I am not a huge fan. However, when I saw these bars, my mouth started watering! I am making these tomorrow. My husband picked up a big bag of wonderful looking lemons at Sam's this weekend so looking forward to these. I will let you know how they taste.

Pinterest also makes me laugh!

Amen Sista!

Too funny!

So there's my Pinterest love for the day!!! Very excited about the projects starting next week but currently bummed because round 2 of my projects (closing in the pass through from dining to kitchen and replacing all the painted molding on the 2nd floor with stained molding) will have to wait a little bit longer. I just got the estimate from the A/C guy currently working in my house (my contractor's partner). Needless to say, living in Florida, feeling like it is already summer time, my A/C has to work so that takes precedence although I hate writing big checks for something you can't see!!

Can't wait to fill you in on all the changes happening, but that's for another post!

Hippity, Hoppitty, Easter is Over . . .

Love the clean, fresh look of these shelves!

Ok, C-A-N-N-O-T believe it is already April. Seriously, where has the time gone??

So here's a quick recap of our Easter celebrations. Normally, we head to Gainesville to spend Easter with the family. However this year, we were still experiencing jet lag and opted to stay home for some rest and relaxation! We went to Good Friday services and then came home and my girls had a meltdown. Complaining about everything, tears, we can't do anything right, you name it! My husband, fed up with the whining, sent them both to bed and we did our own "wining" - popped a bottle of wine and watched 50/50 (which was incredibly fantastic and gave me a little crush on Joseph Gordon Levitt - yes, the kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun! I know, weird!!). After some truly needed sleep, everyone woke up in a better mood and we had a great, relaxing weekend - an Easter miracle! My oldest daughter is currently going through Confirmation and trying to earn "points" and raise money for the Mission Trip she is going on in June. She spent Saturday volunteering at the church and getting caught up on homework. Youngest daughter worked on her Earth Day project and I spent the day cooking (after attending Weight Watchers - I maintained which was my goal after being in Paris/Belgium/Amsterdam for 10 days!).  Once everything was done, we dyed our eggs.

This was oldest daughter's creation - it's simple beautiful and a labor of love!

Our menu for the weekend was absolutely delish -

Lunch Saturday - Paula Deen's Lady and Sons Grilled Cheese and Asparagus sandwiches. Everyone loved them (again another Easter miracle!!)

Dinner - Pesto Chicken Salad - We have made this as a sandwich before but tonight, we just served on a bed of lettuce with other salad veggies.

Easter Day - Opening our Easter baskets!

Youngest daughter - Olivia.

Oldest daughter - Caitlin.

Heading off to Easter Church Services.

Time to look for eggs.

Brunch is served.

The girls set a beautiful table.

Brunch - Lemon, Strawberry Ricotta Muffins  - Not sweet at all. My husband like them, I thought ok and neither daughter liked them. They have a very dense quality to them. Not sure if I will make again.

             - Eggs Benedict Casserole - fantastic! You have to make it the night before and it's worth it. This was a hit with all the meat-eaters in the family.

            - Fresh Cut Fruit - thank you Publix!

            - Mimosas! I had one with OJ but the next one (or two) were with Cranberry juice. I love those!

Easter Day was the best! We played Kinect on Playstation. It actually brought tears, we were laughing so hard. Then we headed outside for some reading and relaxing. Later, my husband and I poured some wine and planned our next vacation (nothing decided on yet!). 

Time to eat again  -

Dinner - Beef Tenderloin with Blue Cheese Sauce (I know right, what about WW??)

            - Gruyere Potatoes

            - Roasted Broccoli

            - Carrot Cake - this was THE BEST CARROT CAKE EVER!! It's a sheet cake, then you pour a glaze on top, and then cream cheese icing! Moist, delicious and not nearly big enough!!

We had a great, relaxing weekend. Just what the Doctor ordered! Since March was a blur and I am too lazy to take down our Easter decorations we really didn't get to enjoy our Easter decorations, we decided to keep them up until after my daughter's confirmation on April 22. It still is the month of Easter, right??

I think he was a gift from my mom (is this right, mom?) and I like that he is super shiny and looks like chocolate!.

My mantle - I just kept it as it normally is and added the bunny I found at Tuesday Morning and took a glass jar with a metal handle (found at a local boutique) and filled with shiny eggs from the $2.50 section of Target. In fact, I liked the eggs so much, I went back and bought 4 more sets of them but then never had time to find a home for them!

This is my Pottery Barn coffee table. For the love of God, I rotated this picture in iPhoto but can't get that version to load here. Not sure why so just tilt your laptops! Please ignore the Christmas snow still in the table and the tacky chargers in the background!

My favorite little chalkboard. It had the menu on it but it was splattered with water so I just wiped it clean!

I hope all of you had a happy holiday weekend. While we missed being with our family, especially the cousins, we had a great weekend and even better downtime! We will get to see the family this weekend when we all participate in Gaineville's Relay for Life - celebrating my sister Becky's, and daughter Caitlin's, cancer survivorship, but that is for another post!

PS - I was trying to share all the recipes with you but the Pinterest server went down. If you want them, go to my Pinterest page once it is back up and running.

Where Do I Stand?

Ok, so here it is Thursday and I had to pull up my previous blog to look at my To Do list and see where I stand! Let's recap and see how I have done so far:

Here's this week's goals"
1. Stop drinking Coke Zero (or any soda) and switch to green tea. It's like that old saying goes, "quitting smoking is so easy, I have done it dozens of times." That holds true for me and my beloved Coke Zero. It's a special time for each day, twice a day, when I pop one open. I love to hear the fizz! I am currently out of my beloveds so I am going to start today with the green tea.
Yeah, on this one I have held strong!! I haven't had a soda since last Saturday. I have been moody, crabby, and irritable (so basically the same as always!!). I have had some Green Tea from Panera (the best!), an energy-booster smoothie from Smoothie King (SCAM!!), some hot teas and drank a lot more water. I am still not satisfied and will continue to look for something that gives me that same happiness as popping open a soda but won't make me question if it is 5 o'clock somewhere!


2. Plan our menu. One daughter has gone Vegetarian again so we will plan more veggie-based meals with meat only once or twice a week. We also plan to work more fish into the menu.

Did this. I made Panera Bread's Mac-n-Cheese. Really good but not as good as Panera's according to my little one. The rest of us loved it (much cheaper than Martha's fabulous mac) and served roasted broccoli on the side. I mixed the two together and am literally drooling for it right now! Also made a Baked Potato Soup with homemade French bread. The soup was really good but not great. It tasted a little "sour" according to one of my girls but I used 2% milk and reduced fat sour cream so that might be a factor. Fat just tastes better!! The bread was a mix from Williams-Sonoma made in my new bread maker. We ate that dinner on the porch over looking the water. The temperature was perfect. So my girls decided we would have a hearty soup and homemade bread every Sunday. It lead to really nice conversation and we talked about where we want to go on vacation this year (more to come about that later!). Making a salad for dinner tonight with homemade croutons and Friday night is eating all the leftovers!

3. Blog 3 times.
This is post number 2 for the week.


4. Learn Excel for my on-line business, www.toochicgifts.com. Start to gather end of the year documents.
I have been working on this last night and all this morning. It's not as easy as I thought it would be. All the tutorials I watched were for more advanced needs so this is going slowly. Up to March for the year (UGH!) but once I nail it down, will update monthly from here on out!


5. Finish organizing my closet. I will post about this but don't have Befores.
Bought perfect brown cloth containers from Target, nothing fancy, and have started the final organization. I need more of them, and a few more hooks for the necklaces I am hanging, but can't run to the store as my car is in the shop. Maybe can swing by after Girl Scout Leader meeting tonight so I can finish this tomorrow! Have made my way through all the clothes and have a pile to donate and a pile to throw away (yes, some of the clothes I have worn were that bad!!)


6. Clean & organize the playroom-now-turned-craft room.
Not gonna happen! Unless, there is another day added to this week or I find another smoothie shop with a truly powerful ENERGY drink, move this to next week. I am excited to finish this room as I want to finish the curtains, fill frames, make some pillows and add a few more organizational items to the walls. Plus, I want to clean out the drawers and filing cabinets. Believe it or not, I am so excited about finishing this project but am sticking to my guns about finishing some others first!


7. Register my daughter for high school!
Done! I had her sit down with me and make sure everything I keyed in was correct. I printed out the copy of the registration and stuck it on my bulletin board!


So all-in-all, not a bad week. I even managed to put my Valentine's Day decorations up (they are so pathetic, I now remember why I haven't put them up in 2 years!!) and finally decided what I am doing on the two large walls leading up the stairs. We dropped off some art to be framed at Jo-Ann's so I will show all of it, but that will be for another blog!

The Sounds of Silence . . .

Ok, I live in Florida and this year, August 22nd brings "the most wonderful time of the year" - back to school and back to the car line!! My girls both started school this morning. My oldest is starting 8th grade and is so excited about being BWOC (big woman on campus)! My youngest is in 4th grade and has 2 teachers (one for math and science, one for reading and English) which will be a big adjustment for her. School for our oldest (Caitlin) used to start at 7:20 but changed this year to 9:30. Many parents protested the time change and appealed to the School Board time after time, but to no avail. In our house, we all feel a little bit guilty because we are a family of sleepers and are all happy to have that extra time to sleep-in in the morning!! Now mama likes her sleep but I was wide awake at 6:00 a.m., so what did I do with my time you ask, I played like Martha Freakin' Stewart! I made a breakfast casserole (if you want a great recipe, go to my Pinterest site, under Looks Delish, it's the Amish Breakfast Casserole and is a family fave! Those Amish sure can whip up a mean casserole!) with fresh cut fruit and milk and OJ. Now don't be fooled by this. There will come a day (probably sooner than later) when we are running out of the house late, throwing stale goldfish in a plastic cup and grabbing a "past it's prime" banana but today was one of those perfect mornings. Everyone got up when asked the first time. Big sis helped 'lil sis straighten her hair. Backpacks were filled with new school supplies and sitting by their new desks last night. Fantastic lunches were packed last night topped off by a napkin note from all the other members of the family. It's a little dream world and if we can continue like this for the next 2 days, I will be totally amazed! Both girls were so excited about going to school and looked great!

Caitlin ready for the first day of 8th grade.

Olivia can't wait for school to start and has a new feather hair accessory!

Now my daughter's elementary school is the best! It's small, only 350 students, it's old, been there since 1925, and I just love it! Every year, we have taken a picture of the girls in front of the school sign. It's tradition and the girls know better than to argue with me! Just smile for the birdie and it will be over before you know it!

First day of school 2006.

First day of school 2007.

So I am currently sitting on my sofa with a large Coke Zero (I am not a coffee drinker but still love me some caffeine!) and hear nothing but silence. This summer has been packed for us, dance rehearsals and dance recital, week-long vacation to South Beach and then to Curacao for some R&R, Eckerd College Watersports camp, Warren Willis camp, Tampa Bay Watch camp, visits with cousins, grandparents and Aunts and Uncles, making a quilt, sleepovers with friends, meeting Selena Gomez and attending her concert, 4th of July party, heading to the beach with family to watch the last Space Shuttle launch, Back-to-School party with a live band in our backyard, completely redoing two rooms, celebrating several birthdays, attending Rays games, getting a new hamster and 5 days later realizing that hamster now is a family of 10. No wonder I am so tired!

My entire family loves the seasons as much as I do, so they convinced me to start decorating for Fall (it didn't take a lot of begging!). It usually takes me about 2-3 days to pull it all together (I started yesterday) so as I look out and see "Fall" sitting on every surface in my house (Martha would now be cringing), I realize it is time to get off the couch, grab another Coke Zero, light my Autumn Yankee Candle and pull this house back together. Maybe if I can clean off the breakfast dishes from this morning (I knew there was a reason I didn't usually cook in the mornings!), I can bake some cookies for when the girls come home from school (back to Martha smiling at me)! But that will be for another post!

Holy Crepe!

What's that you say? I am in the process of some personal changes this year. One of the things I am doing is trying to introduce my kids, and my family, to more dinner options. In the past, we seemed to have gotten into a rut. Monday was a chicken casserole, Taco Tuesdays, Make-Your-Own-Salad Wednesdays, you get the idea. So at the start of this year, I have been mixing it up - literally and figuratively! We have had Fried Rice, Spaghetti Carbonara, Shrimp 'Po Boys, Shrimp and Grits, homemade potato chips, Berry Summer Salad, Strawberry Soup and the list goes on. So last night, I decided to go back to one of our favorite vacation memories - buying crepes filled with bananas and chocolate, Nutella and Gruyere cheese (not all in the same crepe!) off the streets in Paris. My kids gobbled them up so I decided to give them a go.

I have four favorite recipe resources: allrecipes.com, southernliving.com, foodnetwork.com and my collection of 40+ cookbooks! What I love about the websites is that you can save recipes that look good in your recipe box. What I love about the cookbooks is the wrinkled pages covered in chocolate or smeared with something! Then when perusing for something for dinner, voila! So I came across a recipe for Chicken and Asparagus Crepes - yummy. I bought all the ingredients but didn't get around to making it for a week. When I actually got all the ingredients out of the fridge, I realized my carnivore children ate all the ham (also included in the recipe) so we went without.

To make crepes, you first have to make a mixture in a blender and chill for an hour. Done and here's the delicious recipe we followed from allrecipes.com (submitted by Eric Nesbitt):

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
Directions

In a blender combine eggs, milk, flour, salt and oil. Process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and brush with oil. Pour 1/4 cup of crepe batter into pan, tilting to completely coat the surface of the pan. Cook 2 to 5 minutes, turning once, until golden. Repeat with remaining batter.

Caitlin, my oldest, really got into making the crepes and took over the cooking of them. She also came up with a long line of other fillings you can make. I like the sounds of chicken, broccoli, bacon and Gruyere cheese!

Next came the filling, another recipe from allrecipes.com (submitted by Angela Leinenbach):

1/2 cup condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 dash ground nutmeg
1 cup chopped cooked chicken
1 cup cut fresh or frozen asparagus, thawed
1/3 cup chopped fully cooked ham (We didn't use since we were out)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
1/3 cup mayonnaise

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the soup, Worcestershire sauce and nutmeg. Set aside 1/4 cup. Add the chicken, asparagus and ham to remaining soup mixture. Spoon 2 tablespoonfuls over each crepe; roll up tightly. Place seam side down in a greased 9-in. square baking pan. Spoon reserved soup mixture over crepes. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.
Cover and bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. Gradually fold cream into mayonnaise. Spread over crepes. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan. Broil 6 in. from the heat for 3-5 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.

We served them with a simple salad of mixed greens, cranberries, sunflower seeds, goat cheese and a homemade dressing. The kids gobbled them up (my husband is a lawyer and currently preparing for a trial so he wasn't home until about 9:30 but gobbled them up then!).

So, my foray into cooking has officially begun this year. I have actually even started watching cooking shows which I used to find so annoying. I really don't like to watch other people eat. Something about the microphoned chomping that just drives me nuts! However, I can slowly feel myself being drawn to cooking more and more. What's the best part of it you ask? Having a fresh and exciting meal to serve my family? No. Having my family sitting together at the table? No. Having my girls clear the table and do all the dishes? You bet!!

P.S. I actually have photos of the crepes and the finished dish but am experiencing some camera issues. Will hopefully post soon!