Autumn is here!

Oh stop! I'm not *that* far behind in my posting. We have just been having some lovely autumn weather. Finally. In December. It's like Wisconsin in September. It's been so warm lately that Mimi didn't even have a winter jacket, because she simply didn't need one. So when it actually got chilly, I had to dig through last winter's clothes, and find a sweatshirt, hat, and vest for her to wear. So all bundled up, we grabbed a bucket, and went on a nature walk.

Food

In a perfect world, Ina Garten and Martha Stewart are my aunts, the Neely's are our next-door neighbors, and Deb Perelman is my best friend. You see, Deb is the genius behind the Smitten Kitchen (smittenkitchen.com). The Smitten Kitchen is my go-to website for awesome recipes. In the past day, I have used two recipes from her blog.

First was a pie crust so righteous that I can't claim any credit for it. After I put the pie (apple!) together, I cut up the scraps and dusted them with cinniesugar and baked them ahead of the pie, as a little treat while we waited for the pie to bake and cool. Even those little scraps were freaking fantastic. This is tremendously flaky piecrust, with layers of strata that just flaked off. Anyway, here is the recipe:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup of ice water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 sticks of cold butter

First, dice the butter, separate the cubes, and then stick it in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Then mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl, and stick that in the freezer too. Then make your ice water. After everything has chilled for at least 10 minutes, combine the flour mixture and the butter. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter. I have heard of people using 2 knives, but this sounds like a pain the ass and possibly a safety hazard. The semi-frozen butter is going to be hard to work with, but keep cutting the butter in until it is the size of small peas. Then, drizzle about a half cup of the ice water in, and knead it with your hands. keep adding water to it a bit at a time until the dough comes together. I think I used just over 3/4 c. in total. When you are done, little butter chunks should be visible in the dough. Split the dough lump in two pieces (enough for 2 single crust pies, or one double crust), shape into disks, and then wrap up in saran or toss in a zippy and throw in the fridge for at least one hour. After the dough has chilled, roll it out, using flour to prevent sticking, and place in your pie pan. Trim the scraps, dust with cinniesugar, and toss in the oven at 400'F until crisp and browned, while you are filling your pie. I filled my pie with apples, and baked at 400'F for about 55-60 minutes, but I think my oven is funny, so just keep an eye on it. Bake, cool (or not!), enjoy!

Second recipe is one I have tried for the first time tonight. I was thinking about this recipe for a few weeks. It's a salted caramel butter sauce. Now, I do make caramel candies, and these taste similar to them, but it has a richer, deeper flavor than the candies. It's quick to make and it's perfect over apple pie!

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp heavy cream at room temperature
6 tbsp salted butter cut into pieces
(I also added 1 tsp kosher salt to mine beause I think Deb's butter is saltier than mine)

Melt the sugar in a pot at least 5 inches deep, over medium heat. The sugar will caramelize and clump up. Keep stirring! It will eventually melt and turn a dark copper color. At this time, dump the butter and salt (if using) into the caramel. The mix will bubble and kind of separate. Stir for about 30 seconds. Turn off the stove and remove pan from heat, and slowly pour in the heavy cream. Stir until smooth. Pour into a jar (makes about 1 1/3 cups of sauce), and put in the fridge. The sauce will solidify a bit, so when pouring over ice cream or pie, you will need to microwave it. Pure caramelly perfection.

I could say I deliberately didn't include pictures so you would be forced to make your own to see what it looks like, but the truth is that I just didn't have my camera handy.

Oops!

Sorry, didn't realize how long it's been since I updated the blog. Here are some pics from the past 2 months. Will be uploading the pics from our Phoenix vacation soon!

Thanks for the reminder, Aunt Jenny! Mimi loves you!

We virtually cook every dinner at home these days....a big change for us if you actually know us.. Just a few months ago we were getting takeout every dinner. Mimi helps with every dinner. Here, she is shucking the corn for us.
MImi drew this picture for her Daddy, but then erased it before he could see it, which makes me glad I took this picture. Yes, those are boys pajamas that she is wearing. They are awesomer than girls jammies. Girls jammies have monkeys and flowers, but boy's jammies have dinosaurs and cars.

I got this scythe at Walmart after Halloween. Mimi thinks it's a horse. Either way, it was 90% off so we got it for a dollar.

Mimi loves to help with the laundry.

Mimi trying to take a picture of her daddy.

MImi taking a pic of me and her foot.

Front yard and the pumpkin we carved, right before Halloween.

Taken yesterday. FInally cold enough in SA to need a hat and jacket some days!

Happy 3rd Birthday Mimi!

This is the first time Mimi actually understood what a birthday was. Well, she probably doesn't know that 3 short years ago, I birthed her, but she knows that on a birthday, you get cake and presents.

So I had made a cake for her birthday. I didn't have a round pan, so I made a square cake and trimmed the sides. Then I put on a top layer of frosting and set it up on top of the microwave to finish later. Unfortunately, Mimi had other plans. While i was cooking and my hands were full, she pulled up her chair, carefully lifted the plate off the microwave, took a spoon out of the drawer, and started eating. She had taken a few bites when I realized what she was doing. I started to stop her, but then realized that it really didn't matter. So I pulled out the candles and let her decorate it, and we sang to her and she opened her presents.

We got her a Barbie, a doctor's kit, and a Yo Gabba Gabba Puzzle. She loves opening presents and kept asking for them. She also got a pink laptop from her Montana Grandparents, and a baby doll from her Wisconsin Grandparents.

Maybe the third time is a charm

We had tried to potty train Mimi before, actually, about a year ago. It didn't go well. She peed in her potty a few times, but then started peeing on the carpet, which is kind of hard to clean up. Eventually she started to use her potty as a place for her dolls to hang out, and then Buddy ate all the chewy parts, like the seat, and we gave up. A few weeks ago, we bought a musical potty and started to try again. We figured that she's three now, and is probably ready. Of course, Mimi would differ. She would get all crabby when we talked to her about the potty. We would say, "Now that you are a big girl, you can go potty on the big girl potty" and she would freak out and scream "No!" Now that she is approximately the size and appearance of a five year old, we thought it might be time to get her out of diapers. Didn't go so well. The only way I got her to stay on her potty was by giving her a mini M&M ever twelve seconds or so. She peed once, and then refused to sit on it again. This is getting ridiculous. Pretty soon she will be able to change her own diapers.

Cute!

I've been holding on to these pictures for a while, really for no good reason. I guess they were so awesome that I kinda wanted to keep them to myself. Then I went to visit Grandma Laqueata and Granddaddy Jack in Georgia on Sunday, and I saw that ever since I stopped printing out pictures, Grandma has had to copy pictures from my blog to put in frames. And I tend to resize my pictures on this blog to save space. So I am uploading these pictures, full sized, so anybody can click on them and save them to their computers for printing or whatever.

Cooking at home

In an effort to get healthier and save money, we have been doing a lot of cooking at home. And because our air conditioning is mostly ineffective during the 100'F days of summer, most of this cooking has been done on the grill (or as some of you would inexplicably call it, the "barbecuer"). Some days, we grill 3 or 4 days in a row.

Mimi and Buddy love to look out the door to watch Daddy grilling (especially Buddy).
We have made this salad about 3 times in the past month.
It's got organic spring greens, grilled chicken...

homemade croutons...

bacon and grilled corn. I use a fresh buttermilk ranch dressing on mine,

but Austin likes our homemade lime and mustard vinagrette.

One thing we cooked in the house was a baked pasta made with penne, tomatoes,

italian sausage and fresh mozzarella. We also had broiled cheesy garlic bread.

This was fantastic.

And steak. OMG steak. Steak steak steak.

We go to a decent grocery store that often has excelled steaks for fantastic prices,

because every week they have a different steak on sale.

This steak was a Prime Strip Steak for $6.99 a pound.

(Today, we bought a Porterhouse steak for $8.99/lb)

We also grilled mushrooms as a side dish, and made a chive compound butter to melt on top.

We figured in a steakhouse, this meal would have cost over $40.

And even Buddy gets in to it!

He loves to chew on the corn cobs after we cut the grilled corn off of it for our salads.

No pictures of today's meal, but Austin grilled chicken and corn

that we used in a Hatch green chile stew.

Erin is in Guam!

So here I am in Guam! I am here for only 8 days, working with the US Navy. I am staying at the Hilton Guam Resort and Spa, on the ocean. It's beautiful here. On Monday and Tuesday, after work, I went swimming in the ocean, and I thought that I could come back to the states and say that I went swimming in the ocean every day after work, but the rainy season spoiled my plans. It's been raining for the past two days. We are 16 hours ahead here in Guam, so it's actually late Thursday, 5pm, while it's Thursday 2am back in the states for those of you on central time. One of my students offered to show me around the island tomorrow, so I will hopefully have some more great pictures if the weather holds. All of the pictures above were taken right near my hotel on Tumon Bay.

Hey, pretty girl!

One thing all Hendersons have in common is they are all super-incredibly tall. They're also quite good-looking, too, but so is the rest of Amelia's extended family. Of course, Amelia inherited a superb blend of superstar abilities and assets from all of her families: the Driscolls, Sowinskis, Powells, Duggans, Crews, Armstrongs, and Duggans: love, compassion, humor, artistry, smarts, athleticism, and some others that I don't want to give away just yet.

This reminds me of something my dad told me once. I was about 12 or so, and he told me that he and my mother were put on this earth for one purpose: to create the world's most perfect child. Who was that child? Me! Me....I was that child!!! Whether or not that was true, or it actually worked, who knows, but it was something pretty big for me to live up to. Of course, he probably told my brother and sister that too, but I remember feeling that I was incredibly special at the time.

Anywho....this brings me to the conclusion: Austin and I were created for this purpose: To create the world's most perfect child.

Is that a crocododdle?

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Empanadas

I made empanadas a few days ago....spicy beef for dinner and cinnamon peach for dessert. Mimi helped with the dough....first she helped cut in the butter with the pastry blender, and then she helped knead it out. She's a great helper in the kitchen.

Thanks Grandma Sally

My mom sent a box of clothes for Mimi, and she just loves getting mail. She yells "Present!" She immediately wanted to put on the sunglasses, a new shirt, and a headband. Here she is having a snack of chocolate ice cream (she lurves chocolate) and hanging out with her doggie sibling Buddy.

What's new with Mimi

Okay, it's been a while since I've listedAmelia's accomplishments.

Here we go:

Can count to at least 16, and can also count objects. Meaning she can identify if there are 2 ducks, or 4 frogs.

Knows all of her colors: white, brown, black, pink, purple, yellow, green, red, blue, orange.

Can identify the following shapes: circle, square, oval, rectangle, triangle, heart, star, pentagon, and diamond.

Addition: knows what 1+1, 1+2, 1+3, and1+4 is...than ks to a song that we sing.

Songs: The number song, Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Ooh Eee Ooh Ahh Ahh Ting Tang Wadda Wadda Bing Bang, and of course, all of her songs from her kids shows.

She has grown up so much in the past few months....it's almost like talking to an adult. Of course, she still doesn't know how old she is, and when you ask her what her name is, she has no idea, but we are still working on that.

Thu-Mai's Challenge

Here is a mother-daughter matching scarf set that I made last week, again using the yarn made from recycled plastic bottles. The color looks off in the pictures, but it is a soft purple.

This is a ultra-lightweight scarf made from sock yarn. The actual colors are pale green, peach pink, and a purple-brown, which combines to appear like camouflage in this photo, but not in real life. I also made this scarf last week.

The newest addition is this patchwork afghan that I just finished up about five minutes ago. This is for my friend Sherry. It was made using a yarn made from recycled plastic bottles. According to the yarn packaging, you save about 10 bottles from the landfill when you crochet a blanket. Since I don't buy bottled water, I figure I saved even more than 10. This blanket is about 3'x4' and is perfect for covering up your legs while curling up on the sofa and reading a book. Thu-Mai called this an ice cream blanket because of the colors.

Since Thu-Mai requested that I upload some pictures of my crochet creations for critique, here you go. So far I have made 2 blankets and this...what I call a shawl scarf. A sharf. Hee! It was made using the Afghan stitch (which happens to be the only stitch I can do well), made with a "I"size crochet hook and a lightweight bamboo blend yarn. It's light enough for spring/fall and although it is hard to tell from the picture, it reaches about to the elbows when worn. And sorry, but this is not a family Christmas gift....although if you would like one for Christmas, I can make a similar one with your requested colors, but that would take away the surprise.

I am currently working on a blanket for a friend (she is making me a quilt in an apple-core pattern in exchange) and I should be finished by tomorrow. I'll add a picture of that (and other future creations) to this post, so check back often.

I Have an Idea!

I had an epiphany this afternoon. Here we are, about six months out until the holidays. I decided to get a jump on Christmas and start making Christmas presents early. For the past 2 years, I have been making homemade candy for presents, and now that I know how to crochet, family presents will have something extra in them as well.

So here is my idea. Let's all have a handmade Christmas this year. No, I'm not just being cheap. Don't you get stressed out, doing last-minute Christmas shopping, or worrying about what to get someone for that perfect gift?

(I have a friend, and to keep her anonymous, I will call her Vendy. I have known Vendy, and her whole family, including parents, stepparents, siblins, in-laws, etc, since about 1997. Every year, Wendy....oops, I mean Vendy pours her heart out into her Christmas shopping. I mean, she actually buys presents that make sense, that I think her family will like. And every year, her family doesn't like the present, and they end up exchanging it. And it goes both ways. Vendy will tell me about how she had to go return all her presents too. This happens every year, and I actually get stressed just hearing about it. )

The best presents are handmade. Bottom line. I mean, I might not treasure a DVD for the rest of my life, but if MY MOTHER WOULD MAKE ME A SINGLE PAIR OF REALLY COOL MULTICOLORED MITTENS, I would treasure them. And yes, go ahead and put the idiot string on them too, Sal.

So, let's all exchange handmade gifts this year. Knit something (SAL), write something, paint something, craft something, bake something. Don't know how to do anything? Well, you have six months to learn. If you still can't make something, then re-gift something. No, not that calculator that you got in the office gift exchange last year, but maybe a nice purse that doesn't go with anything that you own, or a bracelet or hat that you never wear.

I swear I am not just being cheap.

What do you guys think?

Amelia's New Haircut

For those of you who are on Facebook, these pics are old news to you, since I took them about 2 weeks ago, so if you have seen them before, just pretend like you haven't.

I have cut Amelia's bangs like 4 times in her life. Amelia hates having her bangs trimmed. She screams like I am going to poke her eyes out with my rounded edge safety scissors. She goes into a full freak out. So I try to avoid it as much as possible, and usually cut them very short so she can go another 6-9 months before the next trim. She has never had the back of her hair cut, and at 2 1/2, it was wavy and halfway down her back. She is doing better with ponytails lately, but she ends up yanking them out after a while.

On this day, we decided to stealth cut her hair. She was sitting in my lap, and Austin came up with the scissors and a paper plate to put the hair on. I cut the back, and put the cut hair on the paper plate, then cut again, and again, and again. And it turned out really cute! It is so much cooler for the summer and easier to take care of.