A Reason To Have Kids

Put 'em to work! Kids actually think shoveling is fun! Sadie was extremely happy to receive her very first shovel just so she could help Daddy when it snowed. Which as it turns out, is pretty often. We stayed outside for about 2 hours today and she never tired of shoveling! She was pretty good at it! The only thing that could convince her to come in was the promise of hot cocoa and "little pillows", aka, mini marshmallows. Also, we had a random act of kindness paid to us today. A man from a street over from us saw us digging out and offered to use his snow blower and free both our cars and our upstairs neighbors car. How wonderful was that? We couldn't thank him enough, he saved John's back! Man, spring is going to feel good this year!

Christmas Number Two

Using her oven mitt to take our her baking creation, "just like Mommy's".

Because of Mother Nature's apparent need to show who's boss and dump snowstorm upon snowstorm on us, we had to cancel our plans to travel to NJ to see John's family for Christmas. We just got a chance to go and see them and have our second Christmas. Which Sadie was very grateful! Thanks to Grandma and Papa, our little cook now has her own kitchen! She loves it and now one of her favorite things to do is cook us food (yes, I know, the definition of irony) and make us delicious coffees! I had to laugh at my stubborn little girl, as I tried to show her where the cream and sugar was for the coffee and she firmly told me no, to go and sit on the couch and she would do it herself. She proceeded to make an elaborate coffee concoction of coffee, salt, fresh ground pepper, chili powder, parsley and ginger. Yes, the kitchen has all of these spices! I was cracking up, and boy, it was the tastiest cup of coffee I had ever drank! She was very proud of it :) Cream and sugar are sooooo overdone anyways, am I right?!

She also got a toy that is fun for kids AND adults! Remember the piano from Big? She got one! A giant floor piano that you can run and jump on, she loves it! I love it! And I love that it gets some energy out of her. Now I just need Tom Hanks to come and do "Heart and Soul" on it with me. I loved that movie as a kid. :)

FUN!

It's All In The Accessories!

Look out Suri Cruise, another toddler can rock a pair of heels! Here is Sadie enjoying playing dress up with her "clickity clack shoes" from Nana!

This is probably something only I am going to think is funny, but she is an adorable little swisher and she makes me giggle!

Wordless Wednesday: You Know She Is Growing Up When...

... you can braid her hair!

Enjoying The Fruits Of Our Labors

Our Sunday pasta treat. Delicioso!

I've been wanting to blog about this for awhile but blogging got pushed to the end of the list during the holidays. In November, a few friends and I got together for a kid free afternoon of catch up, girl talk, nibbles........ and about 6 solid hours of ravioli and tortellini making! I have always wanted to learn how to do this. I even have a pasta attachment for my kitchen aid, but there it sits, sparkling new and unused in the box in the basement. I had good intentions when making out that wedding registry, I really did...... So, anyways, when my friend, Dana, invited us all over to learn how to make homemade pasta treats, I was excited. We each made a different filling and this way we each would take home a few dinners to freeze and we would get to try new and different ravioli's. I made a spinach/mushroom/mascarpone cheese filling, and other fillings were pear/cheese, pork/cheddar, lasagna, spinach/feta/sun dried tomatoes, shrimp, four cheese and butternut squash. At the end of our 6 hours, we had handmade about 100 (yes, you read right, ONE HUNDRED) dozen of these beauties! I will admit, it was a bit labor intensive because of the amount of filling we had, but I am so glad I learned how to do all of this from scratch. I think we are all masters now. We could rival any little old Italian woman! And the big benefit? Ready made meals to go in the freezer! I can't wait to try them all. Tonight I tried the butternut squash ravioli's. They were in a word: Awesome. I will have to call Nanette (who made the filling) and sing her praises. Delicious. And I got to go through my Big Binder Of Recipes I Will Someday Make and find a sauce to go with it- Giada's brown butter sauce with cranberries, toasted walnuts and fresh sage was something I always wanted to make. It was the perfect compliment! John even liked it, and that says a lot coming from him. This isn't "John Food". :) He admitted he was skeptical at first, but really did enjoy it. I am so looking forward to trying all the fillings. So is from scratch better than store bought? In this case, definitely yes! But realistically, will I search the basement any time soon for my pasta attachment? Probably not. But it's a pretty good way to spend a few hours with friends, however my patience level is way too low to do it alone!

Picture perfect butternut squash filled ravioli's. These are Nanette's and it seems as if she had found her true calling. Look at these babies!

Dana and Nanette hard at work. Look at that concentration!

Kate and Jen showin' us how it's done! Rolling out sheets of pasta. Many, many sheets of pasta. Did I mention we made 100 dozen???

I Never Knew....

... that quiche was so yum! Never had made one, but I had eggs and ham to use up and thought, eh, why not? I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I had remembered quiche not being all that great, but this was really tasty. I also for some reason thought it would be a healthy and light lunch to eat. Wrong again! In addition to the pie crust, all the eggs, cream, cheese, and ham made it so you needed only a small slice. Tasted great, but pretty heavy. And surprisingly, Sadie even tried some and liked it. That makes it a winner! Here is the recipe I used for a basic quiche, all I did extra was add the chopped ham. Would definitely recommend!

Snow Day!

What to do on a snow day? Snowy things! We finally got a nice snow here, good packing snow, so we could practice our snowman making skills. Gum drop eyes, oreo cookie smile, gummy santa nose, mints as his buttons, scarf and hat. I noticed we forgot to give the poor guy some arms. Whoops! We had a great time, she loves the snow! We lucked out and didn't get clobbered like most others around here. We maybe got 8 inches tops. It rained here too, making it seem like less. I'm not complaining, a big snowstorm around here is not fun! Small, old streets + 20 inches of snow + on street parking= not leaving the house for a week.

We also got to taste test some fresh falling from the sky snow! Mmmmm!

And lastly, I copied a project they were doing in her school and we made fluffy snowman, painted with a "snow" of shaving cream and glue! When it dries, it stays puffy and squishy, very cool! She loved this. Especially the glitter part. Why do kids love glitter?! And why do they need to use a gallon of it per project?!

Ta Da! The finished product. Our super happy, fluffy snowman!

A Potty Story

The lonely little potty. Waiting for some baby bum bums. Poor potty.

It's all ready and waitin' for some tiny hiney to sit and use it. Books are waiting to be read on it. Toys even. Chocolate rewards. But a certain little girl is resisting the potty. Here is a snippet of dialogue that happened yesterday as I noticed the tell-tale sign of Sadie going into a corner quietly.

"Do you need to go poops?"

"No."

"Let's go try the potty."

"No, I AM using the potty."

"You are?"

(Nod)

"That's not a potty, that's your diaper. The potty is in the bathroom. Come on, let's go try it."

"No, that potty's broken. I'm usin' this one here."

"It's broken?"

"Ya, it's broken. I'm usin' this one."

Uh huh. And she did.

Does anyone have any hints on how to potty train a stubborn little girl?! We are going nowhere here!

Hits and Misses

I received two awesome cookbooks for Christmas from my Mom. One was The Slow Cooker Bible and the other was The Pioneer Woman Cooks. And we all know how much I love my crock pot AND my Pioneer Woman! The first recipe we chose was Chicken and Black Bean Chili. It's the one recipe I forgot to photograph. Oh, and John made it from start to finish! I LOVED this chili! Definitely one to keep. Great depth of flavor (which sometimes you don't get with a slow cooker) and chicken in the crock pot is always so tender. Served with shredded cheddar, sour cream, chips and corn bread (addicted to this stuff), it was an ultimate comfort meal. So, this was a hit.

The second hit was from Ree, the wonderful Pioneer Woman, called Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce. Ohhhh, baby. Delicious. Wonderful. But anything is, with an entire cup of heavy cream in the sauce. It was very simple, just fettuccine and this delectable sauce, with fresh basil sprinkled over the top. This would be fantastic with chicken or shrimp, as well. But...... lack of time made us stick to a simple recipe. We served it with some pesto flat bread and a glass of merlot, and divine, my dears!

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce. Eat this only in the winter, far, far away from beach season.

Now for the miss. At least for me. John on the other hand thought this was a huge hit. Which is why he ended up eating most of it. :) It was from the slow cooker bible and it was called Chinese Chicken Stew. The spice in this dish was chinese 5 spice, and I just don't think it's for me. I wasn't crazy about the type of smokiness that it lent to the dish. John likes to think he has a more diverse palate than me and that is why he liked it, but we all know the truth on that one. :)

Chinese Chicken Stew, a hit for some, a miss for others!

So hopefully I will be cooking a lot more lately, as I really slacked towards the last part of the year. On tonight's menu? A favorite around here: Bobby Flay's Meatloaf, with smashed potatoes and roasted asparagus (#1 veggie of choice in this house!). Wish me luck, somehow this meal always ends up taking me forever. I may have mentioned it before, but I am a slow cooker (pun intended)! Ah, that was a bad one.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Fairy Girl

Ya know what is cool? Finding a pair of 3T fairy wings on clearance at Old Navy this Christmas. Paired with her homemade tutu from our friends Dana and Amelia, she was clearly in magical fairy heaven!

A New 'Do

In honor of this new year, I thought I'd start it off by chopping my hair! Ok, so I did it a week ago, but I think it still counts. Out with the old, in with the new! I've had long hair for at least 15 years. That's a long time, my friends. And I've always been petrified of cutting it. Fearing the worst. I bit the bullet. It can always grow back, right? In the beginning of 2010, my hair was past the middle of my back. Now, a foot shorter and much less puffy, I start off my year a little bit braver, and a lot happier I finally took the plunge! See, I told you I love January Highs!

Deep Cleansing Breath

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(Sadie's celebration was at 7 pm, though.)

There is something cleansing about the start of a new year, no? A clean slate kind of feeling. The this-year-will-be-different fantasies flood in. It can be kind of euphoric! We're allowed to put the parts of last year that we'd rather forget, on a shelf waaaaay in the back, and with a clear mind and a renewed spring in our step, march forward into the new, the better, the happier 2011. In January, the possibilities seem limitless! We have a "let me at 'em!" approach to life. I think we all deserve and, most importantly, need this feeling of rebirth, new hope and anticipation. No, of course it doesn't last, but that's ok. It's job is already done. It gave us a chance to sit still for a moment to think (a precious gift in and of itself) and reevaluate our lives and figure out what changes we would like to make. It lets us dream a little bit. It can give us inspiration. If we're lucky, some motivation. So what if it doesn't always last? If it wasn't for January, we'd never do it these things period, we're too busy! I really appreciate the January New Year High. So to all of you in this new year, I wish you health, inner peace, contentment with what you have, dreams that inspire you, and motivation to make them happen. Happy New Year!