Double-digit Birthday Angry Bird style

We had a 10th birthday party for Jedi boy. I almost chose a Star Wars theme, but at the last minute switched it to Angry Birds. We rarely do the big parties, so these were a special treat.

Angry Bird Cake and Rice Krispy Piggy Treats

Friends were able to join in and fun was had by all!

Music at McD's

This morning, I was splurging on a fast food breakfast for the kids(dollar menu!) It was a last minute decision since Jedi boy had some 'assessments' today. We get to McD's (the only fast food breakfast choice in my town). There are about 6 guys in line ahead of us. My kids go sit at a table and are waiting patiently (seriously!) and keeping the childcare baby happy. One of the guys in the line makes a comment to me about how good the kids are...(I know!?!?!? Right?) So we strike up the 'are you from around here' talk. (Since we live in a touristy area, we have this conversation often!) It turns out these guys are a Christian rock band and are filming a video on the sand dunes. I was chatting with their lead vocalist. Since the food service was kind of slow, we had plenty of time to converse. Long story short...he gave us one of his band's cd's. Once we were back in the car, we had time to listen to two songs before we got to the school. I like it!

I came home and looked them up online. It appears that this group is on the road to being a well known group...they've played with some big acts. You can check out the band for yourself...Love Like Gravity. I'm rocking out to their CD right now :)

Sausage Pinwheels

I recently (okay, I admit...last month) put out a request to my recipe sharing friends for new food ideas. I have been bored with all the usuals'.

I present to you sausage pinwheels:


1/2 pound sausage, 1 tube crescent rolls, shredded cheese
Spread crescent roll dough out, pinching the seams together. Spread uncooked sausage over top. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Roll up from long side and slice into pinwheels. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

I have made this 2 times now. Once for family, once for daycare. Both groups were pleased.
The first time, I misread the recipe and used the whole pound of sausage. I let it cook a little longer to make sure all that sausage was done.
On the second attempt, I did it as the recipe directed. It was good too. On the second try, I used one of the 'recipe creations' crescent roll tubes. It is not perforated, as it is a solid sheet of crescent dough. Or, supposed to be. When my can opened, there were a few rips as it came out of the tube. I thought I would try a shortcut...but at a about 10 cents more per can, I won't be buying this again! I'm sticking to regular crescent rolls...I can pinch ;) Pinch pennies, too!

Tasty treat

Our church's youth recently participated in a progressive dinner. I helped out making some appetizers. This was part of my contribution:

It is fruit kebabs! I used cantaloupe, fresh pineapple, kiwi and grapes. I used a sturdy plastic coffee stirrer for the stick...and red delicious apples halved as the base. I served them with a yogurt peanut butter dip.

Mr. Snippity's Birthday Treat

Mr. Snippity has had a birthday! He got to go bowling, which is a one of his favorite things. And to top that all off, his amazing wife (...ahem...) made him a spectacular treat.

This is triple chocolate layer cake with peanut butter cream cheese icing and chocolate peanut butter glaze. I got the recipe from the SmittenKitchen blog. (I think she calls it chocolate peanut butter cake).This was a big hit...Mr. Snippity said it was so good he would think I didn't make it, except he saw me making it. I think that was supposed to be a compliment. I asked him if he meant that he would think I bought it out of the freezer case? After a chuckle or two, he clarified his statement to mean that it was better than that! Anyway, birthday fun is always good.

Tasty Thursday 3/26/09

Man, am I really messing up on the Tasty Thursday segments! I keep forgetting. Of course, I have a good bit of other responsibilities that should come first, so I guess that my praise is that I am taking care of the truly important things first. Oh, and sorry for all my typos lately. You'd think I would 'proofread', since I notice mistakes in other people's work *sheepish grin*.

No photo today, but dinner tonight was inspired by a recipe I found on a blog devoted to crockpotting. Of course I altered it so much that it really wasn't the same recipe, so here is my version of their "asian ribs".

ribs- I used "country style" pork ribs (you could use beef)
about 1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water, if you have extremely lean meat
throw the meat in the crock
pour everything on top
cook about 8 hours on low

Of course, they were tender, with a salty/sweet flavor. I liked it, especially because it was something different from our usual bbq pork version. I'm guessing the soy sauce is the reason it is called asian?

Early Morning Scenario

Princess Leia has a trip planned for Saturday(Today). She has a friend stay over so that friend can go with her. Departure time: 4:45 am from our home(being picked up in van).

Miss Snippity (me!) has to wake up at 4 am to get those girls out of bed. I will have the world know before we go any farther...I am NOT a morning person. So this whole thing is a stretch for me. As soon as they are up and starting to get ready, I head to the kitchen, where I whipped up a big homemade breakfast because Princess Leia asked for eggs and bacon. And, in order to make sure those girls didn't have empty, rumbly tummies I made a batch of pancakes. Homemade. (Really yummy!!!). (And I was out of bread, so I had to do something, and now that I think about it, there was a whole pack of english muffins I could have used...argh...oh well) Breakfast is ready on the table at 4:28 am. I was patting myself on the back, cause I was on-time. The girls come to the table. The first thing out of Leia's mouth is "Mom do you have anything besides eggs, because 'my friend' doesn't like eggs!" I usually ask the friends before I cook if they like whatever it is. This friend has stayed before, and I was sure I've cooked eggs for her before, so I didn't ask this time. It was so hard not to come back with an answer, well, that was SNIPPITY! I'm thinking...there's pancakes and bacon on the plate, that is something else! But I didn't say that! You would have been proud to see how nice I was :) I offered some yogurt and extra pancakes with a smile. The friend ate plenty, and Princess Leia took the eggs all for her own.

Of course, Princess Leia wasn't totally ready...and had some to the table without fixing her hair, and didn't pack her 'entertainment bag' last night like I told her...so she wasn't quite ready when the van got here. They had to wait a couple of minutes for her...if she had only listened to her momma!

Tasty Thursday 3/5/09

Homemade Biscuits for dinner last night, thanks to Melody

Before:

After: I had to stop hands from grabbing them all up in order to take the photo:They turned out really good The taste was delicious. Even Mr. Snippity, my Mr. Picky, said they were really good. Better than the ones in the blue freezer bag, I think! And I know it was fresh! (Mommy B is rubbing off :) Mine took a little longer to cook than in her recipe, but maybe that was just my baking stone or something like the fact that I was multi-tasking the oven at the time. I also rolled my dough a little thinner than she did (not intentionally), so next time I will leave it thicker.

Tasty Thursday 2-5-09

Homemade Pancakes!

I put MommyB's recipe to the test. You can find it here.

I used store-bought flour :) They turned out perfectly. I cook mine using a scant 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. It makes them manageable for us. I got 12 pancakes total out of her recipe. This definately a do-again. I may never buy boxed mix again!

Tasty Thursday 1-29-09

Tasty Thursday, late edition!

This is a Sugar Cream Pie

It was pretty good. Different from the kinds of pies I usually prefer. I pulled a random recipe from allrecipes.com. I don't know which one exactly.

This is a smooth pie...it remined me of custard. I might make one again.

Tasty Thursday 1-22-09

What do you do when you bring home a loaf of bread from the store, and you accidentally squish it in the car door while unloading your groceries?

Bread Pudding

Recipe from my Grandmother. Bread (1/2 loaf in my case), milk (or water) to moisten the bread, 2 beaten eggs, vanilla, spices, sugar to taste, anything else you choose to throw in (I added raisins). Bake at 350 until golden on top. I cut into slices, served it warm, with syrup since I didn't make it very sweet.

It was ok... my Nana had a better touch than me.

*actually made on Tuesday, saved this post until today :)

Tasty Thursday 1-15-09

Caramel Apricot Thumbprint Cookies

Here's tasty Thursday's treat!
I used a Smucker's recipe I had been holding for a while.
I had to modify it a little, and they were slightly more crumbly than I would have liked, but they were quite tasty.
I think they turned out pretty good, for a first attempt!

the soup picture