Month: December 2009

I follow about sixty blogs.  That sounds like a lot!  Fortunately, only about 30 of those blogs update regularly.  The other 30 are like little happy cards in my mailbox when there’s a new post.  Twenty or more of the blogs are photography-related.  It’s wonderful to look at and read the inspiring work of others!

Sometimes I weed down my blog-roll by paying attention to which blogs I choose to read first.  The ones I consistently read last get nixed.  One of my favorite blogs…usually the first one I click on after opening Google Reader…is the NieNie Dialogues.  Stephanie Nielson lives in Salt Lake City.  A bit over a year ago, she was in a horrible plane crash.  She survived, but barely.  And she’s had a rough road healing (she was burned over 80% of her body).  She’s the mother of four children, and she has candidly shared the challenges of reconnecting with them and regaining her role of Mom.  Plus, she’s cute and funny and touching.  And her challenges make almost anything in my world look like a cake walk.

This morning I read the second of a two-part story written about her in the Arizona Republic.  Even having followed her situation for the last year, this article rocked my world.  It’s beautifully written.  And touching and inspiring.  I mean, if this woman can find the hope and strength and humor to travel the path she’s been on, I should really be able to look past even the crummiest of days to relish the ups and downs of my little world.

So if you have a moment (or several moments), take a look at this story.  After you’ve read that, you’ll probably want to keep track of Stephanie.  Her blog, the NieNie Dialogues is here.

Let me know what you think.  And also, let me know what your favorite blogs are?  Who do you read who is funny?  Or has good recipes?  Or fun craft ideas?  Or just puts a smile on your face?  I love to find new good reads!

Ooops!  I just discovered that I never actually posted this post.  It was meant to be posted on Dec. 13!

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Before our big snow fall…when we just had a little snow on the ground…the kids and I went over to Jessica, Eli, and Celia’s house for a little snow play.  Jessica and I shared the camera, and the we got a bunch of cute pictures of the kids before some of them melted down completely.

See Celia’s sweet tears?  So lovely on those cheeks.

Andrew and Sylvia.  I couldn’t get Sylvia to keep her mittens on.

Jessica got this great shot of Eli jumping.  What a picture!

Boy in flight.

Celia hams it up and shows off the fabulous hat that her mommy made for her.

Snow fight!

Boys throwing snow balls.

Cold girls.  Soon after this picture, I took Celia and Andrew inside, but Eli and Sylvia had fun playing with Jessica’s dog and running about in the snow for a while longer.  In this photo, Sylvia is now wearing my gloves, which were highly preferable to her own.

On Wednesday, Madison got an 18 inch snowfall.  Yowsers!  We got ourselves shoveled out (with the help of our neighbors who actually snow plowed our whole driveway for us!), and by about 10:30am, our electricity came back on.  The house never got below 55 degrees, and my hot-blooded kids weren’t the least bit phased.

A couple of our neighbors have fire places, and we had plans to spend time with them if the power wasn’t restored.  In fact, I was kind of looking forward to a slumber party with meals cooked on our (dug out) grills.  Nothing beats a warm home and a working stove!

Andrew and I did some cookie-baking on Wednesday afternoon.  I love celebrating the Christmas season with my kiddos!  I also love eating the almond paste  cookie dough that was my mommy’s recipe.

This is a new favorite picture of little Sylvie.

And a peek at our view out the window.

If you were here in Wisconsin, I hope your snow day was a lovely one.  If you were in a warmer place, enjoy the snowy pictures:)

We woke up to a chilly house. Actually, I woke up to woops and squeals and manic giggles from the kids who were about to be given their much-anticipated morning vitamins.

There is loads and loads of snow out our window. I’m guessing 15 inches.

And we’ve been without power since 3am. I think Bryan and I are going to take turns shoveling. Several neighbors have fire places, so we have places to go warm up if needed.

It’s a perfect day for hot coca!! Maybe I’ll pull out my camping stove:-)

This post is brought to you by the wonder of the iPhone.

I love desserts.  If you put butter and sugar and eggs and maybe some flour together, I’ll be happy.  I love baking and nibbling.  In fact, I’ve discovered (after careful research) that I like the batter or dough better than the cooked version of any baked good.  Bread, cookies, pancakes, muffins, cake.  I’m actually salivating thinking about it.

I’ve taken to putting some batter in a little bowl so I can eat it with a spoon while I bake.  Mmmm…waffle batter.

I admit that I’m a little off-normal.

Bryan sometimes worries that I’ll eat so much batter and there won’t be enough of the finished product.  And to my credit, I don’t think that’s ever been the case (partly because when I eat a couple pancakes worth of batter I’m not so hungry for the cooked kind!).

Until yesterday.

Yesterday, I roasted tomatoes with garlic.  The intended use of these roasted tomatoes was a sauce for lasagna.  I had decided to roast some garlic cloves along with the tomatoes because roasted garlic is one of the best things in the world.

After roasting the tomatoes and garlic with olive oil, diced garlic, and oregano, I stood at the stove and used my teeth to squeeze the soft garlic cloves from their papery shell.  Heaven.  Then I plucked the tomatoes one by one from the roasting pan and ate them up.  Before I knew what happened, I’d eaten half the tray of tomatoes.  Then I ate another quarter.  It was lunch.  Oh, so good.

It might have been a little more civilized to have put the tomatoes on a plate and to have eaten them with bread or to have made some noodles and to have eaten them as a sauce over the noodles, but it was so nice to stand against the warm oven and pluck these little red beauties into my mouth.  One by one by one.

Our lasagna had to suffice with a can of crushed tomatoes as its sauce.

Now if you haven’t had roasted garlic, I need to help introduce it into your life.

Whenever you are cooking something in the oven, stick some oiled, unpeeled garlic cloves in there.  You can either serve them with the meal or use the cook’s prerogative to eat them all straight out of the oven.  You should probably share some with your spouse.  They’re too good to keep all to yourself:)

Here’s my recipe for roasted tomatoes and garlic:

Use whatever quantities you’d like – a couple bags of grape tomatoes and a head of garlic worked for me

• Halve grape or cherry tomatoes (so they are bite-sized)
• Dice four cloves of garlic
• Separate the rest of the head of garlic but don’t peel it
• On a rimed baking tray, toss the tomatoes with the diced garlic, a teaspoon of oregano, and a couple tablespoons of olive oil
• Use your oily hands to coat the unpeeled garlic cloves with oil and nestle the garlic in the middle of the tray
• Roast the tomatoes and garlic in the oven for 35 minutes at 400 degrees or a lower temp for longer
• When it has cooled, eat with your fingers while standing at the stove.  soooo decadent and good….

12-14-09 Update:  I made this recipe again with Roma tomatoes, and I wasn’t nearly as impressed. I ended up blending up the roasted tomatoes to make a yummy spaghetti sauce.  I think the sweetness of the grape tomatoes was a critical component for me!

So.  Monday wasn’t a great day.  Sylvia has been sick (runny nose, feeling cruddy) and she was a bit, er, ahhh, owley.

The following interchange from Young Frankenstein (one of my very favorite movies ever) kinda sums it up.  In this scene, Frankenstein is about to go into a room with The Monster, who they have just discovered is violent and unmanageable:

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Love is the only thing that can save this poor creature, and I am going to convince him that he is loved even at the cost of my own life.
No matter what you hear in there, no matter how cruelly I beg you, no matter how terribly I may scream, do not open this door or you will undo everything I have worked for.
Do you understand? Do not open this door.
Inga: Yes, Doctor.
Igor: Nice working with ya.
[Dr. Frederick Frankenstein goes into the room with The Monster. The Monster wakes up]
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Let me out. Let me out of here. Get me the hell out of here. What’s the matter with you people? I was joking! Don’t you know a joke when you hear one? HA-HA-HA-HA. Jesus Christ, get me out of here! Open this goddamn door or I’ll kick your rotten heads in! Mommy!

Ahhh, just reading that gives me a good chuckle.  I was unable to find a clip of this exchange online, but I did find a good Young Frankenstein in 5 minutes clip that was really marvelous.

In other news, my darling daughter is quite improved today.  Still runny at the nose, but her mood is back in the manageable realm.  Makes for a much nicer day!

Brother Michael, I hope you enjoy this post.  Writing made me think of you:)