Mother's Day

It's been a while since I've done a foodie post!
My Honny made me an awesome Mother's Day dinner and we ate it outside, which is my favorite!  

The breeze was breezy and the sun was only blaring in our eyes for the first hour or so.  Guy made stuffed chicken breasts with a bacon cream sauce and rosemary roasted yams, with a yummy cheesecake topped in chocolate ganche and raspberry sauce for dessert.

It was all amazing.  

The breeze created a windchime symphony, and my kids did not fight once!  It's the second time this week.  Somebody pinch me, please.  No!  Wait!  Don't do that.  I'll wake up and they'll start fighting again.  

The Littles brought me flowers one at a time throughout the night, and I received about 12 glittery handmade cards and pictures.

My day was already going great because I got to take a nap.  

(No, the boys are not reading the bible.  I have a phone ban at the table, but this was before dinner, so they feel like it's okay to be anti-social.)

I was gifted with bird feeders and clay, but my favorite came from Guy: Fourth of July Banners like the ones they hang at City Hall in The Music Man.  They are so cool.

Also, he found a Donkey Tail succulent plant for me.  It is a throwback from my childhood.  When we were kids, my dad had several of them, and we evil children would rip off the plump little leaves and throw them at each other by the handful.

When I told my kids my evil-children story, they gasped!  "That's terrible!!!" they all agreed.  I have done a lot of things wrong in my parenting, but I know that at least in the plant department, I have raised my children right.  They respect botanicals.

I am blessed.  Six kids is a lot.  Overwhelming at times, like today at the library.  Not recommended.  But I am blessed to share my life with these small and not so small humans.  Motherhood is so hard.  Most of the time I feel like I'm making this up as I go along, but when I am smart, I seek answers through prayer instead.  On my best day I couldn't come close to God's Plan for my family.

Who better to learn from than a loving Parent.    

Second Helping

Later on

in The Beginning, God created food.  And it was good.

I am so behind on posting, I have had a couple of foody events slip past which have gone unblogorated, so, hot on the heals of my last palate-pleasing post, here is a second helping!

Usually, I spin tales of Guy's culinary capacity, but he ain't the only cook in the clan.  I have been known to crack an egg or two without getting shells into the batter.  So for Father's Day last month I made a Thai dinner, sort of.  I hate instructions.  If you play a board game with me, be prepared for me to poke you in the eye if you try to read the instructions.  Let's just play once through, I'll catch on, and then, because it's only polite, I'll wait to beat you till the next hand.

So I perused a few recipes, collected the compulsory culinaria, and began blending.  I let my gullet be my guide, tasting and mixing until there is the perfect blend of sweet, savory, spice and tang.

For this meal I made:

Chicken Satay with spicy peanut sauce

Deep fried noodles (so fun, you must try these below)

Peanut and basil noodles

Tempura Broccoli (Not Thai, but the kids loved it)

and 

a salad with almonds and homemade orange dressing

(Not pictured:  Dessert of Chocolate Brownie Waffles 

with Banana Coconut Cream Cheese filling and Chocolate sauce - a guarded ancient Thai delicacy eaten in the Early Waffle Dynasty)

Next up, Guy's Yummo Mother's Day Pork

It was sweet and spicy, and an excellent meal paired with Coconut lime cilantro soup, an awesome chow-mien noodle dish and fresh butternut squash and yam curry.

Cuz he loves me.  Cuz I made him 6 babies.

Oh, look, there's one now!  Cute, huh?  

What can I say?  I do good work.

*****

Deep Fried Noodles

 Deep fry Thin Rice Noodles in oil.  Make sure the oil is hot enough by testing one small noodle piece in the oil.  It should sizzle and puff up like long, skinny popcorn!  It will look very white (see pictures).  Make sure you turn the bundle over in the oil so that every last piece of noodle hits the oil and expands, or it will be really hard and not crispy and fun.  My kids LOVE these things.  Eat them with your fingers, on top of salad (or under it!), or as part of a meat and veggie dish.

Delish.

The 4th - Revisited

So, it's been a while since I got all foody up in here.  My kids have taken to saying "Mom, should you take a picture of your food?" before we start eating if they think it is a particularly nice looking plate.  Lest ye think we eat well all the time, I confess that last night the kids ate frozen waffles at about 9PM for dinner.  Wasn't the first time, won't be the last.

But on the 4th we laid a particularly patriotic palate-pleaser that deserves some technicolor attention.  Guy made a great thin sliced pork with Asian Sweet Chili sauce and served it on artisan bread with white cheddar and his own creation of ginger mayo.  The combination was amazing.  He paired all of that heaven-in-your-mouth with bacon potato salad and corn on the cob- Mexican style (with spicy mayo and grated Romano cheese on top).  

Kathy brought an American flag made of fruit skewers and a gorgeous mango and strawberry green salad in a strawberry vinaigrette.  We even made little blue star ice cubes.  It was so patriotic, we had to eat the whole dinner standing up, just out of respect.

 For dessert I got all tricky.  

I made a cake I saw on Pinterest.

Well, I tried anyway.

The outside was pretty simple... partly because I am lame and started late so there was no time to be fancy, and partly because it was the Leaning Tower of Pisa right out of the gate.  If the Italians are interested, they may be able to make their tipsy tower appear to be balanced correctly by piling a mountain of frosting on the low side.  

Yes, simple outside, but the inside was a tushy-load of work.  And I didn't notice until just now that I somehow got my layers wrong at the top with two reds and no white in between.  Also, it was a huge pain in the keister to make, and nothing went as easily as the tutorial let on it would.

Curse you, Pinterest Scum!

First off, when making red velvet cake, please plan for your kitchen to look like a crime scene.  It's not red, it's somebody-call-an-ambulance red.  Also, don't think the toothpick is going to come out "clean" when the cake is all done.  It will come out looking like you stabbed the cake in a fit of jealous rage.  I don't want to even think about how much food coloring was in this thing.  It's vanity I tell you, plain and simple.

(Peeps and eats)

We fed the good people of the town, including Jensens, Dave, Dan and the Missionaries, some of whom were so gorgeous and/or handsome that they made my camera go all blurry and could not be photographed.  We sat after dinner and listened to Dan tell some great stories (I love Dan), and before long it was time to head off to the fireworks.

There is always a band playing at the park before the show, and after we get glow-bands on the kids, I always take them up to the front of the stage.  We slam dance like we are in a mosh pit.  Well, we don't really, but Tessa and Kaylee danced with me a little while Ellie shyly looked on.  Owen cracked a smile once, and Jonah just yelled "toooooo loooooud!"

Natalie wasn't bothered by the fireworks show at all, even sitting right below it in the park, and though I started with my hands on her ears, she soon pulled them off.  Jonah pulled his third repeat performance of sleeping through the show.  I know whenever I hear "the bombs bursting in air", I think "nap time", don't you?  There is nothing that says nighty-night like a crowd of a thousand people cheering to the sonic boom of a grand finale.  I say it every year, but I think this was the best one yet.

Sweet dreams.

93 and a Chance of Autumn

 Today was in the mid 80's.

Tomorrow is forecast to be 93 degrees.

Happy Autumn.

If you are needing to get in the Autumn mood, try this:

Make a yummy spice cake batter (recipe below)

Fill cupcake cups half way.

Mix:

 1 pkg room temp cream cheese

2 eggs

1/2 c. sugar and a tsp of vanilla 

till smooth.

Now using an icing bag and a pointy tip with a fat hole, 

poke the hole into the surface of the batter 

and squeeze until the cup is filled about 3/4 of the way.

Bake as usual.

You now have Cheesecake-filled Spice Cupcakes.

Frost.

Gobble.

YUM.

Joanna's Mandarin Cake 

(this is what I used for the cupcakes, plus 1 tsp of cinnamon.  Double for 24 cupcakes)

1 c flour

1c.sugar

1tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/4 c oil

1 can drained mandarins

(opt 1 tsp cinnamon)

Blend in mixing bowl 2-3 min.  Bake in greased 8x10 for about 30 min at 350.

Double the recipe for a 9x13 and bake an hour.

The color will be a gorgeous dark brown and it will fall in the middle after it comes out.  Totally ok!  No worries.  Now, if you are making the cake, while it is still hot, top it with this:

3/4 c brown sugar

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp heavy cream or evap. milk

Bring to a boil and then pour over baked cake right out of the oven.

Or for cupcakes...

Cupcake Icing

 2 cubes butter

1&1/2 cup + powdered sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

a drizzle of orange flavoring

1-2 tsp milk

Beat butter until smooth, and then add brown sugar.  Allow to beat until sugar melts.  Gradually add powdered sugar and milk.  Allow to beat in mixer until it is so fluffy you could sleep on it.  

Add orange flavor and color if desired.

Since I kinda never measure when I make this stuff, here is a troubleshooter:

If it's a little too buttery, add more powdered sugar.  

If it is too thick, add a TINY bit more milk till it's smooth.

The longer you mix it the warmer it may get, so if the sugar isn't melted yet or it isn't

 fluffy enough, put it into the fridge for 10 minutes then whip it some more.

NOW it's Autumn!

Cooking up Father's Day

 We had kids on purpose.

Not one "whoops" in the bunch.  In fact, some of them were brought on the heels 

of tears, prayers, and even some magical pharmaceuticals.  

Which, on occasion, begs the question, 

WHAT IN THE NAME OF SIGFRIED AND ROY

WERE WE THINKING?!?!

We occasionally (albeit affectionately) refer to them as "Devil Spawn"  

(Guy says that makes one of us the devil.  I say it's him... redhead, you know).  

Especially today.

They have squabbled, fought, bickered, grumbled, whined, fussed and quarreled.

I suggested to my hubby that we sell the lot and start over.  We had to consider the prospect that we had used up all the cute DNA and might produce a gaggle of very sweet, but hideously ugly children, or that perchance all of the smart genes have been depleted and we might incubate a liter of cute little bumblebrains.

Oh, well.  I guess we will just try to work with what we have.  

As a consolation, I made Guy food.  

Food says "I love you and I am sorry that our sweet children 

that we struggled to bring to this world are total ingrates."

Breakfast Menu:

Scrambled Eggs with Tomato and Green Onion

Homemade Yogurt sweetened with Homemade Strawberry Freezer Jam

Nutmeg and Orange French Toast

Dinner Menu:

Gluten Free Lasagne

Garlic French Bread

Salad

and...

Chocolate Cheesecake with Cherries

Crust: crumble 16 graham crackers, add 5 tsp sugar and 5 Tbsp melted butter.

Press into spring form pan and bake at 350 until just golden.

Boil 3/4 cup milk then pour over 2 cups chocolate chips in glass bowl.  

Allow to sit for 10 minutes, then wisk until smooth.  Set aside.

Filling:  Cream with mixer 3 pkgs cream cheese (room temp)

add 6 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup sugar and a pinch of salt.  Mix well.

Add chocolate mixture.

Mix until very smooth.

Pour into crust, and bake at 350 for about 50 minutes 

or until the top has a jello-like jiggle.

Chill and serve with Cherries (canned pie filling) or Orange glaze (1 can manderines, 3/4 c. sugar, 

thickened with 2 tsp cornstarch on stove).

Sorry, Honey.  I can make great food on my own,

 but I'm gonna need a lot of help to keep these rabble-rousers 

out of the state correctional system.

What happens when a 28 lb mouse finds the bread before dinner.