My new obsession: Kale Chips

I just made these on a whim . . . mostly for myself . . . but since Curt had some friends over to watch football tonight, I decided to share. These were an insanely huge hit with everyone involved (with the exception of Audrey and Vivian who chose Ramen noodles and chicken nuggets for dinner. SOME day they WILL develop a more refined palate, right???)

These are amazing. You must make them.

AND they're good for you! Yeah!

Kale Chips

Ingredients

• 1 bunch kale
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Chestnuts roasting

A looooong time ago, my mom used to make T-bone steaks and tons of trimmings for our Christmas Eve dinner. But that was before all of her kids were married and there were a sh*t-load of grandkids running around. After that, our cozy Christmas Eve meals turned into a raucous party with more drinks consumed than food. My nieces and nephews will never let me forget the year I knocked down the Christmas tree . . . twice.

Ah. Good times.

Since this is my throw-back Christmas and it's just the four of us for Christmas Eve dinner, I wanted to go back to Mom's original theme. Instead of T-bone steaks, we're grilling NY Strip Steaks because they're Curt's favorite. Also on the menu are old-fashioned baked potatoes and a few side dishes, including this braised cabbage recipe.

I got a little help with the roasted chestnuts here. The house smelled SO good this afternoon!

I haven't made this yet but I'm crossing fingers that it will be a hit.

Braised Red Cabbage With Chestnuts

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons of canola oil
• 2 medium onions, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced
• 1 head of red cabbage, halved, cored, and thinly sliced
• 2/3 cups of reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable broth (Always buy broth in cardboard containers instead of cans.)
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds
• 1 cup fresh chestnuts, cooked, peeled, and halved
• 1/3 cup of cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• black ground pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring often, until light golden, 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Add cabbage and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage wilts, about 5 minutes. Stir in broth, sugar, and caraway seeds; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until the cabbage is very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Stir in chestnuts, vinegar, salt and pepper. Increase heat to medium and cook, uncovered, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the chestnuts are hot, 5 to 8 minutes.

Makes 8 servings.

I haven't made Christmas Cut-out Cookies yet!

And they are Santa's favorite!!

The days preceding Christmas are flying by and I still haven't checked off

everything on my list.

- Decorate the house and put up the tree. Check. The girls were extremely helpful this year and put ALL of the ornaments on the tree. And I didn't bother rearranging a thing. I must be mellowing in my old age.

- Make Mom's chocolate nut fudge. Check

- Make Mom's 7 layer bars. Check.

- Make Peanut butter blossom cookies (also mom's). Check

- Purchase gifts for teachers and staff. Check and DONE!!

- Purchase presents for family -- including the items that the girls told Santa they wanted. Check. I think. The list keeps growing. I saw a letter that Vivian wrote to Santa at pre-school the other day asking for a Princess Barbie and a couple of other things. I didn't know anything about a damned Princess Barbie! That's the first I heard of it. She told Mall Santa that she wanted "a little teapot" (also news to me.) Audrey said she "ordered" a Nintendo DSi . . . as if she made a few clicks on Amazon.com.

- Wrap millions and millions of things. Almost check. I got a LOT done last night when my dear friend Sara invited the girls over to her house for a few hours after school. Thank you Brennen for being one of Audrey's besties.

- Make "dough balls" for Christmas morning. Ingredients have been purchased. Check.

- Make Santa's favorite cookies. ACK! I can't believe I have yet to make the quintessential Christmas cut-out cookies! I guess I know what we're doing during the day on Christmas Eve!

And instead of my mom's recipe, Curt insists that I have to follow his mom's recipe. Good enough. They all the look the same and it's the only thing he has had a strong opinion about. Except that I couldn't find the recipe.

Curt dug it up in an email he received from his mom in 2007. Lest I lose it again, I'm placing it on this blog for safe-keeping.

Christmas Cutout Cookies

1 Cup Butter 1 tstp vanilla

1 ½ Cups white sugar 3 eggs

3 ½ cups flour 2 tsps cream of tartar

1 tsp Soda ½ tsp salt

Cream the butter, sugar, eggs, salt and vanilla well. Best to use mixer but not necessary. Add the flour, soda, and cream of tartar by hand. Mix by hand. Chill dough. Roll out and cut with cookie cutters or by hand. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 7 to 8 minutes at 375 degrees.

Let the baked cookies sit for a couple of minutes before removing them from the cookie sheet, as they need to firm a bit.

These are really good cookies. You can handle and re-handle the dough and the little chunks of dough that are leftover from each cutting.

UPDATED POST:

Here are some pictures of what OUR cookies looked like!!

Tweets from the North Pole!

We had a fun and exhausting trip to the North Pole last night!

Curt makes such a great Santa. He even worked some OT after the show when a friend needed a favor. Her daughter was unhappy and embarrassed about something that was said on TV so she needed a little extra Santa love.

Audrey also called in and did a great job pretending she wasn't talking to her parents. Vivian apparently knew it was me immediately and thought Daddy must have been "at work." She seemed underwhelmed that I knew Santa so well. She was more impressed with my "Christmas-y clothes."

Below are a few shots from the evening, as well as the live tweets from CTN.

If only . . .

Has it really been over two weeks since I've been in here? Where is the time going??

Between a really hectic work schedule and loads of stress involving my Mom and Dad's estate, I've been feeling overwhelmed lately. I'm trying to decide whether I actually AM more busy . . . or I just FEEL more busy. Which is it? I've been turning down things to "do" right and left so I can't imagine that my schedule is causing all of the problems. I'm starting to think it's my worry over the gawd-awful "what might happen" syndrome that's causing my problems.

So . . . there. That's it. I resolve to worry less. About everything. Let's see what that will do!

Just imagine all the free time I'll now have.

Happy Easter!!

Yummy mushroom creamy goodness

I made this for dinner tonight before I rushed off for a girls night out (actually a clothing party at Caitlin's). Curt loves mushrooms and we've both been trying to watch our diets lately so when I ran across this recipe, I just knew I had to try it! Added bonus: it makes a great Friday night dinner during Lent for me!

Portobello Mushroom Stroganoff

4 tsp garlic oil, divided
1 lb. Portobello mushroom caps, sliced (1/2 inch)
½ tsp salt, divided
½ tsp pepper, divided
2 cups chopped onions
2 (5-oz.) pkg baby spinach (10 cups)
1 cup fat free plain yogurt, preferably Greek
1/3 cup evaporated milk
2 tsp Dijon mustard

1. Heat 2 tsp of the oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Cook mushrooms 6 to 8 minutes or until tender and liquid has evaporated, stirring occasionally. Stir in ¼ tsp each of the salt and pepper, place in medium bowl.
2. Heat remaining 2 tsp oil in same skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Cook onions 6 to 8 minutes or until softened, stirring occasionally. Add spinach, cook 3 minutes or until spinach is wilted, tossing with tongs. Stir in mushrooms and any accumulated juices. Reduce heat to low.
3. Whisk yogurt, evaporated milk and mustard in small bowl. Gradually stir into mushroom mixture; heat until warmed through (do not simmer or yogurt could curdle). Stir in remaining ¼ tsp each salt and pepper.

Enjoy it spooned over hot noodles.

Makes 4 servings

Per serving: 180 calories, 6 g total fat, 11 g protein, 23 g carbohydrate, 5 mg cholesterol, 495 mg sodium, 5 g fiber.

Family dinner

The other night we had baked rainbow trout with steamed broccoli for dinner.

While we were sitting at the table, Audrey announced that she had just drawn a picture earlier in the day of a typical family dinner at ou house. Audrey's dinner consisted salmon and broccoli.

You know what they say about great minds . . .

Here we are in clockwise order: Vivian (at top with the curly hair), Audrey (in the kitchen . . . apparently she left the water running), Mommy (bottom of the page), and Daddy (at left).

and then there were none

Due to city budget cuts this year, Curt and I were forced (er . . . had the privilege) to BAG all of our leaves instead of merely raking them to the curb like we've done since the day I moved into our house. [And it was quite literally, the day I moved in. I purchased the house in October of 1992.]

Please don't mention the Ypsilanti City Manager's name to Curt in casual conversation. That is, unless you enjoy seeing the veins popping out of his head.

All total, we filled 80 lawn bags full of leaves. EIGHTY. The pic below only shows 62. But the pic below that shows how many more leaves we still had to go.

And I won't mention that the city did not supply us with any bags and that I had to go to three different stores one afternoon to find some.

I just kept thinking . . . "gee, this is good exercise!"

And then there were none (finally).

Halloween Chili (aka Crock Pot Chili)

As long as I've lived in my house in Ypsilanti, Halloween has been a celebration. Right after I bought the house (over 17 years ago. gulp.) I immediately hosted a Halloween party. Perhaps it has something to do with the close proximity to my birthday . . . it becomes an early birthday party of sorts.

Before we had kids, a ton of our friends would come over and "help" us pass out candy to the treaters because . . . well, our neighborhood is just that cool at Halloween.

Of course now all of our collective kids are in full-blown Halloween mode these days so our house has become the meeting point for a bunch of them. This year we had the GREAT pleasure of having Halloween on a Saturday. And even though I had time to cook (although not really thanks to Saturday dance classes and such) I decided I would take it easy and make a crock-pot style chili. I found this recipe and it turned out so fabulous that I wanted to post it here for posterity's sake.

I doubled the recipe below and although it barely fit in my enormous crock pot, it was the PERFECT amount for our crowd. There was only a small amount remaining for leftovers. Sniff.

Crock Pot Chili

Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground chuck
1 cup chopped onion
1 green pepper, chopped
2 to 3 ribs celery, chopped
1 large (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
2 cans kidney or pinto beans, drained
1 tsp. pepper
3 tsp. chili powder
hot pepper, to taste, cayenne
1 tsp. garlic salt

Preparation:
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. Drain well. Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker; cover and cook for 7 to 8 hours on LOW, or until done.

[About half-way through the day, Curt turned up the heat by throwing in some extra cayenne and spices. It worked. I hope he remembers what he did for next year.]

bon anniversaire

This is a big week for me.

Even as a kid, having my birthday just two days after Halloween (and one day after All Souls Day if you're counting that) was an exciting and busy time of year. Funny how they seem to run together more as an adult than they ever did as a kid, though. I mean it's a different month and everything.

Nine years ago today, I added another event to this jumble of days by marrying my honey on November 4th.

To this day, he'll say we rushed it by planning our wedding in four months but I wouldn't ever change a thing! (And I guess he should have known what he was getting himself into.)

I love you, husband.

Getting an early start on Halloween

On Sunday afternoon, Curt and I took the girls to the UofM's Exhibit Museum of Natural History for their 15th annual Halloween Party.

I can't believe this is the first time we've ever made it there, but I have a feeling we'll be back. We only hung around for more than hour of it (it was packed and hot in there) but it was still a ton of fun and a nice addition to our Sunday afternoon.

The museum has recently been hit with controversy surrounding their Native American dioramas --which have made those exhibits more popular than ever. I'm glad I got a chance to see them one more time before they're gone.

Here are some snapshots of our visit on Sunday.

We ran into Tate and MacKenzie (and their parents) as we were coming in and they were going out.

A quick shot with Mom before we head into the dinosaur room.

Posing with Dad next to the stuffed wolverine.



The live lizard was really cool.

But the snake was even cooler!

Introducing Foofie, Fluffy, Hildy . . . er Cookie!

We have a new family member! About three weeks ago we took the plunge and finally got Audrey the kitten she has been begging for. It was a belated 7th birthday gift. Belated because summer was so crazy and then we decided to dig big holes in our front yard and basement. There was no need to add a kitten to that chaos.

This tiny little tuxedo kitten was Audrey's first pick at the Humane Society. I was nervous because she apparently had been sick and in a foster home and she seemed waaaaay too mellow and borderline lethargic at the shelter. I was trying to coax Audrey to go for one of the more active tiger kitties. But this was Audrey's pick. I needed to stay out of it. We had to wait a day to pick her up since she had not yet been spayed.

Boy, was my first impression completely off base. This cat is NUTS! She's playful, skittish, friendly, adventurous and all kitten-ey wrapped into one little fur ball.

We're still getting to know one another and the girls are learning how to handle her. Her initial name was Hildy . . . but I think Audrey was simply feeling the pressure and picked the first name that popped into her head (which also happens to be the name of the last cat we had). That lasted for a short while before the girls were calling her everything under the sun. Curt and Vivian still call her just "kitty."

Vivian: "Mommy, there's the kitty." (Even when the cat is sitting right next me. Viv loves to announce the cat's whereabouts.)

We held a naming session one afternoon and landed on the name "Cookie." I was going for "Oreo" but Audrey didn't like it. Cookie it is!

Now if kitty/Cookie would just stop sleeping on Curt's face, we'll all be much happier.

Takin' care of business

Curt and I hosted the Kiss Me Kate video party last night at our house. We were blessed with beautiful weather so it was easy to have an outdoor large screen viewing on our garage door. Isn't that what all video parties should be like?

In any case, it was fun reliving (some of) the show and see some folks I don't get the chance to see on a regular basis.

The kids were great and there were no major incidents to report. We left them alone for huge chunks of time so it's always a gamble. Yeah, I found pieces of "Candyland" scattered all over the living room and some juice was spilled on the floor in front of the couch but if that's all that happened, then I'm well-pleased.

The party ended around 11:30 and then Curt and I got into clean-up mode. We usually do just enough not to embarrass ourselves within the neighborhood and then finish the rest the next day. We got all of the foodstuffs into the kitchen when it occurred to me that I should probably check on my girls . . . things were too quiet. The last I knew, they were going to watch Pink Panther on the living room TV.

I walk into the living room to find Audrey snuggled up in the blanket sound asleep on the couch. Awesome. One down. "Maybe Vivian put herself to bed?" I thought. That would be absolutely perfect! I walk upstairs. Not in Audrey's room. Not in her bed. Not in our room. It's too quiet. Where is she??

I turn and look into the bathroom. There she is, on the floor in front of her training potty. She quickly looks up and says, "I"m just cleaning this, Mommy." She has a bottle of Windex and a towel. She's spraying the carpet with Windex. I quickly deduce that Vivian didn't quite make it to the potty. Her skirt and underwear are located on the floor about a foot away. And instead of the spray carpet cleaner, Vivian grabbed the Windex.

Oh. my. Gawd.

She is sooooo cute!

Oh, Say Can You See

yourself singing at the Palace? That's what this website says and that's exactly what Curt did yesterday.


He participated in a singing competition/audition (not exactly sure which and neither are they) to get a chance to sing the National Anthem at a Pistons game. We think. Again, we're not really sure what the prize is. I'm guessing the Pistons don't know either.


So, he had his eighty second shot -- two actually. He wasn't happy with his first round since they made him wait for an hour or so in a stuffy room, but of course his crappy singing is better than most because he made it to Round 2. (He can out-sing anyone even on his worst day) Round 2 took place on the Palace floor itself.


Another 80 seconds and he nails it this time. Whoo hoo!! I'm getting text updates on my Blackberry. So . . . now what??


Oh crap. Go home. We'll call you. In FOUR WEEKS!


But he had a great time and would do it again in a heartbeat.


Meanwhile (and with a less-than-subtle segue), Audrey has been listening to my Brandi Carlisle CD in my car ad nauseum. We went to Frankenmuth yesterday and I heard it many times on the way there and back.


She has never tried singing any of the songs herself, but after Daddy came home from his Pistons audition (and after bath time) somehow the sparks flew and she gave it a go. I fired up the words and guitar tabs on my laptop and here's what happened:

We just want to go swimming, ya'll!

The swimming gods were against us yesterday.

After several very mild weeks of summer (yikes - months), summer hit in full force yesterday with upper 90 degree temps and high humidity. All RIGHT! This is more like it!

Don't get me wrong -- I've actually enjoyed the mildness of summer so far. However, we've barely taken the girls to the pool and we've only pulled out the sprinkler ONCE so far, let alone the slip-n-slide (which is in a crumbled pile in the garage . . . dry as a bone). And don't even get me started on the fact that we canceled our weekend camping trip in Traverse City because of the cold, rainy weather that was expected all weekend. Yeah. Don't get me started. We spent our Friday vacation day all day at home without plumbing. More on that later. Not our best weekend.

So, when I heard that Sunday was going to be rain-free and 90+ degrees, I knew a trip to the pool was in our future.

First, I took the girls to church and then we enjoyed a family lunch. I promised a trip to the water park after we completed a few house projects. Audrey's room was a MESS (due to the previous rainy day on Saturday. What else is a kid supposed to do but wreck her bedroom?) Vivian didn't have any real projects but I made up some stuff. She put my shoes away and a few random things.

Nevermind that my project was the largest. I was going to clean out the garage come hell or high water. Curt worked in our basement all day on Saturday and I felt like I hadn't done anything productive all weekend. After cleaning the garage and dripping with sweat, I think I deserved that trip to the pool more than anyone else.

After about an hour, we were ready to take off. Our sights were set for the Rolling Hills Water Park. Yay! Fun for everyone. We drive past our neighborhood pool and see that it's hardly full. Curt surmises that most folks are just going to stay inside and enjoy their AC today. We might have the park to ourselves.

I WISH he were correct. We made it to Rolling Hills and found a huge line of cars. It wasn't until we reached the gate that we could make out the sign that said, "The park is at capacity" or something along those lines. Capacity? This place is enormous! I didn't know that was possible!

Audrey was thrilled because her vote was to go to Vets Park Pool anyway. We turned around and decided to give that a go. It wasn't ideal but at least one person in the car was going to be happy.

We hike it over to Vets park, pay our fee to get in (MUCH cheaper than Rolling Hills would have been . . . so another bonus) and I take Viv to the potty while Curt and Audrey find a place for us to camp out. The pool is PACKED by the way. I heard some rumblings over the intercom and then a mention about "two hours." People are moaning and groaning and it wasn't until I found Curt that I was told that there was a bio-hazard in the pool and everyone needed to evacuate . . . for two hours! Some kid pooped in the pool! We didn't even get so much as our toe in! WTF??

We gathered quickly (which wasn't difficult since we weren't really settled) and headed to get our money back. They will only give us a credit for another pool trip. No cash. Ugh. We are still hell bent to go swimming now so we take it and head to another pool.

Next up is Fuller pool since we've never been there (it's also the next-nearest pool). We figured we had nothing to lose at this point. This place is also PACKED but they have a huge water slide and the pool is quite large. I made note that the Ann Arbor folks that frequent Fuller Pool are relatively more fit and attractive than the other places we've visited. Hmm. I guess it was a younger crowd. We see several medi-flight helicopters come and go (we're near the UofM hospital) so that was cool for the kids. Vivian spent a lot of time dragging a life jacket around the pool (in and out of the water) and pretending it was her doggie.

Ahhhhh . . . we finally got some much-needed pool time. Who knew it was going to be so difficult????

Perhaps next time we should give our little neighborhood pool a try, eh?

Summer is flyin' by!

Our family unit attended the last day of Summer Festival on Sunday. I can't believe it was the last day! It feels like our summer is already zipping past us.


This was a record-year for us to attend Top of the Park festivities. It has always been one of our favorite summer-time activities but for some reason, we made the most of it this year. We ran into more people and learned more about our daughters while attending TOP. For one thing, Audrey needs to get into violin lessons pretty soon. And Vivian is quite the dancer! She moved her hips to the live music way more than Audrey did.


While Audrey's favorite activity was whatever was going on in the kid tent, Vivian spent most of her time running to the lawn area behind the sound booth just so she could dance in an open space.


She and Curt were also spotted by an Ann Arbor News reporter in this article.


Our wedding band, George Bedard and the Kingpins, was the closing night band as they have been for years. The final event of the season was a sing-along of the film "The Sound of Music." I coaxed my family into staying for a bit over some vanilla ice cream and a Nutella crepe (they were out of bananas at 10pm. Boo.) We stayed until 11pm and got to hear "Doe a Deer" which has now been resurrected in Audrey's memory so she's singing it again.


We picked up our blanket and our space was immediately taken over by a group of teenagers who had been crunched in behind us on the lawn. I read later that the generator broke and the movie ended at 11:30 -- just halfway through.

So the question is, NOW what are we going to do the rest of the summer?

I'm sure we'll find something.

Quinn, Lucy and Ellie hanging out on our blanket.

Vivian hanging out with Adriana and Tanya.

Sophie and Audrey in the face-painting line (in the kid tent).

Vivian and Daddy

The girls!

233rd Independence Day

We traveled to Ohio to celebrate the 4th of July holiday with my family. My niece and her husband live on a farm not too far from where the fireworks are held.

I should add that the fireworks are supplied by the Only Believe Ministries cult er . . . church (or "OBM" as their affectionately called.)

Anyhoo, a party at Chuck and Heather's is always fun for everyone. Perhaps mostly for the kids.

Our host, Heather, with my Mom sitting near her.

The kids are taking a peek outside of the bounce house
when a neighbor shot off some fireworks

Vivian in the bounce house. She lived in there most of the night.

Curt loaded up the kids for his first fateful ride out in the surroundings. Everyone joked to shut their cell phones off as he pulled away. And within 10 minutes he called to say that he had a flat tire.

They they go (before the flat). He was rescued by Chuck, however. Somehow, Curt decided to give it another go although I have no photographic evidence of it. He got yet ANOTHER flat -- this time on the wagon.

Partying and hanging out.

Curt and Gary having a grand old time near the bonfire. This was shortly before dusk and the fireworks.

The bonfire was a huge tree trunk!

The next day we headed to Jason and Angie's house to shoot clay birds. I didn't take a ton of pics that day, unfortunately.

Vivian and her first experience blowing on a dead dandelion.

Rick and Josh are shooting in this pic. Curt is "pulling" the clay birds.

The ride home.

Ahhhhhh . . . .

Things I Love Thursday

(almost in no particular order)

• my multi-talented/multi-faceted husband


• my gorgeous and funny daughters


• my family members. truly. I'll keep all of them.


• my friends. Yay for them!


• lunch hours


• soy lattes . . . iced in the summer, hot in the winter


• my Blackberry


• my new car


• Facebook


• Twitter


• email


• Google Reader


• potato chips with french onion dip or french fries with ranch dressing


• Vacations . . . to anywhere. preferably Europe or a beach resort. but a weekend camping works too!


• back yard parties


• wine . . . white in the summer, red in the winter (I like my wine the way I like my lattes)


• ABC's Bavarian Bliss


• watching Audrey dance in the living room


• Vivian's beautiful blond curls


• a bite of dark chocolate after dinner


• experiencing the seasons as they change (although summer can come back to stay. enough already)


• singing and dancing on stage (but it simultaneously scares the hell out of me sometimes . . . it's the adrenaline rush, I guess)


• top of the park


• Curt's homemade lattes on Saturday and Sunday mornings


• finding "lost" money in a coat pocket


• fresh baked cookies and warm brownies


• smoke free restaurants


• that (rare) feeling of being organized


• massages


• rollercoasters . . . and it has been too long!


• sleeping in (also never happens)


• that feeling after a great workout or run


• being married to someone you like to hang out with


• date nights (see above)

Happy Father's Day, Daddy

Audrey found this card when we were shopping one day and just HAD to get it for Curt. She hid it in her room for weeks until Father's Day came around.

She also added her own embellishments on the front.