Snow bunnies

Bad Romance

Warning: this is painful.

Other funny things

Bc I am avoiding schoolwork, I am watching the 50 best viral videos of all times. Srsly funny.

Here are links to some of them:
Chocolate rain
David after Dentist
Total Eclipse of the Heart literal version
Elephant on a street

Rickrolling

Am I the only one who had never heard of this before? It is when you put up a link for something, but instead it takes you to the Rick Astley video Never Gonna Give You Up. I googled it and there is tons and tons of rickrolling, and all kinds of spoofs too. There was this funny clip called Barack Roll that is Obama dancing to the song.

Oh, and here is a cute clip of the girls this morning.

Things, life, whatnot

Yay! We leave in five days for Key West!!! I am really excited. I hope it warms up though, it is in the 60s there, granted that is 40 degrees warmer than here, but I was hoping for tank tops and flip flops the whole time.

Sweet Tato Pie

Trying this for T-day-

Coconut-Sweet Potato Pie With Spiced Crust

Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs, made from one package graham crackers, which has 9 full cracker sheets

1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted

3 eggs

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Pinch ground cloves

Large pinch salt

1 cup coconut milk.

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put the sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan, add water to cover by about an inch, and bring to a boil; reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the potatoes are very tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Drain, then rice the potatoes or run them through a food mill.

2. While the potatoes cook, put the graham crackers in a food processor and pulse several times until they are finely ground. Add the shredded coconut, 2 tablespoons of the sugar and 1/4 teaspoon each of the ginger and cinnamon, and pulse once or twice; add the melted butter and pulse just to combine. Press the mixture into a 9-inch pie dish and bake for about 7 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven and cool.

3. In a food processor, combine the eggs with the remaining sugar, ginger and cinnamon, along with the nutmeg, cloves and salt; pulse until well combined. Add the coconut milk and pulse to combine, then add the sweet potatoes and pulse until just smooth.

4. Put the pie plate on a baking sheet. Pour the sweet potato mixture into the crust and bake until the mixture is set on top but still quite moist, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool on a rack and serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Mmmmmmm, Soup!

I know for a fact the female readers of this blog love soup. This one I got from Sarah, who got it from Lisa, I think. It is super yummy. You can use rice or chopped up noodles if you dont have orzo.


Quick Avgolemono, Orzo, and Chicken Soup

Avgolemono (ahv-goh-LEH-moh-noh) is a tangy Greek soup that combines chicken broth, eggs, and lemon juice. Traditional versions include rice; our interpretation uses orzo. Total time: 35 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 cups)


6 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh dill
1/2 cup uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
4 large eggs
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup shredded carrot
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
8 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces

Bring broth and dill to a boil in a large saucepan. Add orzo. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes or until orzo is slightly tender. Remove from heat.

Place eggs and juice in a blender; process until smooth. Remove 1 cup broth from pan with a ladle, making sure to leave out orzo. With blender on, slowly add broth; process until smooth.

Add carrot, salt, pepper, and chicken to pan. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, and cook 5 minutes or until chicken and orzo are done. Reduce heat to low. Slowly stir in egg mixture; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly (do not boil).

CALORIES 228 (25% from fat); FAT 6.3g (sat 1.9g,mono 2.2g,poly 1g); IRON 2.6mg; CHOLESTEROL 244mg; CALCIUM 68mg; CARBOHYDRATE 16.6g; SODIUM 855mg; PROTEIN 25.3g; FIBER 2.9g

Verbal development

She is really talking up a storm lately, and saying words I didn't know she even knew, and even some sentences- example " I hit MoiMoi" ( her friend that she does in fact hit all the time )

Moment on the lips....

I had this the other night and it was SO bad but SO good. I think I have an additional taste besides sweet, bitter, sour, salty and umami. My sixth taste is buffalo wing.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients

• 2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup Ranch dressing
• 3/4 cup pepper sauce (such as Frank's Red Hot®)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 bunch celery, cleaned and cut into 4 inch pieces
• 1 (8 ounce) box chicken-flavored crackers

Directions

1. Heat chicken and hot sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. Mix in half of the shredded cheese, and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, cover, and cook on Low setting until hot and bubbly. Serve with celery sticks and crackers.

Meganisms

When Jason, Zach and I were with the girls at the apple orchard in the pics below, Megan said "I am so happy to be with all three of my parents".

The girls were debating whether they loved Mommy or Daddy better, Megan said, " I love God the most, then Mommy and Daddy" There are some brownie points for her with the church goers of this blog.

When the cat's away....

The mice will have some joe random lawn guys deliver 10 bags of leaves so I can mow them into mulch for my garden. And hopefully all the evidence will be appropriated before he comes back.

Halloween part 1

Yeah, the pumpkin is THAT big. And they give out full sized candy bars. And there is another pumpkin that big on the other side of the house.

Two Yummy Recipes

Lamb Shepherd's Pie

Pasta with Sausage and Greens

Wait, do I have to post the recipes? I dont really cook that way.

Lamb Shepherd's Pie

First make delicious mashed tatos.

Next dredge lamb stew meat in seasoned flour and then brown it. Eat a few chunks since they are delish. Deglaze pan with red wine.

Next saute any decent stuff you want in the pie. I used turnips, carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Add lamb and deglazed pan drippings. Sprinkle some of the seasoned flour over the veggies when they are done and add more vino tinto so you create a thickened mixture.

Put the thickened mixture on the bottom of a pie pan, cover with mashed pertaters, sprinkle with garlic salt and top with some kind of cheese.

Bake til bubbly. I served with baked delicata squash but a salad would be nice too.

Pasta with Sausage and Greens

Brown Sausage and boil you up some noodles, preferably penne ( not penis).

Combine sausage and noodles in a baking dish. Add a butt ton of pesto. I guess in layman's terms that would be 1/3 to 1/2 cup. Add two cans of mostly but not all the way drained diced tomatoes. Add several large handfuls of a leafy green. I first had it with spinach but I used beet greens next time ( and J never even knew!). I blanched the greens in the micro first. Stir it up little darlin. Cover and bake for awhile. Top with parmesean cheese ( not shaky cheese Sarah), uncover and take out when the cheese is lightly browned. Ummm yummy ( even better than the greek honey baked beans!)

For my iphone readers

http://damnyouautocorrect.com/

Hilarious.

The kitchen ceiling

When we took down the ceiling, we found newspaper from 1949 that held what little insulation was in there. Look at the pics- there is a ad from Kroger, and an ad for polio insurance, and an article talking about the atom bomb.

Fall Again...

We spent the afternoon doing a corn maze, then went for a walk through the apple orchard. It was a great day.

Just your average day...

Well this is embarrassing

It was 11am today when I first noticed that my sweater was inside out.

Good thing to have in the freezer

Seeded jalapenos, cilantro and lime juice. Chop up in the food processor. Add to ice cubes. Pop out and store in plastic bag in the freezer. I only made on tray and it is about gone- I put it in chimoul and thai food so far.

A Uniquely Midwestern sport

We were just invited to join a group called Mystery night. There are like 12 couples - once every other month we meet for up for an evening out that we dont find out what it is until we get there. We just get told how to dress and how much it will cost. Saturday night was our first time- we met up at our friend's house, donned painter's suits, and painted 'the rock'.

Then we went back to their house and had pizza and beer, stuffed 20 people in 3 minivans and went to play whirlyball. Yeah, I had never heard of it either. You play a combination of jai lai or lacrosse but while driving bumper cars. It was really fun, and potentially the source of a comfortable retirement from a settlement from a lawsuit. There were five people on a team, and we had to scoop up the ball with the lacrosse racket thing and get it into the overhead goalpost while being rammed by other bumper cars, and while trying to drive the bumper car which had no brakes, just gas, and a hand crank type steering wheel. Not an actual picture of us-

The people who planned the night made it really fun, they had ordered the painters outfits, brought coolers of beer to the rock and the whirlyball court ( yeah, bumper cars and beer!), and awards to the winning teams. And I scored the final goal!

Good stuff and bad stuff

First, the fever blister of epic proportions. It will not go away.
Painting the rock. It is an Ann Arbor tradition and I am glad I can say I took part in it.

It's the Parm that counts

Dinner tonight was Green Tomato Parmagian. I pulled up my garden today and picked about 20 pounds of green tomatoes. I made eggplant parm for a neighbor that just had a baby, and the three small eggplants I picked did not go far. But using the green tomatoes was really super yummy, I was impressed. My batter lately has been half flour and half cornmeal, I think it is the cornmeal that really helps.

Definitions

Here are a list of academic type buzz words that I need to commit to memory-

iterative
epistemology
ontological
phenomonology
heurism

I am going to edit this to add the definitions....

This song is for Sarah...

I havent been this excited in a long time...

We have a Halloween party to go... and the theme is reality stars. This is going to be us....

Bizarro

So the SGA president at UM is gay. Big whoop, especially in this town. The bizarro part is that an asst state attorney is waging this strange war against him, accusing him of trying to advance a radical homosexual agenda, being a nazi and a racist. I actually walked past someone protesting again the president and he had a placard with the sga president's picture on it with a swastika over his face. I am pretty sure it was the crazy guy. This attorney doesnt go to UM or have anything to do with UM. It has made national headlines:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100929/us_yblog_upshot/state-attorney-launches-bizarre-internet-war-on-openly-gay-college-student

Thank you J!!

My wonderful husband gifted me with Silver Medallion status a few months ago. I have since had the pleasure of being upgraded to first class pretty much every time I fly domestic.

I just saw that I got upgraded for my flight from ATL to DTW Saturday. I needed that!

A Tale of Two Agata's

A tale of two Agata’s....

Today I made a phone appt to meet a nurse midwife named Agatha ( pronounced Agata). She was going to come to the Emergency Department when she finished what she was doing. She told me she would be in a blue uniform and meet me outside the ED. I went to make a photocopy for her, which involves trekking a long way and across the equivalent of I-10 ( I wait til a group crosses then run with them in a group) to a photocopy place, waking up the copy guy from his nap ( excuse me, sir excuse me Excuse Me, EXCUSE ME SIR) and she called me right when I got there that she was waiting. I was worried she would leave so I was rushing back as quickly as I could (I even crossed the street myself). I rounded the corner to the ED and saw an older woman in a blue uniform who immediately gave me a big smile. I walked up to her and said, “ Are you Agatha?” and she said yes and took my hand in both of hers. I said “ It is so nice to meet you, thank you for coming so quickly”

And she said ‘Oh Yes” Then it went like this...

Her “why are you rushing?”

Me “to meet you! I didnt want to keep you waiting!”

Her “Oh”

Me “would you like to go the ED to sit down and talk?”
Her “ Well I am with my daughter”

Me “ Oh?”

Her “My daughter is having her blood taken, I would like to wait til she is finished”

Me “ Are you Agata the nurse midwife?”

Her “Yes”

Me ”Did Cheryl (who set up the meeting) talk to you about me?”

Her “ Uh...”

Me “ Do you know Cheryl?”

Her “yes” ( I think every midwife knows this Cheryl though)

Her “ I am not sure I am the right Agata”

Me “ I am not sure I have the right Agata”

Can you believe that? I met a nurse midwife named Agata standing in front of the ED in a blue uniform and it was not the right Agata! The wrong Agata greeted me so warmly though! There was another Agata in a blue uniform standing in front of the ED about 15 feet away! The wrong Agata hugged me goodbye and told me to come visit her on L and D.

Pictoral updates

Sweet suite at a bball. Game. I can never go back to the bleachers.
Just your average walk down the red carpet at a movie premiere.
The last DQ run of the season, sob.

Anniversary canoe trip in Lake Leelanau. This picture is a month old but it was such a great ride.
Childrens' museum. Grandma Bunny gave us a membership which is totally awesome bc we can just stop in for an hour or two at a time. I haven't been for awhile bc the weather has been too nice to be inside but this week we went twice. I offered to take the girls swimming at the Y, but Meg kept saying it takes too long for her to dry off so she wanted to go the museum instead.

What to do to your co-worker you don't like

Have them arrested by Jerry's kids and held for bail. Someone did that to my poor spouse. Fortunately they gave him a month's notice. The county sheriff is coming here to 'arrest him' and they take him in a squad car to a restaurant where he is held until he posts a THOUSAND dollars bail. They won't tell him who had him arrested. At least he can work to raise the money til then so theoretically he could only have to be in 'jail' for a few minutes til he writes out a phat check. So Mom, expect a solicitory call!

Pumpkin Spice at starbucks

What's the big whoop? I hear people go on and on about it. To me it was pretty much a frappachino with nutmeg on top. Who's with me?

First Day of 1st grade

Tomato thief. She picks them when I am not looking, takes one bite, then tosses them.

This child refuses to look at the camera.



Mad, J, and Momma Choppers
Her kindergarten gang.