TWO YEARS OLD

My amazing, intelligent, handsome, fun little grandson is two years old.  It is hard to believe that two years have gone by already.  Time--enjoyed, sure goes by fast.

And believe me, I totally enjoy being with my grandson.  

He has been a true light in my world during the last 2 years.  He has kept me going.  

And now he is TWO.

Of course he is the cutest and smartest two year-old on the planet!

He had a CARS movie theme birthday party.  He loves movies and CARS is one of his favorites.  His mom is a great party planner.  She prepared for his birthday for weeks and weeks in advance. 

Every time I went to their house, Bridge would be so excited to show me everything that had been accumulated for his CARS party.  It was so cute how he said CARS party.  I don’t think he knew what a CARS party was, but he was very excited that these things were part of it.

Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great grandparents, honorary grandparents, and even the mailman came to celebrate and wish him a happy birthday!  He had so much fun.

We had his favorite food -- chicken nuggets and French fries.  (He calls them “nuggs”). 

He got so many presents.  Everyone just loves him and it is hard not to spoil him. 

He did his best to play games even with all of the distracting action around him.  All of the kids liked racing cars on the track that Jer and Papa built just for the party. 




 
His mommy made him a very awesome CARS birthday cake.

He knew just how to blow out the candles--we were still singing and he was all about blowing them out!

And what would a CARS party be without getting your very own car? 








His favorite thing to play with, once the party started dying down was a big “Mater” balloon (like the truck character in the movie CARS). 

 It was almost as big as he was. He would put it on the floor and try to jump on it before it could float back up to the ceiling.  We laughed and laughed at the sheer joy he had while playing with such a simple toy.

He had a wonderful birthday and we were all so happy  to celebrate it with him. 

Happy Birthday, Little Man.  We love you!

 

BUNDT CAKE

Twice a year, there is a two-day event that I really look forward to—the Scrapbook Expo.  

Two days of being with friends, shopping, scrapbooking, eating, and escaping from the reality of life. 

In the last few years, the craziness of life has made it so that usually, I only get to go for one day. But, I am happy just to be able to get away for as much time as I can.

This year, I only went for about 6 hours. It was fun, but it wasn’t long enough! The first thing I did when I got there was try to find a table for me, Maureen, Paige, and Brittany to sit at.  Sometimes it can be really hard to find a table there.  I had to make sure that we had a place to sit, talk, eat, and maybe scrapbook.

The second thing that I did was go to the booth that sells Bundt cakes to see if I could get a sample of their wonderful chocolate, chocolate chip cake. I was really hungry and felt disappointed that they weren’t giving out any samples.  Usually, if I walk by their booth often enough I have so many samples that feel like I had a piece of cake!

I felt much happier when Paige and Brit arrived.  They brought  dinner!  We each had our own favorite from Café Rio. I love their Sweet Pork Enchiladas with Hot Sauce and I am always so stuffed by the time I eat two enchiladas. I should just quit after I eat about 1 1/2, but I love them so much that I eat every bite. 

I was REALLY full, but I still spent the rest of the night wishing that I had a piece of chocolate Bundt cake. I could have purchased an individual sized Bundt cake just for myself, but I probably would have eaten the whole thing and then I would have just been miserable!

Ever since that night, I have been craving Bundt cake.

And then, I was lucky to be able to have some on Sunday when we had a birthday party for Hunter Man’s grandmother. She is 93 years old! We just love her. She is so funny and is as healthy and feisty as ever. She enjoyed having all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren come to spend the afternoon and evening with her.

When my niece walked in with a beautiful Bundt cake for Grandma, I was excited.  First, we had really great food. Then, the little kids got to have an Easter Egg hunt. And finally, we had birthday Bundt cake and ice cream! It was funny that the cake was a Neapolitan Bundt cake because I happened to buy Neapolitan ice cream.  It was yummy. But, the craving for chocolate, chocolate chip Bundt cake did not go away.

Today, I searched on the internet for a copycat Bundt cake recipe.  I found one! I had all of the ingredients that it called for in the pantry except mini chocolate chips and also cream cheese for the frosting. So, I put regular sized chocolate chips in it and I made butter cream frosting. I used a Chocolate Fudge cake mix.  Other than that, I made it just like the recipe and it was absolutely fantastically delicious! I ate one piece and then had to have another small one just because it was so great. If you want to make the cake, go to this link: http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2008/09/nothing-bundt-chocolate-cake.html

My cake does not look as beautiful as theirs.  I am sure the cream cheese frosting sticks to the cake better.  My frosting kind of dripped and I put it on the cake with a Ziploc bag, but aesthetics aside, it still tasted so yummy.

I really shouldn't have wasted time making a cake today because I had tons of office work that I had to do and tons of laundry that needed to be washed.  But, sometimes, a girl just has to do one or two things that will lower the stress level. 

I needed to do that.  I have been very busy trying to get our personal and business tax information compiled to take to the accountant since time is running out and I have been letting a lot of things like laundry and housework slide.

So today, in between baking and number-crunching, I had gotten almost everything washed except one great big pile of dirty towels. The clean towels were on the floor right next to the stairs, waiting to be folded and the dirty towels were stacked up right around the corner. 

Miraculously, I actually convinced Ty to help me with one thing—fold and put away the towels. I told him to fold the towels that were at the bottom of the stairs.  I couldn’t believe that he really agreed to help.  Ty exists on his own planet. He rarely does anything that does not revolve around himself or anything that he wants to do.  It was weird that he agreed to help. 

Later, I noticed that ALL of the towels were gone. I asked him what happened to the pile of dirty towels and he said, “What dirty towels? There were two piles of towels and I folded all of them and put them away.”

Oh no! For the first time in his life he goes above and beyond what he is supposed to do and then ends up folding dirty towels!  I have no idea how he didn't notice that one pile was a lot damper and stinkier than the other pile, but at least he tried! 

I really did appreciate the effort.  I may never see that kind of effort again.  He says that was his last time folding towels.  Rats. 

I washed and re-washed all of the towels just to make sure that I don’t find a dirty one when I least expect it!

Just what I needed to help me not get too stressed out or go crazy--some fun stuff, some laughter, and some cake! 

For one day, at least.

(I know, I hardly have time to be blogging--but it is 12:30 a.m., so I am using my sleeping time, not my working time!)

GLITTER

I need to think about something funny because I am not having the greatest night. 

I have a very funny story that always makes me smile.

About a month ago, I went to lunch with one of my best friends.  We hadn’t been able to get together for lunch before Christmas like we usually do.   And then we missed her birthday lunch, too.   

Life just seems to get busier and busier.  I was glad when we finally had time to meet at Chili’s for a Christmas/birthday lunch.  We exchanged gifts before we even ordered our lunch.  She opened her Christmas and birthday gifts from me and I opened my Christmas gift from her. 

It was wrapped beautifully and had a wide wired ribbon complete with sparkly glitter.  As I un-wrapped the gift, the glitter went everywhere, especially in my lap.  But, I didn’t really think about it as I exclaimed over the awesome gift that she gave me.   

We ordered our food and ate and talked for a couple of hours.  It was great. 

I have a restaurant—eating food in public—habit that I don’t have at home.  I am always worried about having food on my face and not knowing it and then feeling stupid later when I find out I had food on my face the whole time we were eating and talking. 

So, every few bites, I pick up my napkin out of my lap and wipe my mouth. 

I had no idea that this day, every time I wiped my mouth, I was spreading glitter on my face.  Since my lap was covered with glitter and I kept my napkin in my lap between uses, my napkin was picking up glitter. 

My friend may or may not have noticed.   But, if she did, she was probably just dying from trying not to laugh at me as I glittered myself constantly throughout our lunch.  Not to mention that the waitress probably wondered what the heck I was doing with glitter all over my face. 

But, I was oblivious. 

Until lunch was over. 

I got into my truck and looked in the mirror to put on some lipstick.  That’s when I saw what had happened to me during lunch.  I was slightly mortified.  I do not like looking ridiculous and glitter was all over my face from forehead to chin. 

I texted my friend and said, “I have glitter all over my face!” 

She texted me back, “Merry Christmas!” 

Yup, she knew. 

I sparkled for the rest of the day. 

Now when I think about it or tell someone about it, it makes me laugh.   

Laughing is good. 

I don’t laugh enough. 

When I want to cheer myself I up, I should just think—GLITTER! 

And then laugh out loud!

Sportsman's Expo

So far in 2012, the hunting has been limited to metal detecting.  But, since we have had the mildest winter in recent history, Hunter Man has gone metal detecting A LOT!  Every day after work, if he hasn't come home by 5:00 or so, I know he has gone metal detecting.  Finding a wheat-backed penny or an old watch just makes his day. 

Hunting applications have been turned in.  The state of Utah changed all of the hunting areas and rules, which made studying and determining where to apply to hunt and who to have in each party of 4 took a lot of his spare time.  Now, he just has to wait until the end of April (I think) to find out if they drew out for deer hunting and where they get to go. 

And the much anticipated Sportsman's Outdoor Expo was this weekend.  Hunter Man was so excited to attend this.  He asked both of our sons and our son-in-law to go with him weeks in advance.  He couldn’t wait to take our grandson and help him catch a fish.  I loved that our son, Jer wanted to go to breakfast with his Dad before the Expo. 

I used to go the expos with Hunter Man when our youngest son enjoyed going.  He would collect as many business cards and candy and jerky samples as he could.  And then, he would climb the rock wall.  He used to have fun, but as soon as he didn't like to go anymore, then I stopped going, too.  I felt like I was seeing the exact same thing year after year. 

My contribution to this exciting event ws to give Hunter Man some of my saved up money.  I told him that I wanted him to give me five times as much money back so that I could go to the Scrapbooking Expo next weekend!  I hope he comes through with that!

Our 15 year old son, Ty, decided to go, too!  He doesn’t want anything to do with hunting or fishing at this point in his life.  But, he did have two incentives to make him get out of bed early on a Saturday morning-—breakfast (the meal that he will gladly eat any time of day) and being able to spend time with his nephew (who is one of the only family members that he is always happy to be with). 

Hunter Man said that they had a good time.  Ty came home looking like he had just had all of his fingernails pulled out one by one!  Just kidding.  Not quite that bad!

These are some of the pictures that Hunter Man took at the Expo.



Is fishing fun, Papa?



Fishing is a lot of fun, Bridge!

Caught one!

Now this is fun!

He got his face painted!

Shooting a BB gun.

Funny Face!

Cute boy with his awesome DAD

Cheddar Bay Biscuits/Bean & Bacon Soup

On a daily basis, Hunter Man does not know whether he can expect to find dinner ready or in progress when he gets home from work.  That is partly because I never know when he is going to get home, but also because I may have been too busy to even think about cooking, I haven’t been home all day, or I am just not in the mood to cook.  My life is complicated!

But, I do like to have a good dinner and I know that we can’t afford to eat out as much as we have been in the last couple of years.  I keep hoping that things will get better both financially and in the complicated sense, but so far, it is not looking like my hopes will be fulfilled anytime soon.

Last night I was in the mood to cook and I was looking online for dinner ideas.  I came across a recipe for some copycat Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits.  I love those biscuits and immediately wanted to have them for dinner with homemade Bean and Bacon Soup. 

I compared a few of the online recipes for the biscuits and found that one of the ingredients that they all had in common was Bisquick.  Bisquick.  I never, ever have Bisquick on hand.  Now what? Oh, yeah look for homemade Bisquick ideas online!

Sure enough, I found many recipes for it.  I had to combine several of them until I came up with one that seemed like it would work with the Cheddar Bay Biscuit recipe. 

Forgive me--I am not an expert

food photographer
at this point!

My recipes never end up exactly like the ones I start with.  One reason, that everyone will need to remember is that I can be quite picky and there are a lot of things that I don't like to cook with (like real onions, garlic, peppers, etc.)  So, I often use onion powder, garlic paste, and one of my favorites--Mrs. Dash Garlic Seasoning. 

These cheesy garlic biscuits turned out to be the BEST!  They were so good that I almost couldn’t stop eating them. 

Hunter Man said that he liked the fact that they were very moist.  He declared that they were better than the real Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits. 

Awesome.  I love it when a cooking experiment works out so well.

CHEESY GARLIC BISCUITS

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a baking sheet with baking spray.

2 c. flour
1 T. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 T. margarine
1 T. sugar

¾ tsp. Mrs. Dash Garlic Seasoning
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 c. milk

3 T. margarine
1 tsp. Mrs. Dash Garlic Seasoning
1 tsp. dried parsley flakes

First, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, margarine, and sugar with a pastry blender.

Stir in the Mrs. Dash Garlic Seasoning, cheese, and milk.  Eventually, you will have to start mixing it with your hands to make sure that the cheese gets evenly distributed.

Take a handful of the dough and form it into the general shape of a ball.  Place on the baking sheet.  You should have 12 biscuits.

Bake for 10 minutes.  After they have baked for about 8 minutes, melt 3 T margarine in the microwave.  Mix in 1 tsp. Ms. Dash Garlic Seasoning, and 1 tsp dried parsley.  (Do not do this step too early because the parsley will absorb the margarine and make it less easy to spread).

Remove the biscuits from the oven at 10 minutes and brush each biscuit with the melted butter and spices.  Return to the oven and bake for 5 more minutes.

The bottoms of the biscuits should be slightly browned.

Ty and I were talking about the biscuits and he thought it might be interesting to try different kinds of cheeses in them.  That was a good idea and he gets the credit for it!

I came up with my recipe for Beans, Ham, and Bacon Soup because I love Campbell’s Bean and Bacon Soup.  But, I don’t eat it anymore because it has monosodium glutamate in it and msg is on the list of things that I try to avoid in order to prevent migraine headaches.  My own recipe for this soup does not taste exactly like the original, but I like it and Hunter Man does too. 

You can either make this about 30 minutes before dinner, or put it in the crock pot on low for few hours.

BEANS, HAM, AND BACON SOUP

4 cans Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
1 package thin sliced ham, cut into pieces
2 T. real bacon bits
12 baby carrots
1 – 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 ½ c. water
1 ½ tsp. garlic paste½ tsp. to 1 tsp onion powder¼ tsp. pepper¼ tsp. celery salt
2 bay leaves
1 ½ cups instant potato flakes

Cut the mini carrots into tiny, tiny pieces, cover with water, and cook them in the microwave for about 5 minutes until they are soft.  If you don’t do this, they will never get soft in the soup. 

Combine all of the other ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the carrots and all of the water they are in to the soup. 

As this soup cooks, it tends to get thick, so be prepared to keep adding water a little at a time to keep it at soup consistency.  Simmer over medium/low heat for at least 30 minutes, stirring often to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Before serving, remove all of the Bay Leaves. 

When I eat this, I always add a splash of milk and a few saltine crackers.

        

Valentine Day 2012

This year, I had one of the best Valentine Days of my life.  I spent most of the day with the most amazing man.  A little man--my awesome, almost 2 year old grandson.  His mommy invited me to go with them as they delivered Valentines to his great and great/great-grandparents on our side of the family.  I absolutely loved spending the day with him.  I just love him so much. 

It was so neat to see him go up to each grandparent and hand them a Valentine.  At every house, he remembered the things that he liked about it the last time he was there.  At his Great Grandpa and Grandma Scott’s house, as soon as he handed off the Valentine, he went straight to the toy closet and grabbed the first thing he could find—some blocks.  He dumped them all out and then was done with them.  Next, he wanted to pick up every picture frame and identify the people in the picture.  They were so impressed that when it was time to go, he happily picked up all of the blocks and put them back in the closet.   

As soon we pulled into his Great-Great Grandma Holmquist’s driveway, he remembered that there are horses in the corral and started saying, “Horse, horse, see horse!”  She loves to give the grandchildren a balloon to play with and it was so much fun to see the delight on his face as he played with it.  Grandma was very happy that we came.  Especially when she found out that we brought her a KFC Chicken Fried Steak meal! 

At his Great Grandma Susan’s house, he walked in the door, grabbed the first and only toy that she has in plain sight--a Nerf gun, and immediately wanted to shoot it.  He also asked to see the kitty that she had been nursing back to health on her back deck the last time he was there, but didn’t get upset when she told him that the kitty went away. 

He loves to go to “Grandma” Colleen’s house because we always stop to buy lunch to eat with her and he gets to have his favorite “nuggets”.  Even though we always do it, she acts so surprised that we bring lunch and is happy with whatever we get for her.  She is a big fan of ice cream, so we always get her a shake.  While we are there she tries to think of treats to give him because she thinks the world of this little guy and loves to spoil him.

He was a good boy at each house and his mommy was so proud of him.  I was too.  He is such a lucky little boy to have three great-grandparents, two great-great grandparents, and an adopted “Grandma”, on our side of the family. 

We are all as blessed as can be to have HIM. 

That night it was very cool to get my Grandparent Valentine Day Visit from him (and his mommy and daddy).  He gave me the cutest Valentine.  His hand was traced and then the paper fingers were bent into the sign language symbol for “I Love You”.  It was great!  He was so funny because he wanted to have the sucker that was taped to the back of it.  He pulled it off and his parents told him that the sucker was for Grandma because it was her Valentine.  So, he put the sucker in my mouth—with the plastic on it.  We all laughed.  He is such a cutie. 

Right now in my life I can honestly say that there is not much better than being a Grandma.

The day before Valentine Day, my other man—-Hunter Man brought me two beautiful flowering plants--a Calla Lily and a Flamingo Flower.  He said he wanted to give me flowers that wouldn’t die.  (I laughed at that because lately, life has been stressing me out so much that I have been neglecting all of my plants and they were all on the verge of dying). 

He has always been the guy who gets the gift a day or two before the holiday—just to make sure that he isn’t late.  Quite a few years ago, (24 to be exact) he brought me a bouquet of beautiful yellow roses on January 14th, thinking that it was Valentine Day and that he had almost missed it.  Then, he found out that he was one month early!  That was the earliest he has ever been.  He always makes me laugh when he brings me my gifts before the holiday because I always think that this year will be the year that he will actually wait until THE DAY.  It makes me happy that he thinks about me and that he tries really hard to remember to do something nice. 

The weekend before Valentine Day he mentioned that he used to love to get Linguine with White Clam Sauce at the Spaghetti Factory.  We never go there, so it has probably been over 20 years since he has eaten there!  I have made my own version of this at home before, but it must not have made much of an impression on him.  I decided to try to make it again as his Valentine Day dinner.  I looked up a bunch of recipes for it online and then tweaked them with the recipe that I had used before. 

Success!  He liked it and said that it was the best that he had ever had.  I thought it was very good, too. 

My Linguine with Clam Sauce

3 T. butter or margarine
1 package sliced, fresh mushrooms
1 ½ tsp. garlic paste
3 T. butter or margarine
1 cup half and half cream
3 – 6.5 oz cans minced clams with juice¼ cup red cooking wine½ T. dried parsley½ tsp. dried basil¼ tsp. dried oregano¼ tsp. black pepper
2 pinches red pepper flakes
2 T. lemon juice¼ tsp. thyme½ tsp. onion powder¼ cup. grated parmesan cheese

8 oz. linguine pasta prepared according to package directions.

Melt butter over medium heat.  Sauté mushrooms and garlic paste in butter.  Mix in 3 T. flour.  The flour will coat the mushrooms.  Add cream.  Stir gently for about 2 minutes, and then add clam juice from all 3 cans of clams.  Stir in the cooking wine.  As the sauce thickens, add the rest of the spices and lemon juice.  Add the clams and parmesan cheese last. 

Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Serve over linguine pasta.

SOFT YUMMY SUGAR COOKIES

I made the traditional Valentine cookies earlier in the week and for some reason, even though I have used the same recipe for quite a few years now—this time the cookies turned out better than they ever have.  I think it was because I just didn’t have the patience to roll the dough out and cut out each heart with a cookie cutter.  I just rolled the dough into balls, flattened them and then shaped them into hearts by hand.   The cookies turned out thick and soft.  I frosted them with pink cream cheese frosting and red sugar sprinkles and that was just the right finishing touch.  (Sorry, no pictures—they all turned out blurry!)

1 c. butter or margarine
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. plain yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla½ tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. baking powder
6 ½ to 7 cups flour¼ tsp. salt (I usually just put in a tiny pinch of salt)

Cream butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Mix in yogurt, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add 6 cups of flour.  Then, judge how much more flour to add by adding a little bit at a time.  The dough will appear to be a little bit too moist, even though it is not.  I like it to have just enough flour in it so that if I roll it into a ball in my hands, it just barely makes my hands feel sticky, but not so much that I can’t do anything with it.  You don’t want them to be too dry.

Roll dough on floured surface to ½ inch thickness.  Cut with cookie cutters.  Place on cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  (I like to use an Air Bake cookie sheet for these sugar cookies).

Or, do what I do when I am in a hurry (or lazy) and roll them into balls and flatten with the bottom of a glass.  If I am not going to frost the cookies, I like to put a damp paper towel around the bottom of the glass (secured with a rubber band) and then dip the bottom of the glass in sugar before I flatten them. 

Bake for 12-14 minutes.  Cookies will be very soft and just barely light tan on the bottom.  Then, let them rest on the cookie sheet for 2 more minutes before removing them to the cooling racks.

Frost the cookies, if desired.  Store in air-tight container after the frosting has set.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

4 oz. cream cheese, softened (I usually use the lower fat Neufchatel style of cream cheese).
4 T. butter or margarine½ tsp. vanilla
2 ½ c. powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients together until well-blended and smooth.