13 years ago today I sat down next to the most amazing man. One year later I was smart enough to marry him. Happy 12 year anniversary Mark. These 12 years have been so great. You are my rock and bring out the best in me. I’m looking forward to the next 12 years.
After looking through the past year of photo’s I found we have no recent pictures together…so I will just end with this….
I’m the luckiest girls I know!
I was just telling Mark how I wanted to make a Peanut butter and Jelly cookie when Melanie posted a yummy Peanut butter cookie recipe on her blog. I figured I could adapt it a little and fill my craving.
I made the cookie dough and placed it on my baking sheet. Using my teaspoon I created a little indent.
Then I filled it with grape jelly, because that’s the only kind I had…but any flavor would work.
I baked them as directed and let them cool.
I made some with jelly and some without. I made some bite sized and some large. I like variety and this made a bunch of cookies. According to the original directions they are able to be frozen. I tested this out and they are perfect after coming out of the freezer, even with the jelly. So make some yummy PB & J cookies, they are worth it!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from www.melskitchencafe.com)
*Makes about 4-5 dozen
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl combine the butter and peanut butter and beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy Add the brown and white sugars and mix until well combined. Add the eggs and mix for 1-2 minutes, until the mixture is well combined and light in color. Add the milk and vanilla and mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix just briefly. While there are still large spots of flour, add the chocolate chips and mix until the flour is completely mixed in and the mixture is well combined. Let the cookie dough sit for 15 minutes before scooping onto the baking sheets. It will firm up as it sits.
When ready to bake, scoop tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto silpat or parchment-lined baking sheets leaving about 1 to 2 inches in between the cookies to allow for spreading as they bake. Using the back of a tablespoon make an indention in the cookie; fill indent with jelly. Bake for 10-11 minutes, taking care not to over bake. Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes after baking before removing them to a cooling rack. This will help them set up and be firm enough to transfer without having them over bake in the oven. The cookies may look slightly under baked but they will firm up as they cool. Cooled cookies can be placed in the freezer in a storage container. Let thaw for a few minutes before eating.
A few weeks ago Mark was telling me how swamped he was at work. They had some big deadline they had to meet and a few things they did didn’t meet with the engineers expatiations. He prepared me for possible overtime, which means he wouldn’t be able to come home on the weekend. Just to give him a hard time I jokingly said “We don’t have anything on the calendar this weekend, maybe we should take a quick trip to Vegas?” He responded 8 hours later by saying, “We are busting this work out. Plan the trip. I’m in”
So I planned a last minute trip to Las Vegas. We packed shorts and tank tops, a great change from the long pants and sweatshirts we had been wearing, picked up a rent a car and headed south. Mark’s sister lives in Vegas and it just so happened that there was a birthday party for our 3 year old nephew that weekend.
We took the girls downtown on the strip. They were amazed by all the buildings and things to look at.
Look a pirate ship!
A skull…this place is great!
Prettiest Walgreens I have ever seen.
We met some stars….
Played some hoops with Shaq….
Helped Simon pick the next American Idol…
And made sure President Obama was doing his job correctly…..Did I mention we had a nice time at Madame Tussauds?
Ashley was hangin with MJ Mark helped Jessica with the flag Allyson was the first Hosick on the Moon
Ashley showed off her ballet skills. And the girls rocked it with Gwen.
After sight seeing we made a quick stop by Trader Joe’s for some groceries. I miss this place. Such yummy unique items, I picked up some great popcorn/rice puffed snacks for the drive home.
No trip to Vegas is complete with out a meal (or two) at In-n-Out burger. Greasy burgers, fresh cut fries, and creamy strawberry milk shakes….yumm!
And don’t forget the Pump N Snack…I think the name says it all! O the fun you have in Vegas!
Another Halloween has come and gone. Which brings to a close a frantic month of sewing costumes. When we first talked about what the girls wanted to be for Halloween, they told me we could just go to a thrift store and buy some clothes they would cut up and make into pirate costumes. Thinking I would have an easy October, I agreed to make capes for the Star Wars concert. But after a few trips to the fabric store to get cape supplies, the pirate costumes morphed and my sewing list grew.
Each of the girls helped create their own costume. And for the first time Ashley’s costume was easier than expected! The girls were very happy with the results and I think these were the best costumes I have made.
This was Halloween 2009 A vampire and the queen of hearts.
Halloween 2008 a fairy and a bar maid.
I’m glad I can find the time and have some skills to sew the girls costumes. It’s something my mom always did and I loved having custom made costumes. In addition to the Halloween costumes, I also finished a few projects that have been partially made in the sewing bucket for a few years. Allyson now has a few more skirts to wear this winter!
We have a wonderful friend who works for the Boise Philharmonic. For a few years now she has been telling me about all the wonderful things that the philharmonic is doing and inviting us to check them out. Life always gets in the way and we have been unable to attend any of the concerts…until this weekend.
You see, the philharmonic put on a Star Wars concert. The girls (and Mark) were very excited to hear the music from one of their favorite movies. I even volunteered to make capes.
The philharmonic had Star Wars characters in the lobby before the show and of course the girls took several photo ops. The music was wonderful. The conductor was very animated and lots of fun to watch.
Mark even joined in the fun, though he didn’t have a cape. I offered, but he declined. O Darth Vader how tall you are! We all enjoyed the show so much we are talking about getting tickets to see the Lion King performance they are doing next year. What makes it perfect is they have a “Family Series” of performances that are only an hour long and on a Saturday morning. So the kids don’t get antsy. This was the first time the kids had ever seen and orchestra, choir, and conductor. They both realized how much goes into making a song after seeing all those people at work. I’m glad we finally got it together and went to a performance and I hope we do it more often.
The lighting in the lobby was terrible and I had to use the flash for most of the pictures so everyone has that pretty yellow glow. But heck we have pictures with Darth Vader…
Clone troopers….
Jawa’s
and did I mention Darth Vader?
Allyson wanted to be Darth Maul so Mark and her painted the mask. It turned out really great and was a fun project for them to do together.
Now that Star Wars is behind us I’m sewing pirate costumes for Halloween. Hopefully I get them done before the weekend…why do I always wait until the last minute?!?
I don’t think I ever watched college football before moving to Boise. This town LOVES their college football team. We are also fortunate to have a pretty darn good team, so it makes it a bit easier for me. A few years ago we started buying season tickets to the games with some friends of ours. Every few weeks we get together with 35,000+ of our closest friends and cheer on our home team.
Here is a picture of the bleachers across from us. See that little group of people dressed in black in the lower right corner…those are the visitors. This was the game again the Oregon State Beavers. This was our first home game of the season and the stadium was SOLD OUT. 32,000 people inside the stadium and another 10,000 outside in the parking lot tailgating and watching the game on generator ran TV's. It’s quite an experience.
It’s great when the action is right in front of us.
It’s nice to enjoy the game with good friends.
It’s even fun to see the man who paints his body blue sitting in front of us. Gotta love football fans.
My grandmother was in the hospital for a week and has now been home resting and trying to regain some strength for a few days. She was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure which was a shock to all of us. After a week in the hospital, lots of test, talking to several doctors we were happy to have her back home, but she needs help at her house. A bunch of us have been taking turns staying the night with her, cooking for her, and making sure she doesn’t over do it. It’s a terribly hard job..the last part..since she has lived alone for 15+ years and is used to doing everything for herself. We don’t know what the prognosis is, so we are taking it day by day.
In my research for her sodium restrictive diet I came across a recipe for homemade ketchup.
A while ago I bought the book Deceptively Delicious but have never really made anything from it…until now. I made ketchup. It was low sodium…good for Grandma…low sugar…good for Allyson the household ketchup eater…and easy to make…good for me I like simple. For low sodium make sure your tomato paste doesn’t have any added salt. At first I kept the salt the recipe calls for out, but after tasting it and realizing it really needed the salt, I put it in. The carrot puree called for is really easy to make. Peel, slice and steam about 4 carrots. After the carrots have cooled run them through a blender/food processor and the measure for the ketchup recipe.
This ketchup was quite thick so next time I will increase the water to 1/2 cup. But other than that I thought it was a pretty good recipe.
Homemade Ketchup (from Deceptively Delicious)
Stir all ingredients together in a big saucepan and bring to boil over med-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer about 15-20 minutes. Keeps in fridge about 5 days or freeze and thaw as needed.
