Okay. Wow. The last two weeks happened. I’ve been here. I’ve just been busy with typical holiday stuff, traveling, and haven’t been blogging. So here’s a little long catch up.
Christmas was great. We had our annual Christmas Eve dinner at home. This year I decided to try something new and cooked my very first ever turkey. Well, just a turkey breast but still. It turned out very tasty, if I do say so myself.
Wingnut’s face here cracks me up. The poinsettias were a surprise from ODD for our anniversary. Peanut calls them poin-upsettias.
For dessert I’d made creme brulee. I made some teeny ones for the kids. They thought it was pretty cool to watch me caramelize the sugar on top. Unfortunately neither of them really cared much for it. Peanut left the top of hers on her napkin but ate most of the custard. ODD and I rather enjoyed ours, though.
After dinner we had a fire and threw the kids Christmas lists in so they could burn and go up the chimney to Santa. Peanut and Wingnut had great fun helping put wood in the fireplace before ODD started it.
Then we opened Christmas Eve jammies, watched The Polar Express and Joy to the World, then read the Christmas story for family scriptures and Twas the Night Before Christmas for the bedtime story.
We did Christmas morning earlier than we normally would have because we had church at 10. We had a great time opening gifts and playing with everything. Then we left everything, garbage, toys, and all, in a gigantic heap in the living room and rushed around getting ready for church so we could make it there in time.
Church was only an hour since it was sacrament meeting only. It was the mostly musical Christmas program and since I’m in charge of the choir I was put in charge of the whole program. It went really well and everyone sounded great.
Then we came home, snapped pics of the kids in their new Christmas Sunday clothes, had lunch, packed a few things, and once again left everything in a heap in the living room so we could hit the road.
We spent the rest of Sunday and part of Monday with my family. We opened more gifts with them and spent most of our time playing games, eating, and teasing each other. My mom had just had knee surgery so my dad did most of the cooking and I helped with that.
Monday afternoon we went over to ODD’s parents’ house for a few hours to visit with them. They spent Christmas with ODD’s oldest brother and had a good time there but were pretty tired by the time they got home on Monday. We visited with them for a bit before heading home again. ODD had work the rest of the week so we couldn’t stay too long. We went back again over New Years though so ODD’s mom could take a trip to Texas to visit one of his brothers because he and his wife has just had another baby. We stayed with his dad to take care of him. We had lots of fun visiting and playing with the Wild’s. Wildbound, Wildman, Ahenobarbus Textor, and I sang in church on Sunday and that was fun. It’s been a while since I’ve sung in a small group like that and we had a nice blend.
Again, we had to get back home by Monday night so ODD could be in the office again on Tuesday and Peanut started preschool again Tuesday, too. I’ve spent the last few days getting the house back into shape. It never recovered from Christmas (even before that if I’m being honest) and was making me crazy. The surge of New Years cleaning I seem to get every January has been enhanced this year with nesting as well. My house is almost completely clean. Well, as clean as it can be with children living here. It’s nice to have our space back and a more normal schedule back in place. I love the holidays but from about Halloween through New Years things begin to sort of fall apart bit by bit and by January I’m always on the brink of losing my mind so it’s nice to feel in control again. And now that my house is no longer on the brink of self-destruction I’m hoping to get back to posting more regularly.
Today is my ninth anniversary. What are ODD and I doing to celebrate? ODD’s in clinic all day then has a resident meeting tonight. I’m doing laundry. We probably won’t see each other until he gets home around 8:30 or 9. Whee! Not to worry, we’re having a real celebration in January after the chaos of Christmas is over and ODD can take a Friday off from surgery. Welcome to the reality of adulthood. At least neither of us mind waiting a few weeks.
I decided to forego truffles, divinity, and dipped fondants this year. I considered making cinnamon marshmallows and still may but we’ll see. I did make peppermint bark, though, along with salted caramels and three flavors of meringue stars.
More orange stars.
Raspberry stars.
Vanilla stars with blue sprinkles.
Dipped and undipped salted caramels. I wasn’t paying close enough attention though, (both kids had been sent to time out at the moment) and ended up cooking the caramel a bit too high so it ended up a little closer to toffee than the usual soft caramel but that’s okay. ODD likes toffee better anyway and it still gets soft-ish after it’s been sucked on for a minute. The dipped ones were sprinkled with salt and looked better the day they were made. Now the salt has sort of spread and makes the chocolate look like it bloomed which it didn’t. It still tastes good, though. I love the difference the salt makes to the caramel flavor.
Along the lines of yummy treats, I made grapefruit sorbet last night. It’s been too long but I’ve been enjoying the whole thing since the kids don’t seem to dig it and neither does ODD. More for me, more for me! And last week while paying a little visit to Tai Pan Trading I got it in my head to have creme brulee for dessert on Christmas Eve. I made it today so I don’t have to worry about it on Saturday and helped myself to one during the kids nap/quiet time. It’s so tasty, if I do say so myself. I hope the others make it to Christmas Eve.
Peanut’s been saying some of the funniest things lately. The other day she came out of quiet time to see how much longer she had. I told her she still had ten minutes. She said, “Ten minutes!? That’s like a dozen apples!” Hmmm. Not sure what that means but okay. Another day we were working on something in the kitchen. When she saw something cute she said, “Aww! That’s as cute as an orange juice.” Then yesterday while on the way home from the grocery store she told me, “Mama, why do I sleep with my eyes open? Because I look out for danger.” It’s true, she sleeps with her eyes open like I do, poor girl, but who knew that was the reason? Good to know.
Wingnut’s been just as goofy. In addition to beat boxing he’s also been trying to break dance. Most of the rooms in our house have wood or tile yet his favorite place to break dance is on the carpeted living room floor. He does some funny, fancy footwork and sort of spins onto his bottom or back, and kicks his feet up into funny poses. I don’t know where he learns these things but it makes us all laugh when we watch him.
For some reason I left my big-ish round piping tip out on the counter last week and it disappeared. I saw Wingnut walking around with it and promptly confiscated it but not long after it disappeared again. After making the meringue stars and cleaning everything I finally got around to putting it all away and still couldn’t find my piping tip. I asked Peanut and she informed me that Wingnut had chomped on it. Whether or not it was Peanut or Wingnut (Peanut’s been blaming him for random things lately so it’s hard to say) it was found under the TV stand in the living room. Flattened. Apparently I now need to make a trip to Gygi so I can buy a new one. At least it can wait until January.
Now I’m off to finish laundry and possibly sneak in a nap before dinnertime which may or may not consist of ramen noodles. I don’t anticipate posting again before Christmas so Merry Christmas to all of you!
I’m slowly feeling better. My eyes are still a little red and tender but are both back to their normal size and open all the way, so that’s happy. My throat’s still a little icky but I can at least function now. That’s definitely an improvement.
ODD went to a conference for three days last week while I tried to recover from the ickies and by Saturday I almost felt functional again so to welcome him home we did laundry so he came home to clean clothes and made peppermint bark. It’s such an easy, Christmassy treat and I love that the kids can help me. I’m a bit snobbish about it, though, so I thought I’d share how I like to make it.
I use a 2:1 ratio of white chocolate to peppermints. I usually do 1/2 lb. starlight mints with 1 lb white chocolate. You can use candy canes or whatever but I prefer starlight mints for some reason. I have been wanting to make it with home made candy canes but haven’t tried it yet. Maybe with my next batch.
Double bag the mints and let the kids go at it with wooden mallets, spoons, or rolling pins. My kids love this part. I like my peppermint bits on the fine side. Set this aside.
Now, I’d like to take a moment to discuss white chocolate. The reason I can be a bit snobby about peppermint bark is a lot of people use white chips. White chips are NOT the same thing as white chocolate. If you read the labels on any white chips you’ll notice that nowhere on the packaging are they referred to as “chocolate.” They don’t have cocoa butter so they cannot be labeled as white chocolate (which really isn’t “chocolate” either but that’s another discussion). Don’t get me wrong, white chips have their place. Just not in peppermint bark when it comes from my kitchen. Real white chocolate is actually more of an ivory color rather than white and it has a vastly different flavor from white chips. It’s a little more difficult to find in the grocery store than chips and is usually more expensive there, too. I buy mine in big bricks from Orson Gygi and get a much better deal. It may seem like a lot of money to spend all at once considering a full 10 pound brick ranges from $25-65. I bought a mid-price brick for around $40. It still seems rather steep until you realize that’s only $4/lb. and it can be used for quite a while. I’d say that’s much better than paying $4 for a 6 oz. package at the market. Peanut’s hand in the picture gives you an idea of the size of this thing.
Break off a hunk of chocolate and, using a big, sharp knife, shave off bits. It’s better to have small curls rather than large hunks because it melts better.
Measure it out and keep shaving until you have all you need. My scale isn’t great but it’s close enough for this recipe.
Since I use white chocolate rather than white chips it needs to be tempered. To do this I like to use a double boiler. I heat a pan of water until it simmers – not a full, rolling boil.
Place the bowl on the pan and let the heat melt the chocolate. Be sure the simmering water doesn’t actually touch the bottom of the bowl. Just the steam. It takes some time and can’t be rushed or the chocolate will burn.
Stir it up occasionally so all the curls of chocolate get melted and smooth.
Dump in the crushed peppermints.
Stir it all up.
Pour the creamy, minty goodness onto waxed paper and spread it out. I put mine on my marble slab but a plain, old cookie sheet works, too.
I like mine fairly thin (another thing I’m snobby about).
Lick the spatula and bowl clean of the warm, gooey yumminess. If you’re feeling charitable you can share with your little helpers but if you don’t I won’t tell anybody.
Let the chocolate harden and try really hard not to keep going back to it and snitching little tastes. When it’s firm enough but not too hard, break it up into minty, chocolaty shards. If you wait too long it’s harder to break and there are more crumbly, small pieces.
Some people will pour their white chocolate and mint mixture onto milk or dark chocolate so it has two layers. Some drizzzle the finished bark with dark or milk chocolate. Some even color the white chocolate red or pink. These are all pretty and taste nice but, personally, I like mine just plain and simple. Peanut seems to like it that way as well and it’s become her favorite treat lately. I’m certain she’d eat the entire tray if I let her. We took some bark for choir treats at church yesterday and everybody ate them up. Who can blame them? In my opinion, good chocolate makes all the difference.
In addition to my eye infection which, despite my best efforts and constant hand washing, has spread to both eyes I have also somehow acquired some kind of lovely illness to accompany it. No fever, thank goodness, but plenty of achiness and painful swallowing. Big, stinking piles of fun around here.
I woke up feeling so crappy on Tuesday I didn’t take Peanut to preschool and canceled everything else I had that day including my voice lesson, Peanut’s ballet class, and a Relief Society activity during which I was supposed to sing. It just wasn’t happening. Yesterday wasn’t much better (possibly worse) but I did have a doctor appointment scheduled so that was happy news. I had a culture done to see if there’s a fix-able reason as to why I am sick and I was reassured my eyes should start feeling better in the next day or two (and they are a little!). I also had an ultrasound to check on the baby and find out the gender.
A couple of months ago, while we were doing the bedtime routine with the kids, ODD asked the kids if they wanted a brother or a sister. Wingnut has no real opinion as far as we can tell but Peanut insisted the baby was going to be a girl. ODD asked “What if it’s a boy?” Peanut told him, “Not so much.” Great. Truthfully, ODD and I didn’t care either way and I had no feelings as to what the baby was. With Wingnut I’d been convinced he was a girl so to see the little stem on the apple in the ultrasound was totally surprising and I had to rework my thinking. This time I had no preconceived notions and was more than happy to see we’re having another BOY!
ODD and I are very excited about it. Wingnut has no real clue about what’s going on. Peanut, on the other hand, has been dealt a blow. I waited until ODD was home so we could break the “bad” news to her together. When we told her we were having a boy the first words out of her mouth were, “Oh, brother!” as she smacked her head into her hand. Oh, brother, indeed. Poor girl.
Later I asked her what she wanted to name the baby now that we know it’s a boy. Her answer? Boy. Can you feel the love?
This afternoon, though, I pointed out that with two little brothers she’ll be like Candace on Phineas and Ferb. That brightened her up considerably. Now if we can just find a pet platypus someplace we’ll really be in business.
For the last few weeks my little man has been beat boxing. I’m not sure what started it but he does it all the time these days. Maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to my friends in Eclipse lately. Maybe it’s because we watched a few episodes of the Sing Off (Is Pentatonix not completely, awesomely awesome? I never saw their first performance but I’ve been rooting for them since “Video Killed the Radio Star” so though I missed the finale I’m glad to hear they won.). Maybe he’s just transferring his love of car, truck, and train sound effects to everyday life. Whatever the reason it makes me smile every time. He does it everywhere we go and made everyone laugh at our ward party when he portrayed the beat boxing cow, donkey, and sheep at various times throughout the nativity reenactment. We’re quite proud. I finally got him to do it for the camera the other day. When the camera’s out, though, he only obliges me with a couple of rounds as opposed to going on and on when he’s doing it on his own. Goofy Gus. I especially love the arm flailing that accompanies it and the smug mug he gives at the end. So now, for your viewing pleasure, here is my two-year-old beat boxing.
