*** finding the entertainment in everyday life ***

Saturday, December 31, 2011

NYC

The weekend after Thanksgiving we head down to NJ for my family Xmas weekend celebration.  We decided to stay in NYC on Friday night and spent the day in the city on Saturday before heading west for a Sat night dinner and Sun extended family party.  All but Rory enjoyed walking around outside...it was crowded but lovely nonetheless. 

We wrapped up the day at the Museum of Natural History. Rory almost imploded when we walked into the Dinosaur rooms there. Wish I had taken some pics, but I didn't.  I seriously need a new camera. 

Rory admiring some stuff at the Lego store in Rockefeller Center.  The kids at the tree in the hotel...

Shelagh and I at Rockefeller Center



Joe & Kelly at Rock Ctr


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Friday, December 30, 2011

Merry Christmas

We had a lovely and relaxing holiday weekend...Kids were thrilled with Santa's gifts and the Wii that Joe and I decided to throw in to the mix. 
New jammies...



Go Bruins!



Happy girl on Xmas morning...




One of my fave Kelly faces...



An entire day of Lego building...Hogwarts by Shelagh and Lego Kingdoms Prison Tower by Rory.  It was a quiet and mellow day!


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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Rory & Kelly

I seriously need a new camera and must stop using my crappy iPhone camera, but how cute is this pic????


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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Old House Parts

While in Kennebunkport, ME we also stopped by a store called Old House Parts which is INSANE!!  It is a 3-4 story huge barn with old house parts organized by type.  I walked around mesmerized for a bit while Joe worked with the guy there to get some door knobs for the doors he's been replacing around the house.  Then, I got supremely bored and played games on my phone.  Look at these pics, though!  If only I was a "renovator".  I'm clearly not.














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Stuffed Crepes for Breakfast!

Joe and I managed to squeeze out an overnight getaway before Thanksgiving up in Kennebunkport, ME.  It truely takes me only 24 hours to refresh myself.  Look at these beautiful breakfast crepes I ordered at a local diner type place.  They were stuffed with eggs, mushrooms and cheese...it was a basic flour sauce that wasn't all that great - thankfully I had it put on the side, but the crepes were heavenly!  I might have to make some this weekend...

By the way, I posted this picture in mid-November and never took the post out of draft.  I've been a huge blog slacker.

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Monday, November 14, 2011

Happy Halloween

I'm such a blog-slacker!  2 weeks late...
Here they are...the homemade Tiger, Sleeping Beauty the princess, and Obi Wan Kenobi.  Not my best shot, but at least I didn't forget, right?


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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

FINALLY, tooth #3 Departs

Due to an accidental pop from Rory...



Waiting for the front tooth next to it to fall next!

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Monday, October 31, 2011

Couldn't It Have Hit Joe's Car?

Few more feet and the purchase of a new car for Joe might have been a little easier...

This does screw us up for Halloween. If I get stuck with a bucket of candy I'll be pissed.





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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Roasted Cauliflower Soup w Chive Oil

Holy fattening, but quite good I thought!  This recipe was from the October 2011 Bon Appetit.


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Monday, October 17, 2011

Apple & Pumpkin Picking

Our camera got sand in the lens this summer and clearly I need a new one.  My crappy iPhone 3G camera is just not cutting it.  We did have a wonderful day with cousins at a farm in MA.  They had a gazillion pumpkins to choose from.  They had a kids hay maze that we spent some time on along with mini-tractor driving.  It was a gorgeous day and they still had plenty of apples for it being so late in the season.  Also, goats and sheeps, apple cider donuts, apple cider, and hay ride.  Great day!


 
 
 














In case you are wondering,  Kelly likes to dance with her arms out and eyes closed.  This happens daily.  This kid is always dancing and/or singing.

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Friday, October 14, 2011

Potato, Kale & Sausage Soup

Had some Kale and Potatoes from the weekly share and love soup this time of year.  Searched real quick online and got a Food & Wine recipe for Potato, Kale, & Turkey Sausage soup.  Used chicken sausage and a little more broth than they stated and it came out nice.  Need some fresh bread for this to eat instead of the spaghetti at the school spaghetti dinner tonight (ew).




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Friday, October 7, 2011

More Kelly & Shrek Singing

This is from late summer, but I love it.  Kelly singing Shrek (AGAIN!), but in a cute dress and followed by our good night exchange.  So sweet...

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Shelagh at the Pool

Some swimming and some silliness from Shelagh...

An impromptu song...

Rory at the Pool

Rory and Shelagh elude me at the pool.  I didn't, unfortunately, get as many videos of them.  I did get this brief cannonball.

By the end of the day and the last day of a weekend of last pool days, Rory was SPENT.  I got him to sit down with a book and relax for awhile thankfully.  And, ended up with this...he's such a love muffin.

Kelly Fun in the Water - Part 3

For the end of year Labor Day pool party, we had a DJ and Kelly really got into it.  No fear, no embarassment.  Pure dance joy.  And, lots of admirers.  Kelly just wants to have fun a la Cyndi Lauper.

Kelly Fun in the Water - Part 2

More Kelly in the water fun...she LOVES Shrek and sings the song daily.  Here she is singing off the board and swimming face down.

Kelly Fun in the Water - Part 1

I took a million videos to remember how fantastic Kelly was in the pool this summer as a 2 year old.  Simply fearless.  She inspired a bunch of the little kids to go off of the board.  She is face down, blowing bubbles, and kicking.  She is jumping off the board and allowing Joe to throw her all around.  As soon as she hears music over the speakers she stops everything to dance for whoever is around.  She is a force to be reckoned with!  Here is the first of many videos...

Friday, September 30, 2011

Good Oral Hygiene

Kelly believes strongly in good oral hygiene for man and beast alike.  Shelagh helps enforce proper spitting.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Kelly Loves WILL.I.AM

Kelly's moves are becoming legendary.  From this morning, a little Drop It Low from the movie Rio, which all my kids love.  It is pretty catchy.  I must get Rory on video doing this too - he's a ham with the rap-py part.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

NH Fall Wknd - cont

Bubbles, too much candy, too little sleep, enough fun for the kids to forget to fight!






























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NH Fall Wknd Away

Joe's birthday, Santa's Village, Storyland...exhausted!!






























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Sunday, September 4, 2011

Roast Chicken Diavolo

Everyday Food came out with a special issue this summer that was very much like the original magazine, but focused on seasonal summer food and cooking.  I made the Roast Chicken Diavolo the other night which called to spatchcock the chicken (remove the backbone, spread the chicken out and press down for faster cooking).  I had seen my mom do this with a chicken in a class I did with her last year and just hadn't done it myself yet.  It was easy to prep and much easier to cut up than a full roasted chicken.  The recipe I followed was pretty good, but I over salted the outside and couldn't eat the skin, which while disappointing was not the worst thing for me with my high cholesterol.  Recipe is not online yet, but here is what I did:

Roast Chicken Diavolo
  • 1 Tbl finely chopped rosemary
  • 1 Tbl finely chopped oregano
  • 2 whole dried chiles de arbol (I skipped this)
  • 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest + 1 Tbl lemon juice
  • s & p
  • 2 Tbl + 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1 whole chicken
  • 2 red peppers cut into 1/2 inch strips
  • 1 lg yellow onion cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch wedges
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  1. Preheat oven to 425.  In small bowl, stir together rosemary, oregano, chiles, lemon zest and juice and pepper. 
  2. Lightly coat a 9x13 baking dish with oil.  Place chicken in dish, skin side up.  Spread herb mixture over chicken and under skin of breast.  Season with salt and drizzle oil over it as well.
  3. Roast chicken on upper rack, 10 minutes.  Meanwhile place peppers and onion on a baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tbl oil.  Toss to coat and arrange in a single layer.  Add s & p and put on middle rack. 
  4. Add wine to chicken.  Roast 20 minutes.
  5. Remove pans from oven.  Transfer veggies to pan with chicken arranging around bird.  Roast until skin is golden about 20 minutes.  Rest for 10 minutes. 

Friday, September 2, 2011

Braised Scallions & Braised Celery

I had to do something with the CSA celery and scallions I've had for awhile.  So, last week on my cooking extravaganza before the "hurricane", I went nuts cooking the veggies out of my frig.  Also, I had to clean the frig - it was disgusting in there.  The local farm celery was so fragrant and small, I wanted to cook it delicately and get the most flavor out of it.  I went to the old school Time/Life cooking series for Vegetables and found a recipe Stewed Celery, Michigan-Style.  If I hadn't waited so long to do something with the celery I think it would have been a little less tough.  The dish came out good either way.
 

 
Stewed Celery, Michigan-Style
  • 2 large bunches celery
  • salt
  • 3 Tbl butter
  • 6 scallions, trimmed and most of the green  parts removed
  • 1 small garlic clove, chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken or beef stock
  • pepper
  1. Separate the celery ribs, then remove the tops.  Wash the ribs and cut into 3 inch lengths.  Throw celery into boiling water and cook, uncovered, for 3 minutes.
  2. Bring stock to a boil. 
  3. Melt butter in saucepan then add scallions, garlic, and celery. 
  4. Pour in the stock and cook, covered, over low heat until veggies are quite tender (about 30 minutes), adding more stock if necessary.
  5. When done, the stock should have cooked away entirely.  Season with salt before serving.
And, because the scallions came out so yummy in the celery dish, I did close to the same thing with the remaining, huge bunch of scallions I had as well.
 

 

Braised Scallions with Anchovy & Garlic
  • Large bunch scallions, slice in half lengthwise if not of uniform size to others
  • salt
  • 3 Tbl butter
  • 1 small garlic clove, sliced thin
  • 3 anchovy filets
  • 1 1/4 cups chicken or beef stock
    1. Melt butter in saucepan then add anchovies.  Saute until melted and broken down.
    2. Add garlic and then add scallions after garlic is fragrant. 
    3. Pour in the stock and cook, covered, over low heat until veggies are quite tender (about 15 minutes).
    4. Season with salt before serving.

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Thursday, September 1, 2011

First Day of 2nd Grade

Over the last few weeks Shelagh found out that NONE of her good friends would be in her class this year.  She kept positive though and, as expected, she has a nice collection of friends from K and other activities that she now has an opportunity to develop friendships with.  She likes her teacher and has been up and ready for school before I get out of bed for 3 days in a row.  This is unheard of in Shelagh's world...I take this as a really good sign and will choose to forget the world class meltdown that occurred 2 nights before the 1st day.  All is good in 2nd grade.  I buckled on my no dance and gymnastics at the same time rule and now Shelagh will have Dance all year for the 4th year, gymnastics for a couple of months, soccer for the season, and Brownies twice a month.  It's a whirl of activities, but if I don't keep her busy she spends her time annoying Rory and being totally bored.  Plus if she ends up switching schools to Rory's school at some point then she'll hate me a little less, right?








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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Adventure Girl

Shelagh went back to school today (pictures coming), so yesterday was the 1st time since before Rory was born that I have had only 1 kid on my non-work days.  Kelly and I had a great day.  We took a long walk around a lake, played in the tot playground, went to the pool together (see below) and then returned to the pool with the big kids after school pickup.  She is an absolute nut and the super star of the pool.  Everyone cheers for her when she jumps off the board and is amazed that she is swimming face down and blowing bubbles.  Future swim champion?  Possibly. 

Sunday, August 28, 2011

"Whole Buttered" Onion Soup



 

From Rozanne Gold's Radically Simple book that I copied while at my mom's about a year ago...  Just made it yesterday while trying to cook through the veggies in my frig pre-hurricane.  I got a nice few hours in and made several new things.  This soup came out delicious!  I changed a few things.  I had 2 huge fresh white onions to make 1/2 the recipe.  I didn't have Madeira, so I used Marsala.  Finally, I had more pulp than thin soup, so instead of reserving the pulp to put on top I just mixed it all in.  My house smelled wonderful last night.
"Here's a radical new way to make onion soup. There's no slicing, dicing, or stirring. Instead, whole butered onion bake for 4 hours, oozing luscious juices that caramelize like toffee."

3 pounds medium yellow onions, about 10

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, sliced thin
3 tablespoons Madeira
1-1/2 tablespoons wildflower honey or truffle honey
sprigs of fresh chervil for garnish

  1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Peel the onions. Place in a 6-quart Dutch oven. Top with the butter.
  2. Cover and bake 4 hours, until very soft, turning the onions after 2 hours. Transfer to a large bowl.
  3. Pour 4 cups water into the casserole and scrape up the browned bits. Add to the onions.
  4. In 2 batches if necessary, puree the onion mixture in a food processor until very smooth. Pour through a sieve placed over a medium saucepan. Mash down to extract all the juices. Save the pulp.
  5. Bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the Madeira and honey. Simmer 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper.
  6. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a dollop of onion pulp and chervil. Serves 4

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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Kindergarten 1st Day

So handsome in his uniform this morning. I managed not to cry at drop off. He did great! Long 1st day with after school in there too. I expect a few days of tantrums...








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Monday, August 22, 2011

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Week at the Cape

Much needed, lovely vacation. Some bathroom project situations, lots of big kid fighting, early rising, and a dead bat when we got home. More later...











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