Notes from my boy

Valentines Day 2013

I wish I could read what was on the hearts! I waited too long to record this-

One morning before school we had an argument. He is the sweetest thing 99.8% of the time; but that other 0.02% is a doozy.  When he is naughty.... watch out!  He was being very disrespectful and made me very upset.  After school, I found this beside my bed.  We were back to the 99.8%.

I was grateful.

Valentine's day

I have been making the kids a "special Valentine's breakfast" for a while now. It started small with a pretty simple breakfast like pink muffins or heart shaped pancakes that was pretty normal but jazzed up a little and served at the bar but with fancy dishes and their own personal valentine.

Every year I would change it up a little bit and serve something different.

A few years ago when valentine's day hit the weekend, I started setting the table and Mark was finally able to join us. We all really liked having him be a part of it too so we try to make it work with all of our schedules.

Since then, I've served it at the table with tablecloth and candles. I've been collecting glass dishes at Savers and DI because it's fun to try to use all glass plates, goblets, bowls, etc. They don't all match but who cares!

The kids still think it's fancy.

Last year I hit upon a menu that I think is a keeper. Some of the kids said "Don't tell me what you're going to do" (they like the whole surprise element of it all) "but are you going to do that breakfast casserole again??????? .... and those heart sausages were really cute. I really like sausage......"

(I could have just used my pictures from last year... they look the same!)

So I decided I'd better stick with those 2 elements of my valentine breakfast. I decided to try the "Night owl sweet rolls" I've been reading about for years. I'm not posting the recipe because none of us liked them but you put your frozen rolls in a bunt pan and put a mixture of butter, brown sugar and dry cook and serve butterscotch pudding powder on the rolls. They rise overnight and you bake them in the morning. They looked beautiful when I dumped them out of the pan but they just weren't that good.

I think I'd do it again with the frozen rolls (I liked that I fixed it the night before and just left it on the counter to rise) and just roll each roll in butter and cinnamon/sugar and then pour some the melted butter/brown sugar mixture over the top of them. That would be more like the cinnamon rolls we're used to but in the pull apart monkey bread form that was so pretty.

(I don't know where Carly was.... but she got one too!)

I also revived the scratch off valentine from last year because I heard from one of the aides at school that Samantha had been talking about them and wondering if her luck would change this year.....

It didn't. She had a king kong cone, a texas doughnut and a small ice cream cone on her card and she scratched off the small cone...

So I guess I've hit upon some winners that they want to see every year. This definitely makes it easier for me because I know what to do.

They each had their own valentine that was something little they liked.

Samantha got 3 lemons

"My love for you will never sour because you're so sweet!"

Mason got his own bag of shelled sunflower seeds

"When I seed you , my heart went boom boom"

Jacob got his own box of chocolate chip muffin mix

"There's muffin better than your smiling face!"

Carly and RAchel got mint truffles

"You're no truffle to love"

&

"You melt my truffles away"

Mark got Stephens Cherry Hot chocolate, an IBC Black Cherry soda and peppermint breath strips

"You're soda sweet when you want to be. We were mint to be together. You put the hot in my chocolate baby! say you'll always love me!"

He did say it.

ahhhhh....

That's why I do it!

FedEx guy vs. The Buffalo (wing)

Our exciting family Valentine adventure was going to "The Wingshack" in American Fork

to watch Mark attempt

"The Wingshack's Buffalo wing challenge"

You pay $10 and have 30 minutes to eat 12 boneless breaded buffalo wings with

XXXHOT SAUCE.

If you win you get:

1. A free T-shirt

2. A $10 wingshack gift certificate

3. Your picture posted on the wall of fame

He's been itching to try this since August so we just decided to try it.

Here's The Big Cheese, confident, hungry...

He decided to go with the knife and fork approach. He has watched Man Vs. Food enough times to know that you don't want to have that hot chili residue on your fingers and itch an eye or a cheek and have other places than your tongue burning....

They were HOT!!! My nose was burning just from smelling it across the table but it wasn't the heat but the amount of food that got to him. They go with the boneless, breaded chicken tenders on purpose b/c the breading holds on to more of the hot hot hot sauce. These were BIG tenders too. It was a lot of food.

Since he started working for FedEx, Mark has been eating a lot better and lost about 15 lbs. He takes carrot sticks, celery sticks, string cheese, a granola bar, little tubs of tuna fish that are packed dry that he can just eat right out of the container, PB &J sandwiches,etc. He eats smaller amounts throughout the day and isn't used to eating such large amounts.

Here he is at about 2/3 through both the chicken & time, with about 10 minutes left. He was struggling. The kids would cheer him on. I thought he was going to lose it at about 3 minutes to 0. He kind of gagged and then kept it together. He didn't want to hear how much time he had left. It stressed him out. I thought he would laugh and joke throughout the time but he was pretty serious and focused.

The employees had set a timer on the counter counting down the 30 minutes and Mason could hardly sit still. He was always jumping up and checking the time. Rachel was the reporter/cheerleader. She kept cracking jokes and commenting on his progress and taking pictures and videos.

He succeeded with 0.00001 seconds to spare. In fact, if he's had to do the "fear factor mouth check" he would have lost. The kid at the counter said "as long as it's all in your mouth and you keep it down... We'll give it to you!"

He did.

So proud.

We are so proud!!!!

He told us to use the gift certificate if we wanted so we bought a $10 box of Teriyaki boneless breaded tenders. I figured I'd better get something everyone would like. We got them to go and enjoyed them at home. They were tasty!

yum!

Valentine Faux Pas

I made my traditional Valentine's day breakfast again this year. The food is never the same, I do whatever sounds good in the weeks leading up. Sometimes it's simple, sometimes it's more involved.

what is the same is that I use glass dishes, candles and try to be "fancy".

Valentines Breakfast 2o11 menu:

Breakfast casserole (not one of those bread ones!)

Mandarin oranges

Sausage

cranberry/pomegranate juice

Orange juice

cinnamon/sugar mini muffins

Breakfast Casserole:

20-24 oz frozen hash browns (I added some from another bag, so I did more like 32 oz)

1/4 c butter

3 c sausage, bacon, or ham, cooked (I did ham)

3 c shredded cheese (I used colby Jack)

1/2 c half and half

6 eggs (I used 8 eggs)

1/2 tsp seasoning salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Spray 9 x 13 dish with non stick cooking spray. Add has browns, brush with butter and brown in oven for 20-25 minutes. Layer sausage bacon or ham and cheese over cooked hash browns. Beat together cream, eggs, salt and pepper and pour mixture over casserole. Return to oven and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes uncovered.

(I cooked it at 400º the first 30 minutes and then lowered it to 350º after I added the eggs)

Rachel does not like eggs and I didn't know how strong the egg flavor would be in the casserole so I made her a little one without eggs. She LOVED it, ate the whole thing, and made another one Monday after school and writing up the altered recipe for her recipe book.

I fried up sausage links, making half of them into these hearts from my favorite friend "Family fun Magazine" That's an uncooked fettucini noodle skewering the halves together and the arrow parts are made of what else? cheese!

I had an Amish friendship bread start that needed to be made up that day so I turned part of it into mini muffins.

The breakfast casserole was such a big hit it may turn into an annual thing.

I found an idea for scratch & win valentines on this blog; "Let me count the ways" They were so easy.

I made all mine for Macey's ice cream cones. The scratch off spots said "small", "medium" and "king kong". I put the sizes all in different orders on the cards and used silly little rhymes that had something to do with ice cream.

"I scream, you scream, then we make up. That's the best part"

"I scream you're the coolest kid on the block"

"You're a twist of every good thing!"

"Rose are red, violets are blue

vanilla is sweet and so are you",

and so on....

I told them all before they scratched off their heart, "this is all in fun. There is no complaining. You get what you get and if you complain or scratch off more than one, you get nothing!"

They were all good sports and made it fun. Mark and Rachel got King Kongs and the rest got medium. I'm glad nobody got the small all by themselves. That would have been sad. We went that night after Mark got home from work to get our ice cream.

My faux pas moment came in my other valentines.....

I had a little sweet for all my sweethearts.

For Rachel & Carly I had valentine Junior Mints

For Jacob, Samantha & Mason I had valentine Airheads

For Mark, I had Townhouse crackers and squeeze cheese.

Again, I had to write a silly little rhyme for each of them.

For the big girls I had written "you were MINT to be my daughter. Please be Mine for eternity"

For the little 3 I had written "I'm no airhead, I'm lucky to have you for a son/daughter. Please be mine for eternity"

For Marks, I had written "In a Townhouse or in a tent, loving you is Easy Cheesy. Please be mine for 19 more years." We had been talking some the past week about how our 19th anniversary was coming up in April and so I was thinking in terms of we had spent 19 years together already and wanted to have that much more.

He looked at his and then looked over at the kids valentines whereupon I had asked them to "be mine for eternity" and started teasing me about only wanting 19 more years with him to which Carly quipped

"Maybe 19 more years with you IS an eternity to her"

On my lunch hour I called him and said "I just called to say I love you" and he said "good, cuz we only have 18 more years!"

I don't think I'm ever going to live this down....

I did try to make it up to him that afternoon by

sending him a singing valentine.

One of the local high schools hires out their Senior choir to sing to your valentine so at 3:30 he's sitting at his desk and in walks about 8 girls in red dresses and ask for Mark. When he indicates he is indeed the man they're looking for they make a semi-circle around him and start singing "Falling for you". I came in right after they left and he was laughing and said "I don't get embarrassed but I got embarrassed!"

I would really like to have him around longer than 19 years......

I think I could handle eternity with him.

(I wonder if there are suitcases to put away in heaven....)

He makes me laugh when I'm mad

He's generally the first one to apologize after a disagreement

He makes me feel safe

He pushes me to think differently about things.

He makes me laugh.

Toilet paper tube valentines.... You're gonna want 'em too!

I am a long time believer in and subscriber to Family fun Magazine.

Great birthday cakes. Great craft ideas. Hours of fun for the whole family! I promise.

anyway.....

When I saw this idea in February 2011 I got really excited because.... Hello! toilet paper tubes are extremely plentiful in a house of 7. Paint, I got. Beads, I got. Embroidery floss, I got. I didn't even have to go to the store for a thing. I thought it turned out really cute. What do you think?

I'm a Sappy Valentine food nerd

Okay I get a little sappy (silly + happy) when it comes to holiday food. I really enjoy Valentine's day meals. Trying to come up with pink/red/heart-shaped food. It's just fun!

I always do a special breakfast for the kids on Valentine's day. It's usually a school day so they come down to the counter to find fancy dishes set out and a little valentine gift from me, something small and inexpensive but just for them. kind of like these pictures from a couple years ago... look at my baby! Still in a high chair....

Really it's more presentation than gourmet food....

That year it was 2 kinds of jiffy muffins, canned pineapple and home canned grape juice.

But fancy glasses, heart straws, powdered sugared plates, heart notes stuck into their muffins....

a little treat.... They love it and talk it up in the days leading up to valentine's just to make sure I don't do something crazy and FORGET to fancy up breakfast!

This year being Saturday and having Carly's friend staying with us while her parents were out of town, I felt a little more pressure to make it sensational....

I set the real table and Mark was in on it this year. We went shopping together for ingredients for yogurt parfaits.

strawberry yogurt

Vanilla yogurt

strawberries

kiwi

bananas

granola (my favorite: Post Honey bunches of oats "just bunches")

and I made cinnamon rolls from a recipe that gave instructions for making them the night before, putting them tightly covered in the fridge and being able to just pull them out of the fridge and put them right into the oven to bake. They turned out great and that sure made it easy.

My table looked like this:

Thanks to Mark for the lovely red and white roses....

Look Amy... I actually sewed my table runner.

I didn't have enough matching glass bowls or glass plates so I did some mix and matching. Some got ice cream glasses like this and some got glass bowls for their yogurt parfaits and I put the plates on top of their bowls/glasses which all had inside a chocolate peeps marshmallow bear.

I bought strawberry marshmallows on a whim and then didn't know what to use them for. On the back of the package were instructions on how to make flowers from simply cutting the marshmallows with kitchen shears in slices. I think they turned out cute and the strawberry marshmallows... YUM!

Since it was Saturday Mark wanted to make sure we DID something other than just hang out and watch TV all day.
I know you're wondering if I typed that right. Yes. Mark said that!!!!!
We had a game day bonanza. We played Phase 10, curses, Sorry & Memory.
Sorry was the big hit and was played MANY MANY MANY times by small groups and large.

Dinner was a less formal affair than breakfast. I just got it ready about 5ish and people sauntered in and fixed a plate when they felt like it. I made pink rice, heartshaped BBQ meatpatties, broccoli and a strawberry-pineapple jello dish
(I just can't call it a salad. It's just not right)

I forgot to take a picture of the finished plate but this is how my "sappy" heart-shaped meat patties turned out.


Raw

Cooked.

I know... Sappy. But fun!

Brownie Tarts: A good thing

I made these for Valentine's day for my family. It was a recipe I found in "The Domestic Diva's Party Handbook". A gift from my mother, the original domestic Diva! Stop rolling your eyes mom!

I actually bought a pan at Target to make Valentine's treats. It was a molded mini cake pan that had 6 cavities about the size of a jumbo muffin. They had heart designs on the bottom of the cups that were supposed to come out molded on top of your little cakes. I then started to worry about if the design would actually come out? Would I find myself at midnight making extra batches because part of the design stuck to the pan. wah! Then Domestic Diva that I am.... I got out my little pink cookbook and ran across this wonderful recipe and took that pan right back to Target and exchanged it for a pretty lemon yellow bathroom rug! Random I know, but warm toes in my bathroom is such a happier thought than cake sticking in my pans at midnight.

***Boca kid trivia* New Carly expression: "what the random!")***

One less pan cluttering up my cupboards and I already have all the equipment I need to make these little "tarts" and they are so EASY and they look fabulous and they taste fabulous so fancy heart design mini cakes..... Bah humbug to you!

Oh and the filling tastes like the chocolate mousse I used to love at the Sizzler salad bar. I don't know if they still have it as I haven't been for a while.

******Random Jamie Trivia: I worked at "The sizzler" for 2 summers in between college. I once poured hot coffee on a patron and yes, I broke a few plates but I got good tips from the single marines! If they came in a pack, you were assured a fabulous tip and a few phone numbers. (I even dated one...) If they were on a date.... fuhgeddaboutit, you got Nuthin'!*****

So if you have a special occasion and want an easy, beautiful dessert or just a massive chocolate craving that can not be denied.... here you go. My family loved them. I want to experiment with white cake and vanilla pudding to see how they turn out.

Brownie Tarts

1 package chocolate fudge cake mix (I used a devil's food)

1/2 c buter, melted (I used margarine)

1 egg

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans w/cooking spray. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Scoop batter into muffin cups until 2/3's full. ( The dough will be very dry and stiff. I actually rolled the dough into balls that seemed the right size to fill the pan 2/3's full and that worked well)

Bake 10-12 min or until the edges are set (10 min. worked for me) Remove pans from oven and press tops of brownies with a tart shaper or the plastic lid of a soda pop bottle to make indentations. Cool in pan 15 in. Gently remove from pan. Cups will be firm. Pipe or spoon filling into formed cups. Store tightly covered in fridge. Yield 36 tarts

Chocolate Mousse Filling:

1 small package instant chocolate pudding

1 Cup half and half

1 container (8 oz) cool whip, thawed

Mix pudding with half and half. Fold in whipped topping.

Best served when chilled. May decorate with a slice of fresh strawberry, a raspberry or chocolate sprinkles on top.

Jamie's tip: I made my tart shells a couple days ahead and froze them. I pulled them out on Saturday and piped in the filling and I topped them with hearts I had made from melting chocolate chips and putting them in a ziploc bag w/the edge snipped off and piping them onto a piece of waxed paper on a cookie sheet.

The Valentine box tradtition continues....

This is Carly's 6th grade valentine's box. (I can't believe how different she looks there.) The prince in the hot air balloon even talked. If you pressed his back he spouted romantic lines like "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair" and "Will you marry me?" and "I love you" and the best effect of all.... a big kissing sound! Carly thought this was pretty funny and got lots of laughs from her fellow 6th graders. Her box the year before was our best and predigital camera and I don't have a scanner so you'll just have to use your imagination. It was a spongebob box and won first place in her class competition. (we get a little competitive when there's a class competition involving valentine boxes....) We actually covered the whole thing with yellow sponges and made little arms and feet out of pipe cleaners and attached little white socks, black shoes and little white gloved hands. Honestly... I'm still proud of it. It was quite fabulous.

Rachel, the same year, in 4th grade loved Carly's idea so much she copied and we didnt' even have any rude "you're copying me" comments. She didn't have the fabulous talking prince however. We only had one of those. Last year, in 6th Grade she made this great bumblebee box which won first place in her class competition. (what did I tell you about our competitive spirit?) I couldnt' find a picture anywhere in my digital library and I KNOW we took pictures. Now I'm wondering what other pictures are missing from my library and WHERE DID THEY GO?????

So this year it was Jacob's turn. He's in 4th grade now. He didnt' tell me until Thursday morning as he was getting ready to leave for school that his class was decorating boxes. I said "remind me tonight!!!" He didn't. He reminded me Friday morning at 8am. School starts for him at 9:15. Well I started throwing ideas at him that I thought we could manage. He liked the cars one. No competition in his class room this year but I still managed to get excited about it, even at the last minute. We had fun and he liked his final product so what more can I ask from an hour of my morning?
See the road that dead ends at the valentine slot? The red convertible is breaking to a halt before it and the little heart sign reads "Dead end for broken hearts". He made the bridge over the slot with 2 popsicle sticks from his craft box (thanks Auntie Em) and hot glue and cardstock. I didnt' think it would hold a car up but it did. His box took a tumble onto the floor and by the time I got to his class party to help, his bridge was struggling to remain standing but he had added a little glue and it held through the party. On the way home it collapsed. I was secretly pleased as this meant the box would get thrown away instead of remain in his room for weeks postValentines day.

Hmmm... what will we do next year?????????