Corndogs, a Cavity, and a Confession

I love the reality show Top Chef. It always inspires me to cook or at least eat something really delicious. Last night the guy who got voted off made some corndogs, which apparently were soggy. But, they looked REALLY GOOD! This morning, I just couldn't get those corndogs out of my mind. I had to have one. I just loaded all of the kids in the car so I could get a corndog, or maybe two. Considering the gas prices these days, it was one pricey treat. But, it was so good and totally worth it. I just recently discovered my love for the corndog. As a kid I hated them, and it always made me kind of sad because who doesn't like to eat things off a stick? I would watch my sisters in envy dipping into the mustard and chewing away. I just couldn't do it. Then, a couple of months ago my sister was serving them up to the kids. I decided to give it another try since it had been at least 20 years. Oh, it was love at first bite. What was I thinking? These things are pure fried sweet corn bread hot dog heaven. I am now on a constant quest for a good corndog. The famous Jeremy I talked about in my last food post is disgusted by my new craving, and won't even order them for me when we drive up to Sonic. He makes me yell past him, CORNDOG!!

Spencer had his first cavity today. So sad. He was a trooper, and thanks to his Uncle, the great Dr. Wells, he did great. He has been quite fascinated with the whole numb thing. He keeps saying he wants to brush his teeth to make it better. Great, go for it.

Now, for the confession. I always hear parents say that they would take their kids place to keep them from experiencing pain. Not today. Not me. I know, I am terrible. But, I really cannot stand getting shots in my mouth. I felt bad for him, really bad, really really bad, but I was glad it was not me. Is that terrible?

Cute Cousins

Cooking and Eating and Cooking

I have started on this journey of learning how to cook. I am having a blast, and it is amazing how chopping and preparing food can just calm my nerves. I guess when you get married and start having kids you kind of have to start cooking more. Our first couple years of marriage I literally made pasta roni at least 3 times a week, and that was the main course. I would throw some canned corn next to it, and I thought that was pretty good. Jeremy has always been the best and has never complained. Really, he has been so patient. Even now, he is being very good about dealing with all of my "experiments". So, why do I love to cook?

1. I LOVE to eat, so....

2. My Mom instilled in me the desire to sit down to a home cooked meal each night. Great Memories, thanks Mom!

3. Connie, you rock! (My mother-in-law, the most amazing throw it together and it is amazing chef in the world!)

4. I married into a SERIOUS cooking family, I can never compete, but they give me great ideas to try!

5. I really enjoy the presentation of a great meal. I love to make it look good.

6. Jeremy loves to try everything I make, and has really supported my new hobby.

7. Maybe someday my kids will appreciate my cooking, not looking good by the way.

8. Almost every gathering revolves around food.

9. The Food Network!

10. I LOVE to eat

I went to my first official cooking class with premier Northwest chef Jon Mortimer. He owns two of the best restaurants here in town, Moritmers and Franco Latino. His class was so fun and he answered any question no matter how silly. I could have stayed there all night just listening to him talk about food and techniques, and where to get good ingredients. He said that he has had many more cooking disasters than great dishes. Also, he said that cooking is the easy part, it is finding the right ingredients that can be the hard part. That is so true! Sometimes a recipe isn't that difficult, but some of the ingredients are too hard or expensive to find. The class was focused on braising techniques, but I learned a lot of other good tips. The best one for me is that Canola Oil is better than Olive oil when using high heat. Grape seed oil and peanut oil are good for that too, but a lot more expensive. I do a lot of pan searing and I have always been using olive oil, but canola will be better. He said, "Who started spreading the rumor that Olive oil is more healthy than other oils? It is still just fat."

Happy Cooking everybody!

Another Saturday, More Eggs

We dyed Easter eggs in prep for our hunt tomorrow. Then the boys couldn't wait, so we just went for it. I'm sure we will have many more hunts today and tomorrow. Whatever, we can always use a good competition around here. Just keep running around, I'm sure there are more eggs out there somewhere...

Boise....Who Knew?

In case we have not told everybody we know yet, we love Boise!! Yes, we live in Idaho, and it stinks here, ok? Moving on... It is amazing how some cities just have a good feeling. I really get that here in Boise. Not to mention any names, but one of the cities we lived in was extremely unfriendly. It should be ranked on one of those surveys, most unfriendly places to live. I'm sure it would come in very close to first. Moving on.... Living here by my sisters has been such a treat!! People here are very friendly, and our neighborhood especially has been great to get to know everybody. The backyard has been our biggest bonus I think. The boys, especially Sam just play outside all the time. We are really looking forward to exploring more of Idaho this summer. Jeremy has the campouts all planned out! Come and visit Boise. We love it!

Business Items

Here are a few updates for you. In case you did not hear, I did find my keys. Yes, they were in my purse, and I am humiliated. Both sets were in the same place!!! I went to my first official cooking class last week and I will be telling you more about that soon. Let me just say, I have found my passion. Sam is starting his first season of soccer, and Jeremy is going to be his coach. Spencer has his first piano recital thing coming up, just for the other students. I think he is going to play "Old Pig Donald" which is Old McDonald renamed for some strange reason. If I were the farmer I would be extremely insulted. Spencer is doing so well on the piano! I picked up our snorkel gear today and Jeremy got a new surf shirt, so we are getting ready for the big send off. Life is good, espcially when you can use your car again. I am going to post some new recipes on my food blog. Any requests? What are you craving? Have a great day!

Another Monday

I decided to make some cupckaes, becuase it seems like that is what fun Moms do. I added my own little twist with the jelly beans. I am just getting so excited about Spring flowers because for the first time I planted my own tulip bulbs and they are starting to come up! We had some at our last house but they were put in by the previous owners. So, Monday nights at our house are always super busy trying to get homework, piano, and FHE done before bedtime. We added complication this week because we promised Spencer another video game rental on Monday to help him be motivated during the week for school. You should see this motivator in action for him, it works like a dream! If he does his work at school, does his homework, and piano practicing he can play for a little bit before bed. He was being slow yesterday about his homework and practicing so as the night went on we told him he would not be able to go get his game because we stilll needed to have Family Home Evening. You should have seen Sam and Spencer followed quickly by Matthew run into place and sit patiently on the couch waiting for the lesson. That NEVER happens at our house. There is usually so much crying, complaining, and jumping that you can't hear a word of the lesson. They sait quietly on the couch and listened and then answered all of Jeremy's questions aout the Plan of Salvation. Wow, it was amazing! Then we all headed off to the video game store/bookstore to get another Spiderman for the Wii. After they got their game Spencer wanted to look at some books. I immediately got into Mom mode and said no, we have to go,keep everyody moving toward the car. Jeremy quickly jumped in and reminded me that it IS a good thing if he wants to go look at some books. Oh yeah, enjoy the moment. Ok, the boys spent about half hour looking at lots of books, mostly transformers and spiderman.

The Joke is Over

I'm sorry this blog is taking such an ugly turn, but the keys are still missing! Both sets of keys have been gone since Thursday. Apparently Honda vans have this neat feature where the keys are computer programmed and therefore you have to pay A LOT of money to get a new key. And, the best part is that I have to have the car towed to the dealership to have this special programming done. I just finished searching through the garbage, and it was not fun like on that Oprah show where people go through the garbage and go home and furnish their house and make gourmet meals out of the dumpster. Karen, don't give up! Keep searching. I will find you keys!!!!

Easter Egg Hunt

Another great Saturday here for us. This was our first year at the annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt. It was a lot of fun, chaotic, and over in about 5 seconds once the hunt began. It was fun to see everyone out from the neighborhood though. As you can see with the caots on it is still pretty chilly here. The funniest part to me was watching the boys terror in seeing the life size Easter Bunny. Oh, look at the cute bunny kids, and then crying and screaming as they ran away. It took me a minute to realize that a life size bunny is really scary! So, no pictures with the big bunny. We spent the day running errands and now we are heading out to eat with friends. A great day!

Seriously?

Yesterday I stopped at Karen's house to say hi becaus I was running errands right by her house. I only had about 10 minutes before I had leave to go pick up the preschool carpool. I started to get my stuff together, and I could not find the keys. We keep looking, and no keys. The car is locked so I start making phone calls because I know I am not going to make it to the preschool in time. We load up into Karen's car to head over the Jeremy's work to pick up a house key because the code on the garage door is out of batteries and therefore I could not get into the house. We are rushing because I have to pick up Spencer now too! We make it to the school in time, pick up Sam from the friend who saved me with the preschool carpool and load into Karen's little car and head to the house. After lots more searching I find the extra keys for my van. We drop Spencer off at a friends house because we cannot all fit into Karen's car to head back to her house and get my van. Ok, crisis pretty much solved, although there is still no sign of the first set of keys. Fast forward to this morning. We are heading out the door to get Spencer to school. Where are my keys? Nowhere to be found. I keep searching, and finally load all threee kids into the double stroller and start running for school because he is already late. We get Spencer to school and I walk home and the clouds roll in and literally it rain/snows for the 10 minute walk home. It is just one of those days I guess, well one of two days now. I have now scoured the house and cannot find the second pair of keys, and of course the first ones are missing too. How many keys can you lose in 24 hours?

Blog, Blog, Blog

Alright, we are down to 4 weeks until the big Maui send off. I know this doesn't matter to anyone else, but it is pretty much all I think about all day every day so I feel like I need to talk about it. I found the perfect swimsuit! Now I can really get excited for the trip. I have been trying on swimsuits for the last month and just getting so frustrated! A big shout out to the Swim and Run Shop here in Boise. I think the difference came when I started trying on swimsuits in my real size. Amazing, they started to fit! Do you ever do that with clothes, you just keep trying on clothes that you know should fit you, but they just don't? And then instead of trying on the right size you just blame the clothes. That is so my life right now.

Wow, this is a really boring entry. It is going to get worse I'm afraid. I just want to talk about folding laundry and putting away the dishes. I loathe both of these tasks. I actually don't mind loading the dishwasher, or loading the laundry into the washer. I just cannot stand folding the clothes and putting the dishes away. It is just such a waste of time puting them in and taking them out again! Oh, I just go nuts! And, on a sidenote I love grocery shopping! I wish I could be a professional grocery shopper. When I was in college my budget was $40 a month for groceries and I would bring my calculator and figure it out to the penny. I loved it!

Caught Blue Handed

I thought we were past this stage with Sam, but I guess I was taking a little too long talking to my friend. What better way to get your Mom's attention than coloring yourself blue?

Am I famous yet?

A couple of years ago I got the chance to be on the radio for half hour and play songs from my ipod and make comments about them. Before I went to the studio to record "my show" I really felt that this was the beginning of something big. It was so much harder than I thought, and sadly for the radio station not a great 30 minutes on the air. My family was in Utah that weekend and we all had a little party to listen together. The radio station did not call back.

Fast forward to this weekend and my first television appearance! The Idaho PBS station is having their two week telethon. We got to be on the phones for two hours on Sat. night. This was it, my big debut! The producer guy warned us before not to look like a deer in the headlights or we would end up on the blooper reel. A PBS telethon blooper reel? I made Jeremy sit right at the center table, although sadly we were blocked by the host most of the night. Should we take that personally? They even allow and encourage you to eat at your table. How can that be good, eating on tv and answering phones with a full mouth? They were just trying to set me up for that darn blooper reel! Both of my sisters saw us, so I guess that makes us the family tv stars. We do have it recorded if anyone wants to come over and watch! But you won't see me eating, only staring at the camera and wondering who is that girl sitting next to Jeremy? Oh, yes, the camera really does add 10 lbs!

We love you Jeremy, oh yes we do!

Another project day for Jeremy.
Thanks for all you do for me and

the boys. You are the best!!

It's the little things...

Alright I know this is really silly, but I am having a great time with this blog thing. When I was cooking yesterday these were the three things I was really glad I had in my kitchen. For a moment I thought about taking a picture of all my favorite cooking tools, but I think I know where to draw the line. Well, you can be the judge of that I guess.

I love olive oil. I pretty much use it everytime I cook, with very very few exceptions. I really go through it fast, so Costco comes in quite handy for that.

I really don't like having to butter the bottom of a baking pan. I have always been using cooking spray, and then I discovered this cooking spray with flour for baking. It is so fabulous, the cakes just come right out with no sticking. Love it!

This Fall I made the switch to the digital timer. Wow, I just love it. It kind of sounds like the smoke alarm. The first time it went off everybody was in a panic running for the door including me. Now my kids just ignore it, so much for fire safety! I could never get my other timers to work just right, they would always just ring whenever they wanted to. I really hate it when my kitchen gadgets do their own thing. Which always seems to happen when the recipe just didn't turn out. Hmmmm.....

My Little Pirate

Yesterday I came downstairs and there was Matthew sailing away! As soon as I brought the camera out he immediately turned to me and said "cheese!" You can see in the second picture that he only has one shoe on. That is because we can never find two shoes for this kid! I keep buying more shoes, and then they vanish. I know he is secretly stashing them all somewhere and it is a big joke on me. Matthew loves his shoes and likes to have them on at all times so he is ready to bolt out the door.

Oh yeah, we are on a serious countdown now. Five weeks from today Jeremy and I will be in Hawaii. We will be celebrating our 9 year 3 month anniversary which is a huge moment in anybodys marriage and should never be overlooked. So, we decided to go BIG for this one.

This picture is a preview of what is to come. Jeremy has plans to rent a sailboat and take me out into the open seas. No, he does not have any experience. Yes, I am going to enjoy every second! Follow your dreams baby!

I'm not Ashamed....well, maybe a little

Yes, I watch American Idol and I like it. Ok? Now I do have to say that the best part is recording the two hour show and fast forwarding through all the nonsense and turn it into a 20 minute show. Oh, and cute Jeremy just happens to be in the room every time I turn it on. I know exactly what is going on there. This season has been dissapointing for me so far vocally because there are so many weirdos and losers in the top 24! I mean seriously! Luckily some of them have already left. Alright, I am going to have to name names here. Amanda Overmyer, please stop the craziness. You can't even sing! Danny Noriega you need to get over yourself. Yes, we all know already. Now, on the good side. David Archuleta is so cute and amazing! Of course gotta go for the other LDS Brooke White. I think there are some other good girls too, but the other boys I haven't decided yet. And I was sad to see Alaina Whitaker leave last week. I know she had a bad week, but I think she had potential. So, see you tonight American Idol.

Good Morning Boys!

This is exactly how the boys look every morning. Line up for your cold cereal!

Go Jeremy

Love this picture. I can't resist a guy with a guitar. Thanks Babe!

Hey Girls!

Here we go!

Thanks to my sister Karen my blog is finally up and running. I know it should not have been that hard, but my computer skills seem to have gone out the window. Well, I am hoping to post a lot because it seems like a lot of fun. But, maybe everybody says that when they start their blog. Here is a little update on our family for anyone that needs it. From Boston to Virginia to Utah, we are now landed in Boise, Idaho. We have been here almost a year and it has been a lot of fun. Spencer is 6 and is doing well in first grade. Sam is 4 and is also doing well in preschool. Our youngest Matthew will be 2 next month, but he is clearly at least 4 or 6 as he tries to show us everyday. Jeremy and I are in survival mode on most days, but we like to have fun too. This weekend we went to a gem and mineral show on a whim. We heard their might be some dinosaur fossils there so we had to check that out. There were some very nice big rocks that could have been dinosaur eggs! The boys took home a nice geode that they broke open for us. It was a fun little outing. Of course we had to get some ice cream after that. Then on Sunday Jeremy helped me teach my sunbeam class since my team teacher was on vacation. That is always one of the toughest parts of my week, but we made it through again! Well, I am off to the grocery store now. Come on back to see some pictures and more updates!