Oh to be so clever.

So, we watched the movie Twilight yesterday...based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer. Afterward, we watched the deleted scenes and extended scenes, as well as, the clips showing the transition from paper to film. In this they had the author sharing how she developed her story. She had a dream...and it was such a good dream she wanted to know what happened before and after, so she wrote it down. Well, her dream amounts to all of chapter 13 in book one. She managed to write the first twelve chapters...the chapters that followed to complete book 1 and oh, 3 more books each totaling over 600 pages. I wish I were that good.

Back to Work

My "spring break" is officially over. However, it was very productive. I managed to take an entire truck load to Goodwill and the garage is clean enough to park in it...for the first time since we moved in!!! I read the second book in the trilogy by Nora Roberts...Born in Ice and caught up in my daily Bible passages. I got a pedicure, a manicure, filled prescriptions, took the dog to the vet, caught up on groceries, laundry and television shows. Most would think that I'd be exhausted, but just being "current" and organized is very refreshing to me. Sadly, I didn't get to spend much time with my husband b/c he is working quite a bit. JMS and I got to spend 4 of 6 days together...as you saw we took him to the aquarium, and we watched Cars...and Sesame Street. He sure is smart. He'll tell you that he "touched a star pish" (he means fish, but says pish) He is saying words these days that I didn't even know he knew.

Mascarpone Cheese

Several folks have asked what is Mascarpone Cheese? Well, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia --- Mascarpone is a triple-cream cheese made from crème fraîche, denatured with tartaric acid.^[1] Sometimes buttermilk is added as well, depending on the brand. After denaturation, whey is removed without pressing or aging.^[2] One can manufacture mascarpone by using cream, tartaric or citric acid, or even lemon juice.^[3]

Mascarpone is milky-white in color and is easily spread. When fresh, it smells like milk and cream. It is used in various dishes of the Lombardy region of Italy, where it is a specialty. It is a main ingredient of tiramisu. It is sometimes used instead of butter or Parmesan cheese to thicken and enrich risotto.

I've managed to find it at Kroger's in their specialty cheese section. It comes in a tub like ricotta cheese.

Baked Pasta

Mmm...okay, try this one:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
Boil 1 package of cheese tortellini's.
Mix, 1 cup Mascarpone cheese, 1 jar of Marinara sauce (your choice), and the tortellini's when their done cooking.

Pour into a shallow baking dish. Top with slices of smoked mozzarella cheese and a small shake of shredded Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes. Serve with garlic bread. Who doesn't love this?

Trip to Newport Aquarium

We went to the Newport Aquarium on Saturday. In addition to fish, they had frogs and birds too. JMS enjoyed the frogs...hopefully, not enough to bring them home in his pockets.
Look at this cool blue one. He is poisonous.
Love birds...kiss kiss.
Just after I took this picture this bird pooped. No casualties. A second later and I probably would have captured it falling in the photo. Too funny.
Doesn't this look like I was in the water with this big guy?
JMS...enjoying the sharks. He did really well. The only time he said "scary" was in the elevator. The elevator had real life shark photos up close and really big. He had to cover his eyes.

Birthdays

My husband celebrated his 32nd birthday and I took him to dinner at a restaurant famous for its steaks and other assorted red meats. We got dressed up, my parents came down to watch our son, and off we went. We had a reservation and we were seated very quickly. Then it hit us, the atmosphere was no better than an Outback or Logan's on a Friday night. It was very disappointing that we could not celebrate a special occasion without our own child, only to be audibly harassed by someone else's, and to be visually insulted by the casual crowd wearing their blue jeans and shorts. What has happened to "those places" where you can make a reservation and have a dressed up, fancy adult celebration? You'd think the prices alone would be a nice deterrent, apparently not. Who wants to pay 27 dollars for their 5 year old to eat 1/3rd of their gourmet hamburger? The lazy people here in Lexington...of course! We've decided that no one here knows how to cook, and/or does not want to cook. Hence, why the assortment of grocery stores is very limited.
Hang on...one more gripe. I ordered his birthday gift from MLB.com. I paid the extra few dollars to have it delivered in 5-7 business days - it still was going to be late. But, I went ahead and paid. I did the math and it should have arrived on/about the 11/12th of March. My confirmation email said, the item is instock...to arrive on/about the 17/25th of March! Talk about fraud! Anyhow, he received the autographed baseball (Chipper Jones) yesterday and really liked it. Too bad Bobby Cox wasn't available.
Ok...so on with better topics. Here is the blanket that I worked so hard on for my nephew Eli. Six skeins of yarn, over 65 rows, and about an hour a night since Christmas. It was his birthday too! He turned 1. I finished this the day before his birthday and really wanted him to have it on time. But, I was not willing to pay $100 to UPS to try to get it there on time. I'd like to think a 1 year old wouldn't know the difference. Hopefully his mom will send me a picture of him wrapped up in it...then I can post the results. :)

Now I am off for the next 6 days. I took my own sort of Spring Break. I am working on my next crochet project for Kim's daughter Zoe. Her birthday is in the summer, but I think I'll be done sooner versus later. I also plan to go through closets and donate and dump alot of stuff we haven't used in over a year. It will be very refreshing!

El NINO

Ok...so I keep reading about everyone else still getting snow in March. Well last night it was our turn. We put bed sheets over our flowers before dinner and when we woke up this morning we had about an inch of snow!!!! We pulled the sheets off around 10am and the flowers were fine. The snow was melted by noon and we are back to our cooler than normal March temperatures.

Post from my cell phone

There is first time for everything. Pretty cool, eh?

All in a days work

Well, actually these photos are from the past week...but the story is a typical day off. JMS filled up his bookbag with all of his hot wheel cars...knock offs...Cars cars...and then dumped them out on the kitchen floor. SAFETY HAZARD. And of course, he says, "uh oh mommee."
Then we have my latest experiment...well, I actually followed the recipe, but because we've never tried it before it is considered an experiment in our house. Shown below is the Cheesy Potato and Wild Rice Soup and a simple side salad (no recipe needed).

Recipe is: Prepare 1 package of fast cooking long grain and wild rice mix (mine took about 25 minutes to fluff) while in a separate pot pour in 4 cups milk (I used whole milk b/c that is what I had on hand), 1 can of condensed potato soup (10.8 oz), 8 ounces of Velveeta cheese cubed - heat this on medium, you do not want it to boil. You want the milk, cheese and potato soup to simply melt and blend together. Now you want to cook up 1/2 lb of bacon (KIM...another bacon recipe). Let this cool and crumble - this is the garnish...haha...or just another part of the soup for those bacon lovers. Add the rice to the milk pot and heat through. Serve with bacon sprinkled on top. Mmm...good. Ok, Campbells already has that slogan. But, it was truly great! Serves 4.

Then we have JMS's latest injury that I mentioned in a blog a few days ago. This is his rug burned nose.

Today we went to Lowes and bought the first flowers of the season...I know, its not even Easter yet, but they were available, it was a gorgeous day and it was a good excuse to get JMS outside. So, he found a corner of the yard, and I found a corner of the yard and these photos are the fruits of our labor. As you can tell he was planting the "pretty pictures" (garden markers)

Prayer and Donations

Esme Kenney was one of my mom's 7th grade students at SCPA in Cincinnati. She was the subject of an Amber Alert on 3/7/09 in Cincinnati. Canine units located a body around 3 am on 3/8/09 and police are waiting on an autopsy to confirm the identity, but Kenney's parents have already responded with a written statement, saying "Our hearts are broken by this tragic end to a wonderful young spirit. We would like to thank everyone for their support, and ask that donations be made in Esme Kenneys name to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at missingkids.com." Thank you for your prayers.

Kiss your kids today!

Child Abuse

For the record: my son abuses himself.

A week ago today, after JMS took a bath he went running into his bedroom....NAKED BABY...and jumped into his pile of oversized stuffed animals...and SLAM...he head butted the wall.

On Sunday night after dinner, JMS was playing around in the living room and went to jump on the couch...slipped and bashed his face into the front of the couch. No broken nose...but some bloody boogers.

On Wednesday night after his bath (we avoided slipping) JMS was dressed in his pajamas...and bolted out of his bedroom (as he usually does)...and slammed into the wall. Ok...the wall didn't give this time either...and bounced him back. He now has a lump on his left side of his head by his temple.

You think he'd learn...well, on Thursday morning he went running out of his bedroom again, and I said, "JMS, watch out for the wall." He stopped in his tracks and had a look of horror on his face. He said, "Mommy, wall." And, he came running back and clung to me. I told him to tip toe by the wall and he'd be fine. So, now we tip toe through the upstairs hallway.

Oh, and he came home from the babysitter's on Wednesday with a rug burn on the tip of his nose. We don't quite know how that happened...but its all scabbed up and he looks like Rudolph the Reindeer.

Poor kid.

JMS the Chef

Shrimp and Black Bean Chili...this was easy to make and tasted really good. I served it with a scoop of white long grain rice, and corn bread muffins.

1/2 cup chopped onion and 1/2 cup chopped green pepper sauted in 1 tbsp of oil (about 3 minutes); stir in one can of drained black beans, one can of undrained diced tomatoes, 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth, 1/3 cup picante sauce, 1 tsp ground cumin, and 1/2 tsp dried basil. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Add 1 lb cooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, simmer for 4 minutes until heated through. Serves about 6. The original recipe called for less broth, but I increased the amount b/c it smelled really potent...alot of picante...so, make it how you prefer it. As a child my mother always had us make the corn bread. It was fun to let JMS stir the Jiffy mix, egg and milk. Then he helped me put the muffin papers in the pan. He likes to help in the kitchen.

FYI...I've decided to try to document my cooking experiments more frequently. My father-in-law thinks I should document my husband's reactions to them as well. So, we'll report back in the next 12 to 24 hours. :) This one so far was a success.