Competitive Charity Bake Sale

The last minute email came before 8 am. "We don't have enough homemade items for the school carnival bake sale."

Bake? Me? Sure, why not? Not a one of these is a Weight Watchers friendly recipe. Oh, yes, of course, you can eat ANYTHING on Weight Watchers, but we all know how that works out!!

Pictured above are my Chocolate Chip Muffins with Classic Cream Cheese Icing~Dessert for breakfast!

Winter Sunshine Cake

All butter pound cake made with fresh orange juice and garnished with candied tangerines

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes
Homemade dark chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting, sprinkled with Andes candies.

Confetti Kid Cakes

Homemade chocolate cup cakes topped with vanilla buttercream frosting and confetti gel icing.

Footprints to a Friends House

I just love these footprints running across our yard. Neighborhood friends are the best!

Storm of the Century

I'm posting this waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay after the storm. Forgot to hit publish. Enjoy!

You know how on the news the old saying, if it bleeds, it leads?

Well, we have another one here in Minnesota. If it's white, then fright.

We've been hearing that Armageddon is about to hit. The storm of the century. A blizzard of record breaking proportions.

People hit the grocery stores hard right before a storm. It's our own economic stimulus package--predict a storm, Minnesotans will buy a lot of toilet paper and milk. Because storms will scare the, well, you know out of people. And we like to eat a lot of cereal here in the land of General Mills.

Before the storm, there's an electric feeling in the air, I don't know how to explain it. The birds are all fluttering around, emptying my bird feeders, and puffed up like they know something we don't. Young One is glued to the news channel instead of Spongebob, reading every school delay and closure, pleading with the snow gods that his suburban school will close. We live so close to school that we could walk to it, in snowdrifts three feet high, up hill both ways, if we had to. It never closes. This, of course, will be a source of great pride when he's in his thirties.

Secretly, we all love the storms. At least I do, once all my loved ones are all home safely. Life slows down a bit. It's kind of like getting a surprise day off from work. I usually light a fire in the fireplace, we snuggle in and wait it out. It's really quite beautiful. The snow blankets all the ugly, brown, slushy snow. Everything looks clean and sparkly.

It usually has to be fairly warm to snow. Remember, in Minnesota, warmth is relative! I'm talking, a heatwave in the 30s. Yesterday, it was in the 40s and I could see the grass in my yard. This is typical of this time of year. It melts, it snows, it melts, it snows. It's perfect for snowmen and snow fort making, but can rattle the nerves a bit. Just when you think you can't take it anymore, Spring arrives. (And then it might snow again, just to taunt you.)

Such is life in Minnesota. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Give the hot chocolate a try too. It's a little late in the season to post such a large quantity recipe. Cut it down at will!

Decadent and Delicious Hot Sippin' Cocoa

There's nothing like hot chocolate on a wintry day. It's also a great, healthy treat if you need a chocolate fix. I find it a filling, rich, and decadent treat that's very low in calories. This is an old family recipe, tweaked to make it more Weight Watchers friendly. Makes a large batch. Store in a sealed container or zip bag. Makes 90 servings at 1 WW Point per serving.

1 3/4 cup(s) nondairy powdered creamer
10 cup(s) non-fat instant dry powdered milk
1 3/4 cup(s) unsweetened cocoa
4 3/4 cup(s) powdered sugar

Mix well and store in an airtight container. Add 1/3 cup to 6 ounces of hot water.

Before

During:

After:

Shakin' My Maracas

Taco night. It's a night that strikes fear in my heart. See, I'm not a neat eater. And tacos, by their very definition, are not neat food.

I come from a long line of shirt stainers. My Grandma gets so into her work when she makes anything with flour that I tease her about her "flour pot(belly)". My mom and I laugh when we end up with blueberry pie on our white shirts. The first one to stain our clothing gets a high five. I've walked around more fairs and festivals with ketchup stains than I'd like to remember.

It's not so bad when you're kid is little. Mothers just look at each other, then look at our mutual stains, and then sigh and give a little salute to our mutual membership in the I-Can't-Stay-Clean-For-Anything Sorority. When Young One was little I wore my days, literally. Sometimes, I really miss those little yogurt hand prints that ended up on my back when he fell asleep eating in his high chair. I can still feel his little monkey arms clinging to me. Man, I miss being able to pick him up. My baby. My baby's growing up...

(Cue Barbara Streisands The Way We Were, sniff, reaching for Kleenex.)

Snap out of it.

I don't miss those little old ladies who, in their eyes, were helpfully telling me, "Honey, you got something on your back." Did they forget the good old days of their kid's sticky hugs? No, that's not it, they wouldn't dream of going out wearing their husbands old jeans and a maternity shirt covered in goo when their kid was ten months old. Back then, motherhood came with starched aprons, greeting your husband with a freshly powdered nose, and Valium every six hours.

I'm rambling again, sorry.

I'll call tonight a successful eating night. I gave up after one explosive bite that nearly scattered taco shrapnel all over my shirt. Thankfully, I was using the lean over your plate and pray method of eating. This is sometimes highly successful. The great thing about tacos is in a few rapid snaps of your fork, you can have an instant taco salad.

My food find, this week is featured in the recipe. Garden of Eatin' Blue Corn Taco Shells. I bought the dinner kit at our health food store, but I'm sure it's available everywhere. These shells were fantastic. And come in at just 3 WW Points for two.

Bet's Tacos

Another recipe that's so dang easy, I just can't put it in recipe format. You know how to make tacos, right? Either buy the dinner kit and read the box or go all the way and make your own seasoning, ground the corn for your tortillas, butcher a wild boar etc. If you do all that, you don't need me.

My signature (signature was a word we used often in the food biz) taco filling? I add a can of drained black or pinto beans to the browned ground meat. Black are our favorites. This not only stretches the meat and makes them much more WW friendly, but they taste delicious. It's also a great cheapskate tactic.

I use the leftovers for taco salad topper or wrap up in soft tortillas and bake in the oven in enchilada sauce. Not really, I've never done the enchilada thing, I'm just thinking out loud here, but I'm pretty sure that would be good. It would be good on baked potatoes too. Again, never tried it, but I'm good with flavor combinations. (brag, brag, brag)

In the picture above I used ground venison (cause we like to get all Ted Nugent on animals--I'm kidding. More about our venison here.) You can use ground turkey breast, lean ground beef, or that veggie substitute stuff.

Wear a bib if you dare to eat with your fingers. Points value depends on your meat and the type of shells and beans you add.

Vitamin Bluck

I've got the blucks today. As in take a load of vitamins on an empty stomach and you feel like BBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKK (insert your own sound effects here).

Anyone else get that feeling? I'm trying to be healthier. You all know that. I've always taken a multivitamin, calcium supplement, and I've added D3 because I'm a North Country inhabitant and we Scandihooovians (and Scots and Germans, and Czech--sorry, I'm a mutt) well, we don't get much sunlight in the winter. And our fair hair (I'll go to my grave swearing it's natural, don't look at my roots) and fair skin (or pasty, depending on the light), doesn't help.

I take Oil of Evening Primrose and I'm supposed to be taking fish oil, but the big capsules frighten me. I take medication for the neurological disease I have. Sometimes my twice daily pill popping looks like it could give Ozzy Osbourne in his hey day a run for his money. Mostly it's supplements, but still, who knows what that handful of pills is doing to my stomach.

Hence, the blucks.

I'm trying to get inspired to do more than bluck around on the Internet. One, two, three, go.

I'm still here. Don't see me.

I'm invisible. I'm covering my eyes.... you can't see me.

What's in Your Bowl?The Breakfast Edition

Oatmeal made with diced dates, 2 tsp of raw sugar, sliced almonds, cinnamon, and a cap full of real almond extract from Penzeys Spices.

Check out Penzeys for the best spices and extracts. Every catalog contains amazing recipes, so sign up!

The Five

Here's what my five senses have been up to:

Sight

When Will There Be Good News?: A Novel by Kate Atkinson

I realized half way through this book that the reason I was having trouble following parts of it was because this isn't the first time Ms. Atkinson has written about some of these characters. Duh. Oh well, it was a great read nonetheless.

This book centers around several characters and how their lives intertwine. Joanna Mason is the only survivor of a brutal attack that leaves her mother and siblings dead. Thirty years later, Joanna is now married and is known now as Dr. Hunter. Reggie is Dr. Hunter's nanny. She's the only one that seems concerned when Dr. Hunter disappears. Jackson Brodie (the character that Atkinson has featured in two other novels), is almost killed in a train crash. Reggie saves him and in the process it's discovered that he now has the identification of the person who attacked Joanna's family thirty years before and who was just released. Brodie helps Reggie search for Dr. Hunter while at the same time, his former love, Louise Monroe begins to investigate as well. Amazingly, all these story lines intertwine and you're able to keep them straight thanks to the brilliant writing of the author. Just when you think you've got it all figured out, Atkinson surprises you.

Great read. I will definitely read more of her work, hopefully in the order with which they were written.

Sound

I Tunes Originals--Alanis Morissette

Alanis, oh how I love your angry lyrics. These tracks are interspersed with interview tracks explaining the songs and how they were written. Great insight into this artist. And the new recordings are fantastic. If you love Jagged Little Pill, you must get this one too.

Scent

Dr. Bronners Peppermint Castille Soap I love these products. I can't remember how long I've been using them. Either it's been a long time or I'm getting old. Or both. Dr. Bronners products are fantastic. Being a cheapskate, I love that a little goes a long way. I use a tablespoon plus water to fill foaming hand soap dispensers. I use a tiny dab to wash my hair or put on a body puff for my shower. The scents are natural and delightful. Peppermint is my favorite and I use it in the shower as much as I can. It really wakes me up! A 32 ounce bottle lasts forever at my house. Visiting their website, I see that their gallon jugs are a few cents cheaper per ounce than what I've been purchasing. I'll have to try that next.

I do like their bar soaps too. All in all, you can't go wrong with their products. There are so many uses.

Taste

Leftover Sausage and Peppers.

Really, this is another of my recipes that is not a recipe. Chop stoplight peppers (red, green, and/or yellow. I suppose you could use an orange one if you want, but then what would I call them? Hazard light peppers?) Chop a big onion. No precision needed here, the more rustically you chop them, the better (and the easier). Heat a big pan over medium high heat, spray with nonstick cooking spray. Add veggies. Add Italian turkey sausage, hot or mild. And saute until veggies are tender and sausage is cooked through. 4 WW Points per serving. Put on light wheat buns if you wish, but be sure to add the Point value of the bun.

Sorry I don't have a picture of the final product, but we were too hungry and Young One refused to wait until I got all snappish with the camera.