Antibodies for Halloween

Sick season has officially arrived and has reared it's ugly, horrible head at our house.

I was the first victim. Sick all last week. Runny nose, coughing, not sleeping because of the coughing..... still coughing a little.

Mary Kate was next. She was down all weekend with fever, aches, chills, cough. Luckily she is a very pleasant sick person. She just laid on the couch and watched Haley Mill's movies all day, maybe asked for a drink now and then.

Now it's on to Jeffrey....

Take notice everyone. This is probably the one and only time you'll see this kid holding still. I can't believe how still he is when he's sick! Normally he never stops moving. My house is so much more peaceful when Jeffrey's down and out! He just lays around and tells everyone that walks by that he loves them. Kind of sweet actually. Still, I think I prefer a healthy Jeffrey. I hate when my kids are sick. Breaks my heart.

Jonathan, so far, has remained healthy. It could have something to do with the fact that he refuses to get within 10 feet of any sick person, but he's always had a healthy immune system. He inherited this from his father. Mike has an immune system of steel. The last time Mike was sick enough to speak about was when we were dating. He hasn't had a good, knock-down illness since '95. It's so not fair!



Yesterday I went to Costco and stocked up on these babies. I'm loading the kids up on vitamins. I also bought a vat of anti-bacterial hand sanatizer. I'm going to take some precautions around here this winter. I'll do what I can do, even though I know it's only so much. Sickness is just part of life, right? I am hoping that Swine flu won't be a part of our life. I can hope, right?

One October, years ago, my friend Amy and I were having a conversation with her little sister Tiffany who was about five at the time, asking her what she wanted to be for Halloween. She thought hard and then announced that she wanted to be an antibody. An antibody!? We were surprised she even knew what antibodies were, but sure enough, she knew that they were the little things that float through your body and fight the germs that make you sick.

We were highly amused with her choice, and curious, asked her what a person would wear as a costume if they wanted to be an antibody for Halloween? She answered, "I would wear one of daddy's ties and a helmet, that's all!" She knew an antibody had to dress to get down to business and fight.

Now that sick season is here and Halloween is coming up, I think I'll try and talk my kids into being antibodies this year. Just a tie and a helmet, sounds like an easy costume, and maybe we'll get some good germ fighting karma going on around here. I think we're going to need it.

Gingerbread and Peaches

With all the fruit stands about town selling Fall's harvest of fresh peaches, we've been enjoying our fair share of this delectable, delicious fruit. Mostly we just slice and eat with a sprinkle of cinnamon, but last week I pulled out all the stops. I treated the family to hot gingerbread waffles, smothered with slices of fresh peach, drizzled with homemade peach-cinnamon syrup, and topped with a generous dollop of whipped cream. Oh the divinity of it all! Once again I feel that I should share this deliciousness with all of you so in case you want to treat yourselves and your family you have the recipe.

Gingerbread Waffles

3 eggs, seperated
1 cup buttermilk (plain milk will work too if you don't have buttermilk)
1/2 cup molassess
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 and 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (if you don't have this use half regular whole wheat, half white flour, or all white if you're not into wheat)
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp each: cinnamon, cloves, ginger (I use one and a half tsps each for extra flavor)
1/2 cup canola oil (or other vegetable oil)

In a large bowl beat egg yolks with a whisk, add buttermilk, molassess, sugar and oil. In a medium bowl sift flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Pour dry ingredients into bowl with wet ingredients and mix just until blended. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gentle fold egg whites into waffle batter. Bake batter in a pre-heated waffle iron lightly coated with cooking spray.

I turn my oven on warm and keep the cooked waffles on a cookie sheet in the oven until all the waffles are baked and we can sit down and eat together. Otherwise I'm up cooking while everyone else is eating. I hate that.

I usually double this recipe. If we don't eat them all, they keep well in the fridge. They also freeze well.

My friend Michelle (bless her heart) bottled her own peach-cinnamon syrup and brought us a jar. We are now addicted, so last night I bottled 14 jars of my own. We're set for life.

If you're interested in making some for yourself I'm posting the recipe. There are still peaches out there to be had so it's not too late if you hurry. If you don't want bottle your own you could also just make a little for your waffles with some blended peaches, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice, bring to a boil and cool a little to thicken. I've done that before and it's delicious!

Michelle's Peach Syrup

8 cups blended peaches (blended until totally smooth), 5 cups granulated sugar, 1 small package peach jello, 1/4 cup lemon juice, and 1 tsp cinnamon

Boil blended peaches and sugar for 20 minutes on medium, stirring most of the time so as not to burn on the bottom. Remove from heat and stir in jello, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Return to heat and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Pour into pint jars and process in a steam canner for 10 minutes. Serve warm over pancakes and waffles.

Happy Fall everyone!

This One's a Keeper

I like to collect recipes from magazines, the Internet, other good cooks, etc. I have hundreds and hundreds. Most of them I've never made, but occasionally I'll try one out to see if it's really as good as it sounds. I've had this recipe for a long time. I think it's from an issue of Better Homes and Gardens It's called Pumpkin Sandwich Cake. It seemed appropriate for the season.

I made it yesterday and boy was it amazing! I will be keeping this recipe forever and making it often. The whole family loved it. It's definitely worth sharing with you all. It's a bit labor intensive, but totally worth it!

Pumpkin Sandwich Cake

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 of an 8oz. package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 recipe Chocolate Cream Icing (follows)

Preheat oven to 375. Grease bottom and sides of two round or square, 8 inch cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper, lightly spray pans with cooking spray. In a bowl combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat eggs and sugar on medium high speed until thick, about five minutes. Beat in pumpkin. Add flour mixture, beat just until combined. Spread cake batter in prepared pans (1/2 in each). Bake 16-18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes, remove and cool thoroughly.

For filling, in chilled mixing bowl beat whipped cream to soft peaks, set aside. In a second mixing bowl beat cream cheese until smooth, beat in powdered sugar. Fold in whipped cream. To assemble, place one cake layer on serving platter. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over bottom cake layer. Top with second layer. Refrigerate while preparing icing.

If icing is too thin, cover and chill 30 minutes until of spreading consistency. Too thick, add a teaspoon of milk of cream. Spread over top and sides of cake. Sprinkly lightly with pumpkin pie spice. Chill cake at least 1 hour before serving.

Store cake, loosely covered, in refrigerator.

Chocolate Cream Icing

1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a small saucepan bring whipping cream just to boiling over medium high heat. Remove from heat. Pour over chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Do not stir! let stand 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Cool 15 minutes.

This cake is very rich so you only need a small piece and it keeps for quite awhile in the fridge.
Delicious! Do yourself a favor and try it.

Save Your Money and Go to the Firestation

As I was waiting for my turn at Parent Teacher Conferences last week, I was sitting next to my neighbor who was telling me about his family's upcoming trip to Disney World. This trip was going to cost his family more than six thousand dollars! Now, don't get me wrong, I love Disney fun as much as the next person, maybe more, but the last time took our boys there, it seemed like it was almost a complete waste of money, at least the money we spent on them. They cried through every ride, even Winnie the Poo, and were scared spit less of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and the Little Mermaid. As of this week I've decided that until they grow up a little I'm going to save my hard earned cash and just take my boys to free fire safety day at the city fire department.

We went as a field trip with the boy's preschool class and it was fabulous! The boys had been anticipating this trip since last spring when they learned they would be going, and I'll tell you, they were not disappointed. I've literally never seen them have so much fun.

It was educational too. I wanted to kiss the feet of all the firemen who made the kids promise three different times that they wouldn't play with matches, telling them horrific tales about everything that would happen if they did. Talk about being scared spit less. It was great.



Jeffrey could not stop staring at all the controls, switches, hook-ups, nozzles, dials, gages and buttons on the side of the fire-trucks. He wanted to know what each and everyone was for. It was all he could do to refrain from touching them all. He was also insanely fascinated with the switches that opened the huge garage doors of the fire station. Thank goodness I caught him before he flipped that switch!



The firemen gave the kids a little lesson on what to do if your house is on fire. Get low, stay below the smoke, crawl out on your hands and knees. The kids even got to practice crawling through a dry-ice smoke filled trailer as the sound of smoke detectors added to the confusion. Take that Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.



Talk about hands on interaction too. I thought Jeffrey would explode with excitement and joy when he got to shoot real water out of a real fire hose with a real fireman. Best day of his life so far!



If that wasn't enough, how about exploring around inside a real helicopter and then watching it take off! I just hope this will be the only time my boys ever experience the inside of a life flight helicopter, as a patient at least.



The real excitement for Jonathan was when he got to go inside the ambulance and touch everything. He's always been obsessed with ambulances and being inside one was just too cool.



Jonathan was also one of only two kids from his class who had the guts to touch the emergency training dummy and give its chest a few compressions. The rest of the kids were too disturbed by the plastic human laying there with his mouth ajar. I'm with them, but Jonathan was fascinated.

I love the Fantasia show at Disneyland with all the fireworks and lights, but it couldn't hold a candle to the fire show we got here on fire safety day, at least in the boys book. The firemen started a gigantic fire, dressed in all their gear and then put out the fire for all the kids to witness. They did this not one, but three times!





Jeffrey was completely blown away by this (and a little scared too). It was pretty un-nerving. I couldn't believe how much heat a gigantic fire put out. It felt like the hair was going to melt off your head, and we were quite a ways away.



I became extremely cool and popular with the preschool class after I got to dress up in fire gear and put out a bucket of flames with an extinguisher. One kid in the class practically asked me for my autograph and followed me around for the rest of the afternoon. I felt like Mickey Mouse must feel walking around Disneyland. So loved and admired.





And to top off the whole trip, we all got FREE fire hats, popcorn, and cotton candy. Do you know how much that kind of stuff costs at Disneyland? I think Mickey Mouse ears are like 30 bucks!

My boys are still talking about their fire station visit and have fond memories to last them a life time. And maybe, just maybe, they will keep their promise not to play with matches and we won't have our house burn down someday.

Just as a side note, after attending this fabulous fire safety day that the city puts on for free for anyone who wants to attend, and after attending traffic school this morning (yes I got a speeding ticket last month), I just want to express my gratitude for the men and women who serve our communities as fire fighters, emergency medical responders, and police officers. They do a fabulous job keeping us safe a protected.

Pampered, Prophets, Puzzles, Party, and Posters

It was a great weekend.

To start with, we ventured up to Logan where my sister-in-law Dani, cosmetology school student extraordinaire, treated me to a day of pampering. She gave me a facial (I've never had one before and it was amazing), a scalp treatment with some special shampoo that should help my hair not to fall out so fast, and a new haircut and color. Thanks Dani, I look good and feel good. You're very sweet to treat me so right. Thanks Lynette and Dave for helping with the kids. I feel a new spring in my step.

Later that night we met up with Eric and Emily and enjoyed a delicious Chinese feast from Mandarin Gardens. I don't think I've had Mandarin Gardens since college. Very tasty. Good company too.



It was also General Conference weekend. I love conference weekend! For one thing, we don't have to go to church. Church is very stressful for us these days, so every once in awhile it's nice to have a tiny break and enjoy church in our PJ's in the comfort of our own home.

I also love to hear council from latter-day prophets. There were some great sermons, as there always is. Notably, Elder Holland (powerful), President Monson (tender), Elder Oaks (precise), and Elder Bednar (very relevant to our particular situation as a family). The only bad thing is that now it's over and it will be six months until we can enjoy it again.


Here are the puzzles Mary Kate and I assembled while listening to conference.



After Conference we headed to Mom and Dad's to celebrate Dad's 60th birthday. What a party it was too. My sister-in-law Laurie, chef extraordinaire, made a delectable feast for all of us to enjoy. You wouldn't believe the amazing, beautiful, and flavorful food we had. Look at this spread....







Just because I like to torture people who are dieting, I will list the menu.....

Pesto and roast chicken club sandwiches
Bacon wrapped cream cheese jalapeno poppers
Deviled eggs
Antipasto platter with pears, a variety of cheeses, and meats
Jalapeno cherry jelly and cream cheese dip with crackers
Bread sticks with garlic butter
Mini Pizzas with cherry tomatoes and blue cheese
Ham and cheese roll ups
Marinated and Kalamata olives
Fresh Pineapple

And if that wasn't enough, Baskin and Robbin's Fudge Nut Cake for dessert.



Hungry yet? If you want some of these recipes, Laurie posts some of her recipes on her food blog, here. Her food is amazing. We keep telling her she should start a catering buisness. Maybe someday she will. Thanks again Laurie for the delicious feast and thanks mom for footing the bill!

Mary Kate was determined to make Grandpa's birthday a proper celebration. She made a huge birthday poster with a space for drawings and sentiments from all the grand kids, and then organized a program in which to present the poster to Grandpa. Mary Kate is fulfilling her duty as oldest grandchild very well.

Check out Emily's mask. She got it at the dollar store and won't take it off for anything.

It was a great weekend. Like I said, the only bad thing about it is that it's over and now it's back to normal life. I think normal life should include facials, spiritual feasts, parties with Laurie's food, and time to do puzzles. Maybe not though, if everyday was like that then maybe these things wouldn't seem that novel anymore.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Dad. I love you.
Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend too!