Iron Chef Tomato!

Thursday Amanda came to visit us and stayed until Friday (yesterday). She agreed to be a judge in our Iron Chef contest. Erik went to the store and brought home: TOMATOS!

I had one hour to create as many dishes as I could. It took me half an hour just to think of a dessert with tomatos but not only did I pull it off, Erik said he would have given me extra points for originality because he thought it was so original! We had a fun time and Amanda liked it too!! I made:

1. Tomato and carrot salad with balsamic vinegrette dressing
2. Tomato, mozarella, parmesan, pepperoni and basil mini wraps
3. Beef quesadillas with tomato and tomatillo salsa
4. Crab, cream cheese and dill stuffed tomatos
5. Tomato, grape, craisin, and honey sweet rice

Erik and Amanda rated the Tomato wraps very high. They were really good and Amanda gave taste a full 10 points (the highest!). Prior to tasting, I thought the crab, cream cheese and dill stuffed tomatos would be my piece de resistance however the dill flavor was not strong enough. They were very good though. Fresh dill would have made all the difference. The tomato sweet rice was a big success as well. I put grape tomatos, grapes, craisins, and walnuts in rice. Then I mixed cream cheese and honey to make a sweet dressing. It was actually a good, sweet dessert with tomatos. We all noted that the sweet dressing brought out a sweetness in the tomatos that you don't normally taste. Erik's rating: 15.4, Gina's rating: 16.2, Amanda's rating: 15.8

Amanda and Jenna made bread. I've included a picture. Jenna likes cooking with Amanda as much as Mommy! The bread was excellent and we had a fun - food filled time :).

Today I got 65 on Quiddler and the max is 63 so not that great. I didn't know SUQ was a word!

Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas in New York with Erik's parents. Oddly enough, Jenna's favorite part about Christmas at their house was the many trains and train sets Erik's dad has. Here is a video of her after she put Woody in a train around the Christmas tree. ChooChoo Woody!
We went to church Christmas Eve and when we got home took some pictures of our family as well as sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and had birthday cake. Jenna tried to blow out the candles but only managed to say "candles hot".
I've uploaded pics of us as well as the nicely decorated table. We had a wonderful time. Jenna read many books and played with several dolls while there. She also discovered the color "silver" and has used it properly :).

Even though Jenna has had a difficult time smiling in these pictures. She had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

We played the Quiddler card game and I lost miserably (Erik won!). However I won at Trivial pursuit (beating Erik) and Union Pacific which was wonderful! Today I got a miserable 67 on Quiddler as I lost the Q (15 points!!).

Iron Chef Cooper: Bay Scallops!

Today we had another edition of Iron Chef Cooper. This time it was a battle of Bay Scallops! Erik brought home 3lbs of bay scallops (without my knowledge!) and I had 1 hour to create a variety of dishes (no recipes mind you!) with the scallops. This dish was a surprise to me. He has surprised me twice with different ingredients.

Here are the dishes I made:

1. Blackened scallop and orange salad
2. Spicy pimento and scallop spread
3. White wine and garlic scallop topped pasta
4. Parmesan encrusted basil scallop bake
5. Ricotta, orange, and scallop mini pie

So yes, I did create a dessert with scallops :). Erik and I both rated low on taste the white wine and garlic scallop topped pasta while we both rated very high the spicy pimento and scallop spread as well as the parmesan encrusted basil scallop bake. We also enjoyed the ricotta, orange, and scallop mini pie. We rated that high on originality. I boiled the scallops and put them in the food processor then mixed them with the ricotta with some sugar and orange peel then made a pie crust and put that in the pie crust. Erik was surprised I made a dessert with scallops but it was actually pretty good.
Erik's ratings came to 14.4 and mine were 16. The total is 30.4 which was higher than the prosciutto challenge (29.25). Of course, that was my first time!
I couldn't have a blog post without including brag pictures about Jenna. Here she is with her favorite toy, Woody, and her gushy ball. She has orange and purple gushy balls and we got her another one for Christmas. She loves these toys for some reason.

We also captured a video here of her saying "Dada big strong man". So cute!

Got 77 on Quiddler today and the max was 75. I tried to make only words about food in lieu of my iron chef today but when I got a "qu" that didn't work so well.

Mommy's Footsteps

Jenna put mommy's shoes on today and was walking around with them saying Mama shoes, Jenna pretty. See it here
I also have a picture too!

These boots were made for walking, and that's just what they'll do - one of these days these boots are going to walk all over you!

In other news:

1. Erik and I got this new game called Caylus. We really like it!! It's a board game that takes 3 hours :) but it has a lot of cool strategy in it. Basically you are trying to build in a castle and gain royal favors and build buildings to earn the most points. There's a lot more to it but I don't have a chance to write it.
2. I have a 99.17% in my VB.NET class! yea :) I hope I do well on the final exam.
3. Jenna has been saying "Happy Jeezy" (Happy Birthday Jesus) then Happy Mizzy, then Happy Dada but not Happy Mama. Apparently my birthday is not important.
4. I miss Erik so much. He's been in Boston all week and he comes back tonight - I can't wait!!!
5. I can't wait for Christmas! It is my favorite time of year.
6. 68 points on Quiddler today :)

Christmas party

On Sunday we had a Christmas party with friends. It was a potluck and we had a gift exchange. I made ham and some yummy desserts and cookies and everyone else brought delicious side dishes. It was a wonderful time! We got a $10 gift certificate to Kroger and the movie Cars. So the gift exchange was nice for us too!! Here is a picture. Jenna was so wound up with all the kids there that she couldn't sit still! She was bouncing off the walls - she slept good that night :).

The next morning Erik left for Boston at 4:30am. Jenna and I miss him!! Yesterday Jenna played in the sink for 45 minutes with Mama duck, Dada duck, baby duck and Woody (picture included). For some reason, Woody must be present at every meal and lately baby duck has needed to be there as well. I guess our family isn't good enough.


Today she got her flu shot and didn't cry at all! I was about to cry but she didn't even act like anything was wrong after they shoved the needle in her leg. So I gave her a sucker :).

I've noticed that she makes me laugh out loud with her goofy antics and her innocence. Here are some things I laughed about yesterday:

• After playing in the water for 45 mintues Jenna's fingers were wrinkly. This must have been the first time she's noticed this happens in water because she kept wanting me to kiss them and dry them off.
• Jenna put hair bows on her hot wheels cars
• Every night since Erik put new doors on the fireplace (a few weeks ago) when I ask Jenna what she wants to pray for at night she says "fireyplace new doors". So we pray for the fireplace. Last night I said, "do you want to pray for Dada"? After awhile she thought about it and said "mama pray dada". Then a few seconds later "pray trash can". So praying for Dada was only slightly more important than praying for the trash can.

Today I only got 80 points on Quiddler. I was left with letters even though I made two 5 point words :(.

Build-a-Bunny

On Tuesday, Jen, Rachel, Jenna and I went to Build-a-Bear to build bears for Jenna and Rachel. When we walked past the rows of unstuffed animals I asked Jenna which bear she wanted. She looked at a fluffy white bunny and said "bunny!". I said, do you want a bear or a bunny. She said bunny! She loved it! She picked out a heart for her bunny and kissed it. Then we picked out an outfit for her bunny. Jen noted that our stuffed animals didn't have underwear on - we didn't want a Britney Spears situation. So we put underwear on our animals. Here's a picture!

Lately Jenna has loved it when Mommy sings to her. In fact, she will say "diffent song, tinkle tar". Translated from toddler speak is "please sing a different song mommy, I would like to hear Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". So then I sing that song for her. Another of her favorites is "yi yo yi yo" Which is "Old McDonald had a farm....eieio!".

I've decided I'd like to finish a few books before the end of the year (that's just a few weeks away!). I don't want to bite off more than I can chew, but here is my list:

1. Dark Tower book 7 by Stephen King - this series is AMAZING! I'm on Song of Susannah now which is book 6
2. The King in the Window - a book recommended by David. Sounds like something I'll like!
3. Squire's Tale series (I'm on book 3). A funny young adult series about King Arthur written by a minister.

I'll come up with a list for next year too. I have lofty goals of books I want to read :)

So far I've made the following Christmas cookies/candy:

1. M&M cookies
2. Mint crinkles
3. Cutouts
4. peanut butter cups
5. german chocolate fudge
6. peanut butter fudge
7. Snow cap brownies

I still want to make:

1. Nut bars
2. cranberry pistachio bark
3. pumpkin roll
4. chocolate truffle tart with raspberry whip cream

I love making fun desserts for Christmastime - Erik hates decorating Christmas cookies but he always has to (I'm a mean wife!!).

Today I got 78 on Quiddler. Yesterday one of the words was KEF. I thought that was only a word in the Dark Tower series - I guess it is a real word. I'll set my watch and warrant on it!

Iron Chef Cooper

Battle Iron Chef Cooper begins! Today Erik went to the store and bought a secret ingredient so we could duplicate iron chef (my favorite show on the food channel). I didn't compete against anyone but it was still fun! Erik brought home the secret ingredient: prosciutto (I did not guess that at all!!) and I had 1 hour to make a few different dishes with it.
I made:

1. Prosciutto apple salad in balsamic vinagrette dressing
2. Green beans amadine with prosciutto
3. Prosciutto, tomato, basil, and parmesan pasta
4. Cranberry orange glazed prosciutto

Then Erik and I tasted the dishes and rated them separately in a spreadsheet I created. The ratings were: taste (10pts), plating (5pts), and originality(5pts). Erik's scores were 7, 3.75, and 3.5 respectively and mine were 7.75, 3.75, and 3.5 respectively. He loved the salad but didn't like the cranberry orange glazed prosciutto (said it was too sweet).

This was such a success and Erik is going to do this again for me. I'm so excited! I've included a picture of me with the 4 dishes.

I also must include an obligatory cute video of Jenna. Click here to see Jenna playing with her car. In the middle of the video she even says "Dada take picture of Jenna". Then she gets in the car and says "beep beep". How adorable!!

Got 79 on quiddler today and made the word "laze". I didn't think "laze" was a word! Oh well :)