April 2009 Entries

April 14th: It's Tuesday night and that means American Idol! My favorites this season include Adam, Kris, and Danny.

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April 15th: Easter party/egg hunt at Irelyn's preschool. So cute! They had hotdogs for lunch at their party and Irelyn couldn't have been more thrilled. A "hot dog party like the Pigeon!" she exclaimed. We've been reading the Pigeon series by Mo Willems and in one of the books, the Pigeon dreams of a hotdog party. So fun.

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April 16th: Laying on the couch with Bueller the cat.

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April 17th: Irelyn enjoying some Oreos and milk while Georgia was at her friend's house for a sleep-over. Yum.

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Make Empanadas!

I had about 2 cups of shredded chicken from our dinner last night. R said to make some chicken salad - but it was a little too much chicken to do that since I'm the only one who eats chicken salad. Then I remembered a recipe from Paula Deen that we used back in November for Empanadas. Perfect! I don't know where Paula gets her measurements because this recipe makes way more than 12-15 empanadas.

Here is the recipe as I used it:

2 cups of cooked chicken, chopped

1 tbs. green chilis (can)

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

2-1/2 tsp. cumin

4-5 oz. of colby jack cheese, shredded

4 oz. light cream cheese, softened

Package of refrigerated pie crusts (2 in a pack)

Start to finish the whole process takes about an hour to prepare and then about 15 minutes to bake. First, combine all ingredients except pie crust. Mix well. Roll out pie crust on a lightly floured surface to about 15 inches. Using a 3 inch round cookie/biscuit cutter, cut out as many circles as you can from the dough, repeat until all the dough has been used. My batch made about 40-42 empanadas (enough for 2 meals).

Wet edges of dough with water, fill with a teaspoon of filling (you may need to adjust the amount a little. Don't put too much or it will ooze out the sides) fold over and crimp the edges with a fork. Repeat about 40 times! Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. I flip the empanadas after about 10 minutes so they don't get too dark on the bottom.

If you don't want to bake all 40 empanadas at once, you can freeze them and then bake them when you are ready to eat. I freeze them flat on a plate or cookie sheet and then transfer to a zipper bag.

Delicious!

For dinner tonight, I am trying a recipe I found at the Crockpot blog for 20-40 clove chicken in the crockpot. I had 3 heads of garlic and used them all, but only came out with about 35 cloves. Good enough! This recipe couldn't be easier:

3-4 lbs chicken pieces or whole chicken (I am using a whole chicken since they are so cheap!)

1 large onion - sliced

1 tbs. olive oil

2 tsp. each salt and paprika

1 tsp. pepper

20-40 cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole

This is what I did. I sliced the onion and put it in the bottom of the crockpot. In a bowl, I put in all of the peeled garlic cloves. Rinse chicken with water and pat dry. Place chicken in the bowl with the garlic. Add the oil, salt, paprika and pepper. Rub all over chicken and garlic. Pour into the crockpot on top of the onions. Put the lid on and cook on low for about 7 hours. Do not add any liquid.

That's it! We're going to be eating it in about 15 minutes. Hope it's good - the house smells wonderful.

IMG_7102Here is the chicken and the onions and garlic in the crockpot IMG_7103

I have 2 choices for the picture of the day for today.

Exhibit A: Irelyn enjoying her "reester" bunny. Yum.

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Exhibit B: Georgia dressed up like Jasmine from the movie Aladdin or maybe I Dream of Jeannie, blowing bubbles outside.

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Tough. Very tough.

We had a really great Easter Sunday.

Irelyn came into the bedroom around 7:30am saying that the Easter Bunny didn't come because they looked everywhere but couldn't find their baskets! We told her to get Georgia and try again and look everywhere. Soon after that we heard little shouts of "ooohs" and they had found their baskets. Each girl got a tote bag to use at the library to carry the books they borrow, some Reese's peanut butter eggs, new play-doh, bath fizzies, Georgia got the movie Enchanted and a necklace and Irelyn got a new Disney Princess Tea Party DVD. R got up and let me sleep a little bit longer. He made the traditional holiday Pillsbury orange rolls for breakfast and woke me up in time to eat.

After breakfast we got ready for church. My parents drove over and joined us for the service. The girls didn't know Grandma and Papa were going to meet us and were beyond excited to see them. Irelyn sat on Grandma's lap during the opening music and readings until it was time for children's church. They got to make bead covered crosses, decorate a cookie and make a paper flower and we had a nice message from the Pastor.

We all headed our separate ways to prepare for Easter dinner at my parent's house in Plant City. We were supplying dessert and a fruit salad. After an early dinner, the girls and 2 cousins got ready for the egg hunt. We hid around 100 eggs for the 4 kids to find. Most of the eggs were money-filled (with coins and some 1's and 5 special eggs that had $5 inside). We threw in some candy & fruit snack filled eggs, too. After going through all the eggs and enjoying a treat or two, we all headed to the backyard for some water balloon fun! The kids all had a blast throwing balloons at each other (the big kids got involved, too; R ended the day with a water balloon to the crotch). I appeared to be invincible, as my oldest brother tried to hit me at least 3 different times and each time they bounced off me and popped on the ground. Nice!

Headed home after drying off and eating more food to prepare for school the next day.

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Yes, she's at it again! Lain is hosting a layout a day challenge for the month of May. 31 days of layouts. Think you can do it? Join us!

My loving hubby sent me a link to this blog article about how to make Cherry Limeade Cupcakes. I love, love, LOVE the cherry limeades from Sonic and I love cherry flavored things and lime flavored things so I thought this sounded terrific! Now only to have an occasion to make them. Here comes Easter and my mom asks me to make dessert. Woot! I think I'll make the cupcakes for Easter dinner (dessert).

Here are some photos of the steps:

IMG_6996 Ingredients - milk, cake flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, eggs, butter, limeade concentrate. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

IMG_6999 batter in cupcake liners

IMG_7003 after baking and cooling on wire rack

IMG_7001 making the lime syrup (limeade concentrate and powdered sugar) to pour over cupcakes to keep them moist

Cupcakes with lime syrup and waiting for icing:

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IMG_7002 Ingredients for the icing - powdered sugar, maraschino cherry juice, butter, red food coloring (optional & I didn't end up using it).

IMG_7006 Perfectly light pink, lightly cherry flavored icing.

Frosted cupcake  IMG_7012  eating the cupcake  IMG_7013 Delicious!

Very limey, hint of cherry, light and refreshing. Could eat all of them!

Recipe:

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
3 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. limeade concentrate
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk (I used 1%)

For the lime syrup:
3/4 cup limeade concentrate
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the frosting:
3 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 tbsp. (or more) maraschino cherry juice
red food coloring (optional)

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two muffin pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl combine the cake flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Stir together and set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth.  Add the sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed.  Add in the limeade concentrate and mix to incorporate.  Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions.  Add in the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Mix ingredients just long enough to incorporate but no longer.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack over wax paper to cool completely.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, whisk together the limeade concentrate and confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl to make the lime syrup.  Poke several holes in the top of each cupcake with a skewer and pour the syrup over the cupcakes, allowing it to soak in.

To make the frosting, combine the confectioners’ sugar, butter and maraschino cherry juice in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated, then increase to medium-high speed and beat until smooth.  Add more maraschino cherry juice as needed to achieve desired texture.  Add red food coloring if desired. Frost cooled cupcakes.

My notes: I just used a regular hand mixer as I don't have a fancy stand mixer. I did not use the food coloring and I used probably 5 or 6 tbs. total of the cherry juice (started with 4 and then added a bit more to get the consistency of the icing that I wanted).

Hope you enjoy!

Catching up on Project 365 for April -

April 1st: I woke up with a terrible sore throat this morning. Not good. Here is R and Georgia playing a game of Sorry before bed.

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April 2nd: Fever, aches, sore throat. Sick!

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April 3rd: R and Irelyn reading a bed time book - But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton (love her books!) Irelyn has it mostly memorized and likes to "read" along.

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April 4th: Both girls were invited to a birthday party today. Lots of photos from that, will have to choose one for the album. Today we also celebrated my brother Mark's birthday at a pizza place in Plant City. I finally went to the Take Care Clinic and was diagnosed with a Sinus Infection and a beginning ear infection. Antibiotics and rest were prescribed.

April 5th: Easter Egg Hunt at Limona Village Chapel Methodist Church. Girls had a blast!

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April 6th: First day of Spring Break! Took the girls to lunch at Chick-Fil-A and let them play in the play area after. Then we headed to the library and to Publix after that.

IMG_6971 Georgia trying to convince Irelyn it's okay to climb up and go down the slide.

April 7th: It was a cold and dreary day. I was feeling run down and exhausted from the busyness of Monday so we just stayed home and played all day. Rented Beverly Hills Chihuahua and need to find a picture of that to add here.

April 8th: Play date at our friend Cara's house! I can't believe how long we were there (sorry about that, Cara) but the kids were all having a blast and I don't think there was one fight the entire day! Hard to believe with a group of 7 girls between the ages of 3 and 8.

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April 9th: Georgia had a friend over for a play date at the house today (friend from her class at school).

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April 10th: Good Friday. Took the girls to the Aquarium today for a few hours. They had a blast!

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Saturday, April 11th: I think I might faint. R has decided to clean out and organize the garage. It looks really great, honey! Thank you!

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Lots going on recently and I was sick for 2 weeks straight, but now I'm back!

Catching up on Project 365:

March 25th - March 31st:

IMG_6886 Stack of new wash cloths for the girls' bathroom in bright, happy colors!

IMG_6888 Thursday night. Home from work around 10pm. Georgia heard me come in and needed a mommy hug.

Friday R and I headed to Walt Disney World parks for a belated anniversary getaway (with no kids!). I will put a photo of the hotel for Friday. Saturday we headed to Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney MGM). It was an overcast day, but we had a great time! We finished up around 5pm and had done everything in the park, so we decided to "park hop" to the Magic Kingdom since they were open until Midnight! Wow - were we tired. What were we thinking??? Had a great time together.

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Sunday the 29th. We were going to go to Animal Kingdom, but it ended up storming all day. We did a little shopping for the girls at Downtown Disney Marketplace and headed home. Got in a nap and dinner before the in-laws brought the kids home. Ahhhh.

IMG_6896 Girls got Easter gifts from the grandparents and gifts from us, so they were thrilled!

Monday, March 30th:

IMG_6898 Georgia wanted to go to All About Puppies (puppy store) and we decided to go after dinner. They are looking through the window, longingly, for a puppy.

March 31st: Forgot to take a picture today so just a fill in photo of our refrigerator/stove area.

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That wraps up March!