One-Way Ticket to Office Popularity

Number One conned me into making Sparkly Snowballs for a little party she had today, and the recipe made enough for an army. So, rather than eating them all myself and getting fat, I brought them in for my co-workers so they could get fat instead. They are a huge hit, and I'm going to coast on this tide of goodwill until at least next week. Here's the recipe:

Prepare a white cake from a mix while at the same time trying to prepare dinner. Bake it while you eat. Let it cool completely while you clean up the dinner dishes, and crumble it into tiny crumbs. Add a tub of white frosting (recommended: Baker’s white frosting mix with a tsp of peppermint extract) and mix until all crumbs are coated. Freeze for one hour.

Remember at 10:00 that you have to make the balls before bed, and sigh loudly. Form mixture into 1” balls, put on wax paper and freeze overnight. Swear that you are never doing this again.

Melt 2 bags of white chocolate chips. Drop individual balls into the melted chocolate until covered; scoop out and place on wax paper. Have your assistants sprinkle them with sparkling sugar or white sprinkles before they harden. Realize your assistants haven’t washed their hands, and insist that they do so, and yes they have to use soap. Run out of white chocolate and fuss at yourself for being too cheap to buy a third bag. Roll the remaining uncovered cake balls in sprinkles. Store in the freezer until ready to serve. Makes about four dozen. Try not to eat more than six.

A Grand Day Out

With Batman and his dad gone to Utah this weekend (with instructions to bring me back a sister-wife), the girls and I decided to do something fun ourselves. On Saturday we went down to the Kemah Boardwalk, which is on Galveston Bay and is as far from our house as you can get and still be in the Houston area.

After a Starbucks treat, we headed for the rides.

I was reminded of just how much I hate Ferris wheels.

The girls wanted so much to play a game on the midway, and after I carefully explained how the games are rigged so that few people will win and that they're much harder than they looked, Harper won two prizes in three tries.

Our favorite ride, the Wipeout, went round and round and up and down and frankly I'm a little dizzy just writing about it.

After a dinner at Joe's Crab Shack spent watching the boats come in and out of the bay, we headed home. Some of us were more alert than others.

Meap would like to go again next weekend, but I think we need to wait until Pop and Baba can go with us. Maybe Pop will take the girls on the Ferris wheel, because there is no WAY I'm going up in that thing again.

Meap

Once the nipple chafing starts, it's a vicious circle

Batman ran 80 miles on Saturday. Let me say that again: 80 MILES. And he ran it in less than 19 hours. NINETEEN HOURS OF RUNNING. I get bored after about five minutes; he ran longer than I'm awake each day.

The race was the Rocky Raccoon, a local ultra marathon. His goal was 100 miles in 24 hours. When he got to mile 80, his feet were blistered, his legs were in terrible pain, and he was shaking from the cold and exertion. He decided to stop, and although he wondered the next day if he'd made the right choice, seeing the open oozing blisters on his feet under the bandages helped convince him he'd stopped at just the right time. (I'm not posting the photo; you're welcome.)

I took the girls and two of their friends to the park to cheer him on, and one of his friends came out with his three kids. GrandBob stayed with Batman the entire time, bringing him water and supplies and acting as his biggest cheerleader. We are all so proud of him, not only for pushing his limits but also for raising nearly $2,000 for Charity:Water. The hope that money will bring to people in need of clean water is well worth every step he took on that 80-mile journey.

It's a very hearty soup

Batman and the girls aren't big soup eaters, so I don't make it very often. But today Houston had it's first snow day of the year (of the past five years, actually) and I figured soup would be a perfect dinner for such a gray and snowy day.

I've had this recipe for a while but had never made it before. I made a few changes (don't I always? that's why my baked goods never turn out) and it was fantastic--Special had thirds, and I don't think that has EVER happened for any meal. If you try it, let me know what you think.

Mexican Holiday Soup

1 cup minced onion
2 tsp olive oil
1 Tbsp chili powder
3-4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
2-3 cups cooked, shredded chicken*

*I used boneless, skinless thighs that I'd seasoned with salt, pepper and a little Cajun seasoning while cooking.

Saute the onion in oil until tender; add chili powder and garlic. Add remaining soup ingredients and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Dumplings:
2/3 cup masa harina or cornmeal (I used the masa harina; it's much finer than cornmeal)
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp hot water
2 tsp oil
1 tsp lime juice

Combine dumpling ingredients; dough will be soft and slightly dry. Roll 1 tsp into a ball--mash it a little with your hands so it sticks together--and add to soup. Repeat with remaining dough. This sounded time-consuming, but it only took two or three minutes.

Simmer for 3 - 5 minutes, until dumplings float. Add a little lime juice to the soup and serve as-is or with a little cheese on top, and maybe some fresh cilantro if you like cilantro, which I do NOT.

The original recipe called for a can of drained garbanzo beans instead of chicken, and half as many dumplings. We don't like garbanzo beans, and we all wanted more dumplings, so I doubled the measurements here.

I wouldn't even know where to begin

Well, the last time I tried to upload pictures here, my computer crashed. Two repairs, one new computer, and two birthdays later, I'm ready to try this blog thing again.

First, pictures of Number One's eleventh birthday:

new Penguin shirt!

Her party was at Pizza Fusion, our favorite pizza place, so I made the cake to look like a pizza. You do not want to know how much red food coloring I had to use.

Most of her presents were from Justice, her favorite store. After she opened presents, the girls got to decorate their own "pizzas"--big sugar cookies in small pizza boxes.

Then Special turned eight:

GrandBob offered to buy her dinner anywhere she wanted. She chose Jason's Deli. As you can see here, she was wild about her new Barbie head! We had another family dinner on her actual birthday at her other choice, Chick-Fil-A, and she had a sleepover party that weekend with two friends.

Halloween: zombie cheerleader and "Pajama Girl"
(her superpower: making a lame costume awesome)

And to round it out, here's a shot of Sweet Tea and her best playmate:

You gotta have faith

Last night Special was getting herself some ice cream for dessert. The carton was nearly empty, and as she scraped out the last bits she asked me, "You remember Jesus giving out the fish and bread?" (That, by the way, is her all-time favorite Bible story).

I said yes, I remembered. She said, "I hope God will do the same thing now and make some more ice cream in here." And then she commenced to praying. "Please, PLEASE, give me some more ice cream!"

Sadly, the ice cream did not multiply. "But wouldn't that have been funny?" she asked. I guess it never hurts to ask.