Fennel

Had my second cooking class on Thursday night. A new lady who was very cute and nice (but not as adorable or Julia-like as the lady the week before) - taught us to make lentil roast, pesto pizza, jalapeno sweet potato soup and fennel/pear salad.  She did not wear a cute apron either which was a bummer.  I think I need to find a cute apron!  I'm determine anyone can look like a pro in the kitchen with the right apron. I was not a huge fan of the menu selections this week.

The lentil roast was very yummy and I would probably try to make it sometime but I cannot imagine ANYONE in my household eating it.  It did remind me that I haven't had lentils in a VERY long time and I actually miss them!
The sweet potato soup was delicious but reminded me of baby food - the texture was just a too mushy.  But "Julia" sat next to me at class last night and said that semi-pureeing an apple and adding it to the recipe would give it a little more texture and add a little flavor. I may test this one out on Shane...he is actually a really good sport about food.

I also learned about fennel...where does one buy fennel?!  I've never even seen this vegetable!  I guess it has a licorice taste and the leaves are used to make anise.  I don't particularly care for fennel but my horizons were broadened.

The best recipe of the night was actually the juice that they made!  It reminded me of Vacation Bible School punch that Miriam used to make.  All we ever got was a Dixie cup of her punch and I remember craving more of it.  This punch will do the same!  I had W-A-Y more than a Dixie cup of it.

Here's the recipe for the best recipe of Thursday night: Grape Sparkle
Whiz in blender:
1 can white grape juice concentrate
1.5 cans* (18 oz) water
1- 15 oz can pears in syrup, frozen and cut into manageable chunks
1-1.5 t True lime powder (to taste)

Pour into pitcher and add:
1.5 cans* (18 oz) ginger ale
About 4 oz purple grape juice (already reconstituted)
Sweetening to taste

Substitute frozen apple juice for the frozen white grape juice for a nice variation.  Another variation: skip the pears and lime, and add raspberry syrup to taste.

*Measuring with the 12-oz frozen juice can.

Julia and JaNae

I L-O-V-E the movie Julie and Julia with Meryl Streep.  After watching it the first time I fell in love with Julia Child. This classy lady really knew how to enjoy cooking - just look at how much fun there is to be had in the kitchen:

 I have been trying to cook more but to be honest, we eat alot of Fruit Loops and Apple Jacks when we don't have the kids.  I'm ashamed to admit this but yes, it's true.

Why can't there be more hours in a day for cooking and working out?  I keep saying to myself, "Next January our classes will be two years old and won't require as much fine-tuning and you'll both have your evenings back again." Problem with this logic: next year is 11 months away.  This just isn't gonna work.

I was doing really good about cooking a couple nights a week but have relapsed.  When we visited Canby a few weeks ago Lacie gave me her Taste of Home magazine that she was done reading.  So many good recipes I want to try in it.  I just want to feel victorious in the kitchen, is that too much to ask?

Tonight I went to a cooking class at the Kennewick 7th Day church where I met the cutest lady - she was a real-life Julia - minus the french cooking style - minus the french accent - but adorable and vegetarian. 

Here she is in action:

I ate and watched her prepare Vegan and Vegetarian meatballs.  Which reminded me I haven't had Mom's "Meatloaf" in FOREVER!  I am gonna bust out that recipe soon.  We don't have the girls this weekend and Shane is a much better sport about taste-testing food than they are.  She also made Baba Ghanouj that was yummy with toasted pita bread chips.

Here's the recipe:
1 medium eggplant
1/4 c. tahini - I had no idea what this was - it's sesame paste!
1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
3 cloves fresh, minced garlic
1 tsp salt

Prick the eggplant in several places with fork.  Bake at 350 for 1.5 hrs (who has the time for that - OR boil in salted water for 20 mins without skins). Place in food processor with all the ingredients and process until smooth.
Serve with toasted pita bread brushed with a little olive oil. 

I feel like my relapse is going into remission.  I found a renewed energy for trying to learn to cook!

Next thing you know, Shane and I will be sending out Valentine's Day cards like this one from Julia and her hubby, Paul!

 

Popcorn Dilemma

We had our movie night on Saturday night this week.  Here was this week's selection:

But, we have a popcorn dilemma!  What is the secret to the movie theater/concession stand popcorn?  I realize I am going to sound like a popcorn snob right now but I am so curious - what is the secret?!!!  The first time we made popcorn with our fancy popcorn maker we poured the seeds straight into the spinner and it had no flavor whatsoever.  It was delicious after we added salt but I'm really concerned about the butter ratio.  We tried pouring melted butter over the top and it was smooshy. The next time I bought the spray-on "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter."  Nope...this is not the magic ingredient either.  It leaves some pieces wet but doesn't really coat the popcorn all over.  This weekend we tried putting a small stick of butter in the spinner which was a MARKED improvement.  But it still doesn't have that ooey-gooey-drippey buttery flavor...you know what I'm talking about, right?  It doesn't have that yellowey color either - where does that come from?  Suggestions?

The good news, the dogs like popcorn no matter what version it is:

 They got baths at Petco this week because it's just much to cold for my fingers to hand-wash them old-fashioned style in the yard with a hose.  I think they get spritzed with a vanilla scent or something - they smell amazing when they are done at the dog spa!

Geyser!

Kennedy has really been diggin her science kit we got her for Christmas.  She wants to do new experiments all the time.  She has been asking and asking to make a geyser and for the last two weeks there just hasn't been enough time, or we don't have the ingredients, or we aren't home, or blah blah blah....so busy! So finally, after MUCH MUCH MUCH anticipation we did the geysers last weekend. 

At first, Shane was solo doing the prep work.  Everyone was a little timid to get near it.  I mean, we were really waiting for this thing to blow!!!

Kennedy got brave and decided to help him out.

Are you ready for it? Are you REALLY ready for it?  It's gonna be H - U - G- E!!!!!!!!!!! (scroll down)

And this was it..........

So we tried again thinking surely more Mentos would make a bigger blast.  Here's attempt 2:

Hmmmm...the intimidation has worn off.  Note to self regarding science experiments:  too much climatic build-up that turns out anti-climatic is funny for the parents but not for the kids :)

Fridge Art

Isabella and Kennedy both brought home some new fridge art for us this week.  Kennedy is in art class on Thursdays after school and her projects take a little more time to complete than Isabella's so I only have one of her projects to show you.

Ronnie Robot

Are YOU smarter than a 4th grader?

1. Who was Sacajawea's son?
2. Name the stages in the life cycle of a salmon.
3. What are the names of the three angles?
4. What is an idiom?

If you cannot answer these questions, you are NOT smarter than a 4th grader!

The evening for Shane and I went down a little like this: we went to each student's desk and picked a category: science, math, language, or history.  When we didn't answer the question correctly, the student snickered or laughed at us and made us say "I am NOT smarter than a 4th grader." 

Kennedy had been looking forward to this for weeks.  So much so that last week she was talking about the questions she was going to ask us.  Shane even tried looking up a few of the answers ahead of time which I find hilarious.  He apparently wanted to be more smarter than a 4th grader than I did :)  (I need some 4th grade language arts training with that prior sentence structure).

But even with his cheating we unfortunately had to say this phrase over and over.

This is Shane using his best Ron Burgandy voice trying to B.S. his way through the life cycle stages of salmon. Kennedy wasn't buying it.

Answers:

1. Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau 

2. egg, alvin and fry, adult, smolt, spawn, zombie - In all fairness, I'm pretty sure even with all of Mr. Sharp's talk about fishin and hunting I never did learn these phases. 

3. obtuse, right, acute

4. a figure of speech like "dumb as a rock" 

Babies R' Us

We had a fun-filled, baby-filled weekend! Friday, Shane had to do an extern visit for the student in Portland so the four of us headed over early Friday morning.  We actually made it out of the house at 6:00 am on the dot which in itself was an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G start to our weekend!  We dropped him off at the hospital and the girls and I checked into our hotel for some early morning swimming.  We then picked him back up in the afternoon and drove to Canby.

Derek and Lacie were gracious to host another round of visitors for the afternoon.  They made us a yummy lasagna and we had a great visit.  Eli has changed so much just in the couple of weeks since I saw him.  He is starting to "see" you now instead of just looking at you.  Isabella and Caleb really hit it off and had fun playing in his room.

After our Canby visit we went back to the hotel and swam some more.  We got up early in the morning for a great continental breakfast.  It's funny how doing something so simple like staying in a hotel and swimming was the highlight of the girls' weekend.  They had a blast.


Saturday morning we went to Bob and Vicky's.  Their daughter and son-in-law, Chelsea and Randy, flew in from Baltimore with their new baby, London.  It was a big Topping/Bruce family reunion!  I got to meet alot of Shane's cousins I've never met before and put faces to names.

 

Kennedy learned to play checkers from her cousin, Mathew, and then she challenged her Dad to a game.

 

And if any of you are wondering...which I know you are...NO! There is no baby news from Shane and I! Ha-Ha...it was a baby filled weekend of seeing everyone else's babies :)