CAKE!!

Don't you hate it when you try a new recipe and it totally BOMBS? It happened to me twice this week. Twice. *insert very dramatic sigh here*

Monday: I made Molasses Sandwich Cookies. The filling was grainy and the cookies were nasty. I chucked 'em.

Wednesday: I made Turtle Pumpkin Pie. It was a no-bake recipe but had to be refrigerated for "one hour". Yeah. The next morning, the thing was still total soup. I chucked it.

But I was NOT to be defeated. This girl does not make two failed recipes only to quit in utter disillusionment. Nay, she saw it as a delicious challenge and would be appeased only by a culinary victory.

Thursday Afternoon: Grocery store baking aisle.... I zipped through the store and picked up semi-sweet baking chocolate and peppermint extract, as well as buttermilk, heavy cream, unsalted butter and peppermint candies.

I was going to bake a Chocolate Peppermint Cake and, so help me, it was GOING to be heaven on a platter.

Friday Morning: The kitchen is prepped and the ingredients are measured out. The chocolate and butter are melted in a heat-safe bowl over a pan of hot water. This looks good. The chocolate is melting beautifully and it looks like dark brown silk.

The other ingredients are added and I whisk while in a state of confectionery bliss.

The batter is poured into the pan and I have all I can do not to dive head-first into it and slurp down every last scrumptious-smelling drop.

Fifty minutes later, my house smells like chocolate euphoria and I take the cake out of the oven. It cools in the pan for five minutes and then I turn the pan upside down on the cooling rack in the hopes of the cake being released in one piece. Oh my gosh, look at that - it worked!! God bless parchment paper.

I take in a huge whiff of the warm deliciousness and then make the icing and spread it on the cake.

Wow. This looks amazing. It's definitely time to sample a piece!

Hey, it looks just like the picture in the cookbook - only better, because they used chocolate shavings to garnish the whipped cream and I used crushed peppermint candies!

I take a forkful. SOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!! .....Not one to be too self-indulgent, I share my piece of cake with my girl. I suppose this picture speaks for itself.

I decide that if I keep this cake in the house, I will devour it within twenty-four hours, so I pack up the cake and the whipped cream and my girl and we head to Daddy's work. His co-workers loved it. One of them even said to him, "Was your wife raised by Betty Crocker or something?" Coooooool!

Oh and hey, I think I thought of a name for my future cafe: "Sweet Lissy B's." You like?

Nerd

I am a blog nerd today. Huge blog nerd. Three entries in one day constitutes a blog nerd.

I love my camera. I love taking pictures of random stuff like my Starbucks cup. A little while ago I went to Dominicks to buy my sick hubby some chicken noodle soup and crackers. There just happens to be a Starbucks in Dominicks so I treated myself to a Decaf House Blend. Took it home and put some vanilla Coffeemate in it and it was ever so deeeeelightful. I don't get regular ol' coffee from there very often. I even got Scotty a little stuffed Starbucks penguin with a scarf on to cheer him up a little. I think he likes it.

Oh, and while I was drinking my coffee, somebody wanted a drink of her own. She's such a little copycat. :)

Circles

I'm back. I HAD to blog about this cuz it is the best idea!

I was reading "American Baby" magazine last night and a mom said that she uses an apple corer to cut sandwiches into bite-size pieces for her 16-month-old. So I tried it today and OH my gosh - it is the GREATEST!! I never thought of doing that! You can also use the apple corer to cut cheese and plain deli meat and stuff. SO COOL!

And as you can see, Liss loved it!

Funnyface

Grandpa was feeding her mini M&M's the other day and I, of course, was taking pictures. As soon as she saw me point the camera at her, she made this face:

She is definitely a ham!

*** OH my gosh. I am SUCH a hairbrain! I just realized that I already posted this picture a few days ago. JEEEEEZ. Sorry for the repeat, and please do me the kindness of excusing my ditziness! ***

So now Scotty has a cold. He got my sore throat and Lissy's runny nose. Poor dude. He's working from home today because he feels too miserable to go in. I don't blame him. Colds suck. I hope we're all fine by next Tuesday!!

TV

So last night I put channel 7 on at 8:30 cuz I didn't want to miss "Notes From the Underbelly." It was kinda lame. But the show that came on after that was really good. I had never even heard of it before last night. It's called "October Road." Have you seen it at all? Then a friend of mine said that this is the second season of it. Woah! Radar UP. That means there's a season one DVD for sale! I just ordered it from Amazon. Sa-weet!
Okay, this entry is gonna have to be short. I hear my little squirt banging around in her crib up there and she's probably hungry for lunch. I'll be back........!

Snot

My poor little bug has a very runny nose. I think she might be coming down with a cold. Suck. I gave her some Tylenol Cold tonight before bed and she said, "Mmm!" If she does have a cold, this will be the first time she's ever been sick since she was born. Suck.

So here's some news: I'm goin' back to school! Taking a culinary class that goes from January through May. Check out this description - doesn't it sound so fun?!!

"Studies of the principles of food preparation with emphasis on skill development for the production of bread and pastry, salad, and international cuisine. Includes the principles of purchasing, pricing, scheduling, and catering management."

The class will meet every Tuesday from 11-5:00. Two hours of lecture, three hours of lab (kitchen work). Sweetness!!!!!! I am so psyched!!

So we were watching Food Network yesterday and that guy with blonde, spikey hair (Guy Something-or-other) was at a restaurant where they made "inside-out cheeseburgers" and he's eating the thing going "Oh MAN, this is the BEST burger...." *rave, rave, rave*.... Scott noticed that he said this restaurant (Hackney's) was north of Chicago so we looked it up online and found out the place is only fifteen minutes from us. So guess where we went for dinner last night with Mom and Dad? And yeah, the burgers were awesome. So was the block of onion rings. With LOTS of ketchup. So naughty, but sooooooo nice. And guess where we took our friends for lunch today? Yep, twice within less than 24 hours. It was cool to see this place on Food Network and then be able to go there for dinner a couple hours later!

And without further ado....you know I've got new pictures! The first is one is her playing with her cousin Emily in Green Bay on Thanksgiving. She really likes Emily! The other two are from yesterday when Grandpa was feeding her mini M&M's (or as she says, "Enin-M's"). She loves them so much that she drools in technicolor.

Later!

Tree

...or no tree? I still can't decide, although I'm still leaning towards "no tree". Our little sweetcheeks would be all over it and might even try to climb it, and might even be successful in that attempt. Girl can climb! She'd have the strings of lights off that tree quicker than you could say "NO! Don't touch the lights!" She'd grab the end of the garland and turn in circles until it was wrapped around her instead of the tree. Then she'd try to eat it.
But you should SEE the look of complete wonder she gets on her face when she sees a tree full of lights. I know she'd love having one in her house!
What to do, what to do......?

I've got plenty more to write about but it's getting late and my "Gilmore Girls" DVDs are calling my name ever so appealingly. I'll check in tomorrow!

In the meantime, I hope your turkey and cranberry sauce have digested comfortably and that you listened to Christmas music all day. :)

Love

It can only be young love, right? Lissy getting a great big bear hug from fellow blondie and favorite play date, Charlie:






So I got my hair trimmed today cuz I want it to look cute for the holidays. I love the holidays! I had her "stack" it a bit more in the back. Aren't I stylish? I feel like I should have a French poodle and stilettos. Kidding.




So I might not post again til after we get home from GB, so if I don't -- I wish you and your family and buddies a very, very blessed Thanksgiving!! And let's remember Who all our blessings come from. Thank you, Lord!!!

Happy...

...birthday again, Denise!
I'm treating Denise to lucnh at Steak 'n Shake in a little while. She picked the restaurant. And I'm very happy with her choice - they have THE best burgers! After lunch we're gonna go hang out at her house so we can chat and Liss and Charlie-guy can play. They're good buds! Denise and I have visions of them attending prom together someday. Lol!

Oh my gosh, I was sooooooo happy to see my girl when Grandma and Grandpa brought her home yesterday!! When I answered the door, she looked at me with a confused expression on her little face, but then I could see the moment of recognition and she put her arms out to me. Too funny! She slept in Grandma and Grandpa's bed (inbetween them) for THREE HOURS yesterday morning!! Whuuuut?! She NEVER falls asleep on our bed - I wish she would cuz I love snuggling with her! When I picture her snoozing away all cozy-like on my mom and dad's big bed, it makes me smile.

We're leaving for Green Bay on Wednesday afternoon. I'm looking forward to our little trip. I think Liss will have fun with everybody there on Thursday! And she'll LOVE Thanksgiving food!!! Last Thanksgiving she dined on breastmilk all day. This year's gonna be so fun!

My tummy just growled and at first I thought it was my cell ringing. *snort* I'm hungry.

Oh, I made a RR recipe Friday night - Turkey Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie. (Did I mention that already in another entry? I think I did. Oh well.) Anyway, here's a pic of the finished product. It was really good. I use Rachael's "garbage bowl" concept when I'm cooking a meal that has lots of ingredients. It's handy-dandy.

And here's a picture of my happy girl, and a picture of her piggy. They are the only piggies in the whole world that I love!!

Wow

Have you ever sat down to watch a movie - a movie that you settled on because there wasn't anything else you really wanted to see?
Scotty and I watched "Reign Over Me" tonight. It didn't look very interesting to me; in fact, I had never heard of it. Adam Sandler was phenomenal. I have a whole new respect for his acting ability. And Don Cheadle was amazing, as well. It was a fantastic movie. Just fantastic. The kind of movie that, when it ends, leaves you just sitting there going, "Wow."

Bake

Mo - the Sleep Snug things DID work!! My covers stayed in place beautifully last night - yay!!

For dinner tonight I made a RR recipe: Turkey Sweet-Potato Shepherd's Pie. She lies. It didn't take thirty minutes. It took almost an hour, what with all the chopping and dicing and getting three different pans out and all. But it was really tasty! Can you believe the recipe uses half of a banana? Random! We had cranberry sauce with it. I love cranberry sauce. Apparently, so does the small one - she gobbled it up quicker than I could put it on her high chair tray!

So anyway....right now I'm laying on my bed with two candles lit and Christmas music playing on my radio. Relaxation rocks.

I've got this new little pipedream. I wanna bake. I mean, not just for Scott and me - but for lots of people. I wish I could open up a cozy little bakery/cafe. There's nothing like that around here. There are plenty of Starbucks and Borders Cafes and everything, but there's nowhere you can just go and order a bowl of soup, a freshly-baked muffin and some really good coffee and relax. I wanna do it. I really do! If it ever happens - and that's a huge "IF!" - it won't be til Liss is in school, so I've got some time to figure out if it's something I'm capable of pulling off. There's a lot involved in something like opening a bakery. I just wanna make basic things like muffins, cupcakes, cookies, pies, pastries. Not birthday cakes or wedding cakes.....I don't wanna get into cake decorating at all. I would want it to be a perfect place for people to come and get really good baked goods and just hang out. I don't know enough about coffee at this point to even think about that part of it, but I can learn. And I'm even looking into taking some culinary classes. Oh my gosh, that would be SO cool!!!!! And heck, those will come in handy whether I open up a place or not! Who knows if it'll ever happen? But it sure is fun to dream about!

Tomorrow Liss is spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa's. This will be the first time I've ever been away from her overnight! It's kindof a "practice session" for our San Diego trip, when she'll be staying with them for five days. I miss her already. Gosh, she is the best.

Bed

I honestly can't really think of anything else to blog about tonight, so here's my boring entry:

Every morning I wake up to all my covers pretty much on the floor. I don't know how I manage to make that happen every night, but I do. I'm a pretty major thrasher while I sleep so I guess it's not all that surprising. But it's getting annoying cuz during the night I've been waking up a dozen times and try to adjust the covers but it's doesn't help. WOW this is a boring entry.

Anyway, so like two years ago I bought these things called "Sleep Snug". Here's what they look like:

I really hope these crazy things help!

I don't mean to be a broken record but - my baby girl is so stinkin' awesome! Lol! She is THE best little hugger! I say, "Can Mommy have a hug?" And she cruises on over from wherever she is and just throws herself into my arms and nuzzles her precious little head against my belly. It is sweetness personified. And I squeeze her sooooooo tight! There is no feeling like it in the world and I feel incredibly blessed to experience it.

She got a flu shot today (the second in a round of two). The very moment we got into that doctor's office, she SCREAMED and had big ol' crocodile tears streaming down her red cheeks. I felt so bad for her!! The shot itself happened VERY quickly and as soon as I picked her back up off the table, she calmed down. She knew it was done and that everything would be fine. A handful of fishy crackers and her baba, and she was a very happy girl on the way home. Poor little peanut. Shots blow for little kids who have no idea what the heck is going on.

Tomorrow we're planning to meet some moms and kids at McDonald's playland for lunch. Can you say "chaos?" Lol! I'll keep ya posted.

Potty

She's fourteen months old. She's not ready to use the potty. But nevertheless, today I bought her a potty chair because, well, someday soon she'll use it - and a little ridiculous optimism never hurt anybody. Lesson number one took place this evening. Upon seeing the new potty chair for the first time, she stepped ever-so-gingerly into it - one piggy at a time - and was standing like a fountain statue in the center of the potty. After that, I demonstrated how to sit on it (don't worry - I hovered above it. I'd rather not break the thing before she even uses it.). Then Pooh Bear demonstrated how to sit on it (while Mommy made small farting sounds to enhance the experience). This seemed effective. Then daddy hovered above the potty chair as his daughter watched with obvious amusement. I said, "When you need to poop, come and sit on this potty chair." Yeah. THAT'S gonna happen. OH - and she is an expert at very succinctly saying the word "potty." Another new word to add to her rapidly-increasing vocabulary. Go, Lissy, go! Pun fully intended. As you can see from the photo, she quickly grew bored of sitting on the potty and raced off to play with the box said potty came in. I gave her a B+ on lesson one. Not bad for a fourteen-month old.

Today she began sucking her pointer finger. Not her thumb, her pointer finger. When she wants her baba the finger goes in the mouth. It's kinda cute, really.

Now here's a little story for ya: We planned to meet Scotty on his lunch hour today and hit a good restaurant near where he works. As I always do, I called his cell when we left the house to let him know we were on our way. Voicemail. A few minutes later, I called his cell again. Voicemail. Again. Voicemail. So I called his direct work number. Voicemail. Called it again. Voicemail. Got there and sat in the Durango outside his office window - like I always do - so he could see that we had arrived. Waited. Waited. Dug around in the diaper bag and handed Lissy some goldfish crackers cuz the poor kid was starving. Waited. Waited. Handed Lissy some more fishies. *crunch crunch* Waited. Called his cell. Voicemail. Call his direct line. Voicemail. WHAT THE HECK?!! This is highly unusual. At this point I started to worry. Did work stress finally do him in? Did he have cardiac arrest, pass out cold on the office floor, and get carted away in an ambulance? Was his cell phone on the floor of the hospital hallway?

So finally I parked and Lissy and I went into the building. We walk into the office and spot him standing in the conference room holding a plate full of BOSTON MARKET, for crying in the night!! As soon as he saw Liss and I standing there staring at him blankly, he looked surprised and then ashamed. Yep, he completely forgot we were supposed to do lunch today.

He apologized, said he'd still go to lunch with us, and when asked where I wanted to go I said - without missing a beat - "The mall." After a quick, lukewarm lunch in the food court I headed to the Yankee Candle shop and picked out sixty bucks worth of candles and, like the smart boy he is, he handed me his credit card. It was a good day.

Nap

My little stinker is taking a loooong nap right now. That's one of the best things about playgroups - the kids get so exhausted and they just crash afterwards! ;)
The big toe on my right foot hurts. I got a little overzealous during toenail-trimming the other night and dug too deep. Ow.
I should buy stock in Yankees. If a jeanie popped out of a jar right now, my three wishes would be "Yankee candles, Yankee candles, and Yankee candles." My sister gave me a pumpkin pie jar one for my birthday and it's almost gone already. I've burned four pumpkin pie votives, too. The way those Yankees make the house smell is just sooooo WONDERFUL! I wish they were a little cheaper - I'd buy a bunch for myself. The food/baking scents are my favorite by far. I'm a candle freak and in the fall and winter I burn them pretty much every day and into the evenings. Anybody know where you can buy Yankees for like wholesale or something?
Hey, I walked 30 minutes on the treadmill a little while ago! Yep. And I'm gonna keep it up. We have a perfectly good treadmill - we may as well use it, right? I'm gonna drag Scotty onto it tonight and if he protests I'll make him feel reeeeeally guilty.
Okay, time to think about dinner. I think it's gonna be chicken chow mein from a frozen meal kit I have. Exciting. Not. But after I grocery shop in a couple days, I'll be hitting the Rachael Ray recipes pretty hard. Yum-o.

Thanks!

I love the comments you've been leaving, and I want to thank you so much for them! *smooch!!*
I don't have a whole lot to say tonight....it was just a pretty ordinary day. Liss and I went to Dominick's to do some grocery shopping (spent twice as much as I'd planned, as usual). She got a kick out of a couple of little boys who were shopping with their mom. We were in the cleaning products aisle and they were being all obnoxious and silly and stuff, and Liss was watching them and giggling. The boys' mom thought it was cute. Ya know - these days, anything that can help entertain her is OKAY by this mama!! :)
Tomorrow I'm having some moms and kids over for an afternoon playgroup. I love playgroups!

Tonight

Okay Miss Devon - here's my blog entry for today! Hee!

I loved tonight. We had a really yummy "breakfast pizza" for dinner with some toast and jam. Lissy loved tonight's dinner too! I'm so thankful she's not a picky eater. Anyway, then we were all in the family room watching cheesy Disney shows. Scotty and I were cuddled up on the couch and Bug was lying on the floor drinking her baba. It was just a really nice moment. :)

Thank you, God, for the really nice moments.

Oh - and she has added a new word to her vocab today: "Cool"! She brings us her little pink sunglasses so we'll put them on her and then she smiles and says, "Cool!" It is soooooo impossibly cute!! I'm amazed at the things she picks up lately. She's like a sponge!! Yesterday we were driving down to the mall and for some reason I said, "SSSSUCK!" cuz I was bummed about something, and we hear a little voice from the back seat: "suck". So yeah, it's time to start being really careful what we say when those little ears are close-by!

...I am still totally loving audio books. I checked a bunch out from the library this past week and put them onto my iPod. The two things I love best about them are:

-- I can listen to a book while I'm doing other things (like tonight I listened while I folded and put away laundry). I'm looking forward to working on crochet projects while I listen - gonna do that soon.

-- And it's just soooo relaxing!!

At the rate I'm going, I finish about two books a week. Right now I'm listening to "Light on Snow" by Anita Shreve. It's very intriguing and I can't wait to see how it ends. I really, really like this story.

Oh and ya know what I did last night? I went to a movie by myself. It was blissful. Saw "Dan in Real Life" and cried my eyes out. It is not a sad movie. It's happy and so very sweet and incredibly touching. I guess there are some "bittersweet" parts to it but in general it's a happy movie. I'm glad I was there by myself cuz I don't like people to see me cry. However, I was talking to my sister on the phone on my way home and could barely talk because of the crying. What a doofis, eh?! I want to buy that movie when it comes out on DVD. I can't wait to see it again. If you're reading this and haven't seen it yet, I hope you'll see it. I recommend it very highly!

Ouch

I'm in the kitchen too much. I have a perpetual cramp in my right thumb from manipulating the sprayer on the sink faucet.

Mall

This afternoon we took Liss to the mall down in Vernon Hills. We very rarely go to a mall cuz there isn't one close to us. We either have to drive 30 minutes to Gurnee or 35-40 minutes to Vernon Hills. I have a dream of someday living very close to a mall. *wendy gets a wistful look in her eye*
But I digress. So the three of us went today because I heard that Curious George was gonna be there. The one, the only -- George. Liss doesn't even like that show yet but she sure loves his books. So we find him and we take her out of her stroller and put her down. She beelines for the monkey - walks right up to him and waves. He waves back. Then she walks around him in a circle a couple times, checking him out real good, and finally pokes his monkey butt. It was really cute. And her doofis mom forgot the camera - again!
Then she proceeded to attempt Elmo theft at a toy store, climb into another kid's stroller, and leave with somebody else's red balloon. Ah, adventures at the mall.
It was fun though. She and I needed a change of scenery something FIERCE. I am so tired of sitting in this family room!!!!!!

James

This morning I met my friend Sherri for breakfast at the Whistle Stop Cafe. I love that place. The food is always really good (especially their breakfast food) and it's just kindof a fun place. Our waiter was James and I think he's probably as gay as the day is long, but he is SO great. I got there a few minutes before Sherri and he said, "How 'bout some coffee, Love?" Then a little later he asked, "How about a little cup of fruit for the little one?" And he brought it out for her before the rest of our order was ready. Somehow, he must know how kids are! And when he brought it to her, he unfolded a napkin and dramatically set it on her lap. Lol! And when we were getting ready to leave, I was trying to grab my purse, her jacket and the diaper bag while holding my very squirmy, fussy girl...and he picked her up and held her until I had everything together. And she was happy as a clam by him. He even tried to teach her how to say "Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, and Coach." ....Gosh, if every waiter or waitress was that intuitive and accomodating the world would be a better place!
James is cool.

Zapped

Every once in awhile I have a day where, by the time Bugga goes to bed, I am absolutely ZAPPED. Just bone-weary from the diapers and the whining and the meals and the cleaning up and the clothes-changing and the vacuuming and the garbage-emptying and the playing and the trying to be cheerful when all I wanna do is crawl in bed for several hundred hours. Today is one of those days.

Words

My girl says some new words, as of the last week or so!
"Girl"
"Guy"
"Hey"
"Charlie"
"Button"

We've got a baby genius here. Lol!

Daddy

This girl absolutely ADORES her daddy. When he gets home from work she runs to him with her arms out and virtually melts when he picks her up. It is so awesome seeing the two most important people in my life so in love with each other.

And today she looks like a little prep. Kind-of a mini college girl - lol!

And I call this picture "Whatever Works"!

Starbucks

"I love my Starbucks. I love my joe. I love my Starbucks. Barista, let it flow."

It's a song that's on my iPod.

I don't really know why I'm on such a Starbucks kick lately. I'm not even a big coffee drinker. I drink coffee about once every couple weeks on average.

It may have started when I found out that they're building a new Starbucks about two blocks from us. Oh, and it's really cool that right now they're giving away a free iTunes song per day. You just go in, buy a coffee, and pick up a card; there's a code on the back that you enter into iTunes and your free song downloads. Love that!

Oh, and Toskey's in the doghouse today. I was drinking a peppermint frap this morning and left it on the table for a minute or two. When I went back to get it, it was lying sideways on the floor and he was helping himself. A cat that likes fraps. Maybe I'll take him to Starbucks next time I go and we can chat over pumpkin spice mochas.

I started a new audio book last night - "The Christmas Letters" by Debbie Macomber. Loving it so far. Her novels are sweet.

Our friends Jim and Jill were here last night and left this morning. It was a short visit, but a nice one. Liss really took to Jim and kept wanting him to pick her up and stuff. It was adorable. He kept saying, "She's SO cute!" Yep, she is!

Today Lissy and I are going to the bank to deposit a buttload of loose change that has accumulated in our change jar. I'm real curious as to how much it is. We're putting it towards Christmas gifts. Anyway...then we're going to Super Target cuz we have a gift card to use. Gift cards are neat.

Have a good day!

Laugh

Is there anything better than hearing your baby laugh? It's one of the best sounds in the world! She's starting to get this great giggle and when she does it, her shoulders even go up and down! Priceless.

Earlier tonight Scott was dangling a cloth "banana" (that we used to use as a kitty toy) from the loft and she was laughing at Toskey trying to catch it. If it works, I'm gonna post the link to the video here. Please excuse the fact that she's not wearing a shirt...I took her shirt off after dinner cuz she had gotten pasta sauce all over it and it needed some serious SHOUT action right away! :P
http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a145/Wenzee/?action=view&current=Laughin007.flv

By the way....what would we do without Shout?!



OH - and guess what? Would you believe I FINALLY got into my "Lissy B" blog tonight?!!! I discovered that the "username" they needed all this time was simply my email address. OH my gosh. So here I start this new blog and the very next day I figure out how to sign in to the one I've been trying to sign into for months now. UUUGGGGHHH!! .....Oh well, I like this new one anyhow, and I'll probably talk mostly about Miss Liss here so it's all good!