Saturday, 2/19/2011

Crock Pots, our church potluck group, met at our house tonight.  We had eight adults, two babysitters, and five kids.  The kids spent time in our room watching Mary Poppins or downstairs playing with toys.  I think they all gathered with us when it was time to serve dessert.  I made a green salad and a pot of Chili Mac and Cheddar Soup, from Sunset magazine, for our contribution to the meal.  I've increased the amounts of ground beef, chili powder, and cumin from the original recipe.  Also, the salt and hot sauce were new additions to the recipe.  It was all gone by the end of the night to glowing reviews:)  Here's the recipe.

CHILI MAC 'N' CHEDDAR SOUP

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon(s) olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 lb lean ground beef
4 tablespoons hot Mexican chili powder
6 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups milk
1 can (14 1/2-ounce) reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 can (10 3/4-ounce) condensed cheddar-cheese soup
1 1/2 cup uncooked elbow pasta
8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Hot sauce to taste

Diced tomato, for garnish
Tortilla chips, for garnish
Minced jalapeño chile, for garnish

Directions:
1.  Heat oil in a 5-quart soup pot over medium-high heat; add onion and sauté 4 minutes, until translucent. Crumble beef into pot and cook, stirring for 4 minutes or until no longer pink. Stir in chili powder and cumin; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
2.  Add milk and broth, then stir in condensed soup until dissolved; bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 3 minutes. Stir in pasta; continue to cook, covered, 5 minutes. Stir in cheese until melted and smooth. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes or until pasta is fully cooked.
3.  Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with diced tomato, tortilla chips, and minced chile.

The rest of the group brought a potato casserole, corn bread, and a fruit salad for dinner.  And, for dessert, we had ice cream and oreo sundaes.  Good friends, good conversation, plenty of laughter, and great food.  Who could ask for a better Saturday night? :)  

Tuesday, 1/18/2011

We met with our PEPS group at Sara, Aaron, and Ari's house tonight.  At our last gathering, we decided to move forward with the potluck format with a few adjustments.  We are no longer going to have someone bring snacks for the kids.  Each family will be on their own for feeding their kid. The last family to host doesn't have to bring anything the next time.  And, the non-hosting families will be on a rotation for who brings what.  That way we remove the race to pick a dish off of the Facebook event.  Anyway, it should remove some of the stress for the group.  

Tonight we brought a loaf of bread to go along with the gourmet mac and cheese with chicken Sara prepared.  Barb and Tadd brought a caesar salad that was fantastic.  The dressing and croutons came from Metropolitan Market and really made the salad.  Jen brought outstanding chocolate brownies.  Ben and I each had a small bite of Katie's brownie.  I definitely wanted more.  

Everyone stayed until after 8:30 tonight.  The kids were having a great time.  Ronan had fish crackers and was very nicely sharing them with Katie.  They definitely have a connection over food sharing:)  Jackson pushed Ari around on a toy, back and forth across the house, over and over again.  They giggled and squealed and had so much fun!  Oliver got in the mix a bit when his dad brought out a book to look at. 

Friday, 11/19/2010

Ben, Katie, his brother, Spencer, and I are driving down to Portland tonight.  A family friend is getting married tomorrow, and Ben and I are the photographers.  Leaving after work is always anti-climactic.  We just get out of town and have to stop for dinner.  The easiest place to stop is in Tukwilla, near the Southcenter Mall.  We chose Panera Bread for our meal on this trip.  The menu has a nice variety, and, it goes without saying, the bread is outstanding. 

I had half of a Bacon Turkey Bravo sandwich.  It's smoked turkey breast, bacon, and smoked Gouda on tomato, basil bread with a signature dressing.  I opt out of the lettuce and tomatoes that come standard on the sandwich.  For side dishes, I had macaroni and cheese and some chips.  Ben had the Asiago Roast Beef Sandwich, also with mac and cheese and chips.  The sandwich had oven-roasted beef, smoked cheddar, and creamy horseradish sauce on Asiago Cheese Demi bread.  After snacking on turkey from my sandwich, I got Katie her own small turkey and cheese sandwich.  She skipped the bread and cheese and only ate the turkey.  And then, she gobbled down the tube of strawberry yogurt that came with it.  I'm not sure what kind of sandwich Spencer had, but I know he had mac and cheese with it.  

It took us over four hours to get to Portland, but we made it with a happy toddler.  Not too shabby:)

Tuesday, 10/26/2010

I was going to grill pork chops tonight, but the pork did not defrost fast enough.  Rather than risk partially cooking the chops by using the microwave defrost feature, we pulled out plan b.   We grilled roasted pepper and asiago cheese chicken sausages and made up macaroni and cheese with peas for a side dish.  The sausages were really good.  Ben dipped his in cajun catsup, and Katie and I dipped in BBQ sauce.  Katie cleared her tray of the sausage we gave her very quickly.  She wanted "MORE."  I cut up some left over chicken from last night and she finished it off too.  I like meat-eating Katie:)

This was my first time purchasing a box of Kraft deluxe macaroni and cheese.  It was definitely better than the original, powdered cheese mix variety I am used to.  The noodle quality seemed to be a little better and the sauce was pre-mixed and in a packet.  All I had to do was squeeze it out of the packet and stir it into the hot pasta.  It worked like a charm and was a nice compliment to the sausages.  Katie ate a good helping of the mac and cheese and peas too.  It was a good meal.

The best part of the evening, so far, is that when we took her upstairs for her post-dinner diaper change, she was ready to go to sleep.  She hit the sack without a peep a good 30-45 minutes early tonight.  Wow!  Thanks Katie:)

 In other news, my CDs should be ready to ship out tomorrow!!!

Sunday, 10/24/2010

Katie didn't nap today.  She was in her crib for over an hour this afternoon and never stopped chattering for long.  Her fake nap ended when the chattering turned into crying.  Needless to say, it ended up being a very long day for her parents.  At one point this afternoon, Ben and I both laid down on the den floor to rest while she played around/on us.  Ben was actually able to doze off.  I guess I was more in her way than he was;)

Katie was not in the mood to eat dinner, even though we knew she had to be hungry.  We got her to eat a little ham in her high chair, but then she threw a tantrum in order to get down.  She kept crying each time we tried to guide her away from something she couldn't have, like my phone.  We finally got her back into her high chair, but only after she insisted on having it moved into the middle of the kitchen.  Then she scarfed. She ate a bunch of tuna fish, pickles, and grapes.  She just needed to eat.  Too tired to make anything new, Ben and I just reheated the remaining BBQ pulled pork from last week and last night's cheesy noodles.  Rather than eat at the table, tonight the Ackers family dined in the kitchen with Katie. 

Saturday, 10/23/2010

Today was a good day, but nothing like we planned it would be.  We were going to go to a pumpkin patch with our PEPS group this afternoon.  When the weather looked like it would be unpleasant, we decided to cancel.  After Katie woke up from her nap at 3pm, Ben and I played a game of "I don't know...what do you want to do?"  We finally left the house at 4pm, heading to the mall to get him a new dress shirt.

After shopping, Katie got to run around in the mall's play area.  It was crazy and loud and crowded.  But, she ran right in there with all the kids and had fun.  I helped her climb up to slide down the leaf several times.  Here's a video of her doing it:)

At 5:30 we left the main mall in search of dinner.  I know it is silly, but we thought we might be able to get into the Olive Garden with only a small wait.  We did not.  It was going to be a 45 minute wait, so we decided to try someplace else.  We went to Joey, a pretty swanky restaurant.  Ben and I have been to the Bellevue location before, but never with Katie.  We were both a bit nervous that bringing a toddler in would be frowned upon.  We were pleasantly pleased that we were welcomed quite warmly. 

The hostess told us that we just "had" to have the macaroni and cheese.  She said she ate it all the time and loved it.  So, when we sat down we tried to find it on the menu.  It wasn't listed.  We asked our waitress for it and she said no problem, she'd have the kitchen make something up.  Hmmm....why would the hostess recommend something that wasn't on the menu?  The first dish brought to the table was chicken fettuccine alfredo that wasn't meant for us.  When Katie's dish did arrive, she wouldn't take one bite.    They used fettuccine noodles and then made up a creamy cheese sauce for it.  It was excellent for not being on the menu.  Ben and I both enjoyed some of it and ended up taking most of it home.  The best part was that they only charged us $1.99 for it:)

Ben ordered a Better Beef Dip-- thinly shaved beef, served with grainy mustard on an Italian bun with atomic horseradish served with red wine au jus and fries.  He said it was excellent.  I had an equally excellent chicken sandwich that included a grilled chicken breast, bacon, aged cheddar, and a spicy sauce.  I asked our waitress if it had anything else on it.  She said, "no."  Obviously, she doesn't know the dishes well, because it came with a tomato and greens on it.  Thankfully, they pulled off easily.  I just don't find that veggies add anything positive to a sandwich. 

The only things Katie would eat for dinner were our fries.  And, she was happy, quietly eating them while people watching.  It made for a pleasant meal for us.  Until...she choked on a fry.  She gagged and gagged and gagged some more.  We've started asking her to say "momma" or "daddy" when she gags, so that we know she has recovered.  This time she couldn't say anything.  It was noisy and dark in the restaurant, so we don't know how blue she got.  But, she ended up puking before she recovered.  It was quite scary for us.  Our waitress went above and beyond to help us clean everything up.  She ended up earning a nice tip.  Thanks waitress for not making us feel bad about our puky toddler.  Katie was wiped out by the ordeal, but stayed awake until we got home.  It was no surprise that she went to bed happy. 

Friday, 8/20/2010

Katie and I picked Ben up from work tonight and headed North to his brother Spencer's house.  It took us a 1/2 hour to get out of downtown Seattle and another 1/2 hour to get to his house in Lynnwood.  We all ate a bunch of goldfish and graham crackers while we waited for traffic to move.  It was well worth the wait.  Spencer made a delicious meal for us.  He had herb marinated chicken thighs and legs ready to put on the grill when we got there.  They cooked for 40 minutes on indirect medium heat and were never turned over.  The recipe he followed, which I believe was from a Weber Grill cookbook, said to avoid opening the lid on the grill.  The lid was not opened until the 40 minutes were up, and the chicken was perfectly done.  Fantastic flavor!  Well done Spencer!!!

He also had homemade macaroni and cheese for us, complete with a bread crumb topping.  While delicious, we all agreed that it wasn't as cheesy and creamy as we would have wanted it to be.  I know the recipe came from Williams-Sonoma.  Oh, and Spencer made us fantastic margaritas.  To be fair, he uses better ingredients than we usually use;)

Tonight we saw amazing developments from Katie.  First, she told us twice when she needed her diaper changed.  The second time, she went over to her diaper bag and pulled out everything we would need to change her diaper.  When Ben mentioned taking her upstairs to get her ready to go home, she ran to the stairs and started climbing. Then, as it was getting pretty late, she went over to Spencer's patio door, which faces the freeway, and started saying "home" over and over again.  We got the very distinct impression that she knew that she wanted to go home, and she needed a car to get there. 

Sunday, 8/15/2010

We took our time getting out of Portland today.  Katie ate breakfast twice while Ben, Spencer and I got ready, packed, and loaded the car.  Then we drove to Cadillac Cafe, near Lloyd Center on Broadway, for breakfast.  It took a while to get a table, but the food was worth the wait.  After breakfast we went to the Portland Saturday Market.  We did our best to stay in the shade, because it was HOT outside.  We perused the art booths while drinking refreshing Italian sodas.  Katie kept dumping water on herself in her stroller, so we decided to let her play in the Salmon Street Springs fountain in Waterfront Park.  I think she was a bit overwhelmed at first.  There were lots of kids running around her, kicking and splashing water and screaming with excitement.  It didn't take long for her to drop into the water and enjoy the spray.  Eventually, we had to dry her off and get on the road for home.

We stopped in Olympia for dinner at Ruby Tuesday.  Katie had a pretty good melt down while we waited for our food to come out.  I must admit that I was a bit embarrassed by her behavior.  Thankfully, she settled down pretty quickly after her food came to the table.  She had a little macaroni and cheese and a chicken strip dipped into marinara sauce.  Ben and I shared two appetizers--beef queso dip with tortilla chips and the four way sampler.  The sampler included chicken strips, fire wings, southwestern spring rolls, and fried mozzarella.  I didn't think the dip had enough beef in it, and both Ben and I expected it to have more heat.  And the sampler items were all just so-so.  Nothing stood out as exceptional with our meal, but it was good enough to finish.  Spencer had the peppercorn mushroom sirloin.  He said the sauce was good, but didn't comment on the meal overall. 

It was a wonderful weekend, and we are glad to be home:)

Saturday, 5/1/2010

What a fun day this was. My friend Elly and I hosted a bridal shower for our friend Lauren at my home. I will create a special "Bridal Shower" post later on with details about the shower. It was perfect!

After the bridal shower, we all went to downtown Seattle to the CanCan, a kitchen and cabaret, for the bachelorette party. I'd been there two times before, once for another bridal shower and once for a 30th birthday party. There is a tiny stage and the tables are packed in. Each show I've seen is a bit different, but always very entertaining and slightly odd at the same time. We arrived at 6pm so that we could have dinner and relax before the 7:30 show. Our ticket included a 3 course meal. Here's what I ordered:

1st course: Vegetarian soup made with fresh market produce (it is located at the Pike Place Market)
2nd course: Salad Ortaggio- spinach, pear, gorgonzola, and spiced walnuts tossed in balsamic-basil vinaigrette
3rd course: Three Cheese Macaroni- penne pasta in a sauce made with pecorino, gorgonzola and parmigianno cheeses, fresh sage and bread crumbs.

The food was delicious, the show was fun, and the drinks were tasty! I highly recommend a visit to the CanCan if you ever need something different to do in Seattle.