Cooking Lessons with Light of My Life

Light of my life got a kids cookbook from Santa and she wanted to try out a recipe. Below are pics from the second time she made her chicken nuggets and french fries. As we all know, the third time wasn't so successful.



Here she is cutting up the "slimy" chicken (in her words).



Here's a close up of her cutting technique.



Here's the tasty french fries that I crave. These are much better than any I've ever had. Period.



Here's the nuggets in the oven.



Here's the finished result. So tasty. I'm so proud of her for taking an interest and actually sticking it out. She really enjoys cooking.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Mad Tea Birthday Party

Light of my life turned 8 in March. Due to her actual birthday falling right in the middle of spring break, I decided to have her birthday party the weekend after Spring Break was over. It was about 11 days after her actual birthday, but she was cool with it.

About July or so of last year, I found a great idea for her birthday party. We would have a Mad Tea Party. She loves all things Disney (chip off the old block) and she likes the movie Alice in Wonderland.

I thought it would be a blast to have mini tea cups and little finger foods and play croquet (except with regular mallets instead of flamingos).

I started doing some research on the 'net (I love the Internet, have I ever told you that?) and found lots of good ideas.

One of the ideas I found was to take a regular sized brown paper sack from the grocery store and paint the sack all different colors and designs (whatever the kids wanted to do). You then roll up the bottom of the sack and the sacks then resemble Mad Hatter hats.

Because paint can take a long time to dry and the kids wouldn't have any time to wear them, my mom volunteered to paint the hats ahead of time, that way the kids could just pick out the one they wanted to wear and it would save time for other activities. Plus, really, 10 kids painting? It's like a nightmare come true.

So, that was one part of the party down. Now for another activity to keep them occupied. The party was 2 hours long so we had to have enough for them to do so they wouldn't run around like hyenas.

The party was being held at my uncle's house. He has an Old English looking house and backyard that was perfect for the tea party. He graciously let us use his house. It really was the perfect setting.

Anyway, I came up with the idea for a treasure hunt. We had one prize and the first kid to get all the clues got the prize. I'm not a big believer in letting everyone win something. Life doesn't work that way. Besides, they were all going home with goody boxes (they were actually little Chinese take out boxes) filled with a magic towel (you know, those compressed wash clothes that expand when they get wet), a Smarties connect four game with spare Smarties, Jolly Ranchers, scented bubbles and Chinese finger cuffs as well as an Alice in Wonderland book and the Mad Hatter Hat. So, they all had enough.

Back to the topic at hand.......the treasure hunt. I wrote out 11 different clues and made 10 sets (we had invited a total of 10 kids, but only 4 showed up....typical). However, in order to keep the kids from just following each other, I had to make each kid take a separate route but still all end up at the last spot. What a pain. I randomly put one of each clue in each envelope with each kids name on it and then had to physically walk out each route for each kid to make sure that they were different but to also have the right clues in the right spot. Not only that, I didn't want to just put down ..... go to the tree. I wanted to make it a little tougher for the kids to figure out. One of the clues said to "get thee to where the roses grow red". That meant that the kids had to figure out where the rose bush was and find the clue at the rose bush. Another one told them to find the "Mad Hatter and tell her a joke". My aunt was dressed up as the Mad Hatter, albeit a modern and female version. This made the kids have to think on their feet. She was instructed not to give them a clue until they told her a joke.

The kids had a blast all around and just enjoyed themselves so much with this aspect of the party. So much so, that at the end of the party, they wanted to do it again and came up with their own version.

They also did one crafty thing. We had found those plastic mugs that have the paper inserts in them that you can customize. Light of my life had done one for me a couple of years ago that was for Mother's Day. Anyway, I thought it was too young for them but they all really enjoyed that as well. Go figure. I guess coloring never gets old.

I also came up with the great idea of baking mini-cupcakes. I had some mini-cupcake baking cups and we bought ONE mini-cupcake pan. ONE, I tell you. That was a mistake. I should have bought several so I could bake more than ONE at a time. Oh, well. The individual cupcake sections on the pan were so small, I had to using an icing squeezer thingie to pour the batter in. That was such a huge mess but also a little fun! I got sick on cake batter. All in all, we had over 100 mini cupcakes. I put food coloring in the frosting and we had pastel yellow, pink and green cupcakes. I had some gel icing stuff, so I used that to write on the cupcakes "Eat Me" like from the book. We had some punch (orange sherbet and ginger ale) that we put in all different size tea cups (that was a chore to find) that had a label that said "Drink Me". We had chips, mini peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut out like hearts (for the Queen of Hearts), chicken salad sandwiches and ham and cheese sandwiches. It was a tasty party.

My grandmother attended as well as my other aunt. It was such a great party. Light of my life said it was her best party yet.

I love to hear that.

Anyway, I'll post some pics in the next post.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Happy Valentine's Day

Or, as most wee ones call it, Happy Valentime's Day!

No big plans for us in the Dawg house.

The only tradition we have is that light of my life gets a basket of goodies. I had a white basket that I decorated years ago with red ribbon, flowers and beaded hearts.

I'm one of those shoppers that if it's on sale (and I mean more than 25% off), I'll buy it and stock pile it. I have 5 boxes under my bed with potential gifts. I keep them on hand for birthday parties, Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas, etc....It's mostly for light of my life or girls around her age. I have tons of stuff from Claire's since they seem to constantly have that 10 for $10 sale and I once got a poopload of purses for girls/tweens. Some are nice enough to save for when she starts attending dances and/or fancy parties/gatherings.

Anyway, since I've been doing this for years, I would notice that some of the stuff would start "age" while stored away. By "aging" I mean light of my life was starting to or would soon grow beyond the appropriate age of the item. You know, those ages 3 & up items vs. ages 8 & up.

So, I had to come up with a way to get rid of this stuff while still being able to justify spending the money in the first place. Trying to kill two birds with one stone here.

Wait a minute, exactly who do I have to justify my spending to anyway? Hmmmm.....thoughts for another time.

Anyway, this is when I created the Valentine basket.

Our tradition is that she gets to go through it in the morning. However, this morning, we were running late. Boy, did she get pissed when she didn't get to dive right in. I told her we'll do it this afternoon.

Mom bought her a dress at Wal-Mart that's actually quite pretty. It'll be for Easter.

I just got her a couple of Barbie outfits, one of those singing hamster things. She already has one that sings "Kung Fu Fighting" and has the nunchucks. I love that thing! Makes me laugh every time. The one I just got her sings "It's Raining Men".

I also got her a High School Musical c.d. of 6 songs by Troy and Gabriella. Some gum, candy (I know, I know, she's on restriction.....it'll keep), lipgloss, a bracelet and a purse. I got her one of those musical cards that plays "Who Let The Dogs Out" when you open it. She loves that song.

I told her I'd cook her favorite dinner tonight. So, we're having chicken alfredo pasta. However, she'll only eat it if it's made with bow-tie pasta. Otherwise, it taste nasty.....this is coming from the same girl that says that says that she doesn't like a cake for her birthday but she'll eat her weight in cupcakes. I can't figure that one out, either.

So, when I get home, I get to make bowtie pasta with alfredo sauce and chicken. I add pesto to mine. I'm getting hungry just talking about it.

Anyway, have a good Valentine's Day.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Weekend Wrap Up

A winter storm came through on Friday when I was leaving for work. I actually had icicles on my car! The DOT had already been out and about in the county because there was stuff on the bridges to prevent slipping. I got home on Friday only to have to go back out to pick up pizzas. No cooking in our house on Friday. It was so miserable. I had thought about going over to B’s on Friday after we ate our pizza and watched a movie but then light of my life wanted to watch the next movie in the series and I fell asleep during the beginning of it (it was like 9:15!) and light of my life and mom decided to go on to bed. I got my lazy ass up off the couch around 2:30 am and crawled in to my bed. For was cold as it was outside, the inside of the house wasn’t too bad. I don’t have central air and heat and when it’s really cold, I sometimes need to use a space heater in my bedroom. But that night I didn’t need to. B was at her house and they were bored. I should have gone over, but my butt was out like a light waaaaay too early. I would have been no fun to anyone as tired as I was.

The movie, by the way, was Indiana Jones. Light of my life had never seen the movies and I felt so bad not breaking her into to one of the greatest series of all times. She loved Raiders of the Lost Ark and immediately wanted to watch Temple of Doom. We’ll watch The Last Crusade tonight, probably. I’m kinda digging this writer’s strike. It gives me a chance to catch up on movies and light of my life’s movie education. She’s already been introduced to Grease, Grease 2, Dirty Dancing (with the Baby/Johnny love scene fast forwarded and eyes covered), Karate Kid (all 4!), Adventures in Baby-Sitting, Clue, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (her personal fav!), Footloose (another fav!), Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Goonies, Never Ending Story, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (the Kevin Costner version….I don’t care what people say, I love this movie!!!) and Shag. Next up on the list is Uncle Buck and Ghostbusters.

On Saturday morning, we awakened to icicles on the house, our cars, the handrail on the steps, the steps themselves, the trees, bushes, etc….Light of my life was so excited. Poor thing, it was the first time she’s ever seen icicles. We never got cold enough where we used to live for her to ever experience it. Still no snow, but the icicles will hold her over for a while. We have several of them in a bowl in my freezer! Got some cool pics.

Had to make the inevitable Wal-Mart run on Saturday. After all the fun and excitement with the icicles, we hopped in the car and drove 30 miles away to go shopping. I love that I live 30 minutes from a Wal-Mart. No extra stops just to buy more crap that I don’t need.

Anyway, light of my life had gotten a kids cookbook from Santa and she wanted to try out a recipe. We found one that we already had most of the ingredients for. She actually found two recipes and they make up a meal so she got to cook the entire meal by herself on Saturday night.

She made Crispy Mexican Chicken Tenders and French Fries. The only work I had to do was cut the potatoes and put things in and out of the oven. Otherwise, all the measuring and dipping and breading, she did herself. She even cut the chicken pieces into nugget-sized pieces. It was actually really, really good. I just had the leftovers for lunch today. The French Fry recipe even had a sauce to make with it. It was sour cream and barbecue sauce. It called for more sour cream than barbecue sauce but we reversed it and put more barbecue sauce than sour cream! I explained to her that as she got more comfortable with cooking, she could alter recipes to her liking.

She was so proud of herself. I'm real proud of her, too. We had some leftover and went over to B’s house. She had said that she wanted to sample it. We brought over about 6-7 pieces and some fries. Light of my life’s friend, M, had another girl sleeping over that night and they ate the whole plate!!! Luckily, B had managed to get a couple of bites in and declared it delicious. The girls thought it was good, as well. B asked light of my life when she was going to come over and cook for them. Light of my life said, “Anytime”.

We are obtaining a pool/Foosball/air hockey/ping pong table from B. She cleaned out the girls’ room and had to make room for her exercise equipment. In order to do that, she had to get rid of the table. We gladly accepted.

They’re bringing it over tonight.

When we were there on Saturday afternoon, I was teaching light of my life to play pool. I love to play pool and had been playing since high school. I’m such a bad mother. I’ve taught my daughter to play Texas Hold ‘Em poker and now pool! Next thing you know, I’ll have her smoking unfiltered Marlboro’s and drinking her Jack Daniel’s straight!

Anyway, B was on the phone with her husband, L. She mentioned that I was busy playing pool and he said that he “bet I had been in a lot of pool joints”. Of course, I had to correct him. I told B to tell him that I had been in a lot of “beer joints that happened to have pool tables”. That L is such a smarty pants sometimes! Of course, he wasn’t wrong, so I can’t get upset at him. Not that I would anyway. It was funny!

We decided that since the pool table was now going over to our house, if the girls wanted to come over to play, they had to bring a carton of cigarettes and a case of beer. That was the entry fee into the pool tournaments. I was teasing of course, but the rest of the time, we were saying that they always had to bring a carton and a case in order to enter the “pool joint” I was making over at my house. I’m going to make a sign and hang it up on the outside of the house. I bet some of the inhabitants of this county will think twice about stopping by unannounced after they see that. Actually, I’d probably be thrown in the slammer since it’s a dry county and I’d probably be contributing to the delinquency of minors and all that jazz! I kid, I kid. At least about the carton and case. I’m not kidding about having the kids over for tournaments. That will be fun. Their parents, however, will be required to bring over a case (not necessarily a carton)….especially if they intend to stay and visit! LOL!!!!!

Not a terribly exciting weekend but a nice and leisurely one. Just the kind I like. Did some cleaning out of light of my life’s room and playroom. Giving lots of things away. I can’t believe light of my life is willingly giving away 90% of her purses!!!! This is my little purse obsessed girl willingly giving away PURSES! I was so proud of her.

Now I just have to call up that Methodist church and take the stuff we don’t want any more to them. I hope Paris comes to the next sale. She can buy one of light of my life’s old purses! She has a nice silver one with a picture of Troy from HSM on it! I think that would look smashing with her many glorious outfits she’s frequently photographed in while visiting lesbian clubs in California. Yes, you read that right. Just Google that and you’ll see where she’s been partying lately!

Anyway, that was my weekend. How was yours?

Later,

Mama Dawg