tuesday with tommie

***I thought I was getting all creative and artsy shooting a pic in front of the brick. But the wind was blowing like a "herd-a-cane (Livi and Will speak for hurricane). Then I glanced up just as the the camera took the picture.....dang...I need to get my roots done. PS, I have an appointment next week. Bring on the color. I am too young to go gray!***

WHAT I’M READING: Just got the new Real Simple for April 2009. Kind of exciting just to write April...I am so over winter. Remind me why I wanted seasons???

WHAT I’M WATCHING: I have NEVER gotten into American Idol.....so I am forced to watch Rock of Love the Superfan challenge episode

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: during the day I listen to my favorite radio station podcasts..Bobby Bones out of Austin. I can listen to his morning show online if I am home. But I tend to run errands while the kids are at preschool. But it is so easy to download the podcasts to my Iphone.

WHAT I’M WEARING: jammie pants....t-shirt....it is 9:30 at night.

WHAT I’M EATING: had Chinese for dinner....chicken with veggies. It was only okay.

WHAT I’M ENJOYING: I love Tuesday evenings.....Monday and

Tuesday days are pretty busy. We made cookies today, then rushed off to ballet for Livi. Wednesdays are so laid back.

WHAT I’M SNIFFING: Mississippi Mud cookies (recipe in the previous link) we made today. These were really good! You melted chocolate to mix into the butter and sugar. Oh me, oh my! They really were yummilicious! Want one, we have plenty left over even after sharing with the neighbors and the kids' teachers.

Thursday 13+ : Coconut Curry Chicken soup

Okay, this has more than thirteen ingredients....which that alone would normally make me shy away from this. But it really was as good as a coconut chicken soup I have had in a Thai restaurant! I am so glad we have leftovers!

Ingredients

4 cups water
3 cups fresh spinach leaves
1/2 pound snow peas, trimmed and cut in half crosswise
1 (5 3/4-ounce) package pad thai noodles (wide rice stick noodles) **I think I used the wrong noodles**
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
2 teaspoons red curry paste ***used sriracha hot sauce instead***
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce **Did not use since apparently this is an item not to be found in KY***
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 small hot red chiles, seeded and chopped, or 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
7 lime wedges


Preparation

1. Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add spinach and peas to pan; cook for 30 seconds. Remove vegetables from pan with a slotted spoon; place in a large bowl. Add noodles to pan; cook 3 minutes. Drain; add noodles to spinach mixture in bowl.

2. Heat canola oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and the next 5 ingredients (through garlic) to pan; sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add chicken broth to pan, and bring to a boil. Add coconut milk to pan; reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add chicken, onions, sugar, and fish sauce to pan; cook for 2 minutes. Pour chicken mixture over noodle mixture in bowl. Stir in cilantro and chiles. Serve with lime wedges.

printable recipe from Cooking Light

Yield 7 servings (serving size: 2 cups soup and 1 lime wedge)

Happy Thursday, y'all! Want to play: the new thursday-13

Manic Monday and some snowballs

What gives you hope? I hate to sound cliche. But, the kids do.

How often do you get your haircut? I am growing out the Victoria Beckham swisshy haircut....so about every 6-8 weeks.

Describe your worst haircut. Describe? How about some visuals? (This was 1990. ) First, to get my hair that curly, it would take twice the amount of normal perming solution. Then what is up with that spaceship shape of my hair. Friends don't let friend perm!

What's your most treasured piece of jewelry? My wedding ring. Why? It is a symbol of a relationship I have with Husband, the commitment we have to each other.

Fleur-de-Lisa hosts the original Manic Monday here

For muffin Monday, we are almost finished with the cookie recipes we wanted to try. This one is called Pecan Snowballs. (Kind of appropriate, since we are supposed to be slammed with a snowstorm tonight.) Can you see the Littlest Pet Shop animals amongst the silly faced kids? They had to have them in the picture!

1 cup pecans
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

*Heat oven to 350° F. Spread the pecans on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for 8 minutes. Let cool and roughly chop.

*With an electric mixer, beat the butter and 1 cup of the sugar until fluffy.

*Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts and salt.

*Gradually add the flour, mixing until just incorporated.

*Mix in the pecans.

*Shape the dough into tablespoon-size balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

*Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

*Transfer half the balls to a second parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart.

*Bake until lightly golden, 18 to 22 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes.

*Place 1/2 cup of the sugar in a large bowl. Toss the warm cookies in the sugar and return to the baking sheet. Sift the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar over the cookies before serving.

*Plate and share with friends!

*To Freeze: Instead of refrigerating the balls of dough, freeze them on the baking sheet before storing them in bags for up to 2 months. To bake, follow the recipe instructions, baking from frozen, and use the upper end of the time range. Yield:

Makes 34 cookies
writeNutrient();
NUTRITION PER SERVINGCALORIES 120; FAT 8g (sat 4g); CHOLESTEROL 14mg; CARBOHYDRATE 12g; CALORIES FROM FAT 57%; SODIUM 15mg; PROTEIN 1g; FIBER 1g; SUGAR 6g

Thematic Photographic- sweet muffins

Carmi at Written Inc has a Thematic Photographic of sweet

We made some sweet muffins today. Yes, I know it is not Monday.....but Monday was way too hectic. Between our house blessing and gymnastics, we ran out of time. Although from start to finish is Muffin Monday usually only takes an hour or so, maybe a little more with clean up. But I am raising these kids up right: as soon as we are finished with an ingredient, we put it back where it belongs. If it is in the pantry, we go over there and put it away. I have even moved some of the baking things (baking powder, baking soda, etc on a lower shelf just so they can put them away). Anyhow....we made some muffins the kids saw in Parents Magazine: Pear-Bear muffins . They used a spice cake mix and added a few things. I can't bring myself to use a cake mix for much EXCEPT the Chocolate Chocolate chip cake and/or muffins ...

So....

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (we use 3/4 c. whole wheat, 1/2 c. all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 3/4 cups shredded Golden Delicious apple (we used Fugi apples, since that is what we had in the fridge)
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
2 teaspoons sugar ***we left this out since we were making the "mouse faces"
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon ***we left this out since we were making the "mouse faces"

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine apple, buttermilk, oil, and egg in a bowl; stir well. Add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moist.
Divide batter evenly among 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. We added the pear ears here. The chocolate chips eyes and nose are put on after they cool for 5 minutes. The cheeks are sliced almonds. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans immediately.

Plate and share with friends. I am sure they will they will love the sweet surprise! The kids called them "mouse muffins"

Happy Tuesday, y'all!

Manic Monday and a Salad nicoise sandwich

Salad nicoise sandwich, originally uploaded by tommiea1.

Manic Monday brought to us by the talented Fleur-de-Lisa.

If you could choose only two movies to watch ever again, what would they be? When Harry Met Sally and Princess Bride....love love love both of those

What have you found to be the best way to relieve tension? Since I try to keep this blog G rated..............a good massage.

If you went to a beach and it turned out to be a nude beach, would you stay and go swimming? Would you swim nude? ooohh good question. I would have to say who's there? Friends? Is there alcohol involved? Is is secluded? Way too many questions for this one to just be yes or no.

Well, as for Muffin Monday, it just didn't happen today. But since my dear friend Claudia of On A Limb had mercy on my non-vegetable garden soul.....sending me a package of a variety of tomatoes, I did get to have this for lunch. Isn't it pretty? A little salad nicoise sandwich

I pulled the recipe out to type it up...but misplaced it! I'll add it when I find it. It is basically tuna, green beans, the baby tomatoes, lemon juice and a slash of olive oil, with butter lettuce on a ciabatta bread.

Here is a link to the recipe : It is from Real Simple.

Getting back to our normal......

Will has always been the lovey-huggy-touchy kid. From day one (he is actually about a year old here), he would much rather nap ON you, rather than in his crib.

There is lots of sleeping going on around here. I knew to expect this. When he come home on R&R, it took almost three days to get back on Texas time. He was nine hours ahead when he was in Baghdad. Since he left on Sunday, until we picked him up on Wednesday, he had only slept a handful of hours here and there.

So yesterday while Livi was SUPPOSED to be napping, the boys were SUPPOSED to be having quiet time. I guess it got so quiet they fell asleep. This is the four year old who has napped MAYBE once in the last year and a half!! Oh well, they were too cute to wake up. Of course Livi never napped...... but this is our normal for now!

Yesterday the kids had Caroling in the Courtyard at their preschool. They sang songs in both English and German. Then we got to have lunch with the kids. We made the faux-turtles. They were a huge hit! "Hey, what you lookin' at?" ........Will thinks if his jacket has a hood on it, you should be wearing it. Even if it is over 70 degrees and sunny.....silly boy!

Best wishes to all traveling this weekend.....Merry Christmas!