Chef Messy

elijah the elephant

My friend Miriam, knitting superwoman extraordinaire, knit this amazing elephant for Jonah. He loves it.

 

 

 

He's been talking to it since he was a newborn, but now that he's finally figured out how to hang on to it and give it a big smooch he's having a lot more fun.

Thanks again, Mim, we love it.

twenty-minute increments

I really, really like sewing.  It just amazes me to see things come together from little, frayed scraps of fabric and string, and I've always enjoyed getting lost in a project for a few hours.  But I don't have a few hours anymore.  I have whatever I can squeeze in during Jonah's twenty-minute power naps.  I don't mind, though.  It's amazing what you can get done in twenty-minute increments, especially when you pick projects that are small and easy.

 

We've been down to one pathetic potholder for about a year now.  I'm famous for leaving them places when I take goodies to potluck dinners.  I can always seem to remember the dish, but never the potholder.  And then last week I burnt a giant hole through the one that we had left, what was left of it.  (I also have a knack for burning giant holes in all sorts of things.)  When stuff needs replaced around here, I do my best to just make it.  Why be crafty if you can't put it to practical use, you know?  So, I rounded up some scraps and now we have a potholder again.  You can make a potholder in twenty minutes.  And then you have the illusion that you are actually productive, even though the odds of you actually cooking anything that requires a potholder anytime in the near future are slim to none.

Conversations with Matthew: Extracurricular

"Once spring soccer starts, we're going to have to pick one of these activities to give up.  You've got way too many things going on."

"Hmm.....like, how about kindergarten?"

Conversations with Matthew: "My Woman."

"Is it almost Valentine's Day?"

"Yep. In about 2 weeks."

"Oh, good.  I'll have to decide what I'm going to get my woman."

"Your woman? Who is your woman?"

"Tori.....And Piper."

"Tori AND Piper? Matthew, didn't anyone ever tell you that girls don't like it if you have more than one woman?"

"Well, see, Piper is in morning kindergarten, and Tori is in afternoon kindergarten.  So, I don't really have to worry about it."

which partially explains why my house looks the way it does

So, hey, I haven't blogged in a month.

I've had good reasons.  For one thing, everyone in the family has been sick, except Jonah (thank you, BF-ing!).  Actually, I've been sick with several things.  In the last month, I've fought off two ear infections, a nasty respiratory infection which caused me to have a fever of 103.8 for an entire week, and I'm also likely going to have gall bladder surgery next week.  There have been multiple bottles of antibiotics and emergency room trips involved.

It's been fun.

Also, my Christmas tree is still up, I can't remember the last time I got eight hours of sleep, and the school is threatening to call child protective services if Matthew misses one more day of kindergarten.

But other than that, life is good.  Jonah is a great baby.  Ryan is doing Ryan stuff.  Matthew is busy building things out of junk.  There is no guarantee in this house that anything you throw in the trash is actually going to stay there, not if Matthew can find something else to do with it, which usually he can.  Also, we have to carefully guard any office/craft/art/cooking/cleaning supplies that aren't nailed down, or else they will end up in "the machine."

 

The important thing to realize here is that you cannot, I repeat, CANNOT connect the black wires to the red, orange, or yellow wires.  If you do that, it will zap you, and your brains will come oozing out your ears.  The black wires can ONLY be connected to the green wires.  This is very important.

So I'm told.

 

But I see some brain-zappers here, now that I look twice.

posie nutcracker doll

My main New Year's resolution for 2009 was to either get skinny or to get pregnant.  Well, I didn't get skinny.  Rather, I got very, very fat.  But that was because I also got very, very pregnant.  So, I'm calling it an extremely successful year.  My New Year's resolution this year is to either get skinny, or to get very, very fat again.  My other New Year's resolution is to finish all the random unfinished projects I have hanging around here.

For example, this little nutcracker doll, which I made for London LAST Christmas...

 

Wasn't she the cutest baby ever?  I could die of cuteness.  On one hand, I want Jonah to be a newborn forever.  On the other hand, I can't wait for him to be a chubby little crawler like this.

 

Anyway, I gave her the doll last Christmas, but the skirt kept falling off, so they gave it back to me so that I could fix it.

And it only took me an ENTIRE YEAR to get around to it.  That's just how I roll.

 

London likes that she "has pretty yips."

channeling our inner foo fighters, etcetera

We all used to attempt to go out and party for New Year's Eve.  And then one day we realized, "Wait, we ARE the party."  So, now we just count down the new year at my parents' house every year.  It's loud and fun and the kids stay up with us, and then I'm sure my mom and dad are pretty happy when we all go home.

A party of this scale means that everyone has to have a job.

Dad's job is to plan enough food for all 12 of us.  He usually hears wrong and plans enough food for 1200 of us.  That happens when you get old and your hearing starts to go...

I don't know who else was in charge of catering, but I know they were pretty much crazy.

Jen is in charge of party hats and prizes.  It is required that at least one hat each year ought to involve bikini tops.

 

Matthew is the videographer.

 

Jonah is in charge of sleeping through the entire party.

And, of course, every good party needs a band.

 

I am the drummer.  I am ALWAYS the drummer.

And these are my backup musicians.

 

I have to watch out for this one...

 

...He can get a real attitude.

Happy New Year from the Kendell Family!

sledding: an activity we do so that we can have hot chocolate when we are done

My sister and her family live in Las Vegas, so snow is a novelty for them.  Sledding is also a novelty.  We had to make sure to take the cousins the first snowy morning that we had while they were here.

Gavin had to test the snow to make sure it was safe for sledding...

And Matthew had to be tossed down the hill the first couple of times, as usual, before he decided that he was going to have any fun.

 

But after that they had a good time.

 

 

 

 

If only there were a way to avoid those big treks back up the hill.

 

 

Lollipop also had her first go at sledding, and here's how it went.

 

 

"I go sledding.  It is SCARY."  London is very articulate for her age.

I was amazed that the Las Vegas kids lasted in the snow as long as they did.  Long after I was ready to go inside, Gavin was trying to convince me to stay and play at the park.

 

 

It's nice for Matthew to have a sledding buddy besides me and Ryan.  Wish these guys were around all the time.

it's not like i actually need caramels for any reason, i just refuse to be defeated

Every year before Christmas, I make a bunch of Christmas candy.  This year I had a day when Jonah was taking a long nap, I had nothing else to get done, and I had all the ingredients at hand for about five different kinds of treats.  It was the perfect day for making goodies.

First, I spent thirty minutes stirring only for my caramels to go to hard.  Apparently the outside temperature can affect what temperature your candy will finish at.  Who knew?  Not me.  I have NEVER had my candy not turn out!

Then, my gingersnaps went flat.  I have only baked this gingersnap recipe successfully about a dozen times.  Apparently, that isn't enough.

After that, I was mad, and I gave up.  And then I got too busy, and so the candy never got made.

So a few days after Christmas I decided to give it another go.  And this time they are perfect.

 

I don't need them.  I wish someone else would come and eat them.  But I love them.

Christmas Caramels

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
dash of salt

Combine ingredients in heavy pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon until temperature reaches soft-ball state on candy thermometer (about 15 minutes). Pour into buttered 7x11'' pan. Cool, cut into squares, and wrap in wax paper. Makes about 75 pieces.

Enjoy!

eggs florentine get wacky with waffles

I'm generally a cold cereal kindof girl, but we're trying to eat more protein for breakfast at our house.  This one is a good reason to get up and cook eggs.

 

Eggs Florentine Get Wacky with Waffles
from Yum-O

2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 10-ounce box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and excess water squeezed out in a kitchen towel
freshly grated nutmeg
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup chicken stock
4 frozen whole-grain waffles
4 slices Canadian bacon
8 eggs
hot sauce (optional)
1 vine-ripe tomato, cut in 4 slices
1 cup grated swiss cheese

Preheat the broiler to high.  Set the rack in the second slot from the top.

In a medium skillet, heat 1 Tablespoon of the olive oil and 1 Tablespoon of the butter over medium-high heat.  Once the butter has melted, add the onions and garlic and season with a little salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring every now and then, for 2 to 3 minutes or until the onions start to get tender.  Add the spinach and season with a little nutmeg and stir to combine.  Sprinkle the spinach mixture with the flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  Add the milk and chicken stock and bring up to a bubble.  Simmer the mixture until thick, 3 to 4 minutes, then cover and keep warm off the heat.

While the spinach mixture is cooking, toast up the frozen waffles.

Place a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.  Add the Canadian bacon and cook on each side for 1 to 2 minutes, until lightly browned.  Transfer to a plate and cover to keep warm.  Return the skillet to medium-low heat and add the remaining tablespoon of butter.  While the butter melts, beat the eggs with a splash of water, some salt and pepper, and a couple dashes of hot sauce, if you like.  Add the eggs to the skillet and scramble to your preferred doneness.

To serve, place a slice of the Canadian bacon on top of each toasted whole-grain waffle.  Top with some of the spinach mixture, then eggs, a tomato slice, and cheese.  Slide under the broiler for a couple of minutes to melt the cheese.

Enjoy!

the cute white outfits and stuff

My knowledge of how baby christenings go in other religions consists of what I've seen in the Godfather movies.  I know that there are cute white outfits involved and that generally there is screaming.  In that regard, Mormon baby blessings might not be that much different.  We have the outfits, and we have the screaming babies.  Actually, most moms get lucky and have pretty happy babies during the blessing.  Every now and then you get a screamer, though.  That's always entertaining.

Luckily, there was no screaming from Jonah.  He continues to be the trick baby...perfectly smiley and happy about 99% of the time, and asleep the other 1%.  (I hope that 1% will increase one of these days.)  He's so good that I'd almost be willing to deal with being pregnant again (almost being the very operative word here, for the moment).  Ryan did a really nice job, and then they made me get up in church and say a few words.  And I cried and rambled incoherently and can't really remember what I said.  I hope I got the point across that I am so, so happy.  I am a pretty private person as far as most religious things go, which can be tough in a religion where you are expected to express your thoughts and feelings as frequently as Mormons are, but I hope the world knows that I feel so, so blessed to have this little person belong to me.  I feel so blessed to have both of my kids, and to be a mom, and to have my little family... And now I'm rambling incoherently again.

All in all, it was a nice day.

And he was so cute in his outfit!  Whipped this thing up in the wee hours the night before the blessing.  The Amy Butler kimono jammies pattern continues to get good use.  Took me longer because I had to figure out a new sewing machine (hooray!), but I love how they turned out.

 

And then we had a big shindig with the whole family after church.  I had really only hoped to just throw together some low-key get-together, but my Mom made everything super nice like she always does.  And then she looked like this when she was done.

 

What can I say, she's a super party animal.

The boys, on the other hand, always have plenty of energy to spare.  If I could bottle it I would be a bazillionaire.

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan's family came, too, but they are blog-shy.  Maria Elena brought pies.  Lots of amazing, delicious pies.  The Kendell family has unanimously voted to include Maria Elena in all future get-togethers.

It was a good day.  Jonah is so worth celebrating.

in which santa was not successful in convincing matthew that the elves forgot how to make transformers

The number one rule on Christmas morning is that you have to brush your teeth before you can run out and see what Santa brought you.  As you can see, Matthew is thrilled about this rule.

 

I never knew why this was a requirement, but we always had to do it.  If I had to spend eighteen years waiting an extra three minutes for presents, than gosh darnit, so does Matthew.  It's only fair.  And thus are the ridiculous requirements of parents perpetuated through the generations...

Jonah didn't have to brush his teeth because he doesn't have any.  He also doesn't really get what it's all about at this age, but he's excited anyway.

 

Or surprised.  One of those emotions that involves very high eyebrows.  Actually, scratch that, this is just the permanent state of Jonah's face.  Constant surprise.  Matthew always had this face, too, but he didn't actually have any eyebrows.

Santa was good to Matthew this year.  Santa was hoping that Matthew would choose a new obsession this Christmas.  Santa even tried convincing Matthew that he hired a bunch of new elves that didn't know how to make Transformers.  Matthew told Santa that he was sure the elves could figure it out.  Santa had to go and find a good buy one get one free sale, since the elves don't know how to make Transformers.  Santa is really hoping that maybe next year Matthew will move on, so that the elves can do something new for a change.

 

Hope you all had a merry one.