Chellisms

Interview Day

Ashley had her first job interview since becoming a WA state resident. Yes, I consider her a resident. She has her own library card and ordered a cell phone so maybe she plans on staying for a bit. Whatever she decides, we like having her and E here.

Then there is the obligatory action shot:

That shot was painful, by the time I got one that was usable I was doubled over laughing at her.

Goober.

At least she got all of her silliness out before the interview. Although, when she came home she did say that the entire time there she wanted to call one of the interviewers names.

Strange, strange girl.

Tim's Inspection

Ashley and Ethan got here on Tuesday and Ethan has been attached to Tim's hip ever since. They have quite the bond, Ethan likes to crawl all over Tim and Tim has more patience than anyone I know.

This afternoon Ethan decided that Tim needed an inspection. Tim and Taylor were playing SSBB on the Wii and Ethan HAD to inspect him.

First he checked out his head:

Then he checked his eyes:

 

Then E decided that Tim passed his inspection with flying colors and he deserved a little love:

Love that kid!

Recipe Wednesday: Salsa!

A couple of weeks ago we made guacamole, today I had a taste for salsa. This is my mom and/or dad's recipe, I am not sure which one of them claims it but whomever it belongs to it is one of my favorites.

That hairy arm is not mine but I couldn't seem to get it out of the picture. It kept popping in every time I tried to get a shot.

Salsa

8 to 10 tomatoes

4 to 6 jalapeno peppers

1/2 medium white onion

handful of cilantro

6 cloves of garlic

1 habanero/scotch bonnet pepper (optional)

salt

food processor or blender

1. Clean all produce. Cut tops from jalapenos. 

2. Roast tomatoes and jalapenos in oven on a jelly roll pan covered in foil or on the stove top in a covered pan until the skins of the tomatoes are bubbled and the jalapenos are bubbled and dark but not burnt.

3. Peel tomatoes and jalapenos. At this point you can also core the tomatoes. Cut your onion in half. Peel garlic cloves.

4. Place cored tomatoes, 2 jalapenos, onion, garlic cloves and cilantro in the food processor/blender and process until desired texture is reached. 

5. Add in a pinch of salt, more or less to taste. For more heat add another jalapeno one at a time, blending after each addition. Feel free to add in more garlic, cilantro or onion as well. If the salsa is too thick add in a bit of water, about two tablespoons at a time. Please remember when adding in the peppers that the longer the salsa sits the hotter it gets.*

6. The habanero. That baby is hot! If you decide to use it I suggest that you roast it in a separate pan or after the tomatoes and jalapenos. Do not add this in until last, very rarely (read almost never) does this salsa need it. If you did buy the habanero and the salsa is perfect without it then you freeze it and save it for something down the road. Or if you are my father feel free to add it in with all 6 jalapenos and then wonder why no one eats it with you.

Enjoy!

Notes:

Please remember when working with peppers to wash your hands with soap and water often. Do not rub your eyes.

When you make this salsa while the tomatoes and jalapenos are still warm it is a bit hard to tell what else it might need. I suggest that you err on the side of caution, stick it in the fridge and add to it in an hour after it has had a chance to cool down. Or ya know, have patience and let the tomatoes and jalapenos cool down first.

I don't know why the salsa gets hotter the longer it sits, it just does.

Storing Peppers:

Freezing roasted peppers: I roasted too many jalapenos this time out and wound up with leftovers. They will save in the freezer in plastic bag. Store in a plastic bag and thaw in hot water.

Freezing fresh peppers: Place peppers in boiling water for about 6 minutes. Remove peppers and place directly into ice water. Once the peppers are chilled remove from ice water, dry them thoroughly and place in an airtight container in the freezer.

Want to take a shower in my living room?

Evidently the master bathroom shower has decided that it likes the living room better than the bathroom. Or at least it has decided to check it out for awhile and see if it likes the view.

Those pictures are not of the same crack, put them end to end and then you have the crack. Oh, ha ha. Ha. Crack. Yeah, not so funny this time. I know you are thinking how in the heck did I miss that?? Easier than you might think, it is directly above the couch we sit on and those pictures came out darker than it actually is.

Paint bubbled? Check. Crack four feet long? Check. Slight darkening to show where a water stain might develop? Check. An owner who wants to know if it can be spackled and painted over? Check.   

Is there a frequent buyer card for the Shoot Me program?

A New Room

Right after Tim and I found out that I was pregnant with Bailey we started picking out big girl furniture for Taylor. We had an idea of what we wanted but didn't find it before the September 11th attacks and Tim was deployed. I got to pick out her first set of big girl furniture by myself and she/they have been using it ever since. I bought a loft bed set that suits them both fine and looks fine when split up. Up until moving to WA they shared a room.

Fast forward 6 years.

Yesterday my mom and I went out looking at furniture for Tay as I was pretty sure she needed more storage space. Since she doesn't have a closet in her room, she has a built in desk instead, she needed more drawer space. Well, we didn't just look, somehow the furniture followed us home!

The mattress is blue! It is a Memory Foam mattress with topper, the pillows are the same and are as flat a can be. Supposedly they puff up after a few hours but right now they would count as a deadly weapon in a pillow fight. The mattress also came in lime green or pink. Had it been Bailey I of course would have picked pink, Tay said she would have chosen green I told her that was why she stayed home.

 

Doesn't the room need look bare?? We had to take everything out of it for delivery. I know, I know, we paid to have it delivered. Our bedrooms are all on the 3rd floor. Heh.

That space under the bed is perfect for storage. Tim and I already warned Taylor that she isn't allowed to stick Bailey under there.

When Mom and Pete were up this morning I tried to stuff Pete under there but he is too big for me to maneuver. I guarantee that I will keep trying though, that might be my new mission in life. Hey, everyone has to have something to live for.

The best part is the mattress and its magical abilities.

When you sit on the mattress you leave an imprint of your butt and then it fades when you stand up. Some take longer to fade than others. *ahem* Taylor thinks this is the coolest thing ever except that she and Bailey are not heavy enough and so I keep getting yelled at Mom, come put your butt on my bed! I think that means she likes it.

Thanks mom!

When Children Grow Up

Look what the mail man brought me from Amazon, What's the Big Secret? Talking About Sex with Boys and Girls. Holy crap, someone hold me. Does this thing come with instructions? Can I skip the page on masturbation? How does this skip over puberty, I guess that is another book? 

Seriously though, how can I get away with telling the older and not the younger? They tell each other everything. I shall bite the bullet and tell them both and then instruct them not to tell their friends. 

I also grabbed the American Girl The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls and the American Girl The Feelings Book: The Care & Keeping of Your Emotions. The emotions book is for Bailey, have you met the child?? And of course, last but not least A Smart Girl's Guide to Friendship Troubles which is also an American Girl book. Not that we have friend issues, but you never can tell.

My coffee cup needs a margarita refill. *sigh*

Recipe Wednesday: Marble Cake with White Chocolate Glaze

This weeks recipe was picked by Tam, kind of. I gave her two options and she picked this one. Well, I gave her two categories and she chose cakes. I hope she likes it!

This is a Martha Stewart recipe from this book. I checked it out at my local library and have already renewed it once, I either have to renew it again or order it from Amazon.

Marble Cake with White Chocolate Glaze

1 stick or 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp., plus more for pan

1 3/4 cup cake flour (not self-rising or bread flour)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (I used kosher)

1 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs, room temp.

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup buttermilk, room temp.

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder*

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water

White-Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows below)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Generously butter a 9-by-5 inch loaf pan; set aside.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating until combined after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in the vanilla. Add in half of the flour mixture and mix well, add in the buttermilk and mix well, add in the last half of the flour and mix well making sure to scrape down the sides. Remove one-third of the batter and set aside.

5. In a bowl mix the cocoa and the boiling water with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the reserved (1/3) cake batter; stir until well combined. I did the first part of this step prior to step four and then stuck the cocoa/water mixture into the fridge for a few minutes to cool off, see my thinking on this in the notes below.

6. Spoon the batters into the prepared pan in two layers, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate to simulate a checkerboard. To create marbling, run a table knife through the batters in a swirling motion. Do not over swirl.

7. Bake, rotating the pan halfway though, until a toothpick comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Turn out cake from the pan and cool completely on the rack. Pour glaze over cake, letting it drip down the sides. Cake can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

White Chocolate Glaze

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted, plus more if needed

2 tablespoons milk, plus more if needed

2 1/4 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled (not cold or hard)

In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioner's sugar and milk. The mixture should have the consistency of thin sour cream. Add the melted chocolate and whisk until glaze is smooth. If it is too thin, add more sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; if too thick, add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time. Use immediately.

Dudes! The piece missing on the top? And the side? I ate it them hot from the oven. Burned my tongue, now I lisp. Nom nom nom. Was good.

Notes:

There were a couple things that threw me off a bit with this recipe.The end of step 4 threw me until I made the cake, why do I only need to reserve 1/3 of the batter for the chocolate portion of the cake? Ah-ha! When you mix the reserved batter with the cocoa/water mixture and try to checkerboard the pan it is thin, way thin and wants to run everywhere. Hence, you need way more vanilla batter to hold the chocolate in place. I learned this the hard way as I didn't reserve 1/3 the batter, I reserved 1/2. That Martha, she's pretty smart and I should have followed her directions.

Now, I could be completely wrong on this next one but I didn't want to have to start over. Starting over irritates me. In step 5 Martha has you boil water and add the cocoa to it then add it to the reserved batter. Okay, lets think about this for a minute. That batter has eggs in it, right? When eggs get hot they scramble, right? After I mixed the water and cocoa it was still fairly hot, okay, it was really hot. I stuck the cocoa/water mixture in the fridge prior to adding it into the batter. Like I said before, maybe my thinking was skewed but better safe than sorry and maybe this counts as a Chellism, made sense to me.

This one is just a heads up. The cake tastes great with or without the glaze, if you are in a rush it isn't a must have. Also, if you choose to add the glaze do it while the cake is still on the cooling rack. Place a piece of foil or parchment under the rack first though as it will overflow and run down the sides. Transfer the cake to your serving plate before it sets though as the glaze will crack if you move the cake after it is set.

It Bears Repeating

I really hate the word kewl. It irks the hell out of me. So do the people who use it.

It isn't an abbreviation. You aren't saving yourself any keystrokes. And you definitely aren't earning any points.

When you speak I can tell when you are saying kewl versus cool and it is makes me want to scream. It's all in the way you say the vowel portion of the word and you sound stupid. Ahhhhh!

I think I might have anger issues.

Twins no more

Taylor went with me last time I got my hair cut and Joseph cut her bangs. Considering the fact that her hair has always been one length I had a bit of a hard time with her decision but then I realized it is just hair and it will grow back. Well, that, and I threatened to disown her if she whined about them.

She loves them especially because no one has asked if she and Bailey are twins since she got them cut. I haven't got the heart to tell her it isn't because of their features or hair but more because of their stature. They are the same height and that leads people to believe that they are fraternal twins.

Oh well, as long as she is happy. Right?

Backposting

So, yeah.

I haven't posted in a few days but will be backposting to fill in for the past week. I hate when I do that. I actually did Recipe Wednesday on time, I just never sat down and posted it. I took pictures all week long, I just never sat down and posted them. There is a bunch of stuff going on, nothing earth shattering, just busy stuff and it all takes precedence over posting here. Next week should be better. I hope.

Blah.