First day of Preschool...

Rendan actually missed the first day because we were on vacation, but this was his first day of preschool. The only concern he had when we got there was that he might have to leave when I did.

A little late posting, but...

UBIC (local celebration) took place the last weekend of July/first weekend of August, so I'm a little slow to get this up here! Anyway, part of the festivities include a parade on Saturday morning - as always, we enjoyed the parade from our usual spot in front of my mother/father-in-law's store. The following week, we saw this picture in our local paper as part of the UBIC coverage - the three cuties on the left are my nephews, and the little girl standing to the right of Makayla is my sweet little niece, who was visiting from the city. My grandma called the newspaper office, and they were kind enough to send her a copy. Too cute!

September fun :)

It's been a busy month so far - the kids & I just returned from a trip to Lake Powell (Todd had to work, blah!) The weather was great & we can't wait to go back next year!

Kayla started first grade a few weeks ago, but I forgot to take my camera, so I'll get some pictures of her up eventually. Rendan had his preschool open house last week, and he was very excited to go! (I did remember my camera that day)

Sunny weather... for a minute.

The weather here in Utah has been on a roller coaster for the past two months - it can't decide whether to be spring or winter, or whether it just wants to blow us clean off the map altogether... and it has tried. As a testament to this, we woke up to find our newly assembled (and I do mean NEWLY assembled... as in less than a week old) trampoline on the opposite side of the yard - the frame smashed beyond repair. Kayla was sad... Rendan was devastated. In his own words, "our trampoline was right there and the wind blew it clear over there, and it was crushed and ruined" (followed up by hanging his head and looking completely miserable).


On the bright side, the colder days are getting less cold, and the wind has been a little less scary this past week. Although we've had a few nice days here and there, yesterday was the nicest day of the year so far - somewhere up in the 70's. (I actually managed to get a sunburn! Yaay!!!) The kids, the dog and I spent the afternoon at Grandma Nae's house - They rode around the field with grandma in the back of her Rhino and spent hours chasing butterflies, climbing hills (see if you can spot them in the little pictures above!), and finding various other ways to get dirty. I think they would have slept out there if I would have let them.

Yin & Yang...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this one ought to keep me quiet for a while. The date on the picture is wrong, as usual, but still... you get the idea. Take what ever you want from this picture, because this is pretty much how it is at our house. On the right, my calm little Makayla making friends with our new miniature schnauzer. Then, there's Rendan...mid flip, or handstand, or whatever it is that he was attempting when the flash went off. It is no wonder that our schnauzer follows Kayla all over the house and, though she tolerates him with good humor, has learned to give Rendan adequate clearance whenever he starts acting like... well, like THAT.

This past weekend, Todd & I actually took a rare trip away from the kids and attended the Sunday morning session of General Conference in Salt Lake with Todd's parents. Listening to President Monsen and the other speakers was a great experience, and I hope we get the opportunity to go again sometime. I took the camera along and never managed to snap one picture of our trip - I did try once to take a picture of Todd and pushed the power button instead of the shutter. Oops.

If you love chocolate...

Anyone who knows me well enough could probably tell you I'm not exactly the most domestic gal on the planet. While my sister would do our late (and very talented in all things homey) mother proud, I can't really sew, I'm not particularly into crafting, and I haven't scrap-booked in about 10 years. Well somehow, somewhere along the line I became interested in, and learned to enjoy, cooking and baking. (a.k.a. I got married and decided that my husband deserved better than ramen noodles and peanut butter & jelly, even if he did eat them willingly).

The problem with deciding to learn to cook after you leave the nest, is that aside from the few (albeit very helpful) tips your parent/grandparent/etc. forcibly impressed upon you, you're pretty much doomed to regular dinner time how-to phone calls to grandma, and watching Food Network to try to pick up on what you weren't smart enough to learn at home in the first place. While sorting out the programs that didn't require me to keep caviar and truffle oil in my pantry, I came across a true little gem. If there ever was a cooking show that could gain a cult following (change that to HAS gained a cult following), it would have to be Good Eats - Alton Brown has become one of my favorite teachers of all things culinary (next to grandma of course), and it doesn't hurt that he has a certain quirky, OCD approach to cooking that I can relate to.

I recently watched the first of three shows he's done on chocolate, and he demonstrated a recipe called "Chocolate Lava Muffins" - I love it so very much that I decided to post it here. (All credits for this recipe go to Food Network, or Alton Brown, or Good Eats... yadda yadda yadda) You can find it on the Food Network website, but somewhere between the show & the web page, the recipe changed slightly. Personally, I stick to the version he presented on his show & it works wonderfully, so that is the one I will post here. :)

Chocolate Lava Muffins
yield 12 muffins
prep time 20 min. plus 2 hours inactive prep

Ingredients -
8 oz (by weight) semisweet chocolate chips (scant 1 1/2 cups)
1 stick butter (plus extra for muffin tin)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c sugar
4 T flour
1 T cocoa powder (plus extra for dusting muffin tin)
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs

Directions:
Place a small metal bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Melt the chocolate and butter in the bowl. Remove from heat & stir in vanilla. Smooth mixture with hand mixer. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients.

Beating with a hand mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each egg completely before adding the next. Continuing to mix, slowly sift the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture. Once added, beat mixture on high until batter is creamy & light in color, about 4 minutes. Chill mixture thoroughly (at least 2 hours)

When you are ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat the top & cups of a muffin tin with butter. Dust cups & top with cocoa powder, shaking off the excess. Spoon mixture evenly into each cup. (4 oz scoop or ladle works well) Bake 10-11 minutes, or until outside is cake-like and center is still jiggly. Serve warm.

(I like a really oozy center so I watch them very closely during the last minutes of baking and take them out just before the center has baked completely over, as they WILL set up a little more once removed from the oven - these are great served with ice cream, but there is a recipe for an espresso ice cream sauce on the foodnetwork.com version of this recipe, if you like that sort of thing :)

Slow Blogger...

Well, I'm a little behind in the blogging world - and this is going to be short to-boot. The holidays flew by, but I can't say that I'm not glad for the new year! For one thing, the days are getting longer (woooo hooooo!) - for another thing, every day is another day closer to spring (and therefore summer!). It has been bitterly cold here in the Basin this winter (where 5 degrees is our high for the day, and it's 15 to 20 below at night)... we have also received a ton of snow, but it's been too cold to go outside and enjoy it. Winters like this make me seriously consider moving to a place like Arizona.

On the bright side, it has been slightly warmer lately - the 20 degree day we had yesterday was certainly a warm welcome (har har har!!! get it?! warm?!...he he) The other up-side to spending lots of time indoors during the day is that I have Todd's Xbox all to myself... Guitar Hero 3 has become my new friend... :) (so if any of you play, let me know and we'll jam!)

Happy Friday to everyone :)

Steph