Little Cats A, B, & C

Abby has a character book report tomorrow. She's going to be Cat-in-the-Hat from The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. She is required to have a prop also, but if you don't have an actual item, it's ok if it is drawn. So I drew for her Little Cats A, B, & C. I looked at her book and just freehand copied it. Pencil sketch first then black sharpie and red marker to finish it off. I forgot how fun it was to draw, it's been so long.

Daring Bakers - Oct. Challenge - PIZZA!!!

Pizza was this month's challenge, hosted by Rosa's Yummy Yums. I was pretty stoked when I found out. Sweets are great, but something that can become a regular dinner food are always good. Turns out, pizza dough had never been a DB challenge. As usual, I waited till the last minute, but it made for a good dinner tonight.
Part of the challenge was the requirement that we "toss" it like real pizzaiolos. This part was pretty fun. I had my kids take pictures, but it was so hard to get the timing right, especially with a digital camera and shutter lag. We tried to time it, ok 1-2-3-go!
I think I tossed it too many times, it got pretty thin and started to tear. It sure does make you admire the skill of those guys at the pizza place.

Here's Abby helping with the cheese and the toppings.

Since it makes 6 pizzas, we decided to make one each. This one's Abby's. Olives, cheese, basil, and shredded salami.

Sage's is cheese and pineapple.
And David's is cheese and shredded salami. Mine is pictured at the beginning of this post: goat cheese, basil, and tomatoes. Emi missed out on this one, she's camping at Joshua Tree with her school. But I froze two balls of dough for when she's back. I really enjoyed this challenge. The kids are already asking what's the challenge is next month!

Please Help!

We've been working on some designs for our first shirt booth coming up in a few weeks. Just looking to hear some opinions of what others think. Do you think any of these are shirt-worthy? Any and all feedback greatly appreciated! Thank you!

#1: Abstract Cog
#2: Wrong Way

#3: Inverted Bike

#4: Merged Bike

#5: Share the Trail

#6: LYNX Solo

Today's Yummies

It's hard to get kids to eat wheat bread. White bread just tastes better, even to me. Store-bought wheat bread's not fluffy enough, but one day I got some Honey Wheat bread by Sara Lee. Yes, I know...going commercial, shame on me. But surprisingly, Abby really liked this bread, probably because it was fluffy like white bread. Since then, she's asked for wheat bread periodically, I just had to get the ones that weren't 100% wheat since those are the denser ones. And then she asks, can Mommy make wheat bread? Well, I've never made it before but I don't see why not. So here is my first attempt at Honey Wheat bread. And yes, the inside was fluffy! Just can't taste the wheat though. But it sure is healthier than white bread. Here's the recipe for those who may be interested.

Halloween time is always time for caramel apples. I don't know why I never really make these any other time, they're really good and apples are available year round.

I only had six apples so there were some leftover caramel. I poked a lollipop stick into some marshmallows and coated them with caramel then drizzled them with some dark chocolate. The kids liked these just as much as the caramel apples!

Caramel Popcorn

Another one of those things that you don't really think you can make it yourself till you do then you realize it was quite simple and just as good as the ones at the store. I think my oven was a little on the warmer side so the caramel burnt a little, but it was still very tasty. You can try it yourself with this yummy recipe.

Chicken Enchiladas

Store bought enchilada sauce are too spicy for me and kids. Even the kind that says "mild." So I started making my own enchilada sauce. Found the recipe at Allrecipes. Tweaked the recipe as suggested by reviews and halved the chili powder, and I'm pretty happy with the results. So tonight's dinner was Mexican.

Homemade Taquitos

So much better than the frozen kind, homemade taquitos. I used some canned chicken that needed to be used up, cooked them with some diced tomatoes, cumin and salt. Rolled them into some corn tortillas and deep fried them. Served with some Spanish rice, black beans, lettuce, and salsa and guacamole. Mmmm, they were good.

Squirrely

There's been this group of ladies that meet on Tuesdays, the Art Gals. Started by Emi's friend Sarah's mom. We get together to do some art and talk, with a drink or two, while all the kids do homework together. I haven't been going regularly but the last couple times I went, I worked on this little squirrel made out of felt. Now, it didn't quite come out at cute as the one in the book, nor sewn nicely, but it's a start. It's nice to do ANYTHING artsy-crafty, since I don't do much of that at home. Hopefully, there will be more to come...

Happy Pizzas!

This is last week's bento, but they're so cute I had to post them. I've made these before, but I couldn't help but take pictures of it again. They are english muffin pizzas, with olive eyes and red bell pepper smiles. Something about faces on food makes kids happy. ^_^

Good Ol' Apple Pie

Now that I have my oven back, I made some apple pie, which turns out was something David was going to ask for his b-day dessert had the oven been working. I used the apples we picked and made a crumb topping with some oats added to it. Crust was a little burnt, but it was still good with some vanilla ice cream.

Non-School Day

Friday was a non-school day since it was parent conference week. I didn't want to waste the day at home so I took the kids hiking. Took them to the local Ernie Maxwell trail, they had hiked this before, from both ends, but never had hiked from beginning to end and back.

Here they are at the start:
Whoa Emi! You better stop this rock from rolling down!
We even saw a small snake coiled up next to a tree. It looks big in the pic, but the coiled up size was about the palm of my hand.


And, they made it! 2.5 miles and 400' elevation gain later.
Was surprised to see some water still flowing this late into the year.
5 miles and 3 hours later, we make it back to the car. Emi's been wanting to do the hike from Idyllwild to the Palm Springs tramway (about 9 miles) so this was a good training hike.

Singlespeeders Suck

Funny how a singlespeeder would want a shirt that says, "SINGLESPEEDERS SUCK." We saw a shirt at the SSWC '08 that said, "I hate singlespeeders" that Emi really liked. This shirt will make its debut at the 12-hrs of Temecula in November.

Woo Hoo!!!

I fixed my oven, oh yeah, oh yeah!! The problem was my ignitor. I ordered the part from the Home Depot and it came Tuesday. I installed it and.... NOTHING. Damn. Was it the wrong part? Internet search pointed to the ignitor 97%. So I took a gamble and ordered the $60 part instead of calling the repairman who would of charged me $100 just to come look at it. Could it been the other 3% and it was something else? So more internet searches... still the same answers. Went back into my oven, and tested if I had electric currency. Yup. Hmmm, did I put it on wrong? There's only two wires, and I replaced them one at a time so it was the right side. Then, I notice a wire in the back that wasn't connected. Was it that way from the beginning or did it fall out? So I put it in where I think, but it won't stay. Maybe it's the wrong place. Well, I'll try taping it in and test it. I can always tear the tape off if it doesn't work, right? Put everything back in, closed the door, turned the oven off, and crossed my fingers. And BAM! It WORKED!!! Oh, I was SOOOO HAPPY!!!! I really didn't want to have to buy another oven, and can't live without baking. My kids'll be so excited too when I give them the good news. Yes, mommy can bake again!!!

More Bike Mandalas

I've been really into these mandala things. I just think they look so neat. Here's another one I played around with, it's not quite there but slowly getting there. (Yes, it's my bike, again...) We've been brainstorming designs, we're going to have our first booth at a bike race in November and gonna try to have five designs ready. Should be interesting...

If You Can't Bake...

...make No-Bake Cookies! Still waiting on the oven part to arrive... Here's some Chocolate Crispy Cookies. I had some leftover chocolate ganache from a previous chocolate eclair recipe, so I tossed them with some corn flakes and shaped them into disks. The original recipe is as follows:

3.5 oz. milk chocolate

1 T. light corn syrup

4.5 c. corn flakes

powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Melt chocolate with corn syrup atop a double boiler. Put cornflakes in a plastic bag and lightly crush with a rolling pin (or I just used a potato masher in a bowl). Mix the chocolate with the corn flakes in the bowl. Place 2.5" round cookie cutter on top of your baking sheet lined with wax paper or parchment. Put a spoonful of the cereal mixture in the center and pack down firmly with the back of the spoon to make a thick cookie. Gently ease away the cutter and repeat. Chill for 1 hour. (Optional: Put a little powdered sugar in a small bowl and roll the edges of the cookies in the sugar to finish.)

(Recipe courtesy of: "The Cookie Book" by Atkinson, Farrow and Barrett.)

SIREN

What do you think, B & M? Pretty cool, huh? (Couldn't figure out your font...)

Lynx Star

Lynx Mandala

Took a picture of my singlespeed Lynx and photoshopped it to make a mandala. Awesome looking, isn't it? You can create one using any picture with this tutorial by Earth Mandalas. Now, THIS would make a killer shirt.

Why Now?

My oven had been giving me fits, and now it finally decided to go on strike. It won't fire up at all. So no baking till I figure out how to fix this thing, I don't want to spend hundreds on a new one at the moment. Sage (Halloween) and Emi's (Nov. 19) b-days are coming up, and they usually want a baked dessert of some sort, I hope I can fix it soon. No fresh baked bread for a while... boo hoo. The weather's getting chilly and it's baking season, too. And of course, baking has been on my mind a lot, like yummy apple pie with some apples we just picked. Damn...

Handmade Sausages

My first attempt at making sausages. The stuffing part went better than expected and they look pretty good, don't they? This one's Sweet Italian Sausage. (Ground pork with salt, blk. pepper, paprika, fennel seeds, thyme, basil, garlic, and sage.)
The kids helped me out, they cranked while I held the hog casing. I found a sausage stuffer/meat grinder/pasta maker at a discount store for $10. It was like a sign, I had been thinking about doing this and then I find this thing.
The other one is Breakfast Maple Sausages. Both sausages tasted pretty good, but were a little on the dry side, I used pre-ground pork. Next time I'll grind my own pork so I can get the fatty kind to make some juicy sausages.

Another Visit from Dave

The kids were so happy Dave came over, they couldn't leave him alone. He was tired from doing a long ride, but they climbed all over him without mercy. Poor fellow... But looks like we'll be seeing more of him soon. Be prepared Dave...

Raspberry Sherbet

Followed the recipe for the mango sherbet but subbed some raspberries we picked. Yummy!

Homemade Salami

One (of many) things I'd like to try making at home is salami. But real salami, requires a temperature and humidity controlled environment, and it takes about a month to make. So when I found a recipe for salami that was cooked in the oven instead, I had to give it a try. Reviews were good, people seemed to like it. Some said it's more like a summer sausage than a salami, and I agree. The kids liked it though, and we had it for dinner one day with some bread, cheese, and veggies.