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!!!