It's Girl Scout Cookie Time

We just love, love, love Girl Scout Cookie time.  For the past few years, we've made sure to buy one of everyone kind sold, so we can  have a taste test!  The way we went about the taste test this year was very simple.  First, we decided which one we would like the best and which one we would like the least.  Next we put one of each kind on a paper plate.  Then we tasted the same cookie at the same time, tasting each cookie.  Lastly, we said which was our favorite and which was our least favorite.  That was it. This year there were only six different ones: thin mints, samoas, trefoils, dosidos, tagalongs, savannah smiles.  The least favorite for everyone was the Savannah Smiles (kind of lemon wedding cookie.)  The favorites were tagalongs (Caroline), thin mints (Thomas--although he says they're all good), samoas (Mary Elizabeth).

One year we made tasting sheets with different categories: appearance, flavor, texture, yumminess.    We tasted each cookie and then scored each one 1 to 10 points per catagory. ("1"meaning didn't like it so much and "10"meaning we liked it a lot).  We ate saltines and took a sip a water between bites of cookie. We compared the scores in each category, and then we  added up the total scores to determine the overall winner.  So much fun.  The cookies pictured above were from that year.  (From the top row, only the 3rd from the left, DoSiDos, were offered this year.  All of the bottom row- thin mint, samoa, trefoil, tagalong- were offered this year.)

What's for Breakfast?

Since we just can't make it together for a time of family dinner, we have family breakfast just about every weekday morning (during the school year).  I drag myself out of bed a bit before everyone else for a little quiet time and then get breakfast ready. I even set the table.  (Setting the table is the kids' job at night.)  During this season of Lent, I also try to have a little devotion/talk about this time of Lent. I've found a great little book The Lenten Tree, to help me with this.

Caroline is usually the first one down; she practices her guitar while we wait for the other two.  Mary Elizabeth is next.  She likes to get down early, so she can read the comics.  (She used to practice the piano when she was taking lessons.  She's not taking lessons now.)  Thomas takes a quick shower at this time.  When Thomas gets down, we eat.  (Thomas will practice the piano after breakfast.  Even though he's not taking lessons right now, he still likes to go and practice.)

This morning I made my own homemade version of "Hot Pockets."  Really easy, and the kids liked them.

Breakfast Pockets

Take a can of crescent rolls.  Make rectangles out of two rolls.  Pinch the seems together.

Put in the filling of your choice on one side of the rectangle.  This morning I used ham and cheese.  (I would guess the possibilities here are endless!)

Fold over the edges and seal tightly.  Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until nicely browned.  (This  picture is the "before cooked" breakfast pocket.  The kids ate them too quickly for me to get the "after.")

I am always looking for easy breakfast ideas.  Here's what's been in the rotation lately:

Buttermilk Pancakes

Waffles

Bagels

French Toast

Mr. Tippin's Buttermilk Biscuits

Toast

cinnamon rolls

(serve fruit with any of the above)



Bacon-of-the-Month Club

What do you get your husband when he turns 50 years old?  Bacon!

I was having the hardest time trying to decide on what to get for Tom for his 50th birthday.  I wanted it to be memorable, clever and something he would love.  Well, bacon for a birthday is memorable.  I would say it is clever.  And Tom loves bacon!  Perfect.

The internet is the best invention.  I googled "bacon of the month" and had several clubs to choose from.  I think Zingerman's Bacon of the Month Club was the first site I visited and it looked like just what I was hoping for.   http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=G-BAC-3&crf=muumrk&gclid=CO-vgcvvtq4CFUWQ7QodtHUFqw (Zigerman's also offers other types of "Month Clubs"--bread, cheese, brownie, coffee...)

Here's some info taken directly from the website.

Bacon Club
Featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the TV Food Network!

It's better with bacon.

Six to date. That's how many vegetarians I know who've fallen off the bandwagon thanks to bacon. I'm not using that as a proposal for torturing anyone. I'm just saying any food that's so good it can break a strong will has to be worth trying.

We'll ship to the lucky recipient each month, just in time for weekend frying.

New! Each shipment contains 12 to 16 ounces of artisan bacon, bacon stories, histories and recipes.
Bonus! Free awesome Pig Magnet with first club shipment.

Three Installments
Month 1: Applewood Smoked
Month 2: Kentucky Dry Cured
Month 3: Arkansas Peppered
Six Installments -
Previous Bacons plus
Month 4: Virginia Dry Cured
Month 5: Tennessee Dry Cured
Month 6: Long Pepper 

I chose to send Tom the six installments of bacon.  Zingerman's packs up the bacon perfectly for shipping.  It arrives chilled and ready for your fridge.  Like it says above, you get awesome bacon stories, recipes and magnet.  Plus a handy notebook for storing the interesting materials.

So far we have received months 1 and 2.  Both delicious and interesting.  We fried up the two along with the store brand and did a taste test.  There were mixed results in the family.  Some like the dry cured, while some went for wet cured.  There was even a vote for the store brand.  Hmmmm...interesting.

The whole family is having fun with Tom's birthday present.  Can't wait for installments 3 through 6.

Turkey Sliders

Last night I was planning to make turkey sliders for dinner, but life got in the way. Caroline had her Woodward admissions interview, carpool home, soccer parent meeting, pick up from jazz and carpool to water polo.  There was just no time between events to cook anything.  So I heated a Stouffer's Broccoli Pasta casserole instead.  Actually, Thomas got it ready for us.  Thank you, Thomas!

That means tonight we're having turkey sliders.  "Slider" means little burger.  I never had a "slider" growing up.  It's a new kind of thing.  Fun and cute.

Turkey Sliders
Preheat oven to 350°
1 lb. of ground turkey
2 T parmesan cheese, grated
1 T (heaping) bread crumbs (or panko--I'm out of panko...would've probably used that if I had it.)
1/2 t. basil
1/2 t. oregano
1 t salt
freshly ground pepper
carmelized onions (this is a favorite topping)

Mix the turkey with all of the other ingredients but the carmelized onions.  Divide meat mixture into 12 balls.  Flaten into small burgers.

 Put on cookie sheet.  Cook 350° for 8-10 minutes until done. (When I pulled the little burgers out of the oven, they looked a bit pale and were swimming in a pool of turkey juices.  So I spooned of the juices and returned the little guys to the oven and broiled them until they were brown.)  Place one burger on a little bun. (Kroger actually sells a package of "slider buns."  How about that. You can use any kind of little bun.)  Top with carmelized onions (and any other toppings of your choice.)  [I should've made a lot more carmelized onions.  There weren't enough to go around.]

My kids love these.  I served them with roasted broccoli, my favorite!  I posted how to roast broccoli a while back.  If you haven't tried it, you really must.  Like candy.

Don't Waste that Wine!

In the Chicken Picatta recipe that I posted a few days ago, it calls for a little wine.  The wine really makes the dish that much more tasty.  I found that often I'd open a bottle of wine to use in a recipe, but I would then pour most of the wine down the sink because we didn't get around to drinking it.  Here are a couple of solutions to this wasting wine problem.

1)  Buy a four-pack of little 187 ml bottles of wine.  (177.4 ml = 3/4 cup) 
Since we'll usually drink red, I keep Pinot Grigio in the little wine bottles.  I use white in my french onion soup and chicken picatta.

2)  Freeze left over wine in ice cube trays.  After is it frozen, put in zip top bags and store in the freezer until needed.  Throw it in frozen to your soups and stews.

Unicoi State Park Getaway

Here we are in front of our barrel cabin at Unicoi State Park.

This past weekend we had a family getaway to Unicoi State Park.  We reserved a cabin for two nights (see above.)  We planned to go up on Saturday and return Monday.  Part of the plan was to go to Scaly Mountain in North Carolina to go snow tubing.  The forcast for the weekend was rain all day on Sunday, so I thought we should go on up to snow tube and then to head over to Unicoi.  Scaly Mountain is a easy two hour drive from Atlanta.  Unicoi is one hour from Scaly Mtn.  Sounded like a good plan.  Saturday was super overcast and not cold.  On the way up to snow tube, we stop at a BBQ place called OINKERS.  We love BBQ and found this place quite tasty.  When we finally got to Scaly Mtn., we found that it is a bit crowded ( and a bit smaller than we pictured in our minds). Since we would spend most of our time waiting in line than actually tubing, we decided to go on to Unicoi and maybe come back on Sunday or Monday.  The girls did ice skate at the small out-door rink there before we headed out.  

Getting to Unicoi from Scaly Mtn. was super easy, about one hour.  We checked in at the Lodge and then headed over to the cabins.  Although the cabins were tear drop shaped, they are called "barrel cabins."  Our cabin was one of ten in a grouping: two levels, back deck, fireplace, fully equipped kitchen, 2 bedrooms on the second level, lake view.  Not too bad, although we were down at the bottom of the hill.  Parking at the top.  Fortunately it was still daylight and had not yet begun to rain.  With five folks unloading and carrying, it didn't take us long at all to get everything into our cabin. We then headed out to explore a bit before it got dark.  We were right by the lake, so we hit the lake side trail and went a ways.  We skipped a few stones in the lake, played in the playground, checked out the visitor's center store for the campgrounds then headed back to make supper.

I had planned out all the meals for the weekend. (2 dinners (burgers, chili) , 2 breakfasts (eggs/bacon/grits/toast, pancakes/bacon), snacks (Goldfish, Puppy Chow, fruit snacks and other treats we don't typically have) for the cabin... lunches: eat out someplace.)

Dinner that first night: Bubba Burgers, cole slaw, chips.

Tom brought charcoal for the grill that was right outside the cabin.  (Each cabin has its own grill.)  I carmelized onions and sauteed mushrooms for the burgers.  While Tom was grilling it began to rain.  He used a trash can lid to keep the coals from getting wet.  I made coleslaw and served chips.  Cupcakes for dessert.  Caroline made the cake part, Mary Elizabeth the frosting.  The kids proclaimed,  "These are best hamburgers ever!"

 Pretty lake at Unicoi.

Tom promptly had a fire going in the cabin at all times.  Sooo nice.  We brought a ton of firewood up from home.  There is nothing like a real fire.  I hear that the fireplaces in the cabins at Black Rock Mtn. Park are now gas.  I don't think I want to go there.

It started raining Saturday night and didn't stop raining until Sunday night.  We came prepared!!  We had plenty of clothes that would keep up warm and dry.  (My neighbor loaned me her ski pants/boots/shirt/jacket.)  We were able to hike all around Unicoi and spend a bit of time in the little Alpine town of Helen that was just 2 miles away from Unicoi.

We started Saturday off with bacon, eggs, grits and toast for breakfast.  For Tom's 50th birthday, I subscribed him to six months of the Bacon-of-the-Month Club.  We had two months of bacon (two packages) to cook and eat for the weekend.  That was fun.  We all love bacon.  Oink, oink.  After getting our fill, we dressed in our warm rain clothes and headed up to the lodge where the annual Arts and Crafts Show was going on.  We spent some time walking from booth to booth admiring all the handywork of regional artists.  Very fun.  We did purchase a Christmas ornament from the gift shop to remind us of our trip to Unicoi.  We headed back to the cabin for a quick snack and then loaded up the car for the short drive up to Anna Ruby Falls visitor center where we'd take a .5 mile hike up to the falls.

These are the falls. The rare double waterfall is formed by Curtis and York Creek from Tray Mountain which is behind Anna Ruby Falls.

Anna Ruby Falls was not on our original to-do list.  I'm glad it rained, otherwise we would have missed this treasure.  It was a beautiful hike in the rain.  We bought another Christmas Ornament of the falls as a keepsake.

Since I had planned that we would eat lunches out (because we would be driving around lunch time and supposed to be snow tubing), we decided we would take the short two mile drive into Helen, GA, and have lunch there.  The girl at the visitor's center at Anna Ruby Falls suggested we eat at Restaurent International, so we did.  It was tasty.  We then walked over to the touristy town part and went into the Hansel and Gretel candy store and bought 3 slabs of fudge.  Too good.  All this time, it was raining.  We didn't last long in Helen.  We decided to drive back to the cabin, and have dad get the fire going again.    We napped and read.

Helen, Georgia

Dinner that night was Chili.  I had already cooked it at home and brought it up frozen.  All I needed to do was reheat the chili, chop the onion and open the bag of cheese and bag of corn chips.  Voila! Dinner!

A highlight of the weekend for me was that the kids cleaned the kitchen after each meal!  Thanks, kids.

Our family, much to my children's chagrin, is not the electronics kind of family.  No DS's, cell phones, ipods, laptops etc.  So when we're traveling, it's books and games.  Good, quality family time.  The games we played while at Unicoi were: Charoodles (a charades game with props), Spoons, Kemps (a Spoons-like game), Dutch Blitz, Cranium Conga, Life, Solitare.  Everyone brought books to read.  I brought The Pioneer Women Cookbook.  I highly recommend it. Lots of easy, scrumptious recipes.  (The chili I brought was one of her recipes.) 

Monday morning we got up, had pancakes and bacon for breakfast, loaded up the car, took a short little hike around part of the lake and then came on home.  Tom had a conference call looming...bummer...it was a last minute kind of thing.  Didn't know about it until Friday.

We ask ourselves, "Why don't we do this kind of thing once a month or so?"  Maybe we will.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Quote by Ben Franklin 

US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, printer (1706 - 1790)

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." 

Really, the reason I'm doing this blog at all is for my kids.  One day they may read this blog and realize why their mom was the way she was...good or bad. 

I've got to say that Ben Franklin was a wise man.  I really think my days are better if I go to bed early and get up early.  I would love to be in bed by 9:30 PM (really 9 PM).  That gives me about 1/2 hour or hour to read before I nod off. (This is the time I try to read my Book Club books.  I'm in two book clubs: a neighborhood one and church friends one.  Right now I'm reading The Happiness Project and The Girl of the Limberlost.)  Then when the alarm rings at around 5:15 AM I'm ready to face the day.  By getting up early, I can have a bit of quiet time and gather my thoughts for the day before everyone else gets up.  On the weekends I will sleep a little later, but I'm still up before everyone else. 

On school days, I'm able to get breakfast together and the table set for family breakfast.  Family breakfast for us is the equivalent of family dinner.  We just can't seem to get to the dinner table together.  Having breakfast together lets us talk about what's going to happen that day, make plans for the week, have a little devotion (maybe), practice table manners, and enjoy each other's company.  I love family breakfast. 

When Co-op Gives You Lemons

What do I do when I get 16 lemons in my co-op box?  Well the first thing I do is put them in a pretty bowl and have then as food art.

Then I look through my recipe box for something yummy.  Last night I made Chicken Picatta.  Chicken Picatta is easy and super delicious. It really took me a matter of minutes to make. Here's the recipe.


Chicken Picatta

1/4 cup flour
1/2 t. salt (note: thanks to Fran, you no longer put 12 t of salt...ha)
1/2 t. lemon pepper (or just plain pepper if you don't have lemon pepper)
4 chicken cutlets (or more if you want- I had about 10 last night)--I had whole chicken breasts that had been previously frozen.  I thawed them in a bowl of water.  Then I cut them very thinly to make cutlets.

Mix the flour, salt, pepper together on a plate.  Dredge the cutlets in this mixture. 
Fry the floured cutlets in a little oil in a skillet until cooked through. (If cooking many, cook in batches.  Add more oil as needed.)  Remove from pan.

To dripping left in the pan add:
3 T butter
3 T lemon juice
1/3 c. dry white wine
Stir and cook until thickened.  Make sure to scrape up the tasty little bits that are stuck to the pan.  Taste sauce to see if it needs more salt and pepper.  Mine usually  does.  Put chicken back in the pan or pour sauce over cutlets (and angel hair pasta).

I didn't serve mine with pasta last night.  I sure wish I did.

Valentine's Breakfast Tradition

Growing up, my mom used to always have a little something for us for Valentine's Day.  She would have it wrapped and on our plates at breakfast.  I always loved that tradition, so I have continued that with my kids.  It's funny that Caroline and Mary Elizabeth both asked if I was going to have a little surprise for them like I have in the past.  I'm glad they remembered and that they look forward to this tradition.

This year I bought each child a bar of Cadbury Chocolate with carmel, a set of Wisp toothbrushes and a fruit leather.  They all thought the Cadbury chocolate was quite gourmet.  They each received a paperback book and, not the usual little Valentine gift,  an item of clothing to wear to our weekend getaway in the mountains this coming weekend.  The girls each received snow boots, and Thomas got a new jacket good for wintery weather.  (I'll post about our getaway.  It's going to be soooo much fun.)

To make things a little more special, I tried to make the morning's  cinnamon rolls heart-shaped.  (I think I need new cookie sheets.)